RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
It’s Bandcamp Friday again, so naturally I’ve chosen a load of mixes this week. I’ve had a rough week so the blurbs are short I’m afraid. As always, I hope you find something you like. Let me know if you do! Feedback is always welcome.
Carmen Villain - Subtle Bodies (Huerco S. version)
What a pairing. Two artists who both qualify under “must check” whenever they release anything, and the results justify that reputation. Villain’s new album Only Love From Now On drops in a few weeks, and the tracks released so far are sublime. ‘Subtle Bodies’ is a strange beast, with time signatures layered upon one another to dizzying effect. Huerco’s remix isolates choice elements and lends them a strange and other-worldly funk. One of those “nine minutes is too short” kinda jams.
Object Blue with ZVRRA & DJ GIRL - 30 January 2022
object blue invites two US talents ZVRRA and DJ Girl to showcase their vibrant and uncompromising takes on modern techno on her Rinse show. Bangers.
We Are Machine - Afterhours 016 - Northworks
I played Northworks’ rather stunning remix of Future Self on my first show of the year, and here features it in a mix that is quite stunning in its approach. It starts off pumping and then moves into more ethereal territory, beats disappearing like smoke while melodies float in the darkness. That remix seems to grow out of a Lone track like the steam rising from your morning coffee (or maybe the sweat off a dancer’s back, I don’t know). Sublime.
prof.amatör w/ fosil | Root Radio 31/01/2022
I don’t know much about fosil, except that he seems to be based in Istanbul. This show is an hour of strange murkiness, with muted beats and smudged breaks. Quite enticing and exciting in its own way.
Here we have an utterly magical mix from Debit ahead of her album on Modern Love (which, spoiler alert, is also very special). It’s only 31 minutes, but as Eoin Murray, who interviewed the artist for DJ Mag, said: “Makes listening to it on repeat very appealing!” It’s described as a “pre-hispanic to post/transhispanic ambient mix”, and features a range of sounds from Central and South America, be they “folk” (in its broadest sense) or sound art or new age, moving into “modern” sounds and finishing with the final track from Debit’s album.
Patricia Wolf - I’ll Look For You In Others
Patricia Wolf recently made a mix for this very newsletter, and her debut album has just been released. It’s wonderful. In honour of her late mother-in-law, the album is a meditation on death and mourning and almost seems to begin with a sense of levity and end in sorrow, rather than offering some kind of easy resolution. Wolf employs a variety of styles throughout, at times using gorgeous washes of ambient synth, at others layering wordless vocals. As suggested above, the themes and melodies move from almost elegiac wonder to a restless anger. Perhaps this is conjecture. Grief is a funny thing, universal and yet unique.
Two righteous bangers. Club music but unlike any club I’ve ever attended. Post-COVID club, without rules or restrictions, just wild electronics unleashed.
MAbH (Mortuus Auris & the Black Hand) - Unnamed Vagabond
Oh this is lovely. MAbH made a really wonderful tape for Third Kind a few years ago. Despite the name it’s actually one guy. This is some excellent strangeness spread across two sides, long-form pieces split into snippets and moments.
More Madalyn Merkey on Mana. Weird unknowable sounds, frivolous bleeps, undulating passages and general wide-eyed wonder.
pinkpantheress - All my friends know (Anz Remix)
Gonna be a real “ur da” here and say that I didn’t really know who pinkpantheress was until recently. When Anz got involved I took notice, however. This is a super remix. Lovely choppy 2-step beats alongside rather lovely silky vocals. I ended up buying it on 7digital cause I couldn’t find it anywhere else, then forgot to play it on my show.
Rather lovely dubby and melodic techno. ‘Omri remix’ is a highlight.
Warren ‘Kaninen’ Rasmussen - Rædsel Fra Månekatten
Okay. I know what you’re thinking. We don’t need another “lost soundtrack to a horror show” that’s been uncovered, painstakingly restored and lovingly reissued (well, can it be reissued if was never issued?). But this one is cool. Even the music stops and starts and slows down, just like you’d expect from tapes that had supposedly been destroyed in a fire. I’m getting serious Archive 81 vibes here. It’s probably hogwash, but even so, the music is good. I didn’t even realise there was a ~narrative~ until after I’d listened to the five tracks that are available at present (it’s out in full on February 24), and they just sounded like snarling 80s-leaning synth wrapped in hiss and crunch. The title means Terror of the Mooncat, by the way.
What the title suggests really, three tracks for dancing. Hip-hop flavours at house tempos, these are short but sweet.
Beatless techno business from Blamhaus. ‘Generative’ is my fave. Barker-esque.
Seemingly this is an expanded edition of a CD from 2002 by Argentinian band Reynols. It’s a long series of muted hiss and noise that’s really quite fascinating.
Another “must-check” outfit is Dreamtone, and their latest release comes from Pascäal. Previous releases have come in the form of iPods, comics and CDs, and this one is available as a “laser-engraved SD card in plastic origami fold casing”. Noice. The music is great too, technicolour techno sounds that layer ideas and modes without sounding forced or overly busy. Just lovely.
Jane Deasy - Mouth of the Sound
Icy chilly drones recorded in a quarry on an island off the coast of Kerry. The Anglicised name of the island is Valentia Island, from the Irish, Béal Inse, literally Mouth of the Sound. Driving through Ireland and looking at place names it can be quite upsetting seeing what is lost, not even in translation. Places like Inch in Co Wexford, from the Irish inis meaning island, or Ardee, originally from Áth Fhirdia meaning the Ford of Ferdia (Ferdia being a character of Irish legend). Even my home town Rathfarnham comes from Ráth Fearnáin, meaning ‘Fearnán’s ringfort’. Where’s the drama? The romance? Anyway. Mouth of the Sound is a staid, ever-growing drone that sounds unending in its persistence. Almost like the persistence of historical language underneath the flattening of modernisation.