The Predatory Wasp
Recording under his a new line (related) moniker, Andy Johnson has just released a rather lovely electronic album, love in a unitary authority part 1-7. Party ambient, part deep house, part dub, it’s a really engaging listen from start to finish and this is the epic 10 minute opener, which starts as life with what sounds like indistinct, looped field recordings before developing a delicate, patiently evolving 4/4 structure.
The most amazing thing about Rising Sun is just how optimistic it makes me feel, given the current state of everything. So in that spirt… it’s not mid January, it’s not lockdown central, we aren’t staring down the barrel of some of the bleakest months of our short and ever-diminishing lives. Instead it’s actually mid summer, the sun’s just creeping up past the horizon, and you’ve just had one of the best night’s out of your entire life with some of your favourite people. One day, perhaps even this year, this will have happened to you. Until then, we have music like this to keep us going.
I’ve been avoiding this for a few days now because a) I didn’t love SOPHIE’s album – or any of her work – as much as every single music site told me I should if I had any kind of taste at all and b) I don’t actually know as much about just how important Autechre are to electronic music in general. Consider this my public apology. Anyway, this is predictably amazing, opening with some of the punchiest drums I’ve ever heard and I guess this now means I should listen to everything Autechre have ever produced. Bet they haven’t made many albums though, so expect I’ll be up to speed before the end of the day.
Two of my favourite artists releasing singles on consecutive days is making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Pretty sure they didn’t do it specifically for me (although, maybe?), but following Gia Margaret’s surprise drop yesterday, here come Nation of Language marching in with another melancholy banger that builds to a crescendo of snaking, shimmering synth lines and crystalline drums.
Here comes another entry in the “things I completely missed in 2020 but probably shouldn’t have done” canon, this time courtesy of Raven Mahon and Mikey Young aka The Green Child. Low Desk:High Shelf is taken from their second album Shimmering Basset, the recording and themes of which deal with Raven’s relocation to Australia from California. A week ago I would have casually mentioned that the lo-fi, almost naively wonderful electronic opening reminds me of some of John Maus’s best work, but as it turns out even niche musical heroes of mine can trash their own legacy in a single swoop. So instead I’ll say it’s a brilliant, yearning, melancholic, hopeful slice of electronic folk-pop, and leave it at that.
I’ve come to realise just how much of an impact computer game soundtracks – specifically the 8 and 16-bit bleeps of my Master System and Megadrive-obsessed youth – has had on the music I’ve enjoyed for the rest of my life. I compared last year’s brilliant Scacco Matto album by Lorenzo Senni to Lemmings, and now we have the outrageously prolific Patricia Taxxon back with yet another album including the wonderful Dandelions, which sounds like a cut from a modern version of a 90s Final Fantasy OST. As ever with Taxxon’s music the entire album Sapphire Apts is available to stream on YouTube, and even though Dandelions is a definite highlight, there’s plenty more nostalgic fun to be had throughout.
Given that this is a cover of one of my very favourite songs from one of my very favourite bands, I’m surprised I enjoy 58918012’s version of Street Spirit as much as I do. But then, I would challenge anyone to identify the source material for this without prior knowledge, as aside from a very (very) mangled, occasional cry of “and fade out again” that sounds like it’s coming from beyond the grave, there is pretty much nothing that links the two. It’s amazing, though, and makes Radiohead’s original sound like a jaunty pop banger by comparison, so deep is the despair it evokes.
Foundation Three: Loss of Identity is the third track from New York based electronic musician Salvatore Mercantante’s album The Foundations Of Eternal Sin, which I have not heard in its entirety, but on the strength of this it’s something that’s worth seeking out. Meditative and highly atmospheric, Foundation Three had me hooked from the opening few bars, pairing rich, warm pads alongside crisply skittering percussion. I wish it were twice as long, as it’s a highly enjoyable place to lose yourself for a few minutes.
Varsity Star is a Brooklyn-based electronic musician who grew up in the suburbs of Boston, but relocated to Berlin after a “biblical flea infestation” made his apartment uninhabitable. His remix of Coolgirl’s Gaussian Blur amplifies some of the more retro-leaning electronic elements of the original, upping the tempo and adding furious, Squarepusher-esque drums to run alongside the neon synth lines. By turns franticly glitchy and soothingly warm, it’s an assured reimagining of what was already a strong record.
To my shame, I only recently found out that Stars of the Lid founder Adam Wiltzie made up one half of A Winged Victory For The Sullen – the other half being L.A. composer Dustin O’Halloran – which considering how much I love SOTL, I really should have been more aware of. Desires Are Already Memories is taken from their forthcoming album Invisible Cities, which is a paired-down version of the score to Leo Warner’s acclaimed theatre production. Like much of their work it sits somewhere between hope and despair, with choral voices and aching beautiful strings combining to tremendous effect.
The Predatory Wasp 