All the best new Bay Area music to buy today for Bandcamp Friday [Dec 2021]
Meditative ambient music from Channelers and Jeremy Harris; boom bap by Brycon; an experimental electroacoustic composition by Gabby Wen; and more
Thank you to everyone who read and shared Dialed in: What I learned when I put Bay Area music first, an essay reflecting on the one year anniversary of White Crate. Coincidentally, three days later Bandcamp published San Francisco Ain’t Dead, an article shining a light on the quietly bubbling post-punk, jangle pop, and indie rock scene in SF (which only got a brief mention in my essay). It’s a fantastic piece and a great crash course on the scene, including interviews with artists and labels, links to some of the best releases, and beautiful artwork too.
Speaking of Bandcamp, today is Bandcamp Friday, meaning my favorite online music marketplace (which happens to be based in Oakland) is waiving its revenue share to help support artists. Bandcamp started holding these promotional days at the start of the pandemic lockdowns to generate additional revenue for artists, who had lost the opportunity to make money touring. Last we heard, the company said it would continue to host Bandcamp Fridays on the first Friday of every month through the end of 2021, so this may or may not be your last chance to get in on the action.
Scroll on for some of the best new music to buy today from local Bay Area artists.
Peace,
ronny
HAPPY BANDCAMP FRIDAY
“Kept within a framework, but free to wander.” Oakland artist Sean Conrad—who stays busy offering audio mastering services, running ambient label Inner Islands, and making music under multiple projects—released Messages From One of Deeper Within under his Channelers alias. Composed during the same sessions as Another Entrance, the improvisational album uses mostly acoustic instruments (acoustic guitar, electric organ, piano, dulcimer, and glockenspiel) and a single analog synth to slowly manifest a soundscape of peace and introspection.
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Brycon was on a tear throughout 2021, producing soulful beats and boom bap over and over again in collaboration with a wide variety of MCs and singers. While there’s a new single with Equipto coming later this month (stay tuned for more on that), Brycon just released an instrumental version of Jeweler’s Loop, an album that dropped over the summer in collaboration with Lightbulb under the name Diamond Lung.
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What do you get when you mix hyperpop, juke, and hip hop? The new single “Guardian Angel” by DÆMON plus Berlin’s Cassius Select on production. Yet another great track from one of my favorite Oakland rappers this year.
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Oakland-based electroacoustic composer and improviser Gabby Wen contributed eight-minute experimental piece “Vaporize” to Compilation004: 귀신소리 “Ghost Sound”, a 33-track collection by Unheard Records, an LA-based label focused on Indigenous, PoC, and queer artists. You can catch Gabby Wen performing a live solo electronic set alongside fellow Oakland artist Brian Tester tomorrow from 4-5 PM at Cone Shape Top.
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JUANNY DEPP—Central American DJ, producer, and co-founder of AMOR DIGITAL—returns with PALACIO DE HIELO, pairing a couple dembow singles inspired by “Ayo for Yayo” by Andre Nickatina and “Act Up” by City Girls.
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You can pick up the single “Inferno Night” by Mano Fico on Bandcamp, but head here for the complete Mental Crash Records vinyl compilation of punk protest music from around the world. All profits from this release will be donated to the Anti-Police Terror Project in Oakland.
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The same relentless Oakland junglists who previously brought you In-N-Out Jungle, Major League, and Ruff Tapes has returned with a brand new affiliate tape label called Tape Locker. The label launches with three drum and bass mixes: Airwalk One by Rufkraft, Reebok Classic by NobelFilth, and Vans Slip-On by Beermoney.
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Alebrijes Son Jarocho is from Oaxaca, but their new album En Tiempo Viejo is too good not to share. (Plus, it was mixed and produced by Greg Landau at Oakland’s Round Whirled Records.) A kaleidoscopic and enchanting collage of fingerpicking, rhythmic guitar strumming, and heartfelt singing, the seven songs here sound ancient and fresh all the same time—and that’s the idea. The roots go deep: Son jarocho is a style of Mexican Son that originated in Veracruz in the 18th century, but Alebrijes Son Jarocho has introduced “fusión de música de todo el estado de Oaxaca” to make it all their own.
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This one isn’t new, but I highly recommend it to fans of analog synthesis, ambient music, and experimental folk. Ages by Jeremy Harris turned five years old this fall, but it’s crafted to be timeless. By layering nature samples, vibraphones, and synths on the opening 20-min track “Double Fidelity,” Harris aims to “evoke the primordial elements of his home” in Marin County. Making up the second half, the three parts of “Release Technique” center around the therapeutic practice of seeing and accepting loss and change. From beginning to end, the album is a shimmering sound bath.
MAYBE MISSED
Lookin' at these nice views, carrots in my fresh juice
Jumped in the '63, hopped on the 101
Exit on Stinson Beach, pretty girl next to me
Early mornin’ heat the seats, stop for some green tea
That’s Larry June romancing on “6am in Sausalito”, one of the best songs off Orange Print, which dropped over the summer. It’s blown up, so I’m not sure how I missed it. But it’s the perfect listen for any heads looking for something chill to first thing in the morning—or maybe at the after-hours kickback. “My goal is to be a legend,” says the SF rapper. “To be a legend from here.” Read an interview with the MC on the Ringer.
CLASSICS
My friend sent this to me recently, and I was amazed I’d never heard it before. But now I’ve listened to it so many times, I’m not sure how I lived without it. A cover of the Zombies’ 1964 hit, “She’s Not There” is pure and polished Latin jazz rock from Santana’s 1977 double album Moonflower. Structurally, it doesn’t deviate too much from the original, except for the addition of (naturally) a ripping guitar solo and an extended percussive breakdown. Fair contender for “better than the original”?