RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Feels trite and meaningless to send music today but also unfair and hopeless not to send music today. I have nothing meaningful to say so won’t offer anything. I’m on radio on Sunday night, will probably play a selection of tunes from the releases below. And maybe some Dance Mania.
Straight out of the blocks with this absolute banger. This was made when the artist woke up early and couldn’t sleep. He messed around with a tabla sample and these are the results. Pure fire. Buy here.
Selene - The Secret Garden is in Your Mind
I wrote about Selene’s previous work as Aos over at Truants a few years back (a lifetime ago in some ways). I listened to their incredible Deep Mind Music a lot on flights (remember them) back in 2019. This release for secondnature sees a marriage between the dreamy techno and ethereal ambient sounds found across these mixes and releases. At points tracks are fully of squidgy synths and booming drones, elements of 90s prog creep in (yes that is my constant frame of reference) as well as soft and deft percussion choices. Unsurprisingly, closing track ‘Selene’s Secret Garden’ is a rather wistful and expansive piece of work.
This single from Salamanda, who featured here in December, appears on Human Pitch. It manages to be both bouncy and light, with a restrained urgency alongside its airy vocals and sounds.
Al Wootton, fka Deadboy, has utterly wowed me with this release. It almost feels like the best of early ’10s post-dubstep, minus the cheap and obvious samples. It’s boomy and broad, with crisp percussion and a real sense of depth. It manages to sound intricate and complex yet seems sparing in its choices. It’s a real achievement.
Enofa is an alias of Ross Baker, who has previously used more than 20 different names. This album comes on Third Kind and genuinely feels like a host of different albums at once. At times it’s an ambient album, at times features soaring guitar lines and at others features club-ready beats. It’s varied but never unfocused.
Damian Dalla Torre - Happy Floating
Another varied and expansive work, this one features somewhere in the sphere of ambient/avant-jazz, with a rake of instruments used across the album’s eight tracks. Saxes, mellotron, clarinet, organs, you name it. I need to dig in properly but what I’ve heard I’ve enjoyed.
Simone De Kunovich - Mondo Nuovo
I love tropival house! I also love typos! This is on Mule Musiq and it really does seem to invoke a new world. There’s a lengthy section from My Dinner With Andre (which I’ve never seen, I had to google what I was hearing) that speaks to other worlds and planes of existence, and a kind of waking sleep in which we find ourselves. I can get behind that.
A track called Mariana Trench should be deep, and this is. Very much so. Zoned out techno taken from a compilation called Women Everyday Vol. 1 on Melifera Records, out March 3. Which is a Bandcamp Friday I believe.
This is a single from Phyliss Jaxson, aka Juke Bounce Werk Co-Founder, DJ Noir. Ultra-banging, appropriately wobbly, party-starting goodness.
A rich and fascinating exploration of voices, this album features layers of harmonies, spoken word, field recordings and, occasionally, beats. The artist, who is based in Bratislava, has said that 100% of digital sales this week will go to clovekvohrozeni.sk, a non-profit that is currently helping to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.
Shammen Delly - The Peoples Temple OV Big Tom
This week Irish artist Shammen Delly tragically passed away. I never met him but we shared space on Lee Lines, the compilation put together by The Department of Energy last year. I think that may have been the first time I came across him in fact. This short release was inspired by the idea of Big Tom, rather than leading a showband in the 1970s, travelling the country like an Irish mystick.
“His followers would come down the Four Country Roads in droves, the Smithwicks would be flowing and be tainted with thee auwl Magick Mushrooms, the masses would be waltzing and jiving around large fires howling to the skies as the sun rises as the big beat keeps on thumping.”
What a mind. RIP.