Playlist 17.04.22 (11:36 pm)
Strange melodies, warped rhythms, voices from the ether...
LISTEN AGAIN before it's too late. We're depending on you! Podcast here or stream on demand @ FBi.
Jockstrap - Concrete Over Water [Rough Trade/Bandcamp]
When Jockstrap signed to Warp in 2020 I was blown away by the two EPs they released for the label, with Georgia Ellery's vocals and violin, and both her and Taylor Skye's piano and production skills. In the interim, they've signed to Rough Trade, and released a very dancefloor-oriented track last year, which they've just followed up with the gorgeous "Concrete Over Water", which is best experienced with the delightful video, conceived of by Ellery with director Eddie Whelan. To Ellery's musical skills we can add acting and movement, as she portrays three different characters exploring a strange little fairytale world. The song itself again matches emotive melodies, close harmonies and unfettered electronics. The only downside is that there isn't more.
µ-Ziq - Goodbye (Xylitol Remix) [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
µ-Ziq - Goodbye (DJ Manny Remix) [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Following the brilliant return of Mike Paradinas as µ-Ziq to the jungle-loving sounds of his circa-'97 productions, Planet µ are releasing the Goodbye Remixes this coming Friday. Given Planet µ's status as evangelists for Chicago's footwork sound, and given the genre's strange synergy with jungle's frantic tempos, it's fitting that there are a few footwork producers there. DJ Manny keeps impressively close to the original's breakbeats and vocal samples, just adding a footwork 4/4 pulse and fluttering hi-hat, yet making it his own. Meanwhile Brighton's Xylitol shows that she knows Paradinas' style inside-out, constructing a blissful jungle ride with added dancing synth melodies that are pitch-perfect µ–Ziq - quite an achievement.
Uman Therma, Yeong Die, Yetsuby - Intro (Vol. 2) [Computer Music Club]
Uman Therma, Yeong Die, Yetsuby - 4040404 [Computer Music Club]
Computer Music Club is a South Korean label/collective exploring IDM & dance music through varying tempos and styles and having a hell of a lot of fun doing so. All three are female producers whose other work leans more towards ambient, contemporary classical and minimalist work - together, Uman Therma & Yetsuby are Salamanda, while Yeong Die has released electronic soundtracks and piano music among other things. Yet together they're making crazy beats full of chopped breaks & glitches & samples, ranging from downtempo to techno to drill'n'bass and breakcore. Check out the five volumes so far released, and follow their Bandcamp for more.
Pugilist & Tamen - 2 Tone [Tempo Records/Bandcamp]
Pugilist & Tamen - Mirrors [Tempo Records/Bandcamp]
Ten years ago, Melbourne-based producer Pugilist was still in NZ, and began releasing superb dubstep and occasional uk garage music as one half of the duo Perverse. As Pugilist, Alex Dickson has traversed dubstep, uk garage, dub techno, drum'n'bass and jungle - in the last 2 or 3 weeks we've heard some other breakbeat work of his with fellow Melburnian Tamen, and meanwhile their second collaborative EP has come out, this time from the pretty exclusive Rotterdam drum'n'bass label Tempo Records. This is prime contemporary jungle, relentless beat juggling and all. Recommended.
Parallel Action - You Said (Brainwaltzera Remix) [C7NEMA100]
Parallel Action - You Said (Original) [C7NEMA100]
This new EP from Parallel Action describes the artist as having a trip-hop aesthetic, and I kind of get it - with jungle having a renaissance, it's not surprising that trip-hop might be too (Sevdaliza is testament to that). But the vocal samples and electronic beats on Parallel Action's "You Said" remind me more of Various Production, or the late-'90s/early-'00s IDM/breakbeat of Tipper circa The Critical Path (or see especially the Phoenecia remix of Dissolve (out)). Genre arguments aside, this is lovely stuff, and the remixes are top notch too, emphasising that IDM/breaks connection with The Fear Ratio and new IDM hero Brainwaltzera.
TMSV - Altered [Perfect Records/TMSV Bandcamp]
Dutch dubstep don TMSV returns to his own Perfect Records with two tracks of pure core dubstep (also featured is something more technoid on the third track). Always worth checking out his work.
Horse MacGyver - IDK IGU WYD [Nice Music/Bandcamp]
Horse MacGyver - How They Kill You [Dream Damage]
Horse MacGyver - Cutting And P3k1ng Oh [Nice Music/Bandcamp]
Canberran producer Timothy Dwyer started off under the moniker / / / ▲ ▲ ▲ \ \ \, earning him a place in the annals of "witch house" history - well, not just the name, but also the overdriven beats and hints at black metal among other things. When he switched to easier-to-type (not to mention search) Horse MacGyver, he managed to extricate himself from the short-lived subgenre, continuing with challenging experimental electronic productions. Visual aeshetics were always a big part of witch house, and Dwyer is a creative visual designer as well - the artwork for New Weird Australia's recent Collapse Theories is created by Dwyer. His new album End Effector is just out from Nice Music in Melbourne, and it's as uncompromising and sui generis as ever. There are hints at electronic genres of various sorts, but he's not one to be pigeonholed, or follow expectations. One to experience for yourself.
Mark Stewart VS KK Null - New Error [eMERGENCY heARTS/Bandcamp]
Mark Stewart VS Mika Vainio VS Ye Gods - Cursed Child [eMERGENCY heARTS/Bandcamp]
I have to admit I don't have in-depth knowledge of Mark Stewart's long career. His name comes up frequently in contexts of postpunk, dub, industrial and other experimental circles - and that's very much all in evidence on his new collaborative album VS. It's somewhere between a remix album and a collaborative album, with artists from across industrial hip-hop (Consolidated), industrial (Front 242, Stephen Mallinder), punk (Mike Watt), dub (Lee "Scratch" Perry, Adrian Sherwood) and all at once (Eric Random), as well as experimental types. There aren't many new faces here - it's by and large contemporaries of Stewart's - but it's still angry and abrasive and energetic. Japanese noise/drone/electronic legend KK Null appears a couple of times, with blasts of noise and rhythms. And Mika Vainio makes a posthumous appearance along with prog-metal weirdos Ye Gods. Cool stuff.
Coil - Paranoid Inlay [Chalice/Dais Records/Bandcamp]
Coil - Where Are You? feat. Rose McDowall [Chalice/Dais Records/Bandcamp]
A year and a bit ago, it was wonderful to have the excuse to play something from Coil's brilliant arcane, ambient, post-industrial work of genius Music to Play in the Dark, which was remastered and reissued on CD, vinyl and digital by Dais Records under the direction of Coil collaborator/member Drew McDowall. The necessary next step was always its sequel, so now it's time for Musick to Play in the Dark². Stylistically, there's not much to differentiate them, with the queer industrial roots mixed with glitch, cabaret, techno, ambient, folk and psychedelia to create a scintillating, serene yet disquieting homage to the middle of the night. This is moon music. A limnal hymn. Both albums are, in my opinion, absolutely essential. I've now owned them on CD three times. 'Nuff said.
Anadol - Gizli Duygular [Pingipung/Bandcamp]
Felicita is the second album on Pingipung from Berlin-based Turkish experimental synth artist Gözen Atila aka Anadol. There are hints at old Turkish pop music in here, but Atila also loves her Casio chord accompaniments - turning the cheesy and naïve into something compellingly strange and new. On this track, though, the Casiotone elements melt into a kosmische krautrock groove for an extended jam, unexpected and wonderful.
Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin - II [Drag City/Bandcamp]
On groove-based, kraut-jazz jams you'd be hard-pressed to find a better trio than these three. From his origins in free noise, extreme minimalism and drone/doom metal, about 10 years ago Oren Ambarchi found himself a minimalist, evolving experimental rock groove with the remarkable Audience of One, and has since then embellished and refined this style over a number of releases. In his catalogue, this album follows that sequence, but his collaborators are comfortable in this world too. Both established members of the Swedish experimental scene, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin are both members of the legendary *ahem* postfolkrocktronic band Tape, and the two also make up the incredible rhythm section of the free jazz/psych ensemble Fire! with Mats Gustafsson. The stoic, dubby, krauty basslines Berthling lays down in Fire! are here, as are the freewheeling rhythms of Werliin (probably best known for his duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums with his brilliant wife and Fire! Orchestra member Mariam Wallentin). So it was clear Drag City was on to a winner with this new LP, Ghosted, and it easily lives up to expectations. Track II is particularly blissed out. You won't regret spending 40 minutes with this music.
Listen again — ~201MB
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