My phone number starts with 316 and when I was a teenager a guy who lived round the corner allegedly wanted to beat me up and steal my phone because he was such a big fan of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Funny. I still don't understand the connection between the wrestler and the verse and DO NOT try to explain it to me. Got it? Extra-large Bandcloud today because why not.
Whirling Hall of Knives - Oo
WHOK make noisy music. NOISE. Wild brash techno. So this is a welcome surprise, it's floating, melodic and wild, roaming through galaxies and examining and observing everything that comes in its path. It's not without scuzz and fuzz, but it's gentler than I'm used to from this crew.
Shamos - Music For Broken Adverts - Y10TH
Sometimes I think I should just ditch the "Cloud" aspect of the mails because I seem to be sharing more and more on the "Band" side of things. Then this pops up. Gnarly menacing music. Shamos has previously released on Apron and SZE, and this will be his second release on Youth. It's fittingly decrepit and murky.
Metametal - Desgasta Meseta
I use the word "mournful" quite often in these mails, but nothing has ever seemed so mournful as the slightly out of tune sax playing at the start of this album. It plays over strange electronics, floating and jerking around like broken tape loops and flickering film, while on other tracks things perk up and the harmonies ebb and flow like the world's greatest crescendo/diminuendo.
IA MIX 341 Tailor Jae
Nice banger of a mix from young talent Tailor Jae. At turns percussive, bright, melodic, hazy and groovy, rough and wild. Thanks to IA for spotlighting this artist.
Veins Full of Static - Temporum
Utterly gorgeous swooning, sad ambient. Written in lockdown. Released at the start of another lockdown. Working from home, VFOS turned his studio into an office: "...an unfortunate merging of work and creative space (which, while not ideal, is not a bad place to be compared to the situations many found themselves in)." He then set about making what would become these tracks in spare moments, combining virtual synths with field recordings he took on his short walks. A reflection on uneasy isolation and an uncertain time period. The title itself is the Latin word for season, and as he notes, this "season" has lasted longer than we might have hoped or expected. I've found myself thinking that we're still in a kind of summer, if only because the summer we had never really started or ended.
Loula Yorke - Crowd Control Vol 1
Sometimes you read about the ideas behind a release and find that the concept is better than the execution. That's not the case here. With Crowd Control, Loula Yorke attempts to draw together ideas about privacy and protest, surveillance and data mining, all while making exciting music that's more than just a lofty idea. The sound is a mixture of white noise, vocal recordings and sonic manipulations that's hard to pin down but easy to enjoy. It comes in a single live piece and also 11 individual extracts.
Dj Housecat(la gata de fuego) - Lizzo's Jam(MEOW-MIX)
Maryland-based Housecat (la gata de fuego) cooked up this edit/remix of Lizzo's 'Juice' and it is hefty and housey and if this was pre-COVID times I bet it would be a real crowd pleaser. Only downside is that it's a radio edit (as it happens Housecat is a broadcaster and VP of operations at Cyberjamz radio). Check out all the other remixes and edits on her team's Bandcamp.
Nonlocal Forecast - Holographic Universe(s?)!
You may have come across the work of Nonlocal Forecast under different names, such as the much-lauded Fire-Toolz project. This release, well, I just don't know how to describe it. I'm not sure if it's 80s or 90s, but it's a total fever dream, reflecting theories of multiple universes and the theory that 3D space is a virtual reality coded on to a 2D surface. Are we what we seem? The music feels like the soundtrack to a daytime TV show that doesn't exist, MIDI chimes and keyboards leading into higher planes. Mesmerising sounds, is it future or is it past? There are so many wonderful zones here but 'Extended To Disparate Fields' is my favourite, its rolling bass line haunting and inviting at the same time.
Yr Lovely Dead Moon - Yr lovely dead moon
John from Hot Concept pitched this to me as sounding like "Jenny Hval if produced by Demdike Stare"... And if Hval were from the north of England, not the south of Norway. I'm not reallllly a guitars-y person but this album uses them well, from nightmarish shreds to delicate plucks. The spoken word (might you call it poetry?) works well with the atmospheric electronic surroundings. The melodies on tracks like 'Le Tempestaire' are beguiling and haunting, while the vocals are at times reminiscent of The Knife, at least in terms of the way in which they're processed. A solid and fascinating release.
Boreal Network - Phase With The Moon
This album is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and Hotham Sound Recordings, who've previously released BC friend Qualchan., are giving it the reissue treatment. Themed around the gray wolf (yes I'm going with gray as Boreal Network is American, each track looks at the animal from a different perspective, be it scientific or from a social point of view. You can read a breakdown here. Sonically, BN owes a heavy debt to Boards of Canada and their woozy synth sounds, grainy aesthetic and occasional dourness of mood, but there's enough character here to elevate it above the realm of pastiche.
FreakingSnap - Skullduggery And Machinations
Look, if you want some fuckin' weird squalchy noise then look no further. I won't even try to describe it but it is sick, freaky welts of squabby sounds all mushed together. Cool.
Miss Froy - home ep
Electronic music inspired by time spent on a sheep farm during lockdown. There are blissful ambient tones, drawn-out deep house, Vangelis-harkening sci-fi instrumentals, driving dubby techno and modular melodies. The final piece is particularly beautiful.
Sug - Fusion Edits
Three gorgeous edits/reworks from Sug. I know what the source material is but don't actually know the songs, so I won't ruin any potential surprise. The tracks here are ultra-groovers, making me sway and bop at my desk and doing the laundry. About as close to the club as I get these days. Seriously though these are winners.
Eclipse - sɛnʃʊəl pəːp(ə)l
Womp. This is eerie and murky, chilling (not chilled) ambient that is more likely to wind you up than help you unwind. Titles like 'Swimming in Deep Purple Lakes' give you a hint about what the provided feeling is. There's relief but it's dark and unfamiliar at the same time. 'Warm Moisture Dreams' (no comment) is a bit 'Tomorrow's Harvest' but it's all quite enjoyable in a not-very-enjoyable fashion.
Francesca Heart - Ianassa Alga Miraggio
What a gorgeous rush. The music here sounds like the album artwork, all droplets from otherwise beautifully still waters. Sorry if droplet is a dirty word these days. Tracks feature delicate Italian whispers, melodic chimes, strange wobs. Come join the Secret Congregation of the Theater of the Waters! 'Alga Azzurra detta anche....' feels like an escape from uncertain terror but with an air of frivolity. A wondrous melange of ideas.
-5°C - Structure Of The Atmosphere
"Cosmotronoise and temperature astrobient vibes" — I love new genre titles. This spacey album is soothing and beautiful, transporting you to outer rims.
The Limits of Control: Experiments in Mediation and Virulence by Ryan Diduck
Finally this week! A book! And it's not even about music! I featured Diduck's last book, Mad Skills: MIDI and Music Technology in the Twentieth Century, because it was expressly about music, but hey. This one was written live during the pandemic on an old typewriter, and accordingly it features a lot of rambling. I love it. There are some abstract cut-up moments that were beyond me, but the overall force of the book won me over. He talks about the billionaires that are what you might call the top 1% of the 1%, he talks about aliens, he talks about snooker. He relates some life stories that are at turns chilling and hilarious. If I haven't sold it to you yet, you can read an extract here.