Now that the Leed’s psychonauts glowing debut “Pearl Mystic” is out it’s high (heh) time to get acquainted with their debut self-titled EP, released back in ‘11 on cassette by Sun Ark Records, now it’s available from Faux Discx on heavyweight 180 gram vinyl, so you can listen to the fuzzy echoing ride through infectious riffs in the full audiophiliac glory. These are the kinds of worms you’d like to get. Highly recommended!
This exhaustive (65 minutes!) compilation of music from 5 cassettes shows the ideas and the creative processes of the West Coast’s ambient explorer Kevin Greenspon, who effortlessly slaloms between somewhat sandpaper-like synthesizer based textures and gentle, subtle guitar-driven vistas in the likeness of the great ambient masters of the decades past. “Paradise A.D.” is a gallery of moods crafted for every occasion. Recommended! If you like this, buy the CD from the artist himself.
One of the finest releases from the generally all-killer no-filler catalogue of Sweat Lodge Guru, “Six Movements in Four Hours” by this ghost drone band from the dusty nowhere of Lincoln, Nebraska (US of A), combines the slowest, most molasses-flood like post-rock of GY!BE or Tarentel, haunted psychedelic desert music of Barn Owl and the haziest, most othewordly moments of Low and you’re getting close to describing the sound of the Bus Gas quartet. Heavy, trippy, beautiful and pregnant with emotion. Birth. Re-birth. Cosmic reunion. Slowcore? More like the slowest core. Highly recommended.
Matt Papich sure loves his samples. On “Rest in Paradise” he takes the catchiest, most vapid snippets of “easy listening” music and 50’s and 60’s pop music and turns them into constantly looping relaxing pieces treated with a ghostly echo and dubby basslines. It’s almost like listening to some early Amon Tobin without any looped drum breaks or IDM experimentation ever coming. Kinda like vaporwave, but it doesn’t take New Age or corporate muzak to fuck with. Instead, it uses the oldie vacation hits to create Technicolor vintage chopped&screwed time capsules that surround and devour the listener. Not sure if it’s briliant or horrible. Decide for yourself.
This wonderful compilation took me by surprise while randomly browsing through the vaaaaast (like the Ikea head warehouse vast) archives of my e-mails. The stunning artwork caught my eye and the music just followed (or actually even surpassed; and fitted; the artwork!). Brilliant & beatific, mutlilevel and higher existence ambient passages cross beat filled areas full of futuristic trippertronics. A mindblowing, monstrous collection of the forerunners of the most modern incarnation of psychedelic music. 43 tracks. Available for free. Incredible. Highly recommended!
“Magical Writing”, originally released on cassette on Gengras’ own label Peccant Tapes sees MGG take a more intimate and meditative direction. Instead of harsh, abstract synthesis and live-aktion knob twiddling madness, this album offers a deeply personal journey into the ambient territory, soothing the listener with deeeep drones and beautiful, mournful melodies hidden beneath them. Music for intense explorations of the inner self. Recommended.
Totally rad proto-vaporwave release in the more relaxed, chillwave-y way straight from the trailblazing US label Beer on the Rug. The album artwork is truly spartan, and so is the music: 70’s/80’s late night TV lounge music meets looped’n’screwed mood-setting synth pop pieces that symbolize the Brave New World. And once again, as with all those albums, one asks the perennial question: is this real?
I don’t know whether there are some subliminal messages contained witin many super-fake vaporwave releases, but damn, those obviously parodistic HD Age collages are really relaxing and enjoyable. This must be one of those “so bad they’re good” albums, because everything, absolutely every single element here is set for highest cheesyness (is there even such a word?). In the future, the malls and plazas won’t be only filled with soulless muzak like this (who knows, maybe some “lead music programmist” will dig into all these weirdo artifacts 10-20 years from now and use it for ubiquitous sonic background), but also with a neurotoxin that will transform the visitors into brainless drones that will consume everything in their path. Oh wait, this is the present.
Kitschy, jarringly old-fashioned computer graphics? Check! A hint of lo-fi nostalgia? Check! An obvious use (or rather: abuse) of rather dated terms and formats? Check! Ladies and gentlemen, it seems like we’re dealing with another vaporwave release. Here, however, the pop sensibilities appear to be stronger than in the previous entry’s music, going for the chooped-and-screwed variety of non-offensive, slowed-down synth po(o)p. It is dusted and perfectly clean at the same time, damaged and surreal yet fully up-to-date and coherent, a cut’n’paste patchwork of hypnagogic pop structures with an air of hair salon muzak added. Weird, but certainly enjoyable.
(Cassette, Notice Recordings, 2011)
Josh Burke, the forever future-gazing synth whiz kid from the modernist soil of Chicago, has crafted another monument. Burke has gone a long way, from the woozy, hazy endless droooans of his earliest releases, to the wonderfully hi-fi, crystal-clear New Age waves on his later work. Returning with another vision, Josh transports himself into the Information Era with his retrodelic project 56k.
56k. I hope I don’t have to explain this name to anyone. Unless you’re 15 or something, you spoiled fucking brat. Back in the day, a 56k dial-up modem was everyone’s dream, a gate to the world of exciting possibilities and super-simple web pages… All that, doused in a mist of nostalgia, is what is offered on ”Generations Lost”, the tribute to older computer & early world wide web days, released on the rather unknown & yet worthy of “hype” Notice Recordings label. While the opening “Voices” might not give much of a hint to the 56k’s delightfully new style, rather deciding to soak the listener in a steady, yet delicate drone and mixed walls of distorted, vague recordings of, well, voices. The track works, however, it seems to be working towards the aim of putting the listener in a state of pleasant limbo, a sort of short-lasting coma, through which one goes to another plateau, only to be prepared for “No Reflection”.
“No Reflection” is the definite highligt of the tape. It glides forward with effortless ease, sounding like the Windows 95 opening theme stretches over the course of a few minutes, albeit more dynamic and rhythmic - it is a crystal ride through the excitement of your first modem, logging in to AOL, using the chatrooms, waiting forever for an .JPG of your favorite car to load, creating your e-mail account, never to be used again except to brag in front of your nerd friends. The dynamic music of this track would make for an excellent background music for a business PowerPoint presentation or a 90’s show about using office software in your small company.
The rest of the tracks follow the more or less established path of New Age relaxation with an Information Age polish, plodding ahead in slow, beatific melodies and simple repetitions, like on following “A Dream Within a Dream”. Despite the general uplifting and positive tone of the almost corporate electronic soundtracks contained on the cassette, there are darker, more chaotic moments, also. Like the dissonant, mis-organized “Generations Lost”. If all the other tracks sound like the smooth sailing over the early WWW, this track sounds like accidentally discovering your first shock website when clicking the wrong link or opening a pornographic website through a spam e-mail and immediately closing the browser, terrified and guilty. Thankfully, the closing (and aptly named) “Angel” descends to save you from the dangers of the web and bring you back on the right track, lighting the way to the future and showing the right path.
The only thing that is left to wonder is what direction will Josh Burke take in the nearest future, if this tape’s any indication, it might see him moving to the more rhythmical, dynamic directions, while still retaining the New Age quality and soft glare to his music. It would be really nice to see him get into some blurred, delicate variety of ambient techno, but that’s just me. Lots of hope from this guy!
