A new 12 minute song from Sufjan, and the lead single from his forthcoming album. There’s really very little more I need to say about this, other than it seems to be the culmination of almost everything he’s done in his career so far, with elements of folk, noise and electronica vying for space amongst lyrical themes both religious and nationalistic. If this is illustrative of the album, we’re in for a real treat come 25 September.
Turtle Funk is taken from the new Patricia (aka Max Ravitz) album Maxyboy: his second full-length outing on Ghostly International following 2017’s Several Shades Of The Same Colour which I liked very much. Like its predecessor it could be loosely described as atmospheric, breaks-driven techno, but while Several Shades…felt restrictive and gloomy, there’s an optimistic bounce about many of the tracks on Maxyboy, not least in the playful acid lines and shimmering pools of Turtle Funk.
MDP5 is taken from a pair of EPs Skee Mask released this week that illustrate the two extremes of his music. The first, ISS005 is club-focussed – at times brutal – jungle and breakbeat, while the second ISS006 is entirely beatless, ambient atmospherics, and if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time at all it will be no surprise which of these I’ve gravitated towards.
Listening to any of these tracks in isolation doesn’t really do them justice: as with pretty much all of Skee Mask’s releases there’s a narrative thread that runs though ISS006 that really requires you to listen to it in its entirety to be properly appreciated. But MDP5 nicely illustrates what to expect, and is a marked shift in tone for an artist who, although often dealing in similarly deconstructed electronics, has never gone this stripped-back (or bleak) before.
“Art pop, Nigerian highlife, worldbeat, and other lesser-known genres” are all identified as key components of Art Feynman (aka accomplished recording artist and producer Luke Temple)’s music in his own bio, and honestly I can’t come up with a better way of describing China Be Better than by just directly quoting this. “Halfway between Arthur Russell and Pearl City” is my best effort, but the former is so massively broad and influential and the latter so woefully under-appreciated that this is a pretty redundant comparison. So just listen to it, as it’s really good.
Calling a record Cheese and then throwing in a guitar solo Chris Rea would be proud of is arguably a risky move, but US synthpop duo Young Ejecta completely get away with it. I’m a sucker for breathy, washed out vocals, and they’re there in abundance on Cheese alongside a Hold On, We’re Going Home-esque mid tempo beat and delicate, dreamy pads. Man it’s great, and if you’re not just even a little moved by it I really can’t help you.
Like many artists who have unexpectedly had their touring calendars erased by coronavirus, Daniel Avery has been keeping himself busy in the studio, and last week surprise released an entire album of new material, the 14 track Love + Light. “This record has been a real positive force of energy in my life, to the point where it almost formed itself in front of me,” Avery says of the LP. “In that same spirit, I wanted to share it with you now, as soon as it was finished.” Love + Light ranges from full on party techno bangers to hazy, washed out electronic ballads, with the wonderful Fuzzwar occupying a space very much towards the latter end of that spectrum.
After being fairly obsessed with Haim for a few years after they released their first EP, and seeing them perform at what feels like every Glastonbury I’ve ever been to, I honestly can’t remember anything about their previous album, 2017’s Something To Tell You, except that it exists and I definitely listened to it at least once. Gasoline is taken from their new LP Women In Music Part.III, which a lot of critics are losingtheirshit about. For me the first half kind drifts past – pleasant but unremarkable – before a much stronger second half, kicked off by Gasoline which is unequivocally brilliant.
For obvious reasons, 2020 is probably not a year that humanity will look back on especially fondly. But in musical term (aka the most important terms) there has already been a remarkable wealth of incredible albums.
It’s difficult to judge one year’s musical credentials against another, as often the enjoyment of the newly discovered can outweigh the importance of records that have been with you for a while, but I genuinely think 2020 has roundly trounced recent years in terms of the amount of quality albums… and it’s only June. At least 2020 has been good for something.
So in the time-honoured tradition of judging the unjudgeable, here are The Predatory Wasp’s best 20 albums of 2020 so far.
070 Shake – Modus Vivendi
Packed full of memorable hooks, slick production and a fierce energy that radiates throughout, Modus Vivendi is an astonishingly accomplished debut from the GOOD Music affiliated 070 Shake. Released back in mid January there’s a chance this will get a little lost when it comes to end of year lists, but I hope it doesn’t, as tracks like Morrow, Microdosing and Under The Moon are some of the most creative, urgent music I’ve heard in 2020.
The first minute or so of Agency Loop is nothing more than a gently undulating synth line set against the backdrop of some especially tuneful birdsong, and it’s entirely blissful. To be honest, I’m less into the final movement when the drums roll in and it all becomes a bit sub Boards Of Canada, but the tranquility of the that early section is really special. It’s taken from the official soundtrack of Defective Holiday, a trippy indie video game that’s available now on Steam.
Sofie Fatouretchi was born in California to Austrian and Iranian parents, and spent time in Vienna studying at music conservatory in her teens. Over the last 6 months or so she’s been releasing a steady stream of very good bedroom pop, so hopefully there’s an album coming before too long. Try To Reach Me is restrained yet quietly insistent, and I especially love the twangy bass guitar that rolls in halfway through. Sofie was also one of the original Boiler Room US crew and has put together a number of excellent mixes over the years, including this one for XLR8R which is worth checking out.
EDIT: Just found out that the album is due this week – so really not long to wait at all.
The Predatory Wasp 