Kinskop - Home Folder

Band / Artist: Kinskop
Year: 2010
Genre:Downtempo, IDM, Ambient Techno, Electroacoustic

My Review:
THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS LOOM. They are coming from The Various Vegetables Label,  which is pretty freaking spiffy. I love me some good electronic stuff.

This is the most mellow album I'd imagine from Loom. Or Kinskop as they are now known. Its pleasantly made. If you've enjoyed Bitbasic (Meek, or Leonard), Loom, MemCave, or Yarn, you'll likely enjoy this one a lot.

Kinskop - Home Folder

Taiga - Re:Wireless

Band / Artist: Taiga
Year: 2010
Genre: Dub, Dubstep, Breaks, Downtempo

My Review:
Weird, Chill, and a great way to enjoy a few minutes of an evening. Actually, this is the music I'd imagine in a scene moment of japan at night in the rain. I'm happy to find some good stuff from Russia though, because I always wish I had more of that region to share.

Anyway, i'm pretty sure the netlabel that originally posted this one is dead, and I haven't found much about the band, other than it's name is referencing a Russian forest.

Here is a little blurb about the music.

The new album of Denis Taiga from Saint-Petersburg is a collection of electro-dubstep, sampladelica with a fresh ethnic melodies.

Taiga - Re:Wireless

Ana Bogner - Multiple Proportions

Band / Artist: Ana Bogner
Year: 2014
Genre: Experimental, Indie Alternative, Acoustic, Downtempo

My Review:

And then, all of a sudden, as if the storm came to an end, the room became silent. One heard a silent rattling reminding us of sundering thoughts, but still the room was silent. There was a roar of anepia around us, a shaft of light above the horizon starting to scream. Then we lay, floated, lay again on the constantly shapeshifting floor, being held by contemplation’s grip. Bridges formed, ruptures yawned, their mouthes, wide open at first, slowly closing (this is the work of our scars set in motion). There are monsters in that soul, waiting for you. The spiral repulsed, and the waves broke against the rock, untiredly seeping further towards the Nothing of this world. You’ll be found by waves which pass through everything, and if you dare to follow them, you’ll find entropy. But not an entropy of loudness, no. An entropy sketched and betokened, an entropy enmeshing and unwinding. And all of this in a feedback of reciprocity, freed from the hierarchy of a predetermined approach. It repeats and remains non-identical to itself. Since I built it in my mind i know: they haven‘t built the city we need. The room was filled with sound, but still the room was silent.

I want to bury myself in the first track on this EP for the whole day. I want it to just be the soundtrack of my life for a day. I want to go lay on a mattress in a lightly wooded field. I want to stare off blankly in the breeze of a dying winter, and I want this to play.

Its a strange softness, that seems like it rests between happy and sad, in a place of peacefulness. Really great album, and totally worth a listen if anything about this sounds appealing.

Ana Bogner - Multiple Proportions 

And then, all of a sudden, as if the storm came to an end, the room became silent. One heard a silent rattling reminding us of sundering thoughts, but still the room was silent. There was a roar of anepia around us, a shaft of light above the horizon starting to scream. Then we lay, floated, lay again on the constantly shapeshifting floor, being held by contemplation’s grip. Bridges formed, ruptures yawned, their mouthes, wide open at first, slowly closing (this is the work of our scars set in motion). There are monsters in that soul, waiting for you. The spiral repulsed, and the waves broke against the rock, untiredly seeping further towards the Nothing of this world. You’ll be found by waves which pass through everything, and if you dare to follow them, you’ll find entropy. But not an entropy of loudness, no. An entropy sketched and betokened, an entropy enmeshing and unwinding. And all of this in a feedback of reciprocity, freed from the hierarchy of a predetermined approach. It repeats and remains non-identical to itself. Since I built it in my mind i know: they haven‘t built the city we need. The room was filled with sound, but still the room was silent. light above the horizon starting to scream. Then we lay, floated, lay again on the constantly shapeshifting floor, being held by contemplation’s grip. Bridges formed, ruptures yawned, their mouthes, wide open at first, slowly closing (this is the work of our scars set in motion). There are monsters in that soul, waiting for you. The spiral repulsed, and the waves broke against the rock, untiredly seeping further towards the Nothing of this world. You’ll be found by waves which pass through everything, and if you dare to follow them, you’ll find entropy. But not an entropy of loudness, no. An entropy sketched and betokened, an entropy enmeshing and unwinding. And all of this in a feedback of reciprocity, freed from the hierarchy of a predetermined approach. It repeats and remains non-identical to itself. Since I built it in my mind i know: they haven‘t built the city we need. The room was filled with sound, but still the room was silent.

Neuro Trash - This Apocalypse Was Less Fun Than We Thought It Would Be

Year: 2013
Genre: Ambient, Downtempo, Instrumental, Neo-Folk

My Review:

After they had destroyed all the humans, the robots felt terribly alone

That quote is all to be said about this album by the band. As I've recently been doing a crap job of keeping up with singles posts and submitted albums for artists, this one slipped through the cracks for a while. I'm just now getting back to it, and realizing that I needed a good softer folky album to post on here. I wrote a whole review for this, and can't find it, which pisses me off.

The range of instruments used is very impressive, especially since I can't remember the last time I heard someone play a saw. The sound of this overall its a somber, melodic album that works great for a relaxing few minutes of your day, or trying to sit in that little gray corner of your mind for a while.

Neuro Trash - This Apocalypse Was Less Fun Than We Thought It Would Be

The melodies in this one are so hypnotizing to me, but I can feel a mental drive toward digital music after listening to it for a while. I guess it means I should listen to their earlier EP, which will balance it all out. You might want to as well, so here it is.

Neuro Trash - Blokoppy

MMPSUF - Retina

Band / Artist: MMPSUF
Year: 2012
Genre: Downtempo, Ambient, Acoustic

My Review:
Think about waves at moonlight. Think about alleyways in the crisp dark of an autumn night, with steam rising from vents and floating off to die in the atmosphere. Think about the asphalt spilling by beneath the beams of your headlights as you drive off to another minor chapter of your life.

This music can bring you that. It has this sound reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins (on a serious depression streak) or a softer, more droning track from Camille, and maybe even just a little bit lke some kind of experimental project by Dido. Its beautiful, and soft, and sort of sad, in an acceptant way, like the singer knows there isn't anything to do about it, but sing about how she feels.


mmpsuf live (Eglė Sirvydytė): The Rooms from mmpsuf on Vimeo.

This one is only 5 tracks long, but it unfurls itself to you so wonderfully, that I can't help but be happy for the whole thing just as it is.

MMPSUF - Retina

Free Singles - Soul Are, Raw Music International, Sportbilly Krsi Embargo, Ellie Goulding, Bassnectar

Soul Are - Southern Jakarta Hardcore

Indonesian METTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. This one has a heavy garage quality, but it reminds me a lot of Killing Joke and early Fear Factory, or maybe a live show from fear factory. They've been together since 2000. Totally worth looking into, I know that I will be. Heres their facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/soulare/info

LaFam (Raw Music International) - Aduwa (ft. Chiness)

African soulful downtempo. This has a lot of interesting soundscapes in it. There is just a bit of the old school trance, with kenyan rappity ripping across the soft singing, and throat chanting. Soft and pleasant, a great way to relax for a minute before the next track coming up.

Sportbilly Krsi Embargo - Lemeka

I really like this song. It has that heavy guitar tuning that you used to hear from Korn, and the song itself is an amalgam of balkan and funk. So good.

So far I haven't found much about the band, but if I do, you can imagine that I might share it.

Halloween Town - Easy Lover

I'm loving all the songs so far on this collection. This reminds me of the old post on here from lavalier. Apparently it is a jam band made up of members of a couple different groups, including Louis XIV , Transfer, 12 Volt Sex, The Red Romance, Ambulance LTD, and The Killers. Here's their bio on Ryan Pardy's website.

http://www.ryanpardey.com/bio.html

..and if you enjoyed that track, here are two more. Your Christmas Song and A Faster Bullet.

Ellie Goulding - High For This

You are about to listen to a gorgeous rendition from the exquisitely talented English singer Ellie Goulding, covering The Weeknd’s ‘High For This’. With the help of Chiddy Bang producer Xaphoon Jones, the two lay a memorable cover from one of the most buzzed hip/hop group of the last 12 months.

This is a really chill song, with just enough glitch on the vocals to make it feel interesting. I could see a song like this being a big pop song, except its just too soft and not bouncy enough to make a pop single. It'd be more like one of the songs that yo hear on the album after you buy it, and then you end up liking it mroe than anything else on there. I do really like it though, it makes me think of Aliyah when she started to step out onto her own.

 

Bassnectar - DREAMTEMPO

I'm working through this mixtape that just crossed the emails yesterday.  Bassnectar is always good for a little bit of wub, though this is a lot older than his Wub-works. Here's some of his information that came with this.

I’ve been wanting to re-release this for a long time…

This was a mixtape I recorded in one take on four CDJs back in 1999, summarizing my love for thick, heavy, hypnotic downtempo music: ethereal melodies, weird loops, funky acid jazz, trip-hop, and everything left field of center.

Musically, it’s a collection of songs which are very special to me...

 It feels a lot like something from Bonobo, and has a little bit of an old Cujo track. It even feels a little like a slacker riffing off of Buddha Bar, and coming out with something so much better.

Blake Market - Polynesia-town

Band / Artist: Blake Market
Year: 2009
Genre: Dubstep, Breaks, Dub, Downtempo, Trip Hop

My Review:

This one is very close to dubstep, just not your skrillex kind (pretty sure that one is known as Brostep now. Fitting.). Dubstep is such a bitch to pin down, like IDM was back in the early 2000s, because it has such a loose definition. 

Blake Market is also known by Anti-Man, Black Market, Blake Markle, Blakkar Noir, and Zark Behida, But I'll be damned if I couldn't find his REAL name. He has no website, and nearly every moniker he goes by has only one release. From hunting I did figure out that he has been releasing music since at least 2006.

Anyhow, I liked this one enough to keep, and it has had a few return rotations in the year I’ve had it. A lot more focus on the melody in this than the baseline, so it isn't quite as dance oriented, but it was still enjoyable.

Blake Market - Polynesia-town

Graffiti Mechanism, a little more than the normal.

Band / Artist: Graffiti Mechanism
Year: 2009-2012
Genre: Acid, Acid House, Ambient, Dub Techno, Techno, Lo-fi, Chillout, Chiptune, Dark, Downtempo

My Review:
In 2011, my life had gone sideways on me. Some friends were helping to pull me out of a lull that had and has somewhat persisted since mid 2010, like a cloud over and through my life. During a part of that, I started to find my artist legs once again, and began to build back some of my joys and motivations. I was playing through a lot of music I had missed out on during a stint where I had been mentally vacant, and had saved a folder for a day when I needed to focus on something.

And that is how I found Graffiti Mechanism.

This guy is named Adam Crammond. He runs, or has a hand in running a netlabel called Proc-rec, I believe it started up in 2007. He has released so much work, that I still find new pieces of his.

Today will be special because I'm showcasing 4 of them, showing a progression I noticed.

Graffiti Mechanism - Blotter Beats


The first one I'll post as these are all in chronological order. This isn't just acid in the way it's often heard. He brings in a background in ambient and noise.

The drug references seem to be a sign of where he intends for you to go with his music, and that he wants to make you dance a little while you're there. It seems to cycle back on itself, always gaining complexity as it reloops, and the sound seems to pick up more muddled layers while others fade inward below. The use of Lo-fi sounds as a tool instead of an issue with equipment is so interesting a choice to me, and it really works for him.

Graffiti Mechanism - The Fabric Of Existance

A step from acid in some ways, but keeping it going as the lifeblood of the tracks in many ways. This shows an evolution more from the kind of music made to dance the night away on drugs, to something showing a growth and a maturity. It is where I start to pick up on what I called Acid-daze, the sound that seems to be created for you to sit in a dark space and contemplate all layers of your life on hallucinogens.

Graffiti Mechanism - Fueled By Emotion

The first album I heard. This is the point where he really stepped into this meditative acid-daze sort of sound. I looked beck through everything of his I could find, and nothing else seems to capture this sound that he suddenly grasped with both hands and began knitting into a wonderful dreamscape.

I'd rate this one the highest of all of them if I were to be the type to rate albums. I can honestly say that something about this album helped me to find and heal some small part of my soul, although i cannot quantify that in any way. I can still listen to this on repeat for a whole day without even a trace of regret.

Graffiti Mechanism - Synesthesia

The shortest of the albums, an EP by any standard, even if the tracks are 7+ minutes each. This compounds on the top of the "Fueled By Emotion" set, adding a more clear and meditative approach to the sound he is exploring.  If he continues down this path, I do wonder what he is going to incorporate into it next.

Either way, Hats off to Graffiti Mechanism.