Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Nine
Hey there…
Summer’s finally decided to show up with as much dignified temerity as a student scrambling to get their final assignment in seconds before the coursework deadline runs out, flailing helplessly as the world gets hotter in both the short and long term scheme of things…
And that means more music to distract ourselves with! Yay!!!
As it stands, I’m on track to hit 500 albums before the end of June (yeah, it’s a much), however there is one more update to get through before I hit that pointless milestone, “so here we are” as Bloc Party once sung…
Listening Clark :: Class Of 2023 :: Module Nine
Gag Order – Kesha
As the ongoing turmoil of their legal battle with her former producing partner continues, pop’s one-time favourite partygirl finds a new avenue to explore with her sound that becomes a startling reinvention, forgoing a return to their signature shindig shenanigans with stripped down electro-pop missives that address their trauma at once obliquely enough to evade any further legal ramifications but also devastating enough to make sure you know who and what she is singing about.
Germ In A Population Of Buildings – upsammy
Keeping the impishly clever spirit of IDM electronica mischievously buzzing, DJ and producer Thessa Torsing’s second album is a collection of percolative flourishes that traverse distances both physical and emotional, esconsing themselves nicely between spaces on both intimate and epic scales that captivatingly evoke our relationships with the natural and urban worlds via a prodigious knack reminiscent of Matmos and Aphex Twin (yeah, some of the stuff on here is that good).
Good Lies – Overmono
Already forging separate careers as producers in both drum-and-bass and hard techno before taking a legit turn to collaborate professionally, brother DJ and producers Tom and Ed Russell’s first album proper is a head-turningly cool debut that successfully builds on both their painterly craft of beatmaking and burgeoning profile that has already seen them take remix assignments for the likes of Four Tet and Thom Yorke.
Healing Rituals – Naïssam Jalal
A Parisian prodigy of Syrian heritage, Naïssam Jalal is a composer and performer who concocts trance-like pieces that transcend contemporary jazz and classical music whilst also granting special reverence to both the African and Arabic influences of her upbringing, each one a subsuming treatise of beatific tension that is fleshed out beautifully with little more than a three-piece band and a virtuosic central performance, be it via her angelic vocals or the mellifluous flute that she wields with assured mastery.
Legacy Volume 2 – RP Boo
Acknowledged as one of if not the actual pioneer of the Footwork sound that began to emanate from the Chicago house scene back in the mid-1990s, RP Boo returns to the fray ten years after their debut Legacy collection sent the electronic music world into a sinuous spin with another sonic travail through years of incorrigible samplings and drops that hold true his lethally sharp and playful style, starting at the top with a Paul McCartney sample because he’s just that boss actually.
London Ko – Fatoumata Diawara
As indicated by the title, a shorthand reference to around half of the album’s material being worked on alongside Damon Albarn as a co-writer and producer, Diawara’s latest longform release finds the beguiling singer-songwriter embracing more Westernised influences in terms of more electronically discofied and dance-ready sounds, but never at the expense of her Bambara dialect and beauteous delivery, which is as vitally expressive as ever.
Romantiq – Oval
The ever-evolving oeuvre of electronic music wunderkind Markus Popp attains a new apex on his eighteenth album under the Oval moniker, taking his intensely methodical approach to glitch-tronica to soaring heights via a contemporary classical bent inspired by an audio-visual presentation that soon sprawled into its own journey of ornate beats and signatures whose attention to detail is so acute to be almost painful.
Secret Stratosphere – William Tyler & The Impossible Truth
A live album recorded in 2021 with a backing band that features previous collaborators of Jack White and Margo Price among their number, Nashville native William Tyler takes key tracks from his gorgeous discography of space rock-infused Americana, and with his fellow players imbues them with more blood and psychedelic prowess than they have most likely ever sounded before, each member in sync with one another to the point of almost psychic alchemy.
The Love Invention – Alison Goldfrapp
After seven albums together, Alison Goldfrapp of (ahem) Goldfrapp decided to amicably part ways with bandmate Will Gregory after the whole end-times thing from a couple of years ago threw their touring plans into disarray and forced the mercurial chanteuse to take charge of her own sonic destiny, the first result being this sorely-needed synth-pop marvel that finds her at her most accessibly poppy, though crucially without losing one shred of her majestic allure.
villagers – Califone
And we finish up this module with some experimental art-folk-rock courtesy of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tim Rutili’s decades-long musical project, which is equal parts mournful and castigating, restless and removed, inhabiting a world enervated by stress whilst simultaneously being soothed amused by how absolutely tragic everything is, creating something of a hushed masterpiece that could not feel any more appropriately timed in the process.
And that is, quite simply that!
I’ll see you at number 500, but please feel free to give me any pointers, feedback, whatevers in the comments below until/after/during then.
xxxo
