Everything Popular Is Wrong

I have to admit that as much as I like some of his music works, I often get bored by the rest of them. That's just me, I guess; but I had to get this out of my chest.

Putting that aside, Stefan Goldmann's opinions on the current situation concerning our music today (as expressed through Silo Magazin and Little White Earbuds' lovely site) seemed to me a quite accurate synopsis of what went wrong during the last decade, business- and creatively-wise. I agree with at least 95% of his views (save the PS...), so I felt I had to share this. Just in case some of you missed it - it has circulated a bit, as far as I can tell.

Please take some time and read it.

Great title for such an article, isn't it?

(I'm buying time for my not-yet-ready posts. You know that.)

Dream Injections

Well... I was planning a big post of the Dream Injection epic; a crossover series of Sub-Terranean, showcasing Europe's darkest electronic tendencies of the second half of the '90s, Spanning in six volumes (typically of 2CDs, while Vol.5 is a 3CD release), the series focused more on IDM-ish electronics, yet also included everything from dark ambient to trance. Most (if not all) of the stars of that time were included there in their various pseudonyms, so it's difficult not to find at least some of the tracklists attractive.

While searching around for similar posts around the web (a habit I have to get back to, as it seems), I noticed that there are all of them posted at Deep-And-Beat, so go there and down them all and enjoy. Heartily recommended.

Now I have to think of something else. Hmm..

Triptych

Ashes To Vinyl

From the excellent Exile On Moan Street blog:

Ashes To Vinyl

No comments.

Peppo

I knew there was something wrong with them two.

Anyway, Mickey is a police informer. It all adds up.

1945-1998

So, the Iraqis had nuclear weapons somewhere... How about Iran? Them too, right?

Stranger Than Kindness

My favorite Nick Cave track from YFMT, sung by my favorite singer doing a great cover version (singing both voices by herself...), visualized in a Lynch-weird clip. Happiness.

BCN dub

For the last four weeks or so, Pulshar's 'Brotherhood' is stuck in my mp3 player (and won't come out in the foreseeable future). I had heard a couple of their 12''s and formed a good impression, so when I found the album the other day I gave it a try. I don't think they're doing cutting edge avant-garde or something extremely new-sounding; they play BC-influenced electronic dub with smooth vocals and that's it, as far as I'm concerned. But they do it good, they're deep and smooth, know their sound and love what they do; and it takes a bit to notice the level of details and the work they've put on their tracks. The remixes included (by cv313, Sven Weissmann, etc.) are more club-oriented, not so original sounding though in my opinion. Personal favorites are 'Streets Calling Me', the Stranglers' 'Golden Brown' cover and of course the brooding 'Nospheratu'.

Digging a little on them I realized they're Pablo Bolivar aka Paper of Regular and Aphro Sainz on vocals - and also responsible for their amazing artwork (I'm guessing here, as I could find almost no info on him). PB on the other hand has many releases under different pseudonyms in many Spanish labels (Dpress/Phonobox, Galaktika, etc) and is well known for his deep minimal techno, slightly oldschoolish and less detached than the average 'minimal' release out there. In their collaboration as Pulshar they drop the beats and focus on deep bass, well-processed voices and cavernous effects, constructing songs without discarding technodub's minimalistic, repetitive nature. On top of all they've started the Avant Roots label for the more offbeat material; check their site for samples.

I recommend their work to everyone looking for something non-aggressive. Some DJ mixes can be found in their Soundcloud page, while Pablo Bolivar's homepage is a treasure island for downloaders; dozens of great sets, the Pulshar videos, lots of info. Support them, they're totally worth it.

Clicks & Cuts links off

After a request by the Mille Plateaux label, I'll remove the Clicks & Cuts compilations posted here (*,*,*,*).
I understand their point as they plan to make a comeback in 2010, and I'll say I hope to see them do it quick.

Detroit Audio (and more)

Although I've stopped downloading DJ mixes and live sets from everybody I knew (it became an addiction at a time), some names are still hard to resist to.
A lot of sites/ blogs are devoted to posting live sets; I'm not actually going that way. I just want to propose a couple of 'official' sites of Detroit and like labels with interesting sets or videos that may easily get overlooked while searching the 'illegal' sharenet.

So:
Detroit Techno Militia. Huge mix data bank here.
Kenny Larkin's Art Of Dance. Few mixes here.
Technoir Audio. Listen here, down here.
11th Hour. Here.
Bvdub mixes. Here. Press on third icon.
Bootleg DJ Cafe. DJ sets here.
Open Mind Recordings. Here.
EevoNext. Yes, the old Eevolute. Here.
Soma Records. Some videos.
Dave Angel. Mixes & videos here.
D1 Recordings & DEAFestival. Archive.
Modern Music. Tons of oldschool mixes from the States here.
The Black Dog. You know who they are. Mixes here.

NEW:
Vuistdikkeramlat. Blog of great mixes. Here.

This list will be updated sporadically (when I find new stuff, you know) and reposted.

(first post: 10th of April 2008)

Modulations - High Tech Soul

For a long time I was searching for 'Modulations', Iara Lee's 1998 documentary on electronic music, in digital form (more info here). As far as I get it there was no DVD re-issue and I couldn't find a rip around the net, until now. For everyone with a decent connection, in this (new) site itechno.tv you can stream and watch it, instead of its drawbacks (focus on US stuff, absence of certain artists-catalysts, loads of drug-fueled egos, etc.) in the end it's worth the time spent. My favorite part is the whole FSOL interview.
There's also a rip from the AudioBforum guys around, though it's temporarily off. I'll try to get back to it later on.

Modulations (1998)
Stream: here on itechno.tv

P.S. The itechno site is off. I'll try to find another copy...


Also posted on itechno.tv is a much more recent (and easily available to buy) docu on Motown techno, 'High Tech Soul'. Due to its more focused subject it delivers better overall, with a lot of interviews (and bitching) by famous Detroit artists and info on the city's history. A must for techno fans.

High Tech Soul (2006)
Stream: Part 1 - Part 2 on itechno.tv
Download either here (from BetterSoundsBelieving blog - zshare),
here (from TribalElectroDance blog),
or from here (RS links).


Original post: 2008-06-26.

BodyTonic. Decade in review

I was recently asked by the good people of BodytonicMusic.com to write a small summary on the last decade. Which I finally did (aided by the editing skills of Barry), so it's there for all to see. Don't go near it if you can't stand anything posted in this blog under the 'Blah Blah' label (or just skip to the 3rd page).

Do yourselves a favor and check the other reviews as well. Also the podcast and downloads section, some great stuff there.

Aufgang live

So, it's not a post about a lost Voigt project.

I've come to like InFiné more and more recently, a french label I had noticed but overlooked, until I came upon Donso's magical 'Somono Foly' EP. After a little research I found out it's Agoria's label, a guy that I totally respect and adore his music since the first time I heard it - so here I am now trying to hunt down those (elusive in Greece) 12''s whenever I can.

Releases are mostly produced/mixed by Agoria, while music comes from icons like The Hacker and Apparat, new rising stars like Danton Eeprom, Rone, Cubenx, Douglas Greed, Clara Moto and Fraction, plus the pianist Fransesco Tristano.

Every 12" is virtually different from the next one, most of them drawing from the generic techno background, yet common ground ends here. You might hear influences from IDM, italo disco, deep house, electro, neo-classical and trance - mostly combined in weird forms, in varying proportions so that each track is more or less unique. (Even more) exceptional releases are the aforementioned Donso one, combining Malinese vocals, deep beats and quirky percussions and the piano-based landscapes of the Fransesco Tristano ones, together with Rami Khalifé and Aymeric Westrich as Aufgang.

So, a live recording of a recent Aufgang concert is found at the Grandcrew site, here.
Also check earlier posted Carl Craig vs Fransesco Tristano concert here, and a collection of Infine videos here.

It's so good to feel that a label owner really cares for delivering something special and different than the rest of the current music production, breaking down commercially oriented style rules and trying weird combinations. By the way, Agoria's last album (the OST for Luc Besson's film 'Go Fast') is just incredible.

Long live InFiné, you have my total respect.

Intergalactic FM

I decided to embed the Intergalactic FM player in the blog, four net radio stations of dirty, brown and miserable music for stoned aliens and robots. Hope you enjoy.

Civilization

Watch it.

Info here.

The music's not of my liking, video is great though.

Imaginary Landscapes

A 1989 documentary on Brian Eno, in swf stream.

Big thanx to Those City Nights blog for letting us know.


Imaginary Landscapes

And while you're over there, check all documentaries in general and this one in particular.

The Maenad and the Mix

The other day I came across a mix of PWOG (*) tracks in the Black Dog site, as the third part in a series where the Black Dog guys pay tribute to artists like Robert Hood and UR (so far). They mix the original stuff with some of their own re-edits, a treasure for the fans. Check the page out:

The Black Dog:
One Hour With The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia

You know I'm a PWOG sicko. And I consider myself to be a fan of the Black Dog - not a collector per se, but 'Spanners' might be the 'IDM' album I've listened to the most (I still do, after all these years). As Robert Hood is also the Detroit guy I respect the most and UR are undoubtedly leaders in their field, seeing all these together there it felt like a serotonin-party. Then I came upon a post by Moggieboy (the Ripped In Glascow guy), where the 'Maenad' 12" was posted. It was too good to be just a coincidence, so here it is:

PWOG - Maenad 12" by Moggieboy

I'll borrow the eXquisite CORpsE 1994 Kupuri 12" later on.

P.S. Actually, he's posted a lot of PWOG stuff so go there and get them.

Buddha Machine Wall

Buddha Machine Wall
by Zendesk

LP

This is indeed a LongPlayer.

Another Light Of The Night

And what do you think of this?