Bandcloud 402
Bandcloud 402
Le Morte d’Abby, ADAB, Escaflowne, Manam, Eoin DJ, Lamin Fofana, Jo Montgomerie, David Wallraf, Knowing, niwlio, livwutang, Galaxy Brain and Michael Lightborne
There’s great drying in that weather, as long as you get it out and in before any spots of rain, which are unavoidable in any season on this island.
Last month I heard but did not share the excellent Distelfink album by Chaircrusher on Triplicate Records. My apologies to artist and label. The latest release from Triplicate is called I Am and it’s by Le Morte d’Abby, an alias of Abigail Lentz that nods to Le Morte d’Arthur, the 15th-Century retelling of the life and escapades of King Arthur and his gang. The vibe here I get is of ’90s US electronica. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a rich combination of emotional synth melodies and chunky and frantic percussion, almost breakbeats. I hate using the word, but this is heady.
ADAB @ The Lot Radio Block Party 2022
Speaking of breakbeats, here’s an hour of them from ADAB. Imagine these on a hot’n’sweaty day, dancing in the sunlight with a cold drink in your hand.
Escaflowne gets down to it with House Type Beats. That’s it. Five ultra-slick house jams for your party. ‘It sounds kinda daft?’ is like TB and GMdHC at their chunkiest. Think ‘Phoenix’ and those labels I’ve mentioned before. ‘Piano Track #042’ (how many does he have in the vault?!), ‘M1 Track’, ‘Roland jam’ and ‘Organ Ting’ each offer a fresh take on the sound; yes they could slot in next to the classics, but they’re definitely of the current moment from an excellent producer.
Manam | منام - Reversed in Peace
This four-track release is quite varied, moving between serenity and abstraction, clarity and confusion. It’s described, accurately, as “a dream-like journey through beat-music”. The title is very cool too.
Last week I was in my dad’s house and dug out the diaries that I kept as a teenager. Yesterday I was reading 2001/2002, so it’s funny that as I listened to this mix from Eoin DJ, who used to play before me on DDR, I noticed iio’s ‘Rapture’, which was a huge favourite of mine back then. He also plays a Breeder remix of Orbital that featured on Sasha’s Global Underground Ibiza CD, which, of course, I first heard in 2001. In between are a rake of lush and pumping prog tunes, and just when you think he’ll close on Lost Tribe’s rather epic ‘Under The Red Sea’, he goes the extra mile with Rozzo’s ‘Into Your Heart (Into Your Space)’. What a man. What a mix.
Lamin Fofana - Shafts of Sunlight
A rather magical release from Lamin Fofana, whose music is just stunning. Silence, or rather an absence of created sound, there are “field recordings” or maybe even just recordings of spaces and environments. Delicate moments. Blissful approaches through your ears. Crackles and hushed instances. The accompanying text speaks of upending the supremacy of western music theory, to which I say yes please.
“western worship of reason denies most of us the right to exist”
Jo Montgomerie - Those Things Beyond & Within
Three releases here from the excellent Brachliegen Tapes. First up, a gnarly and sinister tape from sound artist and educator Jo Montgomerie. I was six minutes into the first track and hadn’t even noticed a moment pass by. Magically monstrous. Crunching noise, horrifying melodies, like the lurch of an inescapable zombie.
Next up, David Wallraf’s Нет Войне. The title roughly translates as “No war”. The opening track, with its to-the-point title of ‘I Hate My Government And I Hate Your Government’, features searing guitar, crunching noise and some steady but plodding beats. It’s a strange and delightful mix. ‘Congagement’, wiki tells me, is a nauseating portmanteau of connecting and engaging with employees. Peak business speak. The track, thankfully, is a scorching netherworld of noise and plod, more plod, in my head a kind of 3/4 stomp but in reality, perhaps not. Finally, ‘Всё Идёт По Плану’, or “Everything goes according to plan”, is a squidge and dance of electronic blobs and field recordings, almost 10 minutes of ever-growing terror. Proceeds will be donated to Nash Svit, a long-running organisation that fights for the rights of the Ukrainian LGBTQ community.
Last up from is Pyre Hymns from our Irish buddy Knowing, aka Jonathan Deasy aka Quiet Clapping. Rather than anything melodic or sorrowful, these hymns are fittingly monotonous, grinding in their staid repetition. ‘Scorched Organ’ feels made up of a kind of looped noise rather than a single drone, but who knows. Well, Jonathan does. It builds with further layers of density, a kind of screaming making its way through the murk. ‘A Eulogy Written in Crayon’ features what seem to be horribly detuned vocals, fitting for the unrelenting pain and awfulness of death. There is a kind of wistful levity, but perhaps it’s only light in the context of such bloody-minded dank.
niwlio - and the spirit of kate bush was hiding under my stairs
Sick of ‘Running Up That Hill’? Here’s a way to get your Kate Bush fix in a new and unexpected fashion. niwilo offers “spectral reimaginings of Kate Bush’s [‘Pull Out the Pin’] via an array of cut-ups and processed loops stretching and pulling apart voice and melody”. Funky noise! Weirdo collage! It was released by Heavy Cloud last week on Bush’s 64th birthday, with proceeds going to Amnesty International.
While I knew a bunch of tracks on Eoin’s mix above, I can’t say I recognise much on this tape from livwutang. It’s a super mix though, full of rattling drums, cavernous spaces, looping vocals and a vibe that screams LOUD DARK ROOM.
I sit and write this at 11pm and think… am I Night Dad? I’m not sure I want to know. Galaxy Brain is an alias of DJ Citizen Helene, trading in her folk pop sound for a sensuous house groove. Think bouncing bass lines, maudlin chords and yearning melodies. Hi-hats at the ready, waiting for those claps and kicks to enter and lead you to the floor. The opening chords of ‘JDX00’ (unfortunately) remind me of Bobby Brown’s ‘Two Can Play That Game’, but then the track moves in another direction, with an almost insouciant flair.
Michael Lightborne - Slí na Fírinne
Slí na Fírinne, or way of truth, is the title of the latest release from the Department of Energy. One of my favourite phrases in Irish is “is fír sin”, which translates literally as “this is true”, but when spoken can have an air of wisdom, solace or resignation. Many more field recordings, the sound of birds and wind and rivers, here combined with prolonged, lilting chords. It’s a mystical and magical release, grounded (if you’ll forgive the pun, given titles such as ‘Earthing the shock’ and the name of the label itself) in the real world by those field recordings and the sense of the land that is so prevalent in every release from DoE. I almost thought that Michael Lightborne was an alias of Local Gods, who runs DoE, but I believe he is a separate, real person. It gives me real hope and excitement that there exists such an invigorating label and space in this country for this kind of (non-)music.