An accompaniment to the Swedish film “Skottet,” our song this week was written by the film’s producers and performed by Mandrake Paddle Steamers under the abbreviated moniker “Mandrake”, released in 1969 as a 7". While the b-side indulges in a bluesy guitar lead with mid-tempo pomp, “Sunlight Glide” ambles into more sinister territory. While both have a bit of a bite to them, the moodiness of the latter permeates deeper, tainting the air with the threat of departure and loss.
We hear a woodwind at the front, the kind that always seem to wade into atmospheric psychedelic-era ballads. What sets “Sunlight Glide” apart from other more mundane memorials to love is its distinctively gothic flavor. Tape-delayed syllables are drawn out, the organ humming below the fuzz of a guitar. A sense of dread poisons the singer’s nostalgia, somewhat resembling the ennui, recalcitrance, and angst that characterized Patti Smith and Joy Division a decade onward from its release; it is not the author made prey by the emotion but the emotion made prey by the author.
A tracking, a stalking, a circling.
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About the Curator - Psetta
Psetta is a Los-Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist & musician. Hailing from rural Maine, he curated two community radio shows for several years, flirting with mundane, innovative & surreal sounds.
He runs a biweekly submission-friendly playlist with So Fertile, “summer but I don’t like heat”, covering upcoming, obscure, and quintessential Lo-Fi, Electronic, Dream Pop, Ambient, & Experimental music.
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Zanmi kanmarad – Claudette et Ti Pierre
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“Zanmi kanmarad” was first released in 1979 on Claudette et Ti Pierre’s second Macaya Records album, Camionette. Information on the duo themselves beyond Discogs’ dedicated archivist community proved to be more difficult to piece together…
