A few albums recently listened.

  On 11/15/2013 at 10:26 PM, Nebraska said:

 

the crying princess - 78rpm records from burma: music from burma spanning the years 1909-1960 and sounding incredibly vintage and field recorded with lots of hiss (to be expected). it's compiled by a guy who also spent a couple of months recording grasshoppers making noise before a mating ritual.

 

as far as the music is concerned: when caretaker runs out of ballroom music to loop, someone hype his ass to this stuff as 80% of the job is already done for him. all he has to do is add gloomy titles and refuse to shilling the stuff on itunes and he's back in business

 

 

 

scattered melodies: korean kayagum sanjo from 78rpm records: i like this one a little more than the above although- seriously, this is ancient shit. most of these sanjo "songs" sound like someone trying to find a rhythm or tune (actually it says on the back it's improvised) as they pluck away a bouncing, choppy twang on a traditional zither-like instrument. it has a rather haunting quality because of how relentless it is: almost like the musician just isn't going to give up until they find the right tune and the recording is this torture device that keeps them plucking along.

 

after a while i get the feeling these guys aren't trying to get a tune going but rather create an atmosphere and illuminate it with this constant stream of melody in the background.

 

i don't think caretaker will want to touch this one

Sublime Frequencies is an awesome label with some amazingly obscure reissues, but man this is something else. That sanjo music is perplexing in an odd, Jandek-y kind of way.

Every come across an album by complete chance you fall in love with that seems to be unthinkably unknown and obscure. I'm having that experience with this album.

Bought it on a whim during "Cassette Store Day" in September. I liked the cover art and the store clerk actually remarked that he liked the album a lot and they even played it in the store a few times. Never heard of the guy, he's from Texas and involved with a couple other tape releases but beyond that I can't find anything else about the release. It's well made retro sounding ambient, very heavy on krautrock and kosmische style. Geeked out and started a lastfm bio for it and actually wrote a review for discogs. Kind of neat experience - reminds me of the days where I would get all inquisitive after hearing something that wasn't easily found on allmusic.com or any other site online. I hope he releases another tape sometime.

http://ryanharrismusic.bandcamp.com/album/brick-road-midnight

  On 11/19/2013 at 5:17 AM, joshuatx said:

Every come across an album by complete chance you fall in love with that seems to be unthinkably unknown and obscure. I'm having that experience with this album.

yup. this has happened to me quite a number of times. one of the first albums i remember discovering (and falling in love with) through a chance purchase was suba's sao paulo confessions. i know it's happened again more recently but i can't remember the album right now

gatekeeper - young chronos: these guys released their latest ep as a free torrent on tpb. i heard a clip of their last effort and disliked it. i heard this ep and disliked it. i guess they've abandoned the whole cinematic electronic music angle and now make some kind of video game music from the late 80s. does anyone actually enjoy that?

Phillip Wilkerson - Sojourner. my ambient album of the year [and i`d put it in my all time top 5]. Warm soothing lovely stuff. 9/10

Kattoo - Motu. idm with a bit of classical in there. dudes a quality producer. 8/10

Attenuated - Deep Opacity. epic drone, ambient, electronic thingy. good shit. 8 or 9

Gallerie Stratique - Horizzzons. dreamy haunting boc style electronica. 8/10

LPF12 - Rising Through Barricades. dreamlike immersive ambient electronic album [some beats drift in now and again]. great stuff. 8/10

Fanu - Serendipity. Jungle and downtempo brilliance. 8 or 9/10. i rate this dude as one the best jungle producers i`ve ever heard [brilliant drum programming]

emerald web - the stargate tapes 1979-1982: this is ridiculously good. it's actually better than watching 2 korean lesbians with pierced tongues scissor one another. it's right up there next to having nina hartley personally pour you glenfiddich in bed whilst wearing white luxe feather trim lingerie with sparkly rhinestones. also, despite the fact that it's filed under "new age" it really goes beyond that genre- it's like what you'd hear if you were watching tree spirits from that mizoguchi film

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes: this album is the definition of 8/10

The Knife - Shaking The Habitual: Cohesive album. Really nice sounding. 8.8/10

Health - Get Color.

Hella good.

Julien Neto - Le Fumeur de Ciel

10/10

been listening heavily since 2011...

you must give this one some time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcsYSJwewWk

9/10

My discovery of the Year in certainly Interloper from Carbon based Lifeforms... Only knew World of Sleepers by them but this is just too good...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAMGbsVcdnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzg5XTuPgLo

(good video)

Seems like every week the past month or so I've been playing the following during my commutes:

Actress - R.I.P.
DJ Rashad - Double Cup
Machine Drum - Vapor City
...and occasionally OPN - R+7

The Actress album is perfect for winter, especially during a fresh snowfall. DJ Rashad is good for driving within the city, and Machine Drum in between the city and countryside, where I live. OPN I don't listen to as much, maybe because I don't get as drawn in by music in which bass and percussion are absent. (I'm not talking about dubstep either, unless it's the likes of Kode9 or Scorn.)

Might check out more footwork stuff, since DJ Rashad basically got me into it. I hear RP Boo pioneered it in Chicago, so maybe that's the next artist to explore.

Demdike Stare - Tryptych 10/10 ... god damn I had been meaning to pick up this set for a while now, and holy fuck is it amazing. Total eargasm.

  On 12/28/2013 at 6:33 AM, ghOsty said:

Demdike Stare - Tryptych 10/10 ... god damn I had been meaning to pick up this set for a while now, and holy fuck is it amazing. Total eargasm.

I've been meaning to listen to Demdike Stare's output from 2012 'Elemental' for a long time. I'll get on it now!

Set Fire To Flames - Sings Reign Rebuilder

I think some of the members are from Godspeed You Black Emperor? Anyway, slightly in the same vein but this is less grandiose and somewhat more melodic/sombre. Very nice album.

Currently listening to When Can by Kettel and Secede, it's absolutely beautiful.

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 9/10

Tim Hecker - Virgins 9/10

Tim Hecker - Haunt me, haunt me do it again 9/10

John Hopkins - Immunity 8/10

Kelpe - Ex-Aquarium 9/10

Kelpe - The Golden Eagle 8/10

Broadcast - The Noise Made by People - 8/10

Broadcast - Tender Buttons 9/10

Squarepusher - Ubufalum 8/10

Squarepusher - Go Plastic 9/10

Ceephax - Cro Magnox 10/10

The Thermals - More Parts Per Million

This one is a favorite of mine. I assume a lot of you guys wouldn't like it because it's not idm.

It's arty punk rock with pop-y hooks and blistering, lo-fi 4-track aesthetics.

This album never gets at old to me. They never really topped it, or came anywhere close, in my opinion. They had an amazing drummer for this one. Part of the charm is the cymbals all distort into one constant "hiss". Also, the vocals are much more passionate and youthful than on the other releases I've heard.

Can't say enough good things about this one. At some point, I would like to re-record the entire album from scratch, playing all the instruments myself.

A+/10

Bjork - Vespertine

It's become a pretty standard first-half-of-winter album for me I suppose. My favorite of hers, and I listen to repeatedly for a few weeks at a time. It brings a lot of warmth to grey commutes.

34423 - Tough and Tender

Don't really know anything about artist or label, found it on accident. It's not anything new but it's well done and there are some nice sound assemblages. I recommend a listen.

Luomo - Vocalcity

Talking to a friend last night about Vladislav Delay and he mentioned his other monikers. News to me, I wasn't aware of anything other than Vladislav. So I looked into it and recognized an album cover I've seen all over before. Tits, this is good. I can't believe I passed this one over before. Need more dub-micro-house or whatever this is.

bugs/10

been fairly obsessed with this album lately:

FOULEST SEMEN OF A SHELTERED ELITE is such a legit album title and it's just SO good.

  On 1/30/2014 at 2:21 AM, disparaissant said:

been fairly obsessed with this album lately:

FOULEST SEMEN OF A SHELTERED ELITE is such a legit album title and it's just SO good.

i was really excited to get this: a compilation of contemporary library music by artists i'd never heard of. well, it's contemporary alright, and this first volume is certainly all acoustic music, but it's more on the nu jazz sound than library. in fact, it's more a loungier version of the erotic lounge compilations put out by comfort sounds so it's a rather loose interpretation of the library sound

volume 2 is the electronic version and (for me) this is the worst interpretation. seriously, this is basically dance/trance type music. i understand how this can function as "library music" but at least, if you're going to represent italian library at least be aware of the pedigree most are going to associate with that title.

anyway, great covers: not so great music

  On 1/30/2014 at 3:15 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

 

  On 1/30/2014 at 2:21 AM, disparaissant said:

been fairly obsessed with this album lately:

FOULEST SEMEN OF A SHELTERED ELITE is such a legit album title and it's just SO good.

Did you find this through my recomandation? Told you it was awesome ;) and its just 1 dude who makes everything!

 

Fuarrk mate I love this!! Thanks for sharing.

The Bug - London Zoo: some REAL dubstep. also Ae remixed Skeng/10

Sun Araw - On Patrol: dig the psychadelic 1970s SoCal vibe, plus Deep Cover is featured on Hotline Miami/10
Mr. Oizo - Stade 2: is it just me or do French artists know how to make badass dance music? (Not just Oizo, but also Daft Punk & Vitalic)/10