DXIII - Par Avion/Lockdown Mix

It really is about time I wrote something about the remarkable DXIII again.  The work of Paul Foster, from Wales, has regularly featured in my Dandelion Radio show almost since it began streaming, thirteen years ago. He's recorded a stunning lockdown mix for the show this month, which you can hear at various times throughout August here.

He's also offering his work as NYP on his bandcamp site during lockdown so it's more than worth your while to get on there and, if you've not done so already, treat yourself to the work of an electronic artist whose music remains consistently enthralling and innovative.

As a starting point, try his Par Avion album, which he released in April this year: the title track forms part of the mix he's done for us but everything on there is more than worth your attention.   It's Paul Foster very much at the height of his powers, as the blurb on a paperback might say, but rather than continue to throw clichés around it's really best that you find out for yourself.  You can download Par Avion as NYP here.

Kill the Giants - Drones, Clones and Bio Machines (Nub Music)

The clues to who was behind Kill the Giants were always there, had I bothered to consider them rather than simply rolling around in the wonders of this extraordinary release, which instantly became one of my favourite half dozen releases of what has already been a great year for great music.

It's on the Nub Music label for a start and, as this is the label of Pocket God Mark Lee, it made sense that Mark would be behind it all, especially given the playful brilliance of the release.   The excellent 'Beautiful Day' (which samples quotes from Shakespeare and not only gets away with it, but absorbs it magnificently) opens my Dandelion Radio show this month but consider this only an entry point to the fascinating, diverse and compelling world of sound within this album.

It's Mark Lee at his best - and it should be enough simply to say that.   It's also one of many fascinating releases Nub have put out recently - find out more here.

The Mauskovic Dance Band - Shadance Hall (Dekmantel)

From the Netherlands, the Mauskovic Dance Band continue to weave their rhythms into ever more curious and beguiling combinations.  I'm speculating that the proclaimed geographical origin for this release (the Welsh valleys) has something to do with their appearance at last year's Green Man Festival, where the band brought a mesmerising live set to the Chai Wallah stage.

Some of the spirit of that set is undoubtedly captured here.  Finished off in Amsterdam, the result is a compelling and bewitching combination of elements derived from instruments that clash and bounce all over the place, encountering echoes, reverbs and curious bass rhythms as they go.  

This is nowhere more pronounced than on the wonderful 'Squeeze Dogs', which features in my Dandelion Radio show this month but the album's eight tracks all manage to surprise and consistently reward as the listener works through.

The album is available as a digital release here. 

Dead Bambies - Dandelion Session (Thomas Imposter)

There's so much great stuff coming out of Japan at the moment and the Thomas Imposter label is home to some of the best of it.  Dead Bambies unquestionably qualify for inclusion in that category: their frenzied guitar attack has launched many welcome assaults on my ears in the last few years and I hope and trust there will be many more to come.

This session was broadcast in my Dandelion Radio show in September 2018 and it's great to see it getting an official release via TI.  Not only that, but the four session tracks are augmented here by a further three previously unreleased tracks: you can hear one of them, Taste of Honey, in my show this month. 

It's available to download from the Thomas Imposter Bandcamp site.  Get a copy here.   Also, listen out for their labelmates The Jungles!!! whose brilliant debut session can be heard in my show this month.

Nac/Hut Report - Transmisja Z Przesilenia (Chrunchy Human Children)

Sometimes, massive changes of direction can be a good thing.  However, I'm always glad to hear a new Nac/Hut Report album and find that they've resisted it.  Frankly this duo, based in Poland, create such astonishing things together it's always refreshing to find that a new collection of their stuff consists of hammering out a new set of jarring, challenging noises from pretty much the same template.

As usual, the release comes via the Warsaw cooperative Crunchy Human Children and, as you might have guessed from my preliminary comments, it doesn't disappoint.  I played a track from the album in my Dandelion Radio show last month and this month I'm playing 'Plytki Lek'. 

The album is available to buy on cassette or as NYP download here.

Mood Taeg - Exophoria (Happy Robots)

Another excellent release from the Happy Robots label becomes available next week in the form of this Dusseldorf/Shanghai collaboration that stems from a wider collective comprising DJs, graffiti artists and photographers, among others.

Exophonia's five tracks exhibit their krautrock influences prominently but there's something highly distinctive about what emerges, all emanating from their own Lowell's Garden studio where digital recording techniques meet with analogue synths to produce results that are at once experimental and bewitchingly accessible.

I'm playing opening track '2MR' in my Dandelion Radio show this month and you can pre-order the release as a download or on vinyl here.

Jangly Mark & The Benefits - My City (Lavender Sweep)

The sprightly, strangely intimate feel of a Jangly Mark & The Benefits release has invariably brought a positive shine to many aspects of life.   This new EP - released at the height of lockdown a coronavirus-ravaged Britain - is no exception.

Released via the always excellent Lavender Sweep label, the EP contains some unreleased gems, the B-side of the excellent I Fancy You single and a couple of glimpses of what to expect from the forthcoming Rimmer & Other Stories album.

I'm playing 'Heading East' (the aforementioned B-side) in my Dandelion Radio show this month and I strongly encourage you to give the full EP a listen.  It's available here as a free download but with a request to make a donation to a charity providing PPE for NHS staff.