In under six hours, Bandcamp Friday returns again, running from midnight to midnight pacific time. For those unfamiliar, Bandcamp Friday is a day when Bandcamp waive their revenue share to help support the many artists who have seen their livelihoods disrupted by the pandemic. Over the course of 14 Bandcamp Fridays, fans have paid artists and labels $56 million dollars, helping cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more.
I’ve tried to make a bit of a tradition of putting together suggested purchase lists in advance of each Bandcamp Friday, sometimes over on Test Pressing, sometimes here. So, without any further ado, let’s get into it. Bandcamp Friday: September 2021, here we come.
Sidebar: No photographs this week. Last week I managed to spill a cup of coffee all over my laptop. Fingers crossed the repair company will be able to recover the data on it for me, and if not, well, you know how it is. When things happen, you response, react and adapt.
MĀ, Breakfast With Hades (Meeting House Records)
Let’s start with some introspective psychedelic hip-hop soul. Breakfast With Hades is the debut album from Te Whanganui a Tara, Aotearoa-based rapper and singer MĀ, released earlier this year through Meeting House Records. Across ten syrupy and evocative tracks, MĀ maps out a soundworld which skews towards the blunted sounds of UK soul music, while paying homage to the history and traditions of hip-hop in Aotearoa. Some of the choruses on Breakfast With Hades are the sort of earworms that will haunt your dreams, and the minimalist backing beats they’re paired with walk between realms as well. Immersive.
NahBo, Ruptured (Empty Goon Records)
Here’s another Te Whanganui a Tara release, Ruptured by the Astronesian native, NahBo aka DJ DeezNaks. You can look at this one on a few levels. First of all, from a bedrock perspective, production wise, NahBo crafts somewhat cinematic, somewhat futuristic backing beats that drift between styles like clouds on a windy day in the capital. Functionally, they serve as a backdrop for extended rap-meets-spoken-word monologues on the issues of concern and pressure points NahBo observes in the world, tied together by richly toned soul choruses that effortlessly capture a sense of something grander beyond the physical world. There’s a lot going on here, and it’s all worth taking in.
Stinky Jim, It's Not What It Sounds Like (Self-Released)
Tāmaki Makaurau’s Stinky Jim, one of the true broadcasting stalwarts of 95bfm, and an equally longstanding figure within the more dubby, bass-driven and psychedelic sides of music in Aotearoa (Unitone HiFi, Soundproof, Phase 5). It's Not What It Sounds Like is his first solo album, and if you’ve ever listened to his excellent Stinky Grooves radio show, you probably won’t be surprised by what is on offer here. Expect ten warmhearted and generous instrumentals that map out an interzone somewhere between reggae, dub, hip-hop, slinky, synthesized lounge music and the offset, syncopated rhythms the drift across Latin America and the Caribbean. Fit for both the dancefloor and Sunday afternoon in a hammock, or to put things slightly differently, music to move your body or your mind (or maybe both).
M4URI M4STA, PŪ0R0 PL4Y V0L. 001 (Self-Released)
And after that debut solo album, here’s a debut solo single. PŪ0R0 PL4Y V0L. 001 is the first musical release from the Tāmaki Makaurau visual artist Abigail Aroha Jensen aka M4URI M4STA. Almost eleven minutes long, PŪ0R0 PL4Y V0L. 001 maps out a journey from Parnell train station to Kirikiriroa, with Jensen musically responding to sites and whakapapa with Wai ORO and Taonga Pūoro (traditional Māori instruments). PŪ0R0 PL4Y V0L. 001 is about immersion, so close your eyes and sink into the experience and the journey. The beauty is in the depth of detailing.
Borrowed cs, amber / CADKEY groove (Self-Released)
For his latest cassette tape release, Te Whanganui a Tara drummer, band leader, producer and DJ Cory Champion aka Borrowed CS has collected up the material from his first two projects of 2021, LSRW EP and amber / CADKEY groove, and bundled them with dub / alternative mixes and a previously unreleased composition. Hypnotic techno ambience abounds across this very excellent collection.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Trip City, by Trevor Miller (Velocity Press)
In the summer of 1989, when Trip City was first released (packaged with a cassette tape soundtrack by A Guy Called Gerald no less), there had really been no other British novel like it. Raw and uncut, this was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music, rendered through the lens of the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn’t really been explored since Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as “the acid house novel” and an underground literary landmark. Thirty two year later, Velocity Press has reprinted Miller’s cult classic. This time, you can purchase an edition that comes with the soundtrack on vinyl if you want. More details here.
Junglist, by Two Fingas and James Kirk (Penguin Random House)
Another rave era book reissue! This seems to be a bit of a theme at the moment, so let’s continue. Back in print after two decades, Junglist tells the compelling, comic, stream-of-consciousness story of four young Black men coming of age among the raves and Jungle music scene in London during the 1990s. Poetry, prose, humor, Junglist riffs its way through a wild weekend spent raving in 1994, right in the beating heart of the moment when Jungle drum & bass rose up and took over. Pirate radio, mixtapes, nightclubs, Street-side sound systems, the music was everywhere, and it made for moment when working class London, black and white, came together under a breakbeat groove. More details on this rollercoaster ride of a novel over here.
Pitchfork: How Lee “Scratch” Perry Sculpted the Sounds of Reggae, by Jace Clayton
Wary and beatific, Perry’s sound transmits the belief that music is a spiritual practice, and his mystical unity can be heard on every recording. His music feels offhand yet uncannily sturdy. He didn’t so much “produce” singles as architect hypnotic environments where melodies and out-sounds combine forces to tell of a world where noise is as beloved as music: His 1968 breakout single “People Funny Boy” sampled a baby crying 30 years before Aaliyah and Timbaland’s “Are You That Somebody?” did the same.
Jace Clayton takes a closer look at how Lee “Scratch” Perry, the visionary artist and producer, who died on 29 August aged 85, revolutionized music with his daring studio techniques. Read more here.
Mixmag: "A Digital Oasis": Li Yilei's conceptual sound art brings light and hope in a dark time, by Jemima Skala.
People with Aspergers have sensory processing issues - we are extremely sensitive to smell, sound, light, touch etc. There is no filter to stop information from coming in, and no way to express the tsunami that is going on inside. For some, it can translate to panic, meltdowns, and fibromyalgia. Female aspies, especially, deal with it without others knowing, which is also known as masking.
It can be a painful struggle if I do not take care of myself. For example, taking public transport is very difficult for me - I often have to factor in at least an extra hour for any appointments, because I would end up getting off the tube or bus and walking for miles to reach my destination. If a meltdown happens it can take weeks to recover from.
Jemima Skala speaks to the conceptual artist about returning to China at the peak of the pandemic, their collective NON DUAL and how Aspergers informs their relationship with music. Read more here.
BONUS:
BEAUTIFUL PRESENTS: BEAUTIFUL VOL 1, the first compilation release from Sherelle’s new label/platform BEAUTIFUL is out now. Check it out here.
This Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry compilation album is wonderful. Rest in peace to a legend of legends. Listen/buy here.
Toulouse Low Tracks’ newly curated compilation album for Bureau B is a scorching selection. Seems to be a bit of a compilation theme going on in the bonus section this week. Listen/buy here.
And to keep the gag going (and provide great music), Light In The Attic Records has released a Leslie Winner compilation album titled When I Hit You — You'll Feel It. You know what to do here.
North & South deputy editor Tess Nichol has launched a new Substack, dispatches from TBGH. You can subscribe to it here.