I was texting with a friend of mine the other night and it hit me that it’s almost mid-April already. How is that remotely possible? I feel like we were just having people over for New Year’s. Wild. As ever, there are a lot of things happening here. To help keep funding the site (a million thanks to our Patreon members and Jewel Garden subscribers (that could be YOU!), there will be a new 40+ track compilation coming out in early May called Clarities. It’s the next in a long line of compilations I’ve curated over my nearly 30 years running record labels and writing about music, and I am stupidly excited about it. Like the last one, The Future Disintegrates, it will be released through The Jewel Garden as a pay-what-you-can digital release. And it’s fucken great.
If you haven’t yet, check out this week’s Songs of Our Lives with JLIN. It was a fun one – I especially loved hearing her talk about working with the UAPB marching band and her mom. I love doing that show way too much.
And now, here’s a pile of wonderful music to hear.
Zachary James Watkins Affirmative Action (SIGE)
As soon as the electronics crackle into existence on opener “Black Love,” Zachary James Watkins has us. Harsh reality clouds the melodic turmoil buried in these roaring sonic incantations. Resonance shatters into a thousand glass forms throughout Affirmative Action, spilling emotive glances through vibraphone embraces and fragmented rhythms. While Watkins digs deep into resonances – guttural bass echoes melting into feedback; warm, encompassing reverb – the sharpened points of distorted drones and percussive jangle bring everything into focus. Layers stratify into solid aural shapes, dense and textural surrounded by a harmonic halo. It’s like this music is crawling across my skin, finding every tiny entry point to infiltrate and turn my body into a transmitter. The physicality of these pieces is irresistible. Watkins worked with a cache of stellar composers – Morgan Craft, Ava Mendoza, Ravon Chacon, and Sharmi Basu – for the central composition here, but he ties it all together and lets it howl.
LopezLopez Citizenship (Flag Day)
Cecilia and Brandon Lopez always unlock something new in my brain. Citizenship streams out from a hidden crevice to smother the landscape in expressive aural sibilance before further breaking it apart. The combination of electronics and countless bass techniques leads to enthralling and unexpected zones. Drawn-out notes rattle the ground while high-frequency shards scatter in the space above. When the duo coalesces into grinding, dissonant drones, there’s an intensity building from the ground up, shattering the connective tissue between resonant forms. Oscillations spit out bizarre melodic flutters moving in opposition with the bass tapping out controlled but frenetic cadences and finding guttural sympathies in the claustrophobic vibrations. Intersecting timbres build countless layers of tension, but Lopez and Lopez thrive as these sounds get wound tighter and tighter. The sonic vice narrows these pieces into pointed fragments both discordant and captivating.
Marlo De Lara cannae (scatter archive)
Each time I listen to cannae, it’s like I’m digging through the attic of an abandoned house, unearthing an assortment of diverse artifacts that somehow make sense as a cohesive collection. Water circles the drain, gurgling like a drowning madman sitting next to mangled tones and decaying loops. Each piece is a new box of shadows. Cut-up, scraped voices bounce inside fluorescent-lit rooms, and our minds start playing tricks on us and tape-gnarled ghosts flicker across dimensions. Moments of quiet beauty sneak through, whispers as reminders that this old, deserted space once held our past lives. Eventually, our demise is kissed by organ passages caked in sharp timbres and decayed tones as the ride begins to slow. cannae is one hell of a trip, though, with so much to offer and so many aural nooks and crevices to explore.
Turn On The Sunlight Canoga to Haʻikū (Moon Glyph)
Blue skies dream of rainbows, of giving voice to the eternal wonder of the sun’s embrace. Jesse Peterson and Carlos Niño create a sonic language out of synth washes, tonal percussion, and searching cadences on Canoga to Ha’ikū. So many textures cover these sunkissed arrangements as though this music is smothered in microscopic tonebanks gilding its prismatic surface. This music shines in all directions, with synthesizers bubbling like underwater rivers and hollow rhythms dancing in crystal caverns. Field recordings tinged with tropical reverie sparkle in the margins. Fantasies fade into memories. Distant chimes beckon emotive flute particles from beneath the soil to rise into the harmony and affection of these sounds. Eyes closed and heart open, Canoga to Ha’ikū is a beautiful place.
Deepspace The Black Orchid Galaxies (Projekt)
The Black Orchid Galaxies is such a great title for this massive collection of synthesizer explorations. Deepspace searches far beyond the horizon through electronic vistas and magnetic clouds, crystalizing lucid dreams into sparkling arpeggiations layered through infinity. But there’s an organic resonance cradling this music, adding a distinct sheen to this music. Aqueous forms coalesce into glowing voids, an invitation deeper into this sonic galaxy. Swells open up new pathways with melodic tendrils stretching further into the spacious arrangements. Deepspace crafts meticulous soundscapes to spark our imaginations, to immerse us within beautiful, dream-like landscapes.
Gvantsa Narim Cruel Nature (Cruel Nature)
Light gets swallowed into the depths of Gvantsa Narim’s latest for the Cruel Nature aptly titled Cruel Nature. Earth core rhythms echo, barely muted by suffocating drones. Everything feels larger than life on “Cruel,” a journey through time to the beginning of all things. This music is hypnotizing. Its repetitions are simultaneously boundless and endless, the heartbeat of a universe beyond space and time. “Nature” is a shade brighter, but only just. Blurred visions disintegrate into mesmerizing electronic fields undulating through interdimensional turbulence. Sounds covered in nebulous textures melt into each other forming a solid aural block. The further into this abyss we go, the more relentless it becomes. There’s no way to escape the weight of it all. Stellar.
Bird Drugs Nothing is Real (Disassociation)
Catharsis explodes in the early stages of Nothing is Real, leaving the rest of the album to pick up the pieces. Washed-out drone layers blend into harmonic ideations, mining solid-state gems and soaring into neon skies. Movement is subtle but effective. Once the exhalation flits into the night, piano arrangements lament the darkness, navigating textural waves and bowed melodies. It’s affecting, a sonic illustration of the decaying tension. Chord progressions shift at sharp angles, buoyed by melodic sequences and arpeggiations beyond a glowing void. Each passage tends to pull us closer before we can help by drifting into the resonance. Bright timbres lead the way contrasting against the amorphous negative space cast by ephemeral synthscapes and metallic omens. We gear up and go again, following a line of distorted melodic growls into tomorrow’s nervous cadences. Great stuff.
Juho Toivonen Sisarusten Toistuva Uni (Discreet Music)
Whenever I finish listening to Juho Toivonen’s latest, Sisarusten Toistuva Uni, I wonder if everything is just a dream. Shades of tape hiss and melancholia lay in the grass under winter trees and gray skies. Emotive, minimal guitar patterns buoy graceful piano arrangements, all of it tinged with the memory of a feeling without the pictures to fill in the blanks. Gentle plucks and decaying reverb linger in the background, a shadow world behind pointed chord progressions searching for answers. Toivonen holds onto lyrical sonic phrases until they’ve lost the luster that drew us to them in the first place. Sisarusten Toistuva Uni gives voice to times that were either forgotten or imagined, carving a winding path through the transitory ether. Fantastic.
Quick Hits:
Monte Espina alquimia criolla (presses précaires)
Harrowing at times, whispering sonic exultations bathed in textural plaster and metallic gloss. Organic but fried, always ready to tear the roof off. Surrounded by stinging resonance.
Enofa The House By The Sea (Subexotic)
Trapped inside a boarded-up labyrinth, the walls covered in vines and grime, but we are enchanted by the lively spirits within. Synths, pianos, rhythms, and aqueous moods carve secret messages in dust. Faded. Lush.
SG, Salenta + Topu, Jamie Hodge Rain Revisited (Faitiche)
Somehow even sweeter and more intimate than the original (SG’s wonderful For Lovers Only / Rain Suite). Broken down into parts, sugar-coated and softened into pliable repetitions; billowing heartbeats drenched in the rain. So lovely.
Farah Kaddour Badā (Asadun Alay)
A brilliant debut from Beirut’s Farah Kaddour streaming buzuq excursions from midnight alleys. Her playing is pure skill tinged with magic, exhilarating runs punctuated by thumping rhythms. Blurs the lines between composition, improvisation, and folk traditions until it sparks its own captivating forms.
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