ITunes has a decent layout, I mean you can’t do much especially if you end up updating it weekly and the artwork can range from pretty good small album art icons to just awful ones. One way of making the pages on iTunes more appealing is these custom artist pages that iTunes staff picks out, the photos seem to be exclusive which is always a nice addition.
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.
[audio:leuna.mp3] [audio:feelthatway.mp3] [audio:2weeks.mp3] [audio:amanda.mp3]
Digging thru promos can really mess with your head because you just want to find those collection of songs right away that you’ll listen to forever. So what do you do when you don’t find anything? you go back to old favorites or good suggestions from friends and this song by The Wake was the latest recommendation from 800beloved’s frontman Sean Lynch. You can just tell 30 seconds into the song “Man, these guys were probably great but they were definitely overshadowed by The Cure”. Where do you think John Hughes was when this song came out? this is perfect for one of his teen heartbreak films.
IDM I always felt was just a few steps away from being for really big but the majority of the fan base didn’t like to share or support, its like they wanted to keep their precious music to themselves and make it more obscure and not go to the shows to keep the musicians going. Mr. Projectile might of had a gem on his hands when he put out his album Sinking which featured a vocal by a girl named Amy Turany who I thought might of done more work but it seems like this is the last thing she ever sang on.
Montreal has always had a forward thinking music scene, I remember going to the Mutek Festival years ago and seeing electronic vinyl shops thrive, that definitely put a smile on my face. One man Marc Leclair also known as Akufen put an outstanding record together called Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes which I highly recommend.
For how cold it is in Montreal, I always pictured Marc making this song 236e Jour by a window and he just felt the first perfect weather day of the year where the breeze is heavy and every window needs to be opened.
Grizzly Bear and Dntel on the same track, oh its a music bloggers dream to share with friends that come and visit. I really like the catchiness of this song after the breakdown, Dntel did such good work with the builds and sequencing of the 6+ min track. I couldn’t think of better voices to accompany his music than Grizzly Bear, yes even better than Mr. Gibbard in my opinion.
[audio:wake.mp3] [audio:mr.mp3] [audio:jour.mp3] [audio:fault.mp3]
It’s been over 4 years since Khonnor has released a proper release and today we have an exclusive EP announced here first on the ISO50 blog. Khonnor has always had a strong imagination for genre hopping and quality noisy melodies and this EP has it all and leaves you wanting more but instead you just end up playing songs over and over and get hooked, thats what happened to me. Also, note that PhilistineDSGN made the cover above, if I know the designer i’ll do my best to link to their portfolio.
I first heard this Marz track on a accordion sampler cd that I found in the Ghostly office. Some of the best clapping you’ll ever hear sampled here. Reminds me of Efterklang or Mum but a lot more uplifting.
Animal Collective have a new album coming out in January and I guess Grizzly Bear leaked this song on a blog and its such a treat, they are back to the unique tribal indie sound which I adore, the last minute and a half might be the highlight of the month in what i’ve heard.
Onra is a pretty sample heavy electronic hip hop producer that my friend John turned me onto. I started to go thru the musicians whole catalog and there is gem after gem of interesting sounds.
