Mysterious dark music and bursts of light tonight. It’s not a post-classical or folktronic or electro-acoustic or techno or idm playlist here – but it’s a bit of all of that.
LISTEN AGAIN to unearth the mysteries… Stream on demand over @ FBi is messed up because I made a mistake – but you can go ahead and podcast it here in fullllll.
Kaboom Karavan – Kaban [Miasmah/Bandcamp]
Kaboom Karavan – Kobo [Miasmah/Bandcamp]
Kaboom Karavan – KipKap [Miasmah/Bandcamp]
Kaboom Karavan – Silk Skin Armor [Miasmah/Bandcamp]
It’s been more than 6 years since Bram Bosteels’ last album as Kaboom Karavan – so I was quite surprised to see this appear on my radar. I discovered him sometime between the previous two albums, both of which generate a sense of unease and fascination through the use of ancient instruments, home-made instruments, disembodied voices and electronics, orchestrated in a weirdly out-of-time musical vernacular. It’s part circus music, part olde-world folk – and tbh the tag I use most with the great Miasmah suits it best: acoustic doom. In the time since his last album, Bosteels lost his father to a rare disease, and that shocking event pushed him to complete this music. Disjointed and weirdly alienated as it is, this music seems perfect for these strange times.
Michel Banabila – Humans and Nonhumans [Tapu Records Bandcamp]
From Belgium to the Netherlands, and another artist who’s merging “world” music with electronics, as he has for some decades now. Michel Banabila recently put together a wonderful compilation called To Yemen With Love as a fundraiser for on-the-ground charities working in war-torn Yemen – including Arabic, European and international artists working in traditional genres as well as electronic & ambient. I contributed a piece of lightly processed cello in fact. Following that massive effort, Michel has released a short EP of material recorded in a new setup – in the park outside his house. These tracks feature the sounds of nature in amongst ambient loops, alien wind instruments, and dubby rhythms.
Sabina Covarrubias – We are alive / I am loved [Elli Records/Bandcamp]
Sabina Covarrubias – Rhythmic instincts / I kissed my land / Nature rituals [Elli Records/Bandcamp]
During COVID-19 lockdown, Emanuele Battisti’s Elli Records has produced 16 varied releases in quick turnaround for their “In the room” series. I’ll be playing another later in the show, but here we have two excerpts for a remarkable piece of organic-sounding electro-acoustic work from Paris-based Mexican sound artist Sabina Covarrubias. After bachelor studies in Mexico, she completed a Masters in Paris in computer-assisted composition and ethnomusicology, and is now an associated researcher at CICM (Centre d’Informatique et Création Musicale). This work, entitled Fertility, combines many of her interests at once, using electro-acoustic technices such as spectral processing and spatialization alongside sounds and structures from ambient techno, as well as borrowing from Senegalese compositional traditions. I love the sound-world she has created, the very natural, bubbling way that it progresses, and particularly the way the processed vocals coexist with the percussion and other instrumentation.
Hidden Valley Logging Company – Northern Plub Blossom [Lillerne Tapes]
M. Sage – minno to taste [Lillerne Tapes]
We were just talking a couple of weeks about how great Lillerne Tapes are, the Chicago label that just released the new album from Melbourne-based sonic genius Yunzero. And now they’ve come out with a massive 38 track Fundraiser Compilation, benefiting two local Chicago organisations: Black-led LGBTQ centre Brave Space Alliance and community-based food suppliers Urban Growers Collective. Yunzero appears here, along with the label boss at his previous label .jpeg Artefacts, Other Joe. We’ll be hearing more from .jpeg Artefacts shortly, but here’s a couple of other tracks from the comp, starting with a favourite discovery from last year, Vancouver-based Cameron Everatt’s Hidden Valley Logging Company. Droney pads give way to minimalist jittery beats, in keeping the mystery-laden feel of tonight’s show. And then keeping with the theme of nature meeting electronica, we’ve got chirping birds and beats from Chicago’s own M. Sage.
Cypha – Sequence 1 [forthcoming on .jpeg Artefacts]
OBA – Side A (excerpt) [forthcoming on .jpeg Artefacts]
Other Joe – New Years Kiss [forthcoming on .jpeg Artefacts]
As mentioned, Other Joe, who runs boutique Melbourne label .jpeg Artefacts, has a lovely track appearing on Lillerne Tapes’ comp. Joe got in touch recently to send me some forthcoming sounds from his excellent label, and he’s given me his blessing to play you some previews. First is a super-impressive debut of idm-leaning bassy breakbeat from Cypha, a young artist who doesn’t even have a web presence yet. Next, some ambient jazz drum’n’bass from Jordan Obarzanek aka OBA, previously released on .jpeg Artefacts and also Phinery. and finally, some gorgeous glitchy piano and found sounds from Other Joe himself.
Annika Moses – Amazing blissful moment (fearful receiver) [Tura Adapts 2020 Commissioning]
With live performances on hold for the foreseeable future, essential Perth-based contemporary music organisation Tura have turned to commissioning new works through their Tura Adapts program. This piece is from emerging sound-artist Annika Moses, who I’ve featured before probably in her guises as Nika Mo or great statue. This work will appear on Bandcamp in a bit, but for now you can experience it at the Tura site. Here matter-of-fact poetry meets contemporary composition and sound-art – all keen interests of Moses. I’m very glad to be able to play it for you tonight.
Emra Grid – A Platform [Opal Tapes]
Continuing with the spoken word theme, albeit here sampling an external work, is mysterious Berlin-based artist Emra Grid (who seems from their web presence to be Sean Pineiro). Their more ambient inclinations give way on this EP to bass-heavy industrial techno influences, on this track enhanced by sections from a reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips”, a poem about lying in a hospital room recovering from an operation. It’s evocative and disquieting – the whole EP is recommended, including Swiss artist Martina Lussi‘s remix of this track, which uses additional excerpts from the poem.
Wauwatosa – Bright Star (Kcin Remix) [Spirit Level/Bandcamp]
Transnational collaboration of a sort here, with that inescapable bloke Kcin on remix duties for Norwegian experimental pop duo Wauwatosa. Kcin takes their usually quite pretty sounds into his brooding industrial electronic sound-world, going all drum’n’bass on us in fact, but as the track progresses, trumpet and twinkly synths bring joy from the chaos.
Wytchings – Viet Drift [Lazy Thinking/Bandcamp]
Continuing with the somewhat industrial sounds, here’s some incredible new work from new Sydney artist Jenny Trinh aka Wytchings. Her debut release was a quite ambient work of underwater electronics, but here things are a lot tougher, for want of a better word. “Viet Drift” is from forthcoming EP Oculus, which sees her exorcising the trauma of having been racially assaulted as a teenager. It’s intense and brilliant work.
Moor Mother & billy woods – Furies [Adult Swim Singles 2020]
Moor Mother & Yatta – WE [Moor Mother Bandcamp]
Moor Mother & Yatta – 27 [Moor Mother Bandcamp]
Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother has been on a roll throughout lockdown, releasing many different collaborative and solo works on her Bandcamp. One of those appears tonight, but before that, an absolute dream team duo of Moor Mother with billy woods – obviously one half of Armand Hammer and also responsible for two of my favourite releases last year. The two are perfectly matched on the apocalyptically dark “Furies”, release through the ongoing Adult Swim Singles series. And then, Moor Mother teams up with Sierra Leonean-American artist Yatta, whose work takes in hip-hop, jazz, folk, and experimental art of all sorts. She’s had two releases on Purple Tape Pedigree, and as with all great collaborations you can clearly hear both artists in the insane concoctions put together on this mini-album DIAL UP. Check it out.
Ben Peers – Variation One [Elli Records/Bandcamp]
Ben Peers – Variation Eight [Elli Records/Bandcamp]
OK, so back to Elli Records‘ 16-release “In the room” series that has recently finished up – here’s UK algorithmic musician Ben Peers with Eight Variations – specifically the first and last. It’s the kind of stuff that happily burbles along in the background, but it’s got plenty enough darkness and edge to hold the attention in the foreground too, as each iteration varies aspects of the melodic and rhythmic elements.
Taraamoon – زَهازْ (Zahāz) [Low-Zi Records Bandcamp]
Just last week I played the first released track from Taraamoon, the Farsi-based electronic pop project from Nima Aghiani and Sara Bigdeli Shamloo of 9T Antiope. This beautiful song was already on their SoundCloud, and now it’s available from Bandcamp too. Again I cannot tell you much about the song, but it’s exquisite.
Listen again — ~198MB
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