Jack Spelman Dust Vivid Railroad
Jack Spelman creates blurry lines boxing in outdoor memorabilia. The ridges are spotted wonders, so beautiful that you almost want to jump the cliff so you can explore the waters below. A full sound, yet quiet in its ability to rest there in the background, painting the pictures for your silhouettes to build a life in. This is the kind of sound made for an old vinyl piece you swoop up in an abandon box in the back of a thrifty spot. The dust is welcomed, now the spotlight for its remnants to build again. This music gets me exploring my writing, which I love. Thanks Jack, pure brilliant experimentations beaming in the shadows. Not much info on this project, like a link to a cassette or to dl the sounds. Stream for now folks.
Pick Of The Week: Kanada
Kanada out of France, has this track called “Bowling” on his soundcloud page. When I was walking through to grab another, in the long line of cups of coffee, it began to play. The tracks before it I liked so the decision to post had been made. Then came the “epic” moment where I declared in my mind this song is going to be the one I love, I know it. But that’s not to say his collection isn’t amazing. He released an EP called Parade back in September, which can be grabbed for a FREE dl.
Kanada has a passion for the ambient no doubt. He rests blurry objects on floating planes, which take off from the standard beat treatment. The music is highly addictive “brain food.” Something I enjoy b/c there’s a special place I go in my head, the one you can get to easily with a drop of LSD, or Fungi. Being older now, I stay away from whats alters us, finding the way with music, the obviously more wholesome choice.
But we won’t stop at the cerebral offerings from Paul Teyssédou Aka Kanada. His track “Elliptic Tricks” is another special treat. This one is more up beat, including the soulful blues guitar over hoppy heat. It has this vintage sound to it, instantly attractive. It sticks to the shakers core, a groover you once adored, refreshed with new blood from Kanada, a very deft French Producer.
I also put up his mixtape Handy Drummers Silent Square.
Tonmo Zip Line Swirls
Tonmo, wonderfully crafted chiller out of Iceland. The new tune “Vashite” has a nice vox clip, which gives the track an early morning beach vibe. There’s a nice selection of tunes on SC worth listening to. I included a few of the newer ones all which cross into this sample drone hip-hop, shifting in the realm of experimental chill. Not sure if Tonmo has an official release, no link on his page, but worth the stream no doubt. Dope!
Remixed Mountain Range Dazed With Sun Glitters
Mountain Range can’t just stop with his own amazing talent for delivering the wonderfully cerebral aesthetic of leaves crashing within the mist of memories. He went out and linked his visions to Sun Glitters, the great Ole Torjus, and Teen Daze offers a smooth, cozy ride within the parameters M.R. sets up every time he releases something. There is no one out there doing it quite like this, and the online popularity of this roster solidifies the original version into a great EP. And it just sounds so damn good.
My 20 Picks For 2012
2012 was an interesting year for Holly and me. We learned we’d become parents, due date late January 2013. Our son’s name is Cove, he now is the proud owner of years of collecting music, and a few choice instruments. My first album came out under Nomadic Firs, which had so many weird, and exciting moments. With those two big items I give you this random list, which is a collection of Artists I heard getting played over and over again in our house. These are some of the folks that took me out of my own creations, and allowed me to just be a fan of music again. Something I honestly misplaced, and the reason I do this site. So cheers to all of you for making this last year fun for us, we appreciate it.
Forrest James Burst Traverse
Under The Chrome Sea is the new concept album from Forrest James, a self-described dream waver out of Massachusetts. Setting aside the deft self description, the new record is one of the best finds of the year. James incorporates Boards of Canada (ISH) atmosphere, while spinning the glowing side of Neon Indian, almost like a hint or flutter in the ozone. This really comes through on the track “Waves,” but there’s more to the record than simple comparisons. Forrest calls it a “concept album” which was nine months in the making; this is quite apparent throughout the record. The new album plays like a trip being taken exclusively by your mind. Hell, the rest of you might being pulling a couch potato jones, but not the inner work. It’s all deep with a tinge of bitter-sweet, and the continually (popular) epic style explorative. One of the big stand outs for me is the way Forrest makes his song layout. He’s very patient, never in much of a hurry to change, but it will change into something. That’s the special part about his new record, you maintain this constant while somehow getting the motion with it.
On his bandcamp page Forrest explains the album this way…
“I’ve always wanted to work on a concept album. As an art form I really admire them in a way that “single” culture can’t ever touch for me. On top of that I planned from the beginning to release this album on vinyl, so whilst composing I was also considering timing, song placement, and how length affects sound quality. It has been an enjoyable voyage to new, welcome, terrain. Needless to say, I studied the 1970′s and 80′s and how the idea of the album was approached in that era. “Under The Chrome Sea” is the result of all these meanderings and more.”
Its imperative you nab the limited edition red colored vinyl via his bandcamp, or DL for FREE. Well done dude!
Starlit Everglades Curious Glow
These lights in perception that trickle down with a tender anger only lift with the ability to try to figure out how to breathe. I guess that sounds kind of silly. The late pause is ever-growing, the one which holds us down, traps our spirits in some sort of delusional culture. Even the most accepted of us can’t really rest on the winning of our achievements, after all, they end as soon as they begin. Think about how inflated hard work really is, even if after you still believe in it. What changes? What happens next? Do we really feel that some other world written about in a dusty text has the answers, no matter which version that is, or how complex its teaching? This starts to sound like nihilism, except the part that suggests curiosity into something more. There’s caring there, so much so that the raw emotion suffocates the physical action of trying to cope with this lackluster world we live in, or is it truly wonderful?
Starlit Everglades chills somewhere in the United States. On their Facebook, the music is listed as “Medicine.” I felt like shit before I hit play, and now I feel better. So, I guess I’ll go along with that cool way of describing the music. It’s the atmosphere, no doubt. “Dust Child” just came out and is a collaboration with Alopex, who also has some gems to look into.
~ Ryan Boos
Ages Paused Life
Some gifts you find in the mist, resting along some plain that’s new to walk through. This indie world is a bizarre one, with plenty of highs and lows, so much that you get jaded within seconds, and excited soon after. It’s beneficial to wait, and for me finding other people to talk about alleviates my own personal distaste for the level of discourse that takes place in the game. Some cats are far too cool.Michael Lundy, also know as Ages, builds you up a wall of glow bugs to resist the temptations of distrust. He makes some serious mood music, the kind I’ll probably let play on repeat, just so I don’t rip off my outer layers and start to smash shit. Even in the surreal quiet of my own back yard, which is tucked away in a mixed neighborhood, with an average sense of class, I hear so much noise. Its the little uncertainties that keep things vibrant and awkward. Ages brings the keys, the orange ones that stand out on the ring. It literally sets me back to rest, to calm, to undertake the possibility of not suffocating from routine. This is the real chill.
There’s some real heady records on his bandcamp, and Ages newest efforts called Bryan, was just released on Alpha Pup back in June.
~ Ryan Boos
End Is Not Near Cloud Surfer
Some mornings feel like a rebirth, there’s a renewed sense to them very early on, as if over night these magical creatures came out to clean up after our reluctant ways. Ambient music always reminds me of weird images like that. There’s such a heightened revelation with this kind of sound, the moment when we admit to ourselves “its” time, and the new beginning is right around the corner. End’s Not Near aka Mori Sun from Fukuoka, Japan jumped on a cloud shedding all the fear along the way. Sun’s SC page shifts between lush ambience and an IDM universe. The more I write about music, and see all these wonderfully talented folks across the world, I can’t help but think about waterfalls flowing in reverse, and the slow elapsing progression of discovery wrapped in all these riddles of life.
~ Ryan Boos
Julsy Lone Wanderer
It’s easy to call music something, or categorize it into some magical-butterfly, flying around like a head trip. But the immediate sensation of those analogies, or dream esque psych pops, don’t make the words less meaningful, or somehow less original. Clearly I’m about to go off on some magic-magic, blanket thrill ride with this album review. Julsy, who we’ve covered on here a couple of times, just released Break, which is a slow evolving, hands spread out in the air, dizzy circles, with enough floating long hair to make its own boat to sail away from here. I have no idea what that means, but her music made me say it. The record is two parts sound collage, scratch that, its pretty much a whole sound collage, yearning to be in an abstract DIY film made by some filmster doing a passion project, which is something I love always.There’s a vivid bright spot on the things Julsy makes. Never in a rush to cover up spaces, almost if you met her she would be most comfortable in those awkward quiet moments. The music is like that, but all taking place off this trail someone told you to walk down, because your true self is at the end of it. I’m rambling now about self discovery and over doing the whole dreamy wordy review, but that’s this music for you. It’s slowly complex, a discovery channel special showcasing the ecosystem perils of man. You can name your price right here, and pick up this wonderful piece, which will surely bring some calm to your daily life. Heavy rotation, especially for those meditations. I dig it so much I wrote this poem.
Patient listener, bright-eyed fawn,
The lone wanderer, found his one,
Vivid hallways, cold spoken heat,
Shadow light, foliage beeps,
Wild fun, abandon hills,
Hands together, they kill,
Wind feathers, color thrill,
Daydreams are better.
~ Ryan Boos
Julsy Vivid Foliage Dream
The voices are calling from a distance, the sort of distinct feeling you get when the loss of direction over takes your being. The energy is hard to come by, but you forget that your legs are still moving, even if your brain weighs a ton. On “Stray” these vivid impressions stick to my shoulders, and crawl up my spine. The unfocused imagery of an (almost) empty whiskey bottle, keep you dazed enough not to go through the door that you know leads to the wrong place. This tune rides the line between some serious shit for me. But its fantastic ability to run through multiple types of music, is exactly what we expect from a tune featuring France’s Julie Cocq AKA Julsy.
The other player on this tune Olaf. out of the netherlands has some great music on his site as well. At the age of 19 Olaf is making some wondrous ambient works that stand the tested value of good sound scape orientations.
~ Ryan Boos
Kyriakos Ioannou Is The Calm Cool
Out of Canada, Kyriakos Ioannou does “Make It Easy” with a steady dose of repeater, and the chant-esque to swirl your emotions up to dissect the meaning. At the half way mark of this short number, he starts to go into this nice flow, over and over. It’s indiscernible but catchy, and you’ll find yourself making your own batch of garble beauty as it plays. On “Stage” there’s a droplet haven for tears and the surreal travel log is full throughout the vibrant fall.Ioannou has the quality of providing the great ambience to your self identification process. I really feel the places in his music, the work is so calm, and cool.
~ Ryan Boos
Cloud Mouth
Welcome to a true DIY from Brooklyn, NY. Cloud Mouth takes the cake for across the board original sound and all around talent this week! After spending much time on SoundCloud I saw the graphic you see above and decided to click on it. NO regrets here! Sadly, I have no information on the lady behind the scenes other than her name is Natalie. So I’ll jump right in, lets start with the track “Every Song You’ve Never Heard” which is a collaborative piece from her band Diatone. In the first 15 seconds you’re greeted with her rich, honest and simple vocals. Her harmonies are fantastic and her voice sounds like honey is dripping from the notes, the sounds from Diatone reminds me a lot of Stereolab. They lead into the pit of the track with drums and synth that could carry you away on a cloud they blew from a kiss. Far out, right?
Alright, lets move on. I give to you another track which is completely different in dynamic. This track titled “Waiting Rooms” makes you feel a little uncomfortable at first, like you’re not really sure you should continue to listen to it after just hearing the beautiful winds you heard before. I stuck around just because a year ago today I sat in a waiting room for what seemed like hours and I can tell you this track rings true to what I felt. This makes me feel anxious, and eager to get out of where I’m sitting, but patiently waiting all at the same time. I think it could be the ticking in the background or all the repetitive noise which keeps building and building, or it could be the sheer moment of my experience. I’ll never know I guess, but this track hits it for me.
Cloud Mouth has a knack for hitting every kind of nerve you have track by track. I’ll leave you with this, a note from Natalie’s SoundCloud page:
“all noise comes from silence
all silence comes from noise
all boys come from girls
all girls come from boys”
xx
Tea Leigh
CASSINI From France
I found this gem just a few days ago somewhere under the sludge of everything else I kept running into. This goes out to all the ambient lovers, to the kids who like to build sounds and move into motion. I give to you CASSINI, a one man gig from Montpellier France and this one man is named Dorian Gaubert. When I first came upon this work I was sent into this state of relaxation and really wanted to stop hunting for musicians for the night, instead get lost in these tracks. His tracks are far from noise, but they have a noise like quality to them in that there really is no perfect place for some of the textured sounds Gaubert throws in. The first track we have here is “Dwarf Planet” which is a remix Gaubert did not too long ago of an I-Dults track.
I nestle in with the warm record fuzz and the bright bells right off the bat. This track is the perfect fit for some sort of film with limited talking and tons of exploration. That’s what it is!! These tracks make me feel like I’m exploring something in some strange land with the softest grass and insanely tall trees. I’m sure that’s really a place, but I’ve not been across any of the great ponds. There is an element of Explosions In The Sky mixed with Sigur Ros and throw in some Gold Panda somewhere in the sound scape you hear.
The next track is called “All Nights” and it brings you back to those nights where you don’t want to really go home until the sun comes up. Not because you’re having a ton of fun, but just because you want to end the day with the sun coming up. We all have had those times, and now that it’s spring I expect you night owls to be up and ready for it.
My favourite part about this track is that it ends how it begins. I know most music isn’t as conceptual as I make it out to be, but I’d like to think that Gaubert did this intentionally just as most nights turn out the same.
What you hear is what you get of CASSINI, he currently has nothing released under this name, and the only way you can listen to his music is through his SoundCloud. I only hope that he continues to push this project in a direction of releasing his tunes to the greater public. For now you can download your favourite tracks of his for free. I hope you get lost as much as I have in the sounds CASSINI brings to us from his big little city of Montpellier, France.
xx
Tea Leigh
