Playlist 03.04.22 (11:36 pm)
Internationalism, intersectionalism, experimental electronics, contemporary classical...
Listen again, for chrissakes! Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.
Jessica O'Donoghue - Rise Up [Art As Catharsis/Bandcamp]
Starting tonight with the first single from a new album from Sydney-based singer Jessica O'Donoghue, released on the wide-ranging Art As Catharsis. Working with Alyx Dennison and David Trumpmanis, O'Donoghue adapts a traditional Greek song, "Dance of Zalongo", which describes the mass suicide of Greek women and children in Souli after the invasion of the Ottoman army, into a powerful song about women's resilience, with electronics and percussion along with the harmonised folk choir vocals. Can't wait to hear the rest of the album...
Julmud جُلْمود - Saree' el thawaban سريع الذوبان [Bilna'es/Bandcamp]
Julmud جُلْمود - Falnukmel فلنكمل [Bilna'es/Bandcamp]
Julmud جُلْمود - Juwway جوّاي [Bilna'es/Bandcamp]
From Ramallah, Palestine comes an album from hip-hop producer, rapper and percussionist Julmud جُلْمود. The Bilna'es label is co-run by Muqata'a, and some of his glitchy tendencies and love of breakbeats can be heard here - and of course the theme of oppression, unavoidable when living in the occupied territories. Here Julmud crafts varied tracks from chopped & screwed Arabic samples, drum breaks, percussion and more. Don't let this slip through the cracks!
Slikback - PROXY [Slikback Bandcamp]
Another Bandcamp release from Kenyan producer Slikback, with more hard-hitting experimental club sounds. He's a talented producer and is always pushing his boundaries.
Pugilist & Tamen - Resolute [Pugilist Bandcamp]
Lots of Bandcamp Friday releases tonight. Here, Melbourne bass producer Pugilist has put up two recent collaborative tracks, and this one with fellow Melburnian Tamen is a brilliant bit of bass & breaks, a slower version of the rhythmic mastery found in the jungle tracks they've made together for Repertoire and Tempo.
Brainwaltzera - tracing Rays [reality glo] [FILM]
Brainwaltzera - mixolydian transition 18 [FILM]
Brainwaltzera - ad interim [FILM]
Five years after his debut album on FILM, Poly-ana, enigmatic European IDM producer Brainwaltzera returns to the album format with ITSAME. It's more highly nostalgic IDM, heavily influenced by the mid-to-late '90s originals from Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, µ-Ziq, Plaid and the like. But for any lack of originality, it's never less than very well done, with pretty melodies and ever-shifting beats - not complaining!
µ-Ziq - Giddy All Over [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
But here's one of the originals! Mike Paradinas is gearing up for the 25th anniversary of one of his most beloved µ-Ziq albums, Lunatic Harness, released before Planet µ was an independent label, but in 2022 receiving the deluxe treatment on the label. In the meantime, Mike was inspired to return to the jungle/'ardcore inspirations of '97, and there will be an EP, a full album, and a second EP by the end of the year. Out now is the first EP, Goodbye, with joyful jungle breaks and splattered pop samples, along with "Darkside" and "Jungle Tekno" remixes of one track.
Morwell - Falling [Morwell Bandcamp]
Here's a new producer mining the shining seams of UK hardcore and jungle. Morwell knows the history of soundsystems and rave and happily mashes it up with contemporary musical strains as well as pop tendencies. Of late he's been creating edits and sneaky remixes, following an excellent debut album last year, but next week he drops the Strange Heart EP with four new originals. We heard "Falling", with disembodied pop samples and a jungle tekno framework.
Harmony - Deep Breath [Over/Shadow/Bandcamp]
Subjects - Goblin [Deep Jungle]
Producing jungle tracks since the mid-'90s as (DJ) Harmony, Lee Bogush also heads up the excellent Deep Jungle label, which for 5 years now has been releasing top-notch 12"s from original jungle producers' DAT archives, as well as new releases from new jungle artists. The latest Harmony 12", though, is a two-tracker released by Over/Shadow, the label setup by two of the people involved in the legendary Moving Shadow label. Bogush's own productions are regular highlights on the Deep Jungle release schedule, and this 12" keeps the quality high; but Deep Jungle isn't resting, and the mysterious Subjects keep up the quality too with their 6th 12" for the label. Also recommended is the Orca 12" with two circa-'93 jungle monsters from the duo of Kristian Townsend and Kosheen's Darren Beele.
Mick Harris - P section [Mick Harris Bandcamp]
Mick Harris - Gillis [pond version] [Mick Harris Bandcamp]
We've been following the HedNod Sessions from Scorn's Mick Harris for a while now, and he's just reached HedNod Twelve, which gets to be a bit longer than the previous ones on his Bandcamp. It's the usual fare from Harris - massive bass, head-nodding beats, here more on a hip-hop tip rather than the ponderous dubstep-adjacent beats that Scorn's been known for for nearly 3 decades. Always a pleasure.
Gantz - Doomleg [Gantz Bandcamp]
And speaking of dubstep, Turkey's Gantz has slid sideways from the genre, extending to mutant trip-hop and sub-aquatic electronics. For Bandcamp Friday, his ruff 2 collects four older 140bpm tracks - two instrumentals of older tunes and two others, great as always.
Julian Sartorius & Matthew Herbert - Four Twenty [Accidental Records/Bandcamp]
Drum Solo inaugurates a new series from Matthew Herbert's Accidental Records of albums recorded in a day. Here Herbert's electronic treatments are applied, live, to the playing of Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius. Complex rhythmic formations are disintegrated and remade in realtime. Basslines appear, harmonic textures bubble up, and while it's certainly anything but "Drum Solo", the percussion is nevertheless the core of the music. I've been loving it.
Kane Ikin - New Forms [Room40/Bandcamp]
Lisa Lerkenfeldt - Notebook Of Interiors [Room40/Bandcamp]
Out this week is a new compilation from Room40 curated by photographer and musician Traianos Pakioufakis, originally from Perth and now resident in Sydney. Pakioufakis was asked to commission musical works for Musical Chair, a project by Pattern Studio for Melbourne Design Week in 2022. The concept is that the music would be played on a special chair fitted with Bluetooth speakers, as a kind of tribute to performances lost through Covid lockdowns. The music appears on Pattern Language, featuring Shoeb Ahmad, Lisa Lerkenfeldt, Chris Abrahams, Lawrence English, Jonnine, Kane Ikin and Ai Yamamoto, each of whom bring their unique musical styles to the table (or *ahem* chair). Tonight we heard the organic-feeling electronics of Kane Ikin (himself a Perth transplant, now in Melbourne) and the droned-out vocals and piano of Melbourne's Lisa Lerkenfeldt.
Plastikman & Chilly Gonzales - Contain (In Key) [Turbo Recordings/Bandcamp]
Plastikman & Chilly Gonzales - Converge (In Key) [Turbo Recordings/Bandcamp]
Minimal techno purists may be perturbed by this. Some two-and-a-half decades on from Plastikman's classic of minimal techno Consumed's release in 1998, Tiga and Chilly Gonzales conceived of this reimagining: Consumed In Key. Chilly Gonzales plays his European chamber piano over and under the original tracks, transforming them into something new. Gonzales is a sensitive interpreter and clearly loves the source material. As I am anything but a minimal techno purist, I've found these delightful listening - just don't expect the austere originals.
Field Works - Station 10 Review - Alva Noto Remodel [Temporary Residence/Bandcamp]
Field Works, Stuart Hyatt, Hanna Benn, Janie Cowan, Masayoshi Fujita, Qasim Naqvi, Pick a Piper - Station 7 [Temporary Residence/Bandcamp]
Field Works - Station 9 Review - Penelope Trappes Remix [Temporary Residence/Bandcamp]
For his 10th volume of Field Works releases for Temporary Residence (the first 6 were a 6LP set), Stuart Hyatt worked with the geoscientists of the EarthScope project to harness the sounds of the planet itself as source material for his ever-changing musical collaborators to jam along to. It's hard to identify the seismic and volcanic sounds here, but the musicians bring peace and ecstatic joy to the proceedings, with vocal harmonies, upright bass, drums, vibraphone and electronics. The deluxe vinyl and digital editions also come with a suite of remixes of each of the "Stations", ranging from 4/4 techno to drone, to the glitchy electronica of Alva Noto, and the gorgeous sparse piano, vocals and reverb from ex-pat Aussie Penelope Trappes.
BARNETT & COLOCCIA - Bristlecone [SIGE Records/Bandcamp]
Sparse piano and vocals are also found in this beautiful closer from Faith Coloccia and Alex Barnett, whose latest Barnett & Coloccia album Third Wilderness came out digitally last year, and is finally available on vinyl. The duo have been working together for a decade or so, drawing equally from the industrial noise of Barnett's projects such as Oakeater and the gothic piano, ethereal vocals and sometime metal roots of Coloccia's Mamiffer. On this last track, the industrial aspects are muted, leaving us with a sound that's closest to Coloccia's solo work as Mára.
Listen again — ~199MB
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