Staff Picks w / c 23rd October 2020

Review: Trauma Collective returns with four cuts of decidedly hypnotic and abstract techno from ever-prolific ASC. Rounding out the last decade with a string of stand-out releases on his own imprint, Auxiliary, the San Diego producer brings his cerebral sonic aesthetic to the fledgling Madrid label. "Loop Research" showcases a singular artist unbound by tempo and at the top of their game.

Review: So, how long have you been waiting for this one to drop? The answer really depends on two things - whether you've just been waiting for new long form material from the UK IDM legends Autechre, or whether you've been waiting for Autechre to put a proper album together that stays true to the principles and format of a 'proper album', as this does.

Either way let's just say Sign has been some time in the making, and it's definitely a case of payoff for patience. For the most part it's the waves of space age melody that really stand out, tracks like 'Esc Desc' seem to fill the room with bands of sci-fi harmony. Of course there's plenty of glitch and bleep here, too - the stepping 'Au14' is a case in point - alongside rumbling, bass-heavy business like 'Si100', where playful drips of percussion create a juxtaposition of innocence and menace.

Review: There's an undeniably far-out feel to the Zenker Brothers' second album, Cosmic Transmission, which adds further layers of trippy textures, hallucinatory sounds and smoky intensity to the aural blueprint first explored on their 2015 debut full-length Immersion. There's much to admire throughout, from the mind-bending ambient weirdness of opener 'When Nothing is Safe', and the slipped dub haze of 'Whose In Control', to the drug-addled IDM of 'Natural Connection', and the polyrhythmic techno trip of 'Divided Society'. Most striking of all is the trio of tracks that close the album, all of which are powered forwards not by heavy techno beats (or even their usual crunchy, off-kilter breakbeats) but rather a series of ear-catching, fuzz-soaked synthesizer arpeggio lines.

Review: Bam Bam is an old school techno legend and 'Where is Your Child?' is one of his most essential acid cuts. Back to Life is a young label but by reissuing this one on vital one sided 12", it continues its early run of form. Originally released on Bam Bam's own Westbrook Records in 1988, this is the records only fully licensed repress after more than thirty years, and it also includes a Bonus Beat tune. The original is of course where its at - scintillating drums, dark and lacking percussion and haunting vocals, all run through with a caustic acid line. Pure rave perfection.

Review: Almost two decades have passed since Charles Webster's last solo album, the largely overlooked collection of hushed deep house and downtempo soul gems, Born on the 24th July. Soon he'll finally release a follow up, Decision Time, but first he's treating us to a teaser single, 'The Spell'. Webster's vocal and dub mixes - the former featuring the seductive spoken word vocals of poet Ingrid Chavez - are typically immersive, ultra-deep house affairs that combine analogue electronic instrumentation with hazy, crackling aural textures that come courtesy of surprise collaborator Burial, who cites Webster's sound design as a major influence. Arguably the most striking mix though comes from that man Burial, whose A-side interpretation is drowsy, deep, crackly and irresistibly opaque: an artistic marriage made in heaven and then some.

Review: Pixies' 'Hear Me Out' might be one of the most reassuring things we've heard so far this year. Unveiled back in early-September, when the threat of winter's dark nights was nought but a glint of vague concern in the eye of late-summer, the track is typically raw and rolling engine room garage rock business for the band, and proof they remain on very good form following their reformation at the beginning of this century.

At least we can rely on some things, right? A month or so on and finally the full album is ready to have a go at. In all honesty, by this point in a band's career - legends since 1986 - you probably don't need to know much about a record to decide on whether to invest. It's Pixies doing what they do best, and what they do best is usually exactly what the doctor ordered. Take that as you will.

Review: They say history repeats itself, and in the case of this single it certainly does. First released in 1973, it's a protest single by The Honey Drippers who were advocating for the impeachment of the then President Richard Nixon for the goings on of the Watergate scandal. It has now been put out again in the midst of the 2020 election campaign when many believe the missteps of Trump mean he himself deserves to be taken from office. Musically, it's a warm bit of classic soul with deep cut rhythms feat Kelly Finnigan. 'Campus Life' is a more happy go lucky wedge of funk.

Review: After a couple of years in which he released very little - somewhat surprisingly - Dom Tarasek AKA Commodo returned to action in May via the creepy trip-hop-meets-dubstep paranoia of 'Loan Shark' on Black Acre. This speedy follow-up for the same Bristol-based label is similarly terse and tense, with impressive A-side 'Stakeout' showcasing Terasek's ability to blend punchy dubstep drums with musical motifs and foreboding electronic sounds more often heard on 1960s British spy movie flicks and unsettling B-movie horror flicks. Elsewhere, 'Transit' is a deeper, darker and far more paranoid affair marked out by some intriguing percussion programming, while 'Crooked Law' sounds like Mezzanine-era Massive Attack after several hits on an oversized bong.

Review: It's hard to believe Gorillaz, the virtual band that triggered a million sci-fi articles about culture arriving in the future (well, the new millennium), have now been going 20 years. More than enough history to have long-since proven themselves far from a fad, on their seventh album it's clear they're also still capable of new ideas, or at least fresh ways to remix old ingredients.

Punk explodes next to piano balladry, lo-fi electronica eases into low slung hip hop funk. It's a chart-worthy affair that reminds us post-genre is today's mainstream, here served in traditional songwriting framework rather than the current dominant avant-pop crop. Even if the lyrics are non-stop curveballs, from Robert Smith's appearance on the title track, through Beck's MCing on 'The Valley of the Pagans' and St. Vincent's playful party vibes on 'Chalk Tablet Towers'.

Review: The seventh album from South London-based producer and experimental maverick Darren Cunningham and it's a beauty. The last time we heard from him, in 2018, he was collaborating with the London Contemporary Orchestra and improvising a score for a Stockhausen opera and he's taken an element of that work with him and married it to disorientating, otherworldly electronics. 'Karma & Desire' has a real feel of escapism, almost to the extent of feeling like an out of body experience, as dislocated and disembodied melodies float around in the ether. There are the first proper vocal collaborations he's undertaken here, but the two tracks are no pop bangers, songstress Zsela's efforts sounding more like some beguiling abstract poetry. Travelling further and further, creatively, from the normal environs of dancefloor culture, he's not lost any of his spellbinding musicality or sonic storytelling skills.

Review: Two delicious slabs of Goodlooking-style timelessness right here from longstanding veteran Madcap. 'Hide' hits with a PFM-esque breeziness to it with twinkling arpeggios and subtle slices of surging diva vocals while 'Morning Time' surges us into the night with a much heavier groove. Full-on amens, urgent vocal one-shots, raw edits and a subtle funk that wouldn't have sounded out of place at Swerve back in 2000, Madcap knows the science and the soul.