With so many great releases coming thick and fast, it’s easy for a release to slip by and be forgotten. No lengthy write-ups, as who reads them anyway? We won’t waste your time with lengthy reviews because you’re here to listen to music! If you enjoy the music we have chosen this week, please click on the links below and support the artists.
Albums
Anadol – Felicita
Psychedelia, krautrock, twisted pop, freak folk and cosmic jazz converge on the latest release from Turkish psychedelic synth folk project Anadol via Pingipung. Anadol flits across genres with no care in the world to form something kaleidoscopic and captivating. You can file this under eccentric, eclectic, and brilliant.
Tapani Rinne & Juha Mäki-Patola – Open
Finish musicians Tapani Rinne & Juha Mäki-Patola intersect ambient, ECM jazz, and neo-classical music on their transportive collaborative album ‘Open’. The album serves as the perfect balm for these dark times with its soothing and uplifting qualities. Fans of last year’s Floating Points & Pharaoh Sanders album press play and get lost in the music.
Luke Gajdus – In Breath
As a result of Luke Gajdus’ desire to bring inner peace to a troubled world, In Breath was conceived. There are moments of melancholy on the album, but ultimately moments of lightness, balance, and harmony rise from it. Gajdus creates beautifully crafted ambient, neoclassical music that will transport you to another realm.
K Degiorgio – Applied Rhythmic Technology: Composer Series No.3 – The Neural Trial
With the Composer Series, ART Records emulates the vintage Library album format. In this third edition, Kirk Degiorgio uses Buchla synthesisers in conjunction with complex orchestration. Twelve tracks from Degiorgio exploring the realms of neural gateways and pathways. Click play a take a voyage into the unknown.
Test Card – Patterns
British producer Lee Nicholson has been plying his trade for a long time. Formerly of indie-rockers Formula One in the Nineties and a prolific solo artist since. Now operating under the guise of Test Card, he brings together another eclectic collection of tracks that blend meditative ambient, wobbly electronica, and delicate guitars. This pleasantly meandering blissful gem is sounding particularly good this Friday afternoon.
Parris – Soaked in Indigo Moonlight
Parris comes through with a superb debut album, having previously released for the likes of Hemlock, The Trilogy Tapes, Idle Hands and his own can you feel the sun label (that he co-runs with Call Super). ‘Soaked In Indigo Moonlight’ captures the best of the talented producer’s vision, bringing together stripped-down, club-rooted pop and expansive experiments in rhythm. Essential release!
Kreidler – Spells And Daubs
Kreidler, the cult Dusseldorf electronic group featuring Detlef Weinrich (Tolouse Low Trax) and friends, return with another impressive offering. Their sound touches industrial, krautrock, post-punk, continental pop, and experimental club music. Outstanding!
Jimpster – Birdhouse
Jimpster’s lockdown LP was produced throughout 2020 and is finally available for us all to devour. Birdhouse is the revered producer’s seventh LP and finds him reflecting on his early influences, including jazz, 70s fusion, library music, ambient, and sample-based downtempo electronica. Since you simply have to hear it for yourself (we think it’s Jimpster’s best work yet), we won’t go into too much detail (but we’ll still say it’s excellent).
Reissues
Sun Ra Arkestra & Salah Ragab – Egypt Strut
‘Egypt Strut’ announces ‘Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab In Egypt’, the first official release for the Sun Ra Arkestra’s seminal recording with Egyptian Jazz legend Salah Ragab. Originally released on the Greek label Praxis in 1983.
Singles
Dan Berkson – Blues for Bristol / Snackers
Dan Berkson follows up his excellent debut LP Dialogues on Freestyle Records with a solid two-tracker. ‘Blues for Bristol’ gets you moving, while ‘Snackers’ is one for the headphones, both of which are of superior quality.
