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Music

Alva Noto: Xerrox, Vol. 4 & 5 (digital, Noton, June 2020 & November 2024)

Obviously I lovelovelove Alva Noto. And I lapped up the first three volumes of the Xerrox series. In particular, I raved about the third installment, and I consider Xerrox Isola to be eight minutes of music that are about as close to perfection as any I’ve heard. Four summers ago, I very much enjoyed number […]

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Music

Lex Amor: Forward Ever (digital, Modern Oak, October 2024)

I described Lex Amor’s debut, Government Tropicana, as “super laid-back”. Well, I think she’s mellowed in the intervening four years. This is positively horizontal. Her vocals take more of a back-seat, and in particular the low-key pyrotechnics of the freestyle tracks on that mixtape are dialled right back here. To the fore are hazy atmospheric […]

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Music

Kelly Lee Owens: Dreamstate (digital, dh2, October 2024)

I’m pretty sure this (Owens fourth album, and the first since her eponymous debut that I’ve shelled out for) isn’t the classiest thing I’ve been listening to recently. Resident Advisor, say, were decidedly sniffy about it. Well, nuts to it. From the cheery trance of the opening track, Dark Angel, to the strings-and-piano electro-folk of […]

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Music

Winter Family: On Beautiful Days (digital, Murailles Music, September 2024)

Chevaliers, the last LP from this French–Israeli duo (okay, they say they are from “Jerusalem and Lotharingia”, the latter of which existed in some form between 855 and 959 C.E. and straddled modern-day France and Germany… but they also say that they’ve lived in Lorraine, which ended up in the French side… and she sounds […]

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Music

Sarah Davachi: The Head As Form​’​d In The Crier​’​s Choir (digital, Late Music, September 2024)

Oh wow oh wow oh wow. This is astonishing work from Davachi. If you are into pipe organ-heavy drone then it is must listen. Actually, I think it’s a must relisten, because it’s easy to miss stuff the first time around. The album is just over an hour and a half long, so I realize […]

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Music

Erik K Skodvin: Afterwar (digital, Miasmah, August 2024)

Skodvin has been a favourite in these parts for yonks, whether under his own name, as Svarte Greiner, or as half of Deaf Center. This short is album of short tracks, 9 of them in 23 minutes. His juddering strings and floating analogue synths are at their darkly atmospheric best, and supplemented here by sighing, […]

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Music

KMRU: Natur (digital, Touch, July 2024)

I am happy to admit that my feelings about this kind of music are highly subjective. After all, this album consists largely of various rather quiet buzzing type noises, synth “melodies” that often consist of two very long notes (or occasionally even just one: you may think that this is not possible, but I suggest […]

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Music

Steve Gunn: Clean Floor (digital, Longform Editions, August 2024)

For some reason, the youtube music algorithm decided to suggest this to me — presumably on the basis that back in the day I rinsed both Steve Gunn’s Live At The Night Light album and his collaboration with Mike Gangloff, Melodies For A Savage Fix… although these both came out about a decade ago, so […]

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Music

Dylan Henner: Performs Raymond Scott’s Soothing Sounds For Baby (digital, Dauw, May 2024)

Raymond Scott’s 1963 triple album of pioneering electronic music is an iconic thing. So you might think that for Dylan Henner to cover half a dozen tracks from it is brave, proud, foolish, or some combination of all those things (even if he was, apparently, motivated by wanting to have a more up-to-date version to […]

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Music

Sisso & Maiko: Singeli Ya Maajabu (digital, Nyege Nyege Tapes, May 2024)

I’m quite surprised to find that this is the first record I’ve bought on Nyege Nyege Tapes, who describe themselves as “a Kampala based label … releasing outsider music from around the region and beyond”. I’ve certainly listened to a bunch over the years. Anyway, there was no way I could resist this one. It […]