@@@ Silica Angel: Silica Angel EP (Astrobabylon, 2018) Computer music that I got to via an online Australian music magazine. It opens pretty sparsely with some video game bleep business and some other electronic chattering squirts and splurts. It starts turning into a tune with a slightly buzzy synth bass and then slowly opens up with a lot of layers included process vocals, insect type noises. It’s a pleasantly dense mix of sounds that edges up to being too much without going over the line. The second tune, Cicada cartridge, is a ten minute opus centered around strange keyboard sounds, more than one layer. There is the same commitment to squelch and fuzzy bug sounds and processed vocals. It sounds a bit like a sex robot whose waterproof abilities have been compromised.
@@@ SUM: It’s Alright to Be Me (N/A, 2018) This is a New York City band but I saw them interviewed in an Australian online music magazine. This is concious r&b with some gospel flavors and a super positive female singer on the microphone. Tight drum sounds, full horn section, a piano player, and extensive background vocals. It’s a full ensemble explosion and draws a connection back to Stevie Wonder’s pro-black gospel funk tunes.
YTD recordings listened to: 536
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 282
Not good music: 222
Best: 9
Honorable Mentions: 5
Possibles: Retox, Defeater, Jonwayne, Okkyung Lee, Slidhr, The Chewers, Susie Iberra/Roberto Rodriguez, The Coral, T.O.M.B., Lozen, Erase Errata, Mastery, Hartley C. White, Weed, Cold Water, Janelle Monae, Luther Dickinson, Graeme Barrett, Fast Asleep, Goldlink, Cavanaugh, Satoko Fuji, Moken, Juan Atkins, Lantern, Twin Peaks, Djelimady Tounkara, The Oh Sees, Denny Zeitlin, MILF, Unfun, De La Soul, Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes, A Tribe Called Quest, Noname, Gouge Away, Klara Lewis, Krullur, The Lowest Form, Hard Proof, Yotoco, Jungle Fire, Sandoz, Oddisee, Forro in the Dark, RAM, Fiver, Succumb Succumb, Gloom, Priests, Propaganda, This is the Kit, Roberto Gonzalez, Integrity, Tuba Skinny, The Expanders, Converge, Open Mike Eagle, Criolo, Billy Strings, Flowers of Sulphur, Tal National, Portal, Hernan Sama & Marcelo von Schultz, Jean Grae and Quelle Chris, Lawaii, Etran De L’Air, Ruby Karinto, Elysia Crampton, Parquet Courts, Orlando Lopez, Moskus, Kendl Winter, KEN mode, Automatisme
Deep In the Music 