Deep Glens

I didn't get home today until late, so gonna be logging off here in just a sec.  But first, here's some cool IDM-infused electronic music from Minnesota artist Deep Glens.  New album "Carver" came out a couple weeks back, and it's a pretty solid listen.  Check out the glitchy, album opening "ok ak" below and snag a copy of the LP here.

Pentagrams of Discordia

With a name like Pentagrams of Discordia, i kind of expected dark and ominous tones, portent harbingers of doom and whatnot, but the French Guiana artist actually makes chilled out IDM with flashes of the cinematic and ambient waves.  Great stuff for centering yourself.  New album "Whispers About Radiance" is out now.  Grab it here from the artist and listen to the sprawling "Slowing of Evolution" below.

Daily Jam - Dayvan Cowboy (Odd Nosdam Remix)

Last month, electronic duo Boards of Canada dropped their first new album in 13 years.  I'm a big fan, and that release has had me revisiting the group's older material ever since.  Like this track from 2006.  Listen to Odd Nosdam's humming remix of "Dayvan Cowboy" below, our Daily Jam.

Boards of Canada

It's official.  We are getting a new Boards of Canada album at the end of the month, the first new record since 2013.  Check out the very cool new track "Prophecy at 1420 MHz" below and pre-order the "Inferno" LP here from Warp.

Boards of Canada

With seemingly zero fanfare or notice today, electronic duo Boards of Canada dropped a new track this morning called "Tape 05."  And folks, it's beautiful.  Ambient waves and gentle strokes of sound to soothe you inner soul.  I've listened to it four or five times in a row now.  Check it out below and be on the lookout for what is hopefully their first new album in 13 years.

Squarepusher

April brings us new music from OG IDM artist Squarepusher.  Check out the very cinematic, kinda proggy "K2 Central" below and pre-order the upcoming "Kammerkonzert" LP here from Warp.

Daily Jam - #3

In this humble blogger's opinion, there may not be a better Sunday morning album than Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Volume II," with the untitled track "#3" in particular giving my mind, body, an soul a certain feeling of Zen.  Listen to the track below, our Daily Jam.

SCALER

Bristol band SCALER make a dark and cold mix of trip-hop, IDM, alt-rock, and experimental techno that feels akin to the kind of stuff that would have rocked my headphones in the late '90s.  Check out "Mirage" featuring an assist from Art School Girlfriend below and get the "Endlessly" LP here from Black Acre Records.

Matthew Shaw

Experimental electronic artist Matthew Shaw took a sabbatical to northern Ireland and recorded some music.  "The Tower' EP is the result.  Check out the minimalist hum of "Tower 1" below and grab the 7" here from Buried Treasure.

Daily Jam - Aquarius

I work for a teacher association, and over the weekend we held our annual convention.  Each year we have a theme of sorts, and my bosses have seen fit to put me in charge of creating a playlist of music to run during the event.  This year's theme was math as our exiting President is a math teacher.  And you better believe i put Boards of Canada's "Aquarius" on the mix.  Listen below and count along, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Xtal

I have been posting Daily Jams for almost six years now, and i'm starting to feel like i've completely run out of things to say other than "Here's a song...listen to it."  Maybe that will change.  Maybe not.  Anyway, here's a song...listen to it.  Check out "Xtal" by Aphex Twin below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Tommib

This column was originally published in 2017.

I guess it was always the more cinematic stuff that moved me. Traversing through the head rattling, bone shaking neon wasteland that is the popular modern electronic music scene, anonymity via ridiculous headwear running concurrently with a hyper-presence in social media spaces, I find myself lost and confused among the dayglo revelers and teenage promoters for hire. Was it always like this? Huddled masses yearning for the bass to drop? Bleached kids high on synthetic, designer drugs strewn across fields and parking lots across the world, drowning in their own vomit? EDM, of mice and marshmallows and robots, shaking all their bits for mainstream dollars and notoriety?

It’s not my scene man. But I love electronic music. And I love dance music. I just hate the generic end game we’ve stumbled upon, favoring the darker, more secluded bastions of underground electronic composition. I dig on the outliers. I nod to the past. And there’s that soft, sweet spot for IDM, as pretentious a descriptor as there ever was, that I come of age listening to.

Intelligent. Dance. Music.

Even when I was 18, I knew the term was insufferable, and now, two decades later, its eye rolling ambivalence is enough to cause brain spasms, a twitchy kind of nostalgia for how fucking lame we all used to be…still are. But it was still kind of apt. The music wasn’t populist ass shaking groove or dumb party music. There was a lot of math involved. And strange, discordant rhythms, faraway and exotic sounds generated by wires and mainframes looped and spliced to hallucinogenic, disorienting wonder. Aphex Twin and Oval and Boards of Canada and Autechre and so many others making sound that you could sometimes dance to, but more often just get lost in. I dug on those beats in the murk, but it was then gentler, more melodic entries or the dramatic, ominous sways of mood that stuck with me.

(Continues to stick with me.)

Squarepusher’s 2001 album Go Plastic is full of all the hallmarks and tropes that defined the IDM scene of the late '90s/early '00s, but it also contains the wonderful “Tommib,” a short piece of beautiful synthesizer that excels because of its brevity. Just over a minute long, the song’s effect works according to your mood, a gorgeous and hopeful new dawn, the soundtrack to opening your eyes as the sun peeks through your window in the morning, or a crestfallen and dreamy wistful haze as you watch your love turn and walk away from you forever. And then it ends before you’re even aware of what’s transpired or how full of life every single moment is.

And so, IDM or EDM or whatever, to me “Tommib” and the beautiful pieces of electronic music that came before, or continue to stream after, don’t really need to be weighed down by written descriptors (even if they do make it a million times easier for writers like me to describe them) or qualifiers. At the end of the day, so much of this music has more in common with traditional classical composition anyway…just for computers instead of brass and wind.

I do love the cinematic.

Daily Jam - On the Horizon

When perusing through my CD collection, one may notice several discs with radio station call letters on them…call letters from the station I deejayed for in college…promo discs distributed to the station…radio copies. So I stole some CD’s from the radio station I worked for. So what. I guess I’m a bad person, but I totally discovered some wonderful tunes whilst being said bad person. And one of those tunes is “On the Horizon,” the trippy, Neil Halstead-assisted album closer from Locust’s 1997 LP, Morning Light.

Though it never became quite the cultural juggernaut that maybe it could have been, trip-hop was a fairly prevalent music genre in its day, specifically the late 90’s. And while acts like Portishead, Massive Attack, and Tricky lead the proverbial charge, there were plenty of smaller artists that fit the mold too. Combining chilled electronica, hip-hop beats, mellow instrumentation, and some well placed samples, Locust was one of those oft overlooked artists. Morning Light is a pretty solid effort from start to finish (there’s even a wonderful Karen Carpenter sample in the mix), but it’s the finale, featuring Neil Halstead of Slowdive and Mojave 3 fame on vocals, that really cements the deal. “On the Horizon” begins with some off kilter orchestration, vibraphone and reverb, an array of different instruments both live and synthetic, and Halstead’s soft, dreamy vocals. It takes a couple of minutes before everything begins to come together, the string section and a haunting beat forming like dark clouds in the distance. Melancholy reigns.

The song has always made me think about an old friend of mine who endured an unreal familial tragedy when we were in college, and her subsequent emotional distance that was the result. Over the following years, we grew apart and eventually lost touch entirely. And that has always made me sad. “On the Horizon” encapsulates that feeling perfectly. I still love her dearly, and I hope that she’s all right wherever she is.

“She’s fixing her wings just to fly…”

Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Principles of Geometry

While i optimistically wait for a future announcement that French electronic duo Principles of Geometry's first three albums are getting the vinyl reissue treatment (please), the pair have at least seen fit to release new music to tide me over.  The "Penta" EP drops next Friday.  Listen to new tune "Glower" below and order the record here.

Daily Jam - Dawn Chorus

Digging through some stuff to listen to while i get some data entry done today and settling on Boards of Canada.  Here's "Dawn Chorus," our Daily Jam.

Aphex Twin

Getting all kinds of big release news the last couple of days, and now it appears we've got a new EP from the enigmatic Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, coming our way next month.  Check out new tune "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f" below and pre-order the "Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760" EP here from Warp.

iNFO

Here's some weirdly soothing electronic music from an artist called iNFO.  "Uncertain Analysis" sounds like watching the universe, its pieces shimmering and moving through time and space, or like watching the inside of a microchip, its pieces shimmering and moving through time and space.  Listen below and get the "Alkaline Glades" LP here from Icelandic label Moatun 7.

Principles of Geometry

They've been leading up to it for months, and now French electronic duo Principles of Geometry have released their massive 3LP album "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ."  Check out the IDM vibes of "Tape Voices" below and order the record here from Tiger Sushi.

Principles of Geometry

I've been led to believe that a new album is forthcoming from French electronic duo Principles of Geometry.  This is most excellent news.  Check out new track "First, I Heard Colors" below and download it here along with a Pye Corner Audio remix from Tigersushi.

Daily Jam - Rhubarb

It' rough out there folks, so here's some selected ambient work from Aphex Twin to calm the nerves.  Listen to "Rhubarb" below, our Daily Jam.