TAMON TAKAHASHI — GHOST OF PROW

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⌾ LISTEN TO GHOST OF PROW BY TAMON TAKAHASHI ⌾

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There’s a richness to the soundscape at work in Tamon Takahashi’s ‘Ghost of Prow’. A swaying sweep of guitar floats through like the slow swell of the sea, paired with brass that peals and tapers with a stoic lilt — a sombre contrast to the evocative guitar solo that ends the piece. The vocals in the Hokkaido-based artist’s track are a hefty pairing of voices that add organic texture to proceedings, the bass smooth and crooning beneath it all.

Ultimately, with its pendulum-esque rhythm, and lavish, illuminated textures, the bittersweet charm of ‘Ghost of Prow’ illustrates the doomful passing of time with a world-weary sparkle.

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• 🔔 Listen to more from Tamon Takahashi over on his Spotify.

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ODALIE — LES HYBRES

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A robust pizzicato arpeggio picks its way through the aching air of ‘Les Hybres’, a hybrid track by French musicmaker Odalie. Urgency arrives as ticking modular synth chimes in like a clock ticking too quickly through the seconds, the bow now drawing across the strings and giving an extra richness to the track.

It’s not just this difference in organic sounds though, but the subsequent evolution of the track as the synthesiser grows into a many limbed beast, a creature of plasma that tumbles and twists as the cello strains and scratches below. Human and machine, soft and harsh, ‘Les Hybres’ is the exploration of biomechanical creativity.

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• 🔔 Taken from Derrière l'écran, out now. Listen and buy (if you like) on Bandcamp.

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CRYSTAL — PHANTOM GIZMO

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⌾ LISTEN PHANTOM GIZMO BY CRYSTAL ⌾

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CRYSTAL’s music always feels a little bit like constructivist art: A red triangle here, a blue square there, a black squiggle or two, all set in arrangements of bold, jagged simplicity. Accordingly, that’s how ‘Phantom Gizmo’ erupts into view, unfolding rapidly with staccato orchestra hits like a transforming robot. A collage of beats like crazy scaffolding waltzes throughout; MIDI bass (composed by Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat) pops and gallops.

But the Tokyo-based duo (Sunao Maruyama and Ryota Miyake) elevate the track into something more than its vital foundations. Though synth stutters and the heavily vocodered vocals keep some parts lively and minimalist, other sections of ‘Phantom Gizmo’ seem to soar into the sky, the blocky buildings of the bass and beat immersed in pastel fog and indistinct video game visions. Cue virtuoso leads wiggling into through the soft-yet-hard space of the song with all the joy of an artist’s paintbrush.

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• 🔔 'Phantom Gizmo' is tkaen from CRYSTAL's upcoming Reflection Overdrive LP, due out on Tokyo's flau records on 30th April. You can pre-order Reflection Overdrive from flau's Bandcamp (available on colored vinyl and digitally).

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KIWOKUZA — 茶摘み

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⌾ LISTEN TO 茶摘み BY KIWOKUZA ⌾

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A tumble of beats gallops at the heart of ‘茶摘み’ (Chatsumi; “tea picking”) by Tokyo troupe Kiwokuza. This kinetic foundation is perfectly complemented with a collage of synth: ebbing, electric chords, bouncing mid-level pops, rapid-firing trickling synth, soft melodies. The vocals also play a part in the track’s forward motion, wordless syllables keeping syncopated time.

But the vocals, or rather the lyrics, play a deeper part than their role in the rhythm section; as with many of Kiwokuza’s songs, ‘Chatsumi’ is a reworking of a folk song of the same name, bringing the unknown composition squarely into the modern day.

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• 🔔 Listen to more from Kiwokuza on their Spotify account.

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LUCRECIA DALT — COSA

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⌾ LISTEN TO COSA BY LUCRECIA DALT ⌾

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It may only be 32 seconds in duration, but ‘cosa’ by Berlin-based Colombian producer Lucrecia Dalt is a dense piece of music. The distant hum of a machine growls in the background, something continuously and secretly working — calculating, processing. The ambient fuzz of this hidden room gives Dalt’s micro-song a voyeuristic, or more correctly entendeuristic quality of listening to something obtained from a concealed recording device.

Knowing that the album from which 'cosa' is taken aims to be "a reflection of how we consume as a society today," the rasping sounds and wheezing organicity of it take on a more foreboding air. It's a chilling thought: the wonder, or worry, of exactly what it is you're streaming, liking and sharing.

Biomechanical insectoid clicking and fizzing constitutes a slow beat, synthetic but gruesomely organic; twice, like a dynamic cymbal, a screeching sound whips the air. A start-up sound gleams at the end — as if the tape were turned off at some crucial moment, or the recording device were discovered — and voices disjointedly murmur.

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• 🔔 Lucrecia Dalt's track 'cosa' is taken from the collaborative album PRSNT. Also featuring 32-second tracks by artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Visible Cloaks and more, it's scheduled for release on Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. You can pre-order PRSNT on vinyl (black or white, shown above) or digitally on Bandcamp.

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