Now Always Fades, Into The Doldrums
Melbourne singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mix engineer Xavier Bacash's first album as Now Always Fades.
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
After releasing four albums under his Sonny Ism alias, the Melbourne singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and mix engineer Xavier Bacash flips the script and starts again with the debut album Into The Doldrums from his new project, Now Always Fades, due for release on May 16 2025 through his Northern Underground Records label.
Recorded in the wake of returning to Australia with his family after spending seven years in Copenhagen and Stockholm, Into The Doldrums sees Bacash building on the beautifully melancholic downtempo, deep house, and synth-pop sensibilities he’s explored as Sonny Ism. Inspired by The Durutti Column, Massive Attack, and Everything But The Girl, the album sees him painting shades of post-punk, ethereal pop, trip-hop and street soul into nine aesthetically consistent songs. From the early morning ambience of ‘Into The Doldrums’ to the heaving breakbeat soul of ‘Close To Greatness’ and the sundown strut of ‘A Pain I Used To Feel’, Into The Doldrums unfolds with the logic of a hazy, sunkissed daydream.
Although Bacash has served as the primary voice on his Sonny Ism albums in the past, this time around, he opened things up, inviting fellow Melbourne-based vocalists Lili Hall, previously from the experimental group Squaring Circles and Tilly Vickers-Willis, to join him in his process across most of the record. “The creative rationale of NAF has been to create an opportunity for me to investigate where my songwriting can go whilst collaborating with other vocalists and learning from their process, too,” he says. “It’s opened up new possibilities and realms of artistic creation which I couldn't reach with my own vocals, whether we’re that’s lyrically, tonally or in regards to inflections in vocal delivery. It’s also quite Darwinian as a process because, sometimes, as an artist, you can write a song that you love, but at times be forced to sing on it yourself because it’s for your output, but really it would suit someone else’s voice better”.
Through recording Now Always Fades, Bacash unlocked the template for what he sees as the next stage in his musical journey. “I like the idea that in the future, although I might be the common denominator as the artist, I can keep working with a changing landscape of vocalists to keep the listener guessing as they work through the music - kind of like how a director approaches their films,” he explains.
Preorders are live on Bandcamp now here. Thanks to Xavier for inviting me to write the sales notes for Into The Doldrums.
MORE NEWS:
The Wellington, New Zealand-based saxophonist and jazz composer Louisa Williamson is back with the second single off her forthcoming new album. Louisa describes ‘Red Pepper’ as “A bold fusion of vibrant energy and untamed creativity—an energetic improvisation dialogue between Louisa on saxophone and Callum Allardice on electric guitar.” It’s one of my favourite tracks from the project. More to come here.
In further Wellington-related news, the longstanding New Zealand electronic music producer Michael Upton, aka Jet Jaguar, has made his early albums available for purchase on Bandcamp. I really love a few of the tracks on his first record, most notably ‘Loose Circuits’ and ‘Invercargill’, which, in a spot of trivia, was the most played song on the local student radio station, Radio Active 98.5 FM way back in 1998. Click through here for more.
Jordan ‘Time Cow’ Chung’s new album, Scaring 1100 Chickens To Death will be with us very shortly. I hope you like syncopated beat abstractions with a sense of humour and an underlying sense of funk?
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Opinion: Club Culture Missed a Moment for Change. But It's Not Too Late: Five years on from lockdown, dance music is stuttering on its quest for self-improvement. The mood out there is flat. Renewing our optimism requires a radical shift in thinking, argues Ed Gillett for Resident Advisor. Read here.
First Floor #257 – The Messenger Matters: RA's unconvincing call for change, a look at the unexpected resurgence of bands, plus a round-up of the latest electronic music news and a fresh batch of new track recommendations. Read here.
How A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Black Secret Technology’ redefined jungle: By the time A Guy Called Gerald released 'Black Secret Technology' in February 1995, he’d already released his fair share of pioneering music: 1988’s 'Voodoo Ray' is widely considered to be the first UK acid house anthem; 1993’s '28 Gun Bad Boy' was foundational in the evolution of jungle. But on his fourth album the Manchester-born artist crafted an immersive record that laid new pathways for breakbeat culture, inspired Bowie, and altered the course of jungle and D&B for years to come. Three decades later, with the help of Fabio, Matt Anniss tells its story for DJ Mag. Read here.
How Jamaican soundsystem culture changed dance music forever: Jamaica's soundsystem culture laid the foundation many of the most significant developments in electronic music culture around the world. Marcus Barnes traces its influence for Mixmag. Read here.
FIN.