What to Listen to This Week

“Com Postables 3: PPS Lunches” is local beatmaker Spinitch’s tribute to the questionable meals he horked down as a student in Portland’s public school system.

Bergtatt, Ulver "Bergtatt" by Ulver
By Daniel Bromfield

SOMETHING OLD

Before Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room spun the mossy majesty of the Cascadian wilderness into atmospheric metal epics, the Norwegian high schoolers in Ulver were composing spine-tingling music about the compulsion to slink off into the forest and abandon your senses. 1995′s Bergtatt is ground zero for nature-themed folk metal, and though it’s not always “heavy,” it’s so wild and untamed that it might just tempt you to get lost in the woods yourself.

SOMETHING NEW

Dām-Funk emerged in the 2000s with an ambitious vision for the electro-funk of his ‘80s youth: music that evoked the vastness of the sky and the universe even as its underlying groove got into your bones. Above the Fray is the 50-year-old Angeleno’s most romantic album yet. Its synth leads seem to spiral into the sky, evoking a universe far above the turmoil of this one, where dragons fly and the funk is endless.

SOMETHING LOCAL

Com Postables 3: PPS Lunches is local beatmaker Spinitch’s tribute to the questionable meals he horked down as a student in Portland’s public school system. Appropriately, these are some of the darkest and dankest beats he’s dished up yet, with drums that clank and clatter like vintage trip-hop. All proceeds go to the local, POC-run Black Futures Farm; may their produce be made into a better meal than the ones eulogized here.

SOMETHING ASKEW

London musician Flora Yin-Wong’s travels around the world provided the raw material for last year’s Holy Palm, an hour-plus soft-collage epic that incorporates field recordings from Bali to Buenos Aires. The main attraction is the two 15-minute “Loci” tracks at the end, which sound like real-time glimpses of Yin-Wong’s memories and make a strong case for “Voice Memos” as the best thing Apple’s contributed to the world.

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