Pitchfork Media and XLR8R have teamed up and curated a free compilation together which features a ton fresh talent. I picked a few songs from it, the real stand out is the energetic work by Nice Nice, has this feeling of Battles meets Konono N°1, its strong on the tribal tip and the combination of dynamics and uptempo really work well for this sound. Others artists include Willits and Sakamoto, Hudson Mohawke, Lusine, Atlas Sound, and a many more.
Jay Bodley aka A Setting Sun has been on the blog before with his cover of Air’sLe Soleil Est Pres de Moi but that sound is far different from what he’s brewing which is more of a textured doom metal that you’d find from an artist like Ulver with hints of what a non-metal fan would call beautiful. Raspberry is a song that could be split up into multiple sections where you start off with the unforgiving coldness of the intro and lets you enjoy a bit of familiar acoustic guitar and then fades into an almost ceremonial muted brother of the intro, its grey yet ends on a restful feeling that everything has calmed down.
The mysterious grace that Johann Johannsson shares with us reminds me of what a mad man would hide from anyone that feared him to not show that he has such a passionate side. Think if Tangerine Dream had to make a dark classical piece with Jan Jelinek without beats or glitches.
The label Kranky can never do me wrong, you dig in their back catalog and just find treasures and one song that I found from this Christopher Bissonnette LP made me happy that there were such things as good A+R.
Tim Hecker is a hero in my mind to lo-fi ambient, if I ever drowned this better be playing so its as bittersweet as I could ever imagine it being.
Take your time with these songs if you really want to enjoy them, if this sound isn’t something you usually listen to then I suggest listening to it alone, yet close to you but not overwhelming yourself. Try listening to it as background sound quietly then try listening to it noticing every detail, you might realize how much goes into making this sound appealing.
I’ve been getting ready a few playlists so I can to do a few different style DJ sets of music that I share with you on the blog. I really miss having my DJ partners Worst Friends (Tom Croose and Slowhands) because they had such great taste and kept the tempo low and the sounds unique. Here are just a few songs that are on the more crowd friendly and less headphone only.
Phantogram with The Drums I think will own the indie scene early on in 2010, Josh and Sarah put on an amazing show a few weeks back in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Bowl. The sound is Portishead stepping it up with a full spectrum of energy on stage and on top of that they just make some of the most sugary lush pop with depth, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
This song by Om Unit combines what I loved about old Kompakt and off the beat and path Dubstep, like a 2562 remix of Superpitcher.
I’m not sure how the original of this Robot Koch song sounds or who Shlohmo is but man I want more, such a good intro, reminds me if Flying Lotus was forced to combine Southern Hip Hop with a South London digital sound.
Audion is still a favorite producer of mine and this track Push has all the elements aligned to explain why. Its the growth of the repetition and waiting for the hints telling you its going to change and multiply, I always imagine a close up of the bottom of an ocean liner tearing thru a coast into a city uncontrollably when I hear this song, ahh how relaxing ; ].
I often like to click on ISO50 commenters links connected to their names just to see what there all about and recently clicked on AndresM and found out what they(I guess a couple shares this account? :] ) wanted for Christmas hah, It was this close to affordable alternative to a Super 8mm video camera but in digital called a Zumi. Here is a pretty decent example of footage, not bad for the 170USD price tag:
Now for the music, I think everyone will be very happy to hear this Swod song and give this Lusine track a try, the second half of it builds like a Lusine classic.
I remember it hit me and it hit me hard the day when I sat down with Manitoba’s(now goes under the name Caribou) Start Breaking My Heart, it was the beginning of my relationship with being addicted to buying electronic music on its release day and following artists that weren’t just on the radio or what I heard from friends. During that time I had this surge of wanting to build furniture, design clothes, I drew almost daily and wanted to do interior architecture for minimal homes and this was just the crazy uncontrollable push that kept my gears turning in the middle of the night. These songs all have this feel to them of a perfect soundtrack for a creative loners world, plenty of detail in the melodies and familiar sounds from childhood shows and toys.
We are back to the regularly scheduled program everybody, 4 songs a day. So today I woke up like usual which is one eye open reaching for my iPhone and checking email, twitter, and facebook before heading to my email and deleting the emails I just read from bed but one thing I noticed was a ton of twittering about a new song by The Knife which was a nice jolt. The song is amazing, it has a great experimental build into this well composed orchestral piece which really relies on these muted beautiful steel drum melodies and outstanding vocal ranges, everyone making pop music should feel some sort of shame after hearing something that is musically moving in a creative direction but keeping their sound and taking chances.
Coworkers have been telling me about Sub Pop’s Avi Buffalo for months now, I found this song from a Daytrotter live session and I blew me away. Lately if i’ve been listening to anything like this its only been slower stuff from Kurt Vile, Bon Iver, Elm From Arm or Midlake so this was a nice change in gears.
Wow what a great remix by Nosaj Thing, so thick and warm with a nice pop but it must be easy though if you have Charlotte Gainsbourg vocals to work with, can’t really screw that up.
If I could hear one song live and it to keep growing and building it would have to be this Casino Versus Japan song, I heard it live at the Tycho NYC show and I had to roll my tongue back into my mouth and hold my jaw from hitting the floor. The sounds that you get when you’re half way thru bring back so much nostalgia for me, they’re so gentle and dreamy but in a whole different way than what shoegaze does for some people.
I’m very excited to announce that Pop Ambient 2010 is out on January 18th, 2010 on Kompakt which will mark the 10th release in my favorite compilation series of all time. Here is one song from each year, I hope it relaxes you and you end up finding a few new favorite ambient songs.
Mux Mool just dropped his new single this week called Lady Linda which features 2 tracks from his upcoming LP Skulltaste on Ghostly International coming to us in March 2010. If you like what he did for Adult Swim or his Drum EP then this track has a mixture of that with hints of fantasy video game music specifically Zelda for the Nintendo 64 with a hip hop wobble.
With Lusine’s recent remix of Tycho’sCoastal Brake becoming played so often here at home I decided I needed to up my back catalog of some of his older releases. I have so many favorite tracks of his but I felt Risa was a nice replacement for a 5 hour energy drink on this hectic Monday.
…okay get ready, this might be the rowdiest track i’ve ever posted on ISO50 but its soo soo good, it puts Diplo and MIA deeper in the old news section of Spin and Billboard. Sleigh Bells will take over Brooklyn any second now, I can already feel the rumbling.
Matias Aguayo had a great 2009, his label Cómeme is one of the more forward thinking labels that are taking chances out there. I looked at his style and I always think of Weekend At Bernie’s clothing and that color palette from the VHS cover art meets maybe what Ibiza was in the early 90’s maybe thats because the intro to this song reminds me of Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic.
