The Predatory Wasp
How’s that for a title? This record from Lorenzo Senni sits somewhere between hyper-modern pop, analogue electro and the soundtrack to the original Lemming’s video game, the last of which I have a particular soft spot for. I recently spent an entire evening playing it online and feeling nostalgic: it was brilliant. Move In Silence is taken from Sinni’s album Scacco Matto which is out now on Warp, and is definitely worth a listen.
As distinctly un-Friday as the new album by Cremation Lily is, I’m really, really enjoying it. Static-drenched and ultimately pretty moody, it also has flashes of radiant joy breaking through the grey. Case in point: the last few moments of Evenings Cast Astray, which starts life with a simple, acoustic guitar strumming away, moving through an eruption of white noise before everything else fades, leaving a single, beautiful synth line and a few chirruping birds for good measure.
Brutally stark ambient from Brighton’s Ital Tek that comes with a fantastic music video, vaguely reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s headscrambling visuals for T69 Collapse, but significantly calmer. Leaving The Grid is eerie and arrestingly beautiful and is out now on Planet Mu.
This one had me fully on board within five seconds. Something about that winding, fizzing synth line and those beats… and then they both start singing: absolutely incredible. The entire album, Aarupa, is also one of the best I’ve heard so far this year. Quinton Barnes – you have my attention!
Slowly evolving techno from Bristol’s Hodge that for the first half of its running time is very much in the same vein as Barker’s Debiasing EP, which is one of my favourite electronic releases from the last few years. In all honesty it’s a little disappointing when Shadows In Blue actually resolves itself into a club track rather than holding that tension for the duration, but it’s still a very fine piece of work.
Wonderfully weird and unpredictable electronica from Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. The Steady Heart encompasses elements of folk, jazz, choral and various strands of electronic music, and is completely beguiling from start to finish.
I have a real soft spot for anything that sounds like it’s harkening back to an especially synthy period of the 80s, and Counting Stars fits very neatly into that particular little box. Vocally he also sounds quite a lot like Toro Y Moi, who released one of my favourite albums of the decade a couple of years back. Really very good indeed.
This is an extended version of one of the tracks from Floating Points’ recent album Crush. It’s now a 10+ minute beast and is epic and hugely impressive. Makes me want to be raving in a field with thousands of people so much. Sigh.
Conforce was already one of my favourite producers even before launching his Versalife alias a few years back. Now I love him and his music even more. This is pretty much perfect: big emotional pads, little acid line bubbling happily away…. just brilliant. And if you like this you should definitely listen to his recent Live in Los Angles mix, it’s ace.
This is taken from Yaeji’s debut album What We Drew, although she refers to it as a mixtape. I’m still not entirely sure what the difference is, despite multiple conversations and Google searches. Regardless, this is really, really good and the entire album/mixtape is definitely worth checking.
The Predatory Wasp 