Bandcloud 309

My son starts school today. Excuse me while I weep; for my youth, for his, for the passage of time, for the uncertainty of the rona... 

clayhead - smells big
zvezda + mathiu - lifted
Two tracks from a mysterious SoundCloud account, one which seems to be a collective of some sort. The tracks feel like 90s trip-hop driven through a ringer of mid-teens lo-fi sludge. That or Loveless remixed by Massive Attack. Or MBV remixing Protection. 

VA - Alterity (Houndstooth)
Houndstooth put out a single from Lotic this week but today they're also releasing this stellar compilation. Alterity means a sense of otherness or alienation, and this collection of artists is quite different from any assembled before by Houndstooth or fabric. There's AYA from the UK, Chinese SVBKVLT affiliates 33EMYBW and Gooooose, the mind-bending collaboration of Amazondotcom and Siete Catorce, Slikback from Kenya and so on. Special shout to recently featured Lila Tirando a Violeta, who features alongside Lighght. There are some tracks that are quite wild and bolshy for my taste but the majority is eye-opening and ecstatically exciting. Oh an today is curator Rob Butterworth's birthday! Happy birthday Rob!

Rovellasca - Delirium, Or Sonata
A glorious slice of murk from Rovellasca, aka Craig Stewart-Johnson, the man behind the wonderful Invisible City Records tape label (is that an oxymoron? Tapes are still recordings I guess). It comes on the sporadic but always essential Crow Versus Crow label. It's deep an intense, heavy and thick with strange, stolid reverberations. 

Thu Care & Lê Quyên - Công Ơn Cha Mẹ Như Trời Biễn
This is a generational collaboration. Melbourne-based artist Thu Care worked with her mother on this brilliant release. It's described as neo-soul and rnb fusion, and the beats seem to fit that description, while also moving into more abstract territory. I don't know if the songs are traditional Vietnamese numbers or newly written, but they sit decidedly at odds yet somehow still gelling perfectly with the music, which is made from household implements, the Vietnamese đàn bầu (a horizontal single-stringed instrument), and what must be modern beat-making technology. 

Aimée-Sofia Brown - Plunder The Ocean
Ooooh this is so good. From what I can gather it's a bunch of old samples, chopped up, replayed, swamped in reverb and placed together for our delectation. It's eerie and hypnotic, sickening almost, fascinating. The track titles themselves could be seen as samples, taken from lines in poems by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Dickinson and Matthew Arnold.

Denise Chaila - Holy Grail
Is Denise Chaila a popstar yet? She's certainly on that path here in Ireland, but she's maybe less well known outside this island. This new track, produced by MurLi, combines her constantly witty lyrics with some direct urgency, sweetly sung vocals blending with punchy shouts. "I don’t want a portion, I am the meal. I don’t want an offer, I am the deal." Damn.

musclecars - Street Dreams
I nearly shared an older single by this act, then this morning they dropped their new EP. Serendipity! More kind of neo-soul, with gorgeous vocals, virtuoso guitar, live drums, lush Rhodes and more. musclecars want to expose what influenced them to a new generation. This is a great example of that, referencing older styles with reverence.

Sandilé - Feelin' So (Original Mix)
A nice summery house jam, released a year ago but rereleased as part of a comp to raise money for Berlin club ipse, which suffered an arson attack earlier this year.

Nova Kane - Coming And Going
More nice house. Not much to say but I dig it.

Banshee - Hel/Snow
This is a cool juxtaposition of modern beats with what are possibly Russian or eastern European vocals. I honestly can't tell, please forgive me if the lyrics are dodgy!