Welcome to the first Capsule Garden of 2024. Where does it all go from here? Well, a bit more of the same, I think. These weekly-ish columns have become one of my favorite things to write and compile for Foxy Digitalis in the last couple of years, and I don’t expect that to change. With that said, I had a really hard time finishing this week’s installment because I listened to the new Waxahatchee song about 50 times yesterday. Katie Crutchfield remains one of my favorite songwriters on the planet, and this song – whew. Hits.
Hard to believe we lost both Phill Niblock (read Lawrence English’s great tribute HERE and listen to a conversation I had with Phill in 2022 HERE) and IASOS within the same week (listen to a beautiful tribute from Bernard Xolotl). Feels ominous. But it’s been wonderful reading everyone’s stories about both – two true giants.
Anyway, it feels good to get things rolling in 2024. The latest Songs of Our Lives was a lot of fun, and once again allowed me to talk to someone outside of music (well, he’s also got a great label now and is helping run a killer venue in Asheville) that I really admire – Burial Beer and Visuals Wine’s Tim Gormley (his label is the great Ceremony of Seasons). We had an absolute blast chatting, and I hope you’ll check it out.
Otherwise, let’s get into the meat of this thing.
Munla Sadi El Invisible Peso de la Luz (Mascarpone Discs)
Ghostly dirges hover just out of reach on Munli Sadi’s haunting El Invisible Peso de la Luz. This collection of songs creates reflective spaces filled with elegies and meditative hymnals. Minor key reveries sit in diverging moments for short periods, Sadi holding the curtain back only enough to slip past when ready. I feel hollow alongside this music, but in a warming, inviting way, as though each exploratory melody is a chance for something new. Plucked notes hang in the balance, held longer than necessary, but it only heightens each progression’s impact.
Regan Bowering Solos for _ _ _ _ spaces (Bezirk)
I find myself getting lost in the transient silhouettes of Solos for _ _ _ _ spaces, a textural and dramatic opus. Feedback coalesces around snare drum strikes and scratches without finding a rhythmic core, but instead stretching small tonal gestures into exploratory expanses. Sounds become desolate remnants of aging monoliths. A static hum emerges from the ether to grind its way through sonic whisps like an ever-present reminder of the creeping decay. Bowering shows restraint in each purposeful movement, carving out valleys for these black-eyed tonescapes to hide within and creep forward beyond confined space. Stellar.
Noel Brass Jr. “Threaded From A Distance” (Self-Released)
A different spirit flows through the bones of “Threaded From A Distance.” Serrated drones become the birthplace of whimsical, skyward melodic dances, whirring to life, spinning magic in all directions. Repeating mantras convert to electrical currents to light the way into the further reaches of cosmic space. Noel Brass Jr. captures this feeling of being stuck in a fog, neon lights flickering all around enticing us forward, each lead run an invitation to find a way into the clear air above. “Threaded From A Distance” is an intoxicating blend of light and darkness holding each other at bay, a beautiful place to be.
Mong Tong “Anping Pop” (Self-Released)
Sunlight kisses the grooves of “Anping Pop” as it lithely moves through synthetic landscapes on emotive waves. Bass lines pop through the shapeshifting, neon elements, just barely tethering spiraling electronic melodies and gamelan-inspired guitar motifs to the ground. There’s an organic, timeless quality to the song, in the way it moves and infuses brightness in all its patterns.
Helecho Experimentar + Alice Khan “Transmetteur – Récepteur” (Self-Released)
Meandering guitar layers and orbed keyboard timbres are mangled into frittering remnants of an ancient altar of this stellar collaboration. Sounds are transformed into wandering spirits, recast as serpentine melodies set against a fading horizon. Pointillist exorcisms moan and scowl, silhouettes of tamed memories scratching their way beyond the twisted tonal expanse. A sharp interjection from dulled horn scrawls dance and collapse, an aural marionette with its strings cut. “Transmetteur – Récepteur” is dark and inviting, enigmatic at its core, beckoning us to lean in for a closer look.
enchanted lands dreamgirl workshop (poustevnice)
Surrounded by soft, glowing cascades somewhere in the distant future, gossamer sonic webs come to life. Czech-based enchanted lands fuse airy synth explorations with silvery atmospheres and aqueous soundscapes to create an imaginary world of light. Swirling voices create a writhing mesh that melts away to leave intricate shadows on glassine drones. Beneath the subtle aural shifts and tonal embraces, minimalist rhythms tapdance like textural surface details, adding rain-like patterns to the amorphous timbral expanse. These intricate accouterments bring so much life and movement to this music, building the world it inhabits in all directions before arriving in heaven with the beguiling closer, “The Snow Maiden.”
Phicus NI (Tripticks Tapes)
Metallic shards are welded together with scattered tones at obtuse angles like knives sharpening themselves on the foundational architecture. Phicus – the trio of Ferran Fages, Àlex Reviriego, and Vasco Trilla – combine purposeful movement and randomized patterns to create an immersive aural obstacle course. Guitars groan with tension, dotted by percussive codes tapped out in shapeshifting timbres. Trilla’s playing is always so enchanting, and Reviriego and Fages are right in the pocket with him, moving like shadows, building intricate, aerated sonic dimensions. NI is a joy to explore, the endless pathways never stop moving, and never stop changing direction as if there’s no endpoint in sight. Truly expressive music encased in solid resonance, envigorating and hypnotic. Highest recommendation.
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