RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
I finish up in work next week. Who knows what the future holds. Hope you’ll still be here with me.
Can’t say I’ve come across Lakewest before, but this is a super track. Minimal in its approach, it features sparse production and a rolling, rattling, piercing synth line.
Matt Wrafter - Machines of Loving Grace
“What if history had taken a different path?” This is the question that is asked on Machines of Loving Grace by Matt Wrafter. Fully automated luxury gay space communism. Can technology be free of human intention and malevolence? The melodies and ideas here blend idealism with fatalism, hope with reality.
Invictus Hi-Fi - The Market Deities
“If the financial market had gods, what would they sound like?” From history to markets, we’re full of questions this week. This release is dark and snarling and angry, light and hopeful. Tracks like ‘Confidence, The Bull’ sit and bounce in a strange space between the two, floating on possibility yet weighted to real-life frustrations. Another similarity with the above release.
Hiya w/ hotpink & aNNA: Deee-lite Special ❤
For a long time I’ve only known Deee-lite for ‘Groove Is In The Heart’. I’ve seen people, notably Sold and Eris Drew, talk about them on Twitter, but never delved further. For shame! This mix of their back catalogue from hotpink and aNNA is truly a delight, rolling through their various hits (they had more than one!) and album tracks to show a truly diverse and rich history. It’s housey, it’s camp, it’s fun. It’s ace.
Almost in a similar spirit to the above, these two tracks are fun and flavourful bangers simply brimming with colour. ‘Bugambilia’ is a minor-inflected keyboard sensation, invoking mid-90s labels with problematic iconography, while the syncopated hits and flute(ish) samples give ‘Jacaranda’ a really classic feel, the bass line positively Murk-esque. Joyous!!!
Groove Podcast 296 - Laughing Ears
Shanghai-based Laughing Ears is about to release an EP for a resurgent Hemlock, and she prefaces that with this mix for Groove Magazine. The tracklist offers four titles as well as “Other originals from Laughing Ears”. It’s fast and frantic, intricate and exciting.
Vitling - Spaceport Lounge Music
This is called Spaceport Lounge Music and the title couldn’t be more fitting. It’s rich and smooth spacey techno, as tasteful as “lounge” music but still satisfying and engaging. A remix from Halffish toughens things up and adds further layers of colour. ‘In-Flight Entertainment’ could soundtrack a summer’s day on a beach, or perhaps a ride by the sun, the brightest star in our sky. DJ Sterni darkens things up for a night-time excursion. I can’t recommend this enough.
Bandcloud's Bandcamp Days 2021
In case you ever wondered how I spent my money on Bandcamp Fridays, here’s an indication. I wanted to make a mix of last week’s buys, then decided one single mix couldn’t cut it. So I went back through the past few months and looked at everything I’d bought over the course of the four BC Fridays that have taken place in 2021. I made two 45-minute mixes, one that can loosely be called ambient and one that’s focused on the club. A friend has griped that there is rap to be found on the ambient side, but for the sake of balance there’s some rap on the clubby side too. Same friend also said he didn’t recognise anything throughout, so that’s a good sign? Enjoy my esoteric sounds.
COVID is still ravaging India. A series of sample packs have been set up by a range of artists including Arushi Jain (whose new album was announced just today) and George Fitzgerald. If you donate you can receive these packs.
All proceeds from this fundraiser will go directly to YUVA, to help them purchase basic health equipment (such as PPE kits, beds, stretchers, medicines) and upgrade existing hospital infrastructure which the most marginalised in Maharashtra's Vidarbha district can access.
Eli Escobar: Ron Hardy Special - May 2021
Eli Escobar celebrates the life and music of the late Ron Hardy, whose birthday was last weekend.
Amy Cutler - the ends (also end) of (the) earth and variants
Amy Cutler featured on a recent Orange Hexagon Son podcast entry and here she is again with an utterly weird and wonderful release. Out on Crow Versus Crow, the ends (also end) of (the) earth and variants is inspired by lyrics from a medieval text known as the Harley Lyrics:
Erthe toc of erthe erthe wyth woh; Erthe other erthe to the erthe droh; Erthe leyde erthe in erthene throh; Tho hevede erthe of erthe erthe ynoh
Combining real instruments and voices with field recordings and hefty amounts of digital processing, this album is, simply, weird. At times it feels like a folkloric lament, at others it’s a huge wash of abstract and oppressive noise. It just dropped this morning so I can’t say much more than that but I can’t wait to spend more time unlocking its charms.
Haddaway - What is Love (Gafacci Remix)
A breezy and melancholy African remix of Haddaway’s ‘What Is Love’. “A blend of Amapiano, Azonto. Just vibes from Ghana”
Dominatrix - The Dominatrix sleeps tonight (corky traxman strong's funked up house rework) wave
Another remix of a classic, here we have Traxman give ‘The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight’ a proper house treatment.
Machine Woman, queen of excellent titles, brings a chunky rave to Lidl. Get down.
When we look at the situation in Palestine we must never forget the humanity and agency of its people. This is a recent EP of dusty and smoky hip-hop from Ra.را .
Short and sweet, this release on Canigou Records offers almost whispered vocals and delicate guitar; it was perfect accompaniment for the nearby birds while I just put clothes on the line.