Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (1984)

Pure ambient bliss; sound textures from deep space.

From the back of the album cover:

Suspension . . . Intimacy . . . Silence
Touch the essence of Structures from Silence.
Steve Roach's flowing melodic impressions and
sustained synthesizer chords breathe.
rest, and breathe again.
A subtle visionary album,
serene and haunting.
a timeless statement.

Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (1984; Fortuna Records)
Links to Spotify

Tabla Beat Science - Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove (2002)

One of my favorite releases of the last ten years, combines dub reggae bass lines (from Bill Laswell) with multiple tabla percussionists (Zakir Hussain, Talvin Singh and Trilok Gurtu), scratching and turntablism from DJ Disk, drums and programming from Karsh Kale and the master of the sarangi, Sultan Khan.

Traditional Hindustani music meets electronic in a live performance in SF's Stern Grove; be sure to check this out.

Tabla Beat Science - Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove (2002; Palm Pictures)

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor (1979)

For fans of Kraftwerk; except replace their serious, post-apocolyptic angular modalities with YMO's bubbly, cosmopolitan Tokyo cityscape video game world. 

It's neon and anime and fun.    
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor (1979; Alfa Records)

Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too (2008)

If disco had a future it would sound like this. 

Best listened to on headphones far away from the world.
Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too (2008; Smalltown Supersound)

Ott - Blumenkraft (2003)

Ambient psychedelic dub. You might hear this in the chillout lounge.
Ott - Blumenkraft (2003; Twisted Records)

Björk - The Classic Years

Dear Björk Guðmundsdóttir,

I love you.

I really do.

I love you for all your weird, quirky and inventive songs. I love your half-elf, half-Icelandic lyricism. I love your cute little pixie self. I love the production values on all your records, too- you have both the piece of mind and sense of purpose to work with some really out-there folks, although I guess that's like calling the kettle black, no?

I love that we almost have the same birthday, only three days away. And I get along really well with Scorpios, both my brother and sister are Scorps. That's tight.

Holler at me.

I must also say that your videos by themselves are truly all works of art. I used to have your DVD, Greatest Hits: Volumen 1993-2003 but it was crushed in a box in my trunk when I moved to California so I sold the damaged video to Amoeba Records in Berkeley and some poor chump bought it and later realized that the three videos for Hyperballad, Possibly Maybe and I Miss You were all pixelated and fucked up and the sounds skipped and sounded like glitchy shit.

You're in me, Björk. You're a part of me- and not like that time I washed my clothes with a bag of weed in one of my pants pockets, and then I even dried it and it like totally baked the smell into that entire load of clothes for like ever, not like that. You're like, here.

Right here.

I love you so much, Björk. I'm going to prove this to you by putting three of your best albums up for "sharing" purposes. Yeah, I know, it's really stealing, but whatever, I love you, Björk.

I. Love. You.

Sincerely,
Jimmy Mac

Debut (1993; Elektra Records)

Post (1995; Elektra Records)
Homogenic (1997; Elektra Records)

Autechre - Tri Repetae (1995)

The duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown have been making music together for almost 25 years, hooking up over a mutual love for graffiti, hip-hop and electro music, trading mix tapes and eventually collaborating under the guise Lego Feet. Their first release under the Autechre (pronounced aw-tekk-urr) moniker would be 1991's Cavity Job, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This 1995 release, Tri Repetae, is a decent barometer of Autechre's ouevre; it's right in the mid-point of their earlier, more accessible work (the LPs Incunabula, Amber and the Anti EP) and their move towards a freer, more experimental approach (the albums LP5 and Confield, as well as the arc of their trajectory until present day).

Their advancement of glitchy, techy and ambient soundscapes has contributed to the growth of IDM as well as influenced many imitators- I'm almost kicking myself for not discovering this wonderful music earlier.

Autechre - Tri Repetae (1995; Warp Records)

Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy (1997)

Behold! I have heard the sound of the future, and it sounds like... wait... what?

This record is thirteen years old?

Oh.

Well, where the hell have I been?

Seriously, what have I been doing that was so important that made me miss this album; this sublime record with some of the best and fastest beats ever made on this planet with some of the most insane robo-jazz ever recorded?

Damn, I'm sorry Mr. Squarepusher. I'm going to let everybody in on this little secret that turns out wasn't a secret at all...

Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy (1997; Warp Records)

Silver Apples - Silver Apples (1968)

New York City's Silver Apples were way ahead of their time. I've said this about a ton of bands (especially here in print) but these guys were doing what Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Cluster were doing five years later and they were considered groundbreaking. Think about that.

They only released two albums before calling it quits; and here is their 1968 self-titled debut- heralded as an electronic breakthrough, with lead Apple Simeon Coxe's hand-built oscillating synthesizer (the eponymously named Simeon, with its 9 oscillators and 86 knobs) as the main instrument and Danny Taylor's polyrhythmic, tight-as-a-tick drumming, the Silver Apples created some of the most interesting electronic-based experimental psychedelic pop music at the same time The Beatles were making The White Album and The Velvet Underground were making their third record. Think about that.

Think about a lot of things, but think mostly about clicking the link under the album cover...

Silver Apples - Silver Apples (1968; Kapp Records)

Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things (2006)

I've been on a serious Krautrock kick lately; I'm not talking Can, Dzyan, Neu!, Amon Düül II, Embryo, et al. (those are always in constant rotation) but the bastard sons of Kosmiche Musik- stuff like Brighton, UK's Fujiya & Miyagi and their 2006 record Transparent Things. It's got a ton of Kraut-infected reference points on here, from the motorik drum beat (Klaus Dinger's most celebrated drum pattern found a home on half these tracks!) to the spacey electro atmospherics and dancey vibes all about. 

I'm interested in the synthesis of influence- recent bands making homages to the first wave; like Stereolab, LCD Soundsystem and Super Furry Animals all have the Kosmiche spirit sprinkled around their music, but here Fujiya & Miyagi celebrate it like it's the only style of progressive rock to make it alive out of the 70s.

Which isn't a bad thing at all...

Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things (2006; Tirk Records)

Paavoharju - Yhä Hämärää (2005)

Take two brothers (Lauri & Olli Ainala); insert them into a born-again Christian commune in the Finnish town of Savonlinna with a bunch of instruments and recording equipment, add generous portions of lo-fi ambient psych-folk and dream pop and that's basically Paavoharju in the most reductive of ways. They're so much more than all of that, they defy any genre pigeonholing by employing an extensive use of electronics (to add a perfect balance between acoustic guitars and ethereal-sounding vocals) it's much easier to just call it "experimental".

Yhä Hämärää loosely translated means "still murky"; as all the song titles revolve around a similar theme (or a poem of sorts): "forever to the world / light oozing through everything / moon consoles concern / depth / gust / air flows / morning sun feels / pure white / I traveled far / it is still murky / black street..."

Yes, I ran all the song titles through Google Translate.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite releases of the last ten years; a real hidden gem full of murky, dense, layered atmospheric folktronica jams from the land of reindeer and cheesy symphonic death metal. Enjoy!

Paavoharju - Yhä Hämärää (2005; Fonal Records)

Terry Riley - A Rainbow In Curved Air (1969)

Experimental minimal electronic progressive drone music?

Fucking sign me up.

And while you're at it, sign up The Who (for the inspiration Pete Townsend got to do the intro to Baba O'Riley), better sign up Rick Wakeman too.

Keith Emerson, you hear this shit? I know you did, stop hiding behind that monstrosity of an organ.

Tangerine Dream, you're on this list. Ja, ja sind sie hier eingeschaltet. 

Steve Reich, where'd you get the idea for your "pulses" and all that stuff on Music For 18 Musicians?

Philip Glass- you're so on the list (you're probably the only one to admit it...)

These are all the people that directly benefited from Terry Riley's work. Now you can benefit from it, too. Click the link below the album cover...

Terry Riley - A Rainbow In Curved Air (1969; Columbia Records)

Perrey-Kingsley - The In Sound From Way Out! (1966)

Jean-Jacque Perrey and Gershon Kingsley made space age pop albums before the term electronica ever entered the music-scape, they were considered much too avant-garde to be "pop".

While working for folk company Vanguard Records, Perrey had accumulated hundreds of hours of animal noises and began experimenting with tape loops (before multi-tracking technology you had to do everything by hand, so literally it took days to compose short musical passages with this anti-technology; just scissors and scotch tape!). He was masterful at splicing the magnetic tape to create the desired loop effect; and by speeding up or slowing down the playback he created a synthesized feel to the music. Enter Kingsley; with his composer background and his knowledge of Moog synthesizers (he was the first to play one in a live setting) they created the earliest form of listenable, electronic "pop" music.

So I'm happy to bring to you the very first electro-pop record... 

Perrey-Kingsley - The In Sound From Way Out! (1966; Vanguard Records)

Efterklang - Tripper (2004)

I fell asleep to this album every night for about six months straight, a few years ago. It’s kind of unfamiliar as I listen to it awake, I’m sure there’s something in my subconscious it speaks to. I do remember having gentle dreams that gave way to a vivid awareness; first my visions were soft and out of focus, the words half-spoken.

Then cumulus clouds suddenly were forming and disappearing in mere seconds, suns setting and moons rising and then being whisked galaxies away to another planet- there seems to be a conversation going on somewhere above and behind me and I can’t turn fast enough to see where it’s coming from- is that an alien tongue? Maybe it’s Danish. I awaken, completely lost in my surroundings, that groggy half-second before you realize you’re alive and alone in the dark; not quite fright and not quite comfort. Silence. Deafening silence. But there’s an imprint in that silence, a pocket that used to hold a sound.

That sound was Efterklang’s Tripper. Now it’s gone. I’m back asleep...

Efterklang - Tripper (2004; The Leaf Label)