A weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. In the interest of conversation, let me know what you’re listening to in the comments below. Just please don’t promote your own work (or that of your label/client). This isn’t the right venue. (Just use email.)
▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ NEW: Recent(ish) arrivals and pre-releases
▰ The ensemble Third Coast Percussion teamed up with modular synthesizer musician Bana Haffar for a nearly 20-minute performance of “Shed,” inspired by the textile art of Anni Albers. And as a side note, how amazing is it that Haffar’s own website, banahaffar.com, is simply a Google Sheet with bits of information and outbound links? More on the piece at blackmountaincollege.org. (Thanks, Kim Rueger, for the recommendation.)
▰ Another fine, dramatic yet gentle patch from Michigan-based Orbital Patterns.
▰ Grassy Knoll has a new EP due out at month’s end, and one of the preview tracks, an instrumental, is a strong crunch of noir-detective electronica. The track is “Into Your Mind,” and the EP is EP01. It’s due out October 29.
▰ Autechre is back with Sign, its first album in over two years, though that doesn’t count over two dozen live sets released in between, not to mention a lengthy NTS archival broadcast. It’s more sedate, less brutal, than much of their recent music.
▰ Noise album from the duo of Chinese musician Yan Jun (更多) and Bani Haykal, who I believe is based in Singapore. The record, Rats in the Bright Southern Sky, came out a year ago this month, but I’m just beginning to explore its spartan mix of rapid-fire loops, industrial drones, snatches of voices, and invigorating feedback. (Thanks, Grzegorz Bojanek, for the recommendation.)