#12: September '24 Standouts
life update + standout releases from the month of September 🌀
Wow what a whirlwind the last month has been. I promised a NYC Fall Concert Preview in the last newsletter but a week into my 3 week euro tour I found work in Milan and realized I’d be sticking around through December and lost motivation to write about shows I definitely wouldn’t be able to attend. You can still find a list of upcoming shows through December with picks highlighted at the bottom of this transmission.
Outside of this exciting life development my trip was truly a dream. I started in London for the first time and got to meet some awesome people at Ormside Projects (and see long time favorite Tess Roby, Laura Groves, and Organ Tapes) and see the Tate Modern (my new favorite museum). Next was Paris where I wondered around and caught an amazing party featuring killer sets from Hassan Abou Alam and Jan Loup b2b Gamma Intel. Then it was off to Venice for the Biennale, the studio art minor in me found joy, and then Milan where my vacation turned into a new life.
The trip was ultimately built around Unsound in Poland, a festival that I’ve dreamed of attending for years. My dad was born and grew up in Krakow so I’ve always felt some pride that his hometown hosts one of the best experimental music festivals in the world. The festival more than lived up to the hype and I discovered so many new artists, witnessed mind blowing performances, and made a ton of new inspiring connections. I’m working on a writeup on the experience and can’t wait to share.
The trip wrapped with some hiking in the Polish mountains, Budapest, Rome, and more amazing people largely courtesy of the amazing community on Couchsurfing.
I look forward to my time ahead in Milan and if anyone has any connections or recommendations in Milan I’m looking to tap into the music scene and make new friends so hit my line.
The writing below is pretty rushed in the name of getting this out but there’s some real quality so click the title and view this newsletter in your browser to listen as you go or visit the Buy Music Club playlist.
Inspired by
a new blog and party series from Suze (Surusinghe) & Cali dedicated to underground music culture I started a new playlist featuring picks from this month which will then be transferred to archival playlists.
Albums
A nocturnal journey of vaporous, dubbed-out electronica. Crackling field recordings, mesmerizing atmospheres, and jazz-tinged melodies coalesce into a weightless, mind-tingling bliss.
ØKSE's debut melds avant-garde jazz with razor-sharp verses from the Backwoodz crew (Armand Hammer & co) - freewheeling live breaks, spastic sax, and looping basslines like nothing else I can recall outside of Moor Mother.
Immaculately meditative grooves that find a sweet spot connecting jazz and ambient with a killer cast of players.
A blend of ambient pop, chamber music and pulsing low end rhythms reminiscent of the misty, dreamy atmospheres of Malibu, Space Afrika, and Grouper.
Brödföda unfolds like a slowly blooming flower with delicate flourishes and vaporous textures echoing Tangerine Dream and Huerco S.
julie's debut "my anti-aircraft friend" reinvigorates '90s alt-rock with a potent blend of shoegaze, grunge, and slacker rock. Raw emotions burst through seas of atmospheric distortion and muscular noisy guitar work.
An exhilarating debut and relentless rhythm assault from Nyege Nyege Tapes. Custom-built 808s layer hypnotic percussion, while ghostly vocals and industrial synths emerge from the rhythmic maelstrom.
Frenetic breakbeats with only a few purchases on bandcamp, hidden gem from Multi-genre label and party series Stolen Groove.
Other Noteworthy Albums
Okay Kaya - Oh My God - That’s So Me [OneRPM]
Lice - Third Time at the Beach
Sarah Davachi - The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir
Other Noteworthy Dance Albums
Tim Reaper & Kloke - In Full Effect [Hyperdub]
Hysteria Temple Foundation - Hypnostra
EP’s
An amorphous EP of half time menace, threading sharp grooves with brooding drum workouts from the sea floor that typify the exciting experimentation within the London club underground (shoutout
)Lush, botanic, intricate bass infusing woodland echoes and field recordings with folksy dub stylings - in other words wood-pigeon wub for the funglist massive.
A 3 track EP that defies description, blending genres and identities. Think Tirzah meets Dean Blunt, with a dash of King Krule and early Yves Tumor straight from the heart of the UK underground.
A collaborative percussive masterpiece between Valentina Magaletti - a drummer who has played with everyone (Moin, Holy Tongue, Vanishing Twin, CZM, etc) - and Kuduro producer / Príncipe Discos affiliate Nídia.
Futuristic club ready chaos from an artist known for bridging the gap between traditional sounds borrowed from his egyptian heritage and the future with mind blowing sound design.
Three tracks somewhere along the dubstep and IDM continuum, built with the signature shiny Y2K futurism to be expected from the Co-Founder of Infinite Drift.
Four cuts spanning broken beat, garage, and jungle, all dub-infused. Raw, weighty basslines meet heavenly pads and chopped breaks – pure SYSTEM DNA from start to finish.
Straight from the Myrtle Av/Broadway intersection Fcukers' debut EP "Baggy$$" brings irreverent late 90’s dance vibes and NYC grit to the club accomplishing what the new The Dare record was trying to in a far more interesting fashion - part sleazy electronic revival, part genre-bending experiment.
Compilations
Perfect blend of atmosphere, low end and tricked-out drum workouts in proper Bristol style.
A full spectrum of bass driven flavours, undefined by genre.
Singles / Tracks
So many standout tracks this month I broke into into 3 loose sections
boundary - blurring / experimental / mutant
A mind-bending rollercoaster of experimental hyper-colorful audio candy. Blending polyrhythmic techno, housey vocals, cutting edge sound design, and microtonal madness.
bass / sub
big chiller vibes
Mixes
An ongoing lists of my favorite mixes and sets from the year can be found here but below are a few from last two months featuring lots of headier ambient stuff suited to personal exploration and traveling around new places.
New wave shoegaze is all the hype lately but I assume few people are on the Chinese shoegaze wave, Maxiu is here to change that with a beautiful sampling of the scene.
Live recording from a massive b2b set at Parameter 2024 in San Francisco - Utter "Mayhem", "Insanity", and "Madness”.
If you enjoyed this newsletter I’d really appreciate if you shared it with a friend or two.
Playlists
NYC Concert List
Sun, Oct 20 - Sega Bodega @ Knockdown Center
Mon, Oct 21 - The Voidz @ Knockdown Center
Mon, Oct 21 - Air performing 'Moon Safari' @ Beacon Theatre
Tue, Oct 22 - Air performing 'Moon Safari' @ Beacon Theatre
Tue, Oct 22 - Fat Dog, Lip Critic @TV Eye
Tue, Oct 22 - HOMESHAKE, Freak Heat Waves @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Wed, Oct 23 - Chris Cohen @ Baby's All Right
Thu, Oct 24 - Massive Attack @ Forest Hills Stadium
Thu, Oct 24 - Osees @ Warsaw Fri, Oct 25 - Naima Bock / Frances Chang @ Union Pool
Fri, Oct 25 - Contour @ National Sawdust
Sat, Oct 26 - American Football @ Warsaw
Sun, Oct 27 - American Football @ Warsaw
Tue, Oct 29 - Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn @ National Sawdust
Wed, Oct 30 - Cassandra Jenkins @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Thu, Oct 31 - Touche Amore @ Warsaw
Thu, Oct 31 - Machine Girl @Brooklyn Steel
Fri, Nov 1 - Cursive @ White Eagle Music Hall
Fri, Nov 1 - TR/ST @Brooklyn Steel
Sat, Nov 2 - Show Me the Body, Zelooperz, HiTech @Knockdown Center
Thu, Nov 7 - Spirit of the Beehive @ Warsaw
Fri, Nov 8 & Sat, Nov 9 - Lankum @ Warsaw
Sat, Nov 9 - The Garden @ Brooklyn Paramount
Mon, Nov 10 - Caribou, yunè pinku @ Brooklyn Mirage
Mon, Nov 10 - Croatian Amor, Ex Wish @Baby's All Right
Mon, Nov 11 - Laura Marling @ Bowery Ballroom
Wed, Nov 13 - Pond, Fazerdaze @ Brooklyn Steel
Thu, Nov 14 - Slow Pulp, Hannah Jadagu @ Webster Hall
Thu, Nov 14 - Unsound: VTSS b2b TYGAPAW, Atrice, Shyboi b2b Bobby Beethoven, 2K88 and bela (live),7038634357 @Nowadays
Thu, Nov 14 - Bodega @Brooklyn Made
Fri, Nov 15 - Piotr Kurek / Chuquimamani-Condori @lincoln center
Sat, Nov 16 - Kali Malone's All Life Long / Raphael Rogiński @lincoln center
Sun, Nov 17 - SUNN O))) / Mabe Fratti @lincoln center
Fri, Nov 15 - Slow Pulp, Full Body 2 @ Webster Hall
Fri, Nov 15 - A.G. Cook @ Knockdown Center
Sat, Nov 16 - Ratboys @ Warsaw
Sun, Nov 17 - Haley Heynderickx w/ tilt @Music Hall of Williamsburg
Mon, Nov 18 - Slowdive @ Brooklyn Paramount
Mon, Nov 18 - Adrianne Lenker (of Big Thief) @ King's Theatre
Mon, Nov 18 - Slowdive @Brooklyn Paramount
Tue, Nov 19 - Mount Eerie @ Warsaw
Wed, Nov 20 - Crack Cloud @ Bowery Ballroom
Wed, Nov 20 - Porches @ Brooklyn Steel
Wed, Nov 20 - Bill Orcutt + Ethan Miller + Steve Shelley (Record Release) @Union Pool
11/21/24 - Hemlock Ernst / Wave Generators / PremRock @ Baby’s All Right
Thu, Nov 21 - Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Pioneer Works
Thu, Nov 21 - Caribou, Yune Pinko @ Brooklyn Mirage
Fri, Nov 22 - Wild Pink & John Francis Flynn @Union Pool
Sat, Nov 23 - BODY MEAT, ANYSIA KYM, DORIS @Elsewhere
Thu, Dec 5 - Geese / Lip Critic / death's dynamic sound @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Fri, Dec 6 - Ride @warsaw
Fri, Dec 6 - MARTIN REV, LITURGY, BODY STUFF @knitting factory
Fri, Dec 6 - Geese / Guerilla Toss / Cold Court @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sat, Dec 7 - Geese / U.S. Girls / Fantasy of a Broken Heart @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sat, Dec 7 - Billy Woods and Kenny Segal Perform Hiding Places @Warsaw
Sun, Dec 8 - WILL LIVERMAN @national sawdust
12/10/24 - ML Buch / Molina @ Pioneer Works
Thu, Dec 12 - Mono @ Pioneer Works
Sun, Dec 15 - The Blood Brothers @warsaw
Sat, Jan 25 - Porridge Radio @ Warsaw
1/18/25 - Elucid @ Baby’s All Right
Fri, Feb 14 - Toro Y Moi, Panda Bear, Nourished By Time @Terminal 5
Tue, Feb 25 - Father John Misty, Destroyer @Kings Theater
Sat, Apr 5 - Nubya Garcia @Music Hall Of Williamsburg
Mon, Apr 28 MJ Lenderman & The Wind @Brooklyn Steel
4/10/25 - Mogwai @ Brooklyn Steel
4/17/25 - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / St. Vincent @ Barclays Center
Stoked to hear about the new gig! And I'm loving the Julie album!
thank you for including my take a trip mix <3