Shall we write a new editorial? Oh the endless demand and who needs a damn editorial? No time for editorials, let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing again, another five (or so) slices of musical things that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of lemons and here comes the intro, Don’t be flippant she said, how could it ever be flippant? I can’t remember why she said that now, in one ear, out the other, we have a bad attitude here apparently, no respect for those who work in the music industry, well no poop Sherlock, have you only just worked that one out? We’ve been showing (and getting) zero respect since the last century, zero flips given, let me circle around one more time and give you the heads up on that one..
Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying rabbits out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Snake oil? Everything must go and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, skip this bit, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and what’s Wordsworth? Just the basic facts and links and those sounds (and visuals), that’s surely all you need from us?
Here we go, five more slices of music that have recently come our way, this time we start somewhere in, actually where is Felix Manuel from? Somewhere in England so it says….
1: Djrum – Now this is a delightfully delightful delight, hang on, not so delightful now, we’ve gone down a slightly strange sidestreet, gone and got ourselves lured into something we might regret, no hang on, rather good in here, things got delightfully good again, let the music do the talking…
“Djrum’s first release since 2019, the Meaning’s Edge EP is an introduction to a whole new world. For the artist also known as Felix Manuel, it was created in the final stretches of six rather traumatic years work. Having carefully honed his techniques and aesthetics, and learned some hard-won emotional lessons over this time, finally he began to work in a quicker, lighter fashion – and to cleanse his palate a little by bringing in a fresh ingredient: his own flute playing. For listeners, though, it will serve as an appetiser, a way into the delights and complexities of this new phase of his creativity.
It’s a serious work in its own right, mind. The use of flutes – including Bansuri, Shakuhatchi, Western Classical, and synthesised all blending and blurring into one another – gives it a coherence and a sense of airiness that unites the five tracks over half an hour, however divergent their beats get. And as in all his music, Felix’s whole life is in here. Ethnomusicology studies, untold hours of DJing everywhere from the gnarliest squat raves to the most rarefied deep house clubs, explorations of his own neurological and emotional makeup, and the technical finesse of someone who is never not creating music or art, all roll into an experience that’s dazzling, delightful and keeps on giving.
Just the opening track ‘Codex’ alone touches on OG dubstep, Aphex Twin-like braindance, post-classical exploration, movie themes and more. The gentle tones and melodies that rise up out of it perfectly conjure Felix’s running theme of a protective bubble that provides a sense of safety and tranquillity even as the beats and acid gurgles and spurts all around it conjure up the slings and arrows of life’s difficulties.
The tone set, the EP moves through ultra-rarefied glass-like percussion in an almost ambient setting, hints of grime’s counterintuitive patterns, and even more hectic patterns influenced by Tanzania’s hyperspeed singeli style of dance music – but always with that perfect balance of chaos and control, unpredictability and protection. It rewards playing and replaying endlessly, it’s a profound and often joyous experience… and it’s only just the beginning. This is the return of a master craftsperson more focused than ever on his vision and vocation and ready to blow your mind all over again”.
2: Buñuel – More from that album that is out any moment now, we might even get to hear the whole thing one day… That’s an urgent riff, kind of tastes of Huge Baby, not as dark maybe but that is meant as high compliment,
BUÑUEL are heavy.
“A literal supergroup of global significance, BUÑUEL boasts the singular vocals and razor sharp lyrics of Eugene S. Robinson (OXBOW) and a powerhouse Italian trio comprised of guitarist Xabier Iriondo (AFTERHOURS, A SHORT APNEA), bassist Andrea Lombardini (The FRAMERS) and drummer Franz Valente (IL TEATRO DELGI ORRORI)” – What is it with people typing in Capitals!
3: Andrea Belfi & Jules Reidy – “A collaborative project between Italian electro-acoustic musician Andrea Belfi and songwriter, producer/composer + guitarist Jules Reidy” so it says here, “Hailing from different ends of the globe (Australia and Italy) but both longtime residents of Berlin, Reidy and Belfi’s approaches have much in common, bringing together compositional precision and electroacoustic rigour with improvisation freedom, the immediate gratifications of rhythmic pulse, and an overtly lyrical sensibility”.
Working together during a residency at the sound studio of Berlin’s Callie’s, an arts institution housed in a 19th century machine factory, the pair (with Marco Anulli manning the desk) have conjured up four expansive pieces where the beautifully recorded percussive clarity of Belfi’s drums threads though a sparkling haze of guitars and electronics”.
There’s an eight minute taste on their Bandcamp right now, tjhe album actually opens with a rather experimental twenty-four minute track that plays around with similar textures, the album is out on November 8th
4: Homesickness – Copenhagen-based indie label, Pink Cotton Candy Records are thinking about next year and releasing the second Homesickness album. Asunder is from the that album. “we’re hereby announcing Homesickness’ second full-length Anamnesis (March 21 2025) and pitching the second single and video of the album, Asunder (Nov 15 2024). Homesickness, a septet based in Copenhagen, crafts experimental chamber-folk music led by singer, guitarist, and lyricist Malthe Junge” – There you go, we’re being pitched, Ihatre all this music industry bulshit, do like the music though, it is about the music, the art, the cutting through it all, hey, give it a proper listen, tune in to the details, the clever undertones,
Actually, here’s that first single from the album and more of that goodness they clear bake into their rewarding cake – Bandcamp
5: Smith and Drake Ensemble at the Sing To Tim celebration at the Concord, Brighton, 13th October 2024, and we make no apology for sharing this piece of bootleg film yet again, it really is a magical version, The music of Tim Smith, Sarah Smith and Wiliam D Drake performed beautifully by Richard Larcombe and friends. Fine the original version here
And while we’re here…
Swelt – Now what do we do here? We want to the cherry pick, only the best, but there are other things – Swelt say “our music leans towards slowcore and folk moods, inspired by both 60s American folk and bands like Duster and Low”, these sound nice enough to us, a tad polite maybe, actually for some reason they sound like a quieter Rumours period Fleetwood Mac and Rumours period soft rock Fleetwood Mac never really did much for me. I mean Swelt are doing nothing wrong here, their new EP is beautifully crafted, it is very nice but we don’t really do very nice, we’re more into dirty knees and jagged edges and this is just too politely slick and just all too “very nice”, it sounds like gentle 70’s rock, Laurel Canyon music or something, none of it does much for us, but they did send it it and they were polite, found us because of yesterday’s Lobby review (and no, I’m not typing Lobby without a damn capital letter at the start of their name), sent in a friendly e.mail and a link, the EP has been playing here on rotation while I attend to mailorder and admin, it is nice enough, I just listened to it again now without any distractions, what they do is nice, you might like it, I don’t dislike it, it being their Ready the Moon EP that came out last week. Here’s the Bandcamp – boring artwork! You might like the music, we’ll leave it here for you to explore should you feel like it, good luck to ’em, I’m off to listen to some Maggot Slayer Overdrive, what is wrong with the kids these days?
For a moment there the idea of reviewing everything that came into the inbox today was toyed with just so you can get a flavour of an average day here, Swelt were first, they were nice enough, harmless you might say, next up was, well let’s just say no, they’re not getting any of our time and space, we listen to these things so you don’t have to, we do get a lot of tediously bad musicsent in here, or music that we’re obviously going to not have the slightest bit of interest in…
Kind of like this from Taxidermy, something Pink Cotton Candy Records posted three weeks ago that came up after listening to that fine Homesickness single up there…
No, we can’t review everything that comes in, some of it really is awfully bad, there’s a reason why we cherry pick our way through in a very very picky way. Some of it is very rude, almost as if we’re just here for them, here’s some bloke from America demanding to know why we ignored his last e.mail, seems he just got a review via some website in Italy which should tell us how wrong we were to ignore his obvious genius, his music was awful and we long since stopped responding to everything that comes in, if we rely and politely say we don’t like it we generally get a sack load of abuse in return so these days we just don’t. This never stops, endless average music clogging up every hour of the day, back before the days of the internet they had to be at lease selective about these things, now they jsut scattergun it everywhere…
And what have we got here, Dolium, a band we might know a little bit about but hey, yer man on the case thinks we don’t. Apparently there’s a four CD 76 track Dolium box set coming out via Manchester’s Sister 9 Recordings, yeah, I’m not sure why either? Dolium box set? Really? They were hardly household names back there, did they even have a cult following? A box set and some on the case PR guy thinks we need to “take the journey and discover” them, yeah right! Do yer bleedin’ homework mate! We’re not having a good day with Music PR people today, they all seem to think we’re just here to be part of their marketing plans and their end of campaign reports to their paying clients. Earlier today we had some joker who once wrote a music blog and now works at one of said annoying music PR companies thought he’s give us a lecture based on all his vast experience writing a music blog (while he was a music media student or some ridiculous thing no doubt), apparently he wrote a music blog before he got his new job at the oh so important PR company he now makes the tea at so he thought he’d “circle around and give us a heads up”, give us a lecture on how it all works just because, after his 37th circling around to give you the heads up again email I pointed out we’re not part of his marketing plan. Take us off your mailing list son, we ain’t got the time.
And now we have this joker being paid to do the Dolium PR so badly telling us we need to “take the journey and discover” a band we helped kick start in the first place. Apparently Peel loved them, Kerrang and Rocksound raved about them, you might want to check who wrote that Rocksound piece you’re now quoting at us as part of the history lesson you think we need Mr PR man. You might want to check who released the record that first engaged Mr Peel or got the London music press interested in the first place Mr history lesson.
Hey those first Dolium demos were gloriously raw, they were electric, jagged, you’d cut your fingers on them if you weren’t careful, Back at the very start Dollium were in your face raw, dripping with lo-fi attitude, the audacity of those first demos was a breath of fresh air which is why we put them out on a four way split CD album that yes did indeed get the band a bit of attention, not quite fifteen minutes, a couple maybe, not long enough to screen print a can of soup but there was a buzz. Of course the press release bozo sent us fails to mention any of the bits about ORG Records and Organ’s part but that was and is so so often the case with bands using us as a stepping stone and then conveniently forgetting when then need to reinvent the back story. Sure, PR bozo goes on about Peel loving them, fails to tell us how they first fell into Mr Peel’s hands though, nowhere in the history of the band he now wants us to “take the journey and discover” is our part mentioned. So yes, we put out those tracks, featured them on a couple of other Organ Radio releases, they got a bit of a buzz on the back of it and then never really followed any of it up. Well not until something like three or four years later by which time we’d all moved on (although John Peel would still occasionally ask us about them when our paths crossed).
For what I remember Dolium started to do things again somewhere around 2004, we’d occasionally hear something, non of it sounded as raw and dangerous as those early demos threatened it would be. I have some vague recollection of some PR guy at some label trying to tell us about this exciting new band somewhere around 2004, and then again locking horns with someone over it a few years later. Apparently the band went on to make a couple of albums, released some singles, nothing ever landed here that we can recall. Certainly can’t recall a fuss big enough for there now to be a demand for a box set but hey, apparently I don’t know and need to “take the journey” and a history lesson from bozo the PR man.
Seems the band “decided to go on an indefinite hiatus in 2010, only to reform in 2024 with the original line-up to celebrate both the box set release and the anniversary of their label. A release day show (22nd Nov), the first live appearance since reforming, will be held at the The Hallamshire Hotel in Sheffield” and now PR bozo wants to give us a history lesson or something like that, wants to know if we want to review the 76 track box set, nah mate, life really is too short but I can flog you an unsold CD or two if you want. I sometimes wonder why we bothered with any of it back there. Did have a look and listen to a video to a track from the Dollium box set, it lacked that early magic, we’ve not shared it…
Rather like this though
Elliot Gavin – “Today, award-winning composer, pianist, and improvisor Elliot Galvin returns with a new single titled From Beneath, his first release on independent London tastemaker label Gearbox Records (Binker & Moses, Abdullah Ibrahim, Cahill//Costell), and since 2020’s “Live at Fondation Louis Vuitton” on Edition Records” – Tastemaker? More PR stuff, we tend to cover little bit of Gearbox now and again, not sure if I’d call them a Tastemaker label, this is rather decent though and hey, if Bozo Box set history man or Circle Around Heads Up man are to be believed, we have no clue.
Current mood….
THE ORGAN 