Runner's High and Industry Lows
Three essential albums by Pneumatic Tubes, Armand Hammer & The Alchemist, Gasper Lawal and the case against letting suits kill music.
Hello and welcome to another edition of Mondo Times. I’ve got three newsletters worth of material that I’m currently editing, but the internets are clogged and I don’t want to pile more unread material on top of it. So I’ll try to keep it short!
Let’s start with these three fantastic albums.
♩PNEUMATIC TUBES: (Electronic/Hauntology/Psychedelia): Who else has been waiting for new material from Ghost Box-adjacent Pneumatic Tubes, after 2022’s debut “A Letter from Tree Tops”?.
“Runner’s High” consolidates Jesse Chandler’s journey from Midlake, and Mercury Rev sideman to visionary solo artist through American Kosmische, noir and neo-psychedelia. The album’s meditation on physical and mental clarity through long-distance running provides conceptual framework without constraining the music’s natural flow. Tracks like “Yellow Green and Gold” (featuring Meg Baird on back vocals) and the noir hit “Prospect Park in the Dark” demonstrate how Chandler’s flute and clarinet work can elevate electronic textures beyond mere nostalgia-baiting. (Like a lot of copy-paste vaporware). I’d listen to it in one go and better while jogging on a sunny day. I’m sure you’ll feel blissful.
Better review and back story on Caught by the River.
Interview on KLOF Mag.
♩ARMAND HAMMER & THE ALCHEMIST: (Hip-Hop/Jazzy/Cinematic): If you are an avid reader, you’d know that billy woods and E L U C I D and more than anything else together as their Armand Hammer alter ego are on top of my hip-hop world. I had some other albums lined up instead but once I saw this release with the reigning beatmaster “The Alchemist” I had to move it up. Has some wonderful features from other fave MCs like Quelle Chris, Pink Siifu & Earl Sweatshirt, but of course the main driver is the dark cinematic ambience and the dark sociopolitical poetry, a snapshot, if you will, of the late capitalist times. Listen to this in one go too, but here’s one of my favorites from this album, if you need a preview.
♩GASPAR LAWAL - (World/Jazz/Africa): This reissue from the always marvellous Strut Records, is Nigerian percussionist and sideman Gaspar Lawal’s 1980 debut, featuring handmade instruments and a lot of love. Just play it to your friends at a dinner party.
“Lawal’s style was forged through decades of high-level percussion work with the likes of Stephen Stills, Barbra Streisand, George Clinton & Funkadelic, Manfred Mann, Alexis Korner, Vangelis and Ginger Baker’s Air Force band.”
♩Undomondo’s Terminal Optimism: Kind reminder that I did an Apple Music / Spotify playlist which is quite jazzy/adjacent and I will replace this one in a bit with another playlist that I have already finished. Might be your last chance to check it out. Pneumatic Tubes, Mattias Uneback, Greg Foat, Kassa Overall, Sven Wunder, Matt Wilde and more..
Found two nice zines, Drug Music via Patrick Lyons on bsky
and EX! Zine via Blair Millen on bsky. I want to do a zine / label too, just don’t know how.
📖 The music industry is speed-running the same mistakes it made with streaming, but worse.
As a lifelong digital packrat since the late 90s, I’ve watched every “revolution” in music distribution turn into the same old extraction scheme. It’s no wonder I want all the major labels and the music business to burn to the ground.
If the avant-garde, the middle class, and the actual creatives aren’t eating, then royally fuck the suits, the streamers, the middlemen, and the major label artists on top.
“Private equity takeovers have loaded studios with debt, forcing them to crank out quick profits. Streaming services are throttling video quality, slapping on more ads and tripling subscription costs. Some UK households are now paying close to £700 a year.” Protein
📖 Now Warner has inked deals with Suno and Udio (following each other this week). Just read this to understand the future of music + labour, and what’s gonna happen soon via this detailed article. Warner does a deal with Suno & Udio (CDM)
It’s Lucy and the football time with the music industry. Having led artists into a complete disaster with streaming, they seem poised to do it again, on a grander scale, with generative AI. Warner has a deal with Suno today, following Udio earlier this week. Peace for our time.
It’s a normalized generative model built on artist work that goes uncredited, almost purpose built to produce the kind of slop in music that we’ve gotten in imagery.
You can see why, like streaming, this is anything but “democratizing” as a force. Big players, bigger deals, more big platforms forcing the larger industry down everyone’s throats.
📖 And if that’s not enough, Spotify acquired the WhoSampled database.
Peretsky sez “There is no fun data anymore, everything is surveillance capital. We heard you love ADIDAS by Korn, which was sampled by Killer Mike in 2003, did you know that you can get 20% off all white top sneakers at Target during the Black Friday Holiday Spectacular?”
📖 Meanwhile music industry insiders are allegedly running bot farms and burner pages to game TikTok algo? (via shesaid.so)
And simply, there are infinitely better models: like this study says which is a case for general UBI but WHAT DO I KNOW:
Artist cooperatives like Subvert offer alternatives to streaming giants. Cantilever curates which albums are even streamable per month. These could be great models—it’s just that most people don’t care enough and these companies don’t have the budget. The future looks bleak if we don’t take a stand. Soon enough we’ll all be listening to AI slop while artists are not making enough to eat. (which most already aren’t). But it’s better to hope, no?
Over on the touring side, things are similarly grim. Superstruct/KKR is now on the offensive (per the indispensable First Floor newsletter) via the well known “cancel culture” route. Yeah we heard it the first time, anyone still buying it these days?
Those thoughts were almost shockingly unfiltered, as this person—who is apparently based in Spain—categorized “what’s happened with the boycott of the festivals [as] pure harassment and digital bullying,” and something that created “an unnecessary tension to comply with the agenda of certain movements.”
Sorry it’s a bit extreme for you, but I just want you to remember one of the greatest slogans from May ‘68: “Humanity won’t be happy till the last capitalist is hung with the guts of the last bureaucrat.” <3
One bright spot: Sziget founder has managed to get the festival back from these vulture capitalists.
Also worth noting: the biggest exploiter in the music biz, IYKYK.
There’s almost always a great use for any technology, and I’d like to leave you on a positive note with this obscure AI generated Ethiopian music/video?
If you think we need to battle with these capitalist pricks and you don’t want to be listening to AI slop soon, forward this to someone who needs to hear it. I try not to invade your mailboxes too much.