Dear freinds and family, the BLOG was in hiatus for some time, in the meantime, there released great number of pretty good releases, albums/EP's/12" and other's. Format is irrelevant. so I want to do right thing and to review, a short review about those mentioned releases. And you know what?? It doesn't matter if record isold (I have feature Not For Sale, where I review older, maybe classical alums -at least they are for me, so expect somethingon that theme) or new I will write someting about it.Yeah, I know there is so much music to listen and review, and much more to represent them to all my peeps. So I decide to put some of them I consider they deserve your attention - in one bigger blog text. One thing is for sure. Some of them really needed some bigger and deeper insight, but you that sensation you will get when you listen to them. And please let's make some kind of dialog, and discourse about music, reviews, and music scene in overall. I hope you like it too, to discuss the music and whole situations and emotions that surrounds some of releases. I see lot of people actually read my text, and I get some nice words. But if you do not want to do that, I do appreciate, that you are there - on the other side. Only Love. So let my redemption comes. And from now on, I write in larger letters!!! Damir "Datzee" Plicanic
Nathan Fake - Providence (Ninja Tune 2017)
All of those who expected new "The Sky Is Pink", can go and listen something else. This LP, on Ninja Tune is all about two things: Korg's Prophecy synth, that's why tracks sounds almost the same, but listen the album more tha x2 and here you go. Also Album's name is connected with Korg's synth.
Another thing, if his friend James Holden made a huge leap into non-western music, where he now plays with the Morrocan traditional music artists and makes experimethal and original music, Nathan Fake actually, also going into uncharted teritories, but somehow he sounds more like Tim Hecker, Ben Frost or even Oneohthrix Points Never. He made that great track DEEGREELESSNESS, with video in our review (look up, first Youtube link from here), with Prurient. Track "SmallCityLights" sounds like P-Funk relative. The whole expirience of the album is pretty good. There is no dancefloor anthems, or it went in "total darkness" - it is in perfect balance. It is optimistic, on some tracks quite melacholic, and YES I was surprised, and on some tracks dissapointed cause he could go more... Where? I can't answer that question, but album is worth of your time, and to check your DJ skills without SYNC button.
Jesu & Sun Kil Moon - Jesu Sun Kil Moon (Caldo Verde Records 2016)
"What does 'rekindle' mean?" - Jesu/Sun Kil Moon - "Good Morning My Love" Thank You Dear Universe for people like Mark Kozelek. Cause you just can't but laugh, or cry, whatever emotions got you, while listening this bend. Mark's songs are like reading, literally reading someones diary, writen like James Joyce's Ulysses, that stream of conciousness, like All of us have every day, while we go to work, or just doing something at the home, or watching thru the window. In any case lyrics that we all think and instead we wrote them, we just continue our inner dialogue. Now I wonder, does Mr. Kozelek write like this on purpose likehis own style, and how he does it. I know I couldn't do it that fast, cause lots of thoughts has come, and vent. I'm sure he has practised a lot. just when you think he has, under his belt 10lp's with the band Sun Kil Moon, and then another 10 alone or in colabration with someone.
This album is under Sun Kil Moon monicker (there is also second one, but I didn't find it) with Justin Broderick's Jesu post-rock/metal band. This line-up would be perfect, but put someone with name Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth to play drums, and bunch of musicinas from different American indie bends like Low, Slowdive, or even guy like Bonnie "Prince" Bill. And you have masterpiece, really a masterpiece, cause you will have hella-good time in someone' else's head, with songs/thoughts like this:
"It's June 13, 2015 and I'm jetlagged as hell Just walked in the door, opened my mail and there's... something from Yael The guy from Biffy Clyro says I'm one of the greatest... songwriters in the world And here's some funny rant... from some... stalker hater girl And a letter of love and kindness and affection from a fan... in Singapore Ah, what can you do? Some people love, some people hate, some of us walk tall and proud and some of us slither around in the dirt like litte garden snakes (Like little garden snakes) Nature is cruel, look at the way the vines curl and choke the, life out of trees Nature is beautiful, go out on your your front porch, smell the pines and feel the afternoon breeze (The afternoon breeze)
It's June 13, just like it was... 3 years ago When, I put words down to some music written by the musical genius Jimmy Lavalle And my friend Tim had just died and everyone, was... goin' through hell But now there's a brand new June 13 and I gotta say that things are... going pretty well
Todays my sister's birthday and I'm gonna call her... and I know she'll be pleased But I tired to call her but she's not answering, I just keep tryin' and she's not answering Ah there she is, my beautiful sister... and one of my best friends She wants a copy of my new CD, I'm gonna send it to her on monday and I'm gonna surprise her with... a rather large check
Now I'm off to Telegraph Hill, I need to walk to get back into the right time schedule I walked through the North Beach fair, still dizzy, I felt like I was in some strange music video I went to Molinari's on Colombus and got the... Joe's Special That was Katy's favorite, I always get that one in memory of her Oh it's coming up on my... 48th summer A few nights ago I rocked the room like Elvis Presley and had them laughin' like... Richard Pryor And me and Steve went and saw the film Youth on our... day off in Milan And Pitchfork gave me a 6 that day and I said "man, what took them so long?" And me and Steve laughed and we had some salad and some red mullet, Carpaccio And I hugged him goodnight and the next morning I flew home to, beautiful San Fransico
Oh it's coming up... 48th summer And I'm feeling pretty good and my girlfriend will be here at 7 for dinner and oh my godI love her... And her cat Leona she's a huge ball of fluff and I, could squish her to death Her face is so fucking cute, I swear to god... I can't even stand it
And this friday night I'll be singing the 100th Anniversary of the Civic Center in San Franciso... with Chuck Prophet and Penelope Houstin and Stephanie Finch and The Kingstom Trio, and Jello Biafra And for the fuck of it I'm gonna read this nice letter from this., Singapore fan He's now the co-writer of this song, his name is Victor and he's gonna get a song writers share, 25%
Dear Mark, thank you for the amazing gig you played in Melbourne in March of this year I flew from Singapore to see you and I don't know if you remember but we met outside I was weraing a Parl Jam t-shirt and you said it was cool For me, you and Eddie are the best two vocalists and songwriters of our age Thank you for allowing us to all move to the front of the hall when you came onstage Somehow the internet gave me a back row seat but after you let us move I was right down the front I love the new record and the way you are getting more personal each and every album I think it's one for the fans, for the people that have listened to you for twenty years, not for the hipsters who only like you because of Benji I bought my family members in London four tickets for the Barbican gig this week, wanting to get as many people I know to hear you and share your music The main reason I'm writing is because of the negative press from the gig, English press are ridiculous just trying to get any controversial story they can Anyone who knows you will know you're respectful and they don't get your sense of humor Don't let it get you down, your real fans will always b here for you Please keep making the music and touring the tours, take it easy and yes please do come back to Singapore Smiley face, all the best Victor" Jesu/Sun Kill Moon - "Yesterday I Rocked The Room..."
Well played, well played!!!
Pauline Anna Strom - Trans-Millenia Music(RVNG INTL 2017)
At the beginning of 80's there were/there is still kind of music which took Brian Eno's words litteraly:"an atmosphere, a tint...designed to induce calm and space to think", it's purpose was to help you meditate or enjoy your healthy food in your garden in sunny California. Music name is New Age. Optimistic melodies, slowlyness, beta-lessness, trance-indcuing production. Everything that come with healthy-higher-middle-class-meditation-nation music.
But Anna is not that kind of girl, ok old-ish lady. She was a wild child, she pack her bags while early in High School, drop the acid and went to san francisco, right in 1967, and when Summer of Love declared over, she return somewhere in Southern States of America, but on the way she heard Brian Eno and Klaus Schulze, and decided to make music just like them, but with mission to send listeners out-of space. And by the way... do you know she is blind from her birth?
But things didn't go well for her. Music that ex-hippies, now Yoga warriors, who listen New Age while meditate, felt that her music is, "unsettling for yoga and meditation", and in pause between tear or two "have certain frequencies that made them stop buying records," she said. So she sold all her gear and dissapear.
But now, in this age her album is one of the most best-selling ambient albums in 2017, New York label known for special musical taste fo evry hard core music lover: RVNG INTL . They are also know as a label tha re-issue lost gems.
So let make the justice here, here is her full album, revisited, and on youtube. Enjoy:
Pharmakon - Contact (Sacred Bones 2017)
First of all of this is one of top 10 covers in 2017, even one in 21st century. Why? Cause if you look closely, it would look like frsh insestines, worms, actually autopsy on living body. It is Margaret Chardiet aka Pharmakon.
Her music is new that new Industrial, where artist screams and use a lots of distortion pedals, laptop, groove boxes, and what-else? And it is something that I'm pretty new in that scene, but I saw a couple shows, and most of that shows are streamed from USA and Canada. So when I use my brain, I came to the conclusion - there is strong scene of the this let's say new Industrial all over the world. I know I first show like this was, of course Dominick Fernow'sVatican Shadow or Prurient or that brilliant show I saw years ago, artist named Timeghost... and I'm sorry I know there are more artist with same agenda and "almost" same visceral experience. But this... this record I bought just because of shock value.
And the music, well lot of distortion, lot of electricity, lot of anger, lot of industry. I like it a lot. it is like a electric shock I applied to my body on purpose. I wanted to fell alive, I wanted some new experiences, I wanted... pure flesh - well not to eat it, but to touch it, and scrub myself in it, to feel the sweat.
Yes, the moral of the story, commercial technology, specially soc-net, made us alienated, somehow history repeat itself and I guess we want we want (again) that state of existence, where we feel each other, in which "we feel" means male's/female's BODY and it's liquids. We want that smell, we want that skin, we want that muscles, we want meat - of course not dead, but alive, with his blood circulating, and hair that grows... only way to go further is sometimes to go back. ERASE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK!!!
For those who like Throbbing Gristle(older people) orPrurient(younger people) this album is for you. And when I watch that cover, it is so sexy... DearPharmakonandSacred Bones, can you hook up with this???
And now scroll down for more from Datzee:
Dear friends this is only PART I of releases I have never had time to do it, but we will continue. Not only this, also reviews of new music, and some old.
!IMPORTANT 1. If you want to review your new music album, LP or EP contact us, send message, or damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com!!! 2. If you want to show the world your fascination with music, and want to share with us, and also like to mix, or make mixtapes for your friends, sent us (only exclusive, please don-t send us something that was already uploaded or share somewhere). From Death/Doom/Extreme metal over Breakcore, to Synth-Pop or Hip Hop, over Ambient till Techno and House: please send us your (for datzee podcast) on this blog as the message, or old fashioned way damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com or simply with letters and through post-office. 3. If you have any ideas you want to share with us or simply get in touch, you know the drill! Contact over the blog, write email on damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com
"Then they'd strung the cables, according to some complex scheme of Molly's, they hung them with battered sheets of yellow plastic... Case heaved at one of the yellow sheets; the thing was light but still awkward. Zion smelled of cooked vegetables, humanity and ganja. As they worked, Case gradually became aware of the music that pulsed constantly through the cluster. It was called Dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of digitalized pop; it was worship, Molly said, and a sense of community." -Neuromancer by William Gibson
"Rhythm is a biotechnology: You are the newest mutants incubated in womb-speakers... the labs where 21st C nervous system assemble themselves" - Kodwo Ashun,
"Water carried the sound of the drums and sound carried the distance between the old and the new world" - John Akomfrah The Last Angel of History. I could all day just posting scientific and fictional quotes about rhythm, music, Time:Space, about diasporic communities, about Balkan, about... whatever. And all of them could easily be representation or review about Tapan's duble 12" Europa. On first, visuasual contact, it was black-on-black mistery, but when you look deeper there is, some-kind-of reflection over words Europa. Dear friends from Tapan, I couldn't resist to talk about politics: as someone who lives near EU, and must always be checked-out when enters, this cover really speaks to me. Europe (Europa) is there, it doesn't exist, on the other side it glitter and have certain apstract meaning of better life. But let's leave that with visuals...
Play Free Bird!!!
Ok. what is Tapan? When i search, i find out, it is percussive instrument, with very strethced goat or sheep's skin, nd it is streched over special wood: Beech or Nutwood. tapan with the other instrument Zurla. Even Romans wrote about those bands, and their mobility from one village to another. Anyway, doesn't all that resembles you to that specific, not geographic, territory with culture: Balkan.Where Balkan begins and ends, that is now become political thing, so let's go on the other side, thank you. Tapan are: Nebojsa Bogdanovic (aka Dj Schwabe, resident of world-famouse 20/44 Club-boat, and WE wish mix podcast for us), and the multi-instrumentalist Goran Siminovski, also producer for many theater projects, and worked under pseudonyms: Belgradeyard Sound System (Free Jazz, Improvisation) Piece of Shh (Reagge and Dub). Must say, I found this record, and listen, and didn't know that these people are about 5hrs by bus from me, that they are from Belgrade. And mine whole idea was to write something very easy, now with this infos, I must to dig deeper, and give my part into helping them, by just writing about. And they really do not need me, but anyway, I want you to go and check it out. Why? Firts these live studio performance in front small crowd, in great studio of local Belgrade Radio 3 (???? someone please help me, I found this irrelevant):
A- must!!!
When they play alive they have relationship with some of people with great reputation in club, rock and jazz circuits. So when you see them live, actually it is really bend. Let's go back. What is so special about them. First, when I listened for first and second time, they blow me away with agressivness. Their most heavy track Europa, is like a BOMB, Ethno-Jazz-Dub bomb! There is certain agressivness in that bass line, noisy brass instruments and when track reach peak, and what that track makes me: I feel great Bass is pumping through my veins and controls my breathing, while brain is amused with snake language that those sax and other instument creates. And when we put balkan in equation, I feel certain danger in it. also I feel gratitude for those tracks which will be ordinary 2-step dub music, if there is no crazy trumphets and sax, that play classical Balkan-ish sounds. This wasn't tribal call to war, these was, at leat for me, expression of all my negative energy and agressivness, in that particular track, it is the moment... when I felt greatness.
This is single release mix of the Europa with bass drum.
The rest of the material is pretty much similar, maybe little bit mellow-ish (but just a-bit), and in that endless repetative dub bass lines, and sound of traditional instruments, that send you into trance.
I used to hate ethno music that was coming from Ex-YU scenes, cause it is the music market loves: authenticity - now I love, and it comes with the age. And what we have to represent is music that sounds like combination of Asia, Turkey and Easternparts of Europe, and we can not forget western culture patterns, cause Yugoslavia always really between eastern and western blocks. During 90's suddenly shadows of tribalism and worst thing that coming from tradition and history, became the standard... especially in the war. I will end this, how (and who), you could separate and make enemies: of the two guys who grow up together in same street, in the same school, first loves, and first drunken nights - they share it. They share everything, why is it become so neceseary to separate people by, not by the pigment of their skin or others methods of separation minorities from others - but by their names, and what was his mother or father name and surname. Someone took history lessons, and found weakness of bloody history, so called bad blood, and started to push into their minds, and like poison, it create murders without any given reason (reason is always somewhere in the "history) and in their best years, they start to fire at each other, house next to house...
I could't seprate that curse and beauty of Balkan, and not talking about it, when I listen and write these lines, while listen their track Bogovi (I wouldn't translate it for you, do it yourself!!!), and what another dredd track, that takes you in the desert, where in your trance you probably trying to find meaning of your life, and your choices.
So music of Tapan, if we skip all genres and styles, is music of traveling far away, someone deep in History that is distorted, or Space itself, or your own Dunes of Arakis. It is tripish, repetative, quite angry in positive way, it is apsolutly, at the end, not Balkan music. It is beyond Balkan, it beyond genres and style, it is beyond World music, it is manifestation of all good things in the people, when they face with them selfs, that why I use word trance so much. You really introspectivly go into yourself, cause it is meant for that - and also for another manifestation of human body and spirit - the good one: DANCE!
Even if record was released almost year ago. I will still listen these tracks, and maybe waiting for some more. Again! This is my Blog (also you can write if YOU want, please!!!), and I'm glad I do not need to watch my words, and trying to make it simple, for editors to short it even more to fit with web designer plans. Try it for yourself, and I hope we could discuss more, more opinions about this kind of art, isinevitable. And apsolutly, this music is for those who belives in magic, but also for people who care for another, and ones that love... it is even more. It waiting for you on record,CD, or streaming service to try it. If i'll try to write another sentence, I could not stop...
So my dear friends and family, WE came together, to our 10th Don't Care About The Podcast!
And in what a style!!! DamZah, when you read his biography is psy-trance Dj, but he also like other mutations of our beloved Electronic Music. He will surprise you, cause he mixed all mesmerize IDM material, and maybe it is all connected - first of all with his precision mixing, and all tracks that are in perfect blend. - and second, we have our Funky jeff with his History of Ambient Techno, also known as IDM, that you can read on our pages. So yes, there is unconsciousness synchronicity.
And now let's celebrate our 10th podcast. Thanks DamZah, thank you all you people you made this mixes, and greatest thanks goes to you dear readers, and listeners.
Playlist: The Future Sound of London / Spineless Jelly The Age / Eine Fremode Lebensform Braincell / Look at Your Hands Speedy J / R2 D2 Turban Bloc / Five Million Years, They Knew The Future Sound of London / Somatosensory Juno Reactor / Magnetic (Robert Leiner Dub Remix) Subtonal / Drone Drexciya / Hydro Theory Saafi Brothers / The Witness Yucatan / Digital Josh Wink / Higher State of Consciousness (The Deep & Slow Mix) Autechre / Chatter Clock DVA / Soundmirror (Reflected) Thomas P Heckmann / The Sound of Colour Kraftwelt / Deranged in Space Robert Leiner / Dream of Reality Speedy J / Summetry Pentatonik / Catalonia
Juno Reactor / Shark
Here's DamZah's bio and where you can check his mixes and music:
Psychedelic trance DJ from Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina. His first contact with electronic dance music was at the end of the year 1995. In the beginning it was Hard Trance, Acid and Hardcore-gabba. Few months later he meets Goa Trance through the sound of projects like Eat Static, Total Eclipse, Astral Projection, Juno Reactor, Cosmosis etc. In 1996 he began to take Goa / Psychedelic sound much more seriously, and started to collect tapes and CDs with this kind of music.
He started DJing in 2003, and cofound DJ association Inner Sunrise in 2005. In his DJ sets he plays styles depending of the time in which he plays. From Deep Dark psytrance, through Forest, to total psychedelic sound. He is also a good connoisseur of old school sound, which he began with.
In May 2012 he became official DJ for Forestdelic records.
DaMzaH performed all across Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia at the various parties and festivals with artists such as Atriohm, Confo, Diksha, Fungus Funk, Malice in Wonderland, Once Upon a Time/Kliment, ManMachine, Kala, UX/Kris Kylven, Ocelot, Chromatone, Power Source, Dimension 5, Altöm, Psilocybian, Zyce…etc
The last few years he devoted himself to issuing a compilations, which are Branch Nutation (2015), Quantum Transitions (2016), Modicum (2018) signed for Forestdelic records.
He is considered as one of the pioneers of psychedelic music and culture in Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/damzah
Forestdelic records:
https://www.facebook.com/forestdelic/
Forestdelic records on Bandcamp:
https://forestdelic.bandcamp.com/
ALSO:!IMPORTANT
1. If you want to review your new music album, LP or EP contact us, send message, or damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com!!!
2. If you want to show the world your fascination with music, and want to share with us, and also like to mix, or make mixtapes for your friends, sent us (only exclusive, please don-t send us something that was already uploaded or share somewhere). From Death/Doom/Extreme metal over Breakcore, to Synth-Pop or Hip Hop, over Ambient till Techno and House: please send us your (for datzee podcast) on this blog as the message, or old fashioned way damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com or simply with letters and through post-office.
3. If you have any ideas you want to share with us or simply get in touch, you know the drill!
Contact over the blog, write email on damir.plicanic(at)gmail.com
Dear readers, we continue to dig up more history up on Ambient- Techno, or IDM. We recommend Part I, and now here is PART II. Another academic work by our man in Montreal, (drum roll, please) Funky Jeff - THE DJ, Journalist, Electronic music lover and... walking Encyclopedia of Music. More on Jeff and his work on the end of this text, where we would give you links to his mixes. I must say mixes are conceptualy organized, and great. But for now let's continue and finish it, shall we!?
And if you have any comments, or want to write something, or making music, mixing music we are always searching for new material!!!
The essentials albums:
Aphex Twin –
SAW 1&2 (Warp)
The music here
has a lot of texture; there are only the faintest traces of beats and forward
movement. Instead, all of these untitled tracks are long, unsettling electronic
soundscapes, alternately quiet and confrontational; although most of the music
is rather subdued, it is never easy listening. While some listeners may find
this double-disc album dull (both discs run over 70 minutes), many listeners
will be intrigued and fascinated by the intricately detailed music of Aphex
Twin.
British electronics wunderkindRichard James (alias
Aphex Twin, AFX, Polygon Window, etc.) claims he heard the compositions on
Selected Ambient Works, Volume II in lucid dreams. Like abstract paintings
composed of shades of a single color, James’s resonant explorations of specific
timbres linger close to a central idea on each cut, incorporating just enough
variation to remain disturbing.
While its predecessor, Selected Ambient Works
’85-’92 drew on seven years’ worth of material, the uniform quality of these
untitled tracks, plus their judicious sequencing, suggests they were assembled
over a shorter period. Clocking in at over 150 minutes, the double-disc set (if
this is “selected,” how many hours of outtakes remain?) provides an exemplary
introduction to the quieter facets of James’s expansive, idiosyncratic
aesthetic. It’s much smoother and lower in frequency. About half the tracks
have deep beats of some sort or another, and a few tracks have controlled
freakiness. Genius is often close to craziness and RDJ is indeed proof of this.
Autechre –
Amber (Warp)
The music of
Autechre is polarizing: either IDM fans worship it, or casual fans of EM
despises it, and cannot stand it and prefer their older material from 1993 to
1997, I tend to fall on the latter category. However if there is one agreement
that Ae fans can share is that their best album is probably 1994’s Amber. Take
the track ‘’Piezo’’ for example, it starts with a small snaredrum before
morphing into a brooding, dark and eerie piece of ambient. I remember listening
on a cassette a friend had taped me from the CD (Thanks Olivier!) I couldn’t
believe what I was hearing. It’s like watching a David Lynch movie for the first
time: you don’t know what the heck it is, but you know, it’s brilliant, it’s
shocking at first. I undermines your core beliefs. What is music? How can one
album change your outlook on music that is quite simply quite an
accomplishment?
Even more so, that it stood the test of time.In fact, the album is the facto very dark but
also quite enjoyable and easy to listen to – try it on a Sunday am! Even 25
years after its inception, it’s fair to say that the album still resonates
amongst ambient and techno fans. According to Autechre, Incunabula was sketchy
at best. Amber does sound like polished material but the sad thing is that Ae
never graced us with a proper follow-up. This is almost as sad as the day Charlie
Cooper retired! (Plumper pass bbw porn star circa 2011).
Boards of
Canada – Music Has The Right To ChildrenMusic Has the Right to Children is the debut public
album of the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was published
by Warp Records and released on 20 April 1998. Q magazine has said that MHTRTC
is the hair equivalent to Super 8 movies and it’s clear by several listen that
BOC took electronica into space. Cleverly referencing the esoteric side of ’70s
Test Card music in all its trippy glory.
You can think of this album as music as a journey, as a ticket to a trip. This
is one of those albums you should not be casual about. This is a recording
where you sit or lay down and just kind of let it enter your head. It is
perfect listening for a lazy Sunday, as daylight is fading but the air is still
warm. I think that is why I like this album so much. It completely transcends
its genre and takes you to a place, a mood and maybe even a time in your life.
But there is something very candid and childlike in some of these songs–
like roygbiv or aquarius–that remind one of the innocence of childhood, and
hazy memories of eating cheerios while watching Saturday morning cartoons,
catching grasshoppers, and playing in the park immediately come to mind. But
other songs like telephasic workshop sound much more grown up (my favorite)
begins crackly and muffled like an old favorite record, but gradually works
itself up to a beat-intensified frenzy, with really cool voices lapping over
one another as they compete with a beat that gradually overtakes them. BOC is a reference to the National Film Board of
Canada. Best known for its documentaries, in the 70’s and early 80’s they
produced some exquisite wildlife films. Music has the right to children is
a mesmerizing and dreamy place where you would like to spend
some countless of time.
Future Sound Of London –
Lifeforms
What can be said about Lifeforms that hasn’t been
said before? It’s an epic ambient-techno album that has stood the test of time.
Truly gorgeous samples such as Klaus Schulze AND Ozric Tentacles. The album
is mixed and is meant to be listened from start to finish, so seamless. It has
a couples of samples from b-movies like Millennium (You will awake now, remain
calm) and Repo men (Miller explains the weirdness in the world). It’s probably
one of the most well reviewed album of his genre and by countless of people all
around the world. The peak of FSOL career.
But the greatness of Lifeforms lies in the fact
that, much like great sampling artists like DJ Shadow or DJ Premier, FSOL were
able to grasp just a few seconds of a Andrew Grossart lush track and make it
into an even bigger, more brooding track. The atmospheres here are dark, sharp,
crisp, and cunning. They were meticulously crafted with dexterity and
ingenuity. Those samples here often only last 5 or 10 seconds. To take these
quick snippets and make them into epic ambient-techno tracks takes some bloody
geniuses. The vision, the artwork, the seamless, floating tracks that makes
this album flawless as a whole; when combined (Much like Bytes by BDP), it is
sheer brilliance.
Global Communication – 76:14One of the
most significant releases to cross the ambient currents of the 1990s, 76:14
places itself alongside benchmark electronic releases from Brian Eno, the Orb,
and the Future Sound of London. This synth-dominated venture allows the
armchair traveler to indulge in atmospheric wanderings which suggest virtual
galactic discovery. But often enough the textured beats keep things grounded to
dissuade the listener from being lost in the void. Vocal samples from nine
languages also remind us of the international and diplomatic intentions of this
otherwise electro-instrumental album. Strap in and enjoy the lift-off for all
mankind.
Check this mix: fabric 26 - Global Communication
Tempering the industrial tilt of their previous
Reload material with slower, more graceful rhythms and an ear for melody
unmatched by any in the downtempo crowd, Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton
produced the single best work in the ambient house canon. The tick-tock beats
and tidal flair of “14:31″ nowadays called Ob-selon-mi-os is proof of the duo’s
superb balance of beauty with a haunting quality more in line with Vangelis
than Larry Heard (though both producers were heavy influences on the album). On
several tracks the dark side appears to take over — the pinging ambience of
“9:39″ — but for most of 76:14 the melodies and slow-moving rhythms chart a
course toward the upbeat and positive.
Global Communications - 14:31
Global Communication: Ob selon mi os or know as 14:31 (Notice how naming songs after
minutes makes the listener focus on the music instead of the namechecking…)
released in 1994 on Dedicated: Album 76:14.
The Orb - The
Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
The Orb
virtually invented the electronic genre known as ambient house, resurrecting
slower, more soulful rhythms and providing a soundtrack for early-morning
ravers once the clubs closed their doors. The group popularized the genre as
well, by appearing on the British chart show Top of the Pops and hitting number
one in the U.K. with the 1992 album U.F.Orb. Frontman Dr. Alex Paterson’s
formula was quite simple: he slowed down the rhythms of classic Chicago House
and added synthwork and effects inspired by ’70s ambient pioneers Brian Eno and
Tangerine Dream. To make the whole a bit more listenable, as opposed to
danceable, obscure vocal samples were looped, usually providing a theme for
tracks which lacked singing. Much like the early Orb-related project recorded
as Space, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld simulates a journey through the
outer realms — progressing from the soaring ambient-pop of “Little Fluffy
Clouds” and the stoned “Back Side of the Moon” (a veiled Pink Floyd reference)
to “Into the Fourth Dimension” and ending (after more than two hours) with the
glorious live mix of “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain.” A varied cast of
samples (Flash Gordon, space broadcasts, and foreign-language whispers) and
warm synthesizer tones provide a convincing bed for the midtempo house beats
and occasionally dub-inflected ambience. With a clever balance of BBC
Radiophonics Workshop soundtracks, 70s ambient meister-works by Eno, Steve
Hillage, and Floyd, plus the steady influence of Larry Heard’s sublime Chicago
house, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the album that defined the ambient
house movement.
The first Orb
album was also entirely new when it appeared : a low-key dance record, with
echoes and swells more than up-front tunes, stoner-level dub bass, and all
sorts of samples and sounds like seagulls, film clips, astronaut voices, bits
of disco–fluttering through the mix like hallucinations. Essentially a techno
album for tired dancers, it’s held up nicely over time, thanks to its intricate,
dreamy sonics. Beyond the classic “Little Fluffy Clouds”–a set of interlocking
synth hooks and loping percussion, held together by a cut-up sample of Rickie Lee Jones talking about the
skies on Little fluffy clouds.
One of my top
5 favorite records ever was released in 1990. Not talking about Celine Dion but
Little Fluffy Clouds by The British band The Orb, founded by Alex Patterson and Jimmy Cauty of KLF fame. The Orb’s name comes
from Woody Allen’s Sleeper, where The orgasmatron, a fictional electromechanical related device,
an orgasmic orb, in the fictive future society of 2173, acts as a large
cylinder big enough to contain a single person. Once entered, it contains some
future technology that induces orgasms. It’s as if Patterson would suggest The
Orb’s music is capable of generating orgasm, which may do so after repeated
listening… Little Fluffy Clouds was the first single from The album Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Back then, their music was classified as ambient house
but it was so weird and original. I don’t think people appreciate how
much the ORB were geniuses of an era. They updated Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream’s soundscapes with the post-rave era, and builded a genre in itself
: ambient dub. They were pioneers in bringing slow motion dubby beats with
ambient atmosphere, and that was way back in 1989 and 1990, 22 years ago. This
was the first “techno” record I had heard and I fell totally in love with the
genre from the get go. Atmospheric music with beats, a different
array of samples, amazing production and above all, a genuine
sense of humor. Little fluffy clouds was centered on clips from an interview with Rickie Lee Jones in which she recalls picturesque images of her childhood. Critics
and fans sometimes attribute the odd nasal tonality of Jones’ voice to drug
use, though Jones later claimed that it was the result of a heavy cold. The
sample comes from a conversation between Jones and Levar Burton (who played in
the TV series Roots) on the children’s television program Reading Rainbow. The
quote taken as the voice sample goes on like this:
Jones: “They went on forever – They – When I w- We lived in Arizona, and
the skies always had little fluffy clouds in ‘em, and, uh… they were long… and
clear and… there were lots of stars at night. And, uh, when it would rain, it
would all turn – it- They were beautiful, the most beautiful skies as a matter
of fact. Um, the sunsets were purple and red and yellow and on fire, and the
clouds would catch the colors everywhere. That’s uh, neat cause I used to look
at them all the time, when I was little. You don’t see that. You might still
see them in the desert.”
The song also
uses a harmonica sample from Ennio Morricone’s The Man With The Harmonica (from
the film Once Upon a Time in the West) and parts of Electric Counterpoint, a
piece for multitrack guitars composed by Steve Reich and recorded by Pat
Metheny. Reich was quite happy with the end result. “Little Fluffy Clouds” was
used as the music to a Volkswagen commercial for the New beetle in the late
1990s, accompanied by video of the New Beetle rotating and changing color to
the beat of the music. As for the rest of the album, Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld opens with the crowing of a cockerel, the rich tones of a Radio 4
announcer declaring that, “Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds
of an English summer – the drone of lawnmowers, the smack of leather on willow
– has been added a new noise…”, which could refer either to the fictional
testing of The Orb’s spaceship or to the 120bpm music that burst out of
warehouses in the late-eighties, before the hazy sounds of Rickie Lee Jones
fondly recalling the summer skies of her childhood drifts in.
What The Orb thinks about music industry.
So begins Little
Fluffy Clouds, the still wonderful opening track on the album. Although this is
often erroneously called ambient house, there is little of Brian Eno’s Music
For Airports here – Little Fluffy Clouds is a glorious flashback to the acid
house boom of a few years earlier and the familiar burbling of a Roland 303
underpins Jones’ story. Rickie Lee Jones claimed that her suitably influenced
tones were the result of a heavy cold and sued Big Life, The Orb’s record
company settled out of court with her, but Little Fluffy Clouds provided Jones
with her most memorable song in many years and even after twenty two years, it
still sounds fantastic.
Orbital - 2 (Brown Album)
On Orbital the
duo aimed to make more atmospheric music than the dance raves of their first
album. They used more complex rhythms and denser arrangements on the
appropriately named pieces entitled "Lush" but still proving
themselves capable of making quality pop music on "Halcyon + On + On", with vocals from Kirsty Hawkshaw of Opus III.
The album
begins with "Time Becomes", which uses the same speech sample by the
actor Michael Dorn in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Time
squared - season 2 episode 13, Worf - 20'30 : "There is the theory of
the Möbius. A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop")
which opened their first album. The piece uses phasing, a technique popularized by Steve Reich, in which two identical samples are repeated at
slightly different speeds.
The second
song on the album, "Planet of the Shapes", contains a sample from the
movie Withnail & I ("even a
stopped clock gives the right time twice a day").
"Remind"
is based on Orbital's previously-released "Mind the Bend the Mind"
remix of "Mindstream" by Meat Beat Manifesto. It is effectively an
instrumental version of that mix, with the last remaining elements of MBM's
original track removed.
The brothers
enjoy aural puns, and the use of the sample from Star Trek: The Next
Generation (which appeared on the opening of their first album) was meant
to play with listeners by making them believe for a few seconds that they had
bought a mispressing. The muffled intro on "Planet of the Shapes" has
the intentional addition of record static and crackles, followed by the sound
of a needle skipping grooves then scratching across the record, also meant to
trick fans who bought the vinyl edition, by making them think their copy was
less than perfect.
"Halcyon
+ On + On" and parts of "Lush 3-2" were used in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film soundtrack. The album
received widespread acclaim. In the UK, NME praised
the record, saying, "The techno album is a doughty brute to master. Only a
few have managed it successfully [...] but Phil and Paul Hartnoll have done it
twice... The expression 'intelligent ambience' is bandied around to describe
spacey dance music with undue regularity, but Untitled actually
satisfies the description. Scientific and terrific."[4]Q also recognised that the duo had
made a second successful album, saying, "Like their first album, Orbital's
current effort is a finely balanced combination of mus<br />o trickery
and astute dance tracks... Again, like the latter, it benefits from repeated
listening."[5]Melody Maker claimed that "This
new album (untitled, like the first) puts them firmly back in the
firmament". In a reference to the most talked about band at the time of
the album's release, Suede and their sexually ambiguous
frontman Brett Anderson, and including a pun on
"Anarchy in the U.K.",
the debut single by the Sex Pistols, the review concluded,
"As warm as plasma and as eerie as ectoplasm, Orbital's
(out-of-)body-music is the true sound of Androgyny-in-the-UK." Vox observed that "this collection
sees Paul and Phil Hartnoll drifting still further into the heart of the
machine, touching upon the sometimes fragile soul of Techno", before
declaring that "Orbital are still leading the field".
Aphex Twin –
On EP/remix 2 XLP
Aphex
Twin's On EP is clearly one of Richard James's most successful works,
both artistically and chartwise (hitting the low 30s on the British charts--not
bad for a rabid experimentalist).
His first major release in the U.S, the
weirdly club-friendly yet organic title track is composed of (in order of
appearance) four pleasant, reverberating piano notes played in succession; a
cascade of ascending and descending keyboard notes that quickly approximate a
waterfall; the sound of actual water itself in form of a rainstorm; synth
washes for ambient coloring; skittering sequencer rhythm notes; an antique
Suicide-style beat box that sounds as if powered by steam; and a deliciously
distorted, bass-heavy, repeated squeal noise that serves as the focal point of
the entire piece. It's pretty neat, enough so that it's one of James's
essential recordings.
Global
Communication – Chapterhouse remix album
Pentamerous
Metamorphosis is an album by Global Communication originally released
in 1993 on Dedicated Records. It is a
reworking of the Blood Music album
by Chapterhouse (indie band) and was originally only
available as a bonus CD bundled with the Chapterhouse album. It was rereleased
as a standalone album in 1998.The 1998 re-release was remastered and had minor
changes to two tracks: (Beta Phase) to remove an uncleared sample from the
film Return of the Jedi and
(Delta Phase) was shortened by eight bars. The removed sample: EV-9D9: "How many languages do you
speak?"
C-3PO: "I am fluent in over six million
forms of communication".
Tom Middleton
commenting on the creation of Pentamerous Metamorphosis in the liner notes to
the 76:14 album remaster/reissue said "One day we got a call from Andy
Sheriff from Chapterhouse who loved our work, and asked if we wanted to remix
their entire album? What an amazing opportunity. Sampling from the multi-track
tapes, embellishing the themes and distilling the lyrical content from Blood
Music into five new pieces. The result was Pentamerous Metamorphosis."
It is one of
those rare start-to-finish gems. Absolutely stunning. Celestial, ethereal, out
of this world. I never grow tired of listening to this album and it puts me
somewhere else, as I suppose all good music should. The one track on that CD
that haunted me was Global Communication's Epsilon Phase. I downloaded the entire
Pentamerous Metamorphosis. The first time I listened to the entire disc was
very late at night, alone, in the dark. I was blown all the way to outer space
and back.
Among the
Brian Eno's, The Orb's and the countless other amazing electronic ambient acts,
there stands Global Communication. Anyone who's heard of them will immediately
think of their timeless album, 76:14. However, Pentamerous Metamorphosis is
Global Communication'sbest album and quite possibly the iconic album in the
entire ambient genre. Alpha Phase opens the 5-tracker quite nicely. Dark,
grueling and nearly sinister in nature, its abstract beats chug the track along
before reaching a piano infused crescendo. Pentamerous Metamorphosis is THE
diamond in the rough for any ambient fan. Simply one of the most overlooked and
amazing albums of our time and simply put, if you have the ability to obtain
this album, do so.
Biosphere - Substrata & Microgravity
Biosphere is
the main recording name of Geir Jenssen (born 1962), a Norwegian musician who
has released a notable catalogue of ambient music. He is well known for his
early “ambient techno” aesthetic and later for his “arctic ambient” style, his
use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His track
“Novelty Waves” was used for the 1995 campaign of Levi’s. His 1997 album
Substrata was voted by Hyperreal as one of the all-time classic ambient albums. But over the last few
years his albums (such as Cirque, Shenzou, Autour de la Lune, Dropsonde and
N-Plants) have embodied some touches ofjazz, classical, drone and even some
dub-techno. His unique sound signature is quite special: an immense feeling of
being absorbed in the cold winter. Suffice to say, in my opinion, Biosphere
isn’t just making ambient music, his music IS pristine ambiance only equaled by
Pete Namlook from to 1992 to 2012. The music that space colonies would probably
play. Geir Jenssen trancends any genres of music. He adopted Biosphere,
as his alias in a nod to many of his compositions having been assimilated into
an ‘Arctic Sound’ a somewhat reductive term concerning his work since it is
much more than a simple reflection of his environment-he proposes. Animated by
attention to detail, rich textures, a natural minimalist aesthetic-aquatic
brushstrokes, echoes of distant vessels, and glacial glitches-and other
frequency maneuvers, he composes a ‘cinema for the ears’ that irremediably
positions the listener in a profound and pensive sonic dimension. His music
echoes impressions and slides, and eschews any pretences of rigid
formalism or the dichotomy often found between sound and image. His digital
manipulations of natural images or extreme situations from everyday life
enhance perception, while constituting a genuine invitation to an escape
toward infinite horizons. A dual display as unreal and poetic.
If several
producers of the genre tend to adopt the
then micro-house as minimalist
approach, Jenssen him, continued to explore the
atmosphere through the sequencers: Substrata is devoid
of rhythm almost entirely. Jenssen focuses
more austere in the neurasthenic atmospheres. The
compositions of the Norwegian artist are still filled
with subtle melodies and melancholic soundscapes. As
such, the album is reminiscent of the highlights
of 76: 14 and of collaborations between Biosphere and
another ambient artist, Higher Intelligence Agency, on
the album Polar Sequences.
