RIP. A weekly roundup of releases on Bandcamp and Soundcloud selected and delivered by Aidan
Good morning. I did the first grass-cutting of the year yesterday, perhaps I was lazy in leaving it so late but it just rains so much here.
Jack Ward - A Gift from Me to You
Jack Ward took a social media break to cook up some tunes for us, and he’s just dropped this release with its charming artwork and playful track titles. ‘Sotofett Gig Harry Potter’, for example. The music is intricate, delicate, carefully arranged and, most importantly, fun. I think ‘LD’ might be my favourite.
More crisp and punchy sounds. The constant drive of Meduna’s electro rhythms is incredibly energetic, with a pulse that reminds me of something that I just can’t place. ‘Nafiltida’ is snarling yet cheeky, with irreverence rather than anger at its heart. ‘Henxakake’ is deeper, somehow, yet retains that driving edge. Quizzik remixes ‘Nafiltida’ and takes it into a weirder, more open space, full of choppier waters.
VA - May Day (Landscape Mixtape) (The Department of Energy)
This has been out for a few weeks but it’s so mahoosive that I haven’t had a chance to get to grips with it fully. It’s a compilation put together by The Department of Energy to mark May Day. The prompt for the compilation was corporate and state violence and resistance to that by local organisations. This is explored in many ways across the 60-odd tracks on this sprawling mixtape, but there are moments of genius throughout. I should add that I have a track of my own in there, inspired by The Wicker Man, not least because of the timing of the year, but also because of that film’s islanders and their own peculiar way of life.
Kamyar Behbahani and Karim Ebrahimi - Metamorphosis Behind The Curtains Of Time
It seems Iran’s Noise à Noise label doesn’t do boring releases. This in particular sees film score composer Kamyar Behbahani join forces with percussionist and composer Karim Ebrahimi. The release (I’m not sure if it’s an album or EP or if it matters) features the sound of the Tombak (a kind of “goblet drum”) used and abused, with its rattles and pulses left raw and untreated as well as being transmuted into a digital cacophony. It’s amazing.
Wilted Woman returns to Phantasy with a peculiarly summery record. ‘Glossy Center’ is full of tough and syncopated percussion yet overflows with bright and shiny synth melodies, with almost trancey scuzz sitting underneath these main themes. This track comes remixed by Kim Ann Foxman, who adds layers of party stomp. ‘Close to Stone’, meanwhile, is almost akin to 90s ambient house, with floating synths over soft kicks reminiscent of Orbital. She’s also got a mix out for the do you have peace? label.
MELVL featured in Bandcloud 321 with Lachrymal Heartflesh, one of my top albums of 2020. The Sleep of Devils dropped quietly this week and it’s quite beautiful. I believe it’s a collection of their favourite previously released works, and yet it feels like a coherent set of songs. Beautiful solo choral works, like a sad renaissance fayre.
Warm and delicious electronic sounds for beach listening, day or night. ‘Sonrisa Del Mar’ is particularly intoxicating.
Here’s a track from Mix Mup and Kassem Mosse that featured on the vinyl-only The Home Truths Compilation Volume Three last year. It’s real electro soul, with warm chords alongside crisp drum machine echoes.
Koray Kantarcıoğlu - Loopworks 2
This is amazing, an album built around snippets and samples from Turkish TV shows and new age tapes from decades past. Float away on the a sea of reverb, with forgotten memories and unknown experiences taking you to a place in someone else’s dreams.
Peter Coccoma - A Place to Begin
“After the near death of a loved one, I came to a frozen island in the far north on Lake Superior at the end of winter. I had been feeling stuck, but this encounter with death opened up a deep awareness of the present moment in me.”
What an introduction to a piece of work. This album was forged in the depths of winter and is suitably quiet and still. Described as an extended tone poem, it’s a work of gentle moments and deep heart. It’s one you can get lost in, paying attention to every choice and decision inside of it, or one to listen to as you drift away.
VA - This is release MFR100 (Moving Furniture Records)
Finally this week, congrats to Moving Furniture for reaching the 100-release point. Rather than a rehash of previous releases or a best of, Sietse van Erve aka Orphax, who runs the label, invited everyone who had been or was about to be released on the label to take part in this release, for which they would be paired up at random with another artist. The results are as wide-ranging and fascinating as you might expect from this label, with soft piano works next to crunching drone, harsh noise alongside acoustic sound art. All profits are going to Dutch suicide prevention organization 113 Zelfmoord Preventie.