Published on
October 6, 2023
Category
Features
Essential weekend listening.
This week’s rundown is by VF’s Kelly Doherty and Becky Rogers, alongside contributors Annabelle Van Dort, Emily Hill and James Hammond.
Sufjan Stevens
Javelin
(Asthmatic Kitty)
Sufjan Stevens returns to the sweeping indie-folk of earlier fan-favourites Carrie and Lowell (2015) and Michigan (2005) with the release of his tenth studio album Javelin— Stevens’ first solo album since his electronic turn on The Ascension. On Javelin, Stevens continues his career-long preoccupation with the mysteries of love and embraces the ambiguity between its romantic and religious iterations. Lyrically, he reckons with the spiritual heartache and all-consuming yearning that comes with reaching an end-point—whether this be individual heartbreak or the actual apocalypse. Sonically, these compositions embrace this blurring of the personal and the universal. His songs grow from intimate finger picked guitar openings, blossoming into soaring choral arrangements that bloom with unexpected electronic and orchestral flourishes.–AVD
Various Artists
The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972
(The state51 Conspiracy)
The state51 Conspiracy package up an absolute gem of a collection on The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972. A journey through unheard early Indian electronic music from the National Institute of Design, the compilation is buoyed by a sense of unassuming experimentation. Within each analogue trial and tentative method, the early steps of the electronic world we’ve come to know are visible. As a pure listening experience, The NID Tapes is hypnotic–a seductive slice of simplicity for the over-stimulating present. As a cultural document, the compilation offers a rare and vital insight into post-colonial creative exploration. Essential listening for electronic music enthusiasts.–KD
Call Super
Eulo Cramps
(Can You Feel The Sun)
If you’re ever in doubt, Call Super will sort you out. Their imprint, run with longtime friend and collaborator Parris, and aptly titled Can You Feel The Sun, has brought musical joy and energy to dancefloor as well as offering an open space for Super to explore different sonic realms. Eulo Cramps is a more of an introspective voyage into pastures outside of the club and sees the producer explore different textures across a multitude of sonic landscapes as part of their multifaceted project “Tell Me I Didn’t Choose This”. A journey explored in spoken word, improv and jazz, it references personal narratives from the producer, exploring childhood memories and reflections on the physical body. It’s a beautiful body of work and arguably one their most powerful to date.–EH
Nick Walters
Marine Moods
(D.O.T. Records)
On his return to his own D.O.T Records imprint—his first since 2019’s Active Imagination—trumpeter, composer and bandleader Nick Walters draws inspiration from the ocean, charting parallels between his improvisational spirit and the capriciousness of the wide open sea. Recorded in a single session with Walters’ sextet—who are reunited for the first time since Active Imagination—Marine Moods buzzes with the prospect of possibility, with each player directing the music into unexpected terrains. Awash with pelagic hues, jazz funk grooves and spiritual jazz flights, Marine Moods sees Nick Walters reach soaring new heights.–AVD
Glasser
Crux
(One Little Independent Records)
Cameron Mesirow, aka Glasser, releases her first album in a decade. Crux rejuvenates the tasteful art-pop of Glasser’s career hitherto and introduces traditional folk songwriting–of both Celtic and Eastern European origin. The result is a whimsical, spirited album that is equally challenging and soothing in its textures and left-turns. Mesirow’s vocals ring strikingly clear against the shroud of cumulative instrumental layers as she speaks to her anxieties and fears. It’s like no time has passed at all.–KD
A. Savage
Several Songs About Fire
(Rough Trade)
Parquet Courts’ Andrew Savage steps back from the usual Americana punk and instead opts for a stripped-back collection of tracks in his second solo album, Several Songs About Fire. “I imagine myself playing these songs in a club that is slowly burning,” he comments, with the record marking his departure from New York City. Less catastrophic than implied, Several Songs About Fire ties together Savage’s iconic vocals with laidback riffs and a tight brass and strings accompaniment. It’s not far from the joyous sounds of Parquet Courts, but Savage has found a sweet spot where he succeeds going alone.–BR
Various Artists
Beatrice Dillon/ Holy Tongue et al/ Labour/ Lamin Fofana
(Honest Jon’s)
Taking mbalax drumming as a central theme, Holy Tongue, VF artist Beatrice Dillon, Lamin Fofana and Labour push forward some distinct rhythmic visions across this double LP set from Honest Jon’s. Given the differing practices of all involved, this one has no shortage of inspiration and readily takes mbalax rhythms in intriguing directions. Holy Tongue offers dub-heavy electronic overspills while Beatrice Dillon’s intricately melds synth work and mblax rhythms. Lamin Fofana and Labour then hone in further on the theme, pushing outwardly with the electronics before stripping back to the mbalax essence on “Etu Keur Gui Part 2”.–JH
Seba & Paradox
Volt
(Ilian Tape)
The Zenker Brothers’ Ilian Tape imprint is a cult label for many, with releases from a varied host of producers from around the world crafting a myriad of sounds that always retain a personal touch. Seba & Paradox debut on the label, Volt is a 12inch EP crafted with forward-thinking bass in mind. Hitting corners of future-tech hip hop and wobbling bass, the production duo have been putting in the hours in the drum and bass scene since the early 2000s. Volt is a no prisoners kind of EP designed to shake the dancefloor and get your feet moving.–EH
The Shadow Ring
City Lights
(Blank Forms Editions)
Blank Forms kick off their survey of the Shadow Ring’s 10-year existence with Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris’ 1993 debut release for the project. Within a discography of aural oddities and slanted song form, City Lights is a starting point that sets out the fundaments of the duo’s surreal wordplay and freedom of expression. Looking to a “microscopic examination of leisure activities, this time centred around a nightclub”, this collection slackens guitar strings and structure in tandem, pushing a ramshackle DIY approach forward into a world of peculiar earworms, free-form percussion and sideways song forms.–JH
Unschooling
New World Artifacts
(Bad Vibrations Records)
French lo-fi punks Unschooling take on art-rock with their debut album New World Artifacts. Dissident in its approach, New World Artifacts pulls from no wave grandeur and post-punk eccentrics while finding comfort in off-kilter hooks and noise-ridden jitters. Where single “Brand New Storm” lets go with layers of organs and saxophone, 7-minute long quasi-religious “Excommunicated” rattles through chapters of thumping rock and gentle breathers before settling on drone-led chaos. Its 11 tracks race through in under 30 minutes, but holds enough punch not to speed by.–BR
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