Yet another mp3 blog, online since October 6th, 2008!
(And here's the origin of this blog's name.)
Of course, I don't link directly to anything but mp3s that have been made available for free by authors or their labels, or that were digitised from public domain recordings.
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Ester Brinkmann - “On ne vit pas”
A mesmerising Michel Foucault-sampling techno track by Thomas Brinkmann. The French speakers will get a glimpse of Foucault’s amazing insight into our culture. The others will braindance their way into the metropolis.
Blevin Blectum - “Rockitship Long Light Years (Version 2)”
From the 2002 Talon Slalom album, now available for free on the Free Music Archive. Laptop noise pop that I can’t get tired of. I guess rockists who can play a few guitar chords feel it when they’re listening to dad rock: you can picture yourself playing this onstage or in the studio. Except I fancy myself, face lit up from below by a PowerBook screen, focused on my virtual knob(s), rather than surrounded by piled up Marshall amps, hands going up and down my phallic substitute.
Dan Deacon has spread his experimental synth pop all over the web on various netlabels before he released all his recent, highly praised albums on Carpark Records. “Arms Saloon” opens the Twacky Cats EP with an almost dancey tune, where spanish guitars and sampled percussion clash with a great processed synth line. This EP is freely available with artwork on the late Comfort Stand Recordings website, along with tons of other great, intriguing music.
Black Dice - “Glazin”
Black Dice - “Kokomo”
Last night was the last concert I went to with a young (post-)punk’s carelessness (baby boy is coming soon soon soon, so nights out are gonna be scarce). And I guess my choice of a Black Dice gig makes sense : I began with punk/noise as a teen, grew up into all kinds of dance/punk/noise/indie, and BD make one of the best (i.e. most cathartic, most engrossing, most abstractly concrète) synthesis of all the sounds I have been feeding on over the last 15 years.
Sonic Youth - “Sacred Trickster”
The first excerpt from their first Matador release and new LP, The Eternal. A short, Kim-sung hardcore epic reminiscent of their turn-of-the-90s sound (think Goo or Dirty), it is supposedly sending “salutes to French painter Yves Klein and Western Massachusetts noise artist Noise Nomads”, according to the record company.
Alvin Lucier - “I Am Sitting in a Room”
I first heard a sample of this essential contemporary piece in DJ Food’s Raiding the 20th Century mix (which is one of the best mixes I know, along with DJ/rupture’s Gold Teeth Thief, and maybe As Heard on Radio Soulwax Vol.2).
Of course this is no easy listening, but every one of the 15 minutes is worth delving into.
The explanation of the process being part of the piece, no need to describe exactly what you’re going to hear. However, more info can be found here. Once again, beauty achieved through simple means.
Sian Alice Group - “Murder (Brian DeGraw/Gang Gang Dance Remix)”
A 14-minute collage of percussion, processed jazz instruments, house keyboards, building up tension from eerie meditative ambient to bashing 4-to-the-floor dance. I can very well imagine Larry Levan play that type of music were he alive today. This is music for home enjoyment and forward-thinking DJing.
Liars - “It Fit When I Was a Kid (Crystal Castles Remix)”
Liars’ experiment in drones and drums is made all the lanker and leaner, thus all the more striking and danceable, by 8-bit snobs Crystal Castles.
This sound, and its maker, will never age. It is of no definite period in time post-1950, no definite geographical area (might be from some suburb of Cologne or Reijkjavik or Osaka or Detroit). It is of no definite mood except the lingering sadness that may leed a child to tear apart its favourite toys and rebuild monstrously friendly shapes withthe broken parts.
