Bandcamp Picks of the Week 10/6/2023

It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Skyjelly’s mysterious SPIRIT GUIDE and scuttlefuzz’s experimental indietronica display GHOSTS!

Skyjelly – SPIRIT GUIDE

Genre: Fourth World

Favorite Tracks: “What Have You Done,” “Yasemle”

There’s something to be said for a sense of mystery, or at least an unwillingness to reveal everything on the internet. Skyjelly does have some online presence—a website, a Facebook page, even a Twitter account. But details—names, biographical information, mission statements, manifestos, merch—are scarce. A profile on Rate Your Music lists four people in the group, but videos elsewhere show a duo: the same bespectacled man on guitar and vox (presumably “Skyjelly Jones”), and a drummer—a different drummer in each video, one behind a small kit, the other playing bongos with sticks. Skyjelly’s music is just as cryptic—the band’s Bandcamp profile says it’s from Boston, but it could just as well hail from Philadelphia, Turkmenistan or the moon.

Skyjelly Jones, if he is in fact the vocalist, sings in a polyglot style that’s hard to pin down; sometimes the lyrics sound French, other times vaguely Arabic, occasionally veering close to something resembling English—it could be Esperanto, even. The words aren’t really the point, though, unfolding as more of a bonus texture by adding blurry, minor-key shading and chantlike rigor to the clatter of the guitars, percussion, and assorted loops and sound effects that make up the eclectic, eccentric sound world on Skyjelly’s new record, SPIRIT GUIDE. Opener “I Know” has a lurching, off-center beat cushioned by increasingly fuzzy guitar and incantatory synth buzz. “Killer B” continues the ominous vibes with a sinister slide guitar, tapping hand drums, eerie voice samples and spectral feedback moans—it’s menacing, but in an aloof way, with a soothing tempo and purring vocal that seem intent on keeping you off-balance. You can hear similarities to the neo-tribal apocalypse dirges of Houston shamans Ak’chamel, but with less doomsday theater. There’s darkness in Skyjelly’s music, but it’s surrounded by flashes of lightning, the radiance of bonfires and the flicker of torches. Clipped loops, collagelike vocal effects, fractal snatches of guitar solos, all lend their particular sparks to the cryptic glow.

The spidery, Sahel-tinged swing of these tracks is given fullest expression in “What Have You Done,” which has the frenetic Anglo-muezzin twang of avant-garde masters Sun City Girls, plus a stuttery, trebly guitar line that resolves into a resonant power chord rumble. “Laisse Jeyeden Jeden,” meanwhile, starts off with a rolling hip hop beat and a clean, chiming indie rock riff that sounds a little like Pinback, before suddenly morphing into a mutant Moroccan rumba. Sometimes the beats are chopped up, in the way of Teo Macero’s work with Miles Davis on ON THE CORNER; other times they’re allowed to form a luxurious groove. “Yaslemle” has the gauzy serenity of a British shoegaze jam and the dusty grit of a desert lament, which give way to a bent, superlatively sticky guitar solo. There’s a kitchen sink aesthetic at work here, but it’s balanced by a careful attention to melody and dynamics, as the driving closer “Yep Hassu” proves. Skyjelly’s music can be earthy and astral, uncanny and resolutely human. Get down and drop out over on Bandcamp. [Reed Jackson]

scuttlefuzz – GHOSTS

Genre: Bedroom Pop, Indietronica

Favorite Tracks: “Idle,” “Comfort,” “Swim”

scuttlefuzz’s music is constantly restarting. Their delicate and misty brand of pop adorns itself with dial-up tones, stutters, and glitches that deftly mirror lyrics about tattered conversations, noisy thoughts, and the discomfort that flourishes from not quite being able to reconcile your mind with the space that surrounds it. Their debut album GHOSTS is aptly titled, trading the sunlit soundscapes of their previous project, THE KEYCHAIN EP, for something slightly more haunted. Icy pads, bit-crushed percussion and the aforementioned bleeps and bloops all present themselves in unhurried, mellow bliss. Light is occasionally brought into the mix by vibrant string plucks, and there are a couple of electrifying moments throughout—such as the shimmering guitar solo courtesy of June Lalonde in “Boy”—that turn the opaque soundscape translucent, even if just for a little while. The album’s most apparent strength is its capacity to develop in the in-betweens of mood and sound with ease.

Most of the songs on GHOSTS share a common thread in theme and approach, with subtle configuration changes between them that allow for a faceted depiction of dissociation and its effects. In less careful hands it could come across as too detached, or even tiresome, but scuttlefuzz’s almost tactile use of foley and field recordings, alongside the crystal-clear vocals, make the album come wonderfully alive. Every highlight has something unique going for them. “Idle” uses a sample of crunching snow as percussion, and eventually gives way to a mesmerizing post-chorus filled with woozy electronics, digital rumble and plucked ukulele. “Boy” has a melody that’s unbelievably sweet and effortless, carrying some of the album’s most tender lyrics (“Gently / Stumble through ritual / Give me the rules again / I’m barely listening”). “Together” and “Molting” both share playful synth lines that offset the otherwise melancholic glow they give off. “Candy Coffin,” a chocofriendz cover, is invigorating, noisy and dense in a way unlike anything scuttlefuzz have ever released.

The eerie feel that rears its head throughout GHOSTS is best exemplified in the stunning “Swim.” A buzzing tone, not dissimilar to the sound a TV makes when it freezes, adds weight to a song that otherwise feels as though it might disperse into fog at any moment. A hypnotic tapestry of synths accompanies the album at its most wistful along with arresting imagery that mentions, amongst other things, steeping lemongrass and nature’s forces being lost to art. Taken literally or not, the chorus about accidentally finding out your baby knows how to swim (and thanking God for it afterward, because what if they didn’t?) feels touching in such a singular, precise way I can’t help but be in awe. Even with its brief 26-minute runtime, scuttlefuzz’s penchant for sweet hooks and intricate production guarantees plenty of staying power for GHOSTS, a remarkable debut album that gracefully portrays the mind’s labyrinthine sprawl and its pitfalls, with a serene heart and a feather-light touch. Check it out on Bandcamp! [Jay Bracho]