A bilingual blog by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero dedicated to all things fun, like music, cinema, comedy and sci-fi. Contact: ruiz@tutanota.com - Un blog bilingüe de Carmelo Ruiz Marrero dedicado a todo lo que sea divertido, como música, cine, comedia y ciencia ficción. Contacto: ruiz@tutanota.com
Need new music in your life? Just about had enough of 2014 best-of lists? Bandcamp checked in with an eclectic handful of labels to see what they’ve got cooking for 2015.
"I'm 52, I'm still here and I can still kick your butt." In his music, live performances, interviews and, one would presume, life in general, Colin McBean doesn't pull any punches. The quote comes from a 2013 Machine Love feature, in which he told Jordan Rothlein how key a sense of intensity is to his music. Before he turned his attention to the Mr. G project, this was manifested in The Advent, a duo McBean was part of who were known for their ferocious vision of techno. What followed may have been several shades lighter, but the sample-heavy house sound McBean has been refining as Mr G since 2000 is still among the hardest hitting club sounds you're likely to come across. He's released the bulk of this material through his label, Phoenix G, although the last few years have seen him on REKIDS, Running Back, Don't Be Afraid and Toi Toi Musik among others (even by his own ridiculous standards, he's been prolific as of late). What the relentless side of Mr G's music sometimes hides is the deep personal themes that drive him as an artist. To use two recent examples, State Of Flux, his 2012 album on REKIDS, was a response to the death of his close friend Lev Van Delden, while most recent record, Personal Momentz, was written after he lost his father.
McBean doesn't DJ too often these days, but his RA podcast shows that when selecting music he values the qualities that his own music exhibits: groovy, soulful and timeless.
After a refurbishment, lick of paint and a re-opening it’s time for Mimm to have a stretch, limber up and round up where they are musically. Their first compilation for over two years shows the journey deeper into the world of electronic soul music, slowed down tempos and doped-out beatsmiths which they have taken. Mimm have drawn from their talented international collective with fresh dubplates from the likes of in-house producers Congi, Philippe Edison, Metske, Saulya, Warren Xclnce, Mos Isley, Pete Beardsworth, H725, Bruises and Melo Zed. As well as having a few select cuts from internationally acclaimed producers who have graced their events over the past years from Lone (R&S), Om Unit (Cosmic Bridge), Quest (Deep Medi), Flako, Submerse (Project Mooncircle) and Kaelin Ellis (Florida). It’s an eclectic and brave offering with a general sound that leans heavily on ambient and psychedelic hip hop and house, drenched in warm analogue colours, nostalgic samples and soulful melodies, all the while with a keen awareness of more subtle classical compositions. Throughout there’s a distinct flavour of smoked whiskey-bar jazz riffs grounded in a gritty UK, bass-heavy setting and as musical round-ups go, for Mimm, this is definitely a coming of age compilation.
Laurent Fintoni DJ, label owner, writer for FACT magazine, and frequent consumer of Viennese whirls.
A tram loops around Vienna’s historic city center. It’s late at night and instead of the usual tourists, the tram is filled with young people talking, drinking and trying to catch a glimpse of local act Ritornell, who are performing at one end of the car using keyboards, self-made instruments and laptops. The vibe is relaxed and fun; it’s a party in a train, because… why not?
I was in town to attend the 2013 Waves festival, a yearly showcase of alternative and independent music that takes over the city center for a few days, sending revelers across streets and parks to find acts in traditional and makeshift venues from trams to opera houses to nightclubs. Supported by the city, Waves is a great example of the health and diversity of Vienna’s music scene.
Perhaps best known for architecture and classical music, Vienna is a pretty city that’s full of contradictions: small but large enough, quiet but full of life, rich but cheap to live in. The city has enjoyed a new music boom in recent years. This follows a couple of decades or so after the downbeat eccentrics Kruder & Dorfmeister put it on the international map.
During my time there, I met up with a handful of the city’s new breed of artists and they showed me around the clubs, the neighborhoods, and the food spots. Many of these DJs, producers and musicians have grown up in town or moved there from around the country, drawn by the capital’s rich history and increasingly vibrant scene. Slowly, but surely, they’ve brought a new energy to Vienna that makes the city feel more exciting than the usual European hotspots of Paris, London or Berlin.
Ulrich Troyer, photo by Eva Kelety
Longtime resident and experimental musician Ulrich Troyer believes, “Vienna still has the image of Mozart and old cultural heritage, but there is a modern, vibrant and creative cooking pot under its historical lid.” My time at the Waves festival backed this up, and since then I’ve continued to keep an eye on the scene.
Jack Jutson and Liam Butler have become some of Canada's best selectors in a short few years. Their rapid rise belies their relaxed, funky and sometimes cerebral approach to DJing, where New Age and ambient sounds sidle up next to vintage disco and their own earthy productions. It's an aesthetic shared by their peers in Mood Hut, a label and collective that started as an intimate party series in Vancouver's Chinatown neighbourhood and has since spread out into a network of shows, aliases and collaborations. But even with the increased attention, they're still humble, quiet guys who prefer to stay in the background. You won't find any interviews with them online (they turned down the brief Q&A that accompanies our podcasts) because they prefer to let the music speak for itself. Their mix for us, full of rippling guitars, flutes and boogie basslines, really does say it all. Packed with new and unreleased material from the Vancouver massive—Cloudface, Hashman Deejay and Aquarian Foundation among them—it also doubles as a survey of one of dance music's most exciting new corners.
Tracklist /
Haley Pearse - Happening Upon a New Place
Paul Horn - Apas (Water)
Maxmillion Dunbar - Calvin & Hobbes
Aquarian Foundation - Untitled I
Ramzi - Monster's Makeup (feat. Bataille Solaire)
Cos/Mes - Poser, Poser
Cloudface - U & Me
Disco Mantra
Pender Street Steppers - Molto Bene
Hashman Deejay - Statues Pf
Pender Street Steppers - Golden Garden
Ttam Renat - Symbols of Infinity
Pender Street Steppers - No Need
DaM-FunK – Live Mix on the dublab Proton Drive (11.24.14)
It’s going to be a bright day when Mr. Funk himself glides through our studio door. Always armed with the freshest wax in the world, Dam drops gems from genres far and wide on this episode. Though he’s usually known for bringing the funk, we (not so) secretly love when Dam gets mellow and flips-on his experimental side.
Catch this rare one from DaM-FunK and keep an eye out for his new LP dropping this year on Stones Throw Records.
DaM-FunK - Live on the dublab Proton Drive (11.24.14) 29:49
Brooklyn-based Truth and Soul take over with a 30-minute mix of their latest and greatest. Also, Ty Segall brings the rock-n-roll, Jon Wayne remixes Diamond District, and we zip around the world with Brazilian duo Glue Trip, Moroccan-influenced Telemachus, and Belgium's Black Flower.
Phillips, fundador de Genesis junto con Peter Gabriel, es uno de los padres del rock progresivo. El disco sinfónico "Slow Dance", lanzado en 1990, es de lo mejor que él ha hecho.
WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest runningfreeform radio station in the United States.
The station also broadcasts to the Hudson Valley and Lower Catskills in New York, Western New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania via it's 90.1 signal at WXHD in Mount Hope, NY. The station maintains an extensive online presence at WFMU.ORG which includes live audio streaming in several formats, over 8 years of audio archives, podcasts and a popular blog.
Rolling Stone Magazine, The Village Voice, CMJ and the New York Press have all at one time or another called WFMU "the best radio station in the country" and the station has also been the subject of feature stories in The New York Times and on the BBC. In recent years the station has gained a largeinternational following due it's online operations and counts Simpson's creator Matt Groening, film director Jim Jarmusch and Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed, among others, as devoted fans of the station.
WFMU's programming ranges from flat-out uncategorizable strangeness to rock and roll, experimental music, 78 RPM Records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, electronica, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B, radio improvisation, cooking instructions, classic radio airchecks, found sound, dopey call-in shows, interviews with obscure radio personalities and notable science-world luminaries, spoken word collages, Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English as well as Country and western music.
All of the station's programming is controlled by individual DJs and is not beholden to any type of station-wide playlist or rotation schedule. Experimentation, spontaneity and humor are among the station's most frequently noted distinguishing traits. WFMU does not belong to any existing public radio network, and close to 100% of its programming originates at the station.
Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times), “a monster pianist” (Time Out New York), "virtuostic" (New Jersey Star Ledger), and “one of the new stars of new music” (Los Angeles Times). She is the pianist for the New York based sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars and is also a founding member of DUO X88, a piano duo with Dutch pianist Saskia Lankhoorn and GRANDBAND, a six keyboard ensemble with pianists Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, David Friend, Isabelle O'Connell and Paul Kerekes..Most recently she gave the North American premiere of Steve Reich's work 'PIano Counterpoint' and also the world premiere of a new evening length work by artist/composer Tristan Perich for solo piano and 40 channel 1-bit electronics titled 'Surface Image'. Her next solo projects include commissions from American composers Chris Cerrone, Neil Rolnick, and Canadian composer Adam Basanta and releases on the New Amsterdam and nonesuch labels. http://www.vickychow.com/#!short-bio/ceuh
Vladislav Delay, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Bing & Ruth and timely reissues from the likes of Brian Eno and other early pioneers – ambient music hasn’t felt this in vogue for years. Joe Muggs examines the trend and rounds up some of 2014′s crucial ambient records, asking the big question: is it time for the return of the chill-out room?
****** Obviously it’s hard to find a context more suited for listening to textural music of vast duration than the prone and, um, well-primed aspect of ’90s wreck-heads. Which meant that as the rave dream dissipated, so did the opportunities to play and get completely immersed in electronic and experimental music that wasn’t tied to the benevolent tyranny of the beat. They were there, but they became a bit more specialist: post-rock, folktronica, post-classical, neo-Balearica, the noise scene, distant corners of trance and industrial, gallery installations and hippie cafes at festivals each had their own versions of abstracted space music.
Listen to the sound of Wikipedia's recent changes feed. Bells indicate additions and string plucks indicate subtractions. Pitch changes according to the size of the edit; the larger the edit, the deeper the note. Green circles show edits from unregistered contributors, and purple circles mark edits performed by automated bots. You may see announcements for new users as they join the site, punctuated by a string swell. You can welcome him or her by clicking the blue banner and adding a note on their talk page.
Florent Ghys is a composer and double bass player from Bordeaux, France, based in Brooklyn, NY.
His music has been described as ''thrilling breed of post-minimal chamber music'' (Time Out NYC) and ''highly contrapuntal showcasing intelligent multi-tracking and inventive use of sampled speech'' (WQXR). Journalist John Schaefer says: "Composer and bassist Florent Ghys writes pieces that blend elements of minimalism, pop music and a dose of extravagant wit".
Kick-start 2015 with 90 mins of tasty new tunes, including a couple of jams from talented LA producer/MC Blu. We also air winter warmers by Testbild! and Kadhja Bonet, and hip-hop & soul from Yo$hwa and Jacob Collier. Mesita and Mother Upduff rock out, while Florent Ghys laces jazz with classical influences.
Brock Van Wey has never been a guy who hides his feelings. Every piece of music he's written or interview he's given or DJ set he's played is overtly coloured by his emotional state at that very moment. It's what defines him as an artist. "It's all about showing a part of you, a part of your heart and soul," he told us in 2009, "and hopefully some who hear it feel the same way you do, and it creates that connection that is the ultimate beauty of music." Van Wey has given people plenty of opportunities to connect. Since he started out in 2007, he's released around 40 albums and EPs. His style deals mainly in deep strains of ambient of electro-acoustic compositions, although his roots as a DJ on the San Francisco rave scene in the early '90s have sometimes surfaced in more beat-driven records. His label, Quietus Recordings, is "dedicated to releasing and communicating the deepest, most personal, and innermost realms of electronic music," and none felt more personal than Tanto, a record Van Wey recorded and recently released after the passing of his cat of the same name—his "brother and best friend."
Van Wey's RA podcast comes at a time of significant personal upheaval. He recently learnt that his Chinese visa would not be renewed, after spending 14 years teaching as an English professor in the eastern city of Shaoxing. He explains more below, but he said that the process of recording a mix (his first in some time) afforded him some much-needed catharsis. His 70-minute session blends passages of quiet theatrical beauty with the heated release of drums, and, of course, there's not a moment with an absence of emotion.
Ryoji Ikeda presented the North American premiere of superposition to a crowd of several hundred at the Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal (MAC). As would be expected, the sixty-five minute multiscreen performance played out as kind of a data aesthetics megamix that flashed through a series of precisely choreographed abstract visual vignettes that grappled with the digital sublime and pondered the agnosticism of network culture. However, what was a pleasant surprise—one welcomed with open arms, in fact—was the integration of the talents of two ‘imperfect’ human performers centre stage into the middle of Ikeda’s austere audiovisual animations. http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/10-most-memorable-projects-of-2014/
Ulrich Troyer, photo by Eva Kelety
