Okay this is the last of the bunch (I think). I hope you’ve enjoyed all three previous entries (available here, here and here) and support the artists involved. Tomorrow will see the last regular mail of the year. Peace!
Siavash Amini
Siavash Amini is an artist based in Iran, working in the field of instrumental ambient and experimental music. Outspoken on Twitter, he has no love for his home’s political leaders. I asked him a few questions about his musical approach and daily life in his country.
You’ve worked with a lot of different artists over the years. Has the pandemic put a stop to your collaborations or have you moved online?
Most of my collaborations were formed online so it’s the same really, but I loved being part of the organizing team at our festival SET, which moved online after the pandemic. That was a huge blow to me, that was where I felt I was part of something, organizing things online doesn’t feel the same at all so I just couldn’t do it anymore. Much respect to my friends who are still at it though.
How has the pandemic affected your country?
That’s a very complicated question to answer, because COVID, hand in hand with an absolutely incompetent government, accompanied with international sanctions, has resulted in one of the worst periods of our history at least, in our and our parents memory. The pressure is tremendous; so much death and anxiety (of personal and economic kind) coupled with almost no hope for anything good to happen (because of the current political dead-end), it’s sometimes hard to even fathom a tomorrow which has a bit more relief, let alone hope for something good to happen.
You’ve spoken before about the difficulties of making money as an artist given Bandcamp’s insistence on using PayPal, which is unable to operate in Iran due to US sanctions. How do you communicate this with labels in other countries? Have they been able to help you?
Well it’s not just PayPal, the sanctions mean that I can’t have any kind of account that I can do financial interactions from in my name, this includes everything from a bank account connected to the international banking system to PayPal or even sites like Patreon. To most platforms Iranians don’t exist (you can check it yourself; Iran isn’t part of the most drop down menus were you choose your country of residence).
This means we have to find someone with a non-Iranian passport to get paid instead of us, then find a way to get that money to Iran.
Labels I work with have been more than kind and accommodating when it comes to this, so mostly I have to find a way to get what I’m paid to Iran, which can be a headache, I can do that once or twice a year.
How did you survive the power cuts and heat this summer?
Not that big a deal really, mostly annoying and I was worried about my equipment getting fucked by all the sudden outages, we had it much worse when I was kid and lived in the south. The problem we had was all the patients (mostly COVID) in the ICUs, that was mostly what everyone was worried about.
Your music is deeply evocative and atmospheric. Is there any one thing that inspires this?
I’m glad it comes across that way, I think it’s mostly how I like the music I listen to; I like to push myself to do something I can enjoy listening to later, something that feels good when I play it for the people I care about. I’m glad that you think it’s working! Inspiration for each album varies a lot, but poetry and philosophy are the two main fields when it comes to inspiration for what I’ve done in recent years.
What are you excited about for 2022, if anything?
Well I’ve finished two albums of multiple album collaboration with someone who has had the most influence on my thinking and work over the past few years, I can’t say much more but it’s coming as a double LP on Hallow Ground next year (depending on how long the vinyl gets delayed).
Siavash Amini on Bandcamp
BAE BAE
Special moments from the parties I played this year (in no particular order).
Hood Rave – Threw my first rave in over a year during the pandemic in late November called Hood Rave. We moved from a small barbershop location to a warehouse in South Central. This was a gamble for me and my collaborator DJ Kita, but it was very successful. We drew a crowd of gorgeous black and brown mostly queer folks, fitted to the T in impeccable looks. I loved the crowd’s openness to listen to varied styles of electronic music – house, jersey club, garage, and also dancehall, hip hop, and trap. We had a special guest, Hook, one of my favorite rapper/performers from the IE. The night had incredible vibes – everyone was so happy to be there. Black Noi$e, from Detroit, played a deep house set fused with hip hop and a little Pink Pantheress. DJ Kita slayed with the hip hop and r&b deep cuts along with the TikTok Hits. Dara Genesis created a beautiful textured mix fused with garage, jungle, and other UK styles. Baby.com opened up the party with quirky hyper pop edits and just fun. It was an amazing night and I can’t wait to do it again.
Foreigner’s Flick Party – This was my second time playing with Leonce. I also got to play with my fave Nativesun from DC, plus Foreigner and Damar Davis. I loved the aesthetics that Adam (Foreigner, who produces the event) provided in the space – there were beautiful watery and rosy projections on the walls behind us as we DJed. At one point he had something projecting from a corner of the room and had smoke emerging from it – it literally looked like a fire! That shit blew my mind. At that moment I happened to be playing batida and gqom – two of my favorite genres – and it really felt like some revolutionary and spiritual shit was going on in with the combination of heavy percussion and incendiary visuals. I debuted an edit I made with ‘UOENO’ and a CDM Maboku track (a producer from Príncipe in Lisbon). The dancers in the crowd went OFF to that track, exploding with movement in a dance cypher. It felt so powerful and, again, like some shit was really popping off and the world was breaking open.
Halloween at Serenity Link – I got to play the Halloween rave my friends Karen (Mapamota) and Edward (Stealth Angel) throw outside in an alley in Downtown Los Angeles. The crowd came through wearing head to toe Halloween looks. I wore my Exorcist shirt, put a candle under the DJ table to call in my spirit guides, and played a mix that included a Sophie track of Brooke Candy, ghetto house by DJ Assault and DJ Deeon, and Jersey Club from SJAYY and Rell. The highlight was playing Victim of Yo Own Shit by Gangsta Boo, my favorite eerie Three Six song, and brought it in from the ‘7 Note in Nero’ orchestral track (also from the Kill Bill soundtrack) that’s sampled in the Gangsta Boo track. My friends Kita, Suga Shay, and Ariel were on top of the subs twerking to the violins– it was hilarious and also just such a fun build in tension to the moment Gangsta Boo’s verse drops. Such a high energy moment. Everyone felt it. I wore my Exorcist shirt because at that time I started to realize that djing is like performing an exorcism – eliminating the dark forces trying to take us over in this world.
Príncipe Noite (Príncipe Night) at Music Box in Lisbon – I flew to Portugul a week ago, in early December, to get to know more about one of my favorite musical labels out of Portugal, Príncipe Discos. Their music genres are primarily batida and taraxho, with polyrhythmic drums and often using screwed accordion and horn samples. I find their music both challenging to the listener and exciting. The night had about 10+ DJs from the crew, sometimes going back to back to back, each demonstrating their finesse on the CDJs and exclusively playing their own beats. It was like a producer battle but friendlier, with everyone on the same side. It got exciting anytime someone pulled out a beat that sounded more and more “out there” or strange. At one point DJ Nuno Beats live looped the sample of will.i.am singing “tonight’s gonna be a good night” to the point of unrecognizability and mixed it with clashing metallic snares. Everyone was hype. I met some of my favorite producers from Príncipe, including Nigga Fox, Lycox, Firmeza, Narciso, Marfox, DJ Nervoso, Puto Anderson, and DJ Maboku. The batida sound takes its roots from kuduro music of Angola, Cape Verde and other countries that the Portuguese colonized. Principe brought those sounds into the electronic music context and experimented with them. What I find so impressive about the batida and taraxho sounds is that although they are part of a “beat scene”, so to speak, they are always incredibly danceable. Dancing on stage to their music felt like a homecoming for me. Blending batida and taraxho beats with R&B vocals is something that has become a signature for me as a dj. I owe a lot to Príncipe.
Dengo Club at Village Underground (Lisbon) – I have yet to play this party but this is another part of the reason I flew to Portugal. I should mention that for my PhD dissertation I am researching emerging black and queer dance movements around the world to explore how they are connected and influence each other. I met Saint Caboclo irl for the first time at a dinner he hosted with his lovely Dengo crew at a Brazilian all-you-can-eat steakhouse. Saint’s passion for throwing his new party and his love for his team was contagious. Dengo Club disrupts the typical “wear all black and chains and pulse to techno” European queer dance scene. From what Saint tells me the first event they threw was a 2000s music focused party where the crowd was encouraged to express themselves with vibrant clothing. The next Dengo Club is this Friday Dec 17th (tomorrow!) and features Saint Caboclo, Laskaar (from Zurich) and myself. The music will be centred on Afro-diasporic rhythms globally, like dancehall, dembow, afrobeats, and baile funk. Outside of the UK, this is my first time playing in Europe. I know this will be one of my top party experiences of the year and i’m excited to experience its unfolding.
BAE BAE on SoundCloud and Instagram
Tony Poland
Favourite musical memory of 2021
In late May, I escaped London for the first time since the pandemic happened to spend a long weekend in exotic Cambridge with my wife, Crystal, to celebrate our wedding anniversary. On a near-empty train, I listened to Cucina Povera’s album Lumme for the first time as the train rolled out of London and Crystal napped opposite me. The twenty minute opener, ‘Sinisen ruusun tapaus,’ sucked me right into this otherworldly sense of calm and I felt an ease that had been absent for so very long. Almost as if a faltering vacuum cleaner was slowly sucking the dusty stress out of me.
Honorary Taylor Swift award for Top 6 10min+ tracks of 2021
Ros Bandt - Ocean Bells (Efficient Space)
Lifted - Born in the Roof (Future Times)
Sir E.U + Tooth Choir - I Can't Stop Thinkin Bout My Baby (Future Times)
Pendant - Dream Song Of The Woman (West Mineral Ltd.)
Cucina Povera - Selkeämmät Vedet (Offen Music)
Madteo - Episcopi Vagantes (Honest Jon’s)
Worst ‘first-world problem’ realisation of 2021
Prepare the violins! This year I figured out I’d finally been relegated from the Promo Premier League, and was now floundering, Stoke City-style, in the Promo Championship, perennially deleting emails to fatdrop links for random techno EPs. The odd advance gem tossed my way as some sort of parachute payment that will no doubt expire in 2022.
Favourite label of 2021:
Do You Have Peace? Not sure why but I always seem to gravitate towards music out of Bristol, call it residual hangover from a youth spent obsessed with Tricky. Anyway, Jabu’s label Do You Have Peace? may have only dropped three releases in 2021 but each was a real delight. From the Sunun and Jinx mixtape to Jabu’s recent self-styled ‘Tubby meets Badalamenti’ versions of their Sweet Company LP to the surprise Via Maris 7” ft. my absolute fave off-kilter drifter ‘Lekky.’
If you’re reading this Jabu, can you put out that fizzy jungle cut with the horns that was on the first DYHP tape next year? Cheers.
Top 6 labels I don’t remember following on Bandcamp but my inbox says otherwise
Enmossed
Deathbomb Arc
Pi Electronics [π]
Coastal Haze
Black Sweat Records
South of South
The 2021 track I would have rinsed in sets if I was still DJing in clubs this year (albeit in a bizarro non-COVID world)
Parris - Skater’s World. Huge UK freestyle track from the debut Parris album which paired his well-honed rhythmic toughness with the most wonderfully poppy vocal turns from Eden Samara. I keep saying this to friends but it's crazy how much harder the instrumental version feels without Eden’s vocals without any real structural difference in the production as far as I am aware. Vvvvv weird that this wasn’t more widely feted by critics at the time it was released?
Favourite films I watched on MUBI this year
Bacaru (2019)
The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)
Limbo (2020)
Shiva Baby (2020)
Black Bear (2020)
Mayor (2020)
House (1977)
2019 EOY LIST PROPHECY THAT CAME TRUE
Back in the heady days of December 2019 I sent out a none-too subtle plea for an album from uber-group 5AM in my Bandcloud EOY submission. Based off just one track, the instant classique ‘Tonight’. Obviously 5ive, Andriy and Moko saw that cos they delivered a delightful debut album in the shape of Pre-Zz this year. Fuelled by understated psychedelia and loose pop, the album brings new joy with each listen. Which in this attention-deficit climate perhaps explains the lack of critical appraisal thus far, aside from an inclusion in one of those albums you’ve missed Pitchfork lists…. So I hope to see it in more of these EOY type of affairs.
The ‘Boomkat, mate, I can’t believe we disagree on this one :(’ award
Serafina Steer / John T. Gast - Garden of Love / Water Carrier
Favourite Albums/Mixes/Tapes/Reissues/Radio Shows of 2021
Frog of Earth - Frog of Earth (wheretimegoes)
Pamela Z - Echolocation (freedom to spend/rvng)
DJ Trystereo - CAV EMPTape (Cav Empt)
Jabu - Versions (do you have peace?)
All of the various Niagara full length releases
Lupini Soup to Nuts breakfast shows on NTS
Andy Mac - First & Last, Sennen (Fleetway Tapes)
Motoko & Myers - Colocate (Soda Gong)
Joy Orbison – still slipping vol. 1 (xL)
V/A - Kiosque of Arrows 2 (compiled by Tolouse Low Trax) (Bureau B)
5AM - Pre ZZ (Thinner Groove)
Downstairs J - Basement, etc… (Incienso)
Josey Rebelle TTTape (The Trilogy Tapes)
Max D - 100% Pepe mix
Everything Cucina Povera released
Mix Mup / Kassem Mosse – Arthur Boto Conley's Music Workshop Presents MM KM At Kardamom (Travel by Goods)
Web - The Sound There (Acido)
Buttechno Patreon!!!!
Bake’s C to the Power of X show on Riiiiiiiiiiiiinse
Artist I promise I will finally listen to in 2022 Bandcloud don’t hate me:
Claire Rousay
New music I am looking forward to in 2022:
Coby Sey, Debit on Mod Luv, Cru Servers LP on 12th Isle, Lifted LP on Future Times, the Huerco S Plonkers, anything Worldwide Unlimited, Kiki Kudo, Laurel Halo, anything MAL Recordings, the long-mooted LAVALAVA compilation.
Bandcloud
Audiobook experiences of the year
Beastie Boys Book, read by Adam Horowitz, Michael Diamond and a host of guests including Rosie Perez, Bobby Cannavale, John C. Reilly, Steve Buscemi, LL Cool J and Bette Midler
One of the most entertaining audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, not least because it truly takes advantage of what the medium can offer. Some of it was annoying - there are some ridiculous bits of fictionalised nonsense - but I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed that on the page either. On the whole a rather magical experience.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor
A truly fantastical book that transports you to another world (no, not just another cliche), brought to life by a brilliant speaker.
The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips, read by Ben Arogundade
A book that’s somewhere between crime caper and diplomatic thriller, a meditation on race and class, culture and empire, it’s wonderful. If Ejiofor is a familiar name, expectedly brilliant, then Arogundade is a surprise hit, a charismatic and versatile performer who can speak in an array of voices and styles with ease.
Best old films I watched this year
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Big Business (1988) (not my first watch but worth a mention)
Paris, Texas (1985)
Viy (1967)
Worst films I watched this year
Glass (2019)
The Tomorrow War (2021)
Film of 2021
Luca
TV moment of the year
IRASSHAIMASE!
Most enjoyable email newsletters
Crow’s Nest, a music mailout somewhat like this one but more varied in its approach, unshackled by Band or Cloud.
Social Lives, a look at the world of freelance social media management.
Three Stars Fine, “a tinyletter about three stars fine horror movies” that has covered things such as Crimson Peak and Phantom of The Opera and Paranormal Activity. Always brilliantly and hilariously written by Julia Armfield, whose next book Our Wives Under The Sea is due in March.
Meme of the year
PONDERING MY ORB
Football hero of the year
Podcast of the year
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College
Music I enjoyed most while driving home from my two vaccine appointments