So.

I have taken an extended Christmas break, but it is not without good news to report. In celebration of the birth of our lord I went out and purchased the new Earth album. I am happy to report that it is appropriately HEAVY. It is not the ambient stew of their last several albums, but for my taste it is much more listenable. It has an epic rock/country feel to it and fulfills what I hoped it would be.

Pure listening satisfaction.

Check out
Raiford (The Felon Wind)

YES

Live from Cambodia via California its Dengue Fever!

I never really liked the term"world music." It set up this weird neural pathway in my mind that led to lowered expectations of excellence. Walking into any number of coffee shops and hearing so so music that defined itself more by what it wasn't (Western) than by what it was, led me to be very dissmissive of the genere in general.

I think that these compilations are what really hardened my heart. By trying to appeal to everyone they attracted no one in particular.

In any case that is neither here or there in relation to this band. A beautiful Cambodian singer with a groovey western backing band combine to make some great music. This lonesome ballad is off their last album, Escape from the Dragon House. There are other great tunes on there that mix surf, and other 60s styles into a whole that remind me of a Bond movie fimed in Cambodia that never was.

Dengue Fever - Hummingbird

Hi!

Well a shifted schedule has pushed my hours around strangely and so I probably won't be able to post as much as I am used to. I did want to put a few more things out over the holidays though and so I thought I would share something from a new to me producer that is kind of cool.

James Holden is by all accounts a bit of a trance bod. Today's dance scene values cross fertalization more than it has in the past though, allowing for all sorts of artists to make it big. Its difficult to believe how maligned trance has been in the past. Sure it was formulaic and predictable, but no more so than a ton of the house purists followed at the time. Anyway its good to see barriers drop.

Check out this recent builder:

Nathan Fake - The sky was pink (James Holden mix)

PS Check out Border Community and Natan Fake too

I have been wanting to post this song from the moment I set up shop here at Slow Motion Radio. I first discovered Can in 1990 living in Austin trawling through record shops. I am not sure if it was cover art, as has often been the case, or a good word by a trusted record store clerk that put me on to them. In any case I bought Cannabalism I and it blew me away.

Krautrock? What the hell is that? All I knew was that these hippies rocked, grooved, and experimented in ways that put Pink Floyd to shame.

Strangely, I didn't binge on buying everything they ever made at that instant. I have been at it purchasing bits and pieces since that time and have been particularly pleased with the recent reissues. I actually didn't get around to buying Future Days until earlier this century. It was a long time coming but this album is AWESOME! Groovy, funky, dreamy, this album must be the blueprint for a host of generes. At the very least shoegazers owe it a debt for the vocals that just seem to float throughout.

This is the title track:

Can - Future Days

I had intended to continue the new dance music thread throughout the week. However, fate conspired to throw me off course. I had ordered a Nina Simone video off Netflix months ago. Just kind of letting it move up the chain naturally, not really caring when it came in. Well it came in yesterday and as usual she blew me away. It wasn't very long and didn't concentrate on my favorite period of her music but still, wow.

Her arrangements and flow are unreal. One of the tracks reminded me of Mogwai or Godspeed you black emperor. Slowly building with instruments adding, melody growing in compexity, and then with complete control she subsumes all that to the emotion of a vocal. Stunning.

Chew on these tidbits:

Nina Simone - Sinnerman

Nina Simone - Funkier than a mosquitos tweeter

Now this next track may not be, strictly speaking, ketamine house. However, I do find it woozy and intoxicating. Soulwax remains a bit of an unknown quantity for me. Every single track I have heard by them I like. In fact scratch that. Every single track I have heard them I love. NY Excuse is killer and I have a few of the E talking remixes too.

Their music has a sort of DFA feel to it but without the obvious irony. In any case straight to the tuneage. I got this off the latest Mixmag cover cd. I berated that mag for years for being lame and mainstream, but low and behold I pick it up this month and it seems every artist in there is one I have been following for a few years. I don't know if this speaks to my lame taste or their increasing coolness but i won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Soulwax - Krack

Lame. Be at peace man. You helped shape my worldview and for that I will forever be thankful.

Today is my birthday! So to celebrate this grand holiday I purchased some absolutely sick music this weekend. The purchases were all over the place. I had been feeling a little out of touch with what has been going on in the relm of techno so I did a little research and thanks to the wonderful expertise of Mr. Philip Sherburne I picked up some tasty tracks that are prime for sharing.

If you have not had the opportunity to check out his regular column at the online magazine Pitchfork be sure to do so. It is his opinion and apparently the opinion of quite a few others, that a new genre of techno has mutated into existance recently and has faithfully been cataloged and branded with the title ketamine house. Not much out there written at the moment so you will have to take my word for it. Apparently it is defined by its wooziness and more overt psychedelic tendencies.

YUM!

Yoshimoto - Du what u Du (Trentmoller Remix)

Just a short post today. Marvin Gaye is, of course, one of the great artists of the 20th century. He may have had his share of personal problems but his music was unreal. Beautiful arrangements, forward thinking production work, and an incredible soulful voice guaranteed his position in the canon.

However not all of his work is that easy to find. This soundtrack took me years to track down in the pre-filesharing days but in the end it was worth it. Mostly instrumental, it is a great album that like a lot of his work sets a great mood for getting busy ;)

This is is:

Marvin Gaye - Don't mess with Mr. T

and

Marvin Gaye - T plays it cool

PS The movie is supposed to be quite lame.

Is there anyone out there that wasn't influenced by Mr. James's electonic noodling. I mean just look at that face, all sweetness and light. For some reason his image gives my wife nightmares, but all I see is a sweet little boy from Cornwall.

I got a chance to see Aphex once in about 92 when he opened up for the Orb at the Brixton Academy in London. I remember the whole show as awesome. That's when I felt that London had opened up for me. I viewed the soft underbelly of freaks that showed up for that show and felt that I had a place there after all. Sometimes a new city can be a hard place to adjust to and it usually takes a group moment such as that to make me feel at home.

Over the years I have been both overwhelmed and disappointed with his releases but for some reason I just keep going back. Even with the latest Analord series, I don't play vinyl anymore but I for some reason felt it my duty to get a couple. There were some good tracks, but also a few that just seemed to go on and on.

Today I wanted to post a couple of tracks that I have "found" over the last couple of years. I am not completely sure about their place in his discography and in fact there is the complete possibility that they aren't even him. However, in listening to them again and again I find that if they are not him then someone is doing a hell of a job impersonating the man. Let me know what you think.

Aphex Twin - Melodies from Mars - untitled 2

Aphex Twin - Analord 10 - Fenix Funk 5

Today, I wanted to share a bit of ambient beauty that has been making my days sparkle as I walk to and from class.

First is a track from the newly released Pop Ambient 2006 from Kompakt Records. Markus Guentner & La Grande Illusion create a lush soundscape based on a repeating guitar motif that propels me through the newly arrived chill in Los Angeles. The colors are changing on the trees, the wind picks up and this track guides me along towards my destination improving my mood and creating an air of optimism that today will be unique.

Markus Guentner & La Grande Illusion - Baghira

Max Richter, a modern classical composter, provides the next track. Previously working with FSOL his new album Blue Notebooks is wonderfully cinematic (a favorite descriptive term of mine). The pieces on this album mainly revolve around repeated piano phrases with strings and some electronics to provide accompaniment. It kind of reminds me of Romantic period classical music, which for some reason I always associate with the best kind of used book store. Getting lost in shelves of endless books, records, and other media used to consume me as a kid and teenager and this evokes that mood for me. Comforting.

Max Richter - Shadow Journal

My ftp server is giving me guff today so unfortunatly no tunes. :(

To make up for the loss in sounds let me point you to a cool website. Foxy Digitalis covers quite a bit of ground in the free folk/stoner metal/all around weirdness catagory. There are a few good articles here check out the one with Birchville Cat Motel.

In an about face from yesterday's bouncy housey posting, today will feature a couple of "metal" artists. I say "metal" cause neither one of these tunes sounds particularly like Motley Crue , say. In fact the genre of metal seems to be expanding more rapidly than most others these days. Bands as diverse as Earth and Cinderella can fall under the same general title, although how comfortable they are grouped together is a matter of dispute.

I personally like a bit of heavyness in my metal. When it can be tempered with melody that is awesome too. These two tracks can best be summed up in my head by the title of the first, Pastoral.

Jesus Lizard - Pastoral

Isis - Altered Course

PS. If anyone has tracks from the new Earth album Hex I would love to hear them. Seems like they are moving into melody as well.