Playlist 02.07.23

This week saw the release of some beautiful guitar-led, experimental singer-songwriter stuff - leftfield indie folk, perhaps, and we also have de/reconstructed English folk, de/reconstructed Brazilian samba stylings, trailblazing '80s experimental cello-pop, trip-hop and other beats, post-industrial, instrumental shoegaze and post-classical piano & guitar. This has been your genres of the week. LISTEN AGAIN, when you get time. Stream on demand from FBi, podcast here. Freda D'Souza - The Love Song of J Alfreda D'Souza [demo records/Crossness Records/Freda D'Souza Bandcamp]<br /> Freda D'Souza - Windowledge [demo records/Crossness Records/Freda D'Souza Bandcamp]<br /> I'm very grateful to the brilliant & adventurous singer-songwriter/producer Ana Rita de Melo Alves, aka Anrimeal, for sending me this stunning new EP from fellow London-based musician Freda D'Souza, which Ana has co-released on her own demo records in conjunction with friends Crossness Records. D'Souza plays free improv, does experimental performance-arty stuff, and even fronts a black metal band, but the music here is a collection of sumptuous songs which owe as much to Jenny Hval as the obvious Joni Mitchell, Linda Perhacs and perhaps Kate Bush comparisons. The smart lyrics are perhaps best embodied by the wistful but slyly humorous "The Love Song of J Alfreda D'Souza", with its references to T.S. Eliot ("Do I dare? Do I dare?"), echoing the paralyzing anxiety of growing old, albeit from a more youthful perspective. As Alves' label name may suggest, these are demos or derive from them, but D'Souza's vocal performances are so rich and confident that one can't pretend these are in any way incomplete. Still, the idea of using demo recordings to capture a particular feeling, a space or a time, is something a lot of creators will connect with. soccer Committee - No Turn To Harm [morc tapes/Bandcamp/soccer Committee Bandcamp]<br /> soccer Committee & machinefabriek - high jacked drone 1 (by andrea belfi) [Machinefabriek Bandcamp]<br /> soccer Committee - Reaching [morc tapes/Bandcamp/soccer Committee Bandcamp]<br /> I have been a dedicated fan of Dutch singer-songwriter Mariska Baars for many years, via Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek - both working with him under her own name, and then in equally mysterious projects such as