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Music

Whatever the Weather – 25°C

Unlike pretty much every other person in the world, I didn’t really enjoy Loraine James’s 2021 album Reflections very much. It’s obviously really good, I just found it a bit jarring and after a few time thinking “everyone loves this, so you should too!” kinda just stopped trying. It felt too much like hard work, which absolutely does not apply to her new album recorded as Whatever the Weather, which seems tailor-made for me: all the rough corners of Reflection sanded down to a soft sheen, and the machine-driven claustrophobia replaced by hazily shimmering vistas. Opener 25°C is about as calming as music gets, and that’s what I need in my life right now.

https://whateva.bandcamp.com/album/whatever-the-weather

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Music

theboywhochosethesea – the seas beyond the stars

Oxford based experimental producer theboywhochosethesea drop the title track for their new album, released later this week on Bandcamp as a digital/cassette release on the Expert Sleepers record label. Pairing dusty, subdued piano lines against a backdrop of bristling synths that steadily rise and fall, its dissonant textures are expertly handled creating a piece that simultaneously pulls you towards both the light and the dark.

https://www.instagram.com/theboywhochosethesea

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Music

Clare Bigley – Solitude (Ambient Version)

After the potential for anxiety-inducing trauma inflicted by yesterday’s post it’s time to cleanse your aural palettes with one of the most relaxing pieces of music imaginable. Unless you find birdsong triggering, in which case probably skip this one. Originally released as a solo piano piece last year, Bigley produced this new version as she “felt like I could even create a further feel of a haunting ethereal quality by adding a couple more layers.” Success.

https://www.instagram.com/endlessquest4me/

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Music

Kee Avil – And I

I really hope that whatever changes are implemented at Bandcamp following their acquisition by Epic Games, they maintain their roundup editorials, as I’ve found some incredible music there over the last few years. Case in point: Kee Avil’s frankly terrifying Crease, which – with its croaky vocals and discordant melodies – is disquieting, but essential listening.

https://keeavil.bandcamp.com/album/crease

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Music

New Mexican Stargazers – Menu

I never heard New Mexican Stargazers’ 2021 album Highway Dreamscape, but I’m reliably informed it was one of the year’s best. Menu is taken from their new release Alternate Soundtrack To: B-Jeweled: a sprawling, near two-hour collection of crushed pop and ambient soundscapes that sounds like the Blade Runner soundtrack as reimagined by The Caretaker.

https://newmexicanstargazers.bandcamp.com/album/alternate-soundtrack-to-b-jeweled

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Music

Raw Poetic, Damu The Fudgemunk – Cadillac

Washington, D.C.-based hip-hop artist Raw Poetic’s album Laminated Skies landed last week, and I’m hooked. Backed by Damu The Fudegmunk on drums and percussion and host of other musicians all contributing the record, he’s created a body of work that sits somewhere between the classic hip-hop sounds of the 80s and early 90s, and the dreamier, more abstract structures of artists like Dean Blunt. Nowhere are these qualities more perfectly brought together than in the final track Cadillac; a fittingly sublime end to a remarkable album.

https://rawpoetic.bandcamp.com/music

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Music

Croatian Amor – Young Adult, Common Nettle

I had a sudden epiphany halfway through listening to Croatian Amor’s new album Remember Rainbow Bridge. “Jesus christ – he’s Traumprinz!” He’s not, obviously, but listening to the yearning, nostalgia-inducing tones of Young Adult, Common Nettle – with its billowing synths and samples of ravers waxing lyrical about life in a drug-induced moment of existentialism “‘You don’t have to wait for death to experience ecstasy”), I hope you’ll forgive me for momentarily thinking I’d cracked the Greatest Enigma In The History of Electronic Music ™.

https://croatianamor-alter.bandcamp.com

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Music

Harkin – Body Clock

I loved Harkin’s self-titled 2020 album, so it’s fantastic to hear new music from her – especially when it’s this good – alongside the announcement of a new LP Honeymoon Suite, due out in June. Leaning heavily into the synths and self-producing for the first time, Body Clock is full-blooded and evocative, its glacial electronics exploding into life in its final third. Also, the video is ace, with a 90s video-game aesthetic that makes me want to go and play the original version of Flashback all over again.

Read our interview with Harkin here.

https://handmirror.bandcamp.com/album/harkin-2

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Music

Cannons – Come Alive

I played this to my daughter at the weekend, fully expecting us to bond over its easily accessible hooks and soft-focus melodies and after a couple of minutes she looked at me and said “This is ok, but let’s listen to something else”. What a dick! It’s much better than ok. But then maybe I’ve been sucked in by the Carpenters-evoking cover art and the fact that it was really warm and sunny when I first listened to it. Anyway, you can judge for yourself. Turns out 6 year-olds really have no taste at all.

https://feverdream.cannonstheband.com

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Music

36 – Fantazia

Fantazia came out on the brilliantly-named album Weaponised Serenity around six months ago, but aside from this piece from A Strangely Isolated Place I can’t find any coverage for it at all. Recorded by Dennis Huddleston under his 36 alias for the 9128.live label – which asks artists to push their creative boundaries by presenting new and experimental approaches to music creation – Weaponised Serenity is a joyous journey through Huddleston’s rave heritage, exploring both the deeply meditative qualities and drug-fulled hedonism of the rave, often within a single track.

https://9128live.bandcamp.com/album/weaponised-serenity