– Farben ::: Farben EP –
– Burnt Friedman ::: Bokoboko –
– Susumu Yokota ::: Dreamer –
– John Tejada & Justin Maxwell ::: Patch Adams / Thundaar the Modularian –
– Dalglish ::: Benacah Drann Deachd –
Category: listening
Now Playing (M Edition!)
– Martin Schulte ::: Treasure –
– Modula Green ::: Shellground –
– Minilogue ::: Let Life Dance Through You Remixes –
– Margaret Dygas ::: Margaret Dygas –
– Mouse on Mars ::: Parastrophics –
Now Playing
– Lackluster ::: The Invisible Spanish Inquisition –
– Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers ::: Rare Bird Alert –
– Marcus Fischer ::: Collected Dust –
– Woob ::: Paradigm Flux –
– Stimming ::: Cheesecake –
Listening in 2011
Three years ago was the last time I did any kind of “year’s review” of aural nourishment, and I sort of feel the need to do it again. Those 24 hours of music are worth revisiting, and the following may not even count as a “best of,” but it is some of the best music I’ve heard this year, and I listen to an awful lot. Maybe call it a “compendium”? No that sounds too boring. In actuality this list is simply nothing more than a bunch of shit that goes on my iPod and ends up staying there for longer than it takes for me to get bored of it.
And yeah, there’s some strange shit indeed. Although I don’t cover any “pop” here, there’s still a very wide range of music represented, listeners will be hard pressed to find at least something attractive on this list. Click on the album title to find where you can get the release; you’ll find an amazing amount of these are on bandcamp and can be streamed for free. These also aren’t in any particular order, they all stand alone on their own and can’t really be compared to each other as a “top-#” list. So without further a’do…
Andy Stott
Passed Me By / We Stay Together
Modern Love
I am so happy the throbbing washing machine multi-textured off-balance-beat dub techno sound has continued strong thanks to this artist. The constantly appearing layers are the most surprising and pleasing parts of these tracks, looping sound combinations you just don’t expect, spanning a wide spectrum. There emerge strange hypnotizing rhythms, thankfully not always percussively so, drawing the ear into a swaying communion.
Kangding Ray
OR
Raster-Noton
I like this label, I really do. I can listen to entire albums of strategically placed pitch-shifted static and buzzing and genuinely enjoy it. These tracks, however, have a personality that stands out among all the other click-pop-n-wrinkle hardcore glitch. Check out older albums too, all extremely nice static buzz filled phat bass ear candy with more of an organic character than your typical release from here.
Aril Brikha
Palma / Forever Frost
Art of Vengeance
Getting involved in the Chicago house DJ scene made me a huge fawning sucker for that special deep style of dimly lit underground basement club speakers-in-your-ears house. These EPs – on Brikha’s new label, very worth following – provide a longing glimmer of those nights, a sliver of a view into that unending helical mass of filtered 4×4, but with the added flavor of a nicely wrought darker melodic display and just the right amount of unpretentious builds, expertly structured above thick analog basslines.
Daniel Menche
Feral
Sub Rosa
Really getting into the subtle noise of this album, a stereophonic treat where tendrils of sound creep into formation, directed by equally interesting shifts in rhythm. I’d certainly call it difficult listening, but more on the down-low engaging side than an all out aural assault, it even works as passive earpaper while I sysadmin. This artist is new to my ears this year, so definitely looking forward to discovering more, and super glad I bumped into this release when I did.
The Black Dog
Liber Dogma
Liber Kult (Book 1 Ov 3)
Liber Temple (Book 2 Ov 3)
Liber Nox (Book 3 Ov 3)
Dust Science
It was a great day when Ken Downie teamed up with Dust Science to resurrect The Black Dog in all its weird glory. It’s like a hole was in electronica and nobody ever knew it until new albums and remixes started showing up these past few years, and now here’s a slew of new tracks (colored vinyl if you’re one of the lucky ones!). The label page says the 12″es are meant a continuation of the more darkly ambient Music for Real Airports, but they are definitively more straight-ahead techno. Dogma, on the other hand, is one of my favorite listens of the year, meant as a snapshot of what tBd does live, and the result is a beautifully organic evolving mass of electronic exploration and funky groovability. I never got into this band much pre-Plaid, but what I’ve heard from that era doesn’t touch the production values of what they’re doing now.
Shpongle
The God Particle
Twisted
I can’t deny my love of this band and when even a small two-track release appears I’m all ears. So although some of their tracks get way too poppy for my taste, it’s perfect that these are somewhat oldskool, and I especially love the Pink Floyd mimickery (not entirely unlike Download’s “Flight of the Luminous Insects”). I guess there’s a lot I like in tracks like these that remind me of my favorite times as a kid listening to the unfolding of albums like Dark Side of the Moon, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Phoenecia
Demissions
Schematic
It’s really special when I find a record that caters more to darker electronica, the type of filtered analog sound with delicate beats and expansive reverberation atmospheres, the kind you’ll often think “man this would sound killer on a big system in the middle of the desert,” complete with crunchy liquid percussion. It’s not all beats though, there are some incredibly intense ambient sections that equally wrap your ears in haunting melodies from the other side of the chasm.
Margaret Dygas
Margaret Dygas
Perlon
There is a playfulness in this album that compliments the regular cut-up and deep techno feel I usually get from the label. You know the drill: clean round synth harmonics contrast with crisp lines of shuffly drums and jazz-based samples nestled among the swelling and swaths of ululating drones… sounds typical, yes? Her arrangements are anything but; simple dissonant tonal contrasts propel the tunes beyond a boring four-by-four, and from out of nowhere you’re sifted into head-bobbing syncopation that evolved from surprises you didn’t even realize had happened.
Amon Tobin
ISAM (Control Over Nature)
Ninja Tune
Some regular fans were real disappointed, but the people I know who love it probably do so for all the same reasons i do: a poignant lack of sampling other works, intense abstract sound design, at times tableau-like, to-the-point sonic explorations, familiar filtered analog synth kaleidoscopes mixed with ample digital acrobatics and just the right touch of an eerily disturbing off-kilterness. I got the fantastic blue-fabric bound book version from Amoeba in LA, which is this amazing outlay of a miniature insect-like world created by Tessa Farmer (interestingly enough the very day I interviewed at Buzz). I share some heritage with the album too, mastered as it is by my buddy Shawn (aka Twerk) over at AudibleOddities.
Logreybeam
Perhaps
Les Enregistrements Variables
When I listen, I keep wanting the solemn hypnotic repetitions to evolve into a live jam of some sort, and I fondly call this melancholy collection ‘shoegaze klezmer’, if for nothing but the acoustic instrumentation. My favorite parts of it are the weirder, more experimentally minded sounds, rhythms and ambience that flow between and around the masterfully arranged conversation between the instruments (all played by the same composer and arranger). This is a record I might expect to find as a solid Tzadik release with some extended soloing, and will hopefully be picked up beyond its homemade short-run life and get some play out as a real ensemble.
Matthew Mercer
Pianissimo Possibile
self-released
If you listen to any amount of electro-acoustic music you’re as painfully aware as I of the the glut of piano works. Fortunately idioms those… here broken… gLitsched… expectations frustrated – (just look at the title) – an immensely enjoyable equal footing of structure and form with materials instead of turning into some kind of accompaniment… driven and poignant, thickly colorful expositions.
DeepChord
Hash Bar Remnants, Part I & Part II
Soma
Rod Modell has got the knack for delivering a constant stream of floaty reverberating dub, and these installments are no exception. Slightly ambient tracks with lighter drums sit neatly beside heavier beats that could easily be mixed into techno – in fact all two volumes provide a wealth of nice and long dub house tracks for the discerning mixologist (there is even a follow-up release of loops from these records).
John Tejada
Parabolas
Kompakt
Usually when I see any remix on something done by Tejada, I get it, but have never been so much into the full albums. This one is the exception, a stellar atmospheric and minimal techno release, not to mention I just love having a Tejada vinyl with the ubiquitous Kompakt circles.
Geoff White finally takes off his techno mantle and gives back some even greater tracks from his more smoothly downtempo project. I like his house beats a lot, and the first Aeroc album was excellent, but this one takes all the elements of that goodness and fills in the rest with more of it, generously connecting with samples he uses in more upbeat affairs. Some of the best combinations of weird sounds and more traditional (acoustic) guitar licks out there, with plenty of groove to catch yer hook.
~▲†▲~
~▲††▲~
Phantasma Disques
∆AIMON
AMEN / AMEN Remixes
Tundra Dub
When you’re actually searching through the underground for new things instead of just allowing them to pop up, you tend to run into some pretty awesomely strange shit (I mentioned the strange shit, right?). So first of all, I hate this genre title: Witch House (and I know you’re thinking, “RUN’s house!”). The alternatives are maybe not that better… ‘Okkvlt’ is probably what works best for me, but there’s also ‘Zombie Rave’ or the more musicological but equally confusing term ‘drag’… not so easy to tell what they actually describe. To that end, I feel like these releases not only encapsulate a lot of what I’ve heard from this style, but also what has gotten through to me more than other stuff. Orchestral, subtle folk, wide range of analog synth timbres, a rave element dialed down to icey glacial projections, plenty of noise and drone elements scattered throughout. Beyond style really, where a lot of genres meet up to melt together in an underworld of aural sublimity. I especially like the aspects of this genre that seem to be meant to keep it underground, for instance the indecipherable symbols and alternate typefaces for titling make it quite difficult for search engines, and a lot of the cover art are just bizarre and weirdly disturbing collages or suggestive imagery, which of course I find fascinating because the music echoes the same combinatory spirit. Highly contrasting, highly original stuff.
Morton Subotnick Interviewed
This is a great interview of an awesome figure in electronic music, done just recently (2011) in Madrid by the Red Bull Music Academy:
Listen to a free stream of Silver Apples of the Moon on last.fm.
Halloween Mixes by DJ Craque
This past weekend we presented ourselves in regalia of the zombie, partying until the early single digits at my good friend Chad’s.
I have played music at his Halloween parties for as long as I’ve lived in California, down in Newport Beach as well as Fullerton. In 2010 the digital world has provided us with methods of being the DJ while joining the party; what follows are the set lists I prepared for the costume extravaganza at Chad’s, each on its separate ipod in different themed rooms:
Weird Spooky Alien Evil Beats
Matterbuss – Craque – Gamma
Into The Lung – Fisk Industries – Analog For Architecture
Rocky (Soft) – Byetone – Death Of A Typographer
Hypnotic – T Spigot – Experiments In The Hypnotic Production Of Crime
Auto Pilot – Lusine – Serial Hodgepodge
Tear Strips Off – Tipper – Surrounded
Blood (Brassica Remix) – Fisk Industries – Magnetic Fisk Remixes
Woodface – Funckarma – Dubstoned EP
Licht – Craque – Density Operator
Radio Bombay – Hol Baumann – Human
Bell Jar – Craque – Jawbone
1 – Gescom – Key Nell
Phoenix Rising – Bluetech – Phoenix Rising
We Are The Music Makers – Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Old Twisted Trees – KiloWatts – Ground State
When I Leave – Biosphere – Light
Black Sabbath – Venetian Snares – Sabbath Dubs
Crowley – Fisk Industries – Magnetism, That Electricity..
Topless – Craque – Supple
Interfere – Craque – Density Operator
Steppen – Landau – Thepicompromise
Break Charmer – Cujo – Adventures In Foam
Adrift for Days – Tipper – Surrounded
June Second (B) – Proswell – Konami
Pable Cath – Funckarma – Dubstoned EP
Frekvenssi – Ø – Oleva
Dasein – Loess – Wind And Water
UFO Over Trenchtown – Eat Static – New World Dub 01
Orgaslsp – Craque – Gamma
Bayreuth – Farben – Textstar
Spacetime Continuum, Mix 01 – Muslimgauze – From The Edge
Dael – Autechre – Tri Repetae
Shoot The Moon – Lusine ICL – Iron City
magnesium – ilkae – light industry+
Tunnels OV Set (Autechre Remix) – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
Zeal – Plaid – Spokes
Contain – Plastikman – Kompilation
Tankraken – Autechre – Quaristice
Organ In The Attic Sings The Blues – Deadbeat – Wild Life Documentaries
Slicktoo Stack – Craque – Metathreading
preyWithMe (b0t23 mix) – logreybeam – rem.rem
Strawberry – The Bionaut – Lubricate Your Living Room
Untrue – Burial – Untrue
untitled (proem remix) – logreybeam – rem.rem
Attalal (Remixed By Biosphere) – Download – Biosystems: The Biosphere Remixes
Kaksoisvinokas \ Twinaskew – Pan Sonic – Gravitoni
Cresent Suns (w/ Slinky Wizard Jewel) – binah
Professional – Craque – Meat Hacker
Hours – Hol Baumann – Human
schoen – Loess – Burrows
Base Metal (Re-mix) – Download – Sidewinder
Lusid Crystalin – Craque – Supple
Electric Funeral – Venetian Snares – Sabbath Dubs
Mo [A.mo.re – Aeroc Mix] – Murcof – Utopia
Blood – Fisk Industries – Magnetism, That Electricity..
Lebensformen – Håkan Lidbo – Clicks + Cuts 4
Blackboard – Deru – Autonomous Addicts
Raygun – Zainetica – Future 740
Handcut Ice Cubes (Phil Western Silent Night Version) – Phil Western / Tanya Pea – Handcut Ice Cubes
S-bahn – Ø – Oleva
What The Night Reveals – Bluetech – Phoenix Rising
Clipper – Autechre – Tri Repetae
V-Proc – Autechre – Draft 7.30
Montreal – Autechre – Amber
beetelguise (Craque Orion Conjecture) – logreybeam – rem.rem
Further – Autechre – Amber
Garbagemx36 – Autechre – Garbage
rew(1) – Autechre – Move Of Ten
Ghostwaltz on the third floor – Anders Ilar – Twilight Rainfalls
evac’s false premonition – logreybeam – rem.rem
Room 23 – Shpongle – Tales Of The Inexpressible
DMT Original Russian Bootleg – Shpongle – Divine Moments of Truth EP
Shpongle Falls – Shpongle – Are You Shpongled
Catch 22 – Lackluster – Container
GAMMA GOBLINS ‘Its Turtles All The Way Down’ Mix – OTT – Hallucinogen In Dub
Ambient Horror and Dimensional Rifts
Daddylonglegs – Higher Intelligence Agency & Biosphere – Birmingham Frequencies
ohm – kate carr – automatic crossing
Copper Doors (Anodized) – Craque – Wind Space Compost
Vainamoisen Uni \ Dream Of Vainamoinen – Pan Sonic – Gravitoni
my bed is my boat – Herzog – the autumn parade ep
ambelio – Arovane – Atol Scrap
For Mark Rothko – John Kannenberg – The Sonics of Art Spaces
First Point Of Aries – Deepchord Presents Echospace – The Coldest Season
Sabina Seat – Speedy J – A Shocking Hobby
Ready Let’s Go – Boards Of Canada – Geogaddi
Sleepdeprivation2 – The Black Dog – Music For Real Airports
Notre Dame De L’oubli (For Olivier Messiaen) – Naked City – Absinthe
Ancient Campfire – Biosphere – Shenzhou
Parallelogram Bin – Squarepusher – Music is Rotted One Note
Endless Park – Hol Baumann – Human
Kausaaliton – Ø – Oleva
Dub Stack – Craque – Metathreading
Ó God Protect Me – Ben Frost – By The Throat
Sleepdeprivation1 – The Black Dog – Music For Real Airports
Dub For Cascadia – Loscil – Endless Falls
Nowhere – Aidan Baker – Pendulum
Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes – Ben Frost – By The Throat
Ruins – Axiom Ambient – Lost in the Translation
Overand – Autechre – Tri Repetae
Ricycle – Craque – Jawbone
Autsaidnait – Tanox – Astronomia de Balcon
Sanguineo – Craque / Zitt – Bookends
Aquamarine Reprise – The Bionaut – Lubricate Your Living Room
Canon (Part 1) – Bill Frisell – Hal Willner Presents Weird Nightmare: Meditations On Mingus
caliper remote – Autechre – LP5
Rarradar – Eye – Plays
Chain Smoking – Bluermutt – Uncertain Data Packed In Red Boxes
Housesonthehill – Biosphere – Shenzhou
Unien holvit – Ø – Oleva
Man From Deep River part two – BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa – Man From Deep River
Spring/Summer – Blamstrain – Aurora 2
Space – Lackluster – Spaces
Tripside Syndicate – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
Val De Travers – Naked City – Absinthe
Pathleadingtothehighgrass – Biosphere – Shenzhou
Meltwater – Higher Intelligence Agency & Biosphere – Polar Sequences
Plinth – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
Louange Á l’Éternité de Jésus – Naked City – Grand Guignol
Puppetmaster – Ghost in the Shell – Original Soundtrack
Pan-Fried Fern – He Can Jog – MiddleMarch
Supple Network – Craque – Supple
Tlit – Craque – Supple
Gruven – Craque – Gamma
Ocean Of Emptiness – Deepchord Presents Echospace – The Coldest Season
Virtual Crime – Ghost in the Shell – Original Soundtrack
Basscadubmx – Autechre – Basscadet
melve – Autechre – LP5
Mojave – Ø – Oleva
Santa Ana – Craque – Wind Space Compost
Butterfly Bush – Craque – Wind Space Compost
Nightshade – Kilowatts – Undercurrent
Bronchusevenmx24 – Autechre – Garbage
Inborn sea flowing – aless – i’mmobile
Semi-Fabulous Witches – Ten and Tracer – Makyo
Noise Garden Stack – Craque – Metathreading
SonDEre-ix – Autechre – Quaristice
Untitled Transient – Ben Frost – By The Throat
2AM Extravaganzic Dance Hour
You’re Only SQL (BCN Mix) – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
Kiu_Kiu – Twerk – Living Vicariously Through Burnt Bread
Windowlicker (Acid Edit) – Aphex Twin – 26 Mixes For Cash
Plasticine – Plastikman – Kompilation
Tophapy – Plaid – Booc
Ne Contsom A Coltsom – SCSI-9 – The Line of Nine
Boogie Down Bronx (Gescom Remix) – Man Parrish – Mask 500
Mango Drive – Rhythm & Sound – Rhythm & Sound
Yellow Fingers – Håkan Lidbo – Meta-Matic – EP
Musical Box – Wagon Christ – Tally Ho!
CCTV Nation (Slam Mix) – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
Skinclock (Silicone Soul Mix) – The Black Dog – Final Collected Vexations
808303 – Richard Devine – Autonomous Addicts
Doubledip uuh… – Pantytec – Pony Slaystation
minreal – Craque – Hpynagoiga
Tango Acido – Losoul – Getting Even
Roots And Wire – Deadbeat – Roots and Wire
Seventy Four – Martyn – Great Lengths
Vletrmx – Autechre – Warp 10+3 Remixes
Out To Funk – Savvas Ysatis – Select
Chrysanthemum – Download – Effector
Breed – L’Usine – Autonomous Addicts
Raggafuzzer – Håkan Lidbo – Sound Molecules
Windowlicker – Aphex Twin – Warp20
squance – Plaid – Double Figure
Near Dark – Burial – Untrue
Toooly Hooof – Download – III
seeing but not seen – Phil Western and Tim Hill – Dark Features
Sex Deluxe – Håkan Lidbo – Sound Molecules
The Grid – Peverelist – Round Black Ghosts
Trouser Mouse – Blamstrain – Exosphere
Nele – Kit Clayton – Nek Sanalet
Booc – Plaid – Booc
Bike – Autechre – Incunabula
On the Hook – Savvas Ysatis – Select
BBRobot (Senor Frio Remix) – Ion Driver – DDD033
I Wanna be Your STD – Jimmy Edgar – Warp20
Tweak Sauce – Tipper – Autonomous Addicts
Ulysses [Fax Mix] – Murcof – Utopia
he never showed up – Phil Western and Tim Hill – Dark Features
Moth – Burial & Four Tet – Moth / Wolf Cub
Alspacka – The Tuss – Confederation Trough EP
Jarvik Mindstate – Peverelist – Jarvik Mindstate
Sun Step – Oxia – Sun Step EP
Northern Wish – Artic Hospital – Terminal
Cornish Acid – Aphex Twin – Richard D. James Album
Whole Life – Oxia – Sun Step EP
Kamaco – Craque – Jawbone
Channel Two – 2562 – Round Black Ghosts
Moongomery – Ricardo Villalobos – Fabric 36 – Ricardo Villalobos
Memoria [Sutekh‘s Trisagion Mix] – Murcof – Utopia
The Dragonfly Who Thought He Was a Mockingbird – Akufen – Appleseed Original Soundtrack
My Head Feels Like A Frisbee – Shpongle – Tales Of The Inexpressible
Epilepsia – Dinky – Anemik
I Love Acid – Luke Vibert – Warp20
My Red Hot Car – Squarepusher – Go Plastic
Uhm – Download – FiXeR
Into the Duster – Pantytec – Pony Slaystation
Pathfinder – Savvas Ysatis – Select
Glacial – Dinky – Anemik
Miss Dinky up close
The call burst across as I was sitting in the datacenter.
“LIHSTEN MAHN!” came the south London accent, and I could barely discern the tones of a minimal dubby Dirk Diggler broken beat track that I used to play all the time back on the turntables we had set up at the office… “IT’S TAHT ‘UN TRAC OO PLAHAY.”
When I walked into this place somewhere in SoHo, there were beams of light being reflected from everywhere around me. In every conceivable surface was plastered thousands of square mirrors, and opposite the back of the bar to the immediate left was the woman herself, Miss Dinky, in the midst of another one of my favorite deep house tracks I was currently dropping back home, very likely Hakan Lidbo or something of that sort.
Naturally this wasn’t even the first time I had heard of her. In fact, living in Chicago at the time I only knew her from the select vinyl releases I picked up downstairs at Reckless Records. Working occasionally in New York meant I could be close to that part of the dance music scene at the same time, so it was an exciting event to actually run into Dinky at a bar-cum-club no larger than your average corner deli.
Recently I’ve been listening to the beats on Anemik and they remind me of that night, grabbing the cab downtown to go where I knew one of my weirdly found idols of techno was spinning that very night in a tiny location nobody else knew about. Actually, it’s a strange coincidence this same friend of mine and I happened upon Deep Dish at a similarly tiny club in Chicago… but that’s for another blog and another glass of chartreuse.
Downtempo from the Studio
I’ve set up a set in Soundcloud called “Downtempo Excursions” to post some sonic paintings created with free improvisation and minimal beats.
Let me know what you think! These are sort of what I’d call “composting” of materials, kaleidoscopically tapestristic, experimentally structured.
i don’t know how to do anything
at times i get overwhelmed by possibilities. the details drag me down, and i lose sight of the path. what causes this?
for instance, what music do i choose to write? do i use electro-acoustic elements, or do i stick to raw sound design? do these ways of working always produce the same results, even though i cannot hear them? do i limit myself by focusing on a working method that could easily shift into tunnelvision? why is it i think like this in the first place, because i hear opportunities of sound in what others are doing? because, hey, that’s a great sound, why didn’t i think of that?
we artists ask these questions. it takes a lot of self-confidence to go out there and sell yourself, but i’m still not sure what it is i do that makes my music what it is. i certainly try to find unique, DIY, individual ways of doing things, but i turn the corner and find someone building it better. some of the electronics instrument/effects building going on around the electronica community blows me away.
but what makes the music change? how does it develop? we’re moving into a world where musical styles – and listening – is more and more splayed, there are almost as many “genres” as there are individuals making music.
there is still something in the music that grabs the mind. it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what “inspiration” or “genius” a particular piece contains, to different folks these mean completely different things. i usually can’t locate it in my own work, i certainly don’t know where it happens or how to identify it. regardless, it shows up.
so, in a very real way, it doesn’t matter what it is i do, or how i do it, just that it is me doing it, in the most genuine way i can.
New improvisations on SoundCloud
Freely improvised one-takes. Instrumentation includes homebuilt instruments, sampled objects and looping hardware.
This music sharing site is a great tool for posting various non-published tracks, as well as released stuff, and has a nice embeddable player and comment system. Really nice for being able to just slap some stuff up, I have one friend who has recently been doing the same with sessions on his new Serge Modular Creature, and another who posted “in progress” snapshots of a track he is working on.
Feel free to download and remix, just give the proper attribution. 🙂