Placid Angles was Detroit maestro John Beltran's outlet for lush ambient/breakbeat techno, not too far removed from his early work under his own name, which returned largely unchanged following a 20-plus-year hiatus.
Beltran debuted the Placid Angles project in 1997 with the album The Cry on Peacefrog. The music was characterized by lush pads, warm melodies, crisp breakbeats, and the occasional short, soulful vocal sample. It was well-received, but Beltran, perhaps feeling it was a one-off side project, did not revisit the moniker for more than 20 years, and focused instead on releasing music under his given name. Placid Angles made a surprise return in 2019 with First Blue Sky on Magicwire. Despite the intervening two decades, the sound and style of the project were largely unchanged, giving aging ravers a huge nostalgia hit. Fans would only have to wait two more years for another dose, as Beltran issued his third Placid Angles album, Touch the Earth, in 2021. The album was released by Figure in an unconventional move for the Berlin label, which had until then focused mostly on tough, functional techno.

Biography by John D. Buchanan
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