Martina Lussi
Diffusion Is A Force

C. Lavender is a New York based sound artist and sound healing practitioner whose third full-length album explores meditative physical rituals of sound with binaural recordings from inside a geodesic dome in the Catskill Mountains of New York.“The future is a choice between utopia and oblivion,” noted architect, futurist and geodesic dome theorist Buckminster Fuller. Myth of Equilibrium delves into these divergent paths by featuring equal parts of pastoral raw acoustic percussion combined with C. Lavender’s signature “devastating caustic drones” (Ad Hoc) via her custom bass guitar and synthesizers.An assistant to the late pioneering electronic composer and Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros, C. Lavender’s astute editing and the binaural recording process places the listener within the heady fluctuating underworld she has created on this album. The recording environment of the geodesic dome allowed for sounds to transfer out beyond the confines of the walls as well as allowing outside sounds from the surrounding wilderness to permeate in like that of a mutating cell. The album suggests “headphone listening” for the full hypnotic experience Myth of Equilibrium presents to the listener.C. Lavender is a 2020 Pioneer Works (New York) Music Artist-in-Residence.

BUTTER SESSIONS: ....The project of Julien Huynh and Will Holden, Hybrid Man returns after releasing four spacious cuts of downtempo breaks and house in 2019. This time debuting on Butter Sessions, the tracks on Shapeshifting feel like a natural progression, equally well-crafted with the DJ in mind but with a slightly more trance influenced modus operandi.Opening with ‘Virtual Language’, the duo seemingly nods in the direction of Richard H. Kirk’s seminal Virtual State album, inspired by the futurism and warm robotic soundscapes of the 90s ambient techno scene. Dub FX and swirling basslines underpin the stylistic make-up of the EP, sharp breaks on the title track recalling 5AM catharsis in a pre-lockdown state of loved up rave bliss.

hellosQuare: ...Agency's stream of consciousness art-punk might seem miles away from their previous and parallel bands - A Drone Coda, Hoodlum Shouts and Spartak - but the influences that have always been in the background come to the fore with this piece of power pop in the style of Husker Dü and The Stooges on this debut single. On the flipside, Assad (Ben Andrews from My Disco/Agents Of Abhorrence) pulls apart an Agency instrumental and sets it adrift in a wash of Islamic prayer calls and Jakarta street sounds.

Young Echo: ...Building on the foundations built over years of mutual understanding and musical endeavours as part of the Young Echo team, the London-via-Bristol rapper has been climbing that MC Escher type lyrical ladder for years now, painting pictures with word-sound in the coolest & deadliest ways, and forming his very own style.Somehow he makes it sound easy when these intricate rhymes and words spill across O$VMV$M’s skewed symphonies, dropping slapdash punchlines in the midst of highly real observations about life in the city, lights off, lights on. Manonmars, to us, depicts a lens of someone who isn’t about to conform to any stream, not about to give in to the relentless pace of capitalism, not up for the rat-race, more up for slowing time, and seeing things for what they are, a surrealist take on what could otherwise be a mundane world.I guess it’s fair to say that life can be grey sometimes - so for our own sanity, we need to make sure to add colour. Manonmars does this, with heaps of imagination and witty real-talk, fired off in bullet time, perfectly hitting that fine-line between entertainment, and deadpan seriousness - a balancing act, juggled with verbs & conjunctions, over a backdrop of timeless rhythm & melody.Perhaps a less insular album than the first self-titled record, this LP sees guest appearances from Young Echo’s ‘Guest’ and Bogues (both voices of Jabu) on vocals. Fresh Bristol blood ‘Birthmark’ and ‘Axel Holey’ appear with lyrics too, and there is a special vocal injection from Paulina Korobkiewicz, reciting writings by Polish painter and colour artist Wojciech Fangor, and drawing a connection between the music and the visual aspect of Manonmars’ practice.

Butter Sessions: ...Canadian born and Naarm (Melbourne) based Jennifer Loveless returns one year on from her debut release Hard/Soft (Pure Space Records) with Water, a 12” EP presented by Butter Sessions. Bestowing us with five tracks of dystopian dance-floor thump, Water is a bustling showcase of Jenn’s breadth as an artist. Reflecting on the contrast of Water with her first EP, Loveless comments “I wanted a hard contrast to the Hard/Soft release. I always had a plan to release an energetic frivolous fun type EP after Hard/Soft. I had a feeling people might see me as an ambient producer (although I wouldn’t really categorise Hard/Soft as that), and I guess this EP, Water, is my response”. At its core, Water is a hyper-charged cetacean maelstrom of electronic music, sampling weddell seals, humpback whales, pacific walruses and water itself. Water kicks off with the rumbling patter of Out/Under before moving into the unabating Syzygy (Scissor Me). Jenn stamps a joyful yet skittish imprint onto ECC, while fly on the wall Backroll Buddy sits on a sound bed of audio Jenn recorded at parties, capturing friends chattering and an edit of a Whitney Houston earworm she heard a DJ playing, paying ode to a night out. B L U YOU is a charming endnote; a fusion of fluorescent pop and a catchy bassline. The verdict here is that Water allows Jennifer Loveless to prove herself truly as a jack of all trades. Water takes shape as an engrossing palette of bold dance music.