SOUNDWAVE : 3 : SEAN HORTON

SOUNDWAVE : 3

Let me rehash some stuff with you before we got to today’s excellent show featuring a lustrous mix from Sean Horton.

I launched SOUNDWAVE because it was my way of coping with COVID-19. My wife is away for the next month with her unit and our kids our with their dad for the foreseeable future. It’s just me and my dog. Work keeps me busy during the day but at night it gets lonely. I found myself listening to a lot of ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music and I decided to share it with my friends and created the show you’re listening to now.

My intention was to release a new show once a month. After the first show I decided I would release SOUNDWAVE weekly until the stay at home order ends. But then it occurred to me that pretty much everyone else on the planet is also stuck at home so I invited friends, deejays, musicians, producers, etc to participate on the show. And that brings us to our first guest deejay, Sean Horton.

I interviewed Sean Horton for solipsistic NATION to talk about Decibel Festival, an annual music and digital arts festival in Seattle that ran from 2004 to 2015. Decibel Festival was unique platform for exposing attendees to leading-edge multimedia art from around the globe. With a focus on live performance, interactive multimedia art, state-of-the-art sound and technology based education; Decibel solidified itself as one of the premier electronic music festivals and promotional organizations in the world. In 2014, Sean was named #43 on Rolling Stone’s “50 Most Important People in EDM.”

Sean also records under them name Nordic Soul where he distills his love for techno, house, hip hop, jazz, soul, industrial, ambient and dub. As Nordic Soul, Sean has shared the stage with an eclectic mix of musicians from Grimes to Moby to The Orb to Major Lazer to… well, the list goes on. Sean has also performed at several major festivals world-wide, including Dimensions (Croatia), MUTEK (Montreal) and Communikey (Boulder). Nordic Soul has released music on a wide variety of labels including K Records, Buttermilk Records, Peloton and basic_sounds.

Given all that, you understand Sean was one of the first people I invited to join me and SOUNDWAVE. Funny thing, Sean and I have struck up a friendship online which moved from talking about music to our favorite books, tv shows and movies and then to living under COVID-19. An unexpected and welcome development of the pandemic. I look forward to meeting Sean in Los Angeles after this dies down a bit and hoisting a pint with him. From a safe six feet, of course.

Sean has crafted a beautiful mix, but I expected no less from him. Prepare for an emotional journey and see where it takes you. I’ll let Sean introduce his mix below. I know you’re going to love it just as much as I do.

I’ll see you all next week when we are joined by our next guest deejay, my old and dear friend, Steven Howard.

 

Sean Horton
Sean Horton

During this time in isolation I’ve been rediscovering my love of ambient music. I first discovered ambient music working at Harmony House records in Detroit my junior year in high school in 1992. It was the early days of the Rave Movement and Detroit was a hot bed for warehouse parties and Techno Music at the time. This was also a remarkable time where nearly every Rave would have two rooms, a “Dance Room” and an “Ambient Room.” I was an “Ambient Room” individual largely in part because I fell in love the music.

Out of all of the ambient music albums I’ve encountered over the years, the two that I come back to the most are the first and second ambient albums I ever knowingly experienced, Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2. This mix features two of my favorite selections from each album.

Historically ambient music has predominantly been characterized as synthetic, but over the past fifteen years or so there has been growing movement of more organic forms of ambient music and film scores which are often referred to as neo classical (i.e. Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Hauschka, Jóhann Jóhannsson , Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stars of the Lid, etc.). Where Ambient music fueled my teen-early 20’s love of electronic music; neo classical music fueled my love of melody and organic tone. I firmly believe that both ambient and neo classical music can and should co-exist.

This particular mix evolved out of a playlist I put together in late March 2020 featuring some of my favorite ambient and neo classical artists and songs. As common with a lot of ambient music, these selections are all void of rhythm and nearly void of all voice. That said, this is an ideal mix for reading, writing, sleeping, meditation, yoga, etc. My hope is this mix will instill a sense of calm and mental clarity with the listener.

  1. Cliff Martinez “Will She Come Back”
  2. John Foxx and Harold Budd “Subtext”
  3. Eluvium “Individuation”
  4. Aphex Twin “#20”
  5. Apparat “44”
  6. Hauschka “Destination Unknown”
  7. bvdub “Your Painted Armor Aches to Crack”
  8. Windy & Carl “Forest Trails”
  9. Tim Hecker “Radiance”
  10. Stars of the Lid “A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process”
  11. David August “MUSES AND ASHES”
  12. Brambles “To Speak of Solitude”
  13. Grouper “Parking Lot”
  14. Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm “20:17”
  15. Jon Hopkins “The Wider Sun”
  16. Jonsi & Alex Somers “Daníell In The Sea”
  17. Ben Lukas Boysen “Sleeper Beat Theme”
  18. Helios “Seeming”
  19. Ólafur Arnalds “Doria”
  20. Robert Fripp & Brian Eno “Wind on Wind”
  21. Brian Eno “An Ending (Ascent)”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 2 : JOSEPH ALEO

SOUNDWAVE : 2

Last week I said that SOUNDWAVE would be a monthly show. I’ve changed my mind and decided to release the show on a weekly basis for as long as we are told to stay at home to flatten COVID-19’s curve. I’ve also invited friends, podcasters, musicians, deejays and record label owners to contribute mixes to SOUNDWAVE so expect to hear from them shortly.

Okay, today’s show…

We open with a track from Richard Moult’s Celestial King for a Year album. I came across Moult while listening to writer Warren Ellis’s excellent SPEKTRMODULE podcast. A casual Google search didn’t turn up much information but I did learn that Moult warrants an unofficial fan page on Facebook.

From there we segue into “Regnantem sempiterna” by Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble. If you’ve been watching Alex Garland’s Devs you’ll recognize it immediately. I’ve been following Garland’s career since he wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later but Devs is quite possibly the best thing he’s ever done, and he’s accomplished a lot, but he really gets to shine in a long-form tv series. The writing is great, the acting is great, the cinematography is great, etc. and the music department have been selecting absolute gems and “Regnantem sempiterna” gave me the chills and is the emotional cornerstone for this week’s show.

The next track is from the soundtrack from the horror film Hagazussa by MMMD. I’m not going to spoil the movie but I will say this, if you’re listening to “Hagazussa” over your speakers, and you really should to experience it fully, prepare for your windows to rattle and for plates and glasses to vibrate off your kitchen table.

Our penultimate track is Colin Stetson’s “Sorrow: II – Lento Largo—Tranquillissimo” from his SORROW – a reimagining of Górecki’s 3rd Symphony album. I’ve been listening to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 for a couple decades now and it never fails to rend my heart. I’ve also been a fan of Colin Stetson for quite a few years. He’s played with everyone from Godspeed You! Black Emperor to Tom Waits to Bill Laswell and a gaggle of other stellar artists. When I learned he had released an album of his interpretation of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 I purchased it without question and Stetson did not fail to deliver. It’s actually quite faithful to the original, but with Stetson’s own unique take, of course.

We close today’s show with Kazuya Nagaya’s “Thanatos” from his Dream Interpretation album. I discovered Nagaya on the Bandcamp Daily blog and fell in love with his music and this track in particular. When I released last week’s show I sent the episode to my mom knowing that she’d enjoy it. She did, mostly. She found the mix beautiful but Nine Inch Nails “The Cursed Clock” was a bit too solemn for her. I get it, especially during these days of COVID-19. I don’t think today’s show will agree with her but if you are listening, mom, I think you will find solace in Nagaya’s “Thanatos.”

If you enjoy SOUNDWAVE, please share it with someone you think will also appreciate it.

See you next week for more lustrous music.

  1. Richard Moult “Celestial King for a Year (Pt. 2)”
  2. Jan Garbarek, The Hilliard Ensemble “Regnantem sempiterna”
  3. MMMD “Hagazussa”
  4. Colin Stetson “Sorrow: II – Lento Largo—Tranquillissimo”
  5. Kazuya Nagaya “Thanatos”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 1 : JOSEPH ALEO

SOUNDWAVE : 1

Today’s first edition of SOUNDWAVE comes courtesy of COVID-19.

Like most people, I’m staying at home and social distancing. I’m fortunate enough to work from home but left to my own devices in the evenings. Television fails to capture my interest, so I’m unable to Netflix and chill. I’ve only just found myself able to enjoy books again. Barely. But I have had the itch to deejay, hence today’s show.

So let me tell you what you can expect to hear on this mix.

We begin with “I” from Rocks & Waves Song Circle, which I discovered on one of the many music blogs I follow. It’s a blend of languid surf guitar accompanied by a Mexican choir and a Haitian solist. It’s precisely the kind of music to find solace.

“Bonny Boy” comes from the Arcadia soundtrack from Adrian Utley and Will Gregory. Adrian is a member of Portishead, and Willis a member of Goldfrapp. While that’s reason enough to listen to Arcadia, the real reason I got excited about this soundtrack was the stunning vocals of Anne Briggs. Who was this young, upcoming talent I had never heard of? A quick search on Wikipedia revealed the Anne is an English singer from the 1960s. How have I not known about her?

Writer Warren Ellis turned me on to to Mending, which is a project from Kate Adams and Joshua Dumas called We Gathered at Wakerobin Hollow, a four hour, forty song cycle, released in nine Chapters every two months from 2018-2019. That’s a lot of music, and “Julia Writes to Marsha” is my favorite track from that work.

“It’s a Rainy Day On The Cosmic Shore” is by ana Roxanne and I found her through a review of her on Bandcamp. This track comes from her album, ~~~. I don’t know how you would pronounce that. Tilda, Tilda, Tilda, maybe? No matter, I love this song and the feelings it evokes.

We wrap up today’s show with “The Cursed Clock,” which comes from Nine Inch Nails latest album, Ghosts VI: Locusts, and the cursed clock is how I feel about my COVID-19 days. Kind of a bummer way to end this, I know.

I hope today’s show provided you with some beauty and a welcome distraction. See you next month.

  1. Rocks & Waves Song Circle “I”
  2. Adrian Utley & Will Gregory “Bonny Boy (Anne Briggs)”
  3. Mending “Julia Writes to Marsha”
  4. ana roxanne “It’s a Rainy Day On The Cosmic Shore”
  5. Nine Inch Nails “The Cursed Clock”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

FLESH. HEART. THINKING. STOMACH.

Our Warden, Matthew, and my fellow players, Joe, Al and Jordan.

Last night I played Mothership, a sci-fi horror roleplaying game where you and your crew try to survive in the most inhospitable environment in the universe: outer space! If you enjoy films like Aliens or Event Horizon then this game is definitely for you.

I first heard about Mothership on the excellent Full Metal RPG podcast. I was intrigued by the idea and purchased the game without hesitation. That was six months ago. Between the press of life and being intimidated by running a horror roles playing game the rule book sat on my shelf. When I received a notification from Meetup that there was an opportunity to play Mothership at Off The Shelf Games I RSVP’d immediately. My buddy Al told me he was itching to try a role playing game so I invited him to join me.

Off The Shelf Games is a new store located in El Cajon. The place well lit, neat and tidy, and the staff are very friendly. I met Matthew, who would be running the game, and my fellow players, Jordan and Joe. We very quickly rolled up our characters which as very easy to do because the character sheet is pretty much a flowchart. I played Nathaniel Grimm, a salty teamster. Jordan played Tank, a trigger happy marine. Jordan played Miguel, our android assistant and Al played Professor Sagan, a scientist.

We were traveling through space, each of us in suspended animation tucked away in our cryopods, when were rudely awakened. A chunk of metal had been flung into the cryopod controls and in the vacuum of space we would soon perish. I made my way out of my pod and rescued Sagan, who was quickly running out of air. I then checked the damage and ascertained that we were hosed and pushed myself off to the next room to gather vacc suits while Sagan rescued Tank, who was vomiting in his pod.

We made our way to the ships bridge and received a message: our vessel had been harpooned. We could either stay on the ship and die or join our unknown assailants in a business proposition. I checked our engines and confirmed that we had indeed been harpooned and the damage was fatal. The engines were leaking radiation and could blow at a minute. With no choice we agreed to be boarded.

We traversed an umbilical from our ship to theirs, which we discovered was unmanned and chock full of explosives. We were taken to the planet below and met by a huge android with three faces and 11 starving humans. The android gave us a proposition: go beneath the planet’s surface and rescue a child. Our options were not good do we agreed and quickly descended into the planet’s blowers but not before each of us were horrifically inserted with black box to track our whereabouts and record our every thought.

Form there it was essentially a dungeon crawl. We went from room to room and found humans that were glowing, twitching cyborgs or slowly melting into goo. And like any good dungeon crawl we had to battle these monsters, the only difference is each time our stress levels were notched up, impairing us physically and mentally. And also like any good dungeon crawl we did battle with some big bads and a boss. In this case it was a teleporting robot who was responsible for the melting humans and a biomech dire wolf and our boss fight was with the AI who was responsible for all of it.

The AI also had a proposition: it would infect one of us with a virus that would kill everyone topside. Unimpeded, the AI could then get one with its business of devouring the planet. While the team debated the pros and cons of this proposition I snatched one of Tank’s grenades and lobbed it at the AI’s core, which was already stopped with explosives from a previous team that had failed in a similar mission.

From there we fought our way back to the surface of the planet. Tank tossed grenade after grenade and emptied his sub machine gun at the orbit and the dire wolf and I exhausted my laser cutter on our foes. Miguel injected Tank with stim pack after stim pack and pumped him full of pain meds to keep Tank going. We succeeded but not with out taking a lot of damage and Tank lost an arm.

When we made our way to the planet’s surface we explained we had left the kid below but had killed the AI. Our android benefactor was pleased with that and let us leave the planet with lots of cash.

The game was a blast and very easy to pick up. Matthew did an excellent job moving the game along and revealing horror after horror. We were all impressed with Al. Most people who play a role playing game for the first time are a bit timid because they’re a unfamiliar with the rules and are overwhelmed with the game play. Not Al. He dove in head first and was effectively our team leader. Al had to bow out early and the dynamic off the group changed dramatically and it took us a while to get back to steam.

I’ll definitely join in further adventures if he decides to keep running Motherhship. My only quibbles is that I don’t think a well-lit gaming store is the best environment for Mothership. If you’re going to play a horror role playing game I think you need to be in a dark room with some spooky music playing in the background, maybe something by Cryo Chamber. Also, I would have preferred more role playing and less “my character says this” or “my character does that.” But other than that it was a rollicking good time and I’m glad I finally got to play Mothership.

Mothership Character Sheet

Just Music Stuff

Just Music Stuff

🎧 Songs selected for you by our crack team of musicians, deejays, podcasters and music critics.

 

  1. Lawrence Arabia “One Unique Creature”
  2. Grieves “A-Okay”
  3. Pick a Piper “Nikko”
  4. Stereo MC’s “Sofisticated”
  5. Karen O, Danger Mouse “Turn The Light”
  6. Danger Mouse, Daniele Luppi “Two Against One (feat. Jack White)”
  7. Vanishing Twin “Magician’s Success”
  8. Funkadelic “I Wanna Know It’s Goo to You”
  9. Parliament “Mothership Connection (Starchild)”
  10. Pepe Deluxe “Go Supersonic”
  11. Pinkshinyultrablast “Blaster”
  12. Rezz, The Rigs “Lonely (feat. The Rigs)”
  13. Kronos Quartet “El Lorrar (Crying)”
  14. Gauxe “Desafio Do Guaxe”
  15. Only Child Tyrant “Monkey Box”
  16. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard “Planet B”
  17. Thee Oh Sees “The Daily Heavy”
  18. Lila Downs “Dignificada”
  19. Young Bae, bbno$, Billy Marchiafava “Bad Boy”
  20. The Louvin Brothers “The Family Who Prays”
  21. thook “SPEED”
  22. Eddie Money “Gimme Some Water”
  23. Meat Beat Manifesto “Bolinas”
  24. Monster Rally “Sister Owls”
  25. Scratchy Korwar, MC Mawali “Mumbai (feat. MC Mawali)”
  26. Snotty Nose Rez Kids “Creator Made an Animal”
  27. Brian Eno “Deep Blue Day – Remastered”
  28. Fela Kuti, Ginger Baker “Ginger Baker and Tony Allen (feat. Ginger Baker)”
  29. Rocks and Waves Song Circle “I”
  30. L’Orange, Jeremiah Jae, Zeroh, Lojii “Borrowed Brass”
  31. Heilung “Hamrer Hippyer”
  32. The Clash “Straight to Hell – Remastered”
  33. Paul Jacobs “Papa Was a Running-Dog Lackey Of The Bourgeoisie”
  34. Gaelynn Lea “We’ll Linger in the Sun”
  35. 4t Theives, Pandacetamol “She Danced On The Sand”
  36. Ghost Funk Orchestra “Walk Like a Motherfucker”
  37. Skinny Puppy “Convulsion”
  38. Williams Faire Brass Band “What Time Is Love?
  39. Felix Burton, Mason Jr, Simon Radcliffe, Basement Jax, Metropole Orkest “Red Alert”
  40. Alarm Will Sound “Cock – Ver 10 (arr. Stefan Freud)”
  41. Current 93 “Twilight Twilight Nihil Nihil”
  42. Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury “Lawmaster / Pursuit”
  43. Valuable Balkanska, Lazar Kanevski, Stefan Zahmanov “Izele e Delyu haidutin (Delyu the rebel went out)”
  44. Arthur Verocai “Na Boka do dol”
  45. Mending “Julia Writes to Marsha”
  46. Anne Briggs, Adrian Utley, Will Gregory “Bonny Boy”
  47. Anne Briggs “She Moves Through the Fair”
  48. six impala “eyes in the water”
  49. Meemo Comma “Murmur”
  50. Fumaça Preta “La Trampa”
  51. MMMD “Hagazussa”
  52. Koffee “Blazin (feat. Jane Macgizmo)”
  53. Swans “Clouds of Unknowing”
  54. Ana Roxanne “It’s a Rainy Day on the Cosmic Shore”
  55. DJ Hidden “The Controller – Original Mix”
  56. Calabro 35, Illa J “Stan Lee (feat. Illa J)”
  57. Brittany Howard “Georgia”
  58. Public Enemy “Shut Em Down (Rock Mixx Instrumental)”
  59. Robert Maxwell “Shanghai-La”
  60. WaqWaq Kingdom “Mum Tells Me”
  61. Igorrr “Very Noise”
  62. Arleta “Tora Th’ Anoixo Ta Ftera”
  63. Meredith Monk “Volcano Songs: Duets: Walking Song”
  64. Kate Tempest “Europe Is Lost”
  65. Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble “Power”
  66. Makaya McCraven “Wise Man, Wiser Woman (feat. Junius Pau, Tomeka Reid, Shabaka Hutchings)”
  67. Hamza El Din “Olin Arageed”
  68. Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks “My Old Time Baby”
  69. Akira Ifukube “Symphonic Fantasia No. 1”
  70. Acid Mammoth “Them!”
  71. Hullabaloo “Lubritorium”
  72. Wardruna “Helvegen”
  73. Tame Impala “Lost In Yesterday”
  74. Skatenigs “Chemical Imbalance”
  75. ZayBang “50-50”
  76. WHIPPED CREAM “You Wanted It”
  77. Kit Sebastian “Durma”
  78. Alexandria Mailot “Messed It Up”
  79. Peter Gabriel “With This Love”
  80. Greg Foat “Of My Hands”
  81. Nine Inch Nails “The Cursed Clock”

Early Riser

I woke up very early this morning. Unable to fall back to sleep I decided to make myself useful and do some chores around the house. I wanted something quiet and pretty to listen to, specifically Frédéric Chopin‘s “Berceuse in D Flat, Op. 57,” which reminds me of spring rain in Boston. I was too groggy to remember the name of the composer or the song. I settled on Claude Debussy, which was just as wonderful.

I’ve added links to the songs I listened to on Spotify so you can enjoy Debussy as well.

Quiet: Madness, Denial, and Morbidity with Darling Rose

On today’s episode Terry Robinson chats with Darling Rose of the Midnight Express podcast. Rose brings broad knowledge of World of Darkness to the table as well as experience with remote and asynchronous chronicles. They discuss Quiet, the state where a Mage’s grip on reality has begun to slip. Quiet has gone through a number of interpretation and this episode focuses on the Revised and M20 rule system where Quiet is broken into Madness, Denial, and Morbidity.

Contact us at magethepodcast@gmail.com with questions, comments, or feedback.

Subscribe to Mage: The Podcast on iTunes, Google Play and TuneIn.

Follow us on Twitter @magethepodcast

Tomes of Magick: The Book of Shadows

Hosts Adam Simpson and Terry Robinson discuss “The Book of Shadows;” Players Guides in World of Darkness games; additional abilities, Merits and Flaws; min-maxing in games; Sanctums (and their abuse); Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey; a day in the life of Tradition Mages; flavoring magick; the schism in the Technocracy; vampires into lawn chairs; 3 ways to view the book.

Contact us at magethepodcast@gmail.com with questions, comments, or feedback.

Subscribe to Mage: The Podcast on iTunes, Google Play and TuneIn.

Follow us on Twitter @magethepodcast

Worlds of Darkness: Mage/Wraith Crossovers

David Herman from The Geekly Oddcast discusses how to introduce Wraith to your Mage Chronicle; mechanics; powers; crossovers; metaplot.

Wraith is a game of horror and passion set in the underworld of the World of Darkness.  Mages can dip into this realm and find anything ever remembered and much much more. Get started with Wraith 20th Anniversary or Orpheus.

Contact us at magethepodcast@gmail.com with questions, comments, or feedback.

Subscribe to Mage: The Podcast on iTunes, Google Play and TuneIn.

Follow us on Twitter @magethepodcast