New Dada Music_May 2023
Sounds + Links from Gerald Cleaver, Kalia Vandever, Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin, Ari LaShell, Asher Gamedze, Jentlemen, IzangoMa, Michael Blake & Chroma Nova, and Four Tet
New Dada Music is an occasional (hopefully monthly) summary of releases I am shouting about on Dada Strain’s IG Stories and Twitter, with rhythm, improvisation and community as the forever-guiding lights. Through the years, people have asked me for Bandcamp Fridays recommendations, and because many of the releases I highlight are available there directly from the artist/label, it felt like a useful piece to add to Dada Strain. (It also helps me keep a running tally - otherwise, I’m not good at lists.) Also included here are new live tapes, mixes and other musics that stood out, and have a playable sonic footprint. (There is a no major-DSPs policy). All texts are primarily copy-edits, fact-checks and minor amendments to the character-limited write-ups on Elon’s hellscape. Please support the artists, labels, independent musickers, and broadcasters who struggle against the algorithm and listener apathy. Thank you for reading, listening.
Gerald Cleaver, 22/23 (Positive Elevation/577) - Great Detroit "jazz" drummer whose recent solo synths + drum-machines + electronics albums have been connecting the 313’s primary rhythm and improvisation musics, makes it explicit. Glorious slabs of mostly synthetic weirdness filled with visions of Willisau, early WARP, Editions Mego and the Drexicyan empire. Great techno, though not necessarily for your klubnacht.
Ari LaShell, AWH EP (FWM Entertainment) - ATL singer-songwriter’s debut EP is wall-to-wall-hits of classic pop-oriented house music, exec-produced/released by Stefan Ringer. Not sure whether it’s her tunes or vocals that are the stars, both are imbued with laidback confidence and charm, hooks and old-school beauty. This sounds like it would be great for everybody.
Kalia Vandever, We Fell In Turn (AKP Recordings) - A gorgeous, languid solo trombone-and-electronics album by a young player (who is also a trombonist to the stars). It consists almost entirely of simple glacial melodies and long tones — and yet, is deeply engaging, at once fragile and powerful. You can totally call this "ambient," it’s true, but the descriptor’s overuse doesn't really do it justice, and takes away from the music’s potency.
Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin, A Sublime Madness (Astral Spirits) - Deep psychedelic improvisational wonders from keyboardist Cordero (Psychic Ills), bassist Kerlin (Sunwatchers, but numerous others), as well as (hardest-working) drummer Ryan Sawyer (+ a bonus cast of talented New Yorkers, including Daniel Carter and Jessica Pavone). It’s got Can vibes — assured, forward-propulsion new music. The dance here is formlessness (not chaos) coalescing.
Asher Gamedze, Turbulence and Pulse (Mushroom Hour Half-Hour/International Anthem) - Cape Town drummer Gamedze's second LP as bandleader is an explosion of free rhythm and South African melodies, full of thorns and unexpected trails. Like a small-group Arkestra playing a new-Mzansi songbook for free-flowing dance-floors. AOTY material.
Jentlemen, Soundwords (Voluminous Arts) - Exceptional electronic-art-dance album by multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, Bklyn-to-The Hague expat. Full of poetic monologues and lush synths that mix with early-'80s EBM and proto-industrial rhythms, which have become an inter-generational evocation of a search for identity. Makes me think of Fad Gadget.
IzangoMa, Ngo Ma (Brownswood Recordings) - Incredible electronic-folkloric-cosmic storytelling atmospheres from a 15-piece South African band/collective led by guitarist/poet Sibusile Xaba and producer Ashley “AshK” Kgabo. Like if Laraaji and the Arkestra adapted a historically attuned ambient-junglist vibe. Not sure I’ve ever heard anything similar.
Michael Blake & Chroma Nova, Dance of the Mystic Bliss (P&M Records) - Veteran NYC saxophonist Blake (ex-Lounge Lizard, three decades of studio sessions and musical contexts galore) recruits some like-minded expat local heavies to create a beautiful “global jazz” album about loss. Sprinkled with Afro-Brazilian percussion (hail Mauro Refosco) but also strings that veer from street-party to elegy. Superb.
Four Tet, “Three Drums” (self-released) - First new Kieran Hebden solo music of 2023 sounds so classic-Four Tet I had to ask whether he was a tweaking the archive. (No, it’s relatively new.) But released in the immediate aftermath of his Coachella triumph, the boom-bap drums and the textured melancholy melody take us to a simpler time. Palette-cleanser? New direction? Gorgeous!