Tag: electronic

Categories
Music

Yu Su – Xiu

Written and recorded across various continents, Yu Su’s debut album Yellow River Blue attempts to capture the transient nature of touring, being constantly on the move and trying to be accepted in different places over the course of several years. An homage to her home beside the Yellow River in China, it is an extraordinary tender LP, even in its more upbeat moments, with the now Vancouver-based producer occasionally utilising her ethereal voice to create an additional texture alongside electronic drums and melodies that are rarely anything less than sublime.

https://yusu.bandcamp.com

Categories
Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Elori Saxl

The US musician and filmmaker writes about the delicate balance between improvisation and composition in big dog little dog’s Panorama

The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!

Today we welcome US musician and filmmaker Elori Saxl to the blog, whose album The Blue of the Distance has just been released. Combining digitally-processed recordings of wind and water with analog synthesizers and chamber orchestra, The Blue of Distance is an enchanting blend of ambient and neo-classical pieces, with the album taking its title from a phrase coined by Rebecca Solnit in A Field Guide to Getting Lost, referring to the phenomenon of faraway mountains appearing blue due to light particles getting lost over distance.

For her One Track Mind feature, Elori has written about big dog little dog’s Panorama with an eloquence and level of detail that makes me want to massively up my game. Over to her…

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Elori Saxl”
Categories
Music

a new line (related) – love in a unitary authority part 1

Recording under his a new line (related) moniker, Andy Johnson has just released a rather lovely electronic album, love in a unitary authority part 1-7. Party ambient, part deep house, part dub, it’s a really engaging listen from start to finish and this is the epic 10 minute opener, which starts as life with what sounds like indistinct, looped field recordings before developing a delicate, patiently evolving 4/4 structure.

https://anewlinerelated.bandcamp.com

Categories
Music

Automatic Tasty – Rising Sun

The most amazing thing about Rising Sun is just how optimistic it makes me feel, given the current state of everything. So in that spirt… it’s not mid January, it’s not lockdown central, we aren’t staring down the barrel of some of the bleakest months of our short and ever-diminishing lives. Instead it’s actually mid summer, the sun’s just creeping up past the horizon, and you’ve just had one of the best night’s out of your entire life with some of your favourite people. One day, perhaps even this year, this will have happened to you. Until then, we have music like this to keep us going.

https://soundcloud.com/automatictastys

Categories
Music

SOPHIE – BIPP (Autechre Mx)

I’ve been avoiding this for a few days now because a) I didn’t love SOPHIE’s album – or any of her work – as much as every single music site told me I should if I had any kind of taste at all and b) I don’t actually know as much about just how important Autechre are to electronic music in general. Consider this my public apology. Anyway, this is predictably amazing, opening with some of the punchiest drums I’ve ever heard and I guess this now means I should listen to everything Autechre have ever produced. Bet they haven’t made many albums though, so expect I’ll be up to speed before the end of the day.

https://autechre.warp.net

Categories
Music

Nation of Language – Deliver Me From Wondering Why

Two of my favourite artists releasing singles on consecutive days is making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Pretty sure they didn’t do it specifically for me (although, maybe?), but following Gia Margaret’s surprise drop yesterday, here come Nation of Language marching in with another melancholy banger that builds to a crescendo of snaking, shimmering synth lines and crystalline drums.

https://www.nationoflanguage.com/

Categories
Music

The Green Child – Low Desk : High Shelf

Here comes another entry in the “things I completely missed in 2020 but probably shouldn’t have done” canon, this time courtesy of Raven Mahon and Mikey Young aka The Green Child. Low Desk:High Shelf is taken from their second album Shimmering Basset, the recording and themes of which deal with Raven’s relocation to Australia from California. A week ago I would have casually mentioned that the lo-fi, almost naively wonderful electronic opening reminds me of some of John Maus’s best work, but as it turns out even niche musical heroes of mine can trash their own legacy in a single swoop. So instead I’ll say it’s a brilliant, yearning, melancholic, hopeful slice of electronic folk-pop, and leave it at that.

https://thegreenchild.bandcamp.com

Categories
Music

Patricia Taxxon – Dandelion

I’ve come to realise just how much of an impact computer game soundtracks – specifically the 8 and 16-bit bleeps of my Master System and Megadrive-obsessed youth – has had on the music I’ve enjoyed for the rest of my life. I compared last year’s brilliant Scacco Matto album by Lorenzo Senni to Lemmings, and now we have the outrageously prolific Patricia Taxxon back with yet another album including the wonderful Dandelions, which sounds like a cut from a modern version of a 90s Final Fantasy OST. As ever with Taxxon’s music the entire album Sapphire Apts is available to stream on YouTube, and even though Dandelions is a definite highlight, there’s plenty more nostalgic fun to be had throughout.

https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com

Categories
Music

58918012 – Street Spirit

Given that this is a cover of one of my very favourite songs from one of my very favourite bands, I’m surprised I enjoy 58918012’s version of Street Spirit as much as I do. But then, I would challenge anyone to identify the source material for this without prior knowledge, as aside from a very (very) mangled, occasional cry of “and fade out again” that sounds like it’s coming from beyond the grave, there is pretty much nothing that links the two. It’s amazing, though, and makes Radiohead’s original sound like a jaunty pop banger by comparison, so deep is the despair it evokes.

https://58918012.bandcamp.com/releases

Categories
Music

Salvatore Mercatante – Foundation Three: Loss of Identity

Foundation Three: Loss of Identity is the third track from New York based electronic musician Salvatore Mercantante’s album The Foundations Of Eternal Sin, which I have not heard in its entirety, but on the strength of this it’s something that’s worth seeking out. Meditative and highly atmospheric, Foundation Three had me hooked from the opening few bars, pairing rich, warm pads alongside crisply skittering percussion. I wish it were twice as long, as it’s a highly enjoyable place to lose yourself for a few minutes.

https://salvatoremercatante.bandcamp.com