One of my favorite simple album covers has to be this cover for Cashier Escape Route above because of the subjects involved and that bold light blue with a tiny bit of red always worked. This Phonem track is pretty laid back and brings me back to the earlier days of IDM and how it always helped me on the imaginative end of thinking of new designs.
There are a ton of feel good tracks out there and Blackalicious might have one that hits the Top 50 of all time.
Most of you might already know but Grizzly Bear has a new album coming in in May, this is just one track from it that was taken from their performance on David Letterman.
Here’s a pretty simple edit done by Michael Mayer, sadly I don’t know the original track but I can’t wait to DJ again and play this for a couple minutes.
Phonem – Blue Skies Over Leuna (Wish I Was Somewhere Else)
I don’t post many really upbeat poppy songs on here but its Friday and Phoenix have a new LP coming out and i’m super geeked to find out if its going to be great. It’s been almost 9 years since they released United which I first heard in the Ghostly International office as a intern and fell in love. I feel this track 1901 is going to be played really loud at every bar by June as a LAST CALL song which is good and also really really bad at the same time.
Mux Mool has a new EP coming out in March and has leaked a new song (that will stay unreleased) with the info on the “Just Saying Is All EP”. Nausican has this morning strut feel to it, you know that feeling when your having a good morning and saying hi to all the neighbors kind of like that Blackalicious track Make You Feel That Way.
Alright i’m not sold on this new Royksopp, its not what I like about the earlier material and it’s way too poppy for my taste. What do you guys think?
I’ve been in love with some of the songs on the new Odd Nosdam LP that just came out this month on the hard working Anticon label. I haven’t really heard anything like this song Ethereal Slap since Marumari’s Supermogadon which definitely isn’t as heavy hitting. Root Bark by Odd Nosdam is more soundtrack-ish but really is unhateable, perfect for a skateboarding soundtrack which I think is what this LP is suppose to be for.
Fans of Samiyam and Flying Lotus need to check out Charles Trees, he has an upbeat crunchy authentic sound that might be able to find in Daedelus’ but also hits as hard as Dabrye.
I’m always happy to hear and support Max Tundra, he is needed in music because he breaks down pop barriers and weeds out and finds the real music lovers that care for avant pop, the video below is shot in such a simple yet attractive way in my mind, reminds me of some Electric Company promo.
These 3 songs by Bernhard Fleischmann, Wisp, and Departure Lounge are good examples of 3 completely different genres that I really wouldn’t know how to tag with a specific genre. Wisp on one hand sounds like he should be making all the fantasy video game music for any World of Warcraft game in 2010 specifically any epic winter levels. Bernhard Fleischmann sounds like a sped up Mum song that put the guitar and drums priority in the mixdown while Departure Lounge has more of a northern Midwest feel with layered finger picking and some gently placed feedback that’d probably drive a mastering guy nuts.
I’m not sure where I remember first seeing this La Serenissima video but it hit my nostalgia button right away, seems like the studio that drew the original G.I. Joe animated series must of done it, i’m not exactly sure though. I wish more cartoons we’re drawn like this, i’d probably watch them religiously.
Berlin-based Alan Abrahams has earned a lot of attention lately. His albums as Portable for the Background and ~scape imprints have garnered near-universal acclaim for their deft fusion of tribal rhythms and a modern micro-house sensibility. For his first LP as Bodycode, The Conservation of Electric Charge, Abrahams focuses on the more dancefloor-oriented aspects of his style, yielding a gorgeous album born from the belief that the psyche can be unlocked via the body. Bodycode also came from necessity ? while on tour playing club dates, Abrahams was compelled to seek the most engaging sound for that environment. Remarkably adept at its task, Bodycode?s mesmerizing percussive arrangements and subtle melodic flourishes create an immediately engaging sound that lingers in the mind long after the club has closed.
I just saw Alan aka Portable/Bodycode play last night on a freezing rooftop outdoors right around Union Square in New York and he blew my mind. Alan makes pure body music that’s straight from his roots of South Africa, if anyone is doing any tribal house music properly its him. He also slowly falls into some beautiful droned out breakdowns that aren’t like anything else, so there is something here for the world music(sadly this genre has such a bad rep) and ambient fans as well.
My friend Danny passed on a Glenn Branca EP to me tonight, one that I didn’t have and we started talking about him. Glenn Branca seems to be the poster boy for all the experimental guitar bands that want to do something new these days but they don’t understand that they can’t repeat the past and pretend like their doing something groundbreaking. I don’t think anyone these days would be able to put out music similar to what Glenn Branca did during the time he was doing it, you’d only be doing it for the wrong reasons. This new wave of bands in the past 8 years or so are enjoyable but in my opinion just come off as “I need attention but don’t actually look at what i’m doing because i’m actually not creative at all”. Sadly these musicians today can buy their way into sounding and mainly looking like they have some talent. Walking up and down the streets of Brooklyn you can almost smell and see the fake talent, at first you can fall for it but then talking to more and more people you end up finding out they aren’t offering up anything pure or willing to potentially going mental to perfect their technic and sound. I just want people like Glenn Branca to get more credit because listing him off as an influence only is almost saying that your similar to him but you aren’t you actually have to take any of the time that you’re getting any attention and use it thank the originator.
Addled is half of Worst Friends and he loves his Boston Red Sox, sharing what great good house/techno records come out on Tuesdays, and most importantly making a variety of music. Recently he’s worked on music that was used in a Prada video and in the past he made some of the music for The New York Times. His first EP as Addled is one that follows the footsteps of James Holden and Paul Kalkbrenner but touches a new level of listening since its less clubby than both and is more on the deeper side and melodic side.
I feel like I post a lot of Paul Simon but really I don’t actually if anything I don’t post enough Paul Simon.
I always thought I liked Sam Prekop more than The Sea and Cake but then I listened to some more Sea and Cake and realized I was thinking crazy things. Whenever I have to deal with the rock guy that thinks electronic music is too repetitive than I just have to share with him The Sea and Cake and say Its not that you don’t like repetitiveness because obviously this is amazing, it’s just that the person doesn’t care for unique sounds or can fathom the idea a synth playing more parts than their are people on stage and that just ticks him right off.
Eliot Lipp’s 2009 has been one of the more productive one’s out there, having released his new album Peace Love Weed 3D and organizing a 40+ date tour you wouldn’t think he’d have the time to head into the studio to record a live studio session. The mix features some of the more talked about names in Electronic/Hip Hop right now like Mux Mool, Nosaj Thing, Black Milk, and Michna. Some of the highlights in my opinion are Beamrider which is a live set favorite of mine and the ever so popular recent Warp track Overnight.
The record heads over at Kompakt have done it again by continuing to floor ambient lovers with one of the best compilation series of the 21st century. Pop Ambient 2009 has some jaw dropping moments, for example when you pick up the CD and find out that Tim Hecker, Burger/Voigt and Mint all make appearances then its an easy sell for any frequent ambient music buyer. The compilation starts out with what maybe could of been William Basinski’s original Disintegration Loops but with a layer of brass added by the ever talented Klimek. Popnoname comes in with one of the most gentle and entrancing melodic pieces. Freshman Sylvain Chauveau carries us into a more looped lo-fi laptop folk sound that seems to be a new branch that Kompakt has added under the Pop Ambient umbrella. The real show stealers are Burger/Voigt who really knock us back, the song Frieden gets me so excited that I almost become ill from my uncontrollable slow swaying, minute after minute I just think about how exciting it is to be able to own this song. For those who haven’t ever purchased a Pop Ambient compilation than this is a perfect one to begin on since its one of the more diverse and inviting collections because of its use of guitars and soft noise.
