Posts in Music

I might have to put this at album #2 right behind New Age of Earth. Unfortunately, I don’t have an original pressing, but the 180g re-press sounds great.

Cluster (then Kluster) was formed by Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler in 1969. Schnitzler had recorded Tangerine Dream’s debut Electronic Meditation just two months before Kluster’s debut Klopfzeichen.

After Schnitzler’s departure three albums later, Moebius and Roedelius renamed the group Cluster and continued recording starting with Cluster (aka Cluster ’71), and following that Cluster II.

A year before Zuckerzeit, Moebius and Roedelius joined up with Michael Rother of NEU! and released two albums under the name Harmonia (which I will be posting very soon). After Rother left Harmonia, Moebius and Roedelius went back in the studio to record Zuckerzeit, and if you listen to Cluster’s previous releases, you can hear Rother’s influence practically bleeding through the tracks. Mmm!

Zuckerzeit has a very interesting structure. Each track was written solely by either Moebius or Roedelius and, except one track, cycles between the two. It gives a very interesting mixture of light and fluffy to a much more experimental noise-centric sound. I tend to like Roedelius’s tracks much more, but “Caramel” is the exception.

Cluster – Hollywood (1974)

You may know Tellier from the Lost In Translation soundtrack or his CD being the only album available to purchase at every American Apparel retailer which probably are the 2 best ways(soundtracks and lifestyle shops) to get a record heard these days. If you haven’t already take a moment and at least listen to La Ritournelle, the first half is early Coldplay-ish but the second half when he starts singing i think of it being one of the best licensable tracks out there if edited right to video.

Sébastien Tellier – La Ritournelle

Sébastien Tellier – Look

Beautiful images and beautiful music, they don’t make either like this anymore. Bitches Brew ranks up there as one of my all time favorite album covers.

Miles Davis – So What

Some images via Sleevery

I know Beamer has a large vinyl collection and Scott here and there has sent me some Cream songs and they should be able to add to series with some depth. So, i thought adding some good old AM Gold in the mix since if you dig deep enough you can find great artwork from singles and 7 inches like this pre-70’s single of The Moody Blues.

America – Tin Man

Steely Dan – Do It Again

Moody Blues – Knights in White Satin

Firefall – Just Remember I Love You

If you haven’t noticed by now i’m a huge fan of Benoit Pioulard, he is a Portland based folk musician. He has his next album coming out on Kranky October 14th which will include this brand new single “Brown Bess” for free for us to share. As for other talents he has a few things flying under the radar a very simple but effective website pioulard.com where if you catch him at the right time of year you can buy limited handmade versions of his albums and look thru his polariod pictures.

Benoit Pioulard – Brown Bess (Temper: October 2008)

Benoit Pioulard – Needle & Thread (Precis: 2006)

Benoit Pioulard – Kids Are Getting Younger (Enge: 2005)

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Seedling (Benoît Pioulard version)

Benoit Pioulard – Volcanoes (promo video)

Benoît Pioulard – Promotional Dispatch Three (Volcanoes)

Here are a few new tracks a little more from the indie rock end. Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning whole LP is superb, a great follow up to Kevin Drew’s LP. Also, new tracks grabbed from the B-sides and demos of LCD Soundsystem, a forthcoming Stereolab full length single and the highly anticipated Walkmen album is finally out.

Brendan Canning – Hit The Wall

LCD Soundsystem – Hippie Priest Bum-Out

Stereolab – Valley Hi!

The Walkmen – On The Water

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Paul Mawhinney is the owner of the world’s largest vinyl record collection, if you’re a music fan of some sort i can’t see how this short documentary won’t touching you in some way.

Last night i went to see Norwegian DJ Todd Terje, the man is a machine, a 6 hr set and most of the time he just plays edits that he did himself of songs, mostly that deep slow motion disco but with a lot of tribal elements which is always is a win-win situation for me.

Brought out a old favorite, Nightmares on Wax, i think if you do graphic design and you’ve listened to lounge music at some point in your career, this is probably played as much as Thievery Corporation or Air.

Grovesnor is a Hot Chip favorite, he toured with them in the UK, its kinda cheesy but has a great keys being played at the beginning and has a good feel to it.

The artwork above is from Fleet Foxes, i woke up with the song playing in my head and i’ve only heard the song a couple times. The overall color when you step back look at their cover is really appealing to me, it reminds me of Monty Python’s Holy Grail but really crowded.

Dolle Jolle – Balearic Incarnation – Todd Terje’s Extra Doll Mix

Nightmares On Wax – Nights Interlude

Grovesnor – Nitemoves

Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

My first interest into Krautrock beyond Kraftwerk. I found NEU! ’75 (1975, duh) when I was 17 and have yet to stop listening to it eight years later.

NEU! was the brainchild of Kraftwerk’s Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother. Anything Rother touches, I like; which you will see in future posts.

This track is off of NEU! 2 (1973) and is a fine example of Rother’s melting guitar melodies, and (along with almost every other NEU! song) displays Dinger’s self-invented Motorik beat.

NEU! – Neuschnee (1973)

Thinking back about what was probably the biggest turning point for me musicially was hearing and seeing Beck in his New Pollution video. I remember the first time i watched it all the way thru, i loved the way he dressed and how he performed the song in the video and then the video started going all over the place and i thought it was genius, every second of it from the Gainsbourg references to the all out odd moments where that wrestler is drinking milk. Well now he is still all over the place but it all still sounds like Beck. This new track off his latest LP has really grabbed me, its not as imaginative as New Pollution but that’s fine, it holds its own.

If you ever wanted to hear Moroder just do something like Spinal Tap’s Space Jazz Odyssey but way way better the new Lindstrøm LP which is only 3 songs but all 3 are over 10 mins does a perfect job. Lovely melodies but some i think i remember from other songs like this one sounds like a track from the movie Blood Sport which isn’t a bad thing trust me that soundtrack is pretty solid.

One person that’s on fire right now is DJ Koze, some of the best tracks coming out are from him, he does nice poppy late night remix for Matias Aguayo.

This last song i posted because i don’t have the original on this computer but i thought you might enjoy this remix of it. Part of me just wants to wait and get Kate Bush’s original up but the Chromatic’s kept it about the original and not about them which i liked.

Beck – Youthless

Lindstrøm – The Long Way Home

Matias Aguayo – Minimal (DJ Koze Radio Edit)

Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill(Chromatics edit)