Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Check into Daw Nusk..

Daw Nusk - Hunter Gatherer

Daw Nusk is the latest delicious slice of Post Ambient bliss from Panda Fuzz..

"
i don’t usually have the patience for ambient music. it shuts me down…to the point that i sit and stare. stare at the world, slowed by infinite-seeming notes shaped by even more infinite attacks and decays… and then the track ends and i realize i have emails to read, projects to finish, copy to write, halls to pace. which is why i don’t listen to ambient music. but as it is my duty to bring you write-ups for these panda fuzz releases my dear reader, i find myself forced to listen to ambient music and i am struck by its patience. because this is expert level patience. so let the emails and projects fall to the wayside for an hour. its ok to toy with the infinite every once and a while friends, let’s listen to some ambient music…some truly rewarding ambient music…"

I highly recommend this, as it is GORGEOUS. Fans of Grouper will most certainly appreciate a track or two..

Cool Video Funtime #304 - Keystone Sonata, Arrangement VII (+Bonus Video)



+ Bonus Video:) ..because EIC (super)♥'s RxGibbs. (++ this remix that The Whendays did is pretty spectacular as well.)

New Squarepusher on the way..


Squarepusher's "Ufabulum" comes out May 15th via Warp.


This-sounds-awesome. I only pray that it's better than his last couple of releases ..sorry those seemed a little "lackluster" to me, only because I know what Mr. Square is capable of..

Xiu Xiu 2012 Tour w/ Dirty Beaches..!

Xiu Xiu w/ Dirty Beaches '12 Tour

05-02 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
05-03 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05-04 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
05-05 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs
05-07 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse
05-08 Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery
05-10 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
05-11 Ottawa, Ontario - Mavericks
05-12 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Place
05-14 Pontiac, Michigan - Crofoot Ballroom - Pike Room
05-15 Grand Rapids, MI - The Pyramid Scheme
05-17 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
05-18 Madison, WI - Memorial Union Terrace
05-19 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
05-21 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
05-23 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
05-24 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge


The image above is the cover of an upcoming split Xiu Xiu and Dirty Beaches will be putting out on Record Store Day. I FINALLY get to witness Xiu Xiu live and it's with (another band I've been dying to see live) Dirty Beaches (EIC's #9 album of 2011), yes yes YES!

Monday, February 27, 2012

EIC's 10Q's w/ Porcelain Raft

"..more than just "prolific Indie (Bedroom) Pop" ..an any insanely talented human being with an ear for finely tuned audial balladry.."


Porcelain Raft
Adept Chamber Virtuoso

Porcelain Raft Bio:
'Strange Weekend' is Porcelain Raft's debut record, yet in many ways it's his 156th.

Somewhere in New York, Rome, or maybe London, there is a suitcase full of tapes, minidiscs and CDs — days and days worth of music, all of it the result of Mauro Remiddi's 27 years of travels across Europe — from his native Italy to London; of caravaning with the Berlin Youth Circus playing traditional gypsy Klezmer music; of reinterpreting traditional music in North Korea; and of a stint playing piano for an Off Broadway tap dance show. At this point, Remiddi has lived three musicians' lifetimes.


Hello, how are you?
Fine thanks

What are you currently listening to?
These days I'm listening to Robert Ashley, 'Private Parts' and 'Celestial Excursions'.

Is there a story behind the band name?

I just liked the two words together. When I told my best friend about it he said 'how can a raft made of porcelain float?...'. That moment I realized that was the name I was looking for. If not water ,where is the raft made of porcelain floating on? If you are not cynical and have imagination at that question your brain will start wondering.

Care to shed some light on your debut full length..theme/recording process/etc.?
I composed and recorded all the songs in two months in a basement in Brooklyn. 'Backwords' was the only song which I composed before the session started. It's a snapshot of me in a precise moment, I had just moved to NY and I could feel a big adventure started. I guess the title 'Strange Weekend' reflect the fact that this is nothing about 'forever' or 'infinite'. It's a short time frame where lots of emotions passed by.

Who were/are your biggest influences when it came to sculpting your sound?
Hard to tell really, I think the real influences are elements which belong to you naturally , which you don't decide on a table 'oh let's sound like this'. Of course I have influences but they are there despite my will. I'm interested in expressing my emotions, I don't care if it sounds like Muddy Water. I'm not interested in creating something new either. All I care is where it comes from.

Do you have a favorite song on your debut?
It changes every week, right now is 'The Way In'.

If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing, whom would it be with and why?

I would say unless I don't meet the person and we both decide it could be fun to collaborate, I wouldn't do it. Music is such a personal thing. In general I don't like to jam, I don't like to get together and experiment. Actually I never really experimented, I just trying to describe a painting which is already in front of me.

Any side projects/collabs we should know about?
If I will ever create a side project it will be so secret than nobody will ever know that is me. It could happen...

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I would like to listen to Bach. Something recorded by Glen Gould.

Are you living your dream?

I started living my dream when I was 10! Staying in my room, playing piano, recording fake radio programs with my portable cassette recorder...lots of things happened since then but It feels I never really stopped.

Thanx Mauro and Judy!

Porcelain Raft is currently touring Europe (with M83!) followed by a US tour shortly after, check those dates HERE...

REVIEW: Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend

8 out of 10

Porcelain Raft (Mauro Remiddi) although just now releasing his debut LP 'Strange Weekend' has actually been floating around the music scene for years now (over 10 I believe). He's released a handful of singles/EPs via his Bandcamp (pay attention to this beauty/one of his best in tracks my opinion) and actually has a pretty rich/cultural musical upbringing that most likely formed him into the man he is today (seriously check into this guy's bio).

Porcelain Raft, an "up to date journal" so to speak, sways between Bedroom Dream Pop to Post Modern Psychedelia to Lo-Fi Ambient music. 'Strange Weekend', much like his previous releases, is little all over the board really. But all of those sounds compliment each other quite nicely actually and stay true to his idea of writing a song based off of current thoughts rather than current happenings (there's a difference, trust me). Right now he's on tour with M83 in Europe and I think that makes tons of sense, hopefully that will give you a stronger idea on PR's sound? 'Strange Weekend' starts off with a tightly layered drum machine beat fading into to a "Cure-esque Dream riff" followed shortly by a heavenly synth and then the bewildering/sometimes melancholy vocals of Mauro. Every sound is rigorously configured to maximize it's effect on the listeners attention. Some Atlas Sound comparisons I'm sure will arise, if none already. But more than just another "prolific Indie (Bedroom) Pop" Porcelain Raft is any insanely talented human being with an ear for finely tuned audial balladry that I crave every once and a while (all the time).

One of '12's best.. You should probably get this one, you can thank me later.

Standout Tracks: Drifting In And Out, Is It Too Deep For You? (damn smooth), Put Me To Sleep, Backwords, Unless You Speak From Your, If You Have A Wish (a beautiful (and short) sweet mess)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

NEW/F-R-E-E Scott Cortez..!

Scott Cortez - Elegy For Lance

Another gem from Mr. Cortez, this one was made in one day for a friend of his that recently passed. This is somewhat of a new sound for SC, more "somber" than usual, I really like it.. A perfect requiem is pulling beauty from tragedy.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Cool Video Funtime #303 - Hey Hey Sunshine (+Bonus Video)



+ Bonus Video:) ..because THIS new Peter Broderick album is REALLY GOOD..

Check into Haruki Tamesue ..

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Haruki Tamesue, who has a WIDE variety of sounds, has A LOT of (free) music on his BC page, these were a few of my favorites..

REVIEW: Listening Mirror - Resting In Aspic

7.5 out of 10

In a recent interview, Listening Mirror spoke of the motive behind their stunning work: “We both wanted to make music which reflects an inner connection with the sounds all around us.” If you've listened to any of the other EPs released by this British duo over the past two years, this statement comes to no surprise. Each track of theirs – with the stretching and looping of everyday sounds against Ambient Electronics – is an intimate portrait of this inner connection to an outer world.

On 'Resting In Aspic', Listening Mirror collect the highlights from their past works and turn them into an aural dreamscape over an hour in length. It's obvious, though, that various sources make up this album, as slight tone shifts pull us back and forth, transporting us from one dream to the next. By no means do these shifts have a dizzying effect; rather, they amplify our engagement as we wait in anticipation to see what comes next. Take the transition from “The Leechpool” to “The Organist” for example. The first track throws us in the middle of a forest. Shallow waters run gently beneath our feet; invisible pianos surround us with hypnotic arias; birds of all species sing a harmonious chorus. The next track then brings us to the streets of some ancient city, where angelic voices and the mysterious chatter of pedestrians make this a place fantasies are made of. But even as these two songs portray very different environments, their mutual calm and appeal keep this shift from being off-putting. We just sit back, and merely lose ourselves in the beauty.

While the use of field recordings in music is nothing new, somehow Listening Mirror come off as one of the more fresh and innovative bands to hit my stereo in a while. Why, you wonder? What makes this band so different from, say my pile of Harold Budd records? Well, there's one aspect in particular that comes to mind: Listening Mirror's curious ability to levitate all their earthbound sounds into some heavenly dimension, sublime in all its forms. They remind us just how otherworldly this world can be, and that alone is reason enough to grant this album multiple listens.

Standout Tracks: The Leechpool, The Organist, Wet Roads

If only I lived here..



Another awesome year in SXSW country, another individual (me) kicking himself for not going..:[

Friday, February 24, 2012

Good (free) music laying around the interwebs.. Pt. 3

Good (free) music laying around the interwebs.. Pt. 2

Good (free) music laying around the interwebs.. Pt. 1

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Cool Video Funtime #302 - Rituals (+Bonus Video)



+ Bonus Video:) ..because I love this remix..

New Violens on the way..

Violens' 'True' comes out May 15th via Slumberland Records.

A few of the tracks featured on this LP (Click HERE for a freebie) were on their recent 9-track album, including (which I'm assuming the album title shares it's name with) THIS gem of a song:
Violens - Totally True

Monday, February 20, 2012

EIC's 10Q's w/ Kría Brekkan

"..it(music)'s all just pleasurable/odd & peculiar noises anyways.."


Kría Brekkan
Fascinating Anomaly

Kría Brekkan Bio:
Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir (aka Kría Brekkan, born January 5, 1982) is an Icelandic vocalist and classically trained multi-instrumentalist. She is best known as a former frontperson of Múm, and later on for collaborating with former husband David Portner as Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan.

In late 2006, Kristín acknowledged that she had left Múm in the beginning of that year, and published an open letter briefly describing her thoughts on the matter.

Kristín is currently a member of Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and has recorded and played live with Slowblow. She appeared on records by Mice Parade and on Animal Collective's Feels (on which she is credited as "Doctess").

Kristín recorded and mixed the Black Habit LP by Rings (featuring ex-members of First Nation). She appeared on the cover of Belle & Sebastian's 2000 Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant LP with her twin sister, Gyða. In 2006 she did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. She has been chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they will curate in May 2011.

Kristín lives in Iceland now. She is divorced from her husband, David Portner. The separation had partially inspired Avey Tare's solo album 'Down There'.



Hello, how are you?
I'm good thank you.

What are you currently listening to?
Right now, James Blake, and this very minimal record 'Cosmogen' by Trapezina, very relaxing and atmospheric. But also been checking out Andy Stott, and this kid Shlohmo. I've been listening a lot to this classical radio station that plays continued music without telling us what it is. I like it minimal. Live I seek out very different music then at home, and the best things I've seen in Iceland lately is Muck and Catarpillarmen. Also Tune-yards when they came here. But many never come to play Iceland.

We're all wondering, any new music on the way (hopefully an LP)?
There will be. Other things are currently occupying me. But it´s been ready for a while. Its not that new actually but a story from when I lived in New York. I mostly improvise now or write music for some strange specifics. But there is music, I prepared to be released and still hope it will and then some more.

Are you signed to a label or will it be independently released?
It'll be an independent release I think.

Who were/are your biggest influences when it came to sculpting your voice/music?

My mother, she sang all the time for us. My dad would also sing but usually it was at gatherings of people. Every travel with my sisters as a kid, we'd sing everything we'd know and repeated it if not yet at the destination. But I didn't really think i could sing when I was a teenager, Gunni and Örvar (Múm) made me do it. There wasn't even much of voice there then, I was terribly shy and fearful. But I came to absolutely love singing, by just doing so, it happens on its own when I walk alone, the range has stressed from heaven to hell. I know it is childish but when it comes to other artists I really have no idea of anyone that might have influenced my voice greatly.I'd rather blame the weather, my surrounding, the noises of the world and the silence I sometimes find within.

I love the album you did with Avey Tare a while back (especially after I reversed it), was there a specific reason for that record reversed sound?
Had something to do with returning back to the womb. And being aborted.

If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing, whom would it be with and what kind of sound would you aim for?
I sing with a young boy named Indriði sometimes, he plays in a interesting band called Muck and draws. It's in a very exploration space yet, very primitive sounding but with potential of becoming performative. It's unlike any music I've heard people make, and I guess that´s what I'd be aiming for if aiming was atoll.

What movie would work best on mute with your music?
I made a 3-4 minute score to the scene in Wizard Of Oz when Dorothy and friends come out of the woods and see the Emerald Palace for the first time. They run through poppy fields, encounter the Bad Witch and the Good Fairy, snow and thaw, cry and laughter, then trot towards the Emerald Palace of the Wizard.
I've also been working with film maker Guy Maddin, bringing music and narration to a film performances of his. Its a cool collaboration.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I'm too literal to answer this question.

Are you living your dream?
I'm in a hospital right now and someone is watching X-factor. It´s not exactly my dream scenario, but I had an intense deja-vu incident here yesterday, so who knows, I might have dreamt this.. On another lever, I live by the ocean now and I dreamt of it yesterday and it was pink and bulging and nurturing and hypnotized me from other pains of reality. And fewest of them are mine. I think 'dream' is like the ocean and until I grow gills I'm not sure I'm suppose to live there.


Thanx Kría!

Kría is currently looking at getting here next full length out there, hopefully soon as I have a craving for some "weird"...

REVIEW: Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan - Pullhair Rubeye (REVERSED)

9.75 out of 10

Another album I've been meaning to review for a while.. Finally it seems like an "appropriate time". When this release originally came out audiences/general critics bashed it to hell, almost no one cared about it and I'm sure it ended up many $1 bin's across the world. The weird thing is, to some extent I would agree with the negative remarks:[ ..But that's BEFORE I dug deeper/took the time and reversed the entire album back to it's "original form". Kind of like a "re-birth" if you will, considering this album is supposedly about "re-entering the womb", so I guess this is exiting the womb..?

Please take notice at the word "R-E-V-E-R-S-E-D" mentioned above (in the title). I will briefly talk about the original released version of this masterpiece, but mainly it will be about the R-E-V-E-R-S-E-D version. When "then husband and wife" Avey Tare (Animal Collective) and Kría Brekkan (Múm) put their heads together they came up with "Pullhair Rubeye", a curiously titled album they somehow suits the nature of the beast quite perfectly. The album came out in 2007 (a good year for music as I recall) and was right away bashed for it's chosen recorded process. That's right, after the duo had written such a perfect composition they then reversed it and sold it. Why? Why would anyone do that? To make you work harder to enjoy the true nature of music? Is that it(music)'s all just pleasurable/odd & peculiar noises anyways? Maybe just to annoy you? Neither really, as mentioned above it's about "re-entering the womb". The sounds that they had birthed weren't ready for the world yet.. Celebrities tend hide to their babies for a little bit after they're born..right? Some of us hated it and are never going back (you really should reconsider). Some of us knew exactly what to do, reverse the entire album and listen to it that way (even if it's intended for that purpose or not). And here's what happens; Kría's over the top adorable vocals matched with Avey's faint "Animal calls"/random other chants lay beside a riverbed of fragile acoustic beauties and simplistic adolescent beauty. "Lo-Fi Freak Folk" seems like an appropriate genre, but it also sounds pretty polished so we'll just say "unique";] What this album does so perfectly is applies the simplistic/child-like nature of earlier Múm releases and melds them perfectly with the earlier Animal Collective sounds (think 'Sung Tongs'), yes it's as perfect as it sounds. It really is a shame, especially on some levels if you don't understand the nature of 'Pullhair Rubeye's' charm, that this release came out reversed. Had it been the other way around I think more people would've been inclined to reverse it and hear it that way eventually. Don't hide this beauty from yourself anymore, it's only fair that we should have to "work so hard" for something this magnificent. This album has been my "go to album" for almost 4 years now, whenever I'm in a laid back/"weird" mood I come back to this. 'Pullhair Rubeye' is for fans of fireside folk entangled with surreal psyched out jubilation. Sooo good.

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. (tub uoy tsum esrever .ti)

Standout Tracks: All ESPECIALLY; Sis Around The Sandmill, Opis Helpus (probably one of my favorite things any Animal Collective member has ever done ever), Who Welsses In My Hoff, Lay Lay Off Faselam, Sasong (no need to slow it down, so adorable)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

EverythingIsChemical Virtual 7" No. 17 - Pintail

“A new language requires a new technique. If what you’re saying doesn’t require a new language, then what you’re saying probably isn’t new.” ~Philip Glass

Next release comes out March 13th.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

NEW British Expeditionary Force on the way ..(finally)!!

The British Expeditionary Force's 'Chapter Two: Konstellation Neu' comes out March 26th via Erased Tapes.

I can't tell you how impatient I've been for this release, CAN NOT WAIT! Speaking of ET (whom EIC ♥'s), they're about to celebrate their 5th anniversary. Check out the (FREE--if you sign up) compilation HERE:D

REVIEW: Burial - Kindred EP

8.5 out of 10
Find it here.

For all the hype that surrounds Burial, you never feel as if it's false or overblown. You may try to excuse it as a product of the curiosity surrounding his identity or the media merely trying to latch onto some new sound, but that would ignore the truth. No one can deny “William Beven”'s place as one of most important producers at work today, and no one can deny there's only one reason to his startling success: the music.

Burial's newest release 'Kindred' features only three songs yet clocks in at thirty minutes in length. Imagine a stretched out 'Street Halo' with a stronger focus on atmosphere and an absence of superfluous elements, and you have 'Kindred'. However, what really separates this EP from his previous works are the songs' peculiar arrangements. The opener “Kindred” is divided into half-sequenced movements. It begins with distant crackles, gloomy strings, and indiscernible pitch-shifting vocals. Then it slowly moves into crunchy 2-step beats, murky basses, and various vocal phrases that ebb back and forth, shifting from silence one moment to complex productions the next. “Loner” follows in the same fashion of stop-start beats, but somehow the rhythm disappears from our consciousness. A glimmering synth arpeggio flows unto our ears like ribbons of light, breaking through the darkness and decay set up in the previous song, blinding us with its beauty. “Ashtrap Wasp” tries to move us back into the night, opening with a synth that sounds as if it's slowly surfacing out from the blackest depths. But we are caught by the song's rising synth and piano lines that turn the song into the EP's most danceable, uplifting moment.

If you're just looking for the signature hallucinatory beats, spectral vocals, and crackling noises that to many define Burial, they are all surely here. Don't be fooled, though; 'Kindred' is by no means a mere rehash of the style Beven defined several yeas ago. 'Kindred' reveals an artist exploring his peripherals, thinning his sound down to a core impossible to avert your gaze from, reminding us of the true motive behind the hype that surrounds him: the beauty.

Standout Tracks: All

Cool Video Funtime #301 - The Noose Of Jah City