In honor of the monthly Bandcamp Day festivities, we’re back again with another star studded cast of guests to recommend some music. Check out all their picks below, and head to our archive for even more recommendations
Ba Da Bing Records Ba Da Bing Records put out their very first release in 1994, and they’re still at the top of their game nearly three decades later. Their back catalog is filled with hits (see Wendy Eisenberg’s Auto, one of my personal favorites of last year), and they’ve come out of the gate swinging in 2021 with releases from Cassandra Jenkins and Sarah Mary Chadwick. We’re also heavily anticipating the upcoming Blod here at Undrcurrents! Be sure to check out their full catalog and look below for some Bandcamp recommendations from the entire Ba Da Bing team.
ROSE OF TEXAS | VIVIENNE STYG This is the perfect Bandcamp example of a band I know nothing about, other than them being from Houston, TX. Roughshod jangling rock sounding completely homemade and riding high on charisma –Ben Goldberg
SERPENT | MXLX Matt Williams was one of the original members of Beak>, and his solo stuff is super intense. Heavy synths with lots of vocal distortions. Sometimes the songs just break down into chaos, while other times maintain a steady menace. This is one of those projects I hesitate to suggest to others, because it appeals to a part of my musical sensibilities I wonder if many others have –Ben Goldberg
NOWHERE NO ONE KNOWS WHERE TO FIND YOU | SLOW SPIRIT Smart and inventive indie rock from Winnipeg. The songs are beautifully constructed and expertly played –Ben Goldberg
MOLTING | STEVE HARTLETT I became friends with Steve (of Stove, ovlov) more during the pandemic because we played so damn much Mario Kart. He made this on a 4-track and put it out in December. I’m a fan of the idea of making music with limitations, especially when it comes to making one of these ‘stuck inside’ era releases. Steve has such a great ear for melody and his song forms are always interesting –Katie Von Schleicher
WINDSWEPT ADAN | ICHIKO AOBA Ichiko Aoba was my #1 for 2020. Her album qp was how I got hooked, and in December she released this album, the first on her own label Hermine Records. She’s a marvelous composer, player and singer. If it must be compared, I’d say Jessica Pratt meets Joanna Newsom –Katie Von Schleicher
CRY | NIECY BLUES Very beautiful, really stripped down compared to her other stuff. There is a Grouper-esque quality to the song “CRY!” and it’s elevated with layered vocals –Katie Von Schleicher
ROOM FOR THE MOON | KATE NV I’ve really enjoyed this and also her previous record. It’s incredibly badass that she’s capable of making this playful, melodic record with many instruments, especially when her previous one is instrumental and electronic. Both rule –Katie Von Schleicher
DANDELION | DANIEL ROMANO Created “alone in a room for a week with a bunch of stuff,” Daniel Romano’s seventh release of 2020, Dandelion, is a blissful springtime ode to late 60s psychedelic pop. Blooming with layers of mellotron harmonies, acoustic guitars, and a daydreamy tranquil side of Romano’s lyricism, Dandelion is a great entry point to his astonishing ten album run of 2020 –Stuart Sims
MP Lockwood I run a label called Decoherence focused on music that blurs the line between order and chaos. I’ve been in a variety of unknown noisy bands for years and my current project is a one-man band called Radio Shock, which I sometimes describe as a cross between Skinny Puppy and ZZ Top. I’ve also run a music blog and podcast called No-Core and just generally been a supporter of underground weird music for a couple decades. Here I’ve tried to pick some favorite albums that I think are truly amazing and also criminally under-recognized.
THE 1990 CINCINNATI REDS | KOUNS & WEAVER Both Rick Weaver and Zack Kouns are musical genii and this album is still greater than the sum of its parts. Here we have – in theory – a series of short tales, each for one member of the 1990 Cincinatti Reds baseball team, but each one takes a turn into darkly surreal dream stories – all set to the most perfect movie soundtrack ever composed entirely in MIDI and performed entirely using FM synth presets. And somehow it all works. Perfectly. This is my best album of 2020.
OVIRI | JUTE GYTE This is stylistically “black metal” but is also aggressively experimental and perplexing. Microtonal guitar, extended odd time signatures, simultaneous differing tempos. I’ll just grab this bit of the liner notes to let you know what you’re in for: “The 22 pitches played by the opening guitar were generated aleatorically by rolling a 24-sided die; the three other guitars play serial transformations of that pitch material. When the drums enter, the tempo ratio becomes vertical and the four guitars trade tempos in that 4:5:6:7 ratio every time the opening theme recurs.” You’d be wise to ask “But does it actually sound like that?” Yes it does.
7 GRAM DRO BLUNT | COUCHWEED When I came across this album I wondered if it was made by some misguided rednecks who tried to do “stoner rock” but made an accidentally No Wave masterpiece. Turns out it’s made by some people who are huge fans of Arab on Radar and Royal Trux doing THEIR take on stoner rock and it’s genuinely amazing. (and I’ve since put out albums by some of their other projects) There are a bunch of Couchweed albums but this is the masterpiece. That album art is a masterpiece too. I don’t even smoke pot but still love this.
WAZOO | NONZOO NONZOO reminds me of early Boredoms, which is just about the highest praise I can give a band. Fans of early Guerilla Toss would love them. High energy, noisy spazz funk that regularly turns on a dime and goes to many different places. Skronk and bounce and herky jerk galore. I can tell there’s so much time and work that went into this music, it seriously deserves more recognition.
MAR A LAGO | SAPPHOGEIST I feel like many descriptions of this would make it sound unappealing to me, “dreamy experimental electronic pop” or something like that. But if it’s “dreamy” it’s the kind of dream that’s constantly on the edge of turning to a nightmare, a dream where everything is beautiful but you can’t explain this rising unsettling feeling. There’s a yin-yang push and pull between glitchy harsh sounds and gorgeous melodic vocals, a contrast even while it all feels like essential parts of one perfect whole. One of the acts that really should have been a musical guest in Twin Peaks Season 3.
NONE HUNDRED | THE CONFORMISTS Conformists are one of those rare rock bands that really sound like they’ve invented their own musical language. I love hearing music that’s hard for me to understand, and while Conformists sounds like what they’re playing is simple in a way – the guitar parts are often a pattern of 2 notes – I’ve listened to this many times and still there are places where I can’t predict when changes happen, or tell what the time signature is supposed to be, or get the underlying logic at all. Almost sounds like Shellac playing djent.
CRYSTAL CASSETTE | LAZY MAGNET My official weekend morning album, and one of my all-time favorite albums. Lazy Magnet is the project of Jeremy Harris, and he covers a lot of styles over the albums. This one is sort of “synth pop” but with lots of quirks and detours and an endearing bedroom 4-track feel. There are sections that almost sound like spinning a radio dial where you just get brief glimpses of what sound like amazing songs, jingles, station identification interludes. And in the middle of side 2, a song that suddenly dives into noisy guitar dissonance that almost sounds like the Dead C, but somehow still fits. Play it while you make some pancakes and coffee next Sunday and you’ll fall in love with it.
CHASER | CHASER One of the absolute best rock bands in Brooklyn in recent years. Everyone in the band is a virtuoso and also knows how to use their talent to create something weird, wild, and original. Brutal prog meets ‘00s No Wave rock. Every song is designed like a roller coaster, with twists and turns and the right mix of satisfying thrills and unexpected moves. Fans of Load and Skin Graft Records and the late great band JAKS should definitely check this out.
Ted Jamison Die Jim Crow Records is the first non-profit record label for formerly and currently incarcerated musicians in the U.S. Our mission is to break the institutional barriers to producing music in prisons and provide our collaborators with a high quality platform for their voices. I serve as volunteer coordinator with DJC and have worked with the label for nearly three years.
One of the keys to DJC Records is that it is built on real relationships. Our director, Fury Young, established the label and its roster on long-standing correspondences with people in prison — many have been ongoing since the project’s inception back in 2013! DJC has also cultivated trusting relationships with various prisons to have access, not only to record musicians on the inside, but also to occasionally send in needed supplies.
As a response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, DJC Records launched a “PPE Into Prisons” campaign. Seven months of weekly livestream fundraiser concerts with donations dedicated to the purchase of supplies to send into prisons where COVID was particularly rampant. We raised $25,000, which brought 30,285 masks to 26 prisons and jails in 16 states.
During this campaign, my role was to help book performers and dialogue with them as we worked out logistics for the concerts. Oftentimes, I found myself scouring Bandcamp for hours on end, finding plenty of incredible musicians, across many states and time zones. I wish I could designate a spot here for each and every one of them. Here are some standouts who went above and beyond — not only amazing musicians, but gracious and kind folks who were ready to jump in (occasionally last minute) and donate their energy and talents to the cause.
KOHINOORGASM Kohinoorgasm is Josephine Shetty, a queer South Indian and Irish American independent artist, audio engineer, music teacher, and political organizer born and based in Los Angeles. Their experimental pop songs address topics ranging from war crimes and abuses of governmental power to emotional exhaustion and body autonomy. Delightfully glitchy, their music is similar to their album cover art (seemingly done on Microsoft paint.) Playful, colorful, with a lyrical/musical edge that hits lo-fi like a low pixel count but with Shetty’s effortless, 1080p vocal gliding on top.
SHOWTIME GOMA After engaging in and collaborating with a cluster of synth/experimentally oriented indie projects (A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Deerhoof, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Jherek Bischoff, Ice Choir and Roman à Clef) Jen Goma has been establishing on her own solo music/performance endeavor, Showtime Goma. Reminiscent of the best parts of St. Vincent or Dirty Projectors, Goma’s powerful pop vocal swims amongst hyper-catchy, structurally adventurous songs – each one is it’s own world.
SPEAKER MUSIC DeForrest Brown, Jr. is a New York-based theorist, journalist, and curator. He produces digital audio and extended media as Speaker Music and is a representative of the Make Techno Black Again campaign. On Juneteenth of 2020, he released the album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry on Planet Mu, and recently a follow-up EP, Soul-Making Theodicy. It is nearly impossible to do justice to a Speaker Music project in a few words. Each thoughtful techno track positively bristles – as rhythmically dense and stirring as the radical, political theory that informs it.
TEGA Joseph Ewatuya, also known as TEGA, is a singer-songwriter from Dallas, TX. In addition to their solo material, TEGA is also one half of a project called R-Feels that recently released a single called “I’m Good.” Among other themes, they make art to raise awareness for Sickle Cell Anemia. Their self-produced and self-mixed music is bright, beat-oriented r&b with a singular, modern feel and Joseph’s glassy-smooth falsetto like icing on top.
FASHION CLUB Pascal Stevenson is a Los Angeles based musician and producer. While Fashion Club is his solo project, he also contributes to a band called Moaning who are signed to Sub-Pop records. Fashion Club’s newest singles are immense and ethereal, with core elements that sound inspired by such timeless artists as Depeche Mode, The Cure, and The Magnetic Fields.
AISHA BURNS Aisha Burns is a singer, songwriter and violinist born in San Antonio, Texas and currently based in Massachusetts. She is the longtime violinist for the instrumental band Balmorhea and has contributed her violin work to a host of other projects. Her solo work has the soul of stripped down, old school folk vagabonds and yet the added effects and instrumental compliments (like gorgeous strings) lend it a truly expansive quality to get lost in.
REDWOOD REDWOOD is the recently adopted moniker for the work of this incredibly gifted musician and producer from Washington D.C. who previously performed under her birth name Sequoia Snyder. It is under her prior name that you can find her stunning self-produced debut, Sempervirens. Incredibly rich keyboard work informed by the jazz, funk, and r&b music she grew up listening to and studying fiercely – yet taken to textural and compositional depths that can only be attributed to Snyder’s singular vision.
MARCUS ELLIOT Marcus Elliot (Marcus Elliot Miller) is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, and educator based in Detroit. Elliot wears many hats. He leads many Detroit based bands, he co-founded the nonprofit Polyfold Musical Arts Collective, and is the director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Jazz Ensembles. Listening to any work from Elliot is a privilege. His saxophone playing and compositional/arrangement skills are as honed as someone who has dedicated their entire life to their craft – and he has.
MELVIN KNIGHT Melvin Knight is a Chicago based r&b musician, singer and songwriter. Recently his output seems to have been primarily in the form of single-making. And fittingly, each track sounds like an A-side classic. Melvin describes himself as “a man out of time,” which is evident in his soulful r&b, motown sound that is immediately evocative of Stevie Wonder. His profoundly dulcet vocal coasts on infectious grooves and harmonies.
JACHARY Zachary Levine-Caleb is a musician, producer and artist. Though originally from Massachusetts, he has spent a long while growing and developing in NYC where he has collaborated with many musicians and rap-artists. His solo sound cuts funk with experimental art-rock. The result is thick, catchy grooves with inspired elements both otherworldly and unexpected.
AHOMARI Ahomari is a Black, queer artist from Columbia, South Carolina, where her identity as such (and her resulting experiences) have fueled her introspective, independent songwriting. She released her newest album Girl KISS II on Quiet Year Records in September. In her experimental pop/r&b sound, she threads her alto vocal through various effects, modulators, and auto-tuners amongst gauzy electronic compositions.
ELLIOTT SKINNER Songwriter Elliott Skinner is a Texas-raised, Brooklyn-based artist with an experimental take on folk and soul music. After spending years in the indie r&b trio Thirdstory, he has been channeling his multi-instrumental, singing, producing and arranging skills into his self-titled solo project. He says that he tries to reflect the history, texture, and roots of Black culture in his music. The few singles he has released so far are eclectic both in sound and lyrical scope.
SSPURGEE Spurge is a musician and producer in Brooklyn, NY. He runs the record label Eto Ano, an artist run and artist focused label and educational resource designed to demystify and democratize the music industry. His electronic music, often political and conceptual, confronts and explores themes ranging from internal, emotional management and race-based social upheaval.
FREDDIE JUNE Freddie June is Shala Miller, an artist, writer and filmmaker based in New York but originally from Cleveland. Their latest release is called “I’ll Become the Star in Your Glass Eye” is a collection of song sketches recorded in their bedroom. They are particularly inspiring in their unadorned, unplanned and wabi-sabi nature: a collection of creative “in the moment” snapshots – ephemeral and intimate.
ANGEL BAT DAWID Angel Bat Dawid is a composer, clarinetist, singer, educator and spiritual jazz soothsayer from the Southside of Chicago. After leaving her job in 2014, she formed her own improvisationally-focused collective, The Participatory Music Coalition, and developed a performance residency at Elastic Arts, dubbed the Mothership 9 Multimedia Series. She also teaches a music class to a men’s youth detention center. Angel released her incredible debut album, The Oracle, last year and recently released a single “Voice o’ Heab’N.” Her brand of jazz is experimental, transcendent, and always original.
SAVAN DEPAUL Savan is a Philadelphia based indie rapper, producer and audio engineer. They collaborate with the black art collective Bad Apple Commune and Grimalkin Records, a queer-focused record label. Having already released three studio albums (and many smaller EP’s and singles in between) their fourth studio album, Acid Rain II, is a vast expanse of abstract hip hop. Over twenty tracks, packed with exciting features, DePaul immerses the listener in an intricate, lyrical dissection of his youth and the chaotic world he is inheriting in adulthood. A conceptual sister album to DePaul’s 2016 release, Acid Rain.
TRAVIS WOODSON Travis Woodson is a composer, arranger, improviser and multi-instrumentalist. He collaborates with various ensembles and dancers and has his own groups called Live Like a King and Pyramid Minds. If you look up Woodson, you’ll probably first find a whole slew of incredible live jazz performances that he plays guitar in; however if you dig into his solo work, such as his album Reality, you’ll find thoughtful, immersive ambient compositions that feel as though they hit some sort of meditative frequency in the brain.
BIG STEP Jordan Paine is an experimental multi-instrumentalist and visual artist who performs under the moniker Big Step. He is very active in the DIY music community of St. Louis, Missouri where, in pre-COVID times, he often lent his artistic prowess to project visuals at shows. His music oscillates between indie folk and more experimental sample driven, electronic comparisons that sound a bit like a Nick Zammuto joints with hip hop flows overtop.
CHRISTINNA O Christinna O is a singer, songwriter and spoken-word poet based in Philadelphia. In part, she informs her lyrical and musical endeavors with her experiences as a queer woman of color who struggles with mental health obstacles. Her sound is buoyant, Badu-esque r&b with collaborations with some heavy-hitting producers.
David Wilikofsky Don’t have much to say about myself, but as always feel free to head over to my Bandcamp profile for more recommendations
MY FAVORITE SHRINE | RIBBON STAGE This five song debut EP from Ribbon Stage is a nearly perfect set of music. Released by K Records, it’s reminiscent of the sparking indie pop the label specialized in throughout the nineties. At eight minutes it’s a small taste of a band I’m excited to hear more about in the future.
URBAN DRIFTWOOD | YASMIN WILLIAMS When the end of the year rolls around, Urban Driftwood may go down as 2021’s most gorgeous release. Each track offers up a new surprise; Williams plays multiple instruments (in addition to guitar, she plays the kora and kalimba) and occasionally has accompaniment (one of my personal favorite tracks, “Adrift”, features mesmerizing interplay between Williams and Taryn Wood on cello). The variety works well, allowing Williams to stretch out and experiment. There are echoes of everything from guitar soli to West African griot music, but these elements come together to create something wholly original and unique.
SATURDAY NIGHT: SOUTH AFRICAN DISCO POP HITS 1981 – 1987 | VARIOUS ARTISTS Perhaps my favorite discovery from last month’s Bandcamp Day haul, this compilation explores how South African musicians and producers took disco in the 1980s and made it their own. From relatively faithful Madonna covers to stunning genre fusions, the album illuminates a fascinating corner of music history that more people should know about. Check out highlight “Wa Ikgona” for a taste of whats in store, a track that mixes deeply funky and danceable bass-lines with more traditional call and response vocal patterns.
SIDEWALK POP | MISTER BABY Paisley Shirt Records reliably turns out some of the best contemporary jangle pop you’re likely to hear. We last checked in with them in 2020 with Cindy’s Free Advice, a drifting set of Galaxie 500-esque dream pop; they’ve released over ten (!?!) albums since then, and one of the latest, Mister Baby’s Sidewalk Pop, is another catalog highlight. The solo vehicle of Katiana Mashikian (who also plays in San Francisco greats The Reds, The Pinks and The Purples), it’s an album chock full of fuzzy riffs and swoonworthy melodies. If you were ever curious what Television Personalities might sound like in 2021, check this out immediately.
HIGH DRAMA | OPPOSITE SEX Opener “Shoots Me Like A Knife” tells you all you need to know about High Drama, the latest album from Dunedin’s Opposite Sex. It’s equal parts abrasive and catchy, an earworm designed to assault your eardrums. The band pull off this balancing act throughout the album, mixing no wave skronk, post-punk atmosphere and pitch black humor. A winning combination if I’ve ever heard one, and an album I anticipate returning to frequently this year.
NEW NIGHTMARES | TALONS’ Talons’ describe new nightmares as “9 more pandemic songs”, but that drastically undersells the power and majesty of this album. Drifting, amorphous waves of guitar create a backdrop for heartfelt and heartbreaking reflections on the past year. Towards the end of the album Mike Tolan sings “my one hope is that the worst year of my life is ending and not about to start”; I think it’s fair to say we’re all right there with him.
BEACON | GERYCZ / POWERS / ROLIN After recording Beacon with Jayson Gerycz (who plays in Cloud Nothings and runs the great tape label Unifactor) and his partner and frequent collaborator Jen Powers, Matthew Rolin was so excited that he quickly sent the album off to Garden Portal for release. It turned out the version he sent to the label hadn’t been mixed, a fact he only discovered much later. That will be remedied next week with a reissue from Centripetal Force. The album was already a stunning set of instrumentals that emanated a sense of mystery and meditative calm, but this new version’s sharper and crisper sound lets you appreciate each note even more.
QUQU | QUQU Ever wondered what a rock band fronted by a three year would sound like? Ququ’s got you covered. To be fair it’s about what you’re imagining, so read no further if this doesn’t sound like your jam. But fans of outsider music take note: Ququ rocks.