fumi

Here's some Old Tunes vibes. Jega on Skam (no surprise).

Yeah, it's good.

Dean Blunt - NOLA Freestyle

There's not much we can say about Honour that makes complete sense. They may or may not have grown up in the US, making beats with a cousin who sang in a church band; they might have toured as a roadie with platinum-selling R&B outfit Pretty Ricky before acing regional videogame tournaments and moving to NYC; they could have sold their life story to children's book author C.S. Adler and signed to Violator management; and maybe they ended up stationed in London, working as a runner on music promos. But however plausible it is, the breadcrumb trail provides us with a detailed cultural framework for "Beg 4 Mercy", a dense fog of pop and underground references that's as inescapable as it is enticing. It's a rare debut that engulfs even the most cautious listener, sweeping through tongue-in-cheek Wild West bravado and psychedelic, overdriven club rap, bifurcating into crumbly DIY noise and vaporous euphoric soul. Sometimes barbed and cynical, but just as often deliriously warm-hearted, it's a record of contradictions that's as puzzling to unpick as the artist's baffling backstory, imprinted with more hidden messages than a Renaissance painting. Who needs to play identity bingo when the art's screaming so loudly?

Vinyl (250 copies) Volume 1. https://boomkat.com/products/hbk-vol-1-na-god

Favourite album: Brad E. Rose - Annular Silhouettes Runners Up - Honour - HBK Vol 1 & 2 Demdike Stare - Tryptych

https://honour2.bandcamp.com/album/hbk-vol-1-2 IYL Demdike Stare, Niggas with Guitars, Hype Williams.

New on Folklore Tapes. Sort of Delia Derbyshire, Nigel Kneale's early 70s BBC Drama 'The Stone Tape', Drew Mulholland, Early Ghostbox, etc. You know the vibe.

Yeah, it sounds utterly gorgeous. Alva Noto, Gore and Basinski. What a dream collaboration.

This has slipped to the 23rd. I've also seen one site listing it as late January 2023.

That sounds so good.

Having said all that. The whole thing is almost completely saved by 'Tomason' with its godly, off-kilter chord changes which have been their trademark since the beginning. They're still IDM masters.

After a first listen this feels plodding and unremarkable. The first track is classic stuff but (for me) it only really picks with 'Return to Return' and the excellent 'Tomason'. The others feel like B-sides or stuff they'd previously shelved. It's okay but if you were expecting the beauty of 'Reach Prints' or 'The Digging Remedy' you may be disappointed.

Brainwashed:

Is 'Where it's Going" available on any release? Ah, Wonky.

Boards of Canada would never put out anything this bad. This label has been done for a while now. Whatever happened to the unsettling, creepy vibe of early Ghostbox? Remember this?

That is absolute shite. The man is becoming an embarrasment. When you check out the decades of superb work, then I think he should quit now if this is the best he can do.

I thought Amazonia was one of the best albums he has done in many years but this one is an easy pass. Sounds dreadful, if I'm to be honest.

Long, long-time Eno fan but that sounds awful.

Proper banger, this one. 'Physics’ now drills deep into Demdike's memory banks and record collection for a ravenous reflux of the OG style, benefitting from razor-sharp edits and judicious FX to present the style (almost) as you would have got it in a cavernous warehouse surrounded by thousands of spring-heeled gurners. The mix shells pure stacks of badness, toggling the pressure gauge between toe-tip steppers, soulboy glyde and ballistic bruk outs with darkside switch-ups that leave nobody still on the ‘floor. While 30 years removed from that pivotal time, ‘Physics’ perfectly captures the frenetic energy of hardcore jungle for those who know, and those who’re about to find out, distilling its compound symbiosis of technological innovation and narcotic nuttiness at its most deadly effective, playful and game-changing best. https://boomkat.com/products/physics-85064cba-8372-4a57-a1fc-9c09c3f8892f

Instant pre-order. Love the 80s new-age vibe on the promo video too.

I've never heard this. Thanks for the heads-up. Fantastic stuff.

Boomkat releases a vinyl edition with additional bonus tape. https://boomkat.com/products/once-upon-a-time-446b5d73-02f9-4d77-a9fe-f9af720deaa8

How did I miss this release more than two years ago? Seriously satisfying haul of deep & wavy ambient-leaning mood music from L.I.E.S. affiliate Krikor Kouchian, deploying 40 minutes of fizzing synths into clouds of smoke situated somewhere between Vangelis, Artemiev, Thomas Köner and 0PN. Establishing quite a rep as soundtrack composer with his scores for ‘Building Arnold Schwarzenegger’, 'Six & Demi Onze' and ‘Saudi’ in recent years, ’Seven Hertz’ finds the ambidextrous Parisian producer push into deepest sci-fi-cinematic sound design in a classic model somewhere between Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’, THX1138 and 2001: A Space Odyssey, albeit defined by a sort of gallic clinamen to mystery and romance. You know the stuff, and it’s done here so brilliantly well, ranging from a dark ambient regression in ‘7hz intro’ recalling Delia Derbyshire’s ‘The Dreams’, to a soaring trance elegy somewhere in the vicinity of Malibu/DJ Lostboi in ‘A Short Cycle of Club Life’, and gawping ambient IMAX dimensions in ‘Merciless Retaliation’. ‘The Last Dream’ marries Eno-esque subtlety with samples of Picnic At Hanging Rock, and ‘Love Memorabilia’ switches to a Hollywood finale scaled like some Jóhann Jóhannsson work, and the supernaturally textured electronics of ‘Rotting Flesh Suit’ locate him on a line from JMJ to FSOL and the West Mineral lot.