The Predatory Wasp
Yetsuby is the solo experimental electronic and ambient-focussed project of South Korean artist Yejin Jang who also records of one half of the excellent duo Salamanda. If I Drink This Potion is taken from her new album, b_b, her debut release on Seb Wildblood’s all my thoughts label; a striking mini LP that features some of the most arresting, engrossing and detailed production of any I’ve heard this year.
I’ve spent a few weeks with Mabe Fratti’s new album Sentir que no sabes now, but it’s just not really doing it for me. Her last couple sounded like nothing else I’ve ever heard, properly visceral and overwhelming in parts, whereas this one just kinda of bobs along. Almost everyone disagrees with me, so maybe I just don’t get it. Enfrente is pretty great though.
https://tinangelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sentir-que-no-sabes
Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn first collaborated on 2022’s fantastic Pigments and recently announced a new album, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, which is coming out in October. Breathe Out is the lead single and continues to blend Richard’s r&b instincts with Zahn’s expansive, atmospheric arrangements.
https://dawnrichard.bandcamp.com/album/quiet-in-a-world-full-of-noise
Actress and Smalltown Supersound promise you a safe and transcendent journey…
It’s Friday, the sun is shining, so here’s some deeply paranoid bleakness from Keeley Forsyth’s third album The Hollow which came out today. The album’s title comes from her discovery a long-abandoned mining shaft whilst out walking, while musically it incorporates aspects of minimalist post-classical, dark ambient and film and theatre soundtracks, with occasional warped pitch-shifts of her overwhelmingly mournful vocal for additional headfuckery.
Live’s new LP (EP? mixtape?) is a pretty tough listen in places. The hecticness of the opening track almost seems designed to put you off, but you’ve settled into its crunchy, super-lofi aesthetic, there are a few moments of genuine brilliance, Mashed Feelings among them. It’s unlikely to generate quite the same hype as last year’s Girl In The Half Pearl, but it’s still definitely worth a listen.
Written and recorded in 2021, Doer connects the dots between Frankfurt-based Man Rei’s (aka Kristin Reiman) debut Cusp in 2020 and their more recent recordings for Glasgow’s Somewhere Press. Bona Fide is about as hauntingly beautiful as it gets; a ghostly chamber piece where Reiman’s voice provides both the lead vocal and the shifting background textures.
Blurring the lines between chamber music, contemporary dance, dark pop and ethereal ambience, Klein, Mica Levi and Space Afrika collaborator Bianca Scout distills a decade of multidisciplinary work with her new album Pattern Damage, moving between diaristic ephemera, demure post-punk and chamber ambient, and cracking open bewildering crypto-romantique wormholes in the process. And yes, this is pretty much a direct copy and paste of the release hype, but a) it’s accurate and b) it’s a bank holiday and I have better (lazier) things to be doing.
I’ve been sulking about the woeful Glastonbury line-up for the last few days, but now it’s time I got over it and got on with my life. And even though there are so few acts I’m excited about seeing that it genuinely makes me sad, there are a few glimmers of light; Arooj Aftab among them. To Remain/To Return is from Love In Exile, an album I completely missed last year, with Vijay Iyer on pianos and electronics, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog synth Aftab’s soaring Urdu vocals.
In August 2022, Ariel Kalma, a renowned fourth-world (nope, me neither – but apparently it’s a thing) music artist, joined BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction for a special collaborative project, pairing with artists Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer. This partnership, led to the creation of twenty minutes of music through a back-and-forth exchange of ideas and contributions. After fulfilling their initial commitment, the trio felt compelled to continue their collaboration, expanding upon their initial creations, which ultimately culminated in an album The Closest Thing to Silence. The album’s title, inspired by a Kalma quote and echoing an ECM Records motto, emphasizes music’s profound connection to silence – so expect plenty of ambient, experimental meanderings, and quite a lot of space.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/the-closest-thing-to-silence
