Hey everyone, how've you been? It's been a while since I've posted on here, I've felt like I've been neglecting this blog but I have been writing other things. I just did an interview with my friend Jude for Pretend Online which you can read here; never really done one before and really enjoyed it, so hopefully it's something I can do on here in the future! This blog is much more somewhere I can just say what I want without fitting any criteria or catering to a certain audience, so I do value the creative freedom. I tried to post last week, but was up in the Scottish Highlands for work; I'll use some images from that trip here as it was scenic and wholesome. I brought the frost and mist back down with me by the looks of things this morning, but I'm not complaining really, I'm kind of ready for winter. Anyway, let's talk about the last couple of weeks as a few things have happened that I have a lot to say about!
First off, the Saturday before last marked Bonobo's Outlier debut at Printworks, and my last weekend living in Surrey Quays - went out with a bang. I mean, as ever, Printworks was phenomenal, and the line up, particularly Leon Vynehall, Omar S, Auntie Flo and the man himself, banged hard. I don't want to go too much into detail with the supports, but in the press halls there was an even distribution of house and techno and classic club sound that counteracted Bonobo's hopping between ambience and anthem. Vynehall dropped 'Coorabell' by Floating Points getting me very excited, I mean the song itself sounds like Printworks to me to be honest. That being said, the biggest surprise came from Auntie Flo being by far the best support for me, in the (much, much) smaller dark room at the back. The African polyrhythms and chants that echoed around the four walls were undeniably ecstatic, the energy was kept up constantly and even though it was boiling in there I was finding it really difficult to leave. It's certainly nice to hear songs you know a lot in a set, but I knew one track out of what I heard ('Siku' by Nicola Cruz), and was still consistently entertained. Absolutely loved it, need to see him again ASAP, and it would have stolen the show for me if it wasn't for what was to come...
Bonobo was very clearly the main draw of the event by the sheer mass of people that filled the main room before he began. I feel like he gets a lot of slack for being marginally too commercial or safe with his sound, but I would always defend him on that. For me, there's still as much excitement in pleasant and peng sounds as there is in experimentalism, and while he does have a few redundant tracks there's plenty that I've never got tired of. As it was a DJ set, I anticipated a couple of his songs being played, so by opening with 'Bambro Koyo Ganda', 'Linked', 'Flicker' and 'Cirrus' in a row, I was satisfied, the crowd was satisfied, the Lord Above was satisfied. Those stunning chord progressions and pitter-patter drum beats are wonderful live, and 'Linked' in particular, with the extended acid melody transformation over the drop, was a bombshell I'm so glad I didn't miss.
As the set continued, he's a big fan of classic house bangers with piano chords etc.; maybe in a different setting I'd be more skeptical but the grandeur of Printworks suited it - big and bold bodes well. In fact, nothing had the room more elated than O'Flynn's 'Sunspear' making an appearance. Guys. It was pure joy in that hall. I was going out for air and heard the little intro coming in, dove back into the crowd just in time for the silence to drop before that huge trumpet fanfare blasted out of the speakers. I could tell a lot of people around me didn't know the track but were absolutely loving it, so it was certainly one for everyone. The lighting was unreal also, with the whole rig descending to just above the crowd at points, more colours and beams than you can count, and at one point the entire screen behind the booth was lit up with this deep, powerful red that just sunk into everything it touched. Bonobo made more nods to his Fabric album with 'Jacquot' by Poté, and towards the end there was this surprise appearance by Skrillex for a quick b2b which seemed really random at first. However, 'Midnight Hour' has been one of my favourite recent drops, and so when it came on it was like the whole thing was especially for me (lol). All in all, a great six or so hours of music, and as ever it was over too soon!
Moving on from live to recordings, three big albums dropped last Friday, from Floating Points, Tourist and Jacques Greene. They're all really strong, but to quickly discuss in that order, Floating Points has provided us with forty four minutes of genius. It ranges from classical music with 'Falaise' to heavy drum and bass with 'Bias', because of which I find it impossible to ignore Aphex Twin influences. That being said, it's certainly and completely his own style, and I haven't heard anything like it before. It's fantastic, although perhaps slightly too academic in its complexity for easy listening. Tourist's release takes the other end of the scale, and pretty much every song on it indulges your ear with euphoric melodies and harmonies. The title track 'Wild' harks back to ODESZA, and 'Kin' for me is the standout, with a catchy male vocal sample and numerous silences effectively punctuating the five minutes. Jacques Greene's album takes the cake for eclecticism, with a variety of moods and sounds throughout. There's a lot of interesting sampling, for instance in 'Do It Without You' and 'For Love', and the lyrical style and voice in 'Night Service' gives me references to that classic queer house sound which has been so influential. Oh, and the album art is so lovely. It's got that emotive strength of Rothko's paintings and I would kill for a poster of it! Or the vinyl, whatever.
That's all for this week, just to add, I have decided to do a playlist to upkeep what I've discussed / songs I'm particularly drawn to, and I'll update it with each post to keep it fresh, please follow it here! I think it'll be a nice way to continually keep you involved in what I'm excited about. I have another post coming out for Pretend next week for a really, really exciting gig I went to on Saturday. Keep an eye out on Instagram etc. for it, and have a lovely week. xx
Happy Sunday everybody! I've been craving to write something for ages but work has been crazy and finding time has been difficult, so feels good to have a lazy day in bed and just talk about some tunes. I'm gonna do a Discover list as I had a nice, eclectic mix of new finds this week, but there's a few other bits and bobs to mention. The sun has been coming up before I leave the flat in the mornings, which is one of my favourite things as summer starts to come around the corner. I'm always rushing out last minute, so I untangle my earphones as I'm walking and think about what the first song I want to play is. When it's bright and the world is awake, I always seem to want some hype tunes on first thing, whereas when I left in the dark I'd want some gloomy, echo-y beats so I felt like I melted into the scene around me. Summary - summer's coming and I'm excited. New music?
#1 - Nyako - Daisho Remix - Makadem, Behr
Soooooo glad I've discovered this song and it's in my life. It's from 2017, and the original is by South African producer 'Behr' together with Makadem, produced during a 'Santuri Safari' session at Sondeka Festival in Kenya - pretty cool. The whole EP contains three different remixes and is fantastic as a work as a whole - this remix is by Indian producer Daisho, and the global fusion of musical minds has created quite the banger. Instrumentation and vocals are beautiful, I really like the bird noise in the background (remember this for later actually), and the track is brought into a standard house rhythm, letting you dance into a trance with it. The bassline moves in two-note patterns, keeping the song moving but not too rapidly. I also really like the level of electronic sound in the song; it's not overdoing it, but there's some real repeating frequencies which would make it fit in a club setting and gives it more character. Also, the album art is beautiful!
#2 - Feel Infinite - Jacques Greene
I think I actually already knew this song but it came up in my Discover Weekly and Jacques Greene is great so I wanted to include it anyway! Great wind chime effects, funky-jumpy synths, exciting hi-hats, lead up to a drop with great held bass notes and a simple but effective drum beat. It really gives me an image of some expensive car driving down an empty motorway suspended in the sky, camera angles changing, intensity building, all peng. It's reminded me that I need to listen to the whole 'Feel Infinite' album properly, and so should you! His most famous song 'Another Girl' is amazing as well, so give that a listen if you haven't already.
#3 - Lullaby, For J - salute
Simple and beautiful. Cut up vocals is obviously a very much saturated market at this point but when it's done right it's stunning how they can carry just as much meaning as real words. The distorted 'ooo's also remind me of something from an N64 Zelda game which is amusing. I really like the juxtaposition of these sounds and the unaltered piano and strings chords. I haven't got loads to say here, but I think it's very much a nice and wholesome track. It rides a nice line between relaxing and energetic, and also reminds me of this song by Hayden James for some reason.
#4 - Night Flight - Arthur Miles
When I mentioned songs that help me fit the gloomy atmosphere in the dark first thing in the morning - this could not be more fitting, and the album art depicts it too. It's everything I love about ambient electronic music. It gives me real Floating Points vibes and the two sections of the song that intertwine throughout are both beautiful. The beat almost sounds like water rapidly dropping from a drain, the synths are like wind whistling past city blocks, the waves of the song rise and fall and the textures of it mesh so well together. I've also recently decided that 8 minutes is my favourite song length (lol) so this checks that criteria too. Arthur Miles is Adelaide, South Australia, but that's about all I can find out :(. Check him out, because more people should hear his sound. Up the ambience.
#5 - Inkoleko - Goldie, James Davidson, Subjective
Subjective is the collaborative effort of Goldie and Ulterior Motive's James Davidson. Although this song was released as a single about half a year ago, the album is pretty recent, and the sound is fresh. It's fantastic to see the bar held so high when stepping out from drum and bass. In fact, when they've been asked about the album, they say not being restricted by BPM etc. has been exciting for them, and it shows. The bass still thumps and the energy is still definitely high, but it doesn't get restricted to a genre at all. Just another reason for 2019 to be a great year for music, and I want to try and sit down and listen to the rest of the album now it's out. So, I started off the list with some African influence, and we're rounding it off with the same.
That about does it for Spotify songs, I also heard this cool cover of Gabriel, but didn't feel I wanted to write a whole paragraph on it. Tourist released his new album a couple of days ago, Everyday, and I would rate it a strong 8/10. I noticed how consistent the tone is throughout the album as I let it play on repeat at work and it created a consistent atmosphere rather than just feeling like dull repetition. 'Emily' is incredible, a stand out tune, and I also really enjoy 'Love Theme'. The album utilises warm vibrations and optimistic melodies that are able to encapsulate both joy and melancholy simultaneously. I hear Burial influences in a few of the tracks which I always love to hear, but Tourist really has managed to establish his own sound which I believe is really becoming recognisable. He's not trying to be too complex, and a lot of his music is easy listening, but that by no means would ever make it not good or worthy of merit. Unified sound is what I'd say makes the album a success, and at 42 minutes it isn't too long either.
Finally, I just wanted to mention some new playlists I've started working on that you should totally follow :^). They're named after some of our solar system's planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto (whether it counts or not), and I've tried to incorporate the sounds that enter my head when I think of both the planets themselves and the gods of their namesakes when putting them together. Pretty proud of the results, and they're seven very different moods. Also, they're very much ongoing, so join the interplanetary music journey. EDIT - I forgot to mention that Four Tet released a new remix of Dave's '18HUNNA' this week and it's a JAM. As I mentioned earlier, bird noise can be brilliantly atmospheric in songs and playing it over a grime song creates a collision of the serene and the harshness of reality that is really effective - love. Thanks for reading, have a great week xxx
