Playlist 16.07.23 (1:09 am)
Classical instruments getting themselves into strange situations, noise shaped into hip-hop, field recordings shaped into techno, IDM, dub... and lots of experimental electronics in general tonight.
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Sun Ra - Nuclear War (Joel Tarman x Kronos Quartet Remix) [Red Hot/Bandcamp]
In 1990, when the AIDS pandemic was still rising, the compilation Red Hot + Blue was released to raise funds for AIDS research and community support. It was a pretty extraordinary collection of a diverse selection of artists of the time, doing often highly creative covers of Cole Porter songs, chosen, no doubt, in reference to Porter's homosexuality. Since then Red Hot have gone on to release numerous compilations and continue to raise money for AIDS research and more broadly health pandemics. The most recent covers collection is Nuclear War, a tribute to Sun Ra featuring current jazz trailblazers like Irreversible Entanglements and Georgia Anne Muldrow. This is extended further with Nuclear War: The Remixes, which features remixes of not only Malcolm Jiyane Tree-o and Angel Bat Dawid's Sun Ra covers, but also two reworkings of Sun Ra & his Arkestra. Of particular interest for me is the teaming up of producer Joel Tarman and the Kronos Quartet, who also remixed Tanya Tagaq to brilliant effect last year. Starting with an absurdly jaunty American radio spot about the equally absurd "duck and cover" defense, Tarman blends this into a drone from the string quartet, perfectly off-key, which accompanies Sun Ra's "Talkin' about / Nuclear War" chant ("It's the motherfucker / Don't you know"), with flowing drums. The whole track is done in this slightly off-kilter way: radio chatter, string drones, Sun Ra samples, combined to disqueting effect.
alice does computer music - Coiled [Jolt Music/Bandcamp]
The first step in appreciating experimental cellist Alice Gerlach's music is getting over my resistance to the name alice does computer music. Any resistance was a mistake - don't judge a book by your own dumb feels about the cover. The second single from the forthcoming Shoegaze 5G is a languid pop song with melodic cello, synths and acoustic guitar as well as computer beats and a super-glitchy breakdown. You'll love it.
Forest Swords - Butterfly Effect [Ninja Tune/Bandcamp]
A decade or more on from the first releases of Matthew Barnes as Forest Swords, the hypnagogic/chillwave/witch house genrescape is no longer particularly relevant, but Barnes continues to draw influences from everwhere from post-punk to ambient, dub techno to IDM and more. A new album is on the way via Ninja Tune, who he's been with since 2017, but in the meantime we get this lovely piece of bleepy trip-hop, Andy Stott-style, which sports an otherwise-unreleased sample (somehow!) of Neneh Cherry.
Saint Abdullah & Eomac - No One Thought Of Love Anymore [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Saint Abdullah & Eomac - Wali [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Last year's Patience of a Traitor was a revelation from two forward-thinking acts, the New York-based Canadian-Iranian brothers Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani aka Saint Abdullah and Irish IDM/techno producer Eomac (Ian McDonnell of Lakker). New EP A Vow Not To Read continues this collaboration, despite the brothers and McDonnell still not having met in person. There's a clearly sympathetic resonance between the artists' styles, across cultural and physical distances, and even with Saint Abdullah working on outboard gear and Eomac in the box. There are electronic beat workouts and pieces with the location-based recordings Saint Abdullah often use (Shia mourners on "Wali"), and any melancholy is tempered by humour (track 4 is called "Toes In The Hummus"). I believe there's another full album coming, and I for one can't wait.
Melvins - Discipline 23 [Amphetamine Reptile Records]
From the unhinged minds of the long-lived sludge/grunge/noise pioneers The Melvins comes, of all things, a tribute to industrial/electronic legends Throbbing Gristle, Throbbing Jazz Gristle Funk Hits. There are, as far as I can see, no guitars on the album, and while TG's original Discipline is overflowing with the shouted, echoing voice of Genesis P-Orridge, Melvins' "Discipline 23" is an instrumental, with similar squiggly synths to TG's, and bodaciously distorted beats. Awesome.
Shapednoise - Family (feat. Armand Hammer) [Weight Looming]
Shapednoise - Poetry (feat. Moor Mother) [Weight Looming]
Nino Pedone has been destroying speakers and dancefloors with his since 2010 as Shapednoise. Pedone has one foot in the noise realm, with releases on Prurient's Hospital Productions among others, and one foot in the bass world, collaborating with Mumdance & Logos on the cyberpunk project The Sprawl. His latest Shapednoise album, Absurd Matter, is the most "musical" yet, grounding the crushing, heavily overdriven beats with some basslines and hints of melodic content, as well as some star turns on the mic. Armand Hammer, the duo of billy woods and ELUCID, contemplate generational trauma, and Moor Mother resists erasure on "Poetry". Allowing hip-hop to shape his noise here inspires the best work yet from Pedone.
CORIN - vīsiōnem [UIQ/Bandcamp]
CORIN - trānsīre [UIQ/Bandcamp]
Filipina Aussie Corin Ileto aka CORIN has gone from strength to strength over the 9 years since her first solo EP. In 2019 she released an album on Bedouin Records delving deep into cyberpunk, and she debuted on Lee Gamble's UIQ in 2021 with an album about impermanance and change. Outside of her recorded work, Ileto does sound design and composes music for theatre, dance, puppetry and installations, as well as frequently DJing. Now Lux Aeterna finds her back on UIQ, once again inspired by science fiction, although more space opera than cyberpunk this time. The title is Latin for "eternal light", but specifically is drawn from the eternally famous micropolyphonic choral composition by Ligeti, forever associated with the monolith scenes from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thus clusters of vocals can be found throughout, sometimes supported by organ-like synths or moody piano, sometimes by massive sub-bass and clattering beats. The high ambition of CORIN's conceptualisation is easily justified by the results.
NHK yx Koyxen - Spider of Hanns Heinz Ewers [BRUK]
NHK yx Koyxen - Fluido and Piacing [BRUK]
Kohei Matsunaga has used many aliases in the past couple of decades, include Koyxen, Kouhei, NHK, NHK’Koyxen and others. Of late he seems to have settled on NHK yx Koyxen. A purveyor of the more glitchy, chaotic end of electronic beats, he's appeared on many prominent experimental labels, but turning up on BRUK, one of the many labels run by Low End Activist, is surprising. But Climb Downhill 2 does bring a certain amount of brukkage and head-nodding, albeit still in a broken-down way. Deconstructing clubs since before it was fashionable.
Hecq - BKN [Mesh/Bandcamp]
Hecq - Redom Solid [Mesh/Bandcamp]
Ben Lukas Boysen is best known these days as a composer of electronically-treated post-classical music, but for many years he was making IDM, breakcore, dubstep and dark ambient under the alias Hecq. I honestly thought those days were over, as he gained kudos for his more classical works, but Max Cooper's Mesh have just released the Form EP, which sees Boysen returning to IDMish skittery beats and various tempos. It's a lot more lightfooted and lighthearted than the old Hecq, which had ended up in the heavy, in-your-face brostep territories of the time. I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Felicity Mangan - Körner Park [Care Of Editions/Bandcamp]
Based in Berlin, Aussie sound-artist Felicity Mangan takes field recordings and warps them into musical forms. She has a special interest in the biological, but here we have the sounds of water fountains and sprinklers around Körnerpark, a faux-palace park & garden found in Neuköln, in the heart of Berlin. The sounds of children playing fade into a kind of acid techno in this inventive piece.
Travis Cook - padam [Travis Cook Bandcamp]
Fresh from the farewell touring of his beloved duo with Marcus Whale, Collarbones, Adelaide's Travis Cook brings us two new tracks to commemorate a set at the prestigious Unsound Festival. Pop samples reconstituted with breaks, very much Travis Cook as we know him. Thumbs up.
Bazil - Calling Ft. Izness [Dubwiser]
Bazil - Herb Corner Ft. Mc Spee [Dubwiser]
James Bainbridge has been a member of long-lived dub/reggae/electronic band Dreadzone for over a decade, but his solo production roots are in tech-step drum'n'bass. His debut solo album Sub Liminal mashes up the dub feel with halftime d'n'b and pop appeal from vocalist Izness and ex-Dreadzone member Mc Spee on a few tracks. It's a very enjoyable album for fans of these kinds of sounds.
ASC - Future Music [Auxiliary/Bandcamp]
Just about every month seems to feature one or two new EPs from ASC these days. His jungle/drum'n'bass love was rejuvenated by some conversations with Samurai Music a few years ago, and now we are getting EPs left, right & centre on his own Auxiliary label, as well as collabs with UK producer Aural Imbalance - and some of his grey area techno as well. There's always pleasure to be had, and the portentous bassline that opens "Future Music" heralds some very tasty breakwork.
NikNak - Ikigai (Special Version) [NikNak Bandcamp]
NikNak - Combative Embers [nonclassical/Bandcamp]
Amit Dinesh Patel aka Dushume has been examining the lack of visibility for Black and Brown artists in experimental music & sound since 2021, and as part of that has released the new compilation Disruptive Frequencies through UK label nonclassical. Each of the six artists chosen get two tracks on the compilation, allowing for a fuller artist expression, and I recommend the whole lot. Particularly awesome are the tracks from experimental turntablist NikNak, who seems unfettered by any genre assumptions. Earlier this year she was one of four artists to remix Philip Glass; she's also the first Black Turntablist to win the Oram Award, named for Daphne Oram and designed to "elevate the work and voices of Women, Trans and Non-Binary music creators in electronic music". Explore her Bandcamp and you'll find strange ambient pieces, field recording cut-ups and other evocative sounds, and just like "Combative Embers" from the Disruptive Frequencies compilation they're littered with warping, spinning and scratching. However, on Ikigai, released earlier this year, there is a "special version" which adds a nice breakbeat to the proceedings, in case you thought there was no link to hip-hop at all. Wonderful stuff.
Simon Fisher Turner - PURR [Calax Records/Bandcamp]
Simon Fisher Turner - Acceleration [Calax Records/Bandcamp]
Few have as long & varied a career as Simon Fisher Turner. Scott Walker comes to mind, but even compared to Scott, SFT has done a lot: a actor since childhood, a pop idol since the 1970s, he turned to more experimental climes, including a long association with the filmmaker Derek Jarman, and as well as acting, he wrote soundtracks for many Jarman films. He worked with sound collage and tape manipulation, and then in the digital realm as well. I just discovered that earlier this year the Japanese label Calax Records released a cassette of recent film works and other pieces. The digital release presents each side as one track, but being the I who is me, I downloaded it losslessly and chopped it into the credited tracks. So tonight you heard the lovely glitchy chittering of "PURR", and the plucked string cut-ups and layers of "Acceleration".
Marc Richter - Umweltmusik [Cellule75]
Marc Richter - Geisterfahrer [Cellule75]
Better known as Black To Comm (named for a song by proto-punks MC5), Marc Richter has made moody, evocative, absurd music from samples and live instruments for 2 decades now. He also runs the Dekorder label and more recently Cellule75, both of which release his prodigious solo material as well as other people's music. Richter's last few albums as Black To Comm have come out through Thrill Jockey, but on Cellule75 he has just re-released classic albums Alphabet 1968 (originally from 2009) and Earth from 2012. Alongside them is a "Marc Richter" release of unreleased pieces from the same period, going by the name Coh Bâle. The music here is easily as good as those other albums, and in some ways in keeping with some of his later work. Each of the short tracks here seems to focus on one or two sound sources, looped, glitched, edited and processed. Recognizable at times are piano, guitar, disembodied voices and percussion, but much is impossible to pin down - and that's the pleasure of it. And a real pleasure it is.
spectrical - Illucid [perceptual tapes]
To finish tonight, some smeared, granular piano processing from Timothy Allen aka Spectrical, who hails from Nipaluna/Hobart. This is a beautiful musical manifestation of his childhood memory of hearing his Dad playing Prokofiev through the walls of their home, and fittingly the piano is performed by his father, Richard Allen. The Fleeting visions into sleep EP begins with the beginning of the 8th piece ("Commodo") from Sergei Prokofiev's Visions Fugitives (yes, that's "Fleeting Visions"), which gets gently caught in spectral reverb and stretched to infinity (well, 20 minutes). There are two more drone pieces, but "Illucid" takes a glitchy cut-up approach which I particularly loved, since I don't have 20 minutes in which to play the first track! Check it out on Bandcamp, where you can also buy the cassette.
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