I’ll be frank; we may only be two months into the year, but it already feels like it’s been twelve. Between personal circumstances and current world events, I’ve found it harder than usual to sit down and give my full attention to music over the past few weeks. Consequently this installment of Recent Listening is a bit shorter than previous ones. At it’s best, music has the power to calm and heal, and each of these releases have offered some respite during these trying times.
Given the uncertain future of Bandcamp Day as the site moves into the hands of our big tech overlords, we’ve once again decided to put together a non-comprehensive longer playlist of both anticipated albums and personal favorites: quality sounds of the past, present and future, all worthy of your attention and support.
Richard Papiercuts – Reunion
It’s been four years since Richard Papiercuts’ last release,Twisting The Night, a too brief EP in which he melded sounds from the annals of popular music history into something all his own. His latest, Reunion, follows in the footsteps of that record but has a much wider set of reference points. I still hear the influence of eighties pop and Low-era Bowie, but I also hear slinky disco grooves, passionate soul vocals, and much more. The most impressive thing about Papiercuts’ music has always been its ability to sound instantly familiar without ever feeling derivative, and nothing has changed in that regard; once again he’s taken the sounds of an expansive record collection and fused them together into something timeless.
Poorly Drawn House – Home Doesn’t Have Four Walls
Poorly Drawn House purportedly began their existence as a slowcore band. Though the glacial tempos and guitar work on their latest release, Home Doesn’t Have Four Walls, certainly feel rooted in those origins, this record portrays them as a band determined to stretch their sound to its limits. They play with dynamics constantly, luxuriating in silence as much as in noise. Crickets chirp in the background of some tracks, imbuing the music with a clear sense of geography and place. Others seem to barely cohere together, songs rooted in impressionistic washes of sound that slowly drift towards the periphery. It’s some of the most audacious and singular rock music I’ve heard this year, pushing a genre often derided as dead into strange and exciting new places.
WiFiGawd – Chain of Command
I rarely write about rap on this site, largely because I feel that I lack the expertise to contribute to the dialog surrounding the genre in any meaningful way. I spent copious amounts of time in my early twenties downloading mixtapes from sites like DatPiff, but as rap has mutated in corners of the internet I rarely frequent (YouTube, SoundCloud, TikTok) I’ve lost touch with the continued evolution of the genre. I’ve seen WiFiGawd touted as one of the most important underground rappers of his generation, and though Chain of Command is the first release I’ve heard from him I can immediately see the appeal. The influence of Memphis greats like Three 6 Mafia and Kingpin Skinny Pimp linger in the margins, but WiFiGawd turns those sounds into something less ominous and more swirlingly psychedelic. From skewed phonk tracks like “365” to woozily beautiful ones like “Slide Thru”, it’s a record that has the power to unite generations of rap fans.
Astrid Øster Mortensen – Skærsgårdslyd
The compositions on Gro Mig En Blomst, Astrid Øster Mortensen’s debut album, were a transfixing mix of haunted folk songs, musique concrete and all enveloping soundscapes. Her followup, Skærsgårdslyd, proves that the magic of its predecessor wasn’t a fluke. Though she trods the same basic territory here, there’s a sharper focus to the proceedings; where Gro Mig En Blomst was filled with short tracks that felt like sketches or fleeting thoughts, here each composition takes its time building a rich sonic universe. My favorite moments come in the album’s latter half when Mortensen’s voice seems to hum half forgotten melodies, but the entire album adds to the mounting evidence of her singular talents.
Bloodz Boi – 365
I’ve been eagerly anticipating a full length from Beijing based rapper Bloodz Boi ever since he dropped a compilation of loosies on Bandcamp last year, and I’m happy to report that it doesn’t disappoint. Over moody, drifting beats provided by producer Quit Life, Bloodz Boi gently raps and croons songs of love, heartbreak and loneliness. The album’s gauzy sonics build a sepia toned world of melancholy, but I’ve been most struck by the moments of fragile beauty that permeate it: a plaintive piano melody, twinkling synths, vocals that cascade over themselves and seem to melt into the ether. Where Bloodz Boi’s earlier compilations painted a portrait of an artist experimenting and searching for their musical identity, 365 is the sound of an artist fully formed.
Various Artists – Chandra Mixtape Vol 2
We Are Time, a record label founded by Chandra Oppenheim and Jesse Locke, announced themselves to the world with a mixtape back in April 2021. Calling that release a mixtape felt very intentional; while other labels might have framed it as a compilation or a sampler, the album’s eclectic mix felt like something that could easily have been curated by one of your coolest friends. The label is entering its second year of operations in a similar fashion, releasing another mixtape that collects outtakes, remixes and rarities from its extended musical universe. Some sounds will be familiar to fans (see Motorists’ live jangle pop cut and a dancefloor-ready New Chance remix), but the new names turn in equally strong performances; from Catholic Wilt’s achingly beautiful folk music to the wonky MIDI melodies of “Friendfishes”, the tape rarely misses a beat. If this is harbinger of things to come, 2022 is set to be another strong year for the label.