From experimental dub to spoken word with electronics, processed percussion, dub techno mutations and more… LISTEN AGAIN for a good time. Stream on demand from fbi.radio, podcast here. Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mouse on Mars – Spatialee [Domino/Bandcamp] Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mouse on Mars – Yayaya [Domino/Bandcamp] Any collaboration with dub originator Lee “Scratch” Perry is going to come with a story – and especially one that happened very shortly before he passed away. When it’s the legendary German electronic duo Mouse on Mars, that goes double – and story there is, which you can read at this album’s own dedicated website. MoM have always skated the boundary between cerebrally exploratory and crowd-pleasingly accessible, and they’ve swum from bloopy electronica to postrock, punk to techno. On Spatial, No Problem. they’ve comfortably found a place that incorporates the sounds and signifiers of roots reggae and dub with their own electronic tendencies. There are great horn arrangements, dub effects, and a lot of Scratchian vocals, both general chatter and songs. By all accounts, Perry brought objects, sounds and lots of ideas to the sessions, and it does sound like a collaboration and not just Perry’s distinctive voice slapped on to the band’s tracks. Honestly, it’s the most engaging thing I’ve heard from Mouse on Mars in ages, and while there have been at least four releases I’ve heard claiming to be Lee Perry’s last recordings, if this is the one, it’s a perfectly zany and delightful way to sign off! Sandy Chamoun – Wa و [Ruptured/Bandcamp] Sandy Chamoun – Shahed شاهد [Ruptured/Bandcamp] Beirut’s Sandy Chamoun is a founding member of the great Lebanese supergroup SANAM, whose second album Sametou Sawtan سمعت صوتاً was released on Montréal’s Constellation Records last year to great acclaim, and the experimental trio Ghadr. In both groups, Chamoun often uses lyrics from Arabic poets and folk songs, but on her new album Sawt El Doumouh صوت الدموع (The Sound of Tears), her own lyrics write of the experience of living during the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon (neither of which have in any sense ended – don’t turn your eyes away). Despite the sound of tears, Chamoun’s album imagines ways to find light & hope, and you can hear that in the way her voice rises over heavy percussion and electronics. Beautiful. Jungstötter – Tag 10 [Unguarded/Unguarded Bandcamp/Jungstötter Bandcamp] Jungstötter – Elastic (Avenue) [Unguarded/Unguarded Bandcamp/Jungstötter Bandcamp] Fabian Altstötter’s solo project Jungstötter began with 2019’s Love Is, but I only came across him with the incredible One Star album in 2023. Alstötter’s vocal delivery recalls the likes of David Sylvian and Scott Walker, richly sung and emotive, with production that can also be seen to call back to those artists’ dedication to experimention. A lot of this new album is very sparse, but there is electronic processing undercutting the organic sounds, there are field recordings floating through, and some angular sounds on guitar and electronics. It’s quite beautiful, as is his earlier work, very much worth following up. BAG – ‘Oumuamua [Phantom Limb/Bandcamp] BAG – Floor Phlegm Hue [Phantom Limb/Bandcamp] UK’s Phantom Limb is a very gregarious label (among other things), supporting experimental music of all colours. London duo (or is it trio?) BAG combine the hallucinatory spoken word of Canadian artist/poet Jody DeSchutter and the swooping, grinding electronics of Daniel Allison, joined by “auxiliary member” Angèle David-Guillou (French composer and longtime member of the much-missed Piano Magic) on various instruments. The drums of Iggor Cavalera (ex-Sepultura drummer and one half of PETBRICK) feature all over the record, which was produced by his wife, the multi-talented Laima Leyton. Frequently intense & unpredictable, this album’s a real trip. BAG join a strange cohort of spoken word-driven bands of late, such as Dry Cleaning and Egg Meat, doing extremely odd things with the use of non-melodic voice, or not usually melodic. I’m not sure there’s anything in common between groups like these either, except that they don’t have much in common with much else out there. A good way to be. Naná Rizinni – The Right Side of the Escalator [Naná Rizinni Bandcamp] Naná Rizinni – Under the Quiet [Naná Rizinni Bandcamp] São Paulo drummer & composer Naná Rizinni bases herself in London now, and has released a number of solo albums and collaborations. Her new album Epiblast was written & co-produced with saxophonist Mark Cake, whose multitracked horns are all over the record. Despite Rizinni’s Brazilian origins & jazz training, her brilliant & very versatile drumming is often led into experimental electronics and synths, approaching almost postrock, minimalist composition and more. Don’t miss it! Medium + SIMM + Flowdan – Simple Stuff (Submerged VIP) [Ohm Resistance] US label Ohm Resistance, run by Kurt Gluck aka Submerged, has released heaps of heavy drum’n’bass, breakcore, dub(step), industrial-tinged beats of all sorts, for well over 2 decades. Some 18 years ago, they released a 12″ drum’n’bass compilation called Disciples of the Unreal, and for no reason other than that they can, they’ve now released a sequel, Disciples of the Unreal II, which happens to be twice as long. This is very much the heavier end of the drum’n’bass spectrum, with plenty of bass weight and rhythmic interplay, but how can you go past Big Flowdan‘s flow on a collaboration with Ukrainian d’n’bers Medium & Italian heavy dub don SIMM aka Eraldo Bernocchi, here as Kurt Gluck’s own Submerged VIP. Not-so simple stuff! Margenrot – Annushka [Rosa 15/Bandcamp] Moscow-based Armenian musician Lusia Kazaryan-Topchyan is Margenrot, whose earlier solo releases sat in a kind of illbient, industrial dub & ’80s electronic space. On her new album Antuni she draws from the music of her Armenian roots, combining choral & liturgical samples, field recordings, and fractured breakbeats. From glitched beats to glitched orchestras, the album even finds room for an unexpected song of sorts, as it explores the nature of home & identity (“Antuni” means “homeless” in Armenian). Beautifully done. FRIEND LESS – Transcend (James Plotkin remix) [Jon Mueller Bandcamp] US drummer & percussionist Jon Mueller has a broad remit, having worked with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon in Volcano Choir, made postrock with Chris Rosenau in Pele and Collections of Colonies of Bees, and collaborated with countless experimental musicians including Aaron Turner of ISIS, SUMAC etc. A few weeks ago he launched a new project called FRIEND LESS with the EP Energy Rippers, the two tracks of which smash out powerful breakbeats from overdriven drums. But FRIEND LESS isn’t friendless, and its second release is a pair of remixes on Logic of Relics. Mueller invited Ken Brown (aka Bundy K Brown of Tortoise, sometimes known as the Cheech Wizard etc) and James Plotkin (of Khanate, O.L.D and countless others) to add their treatments to the two tracks. Both are awesome, but Brown’s is almost 17 minutes long, so we heard PLotkin’s 9 minutes, which sounds as close to his incredible Atomsmasher/Phantomsmasher as he’s gotten in 2+ decades. Cinna Peyghamy – Zur زور [Other People/Bandcamp] Cinna Peyghamy – Glass Teeth 94 [Other People/Bandcamp] I first discovered Iranian-French percussionist Cinna Peyghamy through his two appearances on Azu Tiwaline‘s Magnetic Service EP on Livity Sound. Peyghamy has never been to Iran, but was fascinated in Persian music, and specifically the tombak – a goblet drum central to Persian music. As a sound designer & producer (and programmer), he was immediately interested in how to connected the very physical sound of the instrument with modular synthesis and processing. Now Nicolas Jaar’s Other People has released Peyghamy’s most fully-realised take on this music, straightforwardly titled Music For Tombak & Synth. And the excitement of listening to this music comes from the way Peyghamy makes his nimble drumming on this very expressive instrument interact with dub effects and programmed synths. The amount of wonderful, forward-thinking music being made these days by musicians with roots in West Asia and North Africa is an antidote to the appropriation, orientalism and even well-meaning ethnomusicology of western music’s interactions with cultures beyond its borders. Forest Drive West – Node [Delsin/Bandcamp] Across releases on RuptureLDN, Livity Sound, Ilian Tape and more, Joe Baker aka Forest Drive West has shown himself equal to the specifics of jungle, drum’n’bass and techno – but more to the point, in the decade or so since he began, he’s found ways to set drum’n’bass & techno in conversation with each other. And yeah, lots of people are doing this in different ways, but Baker just knows deeply the nod & sway, the flutter and leech and bubble of dub techno vs d’n’b vs jungle, and when he melds them together, they’re just one thing – all things all at once. It’s like a magic trick, but you know… for the dancefloor. Or your headphones. K Wata – Radio Embrace [Short Span/Bandcamp] OK, but then what of K Wata? Unlike the more jittery dub techno of the likes of Paperclip Minimiser or Hoavi, where IDM or hints at jungle flitter around, K Wata’s take is pitch-perfect for the Vladislav Delay or Pole crew. That’s not to say this is a throwback at all, though – it’s informed by current bass music in subtle ways, and the sound design is next level. There’s so much detail to be heard here, whether in the spatial dubbiness or the glitchy samples. Oh – and tonight’s selection, “Radio Embrace”, does insert syncopations and skittery delays which hint ha
