PART TWO: DNTEL
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.
PART: ONE: Caribou
Digging thru promos can really mess with your head because you just want to find those collection of songs right away that you’ll listen to forever. So what do you do when you don’t find anything? you go back to old favorites or good suggestions from friends and this song by The Wake was the latest recommendation from 800beloved’s frontman Sean Lynch. You can just tell 30 seconds into the song “Man, these guys were probably great but they were definitely overshadowed by The Cure”. Where do you think John Hughes was when this song came out? this is perfect for one of his teen heartbreak films.
IDM I always felt was just a few steps away from being for really big but the majority of the fan base didn’t like to share or support, its like they wanted to keep their precious music to themselves and make it more obscure and not go to the shows to keep the musicians going. Mr. Projectile might of had a gem on his hands when he put out his album Sinking which featured a vocal by a girl named Amy Turany who I thought might of done more work but it seems like this is the last thing she ever sang on.
Montreal has always had a forward thinking music scene, I remember going to the Mutek Festival years ago and seeing electronic vinyl shops thrive, that definitely put a smile on my face. One man Marc Leclair also known as Akufen put an outstanding record together called Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes which I highly recommend.
For how cold it is in Montreal, I always pictured Marc making this song 236e Jour by a window and he just felt the first perfect weather day of the year where the breeze is heavy and every window needs to be opened.
Grizzly Bear and Dntel on the same track, oh its a music bloggers dream to share with friends that come and visit. I really like the catchiness of this song after the breakdown, Dntel did such good work with the builds and sequencing of the 6+ min track. I couldn’t think of better voices to accompany his music than Grizzly Bear, yes even better than Mr. Gibbard in my opinion.
The Wake – All I Asked You to Do
[audio:wake.mp3]
Mr. Projectile – You Need
[audio:mr.mp3]
Marc Leclair – 236e Jour
[audio:jour.mp3]
Dntel – To A Fault
[audio:fault.mp3]
