Continuing with the A-Z of artist releases from 2025 that I haven't yet bought, but are on the shopping (long) list for this Bandcamp Friday.
Monday and Tuesday covered the first half of the alphabet. Today selection of artists from N to S is
We ended yesterday's round up with a release on the NEIN Records label and this is where we pick up today. What can I tell you about Niev? Not a lot.
He's based in São Paulo, Brazil, He's one third of the Japanese Limo Boys along with Fabio Kstro and Pedro Laghi. He records and releases music mononymously as Niev. And both sides of October's 2-track single Superhero / Not A are rather wonderful.
Oklou aka Marylou Mayniel has been putting stuff out on Bandcamp since 2014; I first heard her music earlier this year, with the release of full-length album choke enough in February. The Discogs blurb is a bit OTT. All you need to know is that Oklou combines pleasingly minimal electronic soundscapes a lovely voice that she's not adverse to filtering and fucking with.
Psychederek aka Lewis Olsen has been championed by other blogs such as Bagging Area and A Few Good Times In My Life, and they're absolutely spot on. Thinkin' Bout U came out in August and is another delight, four planet-themed variations of the title track over 25 minutes. All recommended, but I've gone for Balearic Indie 90s vibe of Part 2, Venus. Sorted!
If, like me, you know Q. Lazzarus for one song - but what a song - namely Goodbye Horses, thanks to director Jonathan Demme using the song in both Married To The Mob and, more famously, The Silence Of The Lambs, then Sacred Bones Records have just the thing,
Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q. Lazzarus (Music From The Motion Picture) - yes, there's a documentary of the same name by Eva Aridjis Fuentes - is a 21-track posthumous compilation of recordings by the enigmatic Diane Luckey, who died in 2021. A revelation.
I had the pleasure of seeing Red Snapper perform live in the 1990s, and founder member Rich Thair again last week as part of The Sabres Of Paradise's touring band. I love Red Snapper and their output in the last few years is every bit as good as their previous work.
Barb And Feather brings together three Red Snapper originals, a fab cover of David Bowie's Sound And Vision, plus the 4-track Tight Chest EP with David Harrow. Not a moment or note wasted across the eight songs. I must see them again next time they're on tour.
Silver Y is Laura Caviglia, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist from Sicily, Italy, whose debut album In The Depths dropped in April. In The Depths is on the Bytes label, named after The Black Dog song and home to GLOK (Andy Bell/Ride), Minotaur Shock and seagoth, so it promised to be right up my strasse before I'd even heard a note.
It doesn't disappoint and is every bit as deep and layered as the aforementioned artists. Despite the narratives/themes focusing on loss (of identity), coma and death, the songs' flashes of light and darkness provide an optimism and hope that lifts the music to a higher plane.
Please come back tomorrow for my picks from T to Z.
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