Friday Thoughts

Music, reading, general bits + pieces.

Hello there. I’ve been a bit slow on the newsletter front this week, but better late than never, I guess. What can I say? It’s a mad world. This week’s photos were taken on Portra 400 film with a Nikon F60 camera and developed/scanned by Splendid. Right, let’s get into it.

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:

Over the last few months, I’ve been slowly working away on a sound tribute to the late great Japanese producer, composer, DJ and visual artist Susumu Yokota. Some of you will remember the article I put together about him with Ken Hidaka for Wax Poetics last year. This time around, we gathered up a selection of voice notes of some of his friends talking about him and layered them over some music. It’s airing on Dublab in Los Angeles from 7:00-7:40 pm LA time on Thu 31/3 2022, which translates into 3:00 pm today New Zealand time. More details here.

Every three months, I put together a recap of ten interesting albums released over the twelve weeks prior for Dazed in London. We’ve just crossed into April 2022, so guess what? The latest edition of my column will be live on the site very soon.

Late last year, the Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka commissioned me to help out with some writing for one of their new projects - Thattu Pattu: music from the fringes of Sri Lanka. Although there have been some covid-related delays, things are starting to get rolling for them now. Have a look over here.

In a move that completely blindsided me, Aotearoa Hip-Hop: The Music, The People, The History has been announced as a nominee for the inaugural NZ On Air Outstanding Music Journalism Award, with the winner to be announced at the 2022 Taite Music Prize. A big shout out to our fellow nominees: Under The Radar NZ, Tony Stamp from RNZ’s The Sampler, and Jess Fu & Reuben Winter from 95bFM’s Long Player. Rest in peace, Reuben!

IN TRIBUTE:

Mira Calix, the electronic producer, celebrated for her complex, highly imaginative music and sound art, has died aged 51. You can read The Guardian’s tribute to her here.

Philip Jeck—the British experimental composer, turntablist, and multimedia artist—died peacefully on Friday following a short illness. He was 69 years old. You can read Pitchfork’s tribute to him here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Skiifall, the Caribbean-Canadian rapper fusing dancehall and drill: Currently on tour with BADBADNOTGOOD, the rising musician talks to Nicolas-Tyrell Scott about growing up in Montreal, experimental drill and his upcoming mixtape sequel.

FRESH KICKS 173: OLIVE T: New York’s Olive T records an hour of mood-lifting, ceiling-smacking house and techno for the Fresh Kicks series and chats to Anna Wall about her varied early influences, her The Lot Radio show and her evolving musical output.

Vanessa Wagner Discovers Music’s Hidden Moments: Vanessa Wagner likes to play music that says as much in silence as in sound. It’s how the French pianist approaches all facets of her career, from playing music by classical composers like Mozart, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky, to modern minimalist, ambient, and electronic works. Vanessa Ague has the scoop.

"FREQUENCIES I'D NEVER FELT BEFORE" - HOW DEAF DJS ARE REVOLUTIONISING THE CLUB EXPERIENCE: Becky Buckle speaks to Troi Lee, KIKAZARU and Robbie Wilde on tech, crowds and overcoming music industry obstacles.

Summer of Soul and The Sound of Resistance: For as long as I can remember, the African/Black American cultural festival has been an institution in my life. Both of my parents are from North Philly–the Nicetown-Tioga section to be specific. Some of my earliest memories are of summertime block parties in the neighborhood that were full of dancing, barbeque, laughter, and joy. John Morrison has you covered.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

This is the audio component of a new audiovisual project from Testu, Serena Stucke & Dan Tesene. Influence of the Electric Field re-contextualizes our perception of ubiquitous technologies by revealing invisible and inaudible forces in the modern environment. The project emerged from Tesene and Stucke’s search for the magical chaos within electrical systems, and it’s a fascinating and subtle listen. Listen closely, but don’t listen too closely.

Glossy slo-mo boogie meets synth-jazz meets library music meets vaporware meets, well, you get the idea. To loosely paraphrase, Multi-instrumentalist and composer Tristan Whitehill aka Euglossine, has styled Some Kind of Forever as a search for simplicity, lightness, and a delicate touch. It’s like spending time in a roofless mirror maze that hovers gently in the clouds.

With the first of a new series of EPs, Channel Tres steers his Compton House sound towards the narrative techno visions mapped out by Detroit’s Underground Resistance collective and the most aquatic duo of all time, Drexciya. It’s good. It’s very good.

What? Some self-produced shoegaze/dream pop from Christchurch’s Annemarie Duff (ex Miniatures), you say? I like the sound of that. This is one of those records that takes me back to the late 2000s and the mid-nineties at the same time. Really blissful stuff. More of this, please.

Sometimes you suck all the life out of something by explaining it or even naming it, so I’m going to just let Residual Energy Boss’s live improvisations do the talking here.

Bandcamp Friday, April 2022 is almost upon us. Check-in here for exact times.

FIN.