Tonight we’ve got radical new Persian electronic pop, Estonian dark folk & electronica, indie remixes, outer limits techno, idm and jungle.
LISTEN AGAIN and welcome to the jungle… Stream on demand at FBi, podcast here.
9T Antiope – Placebo Dose I (Danse Macabre) (excerpt) [Purple Tape Pedigree]
9T Antiope – Metaphase [eilean rec.]
9T Antiope – Nocebo (B) (excerpt) [Purple Tape Pedigree]
9T Antiope – Placebo Dose II (Memento Mori) (excerpt) [Purple Tape Pedigree]
Starting with the final album in a conceptual trilogy from the great Persian duo 9T Antiope. Released again on Purple Tape Pedigree, Placebo follows Nocebo and 2017’s Isthmus (released on now-defunct French label eilean rec.) – and like Nocebo, it’s delivered in two long tracks, conceived as “doses”. Sara Bigdeli Shamloo’s spoken poetry and gorgeous multitracked vocals weave around Nima Aghiani’s violin and noise-making machines, varying between slabs of industrial noise, jittery electronic bleeps, nods at techno, and flittering strings. I’ve loved the relatively accessible electronic pop (sung in Farsi) of their new project Taraamoon this year, but it’s great to have a big new work from 9T Antiope again.
Sevdaliza – Do You Feel Real [Butler Records/Bandcamp]
Sevdaliza – Wallflower [Butler Records/Bandcamp]
9t Antiope are based in France; Sevdaliza was born in Tehran but grew up in the Netherlands. Her glitchy trip-hop influenced music does draw from her Persian roots too. Her second album, Shabrang, continues where ISON & her subsequent EPs left off, with bending strings, chopped & spliced beats, vocals both clean and glitched. It’s just great to have such a strong artist working in this space.
Maarja Nuut & Ruum – circles [Õunaviks/Bandcamp]
Maarja Nuut – Kuradipolka [Maarja Nuut Bandcamp]
Maarja Nuut & Ruum – käed-mäed [130701/Bandcamp]
Maarja Nuut & Ruum – world inverted [Õunaviks/Bandcamp]
Here’s another duo with violin, vocals and electronics. Maarja Nuut & Ruum‘s debut album in 2018, Muunduja, was one of my favourites of the year – there’s a palpable mystery to the music, derived partly from the ancient Estonian folk tales and melodies that Maarja Nuut is so familiar with, and from the techno & glitch-influenced electronics brought by Ruum and their collaborators. The duo have just released their follow-up World Inverted through Estonian label Õunaviks, and it’s another beauty. The noisier aspects are toned down, with occasional vocals and fluttering violin embedded in lovely ambient techno epics. It’s interesting to compare the hypnotic aspect to Maarja’s solo album from 2016, Une Meeles, where the folk violin can be enveloped in a crescendoing bass drone like in “Kuradipolka”.
Michael Ackroyd – The Architect [Lazy Thinking]
I’m told Sydney’s Michael Ackroyd is releasing this song through Lazy Thinking right about now, but online evidence seems scant. It’s quite a wonderful piece and so hopefully he is working on more to come – a throbbing synth is slowly joined by scattered drums, and a gentle vocal. It recalls late Talk Talk in the right ways, while retaining a character all its own.
Brutalist – Eve [Good Manners/Bandcamp]
Brutalist – Movements [Good Manners/Bandcamp]
John Hassell of much-loved Sydney electronic trio Seekae and Melbourne musician Lucianblomkamp formed Brutalist a few years ago, released a mixtape, and then seemingly put it all on hold. So hopefully we’re now going to hear a lot more from them. This EP is out in the next week, mostly featuring bassy beats like “Movements”, with an excellent guest vocal on one track, and opener “Eve” is a brilliant surprise, with Blomkamp showing off his classically-trained violin skills.
Neinzer – Rassalin [Where To Now? Records]
Neinzer – Horus [Timedance]
Neinzer – Cause Pan Tact Insoluble [Where To Now? Records]
Emil Lewandowski’s previous EP as Neinzer, released by AD 93 earlier this year, made a big impression with two jazzy house grooves followed by three shimmering beatless works. But to be honest it’s his new EP Shifting Values that’s really grabbed me hard. Each of the tracks here has some standout feature – avant-garde harmonies on piano or flute, bass music with organic beats and perfectly placed breaths and field recordings… On “Rassalin” the percussion is secondary to a syncopated bassline and twittering synth pattern, while “Cause Pan Tact Insoluble” grows slowly with more beautiful discords, freakout flute and vocal harmonies over a dubstep-house hybrid beat. 2018’s “Horus” is a breakbeat techno banger with bubbling hand percussion.
cypha – Cause 1 [.jpeg Artefacts]
cypha – Hyperobject [.jpeg Artefacts]
Melbourne’s cypha lands with a pretty remarkable debut EP on .jpeg Artefacts. We’ve got melodic electronics and beats that draw from jungle, electro and techno – clearly influenced by ’90s idm, and done really well. For some reason they’re doing a CD edition, and if that wouldn’t make me happy enough already, they’re donating 100% of the proceeds of this release to Standing Our Ground, Traditional Owners fighting against Adani.
Cressida – Sambo [Voitax/Bandcamp]
Cressida – Move To The Witness [Voitax/Bandcamp]
The jungle influence only gets stronger from hereon in. Cressida is a UK-born producer now based in Berlin, and his techno beats are shot through with jungle breaks. I kind of love how the mangled amen breaks in title track “Sambo” keep promising to break free, but Cressida keeps tamping it back down into the bass-heavy 4/4 techno. “Move To The Witness” pushes the tempo up so that the syncopated drum machines can naturally give way to beautifully edited jungle breaks in the last third of the track. This is future music deeply aware of its heritage.
TMSV – Abyss Watcher [Sub Merchants]
Thugwidow – You See How It Spreads Out Like A Fungus [Sub Merchants]
Finally, two current masters of junglist mayhem contribute to the birth of new London label Sub Merchants. Utrecht-based TMSV switches easily between jungle, dubstep and techno, and his track here is one of his best jungle numbers, a kind of stop-start roller with endless variation to the beats, which strike the right balance between machine and funk, while single “oh”s stand in for divas, and ragga MC samples are heavily vocoded. Meanwhile Thugwidow is up to his usual tricks, with expansive ambient pads, beats floating in & out of reverb, delays and EQ mashing. Both artists represent contemporary takes on jungle that are dancefloor-ready if your dancefloor is up for it (socially distanced of course). In this cyberpunk dystopia we’re living in, the endless jungle revival is just what we need.
Listen again — ~202MB
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