Swarm Intel Vol. 1 is an ace electro compilation out of Goa from the folks at Orbs Cure Labs, and their new label OCL Records. Really nice to see this kind of stuff coming out of India, which has among the richest of musical histories, but is wildly underrepresented in electronic music (but not for lack of quality material!). The first of the selected songs comes from Sri Lankan Nigel Perera, the second from co-label-boss Pulpy Shilpy, both of whom deliver excellent tunes that live in the realm between dub-electro and glitch.

The record is only available on bandcamp, so head over there and support the project.

Worth noting also that Pulpy Shilpy was recently kicked off instagram for posting news related to lynchings in India directed at the country’s muslim minority population, a practice which, in certain ways, has been systemically condoned by the government (e.g., following riots in protest of anti-muslim hate crimes, a local government razed the homes of dozens of suspected protestors). Instagram has obviously pretended its actions are in the name of protecting users against sexual content. Rich.

On yet another note, the name of the compilation–a reference to the collective behavior of systems (incl. AI)–reminded me of the behavior of Jellyfish and Squid. The proliferation of swarms of these creatures due to the effects of climate change and overfishing is wreaking havoc on coastlines across the world, including in Goa. In Japan, for instance, infestations of Nomura’s Jellyfish (those fucking giant ones) have been so intense that they’ve even clogged thermal cooling lines used to keep Nuclear reactors at temperature. The image above is an example of a swarm of jellyfish off the Devon coast (image by Tommy May).

Nigel Perera – “JFRYSHD” (sc)

Pulpy Shilpy – “Rigor Tortoise” (sc)

If you’re into electro and brain dance, we’ve got a big playlist for that.