From Cafe OTO and the Takuroku imprint which served to salvage the experimental shoots and salty minutiae of life under lockdown, now released on vinyl for the first time via bié Records and described as a percussive collage of lo-fi frequencies documenting a journey which never took place, this week Valentina Magaletti reintroduces A Queer Anthology of Drums as the soft keys and bell chimes of ‘She/Her/Gone’ add a quiver and shake. Julia Reidy dispatches foggy dreamscapes and folkish maladies through fingerpicked guitar and autotuned vocals, while Carlos Niño expands the spiritual space collages of Actual Presence together with a long list of collaborators including Jamael Dean, Jamire Williams, Shabazz Palaces, and Sam Gendel.
Summoning the indomitable spirit of the basketball star Candace Parker through rippling distortion and rattling breakbeats, Moor Mother and DJ Haram crash the boards alongside the Palestinian producer Muqata’a on one of the highlights from their latest outing as 700 Bliss. From Uganda the modular synth pioneer Afrorack imbues four-on-the-floor techno and submerged kosmische with staggered basslines and East African polyrhythms, and from Aalborg the duo of Nikolaj Svaneborg and Jonas Kardyb meld Danish traditional music and Scandinavian jazz influences as they ascend the Gondwana Records orbit as Svaneborg Kardyb.
The Moscow producer Kate NV and her longtime collaborator Andrey Bessonov share a bouquet of ambrosial improvisations in a bid to raise funds for the Ukrainian evacuation effort. Seeking to satisfy the geeky headphone trainspotters and hedonistic ass shakers, the alternative hip hop duo They Hate Change draw from Miami bass, the Dirty South, and British drum and bass plus the gender euphoria of 100 gecs and the soul pioneer Jackie Shane. M.I.A. returns to the fray with an ode to the implacability of self-identity, VHOOR explores the outer reaches of funk carioca or baile, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch embodies the ravages of grief and memory, and songs by Yama Warashi, Adriano Galante, and Sleepy Hallow complete the long circuiting trip.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
* * *
Valentina Magaletti – ‘She/Her/Gone’
* * *
700 BLISS – ‘Candace Parker’ (feat. Muqata’a)
* * *
They Hate Change – ‘X-Ray Spex’
* * *
M.I.A. – ‘The One’
* * *
Yama Warashi – ‘Haha No Uta (母の唄)’
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
Carlos Niño & Friends – ‘WaterWavesArrival’ (feat. Jesse Peterson)
* * *
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – ‘Katabasis’
* * *
Svaneborg Kardyb – ‘Terrassedør’
* * *
Sleepy Hallow – ‘Die Young’ (feat. 347aidan)
* * *
Adriano Galante – ‘El momento de’ (feat. Sara Fontán & B1N0)
