Bandcloud 223

I've been very negative and sarcastic on Twitter this week, so in a positive twist, here's some music I genuinely enjoyed! Some even made me smile!

Oscar Huang / Rhythm Phazer Split
Vanity Press is a really excellent label based in Michigan. They've built up a steady stream of releases, recently dropping a hugely enjoyable 12" from Flora FM. There's another great one coming from AceMo in the coming weeks. If that's not enough for you, this week a 7" came out showcasing different artists on each side. First up is DJ and producer Oscar Huang, who turns in a bouncy 90s throwback jam. Lisbon-based duo Rhythm Phazer go further back with their effort, a funky 80s-feeling groove that evokes hazy summer nights. Each track is exactly five minutes in length.

= Re:flektr = - Another World (Single)
This is called 'Another World', and that's fitting because I cannot for the life of me imagine how it came into being. I know this gets bandied about a lot but this track really defies categorisation. It's got a half-time techno feel, it's full of tranced-out arpeggios, ambient swoons, it's thunderous yet quite blissful. A journey.

Almaty - Gennaro (Photonz Remix)
If this wasn't good I would probably still feature it because I love the artwork so much. But it is. Almaty is a Swedish producer who's crafted a banging new track for release on Violet's Naive label. It's backed with remixes from Octo Octa, Endian and, as you can see above, Photonz. He's taken some key elements of the original – the vibrant heavy percussion, the squishy hook – and infused them with dark melancholy of his Portuguese progressive-influenced style. Yet another winner from this brilliant label.

Astral & Shit - Ȑ
There's sooooo much stuff out there that often I just click on something cause I like the name. This was one example. Astral & Shit! What's not to like. It's misty, foggy ambient that barely shifts a note, its hisses modulating ever so slightly from one minute to the next. The cover looks like a scene from Left Hand of Darkness, the perfect setting for this glacial ambient.

Grace Boey - Sailor Song
This is a wonderful track that somehow manages to fit in a huge range of ideas in its relatively short run time. You'd expect this growling and melodic techno banger to run across 12 minutes or something, but it barely passes the three-minute mark. It still manages to move from its quiet intro through lumpy acid bass line, rattling percussion, echoey whispers, fluttering hihats, build and renewal and, finally, collapse.

The Bunker Podcast 173: Abby Echiverri
I played a track from Ab Initio, Abby Echiverri's EP on The Bunker, on my last radio show. The release is a trippy acidic spread that really deserves your attention. This mix is a kind of companion piece I think, firing upwards into other worlds. It was apparently composed and performed in her home in Queens, which is much more quotidian than you might imagine. In another life, Echiverri is a studio engineer who's worked with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lady Gaga and Father John Misty. Multitudes.

experimenteaser - Ojai
This is a weird one. It's a 20-minute track, I'm not sure if it's a performance, an experiment, it doesn't really matter though. It's filed under trip-hop but really it's more of a digital dub. It's got a singular beat throughout, with varying degrees of similar ideas on top. That said, those variations are just enough, and the lurching beats just hypnotic enough, to maintain a level of interest and excitement throughout the piece.

Strict Face - ***** Gunner
I love Strict Face. He makes great tunes and he's a great guy, which makes it even easier to like him and want to share his stuff with you. This is a flip on the unmistakeable strings from Britney's 'Toxic'. A simple concept, executed perfectly. It's grime, so there's a massive bass line underneath those classic melodies. He recently put his 2016 EP Rain Cuts on Bandcamp (it featured in BC137) so check that out if you missed it.