The Predatory Wasp
This is an absolute banger. The drums hit outrageously hard and… that bass! Insane enough on headphones, so fuck knows how much it would wallop you on a decent system, my chest hurts just thinking about it. Taken from Conway The Machine’s new LP God Don’t Make Mistakes which came out last week, which is pepping me right up on this grey Monday.
This came out close to a year ago as one of the tracks on Mabe Fratti’s album Será que ahora podremos entendernos, however it’s one of the most extraordinary pieces of music I’ve heard for a while so wanted to bring it to as many people’s attention as possible. The Guatemalan musician combines raging synths and layered feedback with her incredible mastery of the cello to create a singular sound that ranges from the super-chilled meditations of track like Mil Formas de Decirlo to the almost unbearable tension of Aire. Honestly, I don’t know how I missed this when it came out, but I’m very glad I’ve found it now.
https://tinangelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ser-que-ahora-podremos-entendernos
Taken from the the debut solo EP from Texan electro producer Terrestrial Access Network, Endless Dunes is exactly the kind of contemplative, broken-beat electronic music I completely lose my shit over, especially when there are a few gentle acid flourishes thrown in for good measure. Only gentle mind: I want to be soothed, not challenged. Inspired by the artist’s “shifting and hectic nomadic existence around the rattling expanse of the United States”, it’s out now and comes packaged with a remix from TPW favourite Versalife which is also well worth checking out.
https://www.juno.co.uk/products/terrestrial-access-network-distant-lands-ep/857210-01/
It’s been a while since I featured a big ‘ol trappy banger on the blog, so here you go! Yung Kayo’s debut album DFTK landed last week packed full of punchy drums, crispy hats and bravado, so if that sounds like something you’re in the mood for, who you gon call won’t disappoint.
The latest single to be released from London-based jazz musician Ben Marc’s – the alias of Neil Charles – forthcoming album, Sometimes Slow is in a similarly impressive vein to last year’s collab with Midnightroba Breathe Suite A, swelling from relatively hushed beginnings to a final third that pulses with untamed vigour.
While the majority of us have been patting ourselves on the back for avoiding alcohol for an entire month, or looking at festival lineups with a curious mix of hope, anxiety and outright terror, Patricia Taxxon has already released two entire albums, the latest of which, Gloria, includes this soothing, glitchy gem. Her output is hard to keep up with, especially given the almost celebratory inaccessibility of some of it, but this is definitely one that hits the mark.
Vessels to Motherland are Danica Borisavljevic and Nikita Morozov, currently based in NYC and both classically trained musicians (piano and violin respectively) now exploring more electronic-orientated realms. Taken from their debut album MACHINE LIEDER which landed last week, this must be… draws on their classical heritage, melding organic instrumentation with subtle flourish of synth and glitchy percussion to create something rather striking.
In 2017 Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer traveled together to the Åland Islands (an archipelago that is host to around 6,500 islands) in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. The concept of recording music there came about as Honer & Chiu learned more and more about the islands and were taken by the serene and strange quality of the place. I’m much looking forward to Recordings from the Åland Islands (the album that came out of their time there) landing next month, as Stureby House Piano – the second single to the taken from the LP – is just lovely, and a perfect way to drift into the weekend.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/recordings-from-the-land-islands
There’s something uniquely joyful about hearing an artist’s work for the first time, loving it, and then discovering they have an extensive back catalogue in which you’re destined to completely lose yourself for some time to come. Before this morning I had never heard of Turkish musician Ekin Fil, and now I am completely obsessed. Variously described as “drone-folk” (amazing) and “Grouper-adjacent” (reductive, but fairly accurate), her latest album Feelings is absolutely stunning, and Being Held is just sublime, ominous throughout until the merest fragment of distant vocal lets you know that everything’s going to be ok.
I tried pretty hard to like Mitski’s 2018 album Be The Cowboy, returning to it several times especially after Pitchfork lost their shit about it so spectacularly. It always felt like hard work though and ultimately never clicked, but given how everyone else loved it it’s probably my problem, all of which makes me especially pleased to report that I absolutely love her latest Laurel Hell which came out last week. An effortless joy from start to finish, Stay Soft is an early highlight with bright, brisk drums and soaring, sun-drenched chords.
The Predatory Wasp 