Mastodawn

mcc May 19, 2025

For three full years now I've been semi-daily posting a music recommendation in a big long thread, but it turns out 300-post threads kinda break Mastodon, so I have to restart the thread every so often.

This post is a placeholder. I normally make a YouTube playlist for the previous year to put at the top of the thread, but I've had an awful month and haven't finished that yet.

But if you want to see year three's *posts*, they're here: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112356066616688565

And here's year four:

mcc May 19, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Adder (version)", Blackbird Raum

The original of this song is slow and wrenching and sung by a woman who sounds on the verge of tears. This version is just screaming, bagpipes and screaming. It is very much The Mood.

Were I a bird a bull would step on me
Were I a bull a butcher I would see
And if I were a butcher, my apron would be clean
Were I a bird a bull would step on me

https://blackbirdraum.bandcamp.com/track/adder-version

Adder Version, by Blackbird Raum

from the album Nevermind the Ballads

Blackbird Raum

What I'm listening to today: "The Scene is Dead", Dubmood

Sandblast-your-brain FastTracker2 chiptune electronica track. Just refuses to stop moving for seven minutes. There are so many ideas in this one! The author says they began this track in 2012 and completed it in 2024, so apparently the scene was dying for a very long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVcHrL2ZwCM

Dubmood - The Scene is Dead (FT2 demo) (2012/2024)

YouTube

mcc May 21, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Space Fall" (part 3.5), r beny

Most of my musical diet the last 5 years has been YouTube live bedroom synth sets and if anyone got me on this kick, it was r beny, who did it early and, tbh!, best.

This r beny live set is from a 2021 group concert at the Colorado Modular Synth Society. Opens with clockworky electronica, ends with an intense rework of the song on his YouTube channel as "Waldorf Iridium Ambient". In between: fog-haze ambient

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD5obUv52xQ&t=1579s

Space Fall Part 3 ft. Tim Held & @rbeny Live Modular Synth Performances

YouTube

mcc May 23, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Wabi-sabi", a-symmetric

This is an "electro-acoustic" ensemble featuring @pangrus , a Merveilles user who makes his own instruments, from an album that mostly sounds like an argument between a digeridoo and a violin at the far end of a train station. This one track is a lovely, evocative melange of what I think of as "shine noises" punctuated by electronic-sounding warbles that feel like jazz music being crushed in a pneumatic press

https://a-symmetric.bandcamp.com/track/wabi-sabi

Wabi-sabi, by a-symmetric

from the album OUT!

a-symmetric

mcc May 26, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Pikopiko", neu neu neu

This is a really nice Japanese post-rock album I hit at random on YouTube. This one track (begins at 3:40 in video) is game boy chiptune noises beautifully integrated into layered guitar and drums carefully tuned to clip but just a *little*. Consider the symmetry between violins and the game boy sound chip. Consider that you wouldn't be able to make out the lyrics even if you spoke Japanese. Ponder the shoes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIT1rb_tXfg&t=220s

neu neu neu (full)

YouTube

mcc May 26, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "List of Demands (Reparations)", Saul Williams

Position paper read through a megaphone. Terrifying, breezy industrial beats and laughing children.

I was originally gonna post "Grippo" today and make a joke about people reading this feed getting directly called out by the lyrics. But then I just started listening to the album and was like… no. List of Demands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMtaIcrfQ0

Saul Williams - List Of Demands(Reparations)

YouTube

mcc May 27, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Great Day (Four Tet Remix)", Madvillain [MF DOOM]

There's this amazing EP where Four Tet remixes MF DOOM's breakout album, and swaps Madlib's grubby funk smoothly out for his own headphones electronica. This one takes what was one of the original album's best tracks to start with and distills something truly transcendental out of it, built on garbled Spanish guitar and almost no beats

https://madvillain.bandcamp.com/track/great-day-four-tet-remix

Great Day (Four Tet Remix), by Madvillain

from the album Four Tet Remixes

Madvillain

mcc May 28, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Brothers Feel Fly", Dr. Dooom [Kool Keith]

Kool Keith built his own around fluidly shifting identities with elaborate cover stories, dense wordplay, and sci fi references. So you can maybe understand how he'd feel a LITTLE miffed at Daniel Dumile.

This is from a run of late 90s albums where Keith was basically constantly going "hey, has anyone else noticed analog synthesizers make incredible noises?!". Always ten years ahead of every trend

https://koolkeith.bandcamp.com/track/brothers-feel-fly

Brothers Feel Fly, by Dr. Dooom

from the album First Come, First Served

Kool Keith

mcc May 29, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Crumb Snatchers", MF Grimm

This *incredibly* hardcore 2005 album is an attempt to reconstruct a 1994 debut rap album that got shelved after a shooting left Grimm temporarily unable to see or speak, and permanently in a wheelchair. From there Grimm's career threads erratically through underground rap and comics; notably he was a very early collaborator/booster/roommate of MF DOOM but apparently that artistic relationship ended kinda badly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPkSPQ4TCDY

Crumb Snatchers

YouTube

mcc May 30, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Hush the Crowd", J-LIVE

This 2003 track was, I think?, recorded while the artist was trying to balance a rap career with working as a public school English teacher, and is basically an anthem for the frustrated artist, or maybe a lovesong to their fans. I am currently in the process of winding down a game studio and the bit here beginning with "Besides, what's your options?" haunts me.

https://realjlive.bandcamp.com/track/hush-the-crowd

Hush The Crowd, by J-LIVE

from the album Always Has Been

J-LIVE

mcc May 31, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Raedawn", Victor Vaughn [MF DOOM]

So I think the idea with DOOM was that his various recording names aren't personae, but are supposed to be aliases for the same shadowy supervillain, popping up in different places. Or maybe he was just trying to evade record label contracts. Anyway! Here DOOM goes so hard on the progressive production he breaks through all the way into the genre I keep trying not to describe as "IDM"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6GXOD1I6iY

Raedawn

YouTube

mcc Jun 1, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Pause Tape", JJ Doom

These sessions by MF DOOM and Jneiro Jarel were recorded during (what was at the time believed to be) a temporary stay in Britain after DOOM got ejected from the US. Jarel's an interesting guy and this deliriously weird B-side I think has the most of his own personality of anything from the collaboration. Is this literally a pause tape? I don't have space to explain what this means but I think this might be a pause tape

https://mfdoom.bandcamp.com/track/pause-tape

Pause Tape, by JJ DOOM

from the album Bookhead EP

MF DOOM

mcc Jun 2, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Ambient Machine Live 17", Takeo Watanabe

Can I convince you to take a risk?

This is a 17 minute set from a series recorded in random remote locations, this one based on a tape machine and pedal looper. The first few minutes are a bit vague— he seems to just be messing around. But he's feeding the looper. Stop paying attention around minute two, leave it in the background, suddenly around minute seven you'll find yourself in another galaxy.

https://youtu.be/oAPUoFP3yxI?si=4sZ6PZ8s5fnLHCp6

Ambient Machine Live 17

YouTube

mcc Jun 3, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Four", Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds

Nils Frahm is an artist with whom I am Much Enamored, whose thing mostly is he records albums where all he does is play the piano softly and it's incredibly gripping. Occasionally though Nils dabbles in Electronic Instrumentation and gorgeous ambient music results.

https://erasedtapes.bandcamp.com/track/four

Four, by Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm

from the album Loon

Erased Tapes

mcc Jun 4, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Rogue Fossil", Virus

This was recommended to me by a Bluesky user after I said I wanted "either metal with jazz drumming or jazz with metal drumming". I'm not sure this is that, but it definitely slaps. This is like if Labradford was satanist, I guess? Or if Tool took pot instead of heroin. Video is like slow hypnosis. Heavy dissonant playing the bass with a pick, close and claustrophic, the entire renaissance faire breathing down your neck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=220eDjcDSlM

Virus - Rogue Fossil (Official Video)

YouTube

mcc Jun 5, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "All Fours", Void Femmes

This is the solo project of @lexfeathers, bassist of Waxlimbs (and creator of the "prepared typewriter" piece if you remember me linking that). This EP is a series of off-kilter and incredibly sick dance pieces, swinging industrial deritus and bodies falling from the roof of the factory and clattering thudding to the ground and wait why exactly were they storing bodies up there?

https://voidfemmes.bandcamp.com/track/all-fours

All Fours, by Void Femmes

from the album All Fours

Void Femmes

mcc Jun 6, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "ahvenlampi" (deep house edit), phonex (remixed by xavier)

An ancient tracker scene file named "deep_house_edit.xm" @leona found and showed me. Created January 2000, remixed April 2000. Gorgeous vibes, eurodance dreams, the unique timbral feels of sample trackers used to their utmost, a $50 Casio keyboard reaching for the heavens.

Click "play".

https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_player&query=153555

The Mod Archive

mcc Jun 8, 2025

What I'm listening to today: "Canton", Nils Frahm

Did I mention I really like it when Nils Frahm plays the piano? This piece is so gentle it feels, when he finishes, as if he was never there. A whisper, a bubble. You are aware someone spoke but not a word they said. You wake from a dream and find you can't remember what you dreamed of

https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/track/canton

Canton, by Nils Frahm

from the album Night

Nils Frahm

Leon ._.Jun 6, 2025

@mcc Great writeup!

Misty Jun 6, 2025

@mcc This is really nice! I adore this era of tracker house/techno/etc

Lex Feathers 🍂Jun 5, 2025

@mcc
Woah I love this description, hahaha

Thank you for sharing it!

Leonie Jun 5, 2025

@lexfeathers
Damn, your music rips 👌
@mcc

Lex Feathers 🍂Jun 6, 2025

@atolisglli thank you!

poetaster Jun 5, 2025

@mcc the bodies piling up on the sidewalk are unseemly. Elevated, they are closer to goddog.

narylis Jun 3, 2025

@mcc i’m a fan on the other side of this: olafur arnalds has done a lot of very fascinating modern classical-inspired post-rock-ish work, such as his 2010 album “…and they have escaped the weight of darkness”

https://olafurarnalds.bandcamp.com/track/tungli

(from which this is track three, “tunglið”)

i’ve really enjoyed the gentle emotions that his music engenders, from gentle melancholy to pensive contemplation. in some ways, his work wouldn’t feel out of place in a soundtrack for a makoto shinkai film.

Tunglið, by Ólafur Arnalds

from the album ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness

Ólafur Arnalds

lachlan slowly taming rust Jun 3, 2025

@narylis @mcc Not exactly the same as Ólafur, but Trummor and Orgel hit a very similar note emotionally for me.

(And Silk Road Kimiyoku by Kitaro - slightly further again away, but from a lost Ennio Morricone soundtrack occasionally instead)

Andy Herd Jun 3, 2025

@mcc I was lucky enough to see him live in Edinburgh a little while back. His gig was nothing short of a JOURNEY he took us all upon. He used analogue stage lights and had each lamp tuned to a specific frequency, so the polyrhythms of each piece formed the most incredible patterns. I had so much fun identifying all the weird and wonderful instruments he brought, including a glass armonica and a mellotron ❤️❤️❤️

margot Jun 3, 2025

@mcc this was over too soon 😩

Alex Zandra Jun 2, 2025

@mcc thank you andi that was beautiful

mcc Jun 2, 2025

@zandra aa I'm so glad you heard this one

John Parker Jun 1, 2025

@mcc Just in case you’ve missed it, Beck’s remix of Banished from JJ DOOM is well worth a listen.

Dreaming of dad jazz.May 31, 2025

@mcc It's one of my favorite by him. He's understandably lauded as rap great, his production is just as amazing.

I've not been listening to his old albums much and been reaching for the "Special Herbs" collections because as much as I love his rhyming and I think he's a genius, the casual homophobia and ableism really fucking bums me out.

Dreaming of dad jazz.May 31, 2025

@mcc This track always reminded me of the stripped down production of East Flatbush Project's Tried by 12 for some reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjPnK3WVCJM

East Flatbush Project ft DeS Tried by 12/BEST VERSION WITH LYRICS

YouTube

Torb May 27, 2025

@mcc Such a good album! Havn’t listened to it for years, but will today!

💬 John Philpin May 27, 2025

@torb Yikes and Wow - and THANK You - putting that one away to listen to when i am not in an office full of people!

pangrus May 23, 2025

@mcc I love what you said about our stuff! Many thanks

mcc May 23, 2025

@pangrus I really enjoyed the album!

Mark Reid May 21, 2025

@mcc r beny was one of the first modular artists I encountered too, and definitely the first I’d heard who had some emotional heft to their music.

Ronflaix May 20, 2025

@mcc Oh, if it's the chiptune scene, it's always dead and dying.

(Have you checked MBR's version too?)

mcc May 20, 2025

@Ronflaix no… what exactly is the relationship between Dubmood and MBR?

Ronflaix May 20, 2025

@mcc I don't know, but Master Boot Record did a remix.

Huh, so he's actually a gues in the EP, lol https://dubmood.bandcamp.com/track/the-scene-is-dead-master-boot-record-remix

The Scene Is Dead (MASTER BOOT RECORD Remix), by Dubmood

from the album Votedisk // Scene Is Dead (DATA083)

Dubmood

mcc May 20, 2025

@Ronflaix I ask because dubmood's bandcamp seems to have multiple MBR collaborations.

Ronflaix May 20, 2025

@mcc I actually have zero idea. I suppose they're buddies and I even wonder if MBR met him at demoparties or something.

48kRAM but with parity May 21, 2025

@Ronflaix @mcc I gather that MBR has been a fan of Razor 1911 since forever.

verified_coffee

@mcc Very nice …

Marcel Stritzelberger May 20, 2025

@mcc Amazing

vfig May 20, 2025

@mcc oh wow the bit at 4:50 😚👌

48kRAM but with parity May 21, 2025

@mcc Everyone knows the scene has been dying since 1995 🤣

Also, banger of a track. Love this one!

🅓🅐🅢 🅑🅛🅐🅤🅔 🅟🅞🅝🅨 May 21, 2025

@mcc Die Hard! 😂😉👍