Forty-two Reader-recommended releases for your Bandcamp Friday

Clockwise from upper left: cover art from recent releases by Defcee & Boathouse, Sons of Kemet, Axons, Cisco Swank & Luke Titus, Apocalypse, and Ivy Hollivana

Friday, May 6, is the 22nd Bandcamp Friday—a 24-hour period where the retailer passes its usual cut of sales revenue along to the independent labels and artists who sell their music and merchandise through the site. Bandcamp typically announces forthcoming Bandcamp Fridays in three-month chunks, and this Friday is the last one that’s been made public so far. I won’t read too much into that—experience proves it’s unwise to assume this will be the last one—and I’ll refrain from speculating about how Epic Games’ recent purchase of Bandcamp might affect future Bandcamp Fridays.

Bandcamp became a success because the people who work there understand their audience; Bandcamp Fridays became a phenomenon because they foregrounded the platform’s commitment to independent artists and labels when the pandemic stripped them of touring and gigging income. Live music has returned, more or less, but many artists continue to be forced to cancel tours due to COVID infections in their traveling parties—at the same time, the rollback of basic COVID safety measures and the continuing mutation of the virus seem guaranteed to create another wave sooner rather than later. As long as COVID remains a threat to public health, I hope Bandcamp Fridays will continue.

As always, I’ve assembled a list of albums, EPs, and singles recently covered by the Reader that you can buy on Bandcamp. April’s roundup has links to every previous list—and because I’ve put together nearly two dozen of them, with dozens of releases apiece, your listening needs could easily be covered for quite some time.