Foxy Digitalis Daily rolls on in week two (over on Patreon today, as always), and it continues to be a blast. It may be a bit wonky sometimes, but most things around here are. Otherwise, a luminous mountain of tunes to dig into this week – I hope you’ll pick some up.
Robert Ffrench Wondering (333)
All-time great tunes here. It’s great to see this get a proper reissue. Ffrench is such a gifted songwriter, weaving heady emotional timbres with timeless dancehall grooves. Sonically, this looked lightyears ahead when it was written and recorded in 1985. Silvery guitar leads draw angular patterns around fairy dust arpeggios, driving the bottom end into the magic hour. Ffrench’s vocals are silky but layered with texture and feeling, so they don’t just slide into the sea but permeate our every pore. A tinge of sweetness is embedded in tracks like “You Are So Special,” further building out this fantastic aural world. Absolutely essential listening.
Eve Maret Earth and Space (Centripetal Force)
Our auras are flitting away because Eve Maret splits the cosmic divide wide open in the beguiling synthetic drifts of Earth and Space. Crisp, rich drones illuminate inner vistas through a filtered lens, allowing us to hear the sound of flowing space. This is music for traveling, whether looking inward or traversing distant star systems beyond our imaginations. Maret’s approach is expansive and inclusive. We’re part of this journey she’s guiding through glassine synth expressions, distressed piano textures, and serotonin-flooding vocal arrangements. While the sonic palette is diaphanous, at the core of Maret’s music lies a coarse prism, refracting the darkness toward the edges so we can feel the light.
Bios Contrast Meltwater Pulse (Self-Released)
When the ice caps eventually melt and the sea levels swallow us whole, the solemn resonance from Bios Contrast’s dense harmonium will be the final weight that sinks us. Meltwater Pulse presents mountainous sonic density that feels light as air. Endless layers build on each other, morphing into a living exposition of harmonic timbre. Reeds bend without breaking, exultations rising from their resonant core. At midnight, heavily-processed sound sources glow with electricity moving in all directions, pushing oxygen into glass. Tones stretch and split. Meltwater Pulse is so expansive it feels as though the breadth of existence is wilting under its diamond-cracking pressure. Bios Contrast sharpens these fluid soundscapes to a point.
Zander Raymond Secrets From a Squirrel (Florabelle)
Small moments of joy become immortalized within sonic amber. A photographic memory is a beautiful thing until there’s no space left for new experiences. Zander Raymond’s Secrets From a Squirrel is a vulnerable offering, finding elegance and mirth in sounds they generally find unpleasant. Combined with a phantom array of modular synthesis techniques, Raymond shines a bright glow to reveal a surprising narrative filled with playfulness and inward reflection. Foaming electronic textures are imbued with organic ambiance from processed field recordings, building a palette that splits the difference between the precarious warmth of possibility and the unsettled purpose of synthetic precision. Secrets From a Squirrel works as an exploration for Raymond and a jumping-off point for inward reflection and diversion. This is music with sensitive expressions and a sense of humor, a reminder to search for delight, even in the most unexpected places.
Chunyang Yao Post-Oblivion (Dusty Ballz)
A heartbeat races, gradually increasing to the point of frenetic urgency. Naxi musician and sound artist Chunyang Yao’s Post-Oblivion is an electric maelstrom. Deep-rooted drones hum beneath the bedrock like a molten sonic core. Yao’s voice burns through midnight exhaustion, coupled with cathartic mantras soaked with venom. In the background, seagulls howl, and charred vistas spew with electronic menace. Even with its wretched facade and decaying structures, Post-Oblivion finds dreamfield remnants sprinkled throughout the angular compositions. These are the meditations of a world left behind in the rubble. Her incantations spiral skyward, reaching for the heavens while tethered to the ground with gilded chains. Incredible
Entrañas Pisos Térmicos (+ambien)
Subterranean fissures teem with aqueous life. Circuitry gets submerged and reconfigured, as though electronics find sentience in an alternate universe. Inspired by the landscapes around Quito, Entrañas infuse rich textural elements into vast, circulating sonic passages. Intricacies are borne from spreading, jagged-edged drones where details in the borders are resonant crevices swimming in recursive streams. This music churns in cycles, sometimes feeling like it’s folding in on itself. Térmicos plays out like the story of a hidden city with intersecting narratives and half-forgotten memories shading the bubbling arpeggios peaking out from behind the abyss. Liquid melodies drown within vaporous notes flickering at the horizon, hoping to be swallowed by the setting sun. We hold our breath and hope for another chance.
LilaTesla Jasmine Romance ♪✿◕‿◕✿♪ (Self-Released)
Glass-cutting drama spreads out like a holographic memory of the last heartbreak before the world broke. Synthetic dreams filled with fantasy and shattered memories are the illusory touchstones of LilaTesla’s Jasmine Romance, the neon-soaked arrangements becoming the basis for our imaginations. At barely a flicker, voice transmissions sting like golden thorns. Each syllable distorted and diffused into knife-edged love notes from another dimension. The sweetness is blackened to a crisp, hidden in elegiac chord progressions and crystalized echoes of the day; all the lights disappear. Beyond the fireworks, intrusive thoughts fracture into granular splotches and leave one too many bruises beneath the cataclysmic sheen. Haunting; wonderful.
Jaffar Hussain Randhawa Guldasta (honiunhoni)
Guldasta is an absolute delight (and h/t to Marc Teare of Hive Mind for this one). Pakistan’s Jaffar Hussain Randhawa is one of the best clarinetists I’ve heard in ages; his ability to capture a spirit of ageless enchantment and saturate with a kaleidoscope of emotions is incredible. It’s from another world, another time, with the most extraordinary timbre and texture infusing each passage. Joined by Riaz Ahmed on Tabla and Muneer Hussain on Harmonium to fill out the sonic spaces, Hussain Randhawa always moves at the exact right speed. Slow, drawn-out notes imbue the arrangements with a stoic calm before quick runs interject joy and romanticism. Warm air swirls in the peripheral as though each note carries a mythic force to make the world stand still.
Bonfire Hill A Year on Bonfire Hill (Castles In Space)
As soon as I read the description for this new project from Rebecca Denniff and David Owen, I was all in: “An aural almanac. A musical guide to the seasons, rhythms, celebrations, events, special days and darkling nights when the veil is thin….” Spectral vocal enchantments glide through bird-soaked electronics and cryptic samples, welcoming the haunted piano arrangements from just beyond the astral plane. When Denniff sings, “Bring all your apples to me,” a wicked spirit runs through the underlying synth corridors and cursed drones, winding into hidden messages that permeate her every word. I can’t get enough of Bonfire Hill and am excited to hear how the project unfolds this year.
Astral Social Club Occultics (Self-Released)
New tunes from Neil Campbell are always worth celebrating. With Occultics, he brings the fried circus festivities straight to our brains. Junkyards fused with neon wreckage crackle and pop in rhythm, distracting us from the electronic chaos brewing in the margins. When the past bears its Casio fangs, painted concrete tries to mimic the distant ether, but nobody’s fooled, and nobody cares. Campbell glues the churning melodic fuselage with post-galactic grooves to create an anti-anthem earworm. After a 40-minute respite of sine wave silhouettes and expansive, veiled melodies, the stars explode, and we all drift away in pieces. Astral Social Club never disappoints.
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