Tag: electronic

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Music

The Green Child – Low Desk : High Shelf

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.

https://thegreenchild.bandcamp.com

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Music

Patricia Taxxon – Dandelion

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.

https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com

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58918012 – Street Spirit

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.

https://58918012.bandcamp.com/releases

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Music

Salvatore Mercatante – Foundation Three: Loss of Identity

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.

https://salvatoremercatante.bandcamp.com

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Coolgirl – Gaussian Blur (Varsity Star Remix)

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.

https://varsitystar.bandcamp.com

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A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Desires Are Already Memories

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.

https://awvfts.com

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Music

LAMBERT – one x one

LAMBERT is a London based songwriter, producer and artist with a background in baroque and classical music and now creating some rather striking electronica. one x one is her latest release and pairs her granulated, ethereal vocal alongside starkly beautiful production. The track was produced while “coming to terms with the reality of losing someone close to me”, with LAMBERT aiming to make something that was both painful and beautiful to capture the feelings of that time. She’s undoubtedly succeeded.

https://soundcloud.com/grace-lambert-207283757/one-x-one-2/s-IlN9um8m0HU

https://www.instagram.com/grace.lamberrt

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Music

Craven Faults – Hard Level Force

There are only two possible musical routes for an artist name of Craven Faults coupled with artwork as starkly bleak as on Enclosures: screaming, piledriving metal and sinister, meandering electronica. Fortunately (for me at least) this is very much in the latter camp; an intricate, patient and atmospheric three track EP from an artist whose bio is as succinct and evocative as “half-remembered journeys across post-industrial Yorkshire”.

https://cravenfaults.bandcamp.com/

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Music

Il Quadro di Troisi – Sfere di Qi

A while back I posted about Raggio verde, the first track of a new project by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist) and Donato Scaramuzzi aka Donato Dozzy aka one of my very favourite electronic producers of all time. It turns out that I’m such a big fan of his that I completely missed the release of the full, self-titled album last month. Anyway, it’s brilliant, and Sfere di Qi is just one of many of the tracks that balance Dozzy’s trademark hypnotic polyrhythms with Geist’s wonderfully evocative vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/raster_artistic_platform

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Mark Pritchard – In My Heart

Mark Pritchard is an extraordinary artist making some of the most visionary electronic music you’re likely to hear, ranging from the deeply unsettling and undefinable to blissful, meditative electronica like in My Heart. This is the final track on MP Productions – EP 1: a six track collection revisiting some of the aliases he has released under, and spanning a range of styles but predominantly focused on club music, which I would highly recommend checking out.

https://markpritchard.bandcamp.com/