04/23 - A Conversation Waiting For The Wake

It was a quiet Easter. I was mostly on my own. Spring keeps wobbling back and forth, and so do I.

 

Celestial - At The River's Edge

A breezy, floaty feeling, with some threatening bass churns underneath, but in the end, the shaky cyclical melody lands and it's like shrugging off your confused negative waking-up thoughts and finally putting your feet on the floor.

 

Marco Shuttle - Winds Of Cydonia

Drops from above, ooze from below. Some determination can be intuited. Many a creature working in symphony towards an indeterminate goal.

 

 

Florist - Sci-fi Silence

We're in movement, but to what end? I feel like I'm losing my focus over and over again. I'd like some company please. Someone to take the lead, or just take my hand.

Comе, you're not what I have but what I love

Hatis Noit - Sir Etok

An analogue futurity, a call to creativity. Distilled but layered to fuck. One of the acts i look most forward to at this year's Clandestino festival. Was listening to her album as I did the translation for the programme, and fell in love.

Lucrecia Dalt - Dicen

All I ask is to be mystified. New soundscapes, new seasons, hopefully new ideas. Lucrecia Dalt plays the alien card expertly and turns the familial inside out. To my delight. Another day of not going to bed bored.

03/23 - A Carrot In The Cages

It's April! Time for some pop songs!

 

 

Mitski - The Only Heartbreaker

Let's get straight into it, with the song I've been obsessing most over lately. The confidence such an epic song like this exudes! When it rips into that synth solo at the 2-minute mark you just know that this is an artist at the height of her powers.

 

Amber Mark - Bliss

Continuing on the anthemic theme. it's all about the delivery, from that little breath-catching semi-pause before the title-word, to the greatest bit at 1:20:

All I really wanna do is stop time
Didn't really plan on getting this high
My soul is shining, changed my life with perfect timing

 

 

Ed Dowie ft. Robin Foster - Dear Florence

A bit more laidback than the previous two, but you can feel the nervous cycling bass is just waiting and waiting for a wordless crescendo to break out. Very much spring feels to this almost dumbly obvious and irresistible melody.

Arab Strap - Fable of the Urban Fox

What? A composition about urban wildlife and hostile architecture, mixed up with heavy political undertones? Did someone write a song just for me? And then you topped it with an absolutely glorious string riff? Can't believe it's taken me this long to properly get into a Scottish national treasure. This album is the bomb. Oh, and just for form's sake: Fuck the tories, forever and ever.

Lorena Álvarez - Soy un Olmo

Waiting for a new Clandestino season to begin, I think back to a wonderful gig with wine glasses, nylon string guitars and elegant dresses on stage in a little rural community hall last summer. Smiles all around. I'm an elm, don't ask me for pears!