I got it on CD. This is really good - I'm especially loving the first track. I've heard good things about their first three albums, but should I bother with anything past that?

They've done a lot of great work, some of it uptempo atmospheric drum and bass and other material is more chill like what you're listening to now.

Unfortunately, many of their mixes and DJ sessions are not produced or distributed commercially. Still, fans have assembled a lovely package of 15 of their best sets which is widely circulated on major public trackers.

This package includes the unofficial DJ Kicks Volumes 2, 3, and 4, the Amsterdam Dub Sessions from 2000, and other lovely recordings from K&D and their many aliases.

Pick it up, explore their work, and enjoy.

A Most Productive Afternoon!
 

Three straight days of 87-degree heat. What better thing to do than to format and rebuild my audio workstation!

Back in 2012 I built a $375 PC with a 3.8GHz AMD Quad-Core processor and 8GB DDR3 - more than sufficient for a music server and for audio transcoding.

But for those last several years, I made due with a 32-bit OS that could only see half of my RAM when I was on the Windows side of the system. (I dual boot to Ubuntu as well.)

Today I FINALLY sat down and migrated to a 64-bit OS to fully-utilize my system's resources. Wiped it clean and started fresh.

Here's the brilliantly minimal desktop environment - I've stripped the UI of everything but the essentials.


And here's Media Monkey Gold running cleaner than ever!


Spring cleaning - it feels great!

The retrobox project!
 

Straight away - an apology for my absence of late. I've been working day and night on my latest projects, and knew it was time to stop in for an update.

For those curious how the wedding project was going - All of the rings have been crafted and each turned out better than I could have hoped for.

The coin ring craftsman I commissioned did an outstanding job with the mint proof. The image wasn't even warped in the slightest. And the silversmith I found to accept the challenge of resizing the piece from a 14 all the way down to a 7 did an expert job and for a delightfully low price.

Here is the coin ring before sizing:

http://i.imgur.com/iQkTodG.jpg

And after:

http://i.imgur.com/G3p4rAy.jpg

But on to the next project!

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I developed a terrible nostalgia streak for the kids shows we watched in the 80s and 90s, as well as some more-recent favorites from the first years of Adult Swim.

We tossed our televisions back in 99 and have seen very little since so those two decades really have a strong connection to our childhoods. That's what inspired this new project.

We've got an old but working CRT in storage, and I'm going to build the MAME cabinet equivalent of 80s and 90s television. 106 complete program archives with a dedicated media center interface for easy navigation. When the project is complete, we plan to make it a Saturday morning routine, complete with marshmallow cereal.

We pooled a master program list via the Wikipedia and channel listing archives and narrowed it down to just over 100 of our favorite series.

Monday and Tuesday's archiving yielded the first 600 GB of content. The playlist thus far comprises 1,137 hours of retro-television - 44 different series from our master list and over 3,800 commercial-free episodes.

I learned quickly that the majority of these complete series archives are fan-compiled - that is, no official DVD collections exist for most of these programs, so you couldn't go out and buy them even if you wanted to.

As such, some series are top-notch while others are a mixed bag of video quality. But honestly, the occasional VHS scan lines add a touch of realism to the project and give it some life. They remind the viewer that the community brought together hundreds or even thousands of fans' VHS tapes and built these archives from the ground up. Joel Hodgson was right -

http://i.imgur.com/bn9W2vK.png

The RetroBox Project will be a lot of fun... though I anticipate I'll be stocking up on hard drives in the near future.

DEEP DISTANCE: The Musical Life of Manuel Göttsching
 

Six years in the making, Author Christian Wheeldon's magnificent account of The Musical Life of Manuel Göttsching is now available to the public. Weeldon takes the reader on a journey through the rebirth of German music in the 1970s, the fusion of rock, minimalism and electronics, and through all of the pioneering music that followed.


Wheeldon's is the first proper book to examine the life of Manuel Göttsching, and is an absolute triumph at the task. From the back cover:

[The book provides] previously unpublished interviews the author conducted with members of Ashra, as well as correspondence with other key personalities and selective historic sources.

But even more effective are Wheeldon's rich and impassioned analyses of each of Göttsching recording sessions. He provides an historic account of the socio-cultural circumstances surrounding each album's production, and descriptions of the music which will undoubtedly inspire readers to seek out and enjoy these albums for themselves.
A few examples from the opening chapters of the book -

On Ash Ra Tempel's self-titled record from 1971:

Ash Ra Tempel's first track is freeform and as untamed as any open, mud-spattered festival jam ever hammered out. A musical locomotive underpinned by the impressive, primal rumble of Hartmut Enke's bass, there is a sense that Amboss could derail at any one of several moments as a result of its own pile driving brute force. After a brief atonal guitar impasse the band steam back into action, finally rattling and clanging towards a furious, exhausted climax after 20 sweat-soaked minutes.

On The Cosmic Jokers' self-titled debut LP from 1974:

Soothing guitar work from Manuel introduces the final part of the original first side. The waters of a gently lapping chemical ocean gradually become more turbulent and as proceedings gather pace we plummet beneath the surface into a swirling wormhole, hurtling towards some far corner of the universe at breakneck speed. Schulze's booming synthesizer suggests myriad multi-colour fragments of giant rock colliding in an asteroid field and a rather kitsch intergalactic voice confirms that we are now charting the far reaches of the great beyond.

I repeatedly found myself putting the book down to scribble notes for future listening. A book exploring the incredible impact of Manuel Göttsching music is long-overdue, and thankfully Wheeldon's guided tour of his catalog will spark a renaissance of listenership and musical discoveries for both long-time fans and for young listeners eager to develop a better understanding of the foundations of ambient and electronic sound.

The book was printed in a short run, so don't miss your chance to claim a copy for your music library. Find out more at Manuel Göttsching Book - 'Deep Distance' - Available now.

Leaving the Cloud for my own Private Island
 

I spent the last two years fully-embracing the cloud. And why not? Cloud computing offers many wonderful features. Google's suite of apps create a seamless user experience from one personal device to another. Sites like Discogs.com empower users to access and share their record catalogs everywhere they go. Goodreads.com networks book-lovers from all around the world and democratized the used book market by facilitating the search and purchase of titles. It created a market where even the tiniest, tucked-away bookshops could compete directly with bookselling giants like Barnes & Noble.

I use Google Docs for drafts of articles I'm writing and really enjoy the flexibility of calling them up on my phone, tablet, or my media workstation throughout my day. And I've absolutely lived on Google Calendar for many years now.

Cloud-based archival storage services offer users data redundancy and reliable sync-and-forget-it backup systems with a 99.9% recovery rate – far more reliable that entrusting all your precious data to a single external disk.

But recently, I've been rethinking the cloud, particularly about the amount of control and privacy a user relinquishes when their content is no longer stored locally. iTunes was the worst atrocity to come of the cloud, as many users are starting to understand. The DRM fiasco crippled the usability of the software, and as users learned from the U2 incident, their music libraries were really at the mercy of Apple. Spotify and streaming services are not much better, with drastically-limited media selections and, again, the content is never really yours.


The entire era of cloud-computing was less about empowering the user and more of an exercise is usury. Let's face it – storage has become incredibly inexpensive. And the popularity of lossy-compression for casual listening has only made it easier and cheaper for users to have it all. There was no longer a need to up-sell a customer base to a bigger and better device every six months, because the average smartphone suits most users just fine as an all-around media player.

For those with more discerning tastes, a simple and inexpensive home server is sufficient to grant instant-access to terabytes of lossless audio and HD video libraries from our tablets and phones anywhere with 4G service.

The industry had to invent a new way to maintain a steady influx of customer revenue. Enter the streaming service and world of online backups. These subscription-based services keep the customer paying month after month for storage and instant-access. Adobe was perhaps the most curious company to go this route, releasing the latest version of its software suite rebranded as the Creative Cloud. The customer scenario was much the same for Adobe – previous versions were everything their customers needed, so why would they need to upgrade ever again? The solution was clear – monthly subscription fees.


The elephant in the room of cloud computing is the compromise of one's privacy and security. Facebook users know all too well that every minute detail of their publicly-broadcasted lives is being sold and re-sold to advertisers banking on hyper-targeted marketing.

But you know all this – you don't buy in to cloud archive services. You've implemented all the standard privacy tools and ad-blocking plugins and your web experience is fairly secure and advert-free. But what about those who don't have the luxury of their own media server or truly unlimited data plans for their portable devices? How should they freely access their large libraries of media anywhere they go?

There is a solution. Seagate manufactures a device specifically tailored to meet the needs of this particular niche of customers and to resolve their unique problem. The Wireless Plus 2TB portable HDD (STCV2000100) is surprisingly compact and lightweight. It features an internal 10-hour battery and its own personal WiFi network. Pair it with each of your personal devices and you've got 2TB of content with you EVERYWHERE – on or off the grid, with no monthly fees.


Currently priced at ~$190, the Wireless Plus offers an incredible amount of freedom for its price point. For users like myself with our own media servers, there really isn't an urgent need, (save perhaps for taking your entire library with you on a camping trip.) But for those tired of shelling out monthly fees for remotely hosted content – this is the device you've been waiting for.

Steve Albini’s Keynote Address at Face The Music – The State of the Music Industry
 

Steve Albini may not be an expert at public speaking. But he IS a 40-year veteran of the music industry - working as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist for most of his life. He lived and worked through the age of commercial rock radio and payola, through the birth of MTV, and through the most formative years of filesharing and torrenting right up to the present day.

Albini has worked on an estimated 1500 albums, which certainly qualifies him to speak on the state of the changing music industry.

Below is his Keynote Address at Face The Music in 2014. The first 30 minutes comprise his essential arguments - exposing the self-perpetuating system of major labels, commercial radio, and the convoluted laundry list of associated professionals who were all guaranteed to profit from a band's record, usually leaving the band with nothing.

He demonstrates that the old system was in place to serve everyone EXCEPT the band and its fans - the two inconsequential and often ignored parties of the music industry.

Albini then outlines how the internet and improved recording technologies rendered the old system obsolete and empowered artists. The web and filesharing gave bands, for the first time, a direct and personal relationship with their listeners and exponentially increased the reach of their music.

In closing, Albini describes the resulting listening culture as discerning and passionate, with the ability to pursue their own niche musical fetishism, and that these listeners find a way to reward the artists they love in return.

The old industry giants loudly proclaim that the new system is "broken" and a "crisis" that must be remedied. But in reality, the bands and their listeners are better off now than ever before.

This address shattered my shame about filesharing, and restored my faith in music.

Transformative Soundscapes – The Latest from Innerspace Labs
 

This week arrived two absolutely astounding additions to our library. Each is a milestone in its own right so I’ll waste no time getting right to them.

The first is a modern classic from the legendary NinjaTune label. Originally released in 2004, Skalpel’s self-titled double LP was repressed through beatdelete in 2013. The DJs behind Skalpel, Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło were dissatisfied with the humdrum music of their native Poland.


“The Polish music scene is very poor at the moment. Nothing really interesting happens. The majority of music on TV and radio is kind of ‘World Idol’. Very little individuality – just copies of American music.” (interview, R4NT.com)

Their response was to create their own sound – “resurrecting the dusty & smokey spirit of polish jazz of 60s and 70s, re-imagined for 21st century audiophiles.” (NinjaTune.net)

I’d nearly pre-ordered the 2013 180g 2LP beatdelete reissue when it was announced, but had let the opportunity pass. Thankfully, a member of one of the vinyl communities I frequent recently posted a shot of the album which inspired me to give it a second listen. I was camping at the time, but came prepared with my Sennheiser circumaural studio monitors. Around 11pm I laid back, closed my eyes, and lost myself to the album. The 5-wheel camper and fold-out mattress was instantly transformed into something more like this:


By the middle of the third selection, I’d already tracked down a sealed copy and processed my payment – certain that this was an essential for my library.


The second (and equally-outstanding) recording is a selection from minimalist composer, Terry Riley’s catalog. I already have A Rainbow in Curved Air, The Church of Anthrax (with John Cale), The Ten Voices of the Two Prophets, and know very well that I need his most-celebrated work – In C.

But this particular record – Persian Surgery Dervishes, had escaped my radar. It was only after I saw numerous copies surface among members of a social network that I decided this was something I needed to hear.


At first listen, I was completely enveloped in a wash of pulsing electric organ loops. Each side-long track sounds as if it were an exercise in the tape loop technique developed by Riley and Pauline Oliveros (later popularized by Fripp and Eno). However, the rapid, cyclic melodies heard on each side of the album are in reality two LIVE solo performances of Riley in LA and in Paris performing on a just-intoned Yamaha organ. Even more astounding is that the second performance sounds far different from the first, but is simply Riley demonstrating the importance of improvisation. The two recordings are each of the same composition.


Dervishes is beautifully meditative and is really an album you can loose yourself in. Like most great minimalist compositions, the listener loses their sense of time and the piece becomes the atmosphere of the room.

Special thanks to all of the users who posted their copies of this exceptional record – Andrew G, Tintin E, Andrew T, Luke B, Chris A, and likely many others!

Now get lost.

Some Albums Hit You Like a Ton of Bricks - Others Wait Til You're Ready
 

This morning I decided to revisit an album I’d honestly neglected when I’d first picked it up 15 years ago. Slowdive’s Souvlaki is heralded as the quiet answer to My Bloody Valentine’s epically-loud shoegaze masterpiece, Loveless. Released in 1993, it has remained to this day one of the definitive albums of its decade.


The opening track, “Allison” is widely-acclaimed as the strongest selection of the album. Straight away it sets the pace for the dreamy majesty that is to come. The next two tracks - “Machine Gun” and “40 Days” begin with a sharp attack and relentless guitars and both tracks dissipate elegantly over powerfully-long 16-second fade outs, creating a wonderful sonic-staging of a band performing in the void of outer space.

Still, this isn’t a perfect album. “Sing” is an attempt at a more freeform, atmospheric piece, but while Nick Chaplin’s bass maintains a simple, melodic structure, the rest of the band appears to disregard it. The resulting instrumentation seems out-of-focus, and whether intentional or not, the lack of a tonal center takes away from the music. "Here She Comes” had similar potential, but ends abruptly after only 2 minutes. Neil Halstead closes the track speaking the title into silence, and you’re really left wishing there was more.

But other tracks like “Slowdive Space Station” return to the strength of the album’s start. The song features a wash of heavily-reverberating guitar drones and indecipherable vocals that would make Elizabeth Fraser proud. Rachel Goswell’s speech echoes from a distant star system and by the end of the piece the guitars have slowly decayed into beautiful noise reminding the listener why Souvlaki is one of the essential albums of the shoegaze/dream genre.


The remainder of the album is similarly trademark of the shoegaze scene. All of the elements are there - from the backmasked drums on “Melon Yellow” to the infinitely-sustained tones and delicate melodies of “Some Velvet Morning.” This is a quintessential dream record.

And that’s one of the things I love most about music. It doesn’t judge its listener for shelving an album for over a decade without ever giving it a fair chance. It simply waits there quietly to be rediscovered, knowing you’ll fall in love with it when you’re ready for its beauty.

A Proper Proposal
 

UPDATE for Sunday, June 7th, 2015. I am as of this day betrothed to a lovely lady journalist with sharp wit and who loves to engage me in debates about 20th century music or on why Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is clearly the superior film of the breakdance genre.

The proposal took place in the Hamilton House this afternoon - a 19th century mansion, (her favorite spot in the USA) during our visit to Genesee Country Village for her birthday. Of course we both attended in full period regalia and were asked by the staff if we'd like to join their team of volunteers.

It was a wonderful weekend getaway, and the staff were so emotionally moved by the proposal that they escorted us beyond the ropes up the spiral stairs to the 3rd story of the estate where we had a magnificent view of the entire village.

And not to be exempt from my musical duties, I assembled a birthday playlist for the drive home that had her dialing it up to eleven and singing at the top of her lungs in delight.

A good time had by all. Cheers everyone!

Chill Out.
 

I've been quiet for the past few weeks, what with all the doin's a-transpiring, but quite recently I've made a pledge to be a little more active and decided upon a project.

I've got shelves and shelves of killer records, each milestones in their own right, but haven't quite the time to draft an article for each one. So, for as long as it lasts, I'm going to feature an album (or small collections of albums) each day with a just few words about them.

Where better to begin than my questionably-healthy obsession with ambient house music?

There are a few key recordings in the world of ambient house. Records like The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (featuring the hit, "Little Fluffy Clouds"), and the 40:00 "Blue Room" single - the longest single ever to reach the UK charts.


Another highlight from The Orb's catalog is Metallic Spheres - the glorious collaboration of The Orb, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and Killing Joke bassist Youth.

Excellently mastered, pressed on heavy audiophile-grade vinyl and in an ultra-glossy gatefold jacket with fold-out poster and download code for an exclusive alternate mix.

This record is a dream come true.


And you can't talk about The Orb without addressing Paterson's first recordings with the legendary KLF.

"3AM Eternal", "Justified & Ancient", and "Doctorin' the Tardis" are staple singles from The KLF. I'm holding out for a picture disc import of "America: What Time Is Love?" to complete The Stadium House Trilogy.


Space by Space is a 1990 ambient house concept album by Jimmy Cauty and Alex Paterson and was originally intended to be The Orb's debut album.

And last but certainly not least, also pictured about is Chill Out - the ultimate ambient house LP. It portrays a mythical night-time journey up the US Gulf Coast from Texas into Louisiana following a weekend rave.

I ordered a VG+ copy of the highly sought-after Chill Out from the UK on Discogs only to learn that it was destroyed at US Customs. The seller was so cool, he sent me his mint first press (pictured) at no additional charge.

"This is what the KLF is about."

And for KLF fans looking for exceptional rare material, I highly recommend The KLF: Recovered & Remastered KLF MINUS-SIX unofficial album. "This Is Not What Space Is About" is a monumental unofficial rework of Space, transforming it into an epic drone album.

Each copy was personalized with the owners name and I was lucky to secure a copy for my library. Check it out!

I've put "Little Fluffy Clouds" on many mix CD's. I need to check out that whole album.

Funky 70s Synth Music
 

Today's featured LP - TONTO's Expanding Head Band. (1975 Atlantic issue of the Zero Time Embryo LP from '71)

"The Original New Timbral Orchestra," is the first, and still the largest, multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer in the world.

For those not familiar with this marvelous behemoth, you've heard it before, on Stevie Wonder's records from Electric Lady Studios, (most notably on "Superstition") as well as albums by Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Gil Scott-Heron, Weather Report, Steve Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat and Joan Baez (just to name a few!)

Pictured below are a few of the records which feature TONTO, including the soundtrack to Brian Depalma's cult film, The Phantom of the Paradise."
It took writing this post for me to discover that so many of the records on my shelves were touched by this synth - so THANK YOU!

Today's featured classic album is one that needs no introduction. Pictured below is a mint sealed copy of Elliott Smith's Either/Or. This is a 1997 Kill Rock Stars first pressing.

I found it at a Goodwill in amidst a pile of Christmas records for 99 cents.

Once it a while, digging really pays off.

http://i.imgur.com/ZFPw9t7.jpg

The Orb Returns with Moonbuilding 2703 AD!
 

Ten years since their last album on the Kompakt label, The Orb returns to Kompakt this month with their 13th album, Moonbuilding 2703 AD.


Moonbuilding is hypnotic, engaging, and endlessly fascinating. There is an ever-shifting spatial environment as an assortment of deep beats, dub rhythms, and indescribable microtonal sounds traverse the space between your ears. There are no hooks or identifiable refrains on which a more passive listener could settle comfortably. Instead the record is a cerebral adventure, whether you choose to explore it consciously and critically or just lose yourself in the entrancing future-tribal magic.


Like all of The Orb's albums, it is thoughtful and reflective, but there are no peaceful, ambient epics to be found on Moonbuilding. Still, the record does retain Paterson's trademark natural, analog warmth. Even his most cosmic and interstellar tracks have always maintained an organic quality sorely missing from much of the bleep-bloop techno of the last few decades. Similar percussion is present on their newest album, though the wide-eyed energy of the LP is measurably greater than on any of their previous recordings.

But make no mistake about it - at no point does this approach hi-nrg 4-on-the-floor frat techno. This is an immensely atmospheric record, rich with subtleties and nuances which make repeated listenings most rewarding. This is, at its heart, proper German electronic music. Thomas Fehlmann's contributions are clearly evident as are all the influences of his present home city of Berlin. If a listener is curious how The Berlin School of the late 1970s has evolved to the present day, the track "Lunar Caves" answers the question perfectly.

"Caves" is where Paterson's work is most evident. The song is guided more by classic, dub-inspired ambient rhythms than by heavy percussion and there is a brief but definite nod to Aphex Twin which fans will instantly detect. If you've any doubt that The Orb is ideal for heady headphone listening, you'd do well to remember that this is the band who played chess live(!) on Top of the Pops for "The Blue Room" in 1992.


In all, Moonbuilding 2703 AD marks a triumphant return for The Orb to the Kompakt label and demonstrates that these old boys still have what it takes to make outstanding and fresh new music.

The album is set for release June 23rd and available for preorder at kompakt.fm, as well as a 3LP+CD expanded edition which features a tribute to J Dilla.

Vinylmania! Record Event!
 

Had a blast at the local Vinylmania record show! I went to the event hoping to get some Klaus Schulze LPs (but honestly not expecting to find any). I was blown away that one killer table hooked me up with several of his albums on the Brain label, all in fantastic condition!

Also took home The Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Sessions, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy LP, and J.R.R. Tolkien Reads The Lord of the Rings (all from that same table.)

The best bit is that I didn't have to shell out shipping from Germany for each one of these individually like I do with most Brain LPs. Made me very happy (and it's my birthday... so yay for me!)

Birthday gift by mail! This on the day of official publication - Steven Witt's How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy.


This will make for PERFECT summer reading on my birthday vacation this week!

How Music Got Free - Cover to Cover
 

Thrilled to have received my copy of Stephen Witt’s How Music Got Free in the post on its date of official publication, I made myself comfortable, put on a full pot of coffee, and eagerly dove into what I anticipated would be a fast-favorite addition to my library.


The book quickly settles into an exciting rhythm – its chapters circling around the activities of key figures in the story of the music industry and of music piracy in the last thirty years. It begins with the struggle of Karlheinz Brandenburg to develop his MP3 audio compression format over twelve years of fine-tuning and a constant battle for acknowledgment by a fiercely competitive industry.

The action then jumps to a few seemingly inconsequential men working at the PolyGram compact disc manufacturing plant in North Carolina – an unsuspecting locale for the most pivotal characters in the end of an industry.

A chapter later, we are privy to private exchanges between the newly-appointed CEO of Warner Music and his fellow overseers of the empire. As the story unfolds, we follow these figures through label acquisitions and purges, through major shifts in industrial policy, through aimless crackdowns on “pirates” including the elderly, the deceased, and a 12-year-old girl who’d downloaded the theme song to Family Matters.

As these individual stories progress, the reader develops an in-depth perspective of the tumultuous end of an era for recorded music. The author offers an astoundingly detailed account of the lives and conversations of core members of the Rabid Neurosis warez group and their suppliers. The storytelling is exciting, calculated, and fast-paced. In elegant Hollywood style, each chapter leaves one scene at a critical cliffhanger to pick up at a similar point of action from another of the sub-plots in the puzzle that was turn-of-the-century music.

I read How Music Got Free eyes wide from cover to cover, captured by every thrilling twist in the tale. What could have been a dry and drab account of compression algorithms and legalities is instead an action-packed saga of a dangerous underground organization where anonymity is critical and risk is always high.

The book also explores the advent of the iPod and the birth and death of numerous filesharing services like Kazaa, Grokster, Limewire, Bearshare, the rise and fall of TPB, and Oink, as well as a few contemporary players I’d never expected to see named in print.

The ending is incredibly satisfying, and even evokes a strong sense of emotion and empathy in the reader – yet another surprise I hadn’t anticipated from a text on piracy. Witt’s book is a fascinating read and adds a much-needed perspective to a story which is still being played out before our eyes. This is easily my favorite title of the year.

Nu Jazz and Ninja Tune
 

Today's feature - a few of my favorite Ninja Tune label releases and other records with a nu-jazz air about them.

Cinematic Orchestra's Motion is a magnificent and atmospheric record. Their work is an excellent blend of live jazz improvisation and downtempo electronica.

DJ Food's Kaleidoscope is the best of his earlier works and features Ken Nordine doing his trademark jazzy spoken word routine.

DJ Food & Amorphous Androgynous's The Illectrik Hoax is an energetic and electrically-charged work of 60s psychedelia blended with turn-of-the-century turntablism - a really unique piece.

St Germain's Tourist is a modern nu-jazz classic on the Blue Note label. Highlights include "Rose Rouge" and "So Flute".

Bonobo's Black Sands is the favorite of the set - a brilliant and cohesive collection of downtempo, jazz-tinged mood music which is equally enjoyable in the foreground or as a sonic wallpaper.

And Skalpel's self-titled record is another highlight from the Ninja Tune label. Skalpel seamlessly blends loops of various Polish jazz unknowns into a classy and enjoyable record - the sort of sound you'd expect to hear in a hip cafe in Ibiza circa 2004. But the album has stood the test of the decade since and still sounds fresh and lively today.

http://i.imgur.com/H7HxuD0.jpg

Holy CRAP this was only 99 cents?!

That's one of my favorite albums of all-time, what a great find

Ambient Top 5
 

Ambient Top 5 (of the moment)

I'm not counting box sets - they'll be featured in the days ahead.

• Brian Eno's classic, Ambient 1:Music for Airports
• Ambient pop - Air's Moon Safari
• The Frippertronic masterpiece, (No Pussyfooting) by Fripp & Eno
• Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works vol 2 3LP
• and the drone ambient magnum opus - Gas' Nah Und Fern

These albums are sure to show up on any good ambient lists.

What do you think? Is there a more appropriate title I'm missing for the Top 5?

http://i.imgur.com/glbObMs.jpg

It all boils down to taste really, but I think my all time favourite ambient record apart from Music for Airports is Keiji Haino's Koko. Popol Vuh's In den Gärten Pharoas would probably make it on my list as well.

Pharaos is stunning, though my own favorite is the Wah-Wah reissue of Hosianna Mantra. :)

Grand Unified Theory of Contemporary Music
 

Below is a tribute print I created celebrating the work of Brian Eno. "The Grand Unified Theory of Contemporary Music" (with Eno at its center) visually maps every major print, sound, and visual art project by Eno (and all other artists' works produced by Eno) from 1967 to the date I created the graphic.

I have a 24" x 24" PVC-mounted wall print of this piece in my studio. (Sample area magnified for legibility.)

I created another graphic featuring every artist John Peel ever played on The John Peel Sessions. (Sample available upon request.) I had a lot of fun putting these together!

And stay tuned - a really cool piece on The Hearts of Space program will be coming up later today!

http://i.imgur.com/ztPGYa1.jpg

A Taste of Fresh Aire
 

Featured box set of the day - a gift item from American Gramophone. This is Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire 1972-1982 Limited Edition Collectors Series from 1983.

The set comes in a hardbound velvet case with an embossed pewter emblem. Each set is numbered and includes a wonderful color book. The LPs are housed in embossed silver foil jackets.

I already had each of the Fresh Aire LPs including the ambient "Interludes" volume, but I couldn't pass up this splendid collectible!

Slow Music for Fast Times
 

This morning saw the conclusion of our latest archival project. The world's longest-running ambient radio program, Hearts of Space began broadcasting slow music for fast times back in 1973. The original program was a 3-hour set, shortened to its present 1-hour format when the show began public radio syndication in 1983.

http://i.imgur.com/2RXjmIb.jpg

Since syndication Heats of Space has aired 1080 hour-long episodes showcasing quality ambient music each week for over 30 years. Innerspace has successfully compiled a complete archive of the show's broadcasts and will continue to add new episodes as they are aired.

We've made sure to uniformly name and tag each program and to include the original broadcast date and a companion track listing with the metadata for each episode.

Beginning next week I'll be moving into a larger office and wanted to create a downtempo chill-out library as a relaxing ambient soundscape for my work day. The Hearts of Space broadcasts will be added to a rotation along with other complete label archives, such as:

- the six phases from the late Pete Namlook's ambient FAX +49-69/450464 label

http://i.imgur.com/u78LYOa.jpg

- the intelligent d'n'b sounds of LTJ Bukem's Good Looking Records and its companion projects

http://i.imgur.com/c36i5dC.jpg

- the first ~150 records on the Ninja Tune label for some jazzy, downtempo electronic music

http://i.imgur.com/3bozm8u.jpg

- a wonderful 330-hour audio archive of psybient albums from Simon Posford and other prominent figures of the scene

http://i.imgur.com/YG8DeHP.jpg

- and an additional 72-hour collection of quality psybient mixes by Spacemind

http://i.imgur.com/9QneMoU.jpg

The majority of these selections are not offered by any of the major streaming networks or from current commercial markets, but Innerspace Labs has got it covered.

And you can check out Spacemind's mixes on Youtube. Here's Light Reactions (Remastered)

wouldn't Nah Und Fern be a box set?

either way Gas would definitely be on my top 5. mine would probably look like this:

In den Garten Pharoas by Popol Vuh - favorite piece of music of any genre
Zauberberg by Gas - his darkest and most brooding Gas album
Die Festung by Paysage D'hiver - winter ambient over the likes of Biosphere, Thomas Koner, etc
Quique by Seefeel - irresistibly catchy. a grower this year but I couldn't do without this one anymore.
The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars - you aren't real if you don't cry to this

yeesh this was really tough. could easily change this whole list to a totally different 5

While the CD version of Nah Und Fern is a box set, the vinyl issue is just a 2LP comp of edits- hardly qualifying as a "set."

Each of your other mentioned albums are fantastic examples of the genre. While not technically an equal comparison, I would say that naming a top 5 of the ambient genre is similar to asking for a consensus of a top 5 for "rock." It is simply too wide of an umbrella to narrow to so small a selection.

Moonbuilding 2703 AD (2015) has arrived!
 

This evening, the latest 3LP special edition of The Orb’s new album arrived from Kompakt Records!

Check out the photos below.

http://i.imgur.com/dYFB7WF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FJr4E1q.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pbayGn0.jpg

If you missed my recent review of a promo copy of the album, tune in here!

No small task.
 

[Repost from the What'cha Readin'? thread]

I couldn't be happier - this week I firmly decided that I want to really immerse myself into the dark-humored linguistic labyrinth that is Finnegans Wake. Not just superficially - read-aloud gatherings are jovial exercises in social theater where attendees discover more about the reader than of the text. Instead, I've secured gorgeous hardcover editions of Joseph Campbell's A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake and McHugh's similar Annotations to Finnegans Wake. These are the two most exhaustive analytical and scholarly texts on Joyce's masterwork.


I want to explore the world's least-read great novel and develop a concrete appreciation of Joyce's sharp wit and of the novel's legendary morphemic acrobatics.

This is an exercise I aim to lose myself within. I've an addiction to cerebral projects and find myself ever-searching for the next big challenge. It is in part escapism from the "dumbed-down" mass-culture I so actively avoid. Independent academic ventures are a realm of safety where all knowledge shines brightly and wisdom is the ultimate virtue. But it is also an activity which simply appeals to my core values - my love of learning, challenges, and discovery. I am, as Cage once said, "a student from the school from which we'll never graduate."


riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs...

[EDIT] A side note to fellow readers - Annotations is considered an academic text and as such commands an $85 price from all sellers. Astonishingly, if you visit the John Hopkins University Press website, you can purchase a new copy of the 648pp Hardback for 71% OFF - only $25! (LESS than the price of the paperback!) Today is my lucky day.

An audiophillic near-death experience
 

I could not be more excited! I bought a used 1st gen Creative Zen X-Fi audio/video player in 2009. 32GB of internal flash storage, expandable to 160GB of Flash memory via SD card. Excellent internal speaker and shipped with Zen's killer IEMs which at the time retailed for $86.

After 6 beautiful years of service my Zen started going crazy as if buttons were being randomly pressed, rendering it unusable. This morning I cracked open the case and gave it a thorough cleaning. It was back in action in minutes!

http://i.imgur.com/feeeYO8.jpg

Friends, don't give up on your gear - show it a little love and it will continue to serve you well for YEARS to come. Best $120 I ever spent.

http://i.imgur.com/KG26t9G.jpg

Great Music No One Is Looking For
 

I had a wonderful day of antiquing with friends and took home some lovely musical treasures. Nothing rare or collectible, but there is incredible educational value in these specimen. File under "Great Music No One Is Looking For."

The Schulze LP is a welcome addition to my growing collection of his works.

The Django Reinhardt disc is a collection of live performances from 1935-38 in Paris with Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and others. It is my first LP to feature guitar work by Reinhardt and I'll certainly be looking for others.

But the Gil Evans record was the real surprise. The cover photo is unassuming and bland, but apparently it has little to nothing to do with Evans, himself.
According to Ashley Kahn's book The House that Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records (2006), the label's head, Creed Taylor, was in the process of being lured away by Verve Records when this album was in pre-production. They already had the cover-art for it, pre-planned as a sequel to his successful Out of the Cool, so Evans decided to treat the project as a contractual obligation.

What I have, instead is a record showcasing third stream abstract atmospheric jazz led by Johnny Carisi and the other half, weirdly, an experimental/free jazz record by Cecil Taylor playing with, among others, Archie Shepp and Sunny Murray.

Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee!
 

As foretold in the prophecy - my textbooks have arrived!

http://i.imgur.com/NSZyRso.jpg

Above - a Penguin Paperback of the unparalleled Finnegans Wake, and two scholarly texts on the novel - A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake by the master of monomyth, Joseph Campbell and the latest edition of Annotations to Finnegans Wake published by John Hopkins University Press.

(Pardon my excitement but these are wonderful additions to my library.)

From the introduction of Annotations..., this page outlines conventions and languages referenced throughout the book.

...additional languages referenced. (Joyce was a brilliantly mad linguistics expert.)

And this is how the body of the book is laid out.

For those unfamiliar with the Wake, Jacques Mercanton described the book as being written, "in a largely idiosyncratic language, consisting of a mixture of standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and portmanteau words, which many critics believe were attempts to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams."

My affinity for analytical processes makes Joyce's final work an exciting undertaking! (Perhaps I'll have the good fortune of joining the NY chapter of The Wake Society to participate in a reading.)

Are the Floodgates of Public’s Access to Information Irreversibly Open?
 

The following article was published on my music journal this afternoon. I intend for it to start a public conversation about the future of the net.

Siva Vaidhyanathan’s writings on piracy culture, particularly The Anarchist in the Library, reference numerous examples of the church and crown’s efforts to maintain a stranglehold on the flow of information to protect their power. In a chapter discussing the history of control, there are clear parallels between the Catholic Church and those of the United States with the implementation of The Patriot Act.

In the 14th century, John Wycliffe was the first to produce a handwritten English manuscript of the 80 books of the Bible. 44 years after Wycliffe had died, the Pope declared him a heretic, banned his writings, and ordered a posthumous execution. His bones were dug-up, crushed, burned, and scattered in a river. Similarly in the 16th century, William Tyndale was the first to translate and print the New Testament into English. As a result he was imprisoned for 500 days, strangled and burned at the stake.


William Tyndale, before being strangled and burned at the stake, cries out, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”. woodcut from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563).

By the dawn of the 21st century, the freedom of information that came with the printing press experienced its most-recent incarnation with the world wide web and social media. The Patriot Act was the government’s struggle for control over the anarchic freedom that was the internet and came in the form of mass-surveillance.

Edward Snowden became the latest in the line of dissidents who worked to empower the public by exposing the corruption of the government, just as Tyndale and Wycliffe before him. And a curious web search for the terms “Spanish Inquisition” + “Patriot Act” instantly returns a piece by Walter Cronkite comparing and contrasting the two systems from 2003.

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger states in his article, Who Says We Know that “Professionals are no longer needed for the bare purpose of the mass distribution of information and the shaping of opinion.” This same dissemination of distribution is what resulted in the music industry’s panic and frenzied struggle for control with crippling technologies like DRM and its continued anti-piracy campaign. There is simply no longer a need for the monopolistic record labels that once commanded the industry. Artists are empowered to distribute their content directly and can communicate with their fanbase without a commercial intermediary. This artist-empowerment is expertly discussed by Amanda Palmer in her book, The Art of Asking (and in her TED Talk of the same name.)


In each of these milestones in the history of information freedom, the acts have been irreversible. Gutenberg’s printing press empowered the public good through democratization of information – making it inexpensive and readily-accessible. The web has been much the same, only exponentially more potent.

Still, small but persistent communities continue to prepare for a dystopian world war over information. They archive the Wikipedia daily and hypothesize alternate methods of mass-communication should the Web as we know it come under fire. Is their fear valid?


It is difficult to envision a scenario in which first-world governments could close the floodgates of the world-wide web without immediate and drastic reprisal from the public at large, who have come to view the internet as a right and a public utility. Furthermore, global commerce, banking, and the mechanics of industry could not likely stand to make such a sacrifice in the name of control. Shutting down the web would thrust the global economy into an instantaneous dark age and entire systems of utility, government and finance would collapse.

What are your thoughts? Is our access to information irreversibly free? Need we take measures to stockpile and protect the information we have today in preparation for a darker tomorrow?

It might sound controversial, but I believe the Internet is absolutely a public utility now, and should be set up the same way as a utility company (legal monopoly). The Internet system needs to be built up the same way the roads system was. This would help modernize commerce as well. Perhaps a little more tricky to do as technology changes so rapidly, so it wouldn't be like patching pot holes whenever there's a need for an upgrade. I think at the very least the government could sponsor satellite Internet, since that is easier to upgrade (although not as fast and all that), but I guess that would be a political football that you'd have to get past the land-line lobbyists up at Pennsylvania Avenue, if you're living in the United States. And I don't mean giving away free Internet, I mean setting up the Internet providers as utilities. But that's just about access.

As far as control and regulation, I am not a doom-and-gloomer, since I've always been curious why the government gave Internet technology to the public to begin with. They didn't have to. For the most part, they have let it go unregulated (outside of illegal activity and all the copyright infringement stuff).

I come across this topic from time to time in net neutrality discussions. It's a really complicated topic, but I think you might find this video relevant or interesting. It was a discussion about open Internet as far as service providers creating tiered pricing based on speeds, but they also touch on some of the topics you mention about the FCC and government control:



If you really think about it, governments controlled books here and there throughout history, but did they really? Nah. Books still got published and I think the future of the Internet will be the same: pockets of control here, pockets of control there, but largely, it will remain open.

Thanks for your input, AUX-in! I'll definitely check out the vid.

I don't yet take a concrete position regarding government-provided internet as a public utility. I'm not sure that a body as large and slow as government could effectively manage access to the web. (Senator Ted Stevens' "series of tubes" talk comes to mind.)

I do approach the subject from a biased position, given my propensity to favor deregulation and strong support of file sharing as the only viable means of acquisition for the content I enjoy.

Though I don't imagine that internet management by the US govt would have much (if any) impact on darknet activities, based upon the little effect that mass surveillance has had on the same.

Tom Waits: Under Review – An Independent Critical Analysis
 

Tom Waits has remained a mysterious character on the fringes of popular music for over 40 years. One of the small drawbacks to his personae is the lack of critical and analytical interview content of the strange and wonderful musician. Thankfully, the Under Review documentary series has produced two 80-minute films which offer a surprisingly in-depth examination of the man and his music.

The first segment is titled Tom Waits: Under Review 1971-1982: An Independent Critical Analysis, and the second bears the same title replacing the years with 1983-2006. The films feature rare interviews, footage, unusual photographs and criticism from many different experts and acquaintances of Tom Waits.


The most revealing insight is presented in the first of the two films, which examines the context and collaborations resulting in Waits' always unique but ever-changing sound. Speaking about his earliest downtrodden troubadour era:

There is also a detailed analysis of Waits' atypical approach to lyricism which favored narrative over confession.


Tom has always maintained a style unlike any of the artists of his day. What was particularly fascinating about the album Swordfishtrombones was that a listener couldn't point to other records from that decade and say, "I see where he got that from." And that unlike his contemporaries of the 1980s, the album hasn't become embarrassingly dated to its decade.

Still, there are more subtle stylistic influences to Waits' work. His music mirrors the wit of Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley, and Kerouac. His songs also embrace the atonalism and avant-garde compositional form of Harry Partch, Captain Beefheart, and most certainly German composer Kurt Weill. But perhaps most apparent are the vocal influences of Howlin Wolf. The film humorously describes his more self-parodic songs as falling "somewhere between an imitation of Louie Armstrong and Oscar the Grouch."

This outlandish and extreme vocal quality was met with criticism from the listening public.

Speaking about Nighthawks at the Diner, the film observes:


They go on to examine his vocal characteristic further, noting that "Nighthawks was almost self-parodic, but with Small Change Waits transcended his own influence."

They described the peak of the boho barstool character thusly:

But it is Waits' juxtaposition of innocent lyrics and melodies with his nighthawk performance that really makes the whole character work.

A key analysis presented in segment one outlines the importance of this quality:

And finally, another layer of context is added to Waits music when the culture of his listeners, (particularly American audiences) is added to the mix. Speaking on the value of the album Heartattack and Vine -

Under Review expertly illustrates the depth and consistent quality of Waits' music throughout his career with this fantastic critical analysis. For any listener growing bored of the superficiality of taking music at face value, Under Review will be an inspiring breath of fresh air.

If you have those movies available and can send them to me somehow or know where I can get them, I would love to see them. Sound really interesting. Have you read "Big time"?

I also have, somewhere in my collection, an actual interview on vinyl. All I remember is this: he was I think attending an album signing or doing something public anyway, and this lady came up to him. "Is this where they sell the clocks?" she asked. Waits looked at her blearily for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure", he said, "this is where they sell the clocks!" :D

Sure thing. The first film is available in full on YouTube. Here's the playlist -



I have not - I'll add it to my list! I do own a copy of the Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits hardcover.

Wild! The only vinyl-issued interviews I know of are the following. Is it one of these?

A Conversation With Tom Waits (Island - TW 1 1983)

http://cdn.discogs.com/612x0SQ3it7ol...-6990.jpeg.jpg

Tom Waits Limited Edition Interview Picture Disc (Baktabak ‎– BAK 2141 1989)

http://cdn.discogs.com/3U3Fu_KCTg2QV...05756.jpeg.jpg

On The Scene '73 KPFK Folk Scene Broadcast 2LP (Let Them Eat Vinyl ‎– LETV057LP 2012)

http://cdn.discogs.com/DR83bTYaa0f6C...80040.jpeg.jpg