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.
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
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.
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)
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.
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”
For those that are looking for something that’s melodic but with texture this Fennesz album Endless Summer is by far my favorite to put on when its just too humid in your home and all you wanna do just relax and not move. I would of posted my favorite track “Happy Audio” from this album but i think the repetition might of overwhelmed some people. The track Endless Summer feels like its split up in 3 parts where the guitar takes turns with this in and out melodic noise as the lead piece and at the end everything wraps together nicely. I think it would have to take 3 talented people like Christopher Willits, Biosphere and William Basinski to be able recreate a track like this again. The artwork by Tina Frank and photography by Hertha Hurnaus is just stunning and was ahead of its time i think for a 2001 release. I’d love to know if this wasn’t enjoyable for someone all the way thru especially towards the end where it sounds like Christian Fennesz brings in this muted string addition that brings everything together very tight in a good way in my opinion. For those who have this record its definitely worth dusting off and putting it on again.
Right around the time the Ghostly Swim tracklist was coming together i had to check out some more releases by some of the new faces and picked up this limited 7″ vinyl from School of Seven Bells called Silent Grips. You might remember them from the last Prefuse 73 record or saw them on a tour date with Blonde Redhead. They have this wonderful full sound that is worn down, its like if you molded together some of the best parts of Slowdive and replaced the guitars with warm synths and but brought the vocals up front and add some slower dusty Black Moth Super Rainbow percussion. I hope you enjoy.
Here’s an incredible video of Elliott Smith apparently recording Angeles live in a living room. Amazing that they’re getting such great sound from one mic picking up both the guitar and the vocals. I use 3 mics just to capture one acoustic guitar, which might be overkill. I have been experimenting with mic’ing drums using just one condenser room mic placed at a good distance and a dynamic on the bottom of the snare only with decent results. (thanks to Dusty Brown for that technique)
UPDATE: I didn’t know but there’s a video for the song too. And so continues the French obsession with late 80’s American youth culture. Via Jon.
I’ve always enjoyed the French House scene and Alan Braxe is a master of his style. something about his production always sounds so authentic; this could either be an alternate version theme for a Miami-based 80’s detective drama or the greatest song ever. Gotta love the Testarossa-esque guitar-car too.
This single was also included on Upper Cuts, a great compilation of essential Braxe tracks.
Alan Braxe & Fred Falke – Rubicon (Original Version)
