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Certified: Ronin Arkestra, Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Japanese Jazz Supergroup
Certified is a series on Bandcamp where we spotlight artists whose work we think is worthy of additional attention. “I grew up biculturally and bilingually,” explains Mark de Clive-Lowe, the...
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The Best New Ambient on Bandcamp: September 2019
A quick browse through the Bandcamp ambient tag will reveal any number of ambient works from composers unified in their artistry through atmosphere, but with wildly differing approaches to how they...
View ArticleAlbum of the Day: R. Elizabeth, “Every And All We Voyage On”
Every And All We Voyage On connects two disparate traditions—on one side, there’s the experimental tape music tradition pioneered by the GRM and San Francisco Tape Music Center; on the other, the...
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The Best Electronic Music on Bandcamp: September 2019
It’s a fairly U.K.-heavy cast this month in this bumper roundup. In particular, some notable manifestations of particularly British forms: drum & bass, breakbeat rave, broken beat, and original,...
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Kayo Dot’s Epic, Experimental Metal: A Retrospective
As the sole constant member of the genre-hopping, experimental-metal project Kayo Dot, Toby Driver has made it his mission to circumvent the obvious. This is a band that can swing wildly from operatic...
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Mujercitas Terror: 20 Years of Rebellious, Romantic Punk in Buenos Aires
Photo by Agustin Diaz With a career spanning more than 20 years with the same lineup—Daniela Zahra on bass and vocals, her partner Marcelo Moreyra on guitar and vocals, and Federico Losa on...
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Bandcamp Navigator, September 2019: From Indiana Indie Pop to Argentinian...
As usual, we’re starting in familiar territory before we hop out into the unknown, and in this case, it’s really familiar. I haven’t been able to stop listening to the new record by Mike Adams at His...
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Gordon Koang and the Music in Exile Label Give Voice to Asylum Seekers
Photos by Michael Lightfoot In person, Gordon Koang cuts a striking figure. He’s over six-feet tall, and his forehead bears six rows of scars marking the transition from childhood to adulthood that are...
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This Week’s Essential Releases: Deathgrind, Garage Rock, Afro-Peruvian Dance...
Welcome to Essential Releases, our weekly roundup of the best music on Bandcamp. Each week, we’ll recommend crucial new albums that were released between last Friday and this Friday, plus pick an...
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The Best Beat Tapes on Bandcamp: September 2019
September’s Best Beat Tapes column features tapes from purveyors of minimalist boom-bap and maximum bass alike. There are jagged, off-kilter beats from a veritable legend who’s worked with Kendrick...
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The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: September 2019
All kinds of experimental music can be found on Bandcamp: free jazz, avant-rock, dense noise, outer-limits electronics, deconstructed folk, abstract spoken word, and so much more. If an artist is...
View ArticleAlbum of the Day: Baba Zula, “Derin Derin”
Since 1996, the Istanbul-based band Baba Zula have created enchanting songs built around Turkish folk music. While their melding of contemporary and traditional sounds finds its forebears in Turkey’s...
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Big Ups: Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Picks His Bandcamp Favorites
No matter how much he has on his plate, Wilco’s prolific frontman Jeff Tweedy still sets aside part of each Friday to discover new music. “If you’d told me when I was 12 or 13 that every Friday I...
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Ten Years of Iron Age’s Hardcore Landmark “The Sleeping Eye”
Photo by Angela Owens At the midpoint of the 2000s, American hardcore punk had hit an interesting mark. Having been around for 25 years at that point, the genre was being led by a generation too young...
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The Best Neo-New Jack Swing on Bandcamp
As hip-hop’s influence expanded throughout the 1980s, shaping the sound of R&B, a new sound emerged and began dominating the charts. Pioneered by Harlem-born producer Teddy Riley, new jack swing...
View ArticleAlbum of the Day: Angel Olsen, “All Mirrors”
Angel Olsen has always been a profound songwriter with an impressive voice, but on her new All Mirrors, she swan dives into full-on diva territory. This proper star-turn from the Asheville-based Olsen...
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The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: September 2019
This year is shaping up to be one of the best ever for jazz. September—like every other month this year—contained too much great music to capture in a single column. Not only did two of the greatest...
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Pelada’s Raucous Dance Music is a Rebellion Against Modern Life
Montreal electronic duo Pelada don’t do a whole lot of social media. Though producer Tobias Rochman maintains a politically motivated Twitter presence, vocalist Chris Vargas is off every platform...
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The Toronto Metal Scene: Eight Bands to Know
Though Toronto has always had a strong metal scene, its contributions are often overshadowed by those coming from nearby Quebec—where metal might as well be a way of life—or by its own output in other...
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Julia Serano’s Journey to Self-Discovery Through Music
“A year from now I’ll be the center of attention / I swear my mind’s made up / After I have had my sex change operation! / I swear my mind’s made up.” Those lyrics are from the song “Switch Hitter”...
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