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Assume Form, James Blake’s 2019 album, detailed his joy at being in love. Blake’s other half, the actor Jameela Jamil, politely requested he find a new subject next time. He has obliged with a record about the pain of sundered friendships. Last year’s lockdowns helped him sort the keepers from the energy vampires; a few of these songs were trialled during Blake’s Instagram Live gigs in 2020.

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We all know losing a friend can be just as painful as losing a lover – “it hurts like the end of the world,” he sings on Coming Back. At first this elegant compendium of digital chamber music and subtle trap pop works like a breakup album. Many affecting tracks detail the sharknado of outrage and bewilderment in Blake’s trademark delicate soprano, offset occasionally by well-chosen collaborators (SZA, or rappers JID and SwaVay) or startlingly pitch-shifted vocals.

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But FTBYH also weighs in on the creative process, the business of music and comparing oneself to others. Lead single Say What You Will is a mellow anthem about self-worth, while Funeral is another key track. “I hold my ear to a shell,” sings Blake pointedly, “I hear something that no one can sell.” – The Guardian

Released in the same year as Synthesis over on KPM, 1974’s Synthesizer and Percussion is its essential companion piece. “This record features the many distinctive sounds of the ARP Synthesizer plus percussion in various moods and tempos” is the even more underwhelming than usual library record sales pitch for Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett’s second collection of what is basically minimal G-funk, with overtones of primitive acid house. This is ridiculously good.

This is one of Hawkshaw and Bennett’s wilder joints and aeons ahead of its time. Bennett’s tough drums provide the underpinnings for the prominent bass, keys and bubbling synths high up in the mix, alongside Hawkshaw’s deranged clavinet-funk-rock. There are heavenly break loops galore.

As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Synthesizer and Percussion comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. – Be With Records

Musick to Play in the Dark, their magnum opus, released just as the last millennium turned, is part Muzak and part Magick. It’s effective, setting a mood like marital aids Music to Keep Your Husband Happy and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, or Haruomi Hosono’s ’80s music for department-store shopping, or Spotify’s yawning chasms of vibey playlists—yet far more potent, almost domineering. If you give yourself over to it, odd things transpire. (Many moons ago, I spent a year or so falling asleep to it. One night I did not. My house burned down the next morning.) – Pitchfork 

Ishmael Butler and Tendai “Baba” Maraire of Shabazz Palaces have always been proud iconoclasts, consistently breaking ground in spaces once thought incompatible with hip-hop. They were among the few rap acts signed to Sub Pop; they were pretty much the only rap artists to ever perform at the avant-garde Big Ears festival in Knoxville. This adventurous spirit continues down the Butler family line with Ishmael’s son Jazz, aka Lil Tracy. It seems that Jazz’s work has had a profound effect on his father’s project; in recent interviews, Butler cites his own son as an influence.

As one of the original members of the GothBoiClique, Tracy is an important figure in the development of “emo rap,” and what’s fascinating about Shabazz’s new album The Don of Diamond Dreams is the degree to which Ish seems to be learning from the new generation. Like polarizing label mates clipping., Shabazz’s brand of “alternative” hip-hop is not so much opposed to the mainstream as it is reflective of it, absorbing tangents of influence from trap, Auto-Tuned R&B, chopped and screwed, and other variants. Their lyrics are often shaped by the hip-hop hegemony too, playing off Rap Caviar tropes and taunting the Top 40 with a tongue-in-cheek braggadociousness, the kind that lets you know that Butler is still the same MC who told us he was cool like that all those years ago.– Pitchfork

Singer, songwriter and heartbreaker Keaton Henson is releasing his electronic side-project Behaving on vinyl for the very first time. Entirely self-made and recorded in the dark with lyrics laid down off the cuff, Behaving is an unsettling, introverted exploration of love, ego and the creative process.Conceived in the shadow of his yet untitled follow-up to 2013’s Birthdays, Behaving has previously only been released digitally and follows vinyl editions of Henson’s Dear, Birthdays and Romantic Works.

Released in an edition of 1000, each copy comes with an exclusive art print that has been hand-signed and numbered by Henson, with five very special copies also including a hand-written missive. – The Vinyl Factory

Jim Jarmusch wasn’t the first but was close to saying it best: ‘Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.’ The culture that fuels our virtuosity is founded upon the art of theft. And this is what O$VMV$M do. This is the debut LP from Young Echo members Sam ‘Neek’ Barrett and Amos ‘Jabu & Zhou’ Childs, under their estranged cut’n’paste, analogue-fondling moniker. Only two months ago, this idiosyncratic Bristol duo had released a No Corner backed EP called Memoryz Of U. It was a practice in sonic splicing; falsifying originality by disassembling samples to their lowest denomination and refashioning them into something wholly different. Now, their eponymous album on Idle Hands consists of brief vignettes of lo-fi synth slurs and esoteric experimentalism. – Crack Magazine

Returning with his first album in 13 years, Errorsmith’s ‘Superlative Fatigue’ long-awaited release on PAN arrives as his perhaps most optimistic record yet.

Placing a strong emphasis on spectral exploration, the tracks tell an inherent story and span a musical arc with his recognisable synthesised tones, computerised vocal effects and timbral changes in motion.

In comparison to his previous productions, Errorsmith (Erik Wiegand) sees the release as less abstract, harsh or aggressive: “I would say it is rather accessible and cheerful; at times ridiculously cheerful but still very sincere and emotional.” He suggests. “I find it touching when this little android raises its pitch at the end of ‘Lightspeed’ or the android catching its breath in ‘My Party’ for instance.”

The album title, ‘Superlative Fatigue’ reflects this tension between an over-the-top, hysterical emotion, against more deeply felt expressions or realness.
Besides collaborating with the likes of Mark Fell, to Berghain resident Fiedel as MMM, and Soundstream as Smith N Hack, Wiegand has released a string of seminal dancefloor tracks. Building his own instruments using modular software synthesizers is a large part of his work. Where almost all the sounds in the LP were created with his synth, ‘Razor’, (a synthesizer plug-in he developed for Native instruments, released in 2011) or slightly modified versions of it. Premiered at Unsound Festival last year, this new material he has developed since has finally taken form in this epic full-length.

The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring artwork by James Hoff and layout by Bill Kouligas. - Bandcamp

Born in Assam, Gauhati, in Northeast India, but currently based in New York’s storied borough of Brooklyn, jitwam spent his formative years in New Zealand and Australia, before living in monasteries in Thailand, orphanages in South Africa, and washed out apartments in London. Of everywhere and nowhere, his music draws influence from a litany of iconoclasts including, but not limited to RD Burman, Moondog, The Velvet Underground, Yayoi Kusama, Jay Electronica, Jay Dilla, Moodymann, Leon Thomas, Madlib and Asha Bhosle.

Across the album he utilises knowledge acquired through years spent digging through dusty crates, and talents honed as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist. A series of stumbling, jazz/soul-rooted beat sculptures, each buried beneath a haze of fuzzy psychedelia, broken microphone blues, and articulated through a freestyled process he describes as “first thought, best thought”, ज़ितम सिहँ solidifies jitwam's spot as a major emerging talent.

Recalling the fourth world dreamscapes explored by oddball songwriters like Connan Mockasin, Clarence Clarity, Jai Paul, Silicon, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, it represents a time of transition and remembrance for jitwam, while still fulfilling the core qualities he looks for in song. In his words, “Music is a refuge. A shelter from the storm. A place you can go to close your eyes.” – Jitwam | Bandcamp

Claude Speeed returns to Planet Mu, two years after the 'Sun Czar Temple' EP, with his second album 'Infinity Ultra'. He describes the record he's been creating since he started making computer music as one "conceiving an interior territory: an abstract space to process the oppression, confusion and insanity of the contemporary age; and to formulate an honest emotional and artistic response - a psychic jumping off point into an uncertain future." 

'Infinity Ultra' takes inspiration from sleep paralysis, monumental artworks, children’s anime, abandoned places, ghostly rave pasts and terrifying silicon valley futures, and the limitless anger of the digital present. These influences have been channelled into an impressionistic burst of varied creativity: Shimmering VSTs; monolithic noise; euphoric blocks of colourful sound; trance stabs and the citrus rush of hardcore; towering drones, and skynet math rock – all rendered against cold, sinister space and nostalgic synth melodies.
 
The album reveals the artist’s Scottish roots, viewed at a hazy distance from his Berlin home - a series of memories of Glasgow’s experimental psychedelic underground, its DIY rock scene and defiant club hedonism. These genre relationships are blurred and at times they contrast with audible brutality; the result is a hybrid, sculptured way of rendering music – minimal specifics, maximum emotions.

Forty years after Nurse With Wound’s first record, Finders Keepers Records, in close collaboration with Steve Stapleton remind fans of THIS kind of “lost” music, that there once existed a feint path which was worn away decades before major label pop property developers built over this psychedelic underground. As long-running fans and liberators of some of the same records, arriving at the same axis from different-but-the-same planets, Finders Keepers and Nurse WIth Wound finally sing from the same hymn sheet resulting in a collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from the list, succeeding where many overzealous nerds have deferred (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick). Naturally our lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium would only scratch the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities hence out decision to release volume one in a series which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focuses exclusively on individual tracks of French origin, the country that unsurprisingly hosted the highest content of bands on the list. Comprising of musique concrète, free jazz, Rock In Opposition, Zeuhl School space rock, macabre ballet music, lo-fi sci-fi, and classic horror literature inspired prog, this first volume of the series entitled Strain Crack And Break throws us in at the deep end, where the Seine meets the in-sane, introducing the space cadets that found Mars in Marseilles. – Bandcamp

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up again to release another volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the cannon of disco music, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined "The San Francisco Sound." Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco at the age of 21. He studied at the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab. During this time Patrick, along with his classmates Maurice Tani and Art Adcock, would create radio jingles and electronic pieces using the school's equipment, first a Putney, then an E-MU System and finally a Serge synthesizer. He would make experimental instrumental songs by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer. – Bandcamp

 Russell's most personal and radical statement consists simply of his folksy tenor, cello, and scant electronic microtones-- all lathered with echo, distortion, and reverb.

Russell's most poignant moments are when his production's playfulness articulates his fractured thoughts better than any lyrics. On "Tree House", he pits his vocals in different rooms, soaking in their acoustics, as if sneaking into his tree house to play hookey. World's finest moment, "See-Through", lets his cello's high registers criss-cross about to blanket his dazed sighs that fade into an ether like Polaroids left in the sunlight too long. It's a fitting eulogy. - Pitchfork

“Moriyama is the first release on Palto Flats by Nagoya-based experimental producer Foodman. A 5 track 12” focused on deep, tactile rhythmic and offbeat tracks, Moriyama tilts on some of the producer’s most dance-friendly work. “Mizuboro,” (meaning water bath) elicits the feeling of soaking in a tub of warm bassy synth pads, metronomic patterns of woodwinds and skittering percussion suitable for latenight winds. Elsewhere, on “Soudesu,” Foodman experiments with traditional instrumentation & vocal forms to create a special post-ambient/dance hybrid of familiar sounds reconfigured.

Named after the district he lives in, Moriyama represents some of Foodman’s most direct, accessible work - a full helping.” – Bandcamp

“Nagoya-based artist Takahide Higuchi will release some of his most "direct, accessible work" to date, the label says, with an emphasis on "deep, tactile rhythmic and offbeat tracks." It's the second release of the year for Palto Flats, the New York label that's perhaps best known for reissuing rare Japanese albums from the '80s—Mariah's Utakata No Hibi, Midori Takada's Through The Looking Glass and Yasuaki Shimizu's Kakashi among them.” – Resident Advsior

 

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“Midori Takada’s 1990 collaborative album with Masahiko Satoh, Lunar Cruise, is receiving its first vinyl reissue. It arrives September 15 via We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want, and it’s available for pre-order now. The LP features recordings of ambient pioneer and percussionist Takada and jazz pianist Satoh, as well as contributions from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono and Kazutoki Umezu. The vinyl package also includes the original studio masters and a CD with a bonus track called “Iron Paradise.” The reissue of Lunar Cruise follows the recent reissue of Takada’s debut record Through the Looking Glass. Listen to a preview of Lunar Cruisebelow.” – Pitchfork

“…Satoh has had a long recording career, with albums that date back to the late '60s. He's made music alongside free jazz players like Steve Lacy and Peter Brötzmann, as well as Gary Peacock and Toots Thielemans. Released seven years after Through The Looking Glass, Lunar Cruise straddles the line between Satoh's versatile playing and Takada's meticulous percussion. The CD reissue opens with "Iron Paradise," which is sleek and strange at first pass. Wonky digital bass, courtesy of Haruomi Hosono, and squalling synth lines mark Takada's steadfast percussion, her fills more grand than anything onThrough The Looking Glass. Hosono also contributes to "Madorone," a queasy ambient piece of disembodied voices, rubbed wineglass drones and Takada's small percussive accents. 

Takada's more measured, gamelan-like timbres can be found on the second track, "Nahm," entwining with Satoh's more overt melodies. "Ancient Palace" hews even closer to the template established on Through The Looking Glass, with gongs resonating in negative space and marimba lines bringing to mind sunlight rippling on a river's surface. The latter instrument also surfaces on "In "D"," which resembles a pitched-up Steve Reich's "Six Marimbas." "Monody" shows how well the two artists combined, with Satoh's sparkling melodies out in front. 

The album's longest composition showcases Takada's dynamic playing. "Chang-Dra" builds for two minutes with little more than the sound of struck metal, a tom roll slowly emerging underneath it. The middle section of the piece finds Takada toggling between many different rhythmic patterns, a showstopping display of her drumming talent. Satoh is a good foil for Takada, pushing her rhythms into prog, synth pop and new age realms. On Lunar Cruise, he helps bring out another side of Takada's sound.” – Resident Advisor

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A suite of electronic laments, tone structures and dreamtime rhythms, with a conceptual arc taking in death, life, sleep and religion.

Right from Hazyville, Actress’s music has been deeply marked by London’s rave music heritage. But after the angular dynamics of Splazsh, R.I.P heads out into deep space. The rhythms and pulses are smudged or blurred, or are hinted at by their absence. 2-step garage is collided into gamelan, and freeform interludes explore microtonal spaces and imagined string instruments.

R.I.P underlines Actress’s reputation as one of the most eloquent voices to emerge from the sub-bass nexus of London dance music. His intuitive and original grasp of beats, textures and rhythm puts him on a parallel path to dance music innovators such as Basic Channel, Burial and Aphex Twin. But the way he engages with electronic sound from first principles, realising his own self-contained sonic worlds, hints at less obvious kinships outside the dance music fraternity, with pioneers of homebrewed sound experiments such as Cabaret Voltaire, Pan Sonic and Oval. It moves the body but the sounds also tap into to something more intangible inside you; you dance, but also ‘slip/drift into another realm, probably without even realising.’ – Honest Jon’s Records

“Darren Cunningham is a dance producer who references extroverted, populist music to create a meditative, introverted, immersive experience.…It's not the sound that makes the music, though, but the structure of it. R.I.P. is a deliberately uncoordinated album. Rhythms, basslines, and melodies slip in and out of line with each other. Comparatively straightforward, house-oriented tracks like "Shadow From Tartarus" are situated next to murk and ambience like "Tree of Knowledge". The emphasis here, though, is on "comparative": Even R.I.P.'s steady 4/4 tracks sound grimy and deconstructed. But there's something almost flirtatious in the way he lets the sounds worm around in the dark, looking to hook up with something firm. When they do, it's both mechanical and mystical, like watching a sculpture cut from raw stone.” – Pitchfork

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A TAV Curator's Pick.

Usually, groups wait until they've released at least three or four records before putting out a live album, but PNYC was too good an idea for Portishead to turn down. Recorded with a full orchestra on a cold, rainy day shortly after the release of their second record, Portishead, the project doubled as a live album and the soundtrack for a BBC documentary. In addition to being economical and perhaps lucrative, the disc demonstrates how sampled and sequenced music can be re-created in concert without losing any of the charm or dynamics of the original recordings. All it takes is a 22-piece string section, some horns, and a band whose tightness is exceeded only by its creativity. 

At times the performances on PNYC sound even more breathtaking and cinematic than Portishead's original recordings, as humming theremin, skittery scratching, and gliding strings mingle with stealthy guitar lines and sultry vocals. For Portishead, sour times seem like a distant memory. - Jon Wiederhorn

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