Bob Lukomski: PoopList 2025
After missing the deadline for the past couple of years, if you’re reading this, I must’ve gotten my poop to the Marks on time. Here goes (in no particular order):
Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?]
Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying (Mexican Summer)
For some reason, I’ve always lumped Cate Le Bon with St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey, et al. as one of those talented but way too self-conscious/referential songwriters/performers. Michelangelo Dying reset my thinking. Denser and darker than her other releases (my wife described it as “Siouxie on ‘ludes”), the songwriting swaps out the quirks that defined Crab Day (or even Reward) for more subtle twists and turns. I’ll be spinning this one for a while…
Rent via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?]
Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werlin – Ghosted III (Drag City)
The third of the Ghosted series (trilogy?), This one finds a more minimalist grooves and backs off of the fusion of the first two records, throwing in a bit more ‘world’ beat, if that is still a thing. While Amabarchi’s post-Fripp take on guitar still holds sway over the proceedings, he continues to open up new sonic vistas.
Rent via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?]
Jazz Dispensary presents Dream a Dream with Studio G: Cratedigger’s Archive 1970-2009 (Craft Recordings)
An odd remix of Studio G Library tracks. Not necessarily for purists, this record is more of an interpretive soundscape using archival material rather than a “proper” archival release. Studio G is not as well known or regarded a library as DeWolfe or KPM, but gems are aplenty here if you need an introduction.
Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?]
Mozart Estate – Tower Block in a Jam Jar (West Midlands Records)
Felt and Denim fans – This isn’t your usual electric Larry land. Lawrence (post-smack) is still trying to gain entrance into the pop charts, rerecording some older songs (from his Go-Kart Mozart persona) and adding some newer bits with a proper band. Bright, sparkly sounds with rather downbeat lyrics – I don’t think he’ll ever hit the top 40 (if that is even still a thing, tho’ it prolly is in Lawrence’s Mitty-esque world) – he can still out Brit-pop the best of them (cf. Pulp’s 2025 offering).
Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?]
Throbbing Gristle – Live at the Volksbühne, Berlin New Year’s Eve 2005 (Mute)
Archival release of the first Gristly-crew reunion performance. Pulling from “hits” and the Endless Not material they were recording around the same time, this recording is classic live TG: Shambolic, hypnotizing grooves with over-the-top G(B)P-O she-man-ship. A good romp if not a particularly essential document (I’d pay good money for a proper recording from their 2009 US final tour).
Buy via Bandcamp
Lucio Capece FS5 – From Scratch New Discantus Quintet (Erototox Decodings)
Some lovely post-minimalism from a bunch of folks I’ve not heard of before. Capece’s work is scored for soprano and texor sax, tuned bongos, double bass, and piano/synth. The concept is of a subharmonic scale acting as a Cantus Firmus (from tuned-via-cardboard-tube field
recordings), and taking cues from late 12th century ars antiqua counterpoint as a point of improvisational departure. If that sounds too dry or pretentious, howz about Morton Feldman-inflected jazz?
 Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] |
 Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] |
Sorry For Laughing – Rain Flowers (Klanggalerie)
Yonni – The Speed of Dark (Klanggalerie)
It’s nice to rediscover musicians you once dug bucking the nostalgia trip and making new, interesting sounds (even if they don’t veer radically from their past achievements).
Sorry For Laughing’s fifth release is still centered around Gordon H. Whitlow (Biota), with Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots), and a semi-rotating cast of musicians. It’s odd – their output sounds like all three associated projects at once, but in the best way. This is a two-disc offering of longer, distended pieces that never quite settle.
Yonni is a band founded by Nort Tron (Hula, Cabaret Voltaire). Reportedly formed in 1996, this was the first I ever heard of them. Sheffield-based, they still sit firmly in the post-punk/electronic milieu that made that city famous 45-plus years ago. Not retro; updated.
 Buy New or Used via Amazon Rent via iTunes [?] |
 Buy via Bandcamp |
Sõon – Actions Made Audible (Electronic Sound)
Matar – Archeoacoustics (Sleepers Records)
Speaking of Sheffield, in addition to the now-revitalized Clock DVA and his ongoing work as the Anti-Group, Adi Newton has been quite prolific in recent years. These two projects – both collaborations – tread similar waters but from different streams.
Sõon is a collaboration between Newton and Jack Dangers. On this, their third release, they continue to thrift through spoken word/found text and weave it into warm analog fabric, sometimes a soundscape, sometimes pulse-driven. Matar takes the microenvironment and distills it into more organic shapes, often with what appear to be field recordings. Both sit nicely on the extreme periphery of what is being called “ambient” these days.
Some solid reissues from the past year:
Coil – Black Antlers (Dais) & Live One (Retractor)
Clock DVA – White Souls in Black Suits (Mute)
Seefeel – quique (redux) & pure, impure (both Too Pure)
John White/Gavin Bryars – Machine Music (Superior Viaduct)