Today’s guest deejay is Tom Moore, AKA Dead Melodies.
After listening to his latest album, Fabled Machines of Old, I invited Tom to guest deejay on Soundwave back in June. The album was released on Cryo Chamber, and it’s what I’ve come to expect from every release from the label: exquisitely crafted dark ambient music that takes you on an emotional journey. Sometimes harrowing, but always rewarding.
Today’s show has been a different experience for me than what I’ve become accustomed to. Usually, I receive mixes for Soundwave six months before I share them with you. I do this for practical reasons. I like to have the mixes well before the release date, so I don’t have to scramble to get shows out weekly. I listened to the mixes you repeatedly hear for months, a byproduct of this arrangement. I become intimately acquainted with the music. They become the soundtrack for my life.
Tom’s schedule did not permit him to send me his mix in advance. I only just got his mix for Soundwave two weeks ago. I didn’t think that would be time enough to allow Tom’s mix to “breather,” but fortunately, I was able to lose myself in the music, and Tom’s mix quickly became an old friend.
Tom has some words about today’s show below.
As always, the shadow of the pandemic looms over Soundwave.
Yesterday I spoke with a professional colleague, and he shared that his production partner had come down with COVID. He told me that he had contracted COVID some months ago, and as a result, his blood pressure is up by 20%; he has experienced liver damage, and his joints ache. I wished him a speedy recovery and that his partner would not suffer lasting effects from the virus. There but for the grace of God goes I, as they say. Except that I expect to catch the virus myself at some point. I don’t know where you listen to Soundwave, but here in the U.S., it seems we want the pandemic to last as long as possible.
But today, I’m still healthy. And I have a lovely show to share with you.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be danielfuzztone.
See you then!
Thanks for the invitation to put together a mix for the show. It was a fun challenge deciding what to do as I trawled through all my influences and favourite artists, but it wasn’t long before it dawned on me it was near impossible to capture even a fraction of the music that makes me tick in an hour-long cut. So I decided to look at my music, pick out some rarities and remixes, and see how best to present them. My output is pretty diverse, but these rarities seemed to tap into a dark-ambient meets post-rock style. I paired with a few popular tunes from my Cryo Chamber releases to keep on the theme and hopefully create a haunting yet soothing listening experience.
Honourable mentions to the collaborating artists named on the tracks – a remix is always much more than a reforming of stems, but a respectful collaboration with layers of new instruments added, paying homage to the original piece while expanding the sound. Thanks to; Everyday Dust, Zenjungle, Understated Theory (my side project/band), and Owsey. Thanks to Cryo Chamber and Sparkwood Records, who have published a few of the included tunes.
- Dead Melodies “Winter’s Bite”
- Everyday Dust “Where Light Fails (Dead Melodies Solar Frenzy Mix)”
- Dead Melodies “The Wake of Man”
- Zenjungle “Elegy for The Will (Dead Melodies’ Perspective)”
- Dead Melodies “Secrets Foretold”
- Understated Theory “Solitary Demons”
- Owsey “Thousands of Summer Twilights (Dead Melodies Remix)”
- Dead Melodies “A Trial of Crows and Blood”
- Dead Melodies “Certain Beasts”
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