ISO50

RSS

Archive for the Music Category

Schnauss+Farben+Mujuice+Shoreline

Posted by Jakub

Farben

Just djed in Kentucky last night and now i’m winding down with some old favorites. Ulrich Schnauss‘ “Stars” off his latest LP from last year was a great listen always on roadtrips. He recently just collaborated with A Shoreline Dream on a track called “Neverchanger” but I posted one of their older tracks that first caught my ear. They have a very nice old Verve sound to them, with all the shoegaze essentials like swirling guitars and wall-after-wall of sound.

As for Farben(aka Jan Jelinek) and Mujuice, I don’t think these could be any different from the other two tracks. The cover above is from a Farben 4x vinyl boxset called Starbox which included 4 photos of different bank robbers from the 70’s, i think they were all German but I may be wrong. I loved the layout of the whole package, if you get a chance to ever see one at the record store, pick it up and open it.
As for Mujuice i having nothing else by him but this track, I found it on a Russian internet radio station called deepmix.ru which I highly recommend if you like this track.

Ulrich Schnauss – Stars

[audio:stars.mp3]

Farben – As Long As There’s Love Around

[audio:farben.mp3]

Mujuice – Over the Rainbow

[audio:mujuice.mp3]

A Shoreline Dream – New York

[audio:shoreline.mp3]

Willits+Villalobos+Sun Kil Moon+Boats

Posted by Jakub

Alcachofa
Here are 4 pretty guitar focused musicians that i think have nothing really in common that i’ve always shared with people in the past on mixtapes or as new music to get into.

Christopher Willits i don’t think could of made a fuller sound than this, usually known for his 12k glitched out guitar pieces before this release on the album Surf Boundaries. All the way thru he just packs in the drumming like Caribou and the guitar at 3:26 couldn’t be anymore insane and lovely, it really comes down to the detail in this track, i can’t imagine recording it all.

Ricardo Villalobos
usually known for his 14+ min South American influenced minimal techno puts together one of my favorite tracks on his Alcachofa LP which is the artwork shown above and also a nice change up for techno fans and really opens the door to having new fans of the music. You can find more Villalobos on the Erlend Oye DJ Kicks compilation and his remix of Depeche Mode.

As for Sun Kil Moon, it’s a side project for Red House Painter’s Mark Kozelek, i’m not a good follower of lyrics but i think its about a true story of a boxer that died in a match named Duk Koo Kim, this song is a must have, it might be abit intense like most Mark Kozelek songs in an emotional way but even at 14:33 i end up pressing rewind to hear it again, make sure you have a nice upbeat track to follow it up.

The Boats barely have a guitar in this song but i’m guessing there’s a bass guitar and a harp sample in there thru most of it. This song always reminded me of if Portishead had to play unplugged or if Matmos and Bjork came back together for another release.

Christopher Willits – Medium Blue

[audio:willits.mp3]

Ricardo Villalobos – Waiworinao

[audio:villalobos.mp3]

Sun Kil Moon – Duk Koo Kim

[audio:sunkil.mp3]

The Boats – And There are Stars that Fell from The Sky

[audio:boats.mp3]

Talking Heads + The Police + Rush + Simon

Posted by Jakub

Synchronicity
I always wondered how much of an influence the music i grew up listening to had on the sort of stuff I gravitate towards now days. I hope some of these “oldies” are a nice change of pace for everyone, hey i might even link this post to my Dad.

Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place

[audio:talking.mp3]

The Police – Synchronicity I

[audio:police.mp3]

Rush – Tom Sawyer

[audio:rush.mp3]

Paul Simon – The Obvious Child

[audio:simon.mp3]

Burial+Alkan+Praveen+The Album Leaf

Posted by Jakub

Her Space Holiday
All the tracks today are remixes, all in which i feel stand strong comparable to the original track.
This Burial remix of Bloc Party is by far a favorite of mine in the last week, also i can’t find a digital version of it anywhere. I think what attracts me to Burial’s sound is the softening and quietening of that UK Garage low end, its done so well by him.
The Erol Alkan remix of Midlake sounds like a Fleetwood Mac cover to me but i just can’t put my finger on it. I’m glad its not this club bomb or noisy edit, he actually does add a great fullness to the track that is riding a thin line to being an AM Gold/beard and tinted glasses/amber lit wooden studio jam which isn’t a bad thing at all (puts on a Gordon Lightfoot LP and watches this commercial on mute).
Praveen does wonders with the track Pinconning, the resonance from the kick drum and accordion makes it sound like your listening to it while your underwater.
I was hoping with this last one that i could find an Album Leaf song that Album Leaf fans didn’t have, hopefully i did for some of you. As for the song it makes me jealous that i don’t have a xylophone or vibraphone to play on everyday but if i did have one i’d probably never get anything done.

Bloc Party – Where is Home? (Burial Remix) – purchase

[audio:burial.mp3]

Midlake – Roscoe (Erol Alkan Remix) – purchase

[audio:roscoe.mp3]

Benoit Pioulard – Pinconning (Praveen Says Stay Remix) – purchase

[audio:pinconning.mp3]

The Album Leaf – The Young Machines (The Album Leaf Remix) – purchase

[audio:albumleaf.mp3]

Fabric 13

Posted by Scott

fabric13
Micro-House, Minimal, whatever you call it, Fabric 13 (named for the London nightclub) was my first proper introduction to a style which I’ve really come to appreciate for it’s stripped down compositions and attention to detail. I’m a self-confessed maximalist when it comes to my own music so I really admire the producers of this genre for building so much energy and emotion into these seemingly simplistic sonic landscapes. Geiger’s wonderful mix of I Think About You isn’t quite as restrained as Villalobos’ offering, but a similar ethic permeates both tracks. My only complaint is that Geiger’s mix gets cut short just as it seems to be hitting it’s stride, but I suppose that was the point, damned minimalists! Another stand-out track from Fabric 13 you may remember is Jackson’s mix of Run Into Flowers which I posted on a while back.

As for the cover, I’m not such a huge fan of the haphazard-collage / inexplicable-gaussian-blurring / drop-shadow look, and it doesn’t really speak to the vibe I’m getting from the music inside, but at least the type is well executed.

Heiko Voss – I Think About You (Geiger Mix)

[audio:geiger.mp3]

Ricardo Villalobos– Easy Lee

[audio:easylee.mp3]
A quick note: I’ve installed the beta version of Martin Laine’s Audio Player WordPress plugin (thanks Karl for the heads up). This new Flash MP3 player replaces the old one and should do away with some of the quirks people were experiencing before. Please let me know if you have any issues with the new player.

Ratatat + The Chap + Mu-Ziq + Khonnor

Posted by Jakub

Mu-ziq
4 unique music groups here that i really appreciate their outgoing styles. Ratatat really did a great take on what you can do with the slide guitar sound and removed it and put it into a song that i’m not thinking “oh here comes a slide guitar country song”. Instead, i have this relaxing and colorful performance in my head that makes me picture some Central American theatre.
This Chap song when i first heard it flipped my world upside down(side note: for the typography fans out there have you noticed you can spell the word upside down like this using other letters of the alphabet: umop apisdn) i was shocked on the pushing and pulling i was going thru to just listen to a song, from a guitar melody thats accompanied with this heavy low end to just them whispering over a casio. The second half they just throw everything at you like “what were you thinking? you think we were just gonna make a cute alittle song for you?” wrong, they were just messing with you like that Simian vs. Justice video when everyone wakes up and soo much craziness is going on.
I can’t believe i didnt use my Mu-ziq posting for his remix of Aphex Twin – On but this album cover above will always catch my eye and it was favorite of mine when i was getting in IDM. First, the beginning of this song FORGET ABOUT IT it’s from another planet, just so you know Radiohead i love you but that’s how a spinning plate sounds times a thousand and 300 meters in diameter. Second, that breakdown with the synth melody going back and forth with the drum programming, pssssh what a genius then the last 30 seconds i’m in a hip hop track, i don’t know how to tell people what we just listened to but honestly Mike Paradinas brought it proper.
After those last 2 tracks i need a constant track that warms up and fades out. Type’s Khonnor i think made this song when he was 16, it’s if Dntel collaborated with Fennesz.

Ratatat – Montanita

[audio:montanita.mp3]

The Chap – Auto Where To

[audio:chap.mp3]

Mu-ziq – Hasty Boom Alert

[audio:hasty.mp3]

Khonnor – Man From The Anthill

[audio:anthill.mp3]

Ash Ra Tempel – New Age of Earth

Posted by Beamer

Hello all, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Beamer, and Scott invited me to start posting to ISO50. As a long time fan and a friend of Scott’s over the past few years, we’ve spent a small amount of time together and have been very interested in each other’s tastes. I’m very honored to be posting here, and I hope I can deliver some relatively entertaining content.

This being post #1, I’d like to continue the theme with my #1 favorite album.

Ash Ra Tempel – New Age of Earth (1976)

new_age_cover_sm.jpg

I’ve been amassing a progressive Krautrock collection for about seven years now, and this is one of those records that caught my eye. Not being much of a fan of psych, or much loud banging in any form, I had somewhat (embarrassingly) written off Ash Ra after hearing the much acclaimed self—titled release (back when Klaus Schulze was drumming); though, I insisted on owning this if not just for the artwork.

new_age_inside_sm.jpg

Manuel Göttsching moved the project from an experimental group to a solo act just one year before this release with Inventions For Electric Guitar (1975). In New Age of Earth, Göttsching introduces his flowing landscape sound later shown in his triumphant and highly influential E2-E4. In this album, instead of focusing on his signature layered guitar sound, he builds an amazingly textured synth masterpiece. This record will stay in my #1 position for quite some time.

Ash Ra Tempel — Sunrain

[audio:ash_ra_tempel-sunrain.mp3]

Awesome transcription from the sleeve:
“Constantly searching
Not wishing an end
Prefer a sunrise
Not everything planned
So you’ll always be
In the new age of earth”