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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Tomu DJ

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.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Tomu DJ”
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Music

Mick Jeets – move your feet

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.

https://www.beatport.com/track/move-your-feet/16774950

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Music

Precipitation – Sundown in Orgi

“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.

https://100percentsilk.bandcamp.com

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Music

JID – Kody Blu 31

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.

https://jidstoryforever.bandcamp.com

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Music

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Then the Wind Came

“Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is dancing in an eye-scorching tumble of neon bricks and video game aesthetics” is the opening line to the Quietus’s review of her new album Let’s Turn It Into Sound, and while it actually describes a recent music video, it could just as easily be a neat single-sentence summation of the entire LP. Hauntingly introspective one minute, exuberantly unhinged the next, it’s an intriguing listen from start to finish, with the circling synth patterns and warped vocals of Then The Wind Came a personal favourite.

https://ghostly.com/products/let-s-turn-it-into-sound

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Music

Factor Eight – A Voice (II)

Composed entirely using his voice, Canadian-based artist Andrew Bennett aka Factor Eight explores mental health and creates a platform to relay his experience with bipolar disorder, with all proceeds being donated to Canadian Mental Health Association Saskatoon. “I hope that through this project, my music might help to inspire a feeling of connection in those who struggle, and sense of compassion in those who struggle to relate.”

https://soundcloud.com/factoreight

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Music

Steve Fors – (good enough) for now

There are very few things I enjoy more than discovering an artist I love for the first time; a feeling that is undoubtedly heightened when said artist is also relatively unknown. It’s pretty much the entire reason for this blog: claiming a minute fragment of credit for highlighting incredible music that would otherwise remain unappreciated. Appreciate me, please! Sickening really, but I can’t help who I am. Anyway, If – like me – you hadn’t previously heard of Steve Fors, his new album it’s nothing, but still is some of the best, wistful ambient I’ve heard this year. And I’ve listened to a lot!

https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/steve-fors-its-nothing-but-still

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Music

System Olympia & Tom Sharkett – Jealousy

“She lay by the poolside, dipping her hands into the water as she wondered where her lover might be. It had been three days since he’d left her in the baking heat, stuck in a motel on the wrong side of town. She’d never dreamt it might have turned out like this? What with all the money, the wild nights and the excess. How had it all come crashing down around them all so horribly? Why was she the one all alone?”

www.melodic.co.uk

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Music

Elaine Howley – Silent Talk

The product of an audio diary kept on a 4 track cassette machine throughout 2019 and 2020, Cork-based musician Elaine Howley’s new album The Distance Between Heart and Mouth is quietly obsessed with memory and nostalgia, painting a sepia-tinted picture across nine richly atmospheric and at times disquieting tracks. Opener and lead single Silent Talk sets the scene perfectly.

https://touchsensitiverecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-distance-between-heart-and-mouth

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Music

Rafael Anton Irisarri – Limbering Slumber (feat. Hannah Elizabeth Cox)

The latest release from the phenomenally talented Rafael Anton Irisarri, Sacred Variations, includes some new remixes of tracks from his Sacred Hatred LP, along with some previously unreleased locked-penned pieces. Limbering Slumber features layered, ghostly vocal contributions from Hannah Elizabeth Cox, and is both stunningly beautiful and utterly absorbing.

https://irisarri.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-variations