Posts in Music

Skalpel are a jazz duo from Poland on Ninja Tunes, they sample 50s-70s Polish Jazz and piece together tracks. I always liked the video for this song and the raw lo-fi recording did it for me everytime. It reminds me of The Avalanches alil but not as uptempo, i’ll post something from them soon.

Skalpel – Sculpture

It always surprises me how few people have heard of the German musician Ulrich Schnauss.  He’s one of my favorite electronic producers but whenever I mention him (to people I consider to be knowledgeable about music) they usually just shrug and ask who he is. I saw him open for M83 in San Francisco a few years back, it was pretty intense, but he just sort of pounded away on a Siel synthesizer the whole time, no visuals or anything. Was cool to see it live, but the stage presence was a little disappointing; I guess I was expecting a singer or something (he always has those sort of ethereal vocals woven through his mixes). At any rate, I’d have to say that A Strangely Isolated Place is his best album to date, and while it’s hard to pick a favorite track from such a solid release, this song certainly ranks up there.

Ulrich Schnauss – In All The Wrong Places

Since August 2006, i’ve been widdling away at one proper electronic compilation follow up to The Rorschach Suite. I wanted a release that was jam-packed full of diverse electronically made music so that people that we’re new to electronic music wouldn’t be scared off by experimentation or the dance end but mostly getting pulled in by a deal(20 tracks/80 mins of new music for cheap) and most importantly short melodic songs that make you wanna play the song again.

Today The Synchronicity Suite came out on iTunes (and got alil love under the What’s Hot section) and Ghostly International and Moodgadget wanted to exclusively share 5 songs from the compilation with the ISO50/Tycho crowd. I also wanted to point out that the artwork was done by PhilistineDSGN and mastering by Adam Hunt, gotta always give credit where credit is due.

Small Sails – Somnambulist

The Reflecting Skin – Cavedweller (instrumental version)

Praveen – Slip Slop

Elm From Arm – Pretty Take

Mux Mool – 10

One of the most influential electronic labels since i started working in the industry has been Kompakt out of Cologne, Germany. Its owned by a favorite musician of mine Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas, who has some of the most unbelievable ambient records on Mille Plateaux in the mid 90’s. 1,2,3, No Gravity was always a great vinyl to throw on during the beginning of a dj set just because it had this feel to it that everybody might actually know it or wanna know it once the distant vocal came in. Also, The cover art is part of a compilation series that comes out every year, i think Kompakt is on Total 8 now, definitely worth looking into especially their other compilation series “Pop Ambient” which is also yearly. For the non techno fans, i promise to keep the techno to a minimum, if i post techno its mostly because of the melodies usually.

Closer Musik – 1,2,3, No Gravity

I found Milosh thru the pretty reliable iTunes electronic front page banners. First i thought it was the singer of Sigur Ros Jón Þór Birgisson because he does kinda look the same. Finally I clicked and found out it was a Plug Research release which is home to some of my favorite artists like Daedelus, Dntel, Thomas Fehlmann, and John Tejada. I think Milosh would be a great addition to a Tycho track, don’t you agree?

Milosh – Couldn’t Sleep

If you like “Couldn’t Sleep” then this live version of “You Make Me Feel” might be perfect for you, i remember when i saw this video and heard the voice layering i pretty much just decided to throw away my Reason 3.0 and Ableton Live.

This is either absolutely brilliant, or absolutely insane. Either way it’s great. It’s a video and remix of Radiohead’s Nude featuring some nice shots of vintage machines and seemingly composed mostly of sounds from those machines. Update: here’s a Vimeo link to the video.

Update #2: Radiohead posted about the video on their blog today. Congrats James! (thanks joe for the link)

Video by James Houston. Via Jesse Woodward

For those that are looking for something that’s melodic but with texture this Fennesz album Endless Summer is by far my favorite to put on when its just too humid in your home and all you wanna do just relax and not move. I would of posted my favorite track “Happy Audio” from this album but i think the repetition might of overwhelmed some people. The track Endless Summer feels like its split up in 3 parts where the guitar takes turns with this in and out melodic noise as the lead piece and at the end everything wraps together nicely. I think it would have to take 3 talented people like Christopher Willits, Biosphere and William Basinski to be able recreate a track like this again. The artwork by Tina Frank and photography by Hertha Hurnaus is just stunning and was ahead of its time i think for a 2001 release. I’d love to know if this wasn’t enjoyable for someone all the way thru especially towards the end where it sounds like Christian Fennesz brings in this muted string addition that brings everything together very tight in a good way in my opinion. For those who have this record its definitely worth dusting off and putting it on again.

Fennesz: Endless Summer

Bibio’s Flickr is full of some great subtle saturated personal photos that would make amazing album covers for music of his nature. In a good way Bibio has this wonderful european back country feel to everything to puts his hands on. Seems to me that he spends his day taking photos of friends and surroundings with his Holga and records music onto a 4 track recorder in the forest and only goes home because the sun is going down. It’s like some odd Boards of Canada dream that features the early set of Fred Penner’s Place. Let me know if i’m losing you on the Fred Penner part.

Bibio – Aberriw

Bibio – Looking Through The Facets Of A Plastic Jewel

Bibio – Bewley In Grey

You can find all these tracks either off Bibio’s Fi or Hand Cranked LPs on Mush Records.

Some of you that might read McSweeney’s lovely Believer Magazine(which my dad turned me onto) might already have this from last year’s music issue. Zach Condon aka Beirut put together a great track for the magazine which also does the Wolphin DVD series which features greats like Zach Galifianakis and i think David Cross. Venice is alil more lush and slower going than his Beirut music since he strips the track down to only him singing, a hypnotic synth melody, and muted horns. I first heard this track off a mix my DJ partner’s Worst Friend’s did last year and i had to have it by itself, they did an amazing podcast today for Ghostly International which includes Tycho’s The Disconnect. We sometimes see Zach at Macri Park Bar where we DJ at every Wednesday in Brooklyn, i’m always tempted to put the track on.

Zach Condon aka Beirut – Venice

When I was in Toronto I had the good fortune to hear an advance copy of Montreal-based indie outfit Wolf Parade’s forthcoming album, At Mount Zoomer (due out June 17th). Suffices to say, I was very impressed; this will surely be one of my favorite albums of 2008. The track below is a stand-out on the album, but still just the tip of the iceberg. And yes, the cover looks like a 3rd grade class project gone awry, but the colors bring it together and make it somewhat bearable and after all, this is the standard visually ironic fare I would expect from a release like this. As we learned the other day, sometimes a bad album cover can mean great things are hiding on the inside.

Wolf Parade – Soldier’s Grin

[audio:wolfsoldier.mp3]