With that wave of mom and pop record stores closing monthly winding down and completely gutting the support for physical music for people to discover, iPods building closed personal shells running mostly ringtone quality sound thru tiny white earbuds instead of record players playing aloud, and faceless torrents and file sharing sites handing out music like its those frickin’ free Auto Mart gazettes sitting in those bright yellow stands in front of your local closed down Blockbuster’s, i’d like to spend some of the young readers time by sharing how I got into electronic music. For what its worth I want to keep sharing what musicians first turned me from a casual listener to something that involves more time than people are willing to sometimes spend to keep up with something.
This music by Dntel was more emotional than any other electronic music I heard at the time, I feel like it almost paved the way for a ton of new genres to start. I really only listened to it when I worked or was falling asleep but then started sharing it on mixtapes and became a favorite of mine. I needed more and at that time in Detroit there was a flurry of solid record stores filled with enough employees to answer any of your questions happily with great suggestions, can you imagine that? well it was true especially one called Neptune Records which I was happy to drive the 45+ minute drive weekly to see what was new. I’ll prepare a 3rd playlist and share more, hope some of you can relate.
With Dubstep branching out to see how far the genre can be pushed a ton of new ideas start to surface and a fusion of appealing sounds start melting together. One group i’m really excited about is Sepalcure which is a collaboration of Brooklyn’s Praveen and Machinedrum. the duo is doing a fine job of taking hints of soulful house and dubstep to create what they call Lovestep. One thing that Sepalcure has that other dubsteppers don’t usually have and ISO50 fans might also really enjoy is fine art direction by the multi talented designer Sougwen Chung. As you can see above and below her posters and videos of her work are a perfect fit for this heartfelt music.
Sepalcure’s debut performance alongside Untold, TRG, Pole, 2562 & more is February 13th at Unsound Festival NYC.
Below is a “Lovestep” mix done by Percussion Lab Founder/Sepalcure’s very own Praveen.
TRACKLIST Pangaea – Memories Burial – You Hurt Me TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn Remix) Untold – Dante DFRNT – Tripped (Synkro Mix) Synkro – Inhale Sines – Memories Are Here DFRNT – Tripped (Ital Tek Remix) FaltyDL – Party Joy Orbison – J. Doe Sepalcure – Deep City Insects Floating Points – K&G Beat
Thom Yorke remix of Doom? sounds great right? well it is, I do love Doom over some big strings and dusty kicks or movie and TV soundtracks but this remix is a nice get away with a fitting haunted feel.
I haven’t heard anything as exact as DillaDonuts than this Jay Electronica cut but I also don’t listen to much hip hop besides dipping back in more J Dilla or Stones Throw signings. A really hype track, i’m not putting it down at all, i’ve had it on repeat all week.
You may recognize the name Jogger from Daedelus’Friends Of Friends label or his random appears on labes like Mush or Ninja Tune but I just found him thru Eliot Lipp and Leo123’s side project Dark Party, i’ve never heard the original but if its anything like this remix then i’m in love.
I downloaded this really funny exclusive 10+ minute interview of Mux Mool on Percussion Lab, he talks about his upcoming album, what he samples, how he spends his downtime, and his drawings that you can find on his Flickr, some of this is pretty NSFW.
Don’t get French producer I:Cube confused with Ice Cube and write him off, this guy is the real deal when it comes to stunning space disco that pays attention to the details with the proper patience, a great headphone listen.
I’ve been loving Pogo’s edits especially Alice and White Magic that are just oozing out on the nostalgia tip. The tracks are very simple almost like he created them with Garage Band but he makes it work. Watch the video below, I love his use of the older wise fish for a split second.
Warp’s new signing Gonjasufi has a real chance of hitting a wider spectrum of fans than even Flying Lotus[who I hear did the beats], his vocal style for some reason is really appealing to my ears, it feels thought thru and refreshing.
Blue Daisy is a artist I first heard on Percussion Lab radio when Praveen dropped it, it has hints of that more airy minimalistic dub sound, the low end swerves in and out once in a while at the perfect tempo, listening to it now I just wish the song was 10+ minutes long.
Today Mux Mool’sViking Funeral drops as a free download for everyone, the EP is a collection of live edits, one has a MC for the first time and one song even samples the Hobbit cartoon with Led Zeppelin drums, enjoy.
Culled from Mux Mool’s EPs, mixtapes, and beat vaults, the Viking Funeral EP collects five choice Mux cuts into one concentrated blast of music, an introduction to Brian Lindgren’s dazzling take on homespun electro hip-hop and a preamble to his upcoming full-length opus, Skulltaste.
Viking Funeral contains everything that Mux Mool does best, making it a fine road map to Lindgren’s cracked universe. “Teal Trim” starts things off right with a tight, incisive beat, mixed to cut through a fog of hard-panned synths and distorted melody lines. Mux’s live edit of “Ladies Know” is a hard-to-find instrumental version which foregrounds the track’s bitcrushed drums and dirt-crusted vocal samples. Next up is “Drum Babylon”, a highlight from Mux’s song-a-day project Drum EP, and “Goblin Town”, a mischievous interlude featuring a choir of deep-voiced goblins, singing about their hometown. The Viking Funeral EP closes with its lone track with vocals, “Death 9000 (Prof & P.O.S. Broadcasting Version)”, in which the MCs have their way with one of Mux’s more sinister beatscapes.
Five tracks, five different shades of Mux; but the Viking Funeral EP is just the tip of the iceberg. Skulltaste is lurking below the waterline, and it goes down for miles.
Last week I shared with you the start of a 4 [maybe more?] part series of covers that some of my friends did that was free to download here. Here is volume 2:
Calmer covers Bob James: I think when I asked Calmer to cover the Taxi theme song he thought I was joking but I actually wasn’t I always play this song when I DJ late nights. He does a great hazy looped cover which shows off his drumming skills and that was what I was hoping for.
Andre Obin covers Editors: Boston’s Andre Obin is the bridge from Synth Pop to Underworld/the older Kompakt sound, he covered Munich, he went with a great direction which was ditching the sped up original and owning the vocals.
Tom Croose edits Van Morrison: Our Tom Croose does what he does best which is turning rock oldies into respectable dance floor pleasers without referencing that whole Justice dance beat movement, back to the basics for 2010 and more from Tom Croose.
D. Gookin covers Primus: Are you ready for your early teen years to flash before your eyes? D. Gookin might have just made the rowdiest intro for a song ever posted on iso50 but don’t let that fool you the cover is really diverse and he did it within hours on his drum kit. I asked Gookin to do it because on tour over a year ago he played a ton of Primus for us in the car and I could tell he loved them plus Pork Soda was the first CD I ever bought so I thought it would be fitting.
Charles Trees remixes Mayer Hawthorne: Ann Arbor, MI remixing Ann Arbor, MI both Mayer and Charles are around my age and from the same city as me. You may know Charles from his other alias Mingus Rude who gave us that very memorable Fleetwood Mac edit. Charles does a fantastic job of making Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out more heady and head noddy which totally made my ears smile.
Since the post about Matthew Dear’s remix of The XX I went on to dig for a 7 inch only remix he did for Colder from 2005. This is one of the first hints at Matthew doing guitar/organic feeling based material and pulling back on the electronics which just sounded natural to have him work with.
Yesterday jonathan suggested I check out The Mary Onettes and i’m glad I did, it opened up a 4am search thru sugary Swedish post rock on iTunes. If you liked The Radio Dept. than this might be right up your alley.
After just releasing their LP Real Estate comes up with an smaller release of material that is LP worthy. The band keeps its laid back sun-dyed feel, so if you loved the LP than this is a must have.
Keepaway got a good grade on Pitchfork’s forkcast/song review because the song is great I think but it also came with a lesson which is if you rip off Animal Collective your gonna get called out hard so maybe adjust a few things so you can be your own idea and not someone else’s, its like the handful of ISO50 rip offs i’ve seen on the innernets, yikes, I can say it because some are just too blatant in my eyes.
Call it Chillwave, Dreambeat or Glo-fi but whatever it is i’m in full support of this sound. The whole genre is like finding an old tape collection of damaged PBS pop music that was never released. I have the lucky opportunity to be in Brooklyn at this time which eats this music up which always isn’t a bad thing because that means live shows while the sound is fresh to the ears. One band i’m excited about is Small Black, their song Pleasant Experience makes me feel like i’m close to real warm water while Despicable Dogs is a bit more noisier and has hints of Big Country – In A Big Country PLEASE TELL ME YOU HEAR IT! or am I crazy?
New album from The Radio Dept. called Clinging To A Scheme drops in March, the band has leaked one track, sounds really promising.
Yesterday Flying Lotus twittered that he loved the new Jaga Jazzist and also Psych-Electronic musician Calmer told me he’s beening listening to them a ton so I went out and bought their new album to find a stand out track to share with you and Book of Glass was a nice stand out track for me because of the drive and Stereolab like synth.
I recently did a Pop Ambient playlist on the blog of some of my favorite songs from each year of the 10 year old compilation and never really shared more about the compilation besides the other new song on Playlist #7 which was Brock Van Wey/BVDUB – Lest You Forget. I also have to share this track The Orb did which you may remember them from the Little Fluffy Clouds VW Beetle commercial.
My Polish countrymen Jacaszek definitely should have more songs on the blog then just this one, on this song Zal he does a magnificent and subtle job of cutting up piano parts and makes the piece a very interesting listen.
The new Four Tet LP came out today, its a pretty massive album to come out for a January release which is usually a slow month to put out albums. I tried to describe the opening song to the album as its like an organic cover by The Field of Sally Shapiro if she was fronting a Dream Pop group instead of doing Disco.
Here’s a preview/leaked single of the upcoming Caribou LP that’s coming out in March, Dan Snaith is sounding like Erlend Oye here in sections, really nice and upbeat but has a lo-fi touch to it, I wonder what this will do for Caribou live?
Joy Orbison may only have his second EP out and seeing how much talk there was about him in 2009 he will definitely make an impact on 2010 if and when he drops his LP for everyone. Its a nice take on Dubby Techno with small reference’s of Burial meets Pepe Bradock.
Now we completely change gears with a Southwestern feeling song by Taken By Trees, I know its maybe filed under indie rock but I can see slow disco heads playing the the crap out of this song.
It was my birthday this weekend and I went out on a limb earlier in the week for a last minute HUGE favor from some close musician friends to do covers of some of my favorite songs or songs I thought the musician would do a cover of really well and surprisingly they agreed….20 of them! So here are the first 5:
Benoit Pioulard covers Hum: This is absolutely stunning, Benoit has a voice that i’d want to have if I could sing. I heard once that Benoit liked Hum so I asked him to cover a song by them and everyone should be more glad with this outcome.
Corbu covers Colder: This one was a touchy song since its probably one of my favorite songs of all time but I didn’t want an all electronic or post rock group to cover it so I asked Brooklyn’s experimental guitar duo to do it right and they did by taking it to a very unique and detailed level that i’m sure you’ll enjoy.
Alex Cornell covers Empire Of The Sun: You know him from his phenomenal work and posts on the blog and if you haven’t already seen him on youtube then here’s a very fine example of what he’s capable of creating musically.
A Setting Sun covers Tracy Chapman: A Setting Sun probably had the most challenging and off the radar cover to do but I thought a brighter doom metal approach might the only thing that would make this matchless pair up work and he killed it, especially check out how he gets to the end which is surprising after you hear the first few seconds.
Shigeto covers Boards Of Canada: This one is out there, as some of you may know Shigeto is a drummer that makes beats similar to Dabrye meets Caribou or something of that nature but loves to experiment so I thought why not see what he could do with a Boards Of Canada song since I know he’ll try to get crazy with it and not steer towards the guitar angle which I had to hear.
The pleasing Danish popstars Efterklang have stepped it up with a new LP entitled Magic Chairs, the song I grabbed has a Coldplay feel maybe to some people but Efterklang puts more personality into the sound by not taking it to uncomfortably perfect epic studio music. The band still holds their glimmer in my eyes by keeping their lively instrumentals which include trumpets, tubas and shakers.
I recently went to see The Drums play in New York and surprisingly Surfer Blood was on the bill as well. Their singles Take It Easy and Swim really stand out, those songs were something that sounded so easy to like. I hope this makes it in the mainstream but I know most people won’t “get it” but what is there to get? its serenading updated 50’s feeling pop completely transformed into an easy to swallow pill called indie rock.
The new Hot Chip LP is out and they made a great song for all the girls with cats which is pretty much every girl if i’m not mistaken.
If Surfer Blood had a bad boy cousin that did speed and listened too much older Animal Collective and he made music in the basement this Surf City band would be that cousin and I kind of want to hang out with him on weekend nights.
The Jack Kubizne directed video for Animal Collective’s “Brother Sport” came out earlier this month. The song is a favorite of mine but not since Blonde Redhead’s 23 has a video for a song I love met my expectations so I didn’t go into this one hoping for much. During the first minute or so I wasn’t sure how I felt; I’m not a huge fan of the MGMT / kids running amok / Where The Wild Things Are vibe that sort of got bludgeoned to death last year. But the song is so solid it works and the final freakout pulls it all together. All in all a nice trip. Although I think the animation would have meshed better if the live action was shot on film.
I wonder how much input the band had on this? I think I’d find it very difficult to hand over the reigns and let someone else interpret my music visually.
ISO50 Playlist #7 is now available for your listening pleasure. This time around Aarnio (Jakub’s alter-ego) does the honors and it’s a little out of hand.
Track Listing:
Black To Comm – Trapez
Paul White – Highlife
Beach House – Norway
Juana Molina – Un Dia
Lone – Karen Loves Kate
Pogo – Alice
Grizzly Bear – Cheerleader (Neon Indian ‘Studio 6669′ Remix)
Little Dragon – Feather
Beach Fossils – Daydream
Caribou – Schedules and Fares
The Mercury Program – Stand & Sing
Arovane – Seaside
Boards Of Canada – Kaini Industries (Bibio cover)
Kurt Vile – My Best Friends (Don’t Even Pass This)
Cocteau Twins – Lorelei
Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek – Homecoming
A Setting Sun – Raspberry
Brock Van Wey/BVDUB – Lest You Forget
High Wolf – Don’t Fuck With The Tropics
Lusine – Cirrus
Studio – Radio Edit
If you haven’t already been on Hype Machine then today might be a good day to jump on and check it out. It’s a stream of select blogs and the music that is being posted on them. The ISO50 blog stream is located here and today we have one of the popular song (Matthew Dear’s remix of The xx) on the charts. The standings only last 14 more hours so click here on the heart and help us vote it up if you’re a member. Also be sure to check out all the other blogs on there, always a lot of great music coming up on there.
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02/22/10 - 
