A Generally Mellow Affair

Spiritually inclined and experimental soundscapes, DEI celebrating ambient Americana, a vital snapshot of the UK folk underground & some sub-woofer worrying digi-dub mutations to test your speakers.

Another week another virus. The house descended into a coughing competition last weekend with my partner taking first place, and I’m now considering wearing a gas mask for the next eighteen years, or at least until my immunity levels return to their youthful heyday. I’m also now fairly certainly that the Wuhan laboratory leak theory is just that, a wild theory, and Covid actually evolved in one of the local creches. You heard it here first.

Consequently it’s been an odd listening week. I actually managed to catch up on a lot of music discovery so the playlists are well stocked, but not many longer releases really hit the spot. I definitely struggle to listen to music when I’m feeling ill and try to make allowances for that, but on my worst days I don’t even try as nothing will sound good and I prefer to wallow in silence and preferably solitude. Oddly TV shows have a sedative, distracting charm, so thanks to Dope Thief and The Last of Us for easing the discomfort.

Anyway this is what I’ve stumbled on recently, I hope you enjoy them.

Alex Marsh - Trellis (Not Not Fun)

A new batch of Not Not Fun releases is always a cause for celebration. Not only has the label introduced me to a raft of great new artists it’s also seriously TSMM attuned. Even if I can’t find a start to finish listen amongst the latest albums I gleefully and somewhat cruelly separate the best tracks from their natural home and rehouse them in my playlists.

What did jump out at me this week though was this release from Alex Marsh who I’d never heard of, well until I read the release notes (does anyone still read them apart from me?) and found out that he is actually Soda Lite - finally unmasked, so if you enjoyed last week’s transmission from his alter ego then you’re in luck.

This new LP sees him descend from the new age stratosphere for a somewhat more grounded release, his usual wispy, well meaning electronica part exchanged for the more gravity beholden autoharp, upright piano and vintage Yamaha keyboard, and given further weight by clarinet, chimes, bells and cymbals; although those more in favour of traditional arrangements and familiar tunes will be sorely disappointed, Marsh is a committed cosmic tripper whatever his creative tools.

Mainly due to the autoharp, this release heads to more familiar spiritual realms with a vibe not unlike Alice Coltrane’s less rhythmic seventies output, the collage of short transcendental expressions from the core instruments expertly woven into an enlightening sonic path along forgotten hippy trails, in search of easier to grasp explanations for recent lysergic revelations, the piano motifs, harp flourishes and keyboard sounds seamlessly mixing and matching to line the winding trail with a luminous astral carpet to show the way.

There is an improvisatory feel to the recording, as if a double-dosed jazz trio had eschewed ego and were on a minimal mission to convert the non-believers, although there is arrangement method to Marsh’s madness not to mention some serious cosmic flow, as he creates what he describes as “horizontal ecosystems of sound”, and who am I to disagree?

Tracy Chow - Postcards From a Dying Dream (Self Release)

Ambient Americana has been around for a while, and about five years ago it had a moment in the sun. Eyes opened I jumped on board the bandwagon, releasing two well received LPs from UK cosmic cowboy, The Howard Hughes Suite. Somewhat unfortunately the scene was, and in fact aways has been, a particular male domain, so it’s great to see one woman band and producer Tracy Chow taking a stand for DEI and nudging the boys aside.

Full disclosure I should also mention that Tracy recorded a track for TSMM’s Future Folk compilation, but don’t let that distract you. She’s had a nice line in ambient Americana for the last ten years, with numerous EPs and albums exploring the genre, at the same time as forming and fronting Once Great Estate who plough a more traditional Southern Americana furrow. She’s living the Americana dream.

This new EP is a timely elegy to the country of her birth: “America the beautiful. It was a great idea. It was a noble effort. It was nice while it lasted. But we couldn’t hold on to it. We just let it slip away.”, a sentiment that plenty of her fellow Americans and democracy loving citizens around the world can relate to, and although she leaves her songbook at home these melancholic tunes speak their own truths.

“Wishful Thinking” starts with rumbling machine noise before a slow funeral march propels the mournful synths/slide guitar onwards, whilst contemplative finger picking muses on what could have been if a woman of colour was leading the country rather than the old, white, autocratically inclined, sex offending, post-truth encouraging criminal currently in charge. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

“Rhyme or Reason” then uses simple guitar refrains and minor progressions to shine light in the ambient shadows that rumble in the distance. “But Science” pulses with understated kosmische promise as her minimal guitar argues patiently but insistently for measles vaccinations and advises again drinking bleach if stricken with covid.

“Who’s Flying This Plane” sees her stretching out on guitar in more recognisable, albeit echo saturated Americana style, aided by some low key percussion and wordless yet soulful vocal concerns. “Tethered” signals the end is near with it’s slide work and minimal picking offering a somewhat shellshocked reaction to the president’s axe wielding approach to his first hundred days in office, before “Run, Greenland” sends out an eery, unsettling warning to the mineral rich neighbours of America that democracy, decency and diplomacy are things of the past.

Various Artists - Jahtarian Dubbers Vol. 5 (Jahtari)

I’ve been a fan of Leipzig’s Jahtari label since day one, you should be too if you like a bit of reggae, and digi-dub in particular. If you’re unsure, digi-dub was spawned during the 80s as the ever curious Jamaican producers started to embrace the new, now affordable music gear appearing in the shops. I don’t know if it’s because the raw, low-bit sound of those early circuit boards is a welcome antidote to today’s often over polished, annoyingly perfect productions or if it just takes me down memory lane - perhaps both, but I’m here for it and in the right hands it still sounds relevant.

Jahtari has always been eclectic so you’ll just have to go with the flow. The selection kicks off with the recently departed activist and DJ extraordinaire Dave Watt’s sample heavy, hip hop driven dub deviance. Next up Kiki Hitomi keeps things equally wayward with some speaker mashing bass, a Gameboy riddim and outsider vocals. “Casio Hippop” sees things getting a bit more recognisably reggae with an Inner City nodding, stripped back, easy skanking dub.

Next up El Fata’s, “Boom Sound” gets the party started with some positive party lyrics and a perky dancehall riddim before Jura Soundsystem switch the vibe to deep smokers dub - one for the heads at the back of the room, before the evergreen Pupajim keeps it deep but ups the skankability and reintroduces the vocal encouragement to hit the floor. Next up Noda & techno legend Wolfers spread the word to the unaware that they’ve been bossing the dance as well as the rave in recent times. Speng Bond then twists up a serious dub meets dancehall cone, closely followed by the lighter, brighter tones and horn heavy “Voidout Dub”- one last workout, before Tiiu Helinä drops a heavyweight ethereal floater to remind reggae’s digi-misfits that they’ll always have a home in Lepzig. There’s also plenty more to discover in their back catalogue.

hara alonso - touch•me•not (Fuu)

Hara Alonso is Spanish pianist, composer and sound artist currently resident in Stockholm, where she’s working as researcher at Stockholm’s University of the Arts. As you can imagine, having also lectured in music programming and improvisation, her music is restless and hard to pin down, veering from minimal piano to club ready beats and all sorts of ambient experiments.

Her new LP pretty much combines all of the above in one fluid, shape shifting thirty minute listen that kicks off in disarming, gently swirling, percussion dotted ambient fashion, but like any good storm the intensity slowly but surely builds, the percussion picks up and starts to shower those still outside as sound sources largely unknown blow in from the north adding extra density and darkness to the clouds before petering out in a flurry of what sounds like cello abuse. After the storm comes the respite and “Millions of Other Suns” is outsider ambient pop, Alonso’s wraithlike vocals haunting a becalmed, low frequency weighted, impressively detailed soundscape. “Covered in Noise” sees her vocals take on more human ASMR form, whispering seductively over her minimal piano, aquatic field recordings and not unpleasant machine noise, which when it’s done morphs into the slightly more restless, uneasier piano ambience of “Veins (Veils)”.

“Breaths, Pulsations, Murmurs“ sees more spectral vocals riding ambient electronic currents before hi-frequency percussion and some punchy beats mould the track into start of club night warm up form. Just in case the excitement was too much, Alonso sees this adventurous listen out with the a light, almost fluffy tonal outro. Alonso is one of a kind and this is perhaps the fullest realisation of her art so far, check it.

Various Artists - Les Caravanes (Self Release)

One more quick recommendation from me, or else I’ll never get this newsletter out. Sam Grassie might ring a bell as I tipped his last single in a recent newsletter. Well apart from being a seriously accomplished guitar player he’s something of a serial collaborator and turning into quite the folk community enabler as well.

To launch his latest project, Les Caravanes - a travelling folk club that will apparently be coming to a town near you soon, he’s just released this eye opening snapshot of the British folk underground, and when I say underground I mean it. Only Daisy Rickman rang a bell, and when I thought I’d go through the compilation and follow the artists on Tidal a fair few of them don’t even have a streaming profile or any releases. Don’t let that deter you though this compilation is of the highest order.

The artists are on the whole firmly rooted in British folk tradition with little thought to electronic augmentation, and despite all the tracks being recorded at home the sound quality is great, partly due I’m guessing to Grassie, who also mastered the release.

There’s an unfailing purity to the selection, whether vocal and instrumental tunes, some genuinely great playing and show stopping new voices to discover, the quality really is ridiculously high. Sign up to your local folk venue mailing list and watch out for the live shows. Oh yeah and all proceeds to the compilation go to Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a worthy cause if ever there was one.

Don’t Forget TSMM’s Playlists and Podcast.

From ambient sound baths and wellness imbuing new age vibes to underground house via jazz, neoclassical, folk, dub and more, the twenty one TSMM playlists and podcast cover a lot of ground.

They’re available on Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon, Youtube Music, Youtube, Deezer, Soundcloud and Spotify (if you don’t worry about them not paying most of the artists on the playlists). Just hit this smartlink to connect to the various services and TSMM profiles.