Playlist 06.12.20 (8:12 pm)
Rap to pop to shoegaze to dance to experimental... All happening tonight.
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Ed Balloon - I Need This Cash [Deathbomb Arc/Bandcamp]
clipping. - He Dead (feat. Ed Balloon) [Sub Pop/Bandcamp]
Ed Balloon - Bad Gyal [Deathbomb Arc/Bandcamp]
Starting tonight with Boston-based rapper Ed Balloon, whose verses on clipping.'s track "He Dead" last year absolutely stole the show... His new EP I Hate It Here, his second on Deathbomb Arc, seems to draw something from the more experimental side of clipping., with his dulcet vocals (comfortable singing, and rapping in both high and low register, his vowels a reminder of his Nigerian heritage) accompanied by distorted basslines and skittering electronics beats as much as r'n'b arrangements. It's absolutely superb.
Aesop Rock - Marble Cake [Rhymesayers Entertainment/Bandcamp]
Aesop Rock - Pizza Alley [Rhymesayers Entertainment/Bandcamp]
When Aesop Rock released his last album back in 2016, I did a massive special on his work, such a towering figure is he in underground/alt. hip-hop. His lyrics frequently need a dictionary to unravel, and can be delivered at machine-gun speed, but particularly of late he's a superb and touching storyteller too. Having collaborated with many great leftfield producers (notable Blockhead), Aes has become a truly talented producer in his own right too, and for me his beats are as much a joy to hear as his rhymes. His new album professes to be a Spirit World Field Guide and comes with a bunch of creative videos pushing that concept along. Always a pleasure, Mr Bavitz.
The God In Hackney - Non Zero Number [Junior Aspirin Records/Bandcamp]
Earlier this year I came across the new album by the English band The God In Hackney, via an appearance on a Wire comp, and it was love at first sight - unusual arrangements touching on krautrock, spiritual jazz, experimental electronic and more. Here we have a charming if non-specifically harrowing number with spoken words and experimental soundscapes. I strongly recommend checking out their Small Country Eclipse album from earlier this year too.
El Hardwick - Ration Without Reason [33-33/Bandcamp]
El Hardwick - Might Makes Right [33-33/Bandcamp]
For their new album simply entitled 8, London-based multidisciplinary artist El Hardwick has created a sci-fi epic from a narrative originally conceived of as a graphic novel. Twin themes of climate and digital justice combine, as technocratic solutions to climate change are challenged alongside the patriarchy and simple good-vs-evil oppositions. Musically it's a thrilling ride, with high, layered vocals and advanced electronics - to these ears there's a resonance with the work of Aphir, which is surely high praise. This album deserves plenty of attention, so check it out!
The Brazilian Gentleman - HYMN 3 [Internet & Weed/Bandcamp]
The Brazilian Gentleman - U SHOULD LIVE HERE [Internet & Weed/Bandcamp]
C Trip A - thought streams (jesu mix) [Translation Loss/Bandcamp]
The various projects of Christian McKenna can be hard to keep track of - End Christian being perhaps the primary one of late, but it's hard to tell... He is frequently collaborating with the great Alap Momin these days, once the incendiary producer (as Oktopus) behind industrial hip-hop pioneers dälek, and with a few others the two have now made a few releases under the name The Brazilian Gentleman - each one entirely uncategorizable. The latest, released by Momin's Internet & Weed label, is 808 Hymns, and indeed the distinctive 808 kick flows through all these tracks alongside processed guitars and occasional processed vocals. It is low-key yet strangely transcendent stuff. Meanwhile, McKenna (aided by Momin and others) has a true-blue hip-hop project with rapper Anthony Adams called C Trip A, released by metal label Translation Loss, and the legendary metal/shoegaze/electronic master Justin K Broadrick just remixed them under his Jesu guise - big rumbling bass and slow beats bliss!
jesu - consciousness [Avalanche Recordings/Bandcamp]
And yup, speaking of Jesu, following the awesome and quite electronic EP Never now comes new album Terminus, which mostly finds Broadrick's vocals as clean and up-front as they've ever been. Except, I've gone and chosen the one track where they're anything but - it's not the hardcore howl, but rather heavily vocoded, akin to his earlier Pale Sketcher work.
SENS DEP - Bound [Sens Dep Bandcamp]
SENS DEP - Server hum, deep sleep [Sens Dep Bandcamp]
Speaking (marginally) as we were of experimental metal sounds, here's some wonderful doomy stuff with shoegazey and electronic elements from new Melbourne band SENS DEP, who you may recognize as members of beloved postrock band Laura. Brothers Andrew and Ben Yardley are joined by Laura's cellist Caz Gannell, with Skye Klein of Terminal Sound System (and a long time ago, doomers HALO) drumming on many tracks. Glorious, warm distortion is interrupted and complicated by studio edits, vocals enter occasionally, and Gannell's cello surfaces at times. It's beautiful and messed up, and it better not get lost in the end-of-year rush, so grab this marvellous thing now!
Happy Axe - Seven Sounds (Joalah Remix) [Spirit Level/Bandcamp]
Kcin & Tilman Robinson - Requiem for the Holocene [Spirit Level/Bandcamp]
With the end of year in sight, Melbourne's Spirit Level decided to drop their third label comp Kindred Spirits 3 with almost no warning this week. There's everything from post-classical sweetness to various forms of electronic pop and dance music. It opens with a gorgeous remix of Canberran violin & electronics maestro Emma Kelly aka Happy Axe, and I'm not sure whether "Joalah" is the name of the remix or an unknown artist. Meanwhile Sydney's Kcin and Perth-via-Melbourne's Tilman Robinson memorialise our destruction of the ecosystem on their strangely pretty contribution! If you're in Sydney, you can see Kcin aka Nick Meredith with Adrian Lim-Klumpes at SICKOfest at the Old 505 Theatre in Newtown along with some other amazing musicians.
Keleketla! - Papua Merdeka (Machinedrum Remix) [Ahead Of Our Time/Bandcamp]
Keleketla! - Swift Gathering (Skee Mask Remix) [Ahead Of Our Time/Bandcamp]
True "world" music here with a project involving Coldcut and musicians from South Africa, London, LA and elsewhere - including West Papuan independence campaigner Benny Wenda, whose moving story is the centrepiece of "Papua Merdeka". Here the track is sensitively remixed by Machinedrum, keeping the spirit of the original but in his own style. There are a number of excellent African electronic producers on the remix tip, along with others from all around the world - and I love the jungle-techno feel of anonymous German producer Skee Mask here (also check his remix of Konx-om-Pax for Planet µ's 25th anniversary comp, from which we heard a couple of other tracks tonight!)
Krust - Negative Returns (Four Tet Remix) [Crosstown Rebels/Bandcamp]
You may have noticed I was blown away by the new album from Bristol jungle/drum'n'bass Krust a few weeks ago - a radical take on the genre, standing on its own but drawing deeply from the heritage and current state of a genre he had a lot to do with the growth of. It's released on Crosstown Rebels, a label known more for house & techno, and thus the remixes have been quite unusual so far - but how could I resist Four Tet doing his first (according to his own self) proper drum'n'bass tune? It's a damn fine effort, very Four Tet but with definitely call-outs to the original (as is Hebden's style).
Meemo Comma - Tif'eret [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Bogdan Raczynski - tteosintae [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
So did I mention that the great Planet µ label has turned 25 years old? It seems like just yesterday they put out their book and compilation for 20 years, and now here we are (note: your perception of time may differ...) Their PlanetMµ25 compilation is a pretty low-key affair, but it's good reason to celebrate a continually forward-thinking label that's contributed so much to scenes from idm through drum'n'bass, dubstep and footwork. And through the influence of Mike Paradinas' partner Lara Rix-Martin, the label has championed female and non-binary artists, including through its hosting of Rix-Martin's Objects Limited label. Rix-Martin is a musician herself, and her music as Meemo Comma feels like it's getting better & better all the time. Her new track here combines jungle breaks, 4/4 beats and samples of the Sh'ma, the most important Jewish prayer, along with choral vocals and more, in evocation of the balancing sefirah from the kabbalah. Meanwhile idm legend Bogdan Raczynski contributes one of the loveliest things he's created, idm beats and purely beautiful synth pads - a wonderful surprise.
Adhelm - Swin [tak:til/Bandcamp]
Adhelm - Plume [tak:til/Bandcamp]
For tak:til, the experimental sub-label of German multicultural label Glitterbeat, English producer Beni Giles steps out on his own as Adhelm. His album Yasam Rose actual comprises two parts, following two ships in the waterways of London: the Yasam Rose plies the industrial upriver part of the Thames, while the Spek travels into the windswept Thames estuary. These settings are evoked through percussion scattered through the stereo field, supported and sometimes swamped by electronic drones and sampled vocals. In "Plume", from the second half, the percussion itself is processed into crunchy textures. One of the most unexpected of recent releases, a small marvel.
Mutilomaquia - To live with it [Dream Catalogue/Bandcamp]
Mutilomaquia - You tell yourself it's okay [Dream Catalogue/Bandcamp]
There's not much to be found out about Mutilomaquia online, but they are responsible for a large catalogue of releases over the last few years. Courtesy of HKE's Dream Catalogue, which prides itself as the originator of the nascent "dreampunk" genre, Mutilomaquia's latest album actually manages to be a bit less nebulous than much of their other work, with murky or at times muscular beats and a lot of movement, even though it's quite dark and hazey stuff on the whole. Theirs is an impressive oeuvre altogether, but this album in particular is very fine.
Geins't Naït + L. Petitgand - Bagd [Ici d'ailleurs/Bandcamp]
Geins't Naït + L. Petitgand - Chut [Ici d'ailleurs/Bandcamp]
Finally tonight, the musical partnership of Geins't Naït + L. Petitgand goes back many years. Laurent Petitgand is a well-known French actor and composer, who I would have first encountered on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' legendary Wings of Desire (better titled in German, Der Himmel über Berlin, from 1987) - and while he's responsbile for the most melodic, classical-seeming themese there, you can see his association with postpunk and industrial music already. Geins't Naït have been a band but it's now the work of Thierry Mérigout on his own, with roots in industrial as well as experimental electronic music stretching back to the '80s as well. Petitgand's beautiful piano is a foil for the electronics and noises of post-industrial collage from Geins't Naït, but mostly it's a beguiling (and at times humorous) listen, searching for something - Like This Maybe, Or This.
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