The Predatory Wasp
Mike Paradinas just really loves making music. Not content with putting out two brilliant albums last year on his own Planet Mu label, he recently announced a new LP, 1977, that will land on the excellent Blamat in April. 4am is the lead single, and it’s a softly billowing delight.
This probably isn’t the kind of thing you want to listen to as you roll into the first weekend of February, but this collaboration between ambient experimental electronic titans Loscil and Lawrence English is just too good to ignore, sorry about that. This is taken from their new album Colours Of Air which is out today, with track titles tracks “named for the hue each piece suggests – from the gauzy levitational miasma of Yellow to the pulsing melancholic mirage of Violet to the seething twilit sandstorm of Magenta.” I don’t know about all that, but it’s inescapably excellent.
I realise this is in danger of turning into an exclusively ambient blog, but it’s January, and I’m convinced no-one really wants to listen to music with a discernible bpm, much less a beat, hook or chorus, so I’m sticking with it for now. Today’s dose of glassy ambience comes courtesy of The Album Leaf’s new single Breathe. Recorded in memory of close friends and family the artist has lost in recent years, the track reflects on the thoughts that may arise in those final, fleeting moments.
John Hayes and Maxy Dutcher unveil their new collaborative project Twinsleep with their meditative, atmospheric debut single Kin, with many of the tones on the song were crafted by sampling Dutcher’s vocal fed through a Yamaha VSS30 synthesizer. Deeply calming in the extreme; looking forward to the LP.
If you’re interested in under-the-radar ambient, this end of year list from Post Ambient Lux is worth checking out (although the actual best ambient album of the year by OHYUNG is weirdly missing, which does make me question their judgment just a little). Awe Kid’s ambient breakbeat LP Body Logic is one of my favourite finds on there so far, with the lush, shimmering pads and celestial synths of Atavistic Paths a real highlight.
A lot of posts this month are likely to be based on me scrolling through countless end of year lists and writing variations on “how the fuck did I miss this – it’s amazing!” Today, though, I do have something new for you, taken from Moby’s new ambient album released on 01 January, “made to help anxiety (my own, and hopefully yours, too)”. amb 23-14 is a sparse 9 minute piano piece, with a few gently billowing synths drifting in and out, and seems appropriate for the first post of the year.
He left it late, but for the second year in a row Traumprinz comes through with December music: 16 new, original tracks over the course of a 90 minute set. I already know that this will be one of the pieces of music I return to next year. Thumping, emotional ambient-leaning techno from the undisputed master.
Inspired by two peripheral characters in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and The Sun, Brendon John Warner’s new single explores the dissonance of reconnecting with society after years of separation; a theme expanded on by Alex Botton in his visual accompaniment to the song, framing the odd behaviours among and between random individuals in public spaces. Evoking both the awe-inspiring neon-soaked soundtracks of Vangelis and the earthily raw, visceral power of Vladislav Delay’s Rakka, Coffee Cup Lady & Raincoat Man is extremely impressive.
I don’t often just copy in release hype for posts, but this is an important one, and gives you an indication of the tone of the album better than I ever could, so here you go…
“Blue Scar Vol I , is the first installation of a long form album. This tapestry of songs is a personal mythology of love and survival, I have been patiently writing and working on this since 2013, the year I almost died because of intimate partner violence.
“This body of work brought me back to my body, and continues to do so everyday, my prayer is that it does the same for all trauma survivors, that this music is a place we can tend to our personal and generational wounds as well as a place to honour our scars. This is for youngest selves , for my child self and my god self, who always seek to protect and heal me – this is a quest to relearn what love is.”
Daniel Avery has assembled an impressive raft of caollborators on his new album Ultra Truth, with production from Ghost Culture and Manni Dee, vocals courtesy of HAAi, Jonnine Standish (HTRK), AK Paul and the “voices” (not sure why that’s different from ‘vocals’, but apparently it is) of Marie Davidson, Kelly Lee Owens, Sherelle and James Massiah. It’s a more contemplative record that he’s produced before – way more afterparty mong than peak time rave up – and is probably the release of his I’ve enjoyed the most, which tells you everything you need to know about my current levels of rave-readiness. Spider is 90s-evoking ambient techno with all the OTT heartfeltness that entails, and I love it.
The Predatory Wasp 