Loscil is up there with GAS, Aphex Twin, Stars of the Lid, Brian Eno in my mind when people bring up good ambient low level music. Gorgeous warm tones, analog tape sampling and vibraphones, he never leaves you feeling like your listening to nothing anything too experimental. Its just pure hypnotic gentle jet streams one after the other blowing on your hand, its like if someone tried to wake you up by just opening up a window and letting in a breeze to wake you.
So I started a unofficial Ghostly International Roller Hockey Team(more on that later I promise and if Ninja Tunes team wants to play us, bring it on, seriously, bring it hard and bring it good, jk) and the best part about it is that its mostly a collection of guys that make music and that means new good music and ideas from other people that I trust. Rob who plays on the team turned me onto Yppah on the way to the rink which was a name I never checked out but saw all the time but the name of the band just turned me off before I could ever press play to preview a song. Boy! have I been missing out, just bought up the whole catalog on emusic.
Fuck Buttons have always been on my radar, really like the sound of this track Surf Solar, its a good mash up of The Field and early M83.
Some people might put Kaito under the Trance genre bin and never take the time to check it out but Kaito makes something that is a special exception. He isn’t about making trance or getting people to dance or trip out, to be honest the more I listen to his music I have this feeling that he doesn’t even listen to anything mainstream or understand what the trance genre is and probably just sits down and makes what sounds good to him.
Since the success of the first exclusive FREE EP that we did on ISO50 I asked for some musicians for more tracks of covers and edits.
Synth Pop guru D. Gookin takes our middle school favorite teen classic single 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins to a raw fantasy land of where Dan Deacon, Luke Vibert and Tortoise collaborate to do our bidding.
The Worst Friends duo take the gentler side of M83 and nudge it just enough to open up the track a tiny bit more, kind of like a bright break in the clouds to the originals cloudy day.
Everyone knows Snap, if you haven’t then go to a gym or club and give it about an hour during peak time and it will come on the speakers, I promise. Mux Mool switches gears and takes this roller skating rink classic and runs it thru the arcade and struts down the street with it while saying hi to all the ladies, a definite head nodder for the underground collectors.
Jerome Covington is new to the blog, a musician that I met at a bar while I was djing over a year ago, he did this cover for us at Moodgadget and its still a favorite to put on because it might be one of my favorite songs from when I was a little. The tempo of the original will always feel a bit too fast after you hear this, he added that touch that makes you want sway while you drive down the ocean coast.
If you brought your attention span today then this cover might be one of the more relaxing and rewarding ones, A Setting Sun aka Guardian does a number on Air’s Le Soleil Est Pres de Moi. The dusty howl gradually disperses while the recognizable sounds slowly creep in, it would make any Air fan smile.
Today’s 4 picks might be my favorite in a while, all 4 tracks contain what I’d like to hear all summer while canoeing with friends, a road trip on a breezy tornado weather afternoon or maybe some pick up wiffle ball at McCarren Park.
Tom Croose set the pace on this edit he did of Beirut and with just a few additions the track becomes abit more head noddy. If you’re listening Zach Condon I truely think you should press this on a nice heavy weight 7 inch, with a spine sleeve, on a waxy satin stock and maybe some clear/slate grey marble vinyl, just a thought but i’m sure it’ll sell if you do it, count me in for 2 copies.
The small amount of City Center i’ve heard i’ve fallen in love with, he might instantly have noticeable hints of Animal Collective but without that need making it crazier than it needs to be. Fred Thomas pushes thru Bleed Blood giving us what exactly we want to hear for 6 and half minutes which are the underlaying field recording style vocals and distant surf guitar, echoed woodblocks, a woodsy atmosphere that sounds like its sucking itself inside itself and his entrancing serenade.
Read this in 2 years and i’m going to still have to say I really enjoy this song and i’m sticking to it by “Indietastic” Passion Pit. It has a familiar M83 elements to it but clearer and without the need of the synth taking over but pure good song writing for what it is which is an EPIC indie-electronic pop song.
Are you ready for this Nacho Patrol song? Legowelt aka Nacho Patrol just nailed a genre no one is covering which is the sound of 60’s Johnny Quest meets grainy psychedelic snake charming disco off the coast of an unknown island in South America. I mean come on! when I heard this on Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space Radio I would of put money down that i’d never find this record because in my mind it was just some hard to find dirty 45 that was found magically at a Florida garage sale under a table sitting on the astroturf and nearly melted in the sun and reeking of some old women’s sun tan lotion.
It’s been a few weeks since we launched the ISO50 Playlist and now a brand new set of tracks is loaded up for your listening pleasure. Just hit play — top of the page, center column (RSS readers must visit site to listen). I am working on the code to allow loading of older playlists which will be archived in the future. Enjoy!
1. SKALPEL – SCULPTURE
2. CLOUDLAND CANYON – DAMBALA
3. BIBIO – ABERRIW
4. JIM O’ROURKE – FUZZY SUN
5. M83 – YOU APPEARING (ADDLED EDIT)
6. GROUPER – HEAVY WATER/I’D RATHER BE SLEEPING
7. TSTEWART – WHAT’S THIS COLOR
8. AMERICA – AMERICA – TIN MAN
9. MICHNA – DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO
10. RATATAT – MONTANITA
11. STUDIO – LIFE’S A BEACH!
12. PETER BJORN AND JOHN – ERIK’S FISHING TRIP
13. TOM TYLER – DAYLIGHT ROBBED HER
14. CLOSER MUSIK – 1,2,3, NO GRAVITY
15. FARBEN – AS LONG AS THERE’S LOVE AROUND – ORIGINAL MIX
16. PAUL KALKBRENNER – AARON
17. THE CHAP – AUTO WHERE TO
18. MILOSH – COULDN’T SLEEP
19. MOUNTAINS – BLOWN GLASS TYPEWRITER
20. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – VISITING FRIENDS
Hit play on the player at the top of the page (center column) to start.
I haven’t done a mix since 2005’s Pink Rest At Low Levels which you can download here, its an ambient/IDM mix of my favorite music I’d listened to when I would fool around in Adobe Illustrator. This new mix called Goodnight Gracie is kind of an ode to a weekly I did for 3+ years with Matthew Dear, Ryan Elliott, and Scott Brandon at a lounge called Goodnight Gracie in Ann Arbor. Ryan Elliott and Matthew Dear now are big international DJ’s and Scott and I took the night over once they started touring. Ryan would let me open nearly every night and play ambient and deep melodic house before they went on so I could hear Broker/Dealer on decent speakers, I hope you can at least enjoy the end.
Markus Guentner – Untitled 3 – In Moll – Kompakt (2001) Audion – I Am The Car – Unreleased – Spectral Sound (2009) UND – Ambivalente – Maxfield – Defrag Sound Processing (2005) Pleite – Pleite – Pleite – Trapez (2003) The Librarian – The Hornet’s Nest (Teef Antihisatmine rmx) – ModeTwo – Moodgadget (2009) Sten – Way To The Stars – The Essence – Dial (2008) Omar S. – Oasis #1 – Oasis EP – FXHE (2005) Pepe Bradock – Deep Burnt – Burning – Kif Recordings (1999) Cobblestone Jazz – 5th Element – 5th Element EP – Itiswhatitis Recordings (2002) Daso & Pawas – Det (Schatrax Beats Plus rmx) – Det – Spectral Sound (2008) Pigon – Promises – Promises – Dial (2007) Lusine – Excess – Push EP – Ghostly International (2003) Slowdive – Good Day Sunshine – Souvlaki – SBK (1994) M83 – I Guess I’m Floating – Before The Dawn Heals Us – Gooom (2005)
I’ve collected a few upcoming wonderful ambient releases to look forward to in early 2009. Since the only released artwork really is this Belong art, it will have to do but it’s actually really beautiful I think. I saw a small version of Tim Hecker‘s art for his release in February of “An Imaginary Country” but it was a bit too small to use. The beginning of Sea of Pulses is like jumping into the middle of a Fennesz/M83 collaborative concert that is slowly finishing up a 9+ minute piece. The song slightly dies down and it sounds like a voice takes over for a bit which at that moment it has already knocked off Animal Collective’s Brother Sport as my favorite song(for now) of 2009.
If you haven’t heard of Manual before then be ready to put your coat on because your heading over to your local record store. Moonlit Shores is the first song i’ve found off the upcoming Danelectro LP and this track gives me so much hope that ambient music will really take off in 2009. In just a few minutes into this 12 minute piece you can feel out what setting Manual wanted you to experience when hearing this song, the simplicity of it lets you focus on whatever beautiful part of the song you want to hear, well done my friend.
Pan American is back, that’s pretty much all I have to say to some people. Can we take a second and thank Kranky records for what seems to be the starting of an uncanny new year.
For some reason I thought I already posted this Belong song, I was almost positive. When listening to this song make sure you have a little bit of bass rumble to accompany the exquisite drown going on, it almost makes me nauseous in the best possible way. Have you started listening to the song yet? are you at least 2 minutes in? beautiful right?
2008 was a great year for music, so good that an honorable mention section is a must. Before I post my top 10 albums of 2008 here are 3 albums that didn’t make the list that should of if there was room.
