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BAYANG (tha Bushranger) & Nerdie – Bankistan [CONTENT.NET.AU/Bandcamp]
Korean Australian producer/sound-artist Angus Alec Minhyuk Jin does incredible sound design for TV commercials, films and more, but as Nerdie his roots are in hip-hop. BAYANG (tha Bushranger), mind you, has roots in death metal, but on their collaborative album WAR WITH CHINA the pair address Australia’s cultural alienation, as they put it, riffing into punk as much as hip-hop. Good stuff.
Ho99o9 – Godflesh [Last Gang Records/Bandcamp]
Ho99o9 – Immortal feat. Chelsea Wolfe [Last Gang Records/Bandcamp]
Few are doing hardcore punk/metal meets hip-hop quite like Newark’s Ho99o9 (it’s pronounced “Horror”). I’m not sure you’d call this horrorcore, but it’s ho99o9core at least. A perfect melding of punk riffage you could pogo to and the finest beats & raps. Not much more to say. They’ve been around a lot longer than you’d expect, and their style hasn’t changed dramatically since 2017’s United States of Horror, but damnit they do seem to have perfected it. And yes, there’s industrial metal trappings (there’s no way that the title “Godflesh” doesn’t refer to JK Broadrick & G.C. Green’s iconoclastic duo), but there’s an emotional undercurrent which surfaces particularly with the brilliant Chelsea Wolfe‘s guest spot.
clipping. – Night of Heaven (feat. Counterfeit Madison & Kid Koala) [Sub Pop/Bandcamp]
So yeah, back in March, clipping. released one of the albums of the year… or did they? If so, then what’s this? Why does my CD now seem to be missing tracks? It’s because Dead Channel Sky Plus is in town, baybee! I love clipping., but I hate these insta-deluxe reissues that the digital age has brought us. I mean fine, the additional tracks are rad, but you just released the album 6 months ago in various physical formats… Annnyway, an album more fitting for the digital age could not exist – this is clipping. doing cyberpunk, employing Daveed Diggs’ incredible wordsmithery and Jonathan Snipes & William Hutson’s backgrounds in noise, breakcore, soundtracking and more to bring to life the genre that’s both decades out of style and horrifically descriptive of our current-day dystopia. So, finally we have the “pt. 1” to the original release’s “Mirrorshades pt. 2” (the deadly Molly Millions in William Gibson’s cyberpunk ur-text Neuromancer “wears” mirrored sunglasses – except they’re permanently sealed into her skin; a couple of years later Bruce Sterling edited a definitive anthology of early cyberpunk titled Mirrorshades). Needless to say, following their previous concept albums on afrofuturist space opera and horror & blaxploitation, clipping. nail the cyberpunk genre here, both in terms of “style” and intertextuality. But anyway, not only is “Mirrorshades pt. 1” a certifiable banger, but on “Night of Heaven” clipping. collaborate again with the astonishingly-voiced Counterfeit Madison, with cuts provided by Kid Koala. My CD player aches with jealousy.
toso toso – lluvia de meteoritos [Leaving Records/Bandcamp]
Last year we were privileged to receive two albums from two quite different ensembles led by Brooklyn artist isabel crespo pardo, both trios: sinonó melds Latin American folk song with free improvisation, combining crespo pardo’s voice with cello (Lester St. Louis) and double bass (Henry Fraser); tilt finds crespo pardo joined by trombonist Kalia Vandever and double bassist Carmen Quill, with all three singing. These two ensembles conjured remarkable music from voice and low-register instruments. Now in November comes the debut album from crespo pardo’s quartet toso toso, following two singles from last year. Here the palette is expanded, in size and breadth and genre, much more electronic and paradoxically a little more conventional – at the core it’s piano/drums/guitar. Wait, guitar? Yes, in contrast to those other two groups, there’s no bass here at all. This is very different music from those other two ensembles, yet the voice of isabel crespo pardo instantly ties it to their other work. Here, the scope is as wide as musical palette – this single is a “meteor shower” after all, with a loping rhythm on the drumkit, sweeping synths and isa crespo pardo’s voice soaring over it all.
SANAM – Hadikat Al Ams – حديقة الأمس [Constellation/Bandcamp]
SANAM – Sayl Damei – سيل دمعي [Constellation/Bandcamp]
I was instantly hooked when I first heard the music of Lebanese singer Sandy Chamoun on some compilations a few years back. Two years ago, her new band SANAM released their debut album on London’s Mais Um, featuring other Lebanese luminaries like guitarist/electronic musician Anthony Sahyoun and two members of legendary Beirut shoegazers Postcards – their drummer Pascal Semerdjian and guitarist Marwan Tohme. Rounding out the band are Farah Kaddour on buzuq and Antonio Hajj Moussa on bass. The band have now signed to legendary Montréal postrock/experimental label Constellation – an unusual endorsement as they’re not Canadian let alone from Montréal. But the album was recorded & mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, the Lebanese-Canadian musician who’s made astonishing music as Jerusalem In My Heart and who co-founded the Constellation-affiliated Hotel2Tango studio in Montréal. OK, that’s a lot of background; this second album is a brilliant synthesis of Arabic music, folk, experimental rock, and dream-pop. There really are many different directions taken here, from trip-hop like pieces with auto-tuned vocals to punky numbers with jagged guitars – I note that the Bandcamp page has tags for both “post-folk” and “free rock”. Love it.
JASSS – It’s A Hole feat. james K and Alias Error [AWOS/Bandcamp]
Four years after her previous album A World Of Service, released on Berghain’s in-house label Ostgut Ton, Berlin-based Spanish producer JASSS has released her third album Eager Buyers, this time coming via AWOS, her new platform for releases, events and broadcasts. The album’s a meditation on the current age of late-stage capitalism, melding ’80s postpunk & goth aesthetics with ’90s trip-hop and jungle, noise and current-day production. JASSS’s own vocals are featured alongside some guests, including recent AD 93 artist james K and Berlin-based DJ/singer/producer Alias Error.
Shugorei – Cat Dragon [4000 Records/Bandcamp]
Shugorei – Water Music [4000 Records/Bandcamp]
Meanjin/Brisbane duo Shugorei finally release their album Memories of Magic—魔法の記憶—Mahō no Kioku after a brilliant series of singles, starting last year with the ’80s-pop-meets-hyperpop of “Roboto”, moving through contemplative electro-acoustics with Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, and gorgeous post-classical pop with Shêm Allen‘s voice & renowned classical guitarist Karin Schaupp. With frequent guests on cello & violin as well, this album conmfortably straddles the worlds of classical, traditional Japanese and electronica, throwing in breakbeats and field recordings, live percussion and glitchy production. Seriously so great, don’t miss it!
bonnie cooth – out of my mind [cooth interactive studios]
bonnie cooth – roly poly [cooth interactive studios]
With a spooneristic pseudonym only fans of Fawlty Towers will likely appreciate, the duo of electronic artists who make up bonnie cooth make music that’s part ’90s IDM throwback and part lo-fi hyperpop & ’20s breakcore revival. Their second album is, of course, titled bonnie twooth and like the first, it comes with the conceit that it’s actually a late ’90s (I’m guessing) or early ’00s video game. So yeah, nice melody electronica vibes, not quite chiptune, not quite breakcore, and occasional computer songs. Good stuff!
Microcorps – Folded [ALTER/Bandcamp]
Seeing the evolution of Alexander Tucker from psych-folk troubador into (still psychedelic) experimental rock and through to the experimental beats he’s making as Microcorps has been extremely gratifying. Tucker brings great musicality to whatever he’s doing, and still plays strings (sometimes homemade, sometimes cello) and includes his voice (often manipulated). New album CLEAR VORTEX CHAMBER might just be the best electronic music he’s made, with help from the likes of industrial techno pioneer Regis, the great Justin K Broadrick, Japanese punk/experimental legend Phew, experimental songwriter Karl D’Silva and experimental singer/sound-artist Elvin Brandhi. This is heavy beats with granular processing on strings and voice, at once high-tech and primitivist.
Ecko Bazz – VAWO MPITEWO [Hakuna Kulala/Bandcamp]
Back on Hakuna Kulala 3 years after the incredible Mmaso, which was mostly produced by MC Yallah collaborator Debmaster, Ugandan MC Ecko Bazz here presents a 3-track EP, Nsiga Ensigo, with beats by Italians STILL and Talpah keeping it bass-heavy and pumping. Hard-hitting, even if you don’t understand the Lugandan lyrics.
ltfll – Maelstrom [irsh/Bandcamp]
I first heard the beats of Alexandria-based producer ltfll (aka George Farid) on the two compilations from Cairo’s irsh label, started by ZULI and Rama to support Cairo & Egypt’s underground electronic scene. After a couple of year’s break, irsh is back with ltfll’s new EP Nested Skins, in which Farid takes the rhythms and grooves of Egypt and its surrounds and embeds them in crunchy, idm-influenced techno. You won’t find anything else quite like it.
Muskila – 68 [YUKU/Bandcamp]
Bass music here, YUKU-style, from Muskila, who was born in Copenhagen with North-Kurdistani roots. The percussive backbone to all the rhythms here, and Muskila connects with Nigerian rapper Aunty Rayzor, and remixers from Cairo (Hassan Abou Alam) and Jordan (Toumba). Low-slung and minimalist, these tracks have a strong sense of style.
enduser – Movement [enduser Bandcamp]
In the early years of the show, Lynn Standafer’s enduser was a key artist, making musically sensitive, dark drum’n’bass, jungle and breakcore, frequently with well-judged use of indie rock and pop samples (This Mortal Coil, Björk, Lamb, Lush, Tasmin Archer) as well as tuff hip-hop and ragga samples (if you can identify the sample used both here and here I won’t be the only one grateful!) Standafer’s still at it, more on the d’n’b side perhaps than breakcore, and “Movement” is a recent one, with yearning synth pads and crisp drums that I think deserves an outing.
Rainforest – As Above So Below [AGN7 Audio/Bandcamp]
From Mexico, Rainforest brings four tracks of hard-hitting jungle-influenced drum’n’bass to US label AGN7 Audio (pronounced “agent audio”). It’s perhaps what Photek would sound like if his drum’n’bass phase had been influenced by footwork and jungle hadn’t fallen out of fashion. That is to say, it’s very very good.
WTVR & 451F – Clouded Foot Slide [Yanked Beats/Bandcamp]
And now over to Portugal with the Yanked Beats label, showcasing two stalwarts of the Portuguese underground electronic scene. WTVR & 451F bring four tracks of footwork-jungle, with enough of a halftime feel to sit with bass music.
Shapednoise – Crash Landing (feat. ICECOLDBISHOP) [Weight Looming]
When the last Shapednoise album came out, I pointed out that Nino Pedone has one foot in the noise realm, with releases on Prurient’s Hospital Productions among others, and one foot in the bass world, collaborating with Mumdance & Logos on the cyberpunk project The Sprawl. That previous album was Absurd Matter, an ambitious set with many guest vocals, set to massively overdriven beats & bass, and electronic walls of noise (and sometimes melody). Absurd Matter 2 is the sequel you’d expect, with both Armand Hammer and Moor Mother returning as guests among many others. On “Crash Landing”, ICECOLDBISHOP‘s voice bounces around, over & under Pedone’s frenetic, crunching, almost-rhythmic soundscapes. “Off with his head!”
Ani Zakareishvili – Artificial me, artificial you, artificial us [Warm Winters, Ltd./Bandcamp]
Adam Badí Donoval’s Warm Winters, Ltd. reliably uncovers the most incredbile music from Eastern Europe. Here, Tbilisi’s Ani Zakareishvili createst deep, spooky sound-works that have one foot in the urban future and one in the pastoral past. Can’t wait to play you more from this!
Siavash Amini – Severed Like The Red Moon pt.1 [Room40/Bandcamp]
Brilliant Iranian sound-artist Siavash Amini follows up his remarkable Caligo album on Room40 with an EP titled Severed Like The Red Moon. Like that album, these pieces are based on an early Iranian piano recording that Amini has comprehensively destroyed, with chords frozen into rumbling drones or crackling glitchscapes. Paired with the imagery of the red moon as a severed head floating in space, it’s quite the horror story…
Marja Ahti – Touch This Fragrant Surface of Earth (radio edit) [fönstret/Bandcamp]
Finland-based Swedish composer & sound-artist Marja Ahti releases two sides on the Stockholm-based fönstret label, run by ex-pat Aussie John Chantler. On this track, Ahti initially worked with a clarinet/cello/percussion trio at EMS Studios in Stockholm, and then at the Seventh Edition Festival (the home of the fönstret label) the same trio performed while Ahti manipulated the EMS recordings using INA-GRM’s Acousmonium “speaker orchestra”. The piece has undergone further iterations since that 2024 performance, notably imbued with intense bass pressure… This is extraordinary sound-art, worth hearing both sides in full.
Dissociative Identity Quartet – A spark of hope [Mahorka/Bandcamp]
Adventurous Bulgarian label Mahorka brings us the latest album from the anonymous musicians / sound-artists behind Dissociative Identity Quartet. The quartet’s approach has involved taking random sounds and organising them into something abstract but musical. But Melodies and Voices finds them extending that approach into a more melodic settings, including the use of voices. Calling it a “pop album” is a stretch, but they’ve hit upon something that experimental artists converge on at times, where a particular abstraction of sound subtly allows for humand and melodic expression to imprint itself on the sound. It’s quite touching.
Agriculture – Dan’s Love Song [The Flenser/Bandcamp]
With The Flenser you know you’re going to expect dark, probably metal-adjacent music, and you know it’ll probably diverge from typical genre norms. Ecstatic black metal band Agriculture do indeed employ black metal’s tremolo guitars and blast beats to reach for altered states, but then the thunder gives way to a different kind of ecstasy in a piece like this – shimmering shoegaze guitars and a creatively-harmonised melody, showing why The Spiritual Sound is shaping up to be one of the albums of the year.