Bandcloud 310

Time, it goes so fast, when you're having fun — just another Bandcamp Friday. I was writing up a list this morning and realised everything I was excited about was from people I'd covered before. Not that they don't deserve to have their work shared but I want to keep things as fresh as I can for you. So this mail will be balanced between old and newish favourites and new new. 

Artemon - Anemoia
Artemon is a Cork-based artist working with the Flood crew. The title of this release means nostalgia for a time you've never known, and the music herein reflects thoughts of the 90s hardcore and rave period. Wobbling synths, vocal snippets, repeated keys, rattling percussion, all sounding like it's been recorded from a tape recording of a film played on a reel to reel in a dream.

GROWING - Onement
A beautiful lengthy ambient piece that ends in a four-minute reverse cymbal crash. 

VA - Woozy001
Some great people have started a label. Based in Dublin, Woozy is EMA & Sputnik One. They're kicking off the label with a comp featuring music by a bunch of artists, most of which are new to me. Bass-heavy abstractions across a range of tempos, lots of wobs, a sprinkling of melody, I'm especially taken with tracks by Kamus, Jurango and San. 

Marta Forsberg - New Love Music
A terrifically beautiful release on Warm Winters Ltd, it's a fascinating piece of music from German artist Marta Forsberg. Sine waves, zithers and choirs, it's a "practice of waiting and listening" according to its creator. We should apply this approach to life.

séverine - DUPPY BULLET (VERIFIED)
séverine created the most essential blend of the year/decade/generation with her fusion of Ariana Grande and Barker, and while this one may be less melodically inclined, it's no less energising. The artwork, featuring a blood-soaked, gun-toting Sandra Bernhard, lends an air of fatalistic defiance to the track. 

DJ Noir x Sonic D - The Swell
Juke Bounce Werk's DJ Noir and Sonic D dropped this ominously entrancing track last night. Like the title, the synths, drums and vocals move back and forth like waves. Haunting and evocative.

VA - Decaying Spheres
Another VA here, this one features 10 ambient cuts from artists including our friends Hynta and Ghost Signs. There's also a lengthy track from an artist with the fascinatingly macabre name of Volunteer Coroner.

Bazrah - Numbers
This is the first release on new label WOŁNO, which means slow in Polish. The tracks are basically rugged techno at dancehall speeds. It works! Scuzzy, fuzzy, intense, pumpin'.  

DJ Patti Kane House Royalty - Resilience
You may have seen a video doing the rounds on Twitter where a lady is playing some wonderfully soulful house in what looks like a dining room, looking through her CD booklet in a way that made people nostalgic for a time before USB sticks became the norm. That DJ was Patti Kane and she's got a new release out entitled Resilience. A sumptuous house groover, it's irresistible and comes laden with virtuoso sax and flute solos. If you want to catch her radio shows, go here.

The Arteries of New York City - The Arteries of New York City
This release on Bloxham Tapes is short and snappy, featuring short vignettes made up of samples and field recordings. It feels like an imagined jazz piano recording, full of wistful longing and heartbreak. 

Spartan Jet-Plex - Live
Spartan Jet-Plex aka Nancy Grim Kells (they/them) is a founding member of Grimalkin Records. This album, which is not a live album (as I briefly thought), is released on the death of Kells' mother, and it is all about her. It's a mixture of straight-ahead songs, strange mixtures of vocals and field recordings and general oddities, all blending together perfectly, despite whatever my description may suggest. If you buy the release you also get a full album's worth of field recordings taken over the past 12 years of Kells living in Richmond, Virginia. It's funny, talking about field recordings, it's hard to say if they're good or bad. I like the sound of rivers, wind, crickets and birds. The sound is clear, so I guess that's all you can ask for? 

Kareem Ali - Soul Flex
This is very cool. I featured Kareem Ali a number of years ago but then lost track of his work. Whether he's been more active or simply gained more attention of late I'm not sure, but he's been doing some great stuff this year. Irish label Fort Evil Fruit, which often deals in strange folk-laden music as much as crunchy techno, has just released a tape of his music from over the years. It's punchy, dreamy stuff, moving from arpeggiated acid to airy techno. 

Ryan McCray - Blue Iris Bouquet
Have I said before how much I love the label name Choose Better Friends? Evergreen. The latest release comes from Ryan McCray, and I think it's his first release in four years. As I type there's one track to preview (it's out today though) and it's deep and bouncy, with a pneumatic bass line and chords that give a real rush. 

Charbel Haber - The Delightful Sights And Sounds Of A Decaying Nation
This 43-minute piece runs through a series of movements, with processed guitar and droning synth sounds conjuring up thoughts of what could be and what will not be. It's from Lebanese composer Charbel Haber and it's raising money for artists based in Beirut. In the wake of the recent explosion, Tunefork contacted musicians in the area to take an inventory of equipment that was lost and destroyed in the blast. They are raising money to replace this equipment and this release is going towards that fund.

Olivia Mutant John And Wrong Travolta - Let's Get Lhysicap
Terrifying stuff really. I was put off by the promise of sideways gabber but it's in fact relentlessly weird and dark, largely hard to pin down. There's some weird organ music that segues into thunderous digital percussion and throat singing. The artwork is lovely. I described someone's music as gnarly this week to some dismay, but what I meant was that it was very good but quite weird, dark and edgy. I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, rather that it's likely to damage you if you lean in too close to it. In a good way.

Pub 'fragile logo' slipmat + Fragile Root (vagus mix)
From the chilling to the sublime. This is beautiful electronica, ambient techno or whatever you want to call it. I'd never heard of Pub until this summer, and I'm delighted to be hearing their music for the first time. This is a mix of a new track, which is the b-side for the reissue of their track 'Summer'. It's sublime. Sublime I say. You can also buy a slipmat if you want. Or wait for the £10 digital release. I'm not sure if that's legit. 

Recurring Dream - mix for dad
This is a bit different. Recurring Dream is Rowan Mason from Sanpo Disco, and he made a mix for his dad to listen to while he was in an ICU. It was music that his father had introduced him to over the years. Largely 60s and 70s rock, music from Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix. It's a lovely tribute. RIP.

OPEN HAND REAL FLAMES - ELLA FITZGERALD SCAT SPECIAL
Bass Clef's NTS show focuses on a specific theme or style each month. From steel pans to mechanical instruments, Japanese juke and footwork to the music of Dorothy Ashby. This month's special focused on Ella Fitzgerald, specifically her scat vocals. While her singing voice was utterly gorgeous, velvet tones and oceans of meaning, frivolity and sincerity, she was also an expert in scatting, which is wordless vocalising, giving singers the opportunity to improvise just as well as their accompanying counterparts in the band. The pace and intensity of her scatting is breathtaking, bringing you to the edge of your seat and up on to your feet in delight. Honestly I've never listened to enough of it, preferring to focus on those songs from the songbooks, so this is a welcome education. Bass Clef just released an album of vocoder experiments, which makes me wonder what Ella would have sounded like if she worked with that medium. 

Orange Hexagon Son #1
Weird to share a podcast on Bandcamp Friday? If not now when. Orange Hexagon Son is a new podcast from me. Six tracks, six artists, no PR, just my own digging, investigation and sharing from friends. Music from Ireland, France, Mozambique, Iran and the UK.

This week has been a tough one for the victims of abuse, with people suffering because of the actions of superstar DJs and niche label bosses alike. We can and must do more to listen to people and make them feel that they can share their stories, as well as watching for any apparent warning signs about abusive behaviour. It's never enough to turn a blind eye because of music or clout.