What I like about RSS feeds is they’re really low distraction and unmediated. Email newsletters are pretty close, but they still arrive amongst other emails (to state the obvious). I like going to my reader when I want to and find there’s not much of that stressful vibe I associate with most contemporary online stuff.
I’ve not been really into that much new music in the last 5 months since I did one of these, so not had that much I wanted to write.
Partly I’ve been busy in work life and not listening while working, which was definitely a big part of remote working for me. But for whatever reason not much music has been grabbing me and inspiring me to play it again, in the face of the “content” churn:
Shuffling dumb pop hits and 80s soft rock via one of the big bad streaming services.
Audio books.
Podcasts.
And of course watching stuff, instead of listening:
movies,
TV, and
videos about
music,
movies,
TV…
Weirdly, despite feeling like I’m not really engaging with (other people’s) music, the days when I don’t listen to new music are absolutely the exception. Right now I have 175 Bandcamp links bookmarked in a “music to check” folder in my browser. I stack them up from links on social media and via announcements from the 450 accounts I follow on Bandcamp, telling myself I’ll listen to this stuff when I can give it a fair go. Then on top of that there’ll be “out of cycle” stuff like a friend’s new album or the new Everything But The Girl where I know I want to jump in right away.
So it’s not like I’m not listening, but it’s almost like a depressed thing where I just … note whether I reckon a piece of music is well done or not, rather than feeling it. The joys of being really busy all the time? The realities of the ever-increasing volumes of new releases? The dumbness of putting pressure on yourself to do something that’s supposed to be enjoyable?
Anyway, here’s some stuff and some responses to it.
Loscil // Lawrence English – Colours of Air (Kranky)
I’m always interested in what both of these folks do. Did you know Canadian Loscil released a 12″ via New Zealand label Involve Records? Cool cool cool.
Anyway, this album is all very simple sounding ambient music, but really is perfectly refined. “Great production” can be such a slap in the face, such faint praise, but if that’s how you want to describe what’s happening here it really is important and really is what separates this from much more boring shit.
English has a kind of physicality to what he does, even when you’d call it ambient. It sounds like it would hit hard over a big system, I guess. Meanwhile Loscil stuff can be a bit too washed out and distant for me, even while I love his more dubby stuff to bits. I find this album the best of both worlds, even the most simple repeating synth lines hitting hard and often sounding huge in a purely good way.
Arovane and Taylor Deupree – Skal_Ghost (12k)
Another first-time collaboration between two ambient music heavyweights, but one I’ll admit I was pretty sceptical about. I don’t often like Arovane’s music and recent Deupree hasn’t been essential, IMO, however much I adore e.g. Shoals. On top of that, the point of focus for this is gear, which sets off alarms.
Anyway, maybe these relatively low expectations contributed to how much I’ve been enjoying this. Exquisite moody sound sketches.
Peace Point – Cycles (Strange Behaviour)
OK, I did a remix that shows up on this, so maybe it looks bad to then blog about it, but fuck it, I’ve been listening to this a lot and I really enjoy the original tracks. (I mean, I really like my remix too, but you can’t say that.)
There’s an upbeat but still super mellow beat-y number, there’s one with bass guitar, but mostly some really tasty synth-based ambience. Definitely worth your time.
Inner River – Inner River (Atomnation)
Adrien had recommended this one before and I’d thought it was pretty good, but it really clicked this time around, just in the last month. Reminds me of territory Nicolas Jaar covers, but I like this a lot more than his music. Chill doof? Often beats, often wandering synths and mellow electric piano kind of stuff, as well as wordless vocal slices echoing about. Good times.
Got to be my favourite compilation of the year. A weird thing: as a whole it feels like it could be from one artist, just variations on beautiful, dreamy, synthy ambient from folks I’ve never heard of. But it also doesn’t all sound the same. A second weird thing: several tracks remind me of what I’m trying to do in recent months with my own music. Strange synchronicity.
Funki Porcini shows up, with a nice floating thing with far away voices that is nothing like what I remember him doing on Ninja Tune back last century. Mind you, I could point to someone else who did downtempo beats stuff and is now much more in the ambient camp. 😇
Some of the same artists are doing dancey vinyl on New_Words’ sister label and the album is tagged “grime”! 🤔 I guess if anything that weird, beatless version of grime that I never quite understood as a kind of dance music? It’s got the kind of sound selections and vibes that show up in dancier contexts, but no sign of drums here.
I hope New_Words are selling well off Bandcamp, because it’s bizarre how few people seem to have picked this up. Previous releases quote write ups from other music shops, so… 🤞
Teebs – Did It Again (self-released)
A nice wee single with Panda Bear from Animal Collective singing on the first track. Teebs is a producer with connections to that LA beat scene that included folks like Flying Lotus, Gasface Killer, Ras G, et al. He doesn’t release often, but when he does I pay attention. His style’s prettier, more delicate than most, often featuring acoustic sounds such as guitars, harps, and so on. Still groove-based in a very good way.
Nueen – Diagrams of Thought (Balmat)
I’m really impressed by this guy. Mostly drum-free, so I guess you’d say ambient, but in a bright and quite melodic way, not droney. And then there are beats and bassy moments that definitely sound like he must listen to plenty of dance music, even when sometimes those sounds are more like punctuation than a steady dancefloor thing.
I smile because it’s literally Balearic music – he’s from Menorca from memory – but not sure it sounds like how people use that as a genre descriptor. Great, anyway.
Cleared – Of Endless Light (Touch)
Beautiful softly swelling tracks, at their best when they have a bit of a metronomic slow mo pulse under them, not vying for attention but just stopping the drones from feeling settled. “Dawn” is heavy in a great way, but the title track is superb.
James Devane – Beauty Is Useless (Umeboshi)
It strikes me everything I’m writing about this time around is something that sounds like it could’ve been released a while back, with a few contemporary flourishes. This is slabs of kinda dubby, but also pretty and bright, techno, reminiscent of Kompakt about 15-20 years ago. Something like the Burger/Ink collaboration maybe.
When I say “slabs”, most tracks don’t really change. Like Devane’s set up some kind of musical system, hit record, let the system run for a bit, then at some point stopped recording again. I kind of love that in this context. Easy to get lost in it.
Loving this US trio’s throwback ambient techno vibes, like the best of 90s R&S or something, but the definite standout for me is the pair of remixes by xphresh (Ben Bondy/Special Guest DJ). Cheeky use of a pop acapella recontextualised beautifully, plus a close to instrumental version if vocals aren’t your thing. I see there’s vinyl on pre-order if that’s what you’re into.
Jack Woodbury | Peter Liley – Unfathomed Waters (Genre Defying)
Beautiful textures and moods from these Wellington NZ composers. While it leans really ambient, I also love the noisy explosive stuff near the end. There is no way those later tracks, distorted duets between crashing drums and roaring sax, are not directly influenced by Colin Stetson, but I’m fully into it. “Enter the Temple” in particular.
I do find the name of this Rattle Records sub-label pretty cringey. 😬 Oh well! I’m definitely going to write this one up for AmbientNZ.com when I get a minute.
Accelera Deck – Alligator (self-released)
The idea of a 2-hour, 15-track single is hilarious. But it was a rec from a friend and I read what the artist has to say and was immediately into it:
“…I usually start each new recording with a rough outline, or concept. Maybe just a single word…, with Alligator I decided to treat the beats as textures and explore all the permutations in a similar spirit as how I think Seefeel or Basic Channel/ Rhythm & Sound would”- c.jeely
I normally immediately avoid huge releases, keep it punchy (even if the music isn’t) I reckon. But I’ve really enjoyed just chucking this on shuffle and dipping in and out of as much or as little as I feel like. Tasty ambient dub kind of thing. I like the sound of it in the literal sense and the conceptual one.
Dettinger – Intershop (Kompakt)
Not at all a recent release, but I loved revisiting this recently. The remaster on Bandcamp sounds cracking.
I bought this at the Kompakt shop in Köln in 1999 and listened to it on my Discman as I travelled across Europe by train. So really nice memories there, which surely contributed to how much this blew me away, influenced my own music making and has continued to make me happy over decades. Track six is one of my favourite pieces of music.
There’s a thread of contemporary stuff I like (c.f. those xphresh remixes of Purelink 👆) that picks up from where folks like Dettinger left off, whether it’s coincidence or influence. I bought Jan Jelinek’s first album as Gramm at the Kompakt shop too, and I’m hearing that loungier end of his sound these days too. I listened to some really relevant thoughts from Kode 9 about how music actually develops, which I really agree with. It’s not a straight line.
Womb – Feeling Like Helium (Sonorous Circle & Arcade Recordings)
I never quite got Womb’s 2018 debut album (“got” in either sense!) but this single stood out and stuck with me, so four years late I shelled out and picked it up. It’s a beautiful song, but I reckon what probably lifts it for me is that re-played vocal part. The kind of thing I might expect in either some carefully produced pop or electronica, but being played live in the context of a quite loose indie band… it gets me in a way that this technical description probably doesn’t do justice to.
I secretly enjoyed breaking down the track “Griselinea Lucida” a couple of months back, so had another go with “Tonal Drift”. These are both off my most recent album, Room Tones. This time around I focused a bit more on how I went about writing, rather than just what parts make up the final track.
Ha, I’m contractually obliged to mention Adrien’s latest, since there’s a track on here called “Upton In Berlin”.
The album reminded me straight away of Adrien’s release back in the day on Move D’s label, where he was virtually/label-ly rubbing shoulders with Jan Jelinek, Moufang himself, and so on. The connections are the dusty hazy chords and dubbed out atmospheres and the switch between muffled drum machine beats and breakbeats.
It doesn’t feel like a throwback though – it’s also hard not to also think of the new schoolers who are on that retro cycle and bringing these sounds back, rejuvenated and exciting again. I’m thinking of that unnamed, loose collective connecting Kansas to Berlin (and Australia via Ben Bondy and also the Daisart label), names like Huerco S, Uon, Ulla Straus, Exael, and on and on.
Floatinghead – Live at The Third Eye (self-released)
My idea of tasty jazz. I somehow never went to the Third Eye, which I think is now shut? This reminds me of what I like from Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes and associates. Super tasteful sparse synthy passages, a lot of groove from start of finish (never a shuffle), catchy melodic bits, and when it all goes skronk it’s welcome contrast. Horns from Lucien Johnson and Bridget Kelly are great, but it all works together really well. A great set!
Carmen Villain – Only Love From Now On (Smalltown Supersound)
The opening track with Arve Henriksen is so beautiful it’d be easy to miss just how good the album is as a whole. The insistent, ringing percussion and shimmering layers work so well with Henriksen’s playing. Easy to draw the dots to Jon Hassell but I also find it pretty distinctly its own thing. Elsewhere a lot of flute intermingling with the electronic beds and soft percussion. “Subtle Bodies” is another fave.
Bad Channel – INTLBLK005 (International Black)
Nice dub techno two-track from Harvey Sutherland and Kane Ikin, excellent Melbourne producers. Not sure what more to say. Sparse, warm, rounded off (not spiky), and every element placed beautifully to serve the groove. I wrote “sparse” to dodge the usual implications of “minimal” suggesting something abstract or cold, I don’t get that vibe from this at all. Sutherland’s love of house comes through.
Kris Keogh – Processed Harp Works, Vol 3 (Muzan Editions)
Exactly what it says on the tin. Northern Territory-based harpist and electronics bod, Keogh dropped the first volume of this via New Weird Australia 11 years ago and I still listen to it. Beautiful lush harp parts and really really digital managing of that acoustic source. Sometimes harsh and jagged, sometimes sparkly and dubby. The combination really really works for me, such a rich and beautiful sound source, and then the frisson created by the digital processing… something about that really hits the spot.
I made this video, breaking down the track “Griselinea Lucida” from my latest solo album Room Tones. It was a pretty interesting experience. I run software training as part of my day job and that set me up to be pretty relaxed while making the video, which I did record live in one take, and pretty self-critical afterwards. 😅
I never, ever want to be a “content creator”. But I do really like to share and I have learnt so many useful and musical techniques for my current music-making environment via videos. I was also partly inspired by Auckland musician Kraus breaking down his track “Candy”. This video is all about a relatively different way of making electronic music to how I do it, but it was still just fascinating to me and great fodder. I hope stuff I share and perhaps take for granted will trigger ideas for others.
I use software called Bitwig for writing music and I came across this modulators and oscillators challenge. I’ve written a bit of music following the tight rules on that page and made a wee video. They call it a “beat battle”, but that seems kinda hilarious given the rules involved.
The video and the music might be of interest even if you don’t use Bitwig and even if you don’t make music. I dunno.
The rules, from the page I linked to in the first paragraph, are:
max one bitwig instrument track
one note clip with max 8 bar length
120bpm
one instrument of your choice
max 20 modulators
max 10 effect devices
operators are allowed & desired
unlimited note effects
no 3rd party plugins
bitwig 4.3 beta allowed
selectors/layers allowed but you’re limited to one instrument
I gave Punisher a go when it came out and moved on without a second thought, but then I watched a YouTube video from this channel Professional Musicians React where they had one of the three co-producers plus a guitarist from the band in the studio, and they tricked me into liking it. 😉 I’ve had this very ambivalent thing going on with this channel’s content for a while now. I sort of hate it. On one level, the stuff they gush over is exactly what I don’t, both in terms of their taste in music and what matters to them about the music too. You know, they’re enthusing about playing with Michael Buble or whoever. But on another level, it’s become my light comfort TV, and I genuinely enjoy watching it.
Anyway, lyrics-wise I love stuff that sounds like a string of really, really specific recollections or observations. So it sounds personal, but the whole shifts from confessional-feeling to impossible to read in any one way. There’s often a strong sentiment there, but also a decent kind of mystery. Something to chew on.
I stumbled over their song “Wet Dream” first a few months ago and found it really fun and funny, then promptly forgot about them until I heard “Chaise Longue” last month… nek minit, I’ve played the whole album multiple times. It’s not one I’ve bought yet, because I’m paranoid it’ll have a really short shelf-life.
As well as the fun, tight music, I really like how the lyrics are kind of chatty and often refer to very contemporary stuff without ever sounding forced IMO. Most of it is pretty mopey, but the music typically isn’t at all. My current fave is probably “Piece of Shit” which covers those contrasts pretty nicely.
Flin van Hemmen & Jozef Dumoulin – New Dance Moves (Shhpuma)
So if I’m going to be honest I don’t remember why I bought this and I regret it. Stink. I listened to it through for the first time while walking around Blenheim on a rainy day. Maybe that spoiled it for me.
Jack J – Opening the Door (Mood Hut)
I loved that one Jack J song “Thirstin'” back in 2005, so when his debut album suddenly appeared all these years later I gave it a good four or five listens. But I didn’t “buy on sight”, as they say, and I don’t think I’ll revisit it.
There’s some sort of reggae numbers, some sort of jazz fusion ones, all in a very indie 80s vein … some songs, some instrumentals … just none of it grabbed me.
Dimitar Dodovski – TUN008 (Móatún 7)
Compared to Dimitar’s last EP, this collection of beautiful electronic instrumentals is much more focused on tuned percussion sounds and interlocking rhythmic parts. Those things are always there, but this EP seems particularly about that and just in general particularly focused. I don’t mean to make it sound like there’s only one thing going on here, because there’s a nice range of feels and tempos. For example “Do While Bamboo” bounces along with crisp drums and deep bass, while “Future Horizon” floats, with nothing like a classic “band” rhythm section to pin it down.
I love letting these things roll around in my head. Perhaps surprisingly I’ve found the EP really good driving music.
Ben Green – Lauchie Cox (Music Company)
I held off on buying this for ages, as I was pretty into it, but I thought it might be too nice-nice for me. Pristine, pretty instrumentals focused on piano, but a full one-man-band thing going on with clean guitar lines, soft electronic percussion, minimal basslines… all with a bright sheen over them. Something in here takes me back to, I dunno, Daniel Lanois, Michael Brook, the Real World label. It would be easy enough to dismiss this as just the noodlings of a decent enough instrumentalist making home recordings. I almost did. But at the start of the month I bought it and I’m really glad I did. It’s just sincere chill out music, I suppose.
Vlad Dobrovolski – Playbacks For Dreaming (Muscut)
So this album by a Russian producer was scheduled to be released on Ukrainian label Muscut. Given Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, the owner of Muscut has said he really can’t release Russian music at the moment, so … now you can’t get it. I pre-ordered and still got the files. So I don’t know if I should even bother to write more about it at this point. I like the music, though.
AFTA-1 – _UNDFND (self-released)
Heh, I actually only listened to this album once last album, but its 19 tracks are enough that it showed up in my top 9 listens.
This came out in 2019 and I’m sure it’s a Karnan Saba recommendation. Kind of a beat tape I guess, but at the mellow and melodic end of such things. Definitely stands up.
Priori – Your Own Power Remixes (Naff Recordings)
I got this EP for the DJ Python remix. I knew and liked 3 of the other 4 remixers on the EP, so was willing to take a punt, but that DJ Python mix is still the stand out for me.
Priori’s own music is very specifically retro, basically pastiche of a kind of very clean almost-trancey-but-pretty-chilled techno from the early 90s. I think of Sun Electric, of Higher Intelligence Agency. I’m not that into it.
DJ Python often has a really 90s vibe happening too, but quite a different one. In this case, his remix puts me in mind of a really specific vein of instrumental trip-hop that I might be the only person in the world to connect up. Kind of bedroom techno and 90s hip-hop aesthetics crossing over. Things that showed up on Mo’Wax, like Plaid remixing UNKLE vs. Major Force, Autechre remixing Palmskin Productions, or that “Street Mix” of Innerzone Orchestra’s classic “Bug In The Bass Bin”. I don’t know if this remix really sounds like any of these things, but it makes me nostalgic, anyway.
