Currently listening, part 1

[Dave Michuda]

I've been slowly uploading my entire collection to the Amazon cloud player(it's taking  f o r e v e r).  So I've run into things I haven't listened to in a long time.

Jan Jelinek - loop finding jazz records
Casino Versus Japan - Go Hawaii
Gas - Pop
krill.minima - nautica

[jim02]

sinepearl - the dance of affinity
sinepearl - through water she spoke
(beautiful dreamy fairytale soundtrackmusic ala Ishq, his' music is something to watch for! a 3rd installment is planned for early this year on bandcamp)

andrea belfi - wege
(got this somewhere last year, never gave it full attention until i did last week, good stuff, excellent percussion parts)

between - between (12k)
improvational music by some established musicians who have a knack for a great atmospheric set of sounds and music.. should be accompanied by some nice cup of herbal tea..  )

yannick dauby/john grzinich/murmer - lind, raud, aastaajad
(definately one of the best things of last year for me. disc 1 features mostly fieldrecording along with some gong-like rumbling frequencies. disc 2 is a set exquisite fieldrecordings mixed with soft subdued glowing drones, very good if you ask me)

steve roach - soul tones
(typical Roach here, nothing groundbreaking 'so far', but as a lot of his music takes time to resonate on me, i'm still behold of some potential treasure inside of this..)

abstract ballet - mk ultra
(good dubtechno from the solid french ZeECc label)



anticipating;

krill.minima (marsen jules)- secundenschlaf
ethernet - opus 2

[jdh]

Jim02,
Interesting label,Invisible Birds. Plenty of information on the site. Thanks for the tip.

[drone on]

Bvdub--All is Forgiven.  No surprise here, its another very good album from Bvdub.

Food--Mercurial Balm (ECM).  With Fennesz, Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvaer.  This makes me wonder what other recent ECM releases I should check out.  Any recommendations?

[Dave Michuda]

A few very good recent ECM releases...

Eivind Aarset - XDream Logic
Manu Katché - Manu Katché
Eberhard Weber - Resume

This one is a few years older but I had to at least mention it because I love Jon Hassell...

Jon Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

[drone on]

Thanks, that Eivind Aarset is on my list.  I already have the Hassell (love JH!)

Just purchased last night:

BLOOD BOX-Funeral in an Empty Room.  This is on the Power & Steel sublabel of Loki Foundation, Germany.  This is a SUPERB celestial darkambient release.  Don't let the cliched typical dark ambient title put you off;  highly recommend this one to all!

Also today:

Bernd Kistenmacher-Music from Outer Space.  Very atmospheric sequencer stuff.
Future Sound of London-From the Archives Vol. 7
Sanjiva-Tales from the Land of Osho/Origin
Food-Mercurial Balm (ECM).  Excellent moody nocturnal soundscapes.
Bvdub-All is Forgiven.

[phobos]

Just purchased last night:

BLOOD BOX-Funeral in an Empty Room.  This is on the Power & Steel sublabel of Loki Foundation, Germany.  This is a SUPERB celestial darkambient release.  Don't let the cliched typical dark ambient title put you off;  highly recommend this one to all!

That is a superb album, and if you can find a copy of it, I would highly recommend his The Iron Dream also.

[drone on]

There's a copy on Discogs.  Might have to get that one.

Today:

Tamaryn-Tender New Signs.  A cross between My Bloody Valentine, Curve, Slowdive, Velvet Underground.  Great trippy/druggy shoegazery rock.

Marcus Fischer-Monocoastal.  12k album that sold out within weeks when it first came out.  Good album, but I really don't see what all the fuss was about. 

Hemisphere-Inversion.  Finally got this after years of being a Hemisphere fan, not sure why I waited this long.  Not their best, but there are a couple great tracks on this. 

Aes Dana-Pollen.  Ultimae strikes again with another techno/psy-chill ear feast. 

[Dave Michuda]

Because of the Basinksi thread started by jdh elsewhere in the forum, I dug up some Basinski that I haven't played in a while.

William Basinski - Melancholia
William Basinski - El Camino Real

Other recent spins...

Roedelius - wenn der südwind weht
Max Richter - Recomposed by Max Richter_ Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
Simon Scott - below sea level

[drone on]

Bvdub-All is Forgiven.  I've listened to this CD about four times now and I hate to say "best thing ever" when something new comes out, but damn this is a great album, it could be his best yet IMHO!  It's not original at all for him as he's been repeating this style (the sampled soul/disco vocals), but here I think he has perfected it as it's not too repetitive, cold, or annoying like some of this others have sometimes lapsed into.  There's a level of beauty here not reached on the others in this style and therefore I think it could be his yet.  My other previous overall fave I think would be "Tribes at the Temple of Silence."   

[Anodize DB]

Bvdub-All is Forgiven...it could be his best yet IMHO!

Have you checked out his side project, Earth House Hold?

http://www.discogs.com/Earth-House-Hold-When-Love-Lived/release/3798974

Finally got around to playing this the other day, and it's utterly brilliant. 'House-y' in the best sense, certainly part of Brock's overall sound design & aesthetic, but executed with a flair that is remarkable even across his last few years' flurry of activity. Personally, I dug this more than All is Forgiven (which I did quite like, in fact), great stuff.

[Mark Mushet]

Dream Logic by Eivind Aarset
Narrow Garden by Eyvind Kang

and two CDs by harpist Julia Rovinsky that feature transcriptions of Budd/Eno's Arc of Doves and Budd's The Room plus some Part and Glass. Lovely stuff!

Then there's Fluxion's Traces and John Cale's Nooky Wood...

Otherwise I'm discovering old blues recordings and looking forward to the new krill.minima, Food and Celer releases. And there's a loscil/bvdub collab happening...

[DeepR]

Just purchased last night:

BLOOD BOX-Funeral in an Empty Room.  This is on the Power & Steel sublabel of Loki Foundation, Germany.  This is a SUPERB celestial darkambient release.  Don't let the cliched typical dark ambient title put you off;  highly recommend this one to all!

That is a superb album, and if you can find a copy of it, I would highly recommend his The Iron Dream also.

Yes, they are fantastic albums. There is great depth to the music of Blood Box, sometimes with very subtle, "subliminal" melodies. Just listen to the track "The Celestial Abyss" and notice how the harmonies and textures keep shifting all the time, creating fascinating mood changes.

[ffcal]

Dream Logic by Eivind Aarset

I enjoyed this too, but thought that the album was a bit too short.

Have been enjoying the reissue of Deux Filles' Silence & Wisdom/Double Happiness, a strange ambient project from the 80s involving Simon Fisher Turner.  Also listened to a disappointing 2012 release from Moebius and Asmus Tietchens that was too abrasive and glitchy for my taste.

Forrest

[drone on]

Re: Blood Box.  Yes I agree, there are also lots of drifting synths that make this have a lot in common with spacemusic like Vir Unis' Drift Inside.  It's a very "musical" dark ambient album, not one that is just full of rumbles and eerie effects.   

[Mark Mushet]

Dream Logic by Eivind Aarset

I enjoyed this too, but thought that the album was a bit too short.

Have been enjoying the reissue of Deux Filles' Silence & Wisdom/Double Happiness, a strange ambient project from the 80s involving Simon Fisher Turner.  Also listened to a disappointing 2012 release from Moebius and Asmus Tietchens that was too abrasive and glitchy for my taste.

Forrest

Hi Forrest! Happy New Year!

Yes, Dream Logic could be longer but it may be that it was an ECM thing. Ralph Towner once told me that he liked ECM's view that the "classic" vinyl-dictated album length of approx. 40 minutes was reasonable when expecting a certain level of quality from an artist in that measure every couple of years. BTW there are many excellent live chunks of Dream Logic on YouTube.

[phobos]

Phelios - Astral Unity
What a great album and a beautiful 6 panel digipak from Malignant

[Antdude]

Igneous Flame - Electra, Astra, Hydra, Tolmon, Harmony Through Conflict

I've probably missed a few, but my Inbox is getting bombarded with these new (re?) releases. And this stuff is really good. Electra is taking me away as I write. It needs to be about 2 hours longer.

Pete, you're killin' me. I can't buy it all at once.

[drone on]

Klaus Wiese--Klangschalen Sounds Complete Archive Recordings.  12 disc set of consciousness expanding singing bowl drones.  Artworks by oophoi are sublime as well.

[phobos]

Phelios - Passage
Another superb dark ambient gem