RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Hello again. What a week. Ireland, the UK and the USA, the three countries that loom largest in my consciousness, have all been utterly embarrassed on the world stage for a variety of reasons not limited to institutional abuse and neglect (historic and present) and politic turmoil. I feel like jumping from comments like that into music recommendations is a bit incongruous but at the same time, we don’t live in a vacuum. Meanwhile, one of the Substack bosses hopped on a chat with the Parler CEO so I’m not overly thrilled about my recent switch right now. Has anyone listened yet? I don’t want to…
Yesterday marked seven years since I sent the first Bandcloud mail. It wouldn’t exist without a) the artists who make the music and b) the readers! So thank you.
I played a track from The Subdermic on my show in November 2019, from a release on Opal Tapes, but this one caught my attention because of a collaboration with pal Cruel Diagonals. Contributing characteristically ominous and overwhelming vocals to an already dark and dolesome track, it shows a perfect balance of artistic intent. The release’s other tracks are strange and unsettling, with crackled noises and searing drones giving an air of the apocalypse. That’s fitting as it is “based on a hypothetical narrative of colonialism & the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country”.
The Dancers Are Here - Emotional Education 003
Just a straight-up banger of a mix, something I don’t think I’ve enjoyed in some time. I listened to this one start to finish, no skips!
You can buy this release and get a flute! It’s like 40 quid so you’d want something like that but still. Haven’t come across such ~immersive~ merch in some time. The music is beguilingly simple, almost primitive one might say.
DS - Come All Ye Faithful - Haunted Accession Mix
Sure, Christmas has come and gone, but this is so incredibly dank that it completely eschews any seasonal characteristics. There are some bells in there, but they could be from any time really. A bit of background on the track:
Tyneside Sounds Society invited producers to create something new using only the audio from a digitisation of a 1/4" analogue tape recording by BBC of the first time Newcastle Civic Centre Carillon Bells were played publicly on 1st December 1967
The tape was digitised by Tyne & Wear Archives as part of the national Unlocking Our Sounds Heritage project led by the British Library.
This is just one track from a larger collection, but I liked it so much I had to share.
Odradek - Pidä Huivista Kiini - Set
This is a short set featuring tracks from Rezzett, Cucina Povera and upsammy among others. Dank and sorrowful and sad and yeah, it’s January. I thought it was a single piece but I was 100pc wrong. The title comes from a Finnish film from 1994, the full title of which is Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana, meaning Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana. I believe the artwork is a still from that film.
Anz - Piano Tunes - 9th January 2021
So Mixcloud links don’t embed here. Oh well. Rare Pleasure's ‘Let Me Down Easy opens up this mix of piano bangers, which is largely in a breezy 90s piano house style before swooping up into breakneck dnb/jungle territory for the final stretch. Just the pick-me-up you might need.
Beautiful music on Oxtail Recordings from long-standing Tokyo artist Rhucle.
Body In The Thames - Public Domain 3D Terrain
Body In The Thames has long been a friend of the ’Cloud. He sent me a rake of tunes a few years ago and I believe some of them may finally be seeing the light of day with this release on Disintegration State. There’s also certainly a reference to an old EAF member. If you know you know. BITT makes delightfully squidgy acid-drenched electronica, I suppose you’d call it. It’s a bit dancey, it’s deeply rich and textured, and it’s always brightly coloured. Fun, you’d have to say.
The other day I shared a Bernie Sanders meme asking for music from artists who are not white men. This is one of the things that popped into my inbox, from a young Latin American artist (I’ve no more info than that). It’s described as being “ambient-ish vaporwave-ish”, and I get that. It makes sense. It reminds me of Para One’s soundtrack for Naissance des Pieuvres in spots.
A widely varied release, this compilation comes from Curl, the label that put out that incredible Coby Sey release last year. It features music from Coby Sey as well as Akinola Davies Jr, Olivia Salvadori, Steph Kretowicz and Ben Babbitt, Daisy Moon and the brilliantly named Sissy Fus among others.
This is another one that fits in the “vaguely seasonal” basket, released on December 20. The artist simply called it a “seasonal offering” on Facebook, with no comment given anywhere else. It’s short and ethereal, glassy and icy, not specifically Christmassy but definitely wintry.
This is sweet track from a trio based in Montreal. It’s the kind of thing you might expect to here on Italians Do It Better, if they only lived on the opposite end of that landmass. The notes say it was recorded at the Hotel Emerald, so I googled that name and added Montreal, and I found this Instagram page. It features a bunch of abstract paintings as well as some pics of someone in a strange fox headpiece.
Bunita Marcus - Favorite Works from the 1980's
Finally this week, something from a long time ago. I came across this via ye olde “X, Y and 34 others bought new music on Bandcamp” email. Bunita Marcus has her own wiki! It seems kind of underdeveloped though. These are some pieces from the 80s, obviously, and they’re really rather beautiful. ‘Adam and Eve’ sounds like the kind of film score you’d hear resurrected by Finders Keepers. I’ve yet to delve into the release fully but I’m delighted to have found it.