ISO50

Roger O’Donnell is an English keyboardist best known for his work with The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, The Thompson Twins and Berlin. I’ve had the pleasure to see Roger play live in recent years, he’s definitely one of the main reasons why we fall in love with certain songs he wrote. Here are a few selections Roger was kind enough to share with us:

Efterklang – Mirador with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. A go to band for me when nothing else is worth listening to.

Herbie Hancock – Vein Melter, Herbie “the keeper of the keys” pure Fender Rhodes magic from my mentor.

Tortoise – High Class Slim Came Floatin’ In, musical over achievers yes but they are prepared to push it to the edge, inspirational.

Tonto’s Expanding Headband – Cybernaut, all Moog.. What more do you need?

The image is called “The Perfect Garden” by Philistine DSGN

Rafael Anton Irisarri puts together a playlist for us of Broadcast’s Trish Keenan, very devastating news for all music lovers.

“Last week I was extremely saddened by Trish Keenan’s tragic, untimely death. She was a brilliant, talented artist and her music became a huge inspiration to me. I love the sound of her voice, it was absolutely fantastic. The first time I heard Broadcast, I thought everytime her parts would come in, it was the work of an angel.

When Jakub asked me do a guest spot on ISO50 this week, I couldn’t think of anything else but Broadcast. So, with that in mind, I went over my collection and selected my favorite songs from their catalog. It was supposed to be only 4 tracks, but what can I say, I really liked their music so I ended up using 14 tracks instead. I never got to meet Trish, but I feel very lucky to have discovered her music and at least gotten to know that aspect of her life.”

R.I.P. Trish

We’ve been rolling thru these Guest Music Posts this week, we will wrap the week up with a female focused post by Will Wiesenfeld aka Baths / Geotic, beautiful choice to start it off Will!

CocoRosie – R.I.P. Burn Face
In CocoRosie’s bizarre pop aesthetic, they’re able to maintain this perfect level of darkness and experimentation
without it getting in the way of melody and songwriting. I’ve always been jealous of how effortless they make it seem.

Björk – Sun In My Mouth (recomposed by Ensemble)
Ensemble (Oliver Alary) also produced the Björk song “Desired Constellation,” my favorite song of all time. This is another great collaboration by the two.

Robyn – Hang With Me
Pop music perfected. Everyone alive should take notes.

Husky Rescue – Beautiful My Monster
My favorite song of last year. Coming from such a wonderfully gloomy album, this song serves as the light at the end of the tunnel.
It ties the record together beautifully.

Image by: Dieter Sayler

Many of you know Michael Cina’s work as a Graphic Designer but he also has a great taste in music, he set some time aside and shared some music for the ISO50 readers, enjoy:

Supersilent
I am waiting for my copy to come, I preordered this half-way into
listening to an advanced copy last year. I think Supersilent is pretty
good (I love Deathprod), but this is Supersilent at their best. Parts
of the lp hint at a sparse Miles Davis when he was in his fusion
years, other songs sound like Vangelis. They really precisely capture
tones and moods on this album.

Talk Talk
I have been on a steady stream of the last two Talk Talk lps for the
last six months or so. There is something hauntingly beautiful about
these sincere records. From what I understand, they locked themselves
in a dark room and didn’t talk with anyone while making these albums.
You can hear it, you can hear the room swallowing you.

Nicolas Jaar
I won’t pretend that I know anything about Jaar, as I don’t, besides
he is somewhat connected to the Wolf + Lamb crew. You can tell from
his production, that he loves sound. He seems to be expanding off of
the road that Matthew Dear has paved and is making his own way. I am
looking forward to see where he goes with his music.

The Blue Nile
One of my friends Rob turned me onto this a little while ago. I have
heard of the band but really never knew what they did. This is the
second song is off their “Hats” full-length. It’s magic from start to
finish. They really create a vivid picture in this song.

Hey IS050 gang! Mr. Alexander was kind enough to ask for a guest post on some music I enjoy. I decided to mostly feature some music which has inspired and surrounds my Sepalcure project (alongside the talented Machinedrum). These are the repeats – the jams I can listen to over and over without ever wearing em out.

1) Mount Kimbie – Sketch on Glass

A near unbearably long intro, IDM inspired percussion and a final vocoded 1.5 minutes to die for. I remember heading over to Fort Greene Park last year when this EP dropped just to sit under the trees and listen to this jam on repeat. Took the day off just to do so. I know I looked at the clouds a bunch.

Seriously though. Check these guys – they are some seriously talented kids with an equally engrossing live show. Whenever Jakub writes about how IDM is back, just under a new guise, it makes me think of our Hotflush label mates, Mount Kimbie.

2) TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn’s DCM Remix)

Without this track, Sepalcure may never have happened. #realtalk

I remember a friend sending me this in late 2007 and my subsequent loss of the ability to listen to anything else. The chords, the vocal, the wooden snares – I can honestly say this track got me back into dance music in a big way. There was literally nothing else like it at the time. Wooden snares are a dime a dozen these days (I’m guilty of abusing the shit outta them myself), and with this broken beat take on dubstep and techno at an all time peak, maybe its a good time to look back at where it all started.

3) Falty DL – MY FRIENDS WILL ALWAYS SAY…

Prolific is an understatement. Drew Lustman has had over two dozen releases in the past two genre-spanning years. Weaving everything from IDM to Disco to 2 Step to Acid, homeboy Lustman is one to watch in 2011. There’s a great story somewhere in there about him being at a Percussion Lab rooftop party years back and deciding to move to NYC because of it but we’ll save that for another time. The thing I love about Falty’s production is you can almost immediately tell its him. In a genre saturated with cookie cutter preset tracks, thats something special.

This track is one of my favorites of his – takes a great idea and keeps it simple. The chords, vocal sample, garage beat – its prime goose bump material.

4) Johann Johannsson – melodia (iii)

One of the saddest pieces of music I’ve ever heard. This one oozes melancholy and defeat. I actually think I cried a bit when I saw Johannsson perform this at Le Poisson Rouge a couple years back. The whole Fordlandia album holds a special place in my heart – one of those places you don’t necessarily want to revisit, but was vital to have during a particular time of your life. I feel like this is a good counter piece to the aforementioned dance music gems. Music with an entirely different purpose. You may think Burial sounds pretty good in the rain, but it doesn’t match the absolute gut wrenching, soul destroying event which is “melodia” in a downpour. I made myself promise to listen to less sad music last year though, so thats all on you.

Benoit Pioulard is no stranger to this blog, I might post about him quarterly at the very least. This Portland lo-fi vanguard has always turned me onto good music so I had to pick his brain for his latest picks. Don’t read into the Bobby Vinton choice too much since he recently was married, congrats Thomas.

Memoryhouse: Caregiver – We’ve all felt like ghosts at one time or another.

Nat King Cole: Calypso Blues – We’ve all felt homesick at one time or another.

Infinite Body: Out to Where I Am – We’ve all felt the extraordinary depth of the universe in our chests at one time or another.

Bobby Vinton: Mr. Lonely – We’ve all felt lonely at one time or another.