Some things borrowed, some things new(s), some things weekly, just for you.
Writing with consistency is difficult because writing is a muscle that needs to be exercised constantly lest it atrophy. Life is busy, complicated, and kind of confusing, and I am often too mentally gassed by the end of the day to be able to work on the lengthy and research-intensive pieces I prefer to write, especially given that this is a hobby and not a career. Although if you know anyone who wants to pay me to write, my elegant fingers and weird brain are available for hire - (bad Russian accent) “I give you good price!”
With an eye towards exercising my writerly muscle with a regular cadence, in addition to some collaborative work I will be doing (more on that soon), I am also going to try publishing some short(er) form work every Monday morning (or evening in this case) with a handful of new recommended album releases from the previous Friday, a few soul-enriching links, and a grab bag of feral shower thoughts spilling out of my mind like a nursery of raccoons caught going through a garbage can. And yes, a group of raccoons is called a nursery, which I have to assume has to do with their tendency towards beliligereny in wanting to eat trash and make a mess like toddlers in a nursery.
🎧 Free Your Earballs
With the assumption that everyone or mostly everyone is currently "going through it" because America just elected Voldemort as President with his attendant Death Eaters soon to fill up the Cabinet, I'm opting for a softer touch with some ambient, jazz, downtempo and neo-classical music from the past year that you can use to lower your blood pressure, meditate, work, or just lie on the floor in the middle of a pentagram surrounded by lit candles while staring at the ceiling performing a mental seance to summon liberal democracy and banish the phantom of fascism.
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
The recent second album from UK harpist and producer is what you would imagine from the album artwork: chill melodic jazzy ambience that allows you to kick back in your spacesuit and let your subconscious drift through the void unmolested.
Superposition - Altered
The latest ambient masterpiece from Boreta (late of The Glitch Mob) and multi-disciplinary artist Matt Davis have been working at this proon this project for a few years now,s a capstone release of immense craftsmanship. It will make you think even if you don't feel like thinking, and it will make you feel even if you have no feeling. These are two of the most intelligent and insightful humans I have ever met, full stop, and this project is the musical of equivalent of a perfectly evolved double-helix strand of DNA.
Hania Rani - Nostalgia (Live)
The beauty of Hania Rani's classical music is equalled only by it's intentionality. Seeing her perform gives a sense of naturally occurring equilibrium and this live album transmits her compositions, voice, and piano into an instant memetic time capsule for whatever you are doing (or not doing) when you listen to it.
Photay - Windswept
Photay is one of those artists whose work is vastly underappreciated given his consistently immaculate output over the years. His latest is a fluffy cloud-like and ethereal minimalist release that ushers in a new era for his work and will give you your consciousness space to breath in between the tinkling and bouyant productions.
Christopher Willits - OPENING (Immersive)
Arguably one of the sacred keepers and holy ministers of ambient and downtempo music in North America given his work with the nonprofit ENVELOP's live 360 degree audio system, his ongoing collaborations with Tycho, and his own voluminous productions, Christopher Willits has been putting out music for mental clarity since the early 2000s. An immersive remaster of his 2014 album, this is what a sunrise by the ocean sounds like and it will transport you there as such.
⛳️ Hit The Links
All of the below is worth your eyes or ears this week because at a time when real knowledge, facts, intelligence, and rationality seem to be running away like teenage babysitters leaving the houses of handsy divorced fathers whose chidlren they watch, it's incumbent on all of us to take in and to share kernals of insightful content with others as an act of protest against a doomscrolling algorithmic culture that will not elevate that content to us otherwise.
Molly White
Daniel Drake
Brian Merchant
