Council Meeting Memo #006
Sangre Nueva: Goteo (Worldwide Unlimited, EP)
Sangre Nueva comprises Florentino, Kelman Duran and, highest profile of all, DJ Python. Goteo is their 16 minute four track debut. Summer has truly waned here in London, but if, like most of us, you need to relive the balmy atmospheres of better times, Goteo is the music for you. Reggaeton rhythms are evocative enough already, but here distant chords play like the shimmer of afternoon heat and voices echo in the distance like those heard, but not seen, in southern squares. As with some of DJ Python’s tracks, it’s as if Boards of Canada had grown up in Puerto Rico.
Blu Ritual: Since 94 / 8.6 LY (Identities, Single)
Two tracks of unhurried, expansive techno. ‘Since 94’ shifts and morphs over its 6 minute running time but never straying from its bright palette and optimistic outlook. ‘8.6 LY’ is murkier and therefore darker by comparison. All deep bleeps and predatory rhythms which get really interesting in the second half.
Nazar: 4Tunes (Self-released, EP)
Angolan techno. Disruptive, disjointed, disconnected. You might hurt yourself whilst listening to this. It’s short but also slightly underwhelming. Much preferred his Hyperdub long player ‘Guerilla’.
Phineus II: Peggy / Boomerang Ragga / Knockout Noels / Dog & Bone (Deep Jungle, 12")
Everyone loves jungle, don’t they? Actually, I had a friend from NYC who came to stay with me for a bit back in the 90’s and despite being a dance music fan, could never get her head around jungle. She said it was the frenetic rhythms that sounded like “someone quickly running a stick against a metal fence” that did her head in. I told her it was a London thing. She did however take to dubstep two decades later like a duck to water…..go figure.
Yellow Swans: Going Places (Yellow Swans Archive, Album)
Experimental music duo from Portland, Oregon. 70 releases in the space of 7 years. Called it a day back in 2009 and now choice bits from their vast back catalogue is being reissued on vinyl for the first time. Amusingly enough I recommend this, their very final album, as the best entry point into their world. Abstract? Maybe. Psychedelic? Possibly. Noisy? Absolutely. But also incredibly accessible. For those with a passing interest in drone, electronic or noise will find a tremendous sense of value in their long form works. The battle between brutality and beauty that so informs their oeuvre is best demonstrated on the album centrepiece ‘Limited Space’.
