What the Bandcamp Daily editors are listening to right now.
Yu Ching
The Crystal Hum
Vinyl LP
Musically, the Taiwan-based artist Yu Ching occupies a similar spectral realm as Night School labelmate Ela Orleans. Both of them are more interested in mood over melody—this is a good thing—and as such both create songs that feel as mysterious as a bed of fog floating above a lake at night. On the hypnotic The Crystal Hum, some of that is owed to the sheer amount of empty space Ching purposely leaves in her songs; the echo effect swaddling her voice makes it sound ghostly, hovering in the empty air. The other key factor is the way Ching uses the few instruments that do appear to sketch out the outlines of the song rather than provide concrete shape. The effect is similar to being in a pitch-black room where the only light is supplied by a slowly flashing strobe light: You get a sense of its layout and dimensions, but never a complete rendering. On “Thunder In Heaven,” Ching threads a single faint guitar line through gauzy gray atmospherics, setting her voice far in the background, like she’s singing up from the bottom of a well. On “JohnJohn,” a bass pulse and a few wheezing notes from an ancient keyboard are the perfect partners for Ching’s melancholy intonations. The Crystal Hum casts a gorgeous, gripping spell—once it grabs you, it doesn’t let go.
–J. Edward Keyes
Justice
Hyperdrama
2 x Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Seventeen years post-“D.A.N.C.E,” Justice still know how to move—and more importantly, they know how to get you to move. The Parisian duo’s fourth LP, their first in eight years, is their comprehensive work to date, assimilating the best elements of their many phases (cacophonous house, shadowy French touch, electro-prog, midtempo funk-pop) and cutting out the fat. The back-to-back bangers that jumpstart off the album melt into disco fever by the halfway point —the middle third is a redemption arc of sorts after 2017’s stunning-but-uneven Woman—before easing into an smooth, atmospheric comedown. Whereas the slinky basslines and silken keys on the last LP (and the ’70s prog influences on the record prior) occasionally felt like embellishments, the reference points here are leveraged in dynamic and unpredictable ways, arranged with more vim and vigor than any point since their debut. “Dear Alan” pays tribute to Giorgio Moroder with a quivering, low-end synth groove strongly reminiscent of “I Feel Love,” gradually ratcheting up the speed and distortion and throwing metallic guitars into the mix; “The End,” steered by the always impeccable Thundercat, is another standout, straddling EDM and quiet-storm R&B. Justice served with this one.
–Zoe Camp
Hus Kingpin
IN A STATE OF NIRVANA
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP
Three years ago, the New York rapper Hus Kingpin released what is still—in this writer’s opinion, anyway—the best record of his decade-plus career. The sprawling double-album Portishus took inspiration from the Bristol trip-hop group that gave the album its title, marrying Kingpin’s conversational bars to moody, low-lit, vaguely jazz-y production that recalled Dummy without outright mimicking it. (The record scored plaudits from no less than Portishead’s own Geoff Barrow.) Since then, Kingpin has put the same concept to work to somewhat diminishing returns: 2002’s Bjorkingpin strained in its efforts to make connections to the Icelandic singer, and both My Beautiful Darkwave Fantasy and The Tricky Tape felt underdone, as if Kingpin had boxed himself into this conceit he couldn’t find his way out of. So it’s a great relief when the chilling opening moments of In A State of Nirvana kick in, with Kingpin and producer Macapella finding a new way to spin a familiar song to genuinely ominous effect. The remainder of the brief record is just as gripping; Kingpin plays fast and loose with the concept—I’m fairly sure that’s a loop of “Endless, Nameless” that “TICAL” is built on, and Cobain’s voice pops up to rave about Os Mutantes in “Megatron,” but that’s about it. Instead, he concentrates on enlisting producers who best serve his conspiratorial flow, whether it’s the uptempo jazz supplied by Macapella on “Circling” or Relense’s sandpapered soul loop on “13th Hour.” Kingpin sounds assured throughout, and the album’s brevity begs for repeated plays—which it capably rewards.
–J. Edward Keyes
Mandy
Lawn Girl
Vinyl LP
All hail she! Miranda Winters of Chicago noise punks Melkbelly (whose records are also very much worth your time) assembled an all-female band of musicians—Linda Sherman on guitar, Lizz Smith on bass, and Wendy Zeldin on drums—to back her on this first proper solo LP as Mandy. Lawn Girl is a reflection on femininity and the by turns tender and brutal experience of being female —but there’s a twist. Rather than being situated in media res, even when she sings so sweetly of teen love, Lawn Girl is delivered wrapped in murk and haze, the cracks and rattles and buckets of distortion throwing the pop-rock and metal riffs into sharp relief. Winters is more interested in using the balance of dirty and sweet sounds to feel out the emotional contours of her experiences rather than simply relaying them, judging them, or playing to cliché, keeping Lawn Girl dynamic and unpredictable and fresh throughout. Also! Is opening track “Forsythia” a callback to the song of the same name by Chicago legends Veruca Salt? The one that goes: “She comes around and I get lost!”
–Mariana Timony
Morgul Blade
Heavy Metal Wraiths
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy has inspired so many metalheads over the years that pretty much every character’s got a corresponding wrecking crew. Brad Sanders unpacked this ubiquity at length in his 2021 guide to “The Fellowship of The Bands,” comprising King Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf, and more; mind you, that list is restricted just to protagonists. Team Sauron are no slackers either, as demonstrated by Morgul Blade, a Philadelphia metal band named after a poisoned dagger wielded by the Witch-king of Angmar. Not that any background reading is necessary to get a kick out of Heavy Metal Wraiths, their ferocious new album. Standouts like “Razor Sharp” and “Eagle Strike” combine the catchy thrust of classic NWOBHM bands like Judas Priest and Motörhead with the demonic rock-and-roll of Venom and Hellhammer,” supplemented by detours into dungeon synth (“The Last in a Line of Kings”), black metal (“Frostwyrm Cavalry”), and even operatic drone folk (“Widow’s Lament”). It just goes to show—ringwraiths are not to be trifled with.
–Zoe Camp
Parsnip
Behold
Vinyl LP
Post-punk of the jangly sort but a bit too composed to qualify as indie pop despite the chiming organs and airy vocal harmonies, the latest record from Melbourne band (where else?) Parsnip soars in its moments of pop transcendence and satisfies the rest of the time with songs that draw lightly from 60s garage punk and psychedelia in its most pastel form. Imagine Syd Barrett putting out records on Slumberland and you’re halfway there.
