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".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YtOWeAKTlo

Celestial Soda Pop / Ray Lynch

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsc-_qbOrdo

Korg Wavestate relax

YouTube

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".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LafSIzwdo-s

Children

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3EuiU1qdpE

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrIHd5qAffU

Triple Kastle / Dual Kastle Drum 4

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLFDYwzU56s

Strega processing LF radio signals

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsT3-B1zQBc

Every song on Björk's album 'Vespertine' at the same time

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO11wOrGxSA

Saigon Window // Crunchy Ambient [Live Performance]

YouTube

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:

https://danielmkarlsson.bandcamp.com/track/twelfth

Twelfth, by Daniel M Karlsson

from the album Noisevember

Daniel M Karlsson

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_1glqhmX-Q

POCKET OPERATOR ACID RAVE

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_h7YZ-PDiU

Discovering Ambient with the Verbos Multi-Delay

YouTube

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!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvoolkTIa2w

HELL F.O - Soma RoAT Exploration N°2

YouTube

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sr5JBlofM0

Soma ROAT Jam - Mélodie d'automne

YouTube

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh20zAi3l5o

random noise 079, Bastl Kastle v1.5, PO-128, Korg NTS-1

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Koma Krell | 0-Coast | Field Kit | Part Two | Extended Cut", Bottle Makes Music

The "Krell Patch" is a setup various synthesizers make possible to construct, where the closing envelope at the end of one note triggers the start of the next note. The name is a reference to the movie "Forbidden Planet". This Krell is augmented with a synth-controlled radio and a church fellowship hall used for natural echo.

TLDR: This is 12 minutes of beeps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECBiZ8P_Xs

Koma Krell | 0-Coast | Field Kit | Part Two | Extended Cut

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "live stream #1 … subroom signals", substan

substan posts a lot of chill electronic music on YouTube; I've linked him in this thread before. This is an absolutely lovely two-hour (!) flowing set of chill-beats ambient songs, alternating "music they'd play in a yoga class" and "music to program to" with flavors of acid and dubby clicks-and-cuts floating in and out. Every song in this set individually is a song I'd recommend by itself. Massive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmciNTS60A

live stream #1 ... subroom signals

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Messed up", KUČKA

KUČKA is a singer-songwriter who produces her own tracks and makes lush, grimy* hyperpop. This track is a single off what I think is an upcoming album and it's super intense, it's got a good driving beat and works as both pop and avant-garde sound design.

* in the sense of "reminiscent of Grimes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRDMKQyPSM

KUČKA - Messed Up

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Limited Access", GOLDEN BOY

At some point last week this tab got opened on my browser and I d… I honestly don't remember where it came from. The song in the tab is from an album named "I NEVER MEANT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN" and is frankly pretty hype. As is the wont of Bandcamp electronic musicians, GOLDEN BOY (she/her) seems to be trying to fit as many different club genres into one song as possible. Kinda reminds me of early Prodigy.

https://deathbysheep.com/track/limited-access

Limited access, by GOLDEN BOY

from the album I NEVER MEANT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN

DEATHBYSHEEP RECORDS

What I'm listening to today: "◯" (Vision Creation Newsun part 1), The Boredoms

The Boredoms started off making entire EPs of just screaming, but evolved into a mindblowing mix of psychadelia, surf rock, and Taiko drumming. And screaming. This is their masterpiece, a joyous explosion like the sound of a world being created, cf "Victory over the Sun".

I couldn't find a good single-track rip on YouTube, so this is the whole album. "Oops." Press stop whereever feels right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdPCt5ZEf40

Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Asozan", OOIOO

OOIOO is the side band organized by Yoshimi P-We, the drummer from the Boredoms. (If you are a millennial hipster: Yes, this is the Yoshimi who allegedly battled the pink robots.) OOIOO usually offer a slightly more structured take on the Boredoms formula, mixing P-We's drumming with funk stylings. This particular track is a longtime frequent re-listen to me; it has a feeling like a dream, something drifting close and away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekNkMkF9qig

Asozan

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Super Are", The Boredoms

This is from an album on which every song name begins with "Super".

If I were going to give someone exactly one Boredoms track to listen to it would probably be this one. I mentioned before the Boredoms combine a few different musical styles; this one basically splits them apart and showcases each of them one by one, taking time to savor each flavor, starting with Eno-ish 60s organs and ending with Taiko surf rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC2vqPHUw7s

Boredoms- Super Are

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: July 22, 2009 total solar eclipse, BOADRUM

In the 00s the Boredoms spent a while organizing increasingly complex performance art pieces involving very many drum kits, with the largest being 88 drummers in a giant spiral in a Brooklyn park. In my favorite, they took a boat into the pacific ocean to perform this ecstatic noise music ritual in the umbra of a solar eclipse. The dude next to Yoshimi P-We is Zach Hill of Hella and the Death Grips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAriDgdd8J4

BOREDOMS LIVE /Lucy in th Sky with Diamond Ring Tour 2009 Total Solar Eclipse 0720-0723 2009

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "kawasemi Ah", OOIOO

OOIOO released a new album in 2020 that was mostly alternate-version rerecordings of older songs, but one of the new tracks is this song called "kawasemi Ah" with a really good groove. My summary of this song is: kawasemi Ah

https://ooioojp.bandcamp.com/track/kawasemi-ah

kawasemi Ah, by OOIOO

from the album nijimusi

OOIOO

What I'm listening to today: "Mixed Emotions", Bebe Barron

In 1956, experimental electronic musicians (and married couple) Bebe and Louis Barron composed the score for Forbidden Planet, inspiring a generation.

In 2000, Bebe visited the music lab at UCSB and recorded a new piece. It is *sick*. It seems to be inventing entirely new emotions. It sounds exactly like the music 60s electronic artists would have made if not held back by the friction of contemporary recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biqz1r2d_xY

Mixed emotions, by Bebe Barron

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "La Jet​é​e", Sines of Exquisite Pleasure

I somehow, happily, managed to wedge YouTube in a state this weekend where it recommended me nothing but albums from the early 80s artists self-published on cassette tape. S.O.E.P. was a particularly exciting find from this; their 1981 album "Modular Systems" is *amazing*, but this one serene track from their 1984 tape stands out to me for its retro-invocations of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Air.

https://candlefam.bandcamp.com/track/la-jet-e

La Jetée, by Sines of Exquisite Pleasure

from the album Music for Hospitals

Fantasy Audio Magazine

What I'm listening to today: "pulsar 23 volca fm jam", clyv

This jam gets some *wonderfully* bizarre noises out of Volca's cheap modern DX-7 clone box, combined with some wonderful grungy noises from using the Pulsar-23 (a drum machine) as a synth voice. Once the (chugging, dirty) beat comes in the overall feeling is pleasantly disorienting, like listening from afar to a rock concert, or perhaps an alien invasion, happening on the far other side of an echoey valley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5sEjtfmPVw

pulsar 23 volca fm jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Spirals & Orbits", Benge

This was recorded this year but is going *hard* in both audio and visuals for the aesthetics of a 60s-70s educational filmreel, all baffling diagrams and radiophonic-workshop abstract noises, video feedback, quiet glimmering echoes on slow oscillator sweeps. As a piece of ambient music it's entrancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSNVv2x6QT8

Benge - Spirals & Orbits

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Elysium State", Stardust

The "demoscene" if you're not familiar makes tiny audiovisual programs that push the limits of computer hardware. The community started on 80s hardware, and since wowing on modern GPUs is less challenging they to a large extent stayed on 80s hardware, making them a good chiptune source. Here's a new 2022 demo by Stardust (not to be confused with the 1998 Thomas Bangalter side project).

TLDR Dubstep on a ZX Spectrum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEOv-OCil58

Elysium State by Stardust (final version)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "I Am A Recording", m 10538

The poster of this song claims it's a cassette tape they recorded in 1981, when they were a child, on a toy organ in their parents basement. It definitely sounds like a child hitting random notes, but after a bit something clicks and they hit this powerful, spooky groove. Daniel-Johnston-esque in more ways than the conceptual.

The YouTube summary ends with a strange rant about digital preservation, worth reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Y9vVDyuzg

I Am A Recording

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Almost in tune live play pulsar 23 buchla easel", Amon Tobin

I spend a lot of time listening to bedroom synth jams by YouTube randos and I've gotten *very* used to incredibly hype stuff posted by accounts with 23 subscribers, so when I got to the end of this driving, buzzing techno jam I was shocked to realize THIS rando was Amon Tobin, a Ninja Tune-signed musician I've seen live three times. Apparently he also has synths in his bedroom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlzb7XnCoAc

Almost in tune live play pulsar 23 buchla easel

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Bedroom electro test demo (live electro track feat Elektron Octatrack // Analog Rytm // Slav Squat)", Matt Leagre

Now *this* is a true bedroom synth jam, as in, you can literally see the bed and the dude visibly doesn't have enough space for all the synths he has jammed in the corner there (the unplugged Arp Odyssey reissue! D:). Eight minutes of shifting groove with 90s dance and vaporwave flavors. Really good stuff actually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TDKIWG6DY

Bedroom electro test demo (live electro track feat Elektron Octatrack // Analog Rytm // Slav Squat)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Volca Keys + Beats ambient jam - Volca Dreams", Fortress of Sound

A lovely, gentle electronic groove made on the two most basic Korg Volca units and one guitar pedal. Feels like water level music from a lost Donkey Kong Country game. The basics, they work. This is 13 minutes long and realistically probably could/should have been like seven but you just kind of zone out and you don't notice how long it's been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5LKC0h6NbU

Volca Keys + Beats ambient jam - Volca Dreams

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston cover)", The Mathletes

I went to high school with Joe Mathlete, the lead / occasional only member of this band, so I guess I'm one of their oldest fans. As a home-recording indie musician from Texas Joe's got a deep love for Daniel Johnston and played a version of Johnston in Speeding Motorcycle, a stage musical in Houston and Austin. This cover is super intense to me; best listened loud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArNMLWOM2_o

The Mathletes - True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston cover)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "400 piece 1", Alessandro Cortini

Cortini is a colossally talented synth musician famed for doing all Nine Inch Nails' synths for many years. He also has a YouTube channel where along with his music videos he posts jams, and videos of his cat sitting on rare synthesizers. This video, from 2017, is a spooky, swaying ambient piece; he claims it was the first thing recorded on a "newly restored" Buchla 400. Check out the ancient CRT interface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4syAC6LxT1Y

400 piece 1

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Make Noise | Strega with Pocket Operator PO-33 Session 221119", ナカヤマコウジ

This is a short and simple, kind of ambient / abstract trip-hop piece made with a handheld sampler and the Strega, a synthesizer/effects unit (co-designed by… Alessandro Cortini, again). Not super attention-grabbing or anything and it's over near as soon as it starts, but it sounds really cool and it creates some nice distinct moods before it goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgY892cYtg

Make Noise | Strega with Pocket Operator PO-33 Session 221119

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Pulsar 23, THYME, and Generation Loss MKII - Destruction Jam", nealwho

This one uses a Pulsar playing a gritty industrial drum loop, but the centerpiece is a guitar pedal that simulates the sound of degraded magnetic tape on a poorly maintained player. This, and an unusual (sequenceable) bitcrushing delay-echo by Bastl, place the loop on a rack and stretch it into 10 minutes of muffled, unsettling error noises. William Basinski in real time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQatVhfxHK0

Pulsar 23, THYME, and Generation Loss MKII - Destruction Jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Stations of the Tide (annotated)", Dave Seidel

An extremely quiet piece consisting entirely of Schoenberg-y tonal hums rising and falling in possibly-patternless waves. In places it just falls into complete silence. There's a feeling of intense isolation here, maybe something like dread.

The piece is mechanically generated in VCV Rack; the video shows the machine that generated it, and overlay text explains what each functional block does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDN_Zy8sg4w

Stations of the Tide (annotated)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Sixtyniner", Boards of Canada

All those "chill synth jam" videos I link here? You can blame basically all of them on BoC, who perfected a blend of educational-film-score analog synths + hip-hop beats that in 1998 was a revelation.

BoC had tons of early stuff recorded when they signed, so they have multiple rerelease albums. My favorite BoC track ever is still "Sixtyniner" from their 1995 self-published cassette. The mood remains unmatched.

https://boardsofcanada.bandcamp.com/track/sixtyniner

Sixtyniner, by Boards of Canada

from the album Twoism

Boards of Canada

What I'm listening to today: "shortbus take1", SunFallsMusic

The "Shortbus" is a literally-named Eurorack module that doesn't connect to the power ribbon; the switches just determine which plugs are electrically "shorted" to the others. This guy rigged up a pleasantly strange repeating beat with a wavetable synth and a shortbus at the center. The same guy has a "take2" video which shows the performance possibilities of the switches better, but I like this strange loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQf7tEJmKEg

shortbus take1

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Ark Of Redemption/Full Circle (Pulsar-23, Strega, 0-CTRL, DBA Rooms)"

This is a half-hour long (improvised?) performance of somewhere between one and three songs. So it's kind of a lot, and some of the sounds are harsh, but I really like the progression on this, going from a constant buzzing drone into epic warehouse ambiance and sinister clicking and, eventually, music. If you can let yourself be hypnotized by sound, this will do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLQenWSEQ-I

The Ark Of Redemption/Full Circle (Pulsar-23, Strega, 0-CTRL, DBA Rooms)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Push for Woogies", tvvt

This is an acid techno jam posted on the synthesizer subreddit this morning based around what I think is a Moog Sub37 and a bunch of Electron boxes. It's messy but very fun; I like how the first 20 seconds or so sound like just random noises until the bass drum drops and suddenly everything snaps into place.

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/10csghi/push_for_woogies/

Push for woogies

Posted in r/synthesizers by u/tvvt • 52 points and 14 comments

reddit

What I'm listening to today: "Techno jam / polyend tracker,tr-6s,j-6"

This is a desk jam using some boxes from Roland's recent attempt to approximate the Volca line, specifically the "It's like a TR-606 with sliders? Sort of?" box and the "It's like a Jupiter-08 with a chord sequencer? Sort of?" box.

The opening just-drums part goes on maybe a little longer than I would have let it, but once the j-6 comes in it gets "hype". Overall some enjoyably dirty techno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggQX4bPwnlo

Techno jam / polyend tracker,tr-6s,j-6

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Laidback Dub session # DubTechno studio Jam (Tempest SpaceEcho Prophet6 Perfourmer Strymon..)", VØSNE

VØSNE has a bunch of good videos of live sets doing laid-back dub. (In this context, "Dub" means "instrumental reggae for nerds".) This is… a live set of laid-back dub. This one's forty minutes long and starts as a few minutes of just ambient echoes, but the drive keeps building the entire time and once it's built it's got a great goove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3egwPIkSGk

Laidback Dub session # DubTechno studio Jam (Tempest SpaceEcho Prophet6 Perfourmer Strymon..)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Soma Pulsar 23 - Dark Minimal performance", Deaftone Audio

A small, hissy percussion piece ("microhouse"? Is this what "microhouse" is? Maybe nanohouse?) with some really good sounds, including an acid bassline rigged out of a Pulsar drum channel. In my opinion a good way to spend four minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE3LsBuzXv8

Soma Pulsar 23 - Dark Minimal performance

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Particle Hands", HELL F.O

HELL F.O has a bunch of fun stuff posted— they've appeared in this thread before— and it's practically all abstract, ambient noise music. So this track is an interesting surprise just by being a completely listenable, borderline-pop dance techno piece. Still some interesting sound design, mind you! But drop this into a club set with some bass EQ and I think the crowd would eat it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNL8eU7aAX4

HELL F.O - Particle Hands

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "digitakt + modular live improv set", ANVBS

This is a live set basically comprising a concert's worth of different songs, all that kind of dirty industrial techno I like so much. The flow's good and it works well as focus music. The set isn't of completely consistent quality— if this were say, a Bandcamp album I probably would have picked a favorite track and linked only that— but the songs in here that are good are real good & hard-driving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAtLRZxt1_8

digitakt + modular live improv set

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "GRP A4 sequence 3:1", Klang Zaun

The A4, it turns out?, is a $5000 synthesizer the size of a desk, designed to be a "more affordable" version of the A8 (a $10,000 synthesizer the size of a wall).

No drums in this, just synth tones that don't feel so much retro as prehistoric, like that proto-electronic stuff from the 70s before Giorgio Moroder realized synths were for dance music. It's hypnotic and ends with you kind of wanting more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4byztyOvIjU

GRP A4 sequence 3:1

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Steal My Soul", Rahzel

Rahzel is a legendary beatboxer, known for his work in the Roots and various collaborations (Björk's Medulla). He released 1 solo album, "Make The Music 2000" (it's a Biz Markie reference), an odd album with less beatboxing than you'd expect. It does have an infamous live Missy Elliot cover, and this absolutely lovely, spooky, nearly-all-voice jazz track. You won't realize how much of it is voice until the 2nd listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugZfdFJwrdA

Steal My Soul

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Mea Culpa", David Bryne and Brian Eno

In 1981, between "Once in a Lifetime" and "Burning Down the House", Talking Heads frontman Bryne made an instrumental album with ambient music creator-deity Eno, built around samples from AM radio & West African music. "Mea Culpa" is a dreamy wash that feels decades ahead of its time.

The proto-music-video "short film" below is by Bruce Conner, and IMO is inseparable from the song. * Warning, flashing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQyT9aEeLEY

MEACULPA: (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "2 Miles", 12 Rounds

You know that Atticus Ross guy co-credited on all Trent Reznor's film scores? In the 90s he and his wife were a band called "12 Rounds" I'd describe as Portishead crossed with Vampire: The Masquerade. Almost nobody liked this album except me and Trent Reznor (who liked it enough to hire the guy to produce, like, all his albums). Every song on it has something special happening, but this understated track is my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfuHMMWLxIc

2 Miles

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Phantom Limb", Hovercraft

Hovercraft was an experimental noise-rock band from the 90s with an almost total disinterest in "notes". This album's release was dogged by confusing, inaccurate rumors Eddie Vedder secretly performed on it (he was married to the bassist at the time and may or may not have played drums in some of their live shows).

This song has a lovely dark mood; the bassline has been my go-to synthesizer test melody for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7o2BMR66Sw

Hovercraft - Phantom Limb

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Mr. Mistake (Boards of Canada remix)", Nevermen

Okay so try to follow, this is:

- Tunde Adebimpe (previously vocalist of TV on the Radio)

- Mike Patton (aka Mr. Bungle, previously vocalist of Faith No More)

- Adam Drucker (previously vocalist in cLOUDDEAD)

- Boards of Canada (production)

…all together on one single track. And it's *incredible*. BoC at their best dispensing Feelings and the words have been circling in my head for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS1lMn42l04

NEVERMEN - Mr Mistake (Boards of Canada Remix)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Divine and Bright", Earth ft. Kelly Canary and Kurt Cobain

Earth is a "doom metal"/drone band I am much enamored with, consisting of Dylan Carlson and whoever else is in the room at the moment. They have almost no songs with vocals, but one exception is this 1990 collaboration with a screaming woman and also Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, who was close friends with Carlson. This might just confuse you, or maybe you'll find the mood delightful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi8f5cub7-s

Divine and Bright

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Orange Twin Field Works (Vol.I)", Jeff Mangum

Neutral Milk Hotel (Jeff) in 1998 became the biggest name in indie rock, then just… stopped. Before he went he released this one strange and amazing thirty-minute recording (there is no Vol. 2) of field recordings of Bulgarian folk music from the Koprivshtitsa festival, mixed together in a way that perfectly captures the larger-than-life feeling of live music on foot. This is game design, to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StnhhR_S-mM

Orange Twin Field Works (Vol.I) - Jeff Mangum

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Cinematic Music | Moog Grandmother + MiniKORG700FS | A Love Letter To Synths from A Student for Life", HEYMUN

This is a dreamy piece where the musician sets a few synthesizers running on patterns and plays piano along with it. It's highly structured, but sneakily so. On surface it just feels chaotic; it feels as if two unrelated pieces of music happen to be playing at once but somehow keep converging in interesting ways.

Just float in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2YFw8JJjmI

Cinematic Music | Moog Grandmother + MiniKORG700FS | A Love Letter To Synths from A Student for Life

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Perkons HD-01 Bassline and OXI ONE sequencer Jam", Mark Cee

This guy spent a couple months posting jams with this large, unusual blue drum machine and I kept watching his videos like a hawk thinking… eventually he's gonna make something awesome. Eventually he did, with this complex, clicky 6-minute dance techno bop for an entire crowd of people enjoying standing at the back of a room holding drinks and bobbing their heads but not dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INLx7tAVoV8

Perkons HD-01 Bassline and OXI ONE sequencer Jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Choralberg", Alex Siebenhaar

In this video, a man wearing a bluescreen for a hat sits on a carpet and steers some racks of synths (and one analog drum machine) through a cryptic, funky melody. Just as you think you understand where it's going, it ends; you find yourself wanting more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f81UbrzrTU

Choralberg (live performance)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "crisping.1 #‍lofi #‍ambient #‍chaseblissgenerationlossmk2 #‍glitch", [moos]

It's not very hard to reproduce Boards of Canada's style, especially not since cassette equipment became a common modular synth add-on. But this piece, based around that guitar pedal that fakes tape degradation, is special, mixing tattered synth pads with a death-march beat that refuses to find a rhythm. It's scary actually, like something's gone horribly wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5_hfSs9Pnc

crisping.1 #lofi #ambient #chaseblissgenerationlossmk2 #glitch

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Pulsar 23 - Sounds you don't usually hear coming from it"

Occasionally in this thread I've praised songs for adapting Pulsar-23 drum channels for non-percussive purposes. This track is *only that*, the dude does not turn on the drum sequencer, clips on a device designed to turn circuit EMF leakage into sound?, and makes something approximating a jazz piano solo alternated with gunky glitch dub sounds. Very weird noises even by my standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3rfaHNxvkE

Pulsar 23 - Sounds you don't usually hear coming from it

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Filthy Miksher - Demo Jam", Deaftone Audio

This pairs a Pulsar and an acid bass groovebox with some kind of noisemaker box based on a spring attached to a contact microphone. It starts as ambient noise and then grows into a bumping rhythm without ever containing… anything except noise, actually, so you've just got this gradually escalating percussive techno piece made up of different noise textures. I like it

https://youtu.be/1rWoRBNt11M

Filthy Miksher - Demo Jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "pulsar 23 rhythmic explorations", clyv

This is 14 minutes of a musician fiddling with a Pulsar-23 drum machine. There are periodic cuts, so I assume this is edited down from a longer recording, leaving only the moments they found a good Beat. Not quite a song, this is like the skeletons of 20 different songs, awaiting someone to loop them and add something more than drums. Good beats tho, and good background if you let your focus wander.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONbMk8kPyM

pulsar 23 rhythmic explorations

YouTube
@mcc Sounds like I am the target demographic.
@mcc That is very cool how the arps on the synths eb & flow along with the playing! Coming at things from the other end of the spectrum I love this performance of Hania Rani, a classical pianist opening with amazing synth arps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5oZ80Daduc&ab_channel=Cercle
Hania Rani live at Invalides, in Paris, France for Cercle

YouTube
@mcc I think he did this with Julian Koster no? He has secretly appeared on numerous Music Tapes stuff since vanishing.
@aratinga Koster was part of Neutral Milk Hotel but Wikipedia doesn't mention anything about him being involved with Field Works vol.1
@mcc Hm. Been a while since I did a huge Elephant 6 thing so I may have my wires crossed. There’s all sorts of random HHBTM comp stuff where they both pseudonymously contributed.
@aratinga Yeah the elephant 6 universe is large
@mcc I used to collect lots of random stuff. Lost most of it. I used to have the Cranberry Lifecycle (pre OTC) demos. Sadly that drive perished.
@mcc this one is my fav tho. The liner notes for Dusk at Cubist Castle give an address to mail “descriptions of your dreams” and they made this one off album based on the letters they received.
@mcc I forgot about the Nevermen. Thanks for reminding me, this is such a great track.
@mcc (I think Patton is still with FNM!)
@hisham_hm Oh, I literally didn't know they were still active

@hisham_hm @mcc faith no more made two albums
Real thing
Angel dust

I will not be taking questions

@mcc Okay. This is pretty rad actually.
@mcc I love 12Rounds. My favourite track is Fits Nicely, it's just so heavy and also silly. I played it to my housemate at uni and he said "that's my brother's band!". He wasn't particularly a fan, though.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tTIs7gt_8Ao
12 Rounds - Fits Nicely

YouTube
@y6nH I've never heard this album actually!
@mcc one of my favorite albums. Timeless!

@mcc it was also featured in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street."

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/soundtrack/?ref_=tt_trv_snd

Wall Street (1987) - Soundtracks - IMDb

Wall Street (1987) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

IMDb

@mcc OMG, he used the word “EPROM” in a song (“Carbon Copy (I Can’t Stop)”)

“EP-rom, erasable, programmable and only
Memory accesible when your PC’s on”

@mcc Also, surprise Kraftwerk cover 🤯

@bk1e Which one is that?

Apparently his a capella Kraftwerk cover is what convinced Bjork to hire him after she had previously concluded Medulla would contain no beats

@mcc It’s about 2:56 into the untitled hidden track: https://youtu.be/bN3B0giSwu4?t=176
Untitled Hidden Track

YouTube
@mcc You had me at Medulla.
@mcc well apparently I posted this to Facebook 8 years ago so if you want to start saving..
@coolpowers To be clear, it's called the "System 55" because they only manufactured, literally, 55 of them. Even if you have the money you're only going to be able to buy one if you convince an existing owner to sell, or defeat them in a one-on-one sword duel
@mcc this is really great
@mcc I have to say your “What I’m listening to today” thread is my very favorite thing in my Mastodon timeline. I have no idea how you find so much excellent stuff but the music you’ve shared has made my day better many times. Thanks for continuing to share!
@mcc
The J-6 make this very reminicent of early Orbital.