The Predatory Wasp
Released today My Noise is Nothing is a collaborative album between Lord of The Isles and Scottish poet Ellen Renton, pairing the former’s sparse, atmospheric production with the latter’s pandemic-penned words; verses that deal with her coming to terms with an influx of raw, unfiltered emotions.
Yesterday marked the 10 year anniversary (!!!) of the release of FKA Twigs’ staggeringly brilliant EP2. Produced by Arca, it went on to ‘inspire’ an entire wave of artists attempting to replicate its stripped-back yet immensely rich and impactful sound. Very few matched its creativity and sheer take-your-breath-away originality, and none surpassed it, arguably even Twigs herself (although many would disagree with me on that last point). A decade later it still represent a high point, both musically and culturally, and perhaps most importantly, open my own eyes and ears to a world to which I was previously completely ignorant.
Green Roads is taken from a charity compilation REBUILD, which was released to help raise funds to support victims of the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey earlier this year. I came across this specific track from French producer Quelza in Clarissa Kimskii’s recent RA podcast, and it’s really excellent: a trippy, dubby, hypnotic low-key banger.
Anjimile’s 2020 debut album Giver Taker came out of nowhere and was one of the year’s best, blending low-key folk with introspective, beautifully delivered lyrics. Three years on his latest LP The King just arrived, and although the introspection is still there, production-wise it’s a much bigger, brasher, more confident proposition. Time will tell if this lives up to the promise of its predecessor, but on the first couple of listens Anybody is a clear highlight.
Grant Chapman’s new album Revisions starts with an anguished scream and ends with a breathy vocal repeating “it’s so sad” for a couple of minutes, but despite this it’s actually a joyful listen, and really not depressing at all (honestly). Calm and serenity permeates through the entire album, which makes that jarring start all the more surprising. It’s hard to pick out a highlight as all the tracks flow pretty seamlessly, but sometimes it really is “so sad”, so Comedown gets TPW seal of approval. Also, at the time of writing this currently has zero views on YouTube, so it makes me feel good to know that might increase to a dozen or so following this post.
Brian Eno may have ‘invented’ ambient, but it was Stars of the Lid who refined it to perfection, creating some of the most beautiful, transcendent music ever to grace this world. With the death of one half of the group’s Brian McBride earlier this week we have lost a true visionary, and while surviving member Adam Wiltzie says there is unreleased music that may yet see the light of day, McBride’s passing in an opportunity to look back rather than forward, and to appreciate the work of a phenomenal artist and true original. Somewhat poignantly, there’s no music better suited to morn McBride than that which he himself created, and Another Ballad for Heavy Lids remains, for me, the highpoint of their extensive catalogue.
Sam Barker returns with his first solo EP since 2020’s BARKER002, this time on Oslo’s Smalltown Supersound. His 2018 EP Debiasing changed the game and remains one of my favourite electronic releases of all time, and while his latest Unfixed sees him reintroducing kick drums back into the equation there’s still an unpredictability to how the tracks are structured and progress. There are arguably more inventive, and certainly harder-hitting moment on the four-track release, but Wick & Wax get my nod for being 9 minutes of melodic loveliness.
The latest album from Norwegian-Mexican artist Carmen Villain is comprised from parts of her score for Eszter Salamon’s two-and-a-half hour dance performance, Monument 0.10 : The Living Monument. Most of the track included here are edited down from the long-form versions that accompanied the ultra-slow scenes of the performance, which means that somewhere there’s probably an extended version of this incredibly lush album opener that I need to find and have on repeat for months to come.
https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-the-living-monument
Billowing ambient that builds into something more rhythmic and structured; like an optimistic take on Vangelis with all the sharp edges sanded off. Taken from the Kaifeng-born, Vancouver based musician and occasional chef’s new album of the same name which is well worth checking out in its entirety.
I’m not quite as enamoured with Jessy Lanza’s new album Love Hallucination as I hoped I would be, but there’s no denying the infectious brilliance of Limbo. Deeply rooted in late 70s/ early 80s funk and with a bassline to rival the best of that era, its a ridiculously hooky earworm that I’m inevitably going to be hammering for months.
