Recent Listening

Given my inability to keep this section regularly updated the vague 'recent' ought to do. This is what's been spinning, in no particular order:

The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
This arrived in the post yesterday and while not as immediately swoon-inducing as Persistent Repetition of Phrases Kirby here is more challenging with regard to structure. The material itself is less overtly processed, but the arrangements are: short loops cycle blankly, then shift slightly to reveal more, or less, of themselves. Pieces end abruptly, and it's difficult to determine when one track ends and another begins. Very interesting.



DJ Rashad: 'Itz Not Rite'
Finally listened to Chicago juke via Planet Mu's Bangs & Works compilation and was very surprised. Expected it to be all jackhammer pummel and lightning fast low-fi jitters but there's real engagement and patience at work. This is the highlight, tipped by David Toop in The Wire. I'm sure it gets more violent than this, but I want to hear that too.



Moritz von Oswald Trio: Horizontal Structures
Nice to hear more voices in the mix, Tikiman's guitar particularly, and while the link to Miles circa Silent Way is made more clear it could benefit from greater pacing, more dynamics. As it is it's rather flat. Bought on vinyl too.



The Wire's Below The Radar 6
Usually miss these but glad I didn't with this, there's a lot of interesting music here. The following three in particular:
Borngraber & Struver: 'Dancing Queen'
Great slow-mo, low-slung, heavy house chug. Not much happens but so effective, remaining engaging throughout its long duration.



Mark Fell: 'Manitutshu 1.3'
I loved Mark Fell's Multistability of last year, for all its difficulty, but this is better: incredible sound design, but set to simple, effective arrangements. Tones like updated 303 blips, pulsing to disordered algorithmic functions.
Mark Bradley: 'Spiraling'
Know nothing about Mark Bradley but this is ace, doing what the title says in a Mego way, related to the Mark Fell but more painful in parts, more hectic, and less clinical.

Mokira: Time Axis Manipulation
Great beatless drifting dub shimmer. FloatingHead speaks more eloquently about it here.



Velvet Hands: Daily Session Mix 5/17
Find it hard to commit to mixes and podcasts with the deluge out there, usually need some kind of personal introduction, vouch of quality or somesuch. This set by an old chum for Brooklyn radio is worth sticking with: slow deep thud through to brash nineties house. Get it here.

Ryan Elliot: LWE Podcast 82
Decent streamlined techno from Detroit. Saw him at Sonar in 2007 and he was wonderful; this isn't as good, for obvious reasons, but still worth a listen. get it here.

Dean Martin: Italian Love Songs

Made pizza on Saturday and Dino is my favourite cooking music, heck, some of my favourite music fullstop. Not usually about offering downloads but he's dead and these labels aren't worth troubling yourself over, so do yourself a favour and get the album, in FLAC here:

Dean Martin: Italian Love Songs