Tag: electronic

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: A Winged Victory for the Sullen

The ambient duo’s Adam Wiltzie talks about Talk Talk’s genre-defining masterpiece Spirit of Eden

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 A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s Adam Wiltzie. An ambient music duo composed of Wiltzie alongside Dustin O’Halloran, A Winged Victory for the Sullen are set to release their fourth studio album Invisible Cities later this month. Before forming the group, Wiltzie was involved with various ambient projects including The Dead Texan (with Christina Vantzou) and Stars of the Lid (with Brian McBride), and has been responsible for what I would confidently say are some of the most beautiful, powerful and important albums ever made, in any genre. So to say I’m very happy to have him on TPW is a bit of an understatement.

Here, Adam talks about the first time he heard Talk Talk’s post-rock masterpiece Spirit of Eden, and the lasting impact it had on him, and how it influenced his own work.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: A Winged Victory for the Sullen”
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Music

Tangent – The Origin Of Structures

The Origins of Structures is the lead track from Cycles, the forthcoming fifth album by Dutch ambient duo Tangent, and very nice it is too. Combining heavily processed, grainy drums with shifting pads that sound as if they’ve managed to find a way to actually record sunbeams glinting through the clouds, I’d be very happy to listen to this on repeat for the next hour. Which reminds me! Try listening to TMS cricket commentary with wordless ambient playing underneath. There really are few better ways to spend a Friday afternoon.

https://www.facebook.com/musictangent

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Music

Anna B Savage – BedStudy

I’ve now started this post in about half a dozen different ways, considering how to approach why BedStudy is so brilliant from various angles, but the main point is: Anna B Savage’s voice is absolutely extraordinary, managing to be both fragile and devastatingly powerful in the same breath. It’s taken from her debut album A Common Turn which came out last week, many of the tracks from which exist in a similar space, between vulnerability and invincibility, and builds from scarcely strummed guitar to an electronic crescendo as all-consuming as anything I’ve heard for quite some time.

https://www.annabsavage.com

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Music

Versalife – Shadow Warrior

I first heard this on a live set Versalife (aka Conforce) posted a little over a year ago (it’s great – you should listen to it!), and have been thinking about it daily ever since. He really does do this kind of emotional, hypnotic, breaks-driven techno better than pretty much everyone else. Especially Bicep. Ouch! Bet they’re smarting from that one. This is one of the tracks on his new Present Shock EP, which includes three more of a similar ilk. One day clubbing shall return, and I hope this gets played fucking loud every single day when they do.

https://soundcloud.com/conforce

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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”
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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

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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

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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

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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/