Posts in Music

Incase isn’t just the brand that you know for their backpacks, headphones, casings, and other attractive accessories, they offer some of the most interactive and cared for ways to collab with other creatives. Room 205 is on the top of my list of going above and beyond in their efforts:

Working in collaboration with visiting musicians and a revolving cast of filmmakers, set designers, audio engineers and friends, Room 205 exists to share our collective passion for art and music and showcase the people that inspire us.

I mean to take the time and rebuild a space for each musician to perform in a space that is imagined up then documenting it is a dream for any musician with a vision, for me its like telling an 8 year old that Disney World is coming to your room, be ready. Take a second and check out their site and all the musicians that have came thru, its one of the most ideal ways to experience music in my opinion.

Room 205

1996 was a pivotal year for me musically. It was the year DJ Shadow released Endtroducing and it was the year I was first properly introduced to electronic music, an experience that certainly altered the course of my life. Although Endtroducing probably ended up having more of a direct influence on my sound, the impetus for me wanting to create my own music was without a doubt LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression, a continuous mix of what was later referred to as “Intelligent Drum And Bass”.

I was given the album by a friend (on MiniDisc of all things) and it served as the soundtrack to an entire semester of school. We ended up building a battery-powered backpack and walking around in the forests above San Francisco, blasting this sort of music through the mist and Eucalyptus trees; some of my best memories of this city. Sadly, Drum And Bass took some pretty hard turns a few years after this and I just couldn’t keep up. There were a few practitioners of this sound still releasing (most notably, perhaps, Big Bud) but in general things sort of devolved from here on out — to my ears at least. There were several more Logical Progression compilations released after this one (which was later referred to as Logical Progression: Level 1), but none managed to capture the zeitgeist quite like the first.

I think beyond the music, the associated artwork also had a big impact on me. One of my first forays into Photoshop was essentially just a bad ripoff of this cover. I did a little digging and it looks like it was designed by Phillip Wells (aka Basement Phil). Here is a quote from him (unverified of course) on the Logical Progression Discogs page:

I organised the deal for this compilation with Pete Tong at London Records on behalf of Dan aka LTJ Bukem.

When he was sent to an artist studio to do the sleeve, I got a phone call late in the afternoon from Dan saying he could not come up with a sleeve he was happy with and would I come and help. So I left my office at Vinyl Distribution in Reading and made my way up to London and when I arrived Dan was all flustered as the sleeve had to be done that day.

I looked through loads of pictures before coming across the picture used. I knew it was the one because of the ray of light shining down on the Earth, and remember saying to Dan that it was the perfect image as I saw the music that had been released on the label over the three previous years had been a shining light for the DnB scene. – Basement Phil

So enough background, on to the tracks. These are a few of the standouts for me. Photek’s Pharoah (referred to elsewhere as Rings Around Saturn) is far and away the best song on the album and would definitely make my all-time top 100 list.

Photek – Pharoah

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3hwd3A6-_M

Chameleon – Links

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C3iuUCZmUM

DJ Crystl – Mind Games

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXP9CqMrb50

I see even bigger things happening for Soundcloud in the future, mainly the community within it coming closer so I decide to start a guide of people to follow if you like what’s on ISO50. Below I started off with frequent users that make your feed more enjoyable with quality posts.

This week we start off with San Francisco locals and good friends Yourstru.ly who are one of my favorites to follow on Soundcloud, they have plenty of material and are always actively finding and sharing new artists. Moderna has a growing collection of short mixes that always are perfect for weekend nights, making her someone to see if you’re in LA. Since astrangelyisolatedplace started their label they are one of the higher quality labels in the ambient world, recently they got to share a new Markus Guentner EP with the world which is undeniably lush and perfect.

ISO50 Blog on SOUNDCLOUD

FRIENDS: Yourstru.ly

DJ: Moderna

RECORD LABEL: astrangelyisolatedplace

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Its never intentional to match the music with the image above but these 4 songs are pretty fitting. Dirty Beaches yesterday shared the what sounded like a soundtrack to one of those days everything is still because of the blistering heat, so you find yourself indoors in the shade of sitting among dusty wood furniture watching the dust float by the last bit of sun.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This is just the beginning of what i’ll share of the Loscil album, maybe we can get an exclusive preview of the whole album on the blog? look for pre-orders here.

This is pretty beatless spaced out guitar version of “Snooze 4 Love” by Todd Terje, its always a fine time to put this on.

Avey Tare of Animal Collective uploaded 3 tracks new songs today possibly for an upcoming release which makes this post all together maybe the most relaxing collection of track’s i’ve ever posted.

Tonight we’re kicking off Treasure Island with Nightlife at Academy of Sciences. Shigeto and Groundislava live, Heathered Pearls (Jakub) DJ set, and ISO50 / Tycho booth with shirts, prints and music. See you there!

Info / Tickets

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One thing i’ve found out about Wild Nothing in these past few releases is its one band that never disappoints when they share a new song. They have a confident song writing style that maybe heavily influenced but always comes out fresh in the end.

Photek’s newer DJ Kicks compilation has been on repeat maybe times at home, its pretty strong all the way thru, it features Brooklyn’s Sepalcure(which you can hear at the beginning of this song) and I think is the perfect introduction to what is coming out in the end that defines UK Beat scene generation wise.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Stones Throw touching on an exciting New Age sound? I’m glad someone had the balls, best move of the year, its not isolated it ventures off into almost psychedelia, just good instrumental music.

Mono/Poly puts Lorn on his chopping block and gives it that rework that will make everyones head nod, loving the dynamics.

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Tycho’s previous tour partner Beacon released a new single today on Ghostly International. The track fuses together smokey atmosphere with an enlightening pulse which will fit perfectly among this Fall/Winter roll out of albums from The XX and Holy Other.

C V L T S drown out into the noise of their new LP, echoes of grainy drone haven’t sounded this sweet in quite a long time.

On John Tejada’s new LP he has this stunning moment where everyone is allowed to rest their eyes, i’m super grateful for this sound.

Kyson is a remix champion, here’s his latest for Bon Iver, it should definitely win but I don’t know how to vote for it.

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Toro Y Moi hit the stage at Lollapalooza and most of us weren’t there BUT someone did get great footage of a new track that is absolutely wonderful, I can’t wait for this album if its anywhere near this caliber than we’re all in for one of the best records of 2012.

Clark’s new EP ‘Fantasm Planes’ will be out on vinyl early September, head over to Warp’s site for a free download. This one is really gentle on the ears.

Michna and I have djed a few times together, we would be asked to play “lounge stuff” while people walk into the event. During that time we always joked about djing under the name “Quiet Boys” and set the volume knob to 3 all night. I’m soo happy for him and his new EP, its been almost 4 years since his release and this EP is chock-full of melody and fun, can’t wait for the live show rework.

Our very own(at one point in time ha) Slow Hands has been travelling the world DJing, he’s really becoming a club favorite with his slow disco sets and i’m sure they even get more interesting later and later into the nights in Berlin. He’s about to release on Future Classic with a jam I remember him working on years back, its completely changed and sounds really opened up, soo happy for him.

18 Carat Affair

Kansas City’s Denys Parker has just released a 30 track album under the alias 18 Carat Affair. The album is called Pure Gold and he has a limited of a 100 CDs available here and it comes with the digital download, its a no brainer. I asked him to donate his time and put together a video playlist for the ISO50 readers and he nailed it. I guess the best way to describe it is by taking his definitions and making my own so enjoy this Slow Televised Funk playlist that veers in a few different and excellent directions.

Geneva Jacuzzi “Do I Sad”

Nudimension “Amour Programme”

Alan Vega “Wipeout Beat (Live 1983)”

More videos after the break. (more…)

Here’s a compilation I put together on Ghostly’s behalf for the Freunde von Freunden blog. It’s comprised entirely of Ghostly releases. Honestly it’s not hard to put something like this together, considering the depth of the Ghostly catalog. Endless gems. My three faves from this one are Shigeto’s Ann Arbor Part 1, Tycho’s Melanine, and of course Dabrye’s We’ve Got Commodity. I’ll never forget previewing One/Three on the busted turntables at Kim’s Video in NYC in 2001.

Freunde von Freunden is an online “interview magazine that portrays people of diverse creative and cultural backgrounds in their homes or within their daily working environments.” The latest feature is none other than Ed Templeton and his wife at their home in Los Angeles. Amazing. They have also been running a ‘mixtape’ series for some time, they are now on #29.

Brian from The Ghostly Store made this happen, and this is the second time Sam, Brian and I worked on a compilation together: the first was for Moss in 2006, delivered on a USB stick. (it was the FUTURE)