If anyone has a unique opportunity to support independent music, it’s Bandcamp. But the Bandcamp Friday concept has taken that support to a new level. Over the past three months, the platform has waived its revenue share on some Fridays to support artists affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Oct. 2 marks the sixth Bandcamp Friday.

The streaming platform has opened a floodgate of independent music. Countless artists depend on it and today presents a unique opportunity to support them.

Max Heilman has compiled 10 Bandcamp Friday recommendations. Give them a listen, and consider supporting these artists. If you’ve slept on some recent releases, it’s time to check them out! If you’re holding out on a special edition vinyl pre-order, it’s time to open your wallet.

If you missed previous the last Bandcamp Friday lists, check out Aug. 7 and Sept. 4.

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Arca, &&&&& — Having released her most developed statement last June with Kick I. It’s high time to take a trip down memory lane to the formative years of Arca’s avant-garde electronica. The album &&&&& actually lives up to its name in a way. There’s a lot of ideas thrown out there, in a helter skelter display of creativity that still sounds alien to this day. It seems that pop music at large has just begun to catch up to what Arca has been doing for almost a decade. For fans of intelligent dance music and glitch music, there’s a lot to appreciate here. For those who want to hear proof that the future of music started in 2013, get this mixtape.

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Vatican Shadow, Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era — For those who wished Current 93 stuck with industrial music, Vatican Shadow has a lot to offer with harsh loops and trippy synths. While sinister and militant in nature, there’s still songwriting chops and detailed soundscapes to be found on Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era. Creating art from such sonic adversity as comes second nature to the man behind this project, Dominick Fernow. He’s also the mastermind behind legendary power-electronics project Prurient.

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Sarah Davachi, Cantus, Descant — Ambient music is a bit of a meme on Bandcamp, as the amount of bedroom projects using the tag “drone” to elevate themselves of the need to write songs would boggle your mind. That’s exactly why Sarah Davachi’s album should be on every ambient music fan’s playlist. She clearly understands the connection between minimalist classical music and synthetic ambiance, with a bit of folk added for a welcome sense of direction and intimacy. Cantus, Descant has the nonlinear feel of many electro-acoustic projects, but sitting with her songs reveals them to be than mere textural meanderings.

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Svalbard, When I Die, Will I Get Better? — The whole post-black metal movement has become a bit cliched in recent years, but Svalbard bucks the trend by blurring the line between that approach and several others. It’s really closer to the most beautiful post-rock than anything truly metal-related, as the textures and sonics feel more like a wall of euphoric melancholy than anything truly mosh-worthy. Whether via voice or guitar, the melodies of When I Die, Will I Get Better? will steal your heart, and even the blast beats and screamed vocals favor unbridled catharsis instead of overt harshness. Genre veterans will have plenty to chew on here, but this is an album any fan of emotional, dynamic music could get behind.

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Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full — It’s a saying as old as time: If you play a set of Misfits covers together, you have to make a collaborative album. Fans of both artists have been waiting for a proper joint effort from folky grunge rocker Emma Ruth Rundle and sludge metal gods Thou for quite some time. The quality and consistency of both artists goes without saying, as does how naturally they mesh together. Rundle has just the right amount of doom, and Thou already has a few folkier albums under its belt. May Our Chambers Be Full is a sludge album for folk fans and a folk album for sludge fans.

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Deerhoof, Love-Lore — Hot on the release of one of its best albums, Deerhoof took advantage of the quarantine with another dose of forward-thinking rock. One of these tracks clocks in at nearly 20 minutes, so that should paint a picture of the level of experimentalism at play here. Its improvisational nature, coupled with its disdain for traditional melody, gives it a fair amount in common with Krautrock bands, but leave it to these experienced musicians to find a way to keep things as memorable as they are strange.

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Chillhop Music, Chillhop Essentials Fall 2020 — It was only a matter of a time before those six-hour “beats to study to” playlists got a proper curator, and that seems to be what the Chillhop Music conglomerate has set out to do. This double-LP compilation features some of the best production and songwriting in this burgeoning sub-genere. Whether you’re looking for a more accessible version of Massive Attack or Flying Lotus, want a “who’s who” in relaxing beat music to accompany you on a late-night study session or a long work night, look no further from this fine assortment.

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Zao, Preface: Early Recordings 1995​-​1996 — Zao has undergone countless changes since it formed. It’s understandable that many don’t pay much attention to anything pre-Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest (1998), but there’s a prior era of Zao that deserves appreciation. On this rarities compilation, Zao reveals some of its earliest recordings, some of which have never been released until now. This is Zao before the band cut ties with tradition, both musically and religiously. Preface finds the band creating some of the best spirit-filed Earth Crisis worship ever. If nothing else, it once again proves how over-talented then-drumer Jesse Smith was within Southeast Christian hardcore.

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Crack Cloud, PAIN OLYMPICS — This multidisciplinary collective is a lot to take in all at once, but its influence from Gang of Four, Talking Heads and Malcolm X is a pre-game for this post-apocalyptic post-punk venture. Forget about the “post-punk revival.”PAIN OLYMPICS  is a mind-bending deluge of frightfully gripping bangers. It’s the musical equivalent of movies like “A Clockwork Orange,” in there’s a definite meaning behind the decedent proceedings. For Crack Cloud, it’s therapy for mental health issues, drug addiction and trauma. For everyone else, you’ll just have to take the ride and see where it takes you.

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Uniform, Shame — It’s interesting that Uniform is still known as a pure industrial band, even through two out of its three LPs are closer to punk. Mind you, it’s the dirtiest punk making waves in the scene right now. What’s better about Shame is that there’s more to appreciate than how raw and nasty the songs are. The riffs are catchier, the mix is thicker and the vocals cut a lot more. When The Long Road dropped two years ago, it felt more like an experiment than a statement. This album feels like a melding of the elements that inspire Uniform the most in this day and age.

Follow Max Heilman at Twitter.com/madmaxx1995 and Instagram.com/maxlikessound.