March 8, 2021 at 9:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
8Ball: Eleusis
The
debut album from 8Ball (who did a mixtape of Bogdan Raczynski material two years ago) is a set of atmospheric jungle which levitates far off the ground. The beats and basslines are used sparingly, and they rarely hit hard, but the music unmistakably echoes the sonic palette of the more rinsed-out side of jungle, from the ragga samples to the reverberating synth pads. The pulsing bassline and shimmering echoes of “Kommence” are like water trickling down the side of a big fountain, rather than one that’s more ornate and splashy. Unlike certain releases by Lee Gamble or V/Vm’s
Death of Rave material, this doesn’t quite feel like a half-faded memory of jungle, it feels more present and in the moment, yet it’s just suspended in certain moments. “Only Time Will Tell” has a more consistent beat ricocheting around (and a slower one shadowing it underneath), but the bassline refrains from kicking into overdrive. Other tracks like “Planetz” manage to get a lot of mileage out of just a few samples ping-ponging back and forth. “The Moons” has a choppy but more driving breakbeat, but apart from the bassline, most of the rest of the track is filled out by a rainstorm rather than melodies or other textures. “Many Shapes” is vast, open, and spacious, with momentary comet-like flashes of rave synths and Amen breaks. I feel like this is the type of release that won’t be “enough” for some listeners, especially ones expecting any sort of progression or a “drop”, but for me it’s easy to just get in the space of these tracks and not want to come down.
March 7, 2021 at 1:10 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
nephew lagoon: naked fuse
Michigan-based experimental artist nephew lagoon’s
newest album contains five extended pieces rather than several dozen brief sketches, but it’s a similar dreamscape of disconnected thoughts loosely flowing in and out of each other. The longer track lengths do let the synth explorations stretch out a bit more than before. The main difference is that this one frequently cuts in Negativland-esque sound bytes and news clips. At some points (particularly “weddow”) there’s clear references to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of sufficient health care, so there’s a bit of a political bent to it, as well as expressions of loneliness and isolation. “fectric” is one of the more sonically audacious pieces, with lots of sharp synth swoops and a few glimpses of heartfelt melodies. “hampsterpalz” and “bb day” have their truly tranquil moments, and then there’s others that are playfully confused, with momentary synth pile-ups and “hello? what?” phone messages. While super abstract, the parts that make their point abundantly clear hit hard, and the rest is equally beguiling.
March 6, 2021 at 2:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Shmu: The Universe Is Inside My Body
Samuel Chown’s uncategorizable Shmu project has finally made its way to Orange Milk, after Keith Rankin designed the cover to one of his albums a few years ago. Far away from the shoegaze and synth-pop of past efforts,
this is a very Orange Milk affair, filled with meticulous digital drums and a barrage of shiny, plastic MIDI instruments and effects. Angel Marcloid helped mix and master the album, and it’s impossible not to compare this to her Fire-Toolz project, right down to the emoji-riddled song titles and snazzy, jazzy basslines. Like her music, this is hyperpowered, super emotional music which smashes genres apart, but this album feels more fun than cathartic, while capturing the same trapped-in-the-internet feel. Like a lot of releases on the label, this is very dense, intricate sound construction which also breathes and feels remarkably spacious, and though it uses a lot of artificial, even cartoonish sounds, it still has a human heart to it. I could spend several paragraphs picking apart standout moments on this album, but that would take away the fun. It’s just super enjoyable, and easily my favorite Shmu release since the absurdly underrated
Shhh!!!!
March 5, 2021 at 7:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Barra Brown: LFT:RT
The newest album from Portland’s Barra Brown is a fluid mixture of jazz, hip-hop, ambient, and post-rock built from an intricate mixture of improv sessions, manipulated sample packs, and remote songwriting sessions. The liner notes comment on how it’s pointless to have to reduce billions of people to two genders, and likewise, he doesn’t feel the need to pick one genre over another, or choose between instruments. And when he does play drums, he’s circular rather than left- or right-handed. The brief album starts out with the woozy funk-rock of “RIDE”, featuring rapper ePP, and most of the rest of the tracks are instrumental. “GULLS” is a busy but lounging instrumental with a complex, twisting time signature and something imitating seagull calls, ending up with a solo ambient guitar figure. “NOAH” (one of three songs named after other musicians who play on the album) starts off slow and bleary and gets headier later on, with splashing, tumbling drums and a blazing trumpet solo. A series of short tracks seem too stuffed with ideas to just be thought of as throwaway sketches, particularly the Squarepusher-y mania of “FERK FERK FERK”. The anti-coke rap “WASTED TIME” (with Alexander Mackenzie) is both laid-back and focused in the exact ways it needs to be, much like the rest of the album. “rhetorical” feels like it’s wistfully looking back with its lush strings, but the flute, trumpet, and choppy drums push it ever forward.
March 4, 2021 at 7:00 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
Soft Shoulder: Copy Machine Fall Down 7″
The latest 7″ by Soft Shoulder showcases two very different sides of the noise-punk collective. “Touchless Display” is their version of a left-field pop single, with a hobbling dancehall-ish beat and junkshop post-punk bass, and tons of delay scattering the snarled, distorted vocals. It’s all over before you’ve had a chance to figure out what you’ve just heard, and what just took over your body. The flip, “Treat for Samson”, is by an almost entirely different lineup, other than leader James Fella, and it’s a 6-minute free improv skronkfest, with glitchy electronics, squealing sax, and scratchy guitars. The band sounds like they’re trying to stomp out insects rather than play their instruments, and a lonesome voice occasionally sing-songs in the corner, possibly unaware of what’s going on at the front of the room.
March 3, 2021 at 8:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Low End Activist: Engineers Origins
Patrick Conway’s Low End Activist project is known for “mutant grime and dubby UK rave pressure”.
This EP focuses entirely on mutant neo-jungle, adjacent to Western Lore, Sneaker Social Club, and other similar labels which get a lot of love on this blog. Choppy, slicey breaks and some darkside pressure, not so much on the melodic side. The first 2 tracks seem vast and hollowed out but with spirits drifting through the empty space, and of course some gripping breakbeats. “Probability 1” is more haunted and sinister, and the breaks are heavier and deadlier, making it the darkest yet most clubworthy cut on this EP.
March 2, 2021 at 8:30 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Fievel Is Glauque: God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess
One of the most unexpectedly popular underground releases of the year so far, the
debut from Brussels-based ensemble Fievel Is Glauque is a stunning art-pop suite somewhere in between yé-yé, bossa nova, Canterbury scene, and lo-fi indie pop. Singer Ma Clément and Blanche Blanche Blanche’s Zach Phillips are the main figures at the forefront of these complex, multifaceted miniatures, yet the 20-track album actually features parts played by dozens of musicians recorded between 2018 and 2020. There’s differences in fidelity and instrumentation, but there’s much more singularity to this album than you’d expect, and it’s shockingly focused. A lot of the tracks whizz by before your brain has absorbed them, requiring multiple replays to decipher them, but some of the immediate standouts include the dreamy holla-back “Hit Me Now”, the perky thrash-jazz of “Unfinding”, and the stream-of-consciousness chamber rap of “Crooks Like Children”.
March 2, 2021 at 7:54 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Montgomery and Turner: Sounds Passing Through Circumstances
consists of two longform drones for saxophone, flute, Mellotron, and effects, and it manages to subvert all expectations of what a drone album produced with those instruments could sound like. It inhabits a space similar to certain moments on the KLF’s epochal
Chill Out, but instead of conveying a trainbound journey throughout rural America, this is a deeply inbound journey, constantly seeking an inner source of light. The first side at least comes within its presence, even if it isn’t totally revealed. The second side is much darker, though, sounding like it’s losing the fire and decaying in real time. It’s slowly crushing, yet it’s also something soothing and healing. Well worth turning on loud, soaking in, and getting existential to.
March 1, 2021 at 6:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Luke Lund: Hopium
Ohm Resistance quietly put out some stunners last year that didn’t get nearly enough attention. The
Dadub album was phenomenal, and
this release by Finnish polymath Luke Lund is similar in how it just completely dismantles the structures of dub, industrial, and heavy bass music in general. Very broken rhythmic patterns which do manage to interlock in their own ways, and blankets of noise propelled by dirty bass explosions. There’s traces of mutated Kevin Martin ragga pressure and dislocated Vladislav Delay-type rhythms and Pan Sonic harshness, but Lund is still speaking a language of his own. “Pillface” is one of the most dizzying tracks here — rave buzzcut synths, thudding 7/4 kicks, super queasy feedback delay. “Hive” is such a disorienting array of howls, acidic bubbles, and chattering crashes. Just absolutely remarkable work which rips straight through the barriers.
February 28, 2021 at 1:47 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Monogamy: Tonight Looks Bad
D. Alfred Lyons III has been making nervous, bummed-out lo-fi pop as Monogamy for around a decade or so, in both solo and full band formats. This is the
debut album by Monogamy the band, and it’s a well rounded sampler of their various moods and methods. Their more approachable pop side is represented by songs like “Blue Can”, the fuzzy duet “The Roaches Are Back” (with its insistent chorus “You don’t exist, you’re nonexistent to me!”), and the almost SLGTM-esque “Never Seen You Dance” (it’s no coincidence that Fred Thomas mastered the album). Elsewhere other songs are slower and more anxiety-stricken, with more bluntly honest yet artful lyrics about depression. Curiously, a more dirgey version of “Low Morale” (a punky highlight of their 2016 7″ EP) appears early on in the album. “I’m Sad All the Time” makes its intentions pretty clear, although the synths and saxophones liven up the mood a little bit. The rest of the album is far more experimental, starting with the clanging industrial synthscape collage of “Frag the Ones That Die”. The final three tracks are longer and more grief-stricken, mixing shoegaze droniness with coldwave bleakness. While the first side might have some tracks that can help you dance to try and shake off the cobwebs, the second side leaves you no choice but to come face to face with existential dread.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 