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Forced Exposure New Releases for the Week of 1/2/2023

New music is due from Blood Quartet, Basement's Glare, and Field School, while
old music is due from Saboten, Los York's, and Esplendor Geométrico.

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Episode 610: January 1, 2023
Brainwashed Radio: The Podcast Edition

Happy New Year!

Here's some music that barely squeaked in at the end of 2022. Much worth
consideration when working on the voting round for this year's Annual Readers
Poll.

Music from big blood, Minami Deutsch, Fort Romeau, Amp, Ura, Piezo, DECIUS,
Esau, Michael Lightborne, and jesu.

Driving Ban in Buffalo picture from long-time Brainwashed staffer Lucas
Schleicher.

Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!



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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




2022 ANNUAL READERS POLL: VOTING ROUND NOW OPEN

Sunday, 01 January 2023
Staff
Uncategorised Reviews Music Opinions & Editorials Annual Readers Polls

Since we now live in a more instant age where music gets released with little
warning, we are now starting the voting round of the Annual Readers Poll in the
New Year.

Voting round is now open!

Thank you to all the wonderful people who have been filling in the nominations.
We hope you all take part in the actual voting round too.

Voting round will last for 2 weeks, closing January 14th. Results will be posted
shortly thereafter.

 

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CARLA DAL FORNO, "COME AROUND"

Sunday, 11 December 2022
Anthony D'Amico
Music

This latest album from Carla dal Forno is her first since relocating to a small
town (Castlemaine) in her native Australia and that dramatic change in
environment has understandably made quite an impact on her overall vibe (as the
album description puts it, she "returns self-assured and firmly settled within
the dense eucalypt bushlands"). Fortunately, it seems like the transformation
was an entirely favorable one, as literally everything that made dal Forno's
previous work so wonderful and distinctive (ghostly pop hooks, stark bass-driven
post-punk grooves, tight songcraft) remains intact. Now, however, her bloodless
pop songs are charmingly enhanced with an understated tropical feel as well. For
the most part, Come Around is still light years away from anything like a
conventional beach party, but songs like the title piece at least come close to
approximating a hypnagogic one. Aside from that, dal Forno also displays some
impressive creative evolution on the production side, as these nine songs are a
feast of subtle dubwise and psych-inspired touches in the periphery. That said,
the primary appeal of Come Around is still the same as ever, as dal Forno
remains nearly unerring in churning out songs so strong that they truly do not
need anything more than her voice, a cool bass line, and a simple drum machine
groove to leave a deep impression.

Kallista

The opening "Side By Side" is a damn-near perfect illustration of dal Forno's
distinctive strain of indie pop magic, as crashing waves give way to a rubbery,
laid-back bass line and a bittersweet, floating vocal melody. Lyrically, dal
Forno still seems to be in the throes of heartache, but also comes across as
very clear-eyed, confident, and sensuous. That turns out to be quite an
effective combination, as these nine songs radiate deadpan cool and wry
playfulness while still maintaining palpable human warmth and soulfulness at
their core. That alone would be more than enough to carry this album (along with
all the great hooks and bouncy slow-motion bass grooves), but dal Forno is also
unusually inventive with beats, psychotropic production touches, and the
assimilation of unexpected influences this time around. The album's stellar
title piece is a prime example of the latter, as it feels like dal Forno
seamlessly mashed together The Shangri-Las and Young Marble Giants to soundtrack
a surf movie for ghosts.



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MATT MCBANE & SANDBOX PERCUSSION, "BATHYMETRY"

Sunday, 11 December 2022
Duncan Edwards
Music

As a teenage surfer Matt McBane became obsessed with the sea and the way in
which the bathymetry of the ocean floor affects the way that waves break. His
composition Bathymetry mirrors that relationship, with his bass synthesizer
providing the platform to shape the more trebly waves of varied percussion
played by Sandbox Percussion (a well-named and playful ensemble). On the
surface, this album is slightly out of my, rather idiosyncratic, comfort zone.
The accompanying videos were off-putting and (politeness dictates that I cannot
write what I would cheerfully do with them) ping-pong balls overused. Despite
this, my listening curiosity was piqued and held steady. Then halfway through
the 40 minute duration, the track "Groundswell" completely won me over, and I
rode a wave of enjoyment all the way to the end. Later on, afer repeated
listens, it occurred to me that the same process happens on each track, as
bursts of percussive grit, pops and scrapes away, to eventually leave the
rewarding pearl.

Cantaloupe

For whatever reason, I found that the second half of Bathymetry has a greater
emotional and melodic impact, perhaps due to the slower pace and less cluttered
soundscape. This allows the synthesizer to be more prominent and the percussion
more glassy and transparent (maybe hitting bottles and bowls, or using
vibraphone, instead of dropping the aforementioned balls). I have heard nurses
describe conversations with certain patients as like playing table tennis with
someone who rarely tries to hit the ball back and I detect a similar movement,
and progression, here. As intriguing the first twenty minutes or so is, from
"Groundswell" onwards it's game on. The use of a traditional drum kit there, and
also on "Refraction" comes as a refreshing surprise and the effect is
propulsive, as if we've been lowered slowly down into the depths of the ocean
which is intriguing, but now are off and zooming around exploring in a small
submarine. At several points, including "Coda", we hear what could be an
underwater bell or gong; very appropriate as similar to sounds punctuating
Hendrix's extended aquatic-themed pieces "1983 A Merman I Should Turn To Be" and
"Moon, Turn the Tides… Gently Gently Away." The feel of Bathymetry becomes
rather like improvised ambient chamber music with overtones of both dub and
Harry Partch, although his percussive bowls were called cloud chamber bowls and
it's possibly a breach of some critical rule to mention his name and the word
"ambient" in the same sentence.

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SPIRAL WAVE NOMADS, "MAGNETIC SKY"

Sunday, 20 November 2022
Creaig Dunton
Music

Prolific artists on their own, the duo of Eric Hardiman
(guitar/bass/electronics) and Michael Kiefer (drums/keyboards) have still
managed to put out their third album in four years as Spiral Wave Nomads. The
spacey, psychedelic tinged guitar/bass/drum excursions are of course expected by
now, but the inclusion of additional electronic instrumentation makes Magnetic
Sky even greater.

Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube

With six songs spread across two sides of vinyl, the duo keeps their
performances somewhat succinct, given the improvisational approach. Dynamic
drumming and long guitar passages tend to be the focus, but there is so much
more going on in the layers beneath. Both Kiefer and Hardiman contribute
electronics/synths this time around, and the watery sounds that open “Dissolving
into Shape” nicely flesh out the restrained drumming and commanding lead guitar.
“Under a Magnetic Sky” is also bathed in soft electronics, covering the
outstretched guitar, prominent bass, and taut drumming like a warm, fuzzy
blanket. “Carrier Signals” features them leaning a bit more into jazz territory,
punctuated with pseudo-Eastern melodies, unconventional drumming, and sitar-like
drones.

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JULIA SABRA AND FADI TABBAL, "SNAKESKIN"

Sunday, 06 November 2022
Anthony D'Amico
Music

This is the first full-length collaboration between Sabra and Tabbal, but it is
apparently also the sixth collaborative release between Portland's Beacon Sound
and Lebanon's Ruptured Records (which was co-founded by Tabbal). While Tabbal's
solo work has been a very enjoyable recent discovery for me, this is my first
encounter with Julia Sabra, who is normally one-third of the excellent
Beirut-based dreampop trio Postcards. The pair do have a history of working
together, as Tabbal has co-produced several Postcards releases, but their
creative union only began to take shape in the aftermath of Beirut's massive
2020 port explosion (which destroyed Sabra's home, badly injured her
partner/bandmate Pascal Semerdjian, and displaced a whopping 300,000 people).
Unsurprisingly, one of the primary themes of Snakeskin is the precarious concept
of "home" and the "the disappearance of life as we know it" in a volatile and
oft-violent world. Those are admittedly more urgent themes in Tabbal and Sabra's
neck of the woods than some others (the album was also inspired by the 2021
Palestinian and the invasion of Armenia), but loss and uncertainty eventually
come for us all and they make a universally poignant emotional core for an
album. And, of course, great art can sometimes emerge from deeply felt tragedies
and Tabbal and Sabra are a match made in heaven for that challenge, as Julia's
sensuous, floating vocals are the perfect complement to Tabbal's gnarled and
heaving soundscapes.

Beacon Sound/Ruptured

The first piece that Sabra and Tabbal wrote together was "Roots," which surfaced
last year on Ruptured's The Drone Sessions Vol. 1 compilation. That piece is
reprised here as the sublimely beautiful closer, which was a great idea as it is
one of the strongest songs on the album. However, it also illustrates how this
collaboration has evolved and transformed, as "Roots" has the feel of a dreamy,
bittersweet synth masterpiece nicely enhanced with hazy, sensuous vocals.
Execution-wise, it is damn hard to top, but the duo's more recent work feels
like a creative breakthrough that is greater than the sum of its parts. Put more
simply, the pair previously merged their two styles in an expected way to great
effect, but then they started organically blurring into a single shared style
and the results turned into something more memorable and transcendent. The first
major highlight is "All The Birds," which calls to mind a collision between the
murky, submerged dub of loscil and what I imagine a bossa nova album by Julee
Cruise might have sounded like. As cool as all that sounds, however, the reality
is even better due to the muscular, snaking synth undercurrent and surprise
snare-roll groove.

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ANGELO HARMSWORTH, "SINGE"

Sunday, 06 November 2022
Anthony D'Amico
Music

I was a bit later to the Angelo Harmsworth party than I would have liked, but
the Berlin-based American composer has been fitfully releasing very distinctive
blown-out "ambient" albums for about a decade now on an array of hip and
discriminating small labels (Opal Tapes, Vaagner, enmossed, Psychic Liberation,
etc.). Harmsworth's latest is his first for Students of Decay and marks a rare
vinyl outing, as most of his previous physical releases have been limited to
cassette. According to the label, Singe "may be the high water mark" of
Harmsworth's career to date, which does feel like a completely plausible claim,
but one that is very hard to confidently echo given how many killer Harmsworth
pieces already exist. Even if Singe fails to conclusively eclipse all of
Harmsworth's past triumphs, however, it does seem to be one of his most
consistently strong releases and an ideal starting point for the curious.
Notably, describing Harmsworth's vision as "ambient" or even "power ambient"
feels cruelly reductionist, which is probably why he amusingly titled a 2020
release Fully Automated Luxury Ambient. That imaginary subgenre feels much
closer to the mark, as the intensity and textural inventiveness that Angelo
brings to these compositions shares far more common ground with artists like Tim
Hecker or Fennesz (or collapsing power lines during a live volcano) than it does
with anyone trafficking in droning, meditative loops.

Students of Decay

Those craving the aforementioned "collapsing power lines" vibe will have a
mercifully short wait, as the opening "Igniting the Periphery" calls to mind
buzzing high tension wires swayed by a deep seismic shudder as the surrounding
buildings collapse in slow motion. There are some other elements as well, like
fragments of twinkling piano and warm waves of frayed drones, but the viscerally
heaving, buzzing, and gnarled wreckage at the heart of the piece is the
showstopper—everything else is just there to color the mood. That balance holds
true for the rest of the album as well, as the Singe experience feels akin to
wandering through six cataclysmic yet weirdly beautiful natural disasters. For
example, the crackling and hissing "Frothed" evokes slow jets of magma breaking
through a buckling, blasted landscape, while "Drip Motion" has the feel of a
storm slowly forming and then slowly dissipating. In short, Harmsworth harnesses
the proverbial "force of nature" and wields it beautifully. That said, "Drip
Motion" is an album highlight for more conventionally musical reasons as well,
as it resembles the burning and heaving wreckage of a killer Porter Ricks cut
fading in and out of focus. "A Twofold Excess" then ends the album's first half
with yet another gem, as it feels like slowed-down footage of a tornado ripping
apart a sawmill before dissolving into a sublime coda of sputtering static,
tender piano, and warbling, whimpering streaks of psychedelia.

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DAVE CLARKSON,"A POCKET GUIDE TO DREAMLAND: FADED FAIRGROUNDS AND COASTAL GHOST
TOWNS OF THE BRITISH ISLES"

Sunday, 06 November 2022
Duncan Edwards
Music

Dave Clarkson is a gem who has flown under my—far from infallible—radar for
about 30 years. There are upwards of 40 releases emanating in his impressive
catalog, from the Cavendish House studio, including many of these Guides which
have focused on everything from beaches, caves, forests, and lighthouses, with
tangents to rain, ghost stories and illness. That another of his albums, For
Horselover Fat by Eye In The Sky has a bash at honoring the concerns and
creativity of the astonishing Philip K. Dick is right up my alley.

Cavendish House

I love everything about A Pocket Guide To Dreamland: the concept and how it
sounds of course, but equally the perfect anorak-fetishistic packaging of the
physical release with badges, a transparent orange cassette, postcards, and its
cover label paying homage to Ordnance Survey maps above images depicting the
almost psychedelic childlike thrill of a seaside funfair along with a gritty
high rise apartment block tower. I almost expected some recreated cut-out
coupons from The Eagle * comic for a day at Butlins Holiday Camp (Admit Family
of 4 to unglamorous Skegness location).

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BROTHERTIGER

Sunday, 06 November 2022
Eve McGivern
Music

As John Jagos sings "Save me from the grip of the modern age" early on in
"Tangerine," the opening track of the latest from his alter-ego Brothertiger,
three words spring to mind: sparkling, honest, and nostalgic. Indeed, the music
hearkens back to the ilk of carefully crafted new wave sounds in the vein of ABC
and Spandau Ballet, minus any flamboyance and serving up no pretentiousness.
What remains is perfectly composed chill electronic pop, melody at the
forefront. With sounds like summer wafting wistfully through headphones as I
write, this is music perfect for road trips in the middle of nowhere, lounging
on a beach recliner while the waves roll in, or simply snuggling under a blanket
with the music present like a good friend.

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LUCRECIA DALT, "¡AY!"

Sunday, 30 October 2022
Anthony D'Amico
Music

I was caught completely off guard by this latest opus from Dalt, as much of it
sounds more like a three-way collaboration between Astrud Gilberto, Perez Prado,
and Walter Wanderley than anything resembling the warped and stark electronic
pop mutations that the Colombian composer has become synonymous with. After my
initial disbelief subsided, however, I quickly decided that ¡Ay! may very well
be the strongest album of Dalt's career to date. I suspect Dalt herself would
probably agree, as it would be fair to say that her vision remains as compelling
and innovative as ever, but she has merely kicked her self-imposed artistic
restraints to the curb and embraced the warmer, more sensuous, and melodic
sounds that she grew up around. Or, as the album description colorfully puts it,
"through the spiraling tendencies of time and topography, Lucrecia has arrived
where she began." In any case, the end result is a wonderfully sultry and
evocative collection of seductive vocals and tropical rhythms beautifully
enhanced with a host of psychotropic and industrial-damaged touches. And she
somehow makes it sound like the most natural thing in the world. I definitely
did not expect Dalt to secretly be a tropical pop genius at all, which makes her
previous albums all the more fascinating now that I know that they were made
while pointedly suppressing some of her greatest strengths.

RVNG Intl.

The opening "No Tiempo" initially evokes a "late-night cable" fever dream vibe
in which a Bela Lugosi vampire movie blurs into an organ-happy televangelist,
but it quickly transforms into swaying tropical bliss once the flutes and the
lazily sultry groove make the scene. It has the feel of a Wanderley/Gilberto
collaboration that has been punched up (and sexed up) for contemporary ears by
an intrepid DJ (though I was still startled by the brass finale). It is a great
piece, but it is immediately eclipsed by the following "El Galatzó," which
masterfully combines hushed, confessional-sounding vocals with bass strums,
trilling flutes, cooing backing vox, swelling strings, industrial scrapes,
strangled feedback, and killer hand-percussion to cast a sustained spell of
noir-ish, cinematic seduction. While "El Galatzó" would be my personal pick for
the album's reigning highlight, the album is not hurting for other hot
contenders for that honor. In "Contenida," for example, a hallucinatory fog and
a jazzy double bass motif cohere into some kind of humid and dubby bossa nova
mindfuck, which then beautifully erupts in a viscerally clattering metal
percussion frenzy. If the whole album sustained a similarly perfect balance of
ambitious dub/industrial production brilliance and sultry songcraft, I would
have no hesitation at all about proclaiming ¡Ay! to be the album of the year.

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HALEIWA, "HALLWAY WAVERIDER”

Sunday, 30 October 2022
Duncan Edwards
Music

This is Mikko Singh's best and most consistent record yet as Haleiwa. Both his
first full length releases Pura Vida dude and Palm Trees Of The Subarctic were
light and dreamy, while his third Cloud Formations accelerated Haleiwa onto
another level, driven by good tunes and several great moments, not least the
plunge through synthesizers into warm bass driven melody on the opener "HKI-97,"
and the digital blips of "Foggy" which (perhaps unconsciously) resembles Brian
Wilson frantically transposing part of "California Girls" into morse code. That
third record heralded a deeper sound, perhaps because Singh switched to analog
cassette and reel-to-reel tape recording, and it also included more variety
although for no clear reason. Hallway Waverider avoids that pitfall by finding a
sweet spot and then showing little or no desire to move very far away.

Morr Music

Of course there is variety here, but it is subsumed beneath a definite creative
vision; a vision which looks backwards. Dedicated to his mother who passed away
in 2015, and inspired by his own earlier self spending winter months
skateboarding in his bedroom while listening to music. The overall sound is of
music for surfing, but surfing on air, memory, and metaphor, back to the halcyon
days of carefreeness and family love. If there is any slight hint of original
Dick Dale surf guitar twang (or even Psychocandy style surfing on polluted
Glaswegian effluent) it has died peacefully and gone to heaven in a sonic
envelope of featherlight fuzz.

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