Fertile sonic fare ploughed-up from the creative fields of Aircooled, Pulselovers, Transient Visitor, Pye Corner Audio and others

Barring brief portions of time in/around Christmas – and the onset of a pandemic – there are no longer fallow times for the music industry in terms of new releases, so even the sleepiest parts of the summer holiday period proffer fresh arrivals in search of analytical attention… like this lot below.

Although there have already been some low-key digital-only appearances on Bandcamp, the quasi-supergroup of Katharine Wallinger (bass), Oliver Cherer (Gilroy Mere, Dollboy et al. on guitars, keyboards, synths) and Justin Welch (Elastica, Piroska, etc. on drums/percussion) launch themselves properly as Aircooled with the punningly-titled St. Leopards long-player (via the newly-established Music’s Not Dead).

Expanding upon the energetic kosmische templates Cherer has deployed previously – most notably under his fleeting Rhododendron and Australian Testing Lab Inc. projects – this collection is made-up of four joyously extended motorik jams.

Whilst the influences are far from being covertly channelled, the execution is gloriously gripping and balmily elevating. Thus, proceedings shift through the languid yet propulsive Dingerbeat-driven opening title track, the glam-boogie-tinged chug of “Tommy’s Strut”, the glistening mid-70s-Can-laced grooves of “Offenhausen 360” and the glitterball-lit-funk pulsations of the closing “Supermotodisco” (with guest vocals from Riz Maslen and extra percussion courtesy of Pablo Cooke).

Subtle and sophisticated it might not be, but as an exercise in letting loose whilst still forging strong sonic structures, St. Leopards more than succeeds.

Moving from a super-trio to a super-duo, we find Martin Jensen (The Home Current) and Alex Cargill (The Central Office of Information) returning as a pairing with TV2, their second album under the Transient Visitor umbrella on Subexotic Records. Although apparently an overspill from the file-swapping construction sessions that yielded last year’s TV1 LP through the same outlet, this sequel set doesn’t feel anywhere near like being swept-up hard drive detritus. In fact, this is arguably a more accessible and superior selection.

Jumping through jubilantly juddering A Certain Ratio-goes-Berlin-techno rhythmscaping (“Cobra Movements” and “The Ego Has Landed”), stripped-down takes on early-80s Kraftwerk pulsations (“Soaked Paradise”), old school techno-meets-hip-hop (“The Steinfort Stomp”), cybernetic clanking (“If I Know I’m Going Crazy I Must Not Be Insane”) and extra-squelchy synth mash-ups (“Falcon Funk”), TV2 may not be a radical revelation but it confirms that two masters in their own realms can more than comfortably cohabit in a shared creative headspace.

Also coming out via Subexotic is Circles Within Circles, from polymath Mat Handley’s Pulselovers enterprise. Not a straightforwardly brand new conception – though it holds together with a cohesion that suggests that it could be – the LP rounds up a diverse range of tracks previously peppered throughout compilations curated by the A Year in The Country label between 2017 and 2020.

The net result is a deliciously engorging smorgasbord that acts as a virtual best of buffet from the well-stocked electro-organic Pulselovers pantry, with Handley – accompanied in places by various guests from Floodlights, his family and elsewhere – acting as a generous and talented head chef.

Hence, we’re served-up some dreamy pastoral synth-pop dishes on par with the best things from 2019’s Cotswold Stone LP (“Brodsworth” and the titular cut); neo-classical-dipped drone pieces (“Thieves’ Cant” and “Fuggels”); early-80s 4AD-meets-Factory Records-flavoured atmospherics (“Tales of Jack”); sumptuous Michael Rotherisms (“Woodford Halse to Fenny Compton in Five Minutes”); piquant folk-horror (the multi-voiced “Beat Her Down”); warming Radiophonic Workshop saluting (“Endless Repeats, Eternal Return”); and tasty comforting piano-led Brian Eno ambience (“The Gaumont Frieze”).

Existing Pulselovers fans and newcomers alike should be equally satisfied by the gathered offerings inside Circles Within Circles.

And if that wasn’t quite enough Handley activity, then back at his own mushrooming three-labels HQ more new things have been ushered-out from the most outré sound-sculpting sides of the business.

Therefore, the elusive Kemper Norton brings us Rife (via Woodford Halse), with two-tape-side-long pieces bridging the gap between the abstract and the earthy; melding barely-there reverberations into swirling drones (“Rife 1”) and eerie disembodied pluckings into rustic ripples before a frail traditional folk coda (“Rife 2 / My Love is Gone”) in the process.

Simultaneously sneaking out on sibling label Preston Capes is You Are Not Alone in the Kiln, a conjoining between the pseudonym-protected Divider Line and The Creeping Man. Rounding-up a baker’s dozen cuts that fuse murky cinematic noise experiments, obscure TV/film dialogue samples and field recordings, this often feels like an imaginary soundtrack in search of a visual accompaniment. Fans of vintage ghost movie scores, Barry Adamson’s Moss Side Story and K of ARC’s recent Show Them Your Throat will be right at home (with the lights off).

The product of another double-act, on the always beautifully-presented Blackford Hill, is Music for the Moon and the Trees from Morgan Szymanski and Tommy Perman. Built upon the former’s guitar essays recorded in/around a cottage in rural Scotland in summer 2019 – around which found sounds from wildlife and weather along with makeshift percussion were added – and spliced together by the latter electronically during the spring/summer of 2020, this is both an impressively intimate and scrupulously inventive affair.

The nearest touchstones are quite hard to place, such is the lack of baggage accompanying both artists. However, for those that enjoy the rustic neo-primitivism and the elemental post-everything explorations of the extended Thrill Jockey family tree there is much to enjoy here.

So close the eyes and you can imagine Marisa Anderson spartanly reinterpreting something from Sam Prekop’s still stellar first solo album (“The Road to the Cottage”), Pullman being remixed by John McEntire (“Danza del Fuego”), Glenn Jones being given a once over by Matmos (“Sarabande for the Souls”) and Sarah Louise in wordless-mode (“Moonset (Pine Spectrals)”).

Whilst that is one broad way of relating to Music for the Moon and the Trees, there will be other routes into its beguiling outside-in world, that will reap rewards to the open-eared listener.

Whilst it’s challenging to pick up the trail on Martin Jenkins label-hopping journey as Pye Corner Audio at this stage in a lengthy catalogue – as it would be to late-comers only just discovering the likes of The Home Current, Polypores and Fields Line Cartographer – the freshly-unveiled Let’s Emerge! for Sonic Cathedral, which follows on from last year’s Entangled Routes on Ghost Box, offers an imposing in-road.

Featuring Ride’s Andy Bell adding guitar lines to five of the ten assembled tracks – returning the favour for Jenkins having remixed some of his solo material – Let’s Emerge! is deliberately tailored to the taste-buds of the hardcore Sonic Cathedral aficionado’s palate.

Along the way this means leaning heavily to the most epically strung-out realms of the shoegaze spectrum (“De-Hibernate”), making deep nods to the mistiest interludes within Spiritualized’s recently reissued Pure Phase (“Lyracal”), bleak sci-fi noise (“Does It Go Dark?”), celestial synthscapes (“Let’s Emerge Part One” and “Saturation Point”) and irradiated post-acid house (“Warmth of the Sun”).

Not being designed for the faint-hearted, in places Let’s Emerge! can be an intimidating experience. However, the faithful following Martin Jenkins from imprint to imprint should happily consider it is another key piece in an ongoing musical mosaic.

Adrian
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