The Capsule Garden returns after a week off with a plethora of new growth. As ever, Foxy Digitalis Daily is over on Patreon today – check that out if you are so inclined! It definitely feels like summer here – the kid is out of school and started summer camp, but more importantly, I had my first fresh peach of the year (and it was amazing). Fresh peaches are one of the great seasonal signifiers here. Of course, it means it will be 100 degrees in no time, but that’s life.
In case anyone missed it (and doesn’t listen to FD Daily – but you should really be listening to FD Daily!), James Blackshaw announced a new album over the weekend, to be released by the end of the year. I’m so thrilled that James is in a good place these days and selfishly excited that it means we’ll get new music from him. Sunshrine was always one of the crown jewels in the Digitalis discography. With that, on to some other gems.
Emily Rach Beisel Particle of Organs (Amalgam)
This is incredible. Flailing sonic fires crawl through pits of molten sludge and burst skyward from a visceral, breathing pit. Emily Rach Beisel’s music is guttural and splendid, felt in our stomachs at one moment before twisting delicately across each individual pore. She turns her bass clarinet from serrating projectile into a crystal wand at a moment’s notice, spilling winding melodies across growling drones. Her voice roars in turn, expelling any fanciful notions and turning up the tension as wind-blown sputtering lights a gilded furnace. Particle of Organs is an absolute trip that digs deep into flesh and bone, ripping through rhythmic spackle and distorted gauntlets like Beisel is performing ancient, uncharted rituals. The raw intensity that permeates so many moments of Particle of Organs only heightens the impact of the quieter, more delicate moments. Beisel’s fearlessness and focus are the narrative glue shaping this exquisite treatise into something unforgettable.
D1G Kilter Roll (Self-Released)
There’s real magic in the bouncing explorations of Kilter Roll. I can’t stop listening to it. When Tony Surgeon mentioned this on social media, as soon as I saw the cover, I had to check it out, and it was love at first bloop. Layers of melodic synthesis intertwine to form new shapes and worlds, the base timbres feeling more akin to an electronic bagpipe than any synthesizer. In the vibrant patterns, a sweetness emerges. Wistful passages peppered with a sense of joy flood our synapses, wrapping expressive patterns around us like a bright, plaid blanket. Simply, this music makes me happy and puts me in a frame of mind that feels good. It seems straightforward, but it takes a magician to pull that in from the ether.
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė & Synaesthesis Hadal Zone (Cantaloupe Music)
Mystery runs through every moment of these drifting sonic forms. Written by Martinaitytė and performed by Lithuania’s incredible Syaesthesis ensemble, Hadal Zone captures the dark unknown of the ocean’s deepest reaches. Acoustic instrumentation breathes through an oppressive midnight spirit, with points of life piercing the amorphous drones in surprising ways. Voices rise, reaching for an unseen place above, while dotted piano shards spark and disappear. Hadal Zone writhes with tension and drama to offer a unique view of an invisible expanse. This is a stunning sound world to get lost within.
Lily Guarneros Maase blood::face (Infrequent Seams)
Memories become timeless melodic rambles and emotive guitar excursions on the incredible blood::face. Through a series of engaging improvisations and obscured song structures, Lily Guarneros Maase paints a modern facade on timeless forms. Folk music is reconfigured into new traditions with pointillistic sonic patterns fused with vocal arrangements pulled from places beyond view. blood::face winds through dusty landscapes with purpose, snaking ahead until the last rattles of yesterday catch up to this current moment. Just incredible.
Pat Thomas Burdah Variations (scatterArchive)
Harsh, glitched noise frenzies tear a swathe of frequencies to shreds. Thomas never disappoints, and these recent exploratory electronic pieces are fantastic. Organic timbres and soft, metallic resonance blend with emotive reeds to find new pathways through the electric forest. Burdah Variations, inspired by the Islamic poem The Burdah, has so much depth. Thomas has this innate, searching spirit that runs through the heart of this music. Deconstructed gamelan fringes scatter in slow-motion. An interesting rhythmic language emerges, like minimal techno infused with a jazz-adjacent energy and heavy bass growl. Burdah Variations documents new, unheard soundworlds where so much is happening, but it all makes sense. Excellent.
Loris S Sarid A Tiny Reminder (Moon Glyph)
There’s a beautiful mix of whimsy and apprehension on A Tiny Reminder that I can’t get enough of. Made as a gift for someone, Loris S Sarid captures the spirit of how people inspire us in surprising ways and how moving that experience can be. Bouncing sequences and ecstatic voices melt into ephemeral atmospheres. Lilting synth leads spark imaginative journeys through wild, overgrown lands obscuring a secret, gleaming landscape. Reflections appear in the glassine tones as though our memories are speaking back to us, pushing us deeper into the verdant swirls. There’s a lovely cadence on A Tiny Reminder that gives it a gentle, inviting structure. Clarinet whirls dance with processed field recordings and twinkling crystals, infusing this synthetic space with a warm, organic glow. This is an utter delight.
Rushab Nandha Tether (Self-Released)
Small sonic fragments trace amorphous patterns in the sky, looming like a growing storm cloud in the distance. Tether feels intimate and reflective, quiet repetitions filtered through a hazy neon sheen. Silhouettes blossom into electronic corridors teeming with vivid imagery that push our imaginations into distant universes. Blurred arpeggios combine with interstellar patches, imbuing this music with a surprising urgency that rises from churning basslines and faint, nebulous rhythmic components. Eventually, a glistening further out of reach draws us closer, pushes our attention inward, and connects us to a new world.
murkok wasteland (Self-Released)
Elegiac sonic fields gloss over any sharp edges as murkok explores the barren landscape. Synth leads tear through the wind shear, excavating melodic currents from the hazy expanses underneath that saturate each section of wasteland. Layered drones move forward, propelled by subtle timbral shifts in the aural fabric and connective tissue binding this music together. As solid as it seems, there’s a feeling that with one sharp nudge, wasteland could disintegrate at any moment. This creates a surprising amount of tension in each rise and falls through emotive tonal expressions. murkok never stops searching.
A Thousand Plateaus “Reanimator” (Self-Released)
Intricate tonal reflections gleam like light bouncing off imperfect seams in pristine architecture. Melodic shrapnel captures our imagination as if each lilting section reminds us of some hidden history or somber remembrance. Moving at a considered pace, each fragment is like another secret revealed at just the right moment to keep our minds racing yet focused. Beneath the surface and spilling outward in every direction are endless sonic textures permeating the underlying synthetic mist. Not only does it add depth to “Reanimator,” it brings the repeating patterns into focus and sends us further into this fading, imaginary world.
Anaïs Tuerlinckx Miroitements Étranges (Possible Motive)
With Miroitements Étranges, Anaïs Tuerlinckx creates an odd reverberant world. Rattling echoes tap out zigzagging messages through wound metal strings. Timbres hover in air thick with grayscale resonance made by percussive spells mixed with bowed howls and scraped, angular pathways. Dissonance plays a role, too, adding sharp drones that bring texture to once-flat surfaces before devolving into an endless reflecting patterns that coalesce into a harsh scowl. Tuerlinckx teases at rhythms buried in the junkyard, but never lingers in those spaces too long, instead opting to add a spectral flair with cryptic whistling serenades and bone-scratching clatters. Miroitements Étranges is a place where anything can happen.
Reptilian Expo Cunti (Artetetra)
Globular shapes melt into an incandescent sphere made entirely of spectral shimmers. Cunti is glossy enough in spots to see a reflection, even if interruptions and intersections change its nature. Glitches are like neural pathways made for time travel built on disjointed rhythms. Within these immaculate timbral palettes, futurist electro whims are bombarded by pitch-shifted voices, riding over beats that skitter and explode until the sky spins. We’re woozy, fueled by disconcerting whimsy, and it’s a whole lot of fun. Eventually, warm and familiar synth tones and scattered aural patterns mix, and we fade into the inviting swells.
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