The Predatory Wasp
Following March’s CD Wallet, HOMESHAKE has just released his second album of 2024, Horsie. Written and recorded at his home studio in Toronto, it explores his complicated feelings about returning to live performance, deepening his relationship to loneliness and anxiety while examining those themes in the context of touring. Cheery stuff right! It’s lovely though, really.
Apologies for my extended break – it was pre-Glastonbury/Glastonbury/post-Glastonbury, so I couldn’t really engage with anything else. But now I’m back! Lots of interesting albums out recently, but this opening track from Omar Apollo’s new album God Said No is the one I’ve had on loop. So while everyone else is losing their shit about Pedro, we can listen to this low-key banger.
It’s hard to explain just how of an emotional connection I have to Sufjan Steven’s 2024 album Seven Swans. Reissued today for its 20th anniversary, it was the first album I listened to, and I vividly remember the experience. It was like nothing I’d heard before, and started an intense and continuing obsession. Sister is probably the album’s emotional peak, with closer The Transfiguration coming in a close second. But the entire album is flawless. I have still never heard anything that approaches its raw emotion and stripped down beauty. I love you, Sufjan.
Today’s track is 12 years old, but I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday and assume there are plenty of people who have never heard it. If that’s you, you’re in for a treat. Thinking back to 2012 it was almost unavoidable in certain circles, but unlike many other hype tracks of yesteryear, this remains completely essential and may well be one of the best remixes ever produced, especially given its somewhat forgettable source material.
Dylan Henner has made some of the most enriching, soothing ambient music I’ve ever heard, so I’m very excited about diving into his new album. Also, it’s called performs Raymond Scott’s Soothing Sounds for Baby, so I’m anticipating being pretty fucking relaxed in about an hour’s time.
https://dylanhenner.bandcamp.com/album/performs-raymond-scotts-soothing-sounds-for-baby
Night Tapes started out as evening jams between housemates Max Doohan, Sam Richards and Iiris Vesik in London, and came to full fruition during lockdown when, like most of us, they stayed inside and tried to avoid losing their minds. Their latest EP Assisted Memories is low-key dream pop at its finest, with languid guitars, gentle rhythms and lots of haze.
https://nighttapesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/assisted-memories
Following their excellent collaborative LP Dolphin, UK jazz maestro Greg Foat and Venetian electronic luminary Gigi Masin join forces once again for The Fish Factory Sessions, an exclusive release for Record Store Day 2024. Also featuring the talents Moses Boyd on drums and Tom Herbert on bass, Sabena is an alternative version of the track of the same name from Dolphin; a beautifully poignant tribute to Masin’s late wife, with this new version even more delicate than its predecessor.
https://gregfoat.bandcamp.com/album/the-fish-factory-sessions
Actress and Smalltown Supersound promise you a safe and transcendent journey…
There’s surprisingly little online about Joanne Robertson and Dean Blunt’s new collaborative EP Backstage Ravers, save for a glowing RA review and an enthusiastic Reddit thread. Perhaps that’s expected from the famously publicity shy artists, but they really are making us work for it. Robertson takes the lead here with Blunt lurking in the distant background. Hazy, occasionally discordant and in a questionable stage of completion, the eight songs here are nevertheless completely beguiling.
John Glacier has already released one of the best EPs of the year, and has now announced a second, Duppy Gun, alongside its lead single Steady As I Am. Lo-fi, hazy beats and Glacier’s icy delivery abound, and while it’s perhaps not quite as startlingly brilliant as the tracks on Like A Ribbon, it’s still very good. Looking forward to the EP which lands 20 June.
The Predatory Wasp 