Bandcloud 319

What a week! I was so happy with my Samhain mix for Dublin Digital Radio. I hope you enjoyed it if you got a chance to listen. Also, new podcast. AND then I'm back on radio at 9pm on Sunday night doing my regular radio thing. No theme, just tunes. Feels like a lot of #content. Oh & it's Bandcamp Friday. Of course the mail was a manageable length and then loads more crept in.

Sound Awakener - Solo set from "Refraction" concert
Hanoi-based Sound Awakener aka Nhung Nguyễn shared this recording from a live performance in her city last month. It was part of an evening of silent film with brand new accompaniment. This piece is just eight minutes in length but it packs a lot into those eight minutes. While previous work I've heard from Nguyễn has been more on the ambient side of things, this is in the spirit of electronic pioneers, hearkening back to the likes of Bernard Herrmann and his Day The Earth Stood Still score. Every time I listen I want to play it again. It's playfully weird and thoroughly fascinating and entertaining.

Arexibo - 카운터! (Counter!)
This genuinely feels like a compilation rather than the work of a single artist. It's astonishing really. Every track is so different, the styles are diverse, it's wonderful. Ambient sounds. Livity-esque rollers. EBM chuggers. Murky slime. Excellence.

Abena: The 'Shine A Light On' Mix
This is a great mix from Abena, who is part of Manchester's All Hands On Deck crew. Described by Abena as "chuggy and gloomy", it's definitely got tinges of darkness to it. It's always a good sign when you see CCL commenting on a mix seconds in, especially when that comment is "so vibey". It's definitely murky, clanky, atmospheric and ominous.

VA - To Bloom, To Glow – fundraiser compilation in support of Russian LGBTQIA+ community
This is a compilation curated by Yaffle, who runs the `hdmr radio show. She's gathered a pretty stellar collection of artists including Bandcloud friends and alumni including JQ, blusher, Carly Barton, Calum Gunn, N Chambers, Unknown Mobile, PJS, tuuun, Bug Bus Piano and more to support the LGBTQIA+ community in Russia. Just this week I was watching a TV show where a Russian chef was mouthing off about how homosexuality was unnatural. Not that this kind of attitude doesn't exist elsewhere, but it's not quite supported by the state in the same way is it? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Chihei Hatakeyama & Dirk Serries - Black Frost
It's hard to put this one into words. Four tracks, long-form pieces of languid ambient bliss. Slowly growing and unfurling like the titular frost, or indeed Glacial Movements, the name of the label releasing this work. The titles mean things like white fog and frozen air, and they couldn't really be any more perfect.

FLORESTA OBLÍQUA - Floresta Oblíqua [album preview]
I believe this should be on Bandcamp as you read this but as I write, it is not. There's a nice gloopy synth track that reminds me of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop', with its recognisable harpsichord melody. Side note, I just learned that Mushroom of Massive Attack originally wanted Madonna to sing the song, but 3D and Daddy G wanted Elizabeth Fraser instead. The majority ruled. Anyway, the other tracks on this release are similarly gloopy, woozy and understatedly euphoric. There are also some kind of beatless morotik sounds, if that makes any sense to anyone other than me.

hind leg - ii blu
The textures on display here are utterly gorgeous, rich and palpable. There's a track called 'emotional synth music' that is more lovely than anything else I've heard lately. Another track, 'blu berri', features these beautifully elegiac chords that remind me of Dusted's 'Always Remember To Respect And Honour Your Mother'. A great release on the nascent fokus global.

Phaeton - Biome
Like the icy sounds of Black Frost above, this beautifully crisp ambient release is steeped in nature, the name of the group taken from mythical planet that supposedly led to life on this planet. It blends stunning synth wash with ... oboe? A beautiful instrument that has always been special to me, yet one I don't often hear in any form of electronic music. 'Grizzly', the release's centrepiece, is a joy to behold.

Cosmic Loaf - Bulk Fermentation
I listened to this while making dinner last night and it genuinely sounded like an airplane was taking off in my kitchen. At others it seemed like there was a low, undulating throb emanating from the corner of the room. This is a strange release, with no easy thrills.

Breakwave with DJ Voices ~ blurred blues, fuzzy feet, making room on concrete
Two sick half-hour mixes here. One from host Breakwave, who drops a beautiful track from Laughing Ears that appeared on a release here back in March. Then we have our friend DJ Voices, who continues in a vein of tough and brooding dnb, no doubt playing some records at the "wrong" speed. I haven't checked because I don't want to ruin the magic. As I was typing this sentence I thought maybe the track in the mix was one of them, and then as soon as I stopped typing it suddenly sped up. My tempo sense was right. Then it gets proper jungle.

Amosphère - Live at MODE Exchange
I've listened to this gorgeous recording a number of times. It took place in London last year at an event curated by Laurel Halo and the 33-33 label. I had actually intended to go but life got in the way. The lineup included GAS, Beatrice Dillon, Ellen Arkbro, Tomoko Sauvage, Kali Malone and John Also Bennett, I mean really! It also included Amosphère, of course. She's a Paris-based composer and multidisciplinary visual artist. This is the first I've heard of her work and it's a wonderful introduction. The music is ambient, quiet, expressive and just out of reach. It's beautiful. Waves of sound come and go like whale song, electronic utterances teased out of machines as if by an inter-species interpreter. At times it almost sounds like it's from another age, as if the recording is a time capsule from 50 years ago, not just one.

Machine Woman - In the Basement of 83 Men
Always one to defy expectations, Machine Woman presents this eight-track album of weird and wonderful sounds. The unusual electronics of the opener 'Easy Listening Podcast' are undercut by the bizarre sounds of treated heavy breathing. NOT easy listening. Things get brighter and loopier, with bouncy beats, vocal samples and jerky beats. 'Frankfurt Glitch Machine' simply fizzes with kinetic energy. Closer 'Why Is It So Hard to Be in a Room With You Mate' is hilariously titled but aggressively charged.

Tomu DJ - Trans Woman Techno
I love the titles here. 'Before Covid'. 'Goes To Bossa During Covid Once'. That latter track, in collaboration with Darian, marries blissful ambient sounds with a jaunty bass line and syncopated kicks, as well as deftly used drum samples.

CHALICES - Gravewalking
Clever and brilliant release from CHALICES, made up of writer/poet/performer Alice Godliman and musician CHAINES. The poetry/speeches on 'Gravewalking' and 'Red' are particularly inspired, while the music underneath is superb in its own right but works perfectly in this context. Both speech and sound are good enough to exist in isolation, neither taking away from the other but complementing each other beautifully.

Radio 80000 x Blitz Take Over — Dee Diggs [31.10.20]
While my Halloween mix was dank and spoopy, this is upbeat and energetic, albeit tinged with darkness. Full of bangers. Also, there's never a bad time to hear 'Clear'.

Nico - Six Rooms
November is traditionally Burial month for me. Something about the cold, dark evenings make his music sound just right. This release from Mexican artist Nico, who collaborated with Hodge for a track on this compilation earlier this year, dropped just in time to capitalise on that grey spirit. 'Drops' in particular features what seem like ghostly choirs and Burial-esque synth stabs, while the latter darts off like spiders into the ether. There's a range of styles on display though, enough to show a breadth of talent.

O.G. JIGG & FRIENDS - O​.​G. Jigg & Friends PART II
This is so good! It's olde worlde music but modern? I could probably have done with it before making my spooky mix but then again, given how much I had to leave out it have just made me feel even more guilty. Yeah, I feel guilty when I don't feature stuff, be it in mails, mixes or radio shows. Right. So this opens up with some proper 'Dies Irae' vibes, gets real folksy with guitars and recorders, features serious organ sounds and even goes a bit 'Norwegian Wood' at one point. It's like a trip through Sherwood Forest or something or the weird areas in The Blood On Satan's Claw. Extremely haunting. There's even some jazzy clarinet in there that is positively OMINOUS. I think Memotone, who's behind the project, is like a UK Sufjan Stevens, only instead of being inspired by the 50 States he takes his cues from the Shires of old England.

Minos - Vault Trax Vol. 2
Three tracks of skronky acid techno here from Dublin's own Minos. There's an overall feeling reminiscent of 2013 LIES — you know, woozy vibes, lots of distortion, an overwhelming crunch. 'Dunkelheit' means darkness and yet that track is the brightest one here, with lovely melodies bouncing over a super-tough kick.

Lakker - Época Dub'd
I've long thought Eomac, half of Lakker, makes some of the most interesting techno-related music out there. It's heavy, percussive and club friendly but it's more than just techno. This tape, made with his long-time collaborator Arad, is brilliantly inventive. It's dark and angry and moody, but fascinatingly so. I've seen so much chat about boring techno lately, and this release shows that there are still people within that world willing to go beyond the ordinary to unexplored realms. This is a dubbed out version of their last album Época, and its inspiringly dank.