Cool Band Alert - Sunken Cages

Welcome to Bandcamp Notes, a free music discovery newsletter published by Bandcamp.

Recently on Bandcamp Daily: We explored the thrilling new collision of baile funk and UK garage, checked out music made using abandoned church organs, and celebrated the work of Ellen Allien and The Durutti Column.

The Helpline is OPEN: Ask us your most burning-music related questions for the next edition of our music advice column, The Helpline. Check past issues here.

Name: Sunken Cages
From: Brooklyn & Philadelphia
Members: Ravish Momin
RIYL: Cornershop, DJ Narciso, Zenker Brothers, Dead Can Dance, Arca, Klein
The Gist: Percussion-dense electronic music that’s stark and shadowy.

It’s tempting to lean all the way into the biographical details here: Ravish Momin, the man behind Sunken Cages, drew inspiration for Neram Pularumbol from his South Indian background, building the tracks here on folk drums and peppering in gestures toward regional rhythms. But while that angle is conceptually interesting, the thing that makes the album so breathtaking is how Momin uses that blueprint to completely dismantle electronic music and rebuild it in striking new ways. The result is something that would be right at home on the PAN label: eerie synth tones drifting in and out of frame over rhythms that are alternately driving and dreamlike. The drums are the centerpiece: On “Idakka” they crash down like heavy rain, ripples of electronics appearing and vaporizing like a distant mirage. On “Drum and Flowers” the beats skitter like scared spiders, speckles of synth exploding in the tiny spaces between them. A batch of remixes from names like Lila Tirando a Violeta and Masma Dream World honor the originals by keeping the focus on the percussion while filling the margins with spectral sonics. It’s an album that honors its roots not by preserving them, but by pushing them somewhere entirely unexpected.

Neram Pularumbol (As The Dawn Breaks) is out Friday on Mahorka. Pre-order it here.

Dig this record and want more like it?

You could hardly pick a better place to start than our guide to Electronic Fusion in India. From there, journey across the globe to Thailand, where musicians there are creating similar electronic hybrids. There are more than a few times when Sunken Cages’ spooky sonics feel like they share DNA with the work of The Bug as well as the ominous electronic music of Bristol.

Listening Party Picks, August 6th – August 12th

Come hang in the chat with artists celebrating their record release this week on Bandcamp.

August 6: Bernhard Wöstheinrich for Qualia 005. RSVP.
August 6: Circuit3 for Metanoia: Music From Therapy. RSVP.
August 7: L’Rain for fata morgana. RSVP.
August 7: Kiwi Jr. for Blowin’ Up. RSVP.
August 7: Bunny X for Love on a High Floor. RSVP.
August 7: attic abasement for Moonlight Passes. RSVP.
August 9: Avi Engel for Seedhead. RSVP.
August 9: The Anchoress for As We Once Were. RSVP.
August 11: Rowena Wise, Bad Things Feel Good*. RSVP.
August 12: Balaphonic for Organic Matters. RSVP.

To see the full calendar, go here.