U Can Play This When U Have Guests Over

over u

moonrise

The deeply weird meets lush on a genre-hopping mix from New York-based multidisciplinary artist @jamesk_1.

Read more: ifonlyuk.com/if-only-podcast-96-james-k

If-Only Podcast #96: James K

Song taken from Arca's Stretch 1.
Will remove upon request from artist, their affiliates or therein.

@arca1000000

Arca — Walls

Almost

Plasma

from the album "RIP Chrysalis" coming out on Hausu Mountain on 10/20/15

For more info:
hausumountain.com/?page_id=2282

Eartheater - Wetware

Arca - "Manners"

PSYCHIC LIBERATION SHOW ON MONTEZ PRESS RADIO WITH : James K

Saint Abdullah // “In God’s Image” // 2xCD on Psychic Liberation // 
Release date: August 21, 2020

Saint Abdullah, composed of Tehran-born brothers Mohammad and Mehdi, have fine-tuned their vision of conceptual, blown-out dub and free jazz with “In God’s Image,” an ambitious twenty-song double CD on Psychic Liberation. The opus by the two Iranians living in New York, is full of mourning and rage, but these affects only scratch the surface of the work’s emotional and formal heterogeneity. 

Like the image gracing its cover—a tiny, dusty peykan, its roof fitted with an image of Ruhollah Khomeini and cone speakers—Saint Abdullah uses DIY minimalism to deliver maximal messaging. On “Problem,” distorted percussion, Shia oration, and a sample of the late Nipsy Hussle meld into a cathartic club burner, while the rhythms and lifted string arpeggiations on “Potion for sorrow” induce hazy cinematics, the duo’s attempt at Persian stoner boom bap. 

Elsewhere are instances of improvised jamming, melancholic twinkling, and pensive restraint. The powerfully eclectic statement by Saint Abdullah includes appearances by saxophonist Travis Laplante, who blows a spiralling noir line over feedbacking cacophony. On another track, Moor Mother delivers a poetic lashing on Western imperialists who rain missiles on hospitals, grieves the bodies piling up as capital gets sucked from the Earth. 

The sample work on “In God’s Image” draws heavily from Iranian documentaries, and includes the brothers’ field recordings from Tehran and New York. Heretical combinations collide senses of antiquity and contemporaneity, resisting the many orientalist reads on Iranian culture and politics. In this struggle, Saint Abdullah conveys many emotional registers, from exhausted depression to righteous indignation. 

Among many things, the image of Khomeini on the cover, which often scandalizes American audiences, represents the overthrow of a 2,500-year-long monarchy. All forms of dehumanization receive the sonic snakebite of Saint Abdullah, and “In God’s Image” resuscitates the revolutionary potential of music that pulls from the traditions of oppressed peoples in both the East and West. 

Psychic Liberation, in operation since 2018, is an experimental music label started in Brooklyn, New York, currently based in The Hague, Netherlands. The label is distributed in North America by Fantastique, and in EU/UK by Boomkat.
Mastered by Glyn Maier
Layout by Sara Abruña 
credits
releases August 21, 2020

psychicliberation.net

Audio by Saint Abdullah
Mastered by Glyn Maier
Layout by Sara Abruña

PLIB007 - SAINT ABDULLAH - A8. Problem

Arca - &&&&&
Format: LP (Special etched vinyl edition) / DL
Cat.No. PAN 100
Release Date: 18 September 2020
Purchase: pan.lnk.to/Arca
Fully remastered & first-time release of individual tracks

For anyone who can remember, Arca’s &&&&& was a moment. Its 25-minute stretch of coiling, contorted grime and glitch; dub and hip hop dropped with the buzz of an impending co-production credit on Kanye West’s Yeezus in 2013. It included cuts of sound and beats that were too weird for that pop project, while becoming a piece of experimental art that what would come to define what is by now broadly known as a ‘post-club’ sound. It’s music that is as visceral as it is experimental; made as much for the mind, as it is for the body.

Released with no warning seven years ago, &&&&& became a bridge between Alejandra Ghersi’s time partying and collaborating with her queer peers, while still living in New York to the next stage of her career releasing on Mute in London. She’d go from making beats for rapper Mykki Blanco and fashion label Hood By Air, posting lurching bass reworkings of pop hits on YouTube, and producing her first fluid mixtapes with DIS Magazine, to finishing off this seminal mixtape on the synths in Daniel Miller’s studio.

After dropping three impressive EPs the year before, &&&&& marked a transition. Continuations and extrapolations of material from Stretch 1 and Stretch 2 appeared in the mangled RnB sampling of “Century” and Arca’s signature vocal layering in the pitched flow of “Waste”. Along with the fluttering, muted heartbeat of “Obelisk”, and the lumbering piano chords of “Mother”, fourteen sonic sketches were elegantly woven together into a single, downloadable whole.

As Alejandra’s course turned toward moving to Europe from the United States, &&&&& became a remarkable challenge to the form of the mixtape, which was a relatively new trend taking hold of the online-oriented underground at the turn of the 2010s. But where many, if not most mixtapes where treated simply as a showcase of individual tracks presaging a more ‘official’ release to come, &&&&& was a complete piece in its own right. “I wanted to make something that was my best work,” Alejandra says about a record that has stood the test of time, “I listen to it very fondly today.”

Now, with the lifespan of the Arca project nearing a decade, Alejandra has entered a new era of ‘non-binary pop’ with her fourth album, KiCk i, out on XL Recordings. It’s more important than ever to look back while forging ahead, and &&&&&’s ground-breaking hybrid dance music is a good place to start:

“A sense of possibility, a sense of the unknown; punk attitude, respect for classical music and formality; cyberpunk, anime, sexual tension; trauma, innocence, fear of death; kink, lots of weed, and wanting to connect with people, but not on the terms of a status quo. That kind of sums up &&&&& for me.”

The release is mastered by Enyang Urbiks, with artwork by Jesse Kanda.

&&&&& (PAN 2020 Reissue)

Arca - Pure Anna (PAN 100)

Arca - Fossil (PAN 100)

Reestablishing Connection

Fade Into You ft. Eartheater

Plucking a Cherry From The Void

Crickets

Manchester-based collective All Hands on Deck have been on our radar for a little while, but it wasn't until this summer that we were introduced to one of the minds behind it, Abena. It was her stream for We Out Here that had us hooked; a mind-bending mix of energetic electronics that saw her dropping in edits from Panic At The Disco and Bloc Party in the most surprising, yet effortless fashion.

For those that aren't au fait with All Hands on Deck's movements, they are a DJ collective that consists of, and supports, people who identify as women, non-binary and trans, by running a series of open deck parties and DJ workshops in the city, which have been replaced by an online mix series during this year's COVID restrictions.

With the memory of Abena's stream still ringing loudly in our ears, we were eager to see what she would bring to the table for her Shine A Light On mix, and the result is suitably gripping, moving through moody, chuggy cuts that perfectly soundtrack the darkening days...

Abena: The 'Shine A Light On' Mix

Behind Glass

self-titled is a music magazine that has nothing to do with music. At least not in the traditional sense of self-important ‘criticism’ and profiles that read like regurgitated press releases. Yes, we print reviews and thought-provoking features, but we also pride ourselves on answering the questions others don’t ask. Find out what some of those questions are by reading our daily site or one of the back issues below.

For more information, or to request our one sheet for prospective advertisers and creative/event partners, please feel free to contact one of our editors:

Editor/Publisher, Andrew Parks, aparks@self-titledmag.com
Managing Editor, Arye Dworken, adworken@self-titledmag.com

As for getting covered in our digital magazine or daily edition, please send any material for review or feature consideration to our central office at:

self-titled
4204 Oakland Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55407

Arca - "Manners"

selftitledmag

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