9ms – M€mo
Wading slightly into the world of experimental dub and Krautrock, first up tonight is this strange and wonderful song by Munich-based drummer-duo 9ms (Simon Popp & Florian König). The second single from their just-released third album Lunch–most of which is almost exclusively percussive–this song is an outlier, and draws its melodies from the drums themselves with really clever use of a drum resonator. The melodic result is elusive, as if the melody were a few milliseconds (9?) ahead of or behind the percussion, creating a sense of a sort of slow-motion chase between them. It’s an almost unnerving feeling to experience the drums and melody in this way, but ultimately becomes soothingly hypnotic. Popp and König are machine enthusiasts and build unique custom rigs to allow them to interact with their gear in atypical ways. They describe having the goal of “becoming one with their mystic machinery”; on Lunch, they used infrared and magnetic field sensors to translate their movement into control voltage, which they used as synth and effects triggers. The whole album is really worth checking–you can grab it on bandcamp or for streaming, but Popp and König were also kind enough to let me share with you the mp3 of this song below.
9ms – “M€mo”
Old Owl & Wings of Time – Wisdom is Drums
I’ve taken a bit of a left turn tonight, stylistically. A leap further, next up is this perfect bit of authentic roots dub from Swiss artist Jah Bast aka Old Owl aka Wings of Time. I don’t cover proper dub very often, but I love it deeply, so it’s nice to have the opportunity. All of Jah Bast’s work is as authentically crafted as it gets–he’s essentially a one man band; playing most everything himself, recording everything to tape, doing all the dubs and fx by hand, and releasing 7″s–the way this kind of music should be made. That dedication to the original form definitely shows; all his records are warm and forgiving, but this instrumental he sent me recently is the standout. Unfortunately the 7″ is sold out, but you can grab the file on bandcamp or find it for streaming.
Old Owl & Wings of Time – “Wisdom is Drums”
aeoni – Blossom
Last but not least tonight is a new album from Greek artist-physicist aeoni (Ioanna Theofilakou), whose last record Lifetime I reviewed back in January. That record aimed to map each stage of life in music. This new one, Blossom, appears similarly concept-driven, with each song named for a species of flower–but also for each flower’s corresponding figure in Greek mythology. The album as a whole is hard to characterize. Theofilakou doesn’t seem to see the flower as something delicate, but rather treats it as something robust and weighty–most songs are heavy in their melancholy, grounded in plodding rhythms. That weight, however, may be meant to convey tragedy, which in itself may be somewhat of an acknowledgment of the fragility–or at least the duality–of a blossom (and us). The album’s other concept-layer makes this more explicit. As an example, my favorite song from the album, “Hyacinth,” is inspired by Hyacinthus, Apollo’s beautiful young lover. In Ovid’s version of the myth, Apollo mistakenly kills and desperately tries to save Hyacinthus, to no avail; Apollo then creates a flower from the boy’s blood in remembrance and inscribes alas on its petals. Theofilakou’s music is serious, but not overwrought. She clearly uses her mind first to make her music, but she doesn’t seem to overthink it; it ends up direct and personal in form and layered in intent. You can grab Blossom on bandcamp, or find it for streaming all over.