Published on
August 13, 2021
Category
Features
Dystopian footwork, explorative synthesizers, wafting UK garage, and more.
This week’s rundown is by VF’s Gabriela Helfet and Lazlo Rugoff, alongside Alice Whittington, Emily Hill, and James Hammond.
Albums
Joy Orbison
Still Slipping Vol. 1
(XL Recordings)
Like Joy O’s Still Slipping EP that came before it, his first long player, Still Slipping Vol. 1, feels like a collage of memories – verging on soundscape terrain in parts and heady club-cut snippets elsewhere. The result is like a sonic wrinkle through Joy O’s pandemic limbo, one foot planted in his living room, and the other in a deep dance floor dimension. This latter dive into club-fare dips into both his house and techno beginnings, as well as his recent drill and grime forays, before woozily fading out like a radio gliding across a station. Slip into it. – GH
Jana Rush
Painful Enlightenment
(Planet Mu)
Prepare yourself for what Jana Rush calls “dark experimental listening music” – starting with the ominous “Moanin'” which mainly features a drum machine and saxophone yet still envelopes you with its pulsing kick and free jazz stylings. A veteran from the 90s Dance Mania days, she casts aside any type of formulaic production on this release – deftly piecing together erratic percussion with chopped up vocals on a textured sonic landscape. Incredibly, Rush works in Detroit as a chemical engineer during the day and a CAT Scan technologist at night, but somehow still has the time and energy to produce a blazing album of dystopian footwork, juke, and experimental electronica. – AW
Kevin McCormick & David Horridge
Light Patterns
(Smiling C)
Grappling with existential ennui? Look no further than the soothing and luminescent lo-fi of Light Patterns Kevin McCormick and David Horridge began their musical journey during the late ‘70s in Manchester, united in a decidedly different, and more delicate harmony to what was permeating the city’s sonic subcultures during that time. Mixing acoustic guitars and bass with effects and production techniques, the duo conjured an album that traverses hushed psychedelia, lo-fi, and ambient with a deft touch. “Light patterns in a glass dream, Sound fountains in a gentle stream, Smoked visions in another room, Form and fade all too soon…” – GH
Janet Beat
Pioneering Knob Twiddler
(Trunk Records)
It’s hard not to pass up listening to a release called Pioneering Knob Twiddler. Janet Beat, the owner of the first commercially available synthesiser in the UK, was encouraged by her peer Daphne Oram to experiment and create eerie, original soundscapes worthy of a Forbidden Planet soundtrack. She even goes one step further, pairing analogue flamenco guitar and synthesised effects on ‘A Willow Swept By Train’. It’s a fascinating glimpse into history, trying to imagine the wonder and excitement upon hearing synthesised music for the first time in the 1950s. – AW
Francesco Cavaliere & Tomoko Sauvage
Viridescens
(Marionette)
In praise of the colour green, Tomoko Sauvage & Francesco Cavaliere’s Viridescens finds the duo channelling the colour’s serene and phantasmagorical
elements into their unusual ensemble of amplified water bowls, bamboo xylophones, metallophones and synthesizers. Recorded at site-specific performances in Tokyo and Hong Kong that were adorned with greenness (from plant life to synth colour), with Viridescens the label and artists present “a more musical context” for the performances. In collaboration Sauvage’s water music draws back from lengthy swells of aquatic feedback, instead taking on a more playful and melodic approach in tandem with Cavaliere’s curious vibrations and electronics. Splishing and sploshing that primes the imagination. – JH
Jeff Parker
JP’s Myspace Beats
(International Anthem)
Jeff Parker’s two most recent LPs for International Anthem, 2016’s The New Breed and last year’s Suite For Max Brown placed sampling and rhythm at thecore of his multi-instrumental approach. Where Suite For Max Brown operates on an intricate bed of live sampling, The New Breed was sparked by reworkings of Parker’s collection of Myspace beats and samples. It’s these beats and samples that make up this one-off vinyl pressing. With a palpable sense of fun and discovery intact, if Max Brown was a refinement and culmination of Parker’s sample-inspired music, these beats and sampled loops present part of its lo-fi, grooving inception. – JH
Steve Roach
Structures From Silence
(Telephone Explosion)
A legend of synthesizer-driven ambient music, Steve Roach drew upon the beauty of pastoral Americana for his 1984 album, Structures From Silence. Designed as a soundtrack to relaxation and meditation, Structures From Silence appears almost as a sonic tabula rasa, allowing the listener to dissolve into the rolling hills of its healing world. – LR
Singles
Nala Sinephro
Live at Real World Studios with Edward Wakili-Hick & Dwayne Kilvington
(NTS)
Nala Sinephro marks her debut vinyl release with Live at Real World Studios, via London’s own NTS. A sixteen-minute, unnamed improvisation, Sinephro recorded the piece on harp and modular synths, joined by Edward Wakili-Hick on drums, and Dwayne Kilvington on synth bass. A deeply spiritual piece that taps into the organic, free-flowing quality of improvisation,it appears akin to a river meandering across a field, unsure of its own destination, moving solely for the sake of moving. –LR
K-Lone
Tasty001
(Sweet N Tasty)
Delicious UK garage cuts cooked up in K-Lones kitchen for Sweet n Tasty are cheesy and delightful all at the same time. Playing with cheeky vocals and, arguably, cheekier basslines this four tracker has an ode to the iconic Synders pretzels within its realm. Dancing strictly above 130BPM the 4×4 bangers are joyful demonstrating the young producer’s dynamic range, in contrast to his melodic experimental bass debut album Cape Circa on Wisdom Teeth. One thing is for sure, he knows how to whip up some wafters. – EH
Gradient
Dub Contours
(Outlaw)
Gradient delivers a dubbed-out-techno four tracker special for Matthew Oh’s ninth release on Outlaw Records. An ode to the experimental rhythms of dub-techno pioneers such as Moritz Von-Oswald, these four killer tracks are dripping deliciously with sparse melodic chords over a steady kick drum. Buoyantly bouncing the ‘Contours’ delve into the realms of deep house, never settling but flirting with the idea. Swaying side to side with the deep rhythms, they are joyfully relaxed, steadily danceable, and exciting dub explorations for the seasoned producer. – EH
Sign up to our weekly newsletter
Never miss a thing
){kind=link}