#FeatureFriday Bandcamp Friday 04-09-26

Bandcamp Friday, Feature Friday
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Feature Friday and Bandcamp Friday 04-09-26

Featuring: Stuffy Doll, Burial Grid, Penelope Trappes, Plague Relic and Never the Bridle

@penelopetrappes.bsky.social

I love intense music, that should not be a surprise to anyone. Sometimes, this intensity can take unusual forms, however. My pick this week, Penelope Trappes’ “A Requiem”, is definitively intense, just in a rather quiet way.
I would describe the musical style as cinematic; it builds these room-filling soundscapes which create an incredibly dense atmosphere that would not feel out of place in a historical drama or horror movie. Other than various nature sounds, the instruments used seem to be cello, synths and Penelope’s voice. And what a voice it is! It has that certain ageless quality to it, making it impossible to pinpoint if it comes from a young or a middle-aged woman; bright, but warm and filled with a gentleness and strength that comes with maturity. At times she sounds ethereal and aloof, at others grounded, alive and intimate. It is the kind of voice the listener feels compelled to pay attention to.

The lyrics speak of loss and love in various forms, while the overall mood is mournful, yet almost serene. There is no sensation of anxiety or crippling sadness, only acceptance and a fondness of what or who was lost. If it were not for the clearly modern production, this is music that would feel ancient, even primeval; rooted in an animist or wiccan tradition. I could imagine a druidess singing songs like this to their community, to help soothe their heartbreak.
Overall, I think this album is excellent. I’d recommend listening to it on good headphones in order to better appreciate the amazing production, but the emotion in these tracks will hit the audience in any way they listen to it. While this is not exactly Folk, it has that same earthy, grounded feeling to it and is nothing short of breathtakingly gorgeous. An absolute recommendation!

Florgoth

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‘Le Ballet qui Saigne’, the 2-hour-long trauma-informed sci-fi ballet from Stuffy Doll is a stunning work of new-meets-classical electronic symphonic arrangement. I’ve listened to it several times now and it’s more engrossing each time.

As suggested by the title, it is impossible to listen to this album and not imagine dance. In my own mind it’s dancing people, but colors, shapes, textures, and feelings are all swirling around and through this music. It’s emotional, but also playful, sometimes even funny. All the while, it remains beautiful and slightly restrained.

When I first heard this album and posted something to BlueSky about it, I said it was making me want to choreograph the ballet that goes to this music. Jupiter from Stuffy Doll commented “We could make this happen 👀👀👀” and while I don’t think I have the ability to make anything as good as the ballet this album creates in my mind, I would absolutely buy a ticket to opening night of that show.

In the meantime, listening to this album is pure pleasure. For fans of classical music, scores and soundtracks, I definitely recommend giving this a full listen.

E.A.

@burialgrid.bsky.social

Burial Grid’s ‘Shores of Quiddity’ is an album I’ve had on my Bandcamp account for a good while now. I mean, I discovered the artist on Twitter so that should tell you something. And recently this album came up on my MP3 player’s rotation which was nothing short of a revelation as I hadn’t listened to it in YEARS! and honestly? It’s this recent listening that made me appreciate how damn good this album actually is. Maybe it’s more mature ears that tend to pick up more intricacies or my current experience in creating electronic music gives me a new insight that I previously missed?

Either way, if I remember right Burial Grid made this album exclusively using monophonic synths which basically means the synthesizers in question is limited to play only one note at a time so a thick chord? That’s out of the question. And I feel like that is an interesting exercise for an artist to adhere to and here it definitely helped make for an album more focused on atmosphere rather than any type of complex melody structures. It results in some stark claustrophobic soundscapes that can feel nothing short of foreboding. Alien soundscapes that bring to mind the gorgeous cover art of the album. Strange and beautiful.

Generally the album, despite being wholly performed with synths, feels very organic in the way individual sounds move and seem to breathe in a way that brings to mind the drifting of tape, some type of vibrato effect or just the general unstable nature of analog synths. Whatever it is it adds a sense of beauty to proceedings in how alive it all feels. And while the monophonic nature of the synthesizers employed here grant a sense of simplicity to the sounds, Burial Grid sure still manages to build something grand and complex out of them through some intricate layering and modulation. And let this be an example for syntheads everywhere that synths don’t have to sound rigid and overtly electronic, they’re tools that allow so much more in the sphere of sound creation and I implore you to explore that side of synthesis as interesting things can come out of it just as it did here.

Now, I’m not claiming this is a deep cut by any stretch of the definition, Burial Grid has been around for a while now and built up quite the name for himself. But in times where albums feel disposable, forgotten and are quickly drowned in the algorithm the minute the next sparkly thing catches our eye I felt it important to remind people of an older album that is still totally valid and worth your attention. In fact, on this Bandcamp Friday, if you are looking through the discography of an artist, big or small, don’t forget the older cuts k?

Eveyweveydevey

@neverthebridle.bsky.social

Selfishly, Never the Bridle’s new album Loss Lines came out at exactly the right time,absolute bangers. What a gem it is. Vocalist, Songwriter, Guitarist and everything else Lara, puts everything into these 10 songs and each one bomps along with a indie/alternative pop rock that is very affecting. You know that there is pain but it is presented in such a fun and catchy way it really is disarming.

Lara’s vocal tone is the star, the stacked harmonies, the cadence, the diction, the control!. All this underpinned by the nicely played crunchy guitars and insistent bass. Backed by Martyn James and James Ferrel on drums, this album of songs represents the very best of what Never the Bridle can do. This could end up being my favorite album of the year.

Yeah you’ve got those lush vocal stacks but hold on, check those arrangements out. Intricate and deliberate. The Pavement/Graham Coxon style guitars are a real treat. As a guitarist I appreciate the work that goes into getting as distinct a sound.

Not sure how many times I have listened to this now but it gets better each time. Rare treasure that is.

You really need this album. You really, really do.

Untidy Music

@plaguerelic.bsky.social 

A deep dive thru dungeon synth that reveals the many strands of its DNA without ever giving up its distinctive identity. It’s like knowing a guy with a unique face and then meeting his parents and seeing the components that came together to make the guy – he still has a unique look, but at the same time “ohhh, I see where he gets it…” Here, those parents are drone and dark ambient and home keyboard sounds and old-school RPGs and New Age albums that were only ever issued on cassette and available via mail-order (allow 4-6 weeks for delivery). There’s touches of other core dungeon synth influences – kosmische and black metal – but those aforementioned strands are the ones that stand out to my ears, at least. The whole album is a journey best experienced from beginning to end, ideally while throwing some dice and moving minis around the table. Another fine dungeon synther from Plague Relic – and it’s free/pay-what-you-want, so there’s no real danger in checking out this dungeon.

Ether Diver

Updated: September 4, 2026 — 4:59 am

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