Media Diary: Mid 2022

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May 2022

	Toshiya Tsunoda ❀ Somashikiba “Pure” field recordings that really give you the sense of being there, taking the time to explore the place (here rural Japan) and are equally interesting and pleasant to listen to. I’m not a fan of everything Tsunoda has released but this is quickly becoming a landmark for field recordings for me. Very detailed, long (2 CDs), comes with extensive descriptions. ▷ RYM
	Heiner Goebbels ❀ SHADOW/Landscape with Argonauts So fun! Going out in the city to ask (about a hundred) people to participate in an absurd and impressive musical play, with choirs singing and accompanying saxophones and noisy electric guitars and cars passing by and oriental instruments (strings, drums, even singing), even hip hop beats on one track. It was also released as a radio play. (But why such a drab cover art? I would have, I don’t know, asked the participants to draw a landscape with argonauts. Come to think of it, perhaps that’s what it is? Maybe one of them scribbled this as a kind of “fuck you, here’s your landscape with astronauts, now leave me alone”? That would make it better. Hey, I could draw a landscape with argonauts. I still don’t know what argonauts are or what they look like but that wouldn’t stop me.) Discovered on François Bonnet’s L’expérimentale programme on France Musique. ▷ RYM
	Demdike Stare ❀ Testpressings I like Demdike Stare for their grainy, esoteric dark ambient trilogy Tryptych, but their following works didn’t have the same magic — except for this. A series of industrial techno EPs, with colder A-sides and a wilder B-sides (all like that except for the sixth EP), setting up raw, abrasive, experimental backgrounds before hurling the wildest beats in your face. ▷ RYM
	АЛ-90 [AL-90] ❀ КОД-915913 [CODE-915913] It doesn’t always work. Sometimes this kind of lo-fi, low-energy house sounds shallow and drab. But sometimes it hits just the perfect level of moodiness and soulfulness for my mood, and I can’t get enough of it. Like the way “Опытная девочка” [“Experienced Girl”] uses that Supremes sample — a single line that’s in a different mood than the rest of the song, it’s a nice touch in the original song and here it becomes everything. Many of my house favourites are like that. ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Rav ❀ B-Sides & Rarities Vol. 3 [2011–2015] Yes I discovered him with a B-sides compilation first, but that was a good idea — the rapid accumulation of short tracks in different styles works really well here, I love his flow, his beats (often jazzy and melodic), it’s not even too chaotic or too dense. I actually prefer it to Beneath the Toxic Jungle, which is also good but a bit tamer and more conventional? Could be my new favourite rapper, I just need to check out what his lyrics are about lol ▷ RYM
	Kate Carr ❀ Splinters Edited field recordings taken in + around a gallery in London, where the artist was invited to work; as always, Kate Carr has her own way of making everyday sounds poetic, beautiful and a little strange. And here, in addition to the urban sounds of people and buildings (yes there are beeps and drones, the artist often closes in on them, making them sound more present and more musical), there are also fragments of live performances by other artists, music as part of our lives and environments. ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Bríi ❀ Sem propoósito I’m not into black metal, but sometimes I find a hybrid record with black metal elements I love. Murmuüre’s self-titled album and its psychedelic, esoteric, Coil-inspired black metal; Progenie Terrestre Pura’s U.M.A., space-themed, with some space ambient and psybient elements; “Wind’s Dark Poem” on Mount Eerie’s Wind’s Poem; Strawberry Hospital’s Grave Chimera with trancecore and blackgaze. And now this one, which also includes psybient in some passages and is also psychedelic but in a different way, in two long, trippy, always changing tracks. ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Azu Tiwaline ❀ Magnetic Service EP I’m just going to quote the Resident Advisor review, it’s on point: “Raw percussion forms the foundation of Magnetic Service, with patterns drawing from Berber musical traditions local to the southern Tunisian region of El Djerid where she lives and the nearby Sahara desert. Throughout the EP dub and minimal techno concentrates bubble on the flame of cyclical and repetitive drum beats, carrying the weight of vast expanses, stories inherited and faraway dance floor memories with every resounding thwack. The EP’s title track and ‘Tight Wind’ were made in collaboration with French sound artist Cinna Peyghamy, AKA Cikkun. Here Peyghamy attaches a contact mic to the hide of his tombak, a goblet drum often used in Arabic and Persian music, creating metallic electroacoustic jangles. Modular synth lines slither in the spaces between the drums’ bionic gallop while gusts of scorched sound granules churn at its heels.” ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Jabir ❀ Vuelo por las alturas de Xauen I usually dislike lo-fi and cassettes, but it seems like I have a thing for old cassette synth ambient? First I loved Galen Herod’s Limacon, and now this one — old, crude-sounding synths + flute, violins or drums (the flute is my favourite here), over looped synth melodies, over background noise. It feels as if I’ve stumbled upon a beautiful, calming source of forgotten mysticism. (Found on the La ola interior: Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism 1983–1990 compilation.) ▷ RYM
	Zeena Parkins ❀ Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics Strange that such a minimal cover can be so misleading — it’s a subtle and beautiful record, the beauty of the harp contrasting with the strangeness of the other instruments and occasional dissonances, just the right balance I like to hear in such music. Thanks to dugnad for the recommandation! ✿ Bandcamp ✿ RYM
	Pan Daijing ❀ Tissues Pan Daijing’s Lack — which I like a lot and many listeners hated — was dissonant, harsh, confronting listeners with uncomfortable and painful bodily experiences. Jade was already different, but Tissues is even more so: ethereal, theatrical, darkly beautiful. (Get the 1-track version, the 4-track one is the same but with gratuitous fade-ins and fade-outs. I don’t know why they put that one on Bandcamp.) ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Nathan Hill ❀ The Nix Yeah yeah, this is yet another book starring + written by a middle-age white American male writer who’s struggling to fulfill his publishing contract, and of course it’s satirical (we live in a society) and contains all the clichés you’d expect from that kind of book — but I really enjoyed it! It’s more about his mother anyway, who throws rocks at a right-wing governor and gets sued to hell for it, with flashbacks about her life in the 1960s, coming from a small town to Chicago, as the protagonist learns about her life and why she abandoned him. And that part isn’t as cliché. The Nix is funny, interesting, and I liked how Hill genuinely feels sympathy and understanding towards people even when they do the wrong things. My favourite parts were about the MMORPG addict guy — stuck in a completely unsustainable, toxic, self-destructive routine that makes absolute sense from his point of view.
	Georges Perec ❀ Un homme qui dort The story of a man who decides to be indifferent to everything. But this isn’t like Céline’s Voyage au bout de la nuit, where the protagonist and author seemed both so jaded and sick of everything they turned an adventure into pointless monotony — Perec does the opposite and manages to turn what should be a maddeningly boring life into a fantastic book, as unlike the “man who sleeps”, Perec finds interest and poetry in the tiniest, most insignificant things.
	Gaspar Noé ❀ Enter the Void What a trip. It’s 100% aesthetics and atmosphere (don’t watch this for the story or characters), but I was sucked in from the very first second with the flashing, psychedelic opening credits (⚠ seizure warning), and then two hours of DMT simulation and floating as a ghost in Tokyo streets was a pretty awesome experience. (No, I haven’t watched Irréversible and I don’t want to. But maybe I’ll watch another Gaspar Noé film.)
	Quadrant ❀ Infinition It’s Basic Channel, but closer to Detroit techno (and with a Carl Craig remix). The whole EP is good, but “Hyperprism” is just so good. ▷ “Hyperprism” ▷ Discogs
	The Maghreban ❀ FACT Mix 570 Most tracks here are techno and house, but that’s only part of the sound — it also contains jazz and songs from Lebanon, Guadeloupe and other countries, lots of non-electronic vibes. ▷ FACT (the WeTransfer link no longer works but you can ask the blue bird about it) ▷ RYM
	Jana Rush ❀ Painful Enlightenment Intense footwork based on abruptly cut and looped jazz samples, divas singing, moaning/sex. It’s also dark though, and you get plenty of conflicted emotions like how the moaning is on a track named “Suicidal Ideation”, or how the “I need someone / I need you” sample on “Disturbed” (don’t know the source, sorry) both gives a sense of soulfulness and sounds like a cry of pain. This album feels full of blood. Cold in a sense yet boiling inside. Her previous album is also great, though this one strikes me as even more unusual and interesting. Thanks to danilo for the discovery! ▷ Bandcamp ▷ RYM
	Amir Baghiri ❀ Rooms A great ambient journey. Starts with typical tribal ambient (that slightly dark rhythmic vibe with chants, digeridoos, drums, you know the deal), but the second and third discs take off towards space ambient, more minimal, droney or experimental, changing styles depending on the track, before ending on an emotional and super dreamy note. ▷ RYM
	… And here’s my landscape with Argonauts!

June 2022

	Rắn Cạp Đuôi ❀ Ngủ ngày ngay ngày tận thế “Sleeping through the apocalypse”. 27 minutes of digital rainbow chaos with underlying peacefulness, vocal elements in Vietnamese (perhaps elements of Vietnamese music too? I think so but I could be wrong, I don’t know anything about Vietnamese music). Only a 7/10 for me so far but I’ve been coming back to it a lot, so maybe it’s time to bump it to a 8? Anyway it’s good, I’m looking forward to their next one! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Yuna Hirasawa ❀ Terrarium A melancholic exploration of a future world on the verge of ruin — actually an arcology where the boundary between humans and robots has more or less dissolved. A young female scientist sets out to gather robot cores with her robot brother; this is all in order to save society (humanity?), but it also means killing the robots or letting them die. So while the series is mostly about world building, there is cuteness, tenderness, tragedy involved. And it get better and better with each volume (four in total).
	Hiromi Goto (story) & Ann Xu (drawings) ❀ Shadow Life The story of an elderly Japanese-Canadian woman who settles in on her own, adapts to living in her new place — and begins to see strange little creatures and the shadow of death. It’s about old age and death then, told in a tender way, with a slow rhythm and a Ghibli-like sense of magical realism and wonder. Also good to read about an unusual protagonist! Older people are too often left in the background. P.S. Someone just told me things went ugly during production — like a previous artist had been initially hired, and then dismissed without being paid halfway through, or something like that? I couldn’t find sources for that though, so tell me if you find one.
	Opinion ❀ YT Pure ambient drone; not austere nor truly minimal, in fact it’s sonically quite rich, but it’s really all drones and overtones — no melodic nor neoclassical elements here. One of the best I’ve heard in this style, very soothing, elegant, multifaceted. This will resonate with any feeling you might have, happy, sad or simply contemplative, as long as it’s calm and slow. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	The Gerogerigegege ❀ > (decrescendo) Final Chapter Lo-fi, soft, introspective piano played in a park. Finding a sort of melancholic peace at the end of the world. Except this end is only a feeling on the first track, and all hell is actually breaking loose on the second one where harsh noise is added to the mix. Yet the piano plays on, unperturbed, as if it didn’t matter anymore. (The first track here is the same audio as the first > (decrescendo) album, so Final Chapter makes it redundant except for the nice cover art; > (decrescendo) Box is worth getting though, very short but it’s also nice in the same vein. A few records from the vinyl edition were also buried in the soil of the park and released as a special edition.) Probably my second favourite Gerogerigegege release (the first one being Moenai Hai). ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs
	Ludwig A.F. ❀ The Ransom Note Mix Groovy af. House, electro, trance, just a little hip hop and riddim, futuristic vibes. Feeling like this could be one of my favourite mixes ever. ▷ The Ransom Note (free download) ▷ Soundcloud ▷ RYM
	Ricardo Villalobos ❀ Thé au harem d’Archimède So Villalobos’s thing is eclectic, weird, minimal, very slow-evolving grooves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, here it’s all really good — completely out there and bumping, with unexpected rhythms + sounds (e.g. the strings and hand claps on the first track). The transition from “Temenarc 2” to “Temenarc 1” and the melody on “Temenarc 1” (borrowed from Peter Gabriel’s Passion?) are just ♥ ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs
	Narcotic Syntax ❀ Reptile Sweat Accelerator Digging further in the Perlon catalogue — this is really fun, like a pop version of microhouse (with vocals and all), or tech house gone completely nerdy and quirky. “Komodo Dragons (Narcotic Boost)” is actually a remix of a Misty Roses song, and “Cowabunga!” is even better, all cut-up funky grooves and spoken word. If you want more, the Calculated Extravagant Licentiousness EP is also solid! ▷ Official website ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs
	Chris Korda ❀ Apologize to the Future I got into Chris Korda after reading her incredible Discogs bio (which doubles as content warnings): “Chris Korda is the transgender, vegan leader of the Church of Euthanasia, a Massachusetts-based organization that advocates halting the overpopulation of the Earth by its four pillars of Suicide, Abortion, Cannibalism and Sodomy.” Six Billion Humans Can’t Be Wrong and The Man of the Future were all catchy hooks, faux-cheap synth sounds, robotic voices and very black provocative humour (or serious provocation) about how awful humanity is — definitely not for everyone but great if you’re into that. And now that we’re actually envisaging the not-so-distant collapse of our civilization, here is the logical next chapter. Yes, it’s all collapse and imminent doom — Korda doesn’t pull any punches, and the lyrics aren’t nice, they’re scathing and desperate. (Okay, they could have been better stylistically. Sometimes they come across as childish.) But the music brings cynical cool, house grooves and melancholy to them, making the whole thing is very enjoyable in a dark way. Short too. Dance ’til we die. ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs ▷ Bandcamp ▷ “Apologize to the Future” (video) ▷ Overshoot (video)
	Alexander Bruce ❀ Antichamber A first-person puzzle game with coloured cubes and impossible architectures; conventional logic doesn’t always apply here, it’s half puzzles and half pure experimentation. I did need a walkthrough at times, but I like works that function by their own strange rules! Also pretty nice minimal aesthetics and ambient + field recordings soundtrack. ▷ Official website ▷ Glitchwave ▷ Steam
	Jeremiah Cymerman ❀ Fire Sign (Part) glitch with clarinets, strings and other instruments — performances by the artist, Nate Wooley, Peter Evans, Christopher Hoffman and others (not that I know any of them), glitched out against ambient backgrounds in chambers close to hell. A dark, mesmerizing atmosphere, with noise or instrumental outbursts until the more melancholic and melodic finale. Sounds particularly impressive on speakers. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Kreng ❀ L’autopsie phénoménale de Dieu I’ve known about this for a very long time, but had never been in the mood for it before. Music that sounds played in a twisted world at night, perhaps in a church somewhere between Earth and the first regions of hell. There are no Eldritch abominations here, no abysses, no underground crypts, it’s not that kind of darkness: it’s closer to the human world, and that makes it more disturbing. An uncomfortable listen perhaps. But if you’re in the right mood, perhaps with the right book, it fits. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Ricardo Villalobos ❀ 808 the Bassqueen Love this track — housier, more glamorous, less weird than the others I’ve heard by him. A slow banger. The twelve minutes pass like a breeze and if you’re like me, it will linger in your head and heart for a long time after that. (I like listening to the entire EP too — the extended loop mix is probably meant to be a DJ tool but even as a standalone track, it sounds good to me.) ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs
	Sortilège ❀ Sortilège I’m not even into heavy metal, but this is great! Eighteen minutes of high-pitched vibratos, electric guitar solos and fantasy lyrics to put on your robe and wizard hat and headbang to (or headspin, or whatever heavy metal fans do — if they do it to this, it must be fun). ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp ▷ Official website
	Kyuss ❀ Welcome to Sky Valley Classic. Perfect for the first summer heat of the year. (I still don’t know much else about stoner rock, there are a couple of albums I love but I’m not as curious about the genre as I am about others.) ▷ RYM
	Mutant Joe ❀ Operation Chaos <acid ghetto electro beat> I DON’T THINK YOU NOTICE THAT YOU GONE HOKUS POKUS I DON’T THINK YOU NOTICE THAT YOU GONE HOKUS POKUS How can you not bump to this ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	yeule ❀ Glitch Princess I wasn’t sure when I first listened to Serotonin II (will revisit though!), but then I watched a couple of her videos, listened to this and I think I’m hooked. Cyber persona, electronic elements and introspective lyrics: I could even relate to this since my teenage years, when I daydreamed about being a gynoid or digital being and poured my heart out on the internet and my diary. (That’s only part of it, I know.) … And I love “The Things They Did for Me Out of Love”. It was a risky move but I think they nailed it — both soundwise and conceptwise, the album moving on to another state instead of simply ending, perhaps a digital afterlife or perhaps what sleep would feel like if we could experience it. Yeah it’s a lot of Paulstretch but I don’t care, it works, it’s beautiful, and the fact that it’s too long for a normal human listen feels like part of the point. ▷ Official website ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Darrin Verhagen ❀ Black \| Mass Darrin Verhagen has worked in many genres I like, combining them in ways I like even more — industrial, breakbeat, lowercase, dark ambient, tribal ambient, drone, etc. His music can be furious and intense, otherworldly, or eerily comforting. He’s made soundtracks for operas, films and dance performances. And founded the Dorobo label too. This here is an atypical work for him, and definitely not a good entry point — if you want one, try Professor Richmann Succulent Blue Sway, Shinjuku Filth Junk or Darrin Verhagen Zero / Stung — but it is pretty special. It’s a series of monochromes. Black. Minimal. Impenetrable. One noise album, one lowercase album and one drone album, the artist recommends listening to them at different volumes and on different equipment, yet they all share a similar aesthetic. There’s one disc here I care much less for than the other two: e.p.a. Black Ice is decent noise but nothing special, in fact I’d say it’s my least favourite Verhagen record so far — as if the noise limited his sound palette rather than opening up new possibilities. I mostly hear it as a kind of palate cleanser. The other two are solid though: Darrin Verhagen Black Frost feels so clinical, like the slowest medical operation being conducted in a silent hospital in near-total darkness, only a few sounds and piercing lights emerging. And Shinjuku Thief Matte Black is my favourite of the three — austere yet fascinating, subtly changing drones, each track with slightly different evocations. To be listened to in the dead of night. (A strange idiom — in French we say “in the heart of the night”.) (I haven’t found a good picture of the cover, but it’s black. A black acrylic laser-etched box. I kinda wanted one, but there’s only one VG+ copy on sale for € 120 on Discogs or “POA” (what? why?) on Verhagen’s website, so nope. You can get the records individually though.) ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs ▷ Official page

July 2022

	Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots ❀ Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots (Gothic country redeems country to my ears, pt. 2:) Long shadows and strange, disturbing or tragic tales. The setting is rustic but haunting, the singer’s voice is beautiful, the instrumentation and production impressive as well, honestly I’m super impressed by this. Thanks to wilczur for the recommendation! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Flora Yin-Wong ❀ Holy Palm Offerings of strange flowers in a digital temple, in a cyberpunk city that’s always bustling with activity. (Permanent nighttime is a given.) (The album is in two parts — “Loci” at the end is a long series of short, unedited field recordings of cities, which tends to throw me off because it doesn’t work in the same way as the music. Feels like bonus material, but they also sound like real-world inspirations for the music, which is interesting.) ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Jon Gurd ❀ Lion A modern take on downtempo; the vibe here is a bit like a more chilled out, warmer Bicep (especially “Glue”) or a hi-fi, clean AL-90. Not necessarily nocturnal, but close to musics that are. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Kate NV ❀ Pink Jungle Pure ear candy! Her latest album Room for the Moon is pretty good, but it doesn’t grab me half as much as these sweet-and-sour, brightly coloured, synthpop grooves. ▷ RYM
	John Wall ❀ Constructions I–IV Partly like Ryoji Ikeda or other microsound artists in its cleanliness and minimal sound design (silence, sounds of jacks being plugged in / unplugged, pure tones etc), but very different in the way it also sounds like a dramatic sound collage and electroacoustic compositions. A clean, colourless background, over which very bright objects and colours briefly shine. Thanks to fish for the discovery! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	David Sylvian ❀ Manafon The idea of making a singer-songwriter album using amelodic experimental instrumentations by Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Rowe, Evan Parker and others is a pretty brilliant idea! Songs sung with a strange heart. A dark, intimate voice and strange, cold sounds. Music that’s just on the verge of shedding its civilised clothes, calmly, beautifully, eerily. ▷ Official website (archived) ▷ RYM
	Rhodri Davies / David Sylvian / Mark Wastell ❀ There Is No Love … And this one goes a step further still. It’s a single long track — spoken word, sines and gongs and glockenspiel. There are no melodies. A conversation with a mysterious man in a strange place at an unknown hour. Something about it is hypnotic. Not exactly dreamlike, because as strange as this seems, it also feels real and close. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Sellasouls ❀ Am iii Pretty? hisssssssssssses hypnotically in a demonic hip hop serpent kind of way The kind of vibes I get from playing survival horror games or reading scary manga at night. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Failbetter ❀ Sunless Sea A very atmospheric naval exploration game, set in a creepy supernatural world (underground — or under the sea?) where you are based in sunken London and explore other islands. The game warns you: your first captain will certainly die, later ones might succeed. It’s not a difficult game per se though; but the islands and sea are dangerous, often leading to horror, sometimes to wonder. It’s mostly about reading and sailing. Excellent writing, great atmosphere. Also possibly even greener than Etrian Odyssey. ▷ Official page ▷ Glitchwave
	Pariah ❀ Detroit Falls / Orpheus Cut-up grooves and vocals + UK garage beats. ▷ Discogs ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	De Grandi ❀ La Teknoz Mixing hardcore Bérite club with Celtic folk music from Britanny sounds like it should be a bad novelty gimmick but this is such a banger. Heaviness level: kouign-amann. Thanks to rtdx for the recommendation! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	:galetuwu: I’ve started painting rocks again, like I used to do when I was little. It’s fun! (Private jokes suck so: :galetuwu: is an emoji of a cute pebble who smiles on a French Discord server I’m on)
	DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid ❀ Modern Mantra Instrumental hip hop / nu jazz / illbient / drum and bass mix, the artist describes it as “a kind of digital jazz mixed with rugged beats” and says he “wanted to check through a lot of memories of the ’90s” — I think I’m going to give this a 9/10. ▷ RYM ▷ Discogs
	Yoga ❀ Megafauna Described on the sticker as “alien soundtracks from cryptozoology documentaries played back as a black metal 78” — actually kind of accurate! It’s weird, hallucinatory, organic — monstrous plants more than animals perhaps, or something with tendrils. Thanks to nokturnus for the recommendation! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Pietro Riparbelli ❀ Three Days of Silence – The Mountain of the Stigmata Serene and solemn. Part natural, part constructed; ancient stones, ancient chants, in a new composition. I’m not sure how I would have felt spending three days with monks on a religious site (probably uncomfortable / out of place), but this record is really pleasant to listen to. Almost too short at 45 minutes, but you can download an additional hour of unedited source field recordings from the label page as a bonus. Thanks to Traz for the discovery! ▷ Gruenrekorder ▷ RYM

August 2022

	$afia Bahmed-Schwartz ❀ Passé – Présent – Futur Hip hop with vaporous vocals, mostly personal and poetic. There’s heavy autotune, which I usually hate, but somehow I don’t mind it here; the production is good too, sometimes the synths and beats take over (like on “Danse sur moi” and “L’ennui”, the latter of which has fully whispered vocals), but it’s tracks like “Cybersilver” and its very slow, dreamy, hypnotic, slightly toxic vibe that draw me back in. Technically it’s a compilation with only four unreleased tracks, but I couldn’t find her EPs before so I’m going to pretend this is her debut album. Also props for featuring a song in which most of the lyrics are a couscous recipe told in a sensual voice lol ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp (name-your-price download)
	$afia Bahmed-Schwartz ❀ EMO ICON Or is this one her proper debut? I’m not a fan of the cover but other than that, this delivers. Builds on the same foundations as her previous works (unusually melodic hip hop that leans towards r’n’b, electronic music and chanson) but more assertive, more political too. “Escape Game” and “Extase” are bangers (the latter is a collab, I haven’t heard anything else by the guest vocalist but I like his theatrical voice), “Nails” is a subdued but powerful closer. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Corum ❀ Beguiling Isles A vinyl trilogy: 　1. Born of Earth’s Torments 　2. Effigy Mounds 　3. Magic Mirror Mysterious and hypnagogic tribal ambient explorations. Or not so ambient, adjacent psychedelia. ▷ Discogs
	Polygonia ❀ Abbilder einer vergessenen Welt Getting into Huinali Recordings: sweet ambient (dub) (techno) with calm, natural vibes and beautiful cover art. This one is dubbier than the others I’ve heard from them and incorporates more nature field recordings — there’s a track named “amphibian cave” and it sounds exactly like that! 🐸 Damp beats to do whatever frogs do to. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Nick Harkaway ❀ The Gone-Away World A wild post-apocalyptic odyssey — it starts in the world we live in (only a little more kafkaesque), then gets more and more dystopic and bonkers with a quasi-end of the world merely halfway through, hellish machines and ninjas and badass mimes coming out of nowhere, and those are not even the most improbable things here. The book has flaws, including a first chapter that didn’t quite work for me and a couple of characters I couldn’t remember the story of (others were memorable), but I was hooked as soon as it rewinded on chapter 2. The bitter commentary behind all the quirkiness is hard to disagree with, and there’s a major twist that actually made me say “holy shit!” Recommended if you happen to be Hideo Kojima and haven’t checked it out. You probably aren’t Hideo Kojima but it’s the kind of thing I guess he would like. Yes there’s a lot of army stuff in this too, I’m not into army stuff but this was cool.
	Keith Rowe / Sachiko M / Toshimaru Nakamura / Otomo Yoshihide ❀ Erstlive 005 I usually like these artists, like the cover art very much and this is highly rated, but the duration used to put me off: do I really want four hours of EAI/onkyo? Don’t I have enough of that already, including a lot of stuff I don’t care for? But this is great, probably as good as “pure” EAI/onkyo gets. It’s not like Good Morning Good Night, which I never liked much because I couldn’t make aesthetic sense of it; this has a coherent, almost graceful flow, it really feels like everybody’s on the same page, going somewhere together. Disc one is rather quiet but not calm, there’s a feeling something is about to happen; disc two evokes loudness and power (feedback and radio samples + ominous low drones) even though it’s only actually loud in parts; disc three sounds like a calm after the storm, minimal, almost hypnotic in its staticity (a continous low drone, faint presences). And if all three in one sitting are too much, you can listen to each one separately. (That doesn’t mean it’s easy listening — if you want an entry point into the genre I would still recommend something by I.S.O. or Toshimaru Nakamura’s first No-Input Mixing Board over this. But if you don’t mind the difficulty, highly recommended.) ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Osamu Sato & Out Ass Mao ❀ Lucy in the Sky with Dynamites An hour of twinkly, futuristic, super eclectic psychedelic sounds, constantly shifting between different colours and environments! This came as a bonus in some editions of the LSD video game, but it totally deserves a standalone release. ▷ RYM
	Oasis r. Amorphous Androgynous ❀ Falling Down (A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding in Your Mind) Yes, Oasis was hit and miss, but “Falling Down” still got a thumb up from me — and two for this twenty-two-minute ultrapsychedelic remix by Amorphous Androgynous. That’s the psychedelic rock side-project of The Future Sound of London, better known for their lush organic ambient/IDM records. I don’t know how much drugs they took to make this but I approve! Noel Gallagher had planned to record a full length Amorphous Androgynous collab, but he cancelled it. A shame. ▷ RYM
	Klô Pelgag ❀ L’étoile thoracique Songs to cry and daydream to in a meticulously crafted, detailed, colourful fantasy world. You don’t need to understand French to enjoy this album, but the poetic lyrics really add to it. (On “Samedi soir à la violence”, the singer pleads her grandmother not to forget her even as Alzheimer’s gradually steals her memory and will sever the link between them. Later songs have introspection and unexpected images like flower ferrofluids growing in magnetic fields or melting wax statues, and the music itself adds plenty of nice details like the abrupt ending on “Samedi soir à la violence”, or how legato is introduced to the last instances of the chorus on “Les ferrofluides-fleurs”.) ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Korridor ❀ End of Cycle I first listened to it at a pretty high volume. Then I turned it up a bit more. Twice. Loved how psychedelic and hard it was. But half of it is drones, and the intense techno beats draw me in until I mostly feel them and feel at peace listening to the slowly evolving pads underneath. Thanks to hoenir for the recommendation! ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	Time Cow ❀ Time Cow’s Live Prog Dancehall from Home I don’t know anything about dancehall (digital or not) but I love this: a two-part, 40-minute electronic jam based on a rhythmic loop that the artist builds on and on. Will try to find more like this, if anybody has recs I’m taking them! Thanks to hoenir for this one too! ▷ RYM ▷ Boomkat
	Thomas Köner + Asmus Tietchens ❀ Kontakt der Jünglinge: 1 A collaboration between Asmus Tietchens (industrial / lowercase / melodic minimal synth / etc, always with a clinical, quirky but very cold aesthetic, occasionally accompanied with Emil Cioran quotes), and Thomas Köner (slow, minimal ambient works, sometimes dark, sometimes cold). The Kontakt der Jünglinge project isn’t as bleak as their solo works though. Their records are single-track experimental ambient soundscapes, in dark tones but rather calm, detailed, even pleasant. I’ve been thinking about including them on these monthly lists for a long while now but I still can’t really describe them, and to tell the truth 1, 0 and –1 are all similar so I just pick one at random when I’m in the mood for that. And I always enjoy it very much. Makrophonie 1 is a little different, with more drones and traces of melodies, though not necessarily more accessible. (I wish they’d release a Makrophonie 2.) ▷ RYM
	Dosage ❀ Empties Murky and dissonant, somewhere between shoegaze, industrial rock and low-energy noise rock, with a trip hop feel and female vocals in Japanese. Maybe something like: taking the subway back home, feeling a little sick and nauseous but mostly numb and close to falling asleep from the painkillers, your teeth feel funny, people look at you kind of funny (are you drooling? you can’t feel your lower lip), the city is so loud and hostile and everything sounds shrill, but you’re also feeling kind of detached from all that. There’s something about your teeth. And one particular word that you hear repeated and it becomes haunting. ▷ RYM
	Jack King-Spooner ❀ Dujanah A super arty, colourful, indie-as-hell game about a woman in an occupied desert city. She’s looking for her missing husband and daughter. You can’t be entirely sure but you know this probably isn’t going to end well. You don’t know what you’re in for getting into this game though — you won’t feel protected behind your screen, secure in the knowledge that it’s all just video game visuals and video game mechanics. The soundtrack often changes styles without warning (including some heavily distorted noise rock), and sometimes the songs are what convey the story. The visuals are no less impressive, with clay models, retro graphics, colourful glitches, unexpected real life videos — and this also is unsettling in a way, because you never know how close to reality you’re going to get. Same with the gameplay. It’s not a horror game (or is it? isn’t war real-life horror?), but it can be emotionally harrowing. And yet there’s weird humour and colours and a few nice feelings in there too. Mostly it feels unique and personal. ▷ Glitchwave ▷ itch.io
	Puppet Sunsun ❀ something lighter this is genius if you’re like me or a 2-year-old (otherwise probably not so much) (I can’t stop watching this)
	Seefeel ❀ Rupt and Flex (1994–96) Love how this band kept a dreamy sound rooted in shoegaze and dream pop even as their sound turned to ambient techno (and later, briefly, dark ambient). 　Quique: daytime 　Succour: dusk 　(CH-VOX): night Only Quique and Succour are essential really. Rupt and Flex is for fans of Succour who wanted more in this vein — which is exactly my case, so I'm happy with it! It also includes an extended version of (CH-VOX) (which works better than the original, but the original was kind of forgettable to be honest), Starethrough (a solid earlier EP), Autechre’s remix of “Spangle” (another favourite of mine) and a couple more singles and outtakes from the era. Their 2011 reformation album wasn't bad, they took yet another direction on it (a new morning? but with glitch too, a harder/harsher sound) — it's been a while but it would be cool if they'd release another one. ▷ RYM ▷ Bandcamp
	OS2 // WARP ❀ a small girl you found running inside yr head Just a nice warm psychedelic/hypnagogic loop to listen to for as long as you like. ▷ RYM ▷ Archive.org (free download)

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