Dishital Weekly is COUNTERZINE’s weekly roundup of 5 digital only releases we think are worthy of your attention. The only rules are that we like it and there’s no readily available physical version at the timing of writing. When it was released, genre, platform: none of these matter. If it’s new to us and it’s new to you, it’s new.
1. Bruno and the Outrageous Methods of Presentation – This Is Real Now
We kick off this week with the only good 13-year-old, Bristol’s Bruno Wilkinson and his Outrageous Methods of Presentation. While we’re generally more about tag scouring when on Bandcamp, this kid was brought to our through a great Bandcamp Daily feature and we’re very glad he was. You wouldn’t expect the average 13-year-old to have a recording project, much less one so utterly dedicated to the untarnished vision of outsider art. Wilkinson is not fucking around, this is not teeny bopper pop punk: this is crazed, brilliant, minimalist experimental post-punk. If Mark E. Smith, Captain Beefhart, and Kim Fowley were all raised from the grave by a tweaking necromancer and charged to raise a babe from infancy to teenhood, you might get something akin to Bruno Wilkinson. His catalog is already massive and it’s difficult to say where exactly to start, but we’ll go with This Is Real Now, as it does include his two-part ‘mission statement’ and “Breathe for Me”, which is the #1 on the UK Singles Chart in the dimension where unhinged heroin den dance hits are the public’s greatest demand. Immensely promising talent.
2. Harley Cream – Hexenplatz
Harley Cream’s most recent EP Hexenplatz on lgbtqxyz netlabel GAY Records! is an excellent sampling of queer industrial electronic dance music, full of peculiar rhythms and shifts. We especially love the title track, where the second half sounds a bit like a witch house take on The Garden.
Hexenplatz is much too short at only three tracks, so also worth mentioning is Cream’s split album with now Counterzine regular Toxic Chicken entitled The Sperminators. It is also very GAY (Records!) and we are also very about it.
3. Joe Misterovich – Be Who You Are
Normalcy is relative and this week, the bizarre is normal and normal is bizarre. Thus Joe Misterovich’s lovely and sweet indie pop EP Be Who You Are is this edition’s greatest oddity. The Springfield, Missouri native delivers a three song set of catchy, breezy power pop rife with effortlessly addictive melodies and beautiful harmonies alongside collaborator Anna Redmond that are sure to delight fans of Sloan. Solid as they come throughout, but we especially love the country-flavored opener “Hurt a Little While”.
4. Shinichiro Yokota – I Know You Like It
One of the year’s best house releases comes courtesy of Japanese producer Shinichiro Yokota with his newest album I Know You Like It on Far East Recording. Initially known for collaborative works with Far East founder Soichi Terada such as the stellar “Got to Be Real” back in 1991, he just recently embarked upon his solo path in 2016 with Do It Again and Again, which was well-received. I Know You Like It is generating even greater buzz among the underground, and with good reason: it’s warm, playful, tasteful, and addicting dance music. The Tape Deck did a great write-up on this one where they referred to it as “recommended for getting trapped in the Midnight Channel”. We couldn’t put it better: if the Persona 4 OST brought you any joy, we figure this will as well. History would suggest this gets an eventual physical release, so keep an eye out.
5. Underwater Around People – Swimming Antenna Exhibit
Brattleboro, Vermont seems to have a nice little scene going! Shortly after covering Lahnah in the Dishital Weekly from two weeks ago, this gem of an EP, Underwater Around People’s Swimming Antenna Exhibit, is brought to our attention. Unlike many a band name, this one is actually indicative of what you’ll hear: ‘underwater’ post-punk. These are the sounds of a man who’s perpetually drowning but could easily get head above water if he could simply be fucked to do so.
It’s fun, a bit weird, and a bit sad. “Out of Play Doh” reminds us a whole lot of King Missile as well, if that’s your jam (it is ours).
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