The Predatory Wasp
Bandcamp recently highlighted Sarah Bethe Nelson’s new album Mental Picture as their Album of the Day, and I’m pleased they did, or it would have flown completely under my radar. Opener Five Lovin’ Days is indicative of its lugubrious atmosphere, with Nelson’s unhurried instrumentation and hazy drawl nearly beaten into submission by the Californian sun.
I’m not sure why, but I had dismissed Khruangbin as bascially uninteresting until I saw them at Glastonbury and they proved to be one of the highlights of the entire festival. Thankfully now I’ve seen the error of my ways! Here they team up with Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré for the extremely chill Savanne, which is beautifully dreamy and definitely not uninteresting in any way, and is also the lead single from their forthcoming collaborative LP, Ali, due out in September.
Alamay and Omar Cassuis’s new EP How to Swim sees the collaborators showcase an evolution in their sound, with themes of past relationships, lockdown and their musical journey to date explored over the course of six tracks. Silky smooth and seductive, Guidance is probably the pick of the lot, but the entire EP is definitely worth your time.
Ascending By Night is taken from the debut collaborative album from Sam Prekop (The Sea and Cake) and John McEntire (Tortoise), but given how excellent is it I think they should probably commit to at least half a dozen more. With four sprawling electronic compositions clocking in at just under an hour, Sons Of gives allows of its tracks the time to develop; to morph from one thing to another, with tonal shifts from dark to light and back again a common theme. Beautiful, patiently handled and exquisitely crafted.
I think I’ve used the word “breezy” to describe Kota The Friend’s music every time I’ve written about it, and I’ve been sitting here for about 20 minutes trying think think of a more appropriate term. I do not believe one exists. Just listen to those playfully skipping drums! The jauntiness of the keys! The effortless of his delivery! The airhorns!!(!) Everything about it makes me wan bounce gently from side to side while softly grinning. Breezy AF.
Steve Lacy’s name looms large in my consciousness, without me knowing very much about him at all. He’s someone I feel I would really be into if I paid proper attention, and yet his last album completely passed me by, to the extent that I wasn’t really sure what to expect from his new LP Gemini Rights, but was pretty sure I would get something out of it. And I did! Especially the tracks Mercury – which was released as a single last month – and Cody Freestyle, which is big and melodramatic and brilliant.
The US duo sing the praises of a Scott Joplin classic.
The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!
US duo Bad Flamingo are without doubt one of my favourite musical discoveries of the last couple of years. Swaggeringly cool and pretty much anonymous online, they make sleazy, sweaty, dusty tracks that swing between alternative rock, country and something altogether less easily defined. Their latest run of singles has been faultless, and hopefully they will be following up their brilliantly titled 2018 album I Said A Prayer Twice for Both My Faces very soon.
For their One Track Mind selection, Bad Flamingo paint a typically vivid picture about their time with a track by American composer and pianist Scott Joplin.
Bing & Ruth’s David Moore revisits two pieces from his 2020 album Species as solo piano works, stripping down both Nearer and Body In A Room to the very barest of bones. If you’re familiar with Moore’s work, you’ll probably already know how heartbreakingly beautiful this will be.
Taken from the Canadian ambient musician’s new album Hush Hush, COP26 is one of four pieces that comprise the LP, all of which were created by combining several 16th century choral arrangements that were then altered and spliced together using reel-to-reel machines, before being played live via an array of eight guitar amps. For fans of William Basinski, Stars of the Lid and generally being awestruck while thinking Big Thoughts.
The Predatory Wasp 