The Predatory Wasp
Sidestepping out of my comfort zone directly into the path of some oncoming indie rock today, but it’s fine: there’s a breathy female vocal involved and it all gets a bit electronically fuzzy in its final third, so I don’t feel to anxious about it. Cloth is twins Rachael Swinton & Paul Swinton from Glasgow city, and Never Know is taken from their second album Secret Measure which came out last month.
Continuing the theme of floaty electronica this week with this beautiful track from Doc Sleep’s recent album Birds (in my mind anyway), in which soothing, ebbing waves are firmly pinned to earth with subby breakbeats and crashing snares. It’s very good, as is the entire album. TPW recommends!
Here’s some highly atmospheric, beat-driven ambient for you courtesy of Agus Mena, who also records as Warmth and runs both the respected Archives and Faint labels. His latest album as SVLRBD The Waves arrived on the latter of these a couple of months’ back, and if you like The Lighthouse is very likely to appeal.
Kate Stables on the prismic, reflective qualities of a Paul Simon classic
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!
This Is The Kit is the alias of English musician Kate Stables. Established in 2003, she released her first album Krülle Bol in 2008 and has over four subsequent albums – the latest of which was 2020’s Off Off On for Rough Trade – established a sound deeply rooted in the folk traditions of storytelling, with songs evoking an earthy, tactile sense of time and place one moment and ethereal, dream-like atmospheres the next.
Recently she announced her new album, Careful of your Keepers, due for release 09 June along with the lead single Inside Outside which you can listen to below.
For her One Track Mind selection, Kate has penned some typically poetic words about a favourite track from Paul Simon’s seminal album Graceland.
Rozi Plain’s album Prize came out in January and completely passed me by, despite it being reviewed it various publications I read. She was recently announced for Glastonbury and I’m currently attempting to listen to every act listed: this stopped me in my maniacal tracks. If you like gentle melodies and minimalist, electronic folk that sits somewhere between This Is The Kit and Zero 7, you might well be into this.
Nabihah Iqbal’s new album DREAMER arrived last week, nearly 6 years after her debut Weighing of the Heart. That gap was due to her studio being burgled in early 2020, with her gear and work – including her new album – all taken. DREAMER see’s Nabihah reflect on these experiences, and was produced with a vastly reduced suite of instruments – not that you’d necessarily be able to tell from the results, which are rich and expansive, encompassing shoegaze, post-punk and the more experimental electronica with which she name her name. In Light opens the album, beautifully setting a hazy, dreamlike tone which continues throughout.
If I had a musical wishlist for 2023, Gia Margaret releasing an album called Romantic Piano would be very near the top of it. Due 26 May, the double A-side Cicadas / Hinoki Wood is out now, and follows in a similarly beautiful, subdued vein as her incredible 2020 LP Mia Gargaret. Roll on sad boy/girl summer.
The Oslo-based pianist and composer on the cinematic journey and structural chaos of Fieldhead
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!
Julia Gjertsen is a pianist and composer based in Oslo. Combining contemporary electronic elements with the piano, she creates contemplative soundscapes and introspective compositions that draw inspiration from nature and reflect on moments from the past and present. Her music is characterized by a tender playing style and beautifully crafted melodies that aim to convey nuanced perceptions and emotions that can often be challenging to express through words.
Her second album Formations was released last year, while more recently she released the collaborative EP Dive alongside Finnish composer Juha Mäki-Patola. Her latest single, Embers, came out earlier this month as part of Fractals, Moderna Records’ annual piano day compilation featuring twelve pieces from composers and pianists around the world.
For her One Track Mind selection, Julia has selected the opening track from UK electronic duo Fieldhead’s 2009 album they shook hands for hours.
“Free-flowing jazz improvisation” is not generally a musical description that will get me reaching for the headphones, but there’s a melancholy quality about Alfa Mist’s new album Variations that appeals to me. Cycles itself meanders around pleasantly for less than two minutes with a bassline strongly reminiscent of Echo Beach, so maybe its the 80s nostalgia – rather than any overt jazziness – that’s got me hooked.
Cannons defined the summer of 2022 for me, when barely a day went past without me listening to at least part of Fever Dream, thanks in large part to it being one of the few albums my kids were happy to listen to in the car in its entirety. So with the sun starting to remind us of its existence, here’s a shimmery new Cannons single for me to relentlessly overplay. Hazy dayz.
The Predatory Wasp 