RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Hello again (or if you're joining us for the the first time, hello). I thought I wouldn't have as much to share with you this week, but I was wrong. Isn't that great? Hooray for music.
Arrows - Celestial Garden
The Digitalis label, run by writer/publisher/musician/all-round genius Brad Rose, is scarily fertile - no fewer than five releases already this month. Celestial Garden is made up of two lengthy tracks, meandering and beautifully tuneless:
Tape hiss valleys peak inside syrupy rhythms only to find an empty carcass, skinned and left to rot underneath reverberating walls.
Mass Ornament - Saturn Eye
Digitalis co-owner Eden Hemming is behind Mass Ornament, with which she crafts chillingly beautiful tracks, all haunting reverse and plodding loops. I hate to use too many press release bits but these are too good:
These labyrinthine compositions whisper sweet nothings while sticking the shiv between your ribs.
Charlatan - Night Circus Remixes
The final Digitalis link here is a a remix package for Night Circus (one of Brad's releases from last year), if only because I've never even heard of any of the remixers. Decimus, Konntinent Pris, Thug Entrancer? Gwan.
Orto Stro - Deaverchester
Forty minutes, two tracks. The first kicks off with gentle atmospherics only to be torn apart by scratches and guttural groans that build with ever more crescendo like the birth pains of a sasquatch. Track two, meanwhile, sounds like scorched ambience over a woodland brook, like number stations fed through broken analogue towers. All of which may lead you to disregard this entry entirely.
Posthuman - Ganzfeld EP
This is a free EP of four spacey techno acid jams.
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Low Motion Guest Mix [FBi Radio 21/01/2014]
In which Templar Sound boss Aidan Bennison plays 30 minutes of low-slung jams from his crew. Peachy.
This isn't a Soundcloud link per se, it's an exclusive stream of the new Cooly G at Thump, but it's so good it's worth sharing. Soulful house (but not in that Full Intention way [not that there's anything wrong with that]), jagged percussive workouts, it just sounds great really.
Call Super - The Sound Of Basement Q
This one isn't Soundcloud at all but I'm sharing it nonetheless. I included Call Super's forthcoming Trilogy Tapes release as Ondo Fudd last week, now I'll wax lyrical over this mix for RBMA radio. No tracklist, well, just names (he hasform in this regard), but it's ... Starts off sort of jazzy, noisy, gets into straight 4/4 business. There's a gorgeously beautiful track about 20 minutes in that I just can't place, though I definitely know it. Then it gets a bit woozy, and about 40 minutes in it's proper trancey (in a good way). I duno. Just listen. Anyway. I'm a big fan of this lad, his b2b set with Objekt at ADE last year was probably the best or at least most enjoyable DJ set I've ever seen. This set gives a great insight into his tastes and interests.
I'd forgotten this was online. Back in 2005 Erol Alkan did a mix for Bugged Out!, but only on condition that he could pair it with an after-hours mix. This was the result. The Concretes covering the Stones, music from The Wicker Man, Julie London, Trespassers William, Ulrich Schnauss. I could go on, but it's better for you just to listen. I've played this at many after-hours sessions, the birdsong that opens it sounding just perfect as the sun comes up.
Including this one for the lols, as they say. A proper prog house chugger, with some sweet guitar licks, droning strings, indecipherable female utterances... It's by Rui Da Silva (remember him?) under the Teimoso guise, it came out on Hooj Choons, and it featured on John Digweed's Los Angeles entry to the Global Underground series. One of my favourites that. Anyway, your boy just put it up so there we go. Don't ask why I follow Rui on Soundcloud...
Weekend - Red Planes ('81 Demo)
Blackest Ever Black are putting out Weekend - The '81 Demos next month, the first vinyl edition of the demos recorded in 1981 by Weekend (duhh). This number is stunning. Without these guys we wouldn't have stuff like Tropic of Cancer and whatnot. I'm no expert (in fact this is my introduction to them to be honest) but you can tell.
CONSTRUCT / MIX NINE / Oliver Hafenbauer
Well this is a delight. Part of the Construct mix series, this sees Robert Johnson resident Oliver Hafenbauer journey through his "favorite off-not-off-dancefloor tracks from this and last year". All your favourite ambient experimentalists and occasional purveyors of half-decent outsider house are present and correct. (Out to Tom Banham for this one.)
Andrew Weatherall Live at Waxwerks Part 1
Not much to say. Two and a half hours of Weatherall.
Groove Podcast 26 - Helena Hauff
I'll be honest and say I'm not up on my 80s new beat or whatever this is, but it's dope.
A few downloads from BlaqStarr, newly mixed and mastered. Essential if only for 'Hands Up, Thumbs Down'.
Ricardo Donoso - DJ Mix - ProdigyMSN Mexico
Yes, Ricardo Donoso has done a mix for MSN Mexico. Don't worry, it's excellent. Atmospheric electronica (sorry) throughout, it even includes a beatless, strings-laden mix of Ame's classic Rej. It does get pretty chunky towards the end though.
Truant: haido - This Is A Swizz
I'm going to ask you to indulge me here. I write for Truants, and every now and then a contributor will throw a mix up to the Truants Soundcloud. I put up my first at the weekend, a collection of some great party jams from Swizz Beatz. Nothing definitive, just stupid bangers. Enjoy.
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I hope you've found something you liked here. If not, do stick around. But if you decide the whole thing isn't for you, let me know and I'll take you off the list. Conversely, if you've any friends interested in being a part of this, send them my way.
All the best and have a wonderful weekend,
Aidan