Dark ambient artist Albert Yeh debuts a work of wonder on Dragon’s Eye Recordings
More new music from Poolside Nightmare and Mia Pixley, our weekly show recs, plus an open call for Bay Area music review contributors
Just a reminder: While we do our best to feature the best new music coming out of the Bay Area, there’s always more we wish we could take on.
If you’re a music lover and want to flex your writing muscle, reach out to us at whitecratesf@gmail.com! We’d love to have you contribute and help us promote even more Bay Area music. Much love 💜
— White Crate
MINI MACHINE METROPOLIS
"Inspired by the age of accelerationism, the rapid rise of machine led processes, the inevitable breakdown of organic functions."
An amorphous, dark ambient affair, Motors/Pulses is the second full-length album by Albert Yeh, marking the artist's debut on LA imprint Dragon’s Eye Recordings. Carefully crafted with the close attention of human touch, yet through electronics erecting an imaginary metropolis of machine and noise, it is like an alien museum piece, sparking wonder, curiosity, and even a little fear.
The album exhibits its full spectrum of sound in the first two tracks, sharply veering from the slow-motion dread tones of the opener "Exordium" into wild skittering and pulsing synthesizers on "The Tempest." There are brief reprieves: Halfway through the album ("among the grains and the waves..."), a classical guitar lullaby channels gentle warmth. And a gorgeous solo piano piece ("Clausula") closes the album. But otherwise, the album is uneasy listening—unsurprising given the themes Yeh chooses to explore—but essential for seekers of art truthfully reflecting the world.
— Ronny Kerr
TECHNO CRANIAL MASSAGE
“the beauty and the madness, the gift and the curse, the light and the dark, the ying and the yang”
Serving up techno cranial massages for the stay-at-home clubbers, We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For is the debut studio album from Poolside Nightmare, aka Oakland’s Trae Casey. The hourlong work sprays its way through skittering ambient techno (“PINK ENERGY”, “ECHO CHAMBER II”), uplifting drum & bass (“FLAT EARTH THEORY”, “EMOTIONLESS”), vapor boom bap (“STARDUST”, “ACID RAIN”), and more. In other words, it’s a kaleidoscope of dance music and hip hop beats, whirred through the artist’s single blue-tinged filter, creating a cohesive, blissed out atmosphere big enough to contain both angels and devils.
For more from the artist, check out Chasing Down Demons by A.W.I.P. (Another World Is Possible), a collaboration by Casey and Melbourne’s Nicholas Ives (NC Ives) released earlier this year. And watch the video for “FLAT EARTH THEORY”.
— Ronny Kerr
YOUR ENNEAGRAM SOUNDTRACK
“In celebration of Earth Day and our undeniable interconnectedness, Sound of the Reef is for those curious about the Enneagram personality profile, themselves, others, and the wonders of coral life.”
Do you know yourself? Are you more of the individualist or the peacekeeper? Maybe you’d be more comfortable identifying as a feathery sea pen or common sea fan?
Fluidly weaving the Enneagram model of personality types with the symbolically rich tapestry of life that make up coral reefs, Sound of the Reef: Coral Enneagrams is a lush new electronic chamber work by composer, cellist, and clinical psychologist Mia Pixley, Ph.D. In addition to a “Sound of the Reef” outro, the album contains nine tracks, one for each Enneagram type. Like her last work Passage, the pieces here can literally sound like the sea, with washes of ambient sound, splashing acoustic tapping, and sinuous watery synthlines. But Pixley’s cello remains the central voice, helping lend unique tone and tenor to each of the various personalities.
If you pick up a vinyl record of the new album, you also get fellow local artist Sami Freeman’s Space Bath on the flip side.
See Mia Pixley perform a daytime show tomorrow in Oakland as part of an event featuring music inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass. She also has more upcoming local shows listed on her website.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[rock] Agouti, Mild Universe, Orchestra Gold — May 2 at 2nd and Jessie
[rock] BFF.FM ft. Vivian Panache, Extra Letters, Roberto Martinez — May 2 at the Knockout
[experimental] Setting, Chuck Johnson, Cole Pulice — May 3 at the Lab
[club] JiaLing, Discnogirl, 40split, DJ Buck, Lonald J. Bandz b2b Yuca Frita — May 3 at Thee Stork Club
[fest] Art of Noise ft. Cardboard People, Al Harper, Afterthought and the Top Chefs, The Seagulls, Bululú, Jill Rogers and Crying Time — May 4 at SFMOMA
[folk] Braiding Sweetgrass ft. Mia Pixley, Elizabeth Lubin, Rosie Steffy, Sea Star, Scarth Locke, Gage & Gold, Nikbo, and more — May 4 at 2465 34th Ave, Oakland
[hip hop] Blackfest ft. Larry June, redveil — May 4 at Frost Amphitheater
[rock] No Vacation, Luna Li — May 4 at the Fillmore
[folk] Asha Wells, Worthitpurchase, Affectionately, Hectorine — May 4 at Eli’s Mile High Club
[club] Loris, Bored Lord, RITCHRD, DJ JUANNY — May 4 at TBA San Francisco
[club] Swagger Like Us ft. UNiiQU3, Jasmine Infiniti, Makeroom, Sir JOQ — May 5 at El Rio
[rock] Marika Christine, You Are Something True, Velvet Penny Band, Beach Hex — May 5 at Kilowatt