Alpha Maid: Is This a Queue Review – Mika Levi’s Collaborative Pairs Messing Up the Production with Great Songwriting | Experimental music

ALpha Maid has been quietly honing their smoky sound since 2019, when they released their first EP via Curl Recordings, the collective and label founded by Mica Levi, Coby C, and Brother May. Six years and seven releases later (including some collaborations with Levy), this scene continues to resonate with the London experimental guitarist’s music: the disturbing production; dubbing effects; Barely discernible indignant murmurs and groans. Her new album balances those great elements with songwriting that stands on its own feet.

Although little has been given, Is This a Waiting List was supposedly written over several years and in various locations. Verified: The record is a collection of challenging and challenging tracks, bringing together a diverse crew of past collaborators to document the people and places encountered along the way.

Opening track 6-9 sets the tone: built around a rickety, noisy drum loop, the track is filled with erratic chimes, sinister screams and fragmented vocal recordings. Wandering instrumentals like this make up the bulk of the album’s 31-minute running time: there are also massive clouds of feedback (GOAT Rosetta), ritualistic drum workouts (Why Should We Move, featuring percussionist Valentina Magaletti) and haunting guitar jams (Strut in Straddle).

Among them are a handful of laden tracks, closer to songs than improvisations – and more memorable for them. Track 2 Numbers is wonderfully catchy, fusing angular guitars with the raspy lyrical delivery of Manchester musician Leo Hermit, while On Smoke sounds like a breakup song distorted by Alpha Maid’s established tone. Calling these tracks lo-fi might suggest that her music is delicate or dual, but in reality it’s anything but: the album is strong and solid, throwing in an offhanded Giggs reference or an industrial twang for every riff.

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Oko DJ He is the type of artist who plays live industrial recordings, acid house music and trap music in one club set. Although more suited to listening at home, her debut album As Below, So Below (Stroom) is expansive, sprucing up hazy guitar riffs with swirling FX effects and syncopated beats, while moody spoken-word-style vocals add eerie late-night appeal. After a brief detour into folk territory with last year’s album Sentiment, Claire Rosay She returns to her more intimate roots on an album of collage-like compositions recorded at dusk (Thrill Jockey). Instruments drone, glitch and shimmer around found sounds and distorted audio recordings. Latest in Invisible companyThe 10th anniversary series is Resonance, a diverse collection of artists paying homage to the psychedelic end of the Glasgow label’s output. Expect a constellation of trippy and interesting sounds, from space rock and dub to concrete.