The Predatory Wasp
Shimmering electronic pop from the Glasgow-based Elisabeth Elektra today with Sadie, which is far and away the most restrained track from her new album Mercurial, steadily building the tension for its duration with billowing pads and an increasingly anguished vocal. I love it: it’s pure, glacial melodrama and the rest of the album is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the market for 40 minutes of joyous, synthy escapism.
LG_Amb is taken from Italian producer Andea’s debut album for Ilian Tape which explores various different electronic styles, from ambient and dubby techno to more visceral jungle/breakbeat cuts. LG_Amb sits somewhere in the middle of these: what starts as dreamy, shimmering ambient is quickly joined by clattering broken beats and eventually rich, warm pads. It’s really lovely: so lovely in fact that I do wish there had been a few tracks of a similar vibe on the album. There are a few that sound a little overproduced and clinical as a result, whereas this melts out of the speakers, fully formed and organic.
Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles has just announced details of his new album, the follow-up to 2018’s very well regarded Persona. Articulation is the lead single, and is probably the track I’ve enjoyed most of his to date, with West intertwining some beautiful melodies and evoking a sense of both space and restraint, while also sounding like it would punch pretty hard in the right setting.
Brooklyn-based synth enthusiasts Nation of Language have just released their latest album Introduction, Presence, which sounds exactly like the soundtrack of your favourite offbeat 80s drama where the protagonists embark on nihilistic but ultimately seductive adventures until someone dies of a drug overdose and they have to question their behaviour but ultimately just end up lighting yet another cigarette and saying “fuck it… where’s the party?”. If that sounds like the kind of film you’d enjoy, then you’ll probably really like lead single September Again.
I’m a sucker for a Change sample (I mean, who isn’t) but often they’re a poor imitation of the original rather than doing anything especially interesting with it. India Jordan’s For You takes an extremely chill soul classic and transforms it into a rapidly-paced house banger, and does it with a huge amount of class, and a nod to Orbital’s Chime along the way. There’s a lot of stuff thrown at the wall here, but it all sticks, resulting in a ferociously joyous record.
Like a lot of teenagers who discovered video games in the late 80s/early 90s, I played A LOT of Streets of Rage. The occasional out of control tantrum and smashed controller aside, I have very fond memories of that time, and especially of the soundtrack, so the newly released Streets of Rage 4 had a lot to live up to in that department. Happily they’ve delivered not only a fantastic game, but a brilliant OST which ropes in some of the original producers alongside newcomers like Olivier Deriviere who manage to preserve the frantic 8-bit rush of the 90s series while bringing the production bang up to date.
I’m surprised how long it’s taken me to post a Charli XCX track, given how much I like her and how rapidly she bangs out new material. 7 Years is taken from her new album how i’m feeling now which was entirely produced over the last two months or so of lockdown. Produced as a collaborative project, with Charli holding regular Zoom chats with up to 1000 fans to get feedback and ideas, it’s not a huge departure from previous albums and mixtapes, except there aren’t any features. Basically, if like me you’re into her, you’ll probably really like this too, and 7 Years is a definite highlight.
It’s a little unfair to post just a single track from DJ Python’s impeccable album Mas Amable, as it really needs to be listened to in its entirety to do it justice. Mas Amable plays out at a single tempo with seamless (and lengthy) transitions between the individual tracks, employing broken rhythms and hushed tones to create an atmosphere that’s both hypnotic and otherworldly. It’s really special, and reminds me of that incredible Voices From The Lake album from a few years back. ADSMSDP is an 11-minute epic that probably best represents the album as a whole, but I’d definitely recommend committing to the entire thing.
DJ Healer (aka Traumprinz, DJ Metatron and various others) just posted three new mixes comprised of 100% new and unreleased material, and I am really very excited about this. I haven’t even started on the other two, but Ins Herz der Dine Lauschen [Listen to the heart of things] is delicate, melancholy, sun-bleached ambient and electronica, and jesus christ it’s fucking amazing. Check his Soundcloud page for the other two. What a time to be alive.
EDIT: I literally just cried listening to this. Actual tears.
The Soft Pink Truth is an experimental electronic alias of Drew Daniel, who apparently started the project after Matthew Herbert bet him he couldn’t produce a proper house record. This is the first time I’ve come across his music, but I think it’s fair to say he won that particular bet. We is glorious deep house music that sounds like something from Laurent Garnier’s seminal Unreasonably Behaviour LP. Definitely check out his new album as well, Shall We All Go On Sinning… which is an absolute delight from start to finish.
The Predatory Wasp 