Scrap Heap 18.5
Youtube Classic! Recs in Jazz, Ambient, Art Music, Metal/Hardcore, Post-Hardcore, some Dub.
Let's scrap.
YouTube Classic
I could listen to the stupid Fron2 all day.
Scrap Heap
The humble scrap heap – lots of recs this time thru!
Jazz
What even is jazz? These 3 albums are all brand new & don't sound much alike. Ches Smith more noisy/skronky, Bloto has an almost hip-hop vibe, while Dan Weiss has a more classic modern jazz compositional style
sagov
Ches Smith - Clone Row (Otherly Love, Jun '25)
When the jazzers start doing no wave, that's that shit that I do like!! Ches Smith seemed to really consider the band he had assembled when writing these crunchy and funky pieces – I'm in fuzz guitar interaction heaven with Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman on left & right channels. I can be kind of tough on Halvorson because her playing is so specific, but IMO this is the perfect context for her. Great record if you want to hear jazz music written by and for rock fans.
Bloto - Grzyby EP (Astigmatic, Jun '25)
Good on Bloto for milking the mushrooms for all they're worth. After so many years without an album, it's cool that they got a ton out of their recording sessions. Polish hip hoppy jazz. I listened to this while cooking & I felt like I was in the coolest subterranean cavern club.
Dan Weiss - Unclassified Affections (Pi Recordings, Jun '25)
Some really wild rhythms slithering around in this one. JJazz for sure, but maybe a little 3rd-way in the rigidity of the compositions. Weiss' drumming is crazy but his band of savants work thru the pieces nicely, with Patricia Brennan's vibe playing really getting me going.
Ambient
Again, a mixed bag where I don't even know if these all count as ambient music. rousay/Korsmo and Harrow have a more traditional "ambient" style of lowkey compositions, while the Hasunuma/Aoba/Roy trio is a more playful look at electronic music, and I don't even know what goat (JP) technically is.
mappa
goat (JP) - Without References / Cindy Van Acker (Latency, Mar '25)
Thanks to Aled for recommending me percussion music that sounds like when two car's blinkers are slightly out of sync with each other, then suddenly line up, then are out of sync again. Ft members of Boredoms.
claire rousay & Gretchen Korsmo - quilted lament (Mappa, May '25)
More summertime ambient from rousay – everything is mic'd up sooo close. Prepared piano, acoustic guitars, whispers/breathy vocals. I'll take all this you got.
Shuta Hasunuma, Ichiko Aoba, Tamaki Roy - 「デザインあneo」3 ["Design Ah! neo"3] (PONY CANYON, Jun '25)
Very fun and funny little electronic album. Childlike little plinky sounds and clicky percussion. Songs about dashi, rapping in Japanese, just a little summer treat. 13 songs breeze by in 24min. [Ed Note: I've since learned that this is music written for a Japanese children's show].
David Harrow - Platonic Solid EP (self-released, Jun '25)
Would love to get on Harrow's supplement routine or whatever gives him the drive to release rock solid ambient dub EPs every month or 2. This is just stellar.
Art Music
These all sit somewhere between classical and folk/pop music, but sound basically nothing alike. They are arranged from most approachable to least approachable.
k9
Macy Stewart - Mouth Full Of Glass (Orindal, 2021)
Way different from her last album When The Distance Is Blue (which was featured in GDC17) – this album is more like an indie-folk record with the classical & artsy elements in the background. Really nice vocal melodies that lay into dominant-7ths + satisfying arrangements. Like the Venn diagram center between Big Thief & Joanna Newsom.
Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - Jerusalem (Mississippi Records, 2022)
Unearthed piano album from the Ethiopian nun, originally released a week after the artist died at the age of 99. This album has maybe become something of a trope, but it's simply nice to listen to – the lofi recording quality brings a lot of life to the chiming piano.
Judith Hamann - Aunes (Shelter Press, Mar '25)
Drone and resonant tones absolutely going hog wild in the muck. Hamann's voice is wonderfully broken as she coos and moans long notes in a register that reveals the character of her voice. Her cello playing exclusively sticks to the upper register of the instrument. There are so many dissonances & consonances that pile up & resolve and dissolve. Compositions that takes place inside of otherworldy reverb tanks in controlled environments are interjected by fizzy field recordings with ghostly voices and howling tea kettles. This is nighttime sounds.
Metal/Hardcore/Noise
Hate to merge these, but aggro is aggro. These 3 cuts are arranged from heaviest to lightest. Skinhead are fun, it's been a long time since I listened to a band that sounds like this. Milk Music sounds exactly like the year 2010 to me.
PJ Brown
Chepang - Jhyappa (Relapse, May '25)
How many other Nepalese-American death metal bands can you name? Can you name even 1? I'm very excited to catch these guys at the Ottobar in a couple weeks. Grindy & oppressive, 18min bloodbath.
Skinhead - It's A Beautiful Day, What A Beautiful Day (Closed Casket, Jun '25)
Honestly took me back to being 17ish and was just getting into harder punk bands like Fucked Up and Have Heart (note Skinhead I think is NOT a straightedge band and also are not a racist band – tho the members are vaguely anonymous). Lyrics are blunt and direct, a little too simple for my tastes, but they still address abstract ideas and current issues. I think that accounts for something. Anyways, great punk guitar sound.
Milk Music - Beyond Living (self-released, 2010)
Scuzzy & nice rock and roll that sounds like SST Dino Jr stuff as seen from a Tumblr blog. Do these guys belong here? Idk, if you sound like you could be a band featured in Get In The Van, then you get to be in the hardcore subsection of the GDC scrap heap.
Post-Hardcore
Raskall
Lowercase - Kill The Lights (Amphetamine Reptile, 1997)
While writing Chanp material, I've been doing a deep dive on prehistoric post-hardcore bands. This record is like a proto City Of Caterpillar type of affair – dark lyrics, swampy instrument sounds, vocals that go in and out of shrieks and moans, and structures that swell and retreat.
Laddio Bolocko - '97-99 (Castle Face, 2022)
Hahaha ohhh boy! Thanks 2 Annette for letting me know about this howlingly good NYC noise rock quartet (guitar, drum, bass, and sax) formed by ex-Dazzling Killmen drummer. Glenn Branca meets Throbbing Gristle & Albert Ayler, but with all the liberation and none of the fascism.
Bitch Magnet - Umber (Glitterhouse, 1989)
Such a bad band name for such a cool band. One of those great post-hardcore/post-rock combo bands from the late 80s/early 90s that captures raw noisy energy and pairs it with introspection and Slint-esque understated spoken word delivery. I hate this band name so much lol the band is really good & it's embarrassing to mention them.
Real & False Dub
I don't know what else to say about these albums together. Max Romeo's Communist reggae is very cool & Kassie Krut mostly does harsh noise hyperpop, but there's one cool fake dub song on their album (United).
Max Romeo - Revelation TIme (Black World, 1975)
Come on, you KNOW you want to listen to Marxist reggae music. I don't need to sell this one. Let's stand in arm in arm together & sing along to "Socialism Is Love." I love that the last 2 tracks on this are titled "No Joshua No" and "Yes Joshua."
Kassie Krut - Kassie Krut (expanded EP) (Fire Talk, Jun '25)
Just the full original + some pretty neat remixes. Panda Bear and Container bring some heat, with both transforming their respective songs in satisfying ways.