Mixtape: Jellyfish
I thought I'd never make another, but here's a short Viking's Choice Guide to Bandcamp Friday. All of these albums were released on or around Dec. 1:
Krallice, Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite (self-released): 2020’s Mass Cathexis signaled an important shift for the void-shattering metal band that bent cosmic. I’m excited to hear what part 2 means!
Minor Threat, Out of Step Outtakes (Dischord): May the Dischord vault — and, more specifically, the Inner Ear tapes — never run dry.
v/a, Stop MVP: Artists from WV, VA & NC Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (Warhen): Compilation put together by Daniel Bachman, featuring folk, drone and bluegrass heavies such as Yasmin Williams, Magic Tuber Stringband, Sally Anne Morgan and Nathan Bowles. All proceeds benefit the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund.
Ronnie Martin, Holiday Fable (Velvet Blue Music): The synth-pop wizard formerly known as Joy Electric makes sparse and fantastical Christmas music fit for a snowglobe.
Lea Bertucci, Of Shadow and Substance (Cibachrome Editions): I gotta stop thinking about Lea Bertucci as just a saxophonist and more as a composer, yet I can't help but hear echoes of whispering valves and clattering brass in these droning pieces for strings, harp and electronics. Wondrous music.
Lexicon, Poison Head (Iron Lung): These four minutes feel like 40 years of punk gruel crushed into a hydraulic press and oozing puss. Unnecessarily ridden with feedback and that's just the way I like it.
Arone Dyer & s t a r g a z e, Arone x s t a r g a z e (Transgressive): One half of the avant-rock duo Buke and Gase teams up with the progressive chamber ensemble. A rapturous and curious vehicle for Arone Dyer's vibrant voice.
Setting, at Black Mountain College Museum (self-released): The trio of Nathan Bowles (Black Twig Pickers), Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors) and Joe Westerlund (Megafaun) released a record of what I'm calling "peace drone" in September: natural world-minded music that rumbles with the Earth, wheezes with the wind and surges with the seas. This live recording does the same, but feels murkier, muddier — the inherent psychedelia of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, emerging from the green like verdant wizard.
Programming note: I have fully entered the Year-End Music List season at NPR Music, so updates will likely be sparse in December. But expect a Viking's Choice holiday mixtape soon, and my own personal year-end recollection by early January. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via BNDCMPR. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Björk (feat. Rosalía), "Oral"
Carrey Frey, "Buck McDaniel: Marefka Sketches"
Miki Hirayama, "電子レンジ (Denshi Lenzi)"
Reyna Tropical, "Ya Va Psar"
Vægtløs, "Ingenting kan forhindre at små struber skælver en forårsnat"
Спасмо, "Отпор"
Clara (feat. El Manatial), "Lluvia De Sal"
Chuquimamani-Condori, "Engine"
Food People, "Tuck Shop Mead"
Kali Malone, "All Life Long (for organ)"
Nabihah Iqbal, "Gentle Heart"
Kojika, "QNQNしたい"
Minor Threat, "In My Eyes (Out of Step Outtake)"
Angela Alexander & J.D. Saddler, "Don't Make Me Kill You"
Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel, "Foi Boto"
Sombat Simla, "Lom Phat Prow"
Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, "Écoute Au Loin"
CHO CO PA CO CHO CO QUIN QUIN, "tradition"
Superless, "Once Upon a Time in Bollywood"
Cavalier & Quelle Chris, "Sniz and Woop"
Church Girls, "Fall Apart"
Long Way to Go, "Halo"
Vestígio, "Ausência"
Krallice, "Never Create Another"
Lexicon, "Rapture"
Chloroma, "Akceate (Encenathrakh cover)"
Maria W Horn, "Omnia Citra Mortem"
Francisco Mela & Zoh Amba, "El Cisne Blanco"
Emmanuelle Parrenin & Colin Johnco, "Au-delà du vent"
Guerra / de Paiva / Hornsby / Konradsen, "Jellyfish"
Aziz Konkrite, "Fils Derdeba"
Setting, "III"