First Impressions 002
Initial vibes on new music
Hello! Thanks to everyone who subscribed to First Impressions and sent lovely notes. It was a warming way to end the year and a beautiful bridge to a new year in music. I hope the season was good to you all. To recap for anyone new to this newsletter, essentially these are loose and fast reviews on music I’m listening to for the first time. Thanks for being here.
During my break I began reading Henry Threadgill’s enthralling biography, Easily Slip Into Another World. Early on he states:
“I live in sound. All my references go back to sound. I go back in my memory and I don’t see: I hear.”
This has really stuck with me as I read his fantastic story and think about how so much music has cast many of my remembrances and reminisicing as well as how it can be a portal to change and growth, whether you play it or just listen. May that never end.
OK, let’s go:
Downtown - Equipment Pointed Ankh: A kind of junkyard Stereolab from Louisville, Kentucky, who write music to plant somewhere between the carnival and the cosmic. Sun Ra by way of Neu! are also coordinates to map these jams, and I also have a strong urge to use the term ‘whimsy’. They had four releases last year alone, so there’s a lot to discover and I hope their infectious sense of fun runs deep through them all.
Mirror Green Rotor in Profile - Jim Marlowe: Caught onto this second solo album from a member of the above-mentioned EPA. It’s a tighter, thumping affair with more of an open-season prog n’ pop vibe than his larger ensemble, with some welcome softer edges in its heartbursting spirit. Warm and weird isn’t the easiest mix to master - there’s a lot of good times here in trying.
C - Skee Mask: A new year collection of unreleased works from the maverick electronic producer who navigates techno, dub, drum n’ bass and house with a dodgem car approach. (ambient dabbler, too) Percussive, meditative, but pacy, the trademark Skee Mask rush is ever present in these offcuts from various years, just not in the giddy overdrive he commands so well. All the tracks on these collections seem to have one hand poised for the symphony, the other to grab you by the throat. Still, even without the ultimate essence of his proper albums, what may make for Skee Mask’s second tier will approach first class for many.
Great Doubt - Astrid Sonne: This is one serious swivel from Astrid Sonne, even for someone who has moved easily from electroacosustic synthesis to a kind of chamber-ambient in her work. Here, she folds her previous approaches with a wilfully wonky aplomb into weirdly magnetic avant-pop that seems equally influenced by post-adolescent anxieites and yearnings. These open yet wily songs feel like puzzles for me to put together and I am here for it.
Hudson River Wind Meditations - Lou Reed: It’s possible Lou Reed never could quite live with silence alone, even during the constant Tai Chi sessions of his latter years, for which he composed this music. There is not much movement in these gently discordant works of barely swelling tones, though Reed’s focus in their execution is sharp and commanding. The fact that these pieces are Reed’s remove them from their anonymity, and even though they do stand well above more typical drone and drift patterns saturating Bandcamp and streaming, I can’t help but think when listening of a true master of texture and stasis in Klaus Wiese.
Selected Jambient Works Vol. 1 - Cowboy Sadness: There’s both puns and pedigree here. I’m in. Cowboy Sadness features David Moore from Bing & Ruth and The Antlers’ Peter Silberman. Whittled down from years of improvisations, it feels a little like Tortoise in their raw early days but slower, slathered with more atmosphere and less of the rhythm chops. Considering the many beautiful touches along the way, with its glowing tones stretched to the point of dissolve, that’s no slight. As the ominous feel of a brooding Western unfurls, the cowboy theme becomes one this trio can hang their hats on.
Volta – Loula Yorke: A UK artist I’m not previously familiar with who executes her warm modular synth explorations with super cool measure. There’s a deft hand in gently teasing these out to points where they hang very gracefully, flirting with the edge of the cosmos. It’s refreshing to hear this much air in a synth album, where everything is so unhurried – the rush is more gradually enveloping. Certainly an old school joy in thrall to the quieter kind of ecstasy one instrument alone can give.
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Thanks for reading.
We also announced the first set for Longform Editions’ 2024 series yesterday!
We’re excited but feel bittersweet with the legendary Iasos passing just last month. He offered us his music like it was the most natural thing to do, and we were so inspired from our correspondence to begin the year with his work. His piece is a stream of pure energy he sought to channel into our being like all his work, and we’re grateful we have the opportunity to continue on his behalf.
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Andrew Khedoori is the curator of Longform Editions.
First Impressions visual by Mark Gowing.