Future Conditional feat. Bobby Wratten & Beth Arzy "Demolitions"

Unfashionable as it may be to some, Not Unloved still uses and endorses the Compact Disc format. A recent CD arrival that we're looking forward to digesting fully is Future Conditional's "Isotech" (Second Language Music, due on 30th September, 2022). Back in the mid-to-late 90s when labels such as Wurlitzer Jukebox, Earworm etc. served up 7" after 7" of prime post-rock, electronica and indiepop, each new Piano Magic release was an essential listen. Future Conditional is the latest project from that band's Glenn Johnson and Cédric Pin. On "Isotech" they're joined by some notable friends including Bobby Wratten and Beth Arzy of the wondrous Lightning In A Twilight Hour (whose "Overwintering" album from earlier in 2022 is a hot contender for NU's Album of the Year for 2022):

"Demolitions" is a beautifully sung but sobering tale of urban planning gone wrong set to an evocative electro-pop backing:

"They take the city and they break its heart
 They take the people and they do the same"

Majestic, thought-provoking music.

Daphne X "Transactions In Time"

It's not all 60s downer pop at Not Unloved! A constant spool over summer 2022 has been Daphne X's "Transactions In Time" (czazska (rec.), 2022) tape. The likelihood is that the title track will be our most listened-to piece of electronic music this year:

It starts out pretty in the same way that Robin Saville's work is pretty before the ever-present beat becomes desperate and loud as if terrified by the imminent sci-fi sounds that close out the piece. Love it!

Creme/Caramel

It's not always the BIG statements or grand gestures that linger longest in the memory. Sometimes the whispered lines are the ones that strike a chord. "Creme" by Lawrence Le Doux and Roger 3000 (Lexi Disques, 2021) is a case in point. There's no sledgehammer riffing, no polemics are delivered just, well, easy to love soft exotica sounds that massage the temples and whisper in your ear that everything is gonna be alright. There's not a single aspect of it that I'd change. I love the way the recording starts as if the performance had been going on for quite some time before someone remembered to hit record and I love the way it runs out of puff at the end as if lulled by its own dreaminess into a warm, welcome torpor. One of the most adorable pieces of music to grace one side of a piece of 7" vinyl in 2021 to Not Unloved's ears. "Caramel" on the other side is equally lovely but introduces elements of wide-eyed radiophonic wonder to the mix. It's surely destined to soundtrack a short nature documentary about tiny organisms. Seek it out if you like pretty things!

Robin Saville "Bojagi"

As one half of ISAN, Robin Saville was partly responsible for one of the greatest 7" singles of all time (a bold claim but I'm standing by it!): "Damil 85" (Wurlitzer Jukebox). His latest solo lp, "Build A Diorama" (Morr Music), was released a month or so back and boasts some of the most brain-soothing pastoral excursions to reach Not Unloved's blasted ears in recent years. There are bell-like tinkles aplenty (see "Bosky" and "Might I Have A Bit of Earth?"). If anyone wishes Raymond Scott were still around to make soothing sounds for babies, they should get acquainted with "Build A Diorama" immediately. Check out the adorable stop-motion video for the stately, gliding "Bojagi" for a perfect meeting of sound and image.

Numb

So far, Andy Stott's "Numb" is the most arresting piece of music released in 2012 that I've heard for the first time in 2013.  I've not been in  this much of a lather about a piece of electronic music since Motion Sickness of Time Travel's "Luminaries and Synastry" or possibly that slinky, woozy first Maria Minerva 12".  "Numb" opens  Stott's most recent album,"Luxury Problems" (Modern Love).  I spied the double vinyl version in Monorail Music a few months back and although I instantly adored its cover image* (that's it above) decided that I couldn't at that time afford the 24 quid asking price.  How I regret that decision now that it's sold out from boomkat, Modern Love's distributor SRD, Norman Records etc.!  "Numb" is like a Steve Reich vocal composition or a cover of an unreleased fragment from Arthur Russell's heavenly "World of Echo" recast as an uncommonly elegant slice of soulful dance (?) music.  The repeated sonar pulse of the word 'touch' is inexplicably compelling and I suspect I'll never tire of hearing it.  It's great that in dance music it's no longer obligatory to get in a shouter to wail over your beats; subtlety is invariably best.  If the rest of "Luxury Problems" (sure, I found the whole thing on YouTube but I'm saving myself for the vinyl repress should one materialise soon or failing that the cd version) approaches "Numb" in terms of quality, it will monopolise my turntable for some time. Spellbinding.

* - A similar sleeve I fell (ha!) in love with in 2012 was that which adorned Raime's "Quarter Turns Over A Living Line" (Blackest Ever Black).  With diving show Splash! on ITV and these two fabulous sleeves, diving would appear to be in the air.