Categories
Music

Croatian Amor – Any Path To Touch the Stars / Kites (A Part of You In Eveything)

I’ve spent an awful lot of time searching for “artists that sound like DJ Healer”, and the only one that’s really come close in term of delivering the hazy feels I need is Croatian Amor, especially his more recent work, which seems to be leaning ever further into dreamy breaks and nostalgia-heavy meanderings. These two tracks close his latest album A Part of You in Everything – a companion piece to last year’s Remember Rainbow Bridge, and dedicated to the memory of his younger brother who died at birth. Despite the overwhelming sad genesis of the 8-track collection, the overall effect is more reflective than desolate; a hopeful catharsis beautifully expressed.

https://croatianamor-poshisolation.bandcamp.com/album/a-part-of-you-in-everything

Categories
Music

Loraine James – 2003

Loraine James released two of the best albums of last year, so news of a new LP is real welcome on this blog. Landing in September on Hyperdub – her third for the label – Gentle Confrontations will feature collabs with George Riley and keiyaA and others, and has been touted as “a teenage Loraine would like to have made” and described as “positively languid”, which is excellent news. Lead single 2003 certainly fits with this description, and has echoes of Tirzah in both the haunting, loopy simplicity of its production and low-key vocal delivery.

https://lorainejames.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-confrontation

Categories
Music

Mandy, Indiana – 2 Stripe

Everywhere I look, Mandy, Indiana’s new album i’ve seen a way is getting glowing reviews. A four-piece experimental noise band formed in Manchester, the group was initially comprised of vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Scott Fair after they sharing a bill with their former projects, and were subsequently joined by Simon Catling (synth) and Alex MacDougall (drums). Their debut LP is noisy, chaotic and at times overwhelming, with a raw urgency throughout, even in its less full-on moments. 2 Stipe is arguably one of the most conventional tracks, even though they’d surely rail against the use of that word.

https://mandyindiana.bandcamp.com/album/ive-seen-a-way

Categories
Music

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept – Sword

Natural Beauty Wonder Concept is the new project from DJ Python and Ana Roxanne, both of whom I love. There’s an album due out in July, primarily recorded during covid days, and this is the first single. It’s great, and not even the press release describing the LP as “two artists learning to be alone, together” (🤮) can dull my enthusiasm.

https://naturalwonderbeautyconcept.bandcamp.com/album/natural-wonder-beauty-concept

Categories
Music

Doc Sleep – C & L at the Sea

Continuing the theme of floaty electronica this week with this beautiful track from Doc Sleep’s recent album Birds (in my mind anyway), in which soothing, ebbing waves are firmly pinned to earth with subby breakbeats and crashing snares. It’s very good, as is the entire album. TPW recommends!

https://docsleep.bandcamp.com/album/birds-in-my-mind-anyway

Categories
Music

SVLRBD – The Lighthouse

Here’s some highly atmospheric, beat-driven ambient for you courtesy of Agus Mena, who also records as Warmth and runs both the respected Archives and Faint labels. His latest album as SVLRBD The Waves arrived on the latter of these a couple of months’ back, and if you like The Lighthouse is very likely to appeal.

https://faintmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-waves

Categories
Music

Nabihah Iqbal – In Light

Nabihah Iqbal’s new album DREAMER arrived last week, nearly 6 years after her debut Weighing of the Heart. That gap was due to her studio being burgled in early 2020, with her gear and work – including her new album – all taken. DREAMER see’s Nabihah reflect on these experiences, and was produced with a vastly reduced suite of instruments – not that you’d necessarily be able to tell from the results, which are rich and expansive, encompassing shoegaze, post-punk and the more experimental electronica with which she name her name. In Light opens the album, beautifully setting a hazy, dreamlike tone which continues throughout.

https://nabihahiqbal.bandcamp.com/album/dreamer

Categories
Music

Nathan Fake – Bibled

Last week we had the creator of one of the all-time great remixes, and today we have the man he remixed, proving that they are completely incapable of doing anything too far away from one another. Taken from his new album Crystal Vision, Bibled is glorious, soaring, soft-focus breaks that Mixmag would doubtless describe as “tailor-made for the afters”.

https://nathanfake.com/album/crystal-vision

Categories
Music

James Holden – Trust Your Feet

The man responsible for one of the greatest remixes of all time has a new album – his first for six years – out today, and so far it’s fantastic – even though some of the tracks descend into what can only be described as “a right old jazzy mess”. Trust Your Feet is one of the more restrained moments, gently building through shimmering synth lines before some dramatic, metallic chords take over. Bones points for an album title that sounds both profound and massively pretentious at the same time.

https://jamesholden.bandcamp.com/album/imagine-this-is-a-high-dimensional-space-of-all-possibilities

Categories
Music

Andrea – Lush In End (Drum Version)

Andrea’s last album Ritorno was one of my favourite releases of 2020, so it’s great to see him back on Ilian Tape for the follow up, Due In Color. Atmospheric breaks one again dominate, with perhaps just a little more ambient whimsey present than last time around. Lush In End (Drum Version) is one of the more energetic tracks, and it’s absolutely brilliant.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp14-due-in-color