I usually try not to lump together similar genres of music together in one post because that usually singles certain listeners out which I don’t want to do but on the other hand I dislike posting low level style music among uptempo songs because listeners might not spend the extra time to search for the detail or take in the soft yet intricate sounds that are being offered. I do my best to find the least moody and harsh sounding ones in hopes of finding new fans to the low level genre. Here are a few recent favorites, note the Andrew Thomas on isn’t out yet , its from his upcoming LP on Kompakt, a super beautiful listen all the way thru.
I found The Morning Benders by sifting thru Pitchfork.tv’s video series where he got local musicians and friends to perform his song Excuses, it came out great and it really had a memorable feel to it.
One band I want to see live this year is Yeasayer, it shouldn’t be hard since we both live in Brooklyn. If their shows are anything like their video for Ambling Alp then even Daft Punk might have a contender for best band characters.
Lindstrom moves closer and closer to what Moroder did in his career by setting aside the 15+ minute songs and starts working with a vocalist, Lovesick is definitely a good pop direction for the synth genius.
I felt like the blog needed some upbeat funk and soul, so here’s some Donald Byrd, this 8 minute jam makes you do one of those “yeah I know the lyrics now!” half way thru the song and you just end up lip syncing the song all wrong but you really don’t care.
About a month ago I got to see Chaz Bundick play as his solo act Toro Y Moi, I sent it to Scott and we’ve been both hooked to his new album Causers Of This ever since. Below is a few question I asked him about everything from his blog which seems to have shrunk a bit since I was last there to what he’d be doing if he wasn’t doing music.
ISO50: First, your new album “Causers Of This” that just came out will be in our best of 2010 without a doubt but I read that you’ll be releasing 2 records this year, is this true? If so, can we expect more of this loveliness style wise?
TYM: Yeah, the plan is to do two records. This one is going to sound more songwriter based and non-electronic. The goal we’re shooting for is to have it out by August…
ISO50: I went to your blog, you have some great photos, can you tell us a little bit about them and what people are seeing on your blog? Is it a bit of the initimate and fun side of you?
TYM: Thanks. A lot of the photos are of my friends. It’s fun, I love taking pictures of people but I’m getting more into more inanimate photos and odd still lifes.
ISO50: Your from South Carolina[i’ve never been there] and I see that your pretty fashionable for a guy (I admire a good pair of eyewear), is there something that the rest of the world doesn’t know about South Carolina in music and the young people? Does the clothing world at all interest you? Any good thrifting there?
TYM: Well, i had to say one thing, it’s be that, us, south carolinians don’t all live in the backwoods. The thrifting is great down here. But, really a lot of trends, whether it be fashion, music, or art, spreads majorly because of internet theses days.
ISO50: I saw you play live in Brooklyn, you really look like you have a ton of fun on stage like a natural, does that come from anything like an old band or performing before?
TYM: I’ve played in bands since i was 15. I’m just getting use to being on stage by myself, but i’m willing to be embarassed and learn from my mistakes…
ISO50: Would you share any advice on production techniques and what synths you use or dream of owning?
TYM: hmmmm, proly stay away from direct lines when recording, sounds gross and flat. a dream synth? anything from Realistic.
ISO50: To put it bluntly, I hear “heavy melodic avant pop” early Max Tundra meets “I wanna make people move” 50’s and 80’s pop in the best way possible when I hear your music, can you share what records shaped your sound?
TYM: Most likely Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and Donuts by J Dilla.
5 quick questions:
ISO50: Something your fans might not know about you: I dont shower often.
ISO50: Dream gig (location, mood, show opener or closer): SNL and zach galifianakis as the host.
ISO50: Favorite new band you’ve heard: Cloud Nothings
ISO50: If you weren’t doing music, where would you like to work: DDEESSIIGGNN
ISO50: Share a childhood memory that might relate to your music: Seeing my dad dressed in heavy winter clothing.
If you’ve been following this whole lo-fi lazy summer meets surf rock movement with bands like Real Estate, Washed Out, The Young Friends,Small Black, etc. there is a whole range of tones and tempos. One band that needs more releases out is this Beach Fossils group which I think has some great guitar parts, i’ll keep you updated on new material by them since they sound pretty promising.
Sbtrkt is one of the guys that has hit me over email with tracks, I really love his production work, he has a line list of releases this year and one that really impressed my ears was his remix for Modeselektor, looking forward to the vinyl.
If you’ve read the blog for awhile now you know I love Lusine, I suggested him and Hatchback to remix Tycho awhile back for Coastal Brake. This single which came out this week shows off more of his new direction of using a lot more female vocals which is the perfect follow up the his Two Dots single.
Below is the new Jonsi(singer of Sigur Ros) music video, I like his direction, he definitely stays with his sound and is pretty fearless visually.
You may have seen this Carl Sagan video floating around which is a remix done by Colorpulse that Mux Mool shared with me awhile ago that I loved. Recently, Mux got parts and remixed the song with great results, below is his remix of the remix for the ISO50 blog, feel free to share it.
There’s a single shared already from the new Loscil LP, sounds really promising, i’ll definitely post more once the album is out but here’s a teaser.
You can count on the label Kranky to never disappoint, while digging for Loscil I stumbled upon this band named Ethernet, not the best band name but they make up for it with this aquatic drone track called Seaside.
Any Wisp fans here? i’m a huge Wisp fan, in December his LP dropped on Rephlex with an array of epic melodic fantasy music that puts most new video game/fantasy movie music to shame.
A label called Twoism does a great job of taking the Boards of Canada sound the extra mile and finds musicians that love making the PBS sound, a definite net label that i’ll keep look visiting.
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.
With Dubstep branching out to see how far the genre can be pushed a ton of new ideas start to surface and a fusion of appealing sounds start melting together. One group i’m really excited about is Sepalcure which is a collaboration of Brooklyn’s Praveen and Machinedrum. the duo is doing a fine job of taking hints of soulful house and dubstep to create what they call Lovestep. One thing that Sepalcure has that other dubsteppers don’t usually have and ISO50 fans might also really enjoy is fine art direction by the multi talented designer Sougwen Chung. As you can see above and below her posters and videos of her work are a perfect fit for this heartfelt music.
Sepalcure’s debut performance alongside Untold, TRG, Pole, 2562 & more is February 13th at Unsound Festival NYC.
Below is a “Lovestep” mix done by Percussion Lab Founder/Sepalcure’s very own Praveen.
TRACKLIST Pangaea – Memories Burial – You Hurt Me TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn Remix) Untold – Dante DFRNT – Tripped (Synkro Mix) Synkro – Inhale Sines – Memories Are Here DFRNT – Tripped (Ital Tek Remix) FaltyDL – Party Joy Orbison – J. Doe Sepalcure – Deep City Insects Floating Points – K&G Beat
