Bandcloud 299

This week has seen a lot of truly awful things take place. Most visible online has been the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of the police. This is not the first such death, or even the latest (see Tony McDade). Naturally, people are angry. People are rioting, as well they might; should. I've felt helpless, wondering what I can do sitting at home in Dublin. Yesterday I made a donation to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, "a community based nonprofit that combats the harms of incarceration by paying bail for low-income individuals who cannot otherwise afford it". This is important and sadly necessary work at the best of times but especially urgent right now. They got a whole load of global attention yesterday but you can also donate to Floyd's family (funerals are expensive) and Black Visions in Minnesota. If you can, of course. On top of all that, don't just fight for black people after they die. Support black artists, black people generally (it's been said that Floyd was a member of DJ Screw's Screwed Up Click way back but that doesn't make his death any more tragic than if he was some regular dude). 

Shahin Souri - About This Time
Utterly mesmerising ambient from Tehran. It's out today and at the time of writing there were two tracks available but they were both breathtaking so I'm sharing on that basis. 

Schloss Mirabell - Rollercoaster
A 10-minute piece of sound art/collage that truly takes you on a journey.

Azu Tiwaline - Draw Me A Silence Part. I
Azu Tiwaline - Draw Me A Silence Part. II
This one has been on my radar for a while but it's only fully properly out now. Two parts of the same project, it sees Tunisian artist Azu Tiwaline offer up some seriously excellent electronics. It connects Berber music from North Africa with dub techno and heavier club sounds. Originally released in two parts, it also comes as a vinyl set, complete with 3D glasses. Honestly I really want to share it but I'm at a loss to describe it. It's magical.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - DIAL 2020 (I)
Dial is celebrating 20 years with a series of not quite compilations. To my knowledge this set of tracks is just on SoundCloud but I could be wrong. The opener from Lanoche is gorgeous, I've had it on repeat all week. Like the rest of them it's warm, distant, evocative, sorrowful and foggy. Perfect for balmy, socially distant afternoons. 

Cloud Diameter - Cloud Diameter 2
Ambient blips with added sax? Count me in baby! 

akash - SKANKER 91
Ciara's 'Ride' is 10 years old??? Still sounds incredible. Here, akash has thrown it over Skanker's 'Lighter' and I swear it's one of the best blends I've heard in a while. Everything down to the phrasing is just perfect. 

Crushing Union - Salted Light EP
This one comes from me oul' pal Yakui. It's a shoegaze-inspired ambient release, like if The Caretaker did vaporwave or something. A total wall of fuzz over almost cutesy samples, growing and unfurling gradually with deep emotion.

Cavern of Anti-Matter - In Fabric OST
With a name like Cavern of Anti-Matter you'd think I'd be all over this group, and yet I've never listened to them before! They've done the score for the Peter Strickland film In Fabric, his full-length follow-up to The Duke of Burgundy. It came out in 2018 but this has only appeared on Bandcamp this month. It's a mixed bag, with lots of incidental ambient and swirling electronic sounds, as well as the odd poppy jaunt. I haven't actually seen the film yet, to my shame. It's on the list...

Grand River - One Instrument Mix - SANPO 154 (Lockdown Series)
Grand River runs the label One Instrument, which has a pretty simple ethos. All its tracks are made with one instrument. All the tracks here are from the label, many unreleased, and the tracklist makes clear what instruments were used (Voice, Animoog, MC-303, MS2000BR etc). It's really beautiful, haunting, harrowing, emotive. I found myself coming back to it at different points throughout the day, sitting and taking it all in.

Metic - Matrix Blaster
This is the first reissue on UTTU's IDM-leaning Soft Computing label. Metic only put out two solo releases, and his Discogs page shows a man doing the splits over an axe turned on its side. Right. On to the music? It's ... IDM-y? The title track features crunchy and delicate clicks and detuned acid at about 144bpm; 'Cyme' feels like a descendant of 'Basscadet'. Honestly the whole thing is undoubtedly indebted to Mr Twin and Messers Techre, but it's heady and dreamy (well, nightmarey) enough to stand on its own two.

[CDM] - Dj MaBoOku - WHY? DEMO - 2020
Fairly certain this demo samples Brownstone's 'If You Love Me', aka one of THE GREAT 90s rnb tracks. Sample aside it's a warm and lovely shuffling groover.

SRS - Data Fossil
SRS is Sunun and Robin Stewart, aka half of Giant Swan. This collab comes on Bokeh Versions and it's a perfect combination of all of those words. Dubby, noisy, creepy, electrifying, it's weird but not too weird but still pretty weird and scary. It's slightly clubby at times, but like, dungeon club, the type of sounds that play when you walk into a really weird club and it's empty and you're almost tempted to fuck off because what is that scary noise? Makes me think of this old cartoon from Muzik mag. Closer 'Growing' is somehow sparse and dense at the same time, with a layer of scuzz sitting over a bare few elements, particularly a whining drone and the incoherent vocals of S and RS. Ace.

RADIO KARANTINA - Day Sixty Eight - Fana
A quarantine mix that goes from Black Sabbath (I'd actually never heard that one and thought it was gnarly, maybe I'd be a fan?) to Eritrean jazz to Italian film score music to Turkish rock and back to Sabbath. If you want a break from ambient fuzz or house or whatever. I've been listening to lots of smooth jazz this week (particularly this one Chet Baker track) but this is perfect if you want some edge. 

Denise Chaila - C H A I L A
Denise Chaila recently performed a rather stunning show in Dublin's National Gallery and today she drops her latest single, produced by MuRli. She raps effortlessly, sounds so natural and just comes across so so well. Genuinely a star in the making.