5 Tewns Vol.25
Read Time: 4 mins
It’s been a real emotional rollercoaster of a week down on the farm. The disconnect between my personal agronomic existence and the ‘real world’ outside is beginning to spark some level of mental collapse. One minute I’m dead-heading flowers, picking olives or whatever, and the next I’m doomscrolling through Pete Hegseth’s personal brand of Sharia law, Luís Montenegro’s love-in with Marco Rubio –looking forward to Portugal being flooded with data centres– or in my other homeland, Die Linke’s predictable capitulation to the German political consensus of blind Staatsräson madness. Nonetheless, here are five tunes, happy and sad, to get us through; I hope you’ll like them too.
Lee Hazlewood – My Autumns Done Come [Universal]
A proper meisterwerk. Lee Hazlewood’s wry meditation on retirement, aging, and regaining power through shameless apathy rests atop a suite of serene guitar, percussion, and orchestration, while his ghostly cowboy drawl, drenched in reverb, hangs over everything. “You can throw all my tranquil pills away, let my blood pressure go on its way.”
PISS – time loop at hot slit [Sub Pop]
I could throw a whole bunch of adjectives at this track, like brutal, unrelenting, or violent, many of which I’m sure have been used before on more important blogs than this one, but I’ve settled on ‘fucking terrifying’. I’m new to Vancouver’s PISS, one of Sub Pop’s recent signings, and had only seen a few clips. This week, however, the algorithmic gods delivered, to me, their KEXP performance, and I just couldn’t turn it off no matter how uncomfortable I felt. Truly excellent. Readers of this blog will have guessed that this kind of hardcore/noise-rock/whatever isn’t my usual lane, but it makes my heart race and puts the fear of God into me, and I think it’s supposed to.
Nachtlinie – Broken Circuit [Computer Controlled]
What with being on the farm a lot, I rarely get the chance to bother the turntables, and sometimes that means that if something isn’t on my phone, it goes unheard for some time. This week, I was reminded of this gorgeous electro Stück from Nachtlinie on Belfast’s ever-excellent Computer Controlled. The whole EP is stellar, but Broken Circuit is the standout for me. With its ominous, luscious DX7-esque pads and metallic rhythms, it sounds like another world altogether, as all good electro tunes should. If you like this, you should also check out the ambient mixes from Computer Controlled’s main man Nez on this very site. Here’s his last one
The Comet is Coming – New Age [Leaf]
It’s been a busy week. I’m planting out my winter veg (which is a bit odd in 27°C) and clearing the field ready for the new beds. As I’ve mentioned, it’s been a rough old week spiritually speaking, so I’ve been digging into Shabaka Hutchings’ various projects and collaborations, hoping to inspire myself to pull out my cheap-arse Thomann tenor sax and have a little blow (don’t be depraved). Sadly that hasn’t happened yet, but it has led me through a galactic wormhole of excellent music, this track from The Comet Is Coming included. The way the glitching, bit-reduced percussion crackles like embers over Shabaka’s spectral sax lines and Danalogue’s synth waves makes my spirit soar like the birds of prey that stalk our land.
Ruff Sqwad – Tings in Boots [No Hats No Hoods]
Now, I’ve not had time to play the sax, but I did manage to scrape a few hours of drum practice together this week. I’ve skipped the normal fare of jazz and breakbeats in favour of learning some classic grime riddims like Tings In Boots from the mighty Ruff Sqwad. Proper. Get it down you.
Hope you have a lush weekend!
Respect in Every Aspect, Jammo