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November 30, 2007

Krakow III (For Klimek and Skip Sands)

Positive/negative

Got to get away

Rising

Out to lunch

Svensson

Closed

Gauze

Palimpsest

I've always loved taking pictures of pictures, as you may have guessed from the above and the below. Or, failing that, pictures of scenes that look like they were already pictures before I got there. Maybe that's why I can't stop listening to Klimek's new album, Dedications. (I'm not kidding about that -- last night, just so I didn't have to keep getting up out of bed while listening, reading [Denis Johnson's overwhelmingly rich Tree of Smoke] and eventually sleeping, I made an iTunes playlist to play the album back-to-back three times.)

Klimek--Sebastian Meissner--is already well known for his ambient records on Kompakt, particularly the self-explanatory Music to Fall Asleep. But this is his best. It's unclear whether the "dedications" involve sampling or, perhaps more like Ekkehard Ehlers' Plays, more oblique reference strategies. The reference points themselves are obscure: consider "For Zofia Klimek"--the artist's grandmother--"and Gregory Crewdson." (There's a guy, come to think of it, who makes photos of scenes that were always waiting to be photos.) Or "For Michael Gira and Vladimir Ivanovich," the latter a Russian shipbuilder. Some of them, on the other hand, seem more like wish fulfillment, like "For Mark Hollis and Giacinto Scelsi." The title suggesting a match made in heaven, it's as though a picture of the pairing were there all along; Klimek just happened to find the forgotten tome where it lay shelved, snapped it and passed it on.

November 29, 2007

Cursed

Hang the DJ

The excellent website Get the Curse -- a French site featuring audio, interviews, charts and more from the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Luciano, Italians Do It Better et al -- was kind enough to ask me to contribute a short annotated playlist; you can read it here.

I like the part where they call me "un type de l'ancienne école" -- how do you say "blush" in French? (I just hope there are no guillotines involved.)

November 28, 2007

Krakow II

Hazy memories of hunting

Cafe Bunkier

Kazimierz

Fallen landscape

Actual commentary on the Unsound festival coming shortly -- for now, suffice to say it was a brilliant affair, in one go catapulting Unsound as perhaps my second-favorite festival, after only MUTEK. Great stuff.

November 22, 2007

Krakow

Krakow

Arriving in Katowice

In homage to HCB

Tram

Travel flyers

Street

November 15, 2007

Bonus Mix: Music for the Evening After

room_sm.jpg

Following on yesterday's posted mix, here's another one, thrown together a few weeks ago on a Sunday evening, accordingly woozy. This one's a lot more restrained than the last mix, a lot more -- digamos -- minimal. But not your standard click-track fare -- more psychedelic, unsettled. I'll try to assemble a tracklist shortly, but it kicks off with Tod Dockstader (apologies to Rob Hall, who did it first and better), glides into Mikael Stavöstrand, his a Mathias Kaden mix from Archipel next, and on the way takes in Dave Aju's "Be Like the Sun," Petre Inspirescu, and more that I can't recall now.

Download it here:
Music for the Evening After Mix
1:31, 126MB @ 192kbps

UPDATE: TRACKLISTNG!

Tod Dockstader, unknown [from "Quartermass?]
Mikael Stavöstrand, "Q Fresa" (Sushitech)
Pheek, "Aye Aya Ashawa (Mathias Kaden Africa Remix)" (Archipel)
Lazy Fat People, "Low Profile" (Perspectiv)
Ulysse, "Sometimes" (Liebe Detail)
Gaiser, "Out of Sort" (Minus)
Visionquest, "How Low Can You Go? (Curtiss' RockBottom Remix)" (Dumb Unit)
Kroppssprak, (We Are 10)
Tim Xavier, "Astral Plane" (Podium)
Chaton, Precis EP A (Plak)
Animaltek, "Innocent Robot" (Treibstoff)
Dave Aju and the Invisible Art Trio, "Be Like the Sun" (Circus Company)
Minilogue, "Orglar A" (Minilogue)
Audio Werner, "Kabarett" (Bar25)
Luca Bacchetti, "Whatever" (Wagon Repair)
The Cheapers, [either "Fog" or "Frogs"] (Upon You)
Matt John, "Hawaii You" (Perlon)

Note: There's a moment about 15 minutes in where there's a bit of slippage between records. Not a trainwreck -- but the kind of slip that makes me gnash my teeth. You might not notice it. Just figured I should be upfront about it. The rest of the mix I like well enough to post as-is. If you find it an egregious breach of skillz, I'm sure you know the forums to say so.

November 14, 2007

Mix: Straight to the Point

phil_decibel.jpg
(Photo from Seattle's Decibel Festival courtesy Sarah Jones)

So titled because it pretty much does just that. Recorded Saturday, 10 November 2007, while preparing for a gig at Barcelona's Loft club that night. (Great gig – nothing like getting the 3-6am slot in front of 800 riled-up Spanish clubbers. Pura caña!) Quite a few of these tracks found their way into that set, which was otherwise heavy on heavyweight fare (MP3 promos and purchased downloads) I'd burned to CDR: Ruede Hagelstein's "Der Kammblaser," Armand van Helden's "This Ain't Hollywood (Radio Slave Remix)," Perc's "Up," Dusty Kid's "Kore" (why did it take me so long to discover this one?), Ziggy Kinder's ridiculous "Qué Pasa Maria," Luke Solomon's "Space Invaders (Andomat 3000 Remix)," Thomas P. Heckmann's "Silverscreen," and the sublime Legowelt "Disco Rout (Deetron Remix)"…

In any case, here's an hour in semi-banging mode, at least for me. Download, share, enjoy, and keep buying music…

Straight to the Point Mix
65:33, 90MB

Scratch Massive, "Like You Said" (Chateaurouge)
Chris Carrier, "Communication Breakdown" (Catwash)
2000 and One, "Work (Late Nite NYC Edit)" (Podium)
Tom Clark, "Fragile Elements (Paul Ritch Remix)" (Highgrade)
Marco Resmann, "Candle Dipper" (Upon You)
Monomachine, "CLT" (Paradigma)
GTMK aka Monika Kruse & Gregor Tresher, "Mosquito" (Intacto)
Alex Cortex, "Himem" (Platzhirsch)
Deadset, "Buzzer Says Werner (Deadset Play Live)" (Frontroom)
Redshape, "What's on a Moog's Mind?" (Podium)
Len Faki, "Rainbow Delta (Jerome Sydenham Remix)" (Ostgut Ton)
Pär Grindvik, "World of Mine" (Truesoul)
Chemical Brothers, "Do It Again (Audion's House Arrest Remix)" (Virgin/Freestyle Dust)

November 2007 top whatever

djfresca.jpg

Long overdue: the monthly chart. Favorite tracks of the moment, for DJing or otherwise, plus some albums on heavy repeat.


TRACKS

Supermayer, "The Art of Letting Go (Ewan's Art of Getting Low Dub)" (Kompakt)
Your brain on Bungee cords. That shout cuts through everything, but triangle crushes scissors.

Ruede Hagelstein, "Der Kammblaser" (Lebensfreude)
Insects under the skin, monkeys in the trees.

Tobias Freund & Ricardo Villalobos, Odd Machine (Non Standard Productions)
One of our kick drums is missing.

dOP, "Allo Boom Boom" (Circus Company)
Noirish horns pour oil over a tribal stomp.

Matt John, "Olga Dancekowski" (Bar25)
He's still plying that keyboard loop from several records ago, and bless him: it's another carnival track, and someone spiked the cider.

Alland Byallo, "True (Lee Curtiss Remix)" (Nightlight Music)
Closer Musik's "Maria," Villalobos' "Dexter," and this.

Guido Schneider/Florian Schirmacher, "Nora P" (Cadenza)
Rain on a corrugated roof that bends from the pressure.

Thomas Melchior, "Out There" (Perlon)
Every track on his new album, No Disco Future, is ridiculously good, and totally its own thing. "Her Majesty" is the melancholic one, "Coming Up" the upended tumble, etc. This one, as suggested by its title, has the freaky keyboards and implacable snare.

Bruno Pronsato, "At Home I'm a Tourist" (Hello?Repeat)
Every track on his new album, Why Can't We Be Like Us, is ridiculously good, and totally its own thing. "At Home I'm a Tourist" is so spring-loaded you should wear knuckle protection.

Quenum, "Agbaja" (Alphahouse)
Smoothing some of his habitual angles, Quenum lets the anger poke through. Otherwise, it's all liquid.

Legowelt, "Disco Rout (Deetron Remix)" (Cocoon)
Bells, bells, bells.


STILL KILLING IT

Dave Aju, "Be Like the Sun" (Circus Company)
Jan Driver, "Train" (Grand Petrol)
Chica and the Folder, "Angelus Novus (Ricardo Villalobos Ritus Mix)" (Monika Enterprise)
Mr. G, "The Subbie" (no label)
Jan Driver, "Kardamoon"/"Trains" (GrandPetrol)
Radio Slave, "Bell Clap Dance" (Rekids)
Dusty Kid, "Kore" (Boxer)


ALBUMS

Nsi., Plays Non Standards (Sähkö)
Bruno Pronsato, Why Can't We Be Like Us (Hello?Repeat)
Thomas Melchior, No Disco Future (Perlon)
Sun Electric, Lost & Found (1998-2000) (Shitkatapult)
Michaela Melian, Los Angeles (Monika Enterprise)