Arcade Fire violinist Sarah Neufeld has announced an estimated release date for her upcoming album, The Ridge, and shared the title track from the LP online.
The Canadian musician – whose capabilities extend well beyond the violin, to keyboard and backing vocals – already has 2013’s Hero Brother and the Black Ground EP (2014) behind her, and looks to follow hot on the heels from these two records with this confident, forward-looking project.
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Which isn’t to say that she’s been resting idle during the intervening time between the release of Hero Brother and her sophomore LP (not to mention the recording and touring of Reflektor). For one thing, she co-authored the well-received Never Were the Way She Was with Colin Stetson (a debut album for the American saxophonist, who has also played as part of Arcade Fire and Bon Iver), released earlier this year.
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On the evidence of this short excerpt from her latest project, the scope of Ridges looks to be even more grand and sweeping than a lot of the stuff she’s done with Arcade Fire. The eight-minute-long song begins as an initially bright medley of strings and percussion, before taking several dips of tone, with the help of some clever vocal-layering and a number of sustained electronic drones.
So, “Ridges” does make some use of Neufeld’s voice. But the way her voice is used is less as a lead vocalist – if anything, it’s more in line with the quasi-instrumental vocals the singer is known for with her now globally-recognised Canadian band (though, her kind of instrumental-vocals do grow into the articulation of some lyrics at around six minutes in). Another announcement made recently was that a number of drum additions, courtesy of Jeremy Gara (also of Arcade Fire), feature in the album. It’s most likely him, then, who provides the several sections of drumming – both tactile and robust – to this song.
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You can listen here to the lead track from her forthcoming album. The Ridge is expected to be released in February 2016.

New: Sarah Neufeld – ‘The Ridge’

A belated Happy New Year to music fans everywhere. And what more reason do you need for it to be a happy start to the year than Herzel’s Daydreamer, one part of the forthcoming Shades EP due to be released by Barcelona’s very own Hivern Discs. John Talabot’s label will front its opening record of 2015 (it’ll comprise five parts) with this five-minute, punchy piece by the Macedonian.
Herzel delivers a house track with both subtlety and drive here. Daydreamer‘s layered percussion goes some way to help raise and elevate the mood of the piece and maintain its interlinking structure, with some of its ambient tones and textures lending a much-needed sense of buoyancy to an otherwise quite direct several minutes of electronica. Indeed, considering its title, the song does have a strange, unexpected feeling of purpose and forward movement about it. The full Shades EP was made available on February 16th, so wrap your ears around this slice of the record and see what you think…
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New: Herzel – Daydreamer (Shades EP)

Introducing: Der Panther

Remember the Burial-esque Irish electronic pair UNKNWN covered by Crack in the Road earlier this year, following the release of their debut EP Devil/BBY? Well, in the wake of an unexpected run of success over the past twelve months, the duo have decided to break up and go their separate ways, owing mainly to collaborative disagreements and legal issues relating to the project. Unencumbered by this split, though, the act’s nerve centre, Chris Hanna, has decided to push on with things under the new, tongue-in-cheek yet not entirely imaginative moniker of OneKnown, and has provided a sample of his renewed solo work with this sumptuous track.
Fear not if the naming on this one is beginning to spell warning signs for you. On the evidence of this latest release, Hanna hasn’t let the rush-and-whirl of the last year or any reverberations from recent events hamper the quality of his output or production, if anything continuing to go from strength to strength with this. A trippy blaze of erratic arrangements and muffled beats, JST BCZ is a brain-licker of a tune that carries along some of the brooding electronic flavours lingering in the trip-hop echoes from Hanna’s earlier project. Underlined by a cascading and occasionally glitchy snyth line, the richness of detail in this track can be found in the way screeching instrumentation and elements of more subdued electronica are brought together at points where they really shouldn’t be able to. This is most clear to see at the song’s high points (around 0.55-1.30 and 2.18-2.30), and especially in the evocations of  Nosaj Thing, Lorn and Flying Lotus it hands out with a quiet confidence.
Hanna’s impressive output makes up a very precious piece of Belfast’s very own Champion Sound Records. Given that a number of this site’s readers have previously voiced their appreciation for some of the other acts housed under the collective, it’s probably a good time to mention an upcoming showcase being put together by the label on 15th November at the Menagerie Bar. The event will make up a diverse, intriguing display from a number of acts on Champion Sound’s current roster, including the dark, lugubrious two-piece outfit Ghosts and low-key electronic pair <a href="https://api.crackintheroad.com/music/20172-new-ryan-vail-fade" target="_blank">Ryan Vail</a>. If you’re around Belfast (or Northern Ireland more generally) at the time, I’d suggest you head along and check it out.
Going to avoid the cheap puns on this one, tempting as they may be.
You can stream it below.
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New: OneKnown – JUST BKZ

Another update on an act covered by Crack in the Road earlier this year. Mykki Blanco today announced that her forthcoming mixtape release, entitled Gay Dog Food, is now available to download. Check it out below (via Spotify)
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New: Mykki Blanco – Gay Dog Food

The release of Call Super’s highly awaited debut album Suzi Ecto is being met with widespread acclaim among the online electronica community, and deservedly so. The UK-born, now Berlin-based Joseph Seaton has really delivered on the promise of some earlier work with the emergence of this unsettling dream sensation of a techno album, which was finally published yesterday.
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A glittering labyrinth of slippery signposts, feints and false turns, this record takes you on a hypnotic trip through its own self-made puzzles and plurality. And despite how immersive and absorbing the sounds of this album often can be, there is a weird, persistent sense of being external that runs through all of Suzi Ecto, though it’s difficult to put your finger on what exactly this is with any degree of precision.
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Structurally-speaking as well, the record has an elusive complexity which can be hard to pin down. The noticeable mood shift between Sulu Sekou, Hoax Eye and Raindance is evidence of just one of the many dips and twists this album takes over the course of its development. Suzie Ecto is full of these sorts of self-conscious movements and devices (just look at some of the song titles: Dovetail, Hoax Eye, Fold Again At Last). There are, in a number of tracks, some distinguishable threads of existing contemporaries (like Actress, like Vessel, like Oneohtrix Point Never…), but on the whole the LP bends these elements into shape to take on a sound and skeleton very much of its own making.
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With Ghettoville, Kassem Mosse’s Workshop 19, Voices From the Lake’s Velo Di Maya EP, Moiré’s Shelter, Vessel’s Punish, Honey, and now this behind us, 2014 really seems to be turning into a strong year for these kinds of leftfield, experimental techno records, which probably comes as a bit of a surprise. I, for one, certainly wasn’t expecting such a number of well-wrought and progressive works of this nature at the start of the year. And, when they’re of a kind with the above mentioned titles and this highly impressive LP here, your only inclination is to lap up and return to the endlessly absorbing things, while welcoming any more of this fare yet to come.

New: Call Super – Suzi Ecto

As a follow-up to the last piece I wrote on William Ryan Fritch’s EP Heavy, I thought it would be a good idea to point heads towards the California-based composer’s latest project with Jon Mueller of Volcano Choir. Ensemble, a nine-track album of varying song lengths, is, like Heavy, a structurally complex, epic journey through the see-saw of life’s unpredictable and varying conditions, resulting in a hugely affirmative work.
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Its second track, Participant, has some of the childlike joy and wide-eyed innocence of certain movie scores from recent years, the likes of Beasts of the Southern Wild – although this is undercut by menacing, reverb-laden guitar which lurks in the landscape’s periphery throughout Ensemble – while the opener’s tribal chants funnel through detectable strains from both artists’ previous oeuvres. From the mournful cries at the end of Loss, to the spine-tingling shrieks and shrills of the strings in Unseen, and the ecstatic rediscovery of life in Reentry, Languaging and Obtain, this record is a protracted crossing over through the material and the spiritual; a passage through life and death, and back again. There’s a real sense of triumph on the final song of the LP, Onward, as its slow, emphatic percussion signals the end of a striated and visceral listening experience.
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The culmination of a succession of various releases, this project is more than just a purely audio experience, with Ensemble lending some of the cross-media, all-embracing scope of Fritch’s recent work, as indicated by its variety of accompanying artwork. The Rhythmplex (Mueller’s personal website) page for the album goes into some detail regarding the gestation and overall nature of the work, stating:
“[that the] project has used sound, performance, and concept to explore ideas around presence and experience. This work culminates in the release of Ensemble, an elaborate book/LP/digital release that features seven essays about our vulnerability, the rawness of our inner lives, and how we move forward in the face of it all”
This informs the roaming, multi-faceted nature of Ensemble – tending at certain points towards the ineffable but always remaining rooted to its emotionally-driven centre point – as well as the appropriately maximal aesthetic of the record as a whole. Its themes are grand and ambitious, but the LP carries them off impressively and with a drive that doesn’t feel laboured, even if the subject matter sometimes is. Like any successful album and collaboration, this is a good deal more than the sum of its individual parts (relating to the input of each artist, as well as the collection of songs) and is more than well-deserving of listeners’ attentions – whether as an evening record or as a soundtrack to a walk, this is a great restorative to the dip of autumn and the first leg of the year’s declining arc. Ensemble was released less than a week ago, on 9th September.
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New: Death Blues – Ensemble

With this epic EP offering, composer William Ryan Fritch has given us a brilliantly singular collection of songs to help ease us into the onset of autumn, helping to breathe some warmth into those increasingly dark and cold evenings just ahead.
Though, this isn’t the first substantial project for this composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist; he’s released the sprawlingly beautiful album, Leave Me Like You Found Me, and an EP entitled Emptied Animal, as well as having contributed to Annie Silverstein’s prize-winning (the Cinéfondation Selection 1st prize at Cannes 2014) film, Skunk.
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A lengthy seven-tracker, this EP’s sound does retain some elements from Fritch’s previous offerings, but at the same time has a distinct uniqueness about it. The unusual textures created by the opener False Substance‘s medley of bass, horns, woodwind, and distorted guitars, give some indication of the wide-ranging space Heavy will step into, as well as Fricht’s overall range as a composer. What follows on from this is an eclectic, absorbing fusion of classical and acoustic arrangements, world music, choppy, tapering post-rock guitars and the occasional hint of more ambient electronically-engineered mood palettes. Order and Disorder, as its title may suggest, presents some of the stark juxtapositions and unexpected combinations that coalesce to form this beautifully envisioned and realised EP. However, reducing these complex and far-reaching songs into critical excerpts can seem like something of a pointless task – you’ve basically just got to listen to Fricht’s beautiful creation and let the music speak for itself.
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Lost Tribe Sounds’ Facebook page description advises readers that this EP will particularly interest fans of Forest Swords, Swans and Do Make Say Think, and I can see where they’re coming from with these comparisons; but, really, with the emergence of a number of cross-genre experimental composers over the past few years (Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Ben Frost, and Laurel Halo, to name but a few), I genuinely think this slightly undersells the EP, which I’m confident would appeal to a broader audience than the one suggested here.
Clearly, there’s more than just this EP to sink you’re teeth into here, but it’s probably a good starting point all the same. Heavy is now available to the public on <a href="https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-ep" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>, having been released on Lost Tribe Sound Records.

Introducing: William Ryan Fritch

L.A. indie-folk outfit The Wild Reeds (Kinsey, Mack, Sharon, Nick, Jones) have now released their debut album, Blind and Brave, which is currently available to download on iTunes and <a href="https://thewildreeds.bandcamp.com/album/blind-and-brave" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a>. This single of the same name, which was released last month and provides a valuable sample of their sound, is a sort of paean to the visionary idealists and dreamers of the band’s home city, and I guess also a wider salute to dreamers everywhere.
Luscious arpeggiated guitar chords cover the song in an initial layer of melodic backdrop, before an accompanying chorus of percussion, guitar- and banjo-led instrumentation and backing vocals join the medley. Band member Sharon fronts this vocal line, with her strong tones ringing nicely against the finely poised harmony of The Wild Reeds’ female sining trio. The refrain “Do it ’cause you love this city, ’cause you love it all”, gives some idea of the of the full-hearted and tender nature of the single, which ends on the affectionate note, “Show me how to love it all”. All together it captures something of the vibe of the ’70s Laurel Canyon music scene, and weaves it into the fabric of the band’s own indie-folk sound. The crescendo to which the song builds has noticeable strands of Arcade Fire running through it, as does the song’s outro and general instrumentation. Its video charts some of the city’s landmarks in a succession of contrasting night and day shots, following the paths and intersections of some of the people of Los Angeles with a loving eye. The clean, impressive visuals act, like the song itself, as a successful kind of low-key love letter to the sprawling metropolis from which the band hails. If you like the sound of this rousing and heartfelt number, check out their full-length LP from the sources mentioned above.
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Introducing: The Wild Reeds

Sara Abdel-Hamid, A.K.A. Ikonika, has returned with this doozy of a taster-track from her forthcoming EP, Position. The highly-charged yet weirdly reflective Praxis is a mesmerising trip of urban electronica, not to mention a lesson in production pacing and build-up. Its meditative, synth-laden beats develop from something quite isolated and tense-sounding at the start of the track into an engrossing, heavy sort of stupor by its end. As with many of her other releases, there’s a noticeable vein of Aphex Twin running through this one, especially with the irresistibly weird twists and turns its melody takes. The last thing we really saw from her was her 2013 second studio LP, Aerotropolis, a strong album with its own distinct flavour which was largely seen as taking her away from the aggressive and manic sounds of her debut into a noticeably more buoyant mood; but this piece suggests a shift again in tone for the upcoming ‘Position’. Whatever route(s) it decides to take us down, I’m really looking forward to hearing the full-length EP which, on the basis of this offering, promises both an engrossing and idiosyncratic end product, with some surprises that could potentially make their way in. Its date of release will be 25th August, on Hyperdub Records.
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New: Ikonika – Praxis

Just two days ago, electronic music fans were given a taster of the latest release from the innovative Young Echo group of musicians in Bristol. The leftfield producer Vessel, after a year or two releasing occasional tracks under the radar in the wake of his 2012 debut, Order of Noise, returns with this snippet from his forthcoming album. Red Sex, though arguably no less experimental than the music forming his previous output, is quite different in nature from the music on the previous LP; where Order of Noise presented the listener with a very dark, glitteringly immersive experience operating somewhere on the boundaries of minimal techno, this similarly experimental track proves very dissimilar in tone and structure. It’s an altogether more visceral, in-your-face piece of music which wastes little time in assaulting sensibilities with its pounding four-on-the-floor and manipulations of a modulated synthesiser. The remaining minutes go on to detail and develop this sound into intelligent areas by way of astute pitching and a shrill-sounding breakdown about halfway through.
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Though it’s obviously difficult to speculate what the direction an entire album will take on the basis of one taster track, Vessel does seem to be following through on his expressed intention to shift away from “archetypal electronic sounds” towards a result “that felt more organic, even if the sounds themselves weren’t inherently organic”. Reportedly using a variety of object-instruments like percussive sheets of metal, as well as building his own make-shift flutes from sawn-off bicycle parts, he is clearly one of the producers currently out there who is pushing at the edges of the form, which is always exciting to see. After the publication of Actress’ brilliant record, Ghettoville, earlier in the year, it could feasibly have been expected that no other 2014 release of this nature would top Darren Cunningham’s leaden, sparse and almost formless soundscape; but this threatens to do just that. Red Sex is available to stream now and the album, Punish, Honey, is due to be released on 15th September by Tri Angle Records.
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New: Vessel – Red Sex

Belfast-based UNKNWN have recently released this, their anticipated new EP under Champion Sound Records. ‘Devil/BBY’ follows on from a string of Youtube releases back in 2012, made under the solo moniker, Unknown, all anonymously titled ‘#001′, ‘#002′, ‘#003′ etc. The songs collectively generated a train of hype and speculation regarding the identity of the producer behind the project, and for a while there really were some slightly bizarre identifications being thrown about the place in relation to the issue (with maybe the pick of the bunch being that UNKNWN was in fact Skrillex attempting to cultivate some underground credibility by way of a new online alias, after the tweet of ‘#001′ by Skrillex’s then-girlfriend Ellie Goulding). Now that he’s revealed to be Chris Hanna, a talented local producer/DJ working with DSNT and several other projects, you can’t help but laugh and wonder in equal measure at social media’s ability to create its own completely wayward artificial hype and urban myths. It’s a great thing, hindsight…
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This elusive-persona strategy – not the only thing, it seems, UNKNWN have borrowed from Burial – has unfortunately led to accusations of cynical and deliberate marketing ploys on Hanna’s part, especially in the harsh review doled out by Resident Advisor for his first EP release, ‘#001-#004′. In this collective of early tracks, certainly, you do hear the clear marks of William Bevan’s minimal, bass-infused music – an influence Hanna himself has made clear – but then you can hear how the duo UNKNWN move away from his early work as you make your way through the growing catalogue, developing into a sound which still holds echoes of it but which is more distinctly their own.
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This new offering, accordingly, takes the project into a promising new space, and a good deal of this is down to the vocal contributions of UNKNWN’s other half. It’s a paltry ten seconds before the listener is treated to the soulful, licking sounds of singer Gemma Dunleavy, who Hanna teamed up with in 2013, and whose input really lifts the music just that bit higher, especially on the excellent first song, ‘Devil’. The Ghosts remix of this opener follows as track number two on the EP, and reworks its trip hop orientation into a more focused and bass-heavy dubstep track. ‘BBY’ continues to make good use of Dunleavy’s vocal capabilities as it develops and unravels, leaning further this time towards the darker, Burial-inspired side of this form of hybrid downtempo electronica. The final part to the collection, titled ‘Purify’, is maybe the most singular of the songs on the EP and ends the sequence on a strong note with its thudding bass and overlapping beat patterns, an aftermath track of comparative spareness which makes clever use of a distancing bridge coming in at the three-and-a-half minute mark. As an overall package, ‘Devil/BBY’ is accomplished and impressive, coming from a young duo who will only get better. It’s available to buy and download now.

New: UNKNWN – ‘Devil/BBY’ EP

The formidable Sheffield post-rock/math-rock outfit, 65daysofstatic, today began streaming this B-side from the single Taipei off their relatively recent Wild Light album. The track, with its politically topical and rather on-the-nose title of DronenotDrones, is a six-minute piece based around this experimental genre and, one presumes, the thematic focus of the song title.
And as far as the music’s concerned, at least, DronenotDrones is very much worth its salt. Its broken, almost organ-like opening percolates outwards into a toxic, menacing atmosphere which only grows over the course of a quite dark six minutes. It’s essentially a post-industrial take on drone, with elements of ambient music and rock thrown in here and there for good measure. Scratching guitars and synthesised backing both come in at different points to add to the several layers of sound. These are punctuated by the sort of alarming dissonance heard on album tracks like PRISMS, before the song strips itself down to something more shrill and spine-tingling, almost ‘Mezzanine’-like. It all creates an ambient, yet jarring and eerie kind of soundscape.
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The release surrounding the track also enters it into a fairly heated contemporary debate in the music industry; that of artist fees, the ‘valuation’ of music and, specifically here, whether streaming is a commercially and/or ethically viable means of showcasing and selling a band’s music. 65daysofstatic certainly think it is, as they detail underneath the song’s Facebook stream:
“We’re fighting a lonely battle out of 65HQ, trying to convince people that streaming songs is A GOOD THING, not something to be scared of… That allowing people to hear music before they buy it is *not* fundamentally opposed to still placing value on music[…]”
Whatever your stance on the issue (and mine would be in line with the band’s), you can’t knock the quality of this murky, intriguing track. It’s available to stream (and buy, of course) now.

New: 65daysofstatic – ‘DronenotDrones’

26-year old Magnus August Høiberg, aka Cashmere Cat, has just released this new four-track EP, following a couple of days of sample track plays and pre-release publicity. The Norwegian producer, after some giddy moments in 2013 (which maybe peaked with his track ‘Mirror Maru’ featuring on the GTA V soundtrack), has kept followers pleased with something not-hugely-unfamiliar-sounding but a really quite lovely record, nevertheless.
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‘Wedding Bells’ continues the hip-hop driven, downbeat electronica and the marks of trap on the ‘Mirror Maru’ EP, developing them into a more intricate but still recognisable end product. The piano arrangement that opens ‘With Me’ seems to initially suggest otherwise, before it is cut with the sampling and layering effects echoing some of the Scandinavian’s prior work. Still, there are some delicate and well-arranged moments here that are not really present in his earlier output. This extends onto the second track ‘Pearls’, which also resembles some earlier sounds with an added web of detail, but it is probably on the title-track where the most catchy and likeable moments are had. All four songs, however, are solid and ‘Wedding Bells’ gives out eighteen minutes of well-complemented grooves – an enjoyable fare, which won’t do the recent swell of Høiberg’s fanbase count any harm. It’s available to download now.
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New: Cashmere Cat – Wedding Bells EP

This latest release from the cross-dressing performance alter ego of Michael Quattlebaum Jr., Mykki Blanco, sees her team up with Jeremiah Meece, formerly Jeremiah Chrome of Chicago-based production duo The-Drum. The punchy, pounding four-minute track works as an impressive snippet of, as well as partial statement of intent for, the pair’s imagined year to come, with 2014 looking a promising one for these two some-way-established and currently rising artists.
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Blanco enjoyed a successful 2013, after the 2012 release of her mixtape ‘Cosmic Angel:The Illuminati Prince/ss’ and 2011’s ‘From the Silence of Duchamp to the Noise of Boys’, a book of poetry which encompasses another facet of her flamboyant live performances. 2013 saw the ‘Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP’ received well and tracks like ‘Wavvy’ (above) hit a nice crossing point between the experimental fluidity and boldness of New York underground hip hop and the slick, sharp production of much current pop. As part of The-Drum, Meece and Brandon Boom released ‘Contact’ last July, an interesting part-concept record combining a variety of influences. The two have also poured their energies into several side projects, including all-male outfit JODY and Clique Talk. Now Meece looks to go it alone with a recent cache of production mixes and edits, and a debut album due to be released at the start of this year.
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…Back to ‘She Gutta’, though. The murky, throbbing centre of this track is prefaced by thirty seconds of enveloping sonic effects and the creaking groans of vocal samples that sit recognisably with both the output of Blanco and recent US hip hop in general. Elements of Chicago electronica and bombastic horns – that don’t sound a million miles away from the production features on certain tracks in ‘Yeezus’ – are there making their impact felt throughout the song. And this tough backing is followed up by a growing tenacity in the energetic glam-drag performer, who rhymes critically about the obstacles of social prejudice and vampirish characters both inside and outside of the music industry: “they stakin’ what they makin’ ’cause they snakes and they ain’t making shit”. Blanco’s volatile raps work well over an intoxicating smog of blurring beats and sampled vocals. The final package (linked just above) is totally absorbing and entertaining, to boot.
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The track itself is intriguing and instantly likeable, marrying Blanco’s growing confidence and dexterity as rapper and all-round artist with the production talents of Meece, who himself recently produced a mixtape with emerging Chicago rapper KIT. But more interesting is the nod it makes towards the trajectory of these two over the course of 2014, as both are very much worth keeping an eye on. Meece at the start of the month dropped a collection of edits (you can listen to ‘Summer Fling’ from that offering, posted above) and his album is due out very soon. For Blanco, what is immediately in the offing is less clear. She has repeatedly voiced her intention to not sell out, and following a number of successful records, live performances, and one-off tracks like this one, it’ll be interesting to see what shape her next conception will take.

New: Mykki Blanco – She Gutta (Prod. Jeremiah Meece)

A couple of days ago, the latest extract from the debut EP by up-and-coming teenage producer Iglooghost was diffused into the worldwide airwaves. Taken from the soon-to-be-released Treetunnels EP, the taster track Oolong_tea packages two and a half minutes of subdued psychedelic electronica, demonstrating a mature ear and skill in its execution. Irish-born Seamus Malliagh continues to channel the clear Flying Lotus influences evident in his previously released tracks (particularly the colourful title, ‘Peanut.smoker’, also taken from ‘Treetunnels’) through this intricate and satisfying short piece.
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Those influences are somewhat softened here, though – if ‘Peanut.smoker’ borrows a lot from the intense and absorbing ‘Cosmogramma’, this track is a lot more like the delicate output from ‘Until the Quiet Comes’. ‘Oolong_tea’ mainly consists of raw hip-hop beats, echoed vocal sampling, and is textured by a rising, atmospheric synth. The quality of the end product is helped along by the contribution of Italian singer, Kae, whose dreamlike and melodic vocals really hold the track together.
Considering Malliagh is still only seventeen, he could well be one to watch if he builds on these tracks and moves into territory he can claim as his own. Certainly, it’ll be interesting to see this EP fully fleshed out. Check out both extracts from the promising young beatmaker and keep eyes peeled for ‘Treetunnels’ in full. It will be released by Error Broadcast on 28th January.
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Introducing: Iglooghost

German label Denovali Records have pulled together a varied and impressive two-hour compilation that provides a convenient, cherry-picked round-up of their 2013 output, alongside some interesting glimpses of the things they have in store for 2014.
The sampler contains works that range from instrumental, to ambient, to drone, and several other branches of electronica. Highlights include: Piano Interrupted’s ‘Cross Hands’; Witxes’s ‘The Pilgrim’; Ensemble Economique’s ‘Radiate Through Me’; John Lemke’s ‘Walizka’; and Frederico Albanese’s ‘Queen and Wonder’ – though the quality is of such a high standard throughout that picking highlights wouldn’t be doing Nordic Lake Sounds Vol.V justice.
Interestingly, the compilation also serves as a plug for their upcoming annual Swingfest, with the 2014 edition of the festival featuring several of the artists showcased here. The festival itself is an interesting experimental music and visual arts festival that is meant to represent the label’s belief in the providing equal opportunity for performing acts – in other words, they done got rid of them there headliners.
You can find more details about Swingfest here, and check out the compilation below.
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New: Denovali Records – ‘Nordic Lake Sounds Vol. V’

December’s ‘Rås’ EP goes some way to pull us out of the winter mire, pulsing throughout with the uplifting rhythms and echoes of a summer faraway and seemingly out of reach. Norway’s up-and-coming talent gives the lie to the idea that the country’s cultural produce strictly reflects its sparse and gloomy topography, not to mention a troubled recent history. For a nation that has become repeatedly current in recent years for its suitably macabre – and often very high-quality – pop culture output, which has repeatedly captured the imagination of a wide audience, this producer’s changing of the record might initially come as something of a surprise, if not a refreshing relief from all that death and existential baggage. Less in the line of Ibsen and a lot more along that of soul-based 90s house, Andreas Kleven Rasmussen – or Pandreas – has given us something absorbing and addictive with this euphoric end-of-year offering.
The opener, like the EP as a whole, is keyed and pitched at a lovely balance between outward artificial rapture and a personal, more inner-oriented sound. The titular first track doesn’t waste much time in stamping its imprint on the record, giving us a fairly clear indication of where it intends to lead us, with its more or less instant surge of pulsating synth and chant-like sample. Following this is an underpinning of fuzzy bass and a pounding four-on-the-floor that gives ‘Rås’ a purposeful energy and drive, before it strips itself back to something distilled and purer around the two-and-a-half minute mark. A skillful layering of high-pitch, manipulated vocal sampling continues the upward trajectory, and then withdraws for the track to round off neatly.
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The distinctive steel drum and heady synth of the EP’s second track, ‘Vàr’, ensures a continuation of what ‘Rås’ starts. Its well-textured and feel-good refrain comes in early and propels the EP on into the ecstatic, but still curious, landscape it ends up occupying. The injection of bass circa three minutes in is well-timed and keeps track momentum going where others might start to flag, giving an example of ‘Vàr’s’ clearly considered build-up and often successful execution. And despite the way the track suggests a folding in on itself towards the end, it at no point seems to look back.
Where the EP really effects any sort of self-assessment it might hint at towards the end of track two is during its brilliant third and final part – a kind of aftermath close to what feels like a much longer record. ‘Goest’ takes on a developed depth in the tension it establishes between the EP’s closing part and what has gone before it, investing ‘Rås’ with a heightened sense of transience and nostalgia. A trance-like use of opening synth sounds out at the beginning of the track and works to slow the pace right down. Inaudible, blurring background conversation, which morphs into the sort of oppressive speaker-phone announcements used in airports and train stations, initially creates a slightly unsettling backdrop of white noise. There’s also something about ‘Goest’ which seems to have echoes of ‘Casyam_59#02’, the final track from Gold Panda’s ‘Trust’ EP, running through it. And this, of course, brings us back to the very start of the year that was.
‘Rås’ lives forwards and is understood backwards, and maybe this helps to account for why the EP, which doesn’t seem like it will have much staying power when you first listen to it, becomes very repeatable with each play through. ‘Goest’s’ closing strings and its layers of trance-inspired synth both come together at its end to package the record’s overall effect, which is a pleasing, but also peculiar and, at times, mesmerising one.

Crack in the Road

Sarah Neufeld‘The Ridge’

HerzelDaydreamer (Shades EP)

Introducing: Der Panther

OneKnownJUST BKZ

Mykki BlancoGay Dog Food

Call SuperSuzi Ecto

Death BluesEnsemble

Introducing: William Ryan Fritch

Introducing: The Wild Reeds

IkonikaPraxis

VesselRed Sex

UNKNWN‘Devil/BBY’ EP

65daysofstatic‘DronenotDrones’

Cashmere CatWedding Bells EP

Mykki BlancoShe Gutta (Prod. Jeremiah Meece)

Introducing: Iglooghost

Denovali Records‘Nordic Lake Sounds Vol. V’

PandreasRås