Published on
August 4, 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.
Girl Ray
Prestige
(Moshi Moshi Records)
Girl Ray’s third album Prestige is a disco-clad exploration of queer pop culture and falling in love. Their back catalogue already boasts indie twee (Earl Grey) and R&B funk-pop (Girl), so Prestige’s move to the dancefloor is no surprise. It’s a consistent call to bust a move as “Hold Tight” pulls neatly from George Michael’s “Faith”, joyous twangy throwbacks play out in “Up” and “Love Is Enough” wades through funky bass pops. Girl Ray has never shied away from changing their sound up, instead opting to let their music follow their interests. Their pure passion and excitement for the musical path they choose to follow is ever-present and Prestige is no different.–BR
Baba Stiltz
Paid Testimony
(Public Possession)
Filipino- American-Swedish artist Baba Stiltz presents his album Paid Testimony for Public Possession, a stripped-back alternative nine tracker which sees a return to his roots. The nostalgia effect gives the listener that warm and fuzzy feeling, as it harks to a simpler time away from the pulsating techno clubs where Stiltz cut his teeth in the musical profession. Filled to the brim with charming characters, there is a strong hark to country-esque hue around the music, composed with a loving sentimentality. This is music to listen to in the twilight or one for those wistful moments as you travel about the town.–EH
Belbury Poly
The Path
(Ghostbox)
Ghostbox label boss Jim Jupp returns with another wonderfully esoteric Belbury Poly record; a fantastical concept album that journeys across a phantasmic England, untethered from time and space—in classic hauntological fashion. Taking cues from the suave, cinematic soundtracks of Roy Budd and Roger Webb, The Path combines strutting library grooves with pastoral, prog-folk instrumentation—luscious flutes and strings that recall an Albion from a time long forgotten. Helmed by spoken-word narration from poet Justin Hopper, whose rumbling voice conjures a world of mythology and lore, The Path is masterwork of otherworldly, psychedelic atmospherics.–AVD
Nathan Micay
To The God Named Dream
(Lucky Me)
Nathan Micay continues his electronic explorations on To The God Named Dream. Pulling influence from pop music, RPGs and sci-fi soundtracks, Micay creates a sound that bounces between experimental boundary-pushing and bags of good old fun. To The God Named Dream has a cinematic quality that lends it gravity despite the club-tinted grooves and endearingly goofy hyper-modern production. Great fun in a lushly produced package.–KD
Jana Winderen
The Blue Beyond
(Touch)
Jana Winderen’s The Blue Beyond keeps an aquatic presence at the forefront as she turns her microphones and hydrophones to the Barents Sea around the North Pole, the Atlantic in the Miami area, and Lac de Joux in Switzerland. Superimposing vastly different marine locations with the first piece “The Art of Listening Underwater”, the results take in the minutia of plankton sounds along with sounds that point to human presence and ecological disruption. Moving to Lac de Joux on the flipside and recording around the Swiss lake the results are similarly transportive and tailor-made for deeper listening.–JH
Jacob Slater
Pinky, I Love You
(Communion)
Pinky, I Love You is a stunning collection of stripped-back tales of betrayal, heartbreak and vulnerability from Jacob Slater, frontman of Wunderhourse. Left alone with an electric guitar, the catharsis of Pinky, I Love You is ubiquitous. The gentle arpeggios of “Dead Submarines” never detract from his calls for guidance, while “Kissin’ Booth”’s abandonment is almost spine-chilling. His minimalist approach even makes the track’s digs of “After all these years you coward / What do you think they count for now / Who the fuck was I?” come across as more moving than vengeful. Powerful guitar-rock paved the way for Slater’s reintroduction to releasing music with Wunderhourse, but Pinky, I Love You’s delicate cuts hint that he has more range to show us along the way.–BR
Panda Bear
Tomboy
(Domino)
A reissue for an understated highlight in the Panda Bear discography, Tomboy followed up on the popularity of 2007’s Person Pitch with a set that shifted the compositional methods and emotional tone of Noah Lennox’s solo work. Abandoning the patchwork samples of Person Pitch and building from a template of processed electric guitar and synths, Tomboy set forth an inventive narrative that merged dance music influences and touches of dissonance with Lennox’s enduring vocal harmonies.–JH
PLO Man
anonymousmaterial
(Acting Press)
PLO Man returns to his Berlin-based imprint Acting Press with four ethereal numbers ranging across the spectrum of ambient breaks through to the more dubbed-out experimental. All tracks have aptly been given minimal names pertaining to their place in the creation process, this is a pretty charming technique allowing the listener to enter blind with minimal expectations of the music’s ultimate direction. The A side starts with something slightly more club-ready before wading into the depths of blissful liquid ambience.–EH
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