#40 Samps – Plans
#39 Lapalux – Swallowing Smoke
#38 Benoit Pioulard – Margins
#37 Om Unit – Corridor 2013
#36 Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal
#35 Zomby – 777
#34 Soviet Soviet – No Lesson
#33 Jensen Sportag – Bellz
#32 Jacques Greene – Quicksand
#31 Darkstar – Timeaway
#50 Holden – Some Respite
#49 Airbird & Napolian – In The Zone
#48 Orphan – Most Is Missing
#47 Miles – Loran Dreams
#46 Gonno – Are You Asleep
#45 Atoms For Peace – Default
#44 Bonobo – Cirrus
#43 Monte – True
#42 Queens – Cables
#41 Almunia – The Magician
Photograph by Francis Anderson
A real gentle one from Doldrums, loving the second half, I was expecting something more harsh or poppy after his huge touring stretch in 2013.
I posted this song before by Dark Sky but it was only a clip, needed to share and revisit the full version, this sort of defines the best of the deep tech-house genre for me.
Prins Thomas remixing Komon & Appleblim, stellar as always, opens up really nicely.
New Bibio coming in January 2014, everyone please settle down! PRE-ORDERS at Bleep.
**Can’t stop listening to that Bibio track, ok………..once more and then i’ll keep writing.
Hatchback dubs out an old favorite of mine, chops off about 10 minutes from the original, let that winter beard grow.
Sorry to switch gears here but wait its worth your time. We all need some lo-fi soft grunge/gaze to clear the palette.
Do you want proper trance and you’ve worn out your Kaito albums? Petar Dundov is the next best thing, his album “Sailing Off The Grid” is flying too low under the radar.
Steve Moore is becoming my favorite find of 2013, he’s really thoughtful on his sound selection, every track is a piece of artwork.
First off, just realized Lopazz is part of Ame? that…makes a lot of sense actually. Second, i’m soo happy some reworked this track, I play the original out a lot and it needs a break.
Midisport
Uwe Schmidt aka Atom TM designed most if not all of the inserts for his legendary techno imprint Rather Interesting under the credits “design sampling by linger decoree”. The CD booklet for Midisport – 14 Footballers in Milk Chocolate is a favorite example of the deadpan humor, fearless oddity and demonstrative detail found throughout the Rather Interesting catalog both visually and musically.
Acacia
A beautifully shocking portrait that we love. I still always look twice when shuffling through house crates. From 1997, the ‘Monsieur Guy a Paris’ mix of Acacia’s Maddening Shroud from this 12″ remix ep is a perfectly cunning piece of french house.
Ariel Pink
We love Ariel Pinks drawings of detailed sexual dysmorphia. The original drawing used for the My Molly 7″ is in Austin’s personal art collection. Here Ariel musically clones a song by an asexual man with “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” (Smiths cover).
Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd (Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, Detroiter 1932-2013) leans suavely aloof behind his spaceage sportscar on the cover of A New Perspective. This is a favorite cover by graphic designer Reid Miles who created all of the Blue Note album covers in its first 10 years of existence thereby inventing the classic look of the legendary jazz label. Ironically Reid Miles did not particularly like jazz.
Plunderphonics
The art for Plexure by Plunderphonics (John Oswald) which blends the defiant stances of Bobby Brown, Bruce Springsteen and Garth Brooks is an icon of the “audio piracy as compositional prerogative” movement. This is Urge (Marianne Faith No Morrissey).
Jensen Sportag’s “Stealth Of Days” is out now on Cascine, available on vinyl.
Andy Gilmore seems to have always been up there an ISO50 readers favorite, just found out that Ghostly International put up 6 new posters of his this morning.
I haven’t felt this privileged since releasing Casino Versus Japan on Moodgadget. Here’s a perfected EP from Pop Ambient legend Markus Guentner. We’ve been sitting with this album for a few months just trying to find the right time to release and work up the right artwork. Would love some feedback to share with Markus, trying to get him to come out to the US for a tour. Also, download the single “Shadows of the City” for free in the Soundcloud player.
The EP is only $3.99 for the first 2 weeks
It wasn’t until the advent of time-lapse photography that humans were able to perceive slow and subtle processes on a comprehensible scale. New wisdom can be found in being able to perceive clouds flowing like a river, or the way heavy traffic on a city street begins to resemble the circulation of blood vessels through an artery. In many ways, “Shadows of the City,” Markus Guentner’s latest release captures this fleeting sensation of experiencing time and space on a novel but disarmingly-familiar scale, enthralling listeners with deftly-constructed soundscapes that tell a story widely-open to individual interpretation.
Opening with the track “Chromatic Fields,” Guentner envelopes the user in a warm, resonant sphere of energy, gliding over the shimmering surface of a moonlit pond. Continuing with “Ashes,” a stark but uplifting and meditative movement, the listener is prepared for the first of two longer pieces as the sense of anticipation grows. The title track emerges from the shadowy silence before a Voigt-like four-to-the-floor beat takes hold of the listener and carries them through canyon-like resonance separating monolithic structures of percussion, snaps of air and cracks of sunlight flashing through to illuminate the dust. With the following track, “The Run,” Guentner releases the built-up energy, returning the listener to the center, preparing them for what comes next. “The Coral Crowd” is ushered in much like it’s long-playing counterpart (or counterpoint, to some), graceful yet grounded, organic, but orderly. Ending symmetrically with “Eternal,” listeners are gently returned to consciousness, new insights revealed and ready for the next play-through. A wholly satisfying low-levels listening experience from beginning to end, “Shadows of the City” may represent some of Markus Guentner’s finest and most mature work to-date.