Bandcloud 308

BACK AGAIN. We had a nice week on the south-east coast of Ireland. Miraculously, the weather was largely nice. I hope you've been safe and practising social distancing where possible and NOT attending any large parties. For more on that note, see the end of this mail. For music, carry on.

mobilegirl - II - for Wysing Polyphonic: The Ungoverned
This is a really interesting piece from mobilegirl: "A soundtrack to grieve over alternative realities". Something a lot of us are doing these days. Composed for the Wysing Polyphonic festival, which will be taking place online next month, it's a mix of her own originals, inspired by the feelings she experienced when she moved from Munich to Berlin. "Every emancipation in its broadest sense goes hand in hand with a grieving process, a nostalgia for an alternative reality or future." The mix was conceived as a soundtrack for that process. It's deeply musical and beautiful, but features the sound of phones buzzing and car doors closing, giving it and even more intimate feel.

Shifting Gears - Evil
Hoshina Anniversary drops four tracks that are floor-focused yet remain unusual and unexpected. The rolling piano lines and drums on 'Senor Senorita' are reminiscent of 90s breakbeat seen through a digital lens, before an organ melody jumps in to give a hint of Mo'Wax. The title track feels like mid-10s LIES-era scuzzy house tackling 80s horror scores, while the layers upon layers of 'Miyatsukomaro' are breezily sumptuous. Finally, tension builds and builds with the gurgling bass of 'Syndicate'.  

Charlatan - A Glimpse At Nightfall
I didn't know it at the time, but back when I started Bandcloud in 2014, the Digitalis label was coming to the end of its lifetime. Brad Rose, who ran it with his wife Eden Hemming Rose, seemingly dropped off the face of the musical landscape, staying on Instagram to post pictures of craft beers and the growth of his young daughter. I still follow his personal Bandcamp account, and noticed he'd purchased a release from Charlatan — an alias of his own. So I went to check it out, and sure enough, it's a new thing from him, composed this year. Described as music for the end of the day, the release features two lengthy ambient pieces, laden with birdsong and the sound of waves. I got lost listening to the gentle swell of 'Ghost of Foxglove Spires' (incidentally, Digitalis is the Latin name for Foxglove). Finally, all proceeds from this album, as well as all future releases on The Jewel Garden, will be donated to the Terence Crutcher Foundation and The Black Wall Street Times.

Ranie Ribeiro - No Words
With the rise in Bandcamp Fridays I feel like I've been neglecting SoundCloud lately. I know it's not everyone's favourite online music resource, but people still use it and there are still gems to be found. One such gem is this short track from harpist-slash-DJ Ranie Ribeiro. It's a lovely track with wistful melodies and twanged strings. Levels.

Deon Jamar - System Withdrawals Pt.12
Deon Jamar is a Detroit DJ who's been sharing these "System Withdrawals" mixes lately. Numbers 11 and 12 just went up, as well as some delightful dub versions of older tracks. This mix features soulful and classic house from the likes of Fingers Inc and Chez & Trent as well as newer stuff from Kai Alcé. 

Eumig - 23
This is unusual in that there are no previews BUT I can guarantee that it is good. The album title explains it all, in that it is made up of 23 tracks which were completed in 23 minutes. The artist says that his recent works have featured ever longer tracks, so this was a new approach. The tracks are short, brief ideas given their space in the sun and then completed, moving on to another. There's a lot of harsh, discordant noise, blinding drone, undulating electronics, scuzz and fuzz and other such experimentation. And to keep with the title, it's being released on Sunday, August 23.  

Monophonik - Resume Form
This one was brought to my attention by modularprincess aka Ose aka Arushi Jain, who shared it on her Instagram stories. Monophonik is a Mumbai-based artist who's made a name for himself performing with his modular in the past decade or so. I think this is his debut release? It opens with a moody ambient track, it gets moodily clubbish, then ends on a high-tempo blissful stomper, if that's not too oxymoronic. One track in particular has a repeated sound that convinced me my phone was vibrating, even as it sat still beside my hand. 'Subdue' sounds like an angry dark clubby track but it opens up with this beautiful repeated melody that's evocative of mid-00s Border Community. What a collision of sounds. Perhaps familiar in overall form but the specifics are delightful.

Pamela Z - Unknown Person (from Baggage Allowance)
Have you ever even imagined an acappella, harmonised rendition of the generic questions you're asked before surrendering your baggage to the staff member in the airport? What kind of a mind does it take to create something like that. This is fascinating and spectacular. Then towards the end there's a chorus of subjects detailing what they pack in their overnight bags. Brilliant. 

Felicity Mangan - Creepy Crawly
Felicity Mangan is a sound artist who deals in field recordings, and on this release she takes such recordings and from them fashions beat-laden club music. It's astounding. 

Blod - Livets Ord
I got a bunch of notifications that Belgian label Aguirre had dropped some releases. They were all good! It's hard to pick out a favourite but I'll go with this. Originally released on tape two years ago, this is a vinyl repress (sold out at source probably) with digital available here. It's... ambient, but also not? There are blissful tones, and unhinged melodies, organ-like hums, not unlike the meandering themes played between key points of the service in your local church. Quite beautiful, really. The release title means "the word of life", and it's inspired by the Swedish free church/sect of that name based in Uppsala, Sweden. Apparently that church has since been accused of a variety of ills (quelle surprise) but from what I gather this is merely an outsider's fascination with cult and ritual rather than promotion of its practices.

Ireen Amnes - In The Land Of Silence (SGXLP02)
There's a line in the blurb for this album that reads: "Sounds created out of emotions that cannot be spoken." That seems apt. Listening to some of these tracks, they evoke feelings within that are unspecific and unknowable, while still being powerful and overwhelming. The album moves in a semi-linear fashion, not unlike the Monophonik release above, from ambientisch to heavy beats and beyond, but again, the sounds step beyond such formulaic presentation. 'My Mind is Broken' is a gorgeous melodic piece, while 'It Was Nice Seeing You' scrapes and corrodes sounds that start with yearning and end up in deep distress. 'Dissonance', well, the title says it all. It's discordant and cacophonic yet powerful because of it. I could write about each track but you get the picture. It's seemingly gone under the radar since its release in June, but I notice that Gavilán Rayna Russom and Silent Servant are among those who have bought it. If you needed further convincing.

MR. LU* - Nairobi Lost Tapes Vol. 1
This short tape is apparently a modern take on Kenyan classics, with local sounds given a different angle through boom-bap beats. 

Fulacht Fiadh - Fulacht Fiadh
One of the highlights of my week off was a trip to The Irish National Heritage Park, a site in Co Wexford with recreations of early modern living conditions. I was there twice as a child, and honestly it doesn't seem much different to how it was in the mid-90s. Hey, ancient history doesn't change, so why should the park? Anyway. One of the things they have on site is a fulacht fiadh, an ancient method of Irish cooking involving a pit filled with water, heated by hot stones. Meat was placed in the water and the water was then covered with thatch. Sadly, due to the virus (I think), this was not operational last week, but I have vivid memories of watching it in use 20+ years ago. I have a tendency to ramble but this is all relevant because upon my return, I came across this release. Hardly baader meinhof in action as I would always have noticed such a title, but genuinely a kind of serendipity. It's a two-part piece, modular dances that are beguiling and entrancing. Their titles come from the opening lines of a poem by Irish poet, William Allingham. It's a wonderful release, merging ancient practices and folkloric ideas with modern musical sounds and approaches. 

I initially wrote a big blurb at the top of this mail but it felt like a punishment so I've moved it down here instead. Naturally there's been a lot of energy focusing on DJs playing big events, and rightly so. I would argue that most people attending would probably be less likely to do so if their fave wasn't playing. BUT. A) The events shouldn't be happening in the first place, so the promoter has the brunt of the responsibility; B) They may well be "legal" but they're clearly not safe, and the organisers, if videos are to be believed, are not making any effort to enforce guidelines. Anyway, since when has the legality of things been an issue for the club scene, I mean really, reaching for that argument is complete BS; C) the clubbers should be staying home! We're all frustrated! We're all bored! Some people have to go to work, and have to work in dangerous situations. You do not have to throw your hands in the air listening to anodyne techno. D) An argument could be made that the arts have been hit hard by the pandemic, and I know it's a bit gauche to make assumptions about people's income but it seeeeems like the ones playing these big gigs are the ones with the highest fees anyway. I did see one DJ say that they took a gig in another country and it wasn't as safe as they'd expected, but they couldn't leave because they wouldn't get paid and they'd be down a flight and once they were there it wasn't safe anyway. Since I'm already wagging fingers here, maybe don't take gigs that you don't know will definitely be safe? I appreciate that it's easy for me to say this as I am not in a financially precarious position. But does rushing back to the club really help anyone? I would like to think that most people reading this don't need to be told this but hey. Nailing colours and all that. Finally, yes, governments should be protecting workers in dangerous environments (from hospitals to factories) as well as looking after those in temporary accommodation.