Bandcamp Friday again?!
To be quite honest I didn’t realize it had been 2 years since I posted one of these on Substack! 2024 was a pretty good year for me, which I suppose made me too busy to post, and 2025 was a spectacularly awful year that stretched out of normal bounds and into the first quarter of 2026 - the kind of year where I stopped listening to music entirely and played Crusader Kings III for an unspeakable number of hours. At one point I got into mobile gaming. Bleak times. Thankfully, things have begun to improve somewhat, and I’m attempting to listen to music again, so here we are! Without further ado, a Bandcamp Friday reclist:
Haley Henderickx & Max Garcia Conover - What of Our Nature
This is one of those albums that I think everyone but me may have already heard, but maybe not! It’s mostly very excellent new-folk “inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,” and vocally very reminiscent of 60s Dylan and Sandy Denny. “Boars” and “Fluorescent Light” are two of my favorite songs off of it, but if you like American folk you’ll find a lot to enjoy in the whole album.
Safety Trance - Noches de Terror
Changing genres completely, this is an excellent EP from a Venezuelan beatmaker/producer who also released an album today (still working out my thoughts on it so it’s not an official rec). Industrial noise/EDM club music, you’ll either like it or you really, really will not. My favorite track on it, “El Alma Que Te Trajo,” features Arca, who made the next piece on the rec list…
Laurie Anderson - “Big Science” (remixed by Arca)
Sometimes I randomly search famous musicians to see if they’ve added their catalog to Bandcamp, and I was delighted to find a few months ago that Laurie Anderson has! Along with her actual albums, there’s also a 10 minute remix of “Big Science” by Venezuelan musician Arca. It’s a hypnotic listening experience. I think at one point there are coyotes? I love it a lot, and think most people who like the original song will also enjoy this.
Foxtradamus (fka Dusty Fox) and MLTZR - ATOTA II: A Dim Light in the Basement
My year of no music was not entirely music-less - I got very into A Beat Happening shows for a minute, and subsequently into a lot of local Portland beatmakers and rappers. MLTZR does the audio for ABH shows, and has put out quite a few great EPs over the years, but my favorite is a collaboration with local rapper Dusty Fox. This is relatively lo-fi rap with a very Portland sound and some really solid lyrics.
Bachar Mar-Khalife - OLIVE TREE
Closing out with yet another EP, this one by a French Lebanese composer. “Olive Tree” is a very beautiful classical piece with electronic elements that reminds me a little of OneOhTrix Point Never’s early work. The description for the EP says it “evokes an inner, grounded, and luminous hope” which I think is fairly accurate. I’ve listened to it a lot in the early morning on my way to work, and it’s a very calming, clear piece. The second song on the album is a remix by Noise Diva, and it’s easy to listen to the two together as one extended piece in dialog with itself.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be back at some point with more…probably sooner than two years from now.