MMNLS2E1: Jan 2025
North Americans | Murcof | Luigi Tozzi
And we are back.
For those readers who don't know me, I have ADHD - One of the wonderful/frustrating things that my brain does is go into a hyper/creative state at the beginning of every year. This ‘manic’ state means my brain becomes hungry for new ideas, new plans, new connections, etc., etc. So each year I start 3 or 4 projects. It is sometimes why I get in touch with so many people in January. Usually, these ideas fizzle out over the year as work/family/enthusiasm/reality/cost all kick in, and I land with 1 at the end of the year that ships/continues.
So this project was an album a day, that evolved into a reel a day, a review, a deep dive; I got more and more complex - a week of Ninja Tune, mixes, etc., until I realized I couldn't keep it up. I think a trip to NYC was the nail in the coffin when I literally did not have a second to be creative.
So here we are again, beginning of the year, with lots of new ideas (more about those later) but also less work to preoccupy my brain, and I want to get back to sharing the music I love/d. I will try to be a little more reasonable with myself and post some albums each month.
I may or may not repost on a social network. I am done with Zuckerberg and his Broligarchs. Instagram, as much as I loved it, has turned into a catalog you might get on a flight across the states - ads, material to fuel the apocalypse, waste, stuff you don’t need, hate, and then disgust. The fast food of the internet. I am trying to ween myself off - I have had so many inspirations, and connections there - How would I promote my events and DJ nights? But I am being kinder to myself, so maybe no rules; I may post a few, I am trying Bluesky - so maybe there?
This digest/email will be a deeper dive probably - more ways to listen, ways to buy a physical or digital release (the artists need our money more than ever), a few more images, and some words from me on why I selected the music.
This experimental project will evolve over time; I may try some themes and some vibes, but definitely no requests.
4 releases for January
North Americans
Long Cool World
Third Man Records
Somewhere between drone, classical, and minimal guitar sounds, North Americans sit and create sounds that have the feel of something half-remembered, something unearthed. The weight of history pressing through the speakers, the sense of standing with others where they once stood. There’s a quiet reverence in the pacing, a willingness to sit with the unknown space, to listen with you rather than shout. To me, it calls to mind old maps and lost libraries, the sounds of candlelit tents where ink-stained fingers work in the flicker of a flame. But this album isn’t about nostalgia—it’s too restless for that, too willing to let things remain unresolved. Instead, it’s an offering, a gesture towards something just beyond reach. The kind of album that lingers in the air long after it’s gone. It is from a couple of years back, the project of Los Angeles guitarist Patrick McDermott and Portland's Barry Walker on pedal steel guitar. "As North Americans, McDermott has been experimenting with drone and noise and how it can take shape, and then jettison that shape since 2013s No_No" 2020's Roped In with Walker and a host of other collaborators, including harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist William Tyler, among others, created a communal, layered approach to each track dipped into isolation during the global pandemic.
Long Cool World strips away most of the musical collaborators, allowing Walker and McDermott to settle on an approach that is at once intricate and simple, creating hypnotic music that loops and layers, with subtle shimmers of noise or quiet psychedelic freakouts hiding beneath McDermott's unshowy but emotionally affecting guitarwork and Walker's pedal steel hum. The duo refined their collaborative relationship as well, with McDermott sending isolated guitar tracks to Walker, who then listened to them while on drives and walks around Portland, before going into the studio with only a loose sense of what he wanted to add to them. Eventually, McDermott and Walker came together to record the album, giving the whole thing a sort of free-flowing, naturally collaborative feel.
Murcof
Twin Color Vol 1
In-finé
I have been a huge fan of Murcof over the years. I remember seeing them in Portland, years ago and nothing has moved me as much at the base of my being, right to the core. Maybe Mogwai. But the electronic additions and drones were/are closer to my heart than Mogwai's wall of sound. Twin Color came out at the end of 2024, but I hadn't got around to listening. And seeing a friend's (thank's Russell) photos on Instagram reminded me I had to dive in.
With this new album, Murcof fully embraces the cinematic and dystopian sounds that pull from my classic Sci-Fi films of the 1980s. At times darker than usual, at times filled with brightness, reconnecting with his early experiments with the Nortec Collective. The textures feel lived-in, smudged at the edges, as if they’ve been carried from place to place. Sounds stretched thin as memory, drones rising and dissolving like breath on neon reflected glass. Some moments seem to shimmer just out of reach, harmonies folding into themselves before you can quite catch them.
"Premiered at Mutek Montréal in August 2024, Twin Color was created in collaboration with Simon Geilfus, based in Brussels. An immersive performance, conceived in the IRCAM studios in Paris in 2022, unfolds the album's tracks against a backdrop of moving natural landscapes, highlighted in the album's visual elements."
Luigi Tozzi
Sentinet (EP)
Hypnus
Appearing on one of my favorite labels Hypnus, the latest EP by Luigi Tozzi was exactly what I needed to drag me through Jan. Hard, relentless, deep. Oceanic. Sentient feels less like an album of tracks, and more like a current in the water — fluid, and perhaps dangerous. The movement through these tracks are patient like erosion, sound with pulsing low-end and vast, tidal atmosphere. Rhythms emerge, hypnotic yet impermanent, slipping just as you’ve grasped them.
There’s a deep-sea pressure to it all, a sense of immersion where light bends and time slows. Like most of his work, It’s techno stripped to its essential form— movement, texture, and space.
Various Artists
For LA (volume 1 & 2)
Support Project
It has been a horrendous month here in the US, a coup from the rich and the right, devastation to communities hiding in fear from their own government, and to start it all another example of climate collapse right in our faces. The Greater Los Angeles wildfires were devasting, everyone on the West Coast knows someone who lost their house, or their possessions. (big up Darrell)
Others spent a month hiding the smoke, protecting their little people, and fearing what we face. The music community was hit particularly hard, like hospitality so much of people's livelihood is wrapped up in atoms, in equipment, some decades old, hand me downs, recordings on hard drives, all gone. In response to the devastation, We Are Moving The Needle has rolled out resources to support the creator community. Now more than ever, it is essential that the music community comes together to support the future of our creators.
“For LA Vol.1" features 33 tracks of previously unreleased material from composers in the ambient, electronic, and modern classical communities. All proceeds from this release will support “We Are Moving The Needle” and "Give Directly", empowering frontline organizations dedicated to relief and recovery for affected families. “For LA Vol. 2”, features another 32 tracks of previously unreleased material and two previously unreleased recordings by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
If you can please support (and enjoy the music)
Peace, more soon.