What I'm listening to today: "random noise 076 SOMA RoAT, NTS-1"
This is the same guy from Monday I guess? Whatever. This is a good ominous ambient piece with the "Rumble of Ancient Times", SOMA's toy 8-bit synth, combined with Korg's DIY reverb filter. It's made from two improvised takes spliced together so it has a really good movement structure to it ("it's like listening to a real song!"). If you can listen to this on speakers with bass that's an amazing experience.
What I'm listening to today: "22 Minutes of Live Modular Techno \\ Verbos, Make Noise Easel, Pulsar 23"
This is a live set of that hardkore classic 90s style four on the floor techno. It's somewhat of note that it's being made with a collection of modern synths (like the Pulsar and Strega, to say nothing of the modular synth rack) that I associate more with noise/ambient, but rather than grabbing your attention the sculpted noises just integrate cleanly into the groove.
What I'm listening to today: "SUMMER COMES EARLY TONIGHT", thofabyq
This is a super chill lo-fi hip hop beats track on the PO-12 and PO-33 toy synthesizers (a drum machine and a sampler). Soul singing chopped up into vaguely pleasant but entirely asemic syllabic soup.
What I'm listening to today: "Shebang II", Oren Ambarchi
I found "Shebang", a lovely little EP thing, on Tidal and was immediately enraptured by the second track, a dark and atmospheric cauldron of unpredictably roiling bass and jazz noises. Like a band all simultaneously woke up from a nap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbO4Z3hqlk0
The whole album (a playlist is linked on YouTube, or https://orenambarchi.bandcamp.com/album/shebang on Bandcamp) is honestly really worth a listen, it flows well and "II" extends into a 3-song suite.
What I'm listening to today: "It's Gonna Rain, Pt. II", Steve Reich
"It's Gonna Rain" is based on a recording of a San Francisco street preacher and "phasing" (multiple copies of a tape playing at different speeds, drifting in and out of sync).
The first part, which sounds oddly like trance music, Reich exhibited in 1965; he initially withheld this, the more-complex second part, fearing it was imbued with so much chaos its release would be dangerous for the world.
What I'm listening to today: "1/2", Brian Eno
This is the start of side 2 of "Ambient I: Music for Airports", Eno's infamous album that coined "ambient music" and made his experimental music forever overshadow his pop work (w/ Roxy Music, David Bowie etc). The songs all utilize Reich-style phasing of long loops; this track is the most complex, and my favorite.
Although MFA is great ambient for many contexts, in my opinion it is not appropriate for airports. Wrong mood.
What I'm listening to today: "Call Me Maybe Acapella 147 Times Exponentially Layered", Dan Deacon
This is the acapella version of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, layered on itself 147 times exponentially increasing. In other words, self-explanatory.
https://mabsonenterprises.bandcamp.com/track/call-me-maybe-acapella-147-times-exponentially-layered
(There is a clear line running through Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Negativland, Plunderphonics, Martin Arnold, "It's Over 9000!"/YTP/YTMND and Neil Cicierega/meme mashups. It's all one artistic tradition.)
from the album Call Me Maybe
What I'm listening to today: "Modular Techno Performance// Verbos + SOMA Pulsar 23 + Digitakt", Raucous Studio
Some classic industrial-flavored dark-trance dance music with a lot of juicy clipping. I would describe it as "hype". It is very easy to imagine this being played in a warehouse or some other very large room full of people so if you have not been able to visit a large room full of people in the last couple years maybe this will be a good simulacrum.
What I'm listening to today: "AepoK feat. Pit&Gore 〓 Visa 96 ☰ Korg EMX - Electro Set live Electribe", CycLoop
More 90s-style hard rave music: a 10-minute flowing set of various songs played on the EMX-1 groovebox, a precursor to the Volca (but aimed at professional DJs rather than hobbyists). In 2004 when this device was released these sounds would have probably sounded five years out of date, but listening now in 2022 sounding like it's from 1999 only sounds charming.
What I'm listening to today: "Open Your Mind // First Jam with the MAKENOISE XPO", Jon Gee
So the concept here is real simple: This guy got a new synthesizer and he's trying it out, by feeding in a single semi-randomized sequence (bottom left) and turning knobs. The result is like watching something go in and out of focus, as different knob configs make more or less sonic sense (peaking in hypeness around 2:00).
The XPO is based around stereo so headphones recommended.
Never quite know how to begin with a new module. Might as well see what it can do. I love XPO. Also included in this little numba is Deckard’s Voice & Rachae...
What I'm listening to today: "Unstability", Hidenobu Ito
One of the best ever songs from the early 00s "Glitch" genre was this track by this mostly-forgotten artist from the soundtrack of Boogiepop Phantom, a mostly-forgotten anime. Several cut-up synth lines (or maybe just a Reaktor script?) collide together and spill ruptured tonal organs all over the floor.
The bass in this YouTube rip is unfortunately a little de-emphasized, so subwoofer or headphones recommended.
What I'm listening to today: "Mutable Marbles experiment., eastern drone swedgling.", Jonny Riddles
"Marbles" is a randomness generator for modular racks, but for structured randomness, it's designed to make values cluster. Here it's being used to pilot timbres of hypnotic clanging noises—like gongs swinging in the wind somewhere distant at the edge of your hearing, but made of metal not of this world, gritty and distorted.
Warning, the mix is biased a bit to left ear.
What I'm listening to today: "Tribute", Guano Apes
The Guano Apes were a nu-metal one-hit-wonder on German radio in the late 90s. This isn't their hit; it's their album's final track, where they cut loose and made something really *weird*, starting with funky metal then… devolving? I can't describe it. There's a sense of dread, the vocalist is trying to communicate something she seems to think is very important but doesn't quite have the English skills to get across.
What I'm listening to today: "Ondes Sonores", Jean François Lavielle
Some good focused modular ambient. Chaotic windchime sounds, skittering against a quiet but driving beat that gives the piece a good backbone.
What I'm listening to today: "Shell Fish", Cool Breeze Rack
This is a low-tempo, slightly unsettling VCV rack patch with some interesting dynamics shifts, but what's interesting about it is all of the multiple melody lines appear to be sequenced by random generators. Despite this the brain does a startlingly convincing job of seeing patterns in the chaos even if it knows there is no pattern. This is the true power of randomly selected notes.
Video image is a still.
What I'm listening to today: "Soma DVINA / Make Noise Strega / 0-CTRL", Jon Gee
Chill, dreamy and atmospheric. Here Jon combines my favorite echo/feedback/hiss device (the Strega) with a new device from SOMA which is actually not a synthesizer but is sort of a two-stringed duxianqin [Vietnamese monochord]. (SOMA say they were inspired by Persian and Hindustani instruments.) Jon uses all this to create bowed-string and synth-tone sounds drifting in and out of aural fog.
What I'm listening to today: "Guess The Picture", DSP Kills
A fun, peppy jam that seems to be trying to hit as many different electronic music genres within three minutes as possible, but especially seems to love timbres from IDM and jungle. Created on an absolute nuclear control panel of a modular setup, but it's orchestrated from a PC running some sort of tracker so it's structured more like a complex mixed/prerecorded piece than typical live modular. I like the bass.
What I'm listening to today: "3x NYMPHES and 1 spare hour to shoot a video", Dimitra Manthou
As the title says, a synth designer/cofounder at Dreadbox had a slow afternoon one day, so she grabbed a Nymphes and over an hour dubbed it on itself 3 times to make this strange little song. It's short but it turned out really compelling, there's a fascinating mood to it. It tastes to me like aluminum.
What I'm listening to today: "SynthCone VISMUTH with Universe Zen Audio VOSKHOD-2 -=|=- DRONE DARK AMBIENT", GIPNOZER
If you've been following this thread you'll notice I keep returning to tracks that consist entirely of ominous howling, and this is for a simple reason, which is that I *really like* ominous howling. This is a great 10-minute track depicting the constant approach of an enormous swarm of invisible insects, punctuated by periodic electric squealing.
What I'm listening to today: "Finding Beauty in Distortion", Raucous Studio
Six minutes of meditative "weird noises" based around using an analog implementation of an OR gate as a distortion filter. Mostly very quiet actually, but full of lovely subtle moments. A good demonstration of how one can perceive rhythm in otherwise ambient works through simple things like a repeating click or a phaser pedal.
Headphones recommended.
What I'm listening to today: "L.E.S. Artistes", Santigold
The late 00s had a wealth of excellent female producer/songwriter/singers (Janelle Monae, Robyn etc) and among that group Santigold never quite got the attention she deserved, I thought. She's still releasing albums but her first album still stands out to me for its unusual synth accents and the first track, "L.E.S. Artistes", a basically perfect pop song that delivers unforgettably catchy funk from moment one.
What I'm listening to today: "Les Artisans", Theoreme
This album's from 2021 but what it makes me think of more than anything else is like old Einstürzende Neubauten or Swans songs with industrial-sounding (in the sense of "like a factory") bass sounds and clanging beats and prose being intoned in a low voice, except that in this one woman intoning the prose is speaking French instead of German. Anyway, I liked it. The first track on here is the best:
from the album Les Artisans
What I'm listening to today: "Les Artistes", Rachid Taha
So if you have Spotify or Tidal or one of those other big unethical streaming sites, a weird thing you can do is search for a song by name, click "play" from the search page and it will *play all the search results alphabetically*, which sounds like it should not work but is sometimes startlingly effective.
Anyway here's some jamming French rockabilly by an Algerian singer / social activist. Guess how I found it
What I'm listening to today: "THE LIZ", Armani Caesar
Armani Caesar is a new rapper from Buffalo NY with a distinct and really satisfying musical aesthetic. Her rap style evokes 90s rappers like Lil Kim and Foxy Brown, her production evokes Dan the Automator and Kool Keith. I'm making comparisons to old stuff but this isn't retro, it feels like she picked up where those artists left off. She has two good albums in the last two years, both of them named "THE LIZ".
What I'm listening to today: "Communiqué: Approach Spiral", Michael Shrieve
Awhile back I posted a music link here and someone said it gave them "Approach Spiral vibes". I didn't know what that was but it turns out in 1984 the drummer for Santana released an album of chill electronic music. This track features what I guess 80s Americans would have called a "world music" beat, 12 minutes long with a slow but increasingly intense build, and the vibes are excellent.
What I'm listening to today: "Celestial Soda Pop", Ray Lynch
This album, "Deep Breakfast" was self-produced/self-released by Ray Lynch in 1984, before "techno" was a word; back then it would have been sold as "New Age". Things were fuzzier then.
I heard this song in the 7th grade. I hadn't awakened into musical consciousness yet, so the only way I knew then to explain the extremely deep impression it left on me was "this is the best Final Fantasy overworld music ever".
What I'm listening to today: "Korg Wavestate relax", Ondřej Štěpánek
This is someone's synth jam with Korg's Minilogue-ized Wavestation equivalent; it's recorded last year, but has a deliciously early-90s vibe to it. The piece feels like it's building toward something, but stays quiet and slow right to the end; I get the sense of a song from a movie soundtrack, an early establishing scene, laying down leitmotifs that will pay off in tense and action-packed scenes later.
What I'm listening to today: "Children", Robert Miles
It wasn't easy to be a techno fan in Texas in 1995. The Chemical Brothers and "electronica" were still a couple years off so the rock station gave me nothing to work with. My only sources were college radio and, occasionally, 104.1, the soft rock station, which targeted moms but because it played pop *occasionally* would allow dance tracks into its lineup. Occasionally this meant true synth bangers, like "Children".
What I'm listening to today: "Full Performance (Live on KEXP)", Hania Rani
About a month ago this lady and her synthesizers did a live set on a Seattle radio station. The first six or so minutes are some basic chill 90s style ambient synths, but then she starts layering in piano and singing and from that point to the end it feels like she's banging on your heart with a hammer.
The final minutes are an interview, so you'll probably want to stop the video around 26:00.
What I'm listening to today: "Triple Kastle", alloutofsync
The Bastl Kastle is a lovely toy-like palmtop instrument that mocks the entire expensive idiom of modular synths by costing like $60, running off 3 AA batteries and yet sounding like it contains an entire universe of glitchy noise.
This piece combines three Kastles crosswired to make otherworldly noises unlike anything you've ever heard, although oddly it does remind me a bit of the Earthbound cave music.
What I'm listening to today: "Strega processing LF radio signals", Tom Zicarelli
"Software Defined Radio" is a technique where an untuned radio receiver shovels the bottom 48 kilohertz of the spectrum into a computer's audio-in "raw", at which point bandpass/demodulation are performed in software. In this video an iPad runs SDR with intentionally incorrect demodulation/frequency settings, so the only output is chaotic squealing that a Strega smears into audio ambience.
What I'm listening to today: "Every song on Björk's album 'Vespertine' at the same time"
This experiment starts off feeling kind of pointless; all the first 30 seconds do for me is reveal 606 drums and the harpsicord from "Pagan Poetry" stand out well amidst noise.
But then there's a shift, like the floor dropping out under you. Once the song intros are past everything blends, and coalesces into a slowly-mutating, gloriously creepy, shockingly emotional uniform howl.
What I'm listening to today: "Saigon Window // Crunchy Ambient [Live Performance]", Dexba
A flowing 20-minute live set featuring a slightly unusual setup (multiple Meng Qi synths) and, as advertised, a window on a Vietnamese street. Starts with some basically okay distorted chimes and echoing howls but around the seven to ten minute mark it finds an atmospheric groove and from there to the end is a transcendent cosmic journey.
What I'm listening to today: "Twelfth", Daniel M. Karlsson
Karlsson (@t36s) is a composer I've been following for years who constantly produces lovely and intense noise/ambient. This was his Nov 12 entry for the "#Noisevember" event (he's now moved on to Dronecember).
Karlsson explains this track is based on a string physical model (https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]rdinal.garden/109333185610168206); the model seems to be pushed to (past?) its limit, producing unearthly, sorrowful noise.
Source code included:
from the album Noisevember
What I'm listening to today: "POCKET OPERATOR ACID RAVE", L҉̵͘P̴̶͘
I've mentioned the Pocket Operator in this thread before, but I don't think I've mentioned how much I love it. It's designed with the aesthetics and sense of play of a toy but you can do serious music production with it. This is demonstrated here via, as the title promises, some absolutely MASSIVE acid rave techno performed live from a PO-33 sampler unit on a tiny calculator-like PCB in the musician's hands.
What I'm listening to today: "Discovering Ambient with the Verbos Multi-Delay", Raucous Studio
This piece is based on a very simple feedback patch; a signal is amplified into itself, piped first through a delay echo and a bandpass with oscillating boundaries to sculpt the frequencies. It's extremely sparse and mostly quiet and almost nothing in it is intentional— just a man turning knobs to see what happens— but the echoing, moaning chirps are very evocative to me.
What I'm listening to today: "Soma RoAT Exploration N°2", HELL F.O
This is based on the Soma "Rumble of Ancient Times", an opinionated/toy synth. The normal problem of noise synths is they sound cool but wind up just making one undifferentiated drone; the ROAT solves this by making *four* drones (pad-triggered).
Here the ROAT's combined with Korg's desktop drum-modeling synth to make a cool and nicely structured glitch hop jam. "It's just like listening to real music!"
What I'm listening to today: "Soma ROAT Jam - Mélodie d'automne", Sidney Cote Nadon
This one uses *two* Rumble of Ancient Times units plus an Akai sampler to make dance techno with the ROATs' various noise generators providing the sirens, swells and background beepy noises you expect to be drifting in and out in the background of such music. It jams. If you liked whatever "Electro" was in 2008 ("Electroclash"? Was that the same thing?) you'll probably like this.
What I'm listening to today: "random noise 079", glenn clyatt
A bizarre journey back and forth across the border between music and noise, this uses a Bastl Kastle and a chiptune synth to pile together bizarre noises until suddenly the noise coalesces into some pretty cool sounding dance techno!… before just as suddenly slowing down 800% and becoming one of, depending on your mindset,
1. A blissful, psychadelic trip
2. The sound of something crying out in pain
mcc
ardaniel