My music on heavy rotation up to February 25
The past few weeks I’ve been having a lot of these five fantastic albums in my ears:
Sunn O))) - ‘White 2’ What can you say about a Sunn O))) record? It’s more akin to a geological formation than it is to a cultural work, an accretion of sonic depositions and aleatory processes—although it is still, very clearly, a consequence of rock guitar practices. ‘White 2’ presents three soundscapes that marry an upper-frequency chaotic order akin to birdsong, with seismic low-frequency undulations. The record distils a chthonian element that was present in psychedelic rock by 1967, but has rarely been isolated. Broad, deep and immersive.
Funkadelic - ‘Cosmic Slop’ This, the band’s fifth album, is a largely overlooked record in the Funkadelic story, falling as it does between their early psych-rock leanings and the funkier approach that kicked off with ‘Standing on the Verge of Getting It On’, but it’s well worth spending some time with. It’s a collection of pretty short songs, with fat grooves and a very rocky sound, and although in the context of an outfit as groundbreaking as Parliament-Funkadelic it may not be first rank, in any other company it’s utterly superb.
VA - ‘Malcfest Compilation Volume One’ A compilation to promote, and featuring bands that played at, a tiny independent festival I was strongly recommended to attend, but which I sadly never made it to. Aside from featuring some bands I love, such as Thumpermonkey and Telepathy, it features a very diverse range of mainly rock, all of it extremely creative and well-played, some humorous, some devastatingly heavy, some light and groovy. It’s all top-whack malarkey.
Grime Kings - ‘First View of the New’ It’s always a good sign when it’s hard to categorise a recording stylistically. ‘First View of the New’ features a core musical and compositional practice that I guess you could call ‘indie’, but it’s realised with such an experimental approach to orchestration and production that it becomes something else altogether. The band dig down to creative bedrock, so that it feels like they’re working with raw sonics, although everything fits into conventional song structures. Noisy, nuanced and excellent.
Pulco - ‘28 years of solid lofi’ Welsh singer-songwriter/iPad producer collaborates with his children one half-term to produce an album of absurdities and experiment. The result is rather more musical and more coherent than that recipe might suggest: I’ve been enjoying this record’s glitchy beats, verbal shenanigans and asymmetrical melodies enormously.
I’ve also been getting repeatedly cosy with first rate shorter releases by Tori Tori Bird (ethereal avant-pop), Qeei (electronic avant-pop), Napalm Death (GRAAR NNNGHR RRRRG), and Diane Marie Kloba (guitary avant-pop).
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