Bandcloud 396
WAX, Objekt, Powder, Maison Crier, The Root Folk Band, Eden Grey, Mary Yalex, Russell E. L Butler, Earthbeam, HAWKSMOOR, Lostlojic and I. JORDAN
Hey there. I’ve been working on something kinda special and it’s involved a pretty extensive tread through the Bandcloud archives. As I’ve gone through the years I’ve noticed a huge number of tracks/releases are simply no longer online, for any number of reasons. Sometimes the artists just aren’t doing music any more, which is understandable. There’s not much point in paying for a SoundCloud account in that case. In others, perhaps identities have changed and that track represents a part of their life that is no longer relevant to them. But then there are hundreds, even thousands of releases etc that are still there, and it just makes me so happy that there’s so much art and wonder in the world. To think that there are that many people out there doing this, it gives me joy.
Quite a mournful set of tracks from WAX aka Shed. Piano house for when you’re feeling a bit sad but still want a little dance. The A side is a subtle piano roller, while the B side is basically the same track with a slightly sharper kick, hinting at UKG without ever fully going there. Restraint.
Looking back through those archives, even in 2014 I remarked that including Objekt was a form of clickbait. At the same time, his releases are so infrequent these days that it’s an event when he does put something out. ‘Bad Apples’ just makes me sneer in delight, almost like a positive screwface. ‘Ballast’ almost seems silly? By his standards anyway. Like he’s having fun messing around with these sounds. He’s got a reputation for being a meticulous producer, constantly refining and honing his material, but I can’t imagine him working on these tracks with anything other than a smile on his face.
The Mantissa mix series reaches the 250 mark with a mix from Powder. As one might expect from the expert DJ and producer, it features a range of sumptuous sounds as diverse as Future Sound of London, Ricardo Villalobos, Move D & Benjamin Brunn and Seafoam, whose bleepy but emotional ‘Lowtech’ is an undoubted highlight.
Maison Crier - Down the Long and Winding Road
Love a wobbly tape. The tape wobbles so much it sounds like someone’s screaming, but in truth it’s hard to have a clue what these sounds are. Like a field recording that’s left to rot, it’s unnerving and unsettling and all round fascinating.
“The Root Folk Band - led by David Chatton Barker of Folklore Tapes - tells the story of Mossy, an explorative woodland creature who, along with his forest folk friends, tries hard to maintain the balance of nature through the various rituals and celebrations that must be observed in order to allow the earth spirit to flourish.”
I was hooked when I read the blurb, and the music is ace too. It’s kind of a puppet show/children’s play, with a charming narration by Ian Humberstone (who featured here recently with his Warning to The Curious release). It’s been doing the rounds in a variety of forms for a while, and now it’s being released by Memotone on the Earth Memory label, in a lovely tape with added liner notes and illustrations.
The label calls this an album in 17 minutes, and it’s not far off. Eden Grey manages to distil a world of ideas into these four tracks, with half-time percussion under wailing melodies (think the original ‘Sky Was Pink’), snarling synth lines, ominous syncopated bleeps and riotous vocal samples.
Mary Yalex featured here a few years back with a release for KANN. It had moments for the floor and for the way home (one track was even called ‘Night Bus’). This tape for Muzan Editions is much more focused on the latter style of things. While the title track could turn into a different beast with the addition of a beat under its steady 4/4 framework, the overall impulses are smudged and vaporous, with a richly textured approach apparent across the board. ‘Frost Envelopes’ in particular is charming.
Russell E. L Butler - God Is Change: Revisited - Celebrating Octavia Butler 220622
This week would have been Octavia E Butler’s 75th birthday. To mark the occasion, NTS invited artists such as Afrikan Sciences, Moor Mother, Kelsey Lu and Russell E.L Butler to contribute to a day’s programming in honour of the late writer. Butler’s 2015 release God Is Change was response to Butler’s books Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, and in this show the producer discusses their artistic process as well as their experiences with the books that inspired them. They also play tracks that weren’t included in the original release. NTS invited listeners to donate to two organisations - Birthing Project USA, an African American maternal and child health programme, and Clockshop, an arts and culture organisation that seeks to generate social change through the transformation of public space.
Aquatic Gardens: Earthbeam (11)
A simply gorgeous mix from Earthbeam, a new alias from Jenn Green. It’s ambient but not like that. There are beats, pulses, drifts and flows, overall more focused on a vibe than a particular kind of sound. Forest Management, Yamaneko, rrao and more all feature in here.
Wonderfully weird sounds here from Hawksmoor, somewhere between squelchy electronica and BBC ’70s sci-fi/horror sounds.
It’s a lesser known fact that the layout of English new town Milton Keynes was shifted by a few degrees when its planners realised that, in doing so, its grid-like layout would come into alignment with the sunrise on the summer solstice.
This album is inspired by the “druidic, Solstice referencing layout of Milton Keynes”. There’s a road called Midsummer Boulevard, which has a corresponding track here. The track ‘Silbury Boulevard’ starts with guitar lines that recall themes from Global Communication’s 76:14, giving way to wavering synth lines with an effect not unlike the layering of new history upon old, centuries being flattened together by traffic systems and music alike. ‘Gridsquares and Redways’, which references the shared-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians, wails with clanks and melody. Perfect for the season, perfect forever.
Ukrainian artist Lostlojic drops the newest release on Dutch label Infinite Pleasure. It’s crunchy electro with heart. The title track is drum machine heaven, with a searing melody in between its percussive breakdowns. There’s a DMX Krew remix that’s like the inverse of the WAX tracks above, all ravey pianos, while the closing track is like waking from a rave dream in morning sunshine.
Finally, a new release from I. JORDAN. The first The opening strains remind me of Madonna’s ‘Take A Bow’ (and that’s absolutely a good thing). The title track, built around a vocal sample that sings “you’ve always been the one”, is joyous and euphoric. ‘First Time Back’ is high-tempo rave, all breaks, pianos and strange squibbles. A different kind of joy, but euphoric nonetheless.