Sharing two sides of a limited slab of vinyl, Pete Swanson (breaking out of the Yellow Swans mold) and synth master Rene Hell aka Jeff Witcher create a dichotomy of destruction and bliss. Swanson keeps things noisy as is expected but breaks from the total devastation that usually comes associated with anything bearing his Yellow Swans moniker. His side, a one track build that starts from a field of sonic debris and crescendos into a well constructed noise carving that bears a softer yet still jagged impact from one of noise's masters of the form. The flip sees RSTB favorite [...]
Given our name, it's no secret that we gorge on electronic sound, be it discomforting or transcendent. Guttural or sublime. We're forever wary of confirmation bias but this year does seem to have seen wave upon wave of synth based music. Not just music that features a synth but music that's built around the synth, great cathedrals constructed to encapsulate the idea of making synthetic sounds that by their design are alien and other . Except, they're not anymore. Thirty years of indoctrination has made the music of the synths mean something else. A piece of retro nostalgia at one [...]
When I was compiling my rundown of favorites for the year, making some attempt at a ranked list, a curious thing happened—the list shook out by genre. My three favorite albums of the year were all song-based albums—and, incidentally, by artists I was already familiar with. However, I probably listened to #4–6 as often as #1–3, if not more: these are the ambient records, which I tend to put on while I'm writing and/or working and/or looking for something to sink into, sonically. Finally, the psych rockers pulled up last—Disappears and Moon Duo. I fell a little harder into this [...]
After months and months of scrolling through the muddle that is my RSS feed, I finally weeded out a bunch of blogs that I realize I'm just never interested in, and I also created a new sub-category for "trustworthy sources," which are the six or so blogs that, for me, consistently display solid taste. Now it's a lot easier for me to make sure I don't scroll past those posts that have a high chance of scratching my itch. For most of the tracks below, I've included my source; if you like what you hear, check those links for more [...]
MP3: Rene Hell - Med School Prince Of all Rene Hell's recent synthetic ventures, this latest, almost totally live-recorded "progressively climbing lydian sprawl" has got to be the most ecstatic. "Med School Prince" is a 10-minute digitised life review, cascading at hyperspeed with Hell's signature bristling synths into one ultra-precise and futuristic type of symphony. It's real lavish, combining older Kosmiche retrospection with Sean McCann or Mark McGuire-style bright drone magnificence. The Cannon tour tape is out now on Arbor , and available from Mimaroglu [...]
On the spur of the moment I threw down this list on my tumblr earlier today, so I thought I'd re-post here, since I have the freedom to make a little mini-mix for you (re-ordered for better flow). It's a short list (with the caveat that I heard a lot of albums that were good , but you all want something better than good, right?): Low: C'mon Mountains: Air Museum Rene Hell: The Terminal Symphony Tim Hecker: [...]
With festivals every single weekend, it's hard to imagine that any one could be that different from the rest. But if nothing else, Chicago's two-year old Neon Marshmallow Festival proves that assumption so very wrong. The noise/drone/electronic/general ly avant-garde acts that pummeled the crowd for three nights won't be filling out even the earliest of slots at Coachella or Lollapalooza, and the fans who filed into work Monday morning with damaged ear drums and huge grins on their faces wouldn't want it any other way. Neon Marshmallow is, in a word, weird. In two words, delightfully weird. [...]
I've been struggling to work out the best time of the day to listen to The Terminal Symphony . It's not the sort of album that will to wrench you awake in the morning or one you're going to reach for when getting geared up for a larger night out. Indeed I'm not sure you'd want to listen to it when you return from an intoxicated trip down town, unless you want to somehow supplement your staggering dizziness. For what it's worth, my moment of epiphany came halfway through an overcast Wednesday afternoon – a proper shiver [...]
Portland's man of Porcelain ( Opera ), Jeff Witscher, with a follow-up from Hell (Rene) for Type , The Terminal Symphony , that's a quite different kettle of chips from that debut and its handy little bonus disc. There he was quite the nu-Kosmische cowboy, riding a wild frontier of high pressure atmos AND bubble'n'squeak, giving a refresh to what was turning into electronica's latest over-chewed Flavour of the Month gum. But with a sonic template based more around experimental 90s electronica The Terminal Symphony [...]
Flowers bedeck the fragility of the convict and I garlanded myself, lovingly pursuing a journey through sweat, sperm and blood that led to prison. Without what people call my evil, I am castrated. Un petit-bourgeois rien. There was a moral vigour in the acceptance of my destiny. I was hot for crime. I give the [...]
A little bit late, but here's a quick rundown of every new-to-me album I picked up in April, in the order I acquired them. Low: Drums and Guns Continuing the rehabilitation of my opinion of Low's output of the last ten years, I've come to the realization that, in fact, the band has never made a bad album. My bad for ever assuming that they had. Unfortunately when Drums and Guns originally came out the only songs I heard from it were "Pretty People," "Breaker," and "Hatchet"; I didn't particularly like the [...]
The final line-up for this year's three-day Neon Marshmallow Music Festival has been announced. Top-billed artists this year, include: White Rainbow, Rene Hell, and, recently added, Lucky Dragons on Friday, June 10; Pelt, Bill Orcutt, and Oneothrix Point Never on Saturday, June 11; and Morton Subotnick, The Rita, and Pulse Emitter on Sunday, June 12. A full schedule can be found below. The experimental music fest, which is being hosted at the Empty Bottle , features a wide variety of electronic and electro-acoustic music, ranging from noise and free jazz to EAI and music concrete. [...]
("A New Divinity" above by Kris Kuksi via 5magazine ) 20jazzfunkgreats use many divergent techniques to write their drafts and select their music. These include Brian Eno's renowned Oblique Strategies , esoteric derivations of the Fibonacci sequence and energetic hurling of Aleister Crowley's tarot deck. Today, we have applied standard cabbalistic transformations to excerpts from a contested appendix of the Torah describing the Seven Heavens. The output is a Dewey System sequence identifying an obscure volume at the British Library. It is called 'Babel's Children: An Anthology of Hubristic Urbanism', [...]
8:47 am: On the way to work, My Morning Jacket. I've been in a My Morning Jacket mood for a few days. "Golden" had come up on shuffle on Friday and set my mood aright amidst a shitty day, so I've been listening to MMJ on and off ever since. I have a playlist of all my favorite songs by the band so I can avoid trainwrecks like "Highly Suspicious" or the song from Z about kittens on fire. Of their five albums (and two EPs), 45 songs made it to this playlist. On my bus ride to work: [...]
Here's a mix of my favorite new-to-me mp3s I downloadead from various blogs in the last month. I must say I didn't do so well keeping up with the blogs this month. The Art Garfunkel track came from one of Aquarium Drunkard's L.A. Burnout mixes ; the two 1960s Asian girl groups came from the ever-dependable Cargo Culte , and the rest came from miscellaneous corners of the web. For the record this mix is intended to be listened to in order. Stray thoughts: I've never sought out an Art Garfunkel record; perhaps I should? [...]
De Amerikaan Jeff Witscher heeft een hoop schuilnamen. Impregnable, Secret Abuse, Marble Sky en Rene Hell zijn een greep uit zijn collectie pseudoniemen. Met die laatstgenoemde is hij de afgelopen paar jaar gestaag een reputatie aan het opbouwen. Nadat hij met Porcelain Opera op het Type label debuteerde, was hij te horen op verschillende collaboraties en bracht hij onder meer een 7" uit op KRAAK . Dat Rene Hell tijd heeft gehad om ondertussen zijn tweede - The Terminal Symphony - af te maken, mag een wonder heten. Maar afgeraffeld is [...]
Here's your afternoon brainscrub.
I'd intended this as a complement to my albums rundown from last week but was waylaid in getting it together. As I hope to do every month, here is a mix of my favorite individual tracks, old and new, I came across in the last month (or, in this case, going back to mid-December). The majority of these tracks came from a handful of other people's mixes—namely The Decibel Tolls and Swan Fungus , as well the Mindbending Motorway Mix created by Broadcast's Trish Keenan, which went around the internet after news of [...]
Tonight Los Angeles based duo NO AGE return to Miami for a live performance at Grand Central . Don't be left out as this will be an awesome show! If you weren't able to see them last time at Sweatstock you missed out. Don't let it happen again. Joining them are special guests Rene Hell & Beings. But if you can't make it don't knee yourself too hard in the face as No Age will join Alex Caso for a special guest DJ Set at BAR for the venue's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY and [...]
Date 1/11/11 Location Mohawk Doors 6:30pm Tickets $10 @ Frontgate Indie giants No Age are stopping into Austin at The Mohawk on Tuesday night. Joining the boys on stage are Rene Hell and locals Total Abuse . Show starts pretty early so make sure you don't miss anything. Download: No Age [...]
Raven Sings The Blues
20JazzFunkGreats
Pretty Goes with Pretty
rose quartz
Consequence Of Sound
Both bars on
Lend Me Your Ears
The Cargo Culte
loudloop
MrBungle
TREE CATHEDRALS.
nightdrive
Austin Town Hall
Listen: Summer Camp – Always
Bobby Womack ft. Lana Del Rey – “Dayglo Reflection”
Bears
