Bandcloud 395
Avon Terror Corps, A. D. Luck, Ngoni Egan, Gohda, ghost.slut, Smoke Point, Hotham Sound Recordings, Nailah Hunter, Areliz Ramos and Letters From Mouse
It’s been a big week. On Monday I saw ambient rockstar William Basinski perform in Dublin. Supported by Ordnance Survey (who was excellent), he provided a show that was, quite simply, magical. I won’t go into it too much. See him if you can. Then I shared John Loveless’s wonderful mix on Tuesday. Finally, yesterday I launched a limited run of Bandcloud T-shirts. You can see and purchase here, if you’re so inclined. Oh and on Sunday night I’ll be back on Dublin Digital Radio.
Today, Bandcamp are holding a Juneteenth fundraiser, “where we donate 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support their ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education”. To learn more about Juneteenth, see here.
VA - Avon Attorlaðe (Avon Terror Corps)
There’s still a war going on out there. This release from Avon Terror Corps is raising money for Solidarity Apothecary, a group that is providing herbal medicine to Ukrainian refugees. A huge undertaking, it features no fewer than 28 tracks from female and non-binary line-up artists, acting as “a herbal spell that purifies and lets feminine and non-binary voices be heard”. It’s dedicated to Ellen Percival aka DJ Mooncup, who passed away last month.
This is a tremendously fun release. Imagine the frivolity of Daphne Oram’s Pop Tryouts but recorded with a phone and created with an app. Modern technology man. Silly! Fun! Noisy! Brilliant!
Out next week, today we celebrate Ngoni Egan’s Re Teng. I played the blissful opening track on my show last month, and John featured a track from it in his mix this week. ‘Difaqane’ blends electro pulse with strange frequencies, and ‘Gaborone West Groove’ is a positively thunderous groove. Check out his sweet sweater vest in the Bandcamp profile pic.
Gohda - POSTED IN THE BACK OF THE CLUB (DAWN015)
I got serious MssingNo vibes from this release. It’s extremely “wistful trance synths over breaks with plaintive pop acappellas on top”, with Rihanna, Tinashe and Ariana Grande all featuring at different points. There’s only one track I don’t like, proper doof doof gabber stuff, but on the whole it sounded great in the car.
Gohda also pops up to remix something on this release from fellow Philly artist ghost.slut. The release is a brilliant mix of styles, all coalescing into a single point. Yes it’s trance. Yes it’s techno. Yes the title ‘Trance Tech Tool’ is fitting. It’s all good. And that remix is in a similar vibe to the above release too.
Brian Foote and Sage Caswell combine to form Smoke Point, and this album on Geographic North offers hazy ambient sounds over uptempo percussion. Somewhere between crystalline techno and 90s “ambient house”, it’s really quite lovely. Imagine Pub’s ‘Picnic’ given a percussive jolt.
VA - Calliope (Hotham Sound Recordings)
A different charity comp, this one is raising money for a non-profit pro-choice organisation in the US, at a time when reproductive rights have never been more under threat. It’s a huge edition, featuring artists we love such as Loscil, Boreal Network (whose work was reissued by Hotham Sound last year), Norm Chambers, Karl Fousek and Patricia Wolf. Tracks from Souns, Michelle Mackenzie, Playback Head and Nuke Watch (who have also released on The Trilogy Tapes) and Alexandra Spence are also impressive.
Nailah Hunter - Forest Dwelling
When Nailah Hunter’s ‘Soil: Song from Silence’ first appeared, I listened to it over and over. Speaking selfishly, I was mildly upset that her debut EP was only about 12 minutes in length. Two years later, it’s great to get this lengthy work, a lilting droning piece punctuated by melodies and outside sounds. “We imagined ourselves as the tiniest forest spirits; living in acorns and hollowed trees, and we imagined ourselves as the tallest mountains, feeling moonlight shine down, cold and bright upon our faces.”
Where To Now?’s release schedule may have slowed over the years, but that doesn’t mean their standards have slipped. This debut release from Areliz Ramos, who’s previously recorded as Milkshlk. This one is all over the place, in a good way, from smudged ambient sounds to word vomit, emotive melodies over strangely evocative soundscapes and percussion that smacks like it was recorded in a school hall. The CD edition comes in gorgeous packaging, making it look like artisan chocolate. Lush.
Letters From Mouse - Sleep Tapes [Cassingle #30]
3am thoughts, 11pm thoughts. Very different beasts, but beasts nonetheless. Letters From Mouse offers two tracks that reflect these different periods in the latest cassingle for superpolar Taïps. Charming, wistful, friendly, hopeful.