RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Okay first things first, there’s no Bandcloud next week. Indulge me. There’s lots here and of course you have a whole archive to explore. Peace.
This came out a while back but somehow I completely missed the release date. Scott Young makes a strange kind of mutant techno that features utterly weird sounds at slower tempos than one might expect. Loops made of strange vocals, not-dance music in dance music styles, harsh and rattling sounds, you could probably play it in a club. Ben UFO would make it work. I’d definitely clear the floor if I tried to slot it in.
From the label that brought you pub and the immaculate ‘Summer’, this is, well, more from pub. Lucky & Easy is not a duo, just one man. One man making blissful electronic beauties. Excuse me for being reductive (it’s been a long week) but think that 90s Aphex and Autechre crisp electronica-meets-hip-hop mood, stuff like ‘Ptolemy’ on SAW, for example. I don’t know if it’s new or archival, but who bleedin’ cares.
Corsican Paintbrush - Fascinators
I don’t believe this is an ode to wedding headgear. Originally released on limited cassette in 2008, it’s a collaboration from Brad Rose and Eden Hemming (one of their many collaborations). This is one of the many things I’ve listened to lately while attempting to hang doors. Scorching drone. Searing tones. My heart. Harsh, abrasive like sandpaper, crunchy like broken plasterboard underfoot. Warm and wobbly, uncomfortable and powerful.
Nhung Nguyen, Giulio Aldinucci, Offthesky - On Wonders and Things Unseen
An international dream team of ambient superstars comes together for this release. Nhung Nguyen from Vietnam, Giulio Aldinucci from Italy and Offthesky from the US created this striking work of ambient tones that evoke grand moments and almost interstellar visions.
Arianne Churchman - Floral Horse Pyramid Visioning (Dream Horse Cult Recordings Vol.1)
Love a bit of medieval-style spooky folk drone so I do. This long piece “stands as the first Dream Horse Cult action, inviting a collective shift to hallucinatory horse vision and a synthesis between human, horse and flower as we transformed into the Castleton Garland Horse”. Quite.
VA - Tributary Songs (meakusma)
meakusma has put together a compilation to raise money for people affected by floods in central Europe. Artists like Viola Klein, Different Fountains, Gerald Cleaver, Miki Yui. CV & JAB. MM/KM, the aforementioned Lucky & Easy and many more (there are 40 tracks) all feature.
One could argue that every edition of Longform Editions is the best one yet — we’ve had batches that featured favourites like Robert Curgenven, claire rousay, Taylor Deupree, Carmen Villain, Chihei Hatakeyama, Celer, Kate Carr, Yamaneko, Cruel Diagonals, Caterina Barbieri… You get the picture. But there’s something about this particular batch that really impressed me. While many of the previous editions have focused on particular drifts of sound, these four are perhaps the most sonically adventurous. With The Order of Things, Lori Scacco shifts between modular zones, giving pause at times and dancing about with urgency at others. Deep Circles by Melanie Velarde provides what the title suggests, moving starkly from one sonic mode to another. October, 1984 by Olivia Block is a stunning collage of sounds that features found audio from used cassettes bought on eBay alongside recordings of Block’s own piece, performed by The Chicago Youth Orchestra. Finally, Serene Fear by Bride is perhaps the most straightforward of the four releases, in that it feels like one single long piece, but that is in no way to its detriment. If you’re not already subscribed, I would thoroughly recommend it. Just 6 Australian dollars per month (about €3.70).
Kristen Gallerneaux - Strung Figures
Gnarly techno. Gnarly I say.
Mike Huckaby 1987 Cassette Mix
Craig Gonzalez just shared this Mike Huckaby mix from 1987. There’s a really wide range of stuff here, from Adonis and Yaz to a host of stuff I can’t identify, be it techno, electronic pop and who knows what.
VA - Incantations (Séance Centre)
I bought this because it seemed cool and I recognised some names on there. It’s a magical collection of… magical musics. Honestly it caught my eye because it popped up in my inbox when I saw that “Séance Centre just added The Liminal to Bandcamp”. Oooh, liminal. I could only hear one track, Museum Of No Art’s ‘Textile Trance’, apparently with “spell by Mehrnaz Rohbakhsh”. Visual and conceptual artists created various forms of “spells”, including salt paintings and instructional texts, even a recipe for ginger soy milk pudding, while sound artists responded by fashioning utterly beautiful pieces of music. It runs from gorgeous bells and ambient moods to a sultry and seductive jazz scene. It’s one of my favourite releases this year and it’s almost hilarious that I bought it on a whim.
VA - Noise a Noise 21.2-1
VA - Noise a Noise 21.2-2
Lots of compilations this week, this is the last set I promise. Two discs as it were, broken across two Bandcamp pages, they represent a snapshot of the experimental scene in Tehran. It’s the second batch from this collective, the first appearing here back in May. One disc features contemporary classical, the other features experimental electronics. While this means that there is a broad range of sound on offer, the programming and sequencing means that each disc has a wonderful flow, offering a cohesive sound without becoming formulaic.
recordat0035: SLF: kinship: 04 - RAFUSH
Recordat #0035 invited Kinship to curate 13 hours for the Sonic Liberation Front in solidarity with Palestine on @radioalhara. Aired first on August 1st, 2021 as part of the Sonic Liberation Front, an initiative for Palestine by a group of audio platforms and sound artists who came together to unify their sound for Palestine and protest against the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
@kin-ship is a label based in Berlin, exploring the mysterious series of relation and encounter.
This is the 35th session of a series of sessions Recordat is hosting on Radio Alhara every other Sunday of the month.
Sorry I just don’t know any of this music and I’m not sure what to say about it, and I can’t find any info on Rafush, but I love what I’m hearing in this mix.