Ludicrous amounts of interesting music released today including albums from Blood Orange, Steve Gunn, Tei Shi, Jehnny Beth and others (posts to follow) but this definitely stood out from Che Noir’s latest album No Validation.
Every Mariah the Scientist album so far has included a track that’s reduced me to a helpless mess: All For Me from RY RY WORLD and Reminders from MASTER, so anticipation was high for her latest, HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY. Sure enough she’s done it again, this time with the Kali Uchis collab Is It a Crime made with producers Mat1k, Oliver Easton, and Nineteen85, the latter of whom is part of the duo Dvsn with which this track shares notable similarities. It’s so good!
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Danny L Harle, Torus – Love Me Back
Danny L Harle is a man of many talents; from working with Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek to producing perhaps of the greatest modern odes to hardcore to his latest project Starlight Divergence a haunting ambient LP producer in collaboration with Dutch producer Torus. Years ago when I worked at a house music record label in London, people lol’d at me constantly for my love of trance. Well who’s laughing now, you pricks?? Trance is back baby; in myriad, evocative, interesting forms, and you’re saying the poster boy for house is this guy?
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Martel – The Ghost
Hailing originally from Montenegro, but having long departed for stints living in London, Rome, Philadelphia and his current home Nicosia in Cyprus, Martel is a former architect who has turned to building dystopian and subversive soundscapes. After creating characteristically atmospheric tracks for film and theatre, he’s launched his own Evil Ideas label and has just released ‘The Ghost’, a super-detailed techno cut that layers Dozzy-esque polyrhythms with hand-played percussion and synthetic textures. The full Zaire EP will be landing on vinyl later this year.
‘Change into One Another’ is a collaborative single by two of my favourite alt-pop artists, Discovery Zone and John Moods. The two share a long creative history, from playing together in the band Fenster to being partners in life. The track was written while they were parting ways, and both the song and its video explore how love changes us, and what follows in its aftermath.
https://mansionsandmillions.bandcamp.com/track/change-into-one-another-2
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The Orielles – The Improvisation 001
I’m going to Simple Things Festival in a few months, so have been doing the usual things of obsessively listening to every single artist billed. This includes The Orielles; a band whose name I recognise but have never previously listened to. Taken from their 2022 album album Tableau, The Improvision 001 is utterly brilliant, almost unclassifiable and has been on constant repeat for the last few days. And yes, I appreciate this came out several years ago, but also: the past is a largely safe and friendly place that I enjoy exploring.
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Léa Sen – lvl 3 EDGE OF THE MAP
Sultry, low-key r&b for you today from French-born, London-based singer-songwriter and producer Léa Sen who first came to prominence with a breathy, resonant vocal on Joy Orbison’s Better in 2021, quickly followed by collaborations with Sampha, Oscar Jerome, Wu‑Lu, and Vegyn. This is taken from her debut LP LEVELS which was co-produced with her brother Florian, with each track representing a different floor in a liminal hotel of memory and growth.
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XENIA REAPER – halo°°°
XENIA REAPER lands on Berlin’s Oscilla Sound with seven deft cuts, gently fusing the outer realms of spectral ambience and delicate breaks.
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747 – Sea To Sky
First Floor‘s Shawn Reynaldo described Canadian producer 747’s new LP Pacific Spirit as “if Tin Man made a jungle record”, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Where his past work etched itself in acid techno, Pacific Spirit blooms with expansive, saturated colours and wears its vulnerable, optimistic heart very much on its sleeve.
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Burial – Comafields
A new Burial record is an increasingly rare thing: his new EP Comafields / Imaginary Festival is his first original material for over a year, following a split release with Kode 9. Comafields opens with a sample of Russell Crowe as Noah from Darren Aronofsky intensely odd 2014 movie (sure) and then meanders through all the Burial tropes: vinyl crackle, celestial rave, abrupt tonal and rhythmic shifts, ethereal, whispered vocals, before seemingly sampling himself with the final shuffling percussive flourish. And… it’s great!
https://burial.bandcamp.com/album/comafields-imaginary-festival
The Predatory Wasp 