Category: Music

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Music

Jake Muir – Tonic

Ilian Tape really are in a league of their own. Regardless of which particular branch of electronic music they’re currently championing – usually several simultaneously – it’s pretty much guaranteed to be brilliant, and Jake Muir’s new album Mana is no exception. Tonic – the lead track – is ambient techno at its finest, beatless save a subterranean kick that echoes, ominously, in the background, grounding what is otherwise a freewheeling soundscape of restlessly twitching synths and shimmering celestial pads.

EDIT: Jake just pointed out to me that the entire album is actually composed of samples, without a synth in sight. Shows how attuned my ear is to electronic music after nearly four decades obsessive listening.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp10-mana

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Music

Donato Dozzy – wooden dolls don’t cry

Dozzy! Dozza! The Big Doz! Everyone’s favourite Italian polyrhythmic techno don returns to Tresor Records with a four track EP 124 which includes this headscramblingly relentless chugger. “Down the rabbit hole we go!!” I’d probably say if I were an ageing music PR with a fairly limited vocabulary and not enough time to come up with something more original. Oh wait…

https://dozz.bandcamp.com

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Corrina Repp

The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter delves back into a song that soundtracked a memorable roadtrip

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!

Currently based in Los Angeles, Corrina Repp originally emerged in the Portland scene and has, across six albums and two decades, carefully and patiently developed her sound. Fragile, delicately crafted, and often stripped down to the very barest of bones, Corrina’s music explores universal themes through intimate and often personal narratives that gives it real emotional heft. I first became aware of Corrina via her 2006 album The Absent and The Distant and still go back to it on an almost weekly basis, especially the track Afloat, which is, without doubt, one of the saddest and most beautiful songs ever written. Her brilliant new album, Island, is out now, and if you’re a newcomer to her work it’s a great place to start.

For her One Track Mind selection, Corrina talks about the transportive experience of hearing a song from a titan of US jazz and pop music for the very first time.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Corrina Repp”
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Music

Volta Sunset – Trip

There’s a lot of brilliant music out today, most of which will at least get a little coverage on various blogs, big or small. But I’d like to draw your attention to Volta Sunset’s new single Trip, a stripped-down, shuffling, soulful cut that you won’t find anywhere outside of Soundcloud, and is a really incredible piece of work. Dreamy, atmospheric, understated and hypnotic, it’s reminiscent of Frank Ocean’s quieter moments and deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.

https://twitter.com/voltasunset

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Music

Damiana – Sunken Lupine

After an exhaustive (10 minute) search online there’s nothing I can tell you about Damiana I’m afraid, other than their latest release Vines was released on a clear vinyl limited to 100 copies which has now sold out. Too late suckers! This came out back in May but – 100 clear vinyl fanatics aside – seems to have flown largely under the radar, which is a shame as it’s really beautiful. Think Enya minus the hooks, with a little shake of Engima(!), combined with a dollop of mid 90s ambient trance – Chicane, or someone similar. Sounds fucking hideous right!? Well it’s not, I promise.

https://hausumountain.bandcamp.com/track/sunken-lupine

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Music

Ike – Inter

Well isn’t this a jaunty little slice of future junglism?

https://dieorakel.bandcamp.com/album/stone-diviner

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Music

Wildhart – I’ve Been Waiting

After a strong run of singles over the past few month, Wildhart’s latest album His Arrows Won’t Hit Us Now arrived last week, and although I haven’t had a chance to spend a decent amount of time with it yet on the first couple of listens it’s hit me very nicely in the feels indeed. I’ve written here before about how much I love their 2016 LP Shine, and after a period of worrying silence and a line-up change, it’s brilliant to have them back in all their hushed, synthy glory. Like a lot of their music, I’ve Been Waiting goes in hard on nostalgic yearning, a patient, bubbling lead synth line joined by beautifully echoing trumpets as it moves its understated but powerful final third. I have a feeling this will fly a little under the radar, but it really shouldn’t.

https://twitter.com/wildhartmusic

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Music

George T and Johnny Aux – Amsterdam

Shout out to Joe Muggs’ always enlightening Bandcamp Daily column for the recommendation on this one. Johnny Aux – aka Quinn Whalley, one half of always interesting acid house group Paranoid London – teams up with George T for a three-track EP that includes this dubby slice of post-punk-techno-industrial-electronica-etc, featuring a dour vocal and even dourer muddy bass thumps. Uplifting it ain’t, mesmeric it most certainly is.

https://optimomusic.bandcamp.com/album/making-excuses-for-you-ep

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Music

Ehiorobo – Pool

It’s a tough thing in 2021 to make music that comes even vaguely close to being unique. Rob Brydon made this point more than a decade ago in The Trip: “Everything has been done before. All you can do is do something someone’s done before, but do it better, or differently”. True dat. But at least there are people trying to break the mould, one of whom is Ehiorobo, who, while treading a similar path to better known artists like Frank Ocean, is doing so with such commitment and freewheeling creativity that his music absolutely stands out. Pool is gorgeous, subdued, dreamy r&b that’s so chill it pretty much dissolves into itself by the end. And if you like this there’s an album landing in December, so watch out for that.

https://soundcloud.com/ehiorobo

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Music

Lady Wray – Through It All

Atlanta R&B queen Lady Wray drops her brilliant new single Through It All, a dusty, soulful gem to power us all through a dreary Monday, and the latest stepping stone on the path to her new album Piece Of Me which lands in January. If you haven’t yet heard the title track, it’s absolutely incredible, so expectations are high for this one.

https://twitter.com/Ladynicolewray