The Predatory Wasp
Afloat came out in 2006 on Corrina Repp’s album The Absent and the Distant, and is a record I come back to all the time. It’s one of the most heartbreaking, delicate, beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. The piano line that trickles in halfway through is completely inspired, and the whole thing is drenched in a kind of washed out melancholia that is just perfect. Two and a half minutes of sheer, choking bliss.
Brutally stark ambient from Brighton’s Ital Tek that comes with a fantastic music video, vaguely reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s headscrambling visuals for T69 Collapse, but significantly calmer. Leaving The Grid is eerie and arrestingly beautiful and is out now on Planet Mu.
This one had me fully on board within five seconds. Something about that winding, fizzing synth line and those beats… and then they both start singing: absolutely incredible. The entire album, Aarupa, is also one of the best I’ve heard so far this year. Quinton Barnes – you have my attention!
Slowly evolving techno from Bristol’s Hodge that for the first half of its running time is very much in the same vein as Barker’s Debiasing EP, which is one of my favourite electronic releases from the last few years. In all honesty it’s a little disappointing when Shadows In Blue actually resolves itself into a club track rather than holding that tension for the duration, but it’s still a very fine piece of work.
Wonderfully weird and unpredictable electronica from Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. The Steady Heart encompasses elements of folk, jazz, choral and various strands of electronic music, and is completely beguiling from start to finish.
This is one of most accessible tracks I’ve heard from Shabazz Palaces, who seem to delight in being as weird as possible. I’m calling it cosmic rap, although that seems so fitting I’ve almost certainly heard it elsewhere and am taking undue credit for it myself. Fast Leaner is the lead single from their new album The Don Of Diamond Dreams which came out today. It’s great, you should listen to it.
I have a real soft spot for anything that sounds like it’s harkening back to an especially synthy period of the 80s, and Counting Stars fits very neatly into that particular little box. Vocally he also sounds quite a lot like Toro Y Moi, who released one of my favourite albums of the decade a couple of years back. Really very good indeed.
This is an extended version of one of the tracks from Floating Points’ recent album Crush. It’s now a 10+ minute beast and is epic and hugely impressive. Makes me want to be raving in a field with thousands of people so much. Sigh.
As Midwife, Madeline Johnston plays what she describes as “Heaven Metal,” or “emotive music about devastation”. In other words it’s very low-key and gloomy, but in beautifully uplifting way. This is taken from her new album Forever which is definitely worth checking out, especially if you want to gaze out of a window and Think A Lot About Sad Things for a while. Also has a touch of early Sufjan in the vocal delivery and atmospherics, which is never a bad thing.
I just found out that Chynna died last week. She had a long history of drug addition and some mental health issues, and made (mostly) brutally nihilistic rap. She was only 25: way too young and ultimately a really sad story. This was one of my favourites of hers.
The Predatory Wasp 