Elijah – Augmented

Sometimes I find myself wondering what the next thing will be. For example, what song will I write next? Then the obvious answer – if I knew that, I’d have already written it. Doesn’t stop me being surprised sometimes when it happens though.

Ditto this. I also occasionally wonder what album I’ll discover next that comes out of the blue, which again, is a bit of a nonsense to wonder. We humans are good at nonsense wondering. But anywho, I discovered this this morning. And it’s years since I’ve listened to music of this ilk, so I’m quite surprised by it.

Chris might like this one. Not sure about the rest of you though.

 

Kasra V – The Window EP

The positives of working from home. Once I got over the initial connecting to my institution’s systems, I started cranking out some tunes. Much better to listen to music on semi-decent speakers whilst you work than headphones; they cramp my ears after a while. Also, No worries about nearby colleagues telling me to turn that racket down.

This is an electronic racket, albeit not hard work for the uninitiated. Reminds me of certain 90s dance peeps I sometimes still listen to – not exactly unadjacent to Banco de Gaia, for example, though contemporary stuff like Octo Octa also springs to mind.

It’s only an EP, so my one criticism is that it ain’t long enough. I could quite easily have an album of this.

 

Tentakel – TwoFace

Although I listen to a resonable amount of electronic music, I’m even worse at catagorising that, so forgive the tags if they don’t seem complete or appropriate.

This may be the first album I’ve linked to on Bandcamp that has no supporters. It’s high on my list, though, for that time in the future when I may start having disposable income again, a time slightly more likely than The Rapture / The Singularity (but I repeat myself).

The Comet is Coming – Death to the Planet

These are clearly very well known by the standards of who I usually blog about, but I don’t care. I don’t have a prejudice against well-known bands, it’s just that they so rarely do anything which actually interests me, let alone blows me away. This, lady and gentleman, blew me away.

It probably says at least a few words about me in that I had genuinely never heard of them before. I actually discovered them via my hopping from bandcamp fan’s music taste to bandcamp fan’s music taste and clicking on albums where I liked the name of the band/album or the cover or both/all three. This trail started after I’ve been on something of a deep house kick, which I’ll blog a release or two about presently (expectations be damned! it’s the only thing they’re good for).

It starts off not unlike a slighlty jazzier Our Solar System with added cosmic synths. They subsequently head into more of an acid-house territory, though, squelchy basslines and woozy synths a go-go, an increasingly Nortec-with-crazier-saxophones kind of feel. If it isn’t reminiscent of the soundtrack to late night Tijuana, then I’ve never been to Tijuana (sidebar: I’ve never been to Tijuana), though I suppose it could be any large settlement in the tropics (sidebar: I’ve never been to the tropics). I am always really disappointed when it ends.

Their first album is very nearly as good. It was also nominated for some well known (in the UK) prize or other, which might go some way to explaining why music this good actually seems to have an audience. The times they might be a-darkening, but where there’s music this good around, there is always hope.

Hyenaz – Hyenaz

In complete contrast to almost everything I’ve ever posted about, ever, I bring you Hyenaz.

Hyenaz are a synth-pop duo from Berlin, although the epithet synth-pop doesn’t really do full justice to this electro-monster groove machine. The rhythms are relentless and thunderous, yet subtle when they want to be too – the art of good songwriting, in other words, that old boring chestnut I’m sure I keep banging on about. There is a hedonistic and sensual feel about the music despite its purely synthetic origins, and a hypnotic mixture of melody and screech. They give good performance, it is said, which goes a long way to suggesting one of the core things about creating good material, although there’s a much larger discussion to be had over all that which I may make into a macro-post if I can be arsed to work out my roughly seventeen contrasting opinions on the matter into mere words.

The nearest reference point – for me, anyway – is Telepathe, who as far as I know are still extant despite only having put out that one album some years back.

There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how and why I decide to give something a listen, and I couldn’t tell you how this fell onto my radar. I mean, this isn’t even their most recent album! So another thing to check out, then…