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Music

Demdike Stare, Kriston Pilon- Belly Up

I have fond, if slightly intense, memories of Demdike Stare’s Before My Eyes nights they used to put on in a tiny London basement, especially one where my friend took too much K and ran, pretty much crying, from the room. Their new album sees them in their usual chaos mode, as they destroy and piece back together piano and vocal recordings by US filmmaker-musician Kristen Pilon, with unsurprisingly unsettling results. For fans of The Caretaker, crunchy drums and feeling generally a little bit tense.

https://boomkat.com/products/to-cut-and-shoot

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Music

Adam F – Circles Revisited

Celebrating the re-release of one of the influential drum & bass singles of all time and the album from which it came, Adam F’s 1997 debut Colours. To record new versions of the tracks Adam F dug out all his old hardware which had long been hidden away. Over a span of two years he reworked the original music, from restoring vintage instruments like his Fender Rhodes piano to enlisting UK jazz legends like Julian Joseph. Vocalists including Kirsty Hawkshaw and the late MC Conrad re-recorded their parts, while new solos from contemporary artist added fresh life to the tracks. Circles still sounds as good as is always has – a true classic.

https://adamf.bandcamp.com/album/colours-revisited

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Uncategorized

Tim Hecker – Sunset Key Melt

Tim Hecker saves the best until last on his new album Shards with this extraordinary, amorphous ambient/electronic closing track. Released last week on krany, Shards is a collection of pieces originally written for various film and TV soundtracks Hecker has scored over the last half decade, with compositions originally written for scoring projects including Infinity Pool, The North Water, Luzifer, and La Tour.

https://timhecker.bandcamp.com/album/shards

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Uncategorized

1000 Artists – Is This What We Want?

Over 1,000 artists – Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Annie Lennox, and more – have released a (largely) silent album, Is This What We Want?, as a protest against UK government plans that could let AI companies use copyrighted music without permission. The album, made up of recordings of unused studios, is a statement on what happens when artists’ voices are taken away.

The musicians credited as co-writers include Tori Amos, Billy Ocean, the Clash and the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, and profits from the album will be donated to the musicians’ charity Help Musicians. According to the Guardian, Kate Bush recorded one of the dozen tracks in her studio. I’m choosing to believe this is true, and reckon it’s probably the track To as you can hear lots of bird in the background, which would be very Kate.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/25/kate-bush-damon-albarn-1000-artists-silent-ai-protest-album-copyright

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Music

Elori Saxl – It Will Be Gone

New York-based composer Elori Saxl’s score, Texada, is the official soundtrack for the film of the same name. Directed by Claire Sanford and Josephine Anderson, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film charts life on Texada Island off British Columbia’s coast. On tracks like lead single It Will Be Gone, Saxl translates the island’s geological and human narratives into sound. Employing analog synthesisers, processed baritone saxophone (performed by Henry Solomon), and subtle field recordings, the score maps textures ranging from stone and water to the hum of industrial activity.

https://elorisaxl.bandcamp.com/album/texada-original-score

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Music

Puma Blue – whilst my heart breaks

Lots of good music out today but this is the bleakest aka the best. Taken from the new album antichamber which sees him stepping away from the full-band setup, focusing instead on stripped-back electronics and acoustic textures. Ideal listening for the bleak midwinter.

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Music

Night Tapes – Television

I just read a review that compared Night Tapes’ latest single to Boards of Canada, and no, that’s absolute nonsense, but I’m still very happy to see new material from my favourite musical discovery of last year. Television ticks all the boxes I need it to; dreamy, nostalgic, electro-pop fare that hints towards a debut album in 2025. Fingers crossed.

https://nighttapesmusic.bandcamp.com/track/television

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Music

Cloth – Golden

Since their 2019 debut, Glasgow duo Cloth have carved out a space between dream pop and post-rock, with 2023’s Secret Measure one of my favourite LPs of the year . Now the Swinton twins are back with Golden, the first taste of their upcoming album Pink Silence, due in April. Stripped-back yet emotionally loaded, the track leans into the quiet devastation of a breakup – hazy guitars, whispered vocals, and that signature Cloth restraint making every moment feel weightier.

https://cloth-music.bandcamp.com/album/pink-silence

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Music

Barker – Reframing

In 2018 Sam Barker released his Debiasing EP and pretty much changed the techno game. He wasn’t the first to do away with kick drums, but with Look How Hard I’ve Tried especially he demonstrated just how powerful restraint could be. His recently announced second album Stochastic Drift now sees Barker creating tracks with a fresh deftness and by “letting go of expectations”, and the first single Reframing is fucking magnificent, although if I was being super critical I reckon it could be at least twice as long. Roll on April.

https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/album/stochastic-drift

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Anna Erhard

The Berlin-based artist on a song that inspires her to let go

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!

Anna Erhard’s music exists in that hazy space between indie rock and offbeat pop, where dry wit and deadpan delivery meet angular guitars and restless beats. Originally from Switzerland, now based in Berlin, she first caught attention with Basel’s folk-leaning Serafyn before stepping out solo, swapping acoustic delicacy for something more unpredictable.

Her latest album, Botanical Garden, is a further evolution of her idiosyncratic sound—more wired, more playful, with Anna turning mundane observations into strangely addictive earworms. The title hints at something lush, but Erhard’s garden is full of overgrown thoughts and half-remembered conversations, set to clattering rhythms and sun-faded synths. Tracks like “Horoscope” and “Teenage Earworm” toy with nostalgia but refuse to settle into it, while “170” turns a casual argument over someone’s height into a hook-laden, side-eyed anthem.

For her One Track Mind selection, Anna has picked out a song the humor and charm of which is reflected in much of her own work.