February 2012
4 posts
1 tag
LADY IN RED
Suffocatingly sad it may be, but Washington’s Red Alder walks the ambient/songwriter tightrope as perfectly as Liz Harris and is making some of the most beautiful music heard in a while.
Red Alder - Winterdress
1 tag
KXLSKSK
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GRASPING AT LIGHT
The latest release on Kaleidoscope - home to some of Arch M’s peerless catalogue - is a straight-to-tape ‘limited dub’ by London producer Sculpture; “an exotic particle soup of pause button tape edits, varispeed action, VU busting tape saturation, freakform noise, grazing tape loop critters, and electronic rhythms.”
1 tag
THE SAME SHADOWS FROM THE SAME GREEN CANDLES
December 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Dancing on the Berlin Wall
We introduced you to the “house impressionism” of Uncharted Audio’s Ukkonen last month and, with his artic arpeggiates still blowing round our skulls, asked for a mix. Returned was a imagining of Detroit blown forward into 2012. Little remains of the original, classic tracks, instead the Finnish producer has reconstructed each from small sampled fragments and his own work - inspired by...
2 tags
Men & Mountains Meet
2 tags
Dreamers
Grainy and listful Rachel Evans directed video for the opening track from Colorado’s The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact’s third album ‘Standstill’, soon begetting a vinyl issue through Morning Pony Recorder next year. Coaxing and lapping like a tide; highly ranked on any ‘Things to do in Denver on New Year’s Eve’ list must be catching them play at...
November 2011
11 posts
2 tags
Many Fingers Made of Stars
London producer Neon Pulse’s “bio-rhythmic sound waves for the mind, body & soul” mantra isn’t the most revelatory though, given his gazey drone is pretty much the sound of stars aligning and god yawning chasmic vowels, it is perhaps apt. Download new two hour double album ’Field Recordings from the Heart Station’ from Bandcamp or order physically...
2 tags
Light
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Love's Last Titan
A year after Makeout Videotape’s seminally overlooked Ying Yang and Mac DeMarco’s still got the weight of the Western world on his waltzing shoulders. Or you could say: “He looks at his watch and it reads ‘empty’; traffic lights turn blue at second gear; he can’t gob for cheeks of Cezanne apples, Gogh oranges; stars join up to ‘sorry love’; ATMs...
2 tags
Steppin' Outside
Making “double garage / semi-detached house” from a Nottingham bedroom, Spare’s complex and jagged funky is actually beguilingly bass-lite, relying instead on eski-influenced rhythms and juts of synth stabs aiming soley at your solar plexus. Release due on hybridised Well Rounded Records - home to Deadboy’s classic ‘U Cheated’ - soon.
Spare - Tesla Coil (mp3)
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Lines Over Hours
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July Is The Cruelest Miranda
Toronto’s Rituals have a debut 7” EP - featuring ‘Life Saver’ - out now through Unfamiliar Records. Built round a looping guitar lead and disco bassline it’s frownless and glorious Minks style swinging-hips-obnoxiously-to-the-breeze punk.
2 tags
Writ in water
21 year old James Cook spent some time away from his native Connecticut in Bristol, UK and it sounds like he caught up some of this listless wayfaring heat in this batch of “retro synths, arps, and bit-reducer” formed pieces. There are hints of Joker’s airing synths and some Geoff Barrow graces but it’s the ambient, balearic pianos which really seal the warm, breathy...
2 tags
LIPSTICK ON HONEYDEW
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A KALEIDOSCOPE'S CENTRE
Spring’s ‘Erriapo‘ release through Uncharted Audio was an intriguing 17 minute introduction to the “house impressionism” of Finnish producer Ukkonen. More sunbled effets de soir broadstrokes here, as both tracks seemingly morph through time signatures - see his flexi-tempo experiment - frictionless; ’The Barbarian’ hitting an Axel Wilner epiphanous four...
2 tags
FLOWERS OF BABEL
Hypermagic’s debut album - Sugar - is up for free download now through Bandcamp. The London producer’s gauzy tracks try subtle in the most elevating way possible; setting two-step skips and snares over an arching, tripping ‘scape.
Hypermagic - Spell Inside (mp3)
Hypermagic - Lasso (mp3)
1 tag
NOV 1ST & THE CLOCKS REWOUND
Everything’s in flux I guess; John Cale and the Microphones, the KLF and Women, Celer and Philip Jeck, Grouper and Pariah, Buddy Holly and the Caretaker, Mogwai and Warpaint can underscore each other out in autumnal minor.