Currently listening, part 1

[jkn]

SunDummy got me thinking about Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust so I tossed that on.   Still an excellent record.   I like Loops of Fury - got that in the stacks somewhere...

np:  Miles Davis - Kind of Blue  Not much more to say about this that hasn't been said already.  Utter classic, influential to tons of musicians on this planet and a few others.

[Viniator3]

Dave Clarke - Live @ Locomania (Not too bad, not too good, but the spontaneity is to be relished.)

Klaus Wiese - Ming Noir (Played this for my early morning read. Wiese, Grassow, and Oophoi are my holy trinity for bedtime or sub-chill relaxation [However, Dead Weather Machine by the Sleep Research Facility proves to be the winner among stand alone bedtime tracks.] The last track, "Rosewood Room," is sheerly gorgeous.)

Lustmord - The Place Where the Black Stars Hang (This is his best solo outing, no question. The early section with the "riding a giant winged beast in the air" effect is worth the price of admission here.)

[jim brenholts]

i am listening to headquarters by the monkees, the first album on which they played their instruments. according to the credits there was some extra bass and guitars, winds and strings but most of the disc is by the monks themselves. they are not awful, either.

[APK]

NP

Keith Berry: A Strange Feather  (primarily foreboding soundscapes, but low key, inventive and very enjoyable)

[jkn]

Ben Fleury-Steiner - Drifts

Semi-drifty synth chords, subdued rhythmic movement, the occassional tinkly bit, leans towards glitchy moments without diving headlong into all out glitch territory.    Gets a bit meandery for my tastes in some of the later tracks.    One thing that bugs me is the lack of movement in the bass range - which Ben has told me is intentional.   This is where my being a bass player and loving the low end pulls me a back a bit on this album - I love a bit of a bass line... :)    But just because I wouldn't have written it this way doesn't mean it's not a good album.

I like this album and spin it about every three months or so, a good effort from Ben and probably one most ambient fans will enjoy.   

[kawera]

Ginormous - Our Ancestors Intense Love Affair -- Really good album. Interesting and distorted beats with some beautiful melodies thrown on top.

Off The Sky - Form Creek EP -- Probably some of the best he's done. Really restrained and beautiful audio-poems.

[darkenedsoul]

Worship - Dooom
Limbonic Art - The Ultimate Death Worship

And no, don't read a trend into it just because the holiday is approaching! I love DOOM and Limbonic Art are an interesting pair of musicians who play some brutal black metal (older stuff is more symphonic/keyboard use)
but is kinda unique.

[jim02]

running crazy on cd's lately.. however some i enjoy;

-alio die/martina galvagni - eleusian lullaby (another winner here,   fantastic vocal-ambient charm)
-alio die/nick parkin - aquam metallicam (i initially found this a bit too harsh but recently i happen to like it quite a bit)
-willits/sakamoto - ocean fire (beautiful!)
-darren tate/paul bradley - sometime today (at least as good as Joe mentioned here before :-))
-sleep research facility - deep frieze (Koner goes Antarctica..)
-brian parnham - mantle (deep cavernous ambient-soup..)
-seed - vertical memory (schutze's more accessible work, quite nice)

[Joe R]

Jim-

I'm glad you like "Sometime Today" as much as I do! It's a good one. 8)

[spunknik]

I've been listening to the reissue of Bass Communion ii.This is a superb album but I'm not sure where the music falls categorically.Also, the guitar ambience of MWVMs c.d. "Rotations" is excellent.

[jkn]

Various - Transmissions from the Planet Dog

It's an enjoyable compilation of trance stuff from Planet Dog label acts - see http://www.discogs.com/release/166558 for more info.   Not great, but fun.  Some of the sample heavy tracks crack me up a bit.   I tend to like disc 1 with Eat Static and Banco de Gaia tracks the best.

Laurent Garnier - Unreasonable Behaviour

This album is half brilliant and half merely really good.   Has a nice range of different styles - mostly in techno territory.   

[9dragons]

Hawkwind - Space Ritual...live double album of some of the most mind-blowing sounds on earth. So driven, so exquisitely weird, a primitive-futurist feast of jams infused with wondrous sci-fi lyrics, divinely inspired instrumentation, all resting on a loamy bed of absolutely amazing mutant electronics. Music of the spheres!

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra...wow, only recently and finally got some albums by this group. How did I neglect this for so long?

[spore]

Tau Ceti - Todahnlich
Very minimal dark drones. Often compared with Oophoi but I don't think they sound similiar. Tau Ceti is even more minimal of nature and darker too. Amazing release, great for listening late at night and of course alone.

Telomere - Astral Currents
Spacey ambient. Nothing worldshocking in my opinion but still a good listen.

[SunDummy]

Hawkwind!!!  Yep, they were one amazing band...  the recordings are hit or miss, sound-wise; but Space Ritual is fantastic.

As for me, tonight I'm gonna party like it's... 1971.
Up first is Wolfgang Duren's "Eyeless Dreams".  I love this; it's like the soundtrack to some strange seventies sci-fi film.  Tinges of early Kraftwerk, mixed with Klaus Schulze; very cool.  The LP has been out of print for 35+ years; I found this online somewhere as a download.  Worth hunting for.  The cover is priceless, too:  it even has a label that says "electronic album" so you won't confuse it with real music...  :-\

Next up is Klaus Schulze's "X"; an old favorite.  Sometimes cheesy, sometimes deep; always worthy of attention.  At least while I'm doing laundry, anyway...

Earlier, it was Rapoon's "Just Say the Faith".  Not one of his better disks, says I.

[cromag]

Recently stumbled on a used CD site that had five Michael Garrison CDs.  I've been looking for these (and some others) for a lo-ooo-ong time.  I'm going to have to take the headphones off before I get algae in my ears.

[Parallel Worlds]

Tangerine dream - Bootleg box vol.1 disc 3, 4, 5
Paul Schulze - New Maps Of Hell II
Plaid - Tekkon Kinkreet OST

[Brian Bieniowski]

Up first is Wolfgang Duren's "Eyeless Dreams".  I love this; it's like the soundtrack to some strange seventies sci-fi film.  Tinges of early Kraftwerk, mixed with Klaus Schulze; very cool.  The LP has been out of print for 35+ years; I found this online somewhere as a download.  Worth hunting for.  The cover is priceless, too:  it even has a label that says "electronic album" so you won't confuse it with real music...  :-\

I read "seventies sci-fi film" and all of my green-lights went off.  Thanks for the tip!

Here's the link to the legal, free download:

http://dueren.waldorfian.info/

[Bill Binkelman]

Liquid Mind's (a k a Chuck Wild) career retrospective Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience.

You know, if you really listen to Chuck's music intently, esp. on headphones, you hear all kinds of stuff going on...gentle yet energetic sequence notes, Ray Lynchian-type synth work, all manner of electronic textures, etc. So many people dismiss his music as nothing but lush flowing new age music, but it's more sophisticated than that. Besides those more overt synthesizer textures and noises in the background, he also actually varies the main melodic instrumentation a lot from album to album, sometimes featuring strings, at other times chorals, or he may switch to woodwinds or a solo wind instrument. I remember interviewing him way back in 1997 and he made it clear how much care and quality he puts into his recordings, spending (IIRC) about 80 grand making each one. The mix on his albums is always textbook, again IMO.

Anyway, while a person might consider his albums as being overly similar or even monotonous, they're really not, IMO. As pure background music, though, they are excellent soothing "ambient" music ...almost too relaxing in fact (I'm listening on headphones at work and it's hard to concentrate, to be honest).

[APK]

Been playing a bit of

- Hooverphonic: Blue Wonder Power Milk
- Mouse On Mars: iaora tahiti

a little different, but needed.

[APK]

np

- The Cinematic Orchestra: Ma Fleur   (not really my thing ... but occasionally is)