What's up everybody, Stan here. It doesn't matter whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or any other winter holiday, we all know nothing beats listening to some damn good tunes on a lazy winter day. This is what this post is all about, just a few (ch)ill tracks to make you feel good this holiday season.
DJ Shadow - Six Days, on The Private Press
Riton - Put That On My Mama, on Beats Du Jour
DJ Krush & Mos Def - Shinjiro, on Milight
Kruder & Dorfmeister - 1st of tha Month, on The K&D Sessions
Hope you like these. Take it easy, keep it real, happy holidays!
It surprises me how far you can go past in time and still get those crispy, jazzy breaks. A sound that emerged back then, but today breathes through the airways of trip-hop, lounge and nu-jazz.
With samples that were later used by Nightmares On Wax and The Pharcyde, this is a great example of the root, the foundation of todays breaks and jazz-influenced electronic music.
Despite the name, I think this music fits nicely to the quiet relaxed winter days.
Does this remind you of something? Well try:
Massive Attack - Exchange
Nightmares on Wax - Les Nuits
The Pharcyde - Passin Me By
Merry Christmas, happy holidays - and enjoy the vibes.
Monday - Paracetamol, the fourth track on A Strangely Isolated Place
When one thinks of Germany, one hardly thinks of happy electronic music. Darker genres like industrial, trance, and drum'n'bass are the first things that come to mind. Enter Ulrich Schnauss, breaking this mold with some of the happiest and laid back tracks I have ever heard. Ambient soundscapes and chill broken beats are commonplace, in fact the whole release seems to be permeated with what seems to be infinite optimism. It's an incredibly epic and powerful sound that has a certain energy to it - it calms, it inspires and it motivates. It opens your eyes to the endless possibilities of our world, and reminds you of all the amazing things you can find if you just take a good look around.
Zero 7 consists of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker from the UK. The style is tricky to describe, but I'd say it's a mixture of downtempo and pop. "Simple Things" is a great little bunch of music. About half of the tracks has vocals, with some great fillers inbetween. The fillers aren't boring - actually it all fits together, and seems very well-crafted. What you get on this album is indeed simple, as the title implies - but it is brilliant nonetheless! Mostly recommended!
Destiny, featuring the vocals of Sia Furler and Sophie Barker
Now, this project is still new, and there aren't a lot of readers yet, but we really want to keep on going with it.
Taken from RJD2's album Deadringer - "Some of the stuff I like very much, some of the stuff I quite like, and I don't hate any of it. I can't decide which piece to start with, so I wont start with any of the pieces, I've already started. I hope you like what you hear."
We would just like to say thanks to the readers. Every single reader makes it a whole lot more meaningful for us to write and share. Keep listening to good music, and help us spread the word! Take care.
Oh I forgot something you can listen to...
A Forest Mighty Black - Rebirth A Forest Mighty Black - Tides
Fingathing is quite an interesting duo - Sneaky, a double bass player, and a DJ/turntablist named Peter Parker. The sounds they create are very funky and immediately catchy, there's something in this music from everyone, from hardcore hip-hop heads to people who can't stand hip-hop. The album has a bit of a retro sound to it, and themes of space travel are predominant in the samples that the group uses, creating the warm feeling of reading a vintage 60's comic book while listening to an old tube radio that, let's face it, probably has wood paneling on it.
Danny Williamson is undoubtedly the greatest pioneer of intelligent drum & bass, a style known for its special ambient dreamy atmosphere. This musical journey takes the listener through 14 tracks of continuous jazz-influeced vibes. This quality mixture of raw, heavy basslines and the distinctive sound of a Rhodes keyboard, creates a quite simple but lethal cocktail.
The CD version is split in two, with the LP version being quadruple. Essentially, the first CD relies on the typical uptempo d&b pace, while the second is characterized by downtempo breakbeats and even vocals in the track "Sunrain". I have chosen two tracks here. Journey Inwards, which is the first track on the album, and Inner Guidance - a relaxed downtempo track from disc two.
Bentley Rhythm Ace is a lesser known electronica group. Most known for this one track "Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out!", which came with their first album. To be honest, I don't think their albums are worth digging too much into, but this one track made it through, and became a very popular single. Funky big-beat style, very similar to Propellerheads.
The name Secret Frequency Crew is only appropriate for this band, they are quite obscure. It's a shame, really, since this project weaves one of the most intricate and balanced sounds that I've ever heard. Somewhere in between ambient, hip-hop, and IDM, these guys manage to produce a very organic style that's both catchy and thought-provoking. Everything in these songs seems to be alive and talking to the listener as songs transition seamlessly through the album; robotic clicks and whirrs communicate some message that might already be forgotten, or indeed not yet found out, scratches echo and fade out into obscurity shortly after they appear. All of this results in an atmosphere that almost feels like listening to the sounds of a mechanical jungle, with analogue bird calls and the metallic bark of cybernetic dogs.
If Boards Of Canada is something that brings back memories of the past, I would say Secret Frequency Crew is definitely music that brings upon thoughts about the future.
This 4-track EP was Kruder & Dorfmeister's first production back in 1993, and it is recognized as being one of those albums that defined the whole downtempo/lounge genre back then.
It opens up with "Definition", a very chillout mix of piano and flute. Just before it fades out, and you almost fall asleep, "Deep Shit" comes in, and in my opinion, it really is deep shit. I usually skip it. Then, "High Noon", so simple, so timeless and yet so unique. The album ends with the funky "Original Bedroom Rockers", which ends the album in a good way.
I like G-Stoned because of its simplicity. There is nothing to think about, just switch off and let the delicate, harmonic sound flow through your mind.
Left Side Drive, the second track on the EP and arguably one of the best things in the world.
For their most recent release, Boards of Canada decided to go with an EP instead of a full album, but this EP is amazing beyond belief. Released in June 2006, it's only appropriate that it's full of warm and mellow tones that while sounding completely natural and fluid, also give off an aura of a crunchy old radio broadcast, tinged with secrets of the past as well as memories of the sunniest, most laid back days that you've ever had.
Third track on Music by Cavelight - "Sunday Seance", also released as a single 12"
So, the last couple of days I've been sitting in the bus listening to Blockheads debut album "Music by Cavelight". Blockhead is mostly known for his background compositions on Aesop Rock tracks, but then he was asked to do a solo album, and it became very successful. Overall, I must say I like this album, and I think most people would agree that it is also his best of three albums.
I find that the highlights on this album would probably be "Carnivores Unite", "Sunday Seance", "Breath and Start", "Triptych Pt. 3" as well as "Daylight". Another track that apparently got quite popular is "Insomniac Olympics", but I think it's pretty much the worst track on the entire album, but still without being an absolute throwaway.
"Carnivores Unite"
It's really nothing over the top, but it gives you what you would expect, and perhaps a little more. Funky breakbeats and blippy background elements and speech samples that actually blend together quite well through most of the tracks. Sadly, it doesn't work out all the way through, and I hate when I just want to skip a track because it's just plain annoying. This is a well-crafted album overall - not flawless, but definitely worth buying.
Isis, the 7th track on the album with lyrics from Lord 360
Dramatic, dark, and introspective, those are only three of many words that can describe this album by Mr. Echoes and The Isle of Weight, a group that calls themselves The Opus. Grim at some points, calm and thoughtful at others, it has deep atmospheric melodies and catchy hip-hop beats.
The album is mostly instrumental, with only two tracks having lyrics on them, Fanum's Organs with lyrics by Big B, and the masterpiece Isis, with incredible lyrics coming from Lord 360. Despite the scarcity of lyrics, there is a sense of completeness about the album, and all the samples, voice and otherwise, feel like they've been a part of every given song for eternity. It almost feels like it was nature that sampled the sounds of the songs, as opposed to the other way around.
Brand new Hospital release. Wicked bassdrops and trippy jungle beats, yeah... What can I say - The guys on at Hospital never fails to bring us good drum&bass. Not really a spectacular track in my opinion, but q-project shows that he is up there with the more known acts in liquid funk.
BoC track "Aquarius" backed up with a fan-made video
The picture below shows the Scottish electronic duo known as Boards of Canada, They are known for their deep ambient one-of-a-kind sound. It might at first seem repetetive, synthetic and just plain weird - but it's much, much more than that.
Old television samples and random speech mixed with exotic warm background layers creates the unique ambience that Boards of Canada is known for. The child laughs takes us back to the perfect childhood, and the perfection that Michael and Marcus always strives to acquire in their albums.
This admittedly isn't your regular dancefloor bomb, but it takes you away like nothing else. Or to be precise, it takes you absolutely nowhere. It portraits the simplicity of life and nature, as being the basic and most near thing of all. And it makes you feel united with this perfection in life. People may not like electronic music, and claim that it's not real or skillful. But Boards of Canada proves that the mathematical beauty in nature can be expressed through electronic music, and possibly with more success than in any other genre.
Alex Gifford and Will White also know as the Propellerheads was probably who got me into electronic music. Their album Decksandrumsandrockandroll is just fantastic, everyone should own it. Most people know Propellerheads cause of their track "Spybreak" which was used in The Matrix, but I'm probably their biggest fan ever, so of course I've been digging deeper than that. Actually, I decided to bring a track by Propellerheads, which pretty much doesn't even exist on the internet, and probably isn't known by most people who claim that they've heard stuff by The Props. It's called "Ron's Theory", and it's just super groovy. I only had this track on my Dive EP LP, but luckily I googled down some ancient torrent and got the track down after waiting for an hour with 2-3 kb/s - just so I could share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Alright, so Ron's Theory was somehow removed from the ftp. This one is Big Dog, another super rare B side on an old 12'' Take California release.
I simply need to get the 12'' of this. I'm not a big fan of dubstep, but this one is just so god damn funky. It appears on Dubstep Allstars: Vol.05, but I think I heard it for the first time at an event held in Nørrebro, Copenhagen where the danish DJ Revealomatic, among others, was spinning the records. Most people who knows just a tiny bit of dubstep can tell that it opens up with Benga - Crunked Up, and then fades into Hijak - Tears at around 0:40. I guess I have to be drunk to listen to most dubstep, but this stuff actually works out at any occasion.
Check his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thehijak
This one is probably a little different. These two guys from Austria do this triphop future jazz thing with house beats and incorporates elements of traditional arabic music. It's not the style I would usually prefer, but some of their tracks on albums like "Refreaked" and "Gran Riserva" are actually quite catchy with a special sound that you wont find anywhere else.
When you mention Shadow, you also mention Krush. These dudes are pretty much the core of modern turntablism. Probably Krush' most notable piece - Kemuri on his first album Strictly Turntablized released on Mo' Wax. The beat basically rips everything up, and the samples fit in amazingly well. A big hit on an album that pretty much was the first trip-hop album ever released.
I'll just be honest here, I don't know a whole lot about Jazzanova. But what seems obvious to me is how they manage to create nu-jazz with a very original, true and harmonic feel, while still having the capability to bring us the more dancefloor oriented jazz-house sound. They've done a bunch of albums and remixes, but always with a slightly different style and feel. The result ïs music that works out for a majority of people and fits in almost everywhere.
Guillermo Scott Herren has several aliases, but the most notable one still remains Prefuse 73. Laid back downtempo with a catchy sound. Off the album "One Word Extinguisher" - worth checking out, by the way.
Drum and Bass producer Matt Gresham under the stage name "Logistics" has always been one of my absolute favorites in the world of Liquid Funk. When I need a break from those deep blasting d&b tunes, this music seems to be the perfect cross between the atmospheric uplifting sound, and the more danceable rough basslines. Cosmonaut - one of his newest tracks, and definitely a great example of his unique sound.
Also, the album "Reality Checkpoint" is DEFINITELY worth checking out - it's just immense. In general, so much stuff on Hospital Records is just good.
Josh Davis also known as DJ Shadow. First of all, "dj shadow", when I saw the name I was like... couldn't he have been a little more creative? But when I heard some of his music I really didn't care too much. Even though this is released on FFRR as far as I know, Mo' Wax is the more widely known triphop label behind most of Davis' work - and just the fact that they got their artwork done by the legendary old graffiti writer Futura 2000 makes Mo' Wax plain awesome. Midnight in a Perfect World is my favorite track on the album "Endtroducing".
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