Happening Again #54
Furious darksynth and patchwork footwork
Hello!
I’ve got this one out a week early to compensate for the delay of the last issue. I know you were all on tenterhooks.
Not that I ever do an Album Of The Year round-up, but there’s definitely an AOTY contender here among the pickings. No prizes for guessing which, but it’s a banger.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been spinning recently…
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username/Marsh Crane
OVERTIME
Bandcamp
Nashville-based producer username teams up with Portland, Oregon producer Marsh Crane for this remarkably fun meeting of musical minds. ‘Overtime’ is a patchwork of hip hop instrumental, footwork, and samples, knitted together (while also cut-up, slowed, and processed) into a dynamic electronic record. Marsh Crane and username are no strangers to collaborating, with the latter mastering Crane’s ‘GSH’ album, as well as the pair putting out a handful of singles last year. With this, their first album proper together, the pair really flex their production muscles. There’s a bit of Flying Lotus here, an edge of Iglooghost (‘That’s It’), as well as shades of Kid Koala. I’m a big fan of how ‘Repetition’ uses, ahem, repetition to great effect, sampling Lil Wayne saying “repetition” and “record spins” on top of an overly dramatic instrumental. In fact there’s a cheeky playfulness to the whole album - you can’t help get the feeling the pair are mocking certain elements of modern hip hop. There are calmer moments, like the shifting ‘Report’ where drum patterns ripple like raindrops hitting a puddle. This is not something I’d normally have on rotation, but when you have an album this fun it’s hard not to have it on repeat. Get it? Because, there’s loads of samples and that. I’ll get my coat.
Fire-Toolz
PRIVATE ANGEL MESSAGE
Bandcamp
Not that surprising that I found myself revisiting Angel Marcloid’s catalogue as Fire-Toolz after her mesmerising work as Yapping Portal. ‘Private Angel Message’ is a single (or mini EP?) she released last September, a snip at three tracks but another genius insight into Marcloid’s bright musical mind. It’s an eclectic mix (par for the course) that skates around ambient pop, vaporwave, video game score, new age, noise… it’s Marcloid, you know the drill. Even with just three tracks, there’s some real range here. The sombre ‘Everything & Everywhere Is Screaming Into Me’, with its melancholic string work and ghostly ambience bubbles with something sinister, before folding into itself, musical dimensions whining, glitching, and fizzing under their own weight. Contrast that with the beautiful juxtaposition of 80s shopping centre muzak and screamo vocals of ‘The Halcyon Waterfall [CODENAME_FAILED DESERT MEMORY]’. Never a dull moment with Angel Marcloid.
Carpenter Brut
LEATHER TEMPLE
No Quarter Prod
French synthwave composer Franck Hueso completes his ‘Leather’ trilogy with possibly the finest entry yet. ‘Leather Temple’ reminds me a lot of Hueso’s debut full-length ‘Trilogy’ (which itself was a compilation of the three Carpenter Brut EPs), and from the off it never lets up. There’s extensive lore to this entry in the “Leather” canon (I’ve gone through it before but if you’re interested it’s all here), but ‘Leather Temple’ works as both a finale to a trilogy and a self-contained record. There’s a lot to enjoy. The ominous ‘Ouverture (Deus Ex Machina)’, a sinister organ-led symphony with the aura of the gate of a Gothic castle slowly rising, melts into the ferocious ‘Major Threat’, a cut of visceral, propulsive darksynth that hurtles forward with a white-hot fury. There’s a glorious 1980s euphoria to ‘Neon Requiem’, while ‘Iron Sanctuary’ is a monstrous titan of industrial textures; deep bassy oscillations that’ll set your teeth on edge. Hueso even treads into synthpop territory with ‘The End Complete’, its triumphant twinkling keys a palate cleansing finale. But this is synthpop by Carpenter Brut - there’s some orchestral twists and turns to be found. Whether you’ve been following the lore or not, with ‘Leather Temple’ Carpenter Brut puts his foot down and rarely let’s up. Album of the year contender this absolutely is.
Danny L Harle
CERULEAN
XL
One day I woke up, and I suddenly kept seeing the name “Danny L Harle” everywhere. I felt like the name rang a bell. Let’s have a look at Wikipedia shall we? Oh, formerly signed to PC Music and a member of Dux Content with A. G. Cook. That’ll be it. Daniel Jack Eisner Harle is a British composer who started life releasing songs as part of Dux Content, went on to produce for the likes of Caroline Polachek, Rina Sawayama, and Charli XCX. He released his debut studio album ‘Harlecore’, a furious explosion of hardstyle, eurodance, and rave - a bit of a jump from his most recent offering ‘Cerulean’. Harle has assembled the crème de la crème of contemporary pop chanteuses for this record, featuring collaborations with PinkPantheress, Oklou, Dua Lipa, as well as ol’ pal Polachek. That said I’m sort of torn with ‘Cerulean’. There are some really bright moments (the Balearic ‘Island (Da Da Da)’, the fast-paced choral ‘Starlight’ with PinkPantheress, the dancefloor-ready ‘Crystallise My Tears’ featuring the vocals of MNEK and Oklou), but there’s something that’s not completely clicking with me. It all feels a bit opportunistic. Maybe I’m being unfair. And hey, there’s nothing like striking while the iron is hot. I think I need to sit with this one a bit longer. Despite that, it’s still well worth a listen.
That’s it for this time. As always you can find my ramblings elsewhere in both print and online in Electronic Sound. I am going to tentatively dip into the world of microblogging again, so follow me on Bluesky if that’s your sort of thing.
But before I go, here are some things from across the internet that have caught my eye…
Some Stray Thoughts
// RIP Éliane Radigue. Radigue was a pioneer of musique concrète in the 1950s, working alongside the likes of Pierre Schaeffer periodically at Studio d’Essai. She went on to become the assistant to Pierre Henry at Studio Apsome, developing her own techniques in tape loops and feedback. Her weapon of choice was the ARP 2500, and she spent the majority of her career developing her sound, before going in a more acoustic direction at the turn of the millennium. Admittedly, I was only vaguely familiar with her through Pierre Schaeffer’s work, but I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of memorials I saw for her going up online. There’s something to be said for the work and innovation that women have contributed to electronic music.
// Please enjoy this visualiser for the free Simpsons-themed ambient album ‘Bart Vs The World’ that Dylan Henner released at the start of the month. More words on that next issue.
// What a complete mess the Warner Bros. takeover has become. After announcing that they would be welcoming WBD and its subsidiaries to the family, Netflix has backed out of the takeover, leaving a hugely debt-ridden Paramount Skydance to acquire the company in a $111B deal. Despite Paramount themselves recently reporting a quarterly loss of about half a billion dollars. As well as Warner Bros. Discovery reporting a net loss of $252 million. Controlling both CBS and CNN is great and all, but I struggle to see how the company isn’t going to be in the shit in a few years. Ready for Netflix to swoop in and buy them both up.
// On that note, I’m getting increasingly tired of living in a world where the most comically evil people are constantly winning.