Council Meeting Memo #123 — Five for Friday
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: Gift Songs (Mexican Summer, Album)
’Quietly gorgeous and deeply immersive, pairs his familiar ambient drift with warmer acoustic colours and collaborative detail, creating music that feels spacious, meditative, and gently radiant. Piano, cello, organ, and percussion blur into a soft-focus environment without losing shape or movement.’ Opener ‘The Milky Sea’ is 20 minutes of unhurried bliss. (SA 🇵🇸)
Zyggurat: Sphere to Sphere (Old Technology, Album)
’Birmingham duo Zyggurat recorded this in a woodland chapel, and the atmosphere shows. Modular synth meets acoustic drums across seven improvised pieces that range from almost melodic to genuinely unhinged. Best heard as a whole — it builds, peaks, and sprawls across a 25-minute final stretch. Cosmic, disturbing, and well worth your time.’ ‘Ram Ba’s Shep Hut’ is the killer moment.(SA 🇵🇸)
Pharmacist: Vertebrae After Vertebrae (Hells Headbangers, Album)
’Third album from Japanese deathgrinders Pharmacist. Riffs are heavier, tempos more crushing than before — it doesn’t reinvent the genre, just speaks its language with urgency and physical conviction. Fans of Carcass and Repulsion, this one’s for you.’ (SA 🇵🇸)
Dunal: Dunal Chronicles I (WeMe, Album)
Tribal rhythms, African inspired melodies….Chants. Elements you don’t always expect within the EDM genre. Yet Dunal (aka EOD, who released some intriguing material on Rephlex back in 2013) demonstrates a masterful use of repetition — organic clicks and textures slowly massaged onto a gentle rhythm. Patient and immersive rather than showy. ‘A Ghost Of The Long Night’ is the best calling card for this, but the rest of the album is equally brilliant. (SA 🇵🇸)
Squarepusher: Kammerkonzert (Warp, Album)
Unfair review alert! I asked my colleague Colin about it and he nailed it by saying….”I listened to bits on Bandcamp — I kind of wanted to like it, but there’s just something about his music, like it’s weirdly uptight, that I can’t get with. Reminds me of the handful of times I’ve tried to listen to Frank Zappa who does nothing for me either.” (SA 🇵🇸)
