We did already say this a couple of days back, we do need to catch up, the albums are piling up, there’s more arriving every day, it is a non-stop operation, we never will catch up, here once more are some of those albums that have been demanding our attention, you know the policy around here, we do try and stick to it, god save the cat, vote out the damn self-serving Tories and all that, we are repeating ourselves here, and most of what comes in does end up in the reject bin, mostly not our things and we don’t have time for all the red neck country pop rock or the inspid indie bands or the self-proclaimed post punk bands who would run a mile from a Gang of Four line or the way past their sell-by date American punk bands who weren’t that good in their best days, that new Down By Law record really isn’t that good is it? The average human life lasts three billion heartbeats, we are picky about the time we spend on these albums, someone threated us with Foo Fighters guest list last weekend, gawd no, life is way too short…

Hatti Vatti – Zeit (R&S Records) – There’s a whole bag of reference points here, that mix of organic electronic music, hints of fine festival bands like those Ullulators, strong Harvey Bainbridge feel, that mellow far away in outer space Hawkwind feel when Harvey was at the control, and yes, touches of very easy jazz in there adding details to what is essentially a more than decent electronic album for people who like their dreams tangerine coloured. This is Polish experimentalist Hatti Vatti’s dubbed out new album Zeit, his first new LP material since Szum was released back in 2017. For this album, Piotr Kaliński (electronics, guitar, production) – aka Hatti Vatti – invited instrumentalists from the world of Polish jazz to join in and improvise with his compositions. Rafał Dutkiewicz (drums), Paweł Stachowiak (bass) and Piotr Chęcki (saxophone) are musicians well known for their famous studio and live collaborations with EABS, Skalpel or Sławek Jaskułke. “The result of this meeting is an eclectic material that defies genre classifications, with echoes of the Japanese ambient scene, krautrock, jazz and dubby UK-bass”. it is essentially a more thn decent dubby electronic space rock album. “As a new artist in the R&S Records catalogue, Hatti Vatti will join legendary artists such as Aphex Twin, James Blake, Nicolas Jaar, Juan Atkins, Pariah, Djrum and more” so it says here, it kind of stands out from the electronic crowd…

Bandcamp / Links – released July 12th 2024

Ian Williams – Slow​-​Motion Apocalypse (Slaughterback) – “London-based musician/composer Ian Williams has released a new single entitled ‘Chronopolis’ today. Taking its title from a J.G. Ballard short story, it is an edited version of a track from his current album, Slow-Motion Apocalypse“. The video is just down there, the album itself came out late last year, it only just landed here along with the details of the single so we’ll focus on the whole thing, the album rather than the single. We are talking dystopian sound tracks, the pulsing menace of surveillance, we are talking yet another electronic instrumental album, the whole of Slow​-​Motion Apocalypse does rather look and feel like the single, it does feel like a utopian nightmare or something that might have happened in something like 28 Days or…      Bandcamp / YouTube

Meanwhile, some ceramics….

Copper Sounds – Sequenced Ceramics (TBC Editions) – “Hi, please find details on a unique new release from Bristol-based duo Copper Sounds. The album was created using a series of hand-made ceramics played by sequenced mechanical beaters and is out now both digitally and in a limited edition run (50 copies) of hand-made, boxed ceramic vessels via TBC Editions”.

And what can we say about this one, it feels like we’ve been here before? Gallery art? Sequenced sound, resonance indeed, the art of sound, not noise, this is sound rather than noise, relaxing, minimal, minimalist, I guess if you want to listen to this, it kind of feels like being in a room with half a dozen clocks, I’ve gone back to it a number of times in the last couple of months, actually is seems to have been sent in multiple times so I guess someone is keen that it is covered on these pages and I guess if I was to be in a gallery watching and listening and it was to be flowing through the air, living and breathing – actually it does kind of feel like something like this has been encountered in an art gallery situation a good few times. here in my studio, it is all peasant enough, soothing I guess, a little one dimensional maybe, and if I really was to tell the truth, even though I have tried multiple times, and yes it is a patient slow moving rather warm, rather minimal sound bath, it isn’t doing too much more than making me want to reach over there for a Motley Crue album and a bag of paint or something along those lines      

“While developing Sequenced Ceramics, we were initially inspired by traditional and highly sculptural clay instruments such as the Udu and the Ghatam. We then experimented with different clays, forms and scales; allowing us to understand the specific acoustic and resonant properties of ceramics. Through this process we began to think about sound, like clay, as a malleable material which you can manipulate through various sculpting and making processes. The final sculptures showcase a range of traditional ceramic making techniques, forms and are made with both visual and sonic aesthetics in mind.”

Apparently these sculptures were initially presented together as an installation and have recently been shown at the British Ceramics Biennial 2023 and Indian Ceramics Treinnale 2024. The album features seven sequences composed on this array by the duo, including a collaboration with Tara Clerkin and Sunny Joe Paradisos, and reinterpretations by DJ 2 Button, Memotone, Dan Thorman, Deep Nalström, Wojciech Rusin and Dwhyte Olivers. Copper Sounds are the Bristol-based artist duo of Isaac Stacey and Sonny Lee Lightfoot who use both traditional and contemporary processes to explore the physical and visual nature of sound. They see sound as a malleable material and have a unique way of working with and manipulating sound, through designing and making sonic objects.

More / Bandcamp or the TBC Bandcamp. Actually the visuals are exciting me a lot more

Blvck Hippie – Basketball Camp (The Record Machine) – They’re from Memphis, this is their second album, they talk of a walk, and it is a walk, a gentle one, through endearingly bleary eyed indie rock, dreamy off kilter pop, free jazz interludes, and cathartic freak outs, they kind of sound blissful, at ease, even if he doesn’t really want to be without you… Bandcamp

This is from Elori Saxi‘s new album, Drifts and Surfaces. The album is released on 19^th July via Western Vinyl, it is a rather beautiful thing and yet another one in the line of albums demanding attention

Here’s what we’ve mostly been listening to this month