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Loraine James – 2003

Loraine James released two of the best albums of last year, so news of a new LP is real welcome on this blog. Landing in September on Hyperdub – her third for the label – Gentle Confrontations will feature collabs with George Riley and keiyaA and others, and has been touted as “a teenage Loraine would like to have made” and described as “positively languid”, which is excellent news. Lead single 2003 certainly fits with this description, and has echoes of Tirzah in both the haunting, loopy simplicity of its production and low-key vocal delivery.

https://lorainejames.bandcamp.com/album/gentle-confrontation

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Mandy, Indiana – 2 Stripe

Everywhere I look, Mandy, Indiana’s new album i’ve seen a way is getting glowing reviews. A four-piece experimental noise band formed in Manchester, the group was initially comprised of vocalist Valentine Caulfield and Scott Fair after they sharing a bill with their former projects, and were subsequently joined by Simon Catling (synth) and Alex MacDougall (drums). Their debut LP is noisy, chaotic and at times overwhelming, with a raw urgency throughout, even in its less full-on moments. 2 Stipe is arguably one of the most conventional tracks, even though they’d surely rail against the use of that word.

https://mandyindiana.bandcamp.com/album/ive-seen-a-way

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Natural Wonder Beauty Concept – Sword

Natural Beauty Wonder Concept is the new project from DJ Python and Ana Roxanne, both of whom I love. There’s an album due out in July, primarily recorded during covid days, and this is the first single. It’s great, and not even the press release describing the LP as “two artists learning to be alone, together” (🤮) can dull my enthusiasm.

https://naturalwonderbeautyconcept.bandcamp.com/album/natural-wonder-beauty-concept

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Music

Yves Tumor – Parody

Yves Tumor continues their evolution from experimental electronic noodler to stadium rock icon with their new album, the insanely (and brilliantly) titled Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds). I haven’t had a proper chance to delve into its metallic depths yet, but on the first listen Parody stood out as particularly fun.

https://yves-tumor.bandcamp.com/album/praise-a-lord-who-chews-but-which-does-not-consume-or-simply-hot-between-worlds

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Liv.e – Snowing!

I’m a bit late to the party on this one as it feels like everyone’s been singing the praises of Liv.e’s new album Girl In the Half Pearl for some time now, but I just couldn’t risk the ire of the music blogging community so am jumping on the appreciation bandwagon. Also: it’s really great, and about as varied an album as you’re likely to find anytime soon, from the full on soul balladry of Wild Animals to the arpeggiated chaos of Snowing!.

https://o-liv.bandcamp.com/album/girl-in-the-half-pearl

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Bianca Scout – Empty space

Following collaborations with artist like Space Afrika, Ben Vince, and Elena Isolini, Bianca Scout’s new album The Heart of the Anchoress started life as a three day recording session at St Giles Church in Camberwell. Dark, dreamy and hypnotic, it sits somewhere between TPW favourites Grouper and Andy Stott, with opening track Empty space nicely setting the tone for the gloomy euphoria to come.

https://firstterracerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-heart-of-the-anchoress

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Katatonic Silentio – Dans Le Cadre Du Relief

Here’s a brilliant – if deeply unsettling – slice of dubby electronica for you that genuinely seemed to make my tinnitus swerve to an entirely new, ferocious pitch. Taken from her recent LP Les Chemins De L’inconnu, out now on the relentlessly good Ilian Tape.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp13-les-chemins-de-linconnu

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Erik Hall – Canto Ostinato (Sections 17-30)

Canto Ostinato is the new volume of classical minimalism from musician and producer Erik Hall. Written for four pianos in 1979 by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, the piece is freshly framed as an intimate, hour-long solo performance consisting of multitracked grand pianos, electric piano, and organ, with Sections 17-30 out now ahead of the full album. For fans of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and meditative modern classical in general.

https://soundcloud.com/western_vinyl/

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Duval Timothy – Drift feat. Lamin Fofana

While producing his new album Meeting with a Judas Tree, Duval Timothy made a point of being in nature as much as possible, immersing himself in various habitats from South London and the hills surrounding Bath to scrubland in Ghana and the woods of Sierra Leone, taking recordings of birds, insects, monkeys, bats, plants, trees, stones on his phone, many of which made it into the final version. The result is a deeply immersive, meditative album which flits between electronic experimentation, jazz and modern classical, culminating with the sparse beauty of Drift.

https://duvaltimothy.bandcamp.com/album/meeting-with-a-judas-tree

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ELSZ, Ganavya – Holy Water Meditation

I don’t often just copy in release hype for posts, but this is an important one, and gives you an indication of the tone of the album better than I ever could, so here you go…

“Blue Scar Vol I , is the first installation of a long form album. This tapestry of songs is a personal mythology of love and survival, I have been patiently writing and working on this since 2013, the year I almost died because of intimate partner violence.

“This body of work brought me back to my body, and continues to do so everyday, my prayer is that it does the same for all trauma survivors, that this music is a place we can tend to our personal and generational wounds as well as a place to honour our scars. This is for youngest selves , for my child self and my god self, who always seek to protect and heal me – this is a quest to relearn what love is.”

https://elsz.bandcamp.com