All over the place tonight, whether folktronica, percussive experimentalism, minimal dub techno, various drum’n’bass & jungle mutations, proto-postrock, or eerie sound-art…
tunng – Anoraks [Full Time Hobby/Bandcamp]
Look, do you need to hear the story again? OK, gather round little ones.
In 2004 I was lucky enough to go to Sónar in Barcelona with a press pass courtesy of Cyclic Defrost. Among the memories and goodies I brought back was a promo CD of some sort that featured an incredible track on it, which happened to be the first single by Tunng, “Tale From Black”. I found shortly after that this was released on a lathe-cut 7″ by the excellent little indie label Static Caravan. I was obsessed, and played this and its b-side, and then the second single, to death. And this is where I get confused, because 2025 is the 20th anniversary of their debut album Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs, but Geoff from Static Caravan kindly sent me the album early, so I was already playing tracks off it from October 2024.
“Folktronica” was a genre name already bandied about for the likes of Four Tet, Manitoba (pre-Caribou) and Minotaur Shock, all of whom used acoustic guitar and other acoustic samples in a cut-up, glitchy hip-hop fashion. This was a different version, songs with an arcane, pagan British folk feel courtesy of singer Sam Genders, and glitchy production from Mike Lindsay which referenced club sounds but never leaned too much on beats. I’m still super fond of that album and its follow-up, but Genders left after the third album and I didn’t warm so much to the following couple of albums. Then after a 5-year break, Genders was back with the band for Songs You Make At Night in 2018, and 2020’s concept album Tunng Presents…DEAD CLUB. More than four years later, they released Love You All Over Again early this year, an album that’s unabashedly nostalgic, looking back 20 years to that debut – folky and glitchy, sweet and catchy.
And now, to see the year out, here’s a non-album single – bless them for not doing some kind of revised “deluxe” version of the album. This one’s interlocking acoustic guitars, and samples of a cute (children’s?) story in a cute English accent. It’s a song about nostalgia and memory, and sits *just* on this side of cloying.
Majken – Re-entering [sing a song fighter]
Swedish singer-songwriter Majken grew up in a Pentecostal household where music was ever-present. And while she now believes that “politicized religion is the most dangerous thing in the world”, those musical roots are still heard in the blissful harmonies in her songs – her new album is called Korus after all. The record is mostly performed by herself, on guitar, piano, synths and samples, and a harp recorded in a Malmö concert hall. The contradictions between choral arrangements and Majken’s non-belief, between gentle indie-folk and electronics, bring a tension to the work which enhances the beauty of Majken’s voice and songwriting.
Lawrence English + Stephen Vitiello – with Brendan (Single Edit) [American Dreams Records/Bandcamp]
American Dreams Records, who brought us Lawrence English‘s astonishing collaboration with Lea Bertucci a couple of years ago, are now gearing up to release Lawrence’s third album with the great sound-artist Stephen Vitiello – appropriately titled Trinity. That’s not just because it’s their third, but also because on each track the duo is completed by a third musician – and here it’s Brendan Canty, drummer from legendary post-hardcore/straight-edge punk band Fugazi and these days the jazz/punk project The Messthetics. Vitiello has by now made a few releases with Canty, including this great EP and this album with avant-garde violinist Hahn Rowe. So bringing Canty in for this “with” project was an obvious choice, and it’s wonderful to hear the sound-art textures with Canty’s beats.
Will Glaser – Theft [Not Applicable/Bandcamp]
London-based drummer Will Glaser is very busy in the London jazz & experimental scene, appearing on records or live with the likes of Yazz Ahmed, Kit Downs, Sly and the Family Drone, Ruth Goller, James Allsopp, Alex Bonney and more. Prior to this release, the only solo works Glaser has released are the all-drums Some Drum Sounds and the mostly-drums Some Drum & Other Sounds (both of which are excellent mind you). However, on October 24th comes his first major solo work as auteur, the name of which is hard to even fit into a sentence: Music Of The Terrazoku: Ethnographic Recordings From An Imagined Future is about as sci-fi as you can get, imagining a musical artefact from sometime in the late 21st century, after the oncoming climate collapse. Glaser’s drums/percussion and electronics are accompanied here by brilliant musicians including Ruth Goller, Agathe Max, Tara Cunningham, James Allsopp and Alex Bonney (I’m mostly listing people whose work I know). The album claims influences as wide as Harry Partch, Tom Waits, the aforementioned Justin K Broadrick among others, and there’s no dearth of electronics there too (appropriately for the avant-garde Not Applicable label, co-run by both members of Icarus among others). It’s honestly a really great album, and all those influences are justified. Strongly recommend giving it a listen.
JQ & Richard Pike – Free [Salmon Universe/Bandcamp]
Joe Quirke (JQ) & Richard Pike (originally from Sydney, now London-based) run the experimental/ambient label Salmon Universe together and have played together for years as part of the ambient-jazz trio Forgiveness, but new album Tessera is their first duo recording together. These are granular dubscapes, sometimes ambient sound-design and sometimes verging into Basic Channel-style dub techno. Here we’ve got some sparse, crunchy beats and bass pings on one of the more upbeat pieces. Very deep, very tasty.
Paul St. Hilaire & Gavsborg – Confidential [Kynant Records/Bandcamp]
Paul St. Hilaire & Cousin – Back Inna Business [Kynant Records/Bandcamp]
Until about 2003, the Jamaican vocalist Paul St. Hilaire was known as Tikiman, under which name he collaborated with many experimental electronic musicians including The Bug and Tarwater, but most famously Berlin techno heads Mark Ernestus & Moritz Von Oswald of dub-techno labels/projects Basic Channel, Chain Reaction and Burial Mix, particularly under their Rhythm & Sound alias. These releases were ground zero for minimal techno and dub techno, quite unlike anything else heard at the time. While many 12″s featured Tikiman on vocals, there were others, and eight tracks with eight different vocalists were collected on Rhythm & Sound w/ The Artists. So that’s the starting point for Paul St. Hilarie – w/ The Producers – nine tracks here, with ten producers from the dub & techno worlds, channeling (by and large) the Basic Channel template. It’s really an excellent album, but here are two highlights: first from Jamaican producer Gavsborg, of the experimental crew Equinoxx, whose track is utterly stripped back; and then Eora/Sydney DJ & producer Cousin (aka FBi’s Jackson Fester), who keeps things beautifully smooth and minimal, supporting St. Hilaire’s repeated phrase “Back Inna Business”.
Carrier – Carbon Works [Modern Love/Boomkat]
So Guy Brewer has been creating incredible post-d’n’b enigmas as Carrier for some years now, following a successful career making stripped-down techno as Shifted. Indeed, early on he was a member of drum’n’bass act Commix, and when he shifted to the Carrier alias, the minimal drum’n’bass influence has been palpable despite the beats never quite reaching the complexity of obvious syncopation of drum’n’bass. It’s an interesting balancing act, one that I think a newer generation of producers is working on very creatively, but in the context of the previous two tracks I think it’s also interesting how the Photek vibes are balanced by a kind of murky Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound atmos, and it makes me wonder where the Carrier name is a reference to this Rhythm & Sound EP (actually it definitely is – here’s the track). Now Carrier lands on the Boomkat-operated Modern Love, with the full album Rhythm Immortal (following a single earlier this year, The Fan Dance, featuring the aforementioned Gavsborg). Amd those Rhythm & Sound influences are as plain as can be, as are the whisps of drum’n’bass, like a shape made of smoke dissipating into the air.
ealing – Down the Rabbithole [General Merchant/Bandcamp]
OK so now we’re moving into more explicit jungle/drum’n’bass references with Eora/Sydney-by-way-of-Taipei producer ealing. Like the equally hyper-detailed kisseswhipthevision from last year, Revelry is a Gateway to the Valley Above the World comes with a story describing a future history… The text perfectly suits the futuristic sounds, which for the first 3 tracks are a particular bass music hybrid of minimal d’n’b. On the last 2 tracks, the operatic vocals of Enryka blend the ancient future into the mix.
Pushlock – Oblique Strategy [XCPT/Bandcamp]
Over to Italy now with the XCPT label, which last year released an excellent album from Naarm/Melbourne’s Barking. Here’s adventurous Italian bass music producer Pushlock with his third album on XCPT, Stuck in a Cell. It’s a good example of how bass music styles are mixed’n’matched by a lot of producers these days – jungle breaks slipping in & out of the mix, with a general dubstep feel. It’s not slow-fast either, but rather uses signifiers from multiple bass music styles. If you’ve been listening to this show for any amount of time, you’ll know that’s exactly how I like it.
The Untouchables – Rude Enforcer [Samurai Music/Bandcamp]
The Samurai Music sound is representative of a particular thread of drum’n’bass that emphasises deep repetition and tribal percussion over typical breaks – although they can swarm upwards at times. Belgian husband-and-wife duo The Untouchables have their own expression of that sound, very much in touch with the dub influences and not averse to bringing in elements of jungle, like the jittery beats through “Rude Enforcer”. It’s deep, dark dancefloor-oriented music.
Disiniblud – Blue Rags, Raging Wind (Kerry McCoy Remix) [Smugglers Way/Bandcamp/Bandcamp]
Rachika Nayar & Nina Keith put out their brilliant album as Disiniblud earlier this year to great acclaim. Created by two trans women, superficially from different musical worlds, the album featured ecstatic shoegazey guitar, glitchy textures, melodies, and guest vocals from many female & trans musicians. And much though I think of it as a “rock” album of some variety, it’s ripe for remixes, and the remix album features the likes of Kelly Moran & The Field, as well as a couple of bonus tracks. But how about this? Sitting, somehow, perfectly among these jungle & bass tunes is a remix by one Kerry McCoy, who only happens to be the guitarist in black metal/shoegaze legends Deafheaven. He’s clearly having a great time here, and the production and beatmaking is spot on.
PVAS – Terminal [Kapsela/Bandcamp]
The latest release on Objekt‘s burgeoning Kapsela label is from Berlin-based Canadian DJ PVAS, who has connections with the mysterious vaporclub labels like West Mineral, Ltd. and 3XL. This is club-adjacent music, certainly, but whether it’s minimal techno, gusty ambient or dusty jungle depends how & where you look. Certainly on “Terminal” we’re in the jungle, albeit maybe a sub-oceanic jungle.
Igorrr – ADHD [Metal Blade Records/Bandcamp]
Gautier Serre has been mashing up genres for his whole career. His albums – with Whourkr and as Igorrr have alternately been released on breakcore/idm labels like Ad Noiseam (RIP) and metal labels like Crucial Blast and Metal Blade Records – but particularly with Igorrr, along with the breakcore/drill’n’bass/glitch and the death metal there’s been a hilarious operatic aspect. Not surprising that Igorrr and the recently-featured Ruby My Dear made an EP together about 11 years ago. So, the new Igorrr album, more explicitly a full-band affair, is at first glance more of a metal/opera thing. But it’s called Amen, and yes, there are outbursts of crazy breakcore drum programming and surreal… er, well, everything’s kinda surreal? It’s an Igorrr album. So fun.
Obeka – A World No More [YUKU/Bandcamp]
Manchester-based producer Jahday Ford aka Obeka draws substantially on his Afro-Caribbean roots, moving from Bermuda to the UK as the latter country’s history of colonialism and class divides has brought itself fully into the open. His heavy bass music is showcased on his new album A World No More, drawing from gqom, kuduro, batida, dancehall and Afrobeat, but the album also features his own voice for the first time. On this track, a poetic spoken introduction by Ford culminates in expansive percussion.
Temp-Illusion – Hoax Haven [Paradoxe Club/Bandcamp]
The Tehran-based duo of Shahin Entezami (aka Tegh) and Behrang Najafi (aka Bescolour) have played together as Temp-Illusion since 2011. Their releases often document live performances, often at SET, the experimental arts festival they co-run. Their latest EP BIKH, released on Paris’s Paradoxe Club, comes out of a live performance at an Illegal Tapes club night in Paris, although it’s a studio recording. It’s like a cross between ’90s Autechre and current Autechre, but more directly dancefloor-facing. Which is to say, rad.
Impérieux – Trampa [Macro/Bandcamp]
In the time since this episode aired, Macro released a set of edits from this EP by label co-founder Stefan Goldmann. The twist is that the edits are only available if you subscribe to Macro on Bandcamp, something which not enough people are doing, considering the cheeky and cool exclusives that appear there regularly. In any case, that was technically the third Impérieux release on Macro for this year, after the brilliant and discombobulating album Rezil in February, and this follow-up EP In and Out in October. Both releases feature the Berlin-based, Bulgarian producer’s trademark breakbeat house & techno that sit somewhere between abstraction and club.
Seefeel – moodswing (demo) [Too Pure/Beggars Archive/Bandcamp]
When I was discovering IDM in the ’90s and Warp Records were king, I discovered Seefeel via their exquisite, eldritch track “Spangle” on Warp’s Artificial Intelligence II compilation. Of course, Seefeel never quite fit in with Warp, but nor did they fit in the shoegaze scene, and despite having a vocalist they weren’t indie rock. The Disjecta project of Mark Clifford’s did fit the experimental electronic mould more, and in retrospect perhaps Seefeel do seem to suit that classification. But before they joined Warp, they released some EPs on Too Pure, a label that was associated with experimental indie rock with the likes of Stereolab, PJ Harvey’s incredible debut album and others. Too Pure don’t exist anymore, but their parent Beggars Banquet (or rather Beggars Archive?) have recently re-released their first album proper, Quique in remastered form (TBH the 2007 remaster sounds at least as good), and now the early EPs collection Pure, Impure (known to many of us as Polyfusia as released by Astralwerks in the States) gets a very slightly expanded remaster. The one bonus track is a demo of “Moodswing”, stripped down to a core of drum machine, sampled vox and head-nodding bass – and it’s excellent!
Nate Scheible – 02 [Nate Scheible Bandcamp]
It’s a sign of how overloaded I am (we all are) with new music that I was convinced I’d played experimental sound-artist Nate Scheible before, but it seems I never managed to fit something in. Criminal! Last year’s or valleys and is a phenomenal work that’s adjacent to noise, free jazz, electro-acoustic & musique concrète – stuff I’m increasingly lumping into “sound-art” because labels are reductive anyway. For all this abstraction, though, Scheible brings forth a lot of emotion, and none more so than on his latest album then, inaudibly. As he describes, he is usually reluctant to anchor his music to a narrative or non-musical events – something I closely identify with – but this recording is imprinted with the death of his mother. Various musicians play acoustic instruments, including John Dierker‘s bass clarinet on this track, and, touchingly, the fragmented voice of Scheible’s mother Kat.
John Wall – Construction I “Stat:Unt:Dist” [John Wall Bandcamp]
British electronic musician John Wall is a genre, a practice or praxis, all unto himself. Self-trained in computer music, he started making plunderphonic constructions, but moved soon into works that complement and grow out from avant-garde musics, particularly free jazz and contemporary composition. Having started in the mid-1990s when he was already in his 40s, Wall was, in his own way, part of the “glitch” scene whence Fennesz, Pita, Farmers Manual, Oval and many others came, but his new release Construtions I-IV.2025 revisits work from 1999 with a revised aesthetic. In the intervening 2½ decades, Wall has fallen out of love with the glitch – particularly when used with non-electronic sound sources. If you know me, you’ll know that’s exactly where I love The Glitch, but I’m of course fascinated with Wall’s self-critique and revision. By taking out the clicks that delineate the sample-chopping (a painstaking process reflective of the painstaking nature of all of Wall’s work), these pieces become something more like new compositions, or imaginary improv sessions – technically, a mashup of all of that. In any case, if John Wall is a name you don’t recognize, or have seen mentioned, have a rummage through his music, which is all on Bandcamp. It may just be a revelation.
Razen – hi-mawari [KRAAK/Bandcamp]
Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour began and remain the core duo behind the arcane Belgian ensemble Razen. Sometimes you’ll find them making a minimalist kind of ancient music – is it baroque or Renaissance music, or some long-buried European or trans-continental folk music? And yet, the next thing they’ll release is a collection of slippery drones on primitive synthesizers. A quick consultation of their Discogs page shows 19 albums released in 15 years. They may be slowing down, as only one of them came out last year, and Mirages is their only release from this year. They’re back on venerable Belgian experimental institution KRAAK (at times known as (K-RAA-K)³), a label that easily accommodates these genre-illusions. This time Ameel Brecht plays “oscillator” and harmonium – combining primitive electronics and ancient acoustic engineering – while Kim Delcour brings wind instruments from the world over: the Vietnamese sáo trúc, Dutch fijfer, French chalumeau, oh and the Persian santur (a hammered dulcimer, not a wind instrument). But to these potential folk or classical contributions they add experimental turntablist Guilhem All. Thus “Mirages” is all too suitable – whatever you think you’re hearing will dissolve into the air when you reach for it, hovering near the horizon. This shit is weird, and that’s as high an accolade as I can give.
Yara Asmar – to die on any hill (if it’s easy enough to climb) [Hive Mind Records/Bandcamp]
One of the most celebrated members of the Beirut experimental scene (if one can call it that), Yara Asmar is a uniquely creative cross-media artist, who makes beautiful & strange puppets, whimsical lo-fi videos, and music with accordion, metallophones & xylophones & toy pianos, homemade music boxes, tape recorders and I guess some digital processing too. As usual, Asmar gives her tracks sweetly sardonic titles, and the music sits satisfyingly somewhere between shapeless and stirring, and just a little sinister.
Nesa Azadikhah – The Wound Where The Light Enters [Phantom Limb/Imaginal Soundtracking/Bandcamp]
UK’s Phantom Limb label have revived their Imaginal Soundtracking series to commission 5 filmscores for the same 3-minute short film by Iranian director Somayeh. The film, titled The Wound Is Where The Light Enters (view it in full on Vimeo), is an unsettling view of a relationship, with only whispered words and a small amount of foley sound. The five artists invited to make soundtracks are all Iranian: Siavash Amini, Saint Abdullah, Roxanna Albayati and sohme range from experimental dub & club to towering drone and sound-art; and Nesa Azadikhah was one of the first female DJs to come to prominence in Iran, and she has supported the Woman, Life, Freedom movement via the Apranik label that she co-founded with AIDA. Within the bounds of this very short film – it’s only 3 minutes long – Azadikhah has created a touching & powerful piece of sound-art (she actually extends the time out to 3:46), beginning with a deep drone that expands with pulsating whooshes and echoing whispers that sit on the edge of comprehensibility. All five interpretations are beautiful and worth your time.