He’s baaaack!
OMG. That was 6 weeks. A very full 6 weeks. So much to play you, so much to talk about.
But I wanna extend HUUUUGE thanks to the seven beautiful people who filled in while I was away, putting so much effort & care into their curation. Holly Conner on May the 4th, Béla Hajdu on May the 11th, Zoe Jungist on May the 18th, Giulio Caleffi on May the 25th, Sophie Gordon & Krishtie Mofazzal‘s incredible Planet µ 30th special on June the 1st, and finally Lilly Grainger doing a marathon on June the 8th with her own M5 following. Every one of those episodes was brilliant radio – please do check them all out.
Fennesz – Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) [Editions Mego/Moikai/Bandcamp]
The headline music news for this week is surely that of the death of Brian Wilson, as notified by his family. I’m not the hugest Beach Boys fan, but I do believe “God Only Knows” is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, and I don’t need any convincing that Brian Wilson was a genius. I was fortunate to get to play with him in Sydney when he toured his album That Lucky Old Sun in 2008, and he seemed like a quiet man dealing with mental illness but still deeply committed to his music. I wasn’t sure how or whether to commemorate his passing until I remembered Fennesz’ crackling, luminous “cover” of a Beach Boys song on the flipside of his “Paint It Black” cover on the 7″ single (later released on CD on Jim O’Rourke’s boutique Moikai label) Fennesz Plays. So, some shimmering glitch guitar to begin tonight’s proceedings.
Teether & Kuya Neil – SCRATCH THE FLEA POINT (FT NERDIE) [Chapter Music/Bandcamp]
Working out what to play out of 6 weeks’ new releases is a challenge, but there’s been a suite of great underground hip-hop that’s come out since the start of May. Following their landmark mixtape STRESSOR from 2023, Naarm rapper Teether & producer Kuya Neil have now released their debut album proper, YEARN IV (which I’ve just realised is a pun). I’m never sure why some releases are dubbed mixtapes, because all the elements were there 2 years ago – Teether’s laconic flow and Kuya Neil’s rave/bass-influenced beats. Teether did release his remarkable 5th solo album, It Must Be Strange to Not Have Lived last year, but there’s definitely a spark of genius between the two together.
I’d like to add that Guy Blackman & Ben O’Connor have released scads of great music across countless genres with Chapter Music over 3 decades, and it’s sad news that the label is kinda-sorta closing down (for new releases at least!), but also totally understandable.
Aesop Rock – Checkers [Rhymesayers Entertainment/Bandcamp]
There’s none more genius than Aesop Rock in the hip-hop world, with vocabulary to spare, and quite honestly the most comforting tone of voice. Going back a few albums now, Aes has been producing all his beats himself, and they’re just so good. Whether the subject matter’s a climate apocalypse or the horrors of late-stage capitalism or the horrors of getting older, Aes has elliptical lyrics delivered with perfect flow.
Isaiah Hull – A IS FOR AFRICA [Young/Bandcamp]
Released through the Young label, who put out the great John Glacier album earlier this year, is the new single from “standup tragedian” Isaiah Hull. John Glacier’s executive producer Kwes Darko (fka Blue Daisy) also produces this track, giving the necessary impact to support the manic energy from Hull in his alphabetic statement of intent. “A IS FOR AFRICA” is an alphabet for our times.
billy woods – All These Worlds Are Yours (feat. E L U C I D, DJ Haram & Shabaka Hutchings) [Backwoodz Studioz/Bandcamp]
Aside from Aesop Rock, the most notable hip-hop release of the year so far must be Golliwog, the intense new album from billy woods. The sinister imagery of the deeply racist ragdoll character that gives the album its name is a pointer to what’s inside. It’s a kind of take on horrorcore from a Black perspective, and as usual it’s got brilliantly murky production with weird interludes and great guests on beats, instruments and verses, sparsely but smartly used.
MA.MOYO – Libation [Accidental Meetings/Bandcamp]
One of the strange higlights of last year was the debut album Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall from Portico Quartet’s Duncan Bellamy and Marseille/London-based, Zimbabwe-born author, poet and sound-artist Belina Zhawi. Zhawi’s solo alter-ego MA.MOYO has now released her solo EP Viva Voce Vol. 1 in collaboration with Danish producer Nova Varnrable. As you might expect, it’s centred around Zhawi’s voice, whether contributing layered drones, spoken word or melodies, accompanied often by nothing more than cut-up field recordings. Interludes feature found-sound conversations with CJ Calderwood’s sax like a busker caught soloing to themself in a tunnel. This is very avant-garde, but also entirely engaging.
Anysia Kym & Loraine James – tension [10K/Bandcamp]
Here the very versatile London producer Loraine James, best known for her IDM-influenced dance music, extends on some of the more pop/r’n’b elements of her solo work with a short EP in collaboration with NYC vocalist, drummer and beat-maker Anysia Kym. These hazy, hazy songs are really short vignettes in glitchy style – the shortest’s under a minute, and only one tops 3 minutes – which bears the hallmarks of both artists in every bar. Clandestine indeed.
Rainy Miller – Mud in my Mouth. (Predetermined Definitions) [Supernature/Bandcamp]
Rainy Miller – Chrome, Hallowed be. [Supernature/Bandcamp]
A clear highlight of the first half of 2025, Joseph, What Have You Done? is the brilliant new album from Rainy Miller, collaborator with the likes of Blackhaine, Space Afrika and Richie Culver. Like these collaborators, Miller’s art focuses on the drab oppressiveness of life in England’s north, and the sociopolitical realities – which Miller or his protagonist does his best to resist – of class and culture. It’s done through the lens of broken-down drill, grime and jungle as well as desolate ambient. That all these elements pull together into something devastating and beautiful is a huge achievement. On this album Miller has overcome any Predetermined Definitions and more than realised his potential.
Patrick Watson – Peter and the Wolf [Secret City Records/Bandcamp]
Formed in 2006 to release Patrick Watson‘s gorgeous breakout album Close to Paradise, Montréal’s Secret City Records has gone on to form a small but perfectly formed roster that includes or has included the likes of SUUNS, Owen Pallett and Braids – melodic chamber pop & rock with a big of an edge. And Watson himself is still going strong, as heard in this first single for his upcoming album uh oh. “Peter and the Wolf” doesn’t quote from Sergei Prokofiev’s symphony-with-spoken-word, but does reference it in the text. In the tale, Peter is a resourceful young boy who ignores his grandfather’s warnings and captures a wolf outside his house. Watson’s song is a dreamlike tale of distant bass, and the approach of something that could be a car or train’s headlights, or could be a lover catching the protagonist’s eye. The music is based around a softly-slapped piano’s syncopated chords, a song that’s got all of Watson’s folk-jazz indiepop, but it does also feature deep sub-bass pings at the top of each verse and subtle wub-wubs at other times. It’s typical Watson, using plenty of experimental techniques but hiding them behind a strong pop sensibility and great musicianship.
Brian Campeau – These Waves [Art As Catharsis/Bandcamp]
What is this? Who is Jo Dellin and what are the Bone Spurs? Well, the album cover suggests that Naarm-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Brian Campeau has gone country – and there is some country music on here, but there are also other kinds of folk and indie rock that Brian incorporates into his sneakily experimental, frequently beautiful style of music-making. And yodelling. There will be yodelling, but “These Waves” happened to come out the same week as Patrick Watson’s song above, is in the same key (except it’s major not minor), and Brian has handily left his voice counting in each section. It’s also got enveloping delays swelling through the song like, well, waves. If you go back reallly far in these playlists, you’ll find I’ve been a fan since his debut double CD Two Faces came out in 2006, and the lusciousness and cheekiness remains to this day.
These New Puritans – A Season In Hell [Domino Records/Bandcamp]
On every album, These New Puritans have remade themselves to a degree. Their debut was angular postpunk, but by the time its sequel came along – with its ever-stunning single “We Want War” – brothers George and Jack Barnett had already found their impossibly-inflated ambition, and seemingly achieved it with ease. Hidden‘s release included a limited edition as a scorebook, the pretentiousness of which is negated by the fact that the orchestral & choral arrangements that accompany the industrial, catchy songwriting are absolutely spot on. It’s Benjamin Britten meets Tears for Fears, and it’s perfect. So of course they followed that a few years later with an album that’s come the closest (since close collaborator Graham Sutton’s Bark Psychosis) to the revered austere beauty of Talk Talk’s last two albums. The releases since then have admittedly not been as revolutionary, but they have certainly sustained their quality, and this year’s Crooked Wing shows no sign of a downturn. It’s lovely to sink back into These New Puritans.
Pyramids – Pretty Pigs [The Flenser/Bandcamp]
You could be forgiven for not knowing about Texas band Pyramids, because their albums are so few & far between – but they have some hugely significant releases in their archive, including the incredible self-titled debut from 2008, combining black metal and shoegaze with electronics and accompanied by a remix album featuring the likes of Jesu, Loveliescrushing, James Plotkin and Birchville Cat Motel. In 2009 was the monumental collaboration with Nadja, also featuring Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins among others, with a bewitching vocal from Chris Simpson in the middle of the dark postrock/noise of “Another War“. Following some other brilliant collaborations, in 2015 they released A Northern Meadow on Profound Lore, which extended all these elements – looking back, I described it as “melodic, like a beautiful aria emerging from an active volcano in hell…?” And yet that album also surfaced more “pop” elements than ever before. Now, nearly a decade later, The Flenser have picked up their return, Pythagoras, which somehow shoehorns the shoegaze-metal into a baffling amalgam with reggaeton and neoperro, enlisting Buenos Aires singer Emy Smith along the way. It’s their strangest move yet, and I’m still not clear on whether it works or not. But maybe that’s a meaningless question – you like it, or you don’t, right?
Crystal Sting – HD Umbrella [POW Recordings/Bandcamp]
But hey, blissed-out neoperrogaze is pushing us towards the/a dancefloor, so here’s a piece of super-compressed hyperpopped hi-nrg dance music. Almost jungle, almost a song but sung by an artificial intelligence that’s trying its best. It’s kind of joyful and summery, which is the opposite of whatever it is in Sydney right now.
Ahm – Careful [Ahm Bandcamp]
Naarm-based Andrew Huhtanen McEwan is a composer & sound engineer who doesn’t release his own music often enough, so it’s a blessing to have an unexpected full album from him. Futurist emphasises his love of intricate jungle breaks, endlessly tweaked over tight basslines and sweeping pads. Couldn’t have asked for more, honestly.
Overcast – Wolfe [IR77/Bandcamp]
Mark Newlands is a key person in Australia’s hardcore scene, as founder of the highly influential Bloody Fist label and one third of Nasenbluten, and he’s also an accomplished turntablist as Mark N. It’s been yonks since he’s released anything under his jungle/hardcore alias Overcast, so here’s one side of his new 12″ on IR77 / Iridium. Eagle-eared listeners will note that the classical sample is from Arvo Pärt’s Fratres.
Ancestral Voices – Annwn [Samurai Music/Bandcamp]
Liam Blackburn made bass music for years as Indigo, and with Joe McBride aka Synkro formed the precision-tooled experimental bass machine Akkord. Ancestral Voices was his project to move away from typical drum’n’bass/dubstep forms into ambient and percussive music influenced by ancient Celtic culture. One of my favourite Indigo EPs, Storm came out on Samurai Music some 12 years ago, so it’s nice having Ancestral Voices back on the label with Nemeton, his most drum’n’bass-coded release in a long time. It’s still epic and deep and not always focused on the beats. The beats are often percussion-oriented rather than breakbeat-oriented, and it won’t all work on the dancefloor, but in fact it’s kind of thrilling hearing music so cinematic and different that’s nevertheless deeply informed by drum’n’bass.
Slikback – Taped [Planet µ/Bandcamp]
Nairobi’s finest, Slikback, is now based on Poland and has signed to Planet µ – a very suitable home, it seems to me. Because of this I was fortunate to see him performing his mutant bass beats live at something like 4:30am at the Planet µ 30th party in London (the day I arrived!) at the start of May. Obviously this is going to be brilliant, and characteristically won’t stick to any particular style. It’s deconstructed club but it’s still for the club. Hanging out for July 11th.
Wrecked Lightship – Delinquent Spirits [Peak Oil/Bandcamp]
Adam Winchester and Laurie Appleblim Osborne debuted their haunted future as Wrecked Lightship in 2022 with the Drowned Aquarium album, where the wreckage – of raves past & future – seemed distinctly underwater. New album Drained Strands – their second for Peak Oil – is their best yet, with dubbed-out, deconstructed jungle/drum’n’bass/dubstep taking you into outer space.
Nick Wales – Dark Paradise [Nick Wales Bandcamp]
I’ve known Nick Wales since – I’m pretty sure – we were teenagers: since I was a cellist and he was a viola player in various youth orchestras in the 1990s. An era from before time itself existed. Somehow we both formed “bands” with our stringed instruments around the same time too, but moved in somewhat different directions. Nick studied composition at Sydney Uni and has made a career out of writing music for Sydney Dance Company and others, as well as various other projects including co-producing my mate Sophie Hutchings‘ ARIA Award-winning album A World Outside and producing an incredible single with Yolŋu songman Rrawun Maymuru last year. Lux Tenebris is a new album of music Nick originally made for Sydney Dance Company and choreographer Rafael Bonachela in 2016. It’s rich with classical instrumentation as well as thunderous sub bass and glitchy electronics – brilliant work.
Content Provider – Overdrive [Bokeh Versions/Dali de Saint Paul Bandcamp/Drowned By Locals]
Dali de Saint Paul is a key part of the Bristol experimental music scene and beyond, and a name that’s passed through these playlists quite frequently of late – a great example being her bewitching vocals on “Habibi“, the opening track of UKAEA‘s incredible Birds Catching Fire in the Sky, which has turned up in a number of my DJ mixes since it came out (and before). Now, as Content Provider, we find de Saint Paul stepping behind the mixing desk for an album of her own productions – only occasionally featuring her own voice, and sporting quite a few feature spots for other vocalists in Bristol’s linked Bokeh Versions & Avon Terror Corps scenes, with additional connections from the excellent Jordanian label Drowned By Locals, co-releasing the label with Bokeh. The tracks are all over the place in the best possible way, from grime to noise, post-industrial to vaporwave, with a ragga/dub vein throughout. When talking about being the producer here, she states. “I like the idea of being the woman who is making men sing, (when for so long, they have been making me do the singing).” Brilliant!
The Bug – Buried Dub [Relapse Records/Bandcamp]
When Kevin Martin aka The Bug put out his series of five Machine EPs from late 2023 into 2024, they were rough & ready scuzzy dub/dubstep tools for testing the intensity of his Pressure soundsystem. But a riddim’s always in search of a deejay, so he’s enlisted Logan and Magugu to flip them into vocal tunes. Thus “Buried (Your Life Is Short)” becomes “Bury Dem (ft. Logan)” and “Drop (Machine Sex)” is “Deep in a Mud (ft. Magugu)”… But then Martin can’t help but re-dub these, so we get “Buried Dub”. It’s considerably different from the original “Buried”, and you can hear fragments of Logan’s voice echoing through the machines.
MOAB – Drool [Knekelhuis/Bandcamp]
Coming from Montréal via Dutch label Knekelhuis is the improv quintet MOAB, whose album Laws Ov Nature is a strange amalgam of not-quite-jazz improv, krautrock, hip-hop and dub. It’s the realm of slow dubby beats and reverbs, electronic textures, and at times electric bass and what sounds like acoustic instruments being fed into the loops.
TL;DR – Cumulus (edit) [Earshift Music/Bandcamp]
Following his tenure as leader of the Australian Art Orchestra, Naarm trumpeter/composer/producer Peter Knight hasn’t stopped to rest. The wonderful Hand To Earth was formed as a project of the AAO but continues as its own thing. TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) is a new quartet with three younger musicians in the Naarm jazz scene. Brilliant bassist Helen Svoboda is here playing basslines but also showcasing her melodic bowed harmonics and her voice; guitarist Theo Carbo, like Peter Knight, contributes electronics as well as his instrument; and Peter’s son Quinn Knight brings 15 years of experience improvising with his dad to the fore. This is dreamy music, ambient-dub-jazz – and the internet-jokey name aside, the cloud titles are perfect for these floating, soulful pieces.
Maurice Louca – Trembler II ترمبلر [Simsara/Bandcamp]
Egyptian musician Maurice Louca is a bit of a polymath. The earliest recordings I’ve heard are experimental electronic, and he’s lent production to many artists, but he’s also a member of psych rock/free jazz group The Dwarfs of East Agouza, and Egyptian/Lebanese/Turkish experimental rock/jazz supergroup Karkhana among others. And Louca’s solo music has moved into similar territory, losing most of the electronic elements in the last couple of albums. Barĩy (Fera) برٌِي is his latest, an album full of dancing rhythms, grounded in acoustic instruments. These are trance-like, experimental pieces with Arabic music at their core.
While you’re here, I have to point you to the stunning Arabic indietronica album Lekhfa الإخفاء Louca made in 2017 with Egyptian singer Maryam Saleh and Palestinian singer & multi-instrumentalist Tamer Abu Ghazaleh.
Pierre Bastien & Michel Banabila – Closing Time: The Party Is Over [Pingipung/Bandcamp]
The first collaborative album between French mechanical instrument maker Pierre Bastien and fourth world electronic producer & composer Michel Banabila was a strange affair, lovely but perhaps a bit tentative. On their follow-up, Nuits Sans Nuit, it feels like they’ve found a singular voice together. Both musicians are multi-instrumentalists interested in taking traditional instruments into weird, uncanny places, and on tonight’s closer (which doesn’t close their album!), a very European chamber melody winds its way to our ears through an open doorway somewhere just out of view…