Alisú included Riz Maslen in her mix for Soundwave last fall, which led to me spending hours re-visiting the music Riz recorded as Neotropic, as well as her work with 4hero and The Future Sound of London. I invited Riz to share a mix with us, and it’s something else.
Riz mix begins with a piece by Freddie Philips, a British composer known for his work on television music, particularly the theme for Camberwick Green. It’s what I imagine a mix from Wes Anderson might sound like, and I would have been completely satisfied if Riz stayed within that genre. But Riz pivots to Egyptian jazz-inspired psychedelic rock, shifts to trip-hop, and never looks back. And yet, Riz’s mix never feels incongruous. Each track seamlessly blends into the next.
You’re in for quite the journey.
Each mix shared on Soundwave is special. When I say that, I’m not equivocating; they are unique. But some resonate with me more than others, and Riz’s mix is one of those mixes. As the pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, I’ve found Riz’s mix to sometimes act as a balm and other times a needed distraction.
I envy you. I wish I could hear Riz’s mix again for the first time.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Robocat.
I met Andrew through Robert Farrugia, co-founder of Complex Holiday. After Robert guest deejayed on Soundwave (listen to his mix here) I asked him who he thought would share a mix on the show and he suggested Andrew. I listened to some Andrew’s many releases and extended an invitation immediately.
Andrew is a musician from Baltimore currently living in Philadelphia. He utilizes samplers, field recordings, and lo-fi recording techniques to make textured and tactile sounds. In addition to his solo catalog on labels such as Laaps, Seil Records, Eilean Recs, Constellation Tatsu, Home Normal, and more, he is a member of Hotel Neon, Gray Acres, and Mordançage.
Andrew’s mix for today’s show has everything I love to hear on Soundwave. However, what surprised me was his inclusion of Julie Byrne’s “Wisdom Teeth Song” in his mix. Julie’s appearance in his mix isn’t incongruous. It feels inevitable.
I was so delighted to hear Julie’s music in Andrew’s mix that I was inspired to put together my own mix, which includes one of Julie’s songs. You can listen to that mix here.
Andrew has some words about his mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Dan Haines Cohen, founder of Machine Records.
Andrew Tasslemyer
“Music for walking through piles of dead leaves.”
For this mix, I was inspired to focus on the specific time and place I was in: the peak of autumn in the northeastern US.
I love this time of year when mornings are cold, but not brutally so… just enough to smack you with a jolt of heightened awareness when you step outside. And for some reason, the sunshine feels better when it’s filtered through the exploding colors of the leaves. I have no scientific basis for saying this but trust me, it’s a fact. It also seems that the calendar has progressed far enough at this point in the year that people start to reflect on months past and look forward to the new year ahead. Everyone feels a little more thoughtful, I suppose.
For this mix, I chose songs that could accompany someone on a wooded walk through the forest (or a nap in bed, whatever), with lots of textural analog sounds like hissing tape and shaky vibrato. The idea is that cracking leaves and snapping twigs can enhance the character of these recordings, which all feature a healthy dose of guitar (acoustic and electric), lo-fi beats and rhythms, and nostalgic timbres. I would encourage listening while walking and using earbuds/headphones that don’t completely isolate you from the world… let it filter in a bit.
Jonathan guest deejayed on the show last October. Jonathan’s mix was so moving that I invited him back to Soundwave. Today’s mix is equally remarkable. I had the unique opportunity to listen to it while driving from San Diego to Sacramento to visit my wife this weekend. It’s wildfire season in California (it’s always wildfire season), and Jonathan’s mix provided the soundtrack to my apocalyptic drive. The skies were tinted dirty brown from the ashes from the wildfires, but somehow the sun managed to blast the landscape with glaring light: grass and trees parched from California’s megadrought. Every 20 miles or so, I’d pass an abandoned car to the side of the highway. And yet, Jonathan’s mix somehow lent some beauty to such desolate scenery.
Jonathan has some words about his mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be anthéne.
See you then!
Jonathan Ammons
I think that my past year has looked like many people’s lives during the middle of one of the largest global pandemics in history. A lot of isolation, a lot of finding ways to busy yourself or occupy your mind. In the past, as someone who worked from home, I had enjoyed drone, ambient, and all of those experimental genres for the way they occupied a space without dominating it. If ambient music was created to generate music that did not evoke strong and tumultuous emotions — as Brian Eno claims— that was exactly what I wanted droning on in the background of my house while I pecked away at a keyboard for work. As a journalist, it provided this stoic, emotionless wallpaper for the background of my daily existence.
Covid changed a lot of that. They daily monotony left me just craving a change of emotion. But I didn’t want words; I didn’t want lyrics that would remind me of how things were when we were able to go places, meet people, kiss strangers at a bar… I wanted the same stability that the drone I’d come to love gave me, but I wanted something a little more expressive.
I also noticed that the more I used any streaming platform, the more the algorithm would eventually whittle things down to the same handful of artists. I wanted new things. I wanted variety in a locked-down life with no chance of spontaneity. So I decided to cut all algorithmic music out of my life. I stopped listening to Spotify or Pandora or any of those generated playlists and dialed back in to the radio.
I have to give a giant shoutout to Noods Radio out of Bristol, England, because they have been a major lifesaver. A station dedicated to the wild and weird sounds of Bristol. You never know what you’ll find, but the rich spread of creativity has introduced me to a slew of new artists. Props to BBC6’s great ambient show, as well.
Northern England’s A Beautiful Burning World make’s gorgeous sounds using very simple gear and tape loops. They even have a subscription system for $15 a year, and you can get their entire discography for cheaper than that! Much of this mix comes from artists discovered through the radio or combing around Bandcamp.
Seamstress makes delightful chill-out beats. Scanner gorgeously blends drone and ambient with deep arrangements that are so subtle, but meaningful. And I don’t know why it took me till now to notice Garth Stevenson’s incredible compositions. We really are in a golden age for the reinvention of modern classical music. Just look no further than Tristan Perich’s fantastic work.
I also have to give a shoutout to Kimathi Moore. Kima is an incredibly talented sound artist here in Asheville. His style’s shift between ambient, drone, and Edgard Varèse-like tone poems. I got the chance to work with him on a music video he shot for my latest album, and got to see just what a meticulous worker he is.No wonder his sounds are so precise and pristine.
Of course, I had to include some Harold Budd. I included a selection off of his album the Serpent (In Quicksilver) because I remember hearing an interview with him in which he claimed that it was his favorite record that he’d made. A major loss for the ambient music world, losing one of the original masters to this damned virus.
And lastly, the original tracks are two previously unreleased compositions. I started messing around with more tape loops in my studio this winter, and really decided to dive into it, which is how “The Same River” originated. The closing track is actually from a much larger piece I have coming out in the Fall. “A Certain Kind of Light” is a 40-minute piece in five movements. It was an experiment to see just how far I could go using only a single chord. The incredibly talented Olivia Springer performed all of the string parts for that piece. I’ve included the final movement of that piece to close out this mix as its debut.
Endless thanks to Joseph for having me back for another Soundwave mix. It’s been a pleasure to follow along and hear what everyone is listening to these days!
I met Brian on Twitter, but I’m not sure how. I’m sure it had something to do with our mutual love for guitars, ambient music, and horror. I recall listening to and enjoying his music but other than that, I don’t know much about Brian, which is why I’m going to interview him briefly on Instagram today. If that goes well, you can expect to watch more interviews with guest deejays on Soundwave on Instagram.
You’re going to dig Brian’s mix. It’s of the caliber you’ve come to expect from Soundwave. There are some surprises, like a track from the Pat Metheny Group, and a track from guest deejay Roedelius’s Cluster project with Brian Eno (listen to Roedelius’s Soundwave mix here). You’re in good hands.
If you want to hear more music from Brian, he has a new song that is included in a charity album available on June 21, 2021, on Bandcamp from Audionautic Records. The label will donate all proceeds to Project Hope, which sends relief to South Asia and people worldwide. Several of the artists in today’s mix will also be on the compilation.
Brian has some words below about today’s music.
Before I leave you, I have a few things I want to mention.
Frank Riggio’s Empreinte Musicale 2 album
Firstly, Frank Riggio recently released Empreinte Musicale 2, which is part of his ongoing trilogy. I’ve been listening to Frank’s music for years, and listening to his evolution as a musician has been a delight. I’m listening to Empreinte as I write today’s show notes, and I’m enjoying the sonic territory he’s trailblazing. Be sure to also listen to Frank’s mix for Soundwave here.
Secondly, Friday, my wife and I took our 11-year-old cousin to see Cruella. I had low expectations for Cruella, but the movie was surprisingly good and a whole lot of fun. Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered if it was trash; I was just excited to go to a movie theater for the first time in over a year.
Okay, it’s time for me to head out.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Pierre Laplace.
See you then!
Brian Sangmeister
For me, music has always been about a journey. It transports you through time and space like nothing else can. Listening to music is like listening to your life story. It is full of peaks and valleys, personal moments and reflections. And above all else, emotions. I created this mix as a soundtrack to that journey. The best part is that you, the listener, will embark on your own unique voyage. A voyage that will take you through your imagination, and your soul. Each individual will experience something different. So I hope you enjoy these pieces of music, that when tied together, tell a bigger story. Your story.
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.
I had always intended to bring solipsistic NATION out of retirement but there was always some sort of technical problem that prevented me from relaunching the podcast.
Originally I was going to use Macromedia‘s SoundEdit which came bundled with Director. Unfortunately, when I mixed down a set the track would be in mono and distorted. I tried doing the show using DJ-1800 and recording the set with WireTap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro but there was a touch of distortion in the recording I could never eliminate.
Last month the connection to the hard drive in my ancient G4 tower died. I didn’t have the cash to buy a new tower so I purchased a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was much more powerful than my G4 and as an added bonus, it came pre-installed with GarageBand. Suddenly all my problems were resolved in one fell swoop.
There are some deejays who like to do everything live without a net and on the fly. I was never one of those deejays. Oh, I’m fine at improvising live sets but my preference has always been to map out my shows in advance, meticulously plotting the segues and overall flow of a mix. Given my anal retentiveness for planning shows GarageBand is perfect with how I like to work.
I hope you enjoy today’s first show in the relaunching of solipsistic NATION!
