SOUL FEEDING: a list-with-review of the best releases of the month, selected by our editors.
Artist: Baths
Album: Pop Music/False B-Sides II
Label: Basement’s Basement
In the end, Pop Music/False B-Sides II is a synthesis of the sounds that have defined Will’s career – between Baths and Geotic – renewing his delivery and creating a cohesive collage, that summarize perfectly what Baths was and still is.
Artist: Charli XCX
Album: how i’m feeling now
Label: Atlantic, Asylum
Even if initially teased as a “quarantine album”, how I’m feeling now is far from a concept album. But still, it perfectly captures the present zeitgeist, made by the internet warping every aspect of our locked-up lives, missing hanging out with friends and great love stories to celebrate.
Artist: Cocktail Party Effect
Album: Cocktail Party Effect
Label: Tectonic Recordings
Cocktail Party Effect shows us the maximum potential one can get from a reduced sonic palette. While the players in the field may be few, what shines bright is the brilliant and skillful way which Cocktail Party Effect makes the best out of his starting elements, showing his mastery in sound design and audio manipulation, but most of all teaching a lesson in how to compose deadly tracks to make any basshead lose their sh*t.
Artist: Croatian Amor/Varg2TM
Album: Body of Lila
Label: Posh Isolation
In the expanding Croatian Amor/Varg2TM egg basket, Body of Lila offers, in general, a sort of negative compromise – less innocent than Body of Water, less relentless than Body of Carbon. At certain moments, though, it easily reaches both of the sonic poles familiarised by the first two EPs.
Artist: Elysia Crampton
Album: ORCORARA 2010
Label: PAN Records
ORCORARA 2010 empowers the listener to envision and create a reality where these stories of violence and destruction are not pushed into obscurity. Instead these stories, and the people they represent, are treated with the high status of any greek Epic or modern big-budget Superhero film–as they should be.
Artist: GFOTY
Album: Ham Chunks And Wine
Label: Pretty Wavvy
GFOTY‘s Ham Chunks And Wine is a pleasant collection of pushed-up bangers and electronic pop songs, switching between high-speed beats and funnily emotional songwriting.
Artist: KRXNX
Album: Testimonios Desde el Abismo
Label: DNTFCK
The highlight of Testimonios Desde el Abismo is that KRXNX never overdoes it. The tracks, with their post-IDM structure colliding with an experimental club approach, use only what they need to pursue their eclectic intention. The result is an immaculate sound, devoid of contrived (and useless) ornamentations.
Artist: Lawrence English
Album: Lassitude
Label: ROOM40
Even if this is not the first time Lawrence English has used an organ in his pieces, it is the first time he puts such an absolute focus on this instrument: there is no editing or electronic production or field recordings or other instruments, just the no-frills sound of the air through the pipes.
Artist: Mechatok
Album: Defective Holiday OST
Label: Yegorka
Defective Holiday OST surely functions as the perfect soundtrack for the game, but it goes further than that. Not only is the production flawless and unique, which confirms Mechatok as one of the most interesting phenomena of today’s electronic scene, but also and above all it’s able to captivate the listener’s body and soul into its playful, surreal, ever-changing dimension, whether you’re playing or not.
Artist: MICHAELBRAILEY
Album: the broken heart is more than a metaphor it is terraforming in action
Label: Astral Plane Recordings
the broken heart is more than a metaphor it is terraforming in action is a baring of Brailey‘s soul, purely complicated and wrapped up in soft aching tones. Its emotive quality and range of analogue sounds is impressive to say the least. A tale of visceral misery and love, in its closing Brailey rightfully sings us out ‘into darkness’.
Artist: Sega Bodega and Friends
Album: Reestablishing Connection
Label: self-released
Reestablishing Connection feels casual; sighs are kept in at the beginning of tracks with flutters of Facetime jingles. Overall, it feels real, relatable and triumphantly comforting. A worthwhile investment, if not for the charity then to allow yourself to cry to Dido again, just like it’s 2005.
Artist: Yung Lean
Album: Starz
Label: YEAR0001
Starz isn’t fully comparable to any of Lean’s previous works, yet it surely borrows a bit from Warlord, Frost God and Stranger, as well as his side projects. What really makes it a potential staple of contemporary experimental music is the level of artistic consciousness the album reaches.
