Ash Koosha creates experimental electronica that’s sporadic and expressive in weird and wonderful ways. His New Album “I AKA I” feels a little more structured than his previous works but it still has these beautifully lush textures arranged and composed in ways that are both unexpected and exiting.
Feather feels as if the synth sounds of the history of video game music were turned into a freestyle collage of instrumentation. Starting with these garish yet uplifting FM Synth faux brass sounds before quickly diving into a the depths of dark rhythmic percussion and bass highlighted with piercing bleeps and bloops.
Although almost the antithesis of improvisational jazz in tone these electronic interments remind me of the organic structures of that genre as the sounds adjust in tempo and structure to find space for other elements in the piece. It creates a barrage of sound that I have found captivating on many listens:
Melt-Banana have a take on noise rock that could only come out of Japan. Frantic fast paced guitar is looped and slammed through effects by Ichirou Agata to create massive soundscapes for Yasuko Onuki to shout over. These soundscapes shift around in unexpected ways that keep the listener constantly guessing.
The Hive is a perfect example. The track starts frenetic and thrashy but towards the end more effects and loops over the guitar add some order to the chaos. Shifting the track into sounds reminiscent of electronic genre.
If you want some music to pick you up by the scruff of the neck and shake some life into you this could well be it. Melt-Banana offer a refreshing take on the noise rock sound that’s clearly influenced by the their culture and musical proficiency.
Anna Merediths album varmints has a lovely collection of songs that blend both classical and electrical instruments in novel ways. Blackfriars Is a piece for strings that repeats and drifts around creating a beautiful and distinct atmosphere with a constant clicking rhythm from a metronome as its sole percussion:
Ultimate Care II is a really interesting album. A single piece of music made from the recordings of a washing machine. This may seem a little avant-garde for most people but trust me they manage to pull of the miraculous and make something so unique also highly assessable.
Although one long track, the album is split into excerpts and ends on a powerful high with Excerpt Nine my track of the week. Sounds from this washing machine are expertly cut and moulded to make brilliantly well structured persuasive sections that are constantly evolving and jumping around the stereo field with a real drive. Matmos turn these unique samples into great modern dance music because of skilled design. You won’t hear percussion programmed so well on many modern dance music and its this programming prowess that makes the album as catchy as it is:
EPs seem to have highlighted the best music of this year, giving artists a place to develop on a collection of ideas that work as a whole whilst also being strong individually.
SBTRKTs New EP “SAVE YOURSELF” is a perfect example of this, a strong collection of tracks that work as a part of a whole without any filler. The EP opens with “GEMINI” a mood piece that introduces us to the pallet of sounds and the feeling of the EP before we really get rolling with my track of the week “GOOD MORNING”.
Sampled Brass sounds lead this track, they call out for strong percussion but this is kept to a minimum until the last third of the track. Stripping away the drums and bass of a track is something that is currently popular in many genre of Dance music. It allows the midrange details to shine through which are really well constructed in this instance where nice synth and vocal gestures provide interweaving melodies with the main Brass samples.
When the Drums and Bass hit they really drive the track providing the power that we expect from EDM however they are brief, covering only 8 bars of the whole track. The scarcity of the drum line is something I remember from several other tracks including crystal castles “fainting spells”. On repeat listens the piece becomes all anticipation, a continuing build for its conclusion. I find this highly compelling although I could see others viewing it as slightly frustrating. Taking away the club from the music in exchange for something more suited for the EP.
These newer forms of arrangement are pushing the many genres associated with electronic music forward in ways that break out of what would be a traditional club track. I think this is partly a response to modern technology. As DJ software and hardware gets more advanced allowing skilled users to loop segments of many tracks to create something new. DJs are no loner cross fading one track into the other. Instead they build their sets by taking small loops and sections of tracks to make them suitable for the club.
In turn producers no longer need to make tracks that suit the club in their entirety. They can try new styles of arrangement and yet still get sampled, clipped up and played in the club environment. GOOD MORNING fits this style, developing SBTRKTs sound in a new direction whilst keeping his high production standards:
It was a surprise when Kendrick Lamar released the EP “untitled unmastered” at the beginning of this month. Coming so soon after my album of the year “to pimp a butterfly” this could have backfired in lesser hands, where the conventional collection of B-sides are released as a quick money grab after a success. Feeling more like a decision made by the label then the artists themselves.
Although “untitled unmastered” follows some of those conventions, being a collection ideas recorded during and around the making of “to pimp a butterfly”. It manages to show an artist at a creative high. Experimenting with ideas that are as interesting as anything on his most recent album. If Kendricks not at the top of his game he’s certainly at the top of every one else’s and instead of a cheap money grab “untitled unmastered” feels like a stop-gap for fans. A way for him to leave behind the sound of “to pimp a butterfly” and move onto something completely new for his next album whilst also relieving some of the hype that would surround what’s to come it if there had been a two-year wait.
I have listened to this EP many times over the past few weeks and every track manages to hold its own and be part of my favourite collection of pieces so far this year. It was hard to pick one for the TOTW but Untitled 05 grabbed me most on first listen and continues to be a favourite, exemplifying what Kendrick does so well.
The track opens with a two minute build from Anna Wise and Kendrick. Describing different forms of suicide. Accompanied by the jazz instrumentation of drums, saxophone and a collection of keys that have a real woozy swing to them. It’s a sound that feels slightly off, disorienting the listener and it sets you up for the aggressive, regimented delivery of the first verse. It gives the woozy bed of music direction whilst providing a musical context for the angry, drunk and murderous character Kendrick unveils over the first verse. The track then opens up the floor to two more verses including fellow TDE label mates Punch and Jay Rock who both express elements of fears and insecurities within themselves that manage to fit the theme of the overall tune.
The fact that you can read just as much into the musical accompaniment and production as you can the lyrics make this and “to pimp a butterfly” so compelling. There’s a reason why songs sound like they do and why they’re structured in their place within the context of the EP/Album. It goes above and beyond what most artists are willing to do. Creating a work with meaning and subtext that just isn’t there in the surface focused world of most modern popular music. For this Kendrick Lamar deserves all the accolades and credit he is getting at the moment. He’s become one of the most relevant and important artists currently creating work in any of the arts. Proof that there is still hope for the mainstream music industry. That people can create, express and experiment with ideas and sounds and still be successful. I don’t know how he can top the past few years of work but I’m looking forward to see him try because whatever comes next will be both exiting and unexpected.
Wow! What a couple of fantastic weeks its been. It’s usually quiet for the first few months of the year but with great new albums coming out and big announcements over the past few weeks things are really picking up.
Although there are several tracks that I would love to highlight this week I have to pick one and it had to be the new track by M83 and the announcement of their album “Junk” coming out in April. If they are as good as this reveal track we are in for a real treat indeed.
Theres something truly unique about a lot of music written by french people and that’s their amazing ability to walk a very thin line between the cheesy and cool. Do it, Try it is another in a long line of french electronic artists that masters those feelings. It starts with a 90s rave piano but once the vocals come in it starts to sound like a ballad before the dance elements of M83s sound get their teeth into the track turning the melancholic into a glorious dance floor fist pump.
Over the years the production on M83 tracks has developed to becoming one of the best around. Wether this be the personal skills of Anthony Gonzalez or a team he has developed they always manage to take tracks to grander levels and that’s the case with Do it, Try it. From the first move into the dance segment I’m still left thinking that they have peaked to soon. Yet they still find a way to bring these arpeggiated synth lines into the end of the track that escalate the whole thing further, a massive achievement.
On first listen I wasn’t sure about this track, I thought maybe they had taken it to far and after the previous album “Hurry up We’re Dreaming” I believed a change in direction was needed to keep things fresh however they have managed to bring other elements of dance into the track to embellish this already highly polished sound and create something new.
After the 40th listen of this track I’m still hooked. It had to be my TOTW and will be one of my favourites for the year. The release of the new album can’t come soon enough:
I have been listening to the album Pool by Porches more than any other this year, which opens with this track Underwater.
If you have read this TOTW for a while you will know I’m a sucker for any synth pop with bleaker elements and this album is full of it. Glistening and beautifully produced synths create a bed for the slightly flat mumbling vocals.
Underwater is a perfect start for the album and exemplifies the direction of the work. A disjointed lead synth line and large pads create an uncertainty in the track before its cemented by the strongly sequenced rhythm section that really hits home on the choruses:
This new piece by Clark reminds me of the Aphex twins ambient works which is no bad thing. Although a solo piece the sound of the piano has been carefully tailored and treated to sound floaty and spacious yet at the same time have an intimacy that allows the tracks construction to connect emotionally:
I have seen the Revenant a couple of times now and it’s an incredible piece of work technically with a stand out soundtrack from Ryūichi Sakamoto , Alva Noto & Bryce Dessner.
The soundtrack mixes sparse elements of classical composition with electronics to create a sound to match the bleak yet beautiful imagery of the film. Give the whole thing a listen to below:
Youtube:
Spotify (The Revenant soundtrack):
Spotify (TOTW Playlist):
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