5 Tewns Vol.26
Read Time: 4 mins
Another week on Earth, a small turn on the axis completed. I’ve made a small adjustment here and will post my 5 Tewns for the coming week, rather than the one that just passed. “Why?” you say. I don’t really know; it just feels right.
Onward__
After last week’s agronomic mentasm, digging loads of new beds and having tonnes of fun with the strimmer, here are my musical recommendations for another five days on this burning hellscape of a planet we call home. Da iawn!
Bibio & Dorian Concept – Shame [Warp]
As we begin our Sisyphean push toward Friday evening, it helps to have something sweet ringing in your ears – it does me anyway – and “Shame”, taken from Bibio and Dorian Concept’s new collaboration on Warp, Answers, is just the potion. Layers of effervescent arpeggios bubble and fizz like cheap Ceredigion cider over a melancholic, saturated bass drone. The whole album is magnificent, and I’m hoping the magic within sets me up for a good week on the fuzzy farm.
Silk Road Assassins – Bowman [Planet Mu]
With Calan Gaeaf/Samhain/Halloween (choose your fighter) just around the corner, as the days shorten and the veil thins, it seems appropriate to revisit 2019’s State of Ruin by Silk Road Assassins, in particular “Bowman”, with its impeccable sound design and a spectral choir that, to my mind at least, echoes The Art of Noise’s seminal “Moments in Love”, updated for our modern dystopia.
Ghost Dubs – Soft Collapse [Pressure]
Speaking of the uncanny, Stuttgart’s bass phantom Ghost Dubs returns to Pressure for another masterclass in foggy, introspective dub. As with a lot of the music featured in 5 Tewns, it’s a pity that I have to narrow it down to one track. The album is a journey in and of itself. Nonetheless, I’ve rolled the dice and landed on the ember-crackled laggard chug of “Soft Collapse”, which has a faint aura of Dub Techno played at the wrong speed. Built around a flatulent half-stepped filtered kick and off-key samples that seem to grace your ears at random, it’s deep, meditative, and rewards the patient listener. I like to spook myself out, listening to this one while walking around the farm at night, because I am a sensible 45-year-old.
Dead Sea Apes – Damn Your Eyes [Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records]
I was sent the Dead Sea Apes’ latest album, Psychic Tension, somewhere around mid-summer. Amid the setting up of the farm and everything else, it ended up at the bottom of a deep digital pile. This week, while navigating the abyss of slept-on promo emails – sorry – I finally got round to listening, and it’s an absolute stunner from start to finish! For this week’s list, I’ve chosen the opening track, “Damn Your Eyes”, simply because it’s a fantastic opener for the album. It has everything: anxiety, horror, motorik drums, oodles of fuzz, and cosmic feedback galore. This one’s going on the Calan Gaeaf Playlist for sure. Psychic Tension is out now on Cardinal Fuzz in Europe and Feeding Tube in the US.
Magma – Kobaïa Ïss Dë Hündïn [A&M]
I’ll finish off this week’s list with a bit of Zeuhl. It’s another one that can’t be separated from its album, particularly as it’s taken from Magma’s psychedelic Wagnerian Jazz-Rock opera, Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh, about a ruined Earth lost in never-ending war (prophetic), but it’s my favourite piece, so fuck it. Stick it on. I’m off to turn the compost.
Diolch, Obrigado, Bis nächstes Mal!
Jammo x