Hello! And welcome to the second edition of Happening Again. No, I didn’t sack it off after one newsletter - and I’m pretty sure I’ve stuck to my fortnightly-ish deadline. Anyway, no need for another explainer of what this is - you can find that in the last edition. Let’s get on with proceedings…
HEALTH
HATEFUL
Loma Vista
LA-based noise rockers HEALTH have been on my radar since 2007 when Crystal Castles remixed their track ‘Crimewave’. Since then they’ve been a permanent member of my musical canon, and cemented their place with 2015’s DEATH MAGIC. So when I clocked they’d released this new single ‘HATEFUL’, it went straight on full-blast. It was actually debuted within the first-person shooter ‘Ultrakill’ as part of the soundtrack, along with its music video which I think is a parody of Gen Z’s apparent lack of attention span and how they have to have three portrait videos open at once to watch (I don’t really know, I’m guessing and it sort of scares me. One of those moments in your 30s when you realise you’re no longer the youngest in the room). But ‘HATEFUL’ is well worth your time, a thumping industrial banger with synths and writhe and pulse with a ferocity only HEALTH can do well. An earworm, if the earworm had fangs and burrowed into the centre of your brain.
OGRE Sound
CYBERCISM
Bandcamp
Another mainstay in my musical canon is OGRE Sound, known irl (as we say on the internet) as Robin Ogden. Ogden was first brought to my attention when a 4 second snippet of his track ‘Hardboiled (Flashback)’ was used in a teaser trailer for ‘The Rise Of The Synths’ documentary. And I could not. Get it out. Of my head. There’s just something about his specific strain soundtrack-influenced synthwave that hits all the right notes and then some. OK, enough gushing. ‘CYBERCISM’ his is latest album and it doesn’t disappoint. In Ogden’s own words, it’s inspired by “late 1980's direct-to-VHS cyberpunk anime, visions of terrible (and cool) futures on magnetic tape unheeded, and a multi-decade hangover of chrome and blood that floods our digital dystopian nightmare.” Cheery, but I’m not complaining. The sinister industrial echo of ‘20XX’ straight into rippling cyberpunk shimmy of ‘Die By The Sword’ is enough to sell you on this. A final note: OGRE Sound’s track ‘Negotiation’s Over’ has been near the top of my On Repeat list for about 6 years now, and will continue to do so.
Bell Witch
FUTURE’S SHADOW PART 1: THE CLANDESTINE GATE
Profound Lore
I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard of Bell Witch until ‘Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate’. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, the doom metal duo consisting of Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman hit the ground running with their 2012 debut LP ‘Longing’, a slow-moving titan of a record that cemented their mournful, doom-laden sound. It was the Hieronymus Bosch-esque visuals of the sleeve that caught my eye, and then I started playing the actual music. Doom-laden doesn’t really do it justice. This is one singular hour-and-a-half composition crashes and thunders like the ocean battering a seawall. Guitar chords are stretched within an inch of their life, as guttural vocals somehow whisper and shout in a terrifying echo. Around the mid-point proceedings start to soar with melody, keeping you in a melancholic grip and switching to an organ as we reach the track’s finale. It’s impressive stuff, and I’ll be back for ‘Part 2’.
Nabihah Iqbal
DREAMER
Ninja Tune
Ever since I heard her track ‘This World Couldn’t See Us’ on 6 Music while making my coffee one morning, I have not been able to get Nabihah Iqbal out of my head. Her style of 80s influenced synthpop immediately recalls New Order, though New Order as done by Drab Majesty. Which ticks several boxes for me, and has found her a perfect home on Ninja Tune. So when I realised last week that Iqbal released her new album ‘Dreamer’, I was even more excited and she boy did she not let me down. The pulsing atmospherics of opener ‘In Light’? The title tracks shoegaze jaunt via acoustic guitar? The club sensibilities and 80s bravado of ‘Gentle Heart’? The Underworld-evoking ‘Sky River’? It’s all here and then some. ‘Dreamer’ is very swiftly becoming one of my favourite records of the year.
Tim Hecker
NO HIGHS
Krank
I adore ambient music and no one conjures atmosphere through synth noodling quite like Tim Hecker. The veteran Canadian electronic producer goes all out on ‘No Highs’, his first long-player since 2019’s ‘Anoyo’ (his experiments in Japanese music recorded alongside 2018’s ‘Konoyo’), and it’s another records that I keep coming back to since it’s release early last month. There’s a level of disquiet contained within this album that allows it to push at its seams, without ever coming uncomfortable. Those Morse code bleeps on ‘Monotony’ backed by siren wails make it anything but its namesake, while motorik thud of ‘Lotus Light’ dissolves into a shivering panic of electronics that’ll put your hair on end. It’s a belter - but we knew that already really. This is Tim Hecker we’re talking about. (I recently learned that he scored Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool’ which, after listening to ‘No Highs’, isn’t a huge surprise. And yes, that is the a relation to the Cronenberg you’re thinking of).
I think we can call it a day there. As always you can find my ramblings elsewhere in both print and online in Electronic Sound. But some final notes before I go…
The Spring issue of Moonbuilding is released today, and you’d do yourself a disservice not to grab yourself a copy. Published by the ever-excellent Castles In Space (if you don’t know who I’m talking about, revisit Happening Again #1), Moonbuilding contains reviews and features of all the best types of electronic synth weirdness. No I have no idea who puts it together thank you very much, why do you ask?
I was saddened to learn that electronic label Burning Witches disbanded their coven at the end of March. BW published records from some of my favourite synth magicians, including Cory Kilduff, Hunter Complex, and Deadly Avenger, to name but a few. But I was overjoyed when I learned the guys behind BW were launching a new label called uSuper! In their own words, uSuper! is “inspired by post punk, lo-fi, dirty, golden era hip hop, and lowest of low grindhouse!” Oh and would you look at that, their first release is a gloriously cheesy new one from Deadly Avenger…
I know this is only the second edition, but maybe I can’t get through Happening Again without talking about video games. I’ve been particuarly enamoured with, well, just about everything to do with Pizza Tower, a bonkers 2D platformer inspired by Nintendo’s ‘Wario Land’ series. It’s a hilariously manic, fast-paced game, not least helped by it’s blistering chiptune soundtrack. Seriously, I have not been able to get ‘It’s Pizza Time!’ out of my head.