Hard to believe we are already 12 days into the new year, and so far 2022 ain’t looking much better than last year. As always, my solace in this crazy world is music that lets my mind wander and relieves some cognitive load. For 2022, I am restarting these Random Orbitings posts, and will share more of the mind-expanding music that has been flowing through my headphones.
I recently posted part 1 of the Favorites of 2021 podcast episode, with part 2 following in the next few days. For now, here are three new releases to kick off the year.
Field Lines Cartographer
Approaching from space, Field Lines Cartographer delivers five long-playing cosmic voyages clocking in at an average time of 11 minutes. The Woodford Halse label released Superclusters last week, and it was recently featured on Bandcamp for best-selling compact discs sales across the entire electronic music category (one of those CDs was mine.) If you are lucky and happen to be in Liverpool in early April, catch FLC open for the venerable Marconi Union.
The Tape Recorders
The first album I picked up this year comes from Argentinian synth maestro Gabriel Rojo – aka The Tape Recorders. The tracks on Parallax are a mix of swelling washes and drones, some with electronic rhythms bubbling under the surface; vocal samples, including that of JFK, appear periodically discussing topics such as paranoia and synchronicity, and provide a common thread throughout the proceedings. This is late-night headphone listening at its finest.
Flipping Candy
Portuguese label Prisma Sonora continue their monthly cassette release train of retro-radiophonic goodness. The latest, From A Cosmic Childhood by Flipping Candy, explores the haunted memories of early youth – either real or imagined. Songs like “Childhood Ghosts Are Gone”, “Playing With Blocks For Eternity” and “Searching For UFO’s In The Backyard” offer a dichotomy between wanting to be a kid forever and accepting that those innocent days are gone forever.
Visit the Upcoming Release page to see what’s on the radar, and if you have anything you would like to have included here, please get in touch!
Take care, and try to stay sane in 2022…