Run The Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 / Meow The Jewels

Band / Artist: Run the Jewels
Year: 2015
Genre: Punk-Rap, Rap, Alternative Hip-Hop, Experimental, Cat Music

My Review:
These are fun, and not what I was expecting to bump into when I was like "fuck it, I have to get back to jumbly". So the music is coming from Killer Mike and El-P. I am really loving this shit, but it might not be available for a long time, but its hard to know.

Anyway, Run The Jewels 2 is available from here, listed as meow the jewels on the downloads part. I assume it was an easter egg, but if it wasn't I'd imagine that it will be gone swiftly.

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2

And the most ridiculous remix album ever, which still rocks like crazy. MEOW THE JEWELS, the cat sampled/themed remix album, which I'm starting to think that I like MORE than the original. Its so much fun.

Run The Jewels - Meow The Jewels

Just go download these now, and get out of here, go lay in a field or something. I'll try to get this to be regular again. I know, I suck. Maybe soon I'll be getting my groove back, and I can go hang with Stella.

-{:(.SINGLES.):}- Low Leaf, Pig vs. Primitive Race, Out of System Transfer, Branko x JSTJR x Twerk Queen Louise

(Low leaf) Diwata Mantraz - Purification
http://www.creatordiy.com/blog/ is her blog, just so I don't leave anything out.



20 minutes of meditative soundscapes by Low Leaf. It's very interesting and pleasant. I don't know what to say for it, other than it reminds me of her other work, but more as a broken apart, experimental jam session of them. Its a little more Cocteau Twins, and a little less Little Dragon.

Pig vs. Primitive Race - Long In The Tooth (Joe Haze Mix)

I needed some industrial, and so it came to me. If you ever listened to KMFDM, then you'll have already heard some work by PIG, so give it a shot, Here's their promo.

Band features current and ex members of KMFDM, Prong, Ministry, Pop Will Eat Itself,The Mission, Peter Murphy, Combichrist, Revolting Cocks and more! As a special thank you to our fans for your loyalty, support, and patience we are also giving away a FREE remix of Long In The Tooth (Joe Haze Mix). You can't get this track anywhere else. 

Out of System Transfer - Slant Rhymes and Eye Rhymes

This was the email sent to me to talk about the track, which is a really great punky acoustic track with great horn lines along the background of the whole song. I'm digging it.

 Out of System Transfer release single “Slant Rhymes and Eye Rhymes”, playing  Palisades tonight with Brook Pridemore and Pat the Bunny


New York NY— "Slant Rhymes and Eye Rhymes", the latest single from Brooklyn based folk punk act Out of System Transfer, proves that oft-repeated saw that traveling the road changes you.
The band, mostly native New Yorkers, have spent a substantial amount of time over the past several months on the road supporting their debut EP “Same Rat Different Hat”,  tightening their live show, and building a dedicated following throughout the Northeast.
On one such trip the band spent a day at Hiwatts Studio in Providence, RI and recorded 3 new tracks, which they will be releasing over the next few months as free downloads.
"Slant Rhymes," the first release, is a marked departure for the band, explains front man Jesse Sternberg: “I love geography in songs. We have a whole bunch of songs about New York City, and this was my shot at getting some of the rest of the country in the mix. It's an unusually personal and unusually optimistic and non-angry song, for me.”
The song—with lyrics like “Let’s start a song, on this side of the Verrazano, get the tune down by the other side,” tells a particularly personal but relatable story for the band--but more broadly is about the joy of art and music. “Traveling can inspire songwriting, songwriting can lead to touring, and so on in a creative virtuous cycle. Mostly it's about how lucky and excited I feel to have the chance to travel and play music with such a great group of musicians and friends,” explains Sternberg.
You can see them tonight at Palisades in Brooklyn with Pat the Bunny, Brook Pridemore, and Prewar Yardsale, following which they’ll be living out this song as they hit the road again over the weekend.

If you liked that one, then enjoy a much more live sounding EP from them, Good for 2 Hours

Real Booty Music
Branko x JSTJR x Twerk Queen Louise - Cascavel

This one is really fun. They used a dancer (Twerk Queen Louise), hooked sensors to her hips, thighs, and butt, and let her bounce out all of the beats and rhythms into a sampler. Afterward, they worked all of them together into a dance track. Novel usage, and dat booty makes some music.

Branko

Straight outta Lisbon, Joao Barbosa AKA Branko is currently operating at the forefront of the tropical bass movement with his world-conquering band, Buraka Som Sistema. An innovative producer and DJ whose proclivity for digging deep into the world’s musical blind spots and finding inspiration where others don’t, the Portuguese beatmaker has been instrumental in giving voice to marginalized genres that might not otherwise have found the audience they deserve.

Branko’s solo outings have, of course, been equally tight with collaborations ranging from Zebra Kats to ELOQ, making him a formidable dance music force to be reckoned with.

Check him out on Facebook. 

 

I'll let you read the rest of their profiles from the web link. Enjoy!

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.

Sound Awakener - Five Chapters

Band / Artist: Sound Awakener
Year: 2014
Genre: Dark Ambient, Free Jazz, Modern Classical, Experimental, Field Recordings

My Review:
*EDIT - I'm a twat, and forgot to ask, Nhung is female. All gender references have been changed. Sorry!*

Today's artist of note is Sound Awakener. I got an email from her right before the new year. She lives in Vietnam, and makes ambient, experimental style field recordings with piano. She describes it this way.

Five improvisations recorded on upright acoustic piano. Each piece has a really extinctive character .Vibrate has layers of reverb and exteneded techniques on piano string. Gather Eternity has loud hiss noise and distorted sound. Gallery of emptyness is sort of a lo - fi recording. Remembering all passing things and Untold are a mix of piano chords and field recordings.
"Five Chapters" refers to the endless search in life.

Here's the interview that we had.

Jumbly Music: It's nice to meet you. How are you doing?

Nhung Nguyễn : I’m doing good. Thank you. Things are getting musicaly marvelous for me.

Jumbly: So, whats your back story?

Nhung :  My musical journey started in 2002 when I began taking private classical piano lessons. The training ended in 2007 and since then I have been developing my own techniques and focusing on composition and improvisation.
In 2011 I started my solo musical project - Sound Awakener but no material was released until 2014. My aim is to live with the sonic journey as close as possible. It has always been a natural process.

Jumbly: Where are you from?

Nhung : I was born and now living in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Jumbly: Do you find it influences your style and your music much?

Nhung : Obviously it does. The city is full of thousands types of sounds. That’s why I use a lot of field recordings from everyday life in my music. To be more specific, in “Five Chapters”, there are field recordings from streets and restaurants.

Jumbly: Who makes your album art?

Nhung : Right now my album artworks are stock photos and each of them connects strongly to my music. I hope in the future I’ll invite someone to work with me on that aspect.

Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy your music?

Nhung : The best way is to enjoy with an empty mind.

Jumbly: What would you say is your favorite thing you've done?

Nhung : Interesting question. My favortie thing I’ve done is the thing I do everyday – appreciating and collecting sounds.

Jumbly: Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

Nhung : I like giving it for free when I feel I need to do that. I have some for free on my Bandcamp page and actually “Five Chapters” is free too. But I also have some paid ones  – honestly I need to support myself financially.

Jumbly: If anyone wanted to do a collaboration with you, would you be interested?

Nhung : I’m always open to collaboration.

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

Nhung : The best way is to fill out the contact form on my website (http://soundawakener.weebly.com/contact.html) or the contact form on my Bandcamp page (soundawakener.bandcamp.com)

Jumbly: What kinds of projects do you really want to do in the future?

Nhung : I really want to focus on making music for moving images and installations. Of course other forms still interest me.

Jumbly: Do you follow the blog? What would you like to see more of? Or any suggestions?

Nhung : I’ve been following the blog since June and I much enjoy the content. One thing I would like to see is more interviews of artists

Jumbly: Do you know any other great sites that people should check out?

Nhung : Haha, this is self – promotion : I have a pretty private music blog called Cánh đồng âm nhạc (Vietnamese, which means “Field of music” in English) (http://canhdongamnhac.weebly.com/ ). The reason I write it in Vietnamese is that there are few music blogs here, especially for genres like ambient/experimental or even classical music.

Jumbly: Thanks for sharing your music with me.
I have one last question. What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Nhung : The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen hmmm is maybe the calm sea in Đà Nẵng (it is a city in the central of Vietnam, which I’ve visited twice) Thank you so much for the great talk! 

Here are some other places that she shared with me to check out
Facebook page
Soundcloud
Youtube

Alright, enjoy it.

Sound Awakener - Five Chapters

Sufjan Stevens - Enjoy your rabbit

 

Band / Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Year: 2001
Genre: Experimental, Orchestral, Glitch

My Review:
I LOVE THIS ALBUM.

This is before the Sufjan (Soof-Yahn?) that people know a lot about. This was an orchestral sounding album, made of digital glitches and bleeps along with a myriad of other sounds.

I had heard his Michigan & Illinois albums, which I liked, but when I heard this, I was at awe. Was this really the same guy? Why make something so different? What was it about?

The whole concept is the chinese zodiac, and each animal has its own year, with a little play on the outer fringes to make it a little more his own.

I apologize about not really posting very regularly at the moment. I'm plotting out the way to make sure that i fix that for a long time coming, because I have a ton of gifts that I want to make for you. Thanks for sticking around, and please go right ahead and suggest other artists that you find and think would be a cool share.

ENJOY YOUR RABBIT.

Sufjan Stevens - Enjoy Your Rabbit

Cloud Mouth - Songs From the sewer

Band / Artist: Cloud Mouth
Year: 2011
Genre: Experimental, Lo-fi

My Review:
This is his older stuff, but I like it more than any of the other albums I’ve heard. Its best described as an experimental indie rock band. There are drum machines, vocal harmonies between the singers recordings, accordions, clarinets,  saxophones, god I don’t even know. One thing about the music is that he really enjoy disjointed and strange rhythms, as well as some very odd melodies.

Cloud Mouth is the name of 2 bands.. one is Shawn Jackinsky a single guy working on his own with all of these instruments, and the other is a punk band that formed in 2007 and retired 4 years later (I'll give them a little review as well in the next post).

He's got a lot of other music that he made, but a little hunting will bring it to your fingertips if you would like to find it now.

Cloud Mouth - Songs From the sewer

Moya - Honey Demo

Band / Artist: Moya
Year: 2007
Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Post-Rock, Classical

My Review:
You like Post-rock? Then have some. You like Classical? Then enjoy them both, at once. Here is their album description, which is as succinct as you need.

"Mozart + Mono, Chopin + Clann Zu, Dvorak + Do Make Say Think, Grieg + Godspeed You! Black Emperor = Moya"

Vasil Maronau makes the music, or made it, and released this at about 21 years old. He had a Google+ page with nothing on it other than the cover photo from this album. https://plus.google.com/106084273066833271369/posts
He also has a blank facebook page, and an empty twitter account. Not sure about much more on this album. It was enjoyable, but I don't know why he doesn't keep social if he made all these accounts.

You read Russian? I CAN'T, but if you can, then check out their website. http://www.moyaband.com/

Either way, if you enjoy the sound of a classical and post rock album, then you should enjoy this.

Moya - Honey Demo

Líam - MMIX

Band / Artist: Líam
Year: 2012
Genre: Experimental, Ambient, Post-rock, Shoegaze

My Review:
I asked a while back for some friends to do a couple reviews of music that they really enjoyed. I've decided that now might be an interesting time to start going through them. Starting out is a review from a close friend of mine whose a synesthetic. Here is her review.

Tagged as “Experimental, ambient, post-rock, shoegaze” on Bandcamp, MMIX by the German band Líam manages to hit all of those points beautifully. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the album since I had never heard the band before, but I was in a post-rock kind of mood and it made me feel like a junkie getting my fix.  Due to the synesthesia, I’m going to have to describe this music mostly in visuals because that’s the easiest way for me to verbalize it.

MMIX oscillates between hard, guitar-diven rock and softer ambient and experimental sounds. The softer music I would describe as pleochroic, stealing the gemologists’ term for a color change that occurs with a shift of light. It’s a little like focusing a camera; overall, the music looks a certain colour and texture, muted greys, soft greens and blues and the occasional lavender, with the smoky nature that only post-rock seems to do well. However, as I focus my ear on a particular instrument, the focus shifts and music changes from a veiled scene to a brilliant shade of orange or blue, with staccato textures I ignored on the highest level. These colours appear against the mist of the greater view, but at a much higher altitude.

In their more vibrant moments, Líam achieves a coherence of purpose among it’s individual sounds, with slightly varying hues moving together and forming a concrete directional movement. Much like watching a turbid spray of water twisting and advancing in minimal gravity, but lit from within with coloured light. In these moments the background, the outer edge of the music, my peripheral musical vision, is not black as it is in most songs, but a deep red or orange still within the visible spectrum.

When Líam returns from their ignition they tend to do so in a void, with focused execution that allows an individual sound to vibrate and move as a lit wavelength, moving in impossible trajectories but always reshaping to an original form. The beautiful lifts and drops of Líam’s music make it easy to simply close your eyes and listen only, doing nothing but appreciating the soundscapes this band is able to produce.

 Well I think that definitely does this justice. I hope you enjoy, and Thank you Ned for sharing some good post rock.

Líam - MMIX

Harq al'ada - Heat Ritual

I posted things from Nick Vanderveldt before, and one of his projects' band name was Harq al'ada.

Its a kind of experimental Prog-Rock/ Psych-Rock sound without really a whole lot of lyrics. When I started up this album, I knew almost immediately that it is definitely a maturation of their sound. Nick described the new release like this;

The name itself came from when my wife and I first moved to St. Louis a few years ago. It was September of 2011, it was hot, I wasn't sure where my life was really going, so I would get up in the morning and record on the 3rd floor, before the heat of the day. I called it my heat ritual.

Heat Ritual took about 2 years to record, compared to our first EP which took around 3 months. So there's a bit of overlap between the two. 

In "A Puck", I was very focused on trying to imitate this Miles Davis funk sound, I think Alex and I talked for hours about improvisation, and how the performance was so important, yet "A Puck" could never really be performed. So when we got together for vocal sessions on Heat Ritual in February, we kept a line on the same tangent. The song "Boninosuccinea" is a perfect example, both the main vocal track and the lead guitar were done in a single take. Alex had scribbled some ideas down on a notepad, and just sort of riffed on these lyrical themes. It wasn't for a few weeks that we went back to it, and thought wow, that's pretty good, and Alex did some backing tracks. The song "Useless" was written a little differently, though I feel like it was following the same thread. Alex, Ryan and I wrote that tune somewhat whimsically before a rehearsal for "The Difference Engine", just the real simple riff, which I think started off at first as a rip-off of "Communication Breakdown". As we played it, this form just took shape, and I started to add effects, Ryan started in on this Chemical Brothers kind of percussion part. It all just sort of fit. The real beauty of it to me is how open ended it is, we could play a different version of the same song every night, with different people.

The last half of the EP is a little more prescribed as it were. "Lobster Fist" was a little bridge instrumental I wrote probably 4 or 5 years ago, and just got shelved, and then I heard the demo again when I was doing sessions for Heat Ritual, and thought about how well it fit, this odd little tune, with these odd chords, and this odd meter shift. Prunus on the other hand, began as an experiment in prescribed improvisation. I wrote out the head of the tune, and then left the bridge open for free improvisation. I had initially envisioned this sort of Eric Dolphy w/guitars and synths piece, but instead I just kept filling in counter melodies until it sounded right. Obviously it didn't wind up being anything at all like Eric Dolphy, but that's where I got the idea anyway.

This is totally worth a listen. It reminds me a lot of songs like "tomorrow never knows" from the Beatles and a mix of early and very late Pink Floyd. The vocal progressions and the rhythms are very interesting, and worth a good afternoon with headphones and a nice sunny place to lay back and listen. It's definitely worth checking out.

Harq al'ada - Heat Ritual

DJ Spooky - Of Water and Ice

Band / Artist: DJ Spooky
Year: 2012
Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Electronic

My Review:

I've seen DJ Spooky perform twice, both times being an artistic performance. He was once known for his DJ work, but these days he's moved to poetry, artistic sound pieces, and collaborations with many various persons throughout the art world.

This album is a very arty piece. Recordings were made in the arctic, and made into these very intricate soundscape pieces that are very much worth enjoying, especially if you are a fan of the more arty ambient music.

I wont waste your time, you'll either love or hate this, so I'll leave it up to you to figure out which.

DJ Spooky - Of Water and Ice

Boom Bip & Charlie White - Music for Sleeping Children

Band / Artist: Boom Bip & Charlie White
Year: 2012
Genre: Alternative Pop, Electronica, Hip-hop, Experimental, Spoken Word

My Review:
Music for Sleeping Children is more of an art collaboration than a band work, but its still an album, and its still by good artists, and good enough that I'm keeping it. So this is the gist, visual artist Charlie White calls up Boom Bip, and says "Hey, I'm interviewing teen girls about their lives in a recording studio. Come turn it into music." So that happens, and it becomes an EP of fun and oddly existential music, released side by side with crazy artsy music videos.

This isn't the first project that they did together.

 The project stems from White's investigations of the representation of American adolescence, and was born from a relationship forged between White and Hollon in 2009 when they collaborated on "We Like to Shop," a simple clap-along song from White's experimental cartoon, OMG BFF LOL that Hollon converted into a throbbing club track for the work's US premier at the Aldrich Museum. From there, White and Hollon set out to realize a far more ambitious project conceived by White as the marriage of in-depth teen interviews, discussions, and studio projects with pop, electronica, hip hop and experimental composition. Working in tandem, White and Hollon fashioned the concept of each track around the original studio recordings of teen girls ranging in age from 12 to 16. From eager enthusiasms, to exuberant chants, to adolescent melancholia, Music for Sleeping Children underscores the complex tensions resonant in the teen voices while transforming each girl into a popular music form of her own. Magical, uncomfortable, and original, Music for Sleeping Children is an artwork, an archive, and an album.

Boom Bip & Charlie White - Music for Sleeping Children

Garren Epley - ...Ellipses EP

Band / Artist: Garren Epley
Year: 2012
Genre: Alternative Hip-Hop, Experimental, IDM, Lo-fi, Rap

My Review:

I'd call this Hip Hop, but its got the kind of feel that IDM had back in the days of “Braindance”. This feels like a stripped down version of Family Glue from Global Goon, with this humble Hip Hop style laid out and then added to with layers of sampling and warping. It has some really catchy moments, but i thought that the usage of the little digital track naming voice in each track was kind of throwing off my groove.

This album is hosted by Oligopolist Records, a sponsor with a really cool business model. They avoid Itunes and most other indie labels, and host themselves, giving most of their money to the artists. Check them out here.

http://oligopolistrecords.com/

  

Here's a copy of the album as found on Internet Archive

Garren Epley - "...Ellipses EP"
 
This one had a problem in the initial download, in that it was listed out of order, so I fixed it up and I'm sharing a repack of the tracks with the right labeling and all. You can get that here.

Garren Epley - ... (Repack)

On An Ocean Amp - We Are Now Growing Fast

Band / Artist: On An Ocean Amp
Year: 2005
Genre: Electropop, Glitch, Electronica, Experimental, Powerpop, Electro, Synth-pop

My Review:
One day, back in 2003, I'm sitting in a bar watching a noise show and drinking with a girl I had a crush on, when this guy I had started to make friends with walks in with a cardboard box filled with cds under his arm. He's Dan. He started a record label, and some random band from japan had signed to release their first album with him. It was for sale at $10 apiece, and this was what it looked like.

On An Ocean Amp? What? Well, I wanted to support Dan, and I'm all about a random band with an interesting album cover. Its like an adventure in a disc, you never know if it'll be amazing, or shit.

So when I played it on the ride back home, I was completely unsure what I was listening to. Its like an experimental electropop band with a cutesy japanese girl voice over the whole thing. Its like childhood packaged into synths.

Years later in college I emailed their website (now defunct), and got an email back later in the day. The guy in the duo, Mike McGuire, was super friendly and we ended up chatting for a few years. He sent me this album before it was done, as well as his own solo album, which I hope I can post here later on.

Well the band broke up pretty much as this album was being finished up, and what he said was enough for a 2 disc album ended up as this, a great album of strange Japanese influenced IDM/Electropop with a very good spread of tunes. I wonder how he is doing, and if either he, or Kaori are doing any new music projects. Rest assured, I'll let you know the moment that I find out.

Here is a review for the album.

http://www.japanator.com/album-review-on-an-ocean-amp-we-are-now-growing-fast-7847.phtml

It links to the post from Mike here.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2468652165631826408&postID=3825017337283596744

Here is a direct repackaging of the album in case the original fails. I fixed up all the ID3 tag info, and even made an unofficial cover since it never got an official one.

On An Ocean Amp - We Are Now Growing Fast


Alright, assuming I don't find any juicy tidbits in the next day or so, this should be the last transmission till the new year. See you on the other side.

Nick Vanderveldt - The interview extravaganza!

Band / Artist: Nick Vanderveldt,
Year:
Genre: Experimental, Interview, Prog Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Blues, Funk

My Review:

Jumbly: It's nice to meet you. How are you doing this week?

Nick Vanderveldt: Good. Very busy working on a couple of projects with people, but I
like to be busy.

Jumbly: So, when did you start making music?

Nick: I've been writing solo material since I was a teenager, but never in any capacity that I felt would be presentable to people (mostly electronic experiments). I sort of made a leap in 2007 and said, well, what the hell, I'd like to share what I've been doing with some friends. So I recorded an album with a buddy's USB mic, and my newly acquired pawn shop acoustic. That album led to my first real band endeavor with other people.

That really morphed what I was doing, because it forced me to be a better musician and learn how to play with other people. We would argue all the time about how a song should go, who should do what where, why this muther-fucker over here needed to turn the fuck down, or turn up etc... Overall I felt like it was very positive, our arguments were never mean spirited, it was all about having dialogue and working for the music.

When I left that group, I was pretty sad, but I tried to take everything I learned and take it to the next level. Just recently, I've gotten together with some friends to play music that is primarily my own, the band is called Harq al'Ada, and it's sort of a mask for me to wear in public, and a psuedonym for my co-conspirators to hide behind. Plus it beats the hell out of putting my own name on hand-bills and posters.

Jumbly: Where are you from?

Nick: I live in St.Louis, Missouri right now, I moved here about a year back from Olympia, Washington.

Jumbly: Do you find it influences your style and your music much?

Nick: I think it's sort of odd that it does. I lived here between ages 7 and 14, and a lot of things like, the way people speak, sank into my musical thoughts. I think all over the world, people have different
ways of phrasing music as a direct result of using language differently. Alternately, the visual and auditory aspects of everyday life sink in too, sometimes I'll find myself trying to imitate the way
an insect moves, or trying to reproduce oppressive heat and humidity with feedback.

Jumbly: What way do you think is best to enjoy your music? Would you consider it good date music, driving music, chillout music, etc?

Nick: I think it's best to just clear your head, and do nothing but listen. Close your eyes, drink some beers, get a little out of your head, that sort of thing.

Jumbly: Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

Nick: I like to give things away. It's ideal because I know not everyone can afford to pay, and I make it for people to enjoy it.

Physical copies of stuff will always have a price, because I simply can't cover the overhead costs, but I plan on continuing to give away my music digitally until it becomes too costly to do so. I really prefer the pay-what-you-want model, because then everyone is happy.

Jumbly: Do you have any sounds/ bands/ or pieces of art that you admire or wish you could emulate with your music?

Nick: Yes. Tons. I'm surrounded by things I wish I could turn into music. I'm a big fan of Isaac Asimov, and Frank Herbert, really just science-fiction in general, movies included. I used to read books and make-up music in my head that went along with each scene. I still hum along sometimes.

There are countless bands I've taken ideas from as well; Ravi Shankar, Davy Graham, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Can, Sun Ra, RL Burnside and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez are the big ones for me I
think.

Jumbly: If anyone wanted to do a collaboration with you, would you be interested?

Nick: Of course. I admit I'm not always the easiest person to work with though.

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

Nick:  Anyone is more than welcome to message me on facebook or soundcloud.

Jumbly: What kinds of projects do you really want to do in the future?

Nick: I'd like to do a hard-funk record. Something like Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On, or Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow, except I want a bunch of twinkly effects, and sync it to Conan The Barbarian.

Jumbly: What bands on here have you been listening to? What do you think about them?

Nick: The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble. I think it's cool as hell. Even though I have no idea how to classify them. Post-Rock maybe?

You also recently posted a link for a voto latino mix CD which is pretty awesome. Rodrigo y Gabriella have a track on there that is great, and I honestly can't enough those two.

Jumbly: What would you like to see more from the blog?

Nick: I think it's great so far, and I appreciate what you're trying to do. I'm not terribly constructive when it comes to critiquing I'm afraid...

I do like the format quite a bit, every 5 days a new album update. It might be cool to see some video reviews, that kind of thing always seems to grab folks attention.

Jumbly: Do you know any other great sites that people should check out? What about any other bands?

Nick: Yes. http://www.moosickrevoos.com/ is awesomesauce.

Also, if you don't know about The Difference Engine, you chould check them out here:
http://differenceenginestl.bandcamp.com/ (shameless plug for another band I'm in completed)
Also you need to check out a band called LOGOS from St.Louis http://logosrock.com/, and a band called The We Shared Milk, from Portland, Oregon http://thewesharedmilk.bandcamp.com/.

Jumbly: Thanks a bunch for sharing all you music, I'm hoping people love it.

As a parting, I have one last question. Siracha, yes or no?

Nick: Yes. It goes on everything. It's especially good with vodka.

Jumbly: That sounds pretty great. I'm gonna have to try it.

So there we go. Here's all of his albums. Hope that you enjoy them.

Nicholas Vanderveldt - Gypsies, Hounds, and Vagabonds

Some really nice blues, classical ballad, and soft grunge guitar work. It has a clean, simple, lo-fi sound that really fits it together well.

Unicorn Porn - Condensation

This one sounds through and through like an old psych rock album you'd get out of the 70s. Some of it was shiznitty-bam-zipzap-snap. I'd love to hear the same thing, with some modern synthetic goodness layered in.

Nicholas Vanderveldt - اختراع

This one has a deeper Indian flavor, that also definitely fits into that psych rock sound. There are layers of sitar and flourishes of tabla amidst a lot of progressive guitar work.

Nicholas Vanderveldt - Poco A Poco

Another short guitar work album. The main track is kind of like a mini-album all in its own right. It utilizes field recordings, acoustic guitar, and a little bit of studio treatment. Its not bad music for drinking a beer and playing pool or poker with friends on a quiet night.

Beet Oven - Beet Oven

Blues rock. Funky classic guitar rock.

 Harq al'Ada - A Puck, A Bodach, and Bloody Bones

A great one-track release, with synths, and electric guitar, and vocals. It's funky and soulful and trippy and about 20 minutes long.

Alright, so thats all there is. Merry Crimmis

Free Singles - How To Destroy Angels - Keep It together

So I just wanted to share this listening chance, as well as a link to a free download of the first track off the new EP from How To Destroy Angels. The album sounds really good, and if you haven't got a clue what that is all about, it's the band that Trent Reznor paused Nine Inch Nails for. The other members are, his wife Mariqueen Maandig, his common partner in crime, Atticus Ross, and ever faithful art director, Rob Sheridan.


An omen EP_ (2012) by howtodestroyangels
 
Well hopefully that played properly for you. I'm really enjoying the direction that they are going, although I am a fairly die-hard fan of NIN, and most of the creative ventures connected to them.

Heres a link to the opening track, which you can get for free.

How To Destroy Angels - Keep It Together

As well as 2 remix versions.

How To Destroy Angels - Keep It Together (Dave Sitek Remix)
How To Destroy Angels - Keep It Together (Factory Floor Remix)

If you never got a chance to hear their debut EP, then go ahead and download it for free at the bottom of their store page here. It's worth hearing.

http://store.destroyangels.com/

Black Circle Records, TakeMeToTheMorgue!, Oddio Overplay, Silber Sounds of Halloween

Bands / Artists: Various
Years: 2011, 2011, 2006, 2007
Genre: Garage Rock, Electronic, Soundtrack, Experimental, Dark Ambient, Noise-Rock, Drone, Rockabilly, Sound Collage, Goth
 
My Review:

This one is all about the haunted house scores, although there is a BUNCH of other stuff here. Totally worth having a look.


Black Circle Records

Soundscapes, drones, score elements. This is an album perfected for playing in your haunted house that you REALLY should be making. This was probably my favorite of the creepy soundtracks I found, for how subdued and ominous it proved to be.

Apparently there are like 6 record labels called “Black Circle Records”. This one is located in the UK. I know very little more about them.

Watch out for that second to last track, its very loud harsh noise, whereas the rest of the album is most definitely not that.

Black Circle Records - Halloween in a Haunted World Remix Project


TakeMeToTheMorgue!

A lot of dark and creepy scores, and some really mean grungy techno and metal stuffs in the mix. There are a few tracks that I would cut before using the mix somewhere, but overall, this is a pretty solid addition.

TakeMeToTheMorgue! - This Dark Virus


Oddio Overplay

A good collection of creepy stuff. This one is a great halloween set, with more sound collages and classical sets in the midst of it than the others. Some of it reminds me of playing through Hell in Doom 3. You will probably want to edit some of it out and keep what you like most though.

Oddio Overplay - Calling All Fiends


Silber Sounds of Halloween 

I thought it hilarious that one of my favorite tracks from this was from a band named “Planet Cock”. This one is a much wider mix of genres, like the last one.  There is some really good garage spooky rock in here to be had, like the track from “Drats!”. Same as the last one though, I would probably go through it and pick out what you really enjoy to keep or use.
Silber Sounds of Halloween

Darius Greene - Theory of Escapements

Band / Artist: Darius Greene
Year: 2007
Genre: Dark, Jazz, Experimental, Neovictorian, Operatic

My Review:
My friend says “It sounds like something with Primus and skits from Insane Clown Posse in the Nightmare before Christmas” I find this to be an apt start to describing it.

Darius Greene is an artist out of Chicago who works in a very vaudvillian style. If you're enjoying his release here, and would like  to find more of his works, his website could help you along, that links to soundcloud and many other places.
http://about.dariusgreene.com/

There are probably half the songs on here that directly pertain to Halloween, or goblins, ghouls, and what have you. His work has a very operatic quality, sometimes moving more toward a circus chorus, sometimes sliding more into the rock opera quality of sound. I was really enjoying the way that the lyrics played out amidst the sound as well. They poetically lay out their story, giving you something meaty to listen to, with a nice imagery.

Darius Greene - Theory of Escapements

Since it is a smaller release, I feel like this should have a little additional track. So here’s Bats & Brooms

..And Bones & Shells 

EDIT; Well. that was short-lived. He's paywalled all but the Bats & Brooms single. Sorry..

Miscellaniac: Preservation Week 2012 Mix

Band / Artist: Wooden Shjips, Edward Avis and Howard R Garis, Spencer Owen, Oneida, Kreamy 'Lectric Santa, Scott Joplin, Boss Hog, Valentina Vuksic, Karpov Not Kasparov, The Paperhead, R. Stevie Moore, Newagehillbilly, Big Blood, Vermillion Sands, Roger McGuinn, Giraffe, Spade Cooley & the Western Swing Dance Gang Feat. Tex Williams, Sophie Tucker, Isidore Soucy
Year: 2012
Genre: Psych-Rock, Old-Time / Historic, Pop, Lo-fi, Indie-Rock, Krautrock, Post-Rock, Experimental, Punk, Glitch, Folk, International

My Review:
From recently digitized archive records. its a really nice little mixtape of old vaudeville, jazz, punk, rock, experimental, and hymnal sounds. I won't lie, some of these tracks aren't good, and they kill the flow of the mix. Either way, the tracks that are good, are worth enough to merit downloading this one.

Miscellaniac: Preservation Week 2012 Mix