Tag: electronic

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Katie Dey – Closeness

Closeness is taken from mydata, the fourth album from Australian artist Katie Dey: an intimate electronic album about an ‘internet relationship” in which Dey’s vocals are more often than not partially buried, emerging twisted, hushed and barely audible from beneath layers of winding static, triumphant strings, or whatever other musical textures she’s thrown at the canvas. Closeness is short, barely clocking in over two minutes, but packs a huge punch: a sincere and incredibly moving minimalist ballad.

https://katiedey.bandcamp.com

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Chevel – Crush

It’s a question I’ve asked before on this blog, but how can something this good get some little attention? I mean obviously I know: people have precious little time and for some people trawling through every record releases in a given week isn’t (shockingly) what gets them out of bed in the morning. But still. At time of writing Crush is currently sitting on two (2!) views on YouTube, and though it’s faring a little better on other streaming platforms, it’s deserving of way, way more people knowing about it as it’s literally better than 99% of music I’ve heard this year. So come on people – GET ON THIS. Oh yeah, and it’s kinda glitchy, hyperactive, bassy techno/breaks etc (you know, that vibe).

https://soundcloud.com/chevelmusic

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Squarepusher – Midi Sans Frontières (Avec Batterie)

Squarepusher is a gaping and frankly quite embarrassing hole in my musical knowledge. I’ve basically thought of him as a “bit like Aphex Twin” for years, without really bothering to delve into his sprawling back catalogue. This is often the case with artists who have a huge body of work behind them: it can feel intimidating and somewhat overwhelming without an obvious point of entry. However his last album Be Up A Hello was listed highly in the Quietus’s always excellent best albums of the year so far list, so I thought this was as good a time as any to get stuck in.

Midi Sans Frontières (Avec Batterie) is actually from his more recent Lamental EP, and it’s brilliant: spine-tingling synths slowly arcing over tranquil breakbeats. So now it’s just the small matter of 16 albums to wade through and I’ll be fully Pusher-literate. Wish me luck.

https://squarepusher.net

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Jackie Lynn – Control

Control is the final track on Jackie Lynn’s (aka Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr) latest album Jacqueline, and it’s a pretty phenomenal way to wrap up the 30 minutes or so of eclecticism that precedes it. Ranging from electro-inflected punk to soaring, ethereal folk to out-and-out pop, it’s a disorienting experience of being flung from one genre to another without the slightest bit of warning. And then there’s Control, an epic, grandiose finale that’s both fragile and foreboding, and a fitting end to a hugely ambitious release.

https://jackielynn.bandcamp.com/album/jacqueline

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Shifted – Hard Matter

After the dissolution of his drum & bass group Commix, Guy Brewer relocated to Berlin, started to experiment with techno and established his, at first anonymous, Shifted alias. His productions as Shifted have always leaned more towards the dark than the light, but the intensity has really been ramped up over the last couple of releases, ultimately culminating in Hard Matter, which is, by anyone’s standards, an absolute panic-inducing nightmare of a track. But in a good way.

https://avianstore.bandcamp.com

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Special Request – Family Doggo

Special Request’s Spectral Frequency came out last week on R&S, and is very much an EP of two halves. The title track is pretty much what you’d expect from a ‘typical’ Special Request record – taught jungle breaks and vocal stabs – with the second track Inverse Request an interesting experiment in filtering out all the low end: a sketchy rave transmission from another galaxy. It’s the second two tracks where it really comes to life though, and Family Doggo is a warm analog hug of a track, all reverb-heavy hats and hazily shimmering pads, which is exactly what I need right now.

https://special-request.bandcamp.com

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Patricia – Turtle Funk

Turtle Funk is taken from the new Patricia (aka Max Ravitz) album Maxyboy: his second full-length outing on Ghostly International following 2017’s Several Shades Of The Same Colour which I liked very much. Like its predecessor it could be loosely described as atmospheric, breaks-driven techno, but while Several Shades…felt restrictive and gloomy, there’s an optimistic bounce about many of the tracks on Maxyboy, not least in the playful acid lines and shimmering pools of Turtle Funk.

https://patriciaaa.bandcamp.com

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Skee Mask – MDP5

MDP5 is taken from a pair of EPs Skee Mask released this week that illustrate the two extremes of his music. The first, ISS005 is club-focussed – at times brutal – jungle and breakbeat, while the second ISS006 is entirely beatless, ambient atmospherics, and if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time at all it will be no surprise which of these I’ve gravitated towards.

Listening to any of these tracks in isolation doesn’t really do them justice: as with pretty much all of Skee Mask’s releases there’s a narrative thread that runs though ISS006 that really requires you to listen to it in its entirety to be properly appreciated. But MDP5 nicely illustrates what to expect, and is a marked shift in tone for an artist who, although often dealing in similarly deconstructed electronics, has never gone this stripped-back (or bleak) before.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com

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Young Ejecta – Cheese

Calling a record Cheese and then throwing in a guitar solo Chris Rea would be proud of is arguably a risky move, but US synthpop duo Young Ejecta completely get away with it. I’m a sucker for breathy, washed out vocals, and they’re there in abundance on Cheese alongside a Hold On, We’re Going Home-esque mid tempo beat and delicate, dreamy pads. Man it’s great, and if you’re not just even a little moved by it I really can’t help you.

https://youngejecta.bandcamp.com

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Daniel Avery – Fuzzwar

Like many artists who have unexpectedly had their touring calendars erased by coronavirus, Daniel Avery has been keeping himself busy in the studio, and last week surprise released an entire album of new material, the 14 track Love + Light. “This record has been a real positive force of energy in my life, to the point where it almost formed itself in front of me,” Avery says of the LP. “In that same spirit, I wanted to share it with you now, as soon as it was finished.” Love + Light ranges from full on party techno bangers to hazy, washed out electronic ballads, with the wonderful Fuzzwar occupying a space very much towards the latter end of that spectrum.

https://www.danielavery.co.uk