Bandcloud 294

Serious Groundhog Day vibes. When setting up this draft mail, I named it "2019 16". I know what day/year it is, really...

Terry's Cafe 3 mixed by Terry Lee Brown Jr (2000)
I can't believe this is billed as "A Chill-out Session"? It's a deep house mix? It's gorgeous, lovely, wonderful, but I duno, chillout it ain't. Maybe the definitions have changed over the years... I guess it made me feel good, that at least. Lush, sumptuous house.

VA - Remote Access (Control Freak Recordings)
This is a really good compilation raising money for the Trussell Trust in the UK. Like many others, Control Freak had big plans for parties this year, and they've been cast aside. The label got together some of their core people as well as some of their favourite artists to put together this comp. The music ranges from slow burners and colourful openers to percussive rollers and bass-heavy wobblers.  

Icarus Redux - Charas 002 (Naturalist Realism)
Icarus Redux is genuinely brilliant. His mixes are completely unexpected, full of curios and brilliant moments. I don't recognise a thing here, it feels like reading a book or watching a film for the first time. There was a piece on P4k this week about how people are retreating to familiar music in these ~uncertain times~ as a kind of comfort system, while I keep striving for newness. With this mix, IR gives you stuff you've probably never heard but weaves it together in a way that's almost wholesome and nourishing. 
 
Kenya - Cat Dub
Dub techno meets acid nightmare. And it works.

Pressure Cooker Relief Valve & Territorial Gobbing - Offer Your Self Released CDrs To God
Some lovely weird cut-up sounds to confuse and delight. "wide ranging influences in this one like 'the sound a chair makes when falling out of a window' and 'hell'". I won't lie, I was initially tickled by the title but it's good stuff.

Vanishing Faces - Foretold
Folk-pop-freak weirdo music. "...walking down a verdant country lane on a hot summer’s day, or gazing out over a beautiful view of green-patched lands, it’s easy to ignore the dark history that echoes down the ages and peeks through the gaps in the hedgerows..."

VA - HKH Cryosphere (Chinabot)
Chinabot offers its third annual compilation, focusing on the Hindu Kush Himalayas region. Inspired by melting glaciers and the terrifying powers of water-based disaster, it's made up of 10 tracks from artists from across this admittedly massive part of the world and asks them to reflect on the ecological and political ramifications of its existence. There is wonderfully expansive synth work from ose (truly one of my favourite artists of late!), dank sonics from Li Yilei and Ramsha, harsh not-quite-techno from Ly Trang and Ayankoko, and a lot more. Brilliant and fascinating as ever.

Pamela_ & her sons - dancing in the blue light
This is a super hypnotic chuggy almost beatless track that rolls with gated synths and sounds and repeated whispers. Shouts to BIZAARBAZAAR for sharing. Check out the Music Workers' Alliance, where she's a member of the steering committee, who are calling for compensation from companies such as Google and Facebook for fair retribution for use of their music. 

Kanyon - EP1
Just some right old bangers here. Jam them on your next live stream. 
 
Samia - Jannah
This is a mix on Chroma, a new venture established by Akash Chohan + Ivan Yohuno. It starts off with the beats from Switch's 'I Still Love You' from 2011 — I used to just play those beats over and over, so it's great to hear them put to good use here. The mix is a balm of fun music, trance riffs, pop songs from all over the world and dembow riddims. 

seventhgaze - Everything Here Feels Green
Nice and lush and lovely ambient. 

CARMERGING PSYCHOLOGY - INBEING
I'm not even fully sure what's going on here. Really intense noise and sound art, spanning moods and ideas, emotionally engaging without being simple or saccharine. 

Ilana Bryne - Eye Bee Volume I
Friend of the Cloud Ilana Bryne has set up a new label focusing on DIY house music. This opening jaunt is a run through drum-machine led sounds, Chicago-style sounds, each track a straightforward few minutes of percussive bounce. It's not reinventing the wheel, sure, but it is TIGHT. Think Dance Mania, Relief, that kinda thing. 'Short Ride' is a particular favourite of mine, just because of the deft drum programming and those syncopated synth patterns. Bryne's said that 'Cum 2 Me' has become the ostensible hit of the package, and with its choppy vocals and Percolator bounce that's no surprise. And to remind you that she's nothing if not a joker at heart, there's a track called 'Yet Another Track Called Work It'. We don't deserve you Ilana!