What: “Album In A Day Volume 7 – 28 September 2013” by various artists
Netlabel: BFW recordings
Here’s an interesting concept: Artists from around the world, associated with the Manchester, UK based BFW recordings netlabel, each write and record a new song on the same date (in this case, September 28, 2013). Two days later BFW releases a compilation of these pieces. The end result for this particular date is over four hours (!) of nice music from 38 different artists.
BFW says they release “ambient, indie, shoegaze, post rock, experimental and electronic music;” so, something for almost everybody. This particular release leans more in the electronic music direction, but even with that general description there are lots of styles here. The entire compilation holds together well and it’s fun to explore. Some particular favorites for me are:
* Bing Satellites “I Wonder” starts off with some slow Eno-esque piano and production, but slowly builds into a more muscular tune with drums, electric guitar and louder (and at times slightly more intrusive) background atmospherics building on each other. After a bit of a crescendo it all slowly floats away.
* Telegraph 909 “Dirty Wires” has some synth sounds that bring to mind Fad Gadget, along with a knocking percussion line and some background electronic horn sounds.
* Joshua Ryan “Constellations” includes a bright, rolling synth pattern with other elements added throughout to create a dreamy yet insistent tune.
* Stephen Briggs “Discordance” introduces itself with plucked and echoed guitar notes. Somewhat ominous backwards looped music emerges in the background, then it moves to the fore about half way in along some (perhaps) treated double bass. A synth wash pushes it all away and the piece moves into more noise/effects/atmospherics territory, with the guitar and bass occasionally off in the distance trying to reassert dominance, with mixed success.
* DJLContent “Synthetic Landscape” is somewhat minimalist (dare I call it jazz?) with echoed guitar notes, xylophone, and live drums gently coloring the palette. A real stand out for me.
* And last but not least I’ll mention Poodleplay Arkestra with “Blue Four,” for no better reason than I always like an Arkestra (although this is a nice tune too).
BFW has a very active release schedule. I counted 34 in 2012 and another 18 so far this year. Not to mention hours and hours of previous “Album In A Day” projects. So…clear some room on your computer because you clearly won’t run out of things to listen to any time soon.