from freak fighter to lamp lighter

OccultHawk · 12-19-2020, 07:29 AM

Orphée by Jóhann Jóhannsson

I’ve mentioned before that the Deutsche Grammophon label carries tremendous weight with me and this unassailable record is fantastic example of why. It’s one of the best modern classical releases of the 21st century thus far. Icelander, Jóhannsson, borrows from great traditions but doesn’t bind himself restrictively to anything. This music is way beyond those 20th C parameters. This is the work of a composer striking out independently to appeal to our comfortable but wistful ways. There’s plenty to read about the inspiration and why the title and so on but to me this is the soundtrack of beautiful glacial waterfalls that only exist because it’s our time to die.

OccultHawk · 12-20-2020, 07:04 AM

Tristes Tropiques by Andrew Pekler

https://andrewpekler.bandcamp.com/al...stes-tropiques

Tristes Tropiques is an exotic beat centered fourth world recording by Soviet era Uzbekistan born recording artist Andrew Parker.

His family managed to successfully flee Soviet oppression and emigrated with political asylum to sunny California the land of Ronalds Reagan & McDonald’s

where he became intensely obsessed with Slayer. His frightened parents relocated the family again, this time to Germany

where he fell into the alternative rave/dance music seen that eventually matured into the experimental dance if you wanna record that brought us here. A sonically dense entertaining record that uses the beat to good effect.

OccultHawk · 12-20-2020, 04:04 PM

Quote:

History Lesson
Song by Nicolas Jaar
OVERVIEW
LYRICS
LISTEN
PEOPLE ALSO SEARCH FOR
Lyrics
Darling
You're late
For your history lesson
Don't you worry, I'll give you my notes
Chapter one: We fucked up
Chapter two: We did it again, and again, and again, and again
Chapter three: We didn't say sorry
Chapter four: We didn't acknowledge
Chapter five: We lied
Chapter six: We're done
Oh.but.baby... Don't you decide it?

Sirens (Nicolas Jaar album)

2016

OccultHawk · 12-21-2020, 01:46 PM

Front Row Seat to Earth by Weyes Blood

Front Row Seat to Earth has attracted a lot of genre tags but one I haven’t seen is soft rock and really think that’s what this is. The kind of soft rock that can be rebranded as yacht rock. Let me be clear that means quality. The critics have high praise for this record and rightfully so. It’s not lost in a nostalgic bubble. It’s rightfully 2016. But it sits comfortably with the melodic sensibilities and gorgeous productions that made driving in the seventies with the radio on so delicious.

OccultHawk · 12-21-2020, 02:02 PM

AS by Amnesia Scanner

AS is a beat oriented electronic album that would probably clear the club but for good reasons. It’s not my genre expertise but I get there’s something uneasy and high quality going on here like the molly being a bit more than you bargained for and you can’t find your ride.

OccultHawk · 12-24-2020, 12:51 PM

Departed Glories by Biosphere

https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/album/departed-glories

Departed Glories is dark ambient program music by Norwegian composer Geir Jenssen set in Russia. Cold. Vast. Empty. Frozen blood in the soil. The taiga teeming with life. The frozen lungs of our planet. Perhaps the Russia that can only really be seen by a Norwegian.

OccultHawk · 12-25-2020, 08:20 AM

Tiento de la Luz by Thomas Köner

Although Köner has received a fair share of recognition this 2016 release seems to have slipped under the radar. He’s been at it a long time and Tiento de la Luz - google translates it as “touch of light” and according to the label website, “A tiento is a form of keyboard music that originated in Spain in the mid-15th century.” https://denovali.com/thomaskoner/ - some of this is very melodically expressive and relatively much more accessible in a manner that reminds me of more pared down Sigur Rós but other parts a very stark, spare, and abstract. Recognition or not this is a top 2016 release from an unassailable composer who claims that music does not exist.

OccultHawk · 12-25-2020, 09:16 AM

The Infinity Room by 36

https://astrangelyisolatedplace.band...-infinity-room

36 has been one of my favorite go to ambient artists for the past few years and with almost 80,000 monthly listeners and tracks with over 5 million plays on Spotify I’m not alone. It seems to have been accomplished by the brute force of the quality of his music because their web presence in minimal. TIR is a 2016 release in accordance with my current Freak Fighter theme but 2020 was a fantastic and prolific year for this artist. He has been chosen for the curated Lava Lamp playlist on Spotify which certainly helps his numbers. He’s not a radical ground breaking pioneer but he’s the type that does what he sets out to do extremely well and any fan of ambient music is doing themselves a disservice if they don’t add this guy to their listening rotations.

OccultHawk · 12-25-2020, 10:12 PM

Site Specific by Ryan Teague

https://ryanteague.bandcamp.com/album/site-specific

Ambient jazz fusion played by an actual band which includes a bass clarinet, fluegelhorn, cello plus electronics and percussion. This is another one that’s incredibly good and under the radar.

OccultHawk · 12-26-2020, 07:15 AM

Leaps in Leicester by Alexander Hawkins and Evan Parker

Lisbon based Clean Feed Records might be the best jazz recording label of the last twenty years and this under appreciated masterpiece is a great example why. Parker, in his early 70’s at the time is one the great jazz heavyweights who refuses to retreat so long as there is breath to be breathed into his tenor. The younger Hawkins, who has a fantastic resume his damn self, brings glory to an instrument I’m always excited to see in the band, the Hammond organ. Personally, I love the duet format, especially with instrumentalists like this who are incredibly intuitive and make beautiful use of the extra sonic space.

12-19-2020, 07:29 AM	#1 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Orphée by Jóhann Jóhannsson I’ve mentioned before that the Deutsche Grammophon label carries tremendous weight with me and this unassailable record is fantastic example of why. It’s one of the best modern classical releases of the 21st century thus far. Icelander, Jóhannsson, borrows from great traditions but doesn’t bind himself restrictively to anything. This music is way beyond those 20th C parameters. This is the work of a composer striking out independently to appeal to our comfortable but wistful ways. There’s plenty to read about the inspiration and why the title and so on but to me this is the soundtrack of beautiful glacial waterfalls that only exist because it’s our time to die. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-20-2020, 07:04 AM	#2 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Tristes Tropiques by Andrew Pekler https://andrewpekler.bandcamp.com/al...stes-tropiques Tristes Tropiques is an exotic beat centered fourth world recording by Soviet era Uzbekistan born recording artist Andrew Parker. His family managed to successfully flee Soviet oppression and emigrated with political asylum to sunny California the land of Ronalds Reagan & McDonald’s where he became intensely obsessed with Slayer. His frightened parents relocated the family again, this time to Germany where he fell into the alternative rave/dance music seen that eventually matured into the experimental dance if you wanna record that brought us here. A sonically dense entertaining record that uses the beat to good effect. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-21-2020, 01:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Front Row Seat to Earth by Weyes Blood Front Row Seat to Earth has attracted a lot of genre tags but one I haven’t seen is soft rock and really think that’s what this is. The kind of soft rock that can be rebranded as yacht rock. Let me be clear that means quality. The critics have high praise for this record and rightfully so. It’s not lost in a nostalgic bubble. It’s rightfully 2016. But it sits comfortably with the melodic sensibilities and gorgeous productions that made driving in the seventies with the radio on so delicious. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-21-2020, 02:02 PM	#5 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	AS by Amnesia Scanner AS is a beat oriented electronic album that would probably clear the club but for good reasons. It’s not my genre expertise but I get there’s something uneasy and high quality going on here like the molly being a bit more than you bargained for and you can’t find your ride. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-24-2020, 12:51 PM	#6 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Departed Glories by Biosphere https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/album/departed-glories Departed Glories is dark ambient program music by Norwegian composer Geir Jenssen set in Russia. Cold. Vast. Empty. Frozen blood in the soil. The taiga teeming with life. The frozen lungs of our planet. Perhaps the Russia that can only really be seen by a Norwegian. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-25-2020, 08:20 AM	#7 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Tiento de la Luz by Thomas Köner Although Köner has received a fair share of recognition this 2016 release seems to have slipped under the radar. He’s been at it a long time and Tiento de la Luz - google translates it as “touch of light” and according to the label website, “A tiento is a form of keyboard music that originated in Spain in the mid-15th century.” https://denovali.com/thomaskoner/ - some of this is very melodically expressive and relatively much more accessible in a manner that reminds me of more pared down Sigur Rós but other parts a very stark, spare, and abstract. Recognition or not this is a top 2016 release from an unassailable composer who claims that music does not exist. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-25-2020, 09:16 AM	#8 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	The Infinity Room by 36 https://astrangelyisolatedplace.band...-infinity-room 36 has been one of my favorite go to ambient artists for the past few years and with almost 80,000 monthly listeners and tracks with over 5 million plays on Spotify I’m not alone. It seems to have been accomplished by the brute force of the quality of his music because their web presence in minimal. TIR is a 2016 release in accordance with my current Freak Fighter theme but 2020 was a fantastic and prolific year for this artist. He has been chosen for the curated Lava Lamp playlist on Spotify which certainly helps his numbers. He’s not a radical ground breaking pioneer but he’s the type that does what he sets out to do extremely well and any fan of ambient music is doing themselves a disservice if they don’t add this guy to their listening rotations. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-25-2020, 10:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Site Specific by Ryan Teague https://ryanteague.bandcamp.com/album/site-specific Ambient jazz fusion played by an actual band which includes a bass clarinet, fluegelhorn, cello plus electronics and percussion. This is another one that’s incredibly good and under the radar. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html

12-26-2020, 07:15 AM	#10 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	Leaps in Leicester by Alexander Hawkins and Evan Parker Lisbon based Clean Feed Records might be the best jazz recording label of the last twenty years and this under appreciated masterpiece is a great example why. Parker, in his early 70’s at the time is one the great jazz heavyweights who refuses to retreat so long as there is breath to be breathed into his tenor. The younger Hawkins, who has a fantastic resume his damn self, brings glory to an instrument I’m always excited to see in the band, the Hammond organ. Personally, I love the duet format, especially with instrumentalists like this who are incredibly intuitive and make beautiful use of the extra sonic space. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html