Eugeniusz Rudnik ❊ ERdada na taśmę

In the vein of the musique concrète classics, all analogue and with great production! Cut-up vocal sounds, a half-dark atmosphere, pleasant bleeps, echoes, church bells, rubbery sounds, traditional music samples and spoken word in Polish (I like it when music is situated). The compositions are really good too, with enough focus and direction to make this a joy to return to.

▷ Requiem Records
▷ RYM

Grouper ❊ Violet Replacement I + II

Minimal drones. Lo-fi, warm, natural/human rather than clean and sterile. Pleasant numbness. Not typical Grouper, but she’s also good at this!

▷ RYM

Ben Rivers ❊ Mare’s Nest

Too artsy and stilted, sure, but this spoke to me. Post-apocalyptic poetry with beautiful photography, cryptic but evocative texts — adapted from The Word for Snow by Don DeLillo. I’ve been feeling more and more nihilistic about the world lately, like it’s losing its meaning. This speaks to that.

▷ Letterboxd
▷ Arte.tv

Sonja ❊ Loud Arriver

I’m not a metalhead but this was cool as fuck, heavy metal with a contemporary, bass-heavy and dynamic sound + concise with some real bangers (the title track and “Nylon Nights” especially). Also fronted by a trans woman! (She got kicked out of her previous band apparently)

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Rundisc ❊ Chants of Sennaar

Believe the hype on this one, it is amazing. A game where you learn languages by deduction from your environment, how people speak, etc; peaceful, clever, interesting and original!

(There was another game like that I’d tried before called Heaven’s Vault, but I didn’t get far as the graphics and interface were really off-putting; might give it another try sometime)

▷ Glitchwave
▷ Steam

Spank Happy ❊ Freak Smile

So fun! Shibuya-kei with all the bells and whistles you could want, going a different style on each track (even the singer sounds different sometimes). The intro tells it all — starting all cute, “I love you, I love you” with flute, water sounds, strings and a few weirder sounds telling us this isn’t all serious, then the bass comes in letting us expect a melancholic dance track — but then a sax comes in and it breaks down into a chaotic big band funk complete with slap guitar. If this doesn’t draw you in, I don’t know what will.

Thanks to vtvcc for the recommendation!

▷ RYM

EABS meets Jaubi ❊ In Search of a Better Tomorrow

Lush, catchy, rhythmic spiritual jazz collaboration featuring one band from Poland and one from Pakistan — the two styles blend together really well! Probably my most played this month.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Syndrome 81 ❊ Prisons imaginaires

Super catchy songs (good melodies!) about wasting one’s youth and political anger in the port city of Brest (which was largely destroyed during the second world war and is kind of grey now, though in a beautiful region).

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

The KLF ❊ Chill Out

A good chunk of this was featured on Pom Pom’s 2019 Berghain Halle set, alongside Mika Vainio and other minimal techno, Terre Thaemlitz, Coil etc — another release I spent a while listening to this month.

… But it doesn’t beat the full album. An unexpected classic from a wacky band that’s really fun to read about (chaos! sheep! finding the formula for the perfect pop song! burning a million pounds!), Chill Out is the perfect album to play when you can finally turn a page in your life and just have a good time and rest in the sun, even just for a moment, because at that moment everything is just right.

Chill Out’s only flaw is that it’s too short and ends abruptly, I’d just love to have an extended version of it.

▷ Bandcamp
▷ RYM

Kyoto Animation ❊ City: The Animation

Never failed to put me in a good mood this summer! There’s no real story to speak of, it’s all lighthearted little slice-of-life events — but exaggerated to the point of becoming nonsensical (sometimes I literally couldn’t make sense of the characters’ reactions) and with an impressive animation, seemingly simple at first (big lines, primary colours) but with so many surprises, flourishes, changes in style, it gets almost experimental at times.

Thanks to Chouette for the recommendation!

▷ Official website
▷ MyAnimeList

Al Baylac ❊ Colza

Excellent livre queer, court, poétique, sensible ; entre la ville et la campagne, entre deux identités (lesbien·ne / transmasc). Y’a du sexe, beaucoup même, c’est obsessionnel — mais ce n’est pas un but final, comme le reste du livre, ça ouvre vers ailleurs. On peut s’attendre au à certains aspects du livre, qui reviennent chez beaucoup de personnes queer, mais l’écriture est très personnelle et particulièrement belle !

▷ Éditions Blast

Elita ❊ Hell Hill

Really dig this indie sleaze movement! Behind the thin provocative, faux-hedonistic veneer and cute vocals here there’s mostly bitterness, lethargy and dissonance, guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place on a post-punk or no wave record even.

▷ RYM

Ninn Salaün ❊ Reports From Unknown Places

Imaginary weather reports with digital paintings. Simple, beautiful, poetic.

▷ Artist’s website
▷ Also on Tumblr, Mastodon, Bluesky and others

I also went to London this month and saw these, which were all really good:

▷ Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now @ Photographers’ Gallery
▷ Julio le Parc @ Tate Modern
▷ Ana Mendieta @ Tate Modern

The Japanese photographers exhibition had a great selection with many different approaches, some beautiful and almost abstract, some grainy, theatrical and impressive, some intimate, some documenting parts of Japanese women’s lives you rarely hear about.

Julio le Parc was super fun with plenty of optical illusions and games, some interactive installations, I think anyone would enjoy this.

And Ana Mendieta moved me in a spiritual way, about being an integral part of nature, embracing all changes, including death. Could be disturbing or life-affirming or both, depending on how you perceive her works.