by: Ben Parra (@bbbbbbennnnnnn)
Ben Parra is a librarian and DJ based in Western Massachusetts. He has a weekly radio show on Sundays from 8:30-10pm E.T., which you can listen to at WMUA.org, or at 91.1 FM if you're near Amherst. This blog presents some of the best reissues and new releases featured on the show from each month. These days: mostly leftfield pop, experimental electronics, and archival finds, with the odd jungle or footwork set. Mixes at Mixcloud (https://www.mixcloud.com/BBBBBBBENNNNNNN/).
Death is not the End - Bristol Pirates (Death is not the End, 2019)
I just got a vinyl reissue of 2019’s Bristol Parties, which is how I found out about this gem. This is a collage of cut-up broadcasts from Bristol’s pirate radio stations from the late 80’s to the early aughts. You’ll find some incredible jungle, dub, and dancehall spliced together with MC banter, call-ins, jingles, and advertisements for local businesses. It’s basically a very well-edited documentary compiled from snippets of varying fidelity recorded over many years. The whole thing flows so organically. I know stuff like this always gets the “immersive” label, but it really does transport you. I put it on while cooking this winter, and it feels like you’re tuning into the radio broadcast of lives being lived right now, while you’re just going about your evening. I wish there were 8 more hours of this.
Dj.Mc - I’m so cold (Accidental Meetings, February 2025)
New EP from the Chicago footwork veteran Dj.Mc, who shows off just how much you can do with only a few ingredients. “I Make Gutta”, for instance, features only bass, percussion, a chopped vocal, and one very scary scream. Sample selection is a real strength of Dj.Mc’s productions, and the ones presented here are dark, spacey, and fully allowed to breathe. The whole record has a spooky, off-kilter feeling to it. Pretty dope.
DJ Strawberry - Playground (YUKU, February 2025)
Playground is the latest from Istanbul’s high-BPM wizard DJ Strawberry. Last year’s (extremely good) Beyond was a clinic on atmosphere, the producer using feel changes and slow, sweeping synths on top of fast, percussion-forward tracks as a way of pulling you into the music. It’s extremely intricate stuff, and probably took a really long time to make.
This latest release takes the whole thing to another level, which is a bit ridiculous. The percussion on Beyond is finely-tuned but still feels minimalist, and the record itself feels quite spacious. Most importantly, it’s locked into 160 BPM. In contrast, pretty much everything on Playground hovers around 200 bpm, which: sick. 160 really feels like the tempo our guy has always been meaning to work with. Despite being texturally pretty dark, there’s a real jubilance to the whole thing, like it’s a celebration of the 160 BPM tempo. The music is more assertive, the percussion is nasty, and everything just feels so good to bob your head to in half time.
Oksana Linde - Travesías (Buh Records, February 2025)
Travesías is a new album of compositions created between 1986 and 1994 by Venezuelan synthesist and composer Oksana Linde. I especially love “Mundos flotantes” and the new-agey “Estrellas I” and “Estrellas II” – these are slow, ambient tracks, but there’s a strong sense of melody and drama to them that separates Linde’s work from the crowd. The music is powerfully descriptive – it makes sense that a lot of these pieces were composed for mediation sessions, written so practitioners might close their eyes and visit whatever real or imagined places Linde was picturing as she wrote these songs. I am seeing the cosmic reefs and floating islands as I listen and write this.
Qetsy - Compile (self-released, March 2025)
Compile is a “statement of intent” from Qetsy showcasing the creativity of the Paraguayan footwork producer. I’ve really enjoyed Qetsy’s output over the past few years. I feel like he’s able to run the gamut from really tight, punchy footwork bangers to the more messed up, early foodman-esque stuff. It’s nice to see that range represented here in a single release. I especially love the back half of this one. Highlights: “hyperviolence”, “piracaldo”, “puentes”, the quick little reggae drum sample on “transiciones” (nice one).
Andrew Bernstein - Shadows and Windy Places / Max Eilbacher - 7 Runs (in arc mental styling) (OMA Editions, March 2025)
Two new solo releases from members of Horse Lords (the best American band of the past 15 years?), out now on OMA Editions, the brand new label run by Andrew Bernstein, Max Eilbacher, and Owen Gardner (also of Horse Lords). Boy are we lucky to have them. Bernstein’s work is a series for saxophone, recorder, and electronics that is, in his words, concerned with “the idea of the in-between”: the transition between melodic ideas, the “shades of harmonic perception,” and the tension between formal structure and chaos. By contrast, Eilbacher’s record contains just two lengthy tracks: track one is this wonderful spiral staircase of electronic tones, while track two takes violin and makes it sound like a synth in ways I don’t understand but would love to see performed.
On both albums (and as with much of Horse Lords’ music), there are so many moments where the track feels as though it has settled into “what it’s going to be,” only to surge forward, revealing more and more dimensions to the piece. It’s exhilarating. I think we all know the feeling of listening to a piece of music and wanting just that little bit more, especially with music like this, which is so minimally orchestrated. But I never experienced that feeling while listening to these two records–I just felt drawn further and further in.
A little note: it’s really worthwhile to read the full album blurbs on the Bandcamp pages where you can find the artists describing their own compositional practices. These are thoughtful, passionate composers who think a lot about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Anyways: thanks, Horse Lords – please come back to the Northeast soon.