What I'm listening to today: "Cwejman/Verbos Dub", Lucas Marchal

Last week I linked this guy doing synth unboxing experiments, here's what he sounds like doing a completed track. Dark, intent dub using the full spectrum of electronic production. Slipping silently under abandoned awnings and cloudy skies as your robotic pursuers nip constantly at your heels. Glance up and your gaze is met by the first touches of rain, and a dual-rotor helicopter blotting out the sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xTD7iqVjRs

Cwejman/Verbos Dub

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Carrier",
Brandon McGhee

Extremely satisfying, semi-live electronic jam, feels like early Boards of Canada. Authentic-sounding/non-authentic analog synths on the Microfreak, lo-fi hip hop beats on the SP-404, and enormous Zoia reverb. What you see is what you get. Cool disintegration outro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WELUnqz6R00

Carrier

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Cryptic Flow", ME9AM0N

I was given the prompt "Lo-fi hip hop to have anxiety to". Trap music for blown out speakers and those Japanese crosswalk machines that play the creepy childrens' song. Basically the kind of music you'd find on a cassette tape in a street gutter and when you listen to it it makes your stereo haunted.

Apparently they call themselves "Memphis cult".

https://soundcloud.com/memphiscult/cryptic-flow-me9am0n-16

Cryptic Flow - ME9AM0N

Cult Link https://linktr.ee/memphiscult Buy Merch - https://memphiscult.com/ Artist Link - https://linktr.ee/splyxer Discord Server: https://discord.gg/sVwfB4fph6 Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/6n9s

SoundCloud

What I'm listening to today: "YOULL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE", hkmori

Sad girl breakcore anthem. This is what it feels like to be queer in 2025. Too loud. Too loud. Everything is too loud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6GmJC1ic4o

hkmori - YOULL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt", DJ Shadow

This album hit electronic music like a meteor. Apparently real heads already knew who DJ Shadow was and Dan the Automator had been working with him for years, but the first I'd heard of DJ Shadow was this song coming on Rice Radio 91.7 FM circa 1997 and I can draw you a diagram of exactly where on San Felipe St I was driving at the time because the moment is seared so clearly into my memory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HORLJvUMs08

Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Devil Stuff", Evil Nine

The first half of the 2000s saw this explosion of headphones-friendly "instrumental hip hop" whose existence I chalk up to DJ Shadow, if not as a direct inspiration then at least for convincing the record labels this stuff could sell. (Or maybe it was "Praise You".) Here's some fun big beat music made of metal samples. Yeah uh, my mom's boyfriend's kids are into this devil stuff from listening to Black Sabbath—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKeAt3zdiYk

Devil Stuff

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Heart's Desire", Awkward McLain

A Bandcamp beatmaker goes in for a bit of lo-fi hip hop and astral projection. Lovely crisp feeling.

The box is SP-404mk2, the most recent of a series of surprisingly incremental updates to J Dilla's favorite sampler, with the main effect AFAICT to add, like, USB and SD card support and the stuff that makes a device actually convenient to use in 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czR2NlmWE2g

[SP404 Beat] Silence.Golden - Heart's Desire

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Mashed Up Mixes - Diplo of Hollertronix Meets RJD2"

During that 10 minutes of mainstream craze for "mashups", lo-fi hip hop virtuoso RJD2 invited a few artists to make DJ mixtapes out of his his back catalog. There's also a good one by "Haul & Mason", but this mix stuck in my head forever for a segment that strings together Cat Power, Slick Rick and Steve Reich, and later on what's still to me the definitive version of Outkast's "Roses"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj5h1o8XRnk

RJD2 - The Mashed Up Mixes - Diplo of Hollertronix Meets RJD2

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Jellyfish", Kazumi Totaka (Nintendo)

There is a weird pattern in video games:

- The "water level", in any game, is usually everyone's least favorite, but

- The "water level" often has the coolest, most memorable music of the game.

Upthread I linked some "ocean vibes" music from Mario Artist for N64DD. That game has *three* ocean-themed songs, all bangers; here's my other fav. Charmingly cheesy hold-music jazz transitioning into trip-hop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8DlaLKT3q8&list=PL-pEm4IqI6c_DfCBqt5VBvR-atgwqTlZB&index=95

Mario Artist: Paint Studio - Drawing Track #1 (Jellyfish) -

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "What Does Your Soul Look Like?, Pt. 3", DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow followed up his major-label "debut" with an (incomplete) overview of his pre-"debut" indie releases. The information economy of the late 90s was less developed than that of today & getting into DJ Shadow in 1998 was a *little* confusing. Whatever! Here's the most rocking track from "preemptive strike". This *fucking* piano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9VIDrDXJmc

PS: Shadow fans listen to the Mighty Atom Endtroducing mix

What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 3

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Durationplex", Sevish

This musician describes this track as an exercise in golden-ratio "maxxing"; the (xenharmonic) tuning scale is based on ϕ, the (polyrhythmic, constantly shifting) rhythms are based on ϕ, the FM timbres are based on ϕ. Experientially all you can tell is that the musician was doing something *very specific*, which you can grasp the shape of but not understand

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

( This track is also on Bandcamp: https://sevish.bandcamp.com/track/durationplex )

Sevish - Durationplex (golden ratio music)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Small drops 2025-08-02", atnr

"Minimal Ambient". Giant reverb landscapes. Sitting on a dark hill, your hair mussed by gentle breeze, watching on the horizon the spaceships take off.

Made by combining Yamaha's modern DX7 revival, an original Game Boy, and three guitar pedals, one of which only exists to simulate the sound of cassette tape; someone probably *could* have made this exact music in 1989, in principle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBqiEHJmH0

Minimal Ambient w/ GAME BOY & reface DX | Small drops 2025-08-02 by atnr

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Fly to the Leaden Sky", Manabu Namiki

This is the stage 1 music from "Battle Garegga", an incredibly maximalist top-down shooter made in 1996 by former Compile staff. This is from the 2016 PS4/XBox rerelease, so the original onboard chip synthesis is replaced with slightly different instrumentation including crisper drum samples that really do improve this one track. A giant glowing idol to the 1980s, an exuberant tower of electric guitars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF-ENkufyCY&list=PLguGBzflGahMxYlXtQxX5e4yuqPMWKBAn&index=3

Battle Garegga Rev 2016 perfect edition ー 03 - Fly to the Leaden Sky Stage 1 Valley

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Speciation", Passepartout Duo

An old technique in ambient music is "phasing", where you play two loops of different lengths and let them go in and out of sync, creating different interesting patterns. It's a truism this requires electronics or tape, because two humans trying to play out-of-sync tempos would confuse each other. These two seem to be actually doing a live phase performance, dueling xylophone and gameboy-style squarewave loops

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

Speciation - Passepartout Duo

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Souzou Suru", Haru Nemuri

High-energy Japanese rap with seriously weird production. My wife was listening to this and now I'm listening to it.

https://specific.bandcamp.com/track/souzou-suru

Every lyrics site swears up and down she's saying "Touch my Yes", not whatever it is you thought you heard.

( If you're enjoying yourself by the end of this song maybe listen to the next one on the album, which I like for its mid-90s-arcade-shooter-style sampled guitars… https://specific.bandcamp.com/track/bang )

Souzou Suru, by HARU NEMURI

from the album Shunka Ryougen

Specific Recordings

What I'm listening to today: "Finally", a773

This Danish musician uses the modular synth rack— usually the domain of weird noise ambient— for a purpose I've never seen it turned to: incredibly sincere Fusion Jazz. 80s fusion did use simple, early synths— and modular also tends toward the simple, because simple base tones respond best to layering in complications. So there's a lot of plausible 80s feel but with the strangest mystery sounds slipping through the background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MYf2p-0TmQ

a773 - finally [funky/jazz modular/generative groove]

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Mood piece from one machine to another", Sonaura

Three minutes of degraded humming, drone piece on two cassette tape machines one of which seems to be having serious problems. The desert in late evening, a wisp of smoke moving in a way smoke shouldn't. A transmission you pick up briefly on the radio and then can't find again. Do you hear it? No, it's gone. As far as recordings of degraded humming sounds go I'd say this is a pretty good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXA3_VCYc98

Mood piece from one machine to another

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Level 0", Jim Andron

In the 90s there was a thing called "smooth jazz". I think boomers probably understood it, but I was never clear how it was different from "easy listening music".

This opener from 1992's famously odd "CD-I" version of Tetris is easy-listening music transcended to the point you can understand why people like the genre. Hold music pulling at your heartstrings, incredibly cheesy FM piano over shockingly hype bass work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_SwDWKf-78

Tetris (CD-i) Music - Level 0

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Orange", Tristan Baldi

Chill tabla groove on the Dirtywave M8, a small handheld tracker. Big warm analog-style pads and lots of fun little sound design scribbles low in the mix. Sun shining through some sort of medium, like the fronds of trees or the smog of southern California

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3_AeLUMVQA

Orange (Dirtywave M8)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Mocktapus, Rocktapus, Unlocktapus Rex", Prince Charming featuring Philosophy Major

I'm … I'm really not sure what's happening here! A two-minute hip hop hallucination, two or three stations fighting for control of your FM radio, a bunch of musical instruments thrown in a dryer and they turned it on. Sometimes my brain sort of demagnetizes and thoughts swarm in all directions aimlessly like bees. What if that felt pleasant? That's this song

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

Mocktapus, Rocktapus, Unlocktapus Rex (feat. Philosophy Major)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "White Paws", Tristan Baldi

This piece hijacks the Subharmonicon, Moog's idiosyncratic semi-generative synth, to a purpose it's not typically used for: Acid, coaxing some surprisingly 303-like sounds out of it. Combine this with an unusually clicky configuration for the DFAM and you have an unusual, unpredictable, quiet but punchy little electronic jam.

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

White Paws (Subharmonicon, DFAM)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "While you were gone", a773

This is the fusion-jazz-on-modular-synths guy I linked last Sunday. This track has that "downtempo Sega" feel but leans into the weirdness/jazziness by being in 7/8 time. Most people listening to 5/4 can tell they're listening to "a weird time signature" but 7/8 sounds like "normal music" with a strange pressured feel you can't explain. If you sleep too long the fire goes out you dare to dream and we have no doubt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me-bNxMT7k0

a773 - while you were gone [warm and melodic glitch jazz in 7/8]

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Biology 101", Dr. Octagon ft. "Chewbacca"

Removed track from Kool Keith's career-redefining "Dr. Octagonecologyst", present on the original indie release but not the Dreamworks version. The point where they apparently went "too far". Too weird, too creative, too surprising, too hard to follow, too "Kool Keith". A Dan the Automator groove slowed down to the breaking point, with a flood of incredibly dense sci-fi rap wordplay running over it.

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

Dr. Octagon: Biology 101

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Cosmic Interlude", LTJ Bukem

Chill jazzy electronic from the year 2000 with delicious stand-up bass sounds. Bukem spent the mid 90s staking a flag on what he called "Intelligent Jungle" (as far as I can tell he invented "the Dreamcast menu sound") but then as the 90s ended pushed past that and crafted a distinct brand of self-confident instrumental jazz with skeletal drum&bass patterns as support. Would feel at home on a Ninja Tune mixtape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1KIWM-VuAU

Cosmic Interlude

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Time 4 Breaks", Breakbeat Era

This album was supposed to be the Roni Size clique's breakout moment into pop domination, but a series of odd decisions left it as a one-off artifact that you've either never heard of or are still obsessed with 25 years later. This track shows the project at its best: A pop song structure with heart-gripping vocals and the production gloss of 1999's best D&B production team. Progressive but goes down smooth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4RnLUnFafs

Breakbeat Era - Time 4 Breaks

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Imouha", Etran de LAïr

Incredible surfrock¹ jam by a band that describes themselves as "the stars of the Agadez guitar scene" (Agadez is the fifth largest city in the Republic of Niger). Do not miss the video-toaster-core video. Dudes rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xeytuhn0irM

I found this as the YouTube algorithm's next recommendation after watching "Prisencolinensinainciusol".

¹ Sahara rock?

Etran de LAïr Imouha (Official Music Video)

Imouha (Official Music Video)🎸✨ 🎸✨ 🎸✨ from "100% SAHARA GUITAR", the new album by Etran de L’Aïrhttps://tinyurl.com/100saharaguitarhttps://etrandelair.ban...

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Late Morning", Breakbeat Era

A couple days ago I linked the song from this album I thought had the closest chance of getting mainstream euro radio recognition for this odd Roni Size project. This (incidentally the next song on the album) is the track I think appeals best if you just like SOUNDS. Six minutes onrushing bull head down subway to an afternoon headache, breakbeat jungle boiled down to annihilation of all thought, moksha in motion

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

Breakbeat Era - Late Morning

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "icm", a773

One last track from the musician I've been calling "the fusion-jazz-on-modular-synths guy". So thing is, mixing jazz and electronic music is not odd, it's just what you're *expected* to do is cut up the jazz as a backing for sampled breakbeats. This raises a question: What if a773 made a track with breaks? Turns out it turns out extremely well. Something here for both prog and Ninja Tune lovers. Nice understated bassline groove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikmBVXgg-g

a773 - icm [funky modular jazz]

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Hold Tight London", Chemical Brothers

This is just literally the song stuck in my head today.

Chemical Brothers are underrated TBH. They got some radio play with "Dig Your Own Hole" and I think the electronic heads (in the US?) mentally classified them as pop and tuned out. They continued making jams. I think this might be the best song they ever made. Does it stop being rock music if the guitars are sampled? *Are* these guitars sampled?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXV-jr64szI

Hold Tight London

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Erm...Yes, This Is Yamaha RS7000", Isobutane

This ungainly 1999 pro groovebox from Yamaha is fairly capable at making techno and hip hop. It… doesn't sound like this at all! Apparently using no external samples only tweaked presets this musician creates a drunken rush of chaotic glitch sounds, a simply wild wobbling bass line and this one sound like an angel got stuck in your crawlspace and is moaning in divine ecstasy until you let it out

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

Erm...Yes, This Is Yamaha RS7000

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "AudCalc, Zeptocore, Phantasmal Force, GREAT CONJUNCTION Micro Synth Coordination", Arman Bohn

I at one point considered myself an authority on small handheld devices that make odd sounds, and I… I recognize exactly two of the six devices on this table. A glorious mess but it all comes together, floats your mind on a melange of algorithmic beeps, chirpy synth beats and bitcrushed Amen like a crashing sea. More is more. I like the buzzy bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhyk4O1cYpc

AudCalc, Zeptocore, Phantasmal Force, GREAT CONJUNCTION Micro Synth Coordination

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "souvenir d'autrefois", Trhä & Midoran

Asked on bsky for metal that makes every bar on the graphic equalizer jam all the way up. Blurry thrashy metal with kinda those stoner jam feels and this amazing softness like cassette tape, every blast of sound is a little bit rounded off. Ends with an inexplicable detour into… like… if I say "title screen music for a strip mahjong tabletop unit in a dingy bar in Kabukichō in 1994" will you understand?

https://trha.bandcamp.com/track/souvenir-dautrefois

souvenir d'autrefois, by Trhä & Midoran

from the album Trhä & Midoran

Trhä

What I'm listening to today: "沈む!", Banshimoku

I saw these folks live last night! Shizumu (沈む) appears to be "Sinking" or "Sink!", like a command. The word she yells at the end of the chorus is "ILLUMINATION!" in English. "Banshimoku" is a Japanese name for the Placodont, an extinct triassic reptile. Walking through the market this morning, kept yelling to myself under my breath, the quietest yell, "ILLUMINATION!". May the bridges we burn be the lights that show our way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKsXnZO9_Jo

板歯目 ‐「沈む!」(Official Music Video_2022年3月1日リリース)_BANSHIMOKU

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Untitled", Åreknuteknyterne

In 1986 a tiny Norwegian cassette label named "Yecch Tapes" released a compilation named "FFFFF" with this song. It would be wrong to say it sounds like it does because these are ghosts reaching out of history to haunt us. That's just the cassette sound. But this sure *sounds* like ghosts trapped outside time, trying to score an epic 80s action thriller, but they're ghosts so it only feels like inexpressible loss

https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com/track/untitled-fffff-version

Untitled (FFFFF Version), by Åreknuteknyterne

from the album Åreknuteknyterne

Tribe Tapes

What I'm listening to today: "Virtual Star Embryology" (Revolutionary Girl Utena ED 2), J.A. Seazer

Ancient times. Perfection. Isolation in the desert.
Atmosphere, atom, a star of causality.
Yes, a child of earth is conceived
The embryo of philosophy.
The endless surface of the torus,
A single organic mechanism
A single perpetual motion.
Ah, it is empty movement!
Just empty movement,
Empty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkwU8yUjM9Y

[FullHD] 少女革命ウテナ 鳳暁生編 Credits Rolling Sequence

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: "My Cancerous Body in Music", Entropic Echo

Industrial-grade modular electronica with a focus on gigantic distorted pads. The large block of wood in the corner is a SOMA device that as far as I know works by your body grounding or bridging spontaneous circuits in the electrically active orbs. Hundreds of figures in hooded monk robes trudge determinedly across a gray wasteland. Raindrops pick their way down staircases of leaves.

Cool ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHZvGi2qIw4

Biomechanical Disruption ‐ My cancerous body in music

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Time III: plastic ego", StereoMan

Fun tracker tune (original upload September 1998) that leans into the uncanny feeling of sample tracker music with stunning results. Echoes of a SNES game where a robot jumps through 2D mazes made of girders, except if one single song from a 1998 game OST went this hard you'd still be talking about it 30 years later. (The ImpulseTracker file is 768k; maybe nobody shipping games wanted to invest that much?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-IV_wats0

StereoMan - Time III: plastic ego

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Benevolent Incubator", Icarus / @olliebown

A Certain Type of Jazz thrown through the sample blender in a Certain Way, makes me think of Amon Tobin or the Michael Fakesch solo albums or Four Tet remixing Andrew Bird. Fantastic groove. Has an arc to it, a tension, a single set of sounds gradually evolves from manic solo drumming to a gentle indie guitar-pluck lullaby before dissolving completely into incoherent nervous glitches.

https://icarus.bandcamp.com/track/benevolent-incubator

Benevolent Incubator, by Icarus

from the album Six Soviet Misfits

Icarus

What I"m listening to today: "The Torrents of Destruction Overwhelmed Me", thoughtForm Max

Extended metal guitar solo, but with no guitar, done entirely on Roger Linn's isomorphic grid controller. Every pad on here has per-note expression via both pressure and how you wiggle your finger within the square, enabling techniques not usually possible on a keyboard synth. I imagine a lone figure playing this to a sunrise at the edge of some desert plateau in Big Bend in Texas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbUBw454ZG4

LinnStrument • The Torrents of Destruction Overwhelmed Me

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Mo Mophatt Roger", Attack Sustain

Does anyone reading this like NOISE here are three minutes of buzzsaw noises simply exploring the sounds of a newly-obtained pair of distortion pedals. Good amplifier worship audio. Would've assumed this was all guitar feedback if I didn't have the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpHbdLh2Rc

Mo Mophatt Roger

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "The Key" (Wubbledub Edit), Space Bunny

Does anyone like 90s EURO TECHNO. This is a vintage remix of a 1997 tech house piece, apparently recorded at the time but unreleased until a vinyl compilation in 2024. Oak aged for 27 years. Has a great bouncy energy to it and that classic electronic sound design. Really satisfying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npCZlsAJeJ4

Space Bunny – The Key (Wubbledub Edit)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "No Snakes Alive", King Geedorah

MF DOOM was a talented producer as well as a rapper, but was oddly shy about his own production work, quarantining his most significant self-produced work to side EPs and this somewhat nonobvious pseudonym. A pity because the Geedorah project has some bangers, like this one unhinged, utterly unique track with weird tempo shifts as if the song itself is staggering drunkenly. MF Grimm's on this one (it's old).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea-rUiMHpTw

No Snakes Alive

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Generative ambient", CELUS

21 minutes of ever-changing shimmers & swells. (If your attention span is not that long maybe stop at the 5:45 mark.) This is the song you hear when it's morning and no one else on the spaceship has woken up yet and everything is pleasant and peaceful, although *definitely* when this movie reaches its second act something within the corridors will start hunting your crew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXJC6ZvH5y8

CELUS • Generative Ambient

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "TR-909 & TR-727 Backyard Beat", Zap Danger

It is the 90s and there is time to roller hover cyber blade through floating freeways passing through a glowing city where the buildings seem to be made of ephemeral light. Downtempo dance music for old drum machines and modern guitar pedals. Look quickly at the start of the video to see a sweet adorable baby (Elektron Analog Drive pedal) and also a sweet adorable baby (cat).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9aJzDGT6E

TR-909 & TR-727 Backyard Beat

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Combination #7 ( • | 6 | • | 2 | 4 | 5 )", Mark Fell

Violins tuning up for five minutes. Sliding down the gullet of a giant greebly alien. We could talk about "drone" or we could talk about music for ritual purposes, it is the same thing, there is a part of us religion seeks to wake up but which music stimulates directly and so religion uses music. Drone cuts out the middleman. No spirituality just ॐ.

Jim O'Rourke is somehow involved here.

https://frozenreeds.bandcamp.com/track/combination-7-6-2-4-5

Combination #7 ( • | 6 | • | 2 | 4 | 5 ), by Mark Fell

from the album Psychic Resynthesis

frozen reeds

What I'm listening to today: "31564132452132131652131", 3121534312

The quietest of quiet drone ambient, a breath on your neck, empty room noise, except the room is an uncanny horror space. This seems to have been more an attempt to make a cool glitch video with atmospheric sound (this YouTube account has many such videos) than to make a piece of music but I like experiencing, analyzing this sort of ambiance as music. It's fun to pick apart the choices of frequencies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7cEc8vRTmI

31564132452132131652131

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Olson"

This is a Boards of Canada song being performed on a DEC PDP-1 from 1959. The PDP-1 doesn't have sound, but it does have front-panel light bulbs for debugging, so they tapped the voltage from four of the the light bulb on/off signals and routed them directly to speakers. They then run a program that toggles the light bulbs at audio rate to create square waves.

Arrangement by Joe Lynch, PDP-1 paper tape load operation by Peter Samson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wubkrBd3-gg

Boards of Canada "Olson" on a 1959 PDP-1 Computer

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Remnants", Waxlimbs

My favorite live band in Toronto doing a kind of epic prog-rock King Crimson thing. When my wife first played this I seriously assumed it was from the 70s. Sound monoliths with walls of silence in between. Live these folks wear bird masks and alternately trade vocals between the three non-drummer members and sing in three-part harmony

https://waxlimbs.bandcamp.com/track/remnants-2

…and if u r in Toronto you can see them Saturday in a tiny bar [EDIT: Too late LOL]

Remnants, by Waxlimbs

from the album Where Lilies Grew

Waxlimbs

What I'm listening to today: "Energizer", pOW

xm tracker file from 1999. Wonderful 1980s future feel, skittering beats that aren't jungle but which a jungle head would appreciate. Music for the hypest rave ever held in Graal Online. Some mod files try to transcend the "cheesy" medium with sample work but this just leans into it, it is going to make the best fricking piece of music it can with the timbres available to it, dancing naked in the rain like no one is watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVPgVdq9RrQ

POW - Energizer

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Fre", Coltren

1997 minimalist dub. As hardcore as it's possible for a thing as quiet as this to be. None of these sounds sound like "instruments"; it's all incidental line hiss and choppy cutoff noises. Makes me think of cavernous rooms full of poorly-lit machinery linked by cramped walkways, pistons casting strange shadows as they pivot. Intently pumping away to some unclear purpose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiRW1pU2RZo

Coltren – Fre (1997)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Big Ideas"

"Nude" was one of those songs Radiohead performed live for years before putting on an album, as if struggling to figure out the definitive version. IMO, *this* is the definitive version: James Houston "remixing" it on a collection of obsolete computer hardware. Run a motor, like the one in a scanner, at different speeds and the rotation makes different tones. Send PCM voltages to a hard drive motor and you can make scratchy voice

https://vimeo.com/1109226

Big Ideas (don't get any)

Video by James Houston [email protected] www.1030.co.uk www.twitter.com/1030 -------- Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead) Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer…

Vimeo

What I'm listening to today: "Abandon", Tristan Baldi

Super weird electronic downtempo on the Dirtywave M8 handheld tracker. Starts with huge creepy FM swells, and beats that sound as if they were dropped from a great height, and then just sorta goofs around with giant looming cyberpunk vibes for a few minutes. Guitars that sound like something Id Software would have shipped in 1992. I'd use the term "playful" if this didn't all feel so sinister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8zFidVgSTw

Abandon (Dirtywave M8)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Xenomorpher Gets Its Groove On", James Collins

One thing I love about this particular type of modular synth jam is you can repeat a single sequence of like 5 or 8 notes indefinitely and as long as you screw with the timbres enough it seems to be continuously changing. Here a constrained eurorack repeats a single note sequence with a non-repeating, chaos-driven LFO used to pulp the sound in different mysterious ways. It is a good groove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxJ7ADQExdk

Xenomorpher Gets Its Groove On

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "THESE STATIC TRANSMISSIONS", AMULETS

This is an ambient tape artist I rather like, recording a submission for the NPR "Tiny Desk Concert" open call in 2017. He did not get in¹ but the YouTube submission endures. Drone piece in a suitcase setup containing two tape machines and a series of mysterious metal boxes, one of which appears to be handbuilt into an Altoids tin. Sound of a forgetting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNq0ApV_trM

¹ "Tank and the Bangas" won. They're pretty good.

AMULETS - THESE STATIC TRANSMISSIONS (NPR TINY DESK CONTEST 2017)

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Pep Talk", Bahamadia

I know Bahamadia from her work with Roni Size, but then Machinegirl linked this track on Bluesky and like geez, I guess should have been paying more attention to Bahamadia's solo work! This is from her album "BB Queen". Y2K jungle, dense wordplay, an exercise in the tightest syllable packing possible, immaculate vibes like crisp autumn wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-8HXYyDtxE

Bahamadia "Pep Talk"

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Feelings", Fluxus MT

What if you just turned on all of the sounds at once

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QAe5M_QlYA

Feelings

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Augmatic Disport", Autechre

"Untilted" is the album that fits most strangely into the arc of Autechre's discography. It's pretty much a 70-minute onslaught of dense, ever shifting robot breakbeats. It does have rewards within and I like this one track that has a little narrative arc. These robots are up to something. They are acting with purpose. What are these robots doing

Woke up today thinking about this album because of a reason.

https://autechre.bandcamp.com/track/augmatic-disport

Augmatic Disport, by Autechre

from the album Untilted

Autechre

What I'm listening to today: "Dark Space", Mr. Nogatco (Kool Keith)

Did Dr. Octagon really die in 1999? A man appeared in Nashville in 2006 claiming to be him, who was generally acknowledged to be a fraud; but there is another theory, that Octagon survived, his body rebuilt, and afterward lived in hiding in Phoenix, performing experiments on alien bodies recovered from spaceships crashed in the Arizona desert.

A dark hypnotic groove I was thinking about this morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBmgZRMn1Lo

Mr Nogatco - Dark Space

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "CSIRAC" / "Delete", Ninajirachi

CSIRAC was Australia's first computer, and the first known computer to ever play music. Ninajirachi is an Australian EDM producer who voices her own songs and has a really messy room. Can I double dip today? I just really like this two song sequence of her going completely to the wall with chopped up experimental production followed by this second song that's just hyper hyper hyper pop

https://ninajirachi.bandcamp.com/track/csirac
https://ninajirachi.bandcamp.com/track/delete

CSIRAC, by Ninajirachi

from the album I Love My Computer

Ninajirachi

What I'm listening to today: "idontloveyouanymore", puhf

Breakcore/jungle for waking up. Nice synths. ⚠️Photosensitivity warning⚠️ on the video. Punk was the music of youth because the barriers to entry were so low, anybody could get a guitar and learn some chords. Now guitars and drumsets are kinda expensive and gen Z is downloading DAWs and turning out this incredibly satisfying breakcore in enormous quantities and posting it on YouTube accounts with their Mii as avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24fU3ruJ0ZQ

puhf - idontloveyouanymore

YouTube

What I'm listening to today: "Continuum 1" Nala Sinephro

Mind-expanding jazz and floaty beep sounds. Chill but pressured, a dream coming over your consciousness like a cloud covering the landscape. What I really like in music is semi-non-repeating beats and the genres that give me that are (1) the thing I've been trying not to call "IDM", and (2) this type of jazz

I got this from an Algorithm and don't know this musician. Apparently she scored Benny Safdie's UFC movie?

https://nalasinephro.bandcamp.com/track/continuum-1

Continuum 1, by Nala Sinephro

from the album Endlessness

Nala Sinephro
@mcc Thanks for introducing me to a new genre i didn't know about! 
@mcc uh, thanks I'm awake now. wew was not ready for that cold open.
@mcc wonderful album, and I must recommend giving the preceding album "girl EDM disc 1" a spin if you haven't already! she's got so many songs on my main work playlist
@mcc - this is really cool. The track and album are great, but also a load of new early computer music threads to follow. I hadn't realised that there was a MUSIC-N recording as early as 1957 - I knew about Music from Mathematics, but I think that was 1960.
@mcc Just FYI, out of all the great music you've posted for some reason this is the one that finally got me to make a bandcamp account and buy the album, but I'm sure it won't be the last...
@mcc Great start to my morning. Thanks for introducing us.
@mcc ok this album is really nice. Picked it up on Bandcamp. (Then discovered a handful of the songs are downloadable on her 4562 world thing, oh well, not all my favs were) Pretty sure another friend got at least a song or two from it 😅
@mcc they were in town last night, did you go? (Autechre)
@mcc good I assume. jealous.
@tezoatlipoca It was absolutely incredible. Reminder, they're selling the soundboard recordings from every single one of their concerts now, so you could technically listen to last night's performance…
@mcc This looks like my grandfather's old HAM radio setup
@mcc I think it says something that I instantly recognize ten delidded hard drives, before reading any of the text. Now I have the ker-chunk of that specific Epson dot matrix in my head
@mcc you might enjoy https://youtu.be/hoI4WFpiSH4 too for similar reasons (although this uses the album audio, so only the visual is extra neat)
Grandaddy Jeds Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

YouTube

@directhex I REALLY LIKE THIS VIDEO

it has personal significance

@mcc I hope some day someone does something magical for the whole four-part story of Jed
@mcc Oh! Fuck! Fuckin' fuck! https://youtu.be/yo_FV3HYr0w
Grandaddy - Jed the Humanoid/Other Poem/3's Poem/The 4th Live @ The London Palladium

YouTube
@mcc Love that video. Have you heard this Arpeggi cover?
https://youtu.be/5LBM-I9J3UY
It scratches a similar demake itch for me
Radiohead - Weird Fishes (Pocket Operator Cover)

YouTube
@mcc
and that's exactly why this track fucks
@mcc I appreciate you posting tracker music. Found a few bangers here and this is one as well :)
The Mod Archive v4.0b - A distinctive collection of modules - Energizer - energize.xm (XM)

@mcc Love to see the wiggles in the channel panning window.

And I think I heard Impulse Tracker's vaunted lowpass filters on some sounds there! They were ahead of their time and the resonance is FILTHY.

@mcc this made me cry and i have to idea why. thanks for the unintended birthday gift.
Harmony Compiler - Wikipedia

@mcc you can really tell he's loaded that tape a lot of times, the economy of motion is impressive.

@mcc Amazing! I wonder how they filter out the jaggy edges?

Oh, and now I'll have another band in my collection :-)

@mcc that's one of the coolest things ever. Thank you for sharing!
@mcc this album is fucking full of fire and i love it so much