On the Floor – Visible Cloaks at Beyond the Clouds

Garnering a niche online following in the late ’00s for his *Roots* Strata blog, particularly for his thematic mixes such as the *Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo* series, Portland-based crate-digger, DJ and producer Spencer Doran has become known for his tactile tastes in experimental music from around the globe. When it comes to making music, Doran is one half of Visible Cloaks alongside Ryan Carlile, a duo that’s signed to taste-making ambient label RVNG Intl. and explores the playful energies of ambient synth music across a spectrum of genres, such as ’80s Japanese pop. It’s an exploration that’s been traced across their two albums, 2015’s *Visible Cloaks* and 2017’s *Reassemblage*, the former using a bright palette of synthetic melodies and mysterious vocoder-rinsed voices to texturize their signature ambience.