Local Album Roundup
12 favorites from 2021, just in time for Bandcamp Friday
Hi everyone! We’ll have the regularly scheduled weekly listings coming out on Wednesday, so this is a bonus edition. This Friday, August 6th is a Bandcamp Friday, meaning that if you purchase digital albums from Bandcamp on that day the musicians will receive all of the money you pay for them, with no fees deducted. It’s a great way to support your local musicians and to discover new music. I’ve been keeping an eye on the “Bellingham” tag in Bandcamp, and have compiled an assortment of excellent releases from the last year, for your listening pleasure. This list is in no way comprehensive, it’s not intended as a “Top 10” or anything of the sort. It’s just stuff I heard and thought other people might like. If your recent favorite was left out, don’t be offended, just leave a comment to tell us about it.
I’ve arranged it in a sort of ascending order of an indefinable quality that can roughly be described as “how likely is it that your grandmother will tell you to ‘turn that ruckus off’”. So we’ll start with some folk and jazz before moving into rockier stuff and ending with electronic, hip-hop, and metal. Happy listening!
Pleasant Bay by The Wandering Seas is a delightful collection of instrumental folk music. The members of the fiddle/ cello/ guitar trio all have roots in traditional Celtic styles but for this album they wrote a bunch of original tunes in a variety of styles from all over the world. If you’re an ambitious musician you can even check out the sheet music which they thoughtfully included.
The members of The Best Intentions will likely be familiar to local music fans from their work with groups like Hot Damn Scandal, or you may have seen them busking around town. They do a lively mixture of blues, early jazz, and ragtime, and write originals as well. Musical saw is prominently featured. Their debut album is called Maybe It’s Nothing.
Devin Champlin is also well known around town for the Gallus Brothers and Sons of Rainier. His new solo album How to Change From Blue to Green incorporates the rootsier sounds of those groups with some more surprising elements like woozy sounding synthesizers. It’s a charmingly idiosyncratic album that sounds like nothing other than a talented musician exploring wherever his muse leads him.
Teo and the Cosmic Neighborhood occupy a unique niche in the Bellingham music scene. They could be described as alternative pop, but their Brazilian lead singer brings a bossa nova influence that you just don’t hear anywhere else. Like a lot of great Brazilian pop music, their debut Fora do Azul sounds mellow if you’re not paying close attention but there’s a lot of emotional intensity right below the surface.
Rich Arithmetic’s album SHIFTINGEARS covers a range of styles that will remind you of all your smart pop favorites of decades past. There’s all lot of 60s stuff in there but also a healthy dose of XTC. Lots of great harmonies, unpredictable bridges, and varied instrumentation.
Candysound have been bringing swirly guitar noise and sweet indie-pop melodies to the Bellingham scene for a long time and emerged from hiatus just long enough to release one last album, Only At Night I See.
Ceiling Patterns by Alyssa Rueckert has some gorgeous whispered indie/folk melodies with enough noise to even out the sweetness. For fans of melancholy singer/songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers or Julien Baker.
I feel weird recommending The Star Thief by Tyson Ballew, since I played on one song on it and he’s a friend, so there’s a conflict of interest here. But I do honestly think indie rock and emo fans will find a lot to enjoy here.
Willdabeast are one of the top acts in Bellingham’s electronic music scene these days. The addition of live horns gives their music an extra layer of accessibility to fans of other eras and genres but the beats still bang hard enough to satisfy the bass-hungry kids of today. Their latest is called Fabric of Reality.
I don’t know anything about emma et cetera, she was a purely random bandcamp find for me. Her EP i only have memories of dancing is four tracks of twisty, surprising electronic instrumentals. The name seem quite appropriate in that it’s music that is influenced by dance music but would be pretty hard to actually dance to at this point. I’m just always impressed when instrumental music of any genre can make me laugh out loud with its audacity (or absurdity, it’s a fine line sometimes)
Black Noise Presents: Family Affair is a collection featuring some of Bellingham’s best MCs and beatmakers. There’s some straight up hip-hop, some lo-fi instrumentals, some wilder stuff. These sorts of compilations are a great way for different musical scenes to put their best foot forward and give new listeners a chance to get hooked.
Music can play a lot of roles in a person’s life. Sometimes you want to dance, sometimes you want to brood, sometimes you want to be uplifted. Then there are times when you just want to scream at the frustrations of existence. When you’re in the latter mood, the sheer intensity of Static Church by Melancholia just might make it the metal album for you.
There you have it. Hopefully this leads you to something new and fun! Sound off in the comments with your favorites of the last year!