Bandcloud 315

Good morning, it's cold but sunny. Dublin Digital Radio turns 4 this week! I'm back on the air on Sunday night. Lots of new sounds. 

Alex M - NEW CULTURE EP
Alex M is a new name to me, but this release is a welcome introduction. The full EP features a bunch of remixes but just the originals are available on SoundCloud right now. These are jacking, slamming electro numbers that sound fresh from the drum machine with some added colour and POP. 'Social Hallucination' is just delightful. There's a track called 'Hypnotic Behavior' that sounds like a mix of the Deep Dish remix of Sven Vath's 'Barbarella' and the Slacker remix of Junkie XL's 'Zerotonine', then remixed for acid electro dance floors. Top work from Alex!

Nervous Operator - Heat, Humidity and Violence
This utterly jams. If I use the word nightmare a lot this week it's because most of the "clubby" stuff that's getting through to me right now is slightly apocalyptic electro. This is that stuff. The first track features the sounds of an interview/interrogation of a Russian man by an American (I'm not sure specifically their roles in this scenario) regarding nuclear weapons. All played out over wildly elaborate acid synth play and OTT ominous bass noise. The melodies at play during 'It's Not Necessary' would probably fit in a low-budget 80s slasher flick if they were extracted from this hefty banger. 

Spacelab - Kaleidomission
I was a bit thrown when I saw the number of tracks on this release — 35 — but they're all quite short and it absolutely flies by. I should be honest and say the first time I listened to this I had an album of field recordings playing in a separate window, which only added to the experience. It's that kind of "World of Tomorrow"-style weird electronics, strange samples and extra-terrestrial vibery. One track features a recording of a man saying: "Seems to be a common problem today, everybody's afraid of scientists. They seem to feel we know some sort of deep dark secret about the mysteries of life." PRESCIENT.

Off Thorn - A Means To An End 
Off Thorn is a Dublin producer, one I haven't heard of before now. This track features some repeated piano and slightly scratchy violin playing, whether that's intentional or not I'm not sure. It manages to conjure feelings of sweet wistfulness. 

Pamela_ and her sons - Pink Room
Now this is extremely seasonal. People often ask me what spoop is. To me, spoop can be silly and playful, but it can also be deeply upsetting and unsettling. It can be somewhere in between, that point where silliness and terror combine. This album screams spoop to me. It recalls the work of Tropic of Cancer, that haunted, deeply submerged style of singing over ghostly sonics, while delving into territory that's as much ambient as it is experimental in its approach. It's not background music, that's for sure. This is engaging and demands your attention, the fear being that if you don't pay attention something dangerous might just sneak in. 'Something Sweet' offers some levity, while the following 'Red Mud' laughs at any sense of comfort. 

Jasmine Guffond & Erik K Skodvin - White Eyes
Funnily enough I enjoyed this track before I realised that Erik K Skodvin is the man behind the Svarte Greiner persona, responsible for the wonderful album Knive. Jasmine Guffond is an Australian-born, Berlin-based artist who has previously released on Editions Mego. This track is from their forthcoming collaboration The Burrow, released on "boutique label" Sonic Pieces. I'm not fully sure what that means, but it's probably "vinyl only, fancy packaging". It's a striking work that sounds like a cymbal being rung at length while soft, plaintive chords are played underneath. 

A Little Night Music: Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North
This collection from Geographic North features some of my favourite artists, including Carmen Villain, Fennesz, M. Sage, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Félicia Atkinson, Forest Management and JAB, all making some seasonally appropriate strange music. The label calls it their "third putrid prowl into Halloween-inspired sounds to torment and tantalize throughout the season". Extremely my bag. I'll be featuring a bunch of them on my Halloween radio special. Details of that to follow.

Caution!Horses - According to your Cloth (BYO2)
I featured work by Caution!Horses last year, some wildly inventive bleep techno resurrected from the aughts. This is largely stuff from 2016, with some from the mid-00s thrown in. This release features a combination of ambient moods, atmospheric techno, nightmarish beatless blobs, syncopated stabs and electronica-leaning percussive jams. A bit different from your everyday stuff, and well worth seeking out. 

VA - Spatial Awareness (IKUISUUS)
Finnish label IKUISUUS put out this compilation last month, although I only caught wind of it a week ago. It features six artists, some familiar to me (Pulse Emitter, Embla Quickbeam, Matthewdavid), some not. The tracks are exploratory, meandering synth works, ambient noodlings, droning gong bath-type sounds and such. 

Maral - Push
I really don't know what to say about this! Maral, who released on Astral Plane last year and made that fascinating RWDFWDMIX006 tape this year, brings traditional Iranian sounds together with modern electronic beats. Push is her debut full-length and it comes on Leaving Records. Simply put, I can't speak to the content of the original songs, but the collision of old and new is astounding. The sheer bombast of her beats is breathtaking, and the way she's able to switch up her styles mid-track is mesmerising. Just four tracks available now but the full thing is out next week. I can't wait.

John-Robin Bold - Demonstrations
This album sees its creator demonstrate his abilities in a series of modes, from quiet drones to heavily distorted, almost painful noise, as well as eerie electronic bleeps and the kind of stilted sounds that make you think your internet connection is bogey and the stream is acting the maggot. 'IV' is my favourite. Out today on Quanta Records. 

NYZ - MTNAM_12of22t​:​:​legWstat
If like me you're mainly familiar with the noizier side of NYZ's output, this soothing drone may come as a surprise. An hour of gorgeous airy sounds, wispy music that floats through the air (or out of your headphones) in beautiful fashion.

undrthght - When They Come
Finally this week, a wonderful track from undrthght, based in Roanoke, Virginia. The music is beautiful, lush house that's maybe slightly slower than you might expect but it's a surefire groove. It features the voice of Pat Parker, an American poet and activist, reading her poem 'Where Will You Be When They Come', in which she invites gay men and women to stand up against the self-appointed moral guardians and "soul savers" who are coming for those who deviate from their supposed norm. Always timely.