vibes of late & shaking air feb '25

good morning ~

today I’m starting the first of what I hope are many experimentations with the regular format of this email project - - I truly love sending you new music and writing every week, but lately I’ve been feeling a really strong gravitational pull out of my own head and perspective. asking you my barrage of questions at the end of these emails isn’t enough - I want to spend more dedicated time focusing on other people’s work, I wanna zoom out.

with that in mind, I’m reviving my on-again off-again public playlist habit and dedicating this edition of MBB to broadening our efforts in collective listening

sharing two playlists with you here ~ ~

one is called vibes of late and is a genre-non-specific collection of music that has caught my interest one way or another in the last little while - these could be bands I’ve done sound for, buddies who have released something I enjoy, or the nasty, sweaty music I like to listen to on the treadmill.

the other is called shaking air and is a little more conceptual - there’s a sweet spot of experimental / ambient music that tends toward major keys and effectively simulates that just-before-sleeping moment. lots of water sounds, bugs, the kind of stuff you’d find on a white noise machine. I’ve also kept an emphasis on piano on there, an instrument ever in my favor.

historically I’ve compiled these playlists on Spotify but I’m not - let’s say - super stoked about the level of rot and exploitation on that platform, so I’m now also using the much less exploitative Bandcamp compiler Buy Music Club.

I’m hoping you hear something you like, I’m hoping someone buys a copy of something, but more widely I’m hoping that by searching out and sharing these new-to-me and invigorating sounds our world of possibilities can feel grander - life’s a field of flowers.

and in future editions of this email we’ll see what other works we can fold in :)

one quick note / plug: tonight is the Zorthian Ranch fire recovery benefit at Avalon but it is in fact SOLD OUT and there will be no tickets at the door. if you missed out, you could instead just listen to that track Ged and I put out recently and then donate to the ranch’s recovery fund :)

okay, here’s vibes of late on Buy Music Club:

bseretan - Vibes of Late Feb '25

also available on Spotify:

some highlights from this edition of the playlist - - -

New Orthodox - Blue Marble

recently had a chance to chat with Nicholas Merz - the name behind this project - about what it was like making this record with Steve Albini, one of the last he ever worked on. I was fascinated - as I always am - to hear about his egalitarian, blue collar work ethic, his dedication to fairness and frugality, his true-to-live capture of the music aesthetic. and when I finally heard the record in question I was pretty blown away - operatic, grand, but also daringly stripped down, I’m stunned to hear what Merz manages to accomplish with just his voice and layers looped, mangled pedal steel. this track is perhaps the most epic and the most traditionally resembling a lighter-in-the-air slow jam. really good shit.

Amor Butano - Virgen De Las Desamparadas

one of the best feelings in the world: you catch the tail end of a great song on terrestrial radio and the host properly shouts out the musicians, now you’re a new fan. Appropriately when I learned of Valencia’s Amor Butano it was via their fantastic new wave boogie chune “Mágica” - it did indeed feel like magic! When their latest single dropped in January, it felt equally thrilling - a slinky bachata vibe, with ample heartbreak and stabs on synthesizer? I’m sold

Andrew Rowan - Aviary Patina

I’ve said it often and with my full chest - this album by Andrew Rowan and Steven Van Betten is one of my favorites ever. I’ve been a dyed-in-the-wool fan of both of them ever since they dared bring a whole ass string quartet to my living room DIY venue in 2019. Andrew released a truly fascinating EP in October of last year from which this track is pulled, plus Andrew and Steven have another EP coming out next month. Full disclosure: I did write bios for both of these EPs, but it’s rare to hear music this graceful under any circumstances, particularly on a for-hire gig!

LSDXOXO - BLOODLUST - VIP MIX

those who don’t know me super intimately might be surprised the degree to which I delight in music that is aggressively horny, the nastier the better, and LSDXOXO continues to make some of the most unhinged, liberated, beautifully oversexed dance music you could ever hope to hear. his work is voyeuristic and magisterial - hearing the incessant pump of the kick and the off-kilter shuffle of the hats feels truly, thrillingly naughty.

btw if you also like nasty music, definitely check out the Die Sexual track - got to do sound for them recently and they had a leather whip on display at the merch table

Standouts from the SQUARE festival in Braga, Portugal last month - -

I saw an utter fuck ton of live music when I was hanging in Braga recently and much of it blew me outta my socks, here’s a quickfire rundown of some what’s featured here:

El Khat - three dudes living in Berlin and making Yemeni music with synthesizers and instruments pulled from the junkyard, fantastic

Jadsa - one of the best solo guitar and voice performers I’ve seen in a long time, and this record skews more surreal / arty

Maria Reis - just some straight ahead haunting indie rock from a collaborator of Panda Bear (she’s on the new song!)

Arianna Casellas y Kauê - spectacular music steeped in folkways with which I am unfamiliar - here the duo uses tuned hollow sticks to enchanting effect!

Asmaa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou - I generally enjoy any form of Gnawa music I’m lucky enough to hear, but this ensemble led by Morocco’s first female musician working in the tradition is especially rad (only available on Spotify, this track isn’t on Bandcamp)

Hetta - disgusting hardcore with a little bit of a nü metal slant, some of the finest yelling I have ever seen

Housepainters - these Dutch folks really know how to play the hell out of a post punk bassline!

Julián Mayorga - this guy is a menace! his Bandcamp bio is really good: Experimental song destroyer. Minor poet. Music villain.

Huggen Luft - some profoundly defiant drum and bass from Ukraine

and then here’s Shaking Air on Buy Music Club:

bseretan - 🌀 shaking air 🌀 feb 2025

and the Spotify version:

I’m letting the tracks on Spotify accumulate, so there’s nearly eight hours of music on there now, great for putting on shuffle and letting it rip - - here are some highlights from the latest additions:

Nyokabi Kariũki - home piano

another great musician whose work I learned of in Portugal, but I didn’t get to see her play a set of music, exactly - instead Nyokabi performed an extraordinary hybrid radio piece - almost like something Laurie Anderson would present - about discovering that one of the first ever pieces of publicly presented electronic music came from Africa, created by Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh in 1944. It was a fascinating talk and, no surprise, Kariũki’s own compositions are great, too.

Ezra Feinberg & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - the Big Clock (remix)

this is just such a divine remix of some already beautifully serene music - the digital crunchiness, the way the phasing high hats barge in, while underneath the piano bubbles along gracefully…I just really like the way this sounds. Tingly scalp music.

Saapato & Green-House - Autolysis and Putrefaction

really love this murky world of clicks and wisps that Hudson Valley frog enthusiast Saapato and LA ambient legends Green-House have cooked up here - this is from Saapato’s upcoming record that takes inspiration from watching a fox slowly decompose by the side of the road which is interesting enough, but his big parade of collaborators all have really different, fascinating takes on what the various processes of returning to the Earth sound like, some more literal than others (he invited me to collab, as well, and I ran his tracks through a broken tape machine, then plunked some piano on top).

Also, I want to send a special shout out to the fantastic music community I find myself a part of in the Hudson Valley - King in Yellow, Fascinating Chimera Project, Will Stratton, YAI, Maeve Schallert, Gary’s Dream, Ronnie Stone, Scotia - these are all people I see around and get to see play on a regular basis, that is nice :)

But what about you? What have you been listening to lately? Have you seen live music played recently that really left a mark? How do you proceed when you’ve heard all your own jokes before?