I have gotten like 20GB of "ambient" music from Rootless... basically the spectrum from like new age wind chimes type shit to minimal electronic bleep bloop type stuff.
Like any major data dump, a lot of it gets lost in the shuffle, but even more so for this particular genre where the music itself doesn't stand out especially. Is that wind chime melody that's stuck in my head Ituske Daiiichi? Or Dichu Miuske? (I made those up, but you get the gist).
But, again like any major MP3 kick down, certain things rise to the surface. That's what happened with The Seven Fields of Aphelion. While most of the other ambient joints got removed from my iPhone, and many got removed from my iTunes, this one stayed in the rotation. Not sure why, it has a different texture or palette... semi-weirdo synth textures but with beautiful piano on top.
Finally this week (after listening on repeat several times while trying to sleep off a hangover on my commute) (and then continuing to listen on Spotify once I got to work) I decided to google them and see what's up.
You can imagine my surprise when it turns out "they" are actually just one chick who happens to be a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow! I can't lie, I liked this album but that makes me like it exponentially more. EJ, this is the chick who was on stage with Tobacco that one time when we saw them in Williamsburg.
Here's her site... she is also a photographer, I like her stuff, you can buy it on Etsy.
My wife said "what is this new age shit?" when i played it at home, but still, I definitely recommend checking out her CD "Periphery", be it on Spotify or for those of you with more integrity you can buy a copy direct from her to make sure she gets maximum $$$ to her pocketbook. Maybe steal the CD off MediaFire but buy one of her pictures off of Etsy.
I think there are a few Second City denizens on here, so I'm posting this flier. Some friends of mine are doing Wipers and Dag Nasty covers at Quenchers on Friday, so I plug for friends, yes? Should be good time, no? Hey chief, why not?
If Torche were Sonic Youth, and Sonic Youth were the American Analog Set, and they in turn were a very pensive stoner metal band (or if they in turn were Torche again), that whole process of sleight of hand would constitute this band, True Widow. Slow walking rock from Austin. I've been listening to little else this week. This one is pretty easy to find out there (and two of their records are on the feted/hated Spotify). I also have a few versions of their tracks that I sped up using the time stretch function in Logic until they sounded more conventionally metal to me. If anyone wants to hear those, I'll get them to you.
Seeing War on Drugs tonight, Shellac tomorrow, and I saw the new Replacements documentary last Friday. This is a good music week for me.
Just read this little blurb in a local music rag about Spotify. I'm too lazy to copy verbatim but the gist of it was Century Media (big metal label fyi) pulled most of its music off Spotify because of the abysmal royalty percentages. The example given claims one artist was paid $500 for half a million streams, which breaks down to needing to get played 244 times to equal one 99 cent iTunes download. And then there is the advertising revenue.
Any thoughts? Seems like the old bricks and mortar boss has been replaced by the cloud boss? I know most of us on here are thieves anyway, but I thought it was interesting.
I'm having a Brooklyn Stoop Sale Record Sale on Saturday, just like the old days. Camping out on my friends stoop. Everything is $5.00 bucks. Grab a big stack, I'm ready to wheel and deal, bulk discount. 11th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, 10:00 AM, Saturday Saturday Saturday!!!
As I've been going through records to sell I've been working on a killller all vinyl psych mix tape. Holla at me and i'll send it to you, but may have to be via the post office because i think YouSendIt raised their prices (I hear through the grapevine)?
If you know anybody who likes records in BK tell them to check me out. DC~! DC!@!!!!!
I heard this track on the Dj Stunna SoundCloud page; more about him later. UK multi-instrumentalist and producer Kaidi Tatham aka Agent K. He comes out of the West London breakbeat scene. 2002 release Feed The Cat is badass! It has been catergorized as broken beat, electronica, and electro-jazz among others. I think it is a merge of Jazz, House, and Funk. Time to get groovefied(new word) y'all! Young Deezy I think you might dig this, or maybe you already have it!
I'll just keep pimping Jahtari because they keep putting out good shit.
Love the Scientist style cover for the new Solo Banton EP.
There are starting to be a few offshoot labels now. Soom T has Renegade Masters that just put out a decent 12" by The Source which is Soom T and Disrupt. It's not a home run but decent. It will probably grow on me but doesn't connect like most Disrupt stuff.
Soom T also released a 7" on Livity Reggae this year. A solid effort.
Another Jahtari artist, Tapes, has Selah Wadada and they just put out a great 7" with a wicked version by Tapes on the b-side.
It's probably safe to say that Tapes was behind the white label 7" stamped with Selah Waddada (note the extra "d") that came out earlier this year. I'm pretty sure I posted about it here.
And as always, if you want to hear any Jahtari stuff they have almost the entire catalog available to stream on their site.
This was always my favorite track off of Weasels' Ripped my Flesh (a weird album even for Zappa). This is a great song to have stuck in your head at almost any time...
Bill Orcutt is getting some play these days, and good for him. The ex-Harry Pussy guitarist is shredding on an acoustic guitar (shredding not here referring to the idiomatic Yngwie Malmsteen shred), and blowing it up with a Derek Baileyesque breakdown of the blues. His latest is How the Thing Sings, recorded live in SF. It is available on Spotify.
Yeah, those are Stevie Ray Vaughn picks on the cover. I think they are apropos. However, I have no sense of irony left. It has gone the way of my hearing.
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An pal from the Bloomington days, Eric Weddle, runs a really swell record label known as Family Vineyard. Every so often, when I want to get something cool in the mail, I put in an order, and Eric usually throws in a few nice little extras. The last order started with Loren Connors's Red Mars. Connors also deconstructs blues, but comes at it from a very different angle: as radical as Orcutt, but much (much!) quieter on average, Connors's guitar gestures seem to spread almost subliminally over space. There isn't any pyrotechnics here (though Connors won't avoid aggressive atonality, if he thinks it's called for), and you find yourself discovering all kinds of interesting space . . . you sit and listen, waiting for something to happen, only to discover down the line that a unified piece has developed almost without your noticing it. I highly recommend Connors; but, like Orcutt, he is definitely an acquired taste, even if the approaches are almost opposite.
Give it a try . . . let it sneak up on you. Also available on Spotify.
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Also in the package was a wonderful, free blowing record from saxophonist Akira Sakata and guitarist Jim O'Rourke. The rhythm section on this one consists of Darin Gray and Chris Corsano (at this point, I'm the only noise guy in the world who hasn't recorded with Corsano), a.k.a Chikamorachi. It's a free blowout of high caliber, and if that sounds like a good deal to you, then you should check it out. It is, indeed, on Spotify.
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I also ponied up for O-Type's Lugubrious. O-Type is an MX-80 spin off centered around the ambient bent of bassist Dale Sophia, and features Bruce Anderson (another shredder, whose idiom is somewhat closer to Yngwie Malmsteen, but still a fair distance away) and a handful of other MX-80 fellow travelers.
I've been a part of a couple experimental music festivals this summer and fall, and I've had to sit through an unbearable amount of horrible ambient music . . . which is extra painful, since it is a music that I am becoming more interested in. I've run across some good stuff - Tim Hecker, Black To Comm - and some bad stuff, which I will not dwell on, since I've met them and they seem like perfectly nice people. If you were to search for O-Type's Lugubrious, you will find a Pitchfork review which encapsulates much of what I find wrong about ambient music. Problem is, I don't think it applies to this record: drifty and aimless at parts, it nonetheless has some nice texture, and some parts that smack you right in the forehead. Lugubrious is not the first ambient record I would recommend, but if you like this stuff, give it a listen.
Indeed, nothing on Spotify (or anywhere else that I can find), so enjoy this YouTube video instead.
