The Predatory Wasp
The latest in an ever-increasing and very welcome tide of singles from his upcoming album The Ascension, this is vintage Sufjan from the very first bar. Haunting pads and those brittle electronic drums that he’s been playing around with ever since the early A Sun Came-era weirdness, now honed and refined. Music video is great too. Maybe 2020 will turn out to be ok after all.
Chicago’s Sam Prekop is a singer and guitarist in The Sea and Cake – a jazz-inflected indie band that have released 11 studio albums since 1994 – and also puts out his own, highly varied, solo material. The New Last is taken from his latest album, Comma, arguably his most immersive body of work to date: a collection of instrumental electronica that ranges from the meditative to neon-flecked psychedelia. The New Last itself is gorgeous: all brightly glimmering tones and warm pads that softly wrap themselves around you.
Mali’s Songhoy Blues are reliably relentless in both the quality and positivity of their music, and Barre is no exception, even though it deals with some fairly serious subject matter. Taken from their forthcoming album due out in October, ‘barre’ roughly translates to ‘change’, and the song was written to inspire the youth of their Mali homeland to get involved and help change their corrupt and oppressive political system.
Lafawndah is such an outrageously talented individual that it was always going to be interesting to see how she musically followed 2019’s breakthrough debut Ancestor Boy. I’m not sure many expected an album inspired by a trilogy of fantasy novels, but here we are. I haven’t read the Broken Earth books but research suggests they are almost unremittingly bleak. That would certainly explain Don’t Despair, which I assume is an ironic title as the entire track seems to be doing its level best to make you do just that. Lafawndah’s crystalline vocal is the focus, with skeletal percussion and screeching synths adding to the paranoid landscape.
Described by the label 2 B Real – a new label from electronic artist Finn and established imprint Local Action – as “languid and loopy, dreamy and aimless”, it’s about the most succinct and accurate release hypes I’ve ever read. Alone is 6+ minutes of hazy, sun-bleached beats, shimmering pads and a relentless vocal which might potentially get a little irritating if it wasn’t so lovely. I’m assuming Boo Tell is an alias of Finn: if so, battered straw hats off to him as it’s fantastic.
The theme of Pray It Away – which concerns a battle with Hannah Georgas’ own conservative family about same-sex marriage – is serious and weighty, but the record is anything but. Poignant, yes, but also light and delicate, as if she’s delivering the song floating high above the unfolding scene below. Perhaps that’s my own projection of detachment, having never been through anything similar with my own family, but she certainly seems to have found some resolution. Regardless, it’s a wonderful song, taken from her excellent new album All That Emotion, which I very much recommend checking out.
Hannah Sun is one of three tracks on the new Lomelda album – also titled Hannah – that are named after their creator, Hannah Reid. “It felt important to call it Hannah because it attached me and my person and my responsibility to the music” she said in a recent interview. Even without this exposition, there could be little doubt that these are deeply personal. intimate songs, and Hannah Sun drifts and shimmers like the last sunbeams of the day gently breaking through a canopy of softly shifting leaves.
I am hungover AF today so here’s 15 minutes of ambient loveliness to help gently usher in your weekend. That’s all you’re getting. I’m going back to bed.
I’m pretty late to the party on this one as it came out back in June, but I just read a glowing review on Resident Advisor and I’m not obsessed. Fighting The Flow from his album Conduit is absolutely flawless, driving, relentless techno of the very highest order, with just enough fragments of melody to keep things interesting without detecting from its repetitive power. Honestly, play this loud and tell me you don’t want to take your top off, neck a pinger and charge off down the front.
Il Quadro di Troisi is a new project by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist) and Donato Scaramuzzi aka Donato Dozzy aka one of the greatest electronic producers of all time, and one half of Voices From The Lake, who are responsible for the best mix ever. If you’ve come here expecting stripped-back, hypnotic dub techno however, you’re in the wrong place. Il Quadro Di Troisi is inspired by the late Italian actor and director Massimo Troisi and looks to pay tribute tribute to Italian popular music over the decades, touching on Italo disco, synth pop and more, all of which are harnessed in Raggio Verde.
German label Raster will release full album 16 October digitally, and on vinyl and CD 13 November. Until then, bask in the nostalgic greatness of the Green Ray.
The Predatory Wasp 