Reach #8: bb948; Dirty Electronics & Oliver Torr; Conna Harraway, & more
Reach #8: bb948; Dirty Electronics & Oliver Torr; Conna Harraway, & more
This edition of the Reach newsletter, sponsored by various tissue manufacturers, offers a glint of a festival review to come, some reviews, and a long-missed playlist that we'll say was September's.
The 5th of October marked one of the first actually chilly mornings here in Prague, after a balmy 28 degree day a few rotations past. It feels surreal to have such weather lasting this late into the season, and I can’t help but feel warning words of a wrinkled old weatherwatcher whispering inside my head “a long summer means a cold winter coming!”
Laying the red carpet out for myself with the last email with “Reach returns!”, promising “more writing soon!” was always going to be a struggle with the onset of Lunchmeat Festival — one of Prague’s longest-running event series and among the biggest musical institutions, which I’ve been handling International PR and Partnerships for the last three years.
This isn’t yet my review of the festival, that will come later, but as I sip my (hopefully miraculously remedial) ginger and lemon green tea infusion, listening to the spankin’ new album by Thursday’s must-see, Marina Herlop, I’m reminded of some of the highlights from this year, and about why Lunchmeat serves such a purpose here in Czech Republic.
Preparing for the festival (and indeed the time, since recovering from it) meant quite little time spent invested in listening to music, which is thankfully changed now, but a handful of stuff landed lately that I want to highlight.
bb948 - export
Pep Gaffe - 19/09/23
A few editions back in Reach I covered the xclnt xtclvr (hahaa) who released a really wicked album of icy dub-ambient-trap fusions that kinda toppled me, and still does. The label which put that out, Pep Gaffe, is a Kyiv-based institution with a whole discography of this really captivating sound, and while fawning over how fucking excellent 2022’s ‘considered’ album from mysterious amalgam all options is, they dropped this brilliant release from bb948.
The tracks come and go all-too quickly, but make up for their brevity with an instrinsic magnetism that extends beyond the individual parts. I really do challenge you to only listen to a couple — the tentative creep of the fuzzed-up rhythmic sections and the blurred approach to sound design is spot-on. The grid is truly scrambled, and what elements there are of predictability in the production is balanced by compositions where frequent turns confound expectations: ‘untitled 1’ crunches fresh snow footprints over a landscape that shifts underfoot, unstable and indeterminable.
Back when I reviewed xtcvlr’s ‘blurred days’, I complained a little about the brevity in the tracks as well, but I’m having a realisation about it, now. I’m tentative to suggest underlying social/political metaphors in music where it’s not already stated by the artist, but I wonder if this stylistic doesn’t subconsciously (or otherwise metaphorically) reflect a personal sense of instability and fragility felt by all the people of Ukraine. Nevertheless, the music itself is bright, and perfect for the inbound cold weather — speaking of, while I don’t know any specific fundraising site by memory, Ukrainians will need more winter jackets.
Dirty Electronics & Oliver Torr - Piu Hiway
Mille Plateaux - 02/09/23
I’ll be frank, there’s a fair bit of nepotism and self-pride in including this album: Oliver is a close friend, he invited me (and a load of other friends) to one of the recording sessions which led to this album, and Oliver’s partner Anna-Marie Berdychova did the stunning artwork.
It’s no small point of pride to see this arriving on Mille Plateaux, which has quite the history in electronic music, but disclaimers aside, it’s — can I say ‘objectively’? — a really great album of noisy mayhem, showcasing both Torr’s excellent sound design and composition skills and John Richards’ (Dirty Electronics) skill at sourcing source material from crazy physical materials.
Transmutating a frankly staggering amount of music, with 7 additional musicians in the formula, and constituting hours in multitrack recordings into a distilled form is no easy task, yet the rugged and scratched beauty of this record lies in the illusion of simplicity.
Forged on the idea of only using fragmented and brief sounds, each musician gets just split seconds of airtime at once, yet there is cohesiveness in the assembled form. ‘itsnotasaxcmon_!’ features gasps of flute, clarinet and recorder, along with staccato pops of a no-input mixer fuckery, while throughout petrified white noise and piercing curses blurt from corrupt and wasted radio-like bulletins and manipulated disc drives, and bell-like tolls rumble under steely gibberish. Not one for most people’s Sunday morning coffee, but if you like anything akin to power electronics, sound art and noise, you’ll dig this.
Conna Haraway - Lusidiq
Theory Therapy - 29/09/23
INDEX:Records co-head Conna Haraway unveils a startlingly good debut album via Australian label Theory Therapy (plenty to dig into there). If you’ve been keeping up with INDEX, you’ll know his music from the best-in-class Valentine’s Day V/A comps, and you’ll be familiar with the aesthetic of the label.
If that isn’t you, this is actually a really great place to start with the experience. Evocatively hinted at in the album illustration, Conna crafts with fog and steam dense, elemental listening music which possesses lightness in the highs and a tremendous physical consistency in the lows. Scattered kinetic rhythms are present, but there’s an overall smoothness that aligns it with the modernist takes on “ambient” listening music, or whatever you wanna call it.
If you follow 3XL, Experiences Ltd or similar, this formula won’t be news to you, per se, but ‘Lusidiq’ is distinctly Haraway’s own, a fact I don’t need to iterate to anyone following INDEX:Records (since you’ll already be aware they are of their own kind, not anyone elses). Album comes with three rehashes from Salamanda, Opheliaxz and Nexciya (as CONNEXCIYA), all of which out extremely tasteful reimaginings coloured by their own identity. Nexciya’s contribution in particular scores points for being 10 minutes long and consistently arresting, premium headphone fuzz.
Starting to quite dislike this name I’ve given the playlists, hey ho. Check the consecutive playlist on Buy Music Club (click here and the image above). Slightly less time than usual spent on the order, but if it offends you so much, cry me a river.
Petra Hermanova - Marrow Embers [Unguarded]
One look ahead to that Lunchmeat Festival review: Petra’s performance on autoharp, joined by organist Denny Wilke, could be described as spellbinding, entrancing, any number of similar phrases, and none would capture the spiritual essence imparted in those 50 minutes. Album drops soon, and it’s incredibly powerful stuff.
Jasaro People - Suffering [333 / Death Is Not The End]
Been obsessing over these Jamaican dub/dancehall reissues via DINTE sub-label 333, so much killer material here. This one for the current times!
bb498 - august 9 [Pep Gaffe]
Kinda like Actress but… (gasp!) better. Yeah.
Lord Of the Isles & Ellen Renton - A Discovery [AD93]
One of the nicer cuts from the recent collaborative piece from these two, LOTI does a great job of balancing interesting stereofield experiments that disappear into Renton’s poetry, and her gorgeous soft-spoken Scottish accent.
The Organizing Committee - Beyond Response [No Type]
Reviewed this exceptionally interesting record on No Type in Electronic Sound last month, so you’ll have to dig that out to get more thoughts, but this is a really entrancing album that you couldn’t guess was built with AI. Human mastermind and AI activist/critical thinker Erik Salvaggio runs one of the most interesting Substacks I know of.
Jay Glass Dubs - Waltz (feat. Marcella) [Extended Techniques]
A tough call to pick from the latest from JGD’s new album, but I opted for this majestic slice. JGD slows his formula from the frenetic inverse junglism on ‘DJ HUMBLE EP’, to glorious effect here.
Temp-Illusion - Jane Plough [PTP]
Berliners, go to Iran Contemporary Sounds festival end of next week! Temp-Illusion will play alongside Sarah Davachi and heaps of others.
Dirty Electronics & Oliver Torr - WeedApptSuite [Mille Plateaux]
The one from the album you can hear my input on the most, so vanity decrees…
exmantera - I JUST GOTTA GO (feat. Yaokai) [paynomindtous]
Terrifying, yet booty-shake vibey. I think I’ll leave it there.
Aircode - Disgust [Gin&Platonic]
Like Pessimist & De Babalon laying in bed together with a compound migraine, but on a studio deadline. Hot steez from G&P, one of Czechia’s best labels.
Hoavi - Phase 2 [GOST ZVUK]
Slewed & directionless club-oriented ‘phases’ from Hoavi, intricate rhythms and entrancing suffusions of texture.
Darkchild - Tell Dem (prod. Wetman)[Duppy Gun]
The great Duppy Gun fires once again! The pinnacle of all that’s good coming out of Jamaica, this time there’s 4 beats by Wetman ridden by 4 of Duppy’s sharpshooters, all in their own indelible style.
DJ Strawberry & 夜 JUKE - Variation (RABiN×LOViN Remix) [Outlines]
From a truly inspired series of footwork remixes — all from the same Yoru Juke crew from Okinawa — of Strawberry’s spellbinding Cycles album. This captures Variation’s magnetism and adds plucked basslines and maybe-polyrhythmic percussion for a *chef’s kiss* finish. A really interesting yet subtly take on remixing.
Hot In Da Club - Ewo Ewo Ewo [SSPB]
Hot In Da Club, or Spooky Shit, or pq, ekhe, and spooky-j, or who cares really. Steamy messy chaotic **!!DANCE!!** music that does the good thing and fucks vanilla 4/4 into the mattress with a 10” strap. So, of course we like it.
WaqWaq Kingdom - Shogyu Mujo [Phantom Limb]
I fucking love Phantom Limb for this — not long after releasing the mesmeric Ellen Zweig they drop new music from one of Japan’s best musical exports, WaqWaq Kingdom. Still, I find too few people whose faces light up like mine when I mention them. So much to get into on this duo, just tuck in.
Conna Haraway - Finite (CONNEXCIYA Remix) [Theory Therapy]
10 minute stasis ambient-dub excellence? Great way to close out I think!
I was gonna close with a little review of a recent writing workshop I did at Lunchmeat, but I’m gonna save it for another time, and swap it for a little nag: it’d be great if we all collectively got it through our heads that it’s not cool to go to an event if you’re full of cold. It doesn’t have to be full-blown diagnosed COVID to be “bad enough” to not go out… I’m skipping playing one of my favourite parties, Bent, in Brno, because I’m still stuffed with cold. Who wants to catch anything at a rave? Quicker we realise this the better: the big C is definitely back (never left) and you’ll bitch like a spoiled kid if you get your clubs taken away again.