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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Cloth

The Glasgow-based band’s Paul Swinton on discovering a track that sparked a life-long obsession

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!

Cloth are a Glasgow two-piece comprising twins Rachael and Paul Swinton, who combine alt-rock with electronically enhanced production with extremely enjoyable results.

While their self-titled debut album was shortlisted for the 2020 SAY Award and enjoyed committed support from various 6 Music DJs, their second album Secret Measure – released in May on Mogwai’s Rock Action Records – seems to already be breaking through in a more significant fashion. Presenting a wider, more cinematic sound and arguably more emotionally resonant than their debut, it’s been reviewed very positively pretty much across the board, and quite rightly so.

For their One Track Mind selection, Paul Swinton talks about the lasting impact of a charity shop find.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Cloth”
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Music

Romance – Never Will

Released as a Bandcamp exclusive in April and now available everywhere, Romance’s Fade Into You is descrived as their “first album proper” in the press notes, which is a little confusing, as there are at least a couple of what I’d consider full length releases out there already, as well as their collaborative albums with Dean Hurley. So who knows. But anyway… Fade Into You is a beautiful, delicately textured ambient album loosely inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 film The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant – “an unforgiving dissection of the toxic relationship between a haughty fashion designer and a beautiful but icy ingenue” – and continues the mysterious producer’s penchant for warping well known records almost beyond recognition, creating at times eerie but more often than not deeply emotional soundscapes from the resulting wreckage. Presumably there’s some Mazzy Star buried deep in here somewhere; some of the other building blocks are more explicitly labelled.

https://youmustrememberthis.bandcamp.com/album/fade-into-you

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Music

Anthony Naples – Ackee

Released last week, Anthony Naples fifth full length album orbs is described as “a moody portal of shoegazed and slo-mo songs suspended in thin air”, which is about right, although key missing words include “ambient”, “dub” and “lush”. It’s similarly paced to DJ Python’s peerless Mas Amable from 2020, but while that was often sinister and claustrophobic, orbs is all brightness and warmth. Ackee itself is delicate, atmospheric and soothing; ideal Monday listening, basically.

https://anthonynaples.bandcamp.com/album/orbs

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Spencer Doran

Spencer Doran takes us back in time with his appreciation of an “outsider’ Renaissance composer

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!

Described by Bandcamp Daily as “Video Game Music’s Most Valuable Outsider”, Spencer Doran is a composer, producer and contemporary sound designer who makes up one half of the Portland duo and Italian minimalism enthusiasts Visible Cloaks.

Composed and produced over the course of nearly three years, his latest solo album is the original soundtrack for SEASON: A letter to the future, which underpins the highly-anticipated meditative exploration game in which the main character must save memories of a civilization on the verge of collapse. A lush collection of transmissions from this warmly fading world, we hear a culture and ecology through the sentimental ear of their last witness.

For his One Track Mind selection, Spencer has picked an entire album from Tobias Hume, focussing on a particular performance from Jordi Savall.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Spencer Doran”
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Music

Salami Rose Joe Louis – Always on my Mind

Salami Rose Joe Louis is the alias of Lindsay Olsen, who released her fifth album Akousmatikous – which losely transclates to “sound where there is no identifiable source” – earlier this month. As with much of her previous work, Akousmatikousi explores various shades of soul and jazz, but through a highly stylised and at times experimental lens, and includes features from some of her favourites artists, Soccer96, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Juuwah among them. Always on my Mind is one of the album’s more chill moments, with a lazy, tripping rhythm a suitably supple bed for her understated vocal delivery.

https://salamirosejoelouismusic.bandcamp.com/album/akousmatikous

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Music

Bayonne – Perfect

In a recent interview, Bayonne said of Perfect – one of the stand-out tracks from his gorgeous new synth-pop album Temporary Time – “at the end of the day, it’s really about trying to see the best in yourself and just having one of those good days” . There are probably quite a few tracks you could apply this maxim to, but Perfect is definitely up there as the most buoyant. His last LP Drastic Measures was one of my favourite of 2019, and so far this new one is doing a solid job of following in its footsteps.

https://bayonne.bandcamp.com/album/temporary-time

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Music

Croatian Amor – Any Path To Touch the Stars / Kites (A Part of You In Eveything)

I’ve spent an awful lot of time searching for “artists that sound like DJ Healer”, and the only one that’s really come close in term of delivering the hazy feels I need is Croatian Amor, especially his more recent work, which seems to be leaning ever further into dreamy breaks and nostalgia-heavy meanderings. These two tracks close his latest album A Part of You in Everything – a companion piece to last year’s Remember Rainbow Bridge, and dedicated to the memory of his younger brother who died at birth. Despite the overwhelming sad genesis of the 8-track collection, the overall effect is more reflective than desolate; a hopeful catharsis beautifully expressed.

https://croatianamor-poshisolation.bandcamp.com/album/a-part-of-you-in-everything

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Music

Gia Margaret – City Song

There is A LOT of amazing music out today (see: albums from Shirely Collins, Clark, Bayonne and others) but the one right at the top of my listening list is Gia Margaret’s Romantic Piano. Deeply atmospheric and with a tactility that grounds its otherwise dreamy, almost lullaby-esque qualities, the dozen songs are some of the most delicate and emotive you’re likely to hear all year. City Song is pretty much the only non-instrumental track on the album – save for a few crackly samples and textures found elsewhere – but even before the vocal arrived it had me in pieces. Welcome back Gia, we’ve missed you.

https://giamargaret.bandcamp.com/album/romantic-piano

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Music

Loraine James – 2003

Loraine James released two of the best albums of last year, so news of a new LP is real welcome on this blog. Landing in September on Hyperdub – her third for the label – Gentle Confrontations will feature collabs with George Riley and keiyaA and others, and has been touted as “a teenage Loraine would like to have made” and described as “positively languid”, which is excellent news. Lead single 2003 certainly fits with this description, and has echoes of Tirzah in both the haunting, loopy simplicity of its production and low-key vocal delivery.

https://lorainejames.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-confrontation

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Music

Mandy, Indiana – 2 Stripe

Everywhere I look, Mandy, Indiana’s new album i’ve seen a way is getting glowing reviews. A four-piece experimental noise band formed in Manchester, the group was initially comprised of vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Scott Fair after they sharing a bill with their former projects, and were subsequently joined by Simon Catling (synth) and Alex MacDougall (drums). Their debut LP is noisy, chaotic and at times overwhelming, with a raw urgency throughout, even in its less full-on moments. 2 Stipe is arguably one of the most conventional tracks, even though they’d surely rail against the use of that word.

https://mandyindiana.bandcamp.com/album/ive-seen-a-way