Bandcamp Friday: October 2nd
This is now the seventh time Bandcamp has waived its fees. The music platform announced in July that it would extend the practice through the rest of the year, with Bandcamp Friday falling on the first Friday of each month.
In addition, Bandcamp now hosts a searchable Black Bandcamp database, featuring thousands of Black artists and labels on the platform. To mark the recent surge in protests for Black trans people, there are also the crowdsourced lists Black Femme Identifying Electronic Music Artists and Black Trans & Nonbinary Bandcamp Day.
Read Matt McDermott’s feature on how Bandcamp is changing underground music.
For this edition, we’ve decided to highlight the releases our staff are most excited about, with a short description of each.
Jacinth & Teoni – “Mansa”
Jacinth is a producer from Toronto worth keeping an eye on. Two techno EPs in the last year have focused on industrial-strength kick drums and melancholic acid melodies, while this new single with vocalist Teoni is a nearly ten-minute epic of blazing junglist glory, featuring somersaulting breaks and sci-fi chords.
Lisa Lerkenfeldt – Collagen
For an album largely consisting of drones, Lisa Lerkenfeldt’s debut LP for Shelter Press summons an affecting narrative arc—a defined beginning, middle and end, with a brief, stunning piano interlude, “Gates Of Desire.” (Lerkenfeldt’s just self-released a brand new full-length, called A Garden Dissolves Into Black Silk, in time for today’s event.)
G I N A – “Computer Problems”
The fourth release from New York promoter (and new-ish label) BOUND, G I N A’s Lilith EP is a throwback to New York dance music at the turn of the millennium seen through the lens of today. First single “Computer Problems” is a hybrid of neo-trance and electroclash, a genius peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo that immediately sets the Philadelphia artist apart. (The rest of the EP, which comes out next week, is also worth checking out.)
Freedom To Spend – New Neighborhoods
Inspired by the label’s revelatory reissue of Ernest Hood’s 1975 diamond-in-the-rough Neighborhood LP, this compilation catches artists like Space Afrika, Ka Baird, Sugai Ken and Bookworms at their most contemplative, ambient and immersive. It puts a modern face on the illuminating record digging that Freedom To Spend is all about.
Marbelite – Bodyless
We first discovered Marbelite on a previous Bandcamp Friday, and his latest and most substantial release—which he says is meant to be “horny”—is his most exciting yet. He exists resolutely in-between sounds, touching on hip-hop, grime and experimental club, using a variety of percussion sounds as building blocks for far-out soundscapes instead of conventional rhythms.
Carly Barton – Heart Scale
Not much is known about Carly Barton, but the Portland artist is quietly uploading dubby ambient EPs that stand up with the best of them. These sorts of out-of-nowhere discoveries are what Bandcamp is all about.
Female – Pleasures That Kill
Gotta hand it to Dominick Fernow for this one. A five-CD box set comprising nearly every solo record by the most mysterious member of the Downwards/Sandwell District squad. As a monolithic whole, this music feels like a natural link between Axis, Robert Hood and the thousands of stripped-down, subtly morphing records that followed.
Tano – In Armatura 001
After what feels like an eternity of posting tantalizing clips of his tunes on Instagram, New York techno head Tano has finally released an EP. There’s skronky drum & bass, dembow-infused techno, and a track that sounds like it was made for Timedance.
Various Artists – A Little Night Music: Aural Apparitions From The Geographic North
Who doesn’t love Halloween? OK, some of us kind of hate it, but Geographic North’s annual samhain compilation could change your mind. A far-flung survey of modern ambient and experimental music, the 31-track, already sold-out (!) double-cassette comp includes the likes of Oliver Coates, JAB, Mary Lattimore, Fennesz, Carmen Villain and Malibu. With all proceeds going to the Atlanta-based Feminist Women’s Health Center, this one’s a no-brainer.
ASJ – 集體模像 DUPLICATE COGNIZANCE
Hong Kong artist ASJ’s latest album is about the state of chaos that exists within the mind, and the music matches: a hectic fray of drums, clanging samples and futuristic synth chords, overlaid with spoken word. It’s the latest release from Absurd Trax, a label that’s now one of the key outposts for cutting-edge experimental club music out of Asia and beyond.
soso tharpa – simon’s mind
Fast becoming one of the most talked-about producers in Washington, D.C., soso tharpa’s latest EP highlights the most beguiling parts of his sound, including the swung strut of opening track “Kala Pani,” with its slow, irresistible swing and tough basslines, like a dancehall track caught in a whirlwind.
GEORGIA – Abed Nil Tumult
Georgia, the bi-coastal duo of Brian Close and Justin Tripp, is one of the most quietly prolific groups in leftfield electronic music. Last year they put out four LPs, and since the pandemic began, they’ve dropped 83 tracks via Bandcamp. Much of their music lies in a liminal space, falling between fourth world, jazz, ambient, techno and less-classifiable zones. True to form, their new record, Abed Nil Tumult (an anagram for untitled album) is neither rhythm-based nor ambient. The most fascinating territory often lies somewhere in between.
Pub – Summer
Dub techno often conjures icy, cavelike atmospheres, but Summer, Pub’s low-key classic from the year 2000, lives up to its name, feeling like the speckled sun shining through the leaves on an idle afternoon. This recent reissue comes with a previously unreleased, vintage-IDM inflected track called “Fragile Root.”
Seltene Erden – Scorched Erden
The boss is back. Gunnar Wendel (AKA Kassem Mosse) returns to his rarely-trotted-out Seltene Erden alias for an album of emotionally obscure soundscapes and subtle, undulating rhythms on Andrew Lyster’s excellent YOUTH label.
