My music on heavy rotation up to January 31
I’ve been listening a lot to these very enjoyable records for the last couple of weeks:
Die Antwoord - ‘$O$’ This is Die Antwoord’s first album, and it’s so much fun I almost wonder why the bothered following it up! It’s hip-hop, but the beats are more like dance music, and the bars skirt the fringes of comedy; hip-hop is a genre that knows how to laugh at itself however, and this is far from being a parody. It’s a hilarious celebration of working class Afrikaans culture and (by implication) a scathing critique of mainstream social attitudes.
The Orb - ‘Orblivion’ A production tour-de-force, as one would expect from an album by The Orb, this is a collection of mostly downbeat electronica, informed by a dubby aesthetic and methodology throughout. It’s creates a rather paranoid, conspiracy-ridden atmosphere, particularly in contrast to the fluffy psychedelia of some earlier releases, but it’s still a very pleasurable listen.
Jurassic 5 - ‘Feedback’ I just like Jurassic 5: their music is consistently appealing, like chocolate biscuits or beer. This was their third and final album, and it’s not their best, due in part to the absence of the wonderful Cut Chemist, but it’s a total pleasure to listen to. J5 were one of the funkiest, loosest hip-hop crews ever to strike my ears, and I always enjoy revisiting them.
Heidi Harris and Joaquín Mendoza - ‘Circe’ A transatlantic collaboration between a freak-folk production auteur and multi-instrumentalist and a card carrying experimental musician, this record is a very odd listen, one which will stretch most listeners, but which offers an astringent and acerbic set of readily graspable musical atmospheres, that I find very rewarding indeed.
The Echelon Effect - ‘Field Recordings’ Post-rock atmospheres of the most unpretentious and self-effacing kind; it’s almost impossible to remember what you’ve heard after you listen to this short record, but you are never in any doubt that you’ve been somewhere, and that it was a good place to go.
I’ve also been mainlining some truly splendid EPs and singles from Henry Fool (enveloping post-prog), Hawk Eyes (crunchy indie-metal), Drunken Forest (mental avant-math), Tamara and the Martyrs (dark Americana pop) and Birds of Hell (bleak seasonal malarkey).