Bandcamp Roulette is a feature from contributor Secat that scours Bandcamp for interesting, new, and under-the-radar releases. This edition features albums from Cypher Sanctuary, randal b., and Ghetto Henry.
Sumptuous sweets! Decadent delights! It’s a smörgåsbord of . . . uhm . . . symphonies! Today’s Bandcamp Roulette lunchbox is packed to the brim with delicious snack cakes and sandwiches! Enough preamble! Let’s get moving!
Cypher Sanctuary – Warrior Way
Warrior Way comes to us via one of my favorite record labels, Melbourne-based clipp.art, who consistently release fantastic house/dance/techno projects (including one of the very best of 2018, park hye jin’s IF U WANT IT micro-LP). Cypher Sanctuary hails from Moscow and makes teeth-shattering darkwave-y industrial techno bops full of roomy thud and ample hi-hat simmer; Warrior Way steps on the gas from the opening kick and never lets go. It’s impressive how much variation Cypher Sanctuary pulls out of his overarching style here, which can appear a tad monochromatic at first ear-glance; these 6 tracks dip their toes in everything from vaporwave to IDM to downright saccharine pop-house and still come out as relentless and pulse-pounding as they came in. A triumphantly fun and intense half-hour full of darkness, light, and all that good stuff in between.
Pair with: the Nightman intro (2x speed); Monster Energy; acid-rainwater collected in plastic bucket
Favorite Tracks: “Red Ball Burn”, “Dark Shadow Creep”, “The Tree”
randal b. – Huett
Scratchy, undefined, and insular hip-hop instrumentals from Milwaukee that reach your headphones as though broadcast from a thousand miles away. Huett is possessed with a moving, graceful undercurrent of anxious fervor that propels it far beyond your typical “beats to study to” mix; it blends and recontextualizes recognizable genre signifiers into an immediately personal concoction brimming with love and dignity, building textural walls of jazzy, smeared lo-fi samples that duck and shrink from the kick drum as though wounded. The project starts and ends without discretion, almost as though you managed to briefly intercept an aural transmission of someone’s mental state; the signal is eventually lost, but the feeling, the intimacy, remains. A worthwhile (if brief) diversion from the outside world.
Pair with: ambient rain sounds; TV static; chocolate-covered coffee beans
Favorite Tracks: “mooncr*****”, “old dusty”, “rimnod”
Ghetto Henry – Ghetto Henry Vol. 1
Incredibly fat, syrupy, bass-laden ghetto tech from German record label Doom Chakra. This is music that fucks, and fucks hard; it should be played as loud as is humanly possible in your car. It is raw and explicit and boiling over with rump-shaking basement jam energy (with some pleasing detours into smooth, ambient pads and soulful vocal samples). If you can’t devote at least a few minutes of feverish dancing to this record, then DON’T PLAY IT AT ALL! Good material with which to meet your monthly head-banging quota. If you’re not at least a little sweaty and flushed when it’s done, then you weren’t listening right.
Pair with: PEPINO DE NOVO; quad-shot of espresso at 11 P.M.; sprawled out on concrete floor with unknown stain after furious windmilling
Favorite Tracks: “Bumpin’”, “Player Haters”, “Seven Dirty Words”, “Up & Down”
For my money, this edition happened to collect an especially strong selection of releases; I hope you agree, O listener. I’ll see you next time!
Secat is a musician and writer based in Houston, Texas. To see more of their work, you can follow them on Twitter (@secatsecat) or check out their personal blog at secatsecat.home.blog.
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