Tosca – Osam

Last time I actively followed Tosca was at the time of No Hassle in 2009, feels like another life. (Indeed, it was another life.) In 2021, when Kruder & Dorfmeister released 1995 and dZihan & Kamien ‎put out IV I noted that it feels like there’s a bit of nu jazz downtempo lounge comeback in the air. This record came with that same bunch but flew under the radar for me then. In hindsight, I don’t feel that comeback in a trending way after all, but these new records take me back and it’s a nice kind of reminiscing. Smooth as silk.

Deena Abdelwahed – Jbal Rrsas

This is bass-heavy electronic music that I can place closest to dubstep. I also feel like I have extremely little cultural context to form well-articulated thoughts about this music, which makes it exciting.

Saying that it’s “something Arabic” feels like derogatory to how rich it is beyond language, and when I say “Arabic” I am concerned that I’m already making false identification. I just don’t know, I am not aware, I lack knowledge. However, it doesn’t feel intimidating but rather I feel the urge to explore, know more, learn, listen, understand, makes me wonder.

Adam Tristar – Suicide Neighborhood

I saw Adam Tristar on a goth club night headlining after like ten other concerts. It was a duo performing live and they stood out so much from the others, like it would be a professional act after a list of DIY bedroom bands. Well, that’s probably a pretty good approximation of what happened.

The music is all along the goth aesthetics with electronic coldwave synths. Hits close to my heart.

Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / in a room7 F760

This is a very nice IDM record. Other than that, my relationship to this is quite neutral, and saying that as a long time Aphex Twin fan. It just doesn’t have any specificity to this time and place, and it also doesn’t invoke memories strongly enough so it would be clearly on the nostalgia side. It’s like the B sides collection of records from twenty years back. It’s… fine.