Dispatches from the Underground // January 2025 Pt. 1

New Music

Dyr Faser – Failing Stereos / The nods to Sonic Youth are still there, though there is a return to a more directly psychedelic lineage, there are certainly echos of early Screaming Trees in there, not to mention renegade balladeering of the likes of Lee Hazelwood or Fred Neil – not so much sonically as in casual indifference to the listener – Weird Bones

Partager – Down in the Dark / Switch it Off / Ostensibly less ‘difficult’ than you’ve come to expect from the ‘Difficult Art and Music’ label, Partager is a personal project ofboss Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully: an attempt to work outside of his comfort zone. Songs, with verses and hooks, sung with minimal processing, and supported only by an autoharp, these tracks represent the first, formative demo’s of a songwriter exploring a longstanding love of country and folk that has always sat beside a public focus on more experimental endeavors. 

Dead Neanderthals – Other Worlds (h/t florgoth)

Zwansound – Acrylamide EP

Ergo Phizmiz – Shapeship

deary – Aurelia / Ok here’s today’s bandcamp selection, a six-track EP by a London-based shoegazy band called deary (yup, another lower-case only combo) called Aurelia, on @soniccathedral.bsky.social with extra tracks on the CD and aesthetically-pleasing vinyl that may well be sold out by now – weloveallthat

Röyksopp – Nebulous Nights (An Ambient Excursion into Profound Mysteries) / Royksopp smash it out of the park yet again with this 💥 ambient take on their last album – InlandVampire777

Semiotic Ghosts – Peach Blossom: The Color of Divine Love (Error Prone Records) / A lovely C60 from the mysterious and innovative Semiotic Ghosts, available on cassette and digital.

Lee Ashcroft – Persons Underground (Cruel Nature Records)

Perry Frank – Atlas (Cyclical Dreams) / I found this one pretty darn good. Enjoyed it – john | relaxed machinery

Big Blood – Electric Voyeur (dontrustheruin) (h/t ‪Mark’s Music)‬

VA – The Passed Year – 2024 (Passed Recordings) / Fourteen ambient, drone, and experimental tracks, pay what you want.

VA – 31​.​9522° N 35​.​2332° E – a compilation for MAP (31.9522° N 35.2332° E) / Gonna put HDRF into a shoebox for a while later this year so this will be one of my last releases in this incarnation. It’s also for a really important cause. Loads of familiar names from the Electronic world are on here too. – Gareth E (HDRF)

Listening Recommendations

Nimbudala – Universal Compassion (Inner Islands) / Starting 2025 off right – Golden Brown

Andrew Tuttle – Fleeting Adventure / I sometimes completely miss music that’s entirely up my alley. How I failed to engage with @tuttscorp.bsky.social’s utterly brilliant ambient folk opus from 2022, Fleeting Adventure, is beyond me. Anyway, it’s superb & I love it. Host of great guests, too – Nigel Spencer/Folk Police Recordings

The Sperm – Shh! / Drone that isn’t just a tape loop repeating to infinity – ‪Peter Barnard

Chihei Hatakeyama – The Ancient Forest VIII (White Paddy Mountain) / Starting the day at a slower wavelength – Listening Habit

Twilight Fields – Further Up, Further In! / I’ve only ever made two albums with a live human drummer. This is the better one. Tim is one hell of a drummer. This got a number of good reviews, so I had high hopes, but sold nada. Still, I’m pleased with it. Prog/psych/acid folk etc. on here – Allister Thompson

End of the Year / 2024

L’oie de Cravan / 16 albums from 2024 for 2025. No order. And my Queen to crown it all / 16 albums de 2024 pour 2025. Pas d’ordre. Et ma reine pour couronner le tout.

Joe Muggs / While we’re all still retrospective and whatnot, here’s 50-ish great records and what I think about them.

‪Don Curren / Ten Notable Books I Read in 2024

Al C. / My favorite records of 2024, because I was tired of everyone asking me.

Misc

Peek into February from Cruel Nature Records