The Predatory Wasp
Incredibly chill and glassy ambient from Quiraing, written on an island in Northern Michigan and created mainly from field recordings made on the artist’s journey to reach it. Simple and very effective.
If anything it’s surprising it’s taken Devote Hynes and Erika de Casier this long to collaborate, so perfectly do they compliment one another. Taken from the new Blood Orange EP Four Songs, Relax and Run is so ruthlessly up my street I was worried about its potential to underwhelm, but thankfully it’s everything I need it to be.
Apologies for my recent absence (you noticed, right?) I was enjoying some post-birthday seaside celebrations and was way too busy pretending I’m rich to waste my time with music! Anyway, here’s some glorious Aphex-adjacent weirdness from Mads Kinnerup – the first single from his forthcoming album Interpolation – by way of an apology.
As has already been established, I’m a sucker for an 80s synth alongside lyrics with even the merest hint of unrequited yearning. And if it could conceivably soundtrack a film where someone tears a beaten up old car across an impressive vista, tears streaming down their cheeks, then all the better. Oh, and: the band name should preferably be something enigmatic, possibly with a number replacing one of the letters. Tick, tick, tick.
This is the lead single from Micah Frank and Chet Doxas’s forthcoming LP The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part 1, which lands in November. Ave Maria combines a masterful harp performance from Mary Lattimore with Doxas’s meandering woodwind, gently billowing electronics and the late addition of a softly pulsing kick drum. Deep chill.
https://micahfrank.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-hildegard-von-bingen-part-one
Impressively disorientating polyrhythms from drosophila. Menaces; soothes, repeat. Taken from their new LP Slight Spells. Glitches get stitches.
The California producer on the enduring appeal of some soft rock icons
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!
Tomu DJ is an American producer and DJ best known for her self-released albums on Bandcamp. She imbues her music with a gentle yet driving emotional force, creating intricate but comforting melodies across her discography. Tomu draws inspiration from her inner self—her memories and her past—and seamlessly infuses these reflections into her music. She released her latest LP Half Moon Bay earlier this year, which is yet another plaintive, thoughtful collection of tracks that straddle house, breaks, ambient and electronica with impressive assuredness.
For her One Track Mind selection, Tomu DJ has picked a track from one of the most iconic rock outfits of all-time, the mesmeric Steely Dan.
Mick Jeets packs a hell of a lot into the sub-three minute move your feet. Ravey breakbeats, footwork, garage and frantic old-school vocals all make an appearance, while the overall track still manages to be both sparse and contemplative. Impressively invigorating stuff to shake your out of your Monday coma.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” etc, but in my experience definitely do judge an album by its cover. Or at least give it a listen. There is literally nothing about the cover of Precipitation’s new album Glass Horizon (or the artist name, or the title for that matter) that suggests I won’t completely love it. And I do! Kinda house, kinda ambient, 100% lush. Sundown in Orgi comes in like Laurent Garnier’s Last Tribute to the 21st Century – all sad pads and longing – before skipping happily off on lo-fi broken beats over a squidgy bassline. Aaaaand… melt.
People are really losing their shit about the new JID album The Forever Story. I’m less overwhelmingly convinced (so far), but there are definitely a few really impressive moments that elevate it above the standard rap fare, the low-tempo, lo-fi r&b-meets-soul swagger of Kody Blu 31 not least among them.
The Predatory Wasp 