Posts in Music

Brooklyn’s Collin Palmer aka Calmer fuses psychedelic elements with Jazz influenced compositions in the most well constructed and exciting ways. In this song “Past is Present” Calmer offers up a real dreamy yet driving piece that will take you from having goosebumps to completely relaxing within seconds by dropping a wall of colorful sound in front of you. Calmer is known in Brooklyn for his unique setup on stage usually playing on custom shaped cymbals that he has cracked or bent himself and 60’s surfing documentaries playing in the background, well worth your time to catch live if you haven’t seen him. Head on over to XLR8R to pick up a free track of his called “Open Source”.

It’s Friday and I know you wanna hear some J Dilla since you haven’t probably put on Donuts in a month atleast and thats a shame.

I have to thank Praveen for sending me over a record that I would of probably never picked up unless I was bored in line at Starbucks. The CD would have be playing on the speakers and the CD case was the only thing within reach to read besides the menu. I’m not saying Bon Iver is playing at Starbucks but I wouldn’t be surprised, it has indie-pop singer/songwriter written all over it and everyone is talking about this record. I actually found 3 tracks on it that I really like, i’m actually looking forward to them popping up on shuffle. Bon offers what I like in acoustic guitar playing which is this slow repetitive drive but thats not what is grabbing, a lot of the simple background additions really make this song plus his voice doesn’t sound like some annoying kid from Austin or Seattle or David Gray.

I grabbed this Marius Vareid track from Tom Croose who’s mixes I sometimes post here and i’m pretty sure he got it from the talented crew on Dream Chimney. Guess what it is? yes some slow disco but this time more on the drumkit and guitar angle. I thought it would be nice jam to gradually head into the weekend.

Calmer – Past Is Present

J Dilla – Gobstopper

Bon Iver – Lump Sum

Marius Vareid – Skumle Planer

One of the most important non musical to do’s for a musician/designer is getting a proper press photo in my opinion. This is your chance to show a ton of your personality and a big step in getting writers on board for a feature or helping them to understand your musical direction at that time. This doesn’t mean you have to show your face, take for example the fact that we never saw Burial’s face for more than a year — we just had that drawing of him — but it set the mood I thought. If you’re a musician or even graphic designer, I think brainstorming out some ideas first is well worth your time when doing a press shot. We’ve all worn out the standing in a urban landscape, the blurry shot at a live show, or standing still like a mannequin with a white background. So from 2009 and on i’d love to see photographers really grabbing the personality out of their subjects (Timothy Saccenti’s excellent work comes to mind). This kind of effort in a press photo could make or break you chances with bloggers or writers many times prompting them to use your photo above a couple other things they’re writing about that day. At any rate, a good shot definitely increases your chances of being written about.

Above are a few of my favorites [from top to bottom: Kraftwerk, Boys Noize, Erlend Oye, Jimmy Edgar, Jarvis Cocker]

I definitely count The Smiths’ 1984 Hatful of Hollow as one of my top 20 all time. This is one of those albums that makes you want to post the whole thing but I thought it would be a good challenge to try to narrow it down to three songs. I posted the re-issue version of the cover—featuring a cropped version of Gilles Decroix’s now iconic image (layout/design by Caryn Gough)—as I prefer its design to the bordered original. I really like the overall visual style of their release art, that sort of duo-tone screen print thing that Belle & Sebastian later used to such great effect. Out of the three standout tracks I ended up choosing, at least one of them—This Night Has Opened My Eyes—would make both my top 50 songs and top 10 basslines list. I love that smooth 70’s DI tone, always amazing how good a lot of the older Peel Session tracks sound considering they weren’t studio recordings in the conventional sense.

This Night Has Opened My Eyes

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I want

How Soon Is Now?

I’ve collected a few upcoming wonderful ambient releases to look forward to in early 2009. Since the only released artwork really is this Belong art, it will have to do but it’s actually really beautiful I think. I saw a small version of Tim Hecker‘s art for his release in February of “An Imaginary Country” but it was a bit too small to use. The beginning of Sea of Pulses is like jumping into the middle of a Fennesz/M83 collaborative concert that is slowly finishing up a 9+ minute piece. The song slightly dies down and it sounds like a voice takes over for a bit which at that moment it has already knocked off Animal Collective’s Brother Sport as my favorite song(for now) of 2009.

If you haven’t heard of Manual before then be ready to put your coat on because your heading over to your local record store. Moonlit Shores is the first song i’ve found off the upcoming Danelectro LP and this track gives me so much hope that ambient music will really take off in 2009. In just a few minutes into this 12 minute piece you can feel out what setting Manual wanted you to experience when hearing this song, the simplicity of it lets you focus on whatever beautiful part of the song you want to hear, well done my friend.

Pan American is back, that’s pretty much all I have to say to some people. Can we take a second and thank Kranky records for what seems to be the starting of an uncanny new year.

For some reason I thought I already posted this Belong song, I was almost positive. When listening to this song make sure you have a little bit of bass rumble to accompany the exquisite drown going on, it almost makes me nauseous in the best possible way. Have you started listening to the song yet? are you at least 2 minutes in? beautiful right?

Tim Hecker – Sea of Pulses

Manual – Moonlit Shores

Pan American – How Much Progress One Makes

Belong – October Language

First off, your going to have to excuse the cover choice but it was the best one out of the 4 songs for today. Let’s get right to it, there’s a new Animal Collective record coming out January 13th and from what i’ve read it sounds really promising. I listened to a lot of Animal Collective songs last night just to figure out what i’m attracted to in their songwriting and I noticed all the songs I do want to hear over and over like Leaf House, Grass, #1, Peacebone, Brother Sport and Visiting Friends all have either these driving low tom hits or have repetitive loopy melodies that I don’t mind hearing for minutes upon minutes. What I love about the new songs like “Bluish” and “Brother Sport” are the vocal styles though, like in “Brother Sport” the last 1:30 might be my favorite section of an Animal Collective song.

I found this Airiel song yesterday which i’m kind of on the fence about after I looked at their myspace. On one hand I wonder if this is the real thing meaning do they really love this style of music because their over stylized haircuts and upfront vocals make me think its just to get girls but the thought out catchy elements of the song make me love them, so I guess sometimes its best if I don’t meet the musicians and let myself just enjoy the songs.

I love The Juan Maclean, he doesn’t ever do anything that I dislike, from his remix of Matthew Dear to his classic sounding “Happy House” track to originals that put him on the map like “You Can’t Have It Both Ways”. This new remix for The Twelves has this unstoppable disco guitar and perfectly placed vocals in the mix because they’re never overpowering.

This A Sunny Day in Glasgow group out of Philly reminds me of Ulrich Schnauss at times but its like they only took a section of a song and repeated it unlike a growing shoegaze track. The mix of the song is a little rough too because the bassline that comes in is really nice but never really comes to life and that higher pitched synth note that comes in and out could be more drowned out. The girls vocal definitely has her moments 2 mins in and the overall dreamy effort makes me go back to it.

Animal Collective – Bluish

Airiel – Cinnamon

The Twelves – Be My Crush [The Juan MacLean’s Rio Mix]

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Watery

I really never got into Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, Wilco etc in the past but I always knew everyone else had it covered but after looking for more music thru blogs I am trying out everything. This song “Keep It Clean” is really nice, kinda reminds me of if Stereolab didn’t oversaturate their old sound. The cover has a great layout and is pretty Indietastic(one of the best Human Giant skits featuring the Other Music record store).

If you’re liking any of the slower disco on the blog check out the label Permanent Vacation which usually features some great compilations. This 40 Thieves track came out on Permanent Vacation last year and has been on repeat on my computer and also has these great elements that warm a crowd up early on to get people ready to fill the floor. Once you have the dance floor filled this edit by Prince Language of Gino Soccio might be my favorite song to play and dance to.

Los Angeles indie Hip Hop had some great moments in 2008, Flying Lotus and Samiyam paved the way for a lot of new faces. One of my favorite tracks was Roberta Flack and this remix by Mike Slott kept all the outstanding parts in there highlighted but added some great new pieces, well worth your time to check out.

Camera Obscura – Keep It Clean

40 Thieves – Don’t Turn It Off feat. Qzen

Gino Soccio – Love Is (Edit De Prince Language)

Flying Lotus – Roberta Flack (Mike Slott’s Other Mix)

I hope everyone has fully recovered from their New Year’s Eve celebrations and had some time to rest yesterday. Yesterday I had some time to compare notes with some other site’s TOP 10 albums of the year and noticed what I didn’t add but I still think mine holds up nicely. Would you guys care if I put up my TOP 25 singles for the year? or is that just going overboard?

One way I look for tracks is by going thru DJs myspace’s and looking at their charts for upcoming months. Usually guys from Hamburg, Berlin, or even older Detroit guys have their finger’s placed nicely on the best new music pulse. One name that came up was this Petar Dundov who made some really nice dubby techno. “Oasis” chugs along nicely, seems like a song you could play for your parents and be like “hey, I know you think you hate techno but check this out” kind of a nice gentle way to ease them into the genre instead of playing some favorite of yours like “Spastik”.

I didn’t know much about Stel when I received his remix for One Of Them’s “Sometimes I Feel Like” but right off the bat it caught my ear. With the French vocal attached he takes a deep house song somewhere i’d like to hear lounge music go into in the future.

I found Montag a long time ago when I was obsessed with Carpark records putting out Casino Versus Japan and Marumari(oh those were the days). He has some great licensable tracks, I feel like him and Styrofoam would of made a better Postal Service than what Gibbard and Dntel did.

Everyone knows Iceland’s Mum here I hope, Scott posted a wonderful track months ago. I had to add this track to the blog because of how simple it is and it makes you feel like you grew up with the group under some moss covered rock that had toy train sets, hand voice recorders and xylaphones.

Petar Dundov – Oasis – Substance & Vainqueur Remix

One Of Them – Sometimes I Feel Like (Stel Remix)

Montag – Best Boy Electric

Mum – I’m 9 Today

So, I love Madvillian but I never noticed that one of my favorite tracks “Accordion” was just sampled from an original by Daedelus called “Experience”, check the similarities below.
Futuristic Hip Hop producer Dabrye has finally shown up this year with a mighty fine remix for King Midas Sound. This track took some time to grow on me because of the vox but the instrumental is pure gold since i’ve been on a huge dubstep kick.
One track that i’ve wanted to post for some time now is this Rustie track but I always thought it might be too rowdy for the blog but the more I listen its not too rowdy, right? You need to at least let it play to around the 1:37 mark so you can hear this muted sped up vibraphone melody. This Rustie kid is pretty amazing and he looks super young though but so do I (blows on nails) I hope he keeps up with this sound. If you like this Rustie guy you should also check out Bar 9, Starkey, and the BBC famous Wiley, they’re all on this rowdy dubstep tip.

Madvillian – Accordion

Daedelus – Experience

King Midas Sound – One Ting (Dabrye Remix)

Rustie – Response

So you lose all your music right? what are your go to albums to keep you sane during the rebuilding process? Well the first thing I went for was Arthur Russell because I knew I could grab all the songs I have on ISO50 second but what didn’t I have up here for you guys to hear was the question. My friend Fred Thomas aka City Center is suppose to get me some of the other essential Arthur Russell but this album “Another Thought” is just so refreshing when you listen to so much instrumental electronic thru the day.
I know everyone here probably has DJ Shadow’s “Endtroducing…” CD or LP but its probably not a go to day to day listening for everyone and that’s not posted on sites a lot. The key melody at 3:42 kills me every time in this song, does anyone know where he sampled it from? The album is in the Guinness World Records as being the first album created entirely from sampled sources so it has to be from something else.
One disc that I had the day I lost my hard drive was left to me by Peter Kersten aka Lawrence which had a lot of unreleased Dial Records releases. It had the new Efdemin EP on Curle which is simply gorgeous when played on a large system. One thing I noticed is this song reminds me of an Aphex Twin track, All that comes to mind is the Classics LP but nothing on that is it I don’t think.
If you ever go to a DFA party in New York you usually get the pleasure of hearing one of the 2 guys from Runaway DJ sometime during the night. I know it’s Monday but if you want to dance a bit in your sit to “Brooklyn Club Jam” its alright by me.

Arthur Russell – Keeping Up

DJ Shadow – Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt

Efdemin – America

Runaway – Brooklyn Club Jam

Pepsi stepped up it’s game in my opinon and simplified their brand really nicely (Please excuse the iPhone camera photos but I didn’t bring my camera to the grocery store like usual). Not only did they change the logo, but they’ve changed the swoosh slightly a bit for each variety of (i.e. Diet, Caffeine-Free, and Max). I was pretty impressed mainly because they had the new logos sitting next to the old ones which has these blue pixel explosions in the background and so much unwanted text. Stepping back and seeing a wall of the simple new blue pepsi 2 liters all aligned was pretty beautiful even though i’m a Coca-Cola fan. One other good layout addition was the abbreviation of the 0 calorie, carbohydrates, and sugar text aligned nicely under the logo. Don’t get me wrong though, i’m not a complete fan of the Microsoft gamer X in the font. Do you think this means Mountain Dew will get a new logo? Oh my there is a graphic design god and he cares.

In celebration lets listen to Aphex Twin:

Aphex Twin – Polynomial-C