In a world where the music industry has mutated into a few streaming services trying to drain every last second of your day for ad revenue – and I’m not exaggerating here, just read the quotes from Spotify’s CEO in this article – it’s nice to know there’s still plenty of musical innovation going on in the world.

I wouldn’t want to be a listener in any era but today. I can access any track from previous eras and any genre from around the world, all from this chair.

Not to mention, I can create something like this and actually find an audience. Where would that ever work but the modern internet?

Fighting against the tide of corporate expansionism, Bandcamp has always been a shining light to me. It’s a wonderful demonstration that fairness and empathy do exist in the digital marketplace. They do more to support artists directly than any other site I’ve encountered, which is why I’ve uploaded most of my own stuff there (hint hint) and try to buy from there wherever possible.

In light of Bandcamp Fridays, wherein the company waives its already small profit share every first Friday of the month to support artists during the pandemic, I thought I’d give some recommendations. A few of my favourite albums from relatively unknown artists to share with whatever audience I can muster, just to revive this blog a tiny bit.

You may notice it’s not the first Friday of the month.

That’s…probably because I forgot to do it this month…and am too impatient to wait for next. Plus I’d probably forget again.

Maybe add these to a wishlist or whatever and go back to them on 2nd October? Or just buy them now. It’s all good.

Anyway. Time to show you people some awesome music.

Shards – Find Sound

Genre: Modern choral

Favourite track: I Needed the Sun

I don’t think I’ve ever heard as ambitious and inventive a combination of choir and electronica as Find Sound, the debut album by London-based choir Shards. Ok, maybe except Vangelis. But still.

Lush classical-style vocal textures combined with crystalline 21st-century production produce a haunting, emotional experience. From the percussive splash of Unrest to I Needed the Sun, which turns a simple vocal canon into a beautiful soundscape with reverb, synthesized bass and other production wizardry.

I’m staggered something like this could have passed so far under the radar. Apparently the group have performed at the Barbican, which makes perfect sense to me. My one visit to the Barbican embodied the exact tone of this album. By which I mean I left feeling a bit spaced out with a half-open third eye.

I dunno, central London does weird things to me.

Never Sol – CHAMALEO

Genre: Dark synth-pop

Favourite track: Blue Dress

I discovered Never Sol thanks to her collaboration with Floex, a Czech producer of God-tier electro-acoustic tracks. But he’s just a bit too well-known to fit this list, so that’s a story for another day.

Never Sol specialises in dark, lilting songs full of resonance-heavy synths. Not only am I in love with her voice, but I’m jealous of the bank of classic synthesizers at her disposal (I’ll justify a Prophet ’08 purchase some day!). You can see both in action in many of the criminally under-viewed videos of her live performances.

CHAMALEO is at times lurching and distorted, as in We Can Be Hungry, and at others heart-sizzlingly tender, as in Roza, a song I’ve listened to many a time on park benches when I need to be alone.

My personal favourite though is Blue Dress. If you love it as much as I do, you’ll adore the solo piano version. I’ve even learnt parts of it on the piano myself, just to feel the sensation of playing it.

Musetta – Mice to Meet You!

Genre: Dance and electronica

Favourite track: The Days of Roses

Another Floex-driven discovery, this time from one of my favourite tracks of all time. The fact I don’t understand a word of Italian did nothing to stop me falling in love with this voice too.

Sadly the tracks on Mice to Meet You! are all sung in English, which doesn’t quite have the same sensual energy as Italian. Even so, I still bought Musetta’s album, and I haven’t regretted it once.

Full of electro-dance rhythms (such as Peace and Melody, the most famous track), the album is punctuated by some weird and wonderful songs. Underneath the Mango Tree is perhaps the oddest, a kind of lo-fi tango bop with monkey sounds. I adore it. But The Days of Roses has to take the cake for me, with its funky drums backing jazz-like vocals and a saxophone solo.

If I have one criticism, sometimes the production goes too far. The loudness and fullness becomes straining at times, especially compared to other albums in this list. That’s no reason to dismiss it though.

9T Antiope – Syzygys

Genre: Avant-garde

Favourite track: Cluster of Rifts

I like crushingly depressing ambient music. Like, Godspeed You! Black Emperor level. So if you don’t, maybe skip this one.

Nothing has ever evoked a sense of the end of the world to me more than 9T Antiope’s Syzygys. Need a soundtrack for staring out the window of a train at a bleak industrial hellscape? Turns out musique concrète with traditional Iranian scales is perfect for such a task. I have first-hand experience.

Syzygys is hard to listen to in places. Like, painful. It’s an experimental record, full of noise and grating distortion and no sense of consonant tonality. Maybe I’m weird in liking it so much. Or maybe my need to be a hipster is so strong I won’t be satisfied unless I’m listening to someone strangle a Persian wind instrument.

Succumb is far and away the “nicest” of the tracks. So check it out even if you’re unsure about the others. But I’m such a sucker for lavish female vocals drenched in reverb soundscapes – as should be becoming evident by now – that I have to place Cluster of Rifts in my top spot.

Just remember to open the curtains when you’ve finished listening, lest all light drain from your life forever.

Brett Domino – Keytar Your Heart

Genre: Comedy pop

Favourite track: I Think I’m in Love with the Girl who Works on Checkout Six in Decathlon

I challenge anyone to find musical whiplash as severe as going from Syzygys to this.

Brett Domino exploded into most people’s consciousness with his How To Make A Hit Pop Song series. I subscribed immediately and everything he’s made since has been pure gold.

Keytar Your Heart compiles a few of the Brett Domino Trio’s recent tracks into a funky, tongue-in-cheek romp. I’m slightly breaking my own rules as most were popular as individual songs, it’s just the album itself that’s been disappointingly invisible.

The thing is, despite being jokes, the songs here are insanely well-made. I Think I’m in Love with the Girl who Works on Checkout Six in Decathlon has stellar writing and production. The creative genius it took to use the naff orchestra hit keyboard patch in an actual song, and make it sound professional, just takes my breath away.

Then there’s Pinocchio 2020. Watch this first, then listen to the updated prog rock version, and marvel at how the hell anyone thinks of this stuff.