Thanks Bytor, Steve Gunn is rad. I think this is my favourite thing he has done, beautifully trippy desert jam.

https://soundcloud.com/miemusic/sets...ask-at-huggie/

http://pitchfork.com/news/54441-swan...um-to-be-kind/

oh my, this is dope.

Good track but shit artwork again, worse than The Seer.

that new swans track is grossly underwhelming, not liking this direction at all. same problem I had with some of these tracks when I saw them earlier this year, the more rhythmically-based pieces don't work nearly as well when placed alongside their monolithic ones, and even on their own aren't anything special.

Whoah, whoah.... Are you serious?

Before the Seer even came out; before I'd heard a single note of the album, I saw that artwork and pretty much knew that it was going to blow everything else away that year. I love it.

This new one, though... Much more creepy and unsettling. Norman Rockwell on mescaline.

With them recording the album out in El Paso, I figured images of something deserty......or possibly a continuation / transformation from, The Seer. Perhaps something Chupacabra. However, this artwork is just odd.

I don't know man, it's not something i'm going to pull out and show my friends or want on a t-shirt, it was just fairly nondescript.

I've been jamming on Atlas by Real Estate quite a bit lately.
I know it probably won't even make my top ten by year's end, but it's a likable little album that satisfies enough musical cravings to stay in my CD player.

So far, Pinata by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib is the year's clear front runner. Definitely the year's first classic album, that's for sure

Ok so, I have mixed feelings about Real Estate. They're bland and sad as hell, but I think they're capable of being better. They have the appreciation of indie music, musical ability, and sense of melody to be one of generation's first new "classic" indie acts, carrying on the tradition of Built to Spill and SDRE, but they seem to have been castrated somewhere along the way.

I listened to the album long enough to give it a fair (though mostly bad) review on my fledgling blog. I have not cared to revisit it. Though there were some moments that reminded me of Neil Young, which is ok. And REM without the unique sound and ingenious combination of melancholy and quirk.

Piñata is still growing on me. I definitely like it, but as I said in the Café, I'd prefer more Lib and less Gibb. The production is not dominant. For me, that's a little weird. And God bless Freddie Gibbs, but I've always considered Madlib to be on an entirely different tip than street rap/gangsta shit. So, I'm letting it sink in.

So far my favorite hip hop album is still Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron. Best believe.

Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Ballade For A Snow Moon

Even though this lady is so prolific, I struggle to keep up at times, this release
has been on constant rotation for the last few weeks.

Beautiful ambient music

http://motionsicknessoftimetravel.ba...or-a-snow-moon

I am extremely saddened by the current state of rock-based independent music.

The new album by The War on Drugs is like taking a thousand mg's of Ambian. I've been more inspired by sorting my dirty clothes.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Severian again.

HTRK's new album is fantastic.

indeed it is, at points it's too close to like sade or some cafe background music tape but their attention to detail on this one is pretty incredible. doesn't have really any of the physicality (by way of bass) which used to make them so special but as their pop record it's awesome. such a sick group.

Yeah I like it too, to me it sounds like trip hop combined with classic warp so the cafe analogy totally fits. But good record!

it's carla, she doesn't do bullshit... it's good.

and THE MOTHERFUCKING BODY. Holy shit so great

I really love that new release by Oneohtrix Point Never, called "Commissions" - recorded for the Record Store Day.

It's nothing grounbreaking, though it kind of nicely fits my recent moods, so I'm tight with it.

Patten's Estoile Naiant is an EXPLOSIVE record. It's not ultra heavy, the beats don't resonate like shotgun blasts, but something about it makes it sound violent as hell when it's not melding Flying Saucer Attack-style dreampop drones with the schizophrenic found sound attacks of FlyLo and madlib.

Musically it references Depeche Mode, Ministry, Portishead, MBV, Massive Attack, and Botany, but it comes out sounding like it's own thing. Grit sprinkled over glimmer. I fucking love it.

I actually wrote a review of the album completely on the fly during my first listen, but I wrote so much that I had to switch over to iPhone voice memo during my drive to and from an appointment. It's a completely impromptu review, and I think I'm going to submit it somewhere, because it's probably the best I've ever written/spoken. I don't intend to change a word, except for correcting the few transcription errors that will just sound like nonsense sentences if I don't.

Anyway, this is definitely one of my two favorite electronic albums of the year, with the other being BLACK LIGHT SPIRAL by UNTOLD.

http://threelobed.bandcamp.com/album...t-like-it-dont

that new gobby record is insane, patten also pretty cool although the dude never seems to fully capitalise on his potential, he's almost consciously obfuscating to the extent that you want to sock him in the face. sensory rape is fun but not when it's just a total cocktease which would be better off with the ol thang just danglin' on out.

this is glossing over a lot of realllll cool recent stuff but I can only fit in four pictures


inga copeland - because I'm worth it [world music]


sd laika - that's harakiri [tri angle]


fennesz - bécs [emego]


marcus schmickler & julian rohrhuber - politiken der frequenz [emego]

Yay to Fennesz.

Also the new (debut full length ) by Nothing (on fucking REPALSE of all labels) is really goddamn right.

Top 10 off my head. Secret Boyfriend technically came out in 2013 so no can do

1. Actress - Ghettoville
2. The Body - I Shall Die Here
3. Swans - To Be Kind
4. Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit
5. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
6. Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - Pinata
7. Millie and Andrea - Drop the Vowels
8. HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club
9. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
10. Perfect Pussy - Say Yes to Love

fuck let's do it bubi, I'm bored and cold

1. actress - ghettoville
2. htrk - psychic 9-5 club
3. fushitsusha & peter brotzmann - nothing changes no one can change anything, I am ever-changing only you can change yourself
4. marcus schmickler & julian rohrhuber - politiken der frequenz
5. valerio tricoli - miseri lares
6. copeland. because I'm worth it
7. blank realm - grassed inn
8. russell haswell - 37 minute workout
9. hecker - articulação
10. sd laika - that's harakiri
11. delroy edwards - teenage tapes
12. lily - modern malaise
13. sun araw - belomancie
14. jason lescalleet - much to my demise
15. thug entrancer - death after life
16. kassel jaeger - toxic cosmopolitanism
17. kikagaku moyo - mammatus clouds
18. nun - s/t
19. jorge velez - territories
20. kassem mosse - workshop 19

eastlink - s/t

godawful road, fucking brilliant band. after a couple of listens this feels like the best release out of the melbourne scene since henge beat, definitely among the best stuff to come out of this shithole

At this moment, Bécs is my favorite album of the year.
And patten ... SO GLAD to hear someone rep that incredible record. I agree that he's a scattered mothetfucker, and that he jumps from genre to genre and style to style on every track, but the album is more or less this:

1/2- modernized mashup of Depeche mode/early NIN industrial synth mixed with Shoegaze (of all things) particularly Flying Saucer Attack and MBV's slower moments

1/2- portishead/early tricky influenced trip hop, only hushed and spliced up like a Stones Throw joint.

But it's hard to pin down for sure. I would like to see him stay consistent for a minute, and show is the best of one of his styles, rather than sending down an avalanche of all of his musical identities at once.

Still, Estoile Nanaint is one of the best buns of the year as well. Hands mother fuckin' down.

I've started a daily blog to keep track of my constant search for new albums of the highest quality. I gotta say, this year has been great for electronic music/instrumental hip-hop etc.

I wish I could do a list, but I should probably be working.

Don't forget Swans! Oh, and don't forget Untold! Ooh, and Girls Names.... Surprisingly good album from them.

And fucking Ex-Cult.
And Mincemeat or Tenspeed
And.. Goddamnit.

Lot of love for HTRK. That's good, though I felt their album could have been better in a lot of ways. I still like it, though.

Hey, did TONIGHT YOU LOOK LIKE A SPIDER by David Yow come out in 2014? If so, that's a goddamn monster of an album.

Yep, and Blank Realm is definitely riding high.

Anyone listen to Chad VanGaalen's Shrink Dust LP? I swear to god it's fucking beautiful. More beautiful than you would ever expect from a dude whose last album was called Diaper Island. He's going places. I'm jealous.

Watch out for this too. I didn't even know this was happening, but it's out now. Pretty fucking boss. Will be enjoying my first listen shortly.

(Yay Godspeed and SFTF and post rock related things!!!)



Hiss Tracts is an ongoing collaboration between accomplished and acclaimed sound sculptors David Bryant and Kevin Doria, who have for the past several years been diligently building up a body of captivating soundscape work. Both players are well-known for their work within various strains of drone-inflected and experimental music: Bryant as a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Set Fire To Flames, Doria as a member of Growing and for his solo work as Total Life. With Hiss Tracts they channel these bona fides into thrilling new territory. [/i]

SO FUCKING GOOD. why does death of rave not release more stuff?

honestly have no clue, every single thing they've released has been really good, especially that merzbow record and the powell 12". speaking of, his newie on diagonal featuring russell haswell is sick.

padman you know the way to my heart

Preordered. Dylan Carlson solo western movie soundtrack. Will be my new favorite thing for a while.

new vhs head is finally out.

Gang Wizard are great, proper freak out rock music...

new fennesz is ok i guess but i dont want to go to sleep yet

The Notwist - Close to the glass
Sharon Van Etten - Are we there

throwing shade - 19 jewels [no pain in pop]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uumxoTWA0yI
if hype williams slipped into laurel halo's glorious bubblebath wherein pre-pubescent versions of lopatin & ferraro were engaging in an innocent root.


fatima al qadiri - asiatisch [hyperdub]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-SzLpBU63E
despite blurting out a whole load of utter hypocritical bullshit about this record and using pretty much the same patch she's been using for years, somehow she manages to put together a really good record, if a bit shallow for all its purported weight.


d/p/i (dj purple image) - rico [leaving]
https://soundcloud.com/leavingrecords/dpi-0cr
very much in that lineage of mark fell/snd, lee gamble, autechre etc., but where those artists often come across as quite sterile there's a definite playful element to this ep and his full length from earlier in the year, 08.DD.15.


ripatti /teeth - ripatti 04 [ripatti]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrsI8obYu8Y
everything released on ripatti thus far has been totally mental and yet again positions him a really long way ahead of everyone else, save perhaps ae, but this one pushes him forward even further. takes on a heavier element of jungle and makes it even more frenetic by melding it with footwork akin to the way that rashad was doing on double cup. but this is way more intense, more complex, just more advanced than anything else out really.