What a week eh. The weather has been very weatherful. I've personally had some ups and downs, embarking on a new career of sorts and all. Anyway enough about me. Tunes. This is a bit bigger than the last two but necessarily so.
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Moss Garden - In the Silence of the Subconscious
This is a beautiful record. Lengthy ambient passages that recall those beatless remixes on Chilled Euphoria comps. But better. If that's even possible.
Fossil - Ancram
If Moss Garden make 'nice' ambient, this is the darker flipside to that. With titles like 'Buried Brick by Brick' that should be no surprise. Tape loops, footsteps, drone, it's sinister and evil. 'Quinine' even closes with a sort of eastern string riff under fizzing mechanisms.
An Introduction to Soft Records
A wonderful collection of ambient numbers that's kicking off the aptly named Soft Records. "An Introduction to Soft is an evening spent in a mountainside cabin, listening to the storm shake the trees in the darkness. Inside, all is still, hushed, waiting. The fervent glow of firelight, bright against frosted windows."
The Daughter Element - Soundtracks
"Inspired by CAN. because you can, and I can." Hmm. Seriously, this is really quite good. Freeform percussive jams, untamed numbers that combine scuzzy guitars, far-off drums and tape hiss.
Spare - Spareness
Unreleased bits and pieces from Spare. Dig in.
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The Space Lady - Greatest Hits
Late late pass. The Space Lady’s greatest hits popped up last year. I went looking her up because I saw she’s playing Dublin soon (she’s also playing Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Cork over the next week), and my tiny mind was suitably blown. Weird covers - you may remember 'Major Tom' as sung by Gale Boetticher in the hit TV show Breaking Bad - sung in soft upper register over modular noodles, it’s just breathtaking in its simple oddness.
Trust - Rescue, Mister (Avalon Emerson Cybernetic Edit)
Developer slash producer slash DJ Avalon Emerson turns this poppy electronic number into something more frantic and energetic. Banging.
Beatrice Dillon & Rupert Clervaux- Studies for Samples and Percussion (clips)
Five pieces of unreleased studies here. Interesting stuff. Contact them for more info.
Rinse FM, March 29 2014 w/ Locked Groove, Lando & Baron Castle
Our man in Berlin, friend of Bandcloud Dean Driscoll presents two hours of solid house and techno, with guest mixes from Locked Groove, Lando (formerly Lando Kal) and Baron Castle.
Protect-U - Time 2 Technique
JACKIN’ house from the Future Times crew. I love the tags: Protect-UMondo | Basic Leitko | FREE USA | POTS + PANS THROWN AROUND THE KITCHEN TECHNO | ELECTRONICS | Slicin' the brain in tha mornin' | SOAKED CUTS | THINGS WILL BE | 2014 HOUSE
Millie & Andrea - Drop The Vowels
Miles Whittaker and Andy Stott team up for an album of tribal samples, corrosive noise and jungle-influenced breaks. Given the terms I’ve just used, maybe it’s worth revisiting in the light of this essential article from Josh Hall. I’m still fairly new to the world of noise and that so maybe I'm way off here, but it's important we look at these things, right? 'Spectral Source' is gorgeous though.
DJ Spider & Marshallito - Fallen Angel
Jimi The Exploder put together a lengthy mix for train journeys (listen here) that was brimming with funk-laden jams, and this one really caught my attention. Twisted blues vocals over emotive piano and soft bass pads. Trippy mane.
isolatedmix 44 - Kaito aka Hiroshi Watanabe
The prolific Kompakt artist does a suitably wistful mix for astrangelyisolatedplace.
Knyx Radio 31.03.14 – Terekke
I was under the impression that Terekke was all brash and noise and wah, but this is funky and deep and wonderful. An hour of jams.
Dimitri from Paris - My Tribute To Frankie Knuckles
You don’t need me to tell you about the loss of Frankie Knuckles week. To remember him, Dimitri from Paris put together an hour of his favourite FK tracks. It’s all great, obviously, but the mixing from ‘The Whistle Song’, through that sumptuous remix of Hercules & Love Affair’s ‘Blind’ and on into ‘Tears’* is just heavenly. Oh and DFA put ‘Blind’ back up if you want to enjoy it in its entirety. I also happened upon this Fader mixfrom last year that features an unreleased dub of 'Blind'. I know I could listen to it all day. Aforementioned Dean Driscoll had a brilliant way of putting it on Twitter. "a classíly restrained counterpoint to the original's drama: gielgud to its oliver; neil mccauley to its vincent hanna." Well said Dean.
In other Frankie-related news, despite all the shady dealings that have gone on Trax claim that all money spent on his tracks at their Bandcamp will go to his estate. I’ll leave it up to you.
(*On the subject of ‘Tears’, it was co-written and produced with Satoshi Tomiie, who would, a decade later, go on to remix Photek’s ‘Mine To Give’, also featuring Robert Owens, to great effect.)
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Enjoy the music, remember the past but look to the future. It's what Frankie would have wanted.
All the best,
Aidan