dozer

Hiatus

2008-09-12T18:40:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm not sure how many of you are still around here, but it's starting again...

First things first is to sort out the mess left it in!

Watch this space

Edward Coyle

2008-06-12T13:46:00.000+01:00

Artist, painter Edward Coyle. Excellent paintings

Null

2006-01-17T01:14:00.000Z

Dozer died

AFX - Analord

2005-12-05T11:33:00.000Z

"The whole of AFX's Analord vinyl series, as uncompressed .wavs. Have not been thru MP3 compression. Zipped into one .rar file." Enjoy!

Mash-up goes mainstream?

2005-11-29T08:32:00.000Z

We all saw how much press coverage Dangermouse's Grey Album got last year. The mainstream media has really picked up on the concept. To the point where Radio 4's Front Row programme can't even review a book written with a William S. Burroughs style cutup technique without going off on a tangent about Shitmat's Rolf Harris mash-ups (but without actually playing them).

Back in the late 80s / early 90s the UK charts were full of rave and acid house remixes of kids TV themes. That underlying piece of the familiar, the recognisable, the nostalgic, suddenly brought what had been an underground scene into every living room. Suddenly everyone was exposed to a form of music that would never have got that exposure if it didn't already have that instantly recognisable quality.

As fashion, in music as much as in anything else, tends to run in circles, I wonder whether we are on the cusp of seeing something like this again. DJ Spazmo's My Sharona remix has been played on Radio 1, the Wrong Music guys have done their own hour long live session at Maide Vale, and Shitmat gets name dropped on Radio 4.

Mash-up will be coming to a TV or radio near you, soon. Personally, I can't wait to see Mully's Thomas the Tank Engine mash-up on Top Of The Pops. Bandwagon jumpers, jump on now. Those already on the bandwagon, hold tight or jump off, it's up to you.

Emulating Digital Sound with Acoustic Instruments

2005-11-15T08:12:00.000Z

cbaba - Pleasant Voice of (wo)Man and Machine 29:43

Download or right click to save as

tracklisting:

a 00:00 - 06:00 Aphex Twin, "cock/ver10" versus alarm will sound, "cock/ver10" [cbaba mashup]
b 06:00 - 11:00 Nobukazu Takemura "Let My Fish Loose [aphex twin remix]" [cbaba mix]
c 11:00 - 13:30 Prefuse 73 "Female Demands"
d 13:30 - 15:30 Beastie Boys "Picture This"
e 15:43 - 18:00 Nine Inch Nails "The Beauty of Being Numb [aphex twin remix]"
f 18:00 - 20:10 Cbaba "Megaloskizk"
g 20:10 - 23:00 Cbaba "Voclif Beatpharm"
h 23:00 - 26:00 Ray Lynch "Pastorale"
i 26:00 - 29:43 Aphex Twin "Laughable Butane Bob"

"The earliest purely electronic instrument was the Teleharmonium or Telharmonium, developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. Simple inconvenience hindered the adoption of the Teleharmonium: the instrument weighed seven tons and was the size of a boxcar. The first practical electronic instrument is often viewed to be the Theremin, invented by Professor Leon Theremin circa 1919 - 1920." [wikipedia] The theremin was commisioned by Stalin and popularized by a young savant violinist who'd lost the use of her fingers. Prior to this, music was composed with for and performed with non electronic instruments, such as the violin.

Composers wrote music for kings and nobility, the patrons thrilled as the sounds of powerful harmonic vibration. Electronic strings are sometimes able to compete with the complexity of real strings, but their value is only augmented by their reference to real strings, not provided wholly. The synthetic sounds of today may refer memetically to their physical models, however we've come full circle to a condition of real instruments often being used to emulate electronic sounds. Ever seen anyone play drum and bass on buckets?

The symbiotic growth of language and music also reflects this phase shifting-- Vocoded voices are teaching people how to pronounce and inflect their words, perfect electronic rhythm is seeping into our natural progressions and syllable cadence. We will explore phase shifts and glitches further at a later date.

On an almost related note, say outloud: "Yeah-Yeah" and fully annunciate it. You have just discovered the best way to imitate Little John. Yeah-Yeah is a silly little meme.

This mix contains many voices, some synthetic, some derived from samples, as well as many other techniques of vocalizing sounds. All sound is vibration, fractal in it's frequency content.

a. Aphex Twin released Druqks in 2001. Amusingly, it contains "explicit lyrics," namely the word cunt. However, that word is hardly explicit compared to the obscene frequencies and mad rhythms the showcased by the album (alongside some avante garde prepared piano tracks). Cock/v10 is one of these obscenely frequent tracks. Earlier this year, an orchestral organization, a band even, named Alarm Will Sound released "Acoustica," a collection of Aphex Twin compositions performed by live instruments. Cock/v10 is included, and thusly this mashup of live and electronic is born.

b. The singing voice is accompanied by high frequency harmonic which often intertwines and permutates the overall timbre. My girlfriend liked this track more than any aphex I've ever played her. She has interesting taste. It IS a beautiful song.

c. Female Demands? She doesn't demand that much, just that I shower occasionally. Just kidding, this is a track by Prefuse 73, my star queen ultimate love of blip hop. The album is One Word Extinguisher.

d. The Beastie Beastie Boys let out some surprising material as well as their familiar sounds on Hello Nasty. This track off the latter half of the album is choice.

e. Aphex Twin and Trent Reznor go way back-- on NIN's further down the spiral we find "At The Heart of It All" to be created by Richard and not Trent. This remix of the beauty of being numb trails out with a rhythm and harmonic cadence made entirely out of wet "ppphhpht-ppphhpht-ppphhpht" sounds. The track it mixes into,

f. Megaloskizk is a piece I composed in 2000. By electronically modifying (vocoder, distortion, some other stuff) a few oooohs and aaaahs we are treated to almost inhuman voices, the choir of the planet of the apes, or similar electronic jungle aesthetic.

g. Voclif Beatpharm demonstrates the interchangeability of drum rhythm and melody/harmony rhythm in an organic yet quite synthetic sounding live recorded then post vocoded drumtrack.

h. Ray Lynch went platinum with Deep Breakfast in the 80s. A lot of musicians currently producing electronic music likely heard this in their childhood. It's good to know your roots. Ray says his music is mostly live instruments in the studio, but it sure sounds like cheesy synth to me. Really good cheesy synth. He was a man split between the classical composition epoch and this fresh onslaught of complication extropic drum programming. We will be returning to the compositional style of "classical" music, as it is already taking form in what are often called "drill" sounds. These glitchy high frequency series of drum hits or other samples are contain multiple phases of frequency, and our evolving intelligence craves complicated yet easily listened to pitches and phrasings of those pitches.

i. On that note, this is Laughable Butane Bob off the Hangable Auto Bulb EP (released in a limited edition of 1000 in 95, re-released by warp on CD. don't miss the anagram). This, and the title track HAB are excellent examples of complicated melodies being played by immensely complicated drillish frequencies.

If you have any predictions about where music is evolving to, feel free to shoot them my way, I have them too and like to discuss. expando@gmail.com

Hope you enjoyed this first post, I'll be back to get nasty with phase transition in frequency next time. Until them, remember the earth is an intelligent organism, of which we are just one kind of cell, possibly metaphorically cancerous.

New Writers!

2005-11-09T21:17:00.000Z

Much bigger response to the call for writers than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise

There are two confirmed so far with another couple on the way. The first two are Dan and Forrest. Check out their respective sites Gusset and Expando where you can hear both of them in action live

Sorry if I haven't replied to you about writing for the blog but I couldn't have everyone as it would just get too hectic

Dozercast 7

2005-11-07T15:37:00.000Z

The best yet?

Tracklisting for Dozercast 7 (7/11/05)

0:00 - 2:00         Sliver - Fat Man Small Car     (2004)
3:00 - 4:10         Safety Scissors vs Kit Clayton - 5-8     (Ping Pong EP, Carpark, 2002)
4:10 - 7:20         Computor Rockers - Get Ready     (Galaxy Defenders, Breakin', 1998)
7:20 - 10:00       Autechre - Ipacial Section    (Untitled, Warp, 2005)
10:10 - 13:00     Raymond Scott - Powerhouse     (Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights, 1937)
13:10 - 17:20     Ricardo Villalobos - Chromosul     (Chromosul, Perlon, 2005)
17:20 - 20:00     Marais & Miranda - Conservation Song     (More Nature Songs, 60s)
20:00 - 24:00     Venetian Snares - Live at ATP     (2004)
24:00 - 30:15     Unknown     (taken from Dominic Eulberg - Kreucht, 2005)
30:15 - 36:10     Phonophani - Zurnas     (Phonophani, Biophon, 1998)
36:10 - 40:00     Andres Segovia - Fugue In G Minor     (20s/30s)

feed:     http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

mp3:      Dozercast 7 (7/11/05).mp3

Blog Writers Wanted

2005-11-05T17:26:00.000Z

The Dozercast is taking up a lot of time, leaving the blog side of things a little neglected - so...

Anyone want to write for the blog? Have you got a massive collection of mp3s that you want to share / talk about? I'm looking for about 4 people to write regular posts (one each every week or maybe fortnight)

If you're interested then get in touch with your ideas via the email address beneath the logo (delete the obvious bit...)

Please bear in mind that I don't want this site turning into some NME-wannabee shite. If all you listen to is Franz Ferdinand don't bother emailing. However, I'm more than happy to have some different stuff than is usually posted here, so long as its interesting

Dozercast 6 Live Special!!

2005-10-31T22:44:00.000Z

I'd love to say I gathered this lot together to do a live set for me but that would be stretching the truth a little far. This week's (read fortnight's...) Dozercast is made up of live sets recorded elsewhere though. I haven't bothered with track names because I don't know half of them...

Oh and I've scrapped the torrents because they didn't seem to be working

Tracklisting for Dozercast 6 (31/10/05)

0:00 - 5:30         Venetian Snares, ATP 2004
6:00 - 8:00         Ceephax Acid Crew, Resonance FM 2005
8:00 - 13:00       firestARTer, Paris
13:00 - 19:20     Apparat, Barcelona 2003
19:20 - 25:10     Shitmat, Vienna 2004
25:40 - 29:10     Ceephax Acid Crew, BBC Radio
29:10 - 33:40     Orbital
33:30 - 40:00     Venetian Snares, Breezeblock 2003

feed:     http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

mp3:      Dozercast 6 (31/10/05).mp3

LOD (live)

2005-10-29T17:21:00.000+01:00

Just a quickie - this is a live set from Sinergy Networks head honcho Luis Ortiz aka LOD (go here for his remix of Franco Cinelli's Sense)

The repeated BoC-esque sounds at the beginning and end combined with the liquid sounds at around the 25 minute mark make this very special indeed

Dozercast 6 is on its way

LOD - live at Croma.mp3

Dozercast 5

2005-10-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

Finally...

Tracklisting for Dozercast 5 (15/10/05)

0:05 - 3:39         Tokenrove - Snail's Theme     (Weekend In Sweden, Polygon Network, 2005)
3:39 - 8:22         Bogdan Raczynski - Why? Why?     (Samurai Maths Beats, Rephlex, 1999)
8:29 - 15:21       Autechre - Stop Look Listen     (We Are Reasonable People, Warp, 1998)
15:54 - 18:00     Rophon - 13    (2002)
18:06 - 19:42     John Baker - Milky Way     (BBC Radiophonic Music, Rephlex, 2003)
19:42 - 27:50     Boards Of Canada - XYZ     (Peel Session)
27:55 - 32:24     Mikrokiko - Nilotangci     (OD75, Ogredung, 2005)
32:50 - 37:48     DMX Krew - You Can't Hide Your Love (Hidden Love Mix)     (26 Mixes For Cash, Warp, 2003)
39:14 - 40:00     Broadcast - Evil Is Coming     (Tender Buttons, Warp, 2005)

feed:     http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

mp3:      Dozercast 5 (15/10/05).mp3

And the torrent. Please help seed this file

Dozercast 5 (15/10/05).mp3.torrent

Binärpilot

2005-10-05T12:28:00.000+01:00

Still no internet connection so no new Dozercast yet but I thought I better do something...

Binärpilot is Alexander Støver, maker of 8 bit pop - highly melodic tracks placed over broken hip hop beats. This whole release (Defrag) is available as a free download from 8bitpeoples here

Binärpilot - Goof.mp3

When BT ANSWER THEIR FUCKING PHONE (!!) I will be back with more stuff, and the site is going to get a makeover too. Wicked

...

2005-09-28T12:03:00.000+01:00

Sorry for lack of stuff but I haven't got an internet connection at the moment so it might be quiet here for a week or so

Normal service will resume soon...

Dozercast 4

2005-09-19T19:14:00.000+01:00

Tracklisting for Dozercast 4 (19/09/05)

0:27 - 4:43         Venetian Snares - Vida     (Huge Chrome Cylinder..., Planet Mu, 2004)
4:47 - 6:55         Tsu Ryu - Raika No Koiuta Waiting     (2004)
6:44 - 12:14       Subtle - Eneby Kurs     (Lexoleum, Lex Records, 2003)
12:02 - 16:33     Kim Hiorthøy - Politiska Dikten Återvänder    (Hei, Smalltown Supersound, 2000)
16:37 - 24:40     Aphex Twin - Mt Saint Michel & Saint Michael's Mount     (Drukqs, Warp, 2001)
24:45 - 29:42     Kit Clayton - Material Problem     (Material Problem, Cytrax, 2000)
29:41 - 34:30     Hella - Welcome To The Jungle (You're Gonna Live)     (Acoustics Tour, 2004)
34:30 - 40:00     Chris Clark - Indigo Optimus     (Empty The Bones Of You, Warp, 2003)

feed:     http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

mp3:      Dozercast 4 (19/09/05).mp3

And the torrent. Please help seed this file

Dozercast 4 (19/09/05).mp3.torrent

Dozercast 3

2005-09-10T10:49:00.000+01:00

Tracklisting for Dozercast 3 (10/09/05)

0:08 - 3:09         Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter     (version taken from Erlend Øye DJ Kicks, !K7, 2004)
3:13 - 8:55         AFX - W32.Deadcode.A     (Analord 8, Rephlex, 2005)
8:55 - 11:28       Debussy Bach Restaurant - Dream     (Debussy Bach Restaurant, Fronha Records, 2003)
11:41 - 15:58     Tigrics - He Jelfej!    (Mint Egy Befejezono, Highpoint Lowlife, 2005)
15:58 - 18:11     Terorutoa & His Tahitians - PAOA     (Adventures in Paradise)
18:11 - 23:41     Secret Frequency Crew - Pollen Spores     (Forest Of The Echo Downs, Schematic, 2004)
23:41 - 27:12     8 Frozen Modules - Free Space Incesticide     (Random Activities & Broken Sunsets, Phthalo, 2003)
27:48 - 30:47     Cab Calloway - Yo Eta Cansa     (30s/40s)
30:47 - 40:01     The Zaras - Fiddler On The Roof Medley     (S.R.O. in Las Vegas)

feed:     http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

mp3:      Dozercast 3 (10/09/05).mp3

And the torrent. Please help seed this file

Dozercast 3 (10/09/05).mp3.torrent

So, this one's early - the next one will definitely be late - probably on Monday 19th September as I'm in on holiday from now until the 18th. Enjoy

Phonophani

2005-09-07T20:26:00.000+01:00

Phonophani is Espen Sommer Eide, member of Alog (1,2), and maker of truly beautiful, often devastatingly sad music

Saltwater achieves both, although you have to wait for it. The first 4 minutes of the track comprise of a series of textures driven by only the slightest of melodies, and on their own they would perhaps be slightly disappointing, but in serving to build a platform on which the second part of the track can rest, they are indispensable. Equally, if the second part of the track were to arrive immediately without anything before it, some of its effect would be lost

The main difference between to two halves of the track are in the type of sounds used. Long sounds are used throughout, but in the second half they are far cleaner and more varied. From the increased variety comes a more discernable melody which ultimately is what makes this track

Most of the melodic section is made up from modem like bleeps, making the track seem like an ode to failed or forgotten technology, not too disimilar to the 8bit videogame and mobile ringtone sounds so prevalent in a lot of current music. While a lot of these types of music refer to forgotten technology, few manage to encapsulate the beauty of obsolescence quite so succinctly as Phonophani

The melody takes a turn for the melancholic when the dialing modem appears to hang, or the connection drops. This event unifies the sounds dynamically, as they all begin to drop. Finally, a heavily processed vocal sound is added that repeats in the background, its low quality perhaps referencing the low bitrate audio associated with a dial-up connection - its message unintelligible, a past voice trapped in an obsolete technology

Phonophani - Saltwater.mp3

Dozercast 2

2005-09-03T11:16:00.000+01:00

Tracklisting for Dozercast 2 (03/09/05)

0:21 - 1:52         Crunch - Toe Tac Tic (Bit Meddler Mix)     (Crunch 2, Colony, 2003)
1:55 - 4:13         Broadcast - I Found The F     (Tender Buttons, Warp, 2005)
4:13 - 4:51         Saskrotch - Kirby's Adventure     (Nintendo Breakz)
4:51 - 7:08         Vex'd - Pop Pop VIP     (Degenerate, Planet Mu, 2005)
7:49 - 11:20       EOD - Unirater     (EAP #006, EAP, 2005)
11:20 - 15:10     Bogdan Raczynski - Untitled     (Samurai Math Beats, Rephlex, 1999)
15:10 - 16:52     Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans - Grand Coulee Dam     (Energy & Motion Songs)
16:52 - 26:20     Nobukazu Takemura - Cogwheel     (Sign, Thrill Jockey, 2000)
26:30 - 29:12     Franco Cinelli - Sense (LOD Remix)     (SN016, Sinergy Networks, 2005)
29:12 - 31:34     El P - Innocent Leader     (Fantastic Damage, Def Jux, 2002)
31:49 - 38:47     Ian Simmonds - Swingin Millie     (Return To X, !K7, 2000)
38:47 - 40:00     Delia Derbyshire - Mattachin     (Music From The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Rephlex, 2003)

You can subscribe to the Dozercast using this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

Please feel free to share these files on Soulseek etc. My Soulseek username is btfh and I will be sharing the Dozercast so if you want to download it that way feel free. If you missed last weeks, fear not as I will be providing torrents for all Dozercasts shortly. The mp3 is below

Dozercast 2 (03/09/05).mp3

And the torrent. Please help seed this file

Dozercast 2 (03/09/05).mp3.torrent

David Cain

2005-08-31T19:08:00.000+01:00

Namesake of the comicbook assassin, Cain worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (home of Delia Derbyshire and the original Doctor Who theme tune) from 1967 to 1973. He is now retired and living in Poland

Crossbeat is taken from the compilation of Radiophonic tracks released by Rephlex in 2003. It's well worth seeking out as there are some absolute gems on it - definitely an area I'd like to see Rephlex investigating further

The track is only 25 seconds long and is an example of wonderful restraint - perhaps a precursor to BoC's 30 second melodic interludes - and all the better for it's brevity

David Cain - Crossbeat.mp3

For more old school sounds follow the Delia Derbyshire link above or check out Raymond Scott

Dozercast 1

2005-08-27T18:45:00.000+01:00

Tracklisting for Dozercast 1 (27/08/05)

0:22 - 5:00         Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn     (Drukqs, Warp, 2001)
5:05 - 8:45         Battles - Tras     (Tras, Cold Sweat, 2004)
8:45 - 12:00       Goto80 - Ter4     (Contech, 8bitpeoples, 2005)
12:35 - 14:40     Winifred Atwell - Black and White Rag     (1950s)
14:45 - 20:30     cLOUDDEAD - I Promise Never To Get Paint On My Glasses Again 1     (cLOUDDEAD, Mush, 2001)
20:35 - 22:35     Kayama - Bakutotsu Kijutei     (2A03.org, 2004)
22:40 - 27:30     Plaid - Porn Coconut Co     (Double Figure, Warp, 2001)
27:30 - 33:50     Venetian Snares - Contain     (Meathole, Planet Mu, 2005)
33:50 - 40:00     Autechre - Second Scepe     (Anvil Vapre, Warp, 1995)

You can subscribe to the Dozercast using this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dozercast

Please feel free to share these files on Soulseek etc. My Soulseek username is btfh and I will be sharing the Dozercast so if you want to download it that way feel free. I'm only going to host each show for 1 week. The torrent is below. Please help to seed the files if you download them

Dozercast 1 (27/08/05).mp3.torrent

Introducing the Dozercast

2005-08-27T17:00:00.000+01:00

It's here! The development I was talking about earlier this week has arrived in the form of my new podcast. Go here for the new site. You will be able to get the podcast from this site too, but I thought it would be nice to have a fancy flash site to go with it

Let me know what you think - also, as its new, I don't really have an audience for it yet, so if you like it please help spread the word by telling people who you think might like it or by linking to it if you have a website

When it's fully fledged it will be updated every week, but the 1st show will probably be up a little longer as I'm still in the process of organizing everything. Tracklistings will appear on this site

'X&trick'

2005-08-27T11:45:00.000+01:00

X&trick is the boss at Bugklinik Records, a newish label based in Ghent. As well as assembling a decent line-up of artists (expect Bugklinik releases from both Ceephax Acid Crew and Filaria in the near future), he also releases his own music

His latest release is the Forever EP, and Killin Joe is taken from that. It's totally anthemic - using an old-school rave melody that builds and keeps the track energetic, over an amen break

Play it loud

X&trick - Killin Joe.mp3

Tokenrove & Retsyn

2005-08-23T23:28:00.000+01:00

So August was a little quiet around here, but fear not, as instead of idling, I was hard at work preparing definitely one, but possibly two mega-exciting developments. As Dozer is toddling towards it's first birthday, pulling the cat's tail and babbling incoherently all the way, I thought it about time to extend operations here. As I'm not quite finished, I can't be more precise but it won't be long - hopefully within the week!

Tokenrove and Retsyn are responsible for the latest release on Polygon Network, a netlabel run by those responsible for the excellent Radio Free Polygon blog. It's a chiptune sound without any assault on the ears, and Snail's Theme in particular is exquisite - a cross between the more melodic BBC Radiophonic stuff and the Tetris theme. It's one of those tunes you leave it on repeat and just turn the volume up a bit when it starts again. Baroquenaphobia sounds very authentic - it could quite easily have been featured in something involving beards and dragons on the NES

As with most netlabel releases, you can get the whole thing for free. Follow the Polygon Network link above and then use some nous to find it

Tokenrove - Snail's Theme.mp3
Retsyn - Baroquenaphobia.mp3

Role Model

2005-08-08T12:13:00.000+01:00

Role Model, aka Johan Kotlinksi, is the man responsible for creating Little Sound DJ, a piece of software that allows you to compose music on a gameboy. That makes him a bit of a legend on the chiptunes scene, not something you can attribute to many people around the world...

A New Fragrance is his latest release. Originally it came out on Retinascan as a 3" CD, but the album has now been released on 8bitpeoples under a CC license making it free to download. Boy Afraid, New Balance and IMG3BD5 are all taken from this album, while the rest are tracks taken from his website

4 My People/Kinetiskt Porslin is a remix of Missy Elliott

Role Model - Boy Afraid.mp3
Role Model - New Balance.mp3
Role Model - IMG3BD5.mp3
Role Model - Snare Rush Disco.mp3
Role Model - Sol Bakom Liding.mp3
Role Model - Pan Arabian Nights.mp3
Role Model - Bleeper 2.mp3
Missy Elliott + Role Model - 4 My People/Kinetiskt Porslin.mp3

Vitalic

2005-08-03T18:32:00.000+01:00

Packaging is rarely an issue for me when it comes to buying music. With the advent of downloadable music, it has been relegated to the point of almost being irrelevant. This said, the artwork for Vitalic's OK Cowboy is what initially drew me to the record. To put it simply, it's wonderful

But while, in this case, the good artwork reflects the quality of the music (the reason we're buying the CD in the first place), it seems a number of the bigger labels (read shitter labels...) have cottoned on to the fact that having some cutting edge graphic designer draw up a cover for your latest release gives it a certain legitimacy. If you can make it look like it is being released by some avant-garde, super-cool label, you might just fool people into thinking the music sounds avant-garde and super-cool. An example of this is the cover for the new Röyksopp album 'The Understanding' (here). It's a nice bit of design, but masks the unmistakably crap music

Polkamatic is the first track from OK Cowboy. Fantastically addictive (as first tracks ought to be...), the melody jolts along, slightly changing tempo occasionally leading eventually to a farting horn-style bass. It's done with all the pomp and glee of something that might pass for a 'fun' number at the end of an otherwise repectable orchestral performance. Instrumental pop music at it's best...

Vitalic - Polkamatic.mp3

Mikrokiko

2005-07-29T16:43:00.000+01:00

This is from the Italian netlabel Ogredung's latest release. You can get the whole release for free from their website

This is very minimal, just beeps clicks and a bit of fuzz make up most of the album - Zabmehab is probably the most traditionally melodic though

Think Alva Noto or Fennesz...

Mikrokiko - Zabmehab.mp3

Venetian Snares

2005-07-27T17:55:00.000+01:00

Him again. I'm sorry for constantly posting about him, but something came up and I had to mention it. I promise this will be the last Snares post for a while though...

I'm quite fond of signed television (for the deaf) - it adds a new element to the mundane shit that's normally on TV. Not that I can read sign language, but anyway...

The programs are on when I tend to be watching TV, and last night was no exception. The BBC does a good job when it comes to programming for the deaf - they sign the regular TV shows and produce a number of shows specifically designed for the deaf too - one of which is called See Hear - the one I happened to be watching last night

At around 1am, something was happening to do with the Eiffel Tower, when all of a sudden, on comes the dulcet tones of Venetian Snares' Hiszékeny. On a program specifically designed for deaf people. I offer my congratulations to the Beeb for creating a uniquely ironic moment on British television. The first (?) and possibly last time the music of one of the best producers in the world was featured on a BBC program, was in a program specifically designed for people unable to hear it

Respect...

'Dad' is a deeply personal track that takes the form of a conversation with a dead father, discussing the son's lasting memories of him. It's part of the Winter In The Belly Of A Snake medley that's available here

Venetian Snares - Dad.ogg

Album Review: Aesop Rock - Float

2005-07-26T18:33:00.000+01:00

Mush, 2000

In Rainman, Raymond Babbit (Dustin Hoffman's charachter) appears to count matches as they fall to the floor from an open packet. He knows how many have fallen. Whether or not Ian Bavitz (aka Aesop Rock) could repeat this feat is a subject for a different day, but one thing is for certain - he shares the ability to notice and record things on the most minute scale

He takes the tiniest elements that make up everyday life and converts them into metaphors referencing a huge variety of things. Noticable among the various images that he conjours are those refering to the mythology of children's stories. He talks of Kings and Queens, allegiances and evil baddies, and these images combine to remind me of the awe and fascination I used to feel listening to these types of stories as a child. Removed from the black and white morality of most children's stories however, he reappropriates the imagery to function as a vehicle to depart his own brand of wisdom

Using the context of a children's story allows Bavitz to appear as some kind of teacher, and the linguistic releationship between him and the listener does reflect that of teacher and child. His language is massively complex, with lots of information packed into each line that must be decoded by the listener in order to understand it and this neatly absorbs you, allowing you once again to feel that sense of fascination

The stand out vocal tracks on the album are (in no particular order) No Splash, Basic Cable, Prosperity, Attention Span, How To Be A Carpenter and The Mayor And The Crook (although the rest are hardly weak...), but the production on the album is also well worth a mention. Production duties were shared between Aesop Rock himself and Ninjatune's Blockhead (except for track 10):

1. Float (AR)
2. Commencement At The Obedience Academy (B)
3. Big Bang (AR)
4. Garbage (AR)
5. I'll Be OK (B)
6. Breakfast With Blockhead (B)
7. Basic Cable (B)
8. Fascination (AR)
9. Oxygen (B)
10. Skip Town (Omega One)
11. 6B Panorama (AR)
12. Lunch With Blockhead (B)
13. Spare A Match (B)
14. Attention Span (B)
15. How To Be A Carpenter AR)
16. Prosperity (AR)
17. No Splash (B)
18. Drawbridge (B)
19. Dinner With Blockhead (B)
20. The Mayor And The Crook (AR)

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with Blockhead are all short instrumental tracks that stand out (particularly Breakfast and Dinner) as gems in their own right - the melody that ends Breakfast is especially wonderful. Other musically notable parts are the sad melody on No Splash, the plucked guitar on The Mayor And The Crook, Skip Town's general funkiness and the dramatic horns of Attention Span. However, the production never threatens to draw attention to itself too much and detract from the words at any point - a noble exercise in self-restraint that pays off, because ultimately, the album is about the words

Rather than describe it further, I think the best way forward is to let the album speak for itself. The following are a selection of lyrics taken from the album, transcribed to the best of my ability. I've taken the layout style from The Living Human Curiosity Slideshow, a book of his lyrics that was released with the first 20,000 copies of his Fast Cars, Knives, Fire and Danger EP, part of which can be read here

some parts of No Splash:
I got a little something called a spirit crisis on my skull and it's nothing short of ferocious, but I swallow the dosage, I got a mantle, on a mantle is a candle, on a candle is a flame that burns to symbolize the day Gretel met Hansel. Then I settle in a stand still, I live forever, reaching for the sun, hoping some lucky day I'll clutch and get a handful...

We all know what a halo is, but we all don't know the horrors if your halo tips, I be the matador making your pretty little heels click, i be the sword in the stone, the contemporary eclipse, I'm incredibly exhausted, you can't imagine, got my warm spirit stuck in my teeth, I'm obsolete...

Every little step she takes breaks the chambers in the chest, developed in the abominable trouble, settle for a cruel second...

You won't regret a single solitary step I promise, look, in a situation where a dragon guards the gate I make a true spur of the moment grown decision which in turn allows me to be something normal with the prefix of the abbot, I could kill every monster if I gotta, that's that...

Kenneth James Gibson

2005-07-25T20:55:00.000+01:00

Go here for my last post on him

The multi-aliased Kenneth James Gibson has joined forces with Orac's Konstantin Gabbro to set up a new label called Adjunct (not much of a website at the moment). Their first release came out today, intriguingly titled Volume One. Minlove has some samples of the record here ('Styro Vygor' by [a]pendics.shuffle is Gibson's contribution)

An exercise in branding it seems, each of KJG's personas produces distinctly different music, ranging from the dubby house of dubLoner to the frenetic IDM of Eight Frozen Modules. While he runs the risk of diluting any attention he might receive, it also adds an element of detective work to the discovery process

Eight Frozen Modules - Free Space Incesticide.mp3
Eight Frozen Modules - My Tawdry Efforts Lurk Inside The Finger Of A Pusherman.mp3
[a]pendics.shuffle - Soda Tune.mp3
[a]pendics.shuffle - Plop Skop.mp3
dubLoner - Clear Murk.mp3
Bal Cath - Acid Two.mp3

Nintendo

2005-07-23T13:54:00.000+01:00

.nsf stands for NES sound format. They are NES ROM images with all the graphics and stuff removed leaving just the music - so in each one you normally get the entire soundtrack to a game. So they're close to the best thing ever. And they're only a few kb each, so you can have unlimited beepy goodness

You need special players to play them - the one I use is a Winamp plugin called NotSo Fatso (available below)

NotSo Fatso.exe

It's not only the old games that you can listen to though - the people over at 2A03 (the name of the NES sound processor) have archived over 1000 original compositions by the likes of Nullsleep and others

You can get pretty much any game soundtrack you want through Google, but I've picked a few of my favourites. You'll be able to recognize a few of The Advantage's tracks, as well as those Saskrotch turned into amen-laced breakcore classics

Konami Kukeiha Club - Castlevania.zip
Konami Kukeiha Club - Castlevania 2.zip
H Maezawa & K Sada - Contra.zip
Rob Hubbard - The Immortal.nsf
Nobuyuki & Marumo & N Kodaka et al - Journey to Silius.zip
Ogretsu, Manami, Ietel, YuukiChan - Megaman 2.zip
Hiro 'Hip' Tanaka - Metroid.zip
Brad Fuller - Tengen Tetris.zip
Konchano - The Legend of Zelda.zip

2A03 NSF Archive.zip

Analord

2005-07-20T13:38:00.000+01:00

The series is, apparently, over. There has been a mixed reception to say the least, and while he has taken a lot of stick for it, there are a few great moments (although perhaps not enough for 11 releases...)

While side b of Analord 8 has had my attention recently, it was side b of Analord 2 that first attracted me to the series. Pissed Up In SE1's sad, childlike melody is highly addictive - annoying in a sense as it can get stuck firmly in your head. Bwoon Dub is a sparse, simple tune (although no doubt fiendishly difficult to make), revolving mostly around a ticking drum machine and a heavy, round bassline. Both seem to be Aphex Twin stripped right back to the essential basics - not a single iota is unnecessary

This is a more restrained, disciplined RDJ - seemingly more grown up. Should we welcome it? I'm not sure - part of the pleasure of his music is his flair for experimentation, the wildness and the weirdness. Analord somehow seems slightly devoid of character - particularly his character. Roll on the regression...

AFX - Pissed Up In SE1.mp3
AFX - Bwoon Dub.mp3

Check out Filaria for more acid...

Alfredtoc

2005-07-19T12:10:00.000+01:00

Alfredtoc makes breakcore using microscopic sounds - microcore if we need a knee-jerk genre definition. It's really promising - microhouse without the often boring-as-fuck beat. It works really well too, breakcore was eventually going to have to co-opt the microsound if it was to get any more complex - the smaller the sound the more you can fit in to half of a third of a millisecond

My only complaints are that there isn't much variation between the 'snare' sounds, and the tracks lack structure - no ups and downs, just ons and offs. By this I mean they never build into drops, the beat is either there, or it's switched off. This makes the tracks feel a little flat at times

My favourite part has to be the dark intro to Free Looping Ja, before the vocal sample comes in - the vocal makes it sound like a more intricate Prefuse 73, and the vintage jazz samples only serve to further this. The album is called Decousu, and is available from the new-ish netlabel Bedroom Research

Alfredtoc - Free Looping Ja.mp3
Alfredtoc - Abeyance.mp3
Alfredtoc - I'm Not.mp3
Alfredtoc - Toujours de Beaux Tricots.mp3

Aphex Twin

2005-07-18T19:07:00.000+01:00

One of the best tracks, on one of his best albums (I can think of few higher accolades for anything...), Vordhosbn from disc 1 of Drukqs is a perfectly judged, perfectly balanced piece of music. (You can get it here, along with Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michael's Mount, another of the album's highlights) Vordhosbn's frenetic beat keeps the brain occupied, while the melody engages the emotions - so why fuck with it?

The track below is a vinyl rip of Vordhosbn, played at the wrong speed, that I found through one of Minikomi's posts on Dissensus. Slowed down, it works incredibly well, as it gives you time to appreciate each individual event, rather than having it fluttering away on the brink of imperceptibility - enabling you to realise just how complex RDJ's music is, and the minute detail that's included in every track. The pace allows you to nod your head and appreciate the rhythm without the appearance of someone suffering a rather serious seizure. The lack of clarity caused by drawing each attack out by a short amount of time adds a sort of fuzziness to the edges of everything, placing it closer to a Boards of Canada tune (who have a new album coming out in October 2005), and is especially effective with the melody, making it more breathy and perhaps a little more melancholic

You don't even need a record player to do this. Chronotron, available below, is a free plugin for Winamp, that lets you manipulate the pitch and tempo of mp3 files while you listen to them, allowing you to recreate the effect of the speed change used in this track

Chronotron.exe

Drukqs has been manipulated in other ways by its listeners. Go here for an mp3 of both Drukqs discs played simultaneously (you'll be suprised how well it works...)

End-user/consumer appropriation of music is an interesting phenomenon that will inevitably become more common as more and more people start to gain an understanding of music production through the more widespread use of production tools and their increasingly easy-to-use interfaces. I wonder if the industry will respond to it at all - I'd love to see finished albums packaged along with the building blocks of each track - allowing consumers to remix the tracks at their own will, and create their own versions of album to suit their tastes. This sort of interactivity, in which if you don't like a certain part of a track, you can change it, would add a new vitality to the music scene

Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn (Slowed Down).mp3

As I'm sure you know by know, Aphex Twin's Afx237vi from Drukqs was used in Chris Cunningham's recent film Rubber Johnny. Click here to watch the first few minutes of the film (link found via Bomarr)

Knifehandchop

2005-07-16T11:36:00.000+01:00

I've picked one of his more relaxed, melodic tacks for this post, which probably doesn't represent him all that well, but I like it and that's that

Knifehandchop, creator of storming dancefloor fillers, manages to mix ragga, gabba, breaks, acid, computer game melodies and reference shit hip hop all at the same time and make it work

However, this tune is a love song, sung on a vocoder over a fairly hard, stuttering electronic background, with an acidic synth floating about. All with an old-school breakbeat driving it. And a really funky Ceephax-esque melody

And you can dance to it

Knifehandchop - Transition Emotion.mp3

By the way, if you want to know what I mean by referencing shit hip hop, go here and listen to Goin' Back To Scarborough

Murcof

2005-07-15T12:06:00.000+01:00

Atmospheric, dark, moody - sound too interesting for minimal 4/4 beat music? Murcof aka Fernando Corona, manages to pull it off, combining minimal, echoey clicks beeps and glitches with snippets of orchestral music and operatic vocals. What makes it stand out from the rest is the variation in each track. All to often micro-house tracks just plod along without changing much or at all, but Murcof keeps changing bits, making it unpredictable and ultimately more interesting

He's worked with Bostich and the rest of the crew in the Nortec Collective, a description of which I've nicked from The Milk Factory's interview with Fernando, available here

Nortec stands for Norteño-Techno, which is an aesthetic concept invented here in Tijuana by us, a group of musicians and graphic artists, where the main ingredients are northern Mexican popular and border culture (also called cultura norteña) and technology, in our case as musicians we take elements from norteña and tambora bands. We record loops and samples from real bands that play these types of music in seafood restaurants, bars, streets and even studios were they record their demos, once we have these recording we go home to our computers and mess around with the samples, crating new compositions based on these loops

The Tijuana/US border has been the focus of a fair amount of attention recently as it's rightly seen as a hotbed of culture - not suprising really given the social and economic circumstances. Charles LaBelle's article on Tijuana as a hybrid is available here, and makes for an interesting read

Mir and Memoria are taken from 2002 album Martes and Una is taken from 2004's Utopia. I posted the first two a while ago, but as I've re-written the post and the last links were broken, I thought I'd include them again

Murcof - Mir.mp3
Murcof - Memoria.mp3
Murcof - Una.mp3

Album Review: Chris Clark - Empty The Bones Of You

2005-07-13T17:11:00.000+01:00

(Warp, 2003)

Album reviews in the mainstream media have become interchangeable with press releases. I mean this partly in terms of the invariable praise terrible records seem to receive, but for the sake of this argument, I'm referring to publications that only deal with the latest releases, and serve only to publicise the newness of the music rather than any qualities it may hold

On last year's Resonance FM blog documentary (available here, thanks to Woebot), Simon Reynolds spoke about how we consume music in an anachronistic way, and I know my own consumption of music follows this pattern - when a record was released is almost entirely meaningless, especially in today's constantly recycling, self-referential music world. Today, a genre can effectively fall asleep for years, only to be woken up when it has regained significance. The influence of the internet on how we consume music has only served to enhance this, as the limited print run is no longer the issue it used to be - once a track is available, it is always available. Newness now refers to when you download a track, not when it was released, and as individuals will download different tracks at different times, basing your magazine on one rigid release schedule seems narrow minded to say the least

So why does the music press insist on maintaining its outdated method of reviewing records? In his article in issue 92 of frieze, Jörg Heiser describes the despair he felt at the dichotomy created by the pressure from the industry and press to review records immediately on the one hand, and the time required to intimately get to know a record, and thus review it adequately

This isn't the only problem with a media that only focuses on new records. With the plethora of records released every day, and those already available, it is likely that some amazing material will get overlooked and not receive the coverage it deserves. With no-one looking backwards, these records will go on being ignored

(Alternative title for this entry: How I Tried To Salvage Some Credibility For Another Curiously Out-of-Date Review). Enjoy...

---

Empty The Bones Of You was the album where Chris Clark moved away from the scratchy acid of tracks like Diesel Raven (available here) and the borrowed Autechre sounds, towards his own sound. Crunchy, almost oral percussive sounds, long, clean kicks and bursts of reverb surrounding the melody make up the bulk of this album. Apparently using a dictaphone to sample everything and anything to create a library of samples to use in his work, this album retains the aesthetic of the tape machine - the crunchy sounds could be the stop and start of a playing tape, and the huge reverb at times sounds similar to the 'tape music' of musique concrete

The first track, Indigo Optimus, bridges the gap between albums, drawing most of its sounds from Empty The Bones Of You, but retaining the long melody of his earlier work. However, rather than keeping the melody flat, it moves in and out, sometimes quiet, sometimes dominant, and this gives the stuttery beat more attack and a sense of dynamism and drive. There isn't much structure to the track, and this means it can appear to meander a bit rather than go anywhere, but this aside it's one of the strongest tracks on the album. A feature used here and then again at various points in the album is to have an undisguised, recognizable sound, in the this case seagulls, to anchor the tracks in a specific environment. This makes them highly evocative, although you could argue it also restricts them to an extent

Holiday as Brutality is the first of the tracks (and not the last) that really don't match the quality of the better tunes. The Sun Too Slow, and Betty compete with it for worst track on the album. The latter two are pointless ambient soundscapes that bring nothing to the album, and all three tracks are boring. The only positive point is their positioning as brackets surrounding the quality tracks. They don't interfere too much with the enjoyment of the middle section where the real gems lie, allowing them to easily be ignored

Empty The Bones Of You is a brilliant name for the third track, as the hollow, reverberating crunchy sounds evoke the brittleness of bones. As the scraping noises pass through your head it feels as if your bones are being cleaned from the inside out (listen to it on headphones if you think I'm talking shit...)

Here begins the outstanding part of the album. The next 6 tracks (7 if I'm feeling generous) are the most accessible while at the same time the ones with the longest appeal (although Tyre sounds a little like a BoC remix of Yann Tiersen, but I won't go into that...) The sad twinkling melody on Tycan combined with the recognizable sound of the firework gives the track a memory/nostalgia context - a sad onlooker to what should be a celebration. The wide-eyed awe associated with fireworks is captured beautifully by the longer, less distinct sound. The firework is an interesting reference to use in music, with parallels between dark (night)/light (explosion) and silence/music, and this makes the music all the more evocative

Wolf was the first track I heard on the album, albeit in a different incarnation, on the Advance Listening Opportunity compilation. At first I dismissed it as white noise and ignored it, but after a couple of listens it grew on me. It's probably the most conventional of all the tracks despite its fuzziness - it builds and drops like any number of more mainstream instrumental hip hop tracks (RJD2 etc), and the fuzz just serves to hide this conventionality - but it works really well. The album needs a few catchy numbers on it, and to have one where it's obscured by white noise is a nice way to keep the album interesting. Epic white noise pop... awesome

If I said earlier that the next 6 tracks were outstanding, its really the next two that steal the show. Slow Spines was on the Ceramics Is The Bomb EP with a different ending, but this is the better version. It's inch perfect, culminating in the late attack, lo-fi ringtone melody that is pure, mouth-watering ear candy. The multi-noise sounds that fall around the beats give it a hip hop feel (think Dre's claps... did I just say that?). This ending, complete with retro drum sounds and Santa's sleigh-bell-rhythm high hats, and that melody beats the ambient ending on the EP hands down

The huge reverberating melody sounds juxtaposed with the thin, viscous beat sounds on Umbilical Hut balances perfectly. This track carries with it the melancholy I mentioned earlier, but it's the kind of beautiful-sad rather than the despairing kind. My only problem is the somewhat clumsy beat towards the end of the track that spoils the subtle balance achieved earlier

Farewell Track and Gavel: (Obliterated) are somewhat featureless in comparison and verge on being a little boring. The dream-like ambience at the end of Farewell Track risks dragging the previous tracks into its quagmire of slight cheesiness, spoiling their genuine effect. Gavel: (Obliterated) is more aggressive, and sounds more like his racket of a live show (although it's possible too melodic if my memory serves me correctly...)

Gob Coitus, as its fuck-you title suggests, is also quite aggressive (until around 2:20 when it all gets a little Yann Tiersen again...) Not sure this track was needed, as the sound is starting to get a little tired now - and this brings me to a problem with the album as a whole - are the sounds varied enough? A feature of a number, if not most 21st century electronic releases seems to be sticking rigidly to a tightly defined sound palette, and refusing to stray from it too far. Whether or not this has something to do with constructing a recognisable 'brand', whereby people can listen to a track and immediately say 'That's Chris Clark' is up for question (although one could argue this is little more than ego-massaging), but I think it's had a detrimental effect on music. You don't have to release the same track with minor differences 10+ times on the same CD for it to qualify as an album - where's the variety?

Rant aside, Empty The Bones Of You has some amazing moments, mainly when it is distantly evocative. Imagine your memory was stored in your bones. Empty The Bones Of You then does exactly that, crunching and scraping its way through your skeleton, dredging up both those memories you'd like to remember and those you'd prefer to forget, just as a BoC record might, but very much in Chris Clark's own style. It's talked about as his coming of age album, and I think that's exactly what it is, and now he's arrived, I'm looking forward to what he produces next

Beat Is Murder

2005-07-12T20:05:00.000+01:00

Beat Is Murder is a new netlabel run by Dino Spiluttini, solely (for now at least) releasing his own work. Does this qualify as a netlabel? I don't know...

The label currently has two releases, one by Yeah Pretty Boy, the other by Bruspi. Yeah Pretty Boy's one is called Good One Go, and sounds Norwegian (albeit of Austrian origin) - organic sounds, fuzz, cutting room floor samples and music-box melodies all reminiscent of Kim Hiorthøy with the gurgling modem sounds of Alog and Phonophani. Another reference point is To Rococo Rot. Maybe add a little Prefuse 73 glitchiness and you've got it...

The Bruspi release is noisy racket-rock and I really don't have much time for this sort of stuff, so I'm not going to post it. Its available if you follow the Beat Is Murder link though, if you like that sort of thing...

Yeah Pretty Boy - The You Like Me More Than I Deserve Song.mp3
Yeah Pretty Boy - YPB's Anthem (To Be Finished Later).mp3
Yeah Pretty Boy - Raquel, I'm Afraid of Your Dog.mp3

Shitmat's Rolf Harris Mashups

2005-07-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

Shitmat has put out a call for people to remix/mess with/molest Rolf Harris tunes and some of the results have been awesome. He's going to host 100 of them on his website (follow the 'Rolf' link on the right), and then the best are getting stuck on vinyl. Apparently there's a prize for the best one, so all budding noisesmiths get to work now. He was up to 86 when I last checked so you haven't got long

What's doubly exciting is that I've done one (exciting for me at least...) so if you want to hear my first (and very probably my last) publicly available tune, download Hospitalised Animal by Pinguin. Bit of a racket, eh?

Aside from me, a few more repectable types have also joined in the mayhem, including Planet Mu's Chevron and EAP's EOD. I haven't downloaded all the tracks so I don't know if these are the best, but they're certainly good...

I never thought Rolf Harris could ever become culturally relevant but I've seen the light now. After me, 'Tie me kangaroo down, sport...'

Pinguin - Hospitalised Animal.mp3
EOD - Rolf's LSD Opera.mp3
EOD - Rabies Rolf.mp3
Chevvers - Tie Me Kangaroo Down.mp3
Kragle - Rolfy's Fantasy.mp3

Bern

2005-07-10T10:34:00.000+01:00

Bern is from Lille in France and makes exquisite minimal house, reminiscent of Murcof's work in its minute detail

Pour Les Oiseaux is my favourite of the tracks below. It appeared on last month's collaborative effort from Sinergy Networks and Thinner, called Thinnergy

Burbuja and Ritmo Calido see Bern remixing Sinergy boss LOD aka Luis Ortiz (follow Sinergy link above to see my brief interview with him) Ritmo Calido takes a while to get going, but the melody in the background becomes the track's saving grace

Historic 4 is another really strong track, although it peters off into monotony after a good intro. LOD returns the remixing duties too...

Bern - Pour Les Oiseaux.mp3
LOD - Burbuja (Bern Remix).mp3
LOD - Ritmo Calido (Bern Remix).mp3
Bern - Historic 4.mp3
Bern - Historic 4 (LOD Remix).mp3

Venetian Snares

2005-07-04T13:21:00.000+01:00

Had a lot of new stuff here recently, so I thought it about time to undertake the massive journey back to 2003, to The Chocolate Wheelchair Album

Ghetto Body Buddy sees Snares encroaching upon label mate Shitmat's territory (in the dub/raggacore sense rather than the taking-the-piss sense). What sets this track apart from Shitmat is the variation in the beat that is typical of Funk's work - constantly shifting rhythms leaping about between your speakers. This is one of those tracks that illustrates Snares' own description of himself as someone who pays massively close attention to his snares (hence the name)

The highlights in this track are in the first minute and a half - the sound at 0:36 thats only repeated a couple of times and introduces a change of beat is awesome, and then a dub-like sound stems from it and develops, however briefly, into the 'squeeze the trigger' vocal. It shows the quality of his work when he can then just drop this and move on to something else - an awful lot of artists would have stretched those few seconds into an entire track

You might recognise this tune from his live set, available here - it comes on after around 10 minutes

Venetian Snares - Ghetto Body Buddy.mp3

Filaria

2005-07-04T10:01:00.000+01:00

Filaria, aka Northern Ireland's David Baxter has supported Plaid and Venetian Snares live - so we're talking high-calibre stuff here

The most obvious comparison to draw here would be between Baxter and RDJ's Analord series, but thinking anything acidic is along the right lines (see Minikomi's excellent Electronic Acid Productions post here)

These tracks are taken from Filaria's 2005 EP Beat Negg, released on Clive Kell's new Electrotoxic netlabel, which deals primarily with new electronic music coming out of Ireland. Filaria has a release planned for some time later this year, on the promising new Bugklinik imprint based in Belgium. Another Bugklinik release to keep a look out for is Hardcore Esplanade, the new EP from Ceephax Acid Crew, due in September. Limited to 750 copies though, so keep your eyes peeled...

Filaria - Windsor Terrace Acid.mp3
Filaria - Strungfellow.mp3
Filaria - Belly Cotton.mp3

Mini Roc

2005-07-03T17:51:00.000+01:00

Mini Roc is Germany's Jan Michelbach, and the name is a both a reference to micro music/chiptunes, and to the german word for mini skirt (mini rock) - which may explain the slight campness of some of the tracks. I haven't posted it, but the vocal in 'roc.in' (available here, along with all the other tunes I didn't post) sounds like Stephen Hawking at a gay techno dance-off (if those such things exist)

As for the tracks I did post, Rave On, You Zappelphilipp! is an 8 bit anthemic ode to happy hardcore, complete with dropping piano, played at half speed (...eh?). 00-FF is a fairly standard chiptune - fuzzy bassline driving a series of high pitched bleeps - nice anyway. Untitled qualifies the Roc in Mini Roc, as its the nearest thing to a rock track. Don't get me wrong, it sounds nothing like a coventional rock tune, but the short sound that builds into a longer, chugging guitar-like sound reminds me of a few stoner rock bands that I'd care not to mention

Mini Roc - Rave On, You Zappelphilipp!.mp3
Mini Roc - 00-FF.mp3
Mini Roc - Untitled.mp3

Mini Roc features on the new, ultra-eclectic first release from German netlabel Digitalkunstrasen, alongside other such highlights as jen SE and firestARTer, but mixed in with all sorts of other stuff. Personally, I'm not sure the mix pays off, but you can have a listen for yourself and see. I've posted my favourite tracks from the release, but you can get all of them here

Mini Roc - Select A.mp3
jen SE - Musicka.mp3
Schokoknubbel - Hässliche Menschen Sind Schöne Menschen In Nicht Schön.mp3

The Tailors

2005-07-01T12:44:00.000+01:00

A first, as far as I'm aware, for the site - an unsigned band!

The Tailors are an alt-country group (bit out of place here? - maybe, but even the hardest gabba-head needs a little variation from time to time...) who sound a little like a less lo-fi, more upbeat, countrified version of The Microphones

You can catch them live at the promisingly titled Acid Country Festival at the Windmill in Brixton on Saturday 9th July 2005, sharing the bill with Piney Gir Country Roadshow, Swank, Alan Tyler Band, Lynette Morgan & The Blackwater Valley Boys, Stagecoach and Treecreeper. They're also playing the following dates if you can't make it there

20th July - What's Cookin' (Leytonstone)
29th July - Tapestry Goes West (Cornwall)
7th August - Nicefest (Leeds)
7th September - The Freebutt (Brighton)
17th September - Grand Old Ropey (Camden)

The Tailors - Diamonds.mp3
The Tailors - Backslap Club.mp3

You can get more of their tracks here, should you wish

Richie Hawtin & Ricardo Villalobos

2005-06-27T09:27:00.000+01:00

This is an hour of highlights from one of RnR's 11 hour sets - there are a few great bits - notably the Wighnomy Brothers' Bobb towards the end (although its a mix of the track that doesn't include the melody, which is a shame), and a few other gems

The beat plods along in the background quite inconspicuously throughout as you might expect with minimal techno - and I think this will always prevent me from getting more interested in it, but the sounds used in the tracks are amazing

Richie Hawtin & Ricardo Villalobos - Live at the Robert Johnson in Frankfurt (DJ set).mp3

Fisk Industries

2005-06-25T12:23:00.000+01:00

There's a bit of BoC in here (easy comparison I know...), from the name to the warm analogue sounds. 70s Jets is the stand out track - brilliantly evocative name (another feature wisely inherited from Eoin & Sandison)

Fisk Industries are playing at The Pool Bar in London on 28th June 2005, sharing the bill with Tigrics

Also, watch this space - seems to be fairly promising...

Fisk Industries - 70s Jets.mp3
Fisk Industries - Todo Por La Patria.mp3
Fisk Industries - Czar Promo.mp3
Fisk Industries - Can't Breathe.mp3

Album Review: Venetian Snares - Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding

2005-06-24T16:00:00.000+01:00

(Planet Mu, 2004)

And so begins another new feature. Blatant commercialism? - if only. Warp (quite rightly) are cocky enough to offer up the Bleep player without any financial incentive for the host, because they know we will put it up anyway

I think I can justify it's inclusion on the site - it makes the album reviews interactive - listen while you read etc. Equally, it will be nice to (hopefully) see this site make a little revenue for the artists I post, rather than, as in its current incarnation, deprive them of it

Don't worry though - this was seriously time consuming so I'm not going to do too many

So why review an album that has been out over a year?
A. Because I've never read a satisfactory review of it
B. Because I haven't heard anything better since it was released

Future reviews will probably be a mix of new stuff and older albums that I think are worth, for one reason or another, going back over, but who knows...

---

This album takes a lot of listening to before it becomes truly enjoyable - the play count on my iTunes for this album far outstrips anything else - but the effort is more than worth it. I really haven't heard anything better...

1. Huge Chrome Peach

Huge Chrome Peach introduces you to the aesthetic of the album. Snares' palette of sounds is similar throughout the fourteen tracks - very clean, seperate metallic beeps, interspersed with minute blasts of fuzz/white noise, all spread across the spectrum of stereo to further seperate and isolate each event so it can be fully appreciated. This track is far from being the most catchy on the album, perhaps serving to build anticipation for what comes next...

2. Bonivital

One of the most melodic tracks on the album, and one of the most conventional in terms of rhythm and structure, Bonivital is an another introduction to Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding in that it is accessible where some of the other tracks take a number of listens before they become coherent. (It is of course these tracks that eventually become favourites due to the hours they consumed while you were trying to get your head round them). Bonivital is a track you want to go back to immediately, making you listen not only to it, but the more difficult tracks again

3. Cadmium Lung Jacket

A simple, melancholic melody repeats throughout this track and is an example of Snares' habit of using simple elements to string together the far more complex rhythms that run over the top. The long sound in the background acts as a straight line, keeping the track moving in one direction though the constantly changing time signature. This movement is then broken by the three-key piano-like melody that seems to send the line in another direction. This allows the track to constantly move around the given space, with the various sounds used to make up the beat leaping off the line like sparks

4. Vida

Similarly to Bonivital, Vida is one of the tracks that catches your attention upon first listen, but it also has a lasting appeal. Not a millisecond isn't looked after and perfected in this track and the result is one of the high points on the album. The beat dances around the melody, seemingly propelled by it, but at the same time driving it. What appears at first to be a rather simple melody turns out to be more complex when you realise the variety of sounds that contribute to it. Many of the sounds used to make up the beat also make up the melody, however subtlely - some so drastically different that it is hard to see the continuity between them

5. Coke Ajax

One of least crowded tracks on the album, which contributes to its melancholic nature. Although a lot of the sounds are slightly longer and wider than in other tracks, each starts and ends very precisely, and this precision allows you to pinpoint their exact position. Snares' music seems to revolve around the precise description of movement through space, allowing him to disregard any conventional notions about time signatures. The focus on movement may explain why such clean, seperate, minute sounds are required, as longer sounds would be too vague. I guess this has its roots in the emergence of stereo as another parameter to consider when making music - it was always going to create an environment in which music about movement through space was going to be created. (Enough... this is starting to sound more like an essay in the making than an album review...)

6. Li2CO3

Li2CO3 jolts along somewhat unremarkably in comparison with some of the other tracks on the album and for me at least seems to be a sort of interlude

7. Ion Divvy

I overlooked Ion Divvy for months, but it has become a favourite recently. The track ping pongs from left to right, making it one of Snares' most conventional stereo arrangements. It makes it seem as if your speakers are having some sort of converstaion - and I should think this is what your speakers might sound like if they could talk

8. Keek

Another of the more conventional tracks. The dramatic intro to the first drop works well, and then the computerised voice reading out the equation is a great way to go into the second

9. Nineteen 1319

The challenger to Vida's throne for best track on the album. Gradually builds to the 'You got my number' drop, which still has me dancing around every time I hear it

10. Destroy Glass Castles

11. Chlorophyll

I've grouped these two together mainly out of laziness. These are my least favourite tracks on the album - they're a little too deconstructed for my liking - almost to the point of being totally abstract

12. Bent Annick

Bent Annick is very subtle - probably the last tune I learned to like on the album. The melody almost isn't there. I love the beat though, it seems to wind itself up tightly and then spring out when the kick sounds. Another seemingly very spacious track

13. Aaron

This track was used as an introduction to Snares' tracks on the Amunition compilation, and it worked very well in that position. Here, it seems a little out of place - although it forms the precendent for Hiszékeny's positioning on Rossz Csillag Allat Született - the token ambient/beatless piece a couple of tracks from the end

14. Bezcitny

One of the darker tracks on the album. Similarly abstract to Destroy Glass Castles and Chlorophyll, only the voice sounds keep this track from being a little too inaccessible. About half way though Snares seems to tie the elements together and from then on its a pleasure to listen to

---

I realised half way through this review that I don't have the words to adequately describe listening to this album. What you know is happening in your head when you hear it is difficult to describe without sounding somewhat ridiculous. Equally I'm sure it affects people very differently, so when I imagine movement someone next to me may interpret the same series of sounds entirely differently

While you can't memorise the words, like you would a song, eventually each track does become firmly rooted in your memory, allowing you to follow and subconsciously predict each and every sound - and that's where the true pleasure of listening to this album comes from. The tracks may be too quick to perceptibly know inside out (to the extent you could reproduce them without listening to them), but it is still possible to know fairly precisely what happens in each one. The fact that this information is inaccessible, locked away in your brain, forces you to come back to the album indefinitely - and this is its finest achievement

More Computer Game Tunes

2005-06-24T12:08:00.000+01:00

Will the obsession ever end?

No

I didn't know My Sharona was the theme tune to Road Rash. Also, you have to hear Streets Round 3 - 8 bit 90s cheesy house - you could start a whole new genre based around this...

Road Rash.wav
Castelvania.wav
Castlevania 2.wav
Castlevania 3.wav
Castlevania 4.wav
Streets Round 3.wav
Streets Round 8.wav
Wonderboy Dragons.wav
Wonderboy Dragons 2.wav
Wonderboy Dragons 3.wav

Go here for Mortal Kombat on the NES and here for Saskrotch's breakcore remixes of Nintendo tunes

The Advantage

2005-06-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

A guitar band!

(Kind of... from the website it appears they don't actually use guitars - just 3 synths and a drumkit, but still...)

Any group of musicians who name themselves 'The...' make most reasonable people inherently nervous nowadays, but don't worry, I haven't grown my hair or stopped washing. I couldn't let this pass - garage rock-style covers of nintendo tunes. Shows you how good those tracks were, as they translate into better tracks than the entire output of most of the genre's tantrum-prone self-important little starlets combined

The Metroid track sounds quite a bit like something Slint might have made

For a different take on Megaman, check out Saskrotch

The Advantage - Megaman 2 (Dr Wiley).mp3
The Advantage - Gremlins 2 (Level 2).mp3
The Advantage - Metroid (Kraid's Hideout).mp3
The Advantage - Contra (Aliens' Lair + Boss).mp3
The Advantage - Batman (Return of the Joker).mp3

Netlabel Profile: Sinergy Networks

2005-06-22T08:18:00.000+01:00

Decided to drop the interviews from the netlabel profiles for a while, primarily because the same questions seem to crop up again and again. May resume them again if I can come up with anything new

Sinergy Networks is run by Luis Ortiz (aka LOD, remixer of two of the tunes below), who also runs the commercial label Klitekture. Both are based in the Canary Islands, and deal exclusively with minimal house/techno - essentially danceable glitch-based music. By danceable, I mean rarely straying from a 4/4 beat, which can be frustrating at times, but most of the artists manage to incorporate enough into the tunes to keep your brain occupied as well as your feet

The glitch genre seems to have been born out of a desire to deconstruct and fragment music into an almost unrecognisable form, so for the glitch to be re-introduced into a more orderly type of music may seem odd. Whether or not you can look at minimal house as being an evolution from traditional house or a reaction against the increasingly undanceable, glitch-based IDM is debatable, but either way, its emergence allows for the dimissal of the empty claims concerning the 'death' of 'dance' music

Franco Cinelli - Sense (LOD Remix).mp3

Highly addictive, rolling melody that almost isn't there aside from the drop in pitch. The mistake a lot of minimal artists make is to over-compensate for the smallness of their sounds by making them obtrusively loud, but in this track the subtlety pays off

Sarah Goldfarb - Absolut Funk (LOD Remix).mp3
Sarah Goldfarb - Absolut Funk (Abstract Groove Remix).mp3

More discernable melody than the Cinelli track. The Abstract Groove mix is that harder of the two, with a thundering kickdrum running throughout

Abstract Groove - Roughen.mp3

Nice seperation of sounds here - really dark tune

All mp3s are encoded at 256kbps, and all are from 2005 releases apart from Roughen

Netlabel Profile: Fronha Records

2005-06-19T12:10:00.000+01:00

Fronha Records was originally formed in 2002 to release the work of a group of artists living in Rio de Janeiro, who had been producing work since the 80s. Since forming, the label has broadened to include a number of new artists - all loosely grouped in the experimental electronic bracket

I spoke to MMeNDES, who plays an active role in both running the label and contributing to the various projects the label works on

What's the independent label scene like at the moment in Brazil?
As my interest is basically focused to experimental/industrial/noise music and of course for bizarre weird sounds I can't say that there's a "scene" of independent labels of this genre working right now in Brazil. I know here in Rio de Janeiro the following ones: Fronha Records, Menthe de Chat (the new weblabel created recently by Fernando STorres aka KKFS ), Truma Records that's the home of the anti-music project Lavajato, and Speculum Records that launches old school and noise from the artist Lucas Pires

Is it hard getting noticed on the international stage?
The attention of the public isn't too focused on electronic-experimental projects, so it's easier to find interest outside Brazil

Do consciously try to maintain a specific image for the label (ie. only release certain types of music)?
I think it happens naturally. As there's no money involved in it, the reason for releasing an artist is just personal taste

What made you decide in 2004 to include artists that lived outside Rio de Janeiro on your label?
Our objective is to give exposure to brazilian experimental music in as many places as possible. In 2003/2004 we made many contacts with independent artists out of Brazil. It's a way that we found to make Fronha Records grow up, collecting more people out of the country

Do you play live shows outside of Brazil?
No. But we would like to a lot. Is that an invitation?

What place do you think the netlabel has in the future of music in Brazil, and in the wider world?
I believe that the interest for our kind of music is increasing, but I really don't believe that there will be a place for our kind of sound in the future of brazilian music

---

These mp3s are the highest encodings offered by the label, but they do offer lower bit rates too. Go here for their entire catalogue, where you can select your quality

Debussy Bach Restaurant - Prelude (JS Bach).mp3
Debussy Bach Restaurant - Dream (CA Debussy).mp3
Debussy Bach Restaurant - Snow Is Dancing (CA Debussy).mp3

Analogue versions of classical tunes - works wonderfully. I've had this album for a while and it's something I come back to quite often

Junkers - I Was Thinking To Kill You (dell.tree remix).mp3
Junkers - I Was Thinking To Kill You (Monjope version).mp3

The Junkers release is Fronha's latest. Junkers comprises of MMeNDES (vocal, computer and synth), Cláudio Monjope (bass, synth and electronic drum) and Fernando STorres (computer, bass and Casio SK1). Each member of the band made their own mix of the title track, and I've included two of these here. The dell.tree remix reminds me of Roots Manuva's Evil Rabbit with its dark bassline...

Beepdealers

2005-06-15T16:27:00.000+01:00

Following on from yesterday's 8bitpeoples Profile, I thought I'd continue the chipmusic/bitpop(etc) theme with some other examples

Any of you who have downloaded any dodgy versions of games may have come across the installer below (this one's empty for any copyright lawyers watching). Aside from providing you with a free game, the installer is also loaded with two seriously cool tunes (press the music button to scroll through them - the second one is especially good) The music seems to be set up to provide an eternal loop, similar to alot of old computer games, I guess to save on memory usage...

Myth Installer.exe

The reason I've included this in the post (aside from the awesome music), is because the Beepdealers are using this format to distribute their work. Included in their application are two low-res looping videos and plenty of tunes (I haven't counted exactly how many) - all in a 450k zip file. To load the application, just run the .exe file in the zip archive. There's talk on the Beepdealer's website of a second Chipdisk being released soon...

Beepdealers Chipdisk 1.zip

On my search for an appropriate image for this post I came across these zipped wav files of the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat on the NES - thought I'd share

Mortal Kombat - Warrior Shrine.zip
Mortal Kombat - Character Select Screen.zip
Mortal Kombat - The Courtyard.zip
Mortal Kombat - The Pit.zip
Mortal Kombat - Tsung's Throne Room.zip
Mortal Kombat - Goro's Lair.zip

Tigrics

2005-06-14T23:56:00.000+01:00

Tigrics aka Robert Bereznyei hails from Budapest and has played alongside Autechre and Leafcutter John to name but a few

He begins his first UK tour on 28th June 2005, dates are as follows:

28th June - The Pool Bar, London
29th June - Hive Club, Liverpool
30th June - Smallfish Instore, London
1st July - Barden's Boudoir, London
2nd June - Cube Cinema, Bristol
6th July - The Font Bar, Mancherster

His music ranges from fluttering ambient electroacoustic type stuff to slightly darker, more intense electronica. Highpoint Lowlife are providing his 2005 EP Mint Egy Befejezono for free (below) and there's this index with a couple of his live sets to download too

Tigrics - He, Jelfej!.mp3
Tigrics - Kell Omd.mp3
Tigrics - Ebek 1.30 (Megvagtam Mix).mp3
Tigrics - Aztan Varosokban Ebredtem.mp3
Tigrics - Kossuth Lajos Tca Mix.mp3
Tigrics - Ujrafarkas.mp3

Netlabel Profile: 8bitpeoples

2005-06-14T14:47:00.000+01:00

Nostalgia for bygone technology is an inevitable facet of the progression towards more advanced means of doing things. I find the prospect of people making cutting-edge music using old computer game consoles inherently exciting, as it breathes new life into the technology that I grew up with and makes it relevant once again. The sounds that these machines are capable of making could doubtlessly be imitated by simple synths on a modern computer, but the unique set of restrictions imposed upon the artist when using an old console is part of what makes this music so interesting

8bitpeoples was formed in 1999 when a group of artists got together to produce music inspired by computer games, created on the machines used to play those games, and since then the label has released 46 records. What's more, they're all free to download here (or if your firewall won't let you download from FTP sites, most of them are available from archive.org here)

I interviewed Jeremiah Johnson, aka artist and 8bitpeoples founding member Nullsleep (go here for my dismayingly vague post on him) to learn more about the label

How long had you been making music before you discovered the gameboy method?
I began using the GameBoy pretty early on as far as my music goes. I only started writing music during my first year at university, 1999-2000, basically just messing around with a PC and some trackers, sequencers, and softsynths. I was interested in videogame music, and so I found that I was imposing limitations on the songs I was writing on my PC... whether it was only using a certain number of channels or only using sine/square/saw wave generators instead of sampled instruments. I liked the challenge that the limitations created and I liked the pure sounds that reminded me of the videogames that I grew up with. It was in 2001 that I first heard about LSDJ and Nanoloop, and since then pretty much every piece of music I've written has been composed directly on or for a videogame console

I think its fair to say that 8bitpeoples has one of the highest profiles out of the netlabels. How easy has it been getting noticed in an increasingly crowded market?
In 1999, when Mike Hanlon from Detroit first talked to me about this idea he had to start a collective called the 8bitpeoples I immediately loved it. We've had so much fun over the years, building up the group, taking on new members, evolving, and releasing music through it. Everyone involved with the group has really thrown a lot into it, but I can say for myself that it has rarely ever felt like "work" because it's just great to be doing something you love and can have so much fun with. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we never really set out to get noticed. We're just doing what we love, and I think if you do that and people recognize that your passion is really genuine, they will take notice

While the majority of your releases are available for free, I notice you also sell some of them. Do you see a transition in the future to a solely sale-based label? Are you tempted by a Bleep-style pay-per-download system?
One of the central motivations of 8bitpeoples since the very beginning was to provide quality music for free. Later, we began offering CDs for those that really wanted to own something physical, tangible that they could hold in their hands and say, "This is mine." But that is secondary to our cause. I think the pay-per-download ideas are interesting, and I think its good to see some labels adapting their sales models to the times we live in. However, I don't think that is what 8bitpeoples is about, we will always offer free music

I notice that a couple of your artists seem to release records on a number of labels. How hard is it to hang on to an artist once you have released something by them?
Over the years, 8bitpeoples has had the pleasure of putting out releases by some truly amazing artists. I have been blown away time and time again by some of the music these guys are producing, and I feel privileged to know them and help get their music out there to more people. When an artist releases something on 8bitpeoples you know they are doing it for the love of the music, there isn't any business behind it to taint the artistic expression. And I think because of what we've done with the group, and how we've managed to stay true to our ideals, that this is what attracts artists to want to put out releases with us. I think there is a great deal of respect that flows both ways, between the artist and the group. As far as trying to hang onto artists, it really isn't like that. When we put out a release by someone and it really just turns out incredible, do we hope that they stick around, remain active in the group and release with us again? Of course. But there is no pressure from our side, we want them to *want* to stick around too

The internet has had a massive impact on the way we consume music. In what shape or form do you think the next big change will arrive?
Nintendo cartridges are the new vinyl. Albums released on EPROMs. Kids breakdancing on the street corner to a fresh new jam pumping out of a GameBoy hooked up to their boombox

In terms of Nullsleep, are their any conventional artists you would you describe as a musical influence, or is it all down to computer games?
I'm definitely influenced by a wide range of music. Yeah, early era videogame music obviously plays a pretty big part, chiptunes from the demoscene, but there are plenty or more "traditional" musical influences as well. Off the top of my head, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Joy Division, New Order, Laserdance, and a whole lot of other stuff. Everything that I take in has some small influence on what I put out

Early computer games are a great inspiration for a music label. Which were your favourite/most influential?
The ones I was always most in love with were probably Mega Man 2 & 3, Metroid, and the Castlevania games. Their soundtracks each had their own unique atmosphere and style, but they were all brilliant and left a lasting impression on me

Where next for the 8bitpeoples? Do you think there will be eventual limits reached with regard to what the 8bit medium can deliver?
I think there is still plenty left to explore. The C64 scene has been around active for 20 years and people are still finding new hacks and figuring out how to squeeze fresh effects from the little brown box. The NES/GameBoy scene is really young in comparison and I think we'll see people doing more and more interesting stuff with Nintendo hardware. Of course there are limits. The fun part is finding where those limits are and smashing them. We'll be around doing our part

---

Nullsleep will be performing live at the Knitting Factory in New York on 24th June 2005

Also, look out for new releases coming soon from Role Model and X-Dump on 8bitpeoples, coming later this month

---

Now, this wouldn't be an mp3 blog without some mp3s...

These are all taken from 8bitpeoples releases in 2005

Goto80 - Ter4.mp3

Goto80 formed part of my 20kbps rec. profile as I thought he stood out on that label as one of most interesting artists, and once again his release has caught my attention. This track's rattling percussion reminds me of Autechre's Under BOAC, while the melody puts me in mind of Venetian Snares' Bonivital (both now offline unfortunately)

x|k - Way of the Highway.mp3
x|k - Connekt.mp3

x|k's music is hard and manic, with Way of the Highway evoking the flickering of a strobe light working at double speed. Intense but melodic at the same time...

Twilight Electric - Body Parts.mp3
Twilight Electric - Table Tennis Breeze.mp3

Body Parts is a stomping synth-pop tune that might have featured in an 80s-revival NES game had one existed. Table Tennis Breeze is totally different, and sounds like a cross between the cutesy world of Plone, sweet-as-sugar J-Pop, and a love scene from one of the NES RPGs - its probably the closest of the tracks of I've posted to a traditional computer game track

For more Nintendo-style music, check out my Saskrotch post for some breakcore remixes of most of the old classics

Keiichi Suzuki

2005-06-04T19:42:00.000+01:00

This track is taken from the soundtrack to Takeshi Kitano's film Zatoichi

Keiichi Suzuki composed the music for Earthbound on the Super Nintendo. There are a few Midi files of some of these tunes here

Keiichi Suzuki - House On Fire and Massacres All Around.mp3

Squarepusher

2005-05-30T18:12:00.000+01:00

Not a huge fan of the older Jenkinson (the younger being Ceephax Acid Crew, who I can't get enough of...), but I do love this tune

The vocal sample isn't as good as Autechre's 'is it washable?' used in Under BOAC, available here, or Aaron Funk's paranoid talk of pigeons on Második Galamb (both must be up there with the best), but it works well with the playful melody in this track

Warp-related news: Plaid are set to perform the world premiere of Greedy Baby with Bob Jaroc as part of the Optronica Festival on 20th July 2005 at the BFI Imax. I have somehow managed to miss Plaid's surround sound performances in the past, but not this one...

Squarepusher - Anstromm-Feck 4.mp3

Venetian Snares

2005-05-24T14:00:00.000+01:00

Rather than sticking to the more familiar percussive sounds used in some of his other work (essentially old jungle breakbeats mashed into fiendishly complicated rhythms), Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding sees Snares changing his palette to something nearer an 8 bit sound. These tracks consist of beeps and occasional short blasts of white noise more than traditional drum sounds allowing for more variation and seperation of the different sounds

The result is amazing....

Venetian Snares - Vida.mp3
Venetian Snares - Bonivital.mp3
Venetian Snares - Nineteen 1319.mp3

Go here and here and here for more

Shitmat

2005-05-21T17:03:00.000+01:00

This is a taster for what you'd be getting with the 1 hour live set available here

This track is taken from Full English Breakfest Volume 2, available on Planet Mu. Raggacore/speedhall mentalism at its best...

Shitmat - Dubplate Murder Sound.mp3

Aphex Twin

2005-05-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

The first Aphex Twin track that I fell in love with. The Amen breaks seem a little out-dated now (although maybe they're making a comeback in the form of Rossz Csillag Allat Született), but the gurgling acid melody still gets me every time

Aphex Twin is playing ATP's Easy To Swallow event at SEOne on 2nd June 2005. Go here for more info

Aphex Twin - Polynomial C.mp3

Nobukazu Takemura

2005-05-17T14:06:00.000+01:00

Similarly to Plone and Plaid, Nobukazu Takemura has a truly unique sound - refreshing in the all-too-often homogenous sounding world of electronic music (although it's not as bad as some genres where the tracks are virtually interchangeable...)

I've posted a couple of these tracks before but I wanted to group them together. Check out my Child's View post for Takemura recording under a different name

The Dylan Group's entire album is available here

Nobukazu Takemura - Sign.mp3
Nobukazu Takemura - Cogwheel.mp3
Nobukazu Takemura - Kepler.mp3
Nobukazu Takemura - Conical Flask.mp3
The Dylan Group - Decay (Nobukazu Takemura Mix).mp3

Alva Noto

2005-05-15T23:40:00.000+01:00

More minimal sounds today. Carsten Nicolai aka Alva Noto sounds a little like Plastikman or Pan Sonic - using microscopic sounds to create textured soundscapes. Module 4 and Module 6 are taken from 2001's Transform and Trioon I is taken from Vrioon, a 2002 collaboration with Japanese artist Ryuichi Sakamoto

Also, if you like this, check out Slow Motion

Alva Noto - Module 4.mp3
Alva Noto - Module 6.mp3
Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Trioon I.mp3

Plastikman

2005-05-14T14:24:00.000+01:00

Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman is giving away loads of free mp3s at his site

This is very minimal - sounds like the result of a 70s krautrock band discovering one of Autechre's computers. It's atmospheric and there's a lot more going on than appears on first listen

Plastikman - Headcase.mp3
Plastikman - Ping Pong.mp3

26 Mixes For Cash

2005-05-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

Is it OK to release an album of remixes? Probably. When they're this good...

Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub - Deep in Velvet (Aphex Twin Turnips Mix).mp3
Wagon Christ - Spotlight (Aphex Twin Remix).mp3

There's also this suitably unnerving video that was produced to publicise the album

AFX - Morph.mov

Autechre (live)

2005-05-08T16:40:00.000+01:00

Found this - the link describes it as Aphex Twin and Autechre live in Vancouver, but its tagged as being just Autechre. It sounds like them on their own, but who knows...

Autechre - Live in Vancouver (date unknown).mp3

These other tracks are taken from 1998's LP5

Autechre - Acroyear2.mp3
Autechre - Under BOAC.mp3
Autechre - Corc.mp3

Alog

2005-05-07T16:04:00.000+01:00

I want to go to Norway!

Rune Grammofon is one of the finest labels in the world at the moment and missing their showcase at the Sonar Festival in 2004 is a major regret. Everything about the label just seems to be perfectly judged, from the range of artists to the artwork, directed by none other than Norwegian graphic design maestro and ambient, cutting-room-floor musician Kim Hiorthøy

I posted Alog's Trollofon session a while back, so if you heard that you know what to expect here. I think their work falls somewhere between that of their labelmate Phonophani with its melancholic, flickering bleeps and Fennesz's sprawling fuzzy soundscapes

'Severe Punishment and Lasting Bliss' and 'Pesce Spada' are taken from 2005's Miniatures album and 'Idea-Changing Liquid Alchemy' is from 2001's Duck-Rabbit release

Alog - Severe Punishment and Lasting Bliss.mp3
Alog - Pesce Spada.mp3
Alog - Idea-Changing Liquid Alchemy.mp3

There's also this short film set to their music which makes for pleasant watching

Alog 1.mov

Kenneth James Gibson

2005-05-05T14:18:00.000+01:00

One half of Electronic Music Composer, Kenneth James Gibson seems to release under quite a few aliases. His site, eight-frozen-modules.com has lots of free mp3s of his various projects

For all you Streets fans, Don't Mug Yourself is given quite a nice treatment here (grime + glitch = gritch? glime? - maybe grimecore, who knows...)

Echo Youth is a little like Shitmat-lite

The dubLoner track sounds a bit like Ricardo Villalobos making a dub record

And that concludes today's one sentence summaries....

Genre crossovers seem to be all the rage at the moment, I'm just wondering where it will end (Britney Spears releasing a gabba track is thankfully a threshold we have yet to cross...)

Eight Frozen Modules - Don't Mug Yourself.mp3
Eight Frozen Modules - Echo Youth.mp3
dubLoner - Blurry Udder.mp3

Netlabel Profile: 20kbps rec.

2005-05-04T14:06:00.000+01:00

In Lars Von Trier/Jørgen Leth's film The Five Obstructions (go here for a trailer), Leth is made to recreate his film The Perfect Human five times, with a series of seemingly arbitrary restrictions placed on him by Von Trier. As the restrictions changed from remake to remake, so did the structure and appearance of the film - not to mention how each film made you feel

Formed in December 2002, Mathias Aeschlimann's Switzerland-based netlabel 20kbps rec. imposes a single restriction upon the work of the artists it releases - they must encode their work at an audio-buff-frightening 20 kilobytes per second (that's around one seventieth of CD quality...)

I spoke to Mathias to find out more...

How did the label start?
Well, I don't think I was influenced by anything I could mention. In the beginning, the netlabel started as something like a joke - it was just that I hadn't enough space on my hard disk for my musical crap (I was able to download a lot of music as I was part of the mp3 ripping scene), so I down-encoded it to have more space. It was still too much for me, so I uploaded it to the internet and deleted it from my hd. That's how 20kbps rec. was born. Then I showed it to some mates who were doing sound-stuff, and they were somehow delighted and started to release

Do you see any parallels between what you're doing and the punk scene in the 70s, in terms of reacting against the drive towards an increasingly high-fidelity sound?
Somehow yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against hifi-sound, I love it, but a lot of people always want to buy new, expensive, better sound equipment (soundcards etc..), and still all they produce is crap. You don't need the best hifi sound to knock someone off their feet. People should concentrate more on good music. Bullshit still sounds like bullshit at 96khz and 24 bit

Why 20kbps as your chosen bitrate?
There are several answers to this question. Firstly, 20kbps uses less space and it can be downloaded faster (cynically one could say, 20kbps rec. is for audio what Mcdonald's is for food). This is important for people in 'developing countries' where most people don't have high speed internet. Secondly, there's a very interesting aesthetic in lowbit sound - it's a pseudo-retro thing, I guess. Thirdly, and for me the most important reason is that it's a philosophical thing and has much to do with media theory. To really understand 20kbps rec. you should read Marshall McLuhan's 'The Media is the Message'

What inspired you to set up a netlabel that provides its content for free, instead of a more conventional music label that produces items for commercial sale?
Simply because I'm not interested in conventional music. I'm interested in so-called underground music. Most record labels the size of 20kbps rec. lose money with their releases, only gaining money from their artist's live shows, so setting up a commercial label would have been difficult

Does the 20kbps format work live?
Hmm. I talked about that with dimitryghost (in his interview for experiment.ru), and we had different opinions. He thought it would be very interesting to have 20kbps live-acts, but for me the 20kbps format is inextricably connected to the form of internet media . An online live-show would make sense to me, but not a real concert. 20kbps rec. artists play all over the world, but normally in high-quality

Is running the label a full-time occupation?
Running the label takes up a lot of time, but it's not a full-time occupation, I'm a student at HGKZ (Academy of Design and Arts, Zurich), studying new media

Your releases are commercially unavailable. Is finding money problematic?
Up to now, a mate of mine is paying for hosting. He also designed the website and he was the first 20kbps follower we had, back in the days. His name is Laub and he's studying animation. He's made a video-clip for a Jimmy Slaughter track released on 20kbps rec. called 'Me is the Killer' (available here) The clip is also low-quality, in keeping with the label's principles

What is your relationship like with the artists on your label? - I'm guessing they don't get paid. Do you feel they use your label as a means to an end (ie. a stepping stone to getting signed to a commercial label)?
At the moment we have more than 30 artists and it's still growing, so I have very different relationships with them. Some of them were mates before I created the label, like Jimmy Slaughter, Aunderwex, Deemage, Pimuri. Other's became friends after time, like k9d, Overthruster and The Hardliner. They don't get paid and I don't think that the majority are looking to get signed on a commercial label, it would be simply the wrong way because 20kbps rec. is a very specialized, 'nerdy' netlabel

Do you think netlabels are the future of music distribution?
Very difficult question. I'm not sure yet - I don't think that the generation of musician we now have is able to accept the netlabel as a serious form of music distribution. Perhaps the next generation of musicians who have grown up with internet media will change things and a streaming format (mp3, ogg,..) will be the most used way to listen to music. It's gonna be really long until vinyl disappears (and I hope it doesn't)

Do you think future musicians will be put off releasing music at all if their work is going to be distributed for free?
I don't think so. Even now, a lot of artists gain nothing or almost nothing for bringing their music out on sound storage mediums. Besides that, a lot of musicians are giving out their music for free already

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As I'm sure you've gathered, all 20kbps releases are free to download, so go here to take your pick from their offerings. I've chosen a couple of my favourite tracks...

GOTO80 - Alaska.mp3
GOTO80 - Motocross Love.mp3
True Type - Luv Thru The Wind.mp3
True Type - Emutl & Bawob.mp3

Venetian Snares

2005-05-01T18:12:00.000+01:00

I'm going to start a new feature here shortly, profiling netlabels. the first one is in production as we speak - so watch this space

In the mean time, go and check out Music Forest's Electronic Music Composer post or get these V Snares mp3s. 'Twelve' is the first track on 2004's Infolepsy EP, and the first tune he plays in the awesome breezeblock set available here. 'Tattoo' is from Winter in the Belly of a Snake, and is part of the medley of tracks available here

Venetian Snares - Twelve.mp3
Venetian Snares - Nepetalactone.mp3
Venetian Snares - Tattoo.mp3
Venetian Snares - Weinerpeg Mannertoeba.mp3

The Secret of Monkey Island

2005-04-30T16:15:00.000+01:00

I didn't own an Amiga, although I wish in a way I had one now, but I did get to play this game round at a friends house on his PC (I don't think I even had a computer at this point)

As with virtually every other old computer game, the soundtrack is pretty cool. I can't work out if I like music like this because I spent about 90% of my childhood sat zombified in front of one console or another and it has become a permanent fixture of my brain, or because it sounds similar to things like Ceephax Acid Crew etc.

For any die-hard fans, there is this film (part 1/part 2) made in tribute to the game, using lego...

The Secret of Monkey Island - SCUMM Bar.mp3
The Secret of Monkey Island - Main Theme.mp3

Somatic Responses

2005-04-24T18:36:00.000+01:00

Arriving at Jack's on Friday before midnight to find that Chris Clark was going to be on at 3:45am, and Ceephax Acid Crew was on at 4:30am was not exactly what I wanted to hear. Maybe I should have done my homework before hand, but I didn't really expect them to 'save' the two stars of the show until most people had either gone to bed or dropped a pill and fucked off into a state where they would dance to the sound of the traffic outside

So we waited patiently through the frankly unbearable crap that was on before, garnished with Candice Breitz-lite visuals using looped snippets of old cartoons, only to find an apparently pissed-off Clark playing a 45 minute set of distorted noise, followed by a DJ set by Ceephax that I couldn't really stay awake for. Great evening...

As the music wasn't up to much, the visuals got most of my attention, and it made me think whether they are necessary, especially after hearing about Autechre's recent gig, at which they just turned the lights off allowing everyone to experience just the music on its own. All this half-thought-about frenetic nonsense that we are bombarded with in clubs when we paid to hear the music is symptomatic of the ADHD-inducing advert culture we live in, and if anything it just detracts from the experience of listening to music rather than enhancing it

Anyway, on to today's post. Somatic Responses are a Welsh outfit producing fairly dark, fractured, almost industrial sounding music that could almost be a distant relative of Autechre's stuff. For a comparison in terms of sound, think AFX's remix of Nine Inch Nails' At The Heart of it All, played at double speed

Somatic Responses - Leek Soup.mp3
Somatic Responses - Replicant Dance.mp3
Somatic Responses - Tachicardia.mp3

Aphex Twin

2005-04-19T12:56:00.000+01:00

Think I may have been a little harsh on Aphex Twin in the last couple of posts. 'Contempt for the consumer' is hardly fair, as although the Analord series already appears a touch long in the tooth, his work represents far better value for money than most

I think the comparison between Rossz Csillag Allat Született and AFX's Girl/Boy EP is valid in terms of sound, but given that the Aphex record is the best part of 10 years older than Venetian Snares' effort, to compare them in terms of quality and complexity is unreasonable

The very fact that a lot of people describe the current stage of the development of electronic music as 'post-aphex' illustrates the massive impact he has had on music. Old masters inevitably attract criticism, and I suppose this is the way development and change is sustained in culture. And this track is nearly 10 years old! Still sounds awesome as far as I'm concerned...

Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song.mp3

Venetian Snares

2005-04-17T16:11:00.000+01:00

Regulars might be getting a little dismayed at the frequency of posts here relating to Venetian Snares (see here + here), but he is, as far as I'm concerned, without a rival at the moment in terms of quality

When the New Statesman reviewed Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow, they said it 'makes other novels, by comparison, seem simple-minded.' This is exactly how I feel about Snares' music - after listening to it for a while, most other stuff just seems a bit boring and it isn't long until I'm back listening to Mr Funk again.

His latest offering, released last month, is Rossz Csillag Allat Született. I've had it a couple of weeks and I've listened to very little else since getting it. By far my favourite album of his, it mixes his usual frenetic beats with strings to great effect. The sound is vaguely reminiscent of Aphex Twin's Girl/Boy EP, but the beats are characteristically tighter and more interesting on Snares' record

This is track two from the record - by no means my favourite, but its the one I'm listening to at the moment. The title translates as having something to do with the word 'click', but again I'm not 100%...

Venetian Snares - Szerencsétlen.mp3

Boards of Canada

2005-04-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

Conscious or otherwise, the brand management at Warp is impeccable (or at least was, until around 2003 when the label still had focus, i.e no Beans/Gravenhurst/!!! etc clogging up the release schedule with excrement)

Aphex Twin's manufactured arrogance involving imprinting his own face into one of his tracks (not to mention onto the faces of little girls and anything else Chris Cunningham thinks of) and cruising around the countryside in a tank is reflected in his "contempt for the consumer" release schedule involving remix albums and the seemingly inexhaustable Analord series of EPs

Boards of Canada's irregular release schedule, on the other hand, reflects their reclusive nature, and their themes of memory, deja vu and the forgotten which are prevalent in their work. That they should have a series of old tapes that are almost impossible to get hold of is perfect - forgotten, inaccessible recordings similar to those fragments of memories that are irretrievably lost. It adds to the sense of mystery that surrounds Eoin and Sandison, and in turn this adds to their allure. A collection of these tapes sold on eBay in America fairly recently for something absurd like $700 - they are highly sought after, so you can imagine how pleased I was to follow Totally Fuzzy's link to a collection of mp3s taken from the tape Old Tunes Vol. 2

Boards of Canada - Sir Prancelot Brainfire.mp3
Boards of Canada - Orange Hexagon Sun.mp3
Boards of Canada - Hiscores.mp3
Boards of Canada - Iraq Says.mp3

Slow Motion

2005-04-13T11:37:00.000+01:00

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Italian record label Disasters By Choice have released a pretty cool CD called Refractions, featuring Alog and Murcof and a number of other top people remixing artists on the label. Alog and Murcof both remix an act called Slow Motion, who I hadn't heard before this. R Drum sounds a little like Pan Sonic trying really hard to make anything resembling a pop song, whereas Yang Yin sounds a little like Fennesz

Slow Motion - R Drum.mp3
Slow Motion - Yang Yin.mp3

Shitmat

2005-04-11T21:20:00.000+01:00

This is great - recorded live at Restless in Vienna last year. Never heard Ace of Base sounding so good!

For those of you unfamiliar with Shitmat, he makes breakcore mixed with ragga and generally just messes with stuff and mashes it all together. Pretty rare to have such a sense of humour in music like this, but Shitmat has it by the bucket load

For more Planet Mu liveness check out Venetian Snares' Breezeblock set

Shitmat - live @ Restless, Vienna 20th March 2004.mp3

Fennesz

2005-04-07T12:12:00.000+01:00

It took a long time for me to like Fennesz, but it eventually grew on me...

Minimal texture-based ambience is where he excels - think Alog wth perhaps a little more melancholy thrown in. Fennesz actually recorded a Trollofon session (follow Alog link), but the trolley bus broke down after only a few minutes. Shame as his music fits nicely with the other sets that have been recorded

Fennesz - Blok M.mp3
Fennesz - Traxdata.mp3
Fennesz - C Street.mp3
Fennesz - Made in Hongkong
Fennesz - Track 04

firestARTer

2005-04-04T19:17:00.000+01:00

I can't get enough retro electronic stuff at the moment - tempted to dig out the Nintendo and get back into all that. firestARTer aka Thomas Margolf is taking things back to basics. Here's a live track recorded in Paris and a mix that he's released on Retinascan. I've posted a Retinascan artist before - see my Store post for more. If you want to get involved in the scene check out Micromusic.net

Oh and for an entire 40 track album of breakcore remixes of classic Nintendo tunes, check out my Saskrotch post. 'In the Next Room Lies Our Destiny' is especially wonderful

firestARTer - cute invasion (live in Paris).mp3
firestARTer mix.mp3

Boom Bip

2005-04-02T12:53:00.000+01:00

Boom Bip's touring at the moment. You can find a list of dates at the bottom of the page here

There seems to be loads going on in London in the next couple of months - I'm particularly looking forward to the Chris Clark and Ceephax Acid Crew gig on the 22nd of April. Also, Battles have been confirmed to play at the Prefuse 73 gig at Scala on the 20th. Going to be a good month...

Boom Bip - Do's and Don'ts.mp3
Boom Bip - The Move.mp3

Trollofon

2005-03-31T23:34:00.000+01:00

I've just come across this and I fucking love it. Go here to get the lowdown on the Trollofon project as it takes a little explanation. Essentially, Norway's best get together once in a while to produce some predictably excellent music on an old Skoda trolleybus, while it moves on its route. The power source for the gig is the overhead rail itself, so if the musicians go a bit crazy, the entire trolleybus network grinds to a halt

I've chosen a couple of these gigs to post, but the others are available here should you want them. The first is by Alog, who makes some gorgeous Phonophani style sounds. If you want another track by Alog, get over to it's a trap! - an excellent site for scandinavian music where you can get the superb 'The Youth of Mysterious Conversations'. The second set is by Kim Hiorthøy who is justifiably getting a lot of coverage at the moment. About time too...

Trollofon No 4 - Alog.mp3
Trollofon No 5 - Kim Hiorthøy.mp3

edIT

2005-03-03T19:10:00.000Z

More Planet Mu loveliness today

Go here for a track taken from 'Crying Over Pros For No Reason', which is available from Bleep

Also, explore the rest of the site - great blog is Nuclear Beef

Autechre

2005-02-27T16:49:00.000Z

In honour of their forthcoming album and tour

Autechre - Eutow.mp3

Aphex Twin

2005-02-24T15:38:00.000Z

If you haven't heard these, they are essential...

Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn.mp3
Aphex Twin - Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michael's Mount.mp3

Also, if you live in London, go here

Ceephax Acid Crew

2005-02-21T13:39:00.000Z

Image courtesy of Teletext, Then and Now

This track is taken from the full live set posted by Music Forest

Ceephax Acid Crew - Troon Transit (live).mp3

Venetian Snares (live)

2005-02-15T16:08:00.000Z

John Jacobs and Terry Robbins
Days of Rage
Chicago
October 1969

Venetian Snares - Breezeblock Session 11 Nov 03.mp3
Venetian Snares - live @ ATP 17 May 03.mp3

Cheers to Totally Fuzzy for this

Analord

2005-02-08T15:48:00.000Z

Matthew Barney Cremaster 5 1994

Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin etc is releasing a series of EPs on Rephlex under the name Analord

This is the first track from the first EP

Analord - SteppingFilter 101.mp3

Analord 10 is currently out of print but 1 & 2 can be bought from Warpmart

Bill Wells Trio

2005-02-06T19:47:00.000Z

Bill Wells, along with Stefan Schneider and Anne Whitehead, makes excellent wind and percussion based simplicity

Bill Wells Trio - Pick Up Sticks.mp3
Bill Wells Trio - A Soldier's Shoulder.mp3
Bill Wells Trio - Three Line Prayer Part One.mp3

dDamage

2005-02-04T17:04:00.000Z

dDamage is on Planet Mu

This track is taken from the Japanese evenement! compilation

dDamage - Boggle.mp3

Aesop Rock

2005-02-03T18:16:00.000Z

The Andromeda Strain 1971

The best rapper in the world?

These are both taken from the self-released Appleseed EP of 1999

Aesop Rock - Hold the Cup.mp3
Aesop Rock - Same Space (The Tugboat Complex part 2).mp3

He has a new EP out called Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives which includes an 88 page book with all his lyrics from Float onwards

T. Raumschmiere

2005-01-24T13:10:00.000Z

Carsten Höller Loverfinches 1995

Firstly, a note about the image. I have decided that instead of nicking pictures from the featured artist's website, I will from now on choose a picture of interest for each of my posts

I went to see Venetian Snares live on Thursday, and I'll have to admit, it was a bit of a disappointment. He seemed to just play to the crowd's semi-retarded desire for bog-standard drum and bass just a little too much. It was almost as if he figured we wouldn't 'get' his stranger stuff

Anyway, being there reminded me of the last gig I'd seen at that venue, which was the Shitkatapult night. T. Raumschmiere headlined that night, which is fair enough I suppose given its his label. He appeared to be totally fucked, and fell over on stage at least once...

T. Raumschmiere - Querstromzerspaner (edit).mp3
T. Raumschmiere - #2.mp3
T. Raumschmiere - Substrom.mp3

Check out my Apparat post for more Shitkatapult stuff

Manitoba / Caribou

2005-01-07T22:16:00.000Z

Criminally ignored in my posts on Leaf, Manitoba has caught my attention recently, especially Crayon - awesome tune

Forced to change names after some twat (the guy on the right) sued him for the use of the word 'manitoba', he now operates under the Caribou moniker

His website claims to post two new tracks for free download each week, which is nice...

Manitoba - Crayon.mp3
Manitoba - Tits and Ass - The Great Canadian Weekend.mp3
Manitoba - Air Doom.mp3

Bostich

2005-01-02T18:13:00.000Z

Following Radio Babylon's post, I've been listening to this guy quite a bit

Thought I'd repost that tune and put out an extra one that I found...

Bostich - Autobanda.mp3
Bostich - Polaris.mp3

Bushwhacked

2004-12-29T17:21:00.000Z

Chris Morris has put these two pieces together and they're perfect...

Chris Morris - Bushwhacked 1.mp3
Chris Morris - Bushwhacked 2.mov

Mike Nourse's video is cool too...

Mike Nourse - Terror, Iraq, Weapons.ram

Found this via an interesting article in Res magazine

Marais & Miranda

2004-12-18T11:43:00.000Z

Something a little different...

Marais and Miranda - Bobo the Bear.mp3
Marais and Miranda - What is a Mammal?.mp3
Marais and Miranda - Eohippus.mp3

More here if you like them

Also check out my Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans post for more educational delights...

Sound of Music

2004-12-10T17:47:00.000Z

Nice combination of Julie Andrews and Phonophani

Taken from this site

Phonophani/Julie Andrews - Sound of Transition.mp3

Matmos

2004-12-03T14:30:00.000Z

Matmos - The Struggle Against Unreality Begins.mp3
Matmos - Sun on 5 at 12.mp3

The Microphones

2004-12-02T13:50:00.000Z

I love The Microphones. Really lo-fi, simple, gorgeous tracks that still sound awesome on headphones. Lanterns is a track I only heard recently and it renewed my interest in the band, who had been an old favourite. Sounds a little like Venetian Snares on loads of valium remixing Low.

The Microphones - I Want Wind to Blow.mp3
The Microphones - The Moon.mp3
The Microphones - I Felt Your Shape.mp3
The Microphones - Lanterns.mp3

Jimmy Edgar

2004-11-27T20:00:00.000Z

DJ set taken from the Breezeblock show on Radio 1

Jimmy Edgar - Breezeblock Set.mp3

Aphex Twin

2004-11-25T19:26:00.000Z

Found this recently - its both cds of Drukqs played simultaneously...

Nice idea? Maybe. Some of it sounds pretty noisy, other parts sound sublime.

You decide...

Aphex Twin - Drukqs (both cds played simultaneously).mp3

Nullsleep

2004-11-23T13:38:00.000Z

Depeche Mode tracks sounding like a soundtrack to an old Gameboy game...

Check out 8 Bit Peoples for more info

Nullsleep - Depeche Mode Megamix.mp3

Store

2004-11-22T17:14:00.000Z

Fuck!... Please excuse my lack of posts for a while - I've been kind of swamped with work and I really haven't found that much music to shout about recently, partly due to the fact that I haven't had any time to look for it...

But, thankfully found some.

Taken from Retinascan's free MP3 section, this is Store...

Store - Graupel.mp3
Store - Senke.mp3

Saskrotch

2004-11-04T17:56:00.000Z

Classic Nintendo tunes remixed...

Essential

Saskrotch - Nintendo Breakz Volume One.zip