The Predatory Wasp
The new album from Rival Consoles is a bit of a mixed bag, but Visions of Self is undeniably great. I like the less polished-sounding tracks a lot more than the “epic” “bangers”; sometimes it’s as if he’s trying just a lit bit too hard to pull on the heartstrings, but this is nicely subdued. Must try less hard!
Joy Helder’s fantastic recent EP Blurt flits between creeping ambient and more energetic electronica, with Life of the Party sitting slap bang in the middle. Skeletal in the sparseness of its structure, every echoing glitch or crispy delivered hi-hat has been painstakingly crafted to deliver maximum impact, burrowing deep into your brainholes and sending satisfying shivers down your spine.
Loraine James’s new album Building Something Beautiful For Me lands today and fucking hell it is amazing. I never really clicked with last year’s Reflection, but loved her ambient album as Whatever The Weather from earlier this year. Building… seems to sit somewhere between these ambient and club spaces and comes across almost like a work in progress, with tracks stopping abruptly or changing tone midway through. There are so many highlights picking a single track was very tough, but I went for Black Excellent (Stay On It) due to the simplicity of its construction – pretty much just a single, undulating synthline throughout – resolved perfectly by the bleak beauty of its final third.
Celestial ambient wanderings from Clark that should appeal to anyone who enjoyed last year’s Playground In A Lake. Taken from a compilation of new tracks, unreleased archive material and rarities, collected by the artist to release alongside the remastered reissue of his 2006 LP Body Riddle.
Incredibly chill and glassy ambient from Quiraing, written on an island in Northern Michigan and created mainly from field recordings made on the artist’s journey to reach it. Simple and very effective.
Apologies for my recent absence (you noticed, right?) I was enjoying some post-birthday seaside celebrations and was way too busy pretending I’m rich to waste my time with music! Anyway, here’s some glorious Aphex-adjacent weirdness from Mads Kinnerup – the first single from his forthcoming album Interpolation – by way of an apology.
This is the lead single from Micah Frank and Chet Doxas’s forthcoming LP The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part 1, which lands in November. Ave Maria combines a masterful harp performance from Mary Lattimore with Doxas’s meandering woodwind, gently billowing electronics and the late addition of a softly pulsing kick drum. Deep chill.
https://micahfrank.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-hildegard-von-bingen-part-one
Impressively disorientating polyrhythms from drosophila. Menaces; soothes, repeat. Taken from their new LP Slight Spells. Glitches get stitches.
Mick Jeets packs a hell of a lot into the sub-three minute move your feet. Ravey breakbeats, footwork, garage and frantic old-school vocals all make an appearance, while the overall track still manages to be both sparse and contemplative. Impressively invigorating stuff to shake your out of your Monday coma.
