Bandcamp Counselor: May 2017
By Cameron Deuel
Bandcamp is the single greatest music discovery platform in existence because it grants you instant access to an ecosystem of music in virtually every genre from artists around the world. You could accidentally click on an album under the Recently Sold section and discover your new favorite band. You might also quickly recognize that lo-fi didgeridoo two-step isn’t your jam. (Or maybe it is, and you find acceptance among the didgeridudes and didgeridudettes!) The goal of this column is to point you in the direction of great releases from the last month that flew under the radar. Here are a few outstanding releases from May.
Maggie Whitlock – The Seams EP
Boston-based singer-songwriter Maggie Whitlock has an affinity for inhabiting vastness. Her voice echoes throughout her latest project, The Seams EP, as though it’s reverberating off a jagged cliffside or within the depths of a long-forgotten cavern. Even though we’re at the precipice of summer, this EP feels like a heavy, necessary knit sweater.
RIYL: Lagoons, tea with lemon, writing letters, dark greens
https://maggiewhitlock.bandcamp.com/album/the-seams-ep
RPG – Move By Faith
Aside from being a London-based artist who just released a magnificent mixtape that ruminates on themes of love within the context of unforgiving religion, not much is known about RPG. Move By Faith is a shadowy affair that pairs slow-burning vocals with massive, therapeutic choruses.
RIYL: Acolyte robes, Nightcrawler from X-Men, the music video for “Two Weeks” by fka Twigs, dark lipstick
https://rpg4lyf.bandcamp.com/album/move-by-faith
The Comet is Coming – Death To The Planet
ICYMI, the world is on the verge of ending and it’s going to happen any day now. While you wait, you might as well embark on a psychedelic jazz trip courtesy of London’s own The Comet is Coming (pictured at the top of this post.) Death To The Planet is unsettling and paranoid, at times even challenging, but the reward is realizing the harsh reality of rocketing through the nebulous unknown.
RIYL: Melting, Rubik’s Cubes, the cosmos, red wine
https://thecometiscoming.bandcamp.com/album/death-to-the-planet
Wintermilk – Pretty Ugly
Pretty Ugly, the debut release from Russian three-piece Wintermilk, is an unexpectedly powerful wave that knocks you down as you try to wade deeper into the ocean. While the band identifies as shoegaze, they incorporate elements of cold wave and electronica to generate a lush undercurrent powerful enough to pull you through the entire album.
RIYL: Reflections, double-socks, It Follows, astrology
https://wintermilk.bandcamp.com/album/pretty-ugly
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