Fursaxa - Mycorrhiza Realm (****)
Let me save you a trip to Wikipedia: a mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant, which would locate a mycorrhizae realm beneath the topsoil, deep in the earth. Fursaxa (a.k.a. experimental songwriter Tara Burke) fills this domain with uncanny sounds: opener Lunaria Exits the Blue Lodge is an atmospheric awakening that evokes the breaking of dawn; Ode To Galliard’s sinister cello lurks beneath wails and moans thick with mystery; while Well of Tuhala’s wispy spell should soundtrack graveyard sleepwalks. Whether you’ll find this esoteric hokum or enchanting genius can be gauged by your reaction to the penultimate Charlote. A funereal dirge leavened by Mary Lattimore’s harp, its accessible beauty is shaken by its sudden collapse six minutes in. As the bottom drops away you’re either dazzled by its daring or frustrated by its abstruseness; if the former, dig this out.
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Solex Vs. Cristina Marinez + Jon Spencer - Amsterdam Showdown, King Street Throwdown (***)
Before we assess the music, let's unpick the personnel. Elisabeth Esselink (aka Dutch songwriter Solex), meet husband and wife duo Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez, frontman of Blues Explosion and both constituent members of Boss Hog.
If the ‘Vs.’ between their billing connotes a battle over artistic direction, Solex won - this is decidedly her creation, with little of the raw punk-blues of Spencer and Martinez’ other bands discernable in the mix. Though, with the record appropriating a diverse range of influences (it’s unsurprising that Esselink runs a record shop when she isn’t composing kitsch collages), raw punk-blues is one of the few genres this doesn't touch.
Its retro-futuristic aesthetic resembles Cornelius remixing The B-52s: horn stabs, hip hop beats, lounge-core chill-out and more crop up, and while the result is admirably miscellaneous (Damon Albarn in his Gorillaz-guise would no doubt approve), it frequently gets stuck in a rut (sorry, ‘groove’). A mixed bag, with mixed results.Out Now
To Rococo Rot - Speculation (***)
For their eighth album, To Rococo Rot maintain their established aesthetic - impersonal atmosphere, sparingly stocked with isolating electronics and organic krautrock grooves. Their music does very little, but it does it well. Seele is an early treat, its processed piano striking and shattering glitchy electronica and intricate drums, but it’s relatively conventional by the Berlin trio’s standards. Things don’t get weird till No Way To Prepare’s tuneless squall, but that’s only a thirty-second bridge linking the sparse pulse of Forwardness to Working Against Time’s minimal synth-squiggles. The closing Fridays is a more interesting departure from the template; washes of electronic noise are lightly infiltrated by organ courtesy of Faust’s Jochen Irmler, the amorphous result shifting throughout its ten and a half minute sprawl. But dissecting Speculation and analysing its tracks individually is to drain it - as a complete work this is an excellent addition to a moody discography.
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