Kaho Matsui & i.v. - the sword (Kaho House) + DjNiraha - KorgMusic2024DemoEL-HELL-EΛ (Heat Crimes)
Bedroom emo goes lo-fi folktronic alt-pop + TSMM in Roma wedding underground dance fusion tip shocker.
Kaho Matsui has been churning out music for the last five years, is a keen collaborator and been rubbing shoulders with some bigger names on her way. Sonically she veers from ambient sofa beckoners to experimental electronics and noisy pop rock, she’s quite the one woman band.
Her production partner on this release - i.v, leaves plenty to the imagination via her online breadcrumb trail of Gen’ Z whimsy and vaguery, but I’m feeling her stripped back beats and less is more, sample splattered way of working, which acts as encouragement rather than a barrier to Matsui’s shyly delivered thoughts and multi-instrumental work.
Big shout out to Alex Ruder’s tireless digging and the Bandcamp feed for the tip. If you ever want to ride the coattails of a serious ambient afficianado then give him a follow, he digs up all sorts of nuggets. I should also mention his ever interesting record label and lauded ambient radio program on KEXP.
DJ Niraha - KorgMusic2024DemoEL-HELL-EΛ (Heat Crimes)
Bandcamp really is a major home for the music underground. The site’s commission based fees don’t put up a barrier to entry, the platform provides a welcome revenue source and the social aspects offer a potentially supportive network for indie artists and streaming service boycotters.
It’s also quite the home of sample clearance avoiding gems and unauthorised re-edits of some pretty classic tracks that are looking to avoid the music rights detecting algorithms on the bigger, better policed platforms, but who doesn’t like the odd cheeky bootleg?
Today’s final tip is a prime example of all of the above, it’s an Oriental sample plundered banger of an LP from DJNiraha - a mysterious figure in the Greek music scene, who has fused Roma wedding knees up sounds with all sorts of dance floor pleasing beats that have got all sorts of DJs covered, whether they’re in a dingy warehouse at 3am or on a globally minded, family friendly festival stage.
If you need a livener take a listen. You’ll either love it or hate it pretty quickly.