Word to your mother: this week it is I, Chal Ravens, at the Bandcloud controls. I’ve been tasked with the weekly descent into the drone-hole while your favourite host takes a well earned break, and have come up with a few things you might like. If you do, why not say hello to me on the Twitter (@chalravens) and *PLUG* listen out for my new club music show coming soon on Darkside FM, aka R*d B*ll Radio. Have a wonderful week, humans.

MACARONIMAN - Love Bread
What we appear to have here – though the language barrier makes it tricky to confirm –is a slab of brain-crunching surrealist jams by “lonely electronic musician” Woodman. Well, aren’t they all? Woodman died in July 2016, says Wood Tape Archives, the label that’s been reissuing a bunch of his old material, and this one, dating from 1999, is kinda slapstick and spooky (or, indeed, spoopy) at the same time.

Eat Paint - Variable Textures LP
Fantastically horrible brainbleed techno-textures pushed to nauseating extremes over 10 tracks – repetitive, dominating, satisfyingly messy. Excellent artwork, equally excellent moniker, cassette available, full marks.

Oriental Rugs - A Carpet In Tim... 
Oriental Rugs is a band helmed by Chicago musician John Shin. While on this project he seems to be working alone, Google suggests that Oriental Rugs was formerly a three-piece utilising analog synths, cassette tapes and a VHS mixer. It’s not that hard to noodle around with vintage gear and come up with a half-decent bit of music, but this four-part release is a keeper – swelling and bursting with a blinding, hyper-melodic energy that’s part '70s avant-kraut, part videogame fantasy. 

Shitmat - The NeverEnding EastEnders Album
Mr Bandcloud did not specify that my selections had to be good, exactly (ed.– it's true, I didn't) – so instead, here’s something original, something unusual, something so essentially Bandcamp that it cannot be ignored. Yeah, it’s the Eastenders theme tune served in never-ending ways. Some people are damaged. Hat tip to John Twells for kicking over this particular log.

SoundCloud playlist

M.E.S.H. - Search. Reveal. (PAN 82)
That M.E.S.H., eh! What is he like! The brainiac abstractifier is back and he’s still well IDM. Look at the state of this blurb on SoundCloud: "What agent could set these broken sounds in motion? A laugh behind an evil curtain. A drummer that’s cool and grotesque, a detuned siren. A brushfire under a full moon.” Someone’s been on the tainted tea. It’s brill, anyway. And am I going mad or does it go a bit early-'90s MJ in the middle?

Erskine Lynas - Craiger Caught The Sleeper • LOC036
The first track from a mystery man called Erskine Lynas. Literally the weirdest thing Local Action has ever released, and he’s released a Dawn Richard album on a triangular USB necklace. Sort of misty electronic pop influenced by The Blue Nile? I don’t know but my blog house radar is pinging. 

Métron Mixtape - 048 - Kate NV
Vocal manipulator Kate NV, an alumna of RVNG and Keith Rankin’s fearlessly out-there Orange Milk label, has put together what feels like a very on-trend selection of weirdo computer music, fourth-world pop and Japanese avant-garde. Haruomi Hosono, Mariah, Midori Takada – lots of stuff in that vein, which has been getting its due lately – and recent explorations of that universe from Laurel Halo, Visible Cloaks and Kate NV herself. Lovely.

AKANBI - HALOCLINE TRANCE RADIO - NTS 9/29/17
Akanbi is an NYC DJ with a fondness for UK noise – this mix features Mosca, Hodge and Pev, among others – but as I noticed on another nice mix he did for Fader recently, the results feel weirdly foreign and fresh to these English ears. There’s a contained ferocity to this particular session.

Acid Camp Vol. 63 - Will Martin
A meaty mix from Will Martin, of Will Martin and John Barera techno duo fame, in which he gets nice and gritty with roughed-up trax from the likes of Russell E.L. Butler (shout out) and Annanan. Proper stuff.

MFM 026 - Dub Oven - Skin 'N' Bones
Utterly, utterly perfect minimal wave synth-pop from '80s outfit Dub Oven (DUB OVEN!!?!) soon to be reissued on Music From Memory, a reliably fine label for all sorts of forgotten weirdness. I could not love this any harder. Tweaky proto-techno meets the awkward-funk of Talking Heads and the downtown wackiness of Ze Records. This is technically “old” music, yes, but we live in the flattened contemporaneity of the 21st century, baby!!! Strap in!!!!

Thank you Chal! This was hugely enjoyable to read, and came in two days ahead of schedule, so top marks for punctuality. Back to normal next week. If you're near an internet tomorrow check me out with Violet and Photonz on Lisbon's Rádio Quântica! Lock in from 10pm Lisbon time.