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

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

What I'm listening to today: "curtain sequence", Silhouette Synthesizers (Pit Przygodda)

This guy designs and manufactures unusual synthesizers on the concept of converting images into sounds. Sweep a line across part of an image, read brightness data from underneath your line, convert it to waveform or spectral data. He's posted various demos of his synths at work on YouTube, of which this is one of the less flashy but more musically interesting examples. Morning bell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF4aNc96JYQ

SILHOUETTE SPORT - curtain sequence (april 2025)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Relaxing Experimental Ambient [Vinyl Studio Session]", Raica

Here a lady who runs a record store in Seattle for experimental music spins some mind-expanding space-journey ambient techno in a kitchen (not her kitchen, just *a* kitchen). A good solid 75-minute block of unnameable emotions.

(There's a second set by the same DJ on the same YouTube account which had some good highs, but I didn't find that other one as consistent.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo9nk7pqcGk

Relaxing Experimental Ambient [Vinyl Studio Session] with RAICA

DJ Raica, the mesmerizing project of Chloe Harris, is a name synonymous with the ethereal and experimental. As the head of Seattle’s iconic Further Records, ...

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Lie That Is Sin", YOB

My friend Ro recommended this when I said I liked doom metal. This live version (0:00-12:18 in the video) takes what was already a pretty great song and slows it down, picks apart each element and leaves it torn open on a dissecting table, luxuriates in each little sound, floating in isolation, icebergs on a dark ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnPu9RU28HE

YOB - Amoeba Green Room Session

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "7 string IR test", Daniel M Karlsson

Posted by @t36s as part of a series of computer sound synthesis tests, I'm not sure I understand it exactly but I *think* he used a recording of a string instrument as an echo characteristic and then by agitating it produced super realistic synthesized string plucks. Gorgeous little superresonating classical guitar improvisation with touches at once obviously human-driven and obviously computer-generated

https://social.ordinal.garden/@t36s/114661161710502396

Daniel M Karlsson (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 audio 7 string IR test. The *scordatura* open strings are the IR. It's just a file in there. No sweeps or nothing. Just regular ol recordings of each string spread out a lil bit with panning is all. Super fun to play. This works in realtime to my ears at 192kHz samplerate and a blocksize of 64 samples.

ordinal.garden

What I'm listening to today: "Push Pull", Mark Thibideau

If you're up on electronic music genres: Imagine 90s French house but strip out the funk and substitute 00 dub techno instrumentation?

If you're not: Chill dance music for sitting in your chair. There are a lot of really cool sounds and I liked how good the sounds were, they were all like swoop swoop chikchikchik

2019 release. Apparently this artist is from Ontario

https://stomping-grounds.bandcamp.com/album/lividus-ep

Lividus EP, by Mark Thibideau

2 track album

Stomping Grounds / Vade Mecum

What I'm listening to today: "only in it for Euro Cash", Doak 16

Been listening to this YouTube synth collector's tracks all morning. This isn't the friendliest ["Remember it"] or the most provocative ["an ewok…"] track in the channel backlog…

But *oh*, I love the drums in this one! I love the way it comes together like a magic eye, nonsense into sense. Dense, dreamy, unique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfPn5zJXXg8

only in it for Euro Cash

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Outside In", Linkwood

This track opens the other Raica ambient mix I was talking about Tuesday. It's just a really good frozen moment. Quiet, crackly, passes quickly. The sound of something starting, and then silence. A Feel

https://linkwood.bandcamp.com/track/outside-in

Outside In, by Linkwood

from the album Expressions

Linkwood

What I'm listening to today: "303 Day", Wizart

YouTube musicians have this tradition of making tributes to the Roland 303 acid bassline machine on March 3. Here's a lovely midtempo live jam made with Behringer's modern 303 reproduction, several modern Roland desktop reproduction units¹, and some guitar pedals. A good groove such as one might blast at the LAN party in 1999.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxJp4XEU-yA

¹ Including a 303, meaning at a certain point you can catch him actually running TWO 303s AT ONCE

Wizart - 303 Day - Live synth jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Rei Ayanami", Brian Altano

This is an EP I love from 2019, which remixes various songs from the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" OST as megastructure trip-hop, and although there's only 7 songs every one is a banger. Here's a "big beat" version of Rei's theme:

https://brianaltano.bandcamp.com/track/rei-ayanami

In my friend group our traditional road trip music is this EP and also that 2Mello album where he complains about people coming up to him in the supermarket and asking him to make beats

Rei Ayanami, by Brian Altano

from the album Revangelion

Brian Altano

What I'm listening to today: "unleashed voices", Black Cookies

What the musician calls a "lo-fi tape loop ambient experiment". Super evocative. Sounds on free-running tape, four tracks on the left deck, one on the right, three separate echo pedals. Watch and you can see each little action the musician does to manipulate the sound, listen and you can hear all these little chunky sounds where the tape has mechanical imperfections. Deeply physical music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHoNdR9BUE

lo-fi tape loop ambient experiment - "unleashed voices"

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Chinurareta Zabi-ke" ("The Bloody Zabi Family"), Takeo Watanabe

We've been watching the original 1979 "Gundam" and the music in it is actually *incredibly sick*? 70s Children's TV would just effortlessly toss off the rawest funk music.

There's this one obscure cue, it isn't even on the regular OST (you have to go to the extended 45th anniversary soundtrack), it plays during quiet moments. I *love* the vibe on this, the bass is so emotive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jKCgNYwuk

Chinurareta Zabi-ke

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Afternoon Chill: Live Electronic Session", Jai Cuzco

This is uh, a bit gentler than the electronic music I usually post.

Chill beats and synth tones, a fluid medley of 2 or 3 songs. It's not clear where in the world this video was taken, only that the view from this guy's window is incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxloiLT3Z1o

Afternoon Chill: Live Electronic Session

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "More disturbing wave bard sounds", OSVoS

There's a new Bastl Kastle and one of its configurations is a tiny "modular"¹ sample scrambler. This artist did a number of pieces mixing the Kastle 2 with other gear, this one I thought had the most interesting beat (You might prefer "More Wave Bard Experimentation" if you like kalimbas more than I do). Alien Gregorian chants + hip hop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHcFkUliO6w

¹ Jump wires instead of patch cables…take a look, it's weird

More disturbing wave bard sounds

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Legendary Wings", Hyakutaro Tsukumo (arranged by Yuu)

This is a General MIDI arrangement of the main theme to Thunder Force V, a sidescrolling shooter made by Technosoft in 1997 for the Sega Saturn. For whatever reason, this is the version I got hooked on!

Rendered on (splitting channels) a Roland SC-8850 and Yamaha MU2000, both of which were released in 1999, so if TF.V had come out just two years later it could have sounded like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGdRrnlbu9w

Thunder Force V / サンダーフォース 5 - Legendary Wings

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Walk On Girl", Linda from Work

Christine's been listening to this band lately and I really like them. They give me a vibe like whoever Linda is was a riot grrl 20 years ago and now she's 35 and she has a ghastly office job and her life is a lot slower, but she's still in a punk band after work

This is the last track from their album "The Night is Short", which has at least three "oh, I should put that in the music thread" level bangers:

https://lindafromwork.bandcamp.com/track/walk-on-girl

Walk On Girl, by Linda From Work

from the album The Night Is Short

Linda From Work

What I'm listening to today: "Pure Data Breakcore Live Coding", GrundTon

Distant barking. Weird overwhelming synth swells and one of the most unusual treatments of the Amen break I've ever encountered. (EDIT: It turns out to be a Funky Drummer break, which makes it even weirder it turned out like this?!) Generated by PureData and the YouTuber actually has several videos wandering around this same script's configuration space; this seems like the most focused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6YxwYNBJoA

Pure Data Breakcore Live Coding

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Akai S950 - Deep House Music - Vintage Sampler", MikeSynth

Hype little house techno fragment made on a plausible circa-90s vintage hardware setup (1986 Akai rack sampler sequenced by a 2003 Akai sequencer, mixing board as an instrument). Really refreshing vibe, has a bit of a trip-hop feel to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij2r1C-kr58

Akai S950 - Deep House Music - Vintage Sampler - MikeSynth

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Volume", Pylon

@onelson linked this and I don't know anything about it. It rocks! When I started typing this post I was gonna say something about krautrock but in fact it turns out she is *not* singing in German, only indistinctly. Wikipedia says this is from Athens, Georgia. Well that explains a lot. Cool crisp Clashy vibes that seem to predict everything that's gonna happen in pop music in the ten years after it was recorded (that's 1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp57WziV07g

Volume (Remastered)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Metric", Bryan Zentz

So there was this first golden age of "techno" in Detroit or whatever, when the genre was new and raw, but then there was this second golden age around 2000, when we (as a species) had gotten *really good* at the Detroit style and were just making a lot of it. This YouTube account spins a bunch of that era of music on vinyl. This track is a dense crystal structure of dance beats and staccato samples and it is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbk--wDbO5E

Bryan Zentz - Metric

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Untitled A ( Rock To The Beat )", Ferro

Another from the "Techno Vinyl Records" account's collection, this one's a little more genrefucky, with a more variety, bringing in strange sounds and "House Music" feels. A good gradual buildup.

(Honestly, I linked you that other track yesterday so I could link you this track today. This is how much variety you can get out of a initially-seemingly-rigid genre with some slight changes in texture.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1pBghAeGpU

Ferro – Untitled A ( Rock To The Beat )

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Goldener Reiter", Joachim Witt

A long time ago I got captivated by this odd 1980 Krautrock track, with its weird mix of melancholy and peppy, 90s CGI video, and breaking into English with "und I'm feeling up" in the chorus. I was wrong about everything! The video (now copyright-claimed off YouTube) was for a 1994 remix and re-synced with the original audio; there's no English; and the lyrics are about medical abuse so uh, CW German speakers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6RLXwKBz_g

Joachim Witt - Goldener Reiter

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "BLK ZMBY", billy woods

As far as I can tell, this song is intended as a political condemnation of the living dead. Mr. woods makes hip-hop with complex and layered messaging, some of which is not intended to be Legible to me personally. This track is slow murky deep fried jazz

"In 2023, Woods published a children's book titled A is for Anarchist.[11][27]"

https://billywoods.bandcamp.com/track/blk-zmby

BLK ZMBY, by billy woods

from the album GOLLIWOG

billy woods

What I'm listening to today: "Funknitium-99", Fearofdark

This guy is a prolific Bandcamp/YouTube tracker musician, and here he pulls out some fusion funk with an immaculately crisp, clean energy. If you like the music in Sonic the Hedgehog levels listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvPBEJVwn8

Funknitium-99

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: Yoyaku instore session, Karla Böhm

Here is a Belgian DJ spinning an hourlong techno set in a record store in Paris. Chill deep house beats, slowly transitioning into French Touch over the course of the set. Great feeling throughout. I think this video was produced as promo for the store, as the camerawork is unusually professional for this sort of video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCt_JY--F78

Yoyaku instore session with Karla Böhm

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "End Of The Abyss | Erica Synths Steampipe + Perkons x Soma Cosmos | Drone Day 2025 Live Jam", Travis Benjamin Simpson

Evolves in a way which suggests internal narrative, a journey through a long dark pipe. This is intense, atmospheric, horror-movie music given an unusual color by the fact it is being performed in a bright, sunny backyard with a pink flamingo. Three boxes, two near-designed for ambient drone, but the third is…a drum machine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rowPfubpPp4

End Of The Abyss | Erica Synths Steampipe + Perkons x Soma Cosmos | Drone Day 2025 Live Jam

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Citrus Cirrus", Muscises

It's hard for chiptune to surprise me at this point, but this surprised me. Impossible sounds coming out of the Sega Genesis sound-chip pair, funk music that has returned from the planet Jupiter with terrifying psychic powers, an evening drive in a convertible while the skyline of an impossible ruined city rises in the distance. A plausible soundtrack for your dreams

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

Citrus Cirrus (YM2612 + SEGA PSG)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Bound For The Floor", Local H

Grunge is really good actually and there's some great gems if you look a layer or two deeper than the big 3 acts. This, from 1996, is a late (last?) gasp of "alternative rock" before slick acts like Creed and Matchbox 20 took over the space completely. It's a beautiful sustained single note, a monotone intonation, a hoarse, frustrated yell.

Supposedly this album is about how much it sucks to live in Illinois.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Oe5YKhzCE

Local H - Bound For The Floor

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Dawless Dreamz #2", Glemii

Here Korg's long-forgotten ur-groovebox, the Electribe, does a duet with an actual Game Boy to create what the musician calls "ambient jungle". This is one minute long and feels fantastic, objects from the past breaking through the envelope of time to show a glimpse of the beautiful feature we deserve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxV5gk8Ac

Korg Electribe Ambient Jungle | Dawless Dreamz #2

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Tiny Setup, HUGE Sound: Jungle with the PO-33 KO! + Monotron Delay", Pocket Trax

The Pocket Operator and Monotron Delay remain the bang-for-buck champions of the desktop synth world, "toy" devices that at one time retailed for $60-80 in the Guitar Center checkout line (…before inflation…) and pair beautifully.

This shockingly hard track shows just how far you can push these little PCBs. Lightspeed 12-bit drum & bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlK_16Wal8

Tiny Setup, HUGE Sound: Jungle with the PO-33 KO! + Monotron Delay

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "4 dollar casio sa5 processed through EQD avalanche run, afterneath and transmisser reverb", Anne Sulikowski

Gorgeous, slow ambient music composed live on [see above]. Time-lapse video of clouds over cliffs, a cat sleeping for nine hours, chunky kalimba echoing over brainfog. Three blocks away there is a cement mixer running, just at the edge of your hearing, far enough the acoustics of the street turn the grinding into soothing white noise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5Oqd-JB-8

4 dollar casio sa5 processed through EQD avalanche run, afterneath and transmisser reverb

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Slack", Gar Hoover

Here's the PO-33/Monotron Delay tiny power combo again, making what the musician calls "Chill House" with more than a bit of French touch. Stands out from its genre with some strange sample freaking (is that Paul McCartney??).

Notice the YouTube synth community pro tactic of leaving some random objects on the desktop for Visual Interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18VSdLHR2H8

Slack - PO-33 & Monotron Delay - Chill House

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "kickstart my heart", elricfd

oversaturated brainglaze vaporwave fuck music

This URL was in a text file on my computer where I must have stashed it at some point. I have no idea what this is and I do not remember where I got it from. Bandcamp informs me this musician is the inventor of "Frasierwave". Ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_3D7deeIeY

kickstart my heart

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "[You Caught Me] Smilin'", Sly and the Family Stone

My favorite track from "There's a Riot Goin' On", possibly the most stoned funk album ever made. I have heard so many weird stories about the production of this album, and I don't know which ones are true. Everybody sounds like they just woke up. Everybody sounds like they love making music. The music itself sounds like it's drunk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfljDrx9Tho

[You Caught Me] Smilin'

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Ocean Floor" (part 1), Kazumi Totaka (Nintendo)

In Japan, Mario Paint got a sequel for the 64DD (an N64 peripheral that added internet access, mouse support, and a floppy drive). The music for Mario Artist is *amazing*. This track is moody fusion jazz, vaporwave in 1999; it pushes the N64 to the limit, synthesizing most things but then dropping in what seems to be an entire realtime guitar track. (I think part 2 samples Massive Attack.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzM_G80xL0c&list=PL-pEm4IqI6c_DfCBqt5VBvR-atgwqTlZB&index=100&pp=iAQB8AUB

Mario Artist: Paint Studio - The Ocean Floor (Track 1) -

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: " DRIVIN' ", Fox Capture Plan

*Incredibly* funky Tokyo jazz, tons of energy and wild futuristic synths that just slam you from the start like you're a movie character who just opened the forbidden box and it was full of otherworldly light that disintegrates you instantly. But like, in a smooth jazz kinda way. Do you like electric piano

https://foxcaptureplan.bandcamp.com/track/drivin

DRIVIN', by fox capture plan

from the album XRONICLE

fox capture plan

What I'm listening to today: "Level 3", Jim Andron

The Phillips CD-I is one of the most infamous video game system failures ever, and it hides a secret: *The CD-I Tetris game had a bizarrely kind of amazing soundtrack.* 10 tracks (I also love "level 0") of the kind of pure vibes "Vaporwave" was trying to chase in the 2010s slowing down 80s r&b. This version comes pre-slowed down! Strange murky easy-listening swamp jazz, general MIDI instruments only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRVEtOL6Kho&list=PLFCp1PLqgPzCrfc4BALfINUs7ueJMkUcP&index=4

Tetris (CD-i) Music - Level 3

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Wanted", Hiromi

Some chill loungey jazz by a Japanese pianist and her band. Wonderful feel.

This is the kind of music that trip hop was processed from and I believe trip-hop fans should listen to some of the raw uncut stuff once in a while, perceive the woman who casts the shadow. Actually I'm not sure there ARE any trip-hop fans under 40. Maybe liking Portishead in 2025 is the equivalent of liking jazz in 1998. But I did like jazz in 1998

https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/track/wanted

Wanted, by Hiromi

from the album Sonicwonderland

Hiromi

What I'm listening to today: "When The Catholic Girls Go Camping, The Nicotine Vampires Rule Supreme.", GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!

Basically whenever I listen to Tera Melos, Tidal recommends this next. It's actually a pretty good four-minute primer on "math rock"!

What is Math Rock, at core? It's jazz. It's just jazz with rock instruments. Or maybe metal with jazz instruments. In the 70s we called this prog, now it's math or post rock. Anyway here's guitar played very fast

https://giraffesgiraffes.bandcamp.com/track/when-the-catholic-girls-go-camping-the-nicotine-vampires-rule-supreme

When The Catholic Girls Go Camping, The Nicotine Vampires Rule Supreme., by GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!

from the album More Skin With Milk-Mouth

GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!

What I'm listening to today: "Main Menu" (Mario Artist: Communication Kit), Hideaki Shimizu (Nintendo)

"Mario Artist" for the N64DD consisted of 4 separately-sold "games", of which this is the slightest and most utilitarian (a piece of modem software that let you upload and download creations from the other 3 games). It has possibly the most interesting soundtrack; it seemed to want to be unobtrusive, so it's minimal and ambient. This is a wonderful sparse techno track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmREOQxh0rU&list=PLWgMiwPdlU0WEnBTjEeCIRnf15uuvydJo&index=2

Mario Artist: Communications Kit - Main Menu -

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Hand of Doom", Black Sabbath

Have you ever listened to Sabbath's early stuff? They're still nailing down their sound (ie "metal") and so it's got this wild raw nature to it with currents in strange directions. I hear people describe parts of it as "blues". "Paranoid" is worth a listen in full; this track's a twisty, dynamic, genre-spanning little rock opera about drug addiction with Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025) using his entire emotional range

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNIgt6yKgDM

Hand of Doom (2012 - Remaster)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Ambassadors of All that is Good" ➜ "40 Rods to the Hog's Head" ➜ "Guy vs DC Sniper", Tera Melos

The magnum opus of Tera Melos's early instrumental-only days is this 3-track sequence. "40 Rods" is the highlight but it needs the windup and cooldown of the other two tracks. Incoherent noise slowly coalesces into gorgeous melody then dissolves back into noise. Ordo ab chao, order out of chaos—

https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/ambassadors-of-all-that-is-good
https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/40-rods-to-the-hogs-head
https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/guy-vs-d-c-sniper

Ambassadors of All That Is Good, by Tera Melos

from the album Drugs / Complex

Tera Melos

What I'm listening to today: "Breathe", Azkyll

This is a deeply strange album consisting almost entirely of indefinable "weird noises" (mostly, I think, coming from a granular synthesizer)? This particular track is all punchy, staticky percussion with the "music" part only present as a hint or aftertaste, sounds with implied colors, étude for violent coughing fit and string quartet

https://azkyll.bandcamp.com/track/breathe

breathe, by Azkyll

from the album just another night

Azkyll

What I'm listening to today: "Make It All Better", Neuro No Neuro

T!!_ a_no!!!!__ !_e _i!!t _e__s !!ur !t!en!i_!, _!y !i_!o _mpro!i!!_io!, p_a!e__! __!k t!r!u__ ! !!_!_y sh_!!_ _a!k, _!__ _il!u_, !_! th_!_!t !!!p_ __!!!!u!t!_! it_el_. ! s!_g!! !!ar! __ !an!!!. Do! !cr!!c!!!_ !_ _!! _!_r try_n_ __ _e! !n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBT7VkH6ekM

I enjoyed the video; this one's really nice to just stare into and try to reverse engineer the pattern (I ultimately couldn't).

Make It All Better

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "severe brain damage by dominator"

This is a 1996 "octamed" modfile/tracker tune for the Amiga soundchip that simply goes as hard as it possibly can, dialing in some sort of acid sound and then slowly turning one of the knobs more and more until it actually breaks. Simultaneously a audience-pranking brainfuck and a thoughtful mix of dance genres; the drum line feels like it might be one of the "classic" breaks but I can't identify which one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsro5DpnWNA

severe brain damage by dominator (1996)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Close your Eyes (Autechre Corporation Street rmx)", Anodyne

One time Autechre dropped a whole ass Funky Drummer loop on a track and it ruled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nl4GaPMcx0

Anodyne - Close your eyes (Autechre Corporation street remix)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Jackin for beats", Ice Cube

On this track Ice Cube states an intent to steal every other rapper's beats, then follows through. Despite the claim of "jacking" Cube actually did pay for sample clearance on every beat used here, leading to a situation where 112% of this track's revenue is owed on sample royalties. If you buy this track on Apple Music, Ice Cube loses money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Vn12rvPfM

Ice Cube- Jackin For Beats

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "メトロノーム同期 (32個)", Ikeguchi Laboratory, Tokyo University of Science

This is an entirely physical effect. Place two or more metronomes on a table and start them at different times. The metronomes will acoustically couple through the table and gradually interfere with each other until their oscillations move into perfect alignment.

You might have heard of this trick before! But try just listening to it. Like really listen

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

メトロノーム同期 (32個)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Weekly Beats #8 - Dustin'", Tristan Baldi

Elektron are giants in modern "DAWless" music production, a path they started on¹ with the pair of idiosyncratic "machine" synthesizers released starting in 2001. Here on a machinedrum with hacked firmware is a chill song for laying on a machine beach sipping coolant, watching a square sun set. Takes off once the beat comes in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AgGXOi-J4

¹ I intentionally ignore the SIDStation here

Weekly Beats #8 - Dustin' (Machinedrum)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Brutal", HarrytheHat

Core-competency Jungle from an EP¹ made on a restricted set of instruments (2 Pocket Operator samplers, 1 Monotron Delay, 1 Volca Bass dialed into 303-mimic acid mode).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsbwnOX8aQo

Heavy but smooth; Millenials will immediately have flashbacks to late-90s racing games. Of course this isn't the hardware people would have used in the 90s, it just has the same number of bits².

¹ Full EP here https://harrythehat225.bandcamp.com/album/pocket-jungle-v1

² Twelve

Brutal 🔨 (full jam) Lofi Jungle Po33/VolcaBass/Monotron

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "shapely hedgerows of the dying world", Dragon Warrior

Shuffling, comfy instrumental folk / indie pop in the Elephant 6 style. Feelings like Polaroids of early mornings. You might know this musician as Brother Android or Harrison Lemke, depending on what genre you encountered him in.

https://dragonwarrior.bandcamp.com/track/shapely-hedgerows-of-the-dying-world

shapely hedgerows of the dying world, by Dragon Warrior

from the album Sweetheart of the Planetarium

Dragon Warrior

What I'm listening to today: "Dual Monomachine IDM with new aftermarket +Drives from MachineStore", MIDERA

An enormous emotion. Thinky techno production with a human pop core and a touch of chiptune feel on the drums.

I think we're at the point where this particular type of 00s electronic sound is as old now, as the 70s-80s sounds Boards of Canada was evoking in the 90s were then. Meaning the progressive parts of Boards of Canada now *themselves* qualify for nostalgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3idTvkp-A

Dual Monomachine IDM with new aftermarket +Drives from MachineStore

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "OB6 Dub Techno", dc11

The musician says this emerged from setting up a new synthesizer, so what I imagine happened: They were trying to make that "chonkchonkchonk" noise from reggae, stumbled into an amazing-sounding semi-repeating pattern, went "I have to stop everything and find a way to make this a song" and built a life support system around it. Result:

Lovely little ambient meditation over a 128bpm heartbeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXeiQ6KdWM

If ur bored stop at ~5:00

OB6 Dub Techno

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "New Instrument, new sound!", Fron Reilly

A short demo of a musical instrument created by this YouTuber/woodworker. It's… kind of a brilliant idea, actually, simultaneously shocking and in-retrospect obvious.

The video is 100 seconds of abstract noises that, if you'd played it for me without the video, I could tell you how to create with FFTs and DSP techniques but would *not* have believed was a recording of a completely acoustic device.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGHIcU3g8Ps

New Instrument, new sound!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Terrorist", DJ Vadim & Motion Man

Motion Man is an Oakland rapper so far under the radar he has no Wikipedia page and at least one album of his I've listened to is not on Allmusic. If you know him it's probably from a guest spot he did on someone else's song, probably Kool Keith's, and you *remember* him because he absolutely steals every track he appears on.

Here, for a 1999 DJ Vadim single: Villainous pronouncements over supersaws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rOYGk6TV_o

Terrorist

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra" (Overture), Friedrich Gulda

I don't know much about Gulda, but apparently his career was marked by a desire to work in both classical music but also jazz (back in an era when jazz was still cutting edge and/or illegal). This 1980 piece feels like he was asked to compose a concerto but he just really, really wanted to make funk music. This slaps. This cellist is fucking *shredding*

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

⚠️Loud static at 0:41

Friedrich Gulda - Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra: Overture

YouTube
@mcc I haven't heard the name "motion man" since linkin park reanimation. good to know he's still around
@mcc The Terrorist was on Zen: A Ninja Tune Retrospective, I listened so much to that collection at university. (I feel my mental timeline is wrong somehow though because it was supposedly released in 2004 which was my last year and that feels wrong, but it was a long time ago.)
@SonnyBonds I loved that compilation for introducing me to Saul Williams
@SonnyBonds Wait am I thinking of the same compilation, I think there were a few in the Zen series
@mcc Googled because I didn't know what song that might have been, maybe it was the Xen compilation? Haven't heard that one. :)

@SonnyBonds Zen != Xen. Got it.

This is still my favorite Saul Williams song btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GVrcTAeD0E

Twice The First Time

YouTube
@mcc amazing: thank you so much for this one.

@mcc Linkin Park fans also might know Motion Man from a track on the 2002 Linkin Park remix album "Reanimation". The track is "Enth E Nd", which is a remix of "In the End". https://genius.com/Linkin-park-enth-e-nd-lyrics

I was a big Linkin Park fan. I know pretty much nothing about any rappers, otherwise.

@mcc Well, he is definitely on one of the Elektro Punk Hitlist compilations I used to put out as torrents in the '00 's
DJ Vadim 💯
@mcc Can't figure out the function of the sorta tambourine shaped thing in the middle.
@obot50549535 I assume it acts something like an amplifier; like, the big hollow wooden bodies attached to a violin aren't decorative.

@mcc @obot50549535 yes, it's a soundboard. The spoked wheel acts as a bridge, and there's a rod that goes from the bridge to the drumhead. Remo hand drums like this get used all the time by banjo homebuilders.

Nice use of a guitar truss-rod as a central shaft, too.

Sounds a bit like a Crystal Baschet

@mcc It's like they made an instrument for producing that one sparkly "flashback" sound effects for when the screen goes all wobbly and they cut to an earlier event.
@mcc It's the wood and string version of an Eventide Harmonizer and a Leslie Rotor Cabinet!
@mcc Showed this to a friend and he was like "wait a minute, I saw this guy play at a festival the other weekend I think?" And indeed it turns out the dude is based out of Ottawa
@keithzg yeah i was uh having a similar reaction actually. like just huh he's in the neighborhood
@keithzg (i am originally from texas and my notion of "the neighborhood" is a little warped)
@mcc that was very cool. Love people making weird machines to make music.
@mcc one measure in ai was like “I’m going to work to this for the next month”
@mcc the Monomachine is now officially a vintage synthesizer because it costs two to four times its original MSRP on Reverb.com. Sigh...
@mcc I love how there's one straggler at the end that's in sync but out of phase, yet still syncs up in phase by the end.
@mcc I've seen and read about this a number of times, but it never dawned on me that the table is acting as a pendulum itself.
@mcc I wonder if they were set in random orientations, would the table get a circular motion and sync them to their respective angular phases?
@mcc why did he do that? #lang_en
@ellenor2000 Becuase he is just that kind of gangsta
@mcc Having what amounts to a button you can press to cause an artist mild but tangible financial harm is a fascinating concept and I think more creators should implement this, JK Rowling specifically.

@Owlor It's interesting because in the *original* form of this track there was no such exploit, because it was only available as part of the "Kill at Will" EP and the label made positive money on the EP overall. But now the modern Internet music store allows you to buy a single song by itself.

It's possible this isn't actually a problem anymore— maybe label consolidation at some point worked things out to bring the sample royalties under 100%. But I kinda suspect just nobody thought about it.

@mcc I gotta say, having the cover art for the EP which contains a track when bought on its own actively loses him money (or did at some point) be Ice Cube handing you a gun with the barrel pointed towards himself is quite a visual.

If it's still a problem, my guess is it just isn't enough of an issue to really make a noticable dent in his revenue, but conceptually it's really funny to have a track where pirating it instead of buying it through legitimate channels is inarguably beneficial to the artist.

@mcc Now that's true friend stuff right there
@mcc thanks for sharing!
@mcc Paranoid is a classic. the rhythm guitar riff on that has lived in my head rent-free since I first heard it on Top Of The Pops 2 as a kid.

@mcc It’s not for nothing that Tony Iommi called their music heavy blues. :)

The rawness is interesting as I feel it’s *still* directly influencing bands up to this day (i.e. not everyone ha gonw full slick over produced).

Such a great album!

@mcc One of my favorites of theirs actually!

@mcc The other Artist soundtracks are awesome as well. Talent Studio has this proto-Wii flamboyant vibes (how fitting for a proto-Mii game), whereas Polygon Studio has Totaka as his most unhinged, channelling the IDM energy of Hip Tanaka and Ryoji Yoshitomi on the OG Mario Paint soundtrack.

(isn't that one composed by Hideaki Shimizu though?)

@ailepet Which one is Shmizu?
@ailepet oh no! Oh no I was completely wrong!
@ailepet I've corrected the post now. I like all the Mario Artist soundtracks but Communication is the most surprising to me. Thanks for the correction.
@mcc I agree, I haven't had the curiosity to give it some time until I saw your toot. Thanks for the rec!