A stream of brilliant naturalist instrumental psych jams from Denver’s Woodsman are up for grabs. Titled Indoor Days, this 6 track EP is a teaser for their upcoming album Collages on Mexican Summer. Although there are hints of post-rock here, the remarkable thing here is there’s not a bit of the overt sentimentalism of post-rock that I’ve grown to hate : i.e huge buildups, melodies & that overused electronic ambience. Instead there’s a stream of absorbing psych guitar sound + sparse percussion, well done!

‘Tis the season of going back to 2009 for damage control, the realization of what has been overlooked in the past year, and one thing that shines, especially on this somber morning is The Archivist’s “The Keeper of the Library”, found thanks to Headphone Commute’s perceptive ears.

Moteer boss and The Boats/The Sea (with partner Andrew Hargreaves and the newest addition Danny Norbury) & The Remote Viewer main man, Craig Tattersall’s new alter ego The Archivist gathers his unreleased stuff for UK’s Lacie’s Records. I don’t know why they were left unreleased, because these are definitely prime time material. It all sounds like the good old times when electronica was meticulously handcrafted and not randomized, included bittersweet, inward looking melodies, the hum and hiss of glitchy samples and cinematic passages which brought back memories of achievements and failure. Essential no filler disc if you are into early Jan Jelinek, Napoli is not Nepal, Porn Sword Tobacco, Origamibiro, Xploding Plastix and of course Tattersall himself.

Two prolific names from the experimental electro-acoustic scene Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek has just released Blank Grey Canvas Sky on the Swedish Fang Bomb label. Spanning 6 songs and 43 minutes Blank Grey Canvas Sky is a meticulous embroidery of pianos, instrumentation and drones.

“For this release, Machinefabriek, based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Peter Broderick, based in Berlin, Germany (although constantly on the road) set out to push each others limits, and to explore new areas within their own creativity. The resulting album is a delicately crafted one, with Machinefabriek and Broderick virtuosically combining instrumental compositions, drone, and heartfelt soundscapes with song structures and vocals”.

Deneysel müziğin iki üretken isminin bir araya gelerek çıkardıkları Blank Grey Canvas Sky isimli albümden kısaca bahsedeceğiz. Albüm drone etkisi altında, piyano ağırlıklı, electro-acoustic deneysel bir çalışma diyebiliriz..

Daha çok piyano üzerine kurulu albüm, altı parça ve 43 dakikadan oluşuyor. Oldukça dinlendirici etkiye sahip albümde; tek bir parçada vokal yer alıyor. O da Peter ve Susanna Lundgren’ın ortak düeti.

İyi dinlemeler..

Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek – Kites by Fang Bomb

I’d hate to start another suicidefest by sharing “Gloomy Sunday” with you on a, well, gloomy sunday, since as The Silent Ballet’s Richard Allen has duly noted:

“Billie Holiday’s 1941 hit, “Gloomy Sunday,” tells the tale of a person in mourning who is contemplating suicide. Due to numerous anecdotal stories of people listening to the song and launching themselves from rooftops, the BBC banned the tune, which eventually became known as “The Hungarian Suicide Song.”

Facts away there’s absolutely nothing I agree with Allen about Tsukimono’s latest release “Heart Attack Money”on Kalligrammofon. First of all, there’s an unparalleled versatility on this release with instrumental piano pieces, good-natured noise, nostalgic ambient soundscapes. Second, there’s an integrity and continuity as an album from head to toe. As such it has been one release I kept coming back to, and I was shocked to see he’s given this album a 3/10 while writing this feature. My self esteem is floored now, and I’ve started to scrutinize my own musical taste on this “gloomy sunday”. Perhaps I’m a 3 in life/music as well? :(

Thank God Vital Weekly is on my side!

Eight tracks on this relatively short album, but what a variety of music. There are really mean noisy bits, but also piano pieces and even pop like pieces. This is melancholic music in optima forma. Think Oren Ambarchi, spiced with a bit of noise and a bit of piano. So far his best album, as far as I can see.

Another release from the mysterious Clutchy Hopkins this year, it seems the guy can’t be stopped. Once again a collaboration with British American producer Shawn Lee (who happens to be residing in Britain) another artist who can do no wrong. Don’t know if there’s any news on who Clutchy Hopkins, and I certainly don’t want another Burial occasion, but I can’t stop thinking they are the same person. Anyway, the album is not hell of a different from their debut Clutch of the Tiger. Cinematic melodies, drum breaks, solid musicianship. The go-to album when you just want to put on something feel good and make it linger in the background. Don’t mean that in a bad way, I should add. 3.5/5

We were absolutely stoked when Ali Farka Touré passed away at the end of 2007, the world has instantly become harder to bear without the wisdom coming from the Malian lion. So imagine the exuberance when our friends from World Circuit announced the posthumous sequel to Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté’s collaboration and sent us the single, Kala Djula. Diabaté, the virtuoso kora player and band leader as you all know, is the crown holder of Malian music after Farka’s death and although a posthumous release is never equal to having Farka back, it still is fantastic to hear more music from the man. Out in February 2010.

Miasmah and 12rec artist and an undomondo favourite Muhr aka Vincent Fugère releases his final (?) full length on Soft Phase netlabel aptly titled “Farewell Anthology”. Subtle clicky soundscapes + melancholic piano.

“Vincent Fugère, the man behind the influential Camomille netlabel and also the record label Apegenine. Sadly, some months ago he made the decision of focusing his efforts to other areas and the labels closed down. The new album carries the title “Farewell Anthology”, which might signal something that could be interpreted as being the last Muhr album”

Portuguese glitch & ambient electronica artist João Ricardo aka Ocp also has a new EP on Bypass netlabel.

Have you heard the news that the contract for all muzak in heaven is awarded to Les Baxter?. This will be played live by little fairies during your teleportation. But first you have to eat your greens and be a good boy!

Les Baxter’s Kinkajou from 1952’s “Ritual of the Savage“.

A change of direction with the change of the season. Dreamy soundscapes, emotional music suitable for rainy and gray weather. Drone, instrumental music, electronica, shoegaze, Tropical nu-wave.

Image by Alex Gaidouk

porn sword tobacco – spectrum campfire
bibio – lovers’ carvings
memory tapes – green knight
atlas sound – the light that failed
nite jewel – bottom rung
universal studios florida – capri sun caravan
the xx – hot like fire
real estate – suburban dogs
broadcast & the focus group – will you read me
el fog – the fog of the far small town
paavoharju – sumuvirsi
broadcast & the focus group – the be colony
the orb – pebbles
truman peyote – 3 stnd
ochre – napolese
mark mc guire – stranger than paradise
fuqugi – alleyway
the advisory circle – and the cuckoo comes
ashra – deep distance

Radio Show #80 by mersenne

One of the things that amazes me is that the Himalayas — which people think of as the paradigm of the stable — are still moving up one millimeter a year because India is still clashing with Central Asia. They’re a ripple in the surface of the Earth. We cannot conceive of a clash that would last millions of years — our time frame is too limited. Imagine an observer with a time-scale so large that he could see this clash. He wouldn’t even see us. Species to him would seem like vast amounts of bio-mass in constant change. He would see evolution. Everything that matters to evolution happens across millennia. That observer would see species mutating and flowing. He would probably worship flows — unlike us, who, because of our very, very tiny time-scale of observation, tend to worship rocks. DeLanda Destratified

Member of a new generation of romantic pianists Hauschka, alongside Sylvain Chaveau, Goldmund (aka Helios), and Max Richter have been quite prominent, putting emotion and quiet introspection in the center of compositions. Although I’ve never been a huge fan of this music, for I’m on the other end of the realism/romanticism line, I enjoy short breaks of piano meditation especially on cloudy days. Who doesn’t? Anyway, German pianist/composer Hauschka has a new CDR out on Secret Furry Hole Records and it’s quite good.

“these 5 songs are small compositions with composed melodies and they seemed to be pictures or little vague and fast impressions of a long train ride.”

Hauschka : Sehnsucht by secretfurryhole