Somnimage impresario Mykel Boyd, a stunningly good composer in his own right, has released a 20-minute work of a grim, hazy, yet beautiful soundscape where you feel trapped in the bowels of the set of a sci-fi epic.
Mykel Boyd – Fever Dreams
Drawing Virtual Gardens – 22:22
Our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound have on offer an ambient album perfectly designed for headphone listening by a project new to me called Drawing Virtual Gardens, a Belgium-based artist called David Gutman. From the promo material, which does a wonderful service introducing David’s work:
“At the core of Drawing Virtual Gardens ’22:22,’ there is a keen sense of the nocturnal, and a blurring of lines between the waking and the dream state. Focusing on small synchronous events within these hypnagogic periods, Gutman takes inspiration and translates them into musical cadence. Blankets of dense sub-bass coat minimal dub-like rhythmic structures. Warm flickers of guitar form brief conversations before seceding to the thick low-end percussions. Elsewhere, muted horns cascade into the recesses lending a weary jazz-like quality, or mimicking a less exotic type of fourth world sound.
While the similarities to fourth world brass are less evident on ’22:22,’ it was the decadent combination of melting trumpet lines and sub-bass that first drew our attention to the works of Drawing Virtual Gardens. Coming in the form of the 2021 release ‘~logues’ for Shimmering Moods, an album which we described as, “Massive earth-churning basslines crawl erratically through uneasy layers of mechanical interruptions, distance guitar, and gaseous noir-style trumpet. Just enough luminance creeps into the music to keep these dreamscapes from turning sour. Opaque. Unsettling. Oddly comforting.”
As for the album at hand, 22:22 is an hour that continuously intrigued Gutman. He began noticing it was a common occurrence to reference his watch at this exact hour during the night. His curiosity grew as he wondered what unexplained consciousness kept pointing him towards this time. The lore surrounding 22:22 is steeped with symbolism, reference to angels, tarot, the Kabbalah, and numerology. The general consensus points towards a positive and aware mind, in tune with the energies surrounding them: able to keep the channels open and tap into that brilliant force.”
Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin – Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin
Simply gorgeous and resonating music here, courtesy from a French-Conoglese project called Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin. The project is described as “…a unique encounter between Bantu lullabies from the Congo, electronic music and hip-hop.”
Various Artists – Future Sounds Of Kraut Vol. 1 – Compiled by Fred und Luna
Our friends at Compost Records are about to release a compilation of what one can legitimately call modern Krautrock. Some of the bands on this album include Kosmischer Läufer, Fred und Luna (who put this gem together) and Pyrolator (whose track is available for listening) and thirteen other projects. It’s due out on September 1, 2023.
Plume Girl – In the End We Begin
A bliss-filled release from out mappa Records out of Slovakia from a new name, Plume Girl. I’ll let the label describe this rather ethereal bit of emo folk, which you can read in full at their Bandcamp release site:
“Already in its title, Plume Girl’s debut thoroughly lets things go and takes them in – all at once. “In the End We Begin” is the first solo full-length from Sowmya Somanath, a Hindustani classical singer/composer and half of alt-pop duo Felt Out. Plume Girl’s music takes inspiration from the semi-regular musical form of the rāga (translated as ‘tinting’), invoking mood and atmosphere, each rāga thought to have its own distinct nature and personality, brought to life through improvisation. String swells and Somanath’s searching vocalisations envelop every track’s own blissful chamber. Exploring imagined binaries along the way — eastern vs. western, traditional vs. experimental, acoustic vs. electronic, Sowmya sees music as a curious dialogue between divine Self and an invisible reality. Beneath the illusion of a chromatic world, there remains a blissful oneness.
Plume Girl’s songs sit between ambient Hindustani music and emotionally-encumbered pop. In front of backdrops comprising sundrenched drones or glitches, sketched out beats, and criss-crossing glissandi or flutes, Somanath both murmurs intimately and spirals upwards into soaring choruses. The lyrics ponder innermost thoughts, never more literally than on the blissful emo folk closing track: ‘In my heart I know / what’s in my heart / I know what’s in my…’”
mama!milk – Concert at Art Gummi Kanazawa, 2022
mama!milk are a project out of Japan who mix the experimental music vibe of Pauline Oliveros and tango. Weird mix, but beautiful in its own way.
Pere Ubu – Trouble On Big Beat Street
Avant-rock legends Pere Ubu have a brand new album out! From the band’s Bandcamp site:
“Pere Ubu unveil their new album, ‘Trouble On Big Beat Street’, nearly four years after their previous record for Cherry Red, ‘The Long Goodbye’.
‘The Modern Dance’ (1978) marked the end of Rock ‘n’ Roll. ‘Trouble On Big Beat Street’ marks the end of The Song. Pere Ubu ended with ‘The Long Goodbye’ (their last album, also on Cherry Red, from 2019). Pere Ubu begins again with ‘Trouble On Big Beat Street’.
If you missed the last 48 years then imagine a bad- attitude. Imagine Electric Light Orchestra – the version with Roy Wood – then add Muddy Waters playing guitar and Nina Simone singing.
Pere Ubu is David Thomas, Keith Moliné, Gagarin, Alex Ward, Andy Diagram, Michele Temple and Jack Jones.Keith Moliné and Andy Diagram are the two pale boys. They have played with David more than 28 years.
Electronica artist Gagarin was soundman for the two pale boys. Michele Temple has been in Pere Ubu 30 years. Improviser and life-long fan Alex Ward submitted a cover version of a David Thomas song to the band’s live-streaming show. David invited him to join the band. David met Jack Jones in the pub.”
Jack Mayesh – You Carry My Hope: Judeo-Spanish Songs in Los Angeles, Sept. 1942 – Feb. 1943
Canary Records is at it again. As a Los Angelino, I have to say I didn’t know there was much of a Judeo-Spanish community here, though it does make sense, as many Spanish and Mexican families may very well have Sephardic roots hidden from the Catholic majority. The recordings are spectacular considering the age of the shellacs (thanks to Ian Nagoski’s incredible mastering work), and it’s nice to hear Jack Mayesh crooning in a Spanish from another angle.
Robert Scott Thompson – Placid
Robert Scott Thompson, the ambient music alchemist, has released several new albums recently, but I wanted to start with Placid, a rather chilling work that references works by the maestros (Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Klaus Schulze), a touch of Warszawa-period Brian Eno/David Bowie, and his own more musical compositional bent.
Dead Gallery – Dead Man’s Theme (Full Album)
Stoner rock is a genre that always surprises me (in a good way, mind you). Dead Gallery, for example, are a heavy stoner/psychedelic blues band out of Austria, and the music they make reminds me of really old rare hard rock albums you would find in collector fairs (think of bands like Black Widow as an example).
Musically, the guitar playing is great, the vocals are raw and loud, and the production is surprisingly clean without sacrificing the power of the tracks.