The Astray - Letters

Band / Artist: The Astray
Year: 2012
Genre: Indie Rock, Synth Rock

My Review:
My friend listened through this one while I was passed out in the car on a roadtrip. She hated it.

I listened through it a couple times, and I couldn't see what it was that annoyed her so much. This was her review.

Astray...le review.

If you like that almost emo-ish, post-hardcore, synthy rock...the Astray totally delivers that. mind you, they have a really solid sound that reminds me of Dreamy Thursday or This Day and Age or even a Depeche Mode (they list them as an influence on their Facebook). First time through, this album made me super sleepy (I think it was the dark, windy backroads and synths)...but a second time through, I started to appreciate their sound more. it's surprising to me that they're such a small act, they have a really developed/produced sound.

 I dunno how comprehensible any of that is...I just jotted stuff down. use it however you like.

My review is a little more brief. There is a lot of 80s/90s "underground" rock influence in this album. They seem to have been influenced by Placebo, The Cure, and I cant think of what else off the top of my head, maybe New Order. The singer has a higher pitch,younger voice like you hear from a young version of Placebo, and overall, its a good synth rock album.

The Astray - Letters

Free Singles - Crown the Invisible, TheAnonymousDJ, Felix Da Housecat, Memcave

This is a really interesting tune, with a really interesting backstory. Basically there was a musician long ago in the UK I believe, who wrote this song, and aeons later, it became a public domain track with little interest.

http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/blog/Revitalize_Music_Contest_The_Winning_Song

A contest was put on, with the intention of letting new artists interested in public domain, do covers and remakes of these songs to bring them into the 21st century. This was one of the most noteworthy tracks. They are out of Brooklyn, and they are working on a new album right now.

Crown The Invisible - The Spaniard who blighted my life

TheAnonymousDJ is back again
This time he's releasing a couple of his own mixes. I picked this one especially because of the tech house influences, and because I enjoyed it.

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (The Anonymous DJ's Born To Dance Remix)

He also had an original track on there as well. Its pretty awesome. An even more tech house/electro track. I've enjoyed both, and I'm glad to see him moving more toward making his own tracks here and there.

TheAnonymousDJ - Low Frequencies (Original Mix)

On the other end of the techno spectrum today is some Felix Da Housecat. He did a bunch of electropop and electroclash back in the past 10 years or so, and its worth looking more into him, for being all trashy and magically dancey. This song is all about manly men and penis size, as explained by a catty drag queen. Hope you enjoy.

Felix Da Housecat - Frankie Meets Pauline (Clandestin Edit) 

I've been sitting on this EP for a long while, and I've been waiting for a time to get to posting it. As luck would have it, I have a few minutes right now.


Memcave is an artist on a record label called Memnet. You should stop in there and check them out if you like what you hear. Here is their blog.


http://www.memnetia.com/

This is a short release based around ambient, IDM, Drum & Bass, and weird samples.

Memcave - Cheap Frrrz EP

Quilty - Masonish

Band/Artist: Quilty
Year: 2012
Genre: Alternative, Alternative rock, Indie rock, Femme rock

My Review:
If you have an ear for Veruca Salt or the Plumtree album I shared, then you should enjoy this one. Quilty might be on hiatus, or just busy with other things. The band has a Tumblr page here http://quiltytherockband.tumblr.com/


The most of it is soft, with some playful circusy moments, and then brooding, tense parts that occassionally burst into a chorus filled with a stifled rage. I listened through this one and the other free EPs offered up for download, and I REALLY enjoy the first and third track on their EP, Strange Matter, which is also up for grabs.

Quilty – Masonish

Sepalcure - Eternally Yrs

Band / Artist: Sepalcure
Year: 2013
Genre: Dub House, House, Footwork, Nu Disco, Chicago Juke

My Review:
I've been pretty hit or miss about noisetrade music in my life recently. It isn't that the music is bad, its just a lot of folk pop, and I get burned out on it.

This album is not that at all. In making an effort to find noisetrade albums that are indeed worthy of non-folk-pop attention, I found this thing. Sepulcure creates a soundscape that pulls from in rainbows era radiohead, dub house, and Indie dance. It reminded me a lot of Underworld in some parts, and flying lotus in others. The most of the album used these 2step mutations for a ton of the drumlines, which I found out is a Chicago based style of dance called Footwork or Chicago Juke. I'd call it a groove-laden, rich, chill album that plays with a plethora of references and tempos. Definitely something worth a moment of your time.

Here is the band website. They just released their debut LP.
http://www.sepalcure.com/

... also they have the best interests listed

Band Interests -90s Diva House Vocals & Wooden Snares

When I was listening to it in the car, I was dancing in my car and a guy in a truck passed by and yelled to keep on grooving, and so, I did.

Sepalcure - Eternally Yrs

Morbo & Mambo - Morbo Y Mambo

Band / Artist: Morbo & Mambo
Year: 2011
Genre: Jam band, Afrobeat, Mambo, Psychedelic Rock, Funk, Brass Band

My Review:

This band REALLY needs to play at Jazz fest in New Orleans. They would make money hand over fist there. The mix of Prog/Psychedelic Rock and Brass band moments with the layers of Dub over top makes for a really great atmosphere, and as long as the band can deliver their vibe in a live showing, they'd be amazing.

So they are a 6-man band out of Buenos Aires, who call themselves "Stoner Afrobeat", and thats mostly what I can make out, since I'm piss-poor at Spanish. I tried to translate their info from their facebook here...

https://www.facebook.com/morboymambo

..... and I got this as my translation.

Seven heads are smoldering combustion entering the play live and leave the audience elated, having danced and floated by its sound universe. Bitchy and Mambo, marplatenses band based in San Telmo, can be defined with two phrases: "the dancing bodies, minds work better" and "against gender and pro-groove". Playing together since 2007 and in its short but intense way and circulated by the most important stages of the Buenos Aires underground with young bands like Journey to the Cosmos Prietto Mariano, Mompox and Dietrich, among others.

Since 2009 enjoy a strong relationship with bands from Brazil, received in Buenos Aires to Do Amor (Cê Band musicians Caetano Veloso) and Lucas Santtana (Tropicália 2). The bond between C Love Mambo Kinky and resulted in a seven shows for Brazil in early 2011, they passed through Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo, where he shared the stage with Curumin. During the tour had great press coverage, recorded a video for MTV Brazil, and established close ties with the cultural and social group Fora do Eixo in view of future collaborations and tours.

So far the EP's lead edited and Handleness Das Papier independently, and are presenting their debut LP, titled, recorded live at the legendary ION Studios. They were part of the line up of the 10th TMDG, the largest design event in Latin America. They were chosen by The Police killed a motorized to play in the first edition of Rolling Stone Live festival, organized by the Argentina edition of the magazine, and Bitchy Mambo defined as "owners of one of the most powerful performances of the scene current emerging, based on a great musical knowledge to create a soundscape where there is much room for improvisation flight, but executed with surgical precision "

Very little in the way of vocals, but this would be great in a dance mix. It has a sound that makes me think that the players can all vibe together really well.

Morbo & Mambo - Morbo Y Mambo

Movies - Andrei Tarkovsky films

Artist:  Andrei Tarkovsky
Years: 1956 - 1983
Genre: Film

My Review:

This will be a little different than my normal posts. This is all about film. Andrei Tarkovsky is known as the Einstein of Russian film. He makes films that are often pretty surreal, and they usually take a bit of coffee/beer conversation afterward.

They might not be your thing, but the directory of free movies listed has tons of others, and there will have to be something in there you might enjoy.

Here is the list of films available through the organization. CC can give you the subtitles.

• Ivan’s Childhood – Web – Buy DVD (1962)
• Andrei Rublev- Part 1 – Part 2 – Buy DVD (1966)
• Solaris - Part 1 - Part 2 - Buy DVD (1972)
• The Mirror  - Web – Buy DVD (1975)
• Stalker - Part 1 – Part 2 - Buy DVD (1979)
• Nostalghia - Part 1 - Part 2 – Part 3 - Buy DVD (1983)
• Three Student Films by Tarkovsky – Web
  • The Killers, 1956
  • There Will Be No Leave Today, 1958
  • The Steamroller and the Violin, 1960

9 Andrei Tarkovsky films

AAAHHCHESTRA - Braaahhlitz Compilation

Band / Artist: AAAHHCHESTRA
Year: 2013
Genre: Folk Pop, Indie Rock, Soft Rock

My Review:
One of those albums that could be noise, or bad spoken word, or some amazingly good acoustic pieces. You hold your breath, turn it on, and... its good!

AAAHHCHESTRA is a group project from AAAHH Records. Their link is right here.
http://www.aaahh-records.net/

This has a lot of elements of older music, and a deep reaching sort of heartfelt sound throughout pretty much all the songs. The uses of flute, whistling, tambourine, light synth, horns, and both male and female vocalists help the guitars and drums really flesh out great. The last track is pretty bleh, but it is meant to be silly anyhow.

AAAHHCHESTRA - Braaahhlitz Compilation

LIL KIDS - Slow Rainbow

Band / Artist:

Year: 2012
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Soul-RnB, Bastard Pop, Alternative Hip-Hop, ?

My Review:
This is some odd, bastardy, nerdy, sarcastic alternative hiphop that came from Williamsburg, Virginia. The beatmaker goes by Lopato, and the MC, I never saw a specific name for. They've known each other since Middle school.

Its all kinds of easy listening, old funk, psychedelic rock, and old school hiphop blended into beats with a very "Laissez les bon temps roulez" sort of sound on one side, and a gritty, drunken, Don't-give-a-fuck sound on the other. The music isn't much about the self promotion, and it makes the MC look like a nerdyjerk, but in all the ways that your one total jerkface friend is fun to hang around.

If I could describe this music visually, it'd be like smeared, drippy, melty, moldy, rainbow sherbert colors with bits of dirt and glitter in it. Under a blacklight. The video does an alright job of describing it.



Apparently they have since moved to Brooklyn, where the MC complains about getting fat. I can't think of another hiphop set that sounds close enough to reference this, so watch the video, and if you like the music, you should give it a chance.

LIL KIDS - Slow Rainbow

Psilodump - Memory Loss

Band / Artist: Psilodump
Year: 2004
Genre: Chiptune

My Review:
I posted a track from this on the valentines day mixes. Of all of the chiptune albums I've listened to over the years, this is the one that I am always most likely to listen to again.

Psilodump has been really prolific for years. He's always making something. I know he also was under the pseudonym of Pushiro, and may have worked as Morphyk as well. He was running the X-dump label, a powerhouse of different chiptune acts. When that fell apart, I'll admit, my attention to the genre waned for quite a few years. I was happy to stumble back into the genre again recently, and I felt compelled to find this and share it.

Here's a strange note that went along with the album. I have no idea what it means.

Now, some things are better left unspoken. But that is beside the point. Yet, the point is not the issue here. The issue is omitted and the reason forgotten. Memories may become corrupted but beauty remains. Still, that is no excuse for acting blind ... or maybe it is ... what you have lost might not just be your memory.

Fuck if I know what he's trying to say. Nevertheless, this is still probably my top choice for exclusively chiptune albums out there, and you really should give it a try. Enjoy the album.

Psilodump - Memory Loss

Rabbit Hole Revelations - Songs for Broken Ears

Band / Artist:

Year: 2013
Genre: Folktronic, Trip Hop, Ambient Techno

My Review:
I got this email earlier in the week. Some good submissions from a pretty nice guy, making music and going to college in San Francisco. Here is his interview.

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

Rabbit Hole Revelations: I'm doing pretty swell. I was supposed to fly into San Francisco today but there was a huge plane crash! At first it was thought that everyone on board was okay but now I'm hearing that there have been two deaths. Either way, my thoughts go out to those involved.

Jumbly: A heart of gold in you sir. So, whats your back story?

RHR: My back story! I feel like a superhero, haha...I've had a pretty normal upbringing. I've lived most of my life in southern California but recently moved to the northern Cali which has been a blessing for my life and music. The scene up here is awesome, so much great stuff coming out of these parts. I've spent a lot of time in the past few years going to school, making music, involving myself in activism, living in communes and hitchhiking around the state. Not much to complain about.

Jumbly: That commune living always seems like it could be an interesting thing to try, as long as it doesn't start getting creepy. Where are you from?

RHR: All over. I was originally born in Paraguay, South America and moved to San Diego, California when I was 7 years old. A few years ago I decided to make San Francisco my home.

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

RHR: My move to San Francisco seems to have made my music take a turn for the darker. The city is a cold, gritty animal!

Jumbly: Who makes your album art?

RHR: I'm blessed to have a lot of great artists around me who are always willing to draw something up for me. My brother made the cover for LP and my friend Resham did for Songs For Broken Ears. They're both ridiculously good artists.

Jumbly: The art does fit with the music pretty well. Do you tour much? Ever doing a tour through the US?

RHR: I've played a few shows here and there but I'm broke as fuck, so I'm currently trying to acquire decent enough equipment to be able to produce a more visual and interactive live show. A tour would be amazing but being a university student leaves little time to even compose music sometimes.

Jumbly: I know plenty of people who have just made up the cash to do a short trip via car and couchsurfing. One group even picked up teeshirts from thrift stores on the road and screen printed them to sell before shows. Maybe you could try it that way.

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

RHR: People have told me it is good music to do drugs to, haha. My friend says she was saved from a bad trip by listening to one of my songs. I think it suits late-night driving through a big, lit-up city.

Jumbly: What would you say is your favorite thing you've done? What is you biggest failure, or least enjoyable thing you've done?

RHR: I love working with new musicians I meet online, especially on /mu/. The last thing I did was a song was a track called Lwaxana with this awesome female artist A Problem Like Maria. You can listen to that shit here: https://soundcloud.com/aplmaria/a-problem-like-maria-lwaxana.

All of the music I've made has been enjoyable, but my least favorite thing that still embarrasses me to this day is my first demo, Music for Psychonauts, which you can probably find if you dig around online.

Jumbly: I found it on LastFM. I can see your point of view, but I didn't hate it.
Do you like giving away your music for free? Do you hope to continue or would you rather move to a pay system?

RHR: Yes! I hate the idea of money and think all art should be freely available to everyone, regardless of what they can pay for it. I've found that if people can pay, they usually will. The pay-what-you-want is the new system of how music will be distributed. Record labels are dead!

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

RHR: I love the chill, sultry experimental electronic music that has been making the rounds in the past few years. Stuff like Shlohmo, Lapalux, Teebs, Giraffage. Those cats are rad!

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

RHR: I'm always down to try something out, so yeah if anyone wants to collab hit me up!

Jumbly: How should they get in touch with you?

RHR: Rabbitholerevelations@gmail.com, or through Soundcloud or Facebook.

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

RHR: I want to start working with more rappers and singers. Most of the music I've made has been instrumental and getting lyrics adds a whole 'nother element to music that can completely change it.

Jumbly: Are there any bands that you're into currently? What do you think they did right, or should change in their follow-up? I love to hear real critiques from artists about other peoples work.

RHR: I really dig XXYYXX, I think he's one of the most interesting faces in music in the past few years, and he's only 17! The kid's really good at combining types of electronic music (hip-hop, garage, post-dubstep) and making something fresh out of them. His internet buzz alone made him blow up all around the world. I hope he doesn't let it get to him though and his follow-up is as good as his self-titled.

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

RHR: Yes! I follow most of the bloggers on /mu/. I've found some great stuff on Jumbly Music that most people would never blog about. The only thing I would want is more updates, haha.

Jumbly: I know, I wish that I could update more often as well. Since work picked up I've been a lot more busy, but I am hoping for a day where I can get enough traffic to justify working on it a lot closer to a part time job.
Do you know any other great sites that people should check out? What about any other bands?

RHR: Any music producers should check out the subreddit We Are the Music Makers (http://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/). This is a great online source with a lot of information on making music. I would also like to give some shout-outs to the homies A Problem Like Maria, Blank Banshee, Electric Sea Spider, Insomniacs, AbnormAL. Catch them before they get huge!

Jumbly: Thanks a bunch for sharing your music with me.

I have one last question. Do you think that there are supernatural things out there? Do you think that music could be supernatural?

RHR: I don't necessarily believe or disbelieve in the supernatural, I think things like that we just can't know for sure. I've been interested in the topic since I was very young but have never had any experiences myself. Music can be anything you want it to be! So yes, it can definitely be supernatural.

_________________

So he doesn't lie. The album is a good, quirky chillout album. Its worth looking at his collection of work. Hopefully he keeps working and can get some good tours going on, because I'd love to help get him some shows here in New Orleans.

Rabbit Hole Revelations - Songs for Broken Ears

 

Also I'm sharing his earlier album, LP. You can hear how he's grown from one release to the next.

Rabbit Hole Revelations - LP

The Hippie & The Punk - The Hippie & The Punk Split

Band / Artist: The Hippie & The Punk
Year: 2013
Genre: Acoustic, Indie Folk, Folk Punk

My Review:
There is a guy named Phoenix. At this moment, he is on his way, hitchiking from Savannah, GA, to Montana. Funnily enough, there were plenty of times where he and I argued for hours, and there were plenty of days where I grumbled about how he can't manage to PUT HIS DAMNED DISHES IN THE DISHWASHER AND STOP TALKING ABOUT JOHNNY FLYNN.

Either way, I've been remembering that house, and all the brotherhood I had with the 4 other guys there. We called it the Jam House, and I even made a Tumblr account for it, that never really went anywhere aside from looking kinda pretty. We all worked on art & music, and would generally drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and make music or play video games most every night. I'm sad that we all had to move on from that point in our lives.

He and a friend Josh are both traveling, and recording together under the name The Hippie and The Punk. They released this album right before they started off on their trip, and started up this Tumblr account to chronicle their events.

 http://thehippieandthepunk.tumblr.com/

They both have very different styles in the same genre, and it feels like the tracks play off each other in a pretty nice way. Here is a live recording of one of the tracks.



Well, there you go. A great free album of acoustic, down to earth music from a couple of lost 20 somethings with bitterness and hope bubbling over in their hearts, and an idealism enough to make my heart ache to be back in the place where they are.

Phoenix, I love you man. Be safe out there looking for whatever you need.

The Hippie & The Punk Split

Low Leaf - GiGA GAiA EP

Band / Artist: Low Leaf
Year: 2012
Genre: Harpist, Alternative Pop, RnB, Nu Disco, Alternative Hip-Hop

My Review:

If the last Low leaf album I showcased was like an acoustic little dragon, this would be her taking another step toward their sound. I guess that since this came before, then the last one would be her taking a step away into a direction more her own. Here is her website.

http://www.creatordiy.com/

Don't get me wrong. This isn't an unoriginal work that just rips off someone else, nor does it seem that is her goal. She builds up a funky rhythm all her own, that comes off with the same weirdo groove of Beck, painting with a palette more like contemporary Hip-hop/Pop/RnB/Techno. Its thick and dripping of sounds like Missy Elliot, Squarepusher, Peaches, The Presets, MIA, Mouse On Mars.. I could keep this list going. Frankly, I'm really enjoying the way this album plays. The waves of awesome and weird lap in their own times.

Low Leaf - GiGA GAiA EP

Kadasarva - Steamagination

Band / Artist: Kadasarva
Year: 2011
Genre: Psytrance, Goa, Techstep

My Review:
With a 9 track album running for 75 minutes, its safe to say that this artist is working to ensure that you have as much of an experience as possible, assuming you were getting his music via cd. I did not expect that I'd manage to find good psytrance ever again, after infected mushroom released their last album, and it was at that moment, that I find like 7 bands all working on their music and releasing loads of quality stuff for free.

Kadasarva is a "project" from Kiev, Ukraine that is essentially manned by Alex Volkov

Parts of Steamagination remind me of the tech days of Drum & Bass. I'd say that this is definitely more on the technical side than on the free-form end. It's got cold and rough-edged sound layered throughout, with some dark and subdued moments. It isn't all creepy though, it holds up other moments throughout. It was absolutely perfect music for doing chores or going for a jog. Very driven.

Kadasarva - Steamagination

Basick Sampler

Band / Artist: CHIMP SPANNER, CIRCLES, MONUMENTS, SKYHARBOR, UNEVEN STRUCTURE, 7 HORNS 7 EYES, BLOTTED SCIENCE, ION DISSONANCE, THE ARUSHA ACCORD, ALIASES, VISIONS, THE ALGORITHM
Year: 2012
Genre: Metal, Nu Metal, Metalcore, Death Metal

My Review:
Metal from a ton of bands on the Basick label.  Basick is a label out of London, with a lot of their bands being ones that experiment with the digital/analog world of metal. in their own words they are "A fiercely progressive record label". Here is their site.
http://www.basickrecords.com/

..And their facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/basickrecords

I'm hit or miss for samplers, but with metal it always seems to work well, since often enough a metal band only really has one or two sounds that they can really create. The mixes tend to lend themselves to a lot of variation in the sound.

Either way, there is a lot of pretty good metal bands here who you might want to look into if you like what you hear.

Stay frosty.

BASICK 2012 FREE Sampler

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.

Giraffe - ...There is no devil

Band / Artist: Giraffe
Year: 2010
Genre: Indie Folk, Acoustic, Indie Pop, Folk Rock,

My Review:

The mix of instruments here leave you with expectations that get flipped on you. Acoustic guitar, organ synth, simple drums, and tambourine makes for the sort of softer sound that you expect of folky pop americana of the sort that you hear in almost every episode of sons of anarchy. That is not exactly what you're going to get.

Giraffe is mainly Berlin based composer James Gardner, who has been working with record label 12rec. for at least a few years and a few different releases.

I had saved this for a future post, and replayed it again recently. I'm really liking it. This album plays with a subdued, brooding darkness that you can get really comfortable in. Its the soft folksy album for people who don't really like folk, maybe more industrial rock, or goth rock. That isn't to say that a fan of folk wont enjoy it, in fact I think that it would add to a good folk collection nicely.

Giraffe - ...There Is No Devil

Duilio Pasquale - A Different Me

 
Band / Artist: Duilio Pasquale
Year: 2012
Genre: Dub Techno, Tech-House, Deep House, Minimal

My Review:
A mildly psychedelic Tech-house EP. This one is short, and I listened to it a lot. I'll just start out by saying what they said on the label release.

Duilio Pasquale of Oakland, California, dishes four tracks of deep, heady, laid-back, yet groovy for the afterhours, quirky minimal techno/house on "a different me". 

 The Unfound Sound / Found Sound labels are a great one for the occasional tech house release. They release an album roughly every few months, the ones for found being the record label end, and unfound sound being the alternate side which primarily deals in net releases.

Their site is here. http://www.foundsoundrecords.com/

I'll leave the rest to the short description.

Let your mind and body go, and let the frolicking sounds do the talkin'.

Duilio Pasquale - A Different Me

The Foggy Mountain Boys (Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Untitled mix)

Band / Artist: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, The Foggy Mountain Boys
Year:1948-1970
Genre: Bluegrass, Country

My Review:
As far as old country bands go, Flatt and Scruggs were the big time thing. Lester Raymond Flatt (Born: Duncanâs Chapel, Tennessee, June 19, 1914) was a skilled guitarman, and Earl Eugene Scruggs (Born: Flint Hill, North Carolina, Jan. 6, 1924) a talented banjo man. They formed a wonderful partnership for a good deal of time (1948–1970), and then went on to run their own projects. During that time, they had 24 other people involved in their group at different times.

I can't speak from the experience of age in this, but I'd say that were they from the hipsters era, we'd call them sellouts (no disrespect). They were involved in so many hollywood projects and were huge for touring, though that was a different era for music. They have a lot of skill, and bring on a very homegrown southern feel, despite how much public broadcast work they did.

Lester Flatt died in 1979, and Earl Scruggs passed away in March of last year. This is a collection of tracks from various recordings of live shows. Hopefully you enjoy it.

Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Untitled mix

Electronic Music Education - Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

It isn't techno. and it isn't electronica. Its not dance, nor is it musique concrete. Electronic music spans so far and wide, that it has eaten a slice of rock, encapsulates all of r&b rap, and nearly all of pop. It has roots so far back that you could say it predated the civil war, and it very well may be what you'll hear in one way or another for the rest of your life, unless you listen to bluegrass.

So with all of that in mind, I'm going to share something I was given as a study guide sometime back near 2005. It has been defunct for so long now, that I'm occasionally worried that its going to be deleted, yet it remains.

I give you, Ishkurs guide to Electronic Music (v. 2.5). This will take you HOURS to read through, and it can give a name to hundreds of vague genres that you always enjoyed, or wanted to know.

here's a bland quote

"The guide attempts to depict the chronological order of electronic music genres' appearance. It contains 7 separate parent areas of electronic music to explore - House, Techno, Breakbeat, Jungle, Hardcore, Downtempo, and Trance."

The whole thing is done in flash, which leaves it a little annoying to me since I've done interfaces and web design, but the depth and entertainment that it brings makes up for it in droves. The tutorial about electronic music's historical beginnings alone is about 14 pages, but if all you want is to skip through all that and get into the music surfing, then you can go right ahead, and explore through at least a hundred genres, with songs tied to them, his impressions of it, as well as a little background into why it is what it is, where it started, what the scene was like.. There are even radio stations linked in to tons of the genres so that you can just instantly start listening to netradio of your favorites, or look up the bands listed under the genres you like (thats how I found Tsunami One)

If I met this person I would buy them any drink or drug they wanted, and just sit back and talk with them for a day at least.

Rumors circulate that he's working on a version 3, but there hasn't been any news about it for a while now. His website is just a landing page, and the last thing I've found was a DJ set that he did in anticipation of the next version.. from 11 months ago.

https://soundcloud.com/ishkur23/ishkur-pure-trance
Ishkur - Pure Trance Mix
(Edit: it seems that Ishkur has quashed his account or at least the mix that was there. I found some online versions, so I've uploaded a copy to mediafire)

I hope that one day in the future, someone collects all of the information saved on this site, and keeps a copy of it as a backup to convert all that info into some other version, because one day in the future, this shit would make for the best textbook or college course ever.

Digitally Imported Presents - Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

Black Mesa: Source - Soundtrack

Band / Artist: Joel Nielsen
Year: 2012
Genre: Independent Game Soundtrack

My Review:
Original half life, the game to change all first person shooters. It's the game that set the bar, creating the story driven first-person shooter genre. Originally it came out in 1997, winning over 50 PC Game of the Year awards. Like all 3D games from 97, it has the joy of being incredibly outdated now, but spawning a huge fanbase and an entire franchise.

And thats where Black Mesa comes in. Originally the project was called Black Mesa: Source because it was recreating the Black Mesa Test Facility from game 1, and using the new Source engine as the main way of building it. All of the work was done by a small team of indie modders, and I know that some of the reason for the incredible time drag in releasing it was due to the meshing of 2 separate teams that had both started on the same project, and decided to merge and pool resources as soon as they realized that they were competing against one another. the end results can be sort of seen here.



The updated experience goes for both streamlining elements of the original gameplay, and for creating a much more modern modelling for all of the characters. It is in its first official alpha release, but I've seen an incredibly promising mod addition..

..that I hope gets adopted into the next alpha release, which should also continue the storyline along into Xen.

I've played through the game twice as it is in this stage, and i've had a lot of fun doing so. I cant wait to see a version repacked that includes the updated sections from the secondary modding developer, as well as the finishes to the story.

As far as the music goes, it has a good sound that you can tell was very much inspired by the score work from Half Life 2, and the later two episodes extending the storyline onward into some pretty engaging places. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing where the Valve team is going to go with their story, I am incredibly grateful for this mod, and the music that come along with it, which is awesome desk music while I'm working.

So play the game, get the soundtrack, have a fun time.

Black Mesa Soundtrack