Midweek Missive

Ambient minimalism, raw uncompromising folk and deep chugging dance music.

Felbm & Louis Reith - G, A & D (Objects & Sounds)

Artistic residency recordings don’t always end well. Maybe there are synergy issues for artists thrown together, maybe it’s the unfamiliar working environment, but I guess mostly it’s time stress and constraints that mean that most output is mostly a snapshot in time and place, rather than a timeless treasure.

Admittedly with their existing friendship, Topper & Reith cheated somewhat, but still. Topper, with his predilection for classy, gentle, well arranged instrumental music has TSMM form, and I’m now keeping tabs on Reith’s abstract yet approachable ways. They certainly seem to have brought out the best in each other.

During the residency they wandered around Ghent collecting field recordings and paying attention to life’s oft-ignored minutia, before heading back to the studio to translate those observations into this thoughtful and minimal electroacoustic soundscape, where musicality & micro-sounds merge and familiar instrumentation brushes shoulders with more far out frequencies to fine effect. It’s an intimate recording and I would suggest best explored during a quiet, solitary moment.

Bridget & Kitty / Resonant Bodies - Betwixt & Between 11 (Betwixt & Between Tapes)

I’m a major fan of this tape series, if not its medium of choice, but let’s save that rant for another day. The label’s been operating for 6 years now and has risen to the surface of the music deluge by dint of not just its quality, but also its raw and uncompromising nature.

From day one it’s been a split series, with the sides often having quite contrasting sonic aesthetics. It’s also a treasure trove of traditional folk, drone and improvised endeavour, that has introduced me to no end of great artists who would normally only be found at quaint festivals and squashed up against the cigarette machine in the back room of a traditional boozer. Some of the artists can’t even be found on streaming services, although that says more about the streaming services than them.

The first half of this latest transmission comprises four fine, unaccompanied vocal duets from Bridget & Kitty, normally to be found fanning the folk flames and promoting the oral tradition at gigs around South East London. Their voices are pure and true, the harmonisation real and the recording up close and unadorned.

Flip the tape if the machine won’t do it for you, and you come across Resonant Bodies an improvisatory duo from Sheffield who “love medieval music and minimalism, and not much in between“, which as well as making me chuckle, pretty much sums up the uncompromising nature of the label. The recording sets off easily enough; nyckelharpa and hammered dulcimer (I believe) engaged in polite yet insistent conversation, until about half way through when they’re joined by a tipsier fiddle, provoking a livelier debate that hypnotises and sweeps you along, and before you know it 15 minutes of your life has been well spent

Start with this latest label release and work your way back through the series, you’ll be ditching the smartphone, foraging and cooking over wood in no time.

For Mankind & East Coast Love Affair - Musica Para Todos (Athens Of The North)

Just about got time for one more before I collapse into a sleep deprived heap. East Coast Love Affair have been bubbling along nicely since starting out four years ago covering deep obscure disco and deeper dance music cuts. On this new release they’ve hooked up with the Ibizan underground in the shape of Pikes’ Resident Russ Forman.

The result is as deep as you would hope and surprisingly slow paced. Perfect for those old ravers like myself who still like to keep their hand in, but whose knees are too wobbly for the full party.

Balearic riddims, deep ambient house, chopped and screwed Detroit vibes, glistening minimalism, tribal encounters laid back boogie and beat down house all make an appearance, and unfailingly keep it real. Ideal for when you want something propulsive but are trying to avoid any embarrassing sweat stains.