Skip to main content

Farwarmth - Immeasurable Heaven (ACR, 2018)

Where does ACR find these beauties? And this guy in particular? This is, ah, Afonso Arrepia Ferreira, apparently some 19 years old?? Also plays in a duo called HRNS which also just released something on ACR. This tape is a real gem. Ferreira plays piano, keyboards and I think misc electronics and interweaves these with guest players on cello, bass, flute and some samples. It completely belies the composer's age because this is a work of real maturity. Think of a woozy, beautiful, mesh of irr.app.(ext.), Nurse With Wound, Machinefabriek and maybe a little Pan Sonic but all those fall short...just grip it and see for yourself.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nachtmystium/Leviathan - In the Valley of Death, Where Black Metal is King: An Homage to the Roots (Ascension Monuments Media, 2018)

What the fuck is that title. Okay I get the first part is a Judas Iscariot tribute, but did we really need "an homage to the roots" in there? Hey wouldn't it be funny if these were actually covers of the band The Roots? Anyway. This album was supposed to come out 10 years ago, but it was blocked by the bands' respective labels. Now I guess they've figured out a way, or Blake Judd needs money for drugs so he's figured out a way, to put this out. The Bandcamp version has 8 tracks, 5 from Nachtmystium and 3 from Leviathan, but I've seen a 10-track tracklisting elsewhere. On the version I have, we have Nachtmystium covering Judas Iscariot, Ildjarn (twice), Von and Burzum. Leviathan tackles Ildjarn (twice) and Von once. I seem to be missing Leviathan's Judas Iscariot cover ("Where the Winter Beats Incessant") and one of Nachtmystium's Von covers ("Von"). Weird. Wonder if there were some licensing issues or something. All four Ildjar...

Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.

A$AP Rocky - Testing (ASAP Worldwide/Polo Grounds/RCA, 2018)

I've always liked A$AP Rocky for his experimental-ish tendencies. Namely his tracks with Clams Casino, shit like "Electric Body", "Wild for the Night" with Skrillex (hey it's a good track), etc. On Testing A$AP set out to push the boundaries even further, or at least being more brazen in his attempt at making an experimental hip hop record, as opposed to a hip hop record with some experimentation. Hence the title. There's a whole whack of interesting collaborators on here - FKA Twigs, Dev Hynes, Moby via a "Porcelain" sample, Frank Ocean, Clams Casino, Dean Blunt...as well as some less-eyebrow raising names like Kid Cudi, Kodak Black, French Montana, Juicy J...so what's the verdict? Well it sounds as unsettled and restless as A$AP likely was while putting this together - it's less an album and more a collection of experiments. I can't even confidently say it's a better album than LONG.LIVE.A$AP. or AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP. But I resp...