A month ago we had new of Max Cooper’s new album Emergence. Here’s what he says is his favourite track from the album. Cyclic is less obviously melodic than some. It’s quite a machine track. Very IDM. All smoke and mechanisms.
Max says of the track “It’s a track that reminds me of my old Traum releases a little. It’s certainly not a perfect track but I hoped that maybe some of you who are on this list and have been listening to my stuff for some years might hear the reference and enjoy it.”
Life Coach Kitteh says:
“Well he’s not grabbing me, President or no President.”
This will grab you instead. Listen to Wolftek & Slighter and their new one Further In, Farther Out. This is not due out until next year but you can have a listen in the meantime. This is spaced out drum and bass. It lacks anything particularly aggressive about it but there’s a sense of unease and creepiness. The mix of sharp insistent beats and whooshes to synth sounds and space unsettle. Going to enjoy being creeped out by this until its proper release.
When you’ve spent the afternoon, as I have, listening to interminable over-excited EDM air horn music, wailing hysterical house cuts or wading through hundreds of deep house Flume-alikes, it was quite a relief to get to Sandgrounder’s Scuba Intruder. A peaceful, jazzy electronic tune. Even the addition of some downtempo sax can’t spoil the enjoyment here. As relaxing as a Midsomer Murder and as cozy as a slanket.
Blurb: Sandgrounder is the electro-jazz alias of Mike Smith. Enthused by internationally renowned saxophonist Nathan Haines’ work that stretches over two decades, Smith’s main axe for this project is a straight soprano sax. He emulates the electronic aspect of Haines’ work by employing bespoke samples, analogue synthesisers, organs and pianos from his personal collection of vintage equipment which he has acquired over his 20 year career as a session musician.
It’s Remembrance Sunday. My grandfather died when I was three, so I never got to ask him about WW1 and his time in the Royal Artillery. But take a moment to remember all those that died with Contrails’ The Clock. He says of this ambient drone piece that “this is a piece of music in which a world war 1 veteran recounts the ambiguous and tragic story of a man who may be have been an enemy collaborator.”
Ironfist or Iron Fist makes me think first of Motorhead’s 1982 album of the same name. The last, sadly, from the classic line up of Kilminster, Clarke and Taylor. But here we’re concerned with US-based Ironfist who produce lovely house tunes. Have this track – Cloudcroft – by them which sounds like indigo and the sparkle of streetlights on pavement puddles.
And because everybody needs a bit of Motorhead…
Eva Schlegel is from St Petersburg, though her name hardly sounds Russian. I wonder what the story is there? She describes herself as a sound engineer and producer but Googling didn’t really take me much further than that. There’s something compellingly cold about the fractured, tinkling, trip hop of Random Interlude, taken from her album Broken Doll.
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It’s out on Southern City Lab from Russia, so the blurb’s in Russian
это сборник случайных мыслей – треков, которые получились в ходе музыкальных медитаций и импровизаций. Трип-хоп в чистом виде не является моим основным стилем написания музыки, но, пожалуй, именно он оказывает наибольшее воздействие на моё сознание и чувства
I think this translates as “a collection of random thoughts – tracks that are received during meditation music and improvisation. Trip-hop in its purest form is not my main writing style of music, but perhaps it was he who has the greatest impact on my consciousness and feelings”
Ever wondered what was The Musical Equivalent Of Being Hit By A Train? Wonder no longer. Skaefox has the answer. If you were expecting something pummelling and piston-frenzied you’ll be disappointed, since Skaefox is focusing on the aftermath. This is hushed ambient full of spreading ripples. Like a last gasp moment caught. Skaefox explains that it’s “a symbolic representation of the tranquillity of death.” All deaths I’ve seen are ultimately about silence.
From the experimental album There’s a sunset in your hair by Skaefox (name your price)
