39.
Working once again with producer Dan Carey, Squid have created something equally as enthralling, complex and, in its own way, as resonant as debut album Bright Green Field. While there are traces of 1970s influences to be enjoyed across the record, the band appear to have taken some melodic inspiration from Radiohead on a number of occasions, most notably in the melding of guitar tones and electronic motifs on the commanding opening track, ‘Swing (In A Dream)’, and ‘The Blades’, while ‘Decks Dark’s simultaneously ethereal and unsettling essence looms in ‘Siphon Song’. To a lesser degree, Squid are in sync with their contemporaries, black midi, in the elaborate and explosive ‘Devil’s Den’ and frantic ‘Green Light’. It’s only natural for there to be some crossover between the two given Carey produced black midi’s 2019 debut, Schlagenheim. In this regard, these reference points (Radiohead more so than black midi) extend more of a welcoming hand to anyone still yet to acquaint themselves with Squid.SquidO MonolithWarp
38.
All three members of Skull Practitioners sing but none considers himself a singer. The trio’s sound is rooted in post-punk, with much of the experimental edge that the term originally inferred, before its more recent application for any guitar band from BRIT School with a shouty singer. Without sounding erratic, the band slyly weave elements of shoegaze, garage, art-rock, surf-rock, space-rock and other texture-heavy subgenres into their radgie mélange. Perhaps this is what Gang Of Four or Fugazi might’ve sounded like, if they’d been more partial to board-upon-board of multiple guitar pedals.Skull PractitionersNegative StarsIn The Red
37.
When Natalia Beylis and Eimear Reidy combine on She Came Through the Window To Stand By The Door, they conjure a sense of place with cello, organ and a few background creaks immersive enough to rival any multi-speaker diffusion system. Flicking between epic and nuanced, at points this album could generate its own gravitational vortex. But the looming mass is never a stand in for variation. The duo constantly work together to flesh out details. The idea of sound being world building is common in ‘electronic’ music, whether modular or computer. Beylis and Reidy show that surroundings can be bypassed with acoustic means, and the conjured realms can be full of motion and life.Natalia BeylisShe Came Through The Window To Stand By The DoorNyahh / Eiderdown
36.
On Radical Romantics, Karin Dreijer’s third album as Fever Ray, they have chosen the right language to convey meanings dimmed by clichés such as gender binaries, social units, religious interpretation, etc. The alien-sounding electronic texture is pervaded by androgynous vocals that express Dreijer’s gender-fluid identity. Although generally under the umbrella of electronic music, the album draws from several different wells: dizzying pop on ‘Carbon Dioxide’, sinister Duran Duran-meets-Magazine type new wave on ‘Even It Out’, and ambient ebbing-flowing vibes on album closer ‘Bottom Of The Ocean’. Compared to 2017 album Plunge, this new record is more adventurous, perhaps, attempting to summon the diverse and emotionally challenging experiences of a relationship.Fever RayRadical RomanticsRabid
35.
Nails‘ Britain is grotesquely detailed. These isles become “industrial wastelands” (‘Empire’) strewn with “stinking, broken relics” (‘Warhorse’): flags, crowns, kebab boxes and lager cans. Vocalist Kingsley Hall enhances this picture through repetition. Tattered, soiled flags appear in most tracks. Several references are made to a fetid smell, with ‘Flag’ declaring “this place stinks of old wars.” Entire lines from ‘Shit Britain’ are repurposed in ‘Traitors’, albeit with colourful tweaks: the former’s “red arrows screaming past” reappear on the latter as “spitfires.” The echo of John Cooper Clarke’s ‘Evidently Chickentown’ in Hall’s “clown-town” (‘Shit Britain’) points to a wider effect of this repetition: like Clarke’s world, Hall’s becomes crushingly, hopelessly immovable.BenefitsNailsInvada
34.
On The Romance Of Being represents an impressive evolution in Desire Marea’s creativity, a sonic leap forwards even from two years ago. If previous album Desire was a world away from the McLaren-esque manipulation of FAKA, the gqom-based rap duo of which Marea is one-half, then On The Romance Of Being takes what the self-titled debut started and fashions moons and stars and cascading waterfalls from its molecular origins. 2021’s Desire had its share of outré moments, not least of all, the ten-minute avant-garde sonic ordeal that was ‘Studies In Black Trauma’, featuring Johannesburg-based rapper Gyre. That electronic-centred record was broadly more libidinal and earthy, whereas this new one explores the metaphysical with extended live improvised instrumentation, achieving moments of transcendence for everyone to get happily lost in.Desire MareaOn The Romance Of BeingMute
33.
Formerly known as Happy Meals, Free Love have been kicking around Glasgow for something like a decade, knocking out singles, LPs and EPs for the likes of Night School, Good Press, Optimo Music, their own Full Ashram, and now for Lost Map, who happen to be dropping the duo’s latest full-length slab, Inside. It’s a natural evolution of their sound, a stew of hi-NRG, meditative and devotional music, kosmische, with a healthy dash of YMO. As in any stew, certain ingredients bubble up and become more prominent from time to time, dominating individual spoonsful, but without diminishing the dish as a whole. Like everything Free Love have done thus far, it’s wholesome, warm and nourishing.Free LoveInsideLost Map
32.
Each of the 10 tracks on Food Near Me, Weather Tomorrow seems to be guided by a magpie principle. The lyrics zoom in on the surrounding environment. There is a lot of observation caused either by boredom (“I left it there two hours ago and the gum is still sticky” on the opening track ‘Gum’) or mild frustration (“You talk so much” and “Now my best friend’s tongue is in my mouth / I twiddle my best friend’s tongue around my mouth / And you still talk way too much” on ‘Twiddle’). Musically, the album triggers contrasting associations. While the first seconds of the opening track misleadingly hint at the dream pop world of Maria Minerva, the rest of the track (and the album) is a bit harder to pin down. The most haunted parts allude to The Slits, X-Ray Spex and, more distantly, to Cath Carroll’s England Made Me.Babybaby_exploresFood Near Me, Weather TomorrowNo Gold
31.
The Hafler Trio is one Scot, Andrew M McKenzie, sound-recordist Chris Watson, having long since departed, and third member Dr Ed Moolenbeek, having never existed, and this is a lovely-sounding vinyl version of the 2005 double CD release (which was reissued on 5.1 Surround Sound DVD in 2011) they recorded with Autechre. If any records genuinely demand deep listening (which will inevitably fall away eventually into some kind of reverie) then this is among them. Within this thrill of synthetic pads, electrical hums and digital reverb exists some of the quietest music ever recorded; much quieter than Robert Ashley’s Automatic Writing; much, much quieter than Nurse With Wound’s A Missing Sense even. In fact it’s so damn quiet that in order to convince yourself that you’re not listening to a blank disc, the volume must be turned up so high that when someone in the studio brushes against a mic or disturbs the equipment, the ensuing sonic boom is so great it threatens to blow out your windows and partially collapse your house. An extraordinary listening experience.Autechre, The Hafler Trioae³o & h³ae Box SetVinyl On Demand
30.
There’s an enjoyably patchwork quality to Mandy, Indiana’s debut album. The tracks lurch from one mood to another, never quite fitting together. As much as the record is nodding towards dance music, it’s also pushing it away. Tracks end suddenly (‘Injury Detail’ could happily go on for six or seven minutes, but stutters out early), are swamped with noise, and are generally designed to be as un-mixable as possible. Factory Floor feel like kindred spirits to the band, but so too do Liars, Throbbing Gristle and especially their former touring mates, Gilla Band, whose spirit is especially felt in the second half of the album.Mandy, IndianaI’ve Seen A WayFire Talk
29.
I Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There. continues the evolution of Fire-Toolz’s vernacular in a direction that was hinted at by the 2022 EP I Will Not Use The Body’s Eyes Today and nurtures a more focused, fluid approach. While Angel Marcloid’s signature stylistic blitz is still alive and kicking, the stream of disparate elements within and between the album’s 12 cuts flows down a gentler slope here, often occupying forms that reveal exquisite pop and ambient sensibilities. If you close your eyes and let yourself be carried by the music, the alteration of lyrical saxophone phrases, blistering blast beats, and jumping synth pads becomes incredibly soothing. In turn, this makes the album feel like one of Marcloid’s most meditative works to date, even gesturing towards some sort of hidden healing power.Fire-ToolzI Am Upset Because I See Something That Is Not There.Hausu Mountain
28.
Oxmardyke came to fruition just before Philip Jeck’s untimely passing in 2022, during moments in which his pain subsided enough that he could work on his laptop. The music he makes here reflects his classic textural sound and collaborations like 2021’s Stardust, in which he distorted recordings made by Faith Coloccia that revolved around motherhood. To make Oxmardyke, he took the sounds Chris Watson captured – different bird calls and metallic screeches of passing freight trains – and toyed with them, ultimately creating eerie music. Jeck’s penchant for vivid sound bolsters Watson’s keen eye for the most affecting sounds of nature, unearthing the emotions hidden inside of them.Philip JeckOxmardykeTouch
27.
Dreamer is a surrender to wide, blurry, technicolour horizons, as unreal and otherworldly as its name suggests. At its basic level, the elements are simple – indie-pop, a little more shoegaze, a lot more trance – but extra waves of electronic wash and vocals so multi-tracked they’re choral make it labyrinthine enough to get lost in. The lush near-seven-minute intro ‘In Light’ – its 4AD guitars shimmering with reverb, Iqbal’s “In light, you wake” mantra ever-circling – pulls you in and keeps you enveloped. Lyrically, the record as imprecise as its music is hallucinatory, which undeniably fits. Freedom, sunlight and love are the touchstones, sentiments and concepts that prevail.Nabihah IqbalDreamerNinja Tune
26.
*1 is a free-flowing, freewheeling listening experience, almost like a four-deck ambient DJ set where textures are layered scrupulously, coming in and out of the mix – a kaleidoscopic collage of fantastical aural events. In ‘What Cherubs’, cascades of shimmering pads and birds chirping give way to acoustic guitar-tuning which then bursts into clanging deconstructed club beats and Skrillex-esque sound design brushes, concluding with mellow IDM beats and angelic vocals. ‘Pressure’ is a nostalgia booster that takes me back to my time obsessing over post-rock outfits like 65daysofstatic. At the core of their blend of psychotropic electronic deconstructions, celestial soundscapes, cherubic choruses, experimental rock and free improv digressions, is the drive for unpretentious experimentation. *1 is a venturesome affair, and like a transformative mushroom trip, it’s impossible to guess where it will take you next.Rn Cp ui*1Nhạc Gãy
25.
Three albums into their career, Bruxa Maria don’t sound any less angry. More or less an extended intro, the title track on their latest record builds the suspense in a clattering manner before ‘God Gun Scruples’ really kicks the cobwebs into next Thursday with its murkily rendered near-nu-metal riffs. ‘Totalitarian Pissing’ rocks like Babes In Toyland turned up to 11 and dragged backwards through a bramble bush. The longest piece, ‘Blind Side’, opens with a steamrolling post-rocky crescendo, as if they couldn’t be arsed to play the quiet bit first, which somehow manages to escalate further when the vocals kick in. Across the songs, Gill Dread screams, shouts and mutters as madly, terrifyingly and articulately as a Shakespearian villainess. If that sounds too classy for you, the download has three bonus tracks composed in the noise-collage mode which are equally atmospheric in a more abstract manner.Bruxa MariaBuild Yourself A Shrine And PrayRiot Season
24.
At the climax of Recordings Vol. 1, 1991—2001 sits Oleksandr Yurchenko’s main work, ‘Count To 100. Symphony #1’, documented in August 1994. It’s a single 25-minute piece of layered bowed drones, which create a quiet drama that unfolds gradually with some lo-fi distortion weighting the piece. Creating a dimension of transience, perhaps of irretrievable loss, it eventually succumbs to plummet into ambient depths. This track showcases the stringed instrument of his own invention. He processed the sound through a reverb chamber live, followed with some manipulation of the tape loops. The improvised recording session was held at home – he turned the instrument into a unique tone generator using guitar delay effects, loops and an Oreadna portable cassette recorder. It was one of the last hurrahs for an acoustic-based process before Yurchenko turned to mainly electronic instrumentation in the late ’90s when he recorded albums with Svitlana Nianio.Oleksandr YurchenkoRecordings Vol. 1, 1991—2001Shukai
23.
The most effective tracks on Abri Cyclonique are ‘Bouladjel’ and ‘Levé Yo Mano’. Both open with the sound of the rainforest, and the Gwo ka drums Polobi was first influenced by. Producer Doctor L’s superb arrangement is soupy and pungent, sounding as if it’s playing on a dusty turntable. The bristling sound carpet seems organic and natural. At its best, the constituent parts of Abri Cyclonique approach the loose grooves of Gil Scott Heron or African Head Charge. ‘Levé Yo Mano’ was recorded where Polobi was discovered, at Kiavué’s house. Do I detect more confidence? That muscular bleat is a smidgen more dynamic than on the other tracks recorded in a studio, those melodies launched a little higher.Polobi The Gwo Ka MastersAbri CycloniqueReal World
22.
Wacław Zimpel adds electronics, synths and clarinet to the mix on his third solo album. On ‘Train Spotter’, you can hear the sound of trams develop into a stunning, colourful and pulsating electronic techno suite combined with clarinet sounds. ‘Phantom Paradise’ sounds like an urban jungle with cumulative layers of escalating ambient waves, vibrant jumping electronic passages, and stately clarinet parts in counterpoint to these fluctuations. Zimpel focuses on sequenced rhythms, much as Kraftwerk did on Trans Europe Express. Sometimes he builds up a communicative monotony as the Düsseldorf machine men did on Autobahn, although the tracks here are much shorter.Wacław ZimpelTrain SpotterThe state51 Conspiracy
21.
For all its structural experimentation, WOW has a warmth and comfort that makes it instantly appealing. Like the birds on the front cover, its musical parts are innocent, drawn in bright primary colours. The nostalgic glow of retro games is an obvious touchpoint. The garbled synth sounds of ‘confessions at the dinner table’ and ‘slon (elephant)’ bring to mind the cute chatter of Animal Crossing characters as they mooch around a cartoon utopia. Simple earworm melodies sing out over syncopated percussion and a menagerie of noises that aren’t afraid to get a little goofy. WOW presents itself as an act of escapism and self-reflection. While overthinking and apathy lurk in the background, pure fun and discovery overwhelm those feelings.Kate NVWOWRVNG Intl.
20.
MC Yallah’s ability to fluidly switch from one superb flow to another is unparalleled. All the evidence you need is in Yallah Beibe‘s first track, ‘Sikwebela’. Upon the call of a whimpering mallophone, she lures you in with a simple, standard flow – and promptly eviscerates the beat by rapping in double time. A pioneer of ‘Lugaflow’, or hip hop in the language of Luganda, Yallah is able to flourish her delivery with a nasal sneer unique to Luganda, or roll her tongue over a chugging industrial beat on ‘Moss’. There are flashes of other styles to dig into across the album too, from dancehall (‘Big Bung’ with Ratigan Era) to grime flows (‘Sunday’) and even a verse that briefly echoes Nicki Minaj (‘Yallah Beibe’). She never indulges too deeply in one genre – always resurfacing with her own personality and steady confidence.MC YallahYallah BeibeNyege Nyege Tapes
