Ugandan Methods - Sixth Method 12"

How the hell did I miss this? One of the best electronic releases of the year, and yes I am someone who loves hyperbole but wow. This 20 minute 12" starts out with two clean, minimal dance tracks and then works itself into a third track of industrial feedback and muffled vocals. Up there with Muslimgauze and Vatican Shadow.

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Twist Barbie

This will probably be taken down within a matter of minutes, but if you can snag it, your finals week will suck infinitely less. Guaranteed.

Tortoise Brand Pot Cleaner's Theme (Sea Turtle)

Also, this:

Shonen ('boy') have very cute feelings and 'knife' have very keen or very strange feeling.

Best of 2012

It was a good year for industrial, and a laughable year for "DIY" (here's lookin' at you, Merchandise), and the countless number of Drive Like Jehu imitators that magically spawned as if on cue. Overall, things were pretty solid on the electronic front, with Andy Stott's impeccably produced and emotionally androgynous "Luxury Problems" coming in at #1 for me.

1. Andy Stott - "Luxury Problems" (Modern Love)
2. Raime - "Quarter Turns Over A Living Line" (Blackest Ever Black)
3. Vatican Shadow - "Ornamented Walls" (Modern Love)
4. Speedy Ortiz - "Sports EP" (Exploding In Sound)
5. Roomrunner - "Super Vague 12"" (Fan Death)
6. Swans - "The Seer" (Young God)
7. Useless Children - "Post Ending // Pre Completion" (Iron Lung)
8. Shoxx - "Demo Cassette" (C6)
9. Silent Servant - "Negative Fascination" (Hospital Productions)
10. Jan Jelinek - "Music For Fragments / Music & Birds" (Faitiche)

Honorable Mentions:

Taco Leg - "Taco Leg" LP

Lamps - "Under The Water Under The Ground"

Tearist - "Purple Video" [Cass.]

Slices - "Still Cruising"

Mutant Video - "Head Scan - Part Two"

Dum Dum Girls - "End Of Daze EP" (surprisingly good, and a Strawberry Switchblade cover!)

Potty Mouth's new 12" managed to step in to sate Shoppers fans, though overall I wasn't that impressed with the new material, but thank god for Dark Times---a band that never fails to impress. Their record Girl Hate saw them going in a less melodic and more hardcore direction. It's desperate and fast moving and fantastic.

Also, I am shamelessly gonna plug Sean's new project, No Paris. He's touring sometime in the spring with Screen Vinyl Image.

Various (Reissues/Live):

Unwound - "Live Leaves" (you can stream here)

The Cleaners From Venus - Blow Away Your Troubles / On Any Normal Monday / Midnight Cleaners

Medicine - "Shot Forth Self Living"

My Bloody Valentine - "EP's 1988-1991"

Bikini Kill - "Bikini Kill" EP

William Basinski - "The Disintegration Loops"

Radio Phnom Penh

This is by far the best Cambodian compilation I've ever listened to. Khmer music, in my opinion, has always sounded more complex than Thai pop and rock from the same era. Perhaps it has to do with the common knowledge of Cambodia's 20th century history, which is nearly impossible to mentally separate from its cultural exports. Cambodian (as well as Vietnamese) music tends to have a more wistful, unsettling quality. There is also a huge Hindu influence, which can be heard immediately. This particular compilation mixes together years of Cambodian music, with spoken words parts as well--in both Khmer and French.

And yes, of course, this is a Sublime Frequencies release. This compilation is definitely special because it both incorporates and moves past the Cambodian musical staples of Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron, Meas Samon, etc.

320 kbps

Halloween Mix

Halloween is the only holiday I get into making mixes for, as it's basically an excuse for two things: goth-rock and coldwave.

This mix is also good if you work at a haunted strip club. I went heavy on the Blackest Ever Black catalog.

1. Zombi: L'Alba Dei Morti Viventi: Goblin
2. Stranger (Remix): Clan Of Xymox
3. Shadowplay: Warsaw
4. Figurative Theatre: Christian Death
5. Waiting For: Trisomie 21
6. Heed: Rosenkopf
7. Chains Of Desire: Tollund Men
8. This Foundry: Raime
9. Lucid: Dream Affair
10. Chrome Vox: Tropic Of Cancer
11. Lo Tek: Black Rain
12. Embers From The Pyre: Young Hunting
13. Rain Of Despair: Death In June
14. Pornography: The Cure

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Louis & Bebe Barron - Forbidden Planet (1956)

All information stolen mercilessly from Wikipedia. But seriously, the Barrons are so goddamn interesting.

Louis and Bebe Barron's composition for Forbidden Planet is credited as the first fully electronic soundtrack to a movie. Louis and Bebe Barron married in 1947 and moved to Greenwich Village and began experimenting with musique concrète.

Says Wikipedia: The sounds and patterns that came out of the circuits were unique and unpredictable because they were actually overloading the circuits until they burned out to create the sounds. The Barrons could never recreate the same sounds again, though they later tried very hard to recreate their signature sound from Forbidden Planet. Because of the unforeseen life span of the circuitry, the Barrons made a habit of recording everything.

If you listen to this without keeping note of the (albeit hilarious and absurdly descriptive) track titles; you could easily shelve this alongside Michel Chion, Iannis Xenakis, and Conrad Schnitzler.

On the back of the Forbidden Planet record sleeve, the Barrons explained:

We design and construct electronic circuits which function electronically in a manner remarkably similar to the way that lower life-forms function psychologically. [. . .]. In scoring Forbidden Planet – as in all of our work – we created individual cybernetics circuits for particular themes and leit motifs, rather than using standard sound generators. Actually, each circuit has a characteristic activity pattern as well as a "voice". [. . .]. We were delighted to hear people tell us that the tonalities in Forbidden Planet remind them of what their dreams sound like.

Fun facts:

"Bebe" Barron was nicknamed by Anaïs Nin

The Barrons made some of the first audio recordings of Henry Miller reading his work aloud, and Anaïs Nin's full version of House of Incest. 

Said Nin of their music,

"[Barrons' music sounds like] a molecule that has stubbed its toes." — From the Diary of Anais Nin, Volume 7 

A Shangri-La In The Desert - Garden With Cuddly Tiger

Floating Into The Night

I'm not the biggest David Lynch fan, but his work with Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti immediately grabbed me. In my opinion, "Falling" is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard, both with and without the vocals. The album is processed to the point where every percussive element is muted, the vocals are devoid of any tension or assonance, and the entire thing just flows. Cruise's voice isn't particularly distinctive, and the synth chords are dated as hell--but each aspect of this collaboration is so flawlessly pulled off that I can't get it out of my head. Nostalgic and indulgent, but also very unsettling. I would venture to say that it sounds like a more sinister Beach House mixed up with Goblin's soundtrack to Suspiria.

Floating Into The Night

Moscow Olympics - Cut The World

Filipino dream-pop. Airy reverb, delicate vocals, clearly running in the post-rock/shoegaze vein with a bit of jangle-pop guitar influence. Not particularly groundbreaking, but perfect for those times late at night when you've gone through everything else in your music library and simple predictability hits the spot.

Cut The World (2008) 

Hans Joachim Roedelius - Wenn Der Südwind Weht

Time has been kind to Wenn Der Südwind Weht, Hans Joachim Roedelius' 7th solo album. I have always admired electronic composers who manage to build a lush sonic atmosphere using very few tools. With synthesizer tones that would normally sound dated and stale, Roedelius manages to create an artificial Eden: each song a curious meditation on the natural world. I am struck by how gorgeous this album is, with a surprising warmth and immediate likeability. Unlike his contemporaries Eno and Shnitzler, Roedelius' compositions have a shimmering, playful quality to them. Wenn Der Südwind Weht is truly a stunning album.

Through the Berlin arts scene, Roedelius met Conrad Schnitzler, a kindred spirit with whom Roedelius ultimately co-founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab and the 1968 happening known as Human Being. The project’s eventual demise gave rise to the trio Kluster, featuring Roedelius, Schnitzler and a young, unknown Swiss art student, Deiter Moebius. When Schnitzler left after two short years to pursue a solo career, Roedelius continued with Moebius as Cluster, going on to produce several albums in the late 1970s that defined electronic music of the era. (Amazon)

Sky Records - 1981

Living With Victoria Grey - Cleaners From Venus

Unbelievably catchy, verging on quaint, but eccentric enough to make it endearing. I think this is the best representation of CFV in terms of experimentation with style and sound.

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