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Butter Sessions: ...Following on from their contribution to the Butter Sessions Come Together compilation released in March this year, Melbourne’s Polito deliver their debut EP Ultraparallel. Polito is the collaboration between musicians Robert Downie and Finnian Langham and dancers Arabella Frahn-Starkie and Hillary Goldsmith. The ensemble integrates improvised techno and contemporary dance to form well-considered and captivating performances. The spirit of these performances are masterfully captured on the 12” record. On the transition between mediums, the group states; “we always aim to capture the unpredictability and liveliness of our improvised performances when we record, and try to sculpt the feeling of continuous movement which is so intrinsically tied to Polito’s identity.”Ultraparallel consists of four tracks that were extracted from studio sessions, emerging organically whilst jamming. The EP’s introduction Hornet’s Web wields mutilated samples of vocals and spoken word, paired with abrupt rhythms to forge anomalous techno. The eponymous track Ultraparallel, recorded in 2018, is a dark and brooding arrangement with a murmuring melody and an infectious recurring bassline. Polito reflects; “this track is from the first batch of studio sessions we had as Polito where our intention was to create more discrete ‘tracks’ which could be played by DJs, rather than the longform compositions more similar to the live performances which we had recorded up to that point.”Turning the record over, Seventh Limb embodies the music for dance nuance by infusing dub with sounds from outer-space. Polito reveals; “we wanted to explore creating something more in line with the mood of our live performances, which are typically slower and have a rather meditative atmosphere. The more relaxed tempo allows the dancers to move at a sustainable pace and gives the musicians more space to prepare and manipulate the various musical elements in real-time. The result is our first formal exploration of ‘the chugger.’” Ultraparallel’s finale Sublunary is a playful sequence mingling electronics with an airy clarinet and saxophone.Attuned to their audience, Polito imagines how their music will be consumed throughout the creative process. They comment “while making music in the studio, we try to transport ourselves mentally to hypothetical dancefloors the music we’re making could be played on, adding moments and sounds which would excite, energise, disorient, or have some other desired somatic effect. We’re also considering not just how the music sounds, but how it would ‘feel’ when played on large sound systems.” Ultraparallel ultimately presents a refreshing visual take on literal dance music; a considered and holistic approach to enhancing the experience of listening and moving.

Lost icebergs off the arctic, hollowed out memory, an acerbic embrace.Third Space presents his first long-player via .jpeg artefacts. Venturing from previous, punchier, swinging percussion found on previous releases, the LP delivers careful introspection, experimentation, and rich conceptual development.The beatless iterations and encompassing walls of sound that stuck their heads out on earlier EPs are embraced in full here; it’s claustrophobic but space is found in the right areas. Tension and release to the nth degree, but without becoming a trope. Percussion remains, but slowed to a crawl.The release calls on memories of Ambarchi’s Oystered (as well as, notably, Grapes from the Estate) and the clicks and hums of Pan Sonic, but it’s the development past this that allows Scissor Kick to shine. The areas where intimacy is pushed through field recordings, live scattered percussion (from R.Rebeiro, as well as TS), and those subtle reminders that Third Space still has an iron-firm grasp on percussive rhythm, is where this record stands on its own solid ground. What was foggy red-roomed speaker stacks has given way to arctic tundra, vast expanse, acid rain.Layer up.~~

The wait is over. Somewhere between the rodeo clowns in the summer and archangels at the end of time: Blectum from Blechdom have returned. This is obvious from the moment your needle drops on their new album 'DeepBone' and never lets you forget it. Swirling swarms of inhumanly perky voices bounce between your speakers, only taking breaths for the electronics to be equally overcharged. Hyper-melodic glitches and helium-contaminated Broadway arrangements are all interwoven with brocaded beats and elegant fractal architectures, sending an important message: Brain go crazy now!This duo, composed of Kevin Blechdom and Blevin Blectum, bring us their 6th official album and first for Deathbomb Arc. Digital due on July 23rd and vinyl in the fall; both on pre-sale now.

No Corner: ...Lowkey but pivotal Bristolian duo O$VMV$M supply No Corner with their first 12”, some 6 years after their debut ‘Memoryz Ov U’ in 2015Part of the sprawling but loose knit Young Echo collective, Amos Childs (Jabu) and Sam Barrett (Neek) have been in the shadows recently, producing for Manonmars and Rider Shafique, but ‘Weekend Saviour’ marks their sultry return to the fray via six slow and eazy downbeats in signature style. Chopped & screwed rap instrumentals, R&B, and dancehall inform the vibe, although skewed with a lilting South Western accent and perfectly skudgy, stoned appeal that oozes from every cut, working with a paucity of ingredients in an unshowy manner that’s made them clear favourites of red eyed night owls.The ghosts of Avon’s trip hop and heritage gloam large over proceedings, with perhaps obvious comparisons to be between Portishead and their dusty, creaking opener ’116 Greystoke,’ but there’s also something more fugged out to the likes of their dungeon bunkered title cut that’s more intimation, not imitation, as they pursue a perpendicular style of bluntedness between the slompy ‘Deathphone,’ plus the pastoral dancehall of ‘Bird Ride’ nodding to Equiknoxx, and an outstanding closer of cartoonish samples and groggy groove like a Metal Fingers meets Wiley screwball in ‘Codzilla Outro’ pointing to new angles of their sound.