April 25, 2010

The New Antique Beats

Collide is the second album from BEATS ANTIQUE Their sound is a unique fusion of old & new. They blend turn-of-the-century Dust Bowl Americana roots music with Middle Eastern Bellydance, Electronica, and down tempo Hip-Hop to create a unique fusion all their own.

April 21, 2010

Asian Groovy Attack!! (Repost)

This superb collection of Singaporean 60’s beat, pop, and “off-beat cha-cha” instrumental classics from original vinyl 45’s offers 22 supercharged beat-a-go-go tracks defy a common held belief that the Chinese couldn’t rock, groove, or swing back in the 1960’s. The vocals are sung in the dialects of Mandarin and Hokkien and they soar with catchy hooks atop groovy, clever beats.

There’s plenty of electric guitar, organ, and crazy percussion rocking and twisting behind it all, at times reaching quite a mad and freaky state of affairs. The record’s finale “Happy Lunar New Year” sung by Linda Yong may be the weirdest New Year greeting ever recorded. Every single cut is a winner and it never lets up from start to finish.

Although most of the lyrics focus on love, innocence, and festive atmospherics, there’s an epic vibe to the music that rivals other extremely well-recorded and unique pop styles emanating from the surrounding Southeast Asian scenes during the late 1960’s. Seminal bands of the period like The Stylers and The Silvertones are well represented here too.

Messages from the Artic (Repost)

Tanya Tagaq Gillis is an Inuit throat singer from Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. She first began to practice throat singing after attending school, and later studied visual arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, while there developed her own solo form of Inuit throat singing, which is normally done by two women.

Although she has become a popular performer at Canadian folk festivals, such as Folk on the Rocks in 2005, she is best known both in Canada and internationally for her collaborations with Björk, including concert tours and the 2004 album Medúlla. She has also performed with the Kronos Quartet and Shooglenifty and featured on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

Her innovative, solo style of throat singing seeks to push the boundaries of emotion and to express the primitive instincts she believes still reside deep within our flesh. She describes her evolution over the past six years as a process of going deeper and deeper into her performance to the point where she virtually “leaves her body” and lets the expression take over.

Definitively a must, pay attention at track 2, featuring Mr. Mike Patton at the scream-mic.

A Call from the Grasslands (Repost)


The amazing band Huun Huur Tu comes from Tuva, a republic of the Russian Federation, a sparsely settled Siberian land of grasslands, boreal forests, and mountain ridges. Huun Huur Tu's music features native instruments and preserves and develops some of the world's oldest forms of music making. The best-known genre of Tuvan music is Xöömei (throat-singing) in which naturally produced overtone vocal sounds create astonishingly unique textures and harmonics.

The new album Eternal is a collaboration with electronic musician & record producer Carmen Rizzo, who transforms this ancient music into an enticing blend of ambient electronic, exotic rhythms and lush acoustic textures. This wonderful album takes you through a dream-like sequence featuring bowed ancient strings colliding with low-end keyboards while the haunting voices of Huun Huur Tu howl through the mesmerizing pulses. A musical journey for all looking to escape.

Here

East Meet West (Repost)


SEDAA, in persian means “voice“ and connect the traditional mongolian with the oriental music to a unusual yet fascinating whole. They enchant one with ancient instruments of the nomads and take you to a colourful world of moods and vibrations between the Orient and the Mongolian steppe.

Skilled in Ulan-Bator (the capital of Mongolia), the mastersingers Nasaa Nasanjargal and Naraa Naranbaatar who are known by the musical group Transmongolia, offer with their orchestral undertone singing and the Mongolian throat singing "Höömii" an exotic listening experience and create the sounds of nature. They accentuate their mystical singings with traditional stringed instruments such as the Morin khuur (horse head violin), originally made from the horse's body, and the Ikh khuur (horse head bass).

Born in Isfahan, the Iranian multi instrumentalist Omid Bahadori who established his reputation through the group Rangin, gives the ensemble its oriental touch. With drums and the guitar, he tops the sentimental musical melange off. Wild rhythmic pieces, like the trot of the horses and tender ballads carry the listener on a musical journey through the vastness of the steppe. With their Debut-Album “Mongolian meets Oriental” Sedaa created an own innovative sound experience from these ancient musical cultures.

April 10, 2010

The Rising of Moloch (Repost)


 It is the future, and humans are divided into two groups: the Thinkers, who make plans (but don't know how anything works), and the Workers, who achieve goals (but don't have the vision). Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees...

Original Complete Score from the amazing 1927 Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Throat Warriors (Repost)


As a gift to my dearest pretty Mata Kurii, here is the amazing record from Tuva-landers masters of throat Khoomei chants Huun-Hur-Tu; the most distinctive characteristic of the Huun-Huur-Tu's music is throat singing, in which the singers sing both the note (drone) and the drone's overtone(s), thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is actually solely a product of the human voice.

The group primarily uses native Tuvan instruments such as the igil, khomus (Tuvan Jew's Harp), doshpuluur, and tungur (shaman drum). However, in recent years, the group has begun to selectively incorporate western instruments, such as the guitar. While the thrust of Huun-Huur-Tu's music is fundamentally indigenous Tuvan folk music, they also experiment with incorporating not only Western instruments, but electronic music as well.

April 4, 2010

The People of Today (Repost)


"The Tomorrow People" was a british children's science fiction TV series (not well known outside the UK), produced by the UK's Thames Television between 1973 and 1979; it was all about the next step in human evolution (officially called "Homo Superiors") who were born with special powers such as teleportation and telepathy. Whenever the was trouble, The Tomorrow People would step in and help sort it out.

A large portion of The Tomorrow People soundtrack was taken from the Standard Music Library's "ESL104" LP. In fact, all but four tracks from "ESL104" were used to score The Tomorrow People; the composers that contributed to "ESL104" were none other than BBC Radiophonic Workshop members and electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson (using the pseudonyms "Li De La Russe" and "Nikki St George" respectively) along with Dudley Simpson (Doctor Who, Blake's 7) and David Vorhaus (here's the 2006 remastered version)

Meet the Pioneers (Repost)


BBC Radiophonic Music was the first compilation of music released by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. It featured music by three of the Workshop's most prominent composers, John Baker, David Cain and Delia Derbyshire. The music varied between incidental music and signature tunes, which had been used by various BBC programmes, as well as some radio jingles.

The selection demonstrated many of the methods used by the composers at the Radiophonic Workshop, including musique concrète tape editing and their use of primitive early electronic oscillators. It featured mostly original compositions, except for Baker's arrangements of the traditional "Boys and Girls" and "The Frogs Wooing", and Derbyshire's version of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air".

In 2002 the compilation was remastered by Mark Ayres (the version included here), and re-released with two bonus Derbyshire songs; the original composition "Time to Go" and her version of "Happy Birthday". The album was originally released in 1968 for use as library music, but later given a commercial release in 1970 on the new BBC Records label.

Here

See how the cortex works (Repost)

In the early 1970s, Bill Holt produced a recording called "Dreamies" - a collage of songs performed on guitar and synthesizer (a Moog Sonic 6) combined with snippets of found sound ("dreamies" is a term coined by Isaac Asimov in 1955 in a short story called "Dreaming is a Private Thing", it refers to manufactured dream sequences.)

The album consists of two long tracks (originally one on each side of the record) called Program 10 and Program 11, a reference to the Beatles' Revolution #9. "Dreamies" includes excerpts of radio and television broadcasts as well as samples taken from recordings by the Beatles. It is one the earliest examples of sampling in popular music.

Rays and Sparks (Repost)

As request by my faithful reader (and brother) Gonzalo here's a great work from late 60's called "Electrical Storm", as said by specialists, a real must in the electronic music: White Noise is an experimental electronic music band formed in London in 1969 by American-born David Vorhaus, a classical bass player with a background in both physics and electronic engineering. He was initially joined by BBC Radiophonic Workshop composers Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, both ex of electronic music project Unit Delta Plus.

The album was created using a variety of tape manipulation techniques, and is notable for its early use of the first British synthesizer, the EMS Synthi VCS3. Amongst many oddities, the first track on the album, Love Without Sound, employed sped-up tape edits of Vorhaus playing the double bass to create violin and cello sounds.

"I use voices a lot too, but not as conventional vocals. I always use a lot of voices, and if somebody having an orgasm in the background is used as part of one of the waveforms, it makes the sound more interesting, without the listener actually knowing what they're hearing." (David Vorhaus)

The band recorded the first two tracks with the intention of producing a single only, but were then persuaded by Chris Blackwell of Island Records to create an entire album. At this point the group set up the Kaleidophon Studio in a flat in Camden Town, London, and spent a year creating the next four tracks. The last track was put together in one day when Island demanded the completion of the album.

This album remains popular over 40 years after it was recorded, and many electronic musicians cite it as an influence. Delia Derbyshire has become a major cult hero after her death and many of her recordings have been released posthumously; although not initially commercially successful for Island, it has over the years proved to be a cult classic, going on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, namechecked by such contemporary artists as The Orb and Julian Cope, influencing contemporary acts such as Broadcast, Add N to (X), and Secret Chiefs 3; by the way, a brief extract can be heard in the Hammer Film Productions film Dracula AD 1972.

April 2, 2010

The Tiny Wonderful Grass People (Repost)


Amazing score composed by french musician Bruno Coulais, that sings about the life of our small neighbors hidden into grass, in fact it is a documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

Here

The Bat is Rising, watch the Claws (Repost)

During his career Ah Cama-Sotz has carved a niche for himself as one of the darkest industrial acts around. His music is steeped in a multitude of mythology, occultism and bloody history, which lend a context and significance to the individual works that is noticeably absent from a lot of contemporary industrial / noise music. The past 17 years have seen the Ah Cama-Sotz sound progress from cold, minimalist electronics through to dark ambient soundscapes and pounding techno floor-fillers.

Herman's boyhood infatuation of classical music has prominantly formed the foundation of his present musicality. Subsequently his fascination for "dance" led him into DJ'ing in clubs and local pirate radio stations, where he noticed the incessant evolution and metamorphosis of " dance " and experimental music. Yet, he didn't want to remain a passive onlooker and aspired to formulate his individual sound, by mean of acquiring synths and samplers. His objective was to combine his musical passion and esoteric ideology which resulted in an obscure and macabre but rhythmic and atmospherically sound. This project required an appropriate moniker, which could integrate and mirror all those constituents.

When wandering in Mexico he uncovered local mythology and found his alter ego: "ah cama-sotz", named after a giant bat which used his extremely elongated sharp claws to decapitate his victims. In the mid-eighties he recorded his first tracks, which were given airplay on a controversial local radio station, "radio centraal". While on the air he attracted the attention of an electronic/ritual band called "Hybryds" which resulted into a ritual-ambient project/recording for the Antwerp zoo: "Soundtrack voor het aquarium" (project by hybryds and vidna obmana). When listening to ah cama-sotz' recordings you will ascertain his mephystological values interpolated with rhythmical-ritual ambience and accentuated with industrial vibes.Ah cama-sotz will transport your subconscious in a mythical universe where his alter ego " ah cama-sotz " haunts the night and proliferates anxiety amidst every living creature. Ah cama-sotz' music reflects the epitome of mankind's mis(t)ery and (in)humanity.

Here

The New Futurism? pt.2 (Repost)

DigitalNoize-Merchant Huren renders his 8-24-bit a/v content, from a clandestine Canadian location... With well over a decade of involvement in the production of extreme digital intermedia, Huren's diverse output comprises of a repository of placeless releases, on imprints as diverse as Probe/+8, and R&S to Zhark and Model... With his vitriolic Digital Treatments- Huren programs a purpose-built framework of dislocated resistance...more info: www.myspace.com/fostx

With an intense focus on the auditory forefront, Huren utilizes a plethora of advanced digital processing operations such as spectral analysis and re-synthesis, interval mutation, bit-rate decimation, and cryptic low level programming. The resultant auditory fragments are then cunningly manipulated into Huren's trademark nouveau musique brut. In short, this landmark digital document is certain to emblazon the Huren moniker into the forefront of avant electronics/DSP-ism.

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Learning to Share (Repost)

Needle Sharing was founded in 1991 by Roland Danielzig, taking its name from a documentary on AIDS, shown on british TV. The concept was to produce raw and loud industrial dance music influenced by a heavy consumption of splatter movies, although over time his work has evolved into a state of the art "Drum and Noise" project, influenced in part by Danielzig's film score work and long time friendship with drum and bass master Panacea.

Here's his debut CD, more in the vein of industrial rhyhtmic noise bands, slowly approaching to noisy D+B.

Clara, how we miss you... (Repost)


For me, the word Clara Rockmore (Lithuanian born Clara Reisenberg, 1991-1998) means pure magic and sounds like wind shaking the clouds in a clear shinny day; that northen princess became the inspirational muse and endless love of russian master and beloved genius Léon Theremin (who will will be honored in a next post) developed a whole technique for playing the Theremin, including a fingering system, which allowed her to accurately perform fast passages and large note leaps without the much known portamento on the instrument.


In words of the photographer Steve Sherman, great-nephew of Clara Rockmore: it is with deep personal pleasure that I announce that Clara's second album "Lost Theremin Album" is finally out and available, which truth be told was really just lost in Bob Moog's basement, comprises the additional material recorded by Bob and Shirleigh during the same July 1975 sessions that produced Clara's first album "The Art of the Theremin". While Moog was delighted with our plans to finally release this material (just prior to his taking ill), we were only able to locate and retrieve these 5-track reel to reel tapes after he died (thanks to Mike Adams). Of the 5 tracks, two were primarily theremin, two were primarily piano, and the fifth was only theremin from a direct electronic hookup to the instrument. Aside from a few false starts and maybe 5 retakes, the entire 2 albums worth of music was recorded straight through without break, and without any edits. What you hear is pure unadulterated Clara and Nadia. Well, almost. Dad had the tapes digitized and re-mastered at Sony Studios, and added a few extra parts (guitar in Estrellita, strings in Pastoral, and 8 cellos in Bachianas). He worked long and hard on this project, overseeing every aspect, and if I say so myself, he did a brilliant job. This CD sounds amazing, and our whole family is very proud of this effort. Clara, Nadia, Bob Moog, and Lev Sergeyevich would all have been very proud as well. And if I may add a personal note, NO one would have been more proud than Clara's beloved Bob Rockmore.

Rest in Peace, beloved lady.

April 1, 2010

Latin Geisha (Repost)

The 50'er star Chiemi Eri mixed the traditional Enka music from Japan with latin rhythms as mambo and cha-cha-cha, cool experiments from those days; if you like "crossover" music, go forward.

Here

I'll Bring you Flowers, I'll Dress in Black (Repost)

A darkest album from 1969, featuring an unacknowledged synth pioneer reading the poetry of Charles Baudelaire (The Damned One) with electronically treated vocals, creepy tape-collages, sinister synth drones, and dissonant electronic backdrops to give your spinal cords (specially the lateralls) a giant shiver. Best if listened to in a dark groovy steamy cave.

The Best Singer Ever!! (Repost)

WTF!! For more info read the note in Spectropop, i'm not qualified to talk about that high level type of musical arts, so i can't post my impressions here. See for yourself.

Acid to Moog under the Tongue (Repost)

Here's one of my fave records ever, presenting Monsieur J.J. Perrey (one of the last living legends of electronic music of all times) playing with Luck Vibert a funny, weird album; isn't easy face the fact that JJ.Perrey (born in 1929) is still doing that amazing kind of music, live performances around the world and working in new projects...wish he'd be my grandfather.

Here