What a difference a newsletter makes. I’m now stooping as I come out of my front door so I don’t bang my head against ripening lemons the size of softballs, now know that Portuguese avocados are ready to pick from November - February (winter fruits still amaze me), have learnt how to look after chickens, been versed in gourd art, now know that there’s such a thing as hydrophobic soil and despite having moved from the heart of a small city to the outskirts of a village, I’m socialising more than ever.
Unfortunately the situation is temporary, but my first taste of living on a permaculture project feels very right, and confirms my suspicion that rural, sustainable and as self sufficient as can be living is where my future lies. Obviously the Portuguese autumnal sunshine helps, and it will be interesting to revisit my feelings in three or four months when the winter rain feels never ending, I want some toast and I don’t feel like cycling for twenty five minutes to get a sourdough loaf. I guess I’ve got some toughening up to do, or at the very least need to work on my baking.
The downside is that I’m currently seeing less of my daughter, a situation that is slowly improving, but the upside is that I drop everything when she arrives and I’m fully present with her. We spend our time searching for the local cas (she’s working on pronoucing the letter t), picking the heads from flowers, marvelling at the chickens, smelling herbs, discovering the world of spiders of which there are many, winding up the neighbour’s dog, getting out of the door by 8am and walking around the three acres until her little legs can’t take any more. She’s not even appreciative of nature as such (I think?), often content to spend long periods on the paved areas, but I can sense the fresh air, absence of street noise and human distraction, but mostly the impossible to avoid verdant space surrounding us is good for her, that it will aid her development and stand her in good stead for the future, even though it might take her a couple of decades to realise it. Not to mention it’s doing me the world of good too, it’s a win-win during trying times.
Quite where we’ll be around the turn of the year who knows, hopefully somewhere similar? But after the stresses of the last few weeks that’s a problem for another day.
The Lifted Index - Agonist (Seil)
Daniel DeWitt, known as The Lifted Index to the ambient community, has had his fair share of TSMM playlist and blog coverage since starting to release music five years ago. Despite the slightly painful sounding album title, somewhat gloomy track titles and laconic, introspective yet admirable liner notes, stating that the album is “about confronting your unchangeable self and meeting it with acceptance”, the new album for the very great Seil Records, is another blissful transmission from this closet hunkered producer from Atlanta, Georgia.
The album really does walk the sunny side of the street, straddling a line between modern day ambient production and classic sounding chill out vibes. Made using guitars, samplers and synths there’s a minimal charm threading the release - mainly due to the sun reflecting guitar and glistening keyboard refrains peppering the album.
There’s the shimmering transcendence of “Lost to Follow”, the Cafe del Mar like mantric looping and politely insistent guitar motifs on “Collapsing the Vanguard” and “Meridiem Breath Collector”, the alcohol fogged sunrise of “Morning Paralytic”, a heightened lysergic plain reached during the thought provokingly entitled “Conditional Fragmented Wonder” and pulsing, cascading joys to be heard in “Brickwall Static in the Disconnected Self“.
Every track has a pleasantly stoned, good natured vibe to it which makes for a pleasantly warm, perfectly chilled album. If summer is still making autumn wait where you are and you need a soundtrack, then look no further. Acceptance sure sounds good.
Lucrecia Dalt - A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG INTL.)
It’s an old cliche, but never a truer word said, that it takes ten years of hard work to become an overnight success, and many of today’s self entitled bedroom producers who just bought their first synth and bootlegged a couple of sample packs, should consider this and get their heads down for a decade before they start moaning that Spotify is not giving them a living after two singles and a poorly received first EP.
I first came across Lucrecia Dalt when she played a gig at a book shop/gallery/cultural centre in Barcelona’s Raval district when we both lived in the city about fifteen years ago. I remember being so impressed with her live looping and electronic guitarscapes that I went to tell her so after the gig; her talent and potential was obvious.
Like so many artists she soon realised that Barcelona’s big festival induced musical aura was a mirage, and local gigs wouldn’t pay the rent, especially with the city’s civismo laws closing so many venues at the time; not that any of them ever paid more than €50 anyway. So off to Berlin she went; an altogether more receptive and better paying home for her undoubted talents, and one that not only opened doors but seemed to encourage an experimental phase, which I can’t lie estranged us for a bit. Well, it sounds like she’s got the noise out of her system and she’s only gone, albeit with co-production help from David Sylvian no less and vocal assistance from Camille Mandoki and Juana Molina, made one of this year’s best experimental pop albums for RVNG Intl.
Dalt never shied from using her voice, either sung or spoken, but she’s really giving her vocal chords a workout this time round, musing on the “unfiltered complexities of human connection” in both Spanish and English and with real depth too. I think there’s a lot more acoustic instrumentation than the electronic processing lets on, but her electronic bent leads the way throughout. Don’t expect any toe tappers or sing alongs, she’s putting the alternative into alt-pop, although there’s some intriguing flashbacks to swampy Americana, vintage Latin song craft, orchestral soundtracks, industrial clang and distorted trip hop nestled amongst her trademark experimental electronic constructs.
The album is an obvious labour of love, doesn’t sound like too much else, and effortlessly balances Dalt’s stubborn experimentalism with a more accessible pop sheen, but ultimately it’s a triumph for perseverance and time honing her studio and song craft without compromising her singular artistic vision. Larger venues and bigger pay cheques await, and she sure as hell deserves them.
Jens Kuross - Crooked Songs (Woodsist)
Ten years ago, Jens Kuross was alternating between sparse piano accompanied singer songwriting and electronica bolstered forays into mainstream friendly alt-pop, unifying them with his fragile, yet determined vocals. But despite the quality, it was hard to differentiate him from the pack that were mining similarly James Blakeish territory at the time. Despite his game attempt at musical fame and fortune he became somewhat disenchanted with his time in LA and decamped back to Idaho, probably assuming, like his management and booker who both ditched him, that his music career wasn’t going anywhere.
Well, with his new album via the worthy Woodsist label, he’s taken a leftfield turn, dimmed the lights, ditched the Brasso for a rawer, earthier sound - perhaps a place where he should have been all along, and possibly leapt a few rungs up that slippery music career ladder as a result. Suddenly the obvious comparisons are a lot harder to make and he really sounds at ease and all the better for being a thousand miles away from the bright lights and heightened expectation.
Initially encouraged by Hayden Pedigo, who heard and was enchanted by Kuross’s new sound when he opened for him Idaho and who co-produced the album, Kuross entered the studio with just his Wurlitzer for company and what sounds like some omnidirectional microphones that soak up the full character of his aged instrument, and the ambience of his surroundings. The recording sounds as raw as the emotions that he’s unearthing and sharing, almost like hearing him in that same small, hushed concert room where Pedigo first laid ears on him. From the lyrics and their almost reticent delivery, to every key press, machine creak, ambient noise and post-song sigh, there is an unpolished candour throughout the album, the antithesis of LA’s studio botox, photoshopped press shots and social media neediness, and how refreshing keeping it real and honest sounds in this AI slop infested, post-truth age.
2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
Bongo Joe is a record store named after the maverick Texas street musician George 'Bongo Joe' Coleman (1923 – 1999) that sells vinyl, tapes, CDs, books and is also a terraced bar in Geneva hosting free events. Managed by a twelve strong association of active members they also set up a record label which has just hit its tenth birthday, so they’re celebrating.
With their whimsical approach to signing new artists and giving a second wind to music they love via reissues, they’ve amassed an impressive discography - 174 releases by my count in a decade, and although it’s been impossible to hang onto the label vehicle’s roof as it swerved about the globe and styles, I’ve had so many WTF moments from the label over the years it would be remiss not to bring the imprint to your attention.
So time to dig out your passport, hit play on this sprawling compilation and get down to some North African disco, Haitian psychedelic ritualism, krautrock meets gnawa, cosmic roots from Réunion, Anatolian folk from Berlin, dub deviance, Belgian desert blues, far out funk from Switzerland, global punk from everywhere and everything in between. Musical misfits of the world rejoice, you’ll always have a home in Geneva.
Nathan Salsburg - Ipsa Corpora (No Quarter)
Although eight solo albums since 2011 suggest otherwise, Nathan Salsburg also plays well with others, having collaborated with Joan Shelley, Shirley Collins and Bonnie “Prince” Billy amongst others. His latest album, Ipsa Corpora, follows his recent predilection for long form releases, although despite its forty minute run time there are a number of pauses which break the song into shorter instrumental passages and provide a welcome pause for reflection, and applause if you’re feeling bold.
It’s at times like this - writing a review of an extended solo acoustic guitar album for instance, that I wish I’d actually picked up my dad’s dusty guitar and learnt how to play it. That way I’d at least have something technical to say about the review to pad it out a bit. Unfortunately it seems the guitar’s destiny is to be handed from family member to family member and be used for ornamental purposes, so I’ll just have to direct you to the album’s liner notes for Salsburg’s erudite thoughts on its creation. What I do know is that there is a real purity, shrewd succinctness and disarming simplicity to the measured playing that could only come from someone who’s done his ten thousand hours, and then some.
Despite the album’s thorny, divisive, destructive muse and Salsburg’s reticence to even mention his name - if only the media showed such restraint, not to mention his (our?) obvious distress, the album is a balm; a meditation on division that oozes calm cohesion; musings on vileness that espouse kindness and a philosophical finger picked approach to the dissolution of decency, tolerance, understanding, truth and democracy. It says you aren’t alone, and although darkness is having a moment there is still plenty of light in the world, now who knows where that damn dimmer switch is?
Dao Strom - Tender Revolutions (Antiquated Future & Beacon Sound)
Dao Strom is an intriguing artist that spans disciplines and finds synergy between poetry, music, field recordings and visual art. Originally born in Vietnam, she set sail at an early age for California, and I guess that the splintered natured of her artistry reflects that multi-faceted identity, and her fusion sound an understandable need to try and unite those diverse roots, although admittedly psychology is not my strong point.
She certainly has the tools to make sense of it all, taking care of vocals, guitars, piano/keys, synths, samples on her new album, but also calling in the favours with various, well judged spoken vocal cameos and some assistance on violin and percussion where needed from her West Coast crew.
The album kicks off with four variations of "tender" and let's face it the world needs all the tenderness it can get, and the feeling is worth repeating. "Tender variation i" uses a recorded conversation, ably accompanied by suitably gentle, minimal piano before evolving into translucent song and the softest of violin caresses. The conversation continues in Vietnamese, French and translated English in "variation ii" peppered with piano that falls like the first spots of rain on the overlapping vocals. "Variation iii" takes a piano initiated ambient course, the electronics sounding like braking traffic noise, the spoken discussion still there but less prominently, and "iv" evolves into a twinkling classical infused ambient soundscape the vocals becoming gradually distant as it progresses out of respect for the impressive music.
Next up is a surprising take on Bowie's, "China Girl", a gentle singer songwriter morphing into howling post-rock version of the now somewhat dated 80's pop classic. "Take" is arguably the album's standout tune - a low gravity, sci-fi sounding, ambient pop gem with another post rock flourish. But hold tight for the future ambient folk of "owe own", the poignant, "how many wars" and the new age of new age transmission, "[hailing tender] which oozes positive vibes and is a lovely way to round off this diverse and delightful album.
Oh yeah, if you're a collector of things then you can pick up a tidy package of the four books, vinyl and a signed print from either of the labels who teamed up for this release - Antiquated Future or Beacon Sound's Bandcamp, it looks like a beautiful edition.
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, and are updated regularly.
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.
Glad to know you're in Portugal :) welcome!
If you're ever near Casa da Música (in Porto), come and say hi. Lots of slow music here.
Have a happy end of summer/early autumn.