Posts in Music

Can I redo my 2008 best of list? So my hard drive completely died this week and most of my music wasn’t backed up. Now I’m piecing back together my iTunes library with the help of a lot of friends. My friend Praveen sent me this Lone – Lemurian LP this morning and my jaw has slowly been dropping throughout the day. It’s if Flying Lotus and Casino Versus Japan had a baby, I can’t stop listening to it. Maybe I’m overly passionate because of the hard drive failure, but I think this may be the real deal. Let me know what you think, I know there are some Boards Of Canada fans lurking around on the blog from time to time but Lone isn’t as dark as BoC, at least not from what i’ve heard. How unfitting is that cover though?

Lone – Interview at Honolulu

Lone – Koran Angel

Lone – Phthalo Blue

#1 Sten – The Essence (Dial)

Peter Kersten and his label Dial is my go to music when I just need to not fiddle with a playlist for an hour, nod my head with a smile, or just lay back and enjoy simple beautiful 4/4 deep techno. “The Essence ” is packed to the brim of exactly what I want to hear if every else was gone or if I made music.
Peter strips down songs to their essentials, he doesn’t rely on popular band instruments or lyrics. He just goes straight to what is deep and comfy like a rich man’s large living room couch. The Essence lets you have the option of focusing and listening to his songs and never needing your attention.

Sten – Daylight

#2 Studio – Yearbook 2 (Information)

Studio has become that band in my life that i’ll always check out no matter what, you can say it’s become my essential NPR listen for the Subaru Outback driving lady that’s heading to work at the recycle center. Listen to Rubies: Room Without A Key (Studio version).

#3 Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (Warp)

Not once this year have I skipped over a Flying Lotus song off Los Angeles when my iTunes is on shuffle, thats kinda huge if you think about it. Listen to Flying Lotus – Roberta Flack (feat Dolly).

#4 Atlas Sound – Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (4AD)

Bradford Cox of Atlas Sound brings me to my knees, If I listen to the track “Recent Bedroom” anymore right now i’ll end up putting it #1 for the year but I have made up my mind. Listen to Atlas Sound – Recent Bedroom.

#5 Benoit Pioulard – Temper (Kranky)

Whatever Benoit Pioulard does is magic in my eyes. If it’s printing limited colored 7 inch vinyl randomly thru the year to selling his polaroids. When I heard “Temper” this year it became that record that I wanted to give to everyone I knew, I wanted to scream about Temper from the top of a mountain but all I had was Scott’s ISO50 blog which will always do. Listen to Benoit Pioulard – Brown Bess.

#6 Hatchback – Colors Of The Sun (Lo)

Do you know anything about analog synth heaven? well, pack your bags tonight, empty your bank account and steal a convertible preferably maroon or that 80’s silver because you my friend need night driving music. You will be driving on the coasts and living the secret life now as Hatchback. Listen to Hatchback – Everything is Neu.

#7 Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair (DFA)

The disco group that went all out and did it right. Full band, dancers, horns, and not in your face just the perfect party starting music from start to finish. Listen to Hercules And Love Affair – Blind.

#8 VA – Cosmic Balearic Beats Vol. 1 (Eskimo)

The Balearic sound really showed its true colors this year, we had the very talented Eskimo label put out a nonstop slue of treasure and this continuous mix became a vinyl collectors best friend packed with a various amount of new Balearic tracks. Listen to Maelstrom – Petrichor.

#9 Omar S. – Collected (FXHE)

Even though the Carl Craig’s, the Kevin Saunderson’s and the Derrick May’s are flying around the world and enjoying the fruits of their labor by playing shows, there are still heads left that rock out proper Detroit Techno day after day and I have to support it because I adore it.

Omar S. – Day

#10 Cousin Cole & Pocketknife – Tambourine Dream (Flagrant Fowl)

The kids look like their 17 and their making slow disco edits of Bruce Springsteen, Feist, John Lennon and Paul Simon, how promising is that!

Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire (Cousin Cole’s Bad Desire Mix)

2008 was a great year for music, so good that an honorable mention section is a must. Before I post my top 10 albums of 2008 here are 3 albums that didn’t make the list that should of if there was room.

#13 Portishead – The Rip

#12 M83 – Couleurs

#11 Deerhunter – Agoraphobia

I don’t want to overwhelm the blog with ambient music because if I just posted what I listen to 70% of the time you’d be all in bed by 8pm every night but completely comfy and in dreamland. Hold on though, this isn’t just any kind of ambient though here on ISO50, I usually have to dig though alot of mediocre releases to find the gems to share with you and today i’ve found 2 Cullinan diamonds(largest polished diamond). The legendary Fennesz has put out a new LP called Black Sea this month and its drop dead gorgeous. Below is just a hint of the what the album has to offer, I already see it popping up everywhere on Best Albums of 2008.
As for something more bright, bold and beautifully orchestrated with soft dynamics and gentle samples of polaroid cameras taking pictures of friends laughing, Shigeto and A Setting Sun offer up their new Table For Two EP(that is name your own price for only 1 week) that is only comparable to uncovering a room of someone’s lifelong hard work of putting a miniature smalltown together. The detail and enjoyment of making a song like Polaroid Romance makes me want to stop everything and work on making music.

Fennesz – Saffron Revolution

Shigeto / A Setting Sun – Polaroid Romance

Speaking of Detroit, my friend Alex sent me this video tonight. I couldn’t find the song on Beatport so I’m posting this YouTube clip for the time being. Although not a big fan of vocals with this type of music, the sounds on this track more than make up for it. Wish I could get an instrumental edit of this, something here really reminds me of late-century Full Cycle stuff, sounds appropriately post-DnB. There’s more over at Theo Parrish’s Last.fm Page.

Guitarist and electronic musician Christopher Willits continues his monthly series from SoundArts studio. In this episode, Willits proves the future is now by showing you how your iPhone can control Ableton and Max/MSP.

Tune in once a month as Christopher shows us some of the ways he produces his own music, as well as the many cool things you can do with recording software. According to Christopher, “I simply want to excite people’s imaginations and creative processes so they can more easily create the sounds and music and art they love.”

For more What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits? visit XLR8R TV

What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits? Part 6

HIGH TECH SOUL is the first documentary to tackle the deep roots of techno music alongside the cultural history of Detroit, its birthplace. From the race riots of 1967 to the underground party scene of the late 1980s, Detroit’s economic downturn didn’t stop the invention of a new kind of music that brought international attention to its producers and their hometown.

High Tech Soul – The Creation of Techno Music

High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music from Plexifilm on Vimeo.

Well, I’ve been hyper-busy getting ready for the big move to California, so sorry for the lack of posting!

In my absence, I totally missed the release of College’s Secret Diary. The Teenage Color EP was great, but it lacked a little something. . . something to make it memorable. Secret Diary takes over and delivers just that. Great release.

College – The Energy Story

College – I Need a Better Engine

You may remember Fujiya & Miyagi’s phenomenal animated dice video for “Ankle Injuries” from last year (view it below). Well they’re back with more bodily harm in the form of the Wade Shotter directed “Sore Thumb” video. Can anyone remember what game they based this on? They had it in the arcade by my house, you looked through a periscope type thing and fought wireframe tanks. Anyways, very cool video, although not feeling this song quite as much as Ankle Injuries. I heard these guys spent almost the entire marketing budget for the Ankle Injuries album making the video (below) in the hopes that it would go viral and blow everything up. I wonder how that worked out.

Portland has a lush music scene, I might even say that it might be more exciting than it is here in Brooklyn. During the CMJ festival Portland’s Starf*cker played a couple times and I never got to catch them live but picked up their album and definitely found a few songs on there that I really like. With the name Starf*cker I thought it was gonna some wild Dan Deacon kind of music but it wasn’t at all which isn’t a bad thing but the name just threw me off.
Eliot Lipp continues to blow me away, he has started his own label called Old Tacoma Records and has been touring non stop like a proper busy musician in 2008. His new single is what i’m guessing how Hip Hop will sound in 2030.
Le Baron was given to me by none other than Tom Croose, this whistling song puts Peter Bjorn and John to shame.
I know I post some Techno/House on this blog and its probably not very fitting to listen to the songs just on your computer especially if you don’t listen to much of it but DJ Koze this year was elite. Listen to those shakers! just brilliant production and sequencing, if you ever hear this on a big system you’ll fall in love.

Starf*cker – Florida

Eliot Lipp – Beamrider

La Baron – Le Sifflet Du Baron

DJ Koze – I Want To Sleep