Essential Releases, October 18, 2024 (original) (raw)
ESSENTIAL RELEASES Essential Releases, October 18, 2024 By Bandcamp Daily Staff · October 18, 2024 
What the Bandcamp Daily editors are listening to right now.
Machine Girl
Machine Girl, the New York-born, Pittsburgh-based duo of producer and singer Matt Stephenson and drummer Sean Kelly, entered the pandemic as a niche electronic hardcore act associated with the “digicore” scene, practically unknown except for a small, but incredibly impassioned, online cult following. Their trajectory changed drastically following the release of U Void Synthesizer, a metallic slab of glitched-out apocalyptic rave music that arrived just as lockdown paranoia was starting to peak. In other words, Machine Girl had captured the sound of the zeitgeist before anyone thought to look, either by fate or accident; it only feels fair that all eyes are on them heading into MG Ultra, their first album in four years, which will be supported by a North American headlining tour that’s quickly selling out— and we’re talking venues with 5,000 per-person capacities, not basement clubs. If you’re not on the hype train already, MG Ultra is the perfect place to board, their strongest, catchiest, and most thought-provoking release to date. Stephenson’s arrangements, while more structurally straightforward, remain sharp as nails, chopping Kelly’s hardcore percussion down into feral drum loops and soldering them to layered samples so dense and janky, it’s like the music is no-clipping into itself. From the cyberpunk thrills of lead single “Before I Die,” to the gabber-infused bubblegum of “Cicadas” to the mutant drum & bass of “Psychic Attack,” there’s never a dull moment here, which is probably why I can’t stop listening to the damn thing. The freaks are echelon. Long live the freaks.
–Zoe Camp
Spiral XP
Everything about Spiral XP’s grayed out slacker rock, from the chuggy riffs to the overcast vocals quietly intoning platitudes about youth-y ennui, fairly screams Pacific Northwest, though I suppose that second bit is universal. Somewhat refreshingly and unlike many of their contemporaries, however, this Seattle group genuinely doesn’t seem to care about finding a hook or sprinkling hints of pop music throughout their songs, a choice that does imply a sense of trust in the listener or at least in themselves. Debut I Wish I Was a Rat was recorded entirely in analog at Phil Elverum’s Anacortes studio, lending the music a sense of tactility and honesty; songs-wise, the record is more or less balanced between knotty explorations of influences ending in -core and -gaze and under-a-cloud indie rock, with no one sound taking precedent over what matters most: bummer vibes.
– Mariana Timony
TAAHLIAH
. 00:10 / 00:58
Opening an album with a sample of the iconic Octavia St. Laurent—Black trans ballroom legend and progenitor of the quote “Everything you do in life is like a boomerang, when you throw it it eventually comes back. Don’t fuck with me,” famously directed at DL men—is a statement. To follow that with a pounding club track driven by the refrain “These boys/ They all want me/ They all want/ To get in me,” is cunty. But like Octavia, the Glaswegian producer known for her buzzy DJ sets and viral Boiler Room performances also has an admittedly sensitive side. From the track “2018” onward, TAAHLIAH shifts gears from the club-ready hyperpop of “Boys” to a, still slick, but ballad-driven approach to pop songwriting. Confessional lyricism, live instrumentation, and airy production now compliment her decades-spanning, off-kilter club beats. Whether it’s the heartrending, self-referential “Hours”; the hard-driving techno of “Eylvue”; or the trance balladry of “Dawn,” Grammarye flexes between hardness and softness, sonically and emotionally.
–Stephanie Barclay
Truus de Groot & Cosmo Vitelli
The last time we heard from French producer Cosmo Vitelli was back in 2022 when he dropped Medhead, a dizzying blast of electronic music that traversed everything form driving techno to woozy darkwave. That album also featured multiple appearances from Dutch electronic titan Truus De Groot, whose ‘80s work with the group Plus Instruments straddled post-punk and minimal wave. It’s that same combo that goes front-and-center on Vitelli and De Groot’s latest team-up Dopamine Dreams, an album full of eerie, moody songs built from hypnotic synth pulses and haunting atmospherics. Incredible album peak “Bombastic Girl” is a queasy, churning number that centers a groaning bassline and is pierced repeatedly by an icepick-like synth lead. It’s tailor-made to score the “Cesare Awakes” scene at a screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari this season. “Meditative Milkshake” is another shadowy journey through the underworld—a single, wiry guitar line threaded above a throbbing bass rhythm, illuminating De Groot’s calm, detached vocal. The title track, which closes the album, ends things on an elegiac note, a mournful parting shot with a beautifully quavering vocal from De Groot that feels like Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” by way of Portishead at their heartbroken best. It’s the perfect capper to a record that contains both menace and magic.
–J. Edward Keyes
TURICH BENJY
If the name Turich Benjy sounds familiar, it’s likely thanks to IT’S TOO QUIET!!, his collaborative album with Pink Siifu that dropped around this time last year. There, Benjy played the foil, his light, melodic rapping—limned with sizzling autotune—balancing Siifu’s drowsy, dawdling delivery. On _ULTRASOUND DELUXE_—an expanded reissue of his 2022 album ULTRASOUND, brought to vinyl by the saints at FXCK RXP—he gets to occupy more of the spotlight. He meets the moment: ULTRASOUND DELUXE offers 21 tracks of delirious trap-adjacent hip-hop, colored in purples and blues. The album’s silver bullet is the symmetry between Benjy’s voice and the digital waves of electronics that wax and wane beneath it. Benjy has a fondness for turning his bars into brief, hooky three-to-four note melodies, and he skips from note to note with a freewheeling lightness that betrays the occasional heaviness of his lyrics. (“Remember the Titans,” for example, has one of the album’s most immediate, deep-burrowing melodies, but its lyrics balance braggdoccio with personal insecurities and fears of abandonment.) The production is stellar throughout—though it’s the work of a dozen different people, the instrumentals all conjure vast, slowly undulating digital fields; the synthetic notes surge up slowly and then back down, and the effect is eerie and unsettling. When it dropped in 2022, ULTRASOUND seems to have come and gone; here’s hoping this reissue kickstarts renewed attention for a rapper who more than warrants it.
–J. Edward Keyes
Various Artists
Following Hurricane Helene’s devastation in Western North Carolina in late September, more than 100 artists have come together for a massive mutual aid package to support those affected. Released last week on Bandcamp, Cardinals at the Window, is a 136-track compilation benefitting nonprofits assisting in the recovery effort: Rural Organizing and Resilience, BeLoved Asheville, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. Assembled by Asheville natives with close ties to the local music scene—folk artist Libby Rodenbough, David Walker, founder of the music website New Commute; and writer and Bandcamp Daily contributor Grayson Haver Currin—it consists largely of unreleased material from roughly two Coachellas’ worth of high-profile artists. You’ve got R.E.M., Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Phish, the Mountain Goats, Helado Negro, and just a taste. The only thing better than an indie treasure trove is an indie treasure trove that can make folks’ lives a little esier.