Mildly overwhelming review tbh, I’ve been rabbiting on recently online about how what I like about the Crucial Listening podcast is how the host really seems to engage with what he listens to, and here goes Tony Stamp doing the same with my own music.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thesampler/audio/2018908933/epiphytes-by-jet-jaguar

I’ll be honest it’s super gratifying when these days releasing music sometimes feels a bit like throwing pebbles down an empty well. You kind of wonder if you’ll hear something, some kind of response. I certainly only make music for me, but I’m still human, a social animal, and still hope that someone somewhere is into it! There might be some music makers not like that, but that’s not me. Too old to pretend otherwise too, ha.

I made another video breaking down how I made one of my tracks. It’s a kind of low-key marketing or promotion that I don’t feel gross about – and previous times have actually stimulated some good chat with fellow electronic music makers.

I thought I’d share my feed subs. Some of them are very much inactive, some sporadic, some very active.

Tim Prebble recently wrote some good stuff about blogging and following blogs in 2023, and he made reference to Marc Weidenbaum‘s thoughts on blogging in the mix… Coincidentally, Tim and Marc are both folks whose blogs I follow via RSS. And, you know, I really like RSS feeds still. I use a plugin to Firefox called Feedbro.

What I like about RSS feeds is they’re really low distraction and unmediated. Email newsletters are pretty close, but they still arrive amongst other emails (to state the obvious). I like going to my reader when I want to and find there’s not much of that stressful vibe I associate with most contemporary online stuff.

Music

• absorptions
• AmbientNZ
• anomie
• A Wonderful Kind Of Impossible
• blog.danbraun.me
• C o r u s c a t e
• Disquiet
• four questions | located sound
• He Can Jog
• horizontalpitch
• Illusion Songs
• illusory discontinuity
• Music of Sound
• Nathan Ho
• nnnnnnnn.co
• Rodrigo Constanzo
• Stinky Jim
• The Ethan Hein Blog
• The Red Hand Files
• Valhalla DSP

Comics

• garfield minus garfield
• Junior Scientist Power Hour
• NonCanon
• ONE GIANT HAND
• Poorly Drawn Lines
• webcomic name

Food

• Hungry and Frozen
• Minimalist Baker
• What Kim Ate

Thoughts, photos, chats

• Archives Hub Blog
• From The Morgue
• Infovore
• Letting neural networks be weird
• Losing.today (Flickr)
• LOW-TECH MAGAZINE
• Molly White
• NO TECH MAGAZINE
• Separated by a Common Language
• Terrible real estate agent photographs
• Wellington by Night (Flickr)

I’ve not been really into that much new music in the last 5 months since I did one of these, so not had that much I wanted to write.

Partly I’ve been busy in work life and not listening while working, which was definitely a big part of remote working for me. But for whatever reason not much music has been grabbing me and inspiring me to play it again, in the face of the “content” churn:

• Shuffling dumb pop hits and 80s soft rock via one of the big bad streaming services.
• Audio books.
• Podcasts.
• And of course watching stuff, instead of listening:
  • movies,
  • TV, and
  • videos about
    • music,
    • movies,
    • TV…

Weirdly, despite feeling like I’m not really engaging with (other people’s) music, the days when I don’t listen to new music are absolutely the exception. Right now I have 175 Bandcamp links bookmarked in a “music to check” folder in my browser. I stack them up from links on social media and via announcements from the 450 accounts I follow on Bandcamp, telling myself I’ll listen to this stuff when I can give it a fair go. Then on top of that there’ll be “out of cycle” stuff like a friend’s new album or the new Everything But The Girl where I know I want to jump in right away.

So it’s not like I’m not listening, but it’s almost like a depressed thing where I just … note whether I reckon a piece of music is well done or not, rather than feeling it. The joys of being really busy all the time? The realities of the ever-increasing volumes of new releases? The dumbness of putting pressure on yourself to do something that’s supposed to be enjoyable?

Anyway, here’s some stuff and some responses to it.

Loscil // Lawrence English – Colours of Air (Kranky)

I’m always interested in what both of these folks do. Did you know Canadian Loscil released a 12″ via New Zealand label Involve Records? Cool cool cool.

Anyway, this album is all very simple sounding ambient music, but really is perfectly refined. “Great production” can be such a slap in the face, such faint praise, but if that’s how you want to describe what’s happening here it really is important and really is what separates this from much more boring shit.

English has a kind of physicality to what he does, even when you’d call it ambient. It sounds like it would hit hard over a big system, I guess. Meanwhile Loscil stuff can be a bit too washed out and distant for me, even while I love his more dubby stuff to bits. I find this album the best of both worlds, even the most simple repeating synth lines hitting hard and often sounding huge in a purely good way.

Arovane and Taylor Deupree – Skal_Ghost (12k)

Another first-time collaboration between two ambient music heavyweights, but one I’ll admit I was pretty sceptical about. I don’t often like Arovane’s music and recent Deupree hasn’t been essential, IMO, however much I adore e.g. Shoals. On top of that, the point of focus for this is gear, which sets off alarms.

Anyway, maybe these relatively low expectations contributed to how much I’ve been enjoying this. Exquisite moody sound sketches.

Peace Point – Cycles (Strange Behaviour)

OK, I did a remix that shows up on this, so maybe it looks bad to then blog about it, but fuck it, I’ve been listening to this a lot and I really enjoy the original tracks. (I mean, I really like my remix too, but you can’t say that.)

There’s an upbeat but still super mellow beat-y number, there’s one with bass guitar, but mostly some really tasty synth-based ambience. Definitely worth your time.

Inner River – Inner River (Atomnation)

Adrien had recommended this one before and I’d thought it was pretty good, but it really clicked this time around, just in the last month. Reminds me of territory Nicolas Jaar covers, but I like this a lot more than his music. Chill doof? Often beats, often wandering synths and mellow electric piano kind of stuff, as well as wordless vocal slices echoing about. Good times.

I had a great time remixing “Peavey Rage” off Peace Point’s new album, Cycles. Here’s a video of how I remixed it. Fun times!

Neuro-Defragmentation (New_Words)

Got to be my favourite compilation of the year. A weird thing: as a whole it feels like it could be from one artist, just variations on beautiful, dreamy, synthy ambient from folks I’ve never heard of. But it also doesn’t all sound the same. A second weird thing: several tracks remind me of what I’m trying to do in recent months with my own music. Strange synchronicity.

Funki Porcini shows up, with a nice floating thing with far away voices that is nothing like what I remember him doing on Ninja Tune back last century. Mind you, I could point to someone else who did downtempo beats stuff and is now much more in the ambient camp. 😇

Some of the same artists are doing dancey vinyl on New_Words’ sister label and the album is tagged “grime”! 🤔 I guess if anything that weird, beatless version of grime that I never quite understood as a kind of dance music? It’s got the kind of sound selections and vibes that show up in dancier contexts, but no sign of drums here.

I hope New_Words are selling well off Bandcamp, because it’s bizarre how few people seem to have picked this up. Previous releases quote write ups from other music shops, so… 🤞

Teebs – Did It Again (self-released)

A nice wee single with Panda Bear from Animal Collective singing on the first track. Teebs is a producer with connections to that LA beat scene that included folks like Flying Lotus, Gasface Killer, Ras G, et al. He doesn’t release often, but when he does I pay attention. His style’s prettier, more delicate than most, often featuring acoustic sounds such as guitars, harps, and so on. Still groove-based in a very good way.

Nueen – Diagrams of Thought (Balmat)

I’m really impressed by this guy. Mostly drum-free, so I guess you’d say ambient, but in a bright and quite melodic way, not droney. And then there are beats and bassy moments that definitely sound like he must listen to plenty of dance music, even when sometimes those sounds are more like punctuation than a steady dancefloor thing.

I smile because it’s literally Balearic music – he’s from Menorca from memory – but not sure it sounds like how people use that as a genre descriptor. Great, anyway.

Cleared – Of Endless Light (Touch)

Beautiful softly swelling tracks, at their best when they have a bit of a metronomic slow mo pulse under them, not vying for attention but just stopping the drones from feeling settled. “Dawn” is heavy in a great way, but the title track is superb.

James Devane – Beauty Is Useless (Umeboshi)

It strikes me everything I’m writing about this time around is something that sounds like it could’ve been released a while back, with a few contemporary flourishes. This is slabs of kinda dubby, but also pretty and bright, techno, reminiscent of Kompakt about 15-20 years ago. Something like the Burger/Ink collaboration maybe.

When I say “slabs”, most tracks don’t really change. Like Devane’s set up some kind of musical system, hit record, let the system run for a bit, then at some point stopped recording again. I kind of love that in this context. Easy to get lost in it.

Purelink – Purelink EP (UwU dust bath)

Loving this US trio’s throwback ambient techno vibes, like the best of 90s R&S or something, but the definite standout for me is the pair of remixes by xphresh (Ben Bondy/Special Guest DJ). Cheeky use of a pop acapella recontextualised beautifully, plus a close to instrumental version if vocals aren’t your thing. I see there’s vinyl on pre-order if that’s what you’re into.

Jack Woodbury | Peter Liley – Unfathomed Waters (Genre Defying)

Beautiful textures and moods from these Wellington NZ composers. While it leans really ambient, I also love the noisy explosive stuff near the end. There is no way those later tracks, distorted duets between crashing drums and roaring sax, are not directly influenced by Colin Stetson, but I’m fully into it. “Enter the Temple” in particular.

I do find the name of this Rattle Records sub-label pretty cringey. 😬 Oh well! I’m definitely going to write this one up for AmbientNZ.com when I get a minute.

Accelera Deck – Alligator (self-released)

The idea of a 2-hour, 15-track single is hilarious. But it was a rec from a friend and I read what the artist has to say and was immediately into it:

“…I usually start each new recording with a rough outline, or concept. Maybe just a single word…, with Alligator I decided to treat the beats as textures and explore all the permutations in a similar spirit as how I think Seefeel or Basic Channel/ Rhythm & Sound would”- c.jeely

I normally immediately avoid huge releases, keep it punchy (even if the music isn’t) I reckon. But I’ve really enjoyed just chucking this on shuffle and dipping in and out of as much or as little as I feel like. Tasty ambient dub kind of thing. I like the sound of it in the literal sense and the conceptual one.

Dettinger – Intershop (Kompakt)

Not at all a recent release, but I loved revisiting this recently. The remaster on Bandcamp sounds cracking.

I bought this at the Kompakt shop in Köln in 1999 and listened to it on my Discman as I travelled across Europe by train. So really nice memories there, which surely contributed to how much this blew me away, influenced my own music making and has continued to make me happy over decades. Track six is one of my favourite pieces of music.

There’s a thread of contemporary stuff I like (c.f. those xphresh remixes of Purelink 👆) that picks up from where folks like Dettinger left off, whether it’s coincidence or influence. I bought Jan Jelinek’s first album as Gramm at the Kompakt shop too, and I’m hearing that loungier end of his sound these days too. I listened to some really relevant thoughts from Kode 9 about how music actually develops, which I really agree with. It’s not a straight line.

Womb – Feeling Like Helium (Sonorous Circle & Arcade Recordings)

I never quite got Womb’s 2018 debut album (“got” in either sense!) but this single stood out and stuck with me, so four years late I shelled out and picked it up. It’s a beautiful song, but I reckon what probably lifts it for me is that re-played vocal part. The kind of thing I might expect in either some carefully produced pop or electronica, but being played live in the context of a quite loose indie band… it gets me in a way that this technical description probably doesn’t do justice to.

I secretly enjoyed breaking down the track “Griselinea Lucida” a couple of months back, so had another go with “Tonal Drift”. These are both off my most recent album, Room Tones. This time around I focused a bit more on how I went about writing, rather than just what parts make up the final track.

Ha, that title is verging on Stinky Jim. Here’s my whole Bandcamp collection, if you want to have a nosey, otherwise jumping straight in.

Adrien75 – 100 (self-released)

Ha, I’m contractually obliged to mention Adrien’s latest, since there’s a track on here called “Upton In Berlin”.

The album reminded me straight away of Adrien’s release back in the day on Move D’s label, where he was virtually/label-ly rubbing shoulders with Jan Jelinek, Moufang himself, and so on. The connections are the dusty hazy chords and dubbed out atmospheres and the switch between muffled drum machine beats and breakbeats.

It doesn’t feel like a throwback though – it’s also hard not to also think of the new schoolers who are on that retro cycle and bringing these sounds back, rejuvenated and exciting again. I’m thinking of that unnamed, loose collective connecting Kansas to Berlin (and Australia via Ben Bondy and also the Daisart label), names like Huerco S, Uon, Ulla Straus, Exael, and on and on.

Floatinghead – Live at The Third Eye (self-released)

My idea of tasty jazz. I somehow never went to the Third Eye, which I think is now shut? This reminds me of what I like from Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes and associates. Super tasteful sparse synthy passages, a lot of groove from start of finish (never a shuffle), catchy melodic bits, and when it all goes skronk it’s welcome contrast. Horns from Lucien Johnson and Bridget Kelly are great, but it all works together really well. A great set!

Carmen Villain – Only Love From Now On (Smalltown Supersound)

The opening track with Arve Henriksen is so beautiful it’d be easy to miss just how good the album is as a whole. The insistent, ringing percussion and shimmering layers work so well with Henriksen’s playing. Easy to draw the dots to Jon Hassell but I also find it pretty distinctly its own thing. Elsewhere a lot of flute intermingling with the electronic beds and soft percussion. “Subtle Bodies” is another fave.

Bad Channel – INTLBLK005 (International Black)

Nice dub techno two-track from Harvey Sutherland and Kane Ikin, excellent Melbourne producers. Not sure what more to say. Sparse, warm, rounded off (not spiky), and every element placed beautifully to serve the groove. I wrote “sparse” to dodge the usual implications of “minimal” suggesting something abstract or cold, I don’t get that vibe from this at all. Sutherland’s love of house comes through.

Kris Keogh – Processed Harp Works, Vol 3 (Muzan Editions)

Exactly what it says on the tin. Northern Territory-based harpist and electronics bod, Keogh dropped the first volume of this via New Weird Australia 11 years ago and I still listen to it. Beautiful lush harp parts and really really digital managing of that acoustic source. Sometimes harsh and jagged, sometimes sparkly and dubby. The combination really really works for me, such a rich and beautiful sound source, and then the frisson created by the digital processing… something about that really hits the spot.

Yeah, I wrote “frisson”.

I made this video, breaking down the track “Griselinea Lucida” from my latest solo album Room Tones. It was a pretty interesting experience. I run software training as part of my day job and that set me up to be pretty relaxed while making the video, which I did record live in one take, and pretty self-critical afterwards. 😅

I never, ever want to be a “content creator”. But I do really like to share and I have learnt so many useful and musical techniques for my current music-making environment via videos. I was also partly inspired by Auckland musician Kraus breaking down his track “Candy”. This video is all about a relatively different way of making electronic music to how I do it, but it was still just fascinating to me and great fodder. I hope stuff I share and perhaps take for granted will trigger ideas for others.