Posts in Music

Artwork by Michael Cina

Its a very special today for me and i’m glad I get to share it with you all that read the ISO50 Blog. My debut album Loyal under my alias Heathered Pearls came out today. I’ll keep it short since I just want you to listen and enjoy…plus there’s a nicely written description below. Thanks for all the support in the past and more importantly just stopping by the blog and checking out the design and music.

Marbled vinyl (black and white) limited to 600

Unlike some ambient music, Loyal, Jakub Alexander’s release under the Heathered Pearls moniker, embraces the idea of melody with understated but distinct sounds emerging from the loops Alexander uses to construct his tracks. “I wanted to find a world that was built on repetition, erosion and melody because making these songs was about recreating soothing environments.”

The album’s roots lie in a very utilitarian idea: “I started writing what now has become Loyal as a mental break from my personal anxieties,” Alexander says. A study in the hypnotic, calming qualities of music, Loyal is also a tribute to Alexander’s mother and Aunt (featured on the cover) who were crucial in instilling the taste and aesthetics so key to his music. “My mom introduced me to my first ambient record over 10 years ago. Loyal is a response to this.”

This is a record that’s full of delicate beauty. It embraces fragility and lightness, sounding entirely natural despite being created electronically. Tracks ebb and flow into the mix and the songs themselves wash into your headphones like waves receding slowly into silence. The music is unabashedly beautiful with gentle currents of low level tones and gleaming sparkles of synth loops that build and decay.

DOWNLOAD HERE

VINYL HERE

TRACKLIST

1 The Worship Bell
2 Beach Shelter
3 Lower Dome
4 Left Climber
5 Steady Veil
6 Raising Our Ashes
7 Ringing Temple (Decreased Version)
8 Precious Dive
9 Docile Touch
10 Endless Tunneling [Bonus Track]
11 Warm Ghost – I Will Return (Heathered Pearls Coasting In Circles Remix) [Bonus Track]
12 Beach Shelter (Loscil’s Grind Remix) [Bonus Track]
13 Lower Dome (Marcus Guentner’s Ahead Remix) [Bonus Track]

We couldn’t be more proud to announce the stream of a collection of tracks from the many of the regulars on Percussion Lab over the past 10 years. They’re asking for a suggested $5 for 15 tracks which will go towards bandwidth fees for the radio station and Hurricane Sandy Relief.

Purchase HERE

1. Shigeto – Friends and Lovers 05:16
2. Machinedrum – Demvibez 05:15
3. XI – Villain 05:31
4. Mux Mool – Sympathy 03:54
5. Daedelus – RandD 04:09
6. Calmer – Spirograph 05:11
7. Archie Pelago – Brewer’s Reflection 04:34
8. Ezekiel Honig – Plastic Rumblings 03:41
9. Handshake – Lao 04:02
10. RJ Valeo – You’re the One 03:47
11. Sepalcure – All You’ve Got To Lose 03:45
12. Contakt – Drift 06:17
13. Enoe – The Craze 06:09
14. Lando Kal – Cube 06:38
15. Braille – Rise 05:31

For over 10 years, Percussion Lab has sought out and supported electronic musicians in the greater New York area. Since 2005, we have produced countless live events featuring bedroom and novice producers, close friends, and rising luminaries of the electronic music world. In 2009, we relaunched PercussionLab.com as a non-profit hosting service for dj mixes – any dj, anywhere in the world, can host a mix for free.

In that span of time, we have never posted an ad on the site. We have taken sponsorship donations in the form of, most often, beer, but never cash. We have used the proceeds from our events to effect site updates and a minmum of regular maintenance.

Over the years, the bedroom producers and shy novices we championed in years past have become some of the most influential names in the world of electronic music. We’re offering this compilation of exclusive tracks as a way of continuing our mission to provide a home for producers and dj’s to host their original music and mixes free of charge, and to be able to continue supporting our local community by bookingg the most forward thinking artists possible for our events. We hope you can help us keep doing all of this, for free, by buying some this complication full of amazing music by some our closest, oldest, and most talented friends.

If you use the site regularly, feel free to pay more. Proceeds will go to hosting and bandwidth fees as well as hurricane sandy relief.

Musically soo attractive and engaging, I wish this EP came out earlier in the year only because you’d see it on more Top Releases of the year lists instead of being shadowed by them.

What really separates Throwing Snow from most producers is his approach of fitting in the softening blows with mixing melody and having a good time in a genre that is quickly swerving into the club scene. He executes one of the hardest things, sharing melodic beat music to friends without you feeling like having to share something clubby or saying “oh here it is, you hear that, wait… there it is.. do you like it? this is the stuff I like, where are you going?”

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE VINYL.

Most days since 2007 i’ve posted music from unsigned artists, well known artists, and demos from email links(keyword there is links not attachments) from musicians and readers. Since then not many people or articles have explained promotion to musicians the way Anthony Fantano did it here on his youtube channel, really worth your time if you’re making music and your frustrated with your following.

Still looking for those oddities and underrated videos but more importantly just some good music, if you got through all 4 and you loved that last one from Planetary Assault System then consider us friends.

“Nueva Forma is an audiovisual record label, comprised of sound-makers, designers, and ever-evolving digerati.”

We’ve always been supporters of Nueva Forma since the first time Shelby shared their mixes on the blog, this morning I went thru their bandcamp which is easy to click around in and explore their catalog. If you liked those free mixes then you’ll sure into the vast collection of talented artists they have.

A Monday morning skate with Sid Davis and Express Rising, thanks for the find Reilly!

via Reilly Brennan

Heard C. Duncan for the first time while in Australia last week. Vocal treatments don’t get much better than this.

By National Geographic

Dave DK name has popped up more than a few times, I believe this is the first time i’ve heard any of his reworks. If you get the nod from Future Classics then you must be doing something right.

No Body is Sean Lynch from 800Beloved, to me it sounds like he set the guitars, band business into the closet and gave a machine production and simplicity a chance, he has always had the voice

I can always rely on the label Innervisions to fill my DJ bag, always melodic and easy to dance to and probably the most cinematic tech-house catalog because of that moody/chase scene vibe they seem to sign.

I just settled back in Brooklyn and have a small setup to get back into making music, this is just some warming up to get my ear back to find that balance in distortion and melody for the Heathered Pearls project.

The best $40 you can spend for a vinyl music lover early next year just went up for pre-order:

J Dilla: Donuts 7″ Box Set

This box set includes a bonus 45 with “Signs” from the long out-of-print Donuts ‘Fan Club 45’ b/w DOOM & Ghostface’s “Sniper Elite & Murder Goons” – two tracks over Donuts beats which were recorded in late 2005 prior to the original release of the album.

Box contains: Eight 7-inch singles

I’ll never forget hearing this record for the first time and what lovely way to share it, amazing work Stones Throw.

In other news, visuals keep getting pushed to their limits, the latest projection/music video from Nosaj Thing takes a simple idea and runs with it, the song features you know who from Blonde Redhead.