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Thanks for listening christmas8/29/2023 ![]() I can listen to this while cooking, cleaning, or paying the rent. Collaboration provides a couple standout moments: Rebekah Raff’s sensual harp showers Verbena Tea with a transcendent light reminiscent of Alice Coltrane, while Brainfeeder newcomer Austin Peralta anchors the sub-bass throb of LSP with twinkling piano loops. There’s a tangibility and sense of confidence here which the drifting vistas of Ardour couldn’t sustain over its length, and a wider palette at work. ![]() This half hour is more assured and ballsy than anything he’s dropped, loaded with muscular bass and distinct structures. Presented as an odds and ends gathering of sorts, only hinting that it’s less of a mission statement than the debut LP in that the tracks lack consistent segues. While his sound is an entire utopian environment unto itself, there is always room for growth and change, even for someone preternaturally adept at crafting beat-bliss pocket symphonies. The fact that it’s nonthreatening is only a detriment to its chances of appearing on Best of 2011 lists (I am working on one, coincidentally) because this is one of the most solid quasi-danceable electronic releases in a long while. Constant streams of ‘aha!’ sampling and percussion flourishes along with skyward bound synth pads and neck-tingling effects keep momentum with the insistent throb of bass that’s always one step ahead of tame it’s the kind of sound that I can easily become addicted to, listening on every commute for a week. The fact that their debut LP is a blistering collection of tuneful cutting edge productions is as unsurprising as a sunrise but equally satisfying and essential. The tangentially-dubstep-related duo containing Machinedrum‘s Travis Stewart and some other guy Praveen Sharma burst out of nowhere last year with a couple EPs that balanced any lack of holy shit! novelty with a more than generous dose of holy shit! punch, dynamics, and elastic rhythm and songwriting that made them instant standouts in an exponentially flattening market. Try out mid-album stunner Jane’s Well below. It sparkles without ever feeling consciously virtuoso, yet remaining far too impolite for wallpaper listening. Swinging, flowing, building and cresting and never stopping this feels like tuning in mid-stream to some frequency of guitarist Joe Knight’s brain, no beginning or end. The atmosphere is warped tape and spacey reverb and psychedelic compression but the playing is hypnotic Durutti Column inspired tapestries of melodic progression. This one is pure six string love, through and through. Also I’d like to know what you’re spending your equivalent holiday vacation listening to, so reply if you’re interested. I realize many of you will not be reading blogs or spending time online – some of you must have families – but I feel that it’s as good a time as any in the year to express thanks and revel in the great works of sound art that enhance our lives. More importantly, it will be my first day off in over a month and I’m getting a head start on savoring the opportunity for a long stretch of music enhanced repose. ![]() But at some point, you’ll catch me humming “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.It will be Christmas in a few hours. There’s also the all-consuming retail madness, which busts budgets as well as spirits. In its pretty paper wrappings, it bears stress, impossible expectations and shadows from the past. For me, the music is comforting, a reminder to keep things simple.īut I know the season is not a happy time for many folks. These are my musical keepsakes, touchstones to my childhood and our daughters’ early years. My brother loved “Snoopy’s Christmas.” Dan Fogelberg’s bittersweet “Same Auld Lang Syne” is a favorite from my college years. I love those J I N G L E bells, Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” and Mannheim Steamroller’s takes on the classics.īing Crosby’s songs were my parents’ favorites. You know who you are, and you’re already watching Hallmark holiday movies. “Too treacly.” Some of you will understand. It’s just past Halloween, and I’m listening to Christmas music. ![]()
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