Simon Lovejoy
The Rave Age

Stokewood Sessions Vol 1 & 2 (Previews) by FLOPPY LIFE

Cloud Holding is NYC-based Bryce Hackford's fifth album, and first for Futura Resistenza. Seven sound sculptures are coaxed out of recorded improvisations by a group of musicians--Ka Baird, Shelley Burgon, Alice Cohen, Michael Hurder, Dominika Mazurova, Camilla Padgitt-Coles--and worked into formless figures that express an always drifting present. Guided by the Suzuki Nobara--a kind of electric koto with many traditional instrument sounds and unique pitch adjustment controls--and the lyric-less utterances of the human voice, Cloud Holding traces delicate outlines in a collaborative sound world that shines with mysterious, searching affinity.

Detroit mainstay Andrés returns to MotorCity Wine Recordings with an anthemic 4 tracker entitled Sunday Kinda Love. For those that know, MotorCity Wine is the spot for Sunday parties, so we only thought it appropriate to have one of Detroit’s most seminal producers highlight the vibe with this EP. On the A side is Andrés’s dusty house sound that we’ve all come to love, complete with bouncing basslines, slick vocal chops, and drums to turn out any dance floor. On the flip side Andrés slows the tempo just a touch to highlight his chunky midtempo beatdown sounds, with “Rubin Samba” bringing a Latin flair and “Sunday Kinda Love” driving it all home. Essential Detroit music manufactured in Detroit and housed in a gorgeous vinyl package.

Interplay by YlangYlangCatherine Debard has been active as YlangYlang since 2012, a creative staple in the Montreal music community. She’s worked frequently as a collaborator, but continues developing her unique interstitial solo recordings through a variety of labels and performance experiments. Inspired in part by the writing of Danish poet Inger Christensen, in Debard’s words Interplay explores “how we are shaped and shaping our experience at the same time” and “how free we can be within our own limitations.”Full of deceptive contradictions and some of Debard’s most mature orchestration, she describes it as the final instalment in a trilogy focused on relationships. After albums focused on the external world, this time she turns her attention more intensely on “the self.” It’s a fitting meditation, reflecting on how we adapt and survive as individuals in dark times. Interplay’s warming combination of synths, field recordings, and backing instrumentation weave together toward balance. Here the mixture of stern and soft, dark and light, is seamless.