Back. Hope you had a nice few weeks. I put together a pie chart this week.

Cooly G - GET IT PT1 
Cooly G drops five new/unreleased tracks on her Bandcamp. Bolshy percussive workouts, no messing around, as you'd expect from this master. Her vocals remain understated and effective, as essential as those drums that somehow both rattle and shimmer. Different avenues are explored, with grime and M1-laden house all expressed through her own particular prism. 

VA - Into The White (New Year's 2016 free compilation)
Wonderful free compilation from Moscow's DRONARIVM that explores the label's interest in ambient and modern classical. Christopher Bissonnette, who released the wonderfulPitch, Paper & Foil on Kranky late last year, kicks things off, or should I say eases the compilation into existence like he's pushing out a toy boat on to a quiet lake. There follows mournful ambient, muted electronics, murky drone and so forth. 

Pinklogik - Music For Testcards & Collages
The artist's Bandcamp seems a bit 90s hacker aesthetic, and sure, some of the glitchy sounds on this release match that. The release is a series of paranoid excursions into dank electronica, wrapped up in a blanket of glitchy IDM. 

Julia Kent - Frost and Furrow
Julia Kent, whose Asperities was one of my favourite albums last year, contributed this track to Line Of Best Fit's 'Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada VII' compilation. No great stray from the sound of Asperities, it marries strained chords and unsettled phrasing. Pain and sorrow.

Senior Infants - Life Is Good
This caught my eye because it's the best band name I've seen in ages (for those of you not from the Republic of Ireland, Senior Infants is the name of the second year in the primary school system). The music is good too though, most importantly. It's a strange melange of fuzzy electronics, ambitious beats and a guitar-based indie sound, but it pulls it off. The title's juvenile naivety is matched by this scattershot approach, a bright-eyed sound showing a real joy in playful experimentation.

Nhung Nguyen - Home EP -
Nhung Nguyen has featured here a few times under her Sound Awakener guise, and here she releases a new EP on Elm Records under her own name. Organic as it sounds, "no real instruments were used in this album", she says. The two tracks on this release are languid expressions of unquestionable beauty. They're just too short, I think.

mix for sisters #1 - Olive T
Olive T kicks off the year with this mix that moves from Inner City and Lone towards Pearson Sound and Joy O by way of all manner of tracks, some a bit cheesy for me but all thoroughly pumping and heartfelt. "i like to throw back and throw forth," she says.

M / M - Ergo 
M/M has dropped a few new tracks but this is my pick. It opens slowly, shudderingly, with droplets of sound and muted metals dancing around nervously, but launches into a covert assault on the floor, with simple but enchanting phrases. Snarl.

Bear Bones, Lay Low - Sowisau
This is from a new LP forthcoming on Rush Hour (seemingly, as it's shared by that institution's SC page). Nice and bouncy synth music indebted to the greats.

Scissor and Thread — S&T Podcast 16 | Francis Harris 
This is too gorgeous. It starts off with chords that just scrape and scratch at my heartstrings, goes into some "lo-fi 90s indie rock" and then switches back to dire melancholy. Not one to play if you're feeling too sorry for yourself I think.

Gyt_o - 2016 JAN mini mix 
If you're still feeling sleepy after Christmas this short and snappy mix of "slow jungle" should wake you right up. Gyto is originally from Brighton but now based in Tokyo, and does this Void thing with my friend Shortie. Lovely dudes. Anyway, the mix is in that Special Request mode, all thumping sub bass, 'Amen' breaks, vocal snaps and acid house organ vamps. Kicks harder than a triple-espresso. 

Sarathy Korwar - Upaj (2/12/15)
Upaj means to improvise in Hindi, and it's the name of a night run by Sarathy Korwar and l'klectik in London that aims to create an inclusive space for artists of different backgrounds and styles to come and play in comfortable spontaneity. Players put their names in a hat and are matched up at random with other attendants.  These are two sets of extracts from the most recent event, and they showcase the exciting diversity on show. Not even worth me trying to describe it, but the focus is on traditional forms. 

Takuya Matsumoto - Para Dos Antonio 
Galcher shared this lovely and beguiling slice of beautiful electronica over 4/4 beats. 

Midlake - Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Re-Animation)
I was indulging in some grief-laden nostalgia this week, quite maudlin I agree, but it happens us all from time to time and alas this point in the calendar is when I'm most affected. This track in particular is one that I played over and over around this time seven years ago, and while I can listen to it now without the impulse to weep, it retains its earthy charm, from the folksy Americana expressed by the lyrics to the psych-laden sweep added by its "re-animators". 

Happy new year! Tell your friends! Say hi! That reply button is always calling out to you.