Tag: electronica

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SOUNDWAVE : 5 : VINCE MILLETT

SOUNDWAVE : 5

I’m writing the show notes you’re reading from my backyard. Vince Millett’s mix, today’s guest deejay, plays in the background. The sun is out, the sky is blue, birds are chirping and my dog is smelling a flower. It is an idyllic day. Except that it’s week seven of California’s safe at home. COVID-19 has completely disrupted civilization and we’ll feel the aftershocks for years, if not decades, to come. So, yeah except for that, I’m having a fantastic day.

Today’s mix, by the way, is spectacular.

Opening the show to guest deejays has been a great idea because it’s really exposed me to so many musicians I’ve never heard before. I was counting on Vince to turn me on to some great stuff and his mix does not disappoint. It is exactly why he was one of the first people I asked to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE.

I met Vince eight years ago on Twitter. I was impressed with his netlabel, Broken Drum Records, and his podcast, Secret Archives of the Vatican, and invited him to be a guest deejay for solipsistic NATION, my electronic music podcast. You’ll want to listen to that episode as soon as you’re done with today’s show. Vince’s taste in music leans towards the Asian and Middle Eastern and that is reflected in today’s mix. Each song is a gem. Dhafer Youssef’s “Dawn Prayer,” for example, is gut wrenchingly beautiful

Vince will talk about his musical selections below but before I go, I want to thank everyone who has sent the mixes you will hear in the upcoming months.

In just a few short weeks I’ve received a lot of mixes for SOUNDWAVE from some amazing guest deejays. It’s humbling how everyone were so quick to respond to my requests and their generosity of their time.

Last week’s show featured a gorgeous mix by Steven Howard. Next week’s guest deejay is James Curcio and his mix was inspired by the three years he spent writing and researching for his book, MASKS: Bowie & Artists of Artifice, and is a meditation on mortality, futility, transience, being lost in the simulacra and isolation during the coronavirus.

See you then.

 

Vince Millett
Vince Millett

We open with “Kemancheh” by Moving Ninja. Some years back when I was first discovering dubstep, the folk music of my hometown Croydon, I was surprised to find tracks like this that were far away from the dancefloor and had some middle eastern influences. Genre labels can be so limiting and misleading.

We then move into one of my own, “Outremer” by Thousand Yard Prayer. This is built upon a simple Viola Da Gamba line playing an Arabian musical scale with some medieval frame drums, a Persian ney flute and some subtle Croydon post-dubstep bass wobble adding to the low end.

Tunisian born oud player and vocalist Dhafer Youssef then leads us into the exquisite “Dawn Prayer.” His music gets marketed as jazz but I’m not convinced. It is unique. Listen to that voice!

Next we head towards the world of film soundtracks with “Eastern Path” by Vangelis from the film Alexander. The duduk is one of the most expressive and melancholy instruments on the planet.

We continue to head east with “Battle Remembered” by Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. I’m not a huge fan of western classical music but I love to hear musicians from that world working with highly skilled musicians from other traditions.

Bassist Jonas Hellborg recorded “Suriya” live in Aleppo in 1996. The whole album, Aram of the Two Rivers, is beautiful and is another example of superb musicians from disparate traditions creating something transcendent.

I finish this mix with my favourite piece of medieval music, “Palästinalied,” here played by Kalenda Maya from their album Pilegrimreiser. I have a Spotify playlist with 42 versions of this tune, all sounding different. This is a particularly chilled rendition.

  1. Moving Ninja “Kemancheh”
  2. Thousand Yard Prayer “Outremer”
  3. Dhafer Youssef “Dawn Prayer”
  4. Vangelis “Eastern Path”
  5. Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble “Battle Remembered”
  6. Jonas Hellborg “Suriya”
  7. Kalenda Maya “Palästinalied”

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

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

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solipsistic NATION No. 87: Glitterdämmerung

Damn, this week’s show is packed with great stuff!

When I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast one of the first shows I did was a documentary about Nerdcore. Shortly afterwards I learned that Negin Farsad was also working on a documentary about the genre called Nerdcore Rising. The documentary was recently released and I knew I had to get Negin on the show to talk about her documentary.

Another person I’ve wanted to get on solipsistic NATION is drum and bass artist Panda. As luck would have it, Panda has put out a new album called Retake Manhattan that simply rocks! Panda and I have been exchanging emails during the last year and I nailed a date to get hm on the line to talk about his new CD. It’s rare to hear an electronic music concept album and Panda sails around the globe in a mere hour and ten minutes.

Speaking of new releases, Meat Beat Manifesto has released a new album titled Autoimmune that is so bass heavy that it could move a freight truck across a parking lot. Just imagine what it can do to your ears! I had the pleasure of seeing Meat Beat Manifesto last week and they put on an awesome show. They’re on the last leg of their U.S. tour so visit their website to see if they’re playing in your area. If you’ve missed them, no worries, Jack will be on next week’s show with a live recording of one of Meat Beat Manifesto’s performances.

I’ve mentioned previously that one of the blogs I frequently read is Igloo Magazine. I’ve been talking with Pietro Da Sacco, Igloo’s managing editor, and I asked him to come on this week’s show to talk about his ‘zine. Pietro will be back on solipsistic NATION next month with a beautiful mix of electronic music that’s going to make you weak at the knees.

A few months back solipsistic NATION was picked up by KYOURadio 1550 AM in San Francisco. KYOURadio plays an eclectic program of talk and music shows but what make the station truly unique that all the content comes from user generate content. That is to say, podcasts. I invited KYOURadio’s station manager, Stephen Page, to come on today’s show to talk about the station and the dramatic changes radio is currently going through.

Last, and by no stretch of the imagination, least, is an interview with Martin Rev and Alan Vega of Suicide. Alan and Martin are old school and began Suicide way back in the 70s. Often imitated but never duplicated, Suicide is one of the original proto-electronic music bands who have influenced genres such as techno, industrial and electroclash. Suicide was never ahead of their time, just that everyone else was behind the times and desperately trying to catch up to the path that Suicide was blazing.

Photo Credit: pausetivespace

  1. Baddd Spellah (feat. MC Frontalot) “Rhyme of the Nibelung” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
  2. Interview with Negin Farsad, director of Nerdcore Rising
  3. Nerdcore Rising Trailer
  4. Panda “Quebec”
  5. Panda “Casablanca”
  6. Interview with Panda
  7. Meat Beat Manifesto “Hellfire”
  8. Meat Beat Manifesto “62 Dub”
  9. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto
  10. Scorn “Enough To Hold Bottom”
  11. Interview with Pietro Da Sacco, managing editor of Igloo Magazine
  12. Ambivalent “Lowlights”
  13. Interview with Stephen Page, station manager of KYOURadio
  14. Dark Machines “Inferno”
  15. Suicide “Rocket USA”
  16. Suicide “Frankie Teardrop”
  17. Interview with Martin Rev and Alan Vega of Suicide

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solipsistic NATION No. 57: Accretions

I’m constantly contacting record labels to send me promotional CDs so I can deliver to you the finest in all genres of electronic music. Recently I received a batch of experimental electronic music CDs from Accretions, an artist-based independent music label with an ear towards experimental, improvisational and global sounds. When I checked the mailing address I was surprised to find that they are based in San Diego, California.

I regard San Diego as a patch of paradise in the US. The city is absolutely beautiful. The weather is always clement and the people are warm and friendly. But San Diego is definitely not a metropolitan city. In fact, San Diego is often referred to as a big city that think it’s a small town, so you can appreciate my wonder that San Diego is also the home to a record label that offers some of the most innovative and exciting music out there.

I asked Accretions’ Marcos Fernandes to join us on this week’s solipsistic NATION to talk about the label and play select tracks of music from their roster of artists. Prepare to have your mind blown!

  1. Robert Montoya “…You’re Soaking In It”
  2. Interview with Marcos Fernandes of Accretions
  3. Donkey “La”
  4. Hans Fjellestad “Love Dart”
  5. Nathan Hubbard “17 stone park stutter/breath”
  6. Damon Holzborn “If We’re All Going To Get It”
  7. Gunther’s Grass “Vulcanian”
  8. Panoptica “Camposanto”
  9. Las Cajas Del Ritmo “Com Com”
  10. Point Loma “Ensemble Circuits”
  11. Latinsizer “Falling Peni”
  12. Marcelo Radulovich “Unico Amor”
  13. Interview with Marcos Fernandes of Accretions
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solipsistic NATION No. 26: Through A Glass Darkly

In 1 Corinthians 13:12 the Apostle Paul says “Now we see through a glass darkly.” The glass is a mirror which and to see through that mirror “darkly” is to have an obscure or imperfect vision of reality.

But what is reality?

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English says that reality is “the state of things as they actually exist.” But all we know of reality is perceived through our senses, which are imperfect. Further, the way we interpret what we perceive is a subjective experience. In a sense, there is no way to see reality but through a mirror darkly.

There are some who hold that since our sense are imperfect and since everything is a subjective experience the only thing we can truly know is ourselves. While reality is a consensual experience we are all of us living in a solipsistic nation.

Music is another subjective experience and trip hop, with its noir-ish lense, offers us yet another glimpse into a world seen through a glass darkly. Trip hop was a term coined by British dance magazine Mixmag, to describe DJ Shadow‘s hip hop instrumentals that changed-up the beat and mid-cuts, taking the listener on a dark musical journey.

I hope you enjoy today’s flight through the glass.

Photo Credit: Sy Parrysh

  1. Kalahari Surfers “Versatile Flying Objects”
  2. Chillerstadt “Heat”
  3. Scanlan “Son”
  4. Audiomoe “57 Spring”
  5. DigiT aLL LoVe “You Keep It”
  6. Monkeybacon “Roller”
  7. Unorganized Crime “Alessandra”
  8. Da Smee “Jahmin001”
  9. Verbal Kint “The Temple (Smooth Trip Mix ft. Judie Jay)”
  10. Anji Bee with Bitstream Dream “Love Me, Leave Me”
  11. The Neybuzz “Dark Days”
  12. Behavior “Anywhere But Here”
  13. Collide “Razor Sharp”
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solipsistic NATION No. 16: Acid Jazz and Nu-Jazz

Today’s show focuses on acid jazz and nu-jazz. Acid jazz combines elements of soul music, funk, disco and modal harmonies while nu-jazz lend jazz textures and sometimes jazz instrumentation, funk, electronic dance music, and free improvisation.

As a former punk I originally hated electronic music like acid jazz. I was into hardcore and the only music that mattered to me was the kind that was raw, abrassive and in your face. If it wan’t punk, hip hop or indutrial I couldn’t be bothered with it. Acid jazz was just to dainty of a thing for me to care about.

But that was soon to change.

At the time I was a DJ at WMFO and each weekend I would have live bands perform on my show. As you might imagine, they were all punk, industrial or hip hop acts. My engineer was a guy named Harry and prior and after a band’s set he would blast the speakers of his studio with all sorts electronic music I had never heard before. And it grooved!

I think the big turning point for me was one night after my radio show I headed over to a nightclub I worked at. The DJ was spinning acid jazz and house. It was very sexy watching people dance to the music, always slighty off beat but always riding the rhythm. Kind of like a jazz solo. For the first time I really started digging the music. The tab of acid I had just taken might have helped.

Photo Credit: ^riza^

  1. Dolce Stil Nuovo “12 Times”
  2. Craig De Maio “Intro To Reality”
  3. Tstewart “A World Generated Every Answer Ever For All to Know”
  4. So Percussion “Work Slow Life”
  5. Spacehoppa “Alone”
  6. Soular Sound “Things We Do”
  7. The Messenger “Colorized”
  8. The Other Guy “Rockin Chairs”
  9. Fonkmasters “Once I Get Up”
  10. Heliotrope “Flute Flight”
  11. Nikita Warren “I Need You (MLK’s Dream Version)”
  12. Nettle “Mehmet Irdel (ft. Aziz Arradi)”
  13. DJ Olive “Coonymus”
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solipsistic NATION No. 15: Fake Science

Each week on solipsistic NATION I play the best of all genres of electronic music. On today’s show we talk to James Polanco of Fake Science, the digital online music store. We’ll also hear select tracks from artists who are featured Fake Science.

Fake Science is an internet based distributor of downloadable music. Fake Science provides a unique service catering to fans of indie labels and artists frustrated by a world ruled by large corporate download services, where the true independents are afforded little chance to stand out from the crowd.

Fake Science is dedicated to making independent music available digitally and affordably. Fake Science wants to enable musicians to sell their music and to make more by offering direct payment and an opportunity to reach a larger audience without being limited by the number of CDs they could afford to print.

What if people buying music were treated with respect rather than suspicion? Charged a reasonable amount of money for the music they were getting? What if they were allowed to share their favorite music with their friends without being considered a criminal?

As listeners, Fake Science is sick of being considered as consumers of art, rather than patrons. Fake Science decided to do something about it.

If you enjoy today’s edition of solipsitic NATION then you’ll sure to dig the Fake Science Lab Report podcast.

  1. Fake Science Interview
  2. Nano “Mosaic II”
  3. Qpe “Devil May Care”
  4. Eddie Mis “Acrobat Bilder”
  5. Hol Baumann “Radio Bombay”
  6. Cell Culture “Revelation”
  7. Dr. Toast “Introspective Transmission”
  8. Alchemy “Alchemy”
  9. Carbon Based Lifeforms “MOS 6581 (Album Version)”
  10. Adham Shaikh “Shiraz (Evolution Mix)”