2021 October Listenings

Picnic - Picnic

FFO Roman Poirier and KMRU. Or basically anyone that likes music.

Release date: 2021-07-07

[9.1/10]

JPEGMAFIA - LP!

Glorious! Might his best one yet.

Release date: 2021-10-22

[8.7/10]

To Rococo Rot - Kölner Brett

Minimal techno masters do an soundtrack collection for a house. Underrated album for sure.

Release date: 2001-01-01

[8.6/10]

Joy Orbison - Still Slipping Vol. 1

Pleasant techno / UK bass. FFO Mount Kimbie & St. Germaine (kind of…). I think this is one of the most balanced techno records I’ve heard this year…

Release date: 2021-08-13

[8.5/10]

Sarah Davachi - Antiphonals

Drone / modern composition. Think taking a walk in an abandoned temple that has yet to decay into a ruin, and this is the music you’d hear in your head even if there’s really no one else around you.

Release date: 2021-09-10

[8.5/10]

Call Super - Cherry Drops I

Techno / house. Sounds like floating in mid air. I like it way better than last year’s full length LP.

Release date: 2021-09-24

[8.4/10]

Miguel A. Ruiz - Climatery

Hazy ambient. Feels like an Apichatpong film…

Release date: 2018-11-09

[8.3/10]

h hunt - Playing Piano for Dad

Piano solo music. Found this through the recommended list for Duval Timothy. Played it through a speaker with a lot of low end, the thump he made when he hit the keys kind of reminds me Bendik Giske, but the noise on piano is much more subtle than hitting the sax keys.

Release date: 2016-05-20

[8.3/10]

Tarotplane - Horizontology

Mystical new-age / ambient.

Release date: 2021-03-05

[8.3/10]

Tara Clerkin Trio - In Spring

Lo-fi chamber noir-jazz / downtempo.

Release date: 2021-04-07

[8.1/10]

Kit Downes, Lucy Railton - Subaerial

Modern composition. This is some spooky music… But the more I listen to it the more I feel drawn to it.

Release date: 2021-08-13

[8.1/10]

Perila, Ulla - Memories Of Log

Degraded tape / ambient. Warbly sounds, should be longer though.

Release date: 2021-10-15

[7.9/10]

M. Sage with The Spinnaker Ensemble - The Wind Of Things

Organic, brooding ambient / field recording.

Release date: 2021-04-16

[7.8/10]

Jü - III

Math-ish jazz-rock with a lot of ethnic music influences, like gamelan scales or Japanese mode. Pretty cool sound. Kind of sounds like a more rock-based Horse Lord.

Release date: 2019-09-13

[7.8/10]

Benoît Pioulard - Sylva

Ambient pop. Maybe this would be a more immersive and holistic experience if paired with the companion photo book instead of doing housework, but I gotta mop the floor so there ya go.

Release date: 2014-05-13

[7.5/10]

Catherine Wheel - Chrome

I imagined this to be more like Cocteau Twins but it’s more like Failure / Hum. Pretty cool alt rock.

Release date: 2018-03-09

[7.4/10]

Two Shell - SoulCity EP

Techno / bass. I like the second track Soft Core the most, the others aren’t really that impressive. Must be total bangers in a club though.

Release date: 2021-03-12

[7.3/10]

Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou

FFO Stereolab and Sun Ra. Psychedelic jazztronica / krautrock. Personally I like the jazzier cuts on this album than the psych pop ones.

Release date: 2021-10-15

[7.3/10]

Vertaal - Paradigm Shifting

Nu-jazz a la Yussef Kamaal, but less flashy. I feel like this kind of stuff is probably not something I’d revisit too frequently, sure they can play but the songs don’t offer too muchh impression, at least to me.

Release date: 2020-04-23

[7.2/10]

Black Country, New Road - For The First Time

A less abrasive, less shredy, more post-punk-y Black Midi.

Release date: 2021-02-05

[7.1/10]

佐井好子 - 萬花鏡

Before I listened to this I thought this was the seminal Japanese psych-ambient pop album, but turns out it’s just radio friendly pop music that gets stale pretty quickyly. Maybe my expectation was too high.

Release date: 1975-08-25

[6.8/10]

Audiobook - Astro Tough

Weird indie pop. I feel like the first and the last couple of songs are very different from the ones in the middle - the former more dance oriented, while the latter features more traditional instrumentation.

Release date: 2021-10-01

[6.7/10]

Priya Ragu - damnshestamil

Pop mixtape from Indian / Swiss artist. A lot of Indian sounding elements on this album.

Release date: 2021-09-03

[6.7/10]

Joyer - Perfect Gray

Slowcore. I feel like it’s all the same song on the entire album…

Release date: 2021-09-24

[6.5/10]

Explosions In The Sky - Big Bend (An Original Soundtrack for Public Television)

Don’t feel like they’ve brought anything new to the table.

Release date: 2021-10-01

[6.1/10]