Weekend Listening: Bowery Electric

01

Image

—01. Kranky, 1995.

Words

Looking through recent additions to my iTunes, none of my listening lately includes anything from the past decade. Modern music has me increasingly bored, with no new artists compelling me to pay attention. The only ones that I’m obliged to follow are probably solo artists who started in the ‘90s and I’ve been a fan of for a long time, such as Bill Callahan, Will Oldham and Dan Bejar. Consequently, I’ve resorted to filling in the gaps of the late ’90s post-rock, shoegaze and experimental scenes as best as I can; all of which I didn’t get to participate in at the time since I was still too young to be fully aware. One such release is the self-titled record by Bowery Electric, which turned 20 this year. Exercising the perfect blend of droning guitar lines, ambient passages and simple metronomic drum patterns, this is a seemingly underappreciated gem from an excellent band with an all-too-short career. You’re in for a real treat if you’ve never heard it before.

—Available from Bleep

Weekend Listening: Grouper – Ruins

01

Image

—01. Released on October 31, 2014.

Words

The latest album from Grouper entitled Ruins was released earlier this year, having been recorded in 2011 while Liz Harris was staying in Portugal. Intimate, dark, dreamy and beautifully restrained, the record features a generally sombre tone, "living in the remains of love," as Harris puts it.

—Available from Kranky