22 hours ago
10
From San Francisco
Recommended if you like Rhythm and Sound, Ricardo Villalobos, Vladislav Delay
Up next Double LP from Topdown Dialectic released in spring
False Aralia disappears into a misty gulch somewhere between record label and artist project. It’s ostensibly a label, where each EP has a different named artist, and each sleeve, designed by Nick Almquist, features a different abstract expressionist monochrome doodle. But all the tracks are numbered, not named, and each EP is actually the work of just one producer, Izaak Schlossman (credited as IS), joined by a changing cast of collaborators.
The music also seems to dart into the mist, not just resisting genre classification, but actually seeming to evaporate as it plays. The most obvious comparison is the microhouse scene of the early 00s, in which artists such as Vladislav Delay, Isolée and Ricardo Villalobos made softly bumping tracks with the same level of playful sonic detail you might hear in a rainforest. False Aralia tracks also have a strong dub techno flavour thanks to all the mournful hazy chords, and a track like 01 by Externalism has a skanking, loping dub rhythm, but there are none of techno’s steady four-four beats. The closest Schlossman comes is on the almost Kraftwerkian Iri.gram EP, or 03 by Borgesian Term, a finely engineered groove built from live drums, heavily warped vocals and ASMR-triggering, cochlea-tickling sound design.
Vocalist Anya Prisk features on four releases, her voice so heavily treated it becomes another synthetic sonic gesture, though Schlossman’s one concession to straight songcraft, Vehicular’s stunning 01 (sung by Lucas Deleon), is like chillout music for a genuinely frigid poolside in an off-season holiday resort. False Aralia tracks seem to fold over the corners of reality with the delicacy of an origami expert, letting you peek into a soft-focus alternate world. Ben Beaumont-Thomas
This week’s best new tracks
Frances Chang – I Can Feel the Waves
Ahead of supporting Cate Le Bon in the US, the New Yorker unleashes a gorgeous loosie, reminiscent of a more domesticated take on Astrid Sonne’s off-kilter piano and conversational musings.
Robyn – Sexistential
Robyn defies André 3000 saying no one would want to hear him rap about his colonoscopy with her own deliriously brash rap about the carnal rearrangements of dating while doing solo IVF.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – They Keep Trying to Find You
On a comeback as lovely – spare and sunlit – as it is sinister, Will Oldham sings a tribute to someone who’d do anything, even “allowing isolation to fully derange”, to remain hidden.
A$AP Rocky – Punk Rocky
Rocky’s crying in his truck, drowning his sorrows and trying to write love songs even though he hates them, to a swirly psychedelic haze that threatens to drag you with him into the mire.
Peter Gabriel – Been Undone
As he did in 2023, Peter Gabriel will release a new single every full moon this year: the steady Been Undone is an affecting look at human fallibility and anxiety about the void.
Doechii and SZA – Girl, Get Up
Doechii’s chilling on a roof, not a care in the world … a pose that swiftly comes undone as she hits back at haters in acute detail, her vexed verses softened by SZA’s slithery chorus.
Juni Habel – Evergreen in Your Mind
Sharing the same dusky light as Jessica Pratt’s records, the Norwegian singer traces the gap between reality and memory in swaddled vocal harmonies, to a reassuring acoustic guitar motif. Laura Snapes
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