Two New (Old) Mixes To Massage Your Brain!

While traveling I usually somehow am able to pop out a mix during the down time at chill out spots I find on the road.  This year I was able to pop out two, but only because one of them is an older mix I ended up remastering and cutting a track out of just so I could get it past Soundcloud’s psychotic ‘Automatic Content Protection System’.  The first mix, which is the new one, is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but hadn’t quite figured out how to go about it quite yet, until this trip.  This new mix came in handy over and over on 10 hour bus rides through Indonesia and Malaysia this year!

I’ve wanted to do a mix of Phish songs for a while, but was never really sure how as the band does this themselves every time they play, and much better than I could do DJing their live tracks; plus this could never be done as there is just too much awesome to choose from. There’s also a lot of songs the band just doesn’t really play as often in a live setting that I absolutely love that are on the chiller, more acoustic side of Phish. So in that thought process I thought, ‘Why not make a downtempo Phish mix?’

What you have here is just over 2 hours of Phish songs, solely from the LP’s and one EP – all studio recordings. I tried to fit something in from each one of the LP’s and sadly ‘Round Room’ just didn’t produce anything for me personally for this setting, even though we all know when played live those songs are incredible! The songs within were carefully chosen as my favorite beautiful, more melancholy, and softer sounding tracks; with a few oddballs in there to mix things up a bit. There is no jamming, no noodling, and no whale calls or signaling aliens here. This is the relaxed side of Phish. To me this is some of the of the most beautiful music the band has ever released, and so I’m celebrating it here.

Some of you will love this, some of you will loathe it – BUT for those of you who think Phish is only about the jams and the guitar masturbation, I urge you to check this out – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how calm the band gets.  You can even almost fall asleep to this!

::: Slow Enough For You? :::

Bliss > Billy Breathes (Billy Breathes – 1996)
Eliza (A Picture of Nectar – 1992)
Mist (Farmhouse – 2000)
Train Song (Billy Breathes – 1996)
Catapult (A Picture of Nectar – 1992)
Strange Design (Free EP – 1996)
Horn (Rift – 1993)
The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony (Lawn Boy – 1990)
Wingsuit (Fuego – 2014)
What’s The Use (The Siket Disc – 1999)
Length > Horse > Silent (Rift – 1993)
Lifeboy (Hoist – 1994)
Farmhouse (Farmhouse – 2000)
I Been Around (Joy – 2009)
Manteca (A Picture of Nectar – 1992)
Winterqueen (Fuego – 2014)
Driver (Farmhouse – 2000)
Waste (Billy Breathes – 1996)
Scents And Subtle Sounds #1 (Undermind – 2004)
Fast Enough For You (Rift – 1993)
Talk (Billy Breathes – 1996)
The Inlaw Joise Wales (Farmhouse – 2000)
Roggae > Wading (The Story of the Ghost – 1998)
Swept Away > Steep (Billy Breathes – 1996)
Faht (A Picture of Nectar – 1992)
Brian and Robert (The Story of the Ghost – 1998)
Dirt (Farmhouse – 2000)
Dog Faced Boy (Hoist – 1994)
Secret Smile (Undermind – 2004)
Bug (Farmhouse – 2000)
Army Of One (Undermind – 2004)
Cars Trucks Busses (Billy Breathes – 1996)
Sleep (Farmhouse – 2000)
Grind (Undermind – 2004)

Unfortunately due to this entire mix being songs that were put out by Elektra Records, I had to find not the best site that would actually intake the mix without rejecting it due to ‘Content Violations’.  You can stream the mix with annoying banter every so often without creating an account, or you can download it by creating an account.  You can do that at this link:
http://www.mix.dj/video/4786125/slow-enough-for-you/

I’ve also made it easier to download in case you don’t want to sign up for a Mix.Dj account (which I don’t blame you).  Here is that download link via Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tyyhkwnww0x89o1/Sirius%20Sanuk%20-%20Slow%20Enough%20For%20You%3F%20%28A%20Phish%20Mix%29.mp3?dl=0

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Nival Sapien Adoration was recorded January 1st, 2009 at the Ashworthian Pantheon, Seattle using a Pioneer 500, two Technics 1200’s, one Pioneer CDj 800-MK2, and one Technics SL-DZ1200.  It was mixed within the walls of hibernation during the last days of 2008, and recorded on the first day of 2009.  By sadly removing the gorgeous Sigur Ros song from the beginning of the mix, I was able to sneak it onto Soundcloud finally.  I also remastered it to bump up and clean out the levels a bit.

:Tracklisting:

Arovane : Tomorrow Morning/Seaside : City Center Offices : 2000
Amorphous Androgynous : Mountain Goat : Astralwerks : 1993
Adam Johnson : Trinity : Merck : 2003
Tycho : From Home : Merck : 2006
Proem : Place Gun To Head : Merck : 2004
Lackluster : Cull Streak : defocus : 1999/2000
Telefon Tel Aviv : Your Face Reminds Me Of When I Was Old : Hefty Records : 2001
The Album Leaf : Brennivin : Acuarela Discos : 2003
Deru : Soulik (Lusine Remix) : Delikatessen Records : 2004
Lusine : Auto Pilot : Ghostly International : 2004
Playing With Knobs : Slowbird : audiblebicycleday : 2008 (SEATTLE!)
Gel-Sol : Unifactor : Upstairs Recordings : 2007 (SEATTLE!)
Osiris Indriya : Gifted : No Label/Entheogenetic Label Group : Unreleased/2007 (SEATTLE!)

You can download and/or stream Nival Sapien Adoration here:
https://soundcloud.com/skoisirius/nival-sapien-adoration-2015-rmstr

Really hope you enjoy one or both of these!

Much love.

~SS~
soundcloud.com/skoisirius
twitter.com/skoisirius

We. Have. Moved.

In order to attract more humans, computers, and aliens, we’ve moved to what we found to be a better and more searchable Web address.  You can now find all this information (which, at some point there will be more of) at the URL below:

http://wanderingtunes.wordpress.com

Come find us and let’s continue to geek!

~SS~

A New Mix: Filthy Shed Seshions I

Well, well, well.  What started as a filthy, dirty, and grimey mix last year while I was living in a shed became a filthy, dirty, and kind of grimey epic mix spanning across the deeper side the real deal dubstep – at 140bpm of course.  What was interesting about this one is that the 25 minutes or so that started the whole basis of this mix didn’t actually end up making the cut in the finish, which had never happened to me before.  Really fun to watch these things change and morph as you play with different tracks and figuring out the puzzle of how they will eventually fit together.  Regardless, what this means however is that ‘Filthy Shed Seshions II’ will be birthed at some point – hopefully not too far into the future.

Really stoked on this one.  With everything from your classic Kryptic Minds sound to the futuristic genre pushing Goth-Trad to the newer Deadbeat (140 Deadbeat?!  Yes please!) to the Latin grooves of Mala to some Radiohead sampling iTAL tEK, this one is sure to keep you moving until the finish line where it eventually chills itself out.  Sit back, turn up the bass, and enjoy!

Downloadable here: https://soundcloud.com/skoisirius/filthy-shed-seshions-i

::: TRACKLISTING :::

Dusk + Blackdown – Drenched
Godspeed You Black Emperor! – The Dead Flag Blues
Dusk + Blackdown – (Keysound Rain)
Kryptic Minds – Hybrid (Biome Remix)
Biome – Two Way
Killawatt & Thelem – Kaba
Kryptic Minds – To Feel
Gantz – Cave Dance
Pinch & Shackleton – Torn & Submerged
Dusk + Blackdown – Iqbal’s Groove
Formless – Hidden Realm
Gantz – Choke
Pangaea – Neurons
DJ Madd – Secrets
Headhunter – Clone
Goth-Trad – Departure
Deadbeat – The Elephant In The Pool
Kryptic Minds – Askum
Biome – First Light
Mala – Calle F
Vancore – Who Am I
Oceania – Grow Wild
Vaun – Listen
iTAL tEK – Deep Pools
Kryptic Minds – Time Flies
Hyetal – Black Black Black
Vaccine – Anaesthetic

Way. Too. Much. Hop. Volume One.

So about a month ago I needed to take a break from this dubstep mix I’ve been working on for way too long…and for whatever reason, I decided to break it up with going into some hip-hop, which I’d been randomly listening to non-stop for a week or so.  I proceeded to go through my entire library (all 2.5TB’s) and pick out a selection of tunes based around hip-hop in the sub-genres of gangster rap, R&B, underground hip-hop, trip-hop, glitch-hop, and head-hop (like Prefuse 73, etc.).  By the time I was done going through all this music, I had something like 150+ tracks picked out – obviously way too many for a mix.  Whatever, I decided to go for it anyways.

Through a complete process of randomly choosing tracks, I tossed a bunch together, finding as many seques from these albums as I could to add some comedy, and ended up with an almost 2.5hr mix.  At that point, I decided that was enough.  Anyways, if you enjoy rap/hip-hop, and the sub-genres that follow, you might get a kick out of this nonsense.

Sirius Sanuk’s ‘Thug In My Nug Vol. One” is able to be streamed here:
http://www.mixcloud.com/skoisirius/sirius-sanuks-thug-in-my-nug-volume-one/

and downloaded here (by right clicking and hitting Save As):
http://datachurch.com/subs/skoisirrius/Sirius%20Sanuk’s%20Hip-Hop%20Marathan%20Volume%20One.mp3

Thanks again to Datachurch.com for hosting the mix, as Soundcloud’s annoying copyright protection algorithm banned this one from the get go!

Ah yes, specifically for the blog post, I decided to type out the whole tracklisting, in case anyone actually cares to know:

1.  Handsome Boy Modeling School – Look At This Face (Oh My God They’re Gorgeous)
2.  The Clonious – Fogged Spacesuit (Album Version)
3.  Andre 3000 Segue
4.  The Notorious B.I.G. – The World Is Filled (feat. Too Short & Puff Daddy)
5.  Sir-Mix-A-Lot – Posse On Broadway (206 Represent!!)
6.  Mariah Carey – Breakdown (feat. Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony)
7.  Andre 3000 Segue
8.  Roots Manuva – Witness (1 Hope)
9.  Warren G – ’94 Ho Draft
10.  504 Boyz – I Can Tell
11.  Devin The Dude – Reefer & Beer
12.  Warren G – Gangsta Sermon
13.  Geto  Boys – Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster
14.  Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber
15.  Portishead – It Could Be Sweet
16.  Prefuse 73 – Silence (Interlude)
17.  Dj Krush – What’s Behind Darkness
18.  Andre 3000 Segue
19.  Pras – Ghetto Superstar (feat. Mya & Ol’ Dirty Bastard)
20.  Whatha Want To Do Segue
21.  Too Short – Cocktales
22.  Snoop Doggy Dogg – Lodi Dodi
23.  Niggaz & White Girls Interlude
24.  Tyrese – Sweet Lady
25.  Outkast – 13th Floor (Growing Old)
26.  Snoop Dogg’s Moment Of Silence
27.  Machinedrum – Uptown
28.  The Wizard – I Got
29.  Mo Thugs Family – Ghetto Cowboy
30.  Ja Rule – Put It On Me
31.  Notorious B.I.G. Fuckin’
32.  Brotha Lynch Hung – Rest In Piss
33.  Busta Rhymes – What’s It Gonna Be?! (feat. Janet Jackson)
34.  N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S.B.I.G.
35.  Madlib – Montara
36.  Digable Planets – Graffiti
37.  Radio W Ballz
38.  Andre 3000 – A Day In The Life Of Andre Benjamin

There ya have it folks.  Expect at least one (or two) more of these escapades before the summer’s out.  Oh yah, FYI: I wouldn’t put this on with your kids around.

Injoy!

‘Cloud Atlas’ Is Not To Be Missed, In Either Format.

 

Living in the sticks of California usually during the summers in the States, I am quite often fairly out of touch of the world of what’s coming out soon as far as films, as it’s not something I keep up on as much as music, and we usually don’t get all the great options bigger cities get when films do make it out to the small theaters around the small town I live in.

Some time in the early fall a friend of mine (can’t remember whom at the moment) mentioned this film coming out soon that they were excited about.  From the trailer they had seen it seemed like a flick that would be right up my interests alley, with bits of action, sci-fi, and a thick story, from what they could tell.  What was even more intriguing was the fact that each main actor in the film played a number of roles, something that is not often done in cinema.  The name of the film was ‘Cloud Atlas‘.  I immediately looked it up when I returned back to my shed, and was instantaneously excited, as far as I can remember, last year was pretty dull as far as films in my opinion (though I need to go back over some lists and see what else came out to see if I missed anything).

Upon doing some research on the film, I found out that not only did it have a stunning cast including Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, and more, they all in fact do play multiple roles throughout the entire film – a few of them up to seven different characters!  Beyond the great cast, the film has three directors (rare!) with Tom Tykwer (well known for Run Lola Run) originally spearheading the project, and the brilliant Wachowski Brothers stepping in to co-write the screenplay, and eventually co-directing the film, thankfully, as they definitely helped shape the final transition from book to screen exceptionally well (especially in the story of Sonmi-451).

Fast forward to the end of October, and thankfully ‘Cloud Atlas’ was given a wide enough release that it made it out to Grass Valley.  As soon as I had the chance I went to check it out.  With a running time of nearly 3 hours at 172 minutes (in the States – in China 39 minutes were cut out due to nudity, and specific conversations, which I would be curious which ones), I knew I was in for somewhat of a ride.  These days when I’m about to shell out $10 – $12 for a film, I’m usually down for it to be at least 2 hours long, if not longer.

From beginning to end, I was captivated by the extremely thick dialogue spanning across six different eras throughout time, and with this dialogue, each era being vividly represented by stunning set design, locations, and cinematography overall.  Along with this blast of thick visions of the past, present, and future, comes the continual complete change of character by each actor and actress, adding an odd array of conceptuality to the film.  The makeup and costuming is done so well, that until the end of the film, you don’t fully realize just how often the actors and actresses are changing form through the six eras of time, though a few of the characters it’s extremely obvious, as it’s not easy to change a South Korean into an Irish redhead.

Being a huge geek and sci-fi fan, the story surrounding Sonmi-451 for me was potentially my favorite piece of six inside the movie.  Set in Neo Seoul, 2144, the Wachowski Brothers shine throughout this segment, with stunning visuals, spot on acting from Hugo Weaving (a favorite of theirs) and Doona Bae, and an overall post-apocalyptic concept that any fan of Philip K. Dick or Stanley Kubrick will absolutely love.  I could personally see this portion of the film being taken as a side project and expanded upon, but I doubt this will end up happening.

Even though I was fully captivated the entire length of the film, the moment it closed I was already longing for…something…more…yet, I hadn’t a clue what, or why I felt this way.  I felt fulfilled by the film and was taken aback by how the directors had chosen to take six periods of time, and completely shuffle them up to a random point of confusion, yet somehow bring it all back around in the end.  Even then, something was still missing.  Having not known the film was adapted to the screen from a novel, the longing started to make sense.  Had I know this, I more than likely would have attempted to finish the novel before seeing the film.  That said, I went out in search of the book and found it a month or so later, after continually thinking about how blown away I was by this film over and over.

FILM GRADE: A-

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I’m now sitting here in a brilliant little Belgian owned cafe in lower Mcleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh named Illiterati, where I will trade off my copy of Cloud Atlas, the novel, that I just finished (finally) yesterday.  The sun is setting on the Dhauladhar Range, topping the snowed in peaks of the mountains with a psychedelic orange pinkish hue, letting me once realize just how incredibly thick and expansive, lovely and frightful, and all the time dream-like this life really is.  (Author’s Note: I started this post while I was in India a few months back.  It’s now a few months later, and it’s finally getting posted, but technically, I’m not in India anymore…though I did want to leave this part in.)

This is relevant to this blog post on Cloud Atlas in every which way.

Now that I’ve finished the novel, the longing I felt after seeing the film has worn off as all the holes that they weren’t able to fit into almost 3 hours have been filled.  Reading the book brings you a new, deeper perspective into these six different time periods, and the depth of which each of the main characters within hold while spanning over the 500 or so years that take place as you read.  Without providing too many details here (as the whole goal of this post is to get YOU to read the book and watch the film!), you start to notice subtle differences between the comet-marked souls gliding through time, and how they hold similar stances on life, but continue to evolve as time moves on, with each different life presenting new obstacles and situations to grow from, eventually, gathering enough experience to be completely content with oneself as it rises and falls to the challenge presented.

The stories are written from all sorts of angles including a diary, letters written to a lover, a novel of an account that actually happened written from a different perspective, a last testament before succumbing to capitol punishment, a novel written in the first person, and a tale of life passed down to some children from an elder.  I’ve never read anything like it.

NOVEL GRADE: A

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The comparison between the two lies in that strange void between so many novels made into movies, yet with the film in this case sticking as true to the novel as those behind it possibly could.  The fact of the matter is that transforming a novel into a film is not an easy task, and most novels when turned into films, if done perfectly, would spit out a four to six hour flick.  We all know most audiences won’t sit through something so long, so the filmmakers have to do what they can to shrink the story while still hitting you with as much important relevant information as possible.

I saw the film before reading the novel, and constantly through I knew there was more to the story than what I was seeing in front of my face.  Towards the end of the film I was craving more depth, and at the end I just sat in my seat, reflecting on how incredible the body of work was, but how this was definitely one of those films where I would have to read the novel to fill my craving for more.

What I am about to say is something that I rarely say, but in the case of Cloud Atlas – WATCH THE FILM FIRST.  Get your mind blown with it’s stunning cinematography (in the scenes from the past) and visual effects (in the scenes from the future), set and costume design, and overall homage to the novel.  If you truly enjoyed it, I urge you to read the novel, to fill in some of the gaps with pure information, written at you in a very different creative manner.

Both the film and the novel come at you in movements, just like a classical piece of music, one could say, just like the Cloud Atlas Sextet itself.

A Random Sunday Night Tequila Tasting…

Found myself over at a fine tequila loving hippie’s house the other night, as we randomly decided to go for a little vertical tasting of the bottles he happened to have lying around.  Below you will find the tasting notes for each of these wonderful products:

: Manana Anejo :
http://tequilamanana.com/

 Appearance:  Very light straw golden pour.

Nose: Very rounded nose, hints of subtle pines, butter, tender agave, and vanillad oak.  Overall, it’s extremely smooth.  In the very back end of the nose there is a tiny element of booze, letting you know it’s there, but making sure you also know how refined this product is.

Palate: Again, extremely smooth overall.  Light hints of butter blended with tip of the tongue.  It’s not anagave and hints of cacti in general.  There is a spice prevalent, but is well built in to the entire flavor, which is refined so well, that it’s fairly amazing for the price of this bottle, which sits around $50 in California.

Finish: You receive a light caramel based blast and finally the peppery spice you’re used to with a tequila becomes present and sits around the tip of the tongue.  It’s not an overwhelming finish, but it’s polite, and compliments the rest of the drink.  Good stuff here.

Overall: 17/20 : This particular Anejo provides a clear look into how smooth an excellent tequila can really be.  If you’re looking for something not too daring, as in spicey, in the fine tequila depart, that won’t blow a hole in your pocket, this is a fine option.  Great enough to definitely not make with a mixed drink, the Manana is something to be served straight and enjoyed slowly to soak in the flavors of refinement.

: Oro Azul Anejo :

Appearance: Light straw with a hint of maple.

Nose: On first pour out of bottle you receive a huge blast of pepper spice, almost daunting in the nose.  Pepper pepper pepper.  After we let the sample sit for 20 minutes, it mellows out into smelling more like a light sugar cane with some hint of a steely presence.  And it’s not a bad thing, rather enjoyable at that.

Palate: The pepper you get from the nose moves to the back end, we’ll discuss that more in the palate section.  The body of the Oro has somewhat of a refined maple syrup aspect buried beneath the layers of pepper that continually hits you over and over.  It’s almost difficult to gain much of anything else from this on the palate except pepper.  What’s interesting is that if you let the sip sit on your tongue, it’s nothing but smooth, but once it’s pepper for days.

Finish: White pepper.  Lots of white pepper.  Hints of spicey nuts that last all the way down the throat.  There’s elements of the soft agave in there, but it’s fairly buried underneath the spice.  A pour right from the bottle sampled is almost the exact opposite, flaunting the buttery fruit elements over the pepper.

Overall: 16/20 : There is more of a complexity than refinement to this than the Manana.  If you let this product sit our and oxygenate for 20+ minutes, it will actually develop other properties, where the Manana sits as it does.  This particular product has elements of different classifications of tequila all smashed in to one bottle.  Bang for your buck – this is a great choice.

: Clase Azul Reposado :
http://www.claseazul.com/

Appearance: Comparatively to the other products, there is the golden straw color, but also present is a deeper amber hue.

Nose: Rich.  Rich.  On the nose you’re going to smell plums, soft agave, refined sugar, and maplely soft cola nut aspect.  There is no burn.  It’s just happiness.

Palate: Soft sugary agave up front.  The body is smooth.  You don’t even want to swallow.  Let it sit on your palate.  There is no burn here either.  It’s like pouring maple syrup right out there tree, that’s been refined to the finest extent, so that no bi-product is able to pass into the flavors, making it as simple and perfect as possible.  Hints of vanilla, cognac, and sherry are all present, but undeniably built so well into the body that you can’t really pick apart all the different flavors.  It’s a blend, it’s amazing.

Finish: Ultra smooth, hints of nuts on the almond tip with maple buried underneath.  Butterscotch.  There’s elements of vanilla from the oak, but no oak.  Elements of cognac, but no burn.  It’s hard to wrap your brain around how perfect this product is, but, it just is.  Candied sugar.  Almost a hat’s off to the perfection the Belgian’s reach with their candied sugared beers.  Fantastic.

Overall: 19/20 : This is in a class of it’s own.  It sits in cognac, sherry, and bourbon barrels for a while before being blended into it’s refined smooth presentation you get when you pour it from the bottle.  At an asking price of around $90 in California, this is definitely one of the more intriguingly perfect bottles of tequila you can buy for this price.  Excellence at it’s best.  I highly suggest doing some further reading on this particular product.  It’s one of the world’s best, and for specific barrel-aging reasons.  They let this sit in sherry, cognac, and bourbon barrels before blending them all and bottling it for the shelf.  Not many other tequila’s go that far in geekery to achieve this excellent of a flavor.  Each bottle is hand-painted and number, complete with a ringing bell as the cork!  Get this when you can afford it!!

The above photo provides a clearer look at the appearance of each pour.  Not too much variation, but the extra barrel aging on the Clase Azul definitely shows up in the color.

This concludes my first tequila write up…I hope this inspires some fine drinking, and if any of you have another fine tequila recommendation, please send it over!  Can e.Mail me directly at: skoinfinite @ gmail dot com .  Thanks!

Ciao!

RūdElgin Drops A New Heavy Hitter: RūdE Moods Vol 2

Well well well…it’s been way too long since any info has been pushed through this blogspace…once again.  On that note, here’s a quick lick of information regarding so BASS.  And some heavy BASS at that.

The old homie Elgin Hakala just dropped a new heavy hitting dubstep mix of the most excellent kind.  Deep, dark, agressive, and airy, completely with not a lick of cheesey Americanized falsestep whatsoever.  Having not heard a mix from Elgin in a while, I was extremely excited to see him toss out a mix of the exact same type of true grimey dubstep that I’ve been into for the past couple years.

With an incredible tracklist mixed to keep your body in the groove, this one will be loved by anyone into the deeper side of the step…fans of Kryptic Minds, Biome, DJ Madd, Truth, Versa & Rowl, Osiris Music, Deep Heads, etc will absolutely love this business.  GET IT.

Lights down, heads up, this one’s a percy and it’s for download at Elgin’s Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/rudelgin/rudemoodsvol2

Spaciously Heavy New Album From Portland’s Natasha Kmeto!

On a random whim today I heard about a brand new album release from an artist I’ve heard a bit from, seen a few times, and met once or twice: Natasha Kmeto.  I first heard about Natasha through a series of events from Live’n’Love Productions up in Seattle, run by an old homie, Kyle.  Somehow Kyle had stumbled across her (as she’s from Portland, OR), and started booking her at random L’n’L events.  Believe I eventually saw her at one of the Photosynthesis Festivals of years past, and I remember being fairly stoked at how avant-garde the approach was to her own music.  I’ve since moved to the middle of no where California, and only heard a tiny snippets about her, here and there, until today.

It’s not often I toss down $10 for a 30-minute album without having heard most of it, but knowing she’s in the extended Fam, I went for it – and I’m quite happy I did.  The album starts out with the title track ‘Crisis‘, potentially my favorite off the album after a few listens.  Synth heavy and semi-retro sounding, her gut-wrenching vocal pulses wash over you as a very minimal trap beat exercises itself beneath all the other layers.  If all trap sounded like this, I’d listen to a lot more of it.  The album progresses into ‘Idiot Proof‘ which brings to the table a more vocal oriented track, letting everyone know that she ‘needs peace from all the things she’s supposed to be’.  Not knowing Natasha well enough, I’m not exactly sure what she’s talking about, but she gets the point across easily in minor chords with a very distant house beat in the background, surrounded by heavily arpeggiated synths.

The album is very mature, spacing out the tracks where her voice is the focal point, with many tracks consisting of clever vocal layers without any real singing in between.  I rather enjoy when someone who does get into vocals, uses them in this way, so that the entire album isn’t dominated with literary opinion, allowing other tracks to emotionally speak for themselves, without getting the ego involved.  ‘Take Out‘ is another vocal heavy house oriented track that has a very spaced out 80’s synth-wavey atmosphere, again, politely spacious – making it is quite obvious that Natasha truly knows how to make sure her sound voids are never messy.  Though it seems strange to admit, the album really has a dark and futuristic R&B setting going on throughout, which turns out to be quite rather brilliant.  I can’t really say it sounds like much else I’ve heard, even lately.

Overall, the spaciousness, the darker tones, and the very minimal usage of many points in electronic music make this album quite a solid output in my book.  My one complaint – it’s just too short!  Multiple of these tracks have me going strong at about two and a half minutes, and then they’re done!  I’ve never understood why certain artists love to build people up, just to drop them…Mount Kimbie and Odesza are a few others to name randomly – the builds are there, it crescendos, and finishes.  Personally I enjoy more time inside these fantastic spaces created by the artists.  That said, it’s not my music, and Natasha has created a short, but incredibly solid LP here.  Highly recommended!

More info on Natasha and the link to purchase the album (on tape for $7 if you’d like!) below:

http://www.natashakmeto.com/
http://droppinggems.bandcamp.com/album/crisis

Excellent News: A New Machinedrum LP On NINJA TUNE Is On The Way.

STOKE.  Checked my What.CD Top10 List before bed, and what did I see?  A new Machinedrum single?!  Well that’s about as good as it gets these days in the more progressive side of bass music as far as I’m concerned.  After “Room(s)“, his last major output in 2011 for Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu, I become completely infatuated with Travis Stewart’s Machinedrum moniker all over again (as I had once before in the Merck Records days).  “Room(s)” took a look at current bass music rooting itself in juke, and spashed elements of breakbeat, jungle, drum&bass, house, and dubstep all over itself.  There’s even a gorgeous pure ambient track to finish the album out – I’d honestly never heard anything like it!  The album got me into the whole juke/footwork sound, along with expanding my palate as a whole, surrounding my intellect with just where bass music was and could be headed at that point in time.

Back on track – so to see this new single pop up, and listed as being released on Ninja Tune (only one of the best labels of the past twenty years), you could pretty much say I had a minor freak out.  Downloaded it right quick, popped my Sennheiser’s on, and let myself bask in more glory.

Immediately something is different comparatively speaking against “Room(s)“.  The tempo is all the way up at 172bpm!  We could be looking at a drum&bass track here, but no, as the track unfolds, pitch-shifted vocal edits (most likely Travis himself as on “Room(s)“), and a very broken kick drum open the track up.  About two-plus minutes in, it fully let’s itself go into a whirling drum&bass backed juke oriented head bobber.  The drum work is excellent, of course.  Politely layered and spaced well, hi-hats and snare rolls float on top of the jukey kick drum.  The new speed doesn’t muck up at all where he has been on the last album.  After a solid minute of getting hit hard, the track breaks down into a beautiful and spacious forty seconds of bliss before dropping the broken juke oriented kick drum all over your ears again.  These broken parts I can see dancefloors having an interesting time with, but when he really lets the track go, it really is clearly made for some serious breakbeat style dancing – whatever your pleasure.

Suffice to say, I am extremely excited for this release – “Room(s)” was in my Top 3 of 2011, and I could place a safe bet that this may make that same list for 2013.  Here’s the track on Youtube for ya:

A 66Psych Fest Experience by Sam Love

Sound Blast

This year’s Austin Psych Fest helped me envision the future of music festivals and what psychedelic music is bringing to the fields. Some of my favorite anticipated acts were Om, The Warlocks, Clinic, and Acid Mothers Temple. I’ve chosen to only highlight a few of the distinctive bands that my mind absorbed and swirled around to. The Black Angels, Deerhunter, and a newly discovered favorite of mine, Man or Astroman?

Last year at Emo’s, I cut out early during The Black Angels‘ set to catch Peaking Lights, so I really wanted to be there for their Sunday performance. I absolutely love this band; I feel I owe it to them for cracking my eyes to an entire genre of heady rock music today, mostly by way of Psych Fest. They made magic on Sunday night. They opened with “Vikings” off of Directions To See A Ghost which was super…

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