The Predatory Wasp
I finally watched Aftersun last night and woke up still feeling pretty sad about it, so needed something to bounce me into the weekend. This (relatively) new EP from Lossy is perfect, and at times reminds me of some of Barker’s recent, beatless(ish) work.
Sodium Pentothal is a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate general anesthetic and the substance Stars of the Lids’ Adam Wiltzie used as inspiration for his latest album, Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentothal; a suite of songs inspired by a recurring dream wherein “if someone listened to the music I created, then they would die.” Pretty bleak right! And he doesn’t stop there. “When you are sitting face forward on the daily emotional meat grinder of life, I always wished I could have some [barbiturate], so I could just fall asleep automatically and the feeling would not be there anymore.” If this all sounds overwhelmingly depressing, the music is anything but, with Dim Hopes especially building towards a climax that is without doubt closer to catharsis than to oblivion.
https://adamwiltzie.bandcamp.com/album/eleven-fugues-for-sodium-pentothal
Kilometre Club’s heartbreakingly beautiful ambient track Dividend is taken from a benefit compilation for FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program Canada), an organisation that seeks to protect migrating birds. Curated in part by TPW favourite Avi C. Engel and including several of their collaborative tracks with Bradley Sean Alexander, it’s Polar Seas’ 75th and final release and a fittingly contemplative collection of meditative tones and melodies.
https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sky-within-us
Kelly Moran builds on the stripped-back, mesmeric piano that comprised 2023’s EP Vesela with her new album Moves in the Field. Gone are the experimental electronic meanderings of some of her previous work, replaced with these (relatively) straightforward but still completely enchanting pieces.
Blurring the lines between chamber music, contemporary dance, dark pop and ethereal ambience, Klein, Mica Levi and Space Afrika collaborator Bianca Scout distills a decade of multidisciplinary work with her new album Pattern Damage, moving between diaristic ephemera, demure post-punk and chamber ambient, and cracking open bewildering crypto-romantique wormholes in the process. And yes, this is pretty much a direct copy and paste of the release hype, but a) it’s accurate and b) it’s a bank holiday and I have better (lazier) things to be doing.
French artist Laetitia Sadier’s new album Rooting For Love is billed as a call to the traumatized civilizations of Earth, urging us to “evolve past our countless millennia of suffering and alienation”. Organ, guitar, bass, synth, trombone, vibraphone, live and programmed drums combine, yes, Air comparisons are appropriate and not just cos French: but there’s a edge here that’s absent from much of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel’s soft-focus oeuvre.
I run a little hot and cold on Big Thief – some of their work is incredible, some very meh – but I’m really enjoying Adrienne Lenker’s new solo album Bright Future, which is way more stripped down and even more contemplative, and even veers into Sufjan territory when she picks up the banjo. Track titles like Sadness As A Gift should give you an idea of the overall tone, but if you’re keen for some (arguably) self-indulgent introspection then it absolutely delivers. Already Lost is a highlight, including as it does some truly devastatingly poignant melodies.
The Italian-Congolese artist on the overwhelming melancholy of Silver Mt. Zion’s best-known work
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!
Laryssa Kim is an Italo-Congolese singer and composer based in Brussels whose latest album Contezza came out last month. Merging the experimental spirit of Acousmatics with soulful global influences, Kim’s music invites listeners into a dreamlike state, blending ghostly vocal fragments with electrifying riffs and natural sounds.
Contezza, meaning consciousness in ancient Italian, reflects Kim’s inner voyage during the solitude of the 2020 pandemic. Influenced by meditation, esotericism, and a diverse array of cultural artifacts, Kim explores themes of love, introspection, and the complexity of human emotion. The album serves as a magical ritual, an exorcism of beauty against personal demons. With influences ranging from Brian Eno to Erykah Badu, Contezza is a testament to Kim’s innovative approach to music and her profound engagement with the world’s infinite details.
For her One Track Mind selection, Laryssa has highlighted a deeply melancholy song, discovered during a period of mourning after losing a friend.
I’ve been sulking about the woeful Glastonbury line-up for the last few days, but now it’s time I got over it and got on with my life. And even though there are so few acts I’m excited about seeing that it genuinely makes me sad, there are a few glimmers of light; Arooj Aftab among them. To Remain/To Return is from Love In Exile, an album I completely missed last year, with Vijay Iyer on pianos and electronics, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog synth Aftab’s soaring Urdu vocals.
HOMESHAKE is the long-running solo project of Toronto-based musician Peter Sagar. His sixth album, CD WALLET landed last week and was written and recorded over a majority of 2023 at his home studio in Toronto and was ““made in a heavy, straightforward indie rock style to impress my childhood self”. Hazy guitars abound, and there’s something quietly addictive about the creeping melancholy of Letting Go that’s making me listen to it on repeat.
The Predatory Wasp 