ZÖJ _ Fil o Fenjoon

Got this because of the cute cover art and had no idea what to expect except strings and drums — turns out it’s really beautiful, long atmospheric tracks based on Persian music with a little experimental edge (like the abrasive metal sounds on the instrumental first track), played on kamancheh + qheychak (strings) + voice + drums, with a little post-rock influence in the drums too. Instant favourite.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Muslimgauze vs. Species of Fishes _ An Essential Extraction

Bright, clean glitch reworkings of Muslimgauze tracks; I’m not familiar with Species of Fishes yet but something about the sounds here reminds me of a little bit of Ryoji Ikeda, only not as cold? Or maybe it is as cold, but the way it contrasts with the warm, organic sounds of Muslimgauze becomes something special.

Also rare enough to be noted: this new edition is actually a reworking of a 1999 album that was twice as long, with Species of Fishes cutting all the redundant and less successful parts. (I haven’t heard the original to compare yet.)

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Messa _ Close

Doom metal, more often melancholic than heavy, with beautiful female vocals and oud.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Shackleton _ Music for the Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs

Still the best thing I’ve heard by him by a long shot.

Music for the Quiet Hour has ties to tribal ambient, UK bass, dubstep and minimalism, but is a sound + world of its own really. Or a passage between one and another, as is the case narratively (a large part of the spoken word is a letter from the narrator to his daughter who lives in a distant future) (hey, I just looked up the artwork again and we share the same name now!) — I have the CD box and I always forget in which direction the front artwork is supposed to go, which seems fitting: forget your landmarks, forget even gravity, we’re heading towards uncharted territories.

The Drawbar Organ EPs feels almost like bonus material after that, though it’s a very welcome addition — basically UK bass tracks that share a similar sound, only more rhythmic.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Ptite Soeur + neophron _ NOUVELLE ⸎ ECONOMIE

Probably my favourite French hip hop project so far: next-level experimental beats with the right amount of darkness, psychedelism and noise/glitch + fast, precise, punchline-packed bars + cool artwork. All three releases so far are solid, all combined make only 51 minutes too so really, my recommendation here is for all of them.

RED႟UN might be the tightest but my most listened to is NOUVELLE ⸎ ECONOMIE, a bit longer than the others + displays more sensitivity too; it begins as an in-your-face style like the other two but gets more and more personal — and halfway through, among all the references to politics, weed, suicide, video games and Judaism/Kabbalah, the artist genders herself as female for the first time (!) This is never the main subject of the lyrics, never even stated outright, but there’s a lot that seeps through, especially in the last track, slower, more melodic, and extremely moving.

▷ Soundcloud (only the first two EPs are streamable there, you’ll need to go to one of the evil big platforms or ask the blue bird for the third)
▷ RYM

Chelsea Wolfe _ She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

New favourite by her? Songwise the first three songs from Abyss are still unbeaten in their blackness and heaviness, but soundwise, I might like this one even more — mixing industrial and trip hop isn’t new (the two genres have always been related) but I’ve rarely heard them give off such witchlike energy, even the softest songs here feel full of life. Probably the most consistent I’ve heard from her too.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Leroy _ Grave Robbing

Maximalist party music — mashcore packed with as many pop and r&b hooks as possible, and you will recognize a bunch of them —all incredible fun even though the effect also has a dark side, like you’re being bombarded with so much good times you can barely breathe, it’s all turning into hyperstimulation and noise and hyper accelerated everything everywhere until you can’t take any more

— by the time the album is over I do feel a little exhausted and I’m not sure whether it’s me or the music. (Maybe it does take a dip.)

(And yes this kind of extreme sample use is very contemporary and relevant to the chaos we live in, but this also reminds me of disco edits which go way back to the beginnings of house music)

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Blanck Mass _ Animated Violence Mild

World Eater has always been a favourite of mine with its furious cut-up industrial abstract vocal grooves (and what an intro + following track, my god), but this one is at least as good — an amazing follow-up that reminds me of synthwave/darksynth as cranks up the melody to become as colorful and LOUD as possible

(A video for “Love Is a Parasite” featuring the apples on the cover was shot, comic-like body horror as you’d expect, but it was removed — apparently because one of the actors was later found out to have, uh, very toxic political views? This makes it even more cursed. If you want to watch it anyway, it’s been archived)

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Blanck Mass _ In Ferneaux

Had a feeling I’d enjoy this one more than its middling RYM rating would suggest, yup I was right

This is so different it might as well be a different project, with phases of ambient, noise, various electronic genres. Is it cohesive? Yes and no, it’s like scenes in a dream that don’t quite make sense together but still feel like they make up a single weird, memorable story.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Mobius Digital _ Outer Wilds

(Cheating a bit as I finished this in December and didn’t want to include it then, as everybody knows it already and I have real mixed feelings about it, but here goes)

It’s a masterpiece even just conceptwise, if you haven’t heard it already it’s all about learning (really) (without getting keys or power-ups or whatever)
  but it’s so fussy, punishing and discouraging throughout
    the best moments (and there are many of them) are magical, unlike anything else I’ve played in a game (my favourite might have been drifting as silently as possible in Dark Bramble, at least when I wasn’t eaten by anglerfish; Giant’s Deep also had a really cool atmosphere)
      but so much of the game involves facing the same kind of frustrating, unsatisfying issues I struggle with in real life (I’m really bad with practical intelligence and Outer Wilds relies on it a lot, it made me feel stupid, unattentive, impatient — I often had the right idea or almost but was unsuccessful in actually applying it (and sometimes it was really far-fetched, like the exact way you had to use the jellyfish for insulation or the Interloper inner maze), I got stuck so many times)
        it’s so great at breaking game conventions in clever ways and making the player also think outside the box
          but my brain is dumb and likes simple, clear video game logic with shiny things and satisfying bleeps, I don’t like how messy and uncertain everything is in the real world and in Outer Wilds
            the feeling of learning and discovery is great, and it’s brilliant how there is a lot of exploration to make here given how tiny the map is (and has to be)
              but that’s between phases of, like, getting killed over and over again in the same timed labyrinth and having to start again from scratch every time without getting any hints
                so yeah. I absolutely recommend it, even though I was more relieved than anything when I finished it and was happy to play a random metroidvania afterwards. I hope other games take inspiration from Outer Wilds, but I’m not sure I really want to play the extra downloadable content right now?

Death Ambient _ Drunken Forest

= Fred Frith + Kato Hideki + Ikue Mori

I wasn’t entirely convinced by this project’s first album, which contained too many short aimless (almost fruitless) experiments — but this one is way better, more accomplished, actually works as ambient too (though I’m not sure I’d describe it as such). Rewards attentive, repeated listens. Dark but not necessarily something you need to play at night, it’s more about weird forms (and possible threats); my favourite track is probably “Qianwei Sky” and its intense closer with the electronic staccato.

▷ RYM

Topdown Dialectic _ Vol. 2

I agree with the RYM comments about missing Tiny Mix Tapes, they were good (their review is better than anything I could write myself)

Each volume from the project so far has been eight five-minute cuts of dub techno — volume 2 is the best one to my ears, it’s the most eclectic and colorful with its unexpected fast, syncopated rhythms or harmonies, hip hop or even modified pop (?) samples. (Volume 1 is also good and pretty close; volume 3 goes for a hazier ambient dub sound that’s been done better by other artists and doesn’t work as well in a strict five-minute format)

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Crystallmess _ Fact Mix 830

Intense throughout but perfectly paced footwork × jungle mix, which also sounds like an original work rather than a mere mix and that’s one of the best things a mix can be. Not a single weak moment, nothing that sounds derivative either. :fire emoji:

▷ Fact / Soundcloud (free streaming + download)
▷ RYM

Angela He _ missed messages.

Extremely short but brought a tear to my eye

I first got the “missed” ending, “survivor” on my second and “hope” on my third
I’m not sure I want to see the fourth one

Knowing that you only get one chance in reality is heartbreaking, I’m so afraid I would have failed, I’m terrible with people