acb @acb@linernotes.club

Just saw The KVB at Debaser in Stockholm. A duo from Manchester, playing sequenced, detached synthpop with influences in Kraftwerk, New Order, psych rock and modernist/brutalist architecture, possibly swerving into industriogothic EBM territory from time to time, though without the martial grimdarkness the genre entails. I had seen them before (at Synästhesie last year, and in a basement bar in Dalston years ago). File alongside: Warm Digits, Black Cab, Kosmischer Läufer.

Listening to the recent reissue of Hydroplane’s 1997 debut LP.

https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/hydroplane

1) so much Funky Drummer
2) Bart Cummings should really have gone into film scoring

Bandcamp Daily has a feature on Spanish twee/friki/hyperpop/exotica label Elefant, and 11 recommended entry points into its overwhelmingly vast catalogue.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/label-profile/elefant-records-label-profile

I can vouch for a few of these (The School and Camera Obscura on the twee side, and PUTOCHINOMARICON on the hyperpop side)

London independent label Dirty Hit have finally joined Bandcamp, which means that things like beabadoobee and Rina Sawayama are now available as better-than-ringtone-quality downloads:
https://dirtyhit.bandcamp.com/

I bought a download of beabadoobee's “Fake It Flowers” in 2020, from a Bandcamp link that subsequently disappeared. I'm hoping it was something she released prior to getting signed, rather than my having paid some crook for a pirate copy.

And the third track started playing, bringing a Sophie Lee And The Freaked-Out Flower Children vibe.

I think they’re going for an Australian GenX guilty-pleasure nostalgia thing.

Listening to the new album from Confidence Man (whom I saw at Primavera a few years ago; they had the misfortune of being overshadowed somewhat by Client Liaison). Anyway, it sounds like something Peewee Ferris would have produced in the early 90s or something; very Chapel St.

https://confidenceman.bandcamp.com/album/tilt

Today’s Bandcamp Daily has an interesting piece about the current klezmer revival, and its ties to queer culture, antifascism, punk DIY sensibilities and a lost European Jewishness:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report/klezmer-jewish-folk-feature

Some seriously funky drumming at this Loney Dear gig. It’s like a 90s trip-hop remix played live or something.

Hail Eris!

Started reading “The Stasi Poetry Circle” by Philip Oltermann; when I came to the example of a model Marxist sonnet from the DDR, I couldn’t help but imagine it as Stereolab lyrics; hear the words in Laetitia’s voice over choppy guitars and Farfisas

An appreciation of the design of Faust’s record sleeves:

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/how-fausts-sleeves-pushed-the-limits-of-record-design/

The story of the Casio employee who came up with the presets in the MT-40 and other keyboards; she was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a huge fan of reggae:
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g02027/

There appears to be a huge indiepop scene in China, largely inspired by Sarah Records:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/scene-report/chinese-indie-pop-scene-report

There’s an interesting article in Vice about glitchpop artist/producer yeule, their history and influences:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kb4wb/yeule-glitch-princess-album-interview

“A guide to twee pop in seven bands”:

https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/a-guide-to-twee-pop-in-seven-bands/

Apparently, twee is back, and this article aims to dispel the idea that it started with Zooey Deschanel or some Tumblr influencer. Good choice of bands (The Field Mice, Tiger Trap, The Lucksmiths); contentious in places, but makes a good case for the label being at least somewhat valid.

The Quietus interviews PC music honcho Danny L Harle, talking about his Harlecore virtual-superclub art project, the intersection of the musical avant-grade with the euphoria of hands-in-the-air rave, and paying deeper attention to things commonly dismissed as “guilty pleasures”:

https://thequietus.com/articles/31005-harlecore-interview

My records of 2021 list is up:

https://dev.null.org/blog/archive/2021/12/31