*extremely Dougie Jones voice* HELLLOOOOOOOO
Shō - Infinity Plus One
This is a beautiful tape on the Belgian Audio. Visuals. Atmosphere. label. It moves between melody-driven vignettes and strange sonic experiments, with weird splodgy noises meeting harsh and austere climes. There's a feeling of trepidation and anxiety throughout that's occasionally offset by levity and hope. 'A Port In The Storm' is particularly charming.
Ryan Clover - Aperol Schvitz (feat. David Kiss)
What a fun and slinky banger! Lovely title too (even if I, for one, do not care for the drink referenced). Muted organ bass, detuned vocal samples, shimmering claps. Summer! Even in January you can feel the warmth.
Crushing Union - Crushing Union
The newest release on HRR is from Crushing Union, an "ambient techno/new age/drone side project". It's incredibly lush and enveloping but it is about two hours long. Opening track Those Years Gone is a 16-minute noisy grind, filled with longing, that at points reminds me of 'Once In Royal David's City'. Yeah, honestly. There's another album coming next week too. No rest.
Ambient & Interieur 22 [Wilted Woman]
I guess Dj Puddle is Wilted Woman's ambient persona. This is an hour of weird and gloopy sounds. Bliiiiiirp; hisssssss; boop. Strum strum. Plink. Plonk. Wobble. Sway. Crash.
Elliott Fienberg - Dynasty
Elliott sent me this 15-minute journey that he dropped on NYE. Imagine Philip Glass making dreamy, epic house music.
Tony Rainwater - Raindance Angels
Weirdo slomo breaks, gorgeous chords, pastiche flute meanderings, it's like a rave track in the middle of a sunny rain shower played during a moment of catharsis in some terrible film, but entirely in a good way.
National Tattler - the gentrification song
Music writer and musician Jes Skolnik wrote a series of tweets, sharing lyrics to an imagined song about every urban gentrified block in the US". They later said "in my head this is like a chant-y electroclash song with a super dinky Casio beat". Everyone's favourite music producer-slash-Twitter-joker Ilana Bryne said she could send that beat; Skolnik recorded the vocals. The song exists! It's a joke, but it's also very real. It kind of reminds me of 'What's Yr Take On Cassavetes' from Le Tigre's self-titled debut, in its repetition and ever-growing mania. But it's very much its own thing.
AMET - AMET
AMET is originally from Yaoundé, Cameroon, and is now based in Berlin. This is her debut EP. It's a really interesting selection of sounds, with electronic rhythms meeting found sound and layered, harmonised vocals. Skittery beats and floating melodies under French rap. Wonky sounds and spoken word English poetry. "Words are not enough any more." There's also a noisy and raucous remix from Petit Singe, before the set closes with a woozy indie-pop/shoegazey number.
Russell Ellington Langston Butler - A Talisman to Ward Off Dysphoria
I'm not sure I can do this justice. Russell is an essential artist and I was really excited when they tweeted that they were about to drop an ambient release. It is, the artist writes, "meant to sooth and to protect". It's soft and quiet at first, demanding your attention, with elements slowly adding texture and sonic depth. It's almost like your thoughts are gathering and building on top of each other in musical form. Droning patterns that feel like organs swamped in reverb offer an illusion of floating freedom. The unending drones of 'I Don't Do Those Drugs' and 'Modular Synths Make You Trans' invite this listener to layer sounds between my brain and my ears, imagining auditory blends and transitions that will never exist but still remain possible. Hubris, on my part, perhaps, but that's what's happened. As well as the startlingly inviting music, Russel has also provided a reading list of books and articles that helped shape the project.
The Bunker Podcast 209: Eric Cloutier
My thought process when I saw this was "oh I'll have a look but I'll flick through oh well". then I found myself utterly entranced and never closed the tab. It's entirely made up of tracks by Theorem, aka Dale Lawrence, who put out a series of records on m_nus in the late 90s and early 00s. It's smooth, trippy, hypnotic, emotive. Wonderful.
Erol Alkan - Spectrum (Special Request Double Vision Mix)
Finally, what an unexpected yet perfectly realised pairing. The original was a big-room banger with serious reach-for-the-lasers energy. Big synth sounds and hissing hats over rattling drums like 90s Chem Bros. Man like Wooly adds further hiss, snarl, raw energy and pace. It's just BIG.
I have to go away for a while, but I want to tell you how much I've enjoyed spending time with you. You've made my heart so full. We're a family. I will be back.