Saturday, September 24, 2011

TCH (This Crepuscular Hour) Discography

One of the more obscure gems of the Dorobo/Iridium label.

Eryn Tooey (violin) appears on Shinjuku Thief's The Witch trilogy. Peter Breuer (electronics) appears on Shinjuku Filth's Junk.

Only two releases to their credit.

YouTube has a site with many of their videos if you want to get to know a little bit more about their aesthetic.

Tough to find too, especially Abutilon at 320.

Abutilon (1994) (320 kbps)




Try

Info


Sinflower (1997) (VBR~256 kbps)





Try

Info

Mika Vainio - Mining (Video) (2011)



Been on a heavier sounds kick lately, finding the beauty in the apparent chaos.  Ditto the video above.  

It helps if you've seen the original film but this song and this video are a perfect fit.

Boomkat review of his Life (...It Eats You Up) album.

Just another one of those tracks that jumped out at me instantly...

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Salem - King Night (Video) (2010)

Maybe some of you know this song and the whole genre that bears this sound...

I knew of the genre (Balam Acab seems to get lumped in there) but didn't pay it much mind until I stumbled across this song (and band and album and genre) that seems to garner a lot of confusion in the press. 

I haven't had a song smack me like this since the first time I heard Ministry's "Stigmata" or Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole" and sat spellbound by the videos.

I think it was the 'O Holy Night' (a highly meaningful song for me) thing that sucked me in. 

Considering that I find music in the sound of wires in the wind or in the recordings of shortwave radio transmissions and enjoy the musical collision styles of such artists as Bill Laswell and scratch DJs, it isn't a stretch for me to see the beauty going on in the midst of what seems like blithering chaos.

Not sure the song (or video) has any meaning at all but the end result is pretty remarkable (and apparently polarizing).  Genius?  Social commentary?  Apathy? Catharsis?  Or perhaps just a moment in pop culture in which the decomposition of meaning has found a temporary repose.

If anything, there seems to be an inertia behind it which comes from a place so overly sensitized that to be desensitized would be to feel something.  Boomkat's review is well worth reading.

I suppose it takes coming from a place like that to bring forth something like this.

Check it out...


SALEM - KING NIGHT from Theo Wenner on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

U-cover Mixes


If you aren't familiar with the U-cover label, well worth your time to check it out.  Mostly the work of label owner, Koen Lybbaert (aka Ontayso), it offers a diverse selection of artists to be found and/or represented and a nice variety of unique musical offerings.

Couple of older mixes here that give a taste of what they have to offer:

Mix #1 (Ambient)

Mix #3 (IDM)
Mix #4 (Minimal)

Missing #2 if anyone has it to offer...

As always, support the labels and artists in any way you can.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Alan Lamb's Night Passage - The Layered Mixes


One of the more visited pieces of music in my collection (much to my GF's dismay...) is Alan Lamb's "wire music" as found on two CDs he has released of the recordings.

Several things prompted me to experiment a little.

At the end of a road trip last week, Murcof's The Versailles Sessions (another challenging yet essential work) was accompanying me and as "Spring in the Artificial Gardens" ended it struck me that David Hyke's "Rainbow Voice" (that I first heard in one of my favorite films, Baraka, essential on Blu-Ray), would blend perfectly into this.

As I started to put this together I decided to use Alan Lamb's "Night Passage" as the foundation. Something about the cacophony of the Murcof track seemed to fit. The 24:51 track length is the entire Lamb piece on its own.

There are two versions here:

#2) The recent post of The Conet Project has a video of a mix with Lamb's "Last Anzac" piece and I figured a random sample of these recordings would fit in with the mix.

Finally, thrown in to boot was "Among the Shadows" from Anders Peters' latest, Eerie Calm Reincarnate. Since he is into found sounds as a basis for his "eerie" soundscapes, it all seemed to gel.

#4) I toned down the wire music to bring out the other songs in the mix more clearly.  "Among the Shadows" was replaced with "Her Face" so this one's got some beats and The Conet Project track was replaced with "Origins" from Darrin Verhagen's Soft Ash, an "aural treatment of six different fatal gaseous clouds, most of which being mostly composed of sulphur dioxide." (Source)

Certainly not everyone's thing and certainly not "music" in the usual sense (whatever that is) but hopefully you'll find it interesting...

Night Passage #2

Night Passage #4

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Anders Peterson (aka A.P., aka Relapxych.0)


Another mix from one of my favorite artists, Anders Peterson, who operates under many aliases.

Along with being a great music maker, his production techniques grace many releases on labels such as his own Ghost Sounds label and, lately, Silent Season, one of the best labels out there right now.

By the way, his latest release, Eerie Calm Reincarnate, is one of 2011's best.  Picked up the 2 LP release upon its release.  On top of the brooding ambience, he's added beats which really give it a distinctive touch.

Give this mix a listen and give him your support.

The tracklist:

1. 0’00 Katzo – « Iterance »
2. 5’40 Atheus – « Decaedra »
3. 13’10 Alteria percepsyne – « All you see is a ghost »
4. 17’53 A.P reworks Muslimgauze – « Citadel in nightlight »
5. 23’52 relapxych.0 – « Distant radiance »
6. 27’15 Alveol – « Living crystal »
7. 31’11 Deer – « Live in Manchester » (relapxych.0 Remix)
8. 34’05 Akira Yamaoka – « Assault on the police station »
9. 36’30 A.P – « Foreverneverendeverend »
10. 37’37 The exaltics – « Negative agency »
11. 41’29 M.A.L – « Lie detector test »
12. 43’02 Katzo – « Refrain »
13. 46’00 Rhythm and sound – « Trace »
14. 47’25 Federsen – « Gamma »
15. 51’30 Andrea Porcu – « Come le onde »
16. 58’01 Skyscaper / Ekelon – « Shaping the sky »

Input Selector Mix

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Conet Project


The coolest thing I've heard in quite some time...

Some of my favorite albums are those that capture those sounds from the atmosphere that we often miss and forget that it is another soundtrack to our life.  Darrin Verhagen's Soft Ash and Alan Lamb's Night Passage come immediately to mind.

This is a collection - 4 CDs worth - of post World War II shortwave radio transmissions.  There is a conspiracy, spy element to them which makes them all the more intriguing.  You can read all about them here.

These are free on the archive.org website or you can find the recordings on the labels home page:

Here

Speaking of Alan Lamb (which is how I stumbled across this in the first place), here is a mix of his "wire music" and some samples from the Conet Project:



P.S. Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has its roots in these recordings and they were in fact sued by Irdial, the label behind the project.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Naked Funk


By multiple requests... 

Valium (1996)



Naked Funk's first album.

This one doesn't seem to get much attention. Maybe it should...

Here

Info

Evolution Ending (1999)




I first stumbled across them on Global Underground's first Afterhours mix. The title song was one of the highlights of the mix.

I've seen their sound compared to The Crystal Method and, on a few songs, this is a fair comparison with the heavy emphasis on bass.

However, there is a bit more diversity in their sound, sometimes a bit funky in an electro kind of way and sometimes more on the downtempo.

If anything get it for the title track but listen to it from the beginning before getting there. It's a nice ride.

Here

Info