I’m busy today, but this is lush and you should listen to it. For a more committed précis, see Boomkat’s excellent (as always) hype.
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Lukid – End Loop
Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler is one of the most consistently weird hip-hop innovators out there; a title his new album Robed in Rareness is only too happy to reinforce. Operating as a solo project since Tendai Maraire’s departure a few years back, Butler has surrounded himself with collaborators including Royce The Choice, Porter Ray, O Finess, Geechi Suede and Butler’s son Lil Tracy, none of whom dim the light of creativity that continues to burn bright as he enters his firth decade. Binoculars came out as the lead single a couple of months back and is just sublime.
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ML Buch – Pan over the hill
Suntub is the second full length album from ML Buch, a double record of 15 pieces by the Danish composer and producer; a dreamy mix of shoegaze, experimental electronics and bedroom pop. I’ve only listened a couple of times so far, but so far it’s pretty much flawless, and up there with my favourite albums of the year. So many highlights, but album opener Pan over the hill should give you a good idea of what to expect.
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Hinako Omari – stalactites
Hinako Omari’s debut album a journey… was one of my favourites of last year. Released last week her new LP stillness, softness… explores a new sonic range, and was mainly composed on her Prophet ’08, the Moog Voyager and UDO Super 6, an analogue hybrid synthesizer that creates binaural, 3D-simulating sound. The album is darker, more expansive and more overtly theatrical than her previous work, but still seems to exists in the liminal space between wakefulness and dreaming, with the brief but beautiful stalactites illustrative of its meditative tone.
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Lee Gamble – Juice
Continuing the trance revival theme today with this melancholy banger from Lee Gamble’s new album Models, which, when compared to some of his previous work, is surprisingly accessible. According to the PR, “it’s pop music, but it ain’t background music” and I’m not sure I entirely agree with either of those statements, but it is very good. Elsewhere on the album you’ll find him autotuning the fuck out of Lana Del Rey, which is also fun.
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Evian Christ – Silence
Trance really is having a moment. It feels like everyone is finally ready to accept what I’ve known all along: trance is the best, most credible and timeless genre of all! The latest evidence of this seismic shift is the Warp-approved Evian Christ and his debut album Revanchist, which explores “the latent potential in Trance to evoke, beyond Euphoria, the fullest feeling of the Sublime.” Yes! Silence is a reimagining of Delirium’s proggy masterpiece of the same name. Rave like it’s 1999 all over again.
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Lost Girls – Timed Intervals
Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden’s Lost Girls’ collaboration dates back more than a decade, with Volden playing regularly in Hval’s live band and two previous albums. In 2022, the duo were booked to perform a concert at Les Subsistances in Lyon, and decided to use the opportunity to create all new material, with Volden creating beats and guitar chord progressions and Hval restructuring the parts, creating melodies and adding lyrics. The resulting album, Selvutsletter, explores different territory than their previous work; shorter, more concise and melodic songs that border on alternative pop (kinda), with opener Timed Intervals one of the clear standouts.
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Maria BC – Lacuna
While Maria BC’s debut album Hyaline explored grief and anxiety through a series of character-led accounts, their follow-up Spike Field is more concerned with buried emotions and actions, positing that the past will continue to lurk below the surface until one decides to break through the soil and face what lies beneath. If that makes it sound bleakly gothic, then the music is anything but; it’s delicate, earthy and seemingly with an underlying note of optimism in even the most stripped-down of compositions. For fans of Grouper, detuned Steinway pianos and wallowing.
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L’Rain – 5 to 8 Hours a Day (WWwaG)
Under the mononym L’Rain, Brooklyn native Taja Cheek has become a celebrated figure in New York experimental music, and her new album I Killed Your Dog looks set to further cement her reputation. Existing in a similarly genre-less, albeit considerably more wavy space as someone like Yves Tumor, I Killed Your Dog considers what it means to hurt the people you love the most, and has been described by Cheek as an “anti-break-up” record. Does this mean it’s a record that soundtracks people getting together? Or one that’s suited to couples who really should split up, but battle through regardless. Probably the latter, maybe something else entirely. But it’s very good and you should listen to it.
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Raw Poetic, Damu The Fudgemunk – Ease Side
I’m not sure why it’s taken this long for me to get stuck in to Raw Poetic and Damu The Fudgemunk’s Away Back In LP, but I have now, and it’s great. 2022’s Laminated Skies is a masterpiece and didn’t get anywhere near the attention it deserved. Away Back In is described as “a transcendent musical fusion of hip-hop, jazz, and garage rock”, and lead single and opening track Ease Side is indicative of its loose, upbeat vibe.
The Predatory Wasp 