RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
The Rye Wax Show on Noods w/ Cathy Flynn
DDR stalwart Cathy Flynn runs through an hour of bangers from Irish producers for the Rye Wax show on Noods. Kicking off with Lighght’s ingenious ‘Orinoco Flowdan’, where Flowdan’s impeccable vocals bounce off Enya’s iconic breathiness. There follows a rake of amazing tunes from awesome people. What more do you want? (After writing this I saw someone complain about our collective overuse of the word iconic. If I can’t use it for Enya, I quit.)
Beast Nest’s Taste Of India, released in 2016, was a startlingly impressive piece of work that stays with me to this day. This new album is released on Ratskin and it features some amazing Kardashian-inspired titles (‘Kim, People Are Dying’, ‘Ur Doing Great Sweaty’). The music moves between densely rich ambient sounds and bizarrely buoyant dance music. There’s a plodding stomp of a track that fizzes with early electronics before exploding into a genuine sonic whirlwind. Beast Nest references the Ghost Ship fire of 2016 as a kind of genesis point, a point at which they entered a “deep, perhaps necessary, pit”. The album, or the work that preceded it, provided a rope of escape, and it’s possible to hear all that pain and joy and catharsis, even from thousands of miles away, be they physical and experiential.
Beau Wanzer - Barely A Handshake
I had some great fun on Monday playing the above Beau Wanzer track in two separate windows along with ‘Ruin Dweller’, the opening track on this release from Shrine & Mytrip on Amek. The fuzzy clank of the Chicagoans raw techno sounded marvelous against the sorrowful industrial sounds of these Bulgarians.
The Detroit Escalator Company - Soundtrack [313] + 6
A sublime and gorgeous release that I’ve been dipping in and out of for some weeks now. It’s a reissue of a record that’s apparently something of a cult classic, with just 1,000 copies originally pressed. It’s dreamy and ethereal, crisp and pulsating. I don’t want to conjure up notions of imaginary films, to be honest it doesn’t create any particular visions for me. Instead it just creates a sound so captivating that it demands your attention rather than accompanying something else.
Carlos R. - El Viaje Interior . Sendero 1
Utterly gorgeous mix here from Carlos R. It was actually recorded way back in August 2020 (a lifetime ago, truly) but that’s hardly relevant. This is a really special mix inspired by Carlos looking into his heritage. He was inspired by Ya no estoy aquí, which features the sound of pitched-down Columbian Cumbia music, known as Rebejadas. This led him to investigate the music of Central and South America, and he particularly enjoyed the sounds of Nicola Cruz and the Shika Shika label, both names that feature here, as well as some strange 90s sounds that fit alongside this entirely trippy approach to sound. It’s very psychedelic and slow but it captures a fascinating mood that deserves all your attention.
Caucenus - Paisagens Glitchadas
This is a strange release. If my own recommendation isn’t enough, know that KMRU is one of the people who’s purchased this release. It is supposed to represent a post-apocalyptic world, where insects live among the ruins of the human condition. Robots and AI survive while people do not. It’s what we deserve.
VA - Synthesis<2 (Ambient flux)
This is a compilation put together by Synthax Erika for Ambient Flux. A few familiar names for me are Delphine Dora and ambient fuccboi (who actually brought it to my attention). It’s a rich and varied selection of ambient sounds, be they vocal or electronic, experimental or straightforward, welcoming and abrasive.
Biosphere - Shortwave Memories
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the above artwork in the social posts for last week’s edition. That’s because I originally included this album only to remove it after I realised I didn’t have the bandwidth to write about it properly. These things happen. When you think of Biosphere, it’s likely you think of truly glacial, widescreen ambient works. He did the score for the original Insomnia film, after all. Then there was Angel’s Flight last year, which saw him reimagine Beethoven to thrilling effect. Anyway that’s just part of his oeuvre. His latest work sees him take up vintage hardware with no presets or storage, hence the title.
“The idea was not so much to make music that sounds like it was written in the same period. It's more like what would happen if I had the chance to use the same instruments, and applied the same meticulous attention to detail as [Martin Hannett and Daniel Miller].”
The result is an understated yet fascinating set of tracks, each flowing from the last, with a mood that’s circumspect, always looking over a proverbial shoulder. The music can’t last, so it tries to extend its lifespan through sustained whispers rather than sudden roars.
I don’t usually share three-hour mixes but this one is special. It almost doesn’t feel like a mix, as it features long sequences and tracks played one after another, rather than an opting for an intricate or carefully stitched approach. The opening 40 minutes is just a single track, William Basinski’s ‘Cascade’ from 2015. The closing 50 minutes or so are another track that I can’t identify. In between we have all manner of beauty, from artists like Caterina Berbieri, Jon Hopkins and Loraine James to name a few. It’s worth its hefty run time.
I shared a release from Kmet a few weeks ago without even writing a word, instead just using the fascinating/bizarre text that appeared on the Bandcamp page. That release was from 2020 and this one is brand new. The title of the release translates as Enslavement, and the gist of this one’s blurb is about “folk stories about mythical peasant leaders”. Imagined medieval uprisings against evil feudal overlords. The music is appropriately simple in its approach, opting for a shock-and-awe style of overwhelming dungeon synth.
Mosca - You Won’t Stop In Time
Mosca’s making an album! “It would be good PR to fill u in the personal story behind the album, but I don't really want to.” He’s releasing it bit by bit. Why not. The rules have changed. Streaming, copyright and lawsuits mean you won’t hear the same Ready To Die as the one that I have on CD (and mp3). Perhaps Mosca won’t go shifting things around like Kanye or whatever but he can do as he pleases. For starters, we have ‘You Won’t Stop In Time’, which is a haunting number that could work as a grime or rap instrumental or a soundtrack to an unnerving scene involving broken lights and dark laneways. Mischievous ghosts or something. It all peters out like a broken record player too. Magical in its terror.