Blog: the speed of silence

Jimmy Tamborello, who most importantly guided Figurine into a solid sound of quiet guitars with odd electronics meshed in, and later went on to do a couple of things commonly known as DNTEL and the Postal Service, has announced he's giving away an ep of Enya remixes as it will never make it through the proper channels for commercial release. Grab it directly off of the DNTEL site here .

The full lineup for this year's weekend-after-Memorial Day Wakarusa has been released, and while it's full of the expected jam bands, there are a handful of interesting acts booked this year as well. My Morning Jacket is the headliner, and if you're going to go with any band out of that oeuvre as a headliner for a festival that's trying to get better every year, it should be them. On the other hand, Wakarusa has been known to dabble in the electronic side of things as well. While this isn't an unprecedented position among the festivals, [...]

The Sensual Physics album is probably my favorite of the year by a nose over the others. Axel Boman's "Holy Love" is the track that sticks out most in my mind. I've managed to hammer out some descriptions so if you're interested in checking some of these out, you'll have a bit of guidance hopefully. Best of it to you, have a safe New Year's and be sure to be gettin down somewhere, somehow. Otherwise tied alphabetically: actress - splazsh - darren cunningham complimented a review i wrote of an early werk release a few years [...]

The Riot Room has a listing for Retribution Gospel Choir alongside Olympic Size and Actors & Actresses for September 28th - $8. This band is most well known as the more-aggressive sideproject of Low's Alan Sparhawk, so anyone expecting the slowcore or Mimi Parker guest vocals is going to be out of luck.

I'll admit, I've been sitting on Dextro 's Zero Circle 123 for awhile. I seemed to be following a pattern of pulling it out and listening to it in full during moments that either were, or became, intrinsically connected to the experience of listening to this record. I am extremely grateful to Ewan and 16k for sending me one of the limited vinyl editions, as it sounds amazing. A1's "Ring Cycle"has a sense of noir menace to it, with ringing guitar notes and muffled vocals on the outro that sound tailor-made for some [...]

shigeto - what we held on to Peter Kim at Create Digital Music has a really nice piece with Shigeto , which includes a great tip on a free ep, What We Held On To , currently available from Ghostly International . In the name of delayed gratification, here's the download itself . Grab this while you can - this is a very solid release over five tracks.

The lineup for Sonar Chicago was released this morning, with Oval, Martyn, and Nosaj Thing being the main draws for me. I'm not seeing a ticket price listed as of yet, but here's the agenda of events, which runs September 9th through 11th: Thursday 9 12:00 :: Jay Pritzker Pavilion :: Millennium Park :: live :: Faraón 17:00 :: Jay Pritzker Pavilion :: Millennium Park :: live :: Bradien 18:00 :: Jay Pritzker Pavilion :: Millennium Park [...]

As the presence of the Red Bull Music Academy has risen over the years, so has the stock of artists who've participated in the sessions - both students and teachers. The RBMA has become a spot for enlightening, Actor's Studio-esque interviews with some of the top names in the diverse world of electronic music, while at the same time providing a platform for acts like Flying Lotus and others to launch their careers. This year, they've decided to release a huge, free 2-disc set of work from both newcomers and established names who've come through the [...]

My friend Zach is a big BT fan, something about musicianship or something. With the full understanding of what we were getting ourselves into, with more than enough years of experience to handle whatever this party was going to throw at us, we made our way into the Midland around 9:30. The only security was the Midland employee who took my ticket, and with that we walked in 2002. I am going to break it down like this: all the ladies looked good, the guys were having a good time, and it appeared everything [...]

The Pitchfork RSS feed says it all: 09-30 Austin, TX - East Side Drive * 10-03 Las Vegas, NV - Matador 21 10-04 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern * 10-05 San Francisco, CA - Warfield * 10-07 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom * 10-09 Seattle, WA - Showbox So Do * 10-12 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue * 10-13 Chicago, IL - The Vic * 10-15 Newport, KY - Southgate House 10-16 Columbus, OH - Outlands Live 10-21 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club 10-22 Carrboro, NC - [...]

i'm going to give mixcloud a shot to host mixes. here's a test run: Information Scientist - June 12 Mix by Informationscientist on Mixcloud azuni - rotate (rotate ep) ribn - sin & figs (light black ep) reference - best night in detroit (aoenian ep) pawel - curves (alexi delano mix) lines & curves ep) jacek sienkiewicz - before x (x years later ep) [...]

What do Athens, Greece, Honolulu, Hawaii, Red Rocks Ampitheater in Colorado, and Kansas City have in common? If you guessed each location will host one of the four stops on the Global Dance Festival Tour 2010, then chances are you are wearing a shiny shirt and have, in the past 24 hours, administered spray-on tan. While Kansas City's stop is bringing Paul Van Dyk and BT, it could be worse. Athens has Armin Van Buuren, and Honolulu's event is headlined by something called Shwayze featuring Cisco Adler . . . which somehow managed to push Bad [...]

Get your fill of mid-range wobblers Thursday, July 15th with bro-step man of the moment Rusko. He'll be playing Mosaic , 1331 Walnut, July 15th alongside KC locals.

As I've mentioned in the past, Scion 's involvement with the American electronic and hiphop music scene is a little bit of a dubious one. On one hand, they are a freaking car company. They make cars. Vroom vroom four wheels, etc etc. On the other hand, for the last year or so, the company has sponsored a wide range of online radio stations hosted by some of the bigger names across many different genres, from UK Garage to hiphop to metal. Additionally, they've brought names like Roy Davis Jr, Dj Craze, and Blu Jemz to Kansas [...]

Demencha posted news today that Killah Priest & Blueprint are at the riot Room tomorrow night, Tuesday April 13th. Elizabeth was on my top albums of 2009 and for good reason - definitely worth catching this one if you can.

Nick Spacek at the Pitch's Wayward Blog has a post announcing an upcoming Hum reunion show in St. Louis on May 22nd. Tickets are relatively cheap at $20 and are available here . There's probably a fair amount of people out there who don't understand how a band with one recognizable song - one that for most is known from the Cadillac commercial from a few years ago - can continue to have the legacy this Chicago-area foursome has continued to have. It's pretty simple though - three very solid albums as a [...]

Christian Prommer is by no means a new name, but admittedly outside of his work in Fauna Flash and The Truby Trio, I'm not overly familiar with his work. With a dozen or so releases dates stretching back to 2000 on labels like Compost Black, Sonar Kollective, International Deejay Gigolo, Buzzin' Fly, and F Comm, it's clear the man's work has received recognition by a variety of forward-thinking djs and A&R reps. So let me just say this: I was in no way prepared for this EP. Obviously, there's only one track that can call [...]

First off, the Health Care Bill passed this weekend has the potential to be a great thing for a lot of people. Surely, those most excited about it are not the uninsured, the poor, or the Mom & Pop business owners out there who want what's best for their employees. No, instead it is that crowd of AARP designates who are pretty sure they're going to bankrupt Medicare and Social Security with their endless tummy tucks, breast implants, and full rotator cuff replacements each summer after another strenuous season of Ultimate Frisbee so that they may live to [...]