Happening Again #56
Switch-up
Hello!
A couple of things to go through before we get started. After a few conversations with several folk, I’m going to switch on paid subscriptions for this newsletter. This is entirely optional - Happening Again will still be completely free. This is only if you fancy supporting me and music journalism monthly. Think of it as buying me brew every month. Every little helps these days, and while I love writing this it doesn’t keep the lights on. It’s tough out there for everyone. But again, this will never be a paid newsletter.
You may have also seen that I put out my unpublished short crime story ‘False Prophets’ over the last week. I’m really proud of it, and thought I might as well chuck it out into the world rather than let it sit gathering dust. Both Part I and Part II are available for your reading pleasure.
And finally, you can find me in this week’s Moonbuilding reviewing Hawksmoor’s excellent drug-induced album ‘Am I Conscious Now?’. What drug, I hear you ask? You’ll have to read and find out. And subscribe to Moonbuilding if you haven’t already.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been spinning recently…
Are you a musician? Do you have a certain band or artist you think I should be listening to? Drop them into the Happening Again inbox: wearehappeningagain@gmail.com
Magic Sword
SIDE QUEST
Bandcamp
I’m a big fan of this latest single ‘Side Quest’ from electronic group Magic Sword, released today and taken from their upcoming album of the same name. The mysterious trio, hailing from Boise, Idaho, only go by The Keeper, The Seeker, and The Weaver, with their work revolving around their personas and their link to a magical sword. ‘Side Quest’ continues the group’s very specific flavour of synthwave - less 80s-influenced, and more guided by electro-rock. An optimistic guitar solo accompanied by euphoric synthlines, all wrapped up in video game score sensibilities? Sign me right up. And that album artwork. Just look at it! Glorious. You’d be correct if you feel like you’ve heard these guys before. An edited version of their 2015 single ‘In The Face Of Evil’ was used in the ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ trailer almost… 10 years ago. Christ. What was it Smash Mouth said?
Fire-Toolz
BALAM =^..^= SAYS IPv09082024 STRAWBERRY HEAD
Warp
She’s becoming a regular fixture among these pages, but I’ve no complaints if she carries on making music as good as this. Chicagoan electronic producer Angel Marcloid has announced her next record ‘Lavender Networks’, which will be her debut on Sheffield’s Warp Records - what a pairing! Going by first single ‘Balam =^..^= Says IPv09082024 Strawberry Head’ (you didn’t think those intricate song titles were going away did you?) we’re in for a treat. ‘Balam…’ is a firehose of maximalist IDM, peppered with screamo vocals and vaporwave melodies, before exploding into a cacophony of frantic metal-adjacent drum machines, manic electronic textures and an absolutely delicious shredding guitar solo. Play this nice and loud, and make special effort to annoy the neighbours. I can’t wait for the album.
worriedaboutsatan
NO KNOCK NO DOORBELL
This Is It Forever
He’s good is that Gavin Miller. Almost annoyingly so, but I can’t be mad. ‘No Knock No Doorbell’ is Gavin’s 20th album to date, and also celebrates 20 years of ‘satan. This record feels like a change of pace for worriedaboutsatan - I’m hesitant to use the word “acoustic”, but there’s definitely more noticeable guitar and drum work going on, and it’s all the better for it. I’ve said before that Gavin has this down to a fine art, and ‘No Knock No Doorbell’ is a blinding way to celebrate two decades of hard graft. A guitar drenched in reverb echoes into infinity on ‘Inside A Dream I: What Year Is This?’ (and on that song title, I see you Gavin, I see you). The deep, guttural loop of ‘A White Horse’ really gets into your bones, and I’m a huge fan of ‘Before Your Eyes (We Are Your Ancestors)’, an epic at almost 10 minutes. There’s a cyclical guitar melody that’s joined by a flurry of percussion, and then a bit more for good measure, before everything peters out into ambient prog. Shout out to his partner Sophie Green for her sublime string work on the fuzzy, menacing ‘A Terrifying Thing To Wake Up To’, one of my personal highlights of the album. How they manage this level of quality with releases this regular I’ll never know. But the scene is richer for having Gavin still doing what he does 20 years down the line. And if you ever get the chance to see him live, don’t miss out.
More Eaze
SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN THE COUNTRY
Thrill Jockey
The last time we heard Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Mari Rubio was her sparkling experimental ambient collaboration with fellow synthesist Claire Rousay. Now, under her More Eaze moniker, Rubio is putting vocals at the forefront of this latest outing on Thrill Jockey. ‘Sentence Structure In The Country’ melds processed vocals and meticulous electronic production with notes of country and folk, creating an album that merges the electronic and acoustic in a rather masterful way. Rubio has a knack for not only squeezing the most out of her instruments, but injecting some real dynamism in her music. Gentle keys, alien whirs, and dripping textures back manipulated vocals on opener ‘Leave (Again)’, while ‘The Producer’ is Rubio doing a straight forward folk track, that string melody accompanied with the metallic tick of a metronome. ‘A Chorale’ is entirely string-driven, with little help from anything electronic, but the real highlight is the almost-8-minute centrepiece ‘Biters’, a glorious miasma of harsh drones, chiptune textures, muted voice, and scattered percussive ripples. It’s really carefully realised stuff, and once again shows how Rubio has such a talent for innovative and exciting composition.
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…
// It’s absolutely mad that buying a PS5 at launch is now considered a solid investment, considering Sony just announced some pretty considerable price rises for its line of PlayStation 5s. Six years into its life cycle you’d normally expect discounted bundles. Isn’t the future great.
// I’m not sure I can recommend this with my whole chest, but I’m been fascinated by HBO’s ‘Neighbors’ (with no relation to the Australian soap). It’s a docu-series by filmmakers Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redford, exec produced by Josh Safdie, that focusses on the petty neighbourhood squabbles of Americans. And it is insane. It’s like they managed to find a bunch of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ NPCs and film them. One episode could have been lifted straight from ‘Napoleon Dynamite’. I’m not sure I’d say it’s good, more morbid fascinating. And it absolutely captures the United States at its current, stupid, moment.