Catching Flies - She Goes Out Of Focus

Catching Flies first came on the radar in 2012, the year his first two EPs were released. Since then he has received a steady stream of positive press for a steady stream of impressive singles. It’s only last month that he released his debut album Silver Lining. His reasoning behind the long wait is wholesome:

“It's taken me a while because I didn't want to speak until I had something to say. I wanted to make something positive, hopeful and colourful...The world isn't in the best place at the moment, and the last thing it needs is another dark and moody electronic record. I wanted ‘Silver Linings’ to be a scrapbook of the last three years. It’s definitely eclectic, and it’s supposed to be.”

Silver Linings is certainly a positive and optimistic contribution to this year’s electronic releases. Full of light, airy synths, hip-hop and house-inspired beats, enticing soul samples, this is an album that obviously took time. Perhaps because of that, it is an album that is unified in purpose but that puts together songs you may not expect to see on the same release – "Yû", "New Gods", and "She Goes Out Of Focus", are three very different tracks. The album is probably best conceptualized in the way Catching Flies describes it: as a series of diary entries.

This album will appeal to fans of artists like Bibio and Jon Hopkins and Bonobo (whom Catching Flies has toured with extensively). My favorite among the tracks is “She Goes Out Of Focus”; it ebbs and flows, rises and falls, at just the right moments; it is expertly paced; it has an  idyllic, atmospheric energy that calls to mind the best of chillwave and will appeal to fans of Teen Daze and Brothertiger.

HTRK - New Year's Day

It has been ten years since HTRK’s debut, Marry Me Tonight, and four years since their last album, Psychic 9-5 Club. At long last, the Melbourne duo of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang are gearing up to release a new album, Venus in Leo. In the lifetime of their band they have tragically lost both their longtime collaborator Rowland S. Howard and bandmate Sean Stewart. Each new release find the duo pursuing catharsis in new sonic landscapes, while still preserving the distinctive hallmarks of their sound.

If Psychic 9-5 Club was an album seeking meaning in the abstract – with its exploratory minimalist sound design and soft, pensive vocals – Venus in Leo seems to be an album seeking meaning in the past, mining memories and episodes from which meaning might be revived. The energy is different, with Yang’s spacey, reverb-heavy guitars making a return; the band describes "returning to HTRK’s underground rock past with the stylistic playfulness and variety of a modern mixtape." And the themes are personal but accessible, even relatable: first kisses, childhood homes, New Year's celebrations.

The new single is “New Year's Day” - a song that drifts into psychedelic, shoe-gaze territory, while perfectly capturing the bittersweet feelings associated with a night full of bad decisions:

“New Year’s Day” traces a flimsy resolution to get healthier, instantly busted by an evening of debauchery, recalling “the worst possible start to the year with bad friends and bad behavior.” The silver lining is the sunrise: “pink, red, orange, white, peach” Standish repeats as the track laps with a velvety, hypnotic refrain."

Academy Garden - Big Player

Academy Garden is out with an expansive, oscillating, chilled-out track that is sure to elevate your mood. For some reason I want to listen to this on a chairlift. But seeing as I don't have a chairlift handy - I knew I should've moved to Colorado - I'll make do with watching the music video, which portrays a sequence of relaxing wilderness shots.

Mercury 94 - Cry

It’s hard to resist admiration when something weighty and effective gets fashioned from modest materials. Think of Basque cuisine; the charcoal drawings of Rembrandt; the architecture of Mies van der Rohe (who insisted on the simplicity of angular metal and glass over decoration!).

At 2 minutes length, this track feels like a sketch. The percussion: a bass drum and a click. Soft, deliberate keys repeat a minimal pattern - just a handful of notes. And sitting in the middle is Mercury 94's subdued vocal delivery, spoken word in time; as the focal point of the track, your attention is concentrated on his enigmatic poetry:

“Been writing bout misery
What’s frightening is
The happiness
A docile aberration
Of fiery flame
A Pisces in name
When I was crying it was never in shame.”

The vocals are duplicated, the top track pitched up, which introduces a disquieting dramatic element, like Jekyl and Hyde are speaking at once. Behind the voice(s), a trail of mechanically whirring, unimposing distortion. 

It's exciting to see Mercury 94 make so much out of so few ingredients. I have no idea what is next, but whether it is 2 or 10 minutes long, I'm awaiting it expectantly.

Alexander Noice - Affectation

Sometimes you hear new music so unusual it seems like must have slipped through a crack from some alien dimension, if only because there is nothing on earth to which you can easily compare it. Alexander Noice’s recent releases fall into that category. Noice is a highly sought-after LA-based musician, recognized as a formidable jazz guitarist. He has been a composer and bandleader for various ensembles, most notably Falsetto Teeth and The Alexander Noice sextet.

His upcoming album Noice see him fusing electronic music, jazz, art rock, and minimalist opera, shaking them together like some mad composer-scientist. Somehow, instead of producing an unruly mess, Noice has come out of this process with intricate, compelling compositions.
The press release offers this description:

“Thumping drums and electric bass fuel the engine of NOICE, with interjections of tailor-made samples, organically woven into highly intricate arrangements. The samples include Ethiopian vocal recordings, 808 drum samples, and recordings of children with stuttering speech syndrome, among many others.”

This is music that is challenging, music that makes me squint as I try to remember music theory lessons from long ago, as I do my best to stay on top of the irregular rhythms, tapping them out of the table. This music is manic and explosive. If you want easy listening, you won’t find it here. Towards the end of “Affectation” there is a saxophone solo over a jazz drums, and you start to think you are familiar territory, but just as you feel you’ve gotten your footing, the saxophone begins to shriek, becomes more crude, more visceral than any saxophone you have ever heard before, and you are pulled back into Noice’s world, reminded not to get too comfortable as you watch this “hypnotic space opera” unfold.

Kan Wakan - Miles Away

Gueorgui Linev is a talented Bulgarian producer, film composer, and songwriter. Based now in LA, he has worked with artists like Moses Sumney, Thundercat, and Tosin Abasi. When he is not producing for others, he releases his own music as Kan Wakan. Last year he unveiled Phantasmagoria, Vol. 1, part one of an ambitious triple LP. The album displayed an ability to fuse electronic and organic elements. Massive Attack, RJD2, Bonobo - you hear echoes of all of them. But, listening to it again, I am reminded of just how sprawling it is. There are gentle minimialist piano interludes, lengthy horn solos, harmonicas, bluesy guitar riffs, orchestral flourishes (provided by the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra). It’s just…very good.

Now we have a new single and an accompanying video. The song has a glitchy, jazzy, garage thing going on. In the video, friends are hanging out, drinking and smoking, and then their faces start to fold, to fuse together. Oh, and their irises jump around. Trippy, man.

Chiiild - Count Me Out

Montreal-based Chiiild (my keys aren't stuck) are out with a single, "Count Me Out". With an impressive list of production credits already under their belt, including for Jack Ü (the Skrillex-Diplo collaboration), Lady Gaga, and Usher, this single is (surprisingly) the band's first. It catches your attention from the start with an expressive string arrangement, and holds it throughout, as the strings open onto a propulsive R&B groove. Interspersed are horn blasts and synth flairs, as the strings continue to provide a soothing backdrop.

They are not afraid to heavily manipulate the vocals and to show the seams that manipulation - perhaps one reason this is part of a project they have dubbed 'synthetic soul'. This augurs future groovy material, and I'll certainly be on the lookout.

Rey Sapienz - Mushoro

Rey Sapienz is a Congolese producer, releasing music on the Kampala label Hakuna Kulala. If you haven't heard his debut EP from 2018 - check it out. In three short tracks, Ray Sapienz takes you on a riveting journey into his mind. There are eclectic voices - voices chanting, singing, panting -, there are diverse samples - whistles, motor-noises (I think) -, there is a diversity of instrumentation - disparate synths, percussion, guitars.

His new single is from his upcoming EP, Mushoro, to be released August 22nd. The upbeat track offers yet another spin on the Soukous genre. It is club music like I've never heard.

Rituals of Mine - Burst

Rituals of Mine is a duo made up of songwriter/vocalist Terra Lopez and percussionist Adam Pierce. They have a new single “Burst”, which comes with a powerful video.

Lopez is a protean songwriter, continuously reinventing herself. Her electronic pop is moody, it is glitch-y; it is best classified with terms that denote change, like ‘volatile’ and ‘experimental’. If there is one thing you can expect when you listen Lopez, it is to be surprised. Even her stage name has gone through multiple changes, from ‘Silent and Clementine’, to ‘Sister Crayon’, and finally, ‘Rituals of Mine’.

This track leans more heavily into the R&B influences that also appeared on their latest album, Devoted (released 2016). This song is about growth - more specifically, about Lopez confronting her past. The music video, shot and edited in a sort of 90’s horror aesthetic, sees Lopez take on (and crush) a team of masked zombified basketball players. She explained to Billboard, “the opponents all represent obstacles I've had to face being a queer woman of color in this industry ... this video was a way for me to confront both my childhood traumas and adulthood obstacles through the activity that has always grounded me.”

If the metaphor seems heavy-handed, that was the intention: “I made a promise to myself that I'm no longer going to play small or hide behind metaphors, that I'm going to really lean into self-confidence, self-reliance and take up space.” Lopez has no problem taking up space here, performing with a swagger that calls to mind Princess Nokia.

The rest of the three-track EP will be released on October 4, via Carpark Records. I can’t wait to see Lopez take up more space, and continue to push her limits.

CFCF - Liquid Colours

CFCF revels in the gulf between our present reality and the not-so-distant past. Refusing to be confined to one genre, he jumps around gleefully between once-trendy styles, and in so doing forces us to reconsider their artistic value and present-day relevance. From his minimalist (I mean really Glass/Reich-esque) 2013 release Music for Objects, to his 2010 Slow R&B for Zellers Locations Canada Wide (which sound post-modern and gimmicky enough to be in a David Foster Wallace footnote), CFCF plays with our expectations of what makes music good at a particular time and place.

His latest album Liquid Colours is a natural sequel to his 2015 The Colours of Life. He describes The Colours of Life as being primarily inspired by the super-optimistic Phil Collin’s track “Hand in Hand”, as well as by some electronic Krautrock and Balearic influences. He says the motivation for Liquid Colours began with “a simple challenge to myself to see if I could follow through on a continuous suite in one style. Much like COL, it was a break in working on another more involved, complicated album. I was interested in ‘corporatized’ pop jungle – totally inauthentic to the genre’s roots.”

Even when he’s admittedly being tongue-in-cheek, the album is composed with enough care to make you wonder how serious it is - to make you wonder if something this enjoyable can be tongue-in-cheek. Although divided into tracks, it might as well be one long track, as each blends into the next.

As the hazy, groovy 80’s synths ebb and flow, as the generic d&b percussion picks up and slows down, you have the sensation of listening to music that is sort of from nowhere. If you called a service number and heard this playing, you would role your eyes, and then you would turn your speaker to full volume just to listen.

Park Hye Jin - If U Want It

“Shoutout to the YouTube algorithm one time,” reads scallrow’s comment – the top comment –beneath Park Hye Jin’s “I Don’t Care”, which has been played on Youtube 844,600 times at the time of writing. The accompanying ‘video’ is a static, black and white image of the 24 -year-old: the same image that identifies her on various social media outlets, and that covers the sleeve of the limited 12’’ vinyl (now sold out) of her debut ‘micro album’ If U Want It (released via clip.art), which features the track “I Don’t Care”.

I confess to being ignorant about k-pop and Korean electronic music. Even I, ignoramus that I am, have increasingly noticed Korean lyrics popping up over dance beats on western European and American outlets, from Peggy Gou, the Korean DJ who has now played Berghain and has been featured on BBC Radio, to Yaeji, the wildly popular Korean-American artist who blends elements of house, hip-hop, and techno to extraordinary effect.

I hate to give the impression of crudely or superficially connecting two of the only Korean electronic artists that I know… but it’s hard to miss the connections between Park Hye Jin and Yaeji: the techno/ house/hip-hop influences; the (for lack of better descriptors and imagination) ‘dreamy’ synths and production; the gentle singing that sometimes reaches a whisper; and, of course, the tendency to sing, sometimes in layered duet, in both Korean and English. The connection is more evident with Yaeji’s more ‘house-y’ 4/4 tracks, like “Guap”.

When Youtube’s algorithm decided I would like this, it was not mistaken; so, yes, reluctantly, ‘shout out one time’.

Jenny Hval - Ashes to Ashes

Jenny Hval’s last project was the highly acclaimed Blood Bitch: a disorienting album embroiled in menstrual blood, viscera and, of course, vampires. Meticulously composed, the album was stunning for the sheer size of the sonic toolshed she pulled from, and for the way she pressed the tools, familiar and unfamiliar, into eccentric service. Imagine her emerging from the shed with a scythe but instead of using it to cut weeds she uses it to shear sheep. What?But…what? 90’s pop synths? Of course. Samples of pencils scratching paper? Check. Black metal droning noises? Yep. On the vocal side, Hval similarly employs a full range, from shrieking, to whispering, to panting. While often unsettling, it is an accomplishment that Hval maintains intimacy through the album, drawing us in, compelling us to finish the bizarre story, to keep turning the pages.

With the release of “Ashes to Ashes”, we have our first glimpse of her new album. It is radically different. Gone is the motive to unsettle, to shock. Still, Hval conceives of this project as subversive in another sense: “The Practice of Love is almost subversive in its gentleness—a deep dive into what it means to grow older, to question one’s relationship to the earth and one’s self, and to hold a magnifying glass over the notion of what intimacy can mean.” This album pays homage to the 90’s dance scene, but its efforts to recreate some of those environments feels more like naïve nostalgia than mimicry. Hval comments, “The synth sounds are the things I imagined being played at the raves I was too young and scared to attend”. Juxtaposed with the washed-out upbeat synths in this track are assertive and surreal lyrics, breathily delivered: “We had a dream about this song/That I had not written yet/Like I used to dream of fucking before I knew how.”

If there is a through line between her previous album and this single, perhaps it is in the sense of intimacy she is capable of creating, even as her tools and techniques keep her in avant-garde territory. Hval ruminates on the album so extensively and thoughtfully on her bandcamp page that it feels futile for me to muse any longer. This song augurs more wonderful, strange material to come.

Himuro Yoshiteru - Drowning Swan

Do I have to describe this one? What about a story instead? :

You open your eyes surrounded by darkness, save for a narrow slit of light in the middle of your visual field. How did I get here. Deep even bass tones begin to resonate. Cosmic celestial strings played pizzicato (that just means plucked I apologize) dance around, accompanied by a reassuring, regular, finger-snapping click. You move towards the light and emerge from what you now recognize to be enormous chrysanthemum. You find yourself in a mountainous alien landscape. As you crook your head towards the expansive aquamarine sky, the sparse instrumentals follow suit and also expand: bright layered synths join the mix; a still-relaxed-but-more-involved rhythm section; occasional pitched vocal samples are chopped in for flavor. And in the story - I don't know - maybe you dive into a lake full of breathable liquid**. Maybe you ride around on a giant albatross or something. Use your imagination. The dream (song) ends all too abruptly...

I'm glad to have discovered this track. It's well-paced, it's uncluttered, and unlike some other music of his, there's nothing hyper-kinetic about it (not saying there's anything wrong with that, just less my thing). So go ahead, put it on and play Journey.



**It's more realistic than you think: http://www.inolivent.ca/?lang=en

Regular Citizen - Sleeping Unique

Surprising as it may sound, “Sleeping Unique” turns out to be a perfectly apt name for this debut album.

Regular Citizen is the pseudonym of Ivan Olegovich, a drummer/studio engineer/DJ who grew up in the Russian port city of Nakhodka. His Bandcamp self-description of this debut album says,

“In his uncompromising debut, Regular Citizen hums the tunes of his daily mood storms with 12 minimalistic electronic compositions. Ordinary life is nothing but a curtain of dreams, a display of emotions and circumstances made unique by his sensitivity.”

The description and album name are both absolutely, strangely, on the nose. The album has an unreal, dreamlike quality. While the tracks diverge widely in their tone and pace, Olegovich manages somehow to stitch them into a coherent and fluid whole, creating in the listener an experience as of cycling rapidly through related dreams. Or perhaps this ‘mood storm’ is more like being trapped in someone else's dilemma, witnessing different stages of an internal, personal argument play out, as new ideas – point, counterpoint, resolution – take up the mantle. With most of the songs clocking in around or under 2 minutes in length, you feel a sense of uneasy urgency, which is heightened by the regular use of irregular synth jabs. The more ambient tracks, like “Touching Softness,” wouldn’t be out of place in a sentimental animated short film. The album was released through Lorenzo Senni’s Presto!? label, and while the similarities between Regular Citizen and Senni himself are clear, Regular Citizen is very much doing his own thing.

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Fortunes - Body Clock

I'm a few months behind the curve on this one. I'm sorry. My bad. Apologies.

Fortunes is New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based electronic/R&B duo, made up of Banarby Matthews (production) and Conor McCabe (silky R&B vocals). They made their debut with a self-released EP "Hoodie" back in 2015. Since then they have been plugging along, releasing EPs and singles here and there, and getting signed - good sign - to the stellar - also Australian - label Future Classic.*

In March they release a surprise 5-track EP,  "Disc Read Error". Let's focus on the fourth track "Body Clock": my favorite. Barnaby's description of the recording process in his interview with Pile Rats is funny; here's that answer in full: 


"This was one of those songs I only have a hazy recollection of producing, like I was in a trance-like state trying a bunch of weird shit that probably shouldn't work (why is there acoustic guitar in this??) internal monologue probably going "yeah, you know what? No drums. Fuck drums. In fact, let me get on the mic and record a cello sound with my mouth". You ever experienced that "next day syndrome" where you're making a beat and you think its fire and then the next day you listen and realize its actual garbage and what they hell were you thinking? I keep expecting to listen to this one day and have that feeling, but so far so good! Of course, it helps that the vocals are crazy gorgeous." 

I've never tried to make my mouth a cello, but whatever the technique there's no doubt these vocals have a loose, extemporaneous(!) feel, which contributes to the sense of intimacy between the listener and McCabe, as he builds from a quiet introductory chorus, getting more worked up, emphatic, and complex as the chorus reaches a crescendo, and then allowing the volume to fall and settle towards the end.

"I can't sleep and I can't wake up when you're not with me
I can't read a clock
I can't sleep and I can't wake up when you're not with me
I dance with the curtains."

Think James Blake's "Retrograde" with a heavy dollop of R&B.


* Hayden James, Flume, Classixx, SOPHIE, and others...

Cash Cash - Overtime

New Jersey EDM trio Cash Cash has just released a single titled "Overtime", and it is cool. Extremely cool. If you're anything like me you will find it irresistible to tap your foot and nod your head along, as Cash Cash blast you through a pumping Madeon-esque House beat, well placed synth jabs reminiscent of Skrillex, a soul vocal that you might expect to find sampled by Pretty Lights, and a children's choir! To state the obvious, this track is completely packed. It's fun and upbeat. And best of all (maybe) it's free! So, check it out.






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Pale Seas- Bodies (Tropics Remix)

Wow. 11 straight days without posting. I won't even try to justify it. Instead, here is a great song.

Well..two great songs. Early in August the four Southamptonites who call themselves Pale Seas released their new single Bodies. It will be released as a double-A side along with My Own Mind on September 17th through Communion.

Before ever hearing the original of this tune I heard the remix by fellow Southampton dweller Tropics. Tropics is the moniker of Chris Ward, a multi-intrumentalist producer who has gained a reputation for his excellent remixes and his interesting rhythmic, chillwave-esque debut album Parodia Flare released in 2011. Anyways, I think the remix might be better than the original. Sorry. It's just more my thing.

Both are great. Both are listenable to below. What do you think?


I didn't embed the video because it creeps me out. But here's a link
The remix is up for free download on soundcloud.

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Bam Spacey - Land

This morning I spent some time delving into this summer's releases, hoping to uncover a few of the numerous treasures from these past few months that I may have missed. Of the many releases to come onto my radar, one of the most arresting would have to be Land, the debut EP from Swedish producer Bam Spacey (Magnus Johansson). This latest edition to the long register of swedish producers,  introduces a unique brand of calming minimal electronica and exhibits avant-garde concepts that will engage and captivate listeners.

These tracks are full of warm, lush textures that firmly occupy the space in the tracks and carefully resonate on cue. As waves of ambience wash through they mingle with Johansson's breezy vocals and bright synth hooks. Many elements throughout the tracks show a clear influence from techno, which becomes most striking in the solid house beats that thud beneath the fog of ambience and often take over the track with a more confident dance-like vibe as they progress. Elegant, atmospheric, engaging, kaleidoscopic; This is the kind of EP that you may play as background noise while working, but several minutes later realise you have done nothing except listen.




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World's End Press- Second Day Uptown (Slow Hands Remix)

Way back in April a band called World’s End Press released a catchy, funky, dancey  (it’s a word now) Synth-Pop gem called “Second Day Uptown”. The quartet from Melbourne have been steadily gaining popularity since the release of their debut EP Faithful, released a year ago."'Second Day Uptown" was produced by Tony Hoffer who, to give a few out of MANY examples, has mixed The Kooks, Foster the People, The Temper Trap…and now World’s Press End! It seems the young group is bound for success.

Believe it or not, the main focus of this post is not World’s Press End, although be sure to check it out if you haven't yet. Their work has resulted in a love affair with bloggers and remix artists alike. These two crowds have become thoroughly obsessed with World’s End Press, which is why I, a blogger, am here promoting a new remix of this wonderful track. The remix was created by Slow Hands, aka Ryan Cavanagh.  His style is truly, as his Facebook page states, “rich yet languid”.  He posseses a unique ability to create flexible and multi-faceted remixes, pinpointing the spot where chill, flowing synths meet dance, and flickering seamlessly between those barriers in a bold display of creative finesse. You could easily bring this song strait to the dancefloor, or just as easily chill to it whilst lying on a beach. Enjoy!!!

Bear Mountain- Congo

 I've found a band powerful enough to wake me from my slothful posting slumber, (a huge feat in itself),  and inspire me to inform you guys that this is something which must be checked out.

The duo is formed of Vancouver residents Ian Bevis and Kyle Statham, who together have chosen the imaginative I-wish-I-thought-of-it-first moniker, Bear Mountain. The bands latest album, XO, was released last week. My only vexation with this album, and it's a very minor one, is that they called it  an album and not an EP. 7 songs... Come on. Still if you can just cope with this questionable classification (I think you'll manage) and listen to this song, you might just fall in love with the duo.

The album as a whole is an achievement, but I will focus in on the song "Congo", as it is my personal favourite. "Congo" is a  truly compelling 3 minutes and 17 seconds of music. The kind of 3 minutes and 17 seconds of music that can get a group widespread recognition. Much of the uniqueness of the song emerges from the spectacular samples of what sounds to be an African choir, and the drum beat, which I'm pretty sure is being played on a Conga drum (go figure!) The electronic and dance elements of track, after all they are traditionally an electronic dance duo, are weighed so delicately against the more organic samples, that every element simply belongs. For an unconventional idea, they have succeeded in making this track sound completely natural. The synths gush into view and shrink precisely as the choir repeats their unforgettable motif.  Ian's vocals, which their bandcamp describes as being "reminiscent of Ray Lamontagne" soar over the track, contributing a vital presence.

I could easily see this track in the soundtrack of a movie. An inspirational movie. About life and philosophy and overcoming obstacles and horses and stuff. I'm excited for their future. The duo, not my fictitious movie characters.




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