Sorry this isn’t bigger! If you aren’t familiar, then it’s worth the squinting

So I used to make a ton of lists. Mostly they were personal ones – movies, books, to-do’s – but at some point I realized I had to ease up on all the jotting and tabulating because the whole process was cutting into my “go time.” Not gonna beat the Internet just by scrawling down chicken-scratch on some gaw-damned looseleaf all day, ya know?

But yeah, the only list that has managed to persist is my Top 10 Albums one. I used to try to make one every month or two, but turns out that that’s fairly impossible in this day and age – what with time constraints and most albums being kinda shitty and all. But without getting into it, I continue to believe that, for the most part, it’s still the most satisfying medium for delivering a fully realized artistic statement. So now, every time I feel I can post a solid 10er, I try to at least throw it out there via the twitter / myspace / other spiderholes I frequent.

Anyhow, I think the last one I made was sometime in August? Here’s the new one:

1.Lee Fields – My World
2.Dj Sprinkles – Midtown 120 Blues
3.Health – Get Color
4.Dj /Rupture and Matt Shadetek – Solar Life Raft
5.Redshape – The Dance Paradox
6.Edan – Echo Party
7.William Basinksi – 92982
8.Ben Frost – By The Throat
9.Hudson Mohawke – Butter
10.King Cannibal – Let the Night Roar

Pretty solid spread of genres too. Here’s some toobs to get you acquainted.

DJ /rupture & Matt Shadetek: SOLAR LIFE RAFT MEDLEY from The Agriculture on Vimeo.

HEALTH “DIE SLOW” from Lovepump United on Vimeo.

FUSE from Kase on Vimeo.

PS. Oh, and I only list relatively new albums, for whatever reason. Kinda funny, seeing how they seem to account for less and less of my listening these days. Guess I just like to make it hard for myself?

PPS. Working on my year end ones right now too. Might be able to post them here when I’m done, but a lot of these are on it. I also think it’d be cool to see some of the other Shruggers’ ”best of” picks regardless, wouldn’t you? B-) B-) B-)

Also gonna do a best of 00’s one w/ at least 50 albums before the year is over. Need to wait until I get home for the holidays though, so I can actually trawl through the majority of my records.  Low key Christmas, let’s goooooo.

PPPS. …annnnd it’s probably pretty obvious that my lead-in was bullshit, huh

=================================================

still make a shit ton ton of lists

still never scratched off the bulletpoint that says “Fix Your Life”

still not mad at it at all

still hittin’ them corners in them low low’s, girl (?)

================================================

~*_*~

Check out these records made from glacial meltwater straight outta Iceland. Artist Katie Peterson got three of these discs pressed up, and named them Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull, and Solheimajökull, after they icebergs they were culled from. Then she let the records play out on turntables for about two hours while they melted away, their swan songs slowly becoming lost in a puddle of their own makings. Finally some conceptual art i can relate to!

The audio on the discs were actually recordings of the sounds of the glaciers themselves. If you are really hard up for something to do right now, you can zone out to a .wav of some of the ice rumblings right here. Be sure to think deep, profound thoughts while listening…

ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.
ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.
ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.
ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(yeah…all I could think about was bootlegging the record and throwing THIS on the B side… )

~*_*~

Well the meteor shower was a bust in New York City, so I had to find other ways to keep my mind trained on the night sky.

Wanna know where Daft Punk jacked their swagger from? Or where else rather?

Look no further than this slice of vintage awesome, courtesy of  pioneering electronic band, Space. Huge fan of this video! Primitive green screens, tons of analog gear – it’s got that perfectly dated mystique that I crave in spades. Little did I know, these guys are by no means obscure. They actually managed to go multi-platinum in their native France and charted all around the world during the late 70’s and early 80’s, with this instrumental track “Magic Fly”  being their biggest hit.

So sure, Daft Punk get the badass award with their oh-so-measured measured head bobs, but you’d be pretty hard pressed to deny the slightly giddier gyrations of this band of  astro travelers. I mean, c’mon…look at that drummer. Dude is in a league of his own.

Again, more visual influence for DP, this time manifesting itself in their movie, Electroma. Think it’s a stretch? Peep this pic (nsfw) and then tell me those two spent their  childhoods just dreaming  of electric sheep instead.

BONUS FACTOID: the opening to Deliverance was chopped up to become the backing sample for one of De La’s best latter day tracks, Rock Co Kane Flow.

Anyhow, there’s plenty more cosmic goodness where that came from. Here’s two tracks that have been remastered and  beefed up substantially for an upcoming ‘best of’ compilation via Nang Records.   They are also re-issuing all their  LP’s, so be sure to check em out if you are feeling these tunes.  Sister label Tirk has commissioned a slew of remixes as well.

Space-Carry_On_Turn_Me_On

Space -Inner Voices

Plus one more older rip of one of their more orchestral leanings tracks:  a baroque odyssey of intergalactic proportions (should you feel the need to shed a tear for the Leonids, young city-dweller).

Space – Blue Tears

Until next time…

we’ll see you starside

~*_*~

So I’ve been noticing this little ditty churning through the internode’s various buzz-centric faculties as of late. It’s being promoted as a remix of Florence and the Machine – “You’ve got the Love,” but it’s definitely a cover or rework in actuality, seeing how it consists of entirely redone vocals and instrumentation.  I’m not mad at this song at all, it’s quite nice even – props to The XX - but I’m throwing it out there mostly for the sake of being topical. For whatever reason, I happen to know a lot about this jam and its various incarnations. Given that, hearing this pretty much forced me to stop and really map out just how many degrees of separation this tune has from its original musical kernel.

Turns out that when you break it down, this current blog fave is actually a cover of a cover of a remix of an early “mash-up” consisting of a.) a vocal track recorded for a documentary about a homeless guy, and b.) a classic early house song (which itself was built around an italo disco joint). Kinda nutty huh? Lucky for you there are giant nerds like myself who will jump at the chance to walk you (backwards) through a track’s musical etymology.

Clickity click for the full rundown…

Read the rest of this article »

New Grizzly Bear vid for Ready, Able this time showcasing gumbified versions of characters from artist Allison Schulnik’s work

QUICK SYNOPSIS: So Sasquatch sees his doppelganger and it causes a rupture in the spacetime continuum which then causes Bizarro Sasquatch to melt into the river. Sasquatch is like whoa but then finds a bunch of pocket goblins in his hand and decides to fead them to a nearby gila monster who wigs out and grows mickey mouse ears. Then of course the aliens show up and beam sasquatch aboard their plaz-tek spaceship. There’s kind of a jump cut and things get a little iffy but next thing you know, Sasquatch is back looking pretty ashamed with all signs pointing to exhaustive probing. Then all the sudden everyone and their mother shows up just morph face like crazy while laughing at poor ol’ sasquatch, who slumps away into the night – frightened and dejected.

So yeah…props to Grizzly Bear for yet another beautifully terrifying video that leaves you thoroughly mangled on the inside. As always, there’s a powerful message encoded deep within the whirr of colours and shapeshifting riddles, but this time it truly is one of the sagest pieces of advice worth imparting.

The moral of the story?

Do NOT drop acid by yourself in the woods, dude. You will totally freak the fuck out.

~*_*~

Looks like we’re kinda slow-playing the introductions here, so why not just dive right on in with some particularly time-sensitive material, yeah?

Resident Advisor Podcast 176 – Arto Mwambe

Hottest house music around coming straight outta Burkina Faso…only not really though. Just finding out now that they are, in fact, two dudes from Germany after being blown away by this track right here about a year ago:

Arto Mwambe – Une Seule Nuit (Mix De Danse)

So maybe they aren’t West Africa’s finest musical export after all, but their RA podcast proves they’re still miles ahead of the game, forging a bridge between tribal sounds and new wave synth lines that sounds appropriately raw but engineered with modern production finesse.

Anyway, this podcast is chock full of new material from them and the rest of the Brontosaurus label. Definitely one of my favorite podcasts of the year from RA. It will only be up until Monday before being stashed in the archives, so get it while the getting’s good. Oh, and you DO have to register to download it, but that takes 2 minutes and RA is pretty much the best dance music news source on the planet at this point (that’s coming from someone who actually works for a rival mag…shhh), so if you haven’t ever checked it out, consider this link the keys to the kingdom.

And just in case you don’t make it in time, here’s a track by Lars Bartkuhn that they reworked, also featured in their mix. Enjoy.

Lars Bartkuhn – Goodbye Dancing Hello God [Arto Mwambe Remix]