BEST OF JULY 2017

selections

JULY 12 2017

News

This is my first song. Excited to share this with everyone!

You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/aRBkpwlHtkA

www.kacyhill.com
https://twitter.com/kacyhill
https://instagram.com/kacyhill

Experience

'Thievery' is taken from the new Arca album 'Xen' out now on Mute. Get 'Xen' now: CD: http://smarturl.it/XenCD
LP: http://smarturl.it/XenLP
DLD: http://smarturl.it/XenDigital
LTD LP: http://smarturl.it/XenLtdLP

Watch 'Thievery' video here: Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXKelbB9wk 
Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/107025932

Arca European Tour
w/ Jesse Kanda
27th November - ICA, London - Sold Out
28th November - Rotonde, Brussels (http://bit.ly/arca-brussels)
1st December - Point Ephemere, Paris (http://bit.ly/arca-paris)
4th December - OT301, Amsterdam (http://bit.ly/arca-amsterdam)
5th December - Berghain, Berlin (http://bit.ly/arca-berlinberghain)

Arca Online

Website: http://www.arca1000000.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/arca1000000
Twitter: http://twitter.com/arca1000000
Instagram: http://instagram.com/arca1000000
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/arca1000000
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/arca1000000 

Get 'Xen' Now

Thievery

Download the 'Simmer Down' EP → https://black-butter.databeats.com/download/blkbtr66

Watch the official video for 'Could' →  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRCdggj2qGs

Watch the official video for 'How Many Times' [Andhim Remix] video →  http://bit.ly/1AA0ezu

@elderbrook
Follow Elderbook on Twitter → twitter.com/elderbrook
Like Elderbook on Facebook → facebook.com/elderbrookmusic
Watch him on Instragam →  @_elderbrook

@black-butter-records
Videos, editorial and more → www.black-butter.co.uk
Stream Black Butter on Spotify → sptfy.com/5PW
Follow Black Butter on Twitter→ twitter.com/BlackButterRecs
Like Black Butter on Facebook → facebook.com/blackbutterrecords 
Listen to Black Butter on Soundcloud → @black-butter-records


Could

* OUT NOW ON NINJA TUNE RECORDS *
Bonobo Store: http://smarturl.it/flashlightbonobo
Ninja Store: http://smarturl.it/flashlightninja
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/flashlightaz
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/flashlightit
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/flashlightsp

EXPLORE FLASHLIGHT: http://bonobomusic.com/flashlightep/

Flashlight

iTunes

Winner track of the contest by Jessy Blue + Elina S.A. @elina_audio_specialists

download: flokosh.bandcamp.com/album/memphexpe-tape-cassettes-available

FATA MORGANA

From the full-length album Raw Light II out January 20, 2017 on Western Vinyl.

Order:
Bandcamp https://botany.bandcamp.com/album/raw-light-ii
iTunes http://hyperurl.co/ki8pu9
Amazon http://hyperurl.co/emrdfy

Raw Light II is a collection of tracks meant to accompany Botany's 2015 long-player, Dimming Awe the Light is Raw, which sees its wide-release vinyl reissue on January 20th. Originally conceived as a separate album forming parallel to Dimming Awe, this companion piece confidently stands toe-to-toe with its forerunner in breadth and execution. Where the previous iteration made plenty of room for guests (Milo, Ryat, Matthewdavid) the sequel is a solitary showcase of inebriating instrumentals that connect to the Austin composer's aesthetic main artery despite their stylistic diversity. Consistent with Spencer Stephenson's previous output, there is a playfully adept balance of abstraction and structure on Raw Light II that elevates mere beat-tape sequentiality into something holistic and cinematic. Album opener "No Heed" walks us through the front door with dusty existential weariness, building with a pulse like something beating on the basement hatch, finally busting through into the daylight by track two. From there Stephenson spins threads of mature optimism-- upbeat but never naive, and always insinuating some deeper emotional vantage. "Janis Joplin," created when Stephenson lived across from a former home of the late rock songstress, hits hard with overtones of barely-restrained aggression that conjure the temperament of the song's unlikely namesake. Tracks like "The Strangeways" and "Wednesday Oct 28 2015" are steeped in odd charm, writhing upward towards the heavens with medicated grins. Finally, album closer "Tetherball" leads us out with repeated off-kilter pulses that swing for the chakras and never relent. Raw Light II is yet another rejuvenating trip through the mind of an adventurous and heartfelt sound-smith who's always eager to bring us along for the journey.

Raw Light II

Botany - "Crowd Nothings"

Pedro Vian

Title: 
Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories

Pedro Vian - Pandora (Peder Mannerfelt Remix)

MOM007

Written and Produced by Pedro Vian
Remixed by Peder Mannerfelt 

Modern Obscure Music 2017 ©
All Rights Reserved ®

Design by Marc Monguilod
Photography by Adrià Cañameras

Pedro Vian - Pandora (Peder Mannerfelt Remix)

Lomelda's "Thx" out on Double Double Whammy fall 2017

Lomelda :: Interstate Vision

Taken from the Maximum Joy compilation "I Can't Stand It Here On Quiet Nights: Singles 1981-82", forthcoming on Silent Street Records. 

Pre-order 2x12" here:
https://silentstreet.bandcamp.com/album/i-cant-stand-it-here-on-quiet-nights-singles-1981-82

Lyrics: Wrafter; Music: Maximum Joy
Produced by Dick O'Dell, John Walker, Pete Mayburn
Originally released on Y Records (12Y 11, 1981).

I Can't Stand It Here On Quiet Nights (SSR001 - Mastered WAVs)

Maximum Joy - Silent Street / Silent Dub

theLay Low

https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/85964-antwood-sponsored-content

@margaret-antwood

Antwood (a.k.a. Canada's Tristan Douglas) returns to Planet Mu with his second album 'Sponsored Content'. The album is more reflective than his debut, last year's 'Virtuous.scr'. The relentless mood of the first album has given way to a more melodic, stripped out sound. It still shakes with speed and energy, but with more space, more moments of delicate sadness and strange cyborg pop. What comes to the fore in 'Sponsored Content' is Tristan's gift for melody, coupled with the uncanny feeling that somehow his strange music is an entire ecosystem of it’s own. It's best explained by Tristan himself:

"This record was made during a very challenging year. Some of these challenges were for the best, some were not, most were both, others were neither. The music is inextricably tied to these events, whether I like it or not, and I’ve begun peeking out from behind my self-imposed veil of heavy conceptualization; revealing things about myself that my previous album Virtuous.scr didn’t."   "In the past year, I found that ASMR, which I had previously used as a source of foley in my music, was a fairly effective sleep aid. I’d been using the videos in this way for a few months, when I noticed a popular ASMR YouTuber announced a plan to incorporate ads into her videos; quiet, subtle ads, woven into the content. What bothered me about this was that these ads would target viewers, such as myself, during times of semi lucid vulnerability. This disturbed me, and I unsubscribed."

"Sponsored Content explores this idea of subversive advertisement, at least superficially. It’s obviously about the ubiquity of ads and the commodification of online content. The unlikely placement of ads in the music aims to force the listener to become hyper-aware of being advertised to rather than passively internalizing it. But after the record was finished, it became undeniable that really it wasn’t so much a “concept record” about advertisement; it’s as much about intentionally devaluing the things I’ve invested myself into, and over-complicating my work. When I realized this, I considered taking the ads out, and playing the music straight. But I left the record as it is: honest, flawed, with a little humour, and slightly up its own ass."

"I collaborated with El Popo Sangre (a.k.a. Paulin Rogues) for the visuals after he showed me his short film “Fantasy” which used several tracks from Virtuous.scr. He and his team at UNICORN added a depth to the project I could never have done on my own."

Antwood - Wait For Yengi

A wind of change is blowing over the cultural landscape of Kinshasa. 
An explosive alternative scene is thriving. 
KOKOKO! is the sound of it.

Follow KOKOKO! online:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KOKOKOmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KOKOKOmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kokokomusic
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kokokomusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/KOKOKOmusic

TOKOLIANA EP is out now on https://soundcloud.com/iciyouare.

KOKOKO! - TOKOLIANA

Written and Produced by SKEPTA
Artwork by Midnight Shane

Hypocrisy

© 2017 RICHARD D. JAMES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The all korg track created using:
Korg Monologue x3
Korg MS-20 kit
Korg Poly-61M
Korg Volca keys
Korg Volca beats
Korg Volca sample
Korg Minilogue
son on vox

Read the full article with Richard D. James and synth designer Tatsuya Takahashi here:
http://found.ee/aphex-korg

Listen to the album "Korg Trax+Tunings for falling asleep" on aphextwin.warp.net
https://aphextwin.warp.net/release/86888-afx-korg-traxtunings-for-falling-asleep

Graphic by Ryo Asakura (Seventhgraphics)
http://seventh.graphics/

korg funk 5

Two Thousand And Seventeen

From the album The Kid out October 6, 2017 on Western Vinyl

Pre-Order The Kid
BLEEP https://bleep.com/release/86790-kaitlyn-aurelia-smith-the-kid
Norman Records https://www.normanrecords.com/records/166212
Bandcamp https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/the-kid
iTunes hyperurl.co/8n4qa5
WV http://westernvinyl.com/shop/wv170

In 2017, the musical term “electronic” is nearly obsolete given the ubiquity of computerized processes in producing music.  Even so, the prevailing assumption is that musicians working under this broad umbrella must be inspired by concepts equally as electrified as their equipment.  Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has demonstrated in her still-blooming discography that this notion couldn’t be further from the truth, and that more often than not, rich worlds of synthesized sound are born from deep reverence of the natural world.  Smith (who by no coincidence, cites naturalist David Attenborough as a contemporary muse) has embodied such an appreciation on The Kid in as direct and sincere a way as possible by sonically charting the phases of life itself.  The album, which punctually follows up her 2016 breakthrough EARS, chronicles four defining cognitive and emotional stages of the human lifespan across four sides of a double LP.

The first side takes us through the confused astonishment of a newborn, unaware of itself, existing in an unwitting nirvana.  Smith’s music has always woven a youthful thread befitting of the aforementioned subject. Here she articulates it in signature fashion on the track “An Intention,” which serves not only as a soaring spire on The Kid, but on her entire output.  There is playfulness here, but it's elevated by an undertone of gravity into something compelling and majestic that is fast becoming Smith’s watermark.  The emotional focus of side two is the vital but underreported moment in early youth when we cross the threshold into self awareness.  The subject is profound enough to fill an entire album, but rarely makes its way into a single track, indicating Smith’s ambition to broach subtler and deeper subjects than the average composer.  This side offers up another highlight in the form of “In The World But Not Of The World” which serves its subject well with epiphanic, climbing strings and decidedly noisy textures over a near-Bollywood low end pulse.

Side three emphasizes a feeling of being confirmed enough in one’s own identity to begin giving back to the formative forces of one’s upbringing, which is arguably the duty that all great artists aim to fulfill.  This side ends with the exploratory album cut “Who I Am & Why I Am Where I Am” recorded in a single take without overdubs on the rare EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer. This humble piece of sound design serves as a contrast to side four’s verdant orchestral moments, all written and arranged for the EU-based Stargaze quartet by Smith herself.  This final side represents a return to pure being, the kind of wisdom and peace that eludes most of us until the autumn of life.  On “To Feel Your Best” this concept is voiced in the bittersweet refrain “one day I’ll wake up and you won’t be there” which Smith intended to be a grateful acknowledgement of life rather than a melancholy resentment of loss. The song has both effects depending on the mood of the listener, and both interpretations are equally moving.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith belongs to an ilk of modern musicians who are defined by their commitment to creating experiential albums despite the singles-oriented habits of modern listeners, and here she represents her kind proudly.  The subjects on The Kid are not simple to convey, and yet through both emotional tone and lyrical content, Smith does just that. There is a similar gravity to both birth and death, and rarely is that correlation as accurately and enthusiastically mapped as it is here.  As Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith explores her existence through music, she guides us in gleefully contemplating our own.

Antwood - Wait For Yengi

Planet Mu Records