Don’t call it a comeback.

It’s been quite a year. War in Ukraine, cost of living crisis, hilarity in the House of Commons, teacher shortages, a morally bereft World Cup, heatwaves, cold spells… RIP Godard and Angela Lansbury. Some music too, I guess.

I went to gigs for the first time since 2019. Grouper and Coby Sey, Claire Rousay and Fears, William Basinski and Ordnance Survey, Villagers, Lighght, Bright Eyes, Carmen Villain and Soria, Call Super… I’m probably forgetting someone.

Bandcamp passed a billion in sales. Well, I think that was this year.

I hung up my headphones, both in terms of this newsletter (wait, what?) and my radio show on ddr. I won’t lie, it’s been a relief in many ways but I’ve missed the constant hunt. Funnily enough, my musical searches have dropped off quite a bit. I’m still trying though, and a network of friends keep me as up to date as possible.

So what’s the point of this letter? Just checking in I suppose. I’ve never been big on lists but I gave one in to Boomkat. You can see it here.

If you ever miss these missives you can always check bandcloud.org and peruse the archives. More than eight years of mails. Many dead links, but that is the nature of online hosting and the whims of artists. Lately I’ve been listening to this Christmas album a lot, as well as the masterful Where Dancefloors Stand Still mix.

Anyway. Wishing you and yours all the best in whatever you do. Stay real.

Photo by DDP on Unsplash

Even the sun goes down, heroes eventually die, horoscopes often lie, and sometimes, “Y”. Nothing is for sure, nothing is for certain, nothing lasts forever… OutKast - Aquemini

When I sent my first Bandcloud email to 40-odd people back in 2014, I had no idea what it would become or how long it would last. In an age of blogging and click-chasing, it was intended as an outlet that people could ask for, request.

For a long time I asked for feedback, and while it wasn’t always forthcoming, I’ve had enough of it over the years to suggest that on the whole, people liked and appreciated what I was doing. If anyone read my mail and then went and bought a release or found a new favourite song or artist, my job was done. That was all I ever wanted, to share music and bring it to new ears.

As stated in that OutKast song above, sadly, nothing lasts forever. I never thought seriously about the end of Bandcloud until this year. Next month I’m going back to college to embark upon a new career, and this is a point at which I can no longer dedicate the time and energy to keeping up with and writing about music. Rather than try to keep Bandcloud going to a lesser standard, or to send it more infrequently, I think now is the right time to draw a line in the sand and say it’s over. As Lady Ella sang, something’s gotta give.

This isn’t the Oscars or an album inlay card, but I need to thank some people. Magoo, for the idea in the first place. Everyone at Truants. Everyone who’s done a guest mix or written a mail while I’ve been on holiday. Everyone who took part in the two compilations I put out. Anyone who contributed to those end-of-year lists. Anyone who’s ever sent me music, whether I’ve included it or not. I appreciate the leap of faith it takes to present your work to someone without knowing what they’ll say or do. (I’m sorry to anyone to whom I haven’t replied. It’s not you, it’s me.) Everyone who’s shared music they found themselves, sent me a tweet or DM or email or whatever about something they thought I might like.

My wife and children, even if you wonder what the hell I’m doing half the time. I love you.

Thanks to everyone who asked me for a guest mix or radio spot, everyone who’s listened to my own shows or mixes. The team at Dublin Digital Radio for allowing me to dedicate two hours a month to this project. Speaking of which, my final show aired on Sunday, and it’s a kind of A-to-Z of Bandcloud.

Paul Guinan for his help with design and his friendship over the years.

If you signed up in recent weeks, I’m so sorry. I appreciate it, and I’ve noticed. But this is it.

What more can I say? “Let’s see what happens when I no longer exist.” (Jay-Z)

There are lots of great newsletters out there, and while I like to think mine has been unique, I’m sure you will be able to find great music elsewhere.

If you want to keep in touch, reply to this mail and I’ll be on the other end.

It’s been a pleasure.

Photo by Tandem X Visuals on Unsplash

It’s been hot again this week. Not like, hot hot. But 25 degrees is a lot for us pasty gingers. I’ve been doing lots of painting. Coat upon coat. I’ve been listening to some audiobooks while doing this but also trying to listen to a lot of music. So lots of stuff here this week has been heard in that frame of mind. Then in the car yesterday I needed Google’s directions so I listened to Josey Rebelle’s Trilogy Tape.

Leda Maar - Stairway 13

What a sublime piece of work!!! Four sides of varying musical approaches, from deep whispers of sound to strange vocals to gorgeous choral moments to squidgy electronics. I’m not sure how I could even describe or categorise this work, I just think everyone should sink into it repeatedly.

Almanacs - Spirits of the River

This is the kind of thing you want to hear during a hot and sweaty week, blissful ambient bells and gorgeous synth melodies, aural moods of relaxation and beauty. That’s not to say that ambient only exists to accompany your restful moods, far from it, but this perfectly fits into that particular mode.

Shy One - From The Floor To The Booth

I mentioned broken beat last week, and here is some brand new stuff that falls under that umbrella. Chonky. Can’t wait to hear the rest.

Conducive - Global Makeshift Wounds

In my previous life as a subeditor at a magazine for ophthalmologists I regularly visited cities such as Paris, Lisbon, Belgrade and Marrakech for work. Exciting as this seems, I rarely got to see much of these cities as I was invariably working at a hotel or conference centre from 7 until 7 each day. This two-track work seeks to explore the inability to see the world, with “the sounds of airport terminals .. meant to aurally represent the closest you can get to leaving...whilst still being stuck in the same place”. Perhaps that’s more about people stuck at home rather than in a conference centre, which in a way is almost more painful, being in the very place you want to see, such as an office staring out at the Eiffel Tower without being able to escape, but I understood the intent in my own way.

Cassie Kinoshi - BalletBoyz: Bradley 4:18

I saw a prescient tweet from Cassie Kinoshi during the week so it led me to checking out her music. She’s no newcomer I should say, with her SEED Ensemble receiving a Mercury nomination in 2019 for the album Driftglass. This particular set of music is her composition for Bradley 4:18, a dance performance inspired by the lyrics of Kae Tempest’s Pictures on a Screen. “I know it’s happenin’, but who’s it happenin’ to?” The song tells of Bradley, a PR dude who feels life is passing him by. I haven’t been able to see the performance, but the music is excellent, capturing the confusion and dread of monotonous existence. “I know I exist, but I don’t feel a thing”.

Elaine Howley - The Distance Between Heart And Mouth

I was trying to think of a genre tag for this and I didn’t quite land on anything, although the words neo-folk-jazz may have been rattling around in my brain. Who knows. Elaine Howley has featured in BC before as part of Crevice and on a compilation for Touch Sensitive (who release this album) but I believe this is her first outright appearance. It’s charming and scuzzy and shoegazey and folky. I’m a fan.

MONA DEMONE - S3RP3NT

The songs of S3RP3NT are meant to be anthemic. Trans people don’t have enough anthems and we deserve to be celebrated. We break barriers simply by existing as our true selves.  I want these songs to lift us up, to celebrate us, to dance, to connect and to dive deeper into our transformations. Let’s grow our roses now while we are still here. Make the soil rich and send it forward. 

This is a powerful and inspiring blurb. The album is exuberant and, indeed, anthemic, a pure adrenaline rush with skittering sounds and delicate percussion offset by a vocal style that’s almost Gregorian in its approach. Not your regular club offerings but all the more interesting because of it.

Li Yilei - Secondary Self

This album is wild, with wonderful melodic work colliding with modems and all manner of machinery. ‘Bird Box’ reminds me of living through the 90s and early 00s and also this long-running joke on Monkey Dust. ‘Slice’ reminds me of some of the stranger works on SAW II. ‘Mosquito Alarm’ is, I think, the sound of a fax machine. The way in which the album moves between beautiful music (in the biblical sense) and terrifyingly mundane modern noise is striking.

Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison and John Also Bennett - Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison and John Also Bennett

This isn’t out for a few weeks but it made an excellent accompaniment to my painting. It’s a collaboration between Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett (who together made one of my favourite albums of recent years in Thoughts of a Dot as it Travels a Surface as well as excellent solo work) and Michael Harrison. Harrison is a composer and pianist who worked under La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath and operates a daily raga practice. I first learned of ragas through the work of arushi jain. Unique to Indian classical music, a raga is “a melodic framework for improvisation akin to a melodic mode”. Conversations and musical sessions came together, with each contributing either in direction or performance, with ragas joining improvisations on a custom-tuned grand piano as well as a bed of synth sounds. It’s blissful and serene, and I’m sure deeper listening will uncover hidden depths.

Whaler - Mothership

Ukrainian artist Whaler has released an album imagining a distant future where “artificially piloted ships scout the space for planets suitable for human lifeforms”. Beautifully maudlin travel among the stars, alone, forlorn, hopeful and fraught with anticipation. Remind you of anything?

Jennifer Loveless - Reverse Cowgirl 2

Jennifer Loveless is to drop a six-track EP on Butter Sessions next month. It’s full of stompers, but ‘Reverse Cowgirl 2’ caught my ear because of it’s resemblance to the Salt City Orchestra Nightclub Mix of ‘Post Modern Sleaze’ by Sneaker Pimps. I’m not sure if that guitar lick is a sample or just freakishly similar, but that’s what I hear. And it’s good! The tracks are very different, I should say. ‘RC2’ is a thumping banger of a track, a world away from the slower, sultry groove of its predecessor. Bang bang.

OMS - “Lime Matrices Deep Afield”

I don’t know where to begin with this one. It’s on the relatively new Blorpus Editions label, run by Max Allison of Hausu Mountain and Good Willsmith fame. On the same day that Hausu announced a Moth Cock boxset, Blorpus put out “over an hour of new music by the brilliant Kazakhstan-based producer/sound collagist Octa Möbius Sheffner. their work melts my mind, overwhelming in scale & density. so happy to work with them”. It’s true. It’s mind-bending, spirit-rousing stuff, with a million sounds happening at once and any number of potential avenues to explore.

Tim Smith - Machine of Your Time

Lots of dance music is heavy and serious, but there are many ways to make it “fun”. You can remix or sample a popular tune. You can write a big anthem. You can also make it all a bit silly, with strange, weird synth melodies. That’s what Tim Smith has done with ‘Losing My Echo’, the opener on Machine of Your Time. Tracks like ‘Altered Dance’ are more straightforward and less outré, harkening back to specific modes of dance music, but the overall vibe is slightly off-kilter and unexpected. Top work.

Hadi Bastani and Yalda Zamani - TWO (Live at tak Theater Aufbau Berlin)

Tehran’s Noise à Noise continues to drop super experimental music, this time a live performance from two stellar modern composers and performers. A live expression of improv through modules and coding, it’s a thrilling combination of noise, samples, oddities and unknowable entities.

There’s great drying in that weather, as long as you get it out and in before any spots of rain, which are unavoidable in any season on this island.

Le Morte d’Abby - I Am

Last month I heard but did not share the excellent Distelfink album by Chaircrusher on Triplicate Records. My apologies to artist and label. The latest release from Triplicate is called I Am and it’s by Le Morte d’Abby, an alias of Abigail Lentz that nods to Le Morte d’Arthur, the 15th-Century retelling of the life and escapades of King Arthur and his gang. The vibe here I get is of ’90s US electronica. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a rich combination of emotional synth melodies and chunky and frantic percussion, almost breakbeats. I hate using the word, but this is heady.

ADAB @ The Lot Radio Block Party 2022

Speaking of breakbeats, here’s an hour of them from ADAB. Imagine these on a hot’n’sweaty day, dancing in the sunlight with a cold drink in your hand.

Escaflowne - House Type Beats

Escaflowne gets down to it with House Type Beats. That’s it. Five ultra-slick house jams for your party. ‘It sounds kinda daft?’ is like TB and GMdHC at their chunkiest. Think ‘Phoenix’ and those labels I’ve mentioned before. ‘Piano Track #042’ (how many does he have in the vault?!), ‘M1 Track’, ‘Roland jam’ and ‘Organ Ting’ each offer a fresh take on the sound; yes they could slot in next to the classics, but they’re definitely of the current moment from an excellent producer.

Manam | منام - Reversed in Peace

This four-track release is quite varied, moving between serenity and abstraction, clarity and confusion. It’s described, accurately, as “a dream-like journey through beat-music”. The title is very cool too.

Eoin DJ - 93˚ pi pi pi

Last week I was in my dad’s house and dug out the diaries that I kept as a teenager. Yesterday I was reading 2001/2002, so it’s funny that as I listened to this mix from Eoin DJ, who used to play before me on DDR, I noticed iio’s ‘Rapture’, which was a huge favourite of mine back then. He also plays a Breeder remix of Orbital that featured on Sasha’s Global Underground Ibiza CD, which, of course, I first heard in 2001. In between are a rake of lush and pumping prog tunes, and just when you think he’ll close on Lost Tribe’s rather epic ‘Under The Red Sea’, he goes the extra mile with Rozzo’s ‘Into Your Heart (Into Your Space)’. What a man. What a mix.

Lamin Fofana - Shafts of Sunlight

A rather magical release from Lamin Fofana, whose music is just stunning. Silence, or rather an absence of created sound, there are “field recordings” or maybe even just recordings of spaces and environments. Delicate moments. Blissful approaches through your ears. Crackles and hushed instances. The accompanying text speaks of upending the supremacy of western music theory, to which I say yes please.

“western worship of reason denies most of us the right to exist”

Jo Montgomerie - Those Things Beyond & Within

Three releases here from the excellent Brachliegen Tapes. First up, a gnarly and sinister tape from sound artist and educator Jo Montgomerie. I was six minutes into the first track and hadn’t even noticed a moment pass by. Magically monstrous. Crunching noise, horrifying melodies, like the lurch of an inescapable zombie.

David Wallraf - Нет Войне

Next up, David Wallraf’s Нет Войне. The title roughly translates as “No war”. The opening track, with its to-the-point title of ‘I Hate My Government And I Hate Your Government’, features searing guitar, crunching noise and some steady but plodding beats. It’s a strange and delightful mix. ‘Congagement’, wiki tells me, is a nauseating portmanteau of connecting and engaging with employees. Peak business speak. The track, thankfully, is a scorching netherworld of noise and plod, more plod, in my head a kind of 3/4 stomp but in reality, perhaps not. Finally, ‘Всё Идёт По Плану’, or “Everything goes according to plan”, is a squidge and dance of electronic blobs and field recordings, almost 10 minutes of ever-growing terror. Proceeds will be donated to Nash Svit, a long-running organisation that fights for the rights of the Ukrainian LGBTQ community.

Knowing - Pyre Hymns

Last up from is Pyre Hymns from our Irish buddy Knowing, aka Jonathan Deasy aka Quiet Clapping. Rather than anything melodic or sorrowful, these hymns are fittingly monotonous, grinding in their staid repetition. ‘Scorched Organ’ feels made up of a kind of looped noise rather than a single drone, but who knows. Well, Jonathan does. It builds with further layers of density, a kind of screaming making its way through the murk. ‘A Eulogy Written in Crayon’ features what seem to be horribly detuned vocals, fitting for the unrelenting pain and awfulness of death. There is a kind of wistful levity, but perhaps it’s only light in the context of such bloody-minded dank.

niwlio - and the spirit of kate bush was hiding under my stairs

Sick of ‘Running Up That Hill’? Here’s a way to get your Kate Bush fix in a new and unexpected fashion. niwilo offers “spectral reimaginings of Kate Bush’s [‘Pull Out the Pin’] via an array of cut-ups and processed loops stretching and pulling apart voice and melody”. Funky noise! Weirdo collage! It was released by Heavy Cloud last week on Bush’s 64th birthday, with proceeds going to Amnesty International.

livwutang - Cav Empt Cassette

While I knew a bunch of tracks on Eoin’s mix above, I can’t say I recognise much on this tape from livwutang. It’s a super mix though, full of rattling drums, cavernous spaces, looping vocals and a vibe that screams LOUD DARK ROOM.

Galaxy Brain - Night Dad EP

I sit and write this at 11pm and think… am I Night Dad? I’m not sure I want to know. Galaxy Brain is an alias of DJ Citizen Helene, trading in her folk pop sound for a sensuous house groove. Think bouncing bass lines, maudlin chords and yearning melodies. Hi-hats at the ready, waiting for those claps and kicks to enter and lead you to the floor. The opening chords of ‘JDX00’ (unfortunately) remind me of Bobby Brown’s ‘Two Can Play That Game’, but then the track moves in another direction, with an almost insouciant flair.

Michael Lightborne - Slí na Fírinne

Slí na Fírinne, or way of truth, is the title of the latest release from the Department of Energy. One of my favourite phrases in Irish is “is fír sin”, which translates literally as “this is true”, but when spoken can have an air of wisdom, solace or resignation. Many more field recordings, the sound of birds and wind and rivers, here combined with prolonged, lilting chords. It’s a mystical and magical release, grounded (if you’ll forgive the pun, given titles such as ‘Earthing the shock’ and the name of the label itself) in the real world by those field recordings and the sense of the land that is so prevalent in every release from DoE. I almost thought that Michael Lightborne was an alias of Local Gods, who runs DoE, but I believe he is a separate, real person. It gives me real hope and excitement that there exists such an invigorating label and space in this country for this kind of (non-)music.

Almost August y’all. Autumn coming soon. Spoopy season approaching. Big thanks to Eoghan O’Sullivan of The Point of Everything for inviting me to speak on his podcast about Bandcloud. Lots of other Irish stuff to enjoy in there too. This week we have a lot of emotion. Joy, sorrow, tears, laughter.

James N Murray - An Emerald Necklace

Our pal James N Murray released his latest album last week on the Dragon’s Eye label. As to be expected from an artist whose work is constantly rich and considered, it’s a broad and expansive piece of work. ‘A Temple to Friendship’ somehow combines Murray’s most languidly melancholy sounds with surroundings that evoke memories of ’90s ambient electronica, you know, the stuff that was up-tempo and had beats but was still considered “ambient”. ‘Paradise’ is made of similar stuff, particularly with its unexpected melodies. There is nothing at any point in this album that could be predicted or expected, with Murray’s ear tending away from the traditional or formulaic in favour of sounds that thrill and delight. The album is inspired by a set of parks in Boston that he frequented when he was an undergrad, and the sounds truly represent the unpredictable beauty of nature as well as the joy of friendship and human connection, in whatever form it may come.

LADYMONIX - High Notes

Four chunky and delightful house jams for summer. Unrecognisable samples, vocals or instrumentals (I love the sax, I do). Thick, dreamy pads and acid wobs. ‘A Bop’ is particularly smile-inducing.

Collapsed Memory - No Logical Sequences

“Inspired by Tangerine Dream and Software but filtered through the Rhythm & Sound disintegration vortex and abstracted atmospheres of Mount Shrine.” Hello. Yes please. The artwork is bonkers. The music sounds amazing, fully living up to its lofty inspirations.

Mario Diaz de Leon - Heart Thread

What to say about this album! It’s a fever dream of explosive synth patterns. Like that trance music from my last radio show but without the beats, with a different, more cerebral kind of euphoria at play. Syncopation, dancing melodies, joyous and heartfelt, full of deep and all-enveloping emotion. It defies language, yet here I type.

Nat Wendell - Unchained (DMS003)

This is a preview of a vinyl-only release, but it’s really good and I enjoy Nat Wendell’s mixes a lot so here it is. Four heady, loopy house tracks, one of them an instrumental of the title track. Someone recently tweeted that the best tracks are always A2 or B1, and I think B1 is the killer here. Shades of ’90s Ali and Sharam on the B2 too.

JaySwann - Lou Dolph

This is a really varied album. It’s crisply electronic, offering hints of house clubs and late nights, while at times it ventures into a downtempo hip-hop spiral. It’s not unlike Galcher Lustwerk, with vocals that are almost slurred hovering over dreamy beats. No two tracks are alike, offering an excitingly vibrant listening experience.

Ryan Beckemeyer - sunlight echoes the room

I played the opening track from this short release on my latest radio show, one of the few non-trancey tracks that made the cut. Ryan Beckemeyer presents four tracks that ripple like the sunlight and emojis of the track titles. Gorgeous, lovely sounds.

Susan Geaney - Tape Melt

I often talk about music that sounds like wavering tapes. This does, and yet it doesn’t. ‘Tape Melt’ is quite literal in that it is inspired by the sound of tapes becoming undone due to excessive playback. Expect it’s performed with ~real~ instruments, by ~real~ people. It’s alarming in how striking it is. I said to the label boss that it is quite literally awesome. I played it twice yesterday and couldn’t leave my seat either time I let it play, all 35 minutes of it. It features stringed instruments wavering from one note to another and back, creating that uncomfortable moment of discord. At times it sounds like sirens or alarms, almost keening with despair. Almost like a child whose tape has worn out or their batteries have died.

(Sorry, I just reread the list of performers and it does include “Cassette tape players x 3” so maybe there are some real-life tape wobblers in there.)

Tegh & Adel Poursamadi - community Ima ایما

I pressed play on this and immediately thought “how the heck will I be able to write about this”. As the opening track progressed through its 11-minute length, I was struck by visions and ideas, as instruments and elements of sound came together in harmony and explosion. What sounds like a distant alarm rings throughout, with violins and electronic squawking eventually vying for attention in the strangest of manners. The ideas of that first listen escape me now but it was a powerful listen, driving around with a heavy hum of bass filling the space around me.

Jem Finer - Hrdy​-​Grdy

Benedict Drew’s Thanet Tape Centre label has been steadily putting out weird and wonderful folk-inflected sounds for the past two years. Funnily enough, it’s only now that the label is living up to its name by releasing a tape. Hrdy​-​Grdy is a collection of tracks created by Jem Finer using a hurdy-gurdy and any number of other implements and electronic devices. There’s a track called ‘Duet With a Gate’ that’s simultaneously charming and grating. Some tracks, like ‘Nine Rounds’, are grandiose with emotion. Others, like ‘Fifty Thousand Fathoms’, are full of solemn depth. The physical release comes with a booklet/zine thing that looks very cool.

Simone - Malak Beya مالك بيا (Moving Still Edit)

This is a fun and funky track from Moving Still. With a bit of persistent googling I managed to find the original track, and the original is an Egyptian pop jam, blending 90s radio-friendly electronics with some traditional instrumentation. This edit clubs it up, for want of a better phrase, adding some tough chunkiness. There are looped sections that brim with strange malice, while the original vocals are richly emotive.

Yann Tiersen - Ker al Loch (Beatrice Dillon Remix)

Beatrice Dillon remixing Yann Tiersen! I’m not sure how I missed this. It came out in December. It’s being released as part of a package of remixes of Yann Tiersen’s Kerber, with Sote, Terence Fixmer and Laurel Halo featuring, among others. This remix is a world away from the original, which featured a steady piano movement that grew into a strange electronic attack on the senses. This is sedate, mournful, beautiful, employing a different manner of electronics to create an entirely different mood. It feels like standing next to a fireside reflecting on past joys, winter moments musing on summer days. Put simply, it’s magical.

Hello?
Yeah it’s me. I wanna give you some good frequencies. 170, 2.6, 2,245...
Yeah
3,032, 400
Four hundred?
Yeah.
I’m coming over.
Do that.
Hehe. I’ll be there in two seconds.

Any time I hear or think of the number 400, I think of this conversation that appears at the end of the first track on Röyksopp’s debut album, Melody A.M.. The note of surprise and almost horror in the way he says “four hundred?!” has always stayed with me. You may also be thinking of French film Les Quatre Cents Coups, and yes, I’m a fan.

This is all to say very little at all. In writing this intro I went down a rabbit hole of samples used on Melody A.M., wondering why I’ve not already done this at some point in the past TWENTY YEARS. Twenty x twenty is … 400. What a large number of mails to have sent in eight-and-a-half years. I have nothing insightful to add here, time passes, mails are sent, people put out a load of music and some of us listen to some of it. The best-case scenario is that we like it and then tell others about it. That’s what’s happening here, I suppose.

Silvia Kastel - Xantharmony - YOCD13

CDs! As usual, Silvia Kastle creates music that is otherworldly, creating sounds that come from nowhere yet the origins of which could easily be divined with a little thought and application. But where’s the fun in that. This shit sounds cool. Allow yourself to drift along with the current of her weirdness.

Michael Diamond - Third Culture LP

No, not a Beastie Boy. Where to start with an album that apparently spans “ethereal jazz-breaks, introspective two-step, sax-driven power ambient and world-building, story-telling electronica”? Michael Diamond speaks in the accompanying press materials about how he came from India to the UK as a child, and when he returns to India he is seen as a westerner. “Over time, this has left me feeling that whilst I possess aspects of both cultures, I don’t truly belong to either one, leaving me with a fractured sense of cultural identity.” This experience is defined as “third culture”, hence the album’s title. As noted above, it’s suitably vast and expressive, taking in all of those sounds and styles without sounding overcooked or bloated. I was thinking as I listened, is this dance music? It’s the right tempo and has all those elements, yet its tracks seem, somehow, to possess more than your average dance-floor track. Not that you’d sit at a table by candlelight and appreciate or contemplate a live performance, it’s far too raucous for that. Take ‘Exodus’ for example, its wailing melodies and syncopated beats being chopped to pieces in full glitch mode, you can picture a sweaty floor loving it. Yet, as I said, this all means something more.

No Translation - rust & remain

The first track here, ‘the place of flowers’, is uncannily like a sonic representation of its title. I can picture myself in a field or meadow or garden on a hot day, surrounded by lush growth. It’s beautiful. There’s not really any other way of putting it.

The Discomancer - Resurrect The Funk

Filter house/disco always sounds good, but there’s nothing quite like it in the summer time. Here’s an EP of four originals from The Discomancer, an alias of Wigan-based Medulasa. Fun and flavourful, these are in the spirit of Roulé and Crydamoure.

Faithful - Ontomorphology

Apparently these two tracks are “sonic recreations of René Thom’s Seven Elementary Catastrophes”. There’s a whole wiki page on these catastrophes, but I am *****ed if I have any clue what it all means. So I’ll have to take your word for it, Faithful. These two tracks are … techno? I think. Pounding rhythms, breakneck speed, electronics at their most electronic. The artist has previously released on Prehistoric Silence, which makes sense, as it’s home to music that is the very essence and distillation of electronic blips. He’s also in 8990 alongside John Daniel aka Forest Management, and their output is very different. While you’re here, check out this weirdly gnarly edit of The Supremes. Gnarly.

Eddie C - Infinite Wait

Sumptuous and delectable and warm and sunny and exotic. This is a really nice track with lovely flutes, lovely drums, lovely bass, lovely vibe.

Bloque del Sur - Enjambre

Nice’n’crunchy electronics, with radio waves, field recordings, vocal samples and hissing fuzz come together to make the sound of your insides on a particularly hot day.

Emilía - Water Flowers (Piano Works)

Emilía is a collaboration between Lee Yi, who featured a few months back, and Meneh Peh. They created “ambient & Neo classical fragments” with this project. Just my thing you might say. It’s piano but it’s muted, transformed, submerged. Sad stuff.

INTERNET CLUB - FORMAT BLUE

Speaking of transformed sounds, I think this might be vaporwave but it’s probably better than that. Only because I like it. It sounds like 80s TV adverts. Stuff to get lost in while you wash the dishes after the kids have gone to bed. Just me? Maybe.

Chelidon Frame - Transience

First of all, I love that this is on a label called Giraffe Tapes. Secondly, this is lovely. You might expect playful frivolity on a label with such a name, perhaps some child-friendly melodies or colourful beats. Not in this case. Drifting, lilting ambient sounds that offer tense fuzz and sorrowful yearning.

LLWCHほこり - AURՈսկի

I love the work of Simon Proffitt, who records as Cahn Ingold Prelog, and Carnedd Aur, as well as being part of The Incidental Crack and The Master Musicians Of Dyffryn Moor. His own Bandcamp states that “I’m aware of what the record-buying public want, but am neither able nor willing to give it to them”. Right on, sir. His latest work exemplifies that approach, examining “a long-held belief that everything sounds better when it’s slowed down”. He calls it slushwave. That’s a new one for me. The tracks here are given titles in a series of characters, probably to detach them from their original realities. It’s probably meaningless. Could as well have called them ‘12345’, ‘23456’ and so on. This collection comes from superpolar Taïps, but the music has also been released here, with each selection coming with artwork that’s almost definitely created from some DALL-E prompt. Oh I just read further, it’s “portrait of a young man in the style of vaporwave” and it’s from craiyon.com. superpolar Taïps usually puts out tapes, but here they suggest that you download the music for free and dub it yourself. They’ve provided print-ready artwork with each download. If you do decide to pay for it, proceeds are going to Wrexham Foodbank.

Trommel.145 - Maayan Nidam [all night long - 8h set]

I listened to this while I was painting a door this week. I thought I heard the sound of Jaydee’s ‘Plastic Dreams’, particularly the organ solo. Only it was in a completely different track. As things progressed, I realised that Perlon-associate Maayan Nidam was in fact playing that particular classic over whatever it was that I didn’t recognise, but had isolated the solo in such a way to create a sort of instrumental acappella. If that makes sense. That’s talent. This mix, as you’d expect, runs across a range of styles, from glossy pop and disco to underground house, with classics from Henrik Schwarz and FCL, the vocal from Colonel Abrams’ ‘Trapped’, Paranoid London, Talking Heads and Metro Area to name a few. I can imagine it would soundtrack a wonderful barbecue. Thanks to Jack for reposting it into my timeline.

Arthur King - Changing Landscapes (Mina Las Pintadas)

This was recorded in a Chilean copper mine, which, to me, sounds like you’re asking for trouble. It’s got lots of flutes and trumpets, kind of like some of Carmen Villain’s stuff. From what I can gather, Arthur King is a nebulous ensemble, rather than a single artist, brought together by someone called Peter Walker. They set up shop in a particularly interesting locale, in this case the mine, in another, a Hebridean Island. The music is hazy and wistful, glorious and dreamlike. The cover is quite beautiful. Yet another one in which I can only recommend you get lost.

Ewer - Ewer

Smudged, foggy ambient not unlike the sounds you might hear from that Huerco S. chap and his West Mineral Ltd. cronies.

Back in the zone again. I can hear that sample in my head but have no idea whose voice it is. Answers on a postcard or something. Big big edition today, you’ll probably have to click “read more” down below, or maybe click the link and visit the site. I’m going to be playing trance on my show on Sunday night, the sun has gone to my head.

worriedaboutsatan - Glass Infinites

Gavin Miller aka worriedaboutsatan’s This Is It Forever label marks its 60th release with Glass Infinites. Titles like ‘Say No To Yes’, ‘How Does It Feel, What Do You Think? Are You Happy?’, ‘Boomkat Industrial Complex’ and ‘Rejected Ambient Works’ offer signs of a sense of humour, so often seemingly absent in this line of work.

Morwell - Nowhere to Run

Morwell never misses. Never. The title track here samples a Mariah Carey song I never knew. The video features Meadow Soprano and Bodie from The Wire in a kind of four-minute summation of the singer’s parents’ lives. It’s an ultra-saccharine yet still meaningful ode to persistence and perseverance, and the snippets chosen for this track render Carey’s vocals mournful and afraid rather than triumphant. ‘Gudie and Protect’ doesn’t feature any recognisable samples (to my ears), though they could be lurking inside this choppy garage number, which seems to clank and dart like rave stabs created from the sound of children playing in the stairwells of the tower in the release’s artwork.

M. Geddes Gengras - Expressed, I Noticed Silence

MGG and Hausu is a match made in heaven. Previous releases have been flabbergasting in their … I don’t want to say pomposity, but they’ve felt incredibly BIG. Heavy. This one is still rather epic, yet feels lighter, almost more wistful. Beautiful as always, whatever silly words I attempt to wrap around it.

JWords - brainecho

JWords often makes dusty hip-hop but here she’s put together a short release of generally “dancey” sounds. ‘water waves~’ is fittingly floaty, not unlike the beautiful ‘mentalflow’. ‘reprogramming..’ seems to be a combination of Detroit techno and gorgeous house chords. All good, basically.

Ancient Spirit - Tales Of A Forsaken Realm

This is somehow both dungeon synth and tongue-in-cheek videogame music. Lots of dark and creepy and hilarious fun to be had. I went to Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone, last week, and if it had been wet and dank rather than 22 degrees and clear, this would have been the perfect soundtrack.

Quaid - The Algorithm Don’t Like My Freek

More 80s-ish sounds, sounding like everything you’ve heard before but not quite, hence the title. It contains sounds that are hollow yet broad, where incredibly vast spaces can be found between each note. I’ve probably made this comparison before, but imagine that episode of The Simpsons where Homer enters the third dimension. This sounds like that.

Djoser - Expand

Three crunchy bangers. That’s it.

VA - The DollyDollar Mixed Box (Grimalkin Records)

Friend of the Cloud The Doll created a sample pack, which Grimalkin Records invited people to make tracks from this collection of sounds collected over a decade and a half. The result is a truly diverse selection of sounds drawn together into a this mixed box (not quite a mixtape). ‘33415’ by Genetic Memory Orchestra is a real highlight, but everything is of a very high quality. This is the first of such a project from Grimalkin, who will also be arranging educational workshops around music production. Exciting.

Tr One - From The Studio Of

Tr One is someone I've mentioned many times, from his sumptuous music to his always entertaining Instagram page. He’s just released his debut album, From The Studio Of, and it’s everything you’d expect, and more. Most surprisingly, one might say is the rather sultry ‘Pitchshift’, featuring Elaine Dowling. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him use vocals before, and this is a welcome new approach. Tracks like ‘I’m Dreaming Again’, ‘What Kind Of Dreams Do You Have?’, ‘We Must Continue’ and ‘Flow Convert’ are excellent in how the are both driving, up-tempo techno numbers as well as being imbued with a real sense of melancholy. Top work from a top lad.

Kali Malone - Living Torch

Two pieces of slightly unnerving beauty from Kali Malone, sitting on that album cover like a Bond villain or something. She’s watching you. She draws her power from minor chords and searing drones, unresolved tension and the strength of the organ.

BB84 - Ardnacrusha

“Ardnacrusha was the first large scale engineering project undertaken by the post colonial Irish government. The station harnesses the power of the River Shannon to generate electricity for most of the country. On this their first album, BB84 harness the power of the post industrial landscape to generate a large scale electronics onslaught of epic dimensions.”

How to follow that blurb. Field recordings, weighty concepts, noise, rattling effects. EEELLEECCTRRRRIIICCIIITTYYYY, as MIKE might say in Twin Peaks.

Lina Filipovich - BFHC

Last year Lina Filipovich really impressed me with her album Magnificat. This year she’s back, signed up to the always excellent Umor Rex label. I believe the title, BHFC, refers to some of the composers she’s chosen to interpret: Bach, Frescobaldi, Handel, Carleton and Couperin. The source material is used subtly. This is not a classical remix album. Instead, it’s a thrilling merging of sounds, with strange electronic pulses that could be used in a DJ set or powering your workout, but could also be appreciated in a darkened room from the comfort of an armchair. Looped organ sounds enter almost organically, while strange wobbles bely any notion of centuries-old material. Truly stunning and engaging work from a fascinating artist.

Alister Fawnwoda, Suzanne Ciani, Greg Leisz - Milan

Someone called this “ambient country” and that’s pretty much it. Twanging guitar, lilting synth, beautiful vistas, imagine Tony Soprano taking peyote with this in the background.

Suddi Raval - Kanlab 01

Suddi Raval is a pioneer, taking acid house to the charts in 1990 as part of Together (no, not Bangalter and Falcon). He’s worked in video games, doing audio for various Lego titles (including The Force Awakens) but he’s seemingly back releasing music in recent years. The two tracks here are timeless electro jams, as deep in space as any Skywalker (sorry, couldn’t resist). You know that good electro that has all those familiar elements yet still manages to hook you in because it doesn’t sound tired and formulaic? That’s what we have here. Really excellent stuff.

OUT.OF.OFFICE | ON LOCATION 056: "PAID TIME OFF"

Imagine Roland Clark’s ‘I Get Deep’ vocal over a rattling house version track led by the strings from Psycho. It’s an incredible blend that appears in the middle of this mix from OUT.OF.OFFICE. The whole mix is filled with spoken word and poetry, from Clark and Gil Scott-Heron to Suheir Hammad, in a mix that moves between celebratory and defiant zones in an instant. It closes with the artist’s own production, StayFloKnockin, sampling the late Pimp C’s ‘Knockin’ Doorz Down’. A mix for Juneteenth, and for Black History Month, it’s a treasure.

Strange & Huey - State of Emergency

More slammin’ new electro, this time from Huey Mnemonic and D. Strange. Electro always sounds both retro and futuristic, coldly dystopian, yet these artists point to “an ever desolate present”. So many bad things, too many to name, in every country. This release doesn’t quite scream “wake up, sheeple”, but it tries to slam home a message of urgency at a time when we are increasingly desensitised by daily horrors. I featured that Quincy Jones rework a few weeks ago, and Huey’s ‘Red Alert’ features a similar siren, yet is riven with funk. Looking to the past, D. Strange’s ‘Drapetomania’ refers to a supposed mental illness that was hypothesised in the 1850s. Apparently, any slave who attempted to escape their bondage suffered from this illness, because only the insane would want to flee such a position. Unthinkable nowadays, yet 1850 isn’t all that long ago, in the scheme of things.

Robyn Charlie is a DJ/producer from Drogheda, Louth (the county my father is from), currently based in London. I featured some of her releases in the mails, referring to their “hefty kicks and claps”, adding that the sound was “as informed by techno and post-club or whatever you want to call it”. In describing her music to someone I wrote “weird but hefty club music – a bit techno a bit ??”, which sums up her non-standard approach to production.

As a DJ she goes HAM, bonkers you might say. Not bonkers in a bad way, more Bonkers like the ’90s CD compilations. She’s part of the Bitch I’m Fucking Beautiful crew, and the blurb for their gig in Dublin’s Workman’s Club later this month claims she “brings the HARDEST techno this side of hell”. You can judge for yourself with this month’s mix, a proper session of nasty and high-energy tunes. No tracklist, just vibes, but I do recognise the VTSS remix of LSDXOXO in there.

Bandcamp : Instagram

Hello hello. I’m on holiday in Co Cork with my family right now. I thought about taking a week off, but where’s the fun in that. This won’t be a regular mail, rather than going relatively in-depth on anything I’m going to give you a flurry of links, things that I’ve not been able to share for a variety of reasons in the first six months of 2022. I hope you find something you missed, like I did.

Photo by Kier In Sight on Unsplash

Left Hand Cuts off the Right & Tasos Stamou - Borrowed Time

Starting with some collaborative noise and sound art.

Pink Flamingo Rhythm Revue & Toribio - Living the Fantasy (The Rimarkable Remix Pack)

A selection of chonky, vibey house remixes.

aircode - Grounded

An album of deep ethereality.

digital selves - error topography

Bleepy blotchy electronic sounds.

XRA - XRA001

Intense bangers from Bruce and Lurka.

Fennec - a couple of good days

Bouncy house sounds that are littered with lovely funk and soul samples.

Chaz Underriner - Meditations

Fascinating and immersive sounds that are somewhere between experimental and post-classical.

Jack Prest - The Risk of Hyperbole - Vol. 1 - Sound

More fascinating sounds, moving fully into the realm of sound art.

Kaori Suzuki - Music For Modified Melodica

If it’s on Moving Furniture Records, it’s bound to be good. This is intensely absorbing.

VA - End Broken Windows Vol​.​1 (Palms Out Sounds)

Pounding and exciting club music on a compilation raising money to fight discriminatory policing policies.

ELLES - A Celebration Of The Euphoria Of Life

An appropriately euphoric and exciting album of clubby pop/poppy club songs.

Salamanda - ashbalkum

I did feature the opening track from this album but outside the context of the larger release. Beautiful, blissful sounds.

Wordcolour - The trees were buzzing, and the grass.

A rich and intricate album of techno/non-techno sounds.

Amy Dabbs - Four Track Mind EP

Massive grin-inducing bouncy summery house music. Only three tracks here though.

VA - Rare SSR Electronica 1989​-​91 ​(​Crammed Archives 0)

Not even sure what to call this? Poppy post-EBM, noisy electro-dance. Someone will no doubt correct/enlighten me.

Cyparissus - Uncovering I: We Scraped the Ozone Thin to Let the Angels In

Wood and synth come together like never before.

Lila Tirando a Violeta - Desire Path

Rich and textured sounds created with a variety of collaborators but ultimately from one particular mind.

Wild Terrier Orchestra - EVEN THE CHIMERA

Another collaborative effort, here led by Jay Glass Dubs and featuring our friend Cruel Diagonals, it’s a soaring and inventive piece of work.

VA - Two Years Of Spring (Are You Before)

Not quite folk, not quite indie, not quite jazz. Somewhere in between, and nowhere.

36 - Symmetry Systems

I love this. It’s gorgeous and brilliant in its own right but what’s really interesting is that when one site posted clips online they posted them at 33rpm instead of 45. The artist then created a version of the tracks at that speed and included it for purchase.

Mücha - Word Murder

Trippy and entrancing sounds that, well, murder words.

Isabel del Bosco - La Clairière

It’s a bit ambient, a bit new age, a bit twee but a lot lovely.

janelovesu! - Rosé Sky

Dancefloor fun with love, pain, heart and hurt.

Blacklauren - Psamathe

Techno that’s hard and heavy yet liquid and smooth at the same time.

It’s bleedin’ July. What. My son’s just finished his second year of schooling. WHAT.

Seafoam - Swing Set EP (DC​-​07 / Jewel Series)

Last week in my blurb about the Powder mix I mentioned an old track from Seafoam. It completely slipped my mind that Seafoam has just put out a 12” for US label/party Deep Club. Smudgy and sultry tracks that shuffle and bounce, with lovely floating synth sounds. There’s also a remix from Snad. The release is marked at $69 but you can buy each track individually for $2. Wink wink etc.

Luster - Luster

Luster is a six-person group and this collection of gently unnerving folk dirges is a brilliant accompaniment to late summer nights and thick, muggy weather,

Oh Yeah...Jana Rush.Please

Just something silly, a thunderous juke rework of Yello’s ‘Oh Yeah’. Not the first time I’ve included an update of this track, but probably the last.

Quincy Jones - IronsHAde (Kill Bill - Lazy Flow vogue edit)

While Jana Rush’s track was just posted this week, this one is a few years old. It’s a timeless retread, however, putting Quincy Jones’s iconic siren/horns blast firmly into a vogue milieu.

Ambient Babestation Meltdown & JBS - Who Goes There

This pair should be familiar to long-time readers, with JBS appearing under the JEM guise and ABM popping up on a few occasions over the past few years. This collaboration has been long in the works, and finally sees the light of day today. It’s a chunky and exciting mix of jagged sci-fi sounds, with cues from a variety of cinematic inspirations. Fear is the mind killer, I’d buy that for a dollar, trust is a tough thing to come by these days. Recognise any of these lines? They appear in one way or another at different points throughout this release, over a sharp and expansive bank of sound. I’d never seen RoboCop until this week, but I watched it in honour of this release. What a thrill! Totally OTT but filled with invention, even if the stop motion used at points is horrifically dated. I digress. The physical release came on tape with a mix on the B-side from ABM, but it’s already sold out. I’ve been informed, however, that there should be copies in places like Belfast, Bristol and London.

PTP - Show Me Your Spine

This track is also not at all new. It features during a club scene in Robocop and I thought it sounded pretty sweet, and it’s on Bandcamp, so here you go.

VA - Intersections Vol. 1 (Edge Network)

This is new, but is indebted to the past. Four tracks that lean on pop songs, the sampled material includes the Spice Girls, Sean Paul, Carly Rae Jepsen and Janet Jackson. The first one may be my favourite, Halffish’s ‘Superstar’ (Acid Spice Mix). It peppers elements ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ over a jaunty, springy house track. It’s neat!

VA - Even Shit Sunsets Look Pretty in Retrospect (Difficult Art And Music)

Difficult Art and Music marks a year of existence with a delightfully named compilation. It features 18 tracks from DAAM releases and it’s free. A wonderful introduction to a label that lives up to its name.

Blangi - Stardog

This is from a set of 2018 demos, but it seems like a properly accomplished track. It’s lovely and techy and groovy, reminiscent of Dennis DeSantis and Austin Cesear.

Instruments of Happiness - Slow, Quiet Music in Search of Electric Happiness

Speaking of things living up to their name… I got this ages ago and completely forgot about it. It’s a kind of suite that was conceptualised and performed by Instruments of Happiness, aka Tim Brady. He invited four composers to write a 14-minute piece for four guitars, with each performer spaced far apart on stage. Louise Campbell’s ‘Sideways’ is a beautiful and haunting piece of experimentation that could easily be a house alarm, yet somehow provides quiet ease. Rose Bolton’s ‘Nine kinds of Joy’ is lilting and lovely, swaying like a boat floating on the waters of the release’s artwork. ‘Traps, taboos, tradition’ by Andrew Noseworthy is as complex and rich as its evocative title, which speaks to the contradictions of our histories. Finally, Andrew Staniland’s ‘Notre-Dame is burning’ is more specifically melancholic, with a deep snarl sitting alongside some soaring melodies. Take an hour to sit with this one.

Gallery S - HOA020: No Future For Cowardice

The artwork and the blurb for this alone caught me in my tracks.

In the future there will be no room for fear, doubt, or disbelief. A force is coming. They are the makers of all. They are not what they seem. They are coming, and nothing can stop them once they arrive.

The music is excellent too, touching on and combining elements of house and techno as well as other forms of “dance” music in ways that defy stagnation. There are blissfully airy moments, proper dance floor melters, each laden with elements that may seem incongruous but are stitched together seamlessly and with great care and intention. While the energy is high throughout, it seems to build to a rather intense climax, ending with uptempo rhythms that are both frenetic and carefully restrained.

Botex Spykidelic - Botex Spykidelic

UK label Woodford Halse has moved sideways with a new label entitled Preston Capes (Tapes). The first two releases are out today, with 01 coming from The Incidental Crack, a kind of experimental noise supergroup. 02 is a self-titled release from Botex Spykidelic, a duo of Oslo-based musicians. It’s genuinely indescribable and uncategorisable, a wonderful mélange of sounds that range from noisy gloop to expansive wonder. Something to enjoy in times of confusion and listlessness.

Gloved Hands - Empty Terminal LP

The music on this album seems as smudged and impressionistic as its artwork. The title, too, speaks to a kind of unknowable, liminal space. Scuzzy and delicate, it’s a strange floating sensation of an album that probably works best on hot and hazy days.

Hey there. I’ve been working on something kinda special and it’s involved a pretty extensive tread through the Bandcloud archives. As I’ve gone through the years I’ve noticed a huge number of tracks/releases are simply no longer online, for any number of reasons. Sometimes the artists just aren’t doing music any more, which is understandable. There’s not much point in paying for a SoundCloud account in that case. In others, perhaps identities have changed and that track represents a part of their life that is no longer relevant to them. But then there are hundreds, even thousands of releases etc that are still there, and it just makes me so happy that there’s so much art and wonder in the world. To think that there are that many people out there doing this, it gives me joy.

WAX - WAX80008

Quite a mournful set of tracks from WAX aka Shed. Piano house for when you’re feeling a bit sad but still want a little dance. The A side is a subtle piano roller, while the B side is basically the same track with a slightly sharper kick, hinting at UKG without ever fully going there. Restraint.

Objekt - Objekt #5

Looking back through those archives, even in 2014 I remarked that including Objekt was a form of clickbait. At the same time, his releases are so infrequent these days that it’s an event when he does put something out. ‘Bad Apples’ just makes me sneer in delight, almost like a positive screwface. ‘Ballast’ almost seems silly? By his standards anyway. Like he’s having fun messing around with these sounds. He’s got a reputation for being a meticulous producer, constantly refining and honing his material, but I can’t imagine him working on these tracks with anything other than a smile on his face.

Mantissa Mix 250: Powder

The Mantissa mix series reaches the 250 mark with a mix from Powder. As one might expect from the expert DJ and producer, it features a range of sumptuous sounds as diverse as Future Sound of London, Ricardo Villalobos, Move D & Benjamin Brunn and Seafoam, whose bleepy but emotional ‘Lowtech’ is an undoubted highlight.

Maison Crier - Down the Long and Winding Road

Love a wobbly tape. The tape wobbles so much it sounds like someone’s screaming, but in truth it’s hard to have a clue what these sounds are. Like a field recording that’s left to rot, it’s unnerving and unsettling and all round fascinating.

The Root Folk Band - MOSSY

“The Root Folk Band - led by David Chatton Barker of Folklore Tapes - tells the story of Mossy, an explorative woodland creature who, along with his forest folk friends, tries hard to maintain the balance of nature through the various rituals and celebrations that must be observed in order to allow the earth spirit to flourish.”

I was hooked when I read the blurb, and the music is ace too. It’s kind of a puppet show/children’s play, with a charming narration by Ian Humberstone (who featured here recently with his Warning to The Curious release). It’s been doing the rounds in a variety of forms for a while, and now it’s being released by Memotone on the Earth Memory label, in a lovely tape with added liner notes and illustrations.

Eden Grey - Transparent

The label calls this an album in 17 minutes, and it’s not far off. Eden Grey manages to distil a world of ideas into these four tracks, with half-time percussion under wailing melodies (think the original ‘Sky Was Pink’), snarling synth lines, ominous syncopated bleeps and riotous vocal samples.

Mary Yalex - Ohra

Mary Yalex featured here a few years back with a release for KANN. It had moments for the floor and for the way home (one track was even called ‘Night Bus’). This tape for Muzan Editions is much more focused on the latter style of things. While the title track could turn into a different beast with the addition of a beat under its steady 4/4 framework, the overall impulses are smudged and vaporous, with a richly textured approach apparent across the board. ‘Frost Envelopes’ in particular is charming.

Russell E. L Butler - God Is Change: Revisited - Celebrating Octavia Butler 220622

This week would have been Octavia E Butler’s 75th birthday. To mark the occasion, NTS invited artists such as Afrikan Sciences, Moor Mother, Kelsey Lu and Russell E.L Butler to contribute to a day’s programming in honour of the late writer. Butler’s 2015 release God Is Change was response to Butler’s books Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, and in this show the producer discusses their artistic process as well as their experiences with the books that inspired them. They also play tracks that weren’t included in the original release. NTS invited listeners to donate to two organisations - Birthing Project USA, an African American maternal and child health programme, and Clockshop, an arts and culture organisation that seeks to generate social change through the transformation of public space.

Aquatic Gardens: Earthbeam (11)

A simply gorgeous mix from Earthbeam, a new alias from Jenn Green. It’s ambient but not like that. There are beats, pulses, drifts and flows, overall more focused on a vibe than a particular kind of sound. Forest Management, Yamaneko, rrao and more all feature in here.

HAWKSMOOR - HEAD COACH

Wonderfully weird sounds here from Hawksmoor, somewhere between squelchy electronica and BBC ’70s sci-fi/horror sounds.

It’s a lesser known fact that the layout of English new town Milton Keynes was shifted by a few degrees when its planners realised that, in doing so, its grid-like layout would come into alignment with the sunrise on the summer solstice.

This album is inspired by the “druidic, Solstice referencing layout of Milton Keynes”. There’s a road called Midsummer Boulevard, which has a corresponding track here. The track ‘Silbury Boulevard’ starts with guitar lines that recall themes from Global Communication’s 76:14, giving way to wavering synth lines with an effect not unlike the layering of new history upon old, centuries being flattened together by traffic systems and music alike. ‘Gridsquares and Redways’, which references the shared-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians, wails with clanks and melody. Perfect for the season, perfect forever.

Lostlojic - Distant Star

Ukrainian artist Lostlojic drops the newest release on Dutch label Infinite Pleasure. It’s crunchy electro with heart. The title track is drum machine heaven, with a searing melody in between its percussive breakdowns. There’s a DMX Krew remix that’s like the inverse of the WAX tracks above, all ravey pianos, while the closing track is like waking from a rave dream in morning sunshine.

I. JORDAN - Always Been

Finally, a new release from I. JORDAN. The first The opening strains remind me of Madonna’s ‘Take A Bow’ (and that’s absolutely a good thing). The title track, built around a vocal sample that sings “you’ve always been the one”, is joyous and euphoric. ‘First Time Back’ is high-tempo rave, all breaks, pianos and strange squibbles. A different kind of joy, but euphoric nonetheless.

It’s been a big week. On Monday I saw ambient rockstar William Basinski perform in Dublin. Supported by Ordnance Survey (who was excellent), he provided a show that was, quite simply, magical. I won’t go into it too much. See him if you can. Then I shared John Loveless’s wonderful mix on Tuesday. Finally, yesterday I launched a limited run of Bandcloud T-shirts. You can see and purchase here, if you’re so inclined. Oh and on Sunday night I’ll be back on Dublin Digital Radio.

Today, Bandcamp are holding a Juneteenth fundraiser, “where we donate 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support their ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education”. To learn more about Juneteenth, see here.

VA - Avon Attorlaðe (Avon Terror Corps)

There’s still a war going on out there. This release from Avon Terror Corps is raising money for Solidarity Apothecary, a group that is providing herbal medicine to Ukrainian refugees. A huge undertaking, it features no fewer than 28 tracks from female and non-binary line-up artists, acting as “a herbal spell that purifies and lets feminine and non-binary voices be heard”. It’s dedicated to Ellen Percival aka DJ Mooncup, who passed away last month.

A. D. Luck - WORMWOOD

This is a tremendously fun release. Imagine the frivolity of Daphne Oram’s Pop Tryouts but recorded with a phone and created with an app. Modern technology man. Silly! Fun! Noisy! Brilliant!

Ngoni Egan - Re Teng

Out next week, today we celebrate Ngoni Egan’s Re Teng. I played the blissful opening track on my show last month, and John featured a track from it in his mix this week. ‘Difaqane’ blends electro pulse with strange frequencies, and ‘Gaborone West Groove’ is a positively thunderous groove. Check out his sweet sweater vest in the Bandcamp profile pic.

Gohda - POSTED IN THE BACK OF THE CLUB (DAWN015)

I got serious MssingNo vibes from this release. It’s extremely “wistful trance synths over breaks with plaintive pop acappellas on top”, with Rihanna, Tinashe and Ariana Grande all featuring at different points. There’s only one track I don’t like, proper doof doof gabber stuff, but on the whole it sounded great in the car.

ghost.slut - Smoking Section

Gohda also pops up to remix something on this release from fellow Philly artist ghost.slut. The release is a brilliant mix of styles, all coalescing into a single point. Yes it’s trance. Yes it’s techno. Yes the title ‘Trance Tech Tool’ is fitting. It’s all good. And that remix is in a similar vibe to the above release too.

Smoke Point - Smoke Point

Brian Foote and Sage Caswell combine to form Smoke Point, and this album on Geographic North offers hazy ambient sounds over uptempo percussion. Somewhere between crystalline techno and 90s “ambient house”, it’s really quite lovely. Imagine Pub’s ‘Picnic’ given a percussive jolt.

VA - Calliope (Hotham Sound Recordings)

A different charity comp, this one is raising money for a non-profit pro-choice organisation in the US, at a time when reproductive rights have never been more under threat. It’s a huge edition, featuring artists we love such as Loscil, Boreal Network (whose work was reissued by Hotham Sound last year), Norm Chambers, Karl Fousek and Patricia Wolf. Tracks from Souns, Michelle Mackenzie, Playback Head and Nuke Watch (who have also released on The Trilogy Tapes) and Alexandra Spence are also impressive.

Nailah Hunter - Forest Dwelling

When Nailah Hunter’s ‘Soil: Song from Silence’ first appeared, I listened to it over and over. Speaking selfishly, I was mildly upset that her debut EP was only about 12 minutes in length. Two years later, it’s great to get this lengthy work, a lilting droning piece punctuated by melodies and outside sounds. “We imagined ourselves as the tiniest forest spirits; living in acorns and hollowed trees, and we imagined ourselves as the tallest mountains, feeling moonlight shine down, cold and bright upon our faces.”

Areliz Ramos - Frío

Where To Now?’s release schedule may have slowed over the years, but that doesn’t mean their standards have slipped. This debut release from Areliz Ramos, who’s previously recorded as Milkshlk. This one is all over the place, in a good way, from smudged ambient sounds to word vomit, emotive melodies over strangely evocative soundscapes and percussion that smacks like it was recorded in a school hall. The CD edition comes in gorgeous packaging, making it look like artisan chocolate. Lush.

Letters From Mouse - Sleep Tapes [Cassingle #30]

3am thoughts, 11pm thoughts. Very different beasts, but beasts nonetheless. Letters From Mouse offers two tracks that reflect these different periods in the latest cassingle for superpolar Taïps. Charming, wistful, friendly, hopeful.

John Loveless and I go back pretty far, at least in internet terms. We were both members of the Erol Alkan Forum, a resource that was a haven for general chat, track IDs and sharing your own music, among other things. John was a day one Bandcloud subscriber, and when we met once in Manchester in 2014, we learned that we had attended some of the same gigs while I was studying in Preston and he was in Manchester. Over the past decade or so he’s firmly established himself as a writer, DJ, curator, promoter and label boss. His label Hot Concept has put out sterling releases from Pokies, Beigean, Bleaching Agent, Yr Lovely Dead Moon (who featured recently in these missives), and Gramrcy, the latter of whom he collaborated with recently for a 12” on, wait for it, Erol Alkan’s Phantasy label. John’s become a big part of that world, mixing and curating A Psychedelic Sensibility to mark Phantasy’s 100-single milestone. It’s a thrilling example of things coming full circle. I must also mention that none other than Mel C (yes, Sporty Spice) played their track ‘Highdive’ in Pacha in Ibiza recently. Wowsers.

The mix he’s done for Bandcloud is a great insight into his eclectic world view, with dreamy ’50s organ music leading into something weird and wonderful from the 2020s. This Heat leads into colourful, unreleased techno. ’80s new wave meets Wilted Woman, while ’00s Jimmy Edgar collapses into an edit of Solid Groove (aka Switch, definitely one for the EAF heads). The late Richard H Kirk makes an appearance before the mix closes out with a glorious double-whammy of Mx Tactful and aya’s remix of the aforementioned Yr Lovely Dead Moon (both of which made recent appearances here). What more can I say?

Ken Griffin - Ebb Tide
Leoni Leoni - A Day Without Headaches
This Heat - Graphic/Varispeed
????? - ????? (Unreleased)
Geo Rip - Underwater Bodycam
Chez De Milo - Bushwa (Smagghe & Cross Version)
I:Cube - Popular Electronics
Electric Party - Tension
Wilted Woman - Close To Stone
Night Stalker - Creepy Autograph
Solid Groove - This Is Sick (DJ T. Edit)
Circuit 900 - Midori
Soso Tharpa - Evolution
Ngoni Egan - Phase 2
Sandoz - Inner Rhythms
Mx Tactful - Soft Sticky Tape
Yy Lovely Dead Moon - Sun Dance (aya Dub)

John Loveless SoundCloud : Instagram

Hot Concept SoundCloud : Bandcamp : Instagram

Photo by Jason Chen on Unsplash

Good day. Last week the mail looked pretty horrendous, with errant code flying everywhere. Hopefully this week things will be back to normal. Slightly truncated edition this week, however, as I’ve been quite busy.

CV x Actress

Actress took a series of extracts from Carmen Villain’s recent Only Love From Now On album and created an eight-minute remix. Coupled with that is a new track from Villain entitled “A Year Ago”, one that features broken samples that never had a home until now. Some of the samples within are apparently a few years old, so the title is a nice nod to that. It’s crunchy and delicate, smudged and sincere.

Crypthios - Vestigium

This album comes with its own backstory, the artwork representing an imagined city that is the last inhabited by humans. The music is appropriately forlorn, full of sorrowful energy and crackles that could be small fires or distant footsteps.

Quiet Clapping - Arletty

I genuinely can’t keep up with the work of Jonathan Deasy, the Irish artist who records as KNOWING and Quiet Clapping, to name a few of his aliases. While some of his work is minimal in the extreme, requiring deep focus and headphones, this release for Rusted Tone is rougher, more expansive, I might say. It feels like a fitting accompaniment to the artwork, a beautiful painting of landscape filled with trees and fog. The sounds in ‘A Vague Memory’ are of scorched guitar sounds that ebb and flow, with slight wavers here and there, stretched out impossibly. ‘Auvergne’, meanwhile, is more delicate, yet equally hazy, with soft ambient tones rather than raucous guitar. Each track unfurls across 20-odd minutes, so it’s really something to appreciate.

SOMNOROASE PĂSĂRELE - 0RT0 (V​-​VI)

Step 1: picture a giant swarm of mosquitoes.

Step 2: imagine all those mosquitoes are earthquakes.

Step 3: get in contact with Somnoroase Păsărele, because your brain keeps breaking at step 2.

I really don’t know what to add to that. The music is characteristically unhinged.

Bingo: KS! - Guest Mix For Richard, Clyde Built Radio, 9 June 2022

Jack Murphy of Knowing Something! turns in a wonderful guest mix for Richard Chater’s show on Clyde Built Radio. It features electro from Dopplereffekt, smudged electronica, what might be some sort of 80s house/pop mixup slowed down massively, it’s hard to tell but I do enjoy who the tracklist features several iterations of “Nonsense I made for the show”.

Konduku - Gelgit

Wicked pumping sounds on Nous’klaer Audio from Konduku. The title track in particular is as colourful as anything from Dozzy.

Lyli J - Micro Wanders

Quite a lovely album that’s somewhere between pop and ambient.

Joel St. Julien - Masking

Another super album, moving between bright and colourful ideas and more earthly moments. There are lumbering half-step numbers with weighty, breathy tones, blissful vistas that give way to soaring arpeggios. It’s great.

First of all, I should probably let you know that today is not a Bandcamp Friday. In two weeks, Bandcamp will be running a fundraiser where its own revenue share will go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to mark Juneteenth, and then the next BCF will be on September 2.

It’s June. Brace yourself for mid-year list season. I’m still digesting stuff from earlier in the year, while revisiting music from 20+ years ago alongside much-appreciated promo material. Who has time for lists?!

Maral & Lara Sarkissian - entropy & kindness

Maral and Lara Sarkissian are two artists whose new work I always check, so a collaboration was most exciting. Two California-based artists who explore the sounds of their ancestral heritage (Iran and Armenia, respectively) in a context that’s both respectful and forward-thinking. Their pairing doesn’t disappoint, offering the sludge and scuzz Maral is known for as well as Sarkissian’s club-leaning stomp. The melodies are fascinating and the layers of sound are somehow both intricate and murky.

Sofie Birch - Holotropica

Whatever I said about lists up above, this is one of my favourite releases of 2022 so far. It was listening to it this week while washing up that it really spoke to me, even as much as I had enjoyed it prior to that occasion. Delicate electronics peppered with saxophone that shifts between subtle and sultry to downright cacophonous, the album is a hazy glow of delight. One track, ‘Humidity’, is almost literally radiant, while ‘Tide Rose’, the album’s longest track, features a low hum that could be the sound of a vibrating phone, as well as a persistent ring, almost as if the listener is suspended in some kind of trance with only echoey remnants of their quotidian existence.

All Is Well - Tortue Jaune

Described by the label as “updated modern Deep House but not too modern”, this is deep and vibey. Yeah, vibey. The vibes, they are good. Deep and good. Three versions of the organ-led title track, as well as the mournful tones of ‘Sarassota’. Good. Vibes.

Alene Marie - Colors of Distance

I’ve been awed by the few available tracks on this release prior to the release date, electronic jewels that shine whichever way you approach them. Now the full album is here and I’m like the proverbial kid in a candy shop. ‘River Meets the Sea (Old Friends)’ is as heart-wrenching and elegiac as you might imagine, while ‘Luminous Gulch’, in collaboration with Fanciulla Gentile and Nihar, is almost quaint in its frivolity, rather than the dank suggestion of its title.

Nux Vomica - The Shape​-​Changing Tea Kettle

This release has an incredible title and incredible artwork. It comes from Japanese folklore, and relates to a spirit that takes the form of a kind of “raccoon dog”. The kettle/dog changes shape at will and ends up performing in a circus. The music isn’t nearly as frivolous as that tale might suggest, instead feeling like scorched drone, perhaps soundtracking the grief of the spirit’s friend upon its return to the netherworld.

han - The Institute of Ecoterrorism

“This tape explores what the audio output of a fictional Institute of Ecoterrorism would sound like.” Titles like ‘Sober Vegeterian Luddite’ and ‘Ascetic Weirdo’ perhaps refer to the members of this institute, or maybe they are autobiographical epithets. The music is distinctly uncategorisable, unplaceable. Melodies appear in the closer ‘Tang Ping’, while bizarre fuzz and stomp accompany strange vocal exhortations in ‘Community Monkey Wrench Initiative’. “We’re smashing some wing mirrors — bring your kids!” Inspirational.

Dean Hurley, John Reppion and Peter Baker - Flower

This grabbed my attention because it’s Dean Hurley (of Twin Peaks/Boomkat Editions/Ecstatic fame) but it’s a richer and grander piece of work than that alone. It’s the latest edition of the Tales from the Library of the Occult series, in which artists soundtrack stories written by John Reppion. Previous editions have featured music from Blood and Dust and Dream Division (who I believe runs the label), with readings performed by Katherine Peach and Matthew Holness (aka Garth Marenghi). This edition is narrated by Peter Baker, and the music is from Mr Hurley. The first track is a 17-minute unit, featuring the story and its accompaniment, and this is followed by the instrumentals, broken up into eight parts. The story tells of a murderer given a new lease of life by medication, exploring new avenues to satisfy his bloodlust. I listened to the music a few times before giving the story a go, and the timbre of the narrator’s voice along with the digital processing that’s been applied are really quite something. Going back to the music alone, it almost feels naked.

Head High - HOME​.​HOUSE​.​HARDCORE​.​2

I mentioned Shed last week, and was close to featuring this release but couldn’t find room. It’s a 15-track compilation that features his work under the names Head High, Zig Gonzalezz and WK7, as well as collaborations with Cassy and Virginia. Not unlike Flower above, the opening track seems to be a mix of everything within, with the next 14 tracks being the constituent parts in their unmixed formats. Big chonky bangers.

VA - Invisible Cities (Amulet of Tears)

Amulet of Tears is a great label but more importantly, the music they release is really gut-wrenching. Ten tracks, inspired by Invisible Cities, a novel by writer Italo Calvino. Each track tackles this concept in its own way, through searing drone or richly sonorous electronic processes.

Ultraflex - Rhodos

On a completely different tip, here’s a slightly bonkers summer jam. It’s “an ode to Northern European tourists partying in the South of Europe”. This duo, made up of Farao from Norway and Special-K from Iceland, have previously been released by DJ Sotofett & Telephones, a glowing stamp of approval if needed. This jam colourful and exciting, glitzy with up-tempo holiday vibes and even a hint of airhorn.

akari - danse2

More summery jams, this time from Brooklyn producer akari. Four sun-drenched house jams, with g-funk-esque chords and sultry vibes throughout.

I had one of those weeks where two days were lost looking after a sick child*, so I didn’t even start hunting for tunes until last night. Hopefully I’ve still managed to find something you might like.

*He’s fine now, back to his best.

en creux - Phantasm

Daphne X - Transactions in Time

the concept horse - synagogue hum

Triple-whammy from czaszka (rec.), who dropped these excellent releases last Friday.

en creux has a fascinating way of working, taking tiny sounds and amplifying them, so what initially sounds like a crackle of electricity rises to sound like thundering rain on a flat metal roof, or tiny movements growing to sound like the breath of a monster.

Daphne X, meanwhile, uses electronics to create melodies and atmospheres, at times swirling and hypnotic, at others delicate and minute. The release’s title, Transactions in Time, makes me think of the bargains we make with ourselves and with the universe.

Finally, the concept horse deals in strange soundscapes. I’ve recently mentioned the approach artists take where they title a track after the instruments or equipment used. The first track here, ‘for hands, gong & thin chain’, follows that pattern. It’s an outlier, as other tracks have titles as vague as ‘music ii’. The music rustles and crackles, breathing with the very atmosphere implied and expressed by a title such as ‘synagogue hum’.

Polytunnel - Bioacoustics EP

Irish artist Polytunnel just dropped a super release on Seventh Sign, with past releases from esteemed artists such as Marcellus Pittman, Terrence Parker and John Beltran, to name a few. I’ve previously praised the crisp electro he’s released, and this builds on that framework by adding in gorgeously warm synth sounds to his excellent percussion. It’s both glacial and balmy, music for islands white with snow and sand. Each track has its charms, but ‘Clokked’ is the winner for me.

DJ Voices - Avoiding Bad Thoughts

The latest release in the Mixtape Club series comes from our friend DJ Voices. Inspired by a youth hearing dance music in cars and on trips, and many hours spent alone listening to those same sounds, this mix seeks to provide you with “something literally transportive with plenty of dreamy sounds to zone out to”. Not that we recommend zoning out on the road, do stay focused. I don’t know a thing on this mix but Voices really achieves her goal, the sounds really hurtling forward with no other word better to describe them than “driving”. Somehow a lot of the music sounds as if it could come from 1992, and yet as I look through the tracklist a lot of it seems to be from the past 18 months.

Exotic Cipher - What DJs Actually Do On Stage (Fake DJs Compilation)

I can almost guarantee this release/mix will sound nothing like you will expect from its title. It’s more ASMR than PLUR, with tangible sounds and whispered vocals uttering sweet nonsense throughout. I can’t explain it but I can appreciate and applaud it. “Since the very beginning of the record, the listening experience is akin to a prolonged Wet Willy.” Well now.

VA - Would It Sound Just As Bad If You Played It Backwards? A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959​-​2001) Vol. I (Other People)

Remember that Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology Vol. 1 release I shared a little while back? This is the Polish version of that set. Although from what I can tell these artists are indeed real and even googleable. Each track is dated and yet each track sounds like music that is being made today. Whether that means that these artists were incredibly forward-thinking or that today’s artists are incapable of moving beyond what’s already been done is unclear. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between. To be trite, at least we have this wonderful music to enjoy.

NikNak - Doubt

Wilco have a song called ‘Muzzle of Bees’. I never thought about what that might mean until I heard this track. If en creux makes music that sounds like rain, NikNak has created the sonic equivalent of a swarm of bees. It’s meant to represent the doubt that plagues us, and the light that guides us from that doubt. “[P]eace can be found from the remnants of those whispers, thoughts and self-doubt.”

Gabe & Jude - 004

Gabe & Jude is an alias of Martyn, and these tracks are beautifully squelchy and chonky, not unlike some of Shed’s work as Head High or WK7. The blurb notes that Tunlaw is an area of Washington DC where, as legend has it, walnut trees were cut down to make guns for the Civil War. To add some pizzaz, Walnut was reversed and the area was named Tunlaw. The track of that name has a scuzzy bass line alongside dream-like synth melodies and awkward vocal chops. ‘How Do We Merge Everything Into One’ feels brims with unresolved tension, building with uncertainty and harsh sonics. It makes me think a darkened version of ‘All Nights’, his collaboration with Mike Slott, which still sounds incredible.

JakaJako & Rødhåd - IN VERE

In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to Rødhåd before, but I’m obsessed with JakaJako right now so I’ll listen to anything with her name on it. This release is an incredible collaboration that follows on from her recent Metamorphose album (although I’m not sure which was recorded first, if it even matters). It’s similarly blissful and full of glissando melodies, a glorious sheen covering everything. This one is definitely more club-focused, however, with the likes of ‘Lilium’ truly reaching for the lasers. It’s rare I’ll just send a track to friends but for this one I had to make an exception. If you played it blind for me I would easily believe it was from the late ’90s and in the middle of some Euphoria compilation. So many trance-leaning tracks these days sound the same and reek of pastiche, but this one gets it right.

SELVEDGE - DAYBREAKER

Long-formy droney bits here from Selvedge, made at the same time as his recent album The Real River. Harsh, comforting, unsettling, calming. Scorched.

emkay & Stuster - Splits 2

emkay and Stuster are two Finnish artists and OO Recordings is a label based in Helsinki. This split release showcases their talents across two sides (literally, there is a tape to be had). emkay opens up with tracks that merge quirky, playful vocals with chunky sounds (more of them) and gated trancey riffs. It’s a rich palette, with one track sounding somewhere between Balearic tech house and Throbbing Gristle. Stuster’s approach is at a lower tempo, going for a thundering head-nod acid sound. A really great introduction for me to these two artists and a cool label to follow.

Lee Yi - Multi​-​Colour Flashback

In case we don’t have enough sorrowful ambient, here’s a gorgeously wistful release from Málaga-based Lee Yi. Another to-the-point title, the music within offers a Proustian connection to past moments, a palpable haze sitting between you and the music as it burrows into your psyche and returns you to your memories. Plucked guitars muted and submerged in reverb, the sound of wavering tapes and broken dreams. Try not to cry, I dare you.

Good morning. I did the first grass-cutting of the year yesterday, perhaps I was lazy in leaving it so late but it just rains so much here.

Jack Ward - A Gift from Me to You

Jack Ward took a social media break to cook up some tunes for us, and he’s just dropped this release with its charming artwork and playful track titles. ‘Sotofett Gig Harry Potter’, for example. The music is intricate, delicate, carefully arranged and, most importantly, fun. I think ‘LD’ might be my favourite.

Meduna - Desmantelo

More crisp and punchy sounds. The constant drive of Meduna’s electro rhythms is incredibly energetic, with a pulse that reminds me of something that I just can’t place. ‘Nafiltida’ is snarling yet cheeky, with irreverence rather than anger at its heart. ‘Henxakake’ is deeper, somehow, yet retains that driving edge. Quizzik remixes ‘Nafiltida’ and takes it into a weirder, more open space, full of choppier waters.

VA - May Day (Landscape Mixtape) (The Department of Energy)

This has been out for a few weeks but it’s so mahoosive that I haven’t had a chance to get to grips with it fully. It’s a compilation put together by The Department of Energy to mark May Day. The prompt for the compilation was corporate and state violence and resistance to that by local organisations. This is explored in many ways across the 60-odd tracks on this sprawling mixtape, but there are moments of genius throughout. I should add that I have a track of my own in there, inspired by The Wicker Man, not least because of the timing of the year, but also because of that film’s islanders and their own peculiar way of life.

Kamyar Behbahani and Karim Ebrahimi - Metamorphosis Behind The Curtains Of Time

It seems Iran’s Noise à Noise label doesn’t do boring releases. This in particular sees film score composer Kamyar Behbahani join forces with percussionist and composer Karim Ebrahimi. The release (I’m not sure if it’s an album or EP or if it matters) features the sound of the Tombak (a kind of “goblet drum”) used and abused, with its rattles and pulses left raw and untreated as well as being transmuted into a digital cacophony. It’s amazing.

Wilted Woman - Glossy Center

Wilted Woman returns to Phantasy with a peculiarly summery record. ‘Glossy Center’ is full of tough and syncopated percussion yet overflows with bright and shiny synth melodies, with almost trancey scuzz sitting underneath these main themes. This track comes remixed by Kim Ann Foxman, who adds layers of party stomp. ‘Close to Stone’, meanwhile, is almost akin to 90s ambient house, with floating synths over soft kicks reminiscent of Orbital. She’s also got a mix out for the do you have peace? label.

MELVL - The Sleep of Devils

MELVL featured in Bandcloud 321 with Lachrymal Heartflesh, one of my top albums of 2020. The Sleep of Devils dropped quietly this week and it’s quite beautiful. I believe it’s a collection of their favourite previously released works, and yet it feels like a coherent set of songs. Beautiful solo choral works, like a sad renaissance fayre.

Mogwaa - Del Mar

Warm and delicious electronic sounds for beach listening, day or night. ‘Sonrisa Del Mar’ is particularly intoxicating.

MM/KM - Espace Level 2

Here’s a track from Mix Mup and Kassem Mosse that featured on the vinyl-only The Home Truths Compilation Volume Three last year. It’s real electro soul, with warm chords alongside crisp drum machine echoes.

Koray Kantarcıoğlu - Loopworks 2

This is amazing, an album built around snippets and samples from Turkish TV shows and new age tapes from decades past. Float away on the a sea of reverb, with forgotten memories and unknown experiences taking you to a place in someone else’s dreams.

Peter Coccoma - A Place to Begin

“After the near death of a loved one, I came to a frozen island in the far north on Lake Superior at the end of winter. I had been feeling stuck, but this encounter with death opened up a deep awareness of the present moment in me.”

What an introduction to a piece of work. This album was forged in the depths of winter and is suitably quiet and still. Described as an extended tone poem, it’s a work of gentle moments and deep heart. It’s one you can get lost in, paying attention to every choice and decision inside of it, or one to listen to as you drift away.

VA - This is release MFR100 (Moving Furniture Records)

Finally this week, congrats to Moving Furniture for reaching the 100-release point. Rather than a rehash of previous releases or a best of, Sietse van Erve aka Orphax, who runs the label, invited everyone who had been or was about to be released on the label to take part in this release, for which they would be paired up at random with another artist. The results are as wide-ranging and fascinating as you might expect from this label, with soft piano works next to crunching drone, harsh noise alongside acoustic sound art. All profits are going to Dutch suicide prevention organization 113 Zelfmoord Preventie.

After featuring its score back in May 2020, I finally got to see the film In Fabric this week. It’s a spooky ghost story about a haunted dress. The music is cosmic and hilarious and sinister and magical, and fits the film perfectly. I also watched a 2011 documentary about The Doors but I doubt that’s of as much interest round these parts. I listened to some of this K-S.H.E. compilation in the car and it was pretty spellbinding (though not to the point that I was driving unsafely).

Dressing - Dressing

Downright nasty scuzz. Four long-ish tracks of lumpy feedback and strange, scratchy sounds. One of three releases on new Irish label Krim Kram. I’m also quite taken with the similarly scuzzy but more ostensibly “song”-oriented Hand Signals from Bren't Lewiis Ensemble. Intrigued to see where this label goes.

Yr lovely dead moon - Sun Dance

Yr lovely dead moon combines a spoken word art sensibility with a dark electronic impulse. This latest track, which heralds an album entitled Don’t Look Now!, manages to work at a lumpy pace but with enough percussive activity to keep it moving steadily. Her vocals are at turns hushed and expressive, whispered and crooned, while the music that surrounds her is a combination of scratchy noise and deep and sultry jazz. There’s also a remix from aya, which rolls with a terrifying stomp, repeating the words “I don’t sleep” over almost industrial mechanical sounds.

Hiroyuki Usui - An Anthology

Brad Rose tweeted about this collection a while back, and I finally got a chance to listen to some of it while working on a jigsaw puzzle this week. It’s hard to define. “Lo-fi” freeform garage rock? Noise blues? There are sounds throughout that could be digeridoos or they could be low-flying helicopters (possibly they are neither). It’s a fascinating soup of sounds, a sort of cosmic gumbo if you will. Rose put together this podcast earlier this year exploring the artist’s history (in which The Doors get a mention, so maybe I was wrong up above).

Arianne Churchman & Benedict Drew - MAY VOL​.​2

A new volume of sounds for this peculiar month. Neither spring nor summer, or both, it’s as much of a liminal period as October, but in a less obviously sinister manner.

nimf - A Ballad for Looking into Time

This track opens up as if a singer is alone by a fire in a clearing. It builds gently, with strummed lute entering a fused state of electronic wobbles, with the vocals following suit and becoming ever more confusing and less organic. If things ever lined up in a traditionally rigid or grid-like fashion, they split off into different directions and spaces, temporal and physical. It’s dizzying, fantastical, carrying your ears to spaces unexpected and delightful. The closing minutes float like mist, with remnants of what has gone before delicately hovering, dream-like, in the ether. It’s just the first piece in a series (entitled The Oneiricological Sireonscape) and I’m excited for more.

Sophie Sleigh-Johnson - Nuncio Ref!

A truly strange release, this tape features spoken word that’s inspired by terrestrial television throughout the decades, with references to soaps, defunct channels, darts and news bulletins. More scuzz (it’s the word of the week), along with dainty recorder melodies and evil whispers it’s heavily layered and utterly engrossing. If you’re into that kind of thing, of course, which not everyone will be.

Sunhiilow - Waking Through The Dawned Shades

Wonderful music, it’s out on Sunday and the few tracks available to date are gorgeous. Opener ‘Four Winds’ is an unnerving swirl, a strange experience being caught in the centre of an unexpected weather anomaly. ‘Morning Breeze’ is more restrained but no less unnerving. ‘Esker Rise’, however, offers a hint of brightness, the potential for hope. I look forward to piecing together this journey as I hear the tracks in between.

Patricia Wolf - See​-​Through

Another album from our friend Patricia Wolf, this time on Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne’s Balmat label. It’s more expansive and exploratory than the admittedly mournful I’ll Look For You In Others, it features long drifts of sound, with incredibly human and calming tones throughout. “Under A Glass Bell” features a series of carefully chosen chords that are incredibly healing, to flirt with cliché. Closer ‘Springtime in Croatia’ could easily be a Boards of Canada outtake circa Campfire Headphase, albeit one that really should have made the album.

Gurun Gurun - Uzu Oto

I’m not familiar with the work of Gurun Gurun, but this album really caught my attention. The band is named after a planet on a 1970s Slovak sci-fi show, and their music is (say the line, Bart!) suitably alien. Uzu Oto is a live album but not a live album. Each track was recorded at a different performance, but then again, if you were to record each track “live”, in a single take, at a different studio, would that be a “live” album? The blurb describes the watching the band perform as akin to “taking part in an expedition by a pack of monkeys to explore the wreckage of a spaceship that was shipwrecked a long time ago”. How charmingly self-deprecating. The music is indeed quite explosive and free of inhibition, though it features more structure and coherence than that description might suggest. One track features Japanese singer Cuushe, and her reverb-soaked vocals float in heavenly fashion over the strange and unsettling experimentation below. Running at almost 20 minutes, it’s a trip. There’s quite a lot of scuzz, particularly on Uzu, featuring sound artist Asuna (who’s worked with Jan Jelenik and Chihei Hatakeyama to name a few).

Cedrik Fermont - Trance

A slow and strange performance from Cedrik Fermont, who is behind the Syrphe platform. Recorded at IKLECTIK in London last month, it’s a 30-minute piece that does what it says. Entrancing and hypnotic, it appears to feature low electronic hums and eerie droning pitches.

Moog Sound Circus Performances from Superbooth ’21

Finally, another set of live performances. Recorded at Superbooth 2021, a synthesizer trade fair that took place in Berlin, Moog invited artists to perform with the Moog Matriarch in their Sound Circus tent. We have five tracks, from Hinako Omori, Dorit Chrysler, Panic Girl, Marta De Pascalis, and Emme Moises. Omori recently impressed with her album on Houndstooth, and here she offers a truly beautiful piece that floats and squidges with delight. Chrysler turns in her own theremin-led cover of ‘I Feel Love’. Panic Girl’s piece is wide-eyed and open, with a world of field recordings and melodies straight out of ’70s BBC TV. Moises, a sci-fi composer, creates a wonderful world that seems to feature a soaring cello although that could be entirely artificial. Finally, Marta De Pascalis, through whom I found this set, gives a wonderfully psychedelic explosion of sound that ripples and flows like the best exponents of synth-led music today. Each artist introduces their own track, which adds layers of meaning and understanding to the project. While in essence it may be a sales pitch, it’s rich and entertaining throughout.

Blah blah Bandcamp Friday. You know the drill. If the mail is too long don’t forget to hit “View entire message”, or just click the link up at the top. Edit: This didn’t send on Friday so I’m sending it again for posterity.

801383 - Glass Cell

Gnarly, twisted acid that operates in a strange space between electro, darkroom techno and looped, repetitive experimentalism.

Earth Leakage Trip - Psychotronic

Another early ’90s release that’s been reissued, this time Psychotronic by Earth Leakage Trip. Originally the first release on the Moving Shadow label, run by Rob Playford of 2 Bad Mice, it’s gone on to fetch relatively big money on Discogs. Rather than the dreamy house heard last week from The New Age Orchestra, this is full-on bleep, with rattling drums, strange vocal samples and tinny, almost frustrating melodies. ‘No Idea’ features a vocal sample from a play for children — “the doors are where the windows should be, and the windows are where the doors should be” — yet it’s slightly detuned, rendering it utterly terrifying. It’s like The Orb gone mad(der).

Guilin - Cagibi

More weirdness, this time on Lost Dogs Entertainment, whose stock in trade is “Weird doggy music”. It thumps, it thrums, it claps, it scares.

Banga - Latitude 0° 0’ 0”

Two tracks of thumping yet restrained club music, somewhere between funky and gqom, with hints of traditional styles thrown in under electronic flurries and bangs.

Scott Grooves - Equinox

Scott Grooves always has the goods but I listened the title track here a lot this week and I want to share it with you. It’s delightful. It kind of reminds me of the B2 on that Workshop Special from Even Tuell & Midnightopera, but with kalimba or something.

JX-Zoe - Asleep in Easy Mist

important! audio is a new Irish outlet dropping releases on the first Friday of every second month. This is one of them, from JX-Zoe. The artist found a tape with “a load of ancient Australian Aboriginal music” from the 1980s, and then fed the music into their mixer while responding in real time with drums and synths. It’s trippy.

Josh Caffe - Do You Want To Take Me Home?

Seriously good proto-house vibes from Josh Caffe on Phantasy. Sounds like something fresh out of mid-1980s Chicago when in fact it’s brand now and from London. Super.

VA - Ordinary Dreams Vol 2 (Planet Trip Records)

The opening track on this compilation, ‘Symptoms Of Dub’ by Symptoms Of Love, is hypnotic and intoxicating, a woozy thump of dub that makes me swoon. The goodness doesn’t stop there, with drum machine delights from Paula Tape, italo-esque sounds from Jex Opolis, a wonderfully percussive jam from Mayurashka, and a stompy, jerky closer from Ivy Barkakati. Top work.

R.E.E.L. - Musick for Psychedelic Duelling Volume 2: Two Duels and No Submissions

Heady and intoxicating, this set of longform pieces comes on Zona Watusa. R.E.E.L., or Rapid Eye Electronic Limited, is made up of Farmer Glitch (ex Hacker Farm, pHarmerz), Saxon Roach (IX Tab) and Matthew J Saunders (Assembled Minds / Magnétophone), and this release is fascinating. Think ’60s and ’70s soundtrack electronica, strange British horror films, ’80s synth music and acid innovation, recalling the sounds of the Radiophonic Workshop, Broadcast and Julian House, The Orb (them again) and place it in a modern context of digital freedom and online communication. That’s how I see it anyway. I’ve been delving into a lot of British film in recent months, inspired by Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. Everything from MR James and Susan Hill adaptations to the thoroughly original Penda’s Fen. While there is no direct link between these and the album in question, I feel there’s a spirit that connects them all. One that seeks the strange and uncanny, exploring the space between this and other worlds.

Ian Humberstone - A Warning to the Curious

Speaking of MR James, A Warning to the Curious was one of the films I watched last year. Not to go all spoiler-y, but the warning is basically don’t go digging up old crowns that are guarded by murderous ghosts. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Folklore Tapes did a crowdfunding exercise, and the top reward was a bespoke, one-of-one tape release (which you can see in the above image). Inspired by the treasure’s guardian, Ian Humberstone used unused elements from the 2016 release Black Dog Traditions of England and fashioned the strange and wonderful music we have here, which seeks to provide a sort of soundtrack to the titular story.

BFTT - Redefines

Out to BFTT! I was originally going to feature a single track from SoundCloud but here’s the whole thing. That track was ‘Rezalemass’, and it features a lovely sample from ‘Lovefool’ by the Cardigans. Slammer. The album opens with a short blast of sound before being plunged into silence, growing slowly but surely into ebbs and flows of that same sound. There follow squidgy blobs of percussion, eerie expanses of sound, incoherent samples and strange clicks and clacks. It’s both recognisably BFTT while showing new depths to this talented artist.

Mx.Tactful - MARGIN MACHINEs

There’s a really cute story to this. Lara David (f.k.a. chekov) was in the dole office, and the person sat next to her was wearing an Autechre tee. They struck up a conversation and friendship and Mx.Tactful, the tee-wearer, uncovered some DATs from the ’90s. In her own words, they were inspired by Chiastic Slide and LP5, but after being ignored by the few labels she had shared them with, she shelved the material. A few decades later, David has released them on the new table jelly dishes label. The sounds are elastic and buoyant, pneumatic and energetic, with industrial heft and floating reveries appearing in equal measure. ‘Choral Drifen’ is a brief interlude into the ether, but on the whole the vibe is knotty and textured.

Oui Ennui - Abyss, You Are My Mother

Oui Ennui is great. Great music. Great thoughts. Great blurb. There’s a fascinating document describing his thought processes on a lot of things (including calling a remote control a “converter”) as well as his observations on the fleeting nature of our existence. “For an eternity, prior to being born, we are NOT. We do not exist prior to existing. So shall it be when we leave this mortal coil. Again. NOT.” Maybe not earth shattering, but true. The music is a drifting swirl, darkness and light, joy and pain.

Blah blah Bandcamp Friday. You know the drill. If the mail is too long don’t forget to hit “View entire message”, or just click the link up at the top.

801383 - Glass Cell

Gnarly, twisted acid that operates in a strange space between electro, darkroom techno and looped, repetitive experimentalism.

Earth Leakage Trip - Psychotronic

Another early ’90s release that’s been reissued, this time Psychotronic by Earth Leakage Trip. Originally the first release on the Moving Shadow label, run by Rob Playford of 2 Bad Mice, it’s gone on to fetch relatively big money on Discogs. Rather than the dreamy house heard last week from The New Age Orchestra, this is full-on bleep, with rattling drums, strange vocal samples and tinny, almost frustrating melodies. ‘No Idea’ features a vocal sample from a play for children — “the doors are where the windows should be, and the windows are where the doors should be” — yet it’s slightly detuned, rendering it utterly terrifying. It’s like The Orb gone mad(der).

Guilin - Cagibi

More weirdness, this time on Lost Dogs Entertainment, whose stock in trade is “Weird doggy music”. It thumps, it thrums, it claps, it scares.

Banga - Latitude 0° 0’ 0”

Two tracks of thumping yet restrained club music, somewhere between funky and gqom, with hints of traditional styles thrown in under electronic flurries and bangs.

Scott Grooves - Equinox

Scott Grooves always has the goods but I listened the title track here a lot this week and I want to share it with you. It’s delightful. It kind of reminds me of the B2 on that Workshop Special from Even Tuell & Midnightopera, but with kalimba or something.

JX-Zoe - Asleep in Easy Mist

important! audio is a new Irish outlet dropping releases on the first Friday of every second month. This is one of them, from JX-Zoe. The artist found a tape with “a load of ancient Australian Aboriginal music” from the 1980s, and then fed the music into their mixer while responding in real time with drums and synths. It’s trippy.

Josh Caffe - Do You Want To Take Me Home?

Seriously good proto-house vibes from Josh Caffe on Phantasy. Sounds like something fresh out of mid-1980s Chicago when in fact it’s brand now and from London. Super.

VA - Ordinary Dreams Vol 2 (Planet Trip Records)

The opening track on this compilation, ‘Symptoms Of Dub’ by Symptoms Of Love, is hypnotic and intoxicating, a woozy thump of dub that makes me swoon. The goodness doesn’t stop there, with drum machine delights from Paula Tape, italo-esque sounds from Jex Opolis, a wonderfully percussive jam from Mayurashka, and a stompy, jerky closer from Ivy Barkakati. Top work.

R.E.E.L. - Musick for Psychedelic Duelling Volume 2: Two Duels and No Submissions

Heady and intoxicating, this set of longform pieces comes on Zona Watusa. R.E.E.L., or Rapid Eye Electronic Limited, is made up of Farmer Glitch (ex Hacker Farm, pHarmerz), Saxon Roach (IX Tab) and Matthew J Saunders (Assembled Minds / Magnétophone), and this release is fascinating. Think ’60s and ’70s soundtrack electronica, strange British horror films, ’80s synth music and acid innovation, recalling the sounds of the Radiophonic Workshop, Broadcast and Julian House, The Orb (them again) and place it in a modern context of digital freedom and online communication. That’s how I see it anyway. I’ve been delving into a lot of British film in recent months, inspired by Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. Everything from MR James and Susan Hill adaptations to the thoroughly original Penda’s Fen. While there is no direct link between these and the album in question, I feel there’s a spirit that connects them all. One that seeks the strange and uncanny, exploring the space between this and other worlds.

Ian Humberstone - A Warning to the Curious

Speaking of MR James, A Warning to the Curious was one of the films I watched last year. Not to go all spoiler-y, but the warning is basically don’t go digging up old crowns that are guarded by murderous ghosts. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Folklore Tapes did a crowdfunding exercise, and the top reward was a bespoke, one-of-one tape release (which you can see in the above image). Inspired by the treasure’s guardian, Ian Humberstone used unused elements from the 2016 release Black Dog Traditions of England and fashioned the strange and wonderful music we have here, which seeks to provide a sort of soundtrack to the titular story.

BFTT - Redefines

Out to BFTT! I was originally going to feature a single track from SoundCloud but here’s the whole thing. That track was ‘Rezalemass’, and it features a lovely sample from ‘Lovefool’ by the Cardigans. Slammer. The album opens with a short blast of sound before being plunged into silence, growing slowly but surely into ebbs and flows of that same sound. There follow squidgy blobs of percussion, eerie expanses of sound, incoherent samples and strange clicks and clacks. It’s both recognisably BFTT while showing new depths to this talented artist.

Mx.Tactful - MARGIN MACHINEs

There’s a really cute story to this. Lara David (f.k.a. chekov) was in the dole office, and the person sat next to her was wearing an Autechre tee. They struck up a conversation and friendship and Mx.Tactful, the tee-wearer, uncovered some DATs from the ’90s. In her own words, they were inspired by Chiastic Slide and LP5, but after being ignored by the few labels she had shared them with, she shelved the material. A few decades later, David has released them on the new table jelly dishes label. The sounds are elastic and buoyant, pneumatic and energetic, with industrial heft and floating reveries appearing in equal measure. ‘Choral Drifen’ is a brief interlude into the ether, but on the whole the vibe is knotty and textured.

Oui Ennui - Abyss, You Are My Mother

Oui Ennui is great. Great music. Great thoughts. Great blurb. There’s a fascinating document describing his thought processes on a lot of things (including calling a remote control a “converter”) as well as his observations on the fleeting nature of our existence. “For an eternity, prior to being born, we are NOT. We do not exist prior to existing. So shall it be when we leave this mortal coil. Again. NOT.” Maybe not earth shattering, but true. The music is a drifting swirl, darkness and light, joy and pain.