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 music that have passed our way recently and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of oranges and here comes the editorial. 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?

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 with something new from a London band making rather interesting moves…

1: Rampressure – Managed to miss them opening for the excellent Test Plan last week but they do appear to be rather busy in and around London right now, we note they are at the George Tavern on May 1st and the Windmill a couple of days after that and that is broodingly intense noise they’re making. Here’s a nine minute live challenge they just issued via their Bandcamp page and just down there underneath it is more of what we assume is the same performance. There’s a number of more than healthy slices of music to be found on their Bandcamp page, go have a listen…

2: Rival Consoles and a new piece taken from Landscape from Memory by Rival Consoles, here’s your links should you want to know more about the latest moves.

3: Daily Toll – Sydney-based three-piece Daily Toll have shared a new track, Fleeting, ahead of the release of their debut album, A Profound Non-Event and a series of UK dates in July. The album, set for release on 20th June 2025 via Tough Love Records on vinyl, CD and digitally, comprises 11 songs traversing three years of forged friendships, collaborative experimentation and a shared love of growing through words and song…. 

The band explain, “‘Fleeting’ trails the witnessing of looped thoughts on a particularly low day, sat by the water on a sunny afternoon and accosted by sounds of property development and ad-ladened trash commercial radio; feeling angry at being sold our own demise and the fear of humanity never learning from our transgressions against earth and each other.”

Those attuned to the ever-vibrant Australian underground may already be well familiar with Daily Toll, their consistent live presence since their inception in 2021 embroidered by a handful of (mostly) home-recorded, (mostly) digital self-releases that have steadily accumulated an appreciative following. Initially the project of self-taught musician, poet & artist Kata Szász-Komlós (they/them) and Jasper Craig-Adams (he/him), and expended to a three piece with the more recent addition of friend Tom Stephens (he/him), Daily Toll represents the union of three unique creative dispositions, of relationships blooming through the push and pull of creative practice. Mapping the band’s existence through their recorded output is to bear witness to the flux of three people learning to respond to one another and gently ossify into a collective vision that at once calls to mind folk song intimacy, post-punk dynamics and the artful poeticism of an adjacent Flying Nun legacy. 

If those earlier recordings reflect a band imagining themselves into being in real time, A Profound Non-Event observes a clear shift in both conviction and approach. Recorded in just three days with Alex Bennett at the purely analogue Sound Recordings studio in Castlemaine and holing up at night in the century old cottage situated beside the studio, sheltering from the late-June wind and rain within walls littered with instruments and microphones, lighting fires to stay warm. Kata describes the experience as defined by “candle light and creative camaraderie”, an idyllic account of a collection of songs that glide with an undeniably warm, easy charm, evidenced in particular in the record’s second half as the tone turns increasingly introspective, the very sound of a cold evening’s drift into night. When contrasted with the moody swirl and sing-song bounce of the opening trio of tracks, there’s clear evidence of a band not simply in the process of becoming, but committed to finding their truth in that process. 

Still, if Daily Toll display a reluctance to be wholly defined, then album centrepiece ‘Killincs‘(positioned in the middle for a reason) might just be their Rosetta Stone. A poetic rumination on unsettled feelings of isolation and longing, the innate power of attention and the realisation that some things remain best unresolved – “I have the keys still, but I’ve buried the path”.

UK LIVE DATES: 3 July – Preston, The Continental, 4 July – Manchester Pop Fest w/ The Cannanes, 13 July – Glasgow, The Old Hairdressers, 21 July – London, Avalon Cafe, w/ The Spatulas and Guy Blackman.

Here’s some links and their Instagram and here’s something rather good from 2021 that isn’t on the album

4: Baby Volcano – No real idea what she’s on about, do like the attitude though, it isn’t the first time she’s featured on these pages, here’s some links, check the privilage or maybe yours? Here’s her Bandcamp

5: JakoJako – More from JakoJako’s album Tết 41 and more about it underneath the music, let the music do the talking…

“Berlin-based modular synthesist JakoJako (aka Sibel Koçer) has shared a new track, ‘Dragon Bridge’ from her forthcoming album, Tết 41, out on limited edition vinyl and digitally on 25 April 2025“.

The album, recorded in Vietnam during the Tết Lunar New Year celebrations is, in many ways, a distillation of ideas Koçer has been exploring for many years. Tapping into a deep understanding of machine-based music and illuminated by references to her heritage, Tết 41 reflects on notions of rebirth, and the pursuit of a sonic core. “I wanted to collect the atmospheres of Vietnam, and strip it back to my language – electronic music. I don’t have huge ties to the traditions of my Vietnamese family, so being able to experience them with my mother, and then bring the Lunar Celebration – the colourful flowers, food and customs – back to Europe through music has helped me realise how important this side of my heritage is.” – JakoJako (aka Sibel Koçer)

You can hear the whole album now via Bandcamp. More from us when we’ve had ttime to hear more I expect?

Previously… ORGAN: Five experimental music things – Hannya White’s rather painterly thing, Bell Barrow, a taste of JakoJako’s new album Tết 41, Abul Mogard’s Quiet Pieces and Argentinian cellist, improviser and composer Violeta Garcia has made a collaborative album with the Swiss musician Hora Lunga…

And here’s a little bit more from Daily Toll, this one is not the forthcoming album…

Which in turn has lead us to this rather pleasing piece of music from another band on Tough Love…. Sister is taken from Index For Working Musik‘s album, Which Direction Goes the Beam, that came out via Tough Love on 4th April… yeah, that’s six, so what?