Posts in Music

In the early 2000s I was pretty much a downtempo DJ full time playing Wine Bars, Salons, etc weekly, doing my best to warm people up to electronic music beyond the general stuff like Thievery Corporation, Atjazz, Gotan Project and Kruder & Dorfmeister, that stuff was good but forgettable and wasn’t helping the electronic world grow. I liked the challenge of playing to a diverse older crowd that you knew if you played Boards Of Canada it would be too experimental and odd, if it was glitchy or 4/4 it would be no good and they wouldn’t get it, it if was ambient people would complain about falling asleep. Playing something like The Smiths, Air, or stuff like Nike Drake would just be too easy, hell you might as well just stream chill online radio. I did my best playing a lot of stuff that sounded like Yoshinori Sunahara, I can’t explain the sound that was happening at the time that sounded like this, it was the soundtrack to my early short lived graphic design career attempt. The backbone was Broker/Dealer and other stuff on Traumschallplatten and if you dug more into it this whole world opened up that sounded like 50s Scandinavian design meets instructoart in slow motion, thats how the Moodgadget logo was born actually, this Yoshinori Sunahara track takes my imagination back when Royksopp was good and helped me creatively make flyers, logos, etc. man I miss those days.

Moving right along to finding attraction in some darkness, this Holy Other song has me in vice grip, I can’t let go, the goth tone sits perfectly with me, I can only imagine scenes of pure despair but shot beautifully. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Keep Shelly in Athens has had my ear all year long, this is the first remix i’ve heard by them and i’m really impressed by the clarity and drive. For some reason people are rocking saxophones right now and i’m not complaining…………yet.

I think this Christopher Rau represents all of what house and techno should sound like in the winter time. If you only listen to house and its daytime and your just comfortable in your apartment then this what i’ve prefer to hear.

All you Parisians are in for a treat this Friday as Dusty Brown will be playing live at L’International. Here’s the details, wish I could make it!

DUSTY BROWN
w/ STEREOTYPE, DLGZ

Friday, Decemeber 3rd, 2010
@ L’international
9pm – 12am
5/7 rue Moret
Paris, 75011 FRANCE

Event Info

And to get you ready, here’s a new track Dusty was kind enough to share with us:

Dusty Brown – 101 Nights Like This – Download

[audio:https://blog.iso50.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/100nights.mp3]

You can also snag his latest EP for free over here

Who am I to say: “Hey, these are the best albums of 2010” or “yo buddy, listen to me, best records right here, check it out” I don’t even play a damn instrument, so I just can’t do that this year(check out my snobby 2008 or 2009 lists though). My final year end list is full of artists and friends that I work with and signed so I had to switch it up a bit here and include musicians that aren’t really in the ISO50/Moodgadget/Ghostly International bubble…yet.

I put together this list of albums that makes me feel good about digging for music everyday, its a job that ISO50 and Ghostly International let me do and i’m very grateful. These albums simply make me as happy as can be, sure there are going to be critics that fill their lists out with artists that sell out arenas but thats not the point here, this list is purely for a unique listening session. I numbered them as a fun activity for myself to do while I sat at a coffee shop making the small banners, I think the order came out pretty well and it hasn’t changed since I sat down and made it last week which is a relief.

I want to thank WordPress for making this playlist way easier to make then I thought it would be but it wouldn’t let me put it in the order I wanted it in *curses the sky*. I linked all the music to purchase, I know I hardly ever do that on the day to day because I find half the fun in hearing new music is the hunt for more of it. Look for my favorite 50 songs of 2010, hopefully i’ll be able to post those early December.

Four Tet – There Is Love In You (Domino)

Mark McGuire – Living With Yourself (Editions Mego)

Salem – King Night (IAMSOUND)

Toro Y Moi – Causers Of This (Carpark)

Loscil – Endless Falls (Kranky)

Caribou – Swim (Merge)

Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here? (Editions Mego)

The Soft Moon – The Soft Moon (Captured Tracks)

Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (Modular)

Com Truise – Cyanide Sisters (Self Released)

Honorable Mention:
Bvdub – The Art Of Dying Alone (Glacial Movements)

Forgotten 2009 albums that I listened to in the most 2010:

The Mary Onettes – Islands (Labrador)
Ducktails – Landscapes (Olde English Spelling Bee)

This is about as guitar-ish my posts will ever get. It started with actually finding a Bob Dylan song that I wanted to hear again and ended with finding this Erlend Oye again when it came up on shuffle. I added Arthur Russell to make it enjoyable for non-guitar fans that want unique melodies and Bon Iver is just in here for good taste even though I only like 4 of his songs, I couldn’t stand that autotune track he made. If anyone says that this is the best music post then i’ll just be super sad all weekend because I do my best to dig up stuff that isn’t this because I find this stuff to be EVERYWHERE.

Photo by: Jesse Brew

If you love the world of mailorder labels then look no further than the catalog from Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks, beautiful limited vinyl only release with a diverse roster. I already have The Soft Moon S/T album in my top 10 for 2010 but thats just one of many releases that you should pick up.

Beautiful Bells doesn’t just sit down and work on one song, he experiments past what most producers even try to make and rides that out until he feels that journey has hit an enjoyable time for himself. That journey can be 20 mins or hours i’m sure but when it comes down to having a song I have a feeling its kind of fun digging thru that material, seems like an satisfying process. When it came down to picking a song from his album it was a bit hard since I think of the album as a listening session but I do find myself nodding my head to one of his more straight forward beats called Purple Topped and Flagrant.

Atlas Sound is giving away a free EP right now – DOWNLOAD IT HERE

My favorite live techno act is Portable, he’s miles ahead of most producers in that world, last time I saw him singing in a CV radio and in a Cosby sweater on a Manhattan rooftop in the rain. I saw Alan Abrahams aka Portable/Bodycode in 2005 in Detroit, he had long braids and had this amazing techno/tribal dance he was doing while he was playing, pure body music, dancing better than anyone that was on the dancefloor, so happy to see him remixing The Knife.

Banjo or Freakout, if your band name was different I would have probably checked you out earlier but i’m glad I finally did thanks to a few friend recommendations.

We’re happy to be able to share this beautifully directed video for School Of Seven Bells of the song “I L U”. This video comes at a perfect time where many videos these days are very experimental and wonder off to something that usually is just visually appealing while the makers of I L U went straight in and grasped at what the song stood for and definitely put together a strong emotional piece of work.

**might be a little NFSW as times

Dry Waves is a compilation put together to show how gorgeous and diverse music can get when you stay away from filing work into genres. All the musicians on the compilation I personally feel are on a path of making music that keeps me on the edge of my seat when it comes to new ideas and experimenting.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPILATION HERE FOR FREE

Cover art by: Com Truise

Please support if you like the artists:
Noveller | Warm Ghost | Com Truise | Shigeto | Beautiful Bells | A Setting Sun | Joe Lapaglia | Dukes Of Chutney | Casino Versus Japan | Hooray! | Teeel | Mux Mool | Little Foxes

Com Truise works his magic on 2 versions of Neon Indian’s track Sleep Paralysist, synth heaven over and over. Download each here for free: Eyelid and Disorder

It was sad to hear about the loss of the singer from The Slits just a bit ago, this new song by Anika on Stones Throw reminds me alil bit of that of what I liked about The Slits, the power in the voice isn’t there here but the charm of how loose and free the making of the music is something i’ve always wised I could do and this girl has that.

i’m a sucker for sampled cut up guitars that loop in a pretty way, thats why this Years song is up here today.

Lukid does fascinating things with low end, i’m always checking in on what he’s going to do on the less hype songs like this.

Stellar OM Source laid down a very interesting LP that became available yesterday, a personally can’t get enough of this Sand Lie track, I just wish it was longer.

Photo by: Jesse Brew