Intelligent Toys 3 (Sutemos014)

A while back I downloaded the Intelligent Toys 3 (update: that link seems mess up blogger... here is the direct download) collection, I don't even remember how I got to the Sutemos site, but I was in the mood to try something new. I gave it a listen and enjoyed it, and I've kept it in my short list of files that I play regularly.

One song in particular really stands out, its "Siux Eight Piano Feb2k5" by Tim Koch. Its quite straightforward, assembled from some disparate elements. It starts and ends with a simple rhythm played by a very digital click. New layers come in bit by bit, some electronic and ambient, some more instrumental, and one woman's voice floating on top of and through all of the intermixed layers. When it comes down to it, almost all of these layers are quite simple and repetitive, but the magic lies in how they interleave, especially as the voice occasionally steps aside by singing notes that are outside of the floating cycles.

The whole construction feels very natural, almost as if you were watching a meadow scene, with each layer representing an aspect of the view: some butterflies floating around on rapidly beating wings, a burbling creek, wind gently blowing thru the trees. But you never lose touch of that feeling that this is a very digital creation. It is an unusual sensation, its almost as if a very hyperreal computer generated world felt just as homey as a park that you walk through everyday.

Some Free Digital Dub Goodness For You

I found this really nice little (little is literal here, it's 15 minutes long) dub podcast:

Digital dub for my doggers

(Don't let the hideous picture keep you away)

The first track of which led me to this nice dub influenced glitch haus netlabel release:



"Levemente" by Sumergido

"Lisboa (Glander Remix)" in particular walks that line between Dub, House and IDM/Ambient so gracefully its drives me nuts. Slick deep atmosphers, undeniably groovey deep backbeat, trance inducing melodies. A+.

Should keep your friday afternoon chill...

Netlabel Release: Ten & Tracer - Vinculum

Rope Swing Cities brings us yet another great IDM release in the form of "Vinculum" by Ten & Tracer. Ten & Tracer has had releases on many underground IDM labels and netlabels.

This release consists of 9 songs of really lovely chilled out melodic ambient music. T&T experiments with many textures, from dirty strummed guitars to gamalan like sounds to gorgeously delicate analog synth timbres. An excellent release.

ten & tracer - vinculum (rsc009)

01. jealousy is the rage of man
02. nice palm
03. mister patience of a stranger storm
04. first for robert blake
05. thought she was embarrassed
06. hope in the harmful
07. ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
08. we were as fruit - a tamarind
09. the parent of a pitiful child

Download the release here.

Order a CD here.

Netlabel Release: Milieu - Sun White Sun

Been way to busy recently to write real reviews recently, but I just had to post this little netlabel gem:


Improv Volume 5: Milieu - Sun White Sun

Very nice longform, slow-evolving ambient. I had to stay up until 2am last night doing some boring work and this really set an awsome mood. I listened twice through back to back and am probably going to throw it on again this afternoon when I need to chill out a bit.

Download it:

MP3 (.zip)
FLAC (.zip)

Album Review: Medl - Medly

Just in time for spring, our friends Medl have put out their first release, available as a free download from their spankin' new Vocoid netlabel. It's an airy and melodic set of songs, and it's making me pine for the warmer, sunnier days that are (hopefully) just around the corner. I'm not going to try to pin it down to a genre, but I hear hints of Plaid, dashes of Mouse on Mars, some Solvent, ISAN, maybe even a little To Rococo Rot, and all tied together with an indie-sensibility reminiscent of The Postal Service without the vocals (or maybe Dntel would be a more apt comparison).

Medl - Medly (or click here to download a zip of complete album).

There are a number of different styles at work on this album, so a review of a few individual tracks seems in order.

Nother Rainy Day

This is the last track on the album, and the one that I had to listen to three times in a row this morning during my train ride into the city. A brisk, simple 4x4 beat drives a playfully interlocking set of quizzical, wistful, happy-yet-sad melodies. The track is uncluttered and well-crafted, with everything in the right place and nothing hanging around for long enough to dominate. This rainy day lets in a lot of sunshine.

Feliz Naviblah

This song is centered around a soaring, sustained cluster of synth notes that twist around, expand and contract, recede and then burst into the foreground, and playfully converse with the beat that merrily chugs along underneath. The vocal sample that sneaks in midway through compliments all of this perfectly, and cracks me up every time I hear it.

Stuff Goes Back

A frantic, angular, crunchy melody screams over most of this track, and a mightily obscured vocal provides emphasis and and a sense of mystery. If you like Plaid, grab this one and you won't be disappointed.

Soft On The Tarmac

Another wistful, sunny song for lazy afternoons, sitting by the pool, and maybe remembering your childhood in the 80s. This one taps into some instrinsic sense I have of what makes a song emotional for me -- certain chord changes, certain timbres, certain melodic devices that were popular in the 80s -- that and filters opening up. In particular, anything that remotely resembles a relatively obscure New Order track called Your Silent Face that for whatever reason packs more emotional punch for me than almost any other song. Soft On The Tarmac showcases Medl's talent for achieving this kind of feeling.

Summer Came Late This Year

This track kicks off Medly with a bubbly, straight ahead "melodic IDM" sensibility. It bookends the album nicely with Nother Rainy Day at the other end, each track coming at you with some of the same sensibilities but carried out in a different way. Whereas Nother Rainy Day's parts intertwine in a pretty egalitarian fashion, Summer Came Late This Year has one melody that is clearly in the lead -- and it will probably get stuck in your head. You'll be humming the bassline on this one too.

The rest of the album ain't bad either... We're looking forward to more from Medl.

Brasswork Agency - Plastic Smile EP

Looking for some edgy, detroit-tinged, minimal techno? Look no further. This is 6th release from the excellent netlabel Plex:

Brasswork Agency - Plastic Smile EP

Full mp3 track downloads:

1 - Hard to Read
2 - Plastic Smile
3 - I Must Have You
4 - Crushed and Shaken

The title track Plastic Smile is highly recommended.

1 Million Free and Legal Music Tracks

Redferret.net have started a massive wiki page of free and legal music for you to enjoy:

1 Million Free and Legal Music Tracks

Apparently it was inspired by this article on kuro5hin.org:

Snubbing the RIAA, Part I

Recently, I decided that I would strive to avoid non-free software on my computer, and that I would avoid any copyright-infringing music downloads.

What follows is the beginning of my investigation into what music is legally available, free of charge, on the Internet. I have tried to keep it as unbiased as possible.

A good resource if you are looking for something to fill your ears with.

I should also plug what I think is really the definitive Netlabel listing:

Netlabels.org

Famous for 15mb

These guys are taking the idea of the Netlabel and blowing it open to encompass video and visual art in addition to music. Every month they select a few artists to feature. Looks promising.

Please come and visit us at Famous For 15MB, a completely new space for deserving artistic talent. In 15 easy to use spaces, we offer you the cream of all the under-booked and possibly overlooked musical and audiovisual artists from around this small planet.

The works of the chosen artists are presented as MP3 or video files and also as manageable .zip files of 15mb. We present the work of new artists each month on the 15th and will include artists from any genre, background or discipline that we consider worthy of attention from from your discerning eyes and ears. As this is not My Space, not everyone who submits gets to be featured on Famous For 15mb.

If you have a band, are an artist, have a label, DJ, director, animator or whatever and would like to submit something for our consideration please just drop us a line and we'll explain the drill.

Enjoy the first round of Famous for 15mb: Bohman, Natural 20, Massaccesi, Virgin Passages, Sarah Culler, Emanuele, Erik De Vahl, Wyz, Aus, Tenebrous, Virgin Passages, Opsvik & Jennings, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words and Agnes Szelag.

www.famousfor15mb.com

Find Music With Phlow's Netlabel Catalogue

We here at Playtherecords are very excited about the emergence of netlabels as an alternative to conventional music distribution options. Netlabels usually work like regular music labels, promoting and producing music, building an artist's brand, but with free online distribution of the music in a digital audio format, often under a Creative Commons license. On the internet, where anyone can share their music, netlabels also provide a valuable filtering service, sifting out the cruft and providing a centralized point of access for music consumers who are looking for a particular sound.

Giving away songs for free may not seem like the best way for a musician to make a living, but with the market so flooded with music these days, and with the mainstream distribution methods still firmly in the hands of a relatively small number of corporate entities relentlessly pushing tired, old sounds, netlabels are pointing the way forward. With most of the cost involved in putting out a "record" eliminated, netlabels are free to take risks, or to release something that may appeal to only a small number of people. Moreover, they can serve as incubators for young, promising, but still raw music careers, something that the record companies used to invest in, but are no longer so willing to do.

As netlabels become more important, there are more and more stories of netlabel artists being picked up by "real" labels, such as IDM prodigy Grandma (a.k.a. Khonnor). I've also noticed more and more artists with established careers, whose records I own, putting out music for free on netlabels (such as minimal techno legend Ricardo Villalobos, with tracks on Textone). As more of our media is distributed online, I expect this back and forth will only increase -- and one day the distinction between "real" and "net" labels may disappear entirely.

So do your part to bring about the future of music -- head over to the Netlabel Catalogue, pick your favorite genre, and get yourself some free music. The best part is, the musicians who made it are usually just a few clicks away, and they would love to hear from you.

Album Review: Milieu - Songs We Found In The Sand (rsc002)

In the grand tradition of melodic downtempo IDM, Milieu has released a free album on the new Netlabel Rope Swing Cities:

Milieu - Songs We Found In The Sand

If Rope Swing Cities keeps releasing albums of this quality, the label will go far.

This album is richly atmospheric with plenty of great moody textural progression, but the real hook of these songs lies in their melodies and harmonies. What I mean to say is: these are "Songs" more than "Tracks".

Compositionally, there are few hard delineating lines between sections (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro). Instead, Milieu tends to build progressions that evolve and shift slowly over the length of the track. Without being dull, the music is definitely not foreground music, in large part because of this slow evolving compositional style. Put it on to relax or as you need to get some work done, and it will mostly stay out of your way, occasionally making you stop and listen to absorb the depth of the moment.

The beats are in the subtle glitch-hop vein, with just enough bounce and movement to keep your head bobbing. While this album is definitely derivative of Boards of Canada, at its best moments it can easily stand toe to toe with their latest effort. Overall, a very solid effort.

Standout tracks include (full track downloads):

Elep
As Summer Blooms
Poplar Drive 1967
Inpond

Download the whole record here (zip 120 meg).

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