For the readers that come here for the design mostly then your mind must = blown after seeing the album art for Pop Ambient 2011. I personally love the color scheme and subject but hey… font wise and pixelated cutout background might be causing small paper cuts on some readers brains. If I remember correctly the designer of the 11 year series is no other than Mr. Kompakt himself aka Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas which in my mind he’s allowed to do anything he wishes. If he wants puppies in santa hats in July then we do puppies in santa hats and we do it the way he wants it but I do truly admire the consistent flower theme that he has stuck with, its a brand now and I respect it and buy it every year.
Now for the music, I selected 4 cuts from the compilation, I know this weeks playlists have been super ambient and I was committed to breaking up that streak today but I couldn’t hold off, this compilation is sprinkled with stunning moments.
I’ll start off with what floors me, I mean honestly makes my jaw hit my desk then slams to the ground and goes thru the floor and hits my downstairs neighbor in the face, it’s San Fran’s Bvdub. Bare with me here, if there are angels in heaven and they play music I could see them hearing this song and thinking they haven’t written anything as beautiful as this, there, thats out there now.
Now we go to the music scholar in my mind who goes under the name Marsen Jules, everything by him is made with so much care, the releases are perfectly timed and the atmosphere is dialed in with such precision, a proud moment for modern classical / experimental music.
If you come to the blog often for music then you’ll see me post a ton on Mr. Fehlmann, the man is a genius when it comes to gentle dance music and could make a sample of a baby crying thats playing with fireworks sound like something you could fall asleep too, don’t take my ideas, I might try and make that happen.
The more unknown project here is Bhutan Tiger Rescue, it starts off like what most people would describe as a lullaby but then bells, a sliding bass guitar line and flutes gently crawl in and within moments you’re rocked into a very calm state.
If you pick up Pop Ambient 2011, I highly recommend you grab the vinyl from Kompakt directly, that label has done soo much to inspire new musicians I prefer to support them that way.
Monogold’s album is a soft spoken mixture of whats in the main vein of quality indie rock in Brooklyn hasn’t that been taken over by lo-fi. It has its psychedelic touch, that vocal delivery of ARMS, Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire, and mingles with the handful bands that embraced the Animal Collective sound, I don’t usually have a bunch indie rock on here but I feel very comfortable sharing this song with you.
Toronto’s Foxes In Fiction is becoming my gateway drug to give away to people that don’t know much about whats going in music these days. Its friendly, poppy, and hooky but with thought out texture that I can respect which makes it easy to suggest or recommend to young and old listeners. Download this song off his Alberto EP on his site for FREE.
I’m always waiting for Women to come to Brooklyn, I want to hear an old song called Lawncare live but i’ve been trying to find my favorite on their new LP Public Strain, i’ve been leaning towards this song because of the guitars.
The Captured Tracks people can do no wrong, you follow up The Soft Moon with Minks then a slew of amazing 7 inch singles?! half way thru this song I feel like summer is almost here.
Would love to give photo credit, anyone have any ideas?
I’ve been admiring Paul Gardner’s band posters this morning, great use of color and execution of ideas that aren’t too literal or same-y, you know like owls and hand drawn guitars, urgh I hope to see more posters like this around Brooklyn. I noticed one in there though that is a bit ISO50 Terrabyte-ish but i’ll pretend I didn’t see it.
I came across this video on Reddit tonight and was pretty much blown away by the concept, but not necessarily the execution. Then I read the comments where someone had linked to the above video and I was absolutely mesmerized. Visually the whole thing is very reminiscent of Michel Gondry’s video for Star Guitar. Now if the whole thing would just sync up the same.
The video was made using a simple mirror filter and an HD video camera, shot from a train. I use a lot of mirroring effects for live visuals, but never on material shot from a moving vehicle. Something about it feels so fluid; almost CGI. I wonder if this effect will become the video equivalent of tilt-shift, popping up everywhere all of the sudden.
This is about as guitar-ish my posts will ever get. It started with actually finding a Bob Dylan song that I wanted to hear again and ended with finding this Erlend Oye again when it came up on shuffle. I added Arthur Russell to make it enjoyable for non-guitar fans that want unique melodies and Bon Iver is just in here for good taste even though I only like 4 of his songs, I couldn’t stand that autotune track he made. If anyone says that this is the best music post then i’ll just be super sad all weekend because I do my best to dig up stuff that isn’t this because I find this stuff to be EVERYWHERE.
It was sad to hear about the loss of the singer from The Slits just a bit ago, this new song by Anika on Stones Throw reminds me alil bit of that of what I liked about The Slits, the power in the voice isn’t there here but the charm of how loose and free the making of the music is something i’ve always wised I could do and this girl has that.
i’m a sucker for sampled cut up guitars that loop in a pretty way, thats why this Years song is up here today.
Lukid does fascinating things with low end, i’m always checking in on what he’s going to do on the less hype songs like this.
Stellar OM Source laid down a very interesting LP that became available yesterday, a personally can’t get enough of this Sand Lie track, I just wish it was longer.
It doesn’t get much better than this from Telefon Tel Aviv, featured on the new DJ-Kicks that was compiled by Apparat, moody darkness with a hefty scoop of tender details that release perfectly.
One of the reasons why I don’t truly review music on the blog is because I don’t like to share music that I don’t like, also sometimes albums fall in the lap of the wrong reviewer, I think thats what happened when Pitchfork gave this album a bad review, it happens but this new album by Blonde Redhead is far from bad. I think its written perfectly for a band that has been together this long, I can go on for lengths of why it should be received better but instead you can judge it yourself, I can’t see anyone else writing music like this any better.
Enjoy some true synth magic by Suzanne Ciani, probably made before any of us were even born.
I support the Swedes on all levels, probably at the top of that list is NHL star Peter Forsberg as my favorite Swede then the groups Studio and The Radio Dept.Korallreven is inching into my top 5 though, now we just need an album.
Awhile back I was lucky enough to open up for Roger O’Donnell(The Cure), it was just a DJ set and after we sat at the merch booth together. Roger had some great stories but what was even better was the mood and tone he set with his live set. He would play this white Moog that I think had blue lights coming from it and just calmed the crowd with his melodies, a definite huge influence for a lot of the indie synth music coming out these days.
People Can Do The Most Amazing Things is in my top 5 singles for 2010 no doubt, this remix by Sun Airway is distorted lo-fi clubby take, kind of a nice change of pace, parts of it remind me of Star Guitar.
Com Truise is working away at his LP and upcoming EP, here’s a taste of some work in progress, I see big things for this guy, an onslaught of melody and great basslines is a formula that can’t go wrong.
I’m addicted to Games, do you hear the melody flirting with Tears For FearsHead Over Heels a little? or is it something else? either way its on repeat, I guess I start hearing things after I listen to it 40+ times.
