Sunshine vibes from the Swedish retro-pop group, taken from their new album Oas which is landing in February. I’m hungover and have nothing more to say about this. Happy Friday!
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Dina Ögon – Mormor
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Kelela – Contact
Kelela’s mixtape CUT 4 Me, debut LP Take Me Apart, and especially her 2015 EP Hallucinogen remain high watermarks in alternative r&b, so it was great to see her putting out new music last year after a few years off-radar: a break that was long enough to instigate a Where is Kelela? Reddit. Her new album Raven is scheduled to land 10 February, and has been proceeded by a run of singles, the latest of which is Contact. And while so far I’m not convinced the production is quite as interesting as it has been in the past, her voice still sounds incredible, so hopes are high.
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Kota The Friend – WALES
Kota The Friend’s Lyrics to GO started life as a visual project that Kota released as episodes via YouTube, due to Kota’s lack of funds for shooting music videos alongside a desire to increase social media visibility as an independent artist. I’m not sure whether this is still the case – the latest drop Vol.4 doesn’t seem to have any accompanying music videos as yet – but the tracks keep coming; rarely clocking in over two minutes, yet always as fresh and engaging as you’d expect.
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The Album Leaf – Breathe
I realise this is in danger of turning into an exclusively ambient blog, but it’s January, and I’m convinced no-one really wants to listen to music with a discernible bpm, much less a beat, hook or chorus, so I’m sticking with it for now. Today’s dose of glassy ambience comes courtesy of The Album Leaf’s new single Breathe. Recorded in memory of close friends and family the artist has lost in recent years, the track reflects on the thoughts that may arise in those final, fleeting moments.
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Twinsleep – Kin
John Hayes and Maxy Dutcher unveil their new collaborative project Twinsleep with their meditative, atmospheric debut single Kin, with many of the tones on the song were crafted by sampling Dutcher’s vocal fed through a Yamaha VSS30 synthesizer. Deeply calming in the extreme; looking forward to the LP.
Crackled radio-like transmissions from Norway’s rural hinterland. Juni Habel’s new album Carvings is “[an] ode to life and death, the beauty of belonging and human kinship with nature.” I Went Out And Sought For Your Name evokes Seven Swans-era, Sufjan – specifically We Won’t Need Legs To Stand – in both its gently picked melodies and subdued, gloriously sorrowful tone.
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Lowly – Seasons
It’s another new Lowly single! To be honest, part of me is annoyed that I will have heard quite a large chunk of their new album before it comes out next month, but I also can’t help listening to everything. Seasons is great, obviously, with a big, rubbery synth providing an unusually sturdy electronic backbone for the rest of their characteristic ethereal epicness.
Here’s a brilliant – if deeply unsettling – slice of dubby electronica for you that genuinely seemed to make my tinnitus swerve to an entirely new, ferocious pitch. Taken from her recent LP Les Chemins De L’inconnu, out now on the relentlessly good Ilian Tape.
https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp13-les-chemins-de-linconnu
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Awe Kid – Atavistic Paths
If you’re interested in under-the-radar ambient, this end of year list from Post Ambient Lux is worth checking out (although the actual best ambient album of the year by OHYUNG is weirdly missing, which does make me question their judgment just a little). Awe Kid’s ambient breakbeat LP Body Logic is one of my favourite finds on there so far, with the lush, shimmering pads and celestial synths of Atavistic Paths a real highlight.
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Corrina Repp & Arch Cape – Run Wild
Released with zero fanfare (or at least none that I could find) is this beautiful two-track EP from TWP favourite Corrina Repp in collaboration with Rachel Blumberg as Arch Cape. Produced a while back “as a way to explore working together again after years of playing and conjuring”, they are available on streaming platforms for the first time today.
The Predatory Wasp 