RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Hello! Once again it is Friday my friends. I’ve been astounded by a lot of love I’ve seen online this week. If you know, you know. Back on DDR on Sunday. Lock in.
Japanese artist poow or woopheadclrms features a totally irregular number of styles and sounds on his SoundCloud, and this work is as quantifiable as any other. Ambient wash, snaking guitar, echoed vocals, it’s not a rave like any I’ve attended but I’d love to see one in future.
kevin sanders - A cormorant dreaming
When I first clicked this link, there was a single track. I listened to it a few times. As I write (Thursday, 2pm), there are two. Who knows how many there will be when you read this. I haven’t heard anything from kevin sanders in a while and I’m glad to hear this. The cover is as weirdly unsettling as the music-slash-noise. Grumbles and groans, wails, electronic murmurs. Do cormorants dream? If so, are their dreams populated by the electronic buzz of nearby wires? I was at the dentist the other day and as my teeth were being polished I thought “I wish I could record this”. sanders’ work here feels like the realisation of my imagined recordings following a lengthy processing period. Edit, Friday morning: I'm told a third track is on the way today.
plkpnn, aka Molly McLennan from Tāmāki Makaurau, New Zealand, shared this, apparently the artist’s “first live jam on ableton :-) appreciate feedback :-)”. My feedback is: Molly, you killed it. Airy, spacey synths, weird melodies, gorgeous acid, perhaps the Think! break is a bit overdone at this point, but you made it work here.
I’m not sure how legit this is to be honest. I came across an absolutely blindingly good track in Call Super’s set shared by Crack recently (shout out to Ribeka too of course). I Shazamed it and it was a track called ‘Make You Whole’ by Andronicus. Some searching uncovered this release, which features a number of tracks from the early days of Hooj, including two from Restless Rockers, one half of which was one Judge Jules in his early days. I’m most interested in ‘Make You Whole’, though. Almost eight minutes in length, it features syncopated keyboard action, a real squidgy bass line, breaks emblematic of the time, vocals run through a range of effects modules and a level of repetition most wouldn’t even attempt nowadays. There’s a huge rush to it, giddy euphoria and nostalgia that would probably have been as palpable on its release 30 years ago.
Mexican-born, Brussels-based Vica Pacheco creates a singular world with this release on wabi-sabi tapes. It’s a full and rich combination of sound art and beautiful melodies, neither side overwhelming the other but instead complementing it. Perhaps aware of this approach, the blurb features the following line: “The musician exploits the principles of electroacoustics by detaching them from their arid components.” I think that word arid is key. The music here never feels dry or staid, but rather warm and enveloping, welcoming even. Some pieces seem as if they were made for sitting in wonder, others for wild dancing.
As banging techno two-trackers go, this is more cerebral than most. Taking its title as well as samples from a 1974 video art broadcast, the release features two tracks of brilliantly executed techno. ‘Echo’ starts with repeated vocals, which lead into a looped rhythm that would be impossible without its source material. This paves the way for further explorations through time and space, with other snippets of the original work appearing and disappearing in a fascinating manner. ‘Reflection’ operates in a dangerously uncertain syncopated space, with beats and bass hovering so close to the/an edge one feels one might fall into the abyss. There’s never quite any resolution, so the listener is faced with ambiguity that perhaps could be removed by a canny DJ in the right setting, but in isolation, this is the stuff of total discomfort.
VA - wave~seed II (Microtones)
This is the second compilation from Microtones, released yesterday on Earth Day, a fundraiser for the Amazon Frontlines project kick-started by Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo. It’s a far-reaching collection of sounds, from contemplative sounds to expansive club spaces, drum machine experiments and sonic cut-ups.
Witch Trials - Habitual Martyr
I don’t know how I missed this, a new release from an Irish artist that’s had coverage on RA and DJ Mag, a premiere on The Brutalist and so on. Between the artist’s name and the title of the release, it’s unexpectedly dank, with massive bass and clanking elements throughout. Back in September I commended Witch Trials for “an appropriately haunted piece of modular escapism” on Patrúin’s For MASI compilation so I’m kicking myself for having missed this before now. Believe it, or not I am in fact merely human.
The first track here, ‘I Thought You Became a Preta Somewhere I’, features tiny repeated snippets of Ride Around Shining, an album track from Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury. There’s also a woman saying “feeling it”, who may be Mýa, although I’m only guessing that because the line from Pusha T is about spending time around college girls who have “innocent looks like Mýa, corrupt they mind, turn ’em to liars”. I don’t recognise the samples in the second one, ‘I Am a Hag I’, at all. It bangs though. Excellent chopping throughout.
Feldermelder - Accidental Reworks
Here’s a Cat Power remix you never knew you needed. While I was going through my “TOP 500 ALBUMS” recently I spent a bit of time with her mid-00s albums, and this is a welcome return to an even earlier work (03 is early 00s right?). PS If you want to know more about that list, give me a shout.
I listened to this last night, it’s blindingly good. Theremin-esque wobbles, detuned vocals, perhaps sampled, perhaps originally recorded, crushingly awesome distorted sounds. It’s a fascinating release from this Amman, Jordan-based artist. Crunch.