As is now tradition in these parts, we’re back ahead of Bandcamp Friday with some recommendations for your shopping cart. Thanks as always to our contributors this time around. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: people will always be better at recommending music than algorithms.
To check out the archives of this series (along with hundreds more recommended records) head over here. And, without further ado, the picks.
Chris Eckman Chris is the co-founder of Glitterbeat Records, a label that specializes in vibrant global sounds from Africa and beyond. Their roster is incredibly eclectic, including Russian post-punk, Tuareg rock, Middle Eastern pop and much more; I never know what to expect from the label except that it’ll be great. One of their most recent releases, Altin Gün’s Yol, is already a personal favorite of 2021, and there’s a lot more to look forward to on the horizon (I’m personally hotly anticipating an upcoming release from Comorian). Be sure to check all of this out in addition to Chris’s recommendations below
FALAN FILAN | PERIJA This wonderful album came out just a couple of weeks ago. Perija are a young, mostly female group from Macedonia, who explore the roots and emotions of pan-Balkan music. While dark in tone, the heart of this album is warm and affirming.
ALKISAH | SENYAWA Unlike anything I have ever heard – and that is not very easy to say at this point. This Indonesian duo combines contemporary and often crushing sounds with the sonic textures and imagery of their regional traditional music. Exhilarating, challenging and otherworldly.
HOW THE RIVER GANGES FLOWS | VARIOUS ARTISTS Another gorgeous collection put together by Christopher King. King is also known for his deft curations of delta blues and northern Greek iso-polyphonic music. Using half-a-century old 78 records as its source, the album has a gauzy, sepia tinge that serves the music well. The perfect soundtrack for a slow drift down river.
NO SUMMER | CINDER WELL Wonderful songwriting with a haunted-folk ambiance. Singer-songwriter Amelia Baker beautifully navigates song traditions from both sides of the Atlantic. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels retro. Rooted and timeless. Cautionary tales that feel very relevant and oddly reassuring at this moment.
MAGNETIC SERVICE | AZU TIWALINE One of the four or five releases that Azu Tiwaline dropped in 2020. I am still catching up, but this one released via Livity Sound is at the moment my favorite. She is an incredible talent who naturally melds together Saharan motifs and minimalist electronics. Deep spatial atmospheres.
Thrill Jockey Records A label that truly needs no introduction, Thrill Jockey has been responsible for countless classic albums since its founding nearly three decades ago. The label continues to be a vital presence today, releasing some of my favorite albums of 2020 and announcing some heavily anticipated titles for later this year. tl;dr: you aren’t familiar with Thrill Jockey already, you should head over to their Bandcamp immediately. Below we have some recommendations from Mike Boyd, Thrill Jockey’s Director of Publicity, and Matt Fidler, who oversees European operations for the label.
Mike Boyd
MELODII TUVI | VARIOUS ARTISTS I’ve been a big fan of the Tuvan band Huun-Huur-Tu for a few years now after stumbling on them through KEXP videos. The day I realized my favorite Instagram account Dust-to-Digital has a Bandcamp page, I saw this there and it was an easy instant buy. For a long time I was focused mostly on making and listening to instrumental music but I’ve been increasingly into choral/vocal stuff, and the trove of Tuvan musical traditions is endlessly fascinating. I particularly love when the sounds of nature are more directly incorporated into the music. Field recordings before you could record anything!
UNREALIZED DEMOS: 2009 – 2015 | MATT STRANGER Matt is one of my childhood best friends, but I feel safe in saying that he’s an exceptional songwriter without too much bias. We played together in a band called Technicolor Teeth for a number of years and an enormous part of the strength of that band was his songwriting and wild demo worlds. Sometimes the demos stick out to me more, probably because I have a longer history of listening to them. They’re both really dense and also suggest something more. His demos showcase his real knack for capturing the charm of lo-fi gear and making something beautiful out of it.
1988 | KNXWLEDGE. In the running for my favorite record of 2020, or at least my most listened to. Knxwledge. wields samples with precision and audacity in a way you don’t really hear as much anymore. Kind of a genius move to manipulate R&B into more modern beats, injected the really potent hooks and melodies into each track. “minding_my business feat. Durand Bernarr, Rose Gold” is one of those tracks I think I’ll return to for decades.
URBAN DRIFTWOOD | YASMIN WILLIAMS I think I had seen something from her before, but I really dug into Yasmin Williams after her Big Ears Festival remote set she did with Marisa Anderson and William Tyler. First of all, props to Big Ears programmers for that incredible idea – seeing those three play together in different combinations was as incredible as it might sound on paper and then some. Yasmin is a much younger artist, but her place in that trio was entirely deserved. Top to bottom just an incredible performer and composer. It’s funny how cynical I’ve felt as a guitarist before thinking that some things like lap-tapping are a bit gimmicky or flashy, but then a guitarist comes around and does something so incredibly artful with it. I’d kill to be able to play that well, but I’m also happy to just listen.
OBLIVIOSUS | MSW Hell is one of many bands that I was introduced to through the life-changing Gilead Fest. I went to the first two fests when they were hosted in Oshkosh, WI, right by my hometown of Neenah. That’s how I first saw and heard about The Body, Thou, False, and the first place I saw Aseethe and Northless (despite playing with the latter at a house show I left early). MSW’s work harnesses an atmosphere that many try and fail to attain. All the grit and hunger of a DIY basement solo project but with far more ambitious sounds and compositions. The Hell/Mizmor split still holds a special place for me, but this MSW solo release scratches plenty of those itches and more.
SUITE FOR MAX BROWN | JEFF PARKER Another strong contender for my favorite record of 2020. All of Jeff’s solo work is worthy of high praise – his Thrill Jockey solo records and work on Isotope 217 and of course Tortoise is next level. No one plays guitar like him and I have a hard time thinking of anyone that is even approaching his style. When he plays the guitar, you just know it’s Jeff. No surprise that the master of playing behind the beat would make such powerful beat-driven music. This record and The New Breed capture the feel of producers like Dilla in a way that would be schtick for other composers. But for Jeff it’s so personal, and that makes all the difference.
I CLOSE MY MIND AND LOCK IT | MSC MSC is the twin brothers Zac and Isaac Jones who previously were part of the band Braveyoung (formerly Giant). All the music these two have touched is honestly great, but this MSC double-EP is a particular favorite of mine. The use of strings feels almost too obvious at first – most ambient projects seem to prefer evoking the more lush textures of an orchestra or quartet. The Jones’ instead weave them so seamlessly into a broad fabric of sound and find ways to embellish the quality of those instruments with immense feeling.
ARTHUR KING PRESENTS A GRAPE DOPE: BACKYARD BANGERS | A GRAPE DOPE Johnny Machine! Another Tortoise member solo project, but I couldn’t not mention it. This record has been one of my favorites to run to in the last year, due in part to the insane variety of lively tracks throughout. Herndon is a percussive monster to be sure, but his ear for playful melodies and neon-ooze production is exceptional in a way even I was not ready for. Every track sounds like they could be spinning on a space station dance club in another galaxy.
Matt Fidler
DDDD | TAKU SUGIMOTO One I actually discovered recently via a Bandcamp profile piece on the guitarist, this one totally blew my away. Incredible experimental guitar music that’s incredibly hypnotic and textural, pushing way beyond the traditional confines of the instrument. In a similar world to free-improv innovators like Derek Bailey, but very much it’s own thing too.
NISF MADEENA | MA3AZEF Long-standing curators or music from the Middle East (and an organization actually involved in music and activism there, rather than a Western label poaching stuff because it’s hype), Ma3azef teamed up with mastering engineer Heba Kedry to put together this compilation last year as a fundraiser for organizations dealing with the fallout from the explosions in the Port of Beirut. Lots of incredible new bits from some of (in my opinion) the most exciting producers in electronic music right now, including ZULI, Fatima Al Qadiri, Slikback and DJ Plead, plus tonnes of others I didn’t know before this comp.
ROYAL DISRUPTOR | NEKRA Unquestionably THE tuffest band in London, incredible raging hardcore from lots of excellent humans from the UK DIY scene. Start with this new one, released last year on the always-dependable La Vida Es Un Mus, then dig into every other thing they’ve all done in other bands, you won’t be disappointed.
INT001 | NKISI One of the best to do it in the UK, blending British dance music and Congolese traditional influences. This EP compiles some of Nkisi’s hardest tracks to date, from absolutely nails pummeling gabber-adjacent tracks to skeletal percussive tracks with astral synths layered over the top. Top gear.
AICHA | MAALEM MAHMOUD GANIA After being lucky enough to catch Mahmood Gania’s son Houssam Gania performing with James Holden in 2015 I’ve basically tried to get my hands on any and all Moroccan Gnawa music I could (sacred traditional Sufi music from Morocco). This speaks more to my ignorance than anything else, but I always assumed devotional music from my limited experience of it was quiet and meditative, and while this is certainly meditative and deeply spiritual it’s also incredibly joyous and ecstatic. Originally only released as a cassette in Morocco in the 90s, “Aicha” just got a proper digital and vinyl reissue, a great transfer that really does justice to this amazing record.
NÃO FALES NELA QUE A MENTES | NÍDIA A strong contender for my AOTY last year. One of the most distinctive dance releases I’ve heard in a long time, with stripped-back club instrumentals that strafe elements of grime, R&B rap, Kuduro and loads more, all while genuinely sounding like very little else. A proper force of nature, everything she releases feels like it completely changes the game and pushes the music forward.
David Wilikofsky Finally some picks from yours truly; for more recommendations, feel free to head over to my Bandcamp collection.
ANTS CORRUPT ELEPHANT | BACKSPACE The latest record from Maybe Mars is by the Beijing based band Backspace. It’s a mix of psychedelic grooves, motorik beats and post punk atmosphere that remains enthralling from beginning to end. Though I personally can’t understand any of the lyrics (all of which are written and performed entirely in Chinese) its a record that pulls me into its world every time I put it on.
NIGHTMARE IN PARADISE | TYLER HOLMES Nightmare in Paradise details the dissolution of a long relationship and Holmes’ recovery from PTSD after a violent, traumatic event. It’s heavy stuff. But at the same time, it’s one of the lightest sounding records I’ve heard this year. Holmes mixes elements of electronic music, R&B, folk and even classical music into something unbelievably airy and etherial. It’s a stunning record that I know will be on heavy rotation for months to come. Also worth checking out is another recent Ratskin Records release, Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Dissatisfaction) from underground electronic music legend Dax Pierson.
MY LIFE ON THE SILICONE PRAIRIE | SILICONE PRAIRIE Ian Teeple is best known for playing in great Midwest punk bands like Warm Bodies or The Natural Man Band. Silicone Prairie, his solo project, exists somewhere between new wave weirdos like Devo and electronic experimentalists like Patrick Cowley (who gets a song dedicated to him on the album). It’s one of the most fun punk records I’ve heard this year, which isn’t a surprise coming from Feel It Records. They’ve also got two new releases slated for Bandcamp Friday; don’t miss out.
RENÉE REED | RENÉE REED Keeled Scales has been on quite a tear this year; they’ve already put out five albums, all of which are best of the year material. Their most recent release, the debut album from Renée Reed, is possibly my favorite of the bunch. It’s reminiscent of the best of Jessica Pratt, insofar as Reed writes folk music that’s lush and dreamy, but Reed also puts her own personal stamp on that genre by pulling in sounds from her Cajun roots. An impressive debut from an artist we’ll undoubtedly be hearing more from in the future.
THE GLASS DELUSION | KUZU A few years ago I went to a music festival where Kuzu was performing. The trio of Tashi Dorji, Tyler Damon and Dave Rempis was on my list of acts to see, but I unfortunately ended up missing out. Hearing The Glass Delusion, a 2018 live recording of the group, makes me regret it all the more. The performance is almost like watching someone make a fire; the band starts with tiny embers of sound and builds them into a roaring blaze. The entire album is a masterclass in building and maintaining dynamic tension. Also highly recommended checking out anything else that Astral Spirits has released recently; they’re so prolific that I can’t always keep up, but their most recent release from [Ahmed] is another excellent one.
CANARY RECORDS Last Bandcamp Day, I took the plunge and purchased the entire Canary Records discography for $80. After having a month to reflect on my purchase, I can confidently say it’s one of the best deals you’ll find this Bandcamp Friday. Over the past month I’ve heard East Asian pop music, Balkan folk music, and Greek and Turkish music from New York (all of which are very much worth the cost of admission if you don’t want to take the jump on the entire discography) but this only scratches the surface of what the catalog has to offer. I’m looking forward to continued exploration over the coming months.