Posts in Music

Odd Nosdam+Charles Trees+Max Tundra

"THIS IS MY ELEMENT" SOUNDTRACK
I’ve been in love with some of the songs on the new Odd Nosdam LP that just came out this month on the hard working Anticon label. I haven’t really heard anything like this song Ethereal Slap since Marumari’s Supermogadon which definitely isn’t as heavy hitting. Root Bark by Odd Nosdam is more soundtrack-ish but really is unhateable, perfect for a skateboarding soundtrack which I think is what this LP is suppose to be for.

Fans of Samiyam and Flying Lotus need to check out Charles Trees, he has an upbeat crunchy authentic sound that might be able to find in Daedelus’ but also hits as hard as Dabrye.

I’m always happy to hear and support Max Tundra, he is needed in music because he breaks down pop barriers and weeds out and finds the real music lovers that care for avant pop, the video below is shot in such a simple yet attractive way in my mind, reminds me of some Electric Company promo.

Odd Nosdam – Ethereal Slap

[audio:slap.mp3]

Odd Nosdam – Root Bark

[audio:rootbark.mp3]

Charles Trees – It’s The…

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Max Tundra – Will Get Fooled Again

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Max Tundra – Will Get Fooled Again Video

Fleischmann+Wisp+Departure+Milano

Bernard Fleischmann
These 3 songs by Bernhard Fleischmann, Wisp, and Departure Lounge are good examples of 3 completely different genres that I really wouldn’t know how to tag with a specific genre. Wisp on one hand sounds like he should be making all the fantasy video game music for any World of Warcraft game in 2010 specifically any epic winter levels. Bernhard Fleischmann sounds like a sped up Mum song that put the guitar and drums priority in the mixdown while Departure Lounge has more of a northern Midwest feel with layered finger picking and some gently placed feedback that’d probably drive a mastering guy nuts.

I’m not sure where I remember first seeing this La Serenissima video but it hit my nostalgia button right away, seems like the studio that drew the original G.I. Joe animated series must of done it, i’m not exactly sure though. I wish more cartoons we’re drawn like this, i’d probably watch them religiously.

Bernhard Fleischmann – Composure

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Wisp – Where It Falls

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Departure Lounge – Alone Again But…

[audio:aloneagain.mp3]

Allegro Milano – La Serenissima

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Allegro Milano – La Serenissima

Portable live in Japan 2005

Bodycode/Portable by PhilistineDSGNBerlin-based Alan Abrahams has earned a lot of attention lately. His albums as Portable for the Background and ~scape imprints have garnered near-universal acclaim for their deft fusion of tribal rhythms and a modern micro-house sensibility. For his first LP as Bodycode, The Conservation of Electric Charge, Abrahams focuses on the more dancefloor-oriented aspects of his style, yielding a gorgeous album born from the belief that the psyche can be unlocked via the body. Bodycode also came from necessity ? while on tour playing club dates, Abrahams was compelled to seek the most engaging sound for that environment. Remarkably adept at its task, Bodycode?s mesmerizing percussive arrangements and subtle melodic flourishes create an immediately engaging sound that lingers in the mind long after the club has closed.

I just saw Alan aka Portable/Bodycode play last night on a freezing rooftop outdoors right around Union Square in New York and he blew my mind. Alan makes pure body music that’s straight from his roots of South Africa, if anyone is doing any tribal house music properly its him. He also slowly falls into some beautiful droned out breakdowns that aren’t like anything else, so there is something here for the world music(sadly this genre has such a bad rep) and ambient fans as well.

Download the Live set HERE

Portable – Live in Japan 2005

[audio:portablelive.mp3]

Branca+Addled+Simon+The Sea and Cake

Glenn Branca
My friend Danny passed on a Glenn Branca EP to me tonight, one that I didn’t have and we started talking about him. Glenn Branca seems to be the poster boy for all the experimental guitar bands that want to do something new these days but they don’t understand that they can’t repeat the past and pretend like their doing something groundbreaking. I don’t think anyone these days would be able to put out music similar to what Glenn Branca did during the time he was doing it, you’d only be doing it for the wrong reasons. This new wave of bands in the past 8 years or so are enjoyable but in my opinion just come off as “I need attention but don’t actually look at what i’m doing because i’m actually not creative at all”. Sadly these musicians today can buy their way into sounding and mainly looking like they have some talent. Walking up and down the streets of Brooklyn you can almost smell and see the fake talent, at first you can fall for it but then talking to more and more people you end up finding out they aren’t offering up anything pure or willing to potentially going mental to perfect their technic and sound. I just want people like Glenn Branca to get more credit because listing him off as an influence only is almost saying that your similar to him but you aren’t you actually have to take any of the time that you’re getting any attention and use it thank the originator.

Addled is half of Worst Friends and he loves his Boston Red Sox, sharing what great good house/techno records come out on Tuesdays, and most importantly making a variety of music. Recently he’s worked on music that was used in a Prada video and in the past he made some of the music for The New York Times. His first EP as Addled is one that follows the footsteps of James Holden and Paul Kalkbrenner but touches a new level of listening since its less clubby than both and is more on the deeper side and melodic side.

I feel like I post a lot of Paul Simon but really I don’t actually if anything I don’t post enough Paul Simon.

I always thought I liked Sam Prekop more than The Sea and Cake but then I listened to some more Sea and Cake and realized I was thinking crazy things. Whenever I have to deal with the rock guy that thinks electronic music is too repetitive than I just have to share with him The Sea and Cake and say Its not that you don’t like repetitiveness because obviously this is amazing, it’s just that the person doesn’t care for unique sounds or can fathom the idea a synth playing more parts than their are people on stage and that just ticks him right off.

Glenn Branca – Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar

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Addled – Heartbreachno

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Paul Simon – The Coast

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The Sea and Cake – Weekend

[audio:weekend.mp3]

Eliot Lipp – Live from the Beat Bunker

Eliot Lipp - Live At The Beat Bunker
Eliot Lipp’s 2009 has been one of the more productive one’s out there, having released his new album Peace Love Weed 3D and organizing a 40+ date tour you wouldn’t think he’d have the time to head into the studio to record a live studio session. The mix features some of the more talked about names in Electronic/Hip Hop right now like Mux Mool, Nosaj Thing, Black Milk, and Michna. Some of the highlights in my opinion are Beamrider which is a live set favorite of mine and the ever so popular recent Warp track Overnight.

Eliot Lipp – Live From the Beat Bunker
DOWNLOAD THE FULL LIVE SET HERE

Eliot Lipp – Live From the Beat Bunker

[audio:beatbunker.mp3]

Pop Ambient 2009

Pop Ambient 2009
The record heads over at Kompakt have done it again by continuing to floor ambient lovers with one of the best compilation series of the 21st century. Pop Ambient 2009 has some jaw dropping moments, for example when you pick up the CD and find out that Tim Hecker, Burger/Voigt and Mint all make appearances then its an easy sell for any frequent ambient music buyer. The compilation starts out with what maybe could of been William Basinski’s original Disintegration Loops but with a layer of brass added by the ever talented Klimek. Popnoname comes in with one of the most gentle and entrancing melodic pieces. Freshman Sylvain Chauveau carries us into a more looped lo-fi laptop folk sound that seems to be a new branch that Kompakt has added under the Pop Ambient umbrella. The real show stealers are Burger/Voigt who really knock us back, the song Frieden gets me so excited that I almost become ill from my uncontrollable slow swaying, minute after minute I just think about how exciting it is to be able to own this song. For those who haven’t ever purchased a Pop Ambient compilation than this is a perfect one to begin on since its one of the more diverse and inviting collections because of its use of guitars and soft noise.

Rating: 8.8/10

Similar: Kranky Kompilation | Idol Tryouts 2: Disc 2 SMM | Expanse At Low Levels | Good Night: Music To Sleep By

Sylvain Chauveau – Fly Like A Horse

[audio:sylvain.mp3]

Burger/Voigt – Frieden

[audio:frieden.mp3]

Popnoname – Nightliner

[audio:popnoname.mp3]

Minotaur Shock+Lapaglia+Wink+Webb

Joe LapagliaMinotaur Shock at first never caught my ear because I skipped thru the songs too quickly but the meat and potatoes of “Luck Shield” makes me so disappointed in myself that I didn’t catch this song before. The song sounds like a collaboration between Mum, Calmer and Final Fantasy because of the gentle melodies, the jazzier drum at times and its heavy on the strings in the main parts.

Niagara Fall’s americana lo-fi folk artist Joe Lapalgia only has a 5 track EP under his belt but that doesn’t mean his sound isn’t mature, with hints of Red House Painters and Bon Iver on the Day Behind EP I definitely see a bright future for this young man.

If you’re listening to song after song on this post then jumping from lo-fi folk to tech-house sometimes might be a bit of a stretch especially on a Monday but Josh Wink is a definite veteran in making some of the catchiest dancefloor tracks.

I’m still trying to figure out this song that Andy Webb “blended”, is it pieces from different songs by each musician listed? if so, is the song title also pieces of song titles as well? either way it sounds like an extended Cut Copy remix in my opinion thats done really well but pretty much anything Erlend Oye is on is gold so good choice(s) Mr. Webb.

Minotaur Shock – Luck Shield

[audio:shield.mp3]

Joe Lapaglia – Birds Flew By

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Josh Wink – Everybody to the Sun

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The Whitest Boy Alive vs Mylo vs Cut Copy – Otto’s Golden Journey (Andy Webb’s Dreamy Blend)

[audio:otto.mp3]

Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest

The FiremanI’ve been meaning to share this reissue of Paul McCarthney’s side project The Fireman. I’m really fascinated in every sound he uses in this collection of songs but almost each song sounds the same on the LP. I’m guessing it might be for something as simple as meditation use or maybe there was a longer version of this LP as just one live set that he pieced out into songs and he ran the same sounds thru the whole piece? what do you guys think?

The Fireman – Trans Lunar Rising

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The Fireman – Celtic Stomp

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Ratatat+Terje+Troxler+McCartney

Ratatat - Mirando - Animal Collective RemixAnimal Collective keeps pulverizing the 2009 year, this time with a remix for Brooklyn’s Ratatat duo. This isn’t a song you skip around on and decide you don’t like because you sit thru the first 2 minutes and it might not do anything for you but where they build from there to about the 7 minute mark is a complete mind bend that can only be described by me as if the NES game Jackal(where you drive around in the Jeep’s) completely went spastic into some stuttering dream sequence which sounds awful but its a good thing.

One of the first records Tom Croose ever played me was this Paul Simon edit by Todd Terje, now I always ask him to play it whenever he dj’s out around town.

I’ve known Seth Troxler since he was in his teens, a definite talent in the house/techno world. He has this ear for perfecting tweaked vocals and keeping a song interesting by getting a new sound out of what works on the dance floor. The part where he comes in is where he disassembles tracks and follows the paths of people like Arthur Russell and Matthew Dear.

To keep with the older music kick recently I wanted to share/confess i’m not a big Beatles fan but I am a fan of this Paul McCartney song, some friends of mine have tried to play me some Beatles but I just couldn’t do it until I heard one record they did and it really grabbed me but I can’t for the life of me remember which one it was, its not that important, its not like there music is going to disappear anytime soon.

Ratatat – Mirando (Animal Collective remix)

[audio:mirando.mp3]

Paul Simon – Diamonds Dub (Tangoterje Edit)

[audio:tangoterje.mp3]

Seth Troxler – Love Never Sleeps

[audio:sleeps.mp3]

Paul McCartney & Wings – Let ‘Em In

[audio:letem.mp3]

Mum+Studio+Aeroplane+UR

Mum4 stunning and steady tracks for a monday afternoon, i’ve included more Studio which I re-fell in love with over the weekend and some recent purchases of tracks that I only had on vinyl. The Underground Resistance track is a must listen if you want to get a taste of the melodic side Detroit Techno.

Múm – Flow Not So Fast Old Mountain Radio

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Studio – Origin

[audio:origin.mp3]

Aeroplane – Aeroplane

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UR – Abandoned Building In Mono

[audio:mono.mp3]