hiatus

this blog is on hiatus.

brand new ghosting season,

same hi quality.

the road

New track from an old Toby favourite, permanently good.

brilliant folk

remix

opera

hyperdiamond

Gaudi

Here's some Spanish architecture:

disco

Psychologist - Disco At Twin Peaks from Tali Clarke on Vimeo.

MESSAGE TO BEARS

Message to Bears is multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander. He has recently released a new album, Folding Leaves, and it’s fucking great. It’s an album which has some great ambient beats to act as a foundation which allows the vocals and strings and samples and piano and xylophones and so forth, to soar.

I can’t recommend it enough. So what’s it about.

The loose theme of the album, to put it simply is sort of the idea of having a desire to run away/escape when all you needed was right where you are.

I did sense that element of travel/travelling on the album, so I asked him a question about where the most beautiful place he had visited was. (Though with such an intriguing answer I should have asked what the best thing about being at home was.)

Probably the Iguazu waterfalls in Brazil, absolutely incredible.

I’m gonna try and catch a live offering when it roles in to town because the sound is so intriguing. I asked what the live show will be like, that answer is below as is the album (The physical's a sellout). Enjoy.

The live show includes a small ensemble, it's quite different to the recorded material actually, less ambient and louder.

veil of ignorance

Ambient. On free download.

dying embers

By way on an apology I will put up a new track every day between now and Easter. Hopefully.

Bruised Skies - Embers

EVERLONE

Everlone is a London based music maker, specialising in the ethereal and, apparently, the night bus sound. Here’s what he said when I asked him to describe the music:

I'm not sure how I'd describe my music to be honest, it's been described in a few bizarre ways before, like 'slowcore' and 'night bus' but I don't even know what they mean, let alone agree. I don't want to come across as being pretentious, but I don't think it's healthy to pigeon hole music either to be honest, otherwise you're forever having to live up to that expectation. I just run with it and see what happens. 

The music features lots of layered vocal samples which create a great atmosphere, presumably it’s more suited to accompany a dark room?

I don't think there's a particular setting my music is suited to. I'd much rather it affected someone on a personal level, and if that means they want to hear it in a club then so be it. Maybe this is what 'night bus' is all about!? Basically, so long as someone is enjoying it, it could be played in a tree house for all I mind.

Let’s leave all this talk of night buses behind us. Everlone, tell us about the samples.

With sampling I never set out looking for things to use, pretty much all the samples in my tracks are things that I've stumbled upon and have ended up being exactly what I needed. I always start a track with a melody rather than a beat too, so it helps when your starting point is something you've found and really enjoy.

Next time I'm on the N1 I know what to listen to. The EP is coming out really soon and will feature his own vocals. He promises it will be an interesting offering. Look forward to it. 

evian christ

I stumbled across these beautifully psychedelic offerings couple of days ago. As filler goes it's not too bad at all, my favourite is MYD. Apologies for the lack of postings, I've spent a lot time recently listening to Silent Alarm (lately).

message to bears

I've been listening to Message to Bears a lot recently, the songs are a great combination of folk and ambient. Great artwork too. enjoy.

writing for the 405

Yes, I have been lazy, but not totally lazy.

Been writing for the 405 recently, here's what I wrote, or at least the start, go to the site to read the whole thing.

Music is invariably about what you hear not what you see, right? Yes. But the visuals deserve our attention too.

There are many songs which people have been utterly dismissive off at first, perhaps they were too loud or too quiet to grab our attention - but when a video is added, and it’s good enough to grab your attention again and again, the song and the band all of a sudden become noteworthy (I for one became a fan of Health and the xx through their videos).

Every few weeks I’ll be interviewing music directors, taking a closer look at their work and seeing where they get the inspiration from when it comes to putting together visual representations of our favourite songs.

interview with Christopher J Ewing

keith fullerton whitman

Keith Fullerton Whitman has posted some of his live shows and other recordings on Soundcloud for all to hear.

I especially like the commentary that goes with this one. Enjoy.

WISE CHILDREN

Wise Children is electronic/acoustic artist Robin Warren-Adamson. He’s just released his second EP, The Woods. Lyrically this is a great collection of songs, which sound, to these ears at least, quite heartfelt.

I asked him what his inspirations were when writing:

Half the time it's biographical, the other half it's fictional, but I think you always use your own biography to access the feelings you're trying to write about, even if they're made up. I'm really interested in creating characters or narrators that are different to myself. Not necessarily likeable characters. Sort of trying to push the way in which the audience reacts to the character, whether they empathise with them or not.

There are a lot of themes in this: love and loss, the seasons (winter), birth and renewal. Folk, when it gets it right, can be such a good vehicle to express these ideas. Add some electronics and I’m there.

I’ve been listening to The Woods through earphones, and therefore isolated. Does that make it more folksy compared to say listening at a massive field in Welbeck Abbey?

I've always found that those kinds of arguments to do with authenticity are a bit distracting and pointless. I think people tend to fetishize certain elements that you associate with a genre, in the case of folk, acoustic instruments, voice, intimacy, small environments etc. but I find them to be a bit exclusionary. I don't know, depends on each artist I suppose, as to how they come across best. I don't consider myself to be 'folk' and I don't really care about being considered within that framework. If folk is just 'music of the people' then numbers shouldn't really come into it. 

You can listen to The Woods here, or download it from his website. Enjoy.

 The Woods by Wise Children 

yellow ostrich

My favourite diy pop music project from late 2010, early 2011 is back with a new album, Strange Land. the observant among you will notice there's a more of an amplifed guitar sound here.

It's out, March 6.

Here's the first song you can here off the album, Marathon Runner. Free download here.

halls

Halls is back in our ears with another offering, a new EP, Fragile.


His style of rhythmic ambience is clear to hear - there's great haunting vocals to accompany as well. I'm enjoying listening to this and you will too. Enjoy.


 Halls - Fragile EP by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

conscious

Apparently, this is what kids are listening to these days.

Thought I would share, in case your a kid and haven't heard before. By Concious, it's called Heartless.

For a more chilled ride, go to Soundcloud and listen to 528hz. Enjoy.

  heartless by ~CONSCIOUS~

dad rocks!

Dad Rocks! has put together this lovely, home-made (iMovie), video to Lifestock. The album, Mount Modern comes highly recommended, by me. I'm off to stock up, Enjoy.

CLOUDKICKER

Explore, be curious.

Great words there. It’s the title of a Cloudkicker song. Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Cloudkicker's music is a mix of ambient and post-rock and the result is some inventive music.

By using a variety of pop culture references I’ve cobbled together this image of Ohio being a place where they grow corn and decide who the Democratic nominee is going to be.  But seriously, if you live in Ohio and make great music what would inspire you:

Obviously I feel a lot from all sorts of different music, and that's probably the number one thing. Sometimes I'll get a song or album or something in my head for days at a time and be compelled to explore that just to get it out of my head. 

Once I've gotten started on a song or project I interject a fair amount from whatever is going on around me or whatever I have bouncing around in my head. To me, writing music is as much about communication as writing a book would be, I just feel like I'm better at music than words.

Modest. Those are more great words.

I’ve put his latest album, Let Yourself be Huge, below. Can’t recommend highly enough that you check out Loop, an album of short, sharp ambient/guitar riffs/

On the horizon

Here are some releases/records that are coming out/already out that I'm enjoying/hopefully will enjoy:
______________________________________________________________________
Brontide - Coloured Tongues

Off the back of the success (critical) that was Sans Souci, comes Coloured Tongues, a new single - from the snippet below you get you get the sense the sounds come on a bit. This could be very interesting. Out Feb 13th.



Christina Vantzou - Homemade Mountains

Those who know me, know I love a bit of classical ambient, can't get enough. So imagine how I feel about this free download from Christina Vantzou?



Three Three Tigers - Numbers: 1-13

Not exactly new, but analogue hipsters will love the fact that you can get all TTT track from their first EP on one well designed CD.

Wintercoats -

Lots of well justified hype. Stuff on the up and up, so I here. Don't have dates.

New Year's Message/Where Are They Now?

I need to detox for a few days, get my head in a 2012 mindframe and so on.

Whilst I scrabble around desperately for some content, you can spend the next few days listening to some of the artist I've profiled and see what they've been up to since.

I have know idea what I will be listening to in 2012, what I will be raving about and what music will be deemed 'progressive' enough for the blog but all the fun is in finding out. Have a look at the past, raise a toast to the future.
______________________________________________________________________

Sima





You heard Sima back in July and since then...

Brought out an album hot on the heels of Texture. Called it Softness. Yet another apt title, the physical copies have sold out. You can by it on Bandcamp and at the price it's being sold at I suggest you do.





BNRY

Profiled all the way back in September. 

Since then has been playing shows here there and everywhere (e.g Rhythm Factory 6th Jan).

Here's his latest Soundcloud offering - a remix of a Kelly Rowland classic.

   Kelly Rowland - Dilemma (BNRY Remix) by BNRY

Neverest Songs

Profiled back in August, here's how Neverest Songs rounded off the year on his website:

As this year starts to close, I thought I should just let people know what I’m up to. Throughout this year I’ve been writing and recording for a second album, it’s quite a large number of songs actually and while I’m still deciding exactly what to do with them all, expect an album first half of 2012.

I’m aiming to post up some of the new tracks soon so keep an ear out. I’ve played the last show of this year but will start to rehearse new material and live set-ups, and book more shows in the new year.

If you missed them, I put out two releases this year, Paper Trumpets was a double single on 7″ & digital, also a film score album called All That Glitters, which is free to download. Right now I’m feeling pretty excited about making music in the year to come, thanks to anyone that’s listened already. x

Here's the link to where you can download All That Glitters.

Umber

Profiled back in July. Is turning into quite the prolific artist what with a blog showcasing new tunes and 2 EP's in 2011, one I put on here, the other called Earth Feet, Lifted, came out in November.

LA2019

Last know whereabouts, Boston, MA.