Planetary Peace

In 1980, the husband/wife duo of Will and Kalima Sawyer built a mail order Serge synthesizer together at their home in London, and then recorded an album of quirky, devotional, cosmic new age in their living room on a Teac tape machine.  The end result was "Synthesis," which the pair released on a very limited run of cassettes (mostly to friends and family) under the moniker of Planetary Peace.  Unearthed a couple of years ago at a yard sale in New Mexico, the album recently got a reissue from Love All Day...which unfortunately is now sold out in all physical formats.  But, you can still download the whole album here for a dollar.  And you should do that because it's wonderful.  Listen to "Silence of Night" below.

RIP Edgar Froese

RIP Edgar Froese, electronic music pioneer and founder of Tangerine Dream.  Listen to the band's "Betrayal (Sorcerer Theme)" from the soundtrack to William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" below.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Here's some late night analog synthesizer explorations from composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.  "Careen" comes from her upcoming album "Euclid," out next week on Western Vinyl.  It's very floaty and soothing.  Listen below.

Contact

Contact is the collaborative duo of synthesizer enthusiast A.E. Paterra (Zombi, Majeure) and film soundtrack composer Paul Lawler.  The band create cinematic synthesized soundscapes to marvel to the universe to.  Take a listen to "Distant Voices" below and grab the "First Contact" LP from Temporary Residence.

Oneohtrix Point Never and A.G. Cook

So, a new track from synthesizer-wunderkind Oneohtrix Point Never popped up today, this one featuring fellow electronic music mad scientist A.G. Cook.  "Bubs" is frenetic and all over the place, but it feels like there are some holiday undertones trying to bubble to the surface.  It's a fun two minutes.  Listen and download below.

John Carpenter

I have no idea why i haven't posted about this yet (there is no excuse), but in February, legendary filmmaker and score composer John Carpenter is releasing his first ever album, "Lost Themes," on Sacred Bones.  An actual John Carpenter album!  This is too rad for words, and if the first taste of "Vortex" is any indication, we should all be stoked.  Listen below.

I'lls

It's a chilly, gray, and rainy day here in Austin, so here's some appropriately gloomy music from Australia's I'lls.  Soft and creeping analog synthesizer hums and beeps play out over warped, unintelligible vocal samples and a jazzy electro-beat.  It only seems right.  Listen to "Fifty-Phiphti" below and grab the 12" single here from Solitaire.

Matthew Akers

Washington by way of Detroit musician and composer Matthew Akers offers up analog synthesizer worship and ambient soundscapes on new album "Bayern."  It sounds like descending into a dark and cold tunnel, an endless abyss.  Listen to "Side A" below and grab the cassette here.

Ashburn County

Ashburn County is the sound collage project of a group of artists/musicians/maniacs in Louisiana.  The group just released "Our Dead Selves Rise - A Collection" on Belaten, and it's a creepy and icky soundtrack to a film that does not (and should not) exist.  There are some thematic and sonic elements in common with Hank III's "Gutter Town" album from a couple years ago, a mix of field recordings, Cajun music, and sinister clunks and thuds.  The band's own synopsis says more than i ever could:

In 2012, Leroy Delbert Quebedeaux and his friends decided to direct their own movie which would be a tribute to (sic) independent hick films and their grotesque humor set in the midst of a terrifying nature. But they had no cameras, no money, nothing. So they decided to work on the soundtrack of the film they would have done if they had the adequate equipment. They bought a digital handheld recording machine and, inspired by the soundtracks of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eaten Alive, they did some field recordings of instruments, agricultural machines or natural environment. So everything has been recorded with it : accordions, trombones, voices, synthesizers, cellos, etc. It gave a particular quality to the sound of all these instruments. By mixing traditional folk and Cajun culture with industrial collage, droning synthesizers, old rhythm boxes, neoclassical grandeur, samples and mechanized sounds, the musicians confronted themselves with ghosts of their own past and ghosts of the earth itself on which they have grown up and lived until now.

Pretty excellent and dark stuff.  Listen to "Cracks in the Wall (Alternate Mix)" below, download the album here, and grab the cassette here.

Slasher Dave

Halloween is still a long way off, but that doesn't mean that spooky, horror movie inspired music has to wait til Autumn to blast into my ear holes.  Slasher Dave's 2013 album "Spookhouse" is perfect blend of Carpenter and Goblin, and an excellent soundtrack to whatever nefarious goings-on you may have planned for your day...and night.  Listen to album opener "Dusk" below, and then grab the album digitally here, or on vinyl over at Bellyache Records.

Umberto - Temple Room

Kansas City's John Carpenter-worshiping synthesizer enthusiast Umberto is set to release a new 12" single on Not Not Fun later this month, a reworking of "Temple Room" from 2010's "Prophecy of the Black Widow" LP.  Watch the excellent video below and spook out.

Golden Retriever

This has been a long week (and i was on vacation the whole time).  Up to my armpits in beer and food and music, it's now time to wind down, sit, reflect, relax, and just enjoy all that is life...with some beer and food and music.  So let's listen to the space exploration theme that is "Flight Song," the latest from synthesizer enthusiasts Golden Retriever from their upcoming album "Seer" on Thrill Jockey.  It's like closing your eyes, letting go, and just collapsing into the center of a black hole.

It also makes me want to watch that "Cosmos" show tonight, so mental note and all that.  Listen below.

Gardens and Villa

It's that time of year again (the lead up days until SXSW) when so many band names start getting thrown my way that i get lost in the flux.  It's already begun.  One of these is the Santa Barbara synth pop band Gardens and Villa, a quintet of dudes insisting upon making me dance.  The group's "Dunes" LP is out now on Secretly Canadian.  Listen to "Colony Glen" below.

Symmetry - The Hunt

Italians Do It Better is reissuing Johnny Jewel's first tracks he made under the Symmetry moniker on a new vinyl release, and as per usual it's the perfect synthy soundtrack for any nefarious doings you may have on your plate.  Listen to "The Hunt" below, download, and then watch the video too.  Hooray!


And here's the video...

Majeure - Romance Language

Zombi member Anthony Paterra is back with new music from his Majeure project with the new "Romance Language" EP due out next month on Temporary Residence.  Sprawling, epic, cinematic synthscapes for the masses.  Take a listen to the title track below.

Found Vinyl: Bernard Szajner - Some Deaths Take Forever

Electronic music has had an interesting history of sound, all at once resembling the music of the future, the music of the future that was supposed to be, and the past.  Every now and then that at once retro and future sound actually would be way ahead of its time.  A prime example of this is the music for Parisian visual and audio artist Bernard Szajner.  The composer's 1980 album "Some Deaths Take Forever" combines old synthesizers, computers, and classic instruments like the baby grand piano to create a unique auditory experience that would go on to be aped by numerous artists over the next couple of decades.  You can hear the influence on musicians like Aphex Twin, Air, Boards of Canada, Oneohtrix Point Never, Nine Inch Nails, and on and on.  Listen to album opener "Welcome to Death Row."



Here's a live version of the track "Ritual," recorded in 1983.



Unfortunately, these are the only songs from the album i was able to find on youtube, but if you're even moderately interested in old school electronic music, cold wave, and such, then Szajner is worth your time.

Found VInyl: Lucifer (Mort Garson) - Black Mass

It's no secret that i am a big proponent of analog synthesizers and the compositions composed and performed with them, and so, needless to say, i am glued to the 1971 album "Black Mass" by the late, great Canadian composer/songwriter/all-around-cool-guy Mort Garson, here making music under the moniker of Lucifer.  This 30 minute opus is a collection of instrumental meditations on witchcraft and satanism performed on the always lovely and addictive Moog.  The whole thing is pretty psyched out and trippy which makes it all the more intoxicating.  It feels really retro, yet faux futuristic at the same time.  Take a listen to "Witch Trial" below.



And here's the rumbling "Incubus."



And one more for the road, the cartoonishly evil "Solomon's Ring."



This album is making its way into steady rotation around here, and i think you should give it a shot too.  No one makes anything like this anymore, and that's a damn shame.

Found Vinyl: Jan Hammer - The First Seven Days

Long before there were mountains of cocaine and the "Miami Vice" theme song, composer and musician Jan Hammer used his considerable talents...and probably a little cocaine...to write and record the 1975 album "The First Seven Days."  The record is a grand mix of old school synthesizers, guitar wankery, and overt new age mumbo jumbo.  It's the perfect blend of cheese and awesome.  Needless to say, i love it.  But enough with the formalities, here's some music.  Album opener "Darkness/Earth in Search of a Sun"...



"Oceans and Continents"...



And finally, here's "The Animals"...



Enjoy your cheese for the evening.

Sensum and Clunch

I'm just never going to jump on board with the cassette tape revival that's rising like a phoenix in the underground, but Austin's Holodeck Records just keeps putting them out...and goddammit, they're good.  Their latest release comes from Sensum and Clunch, and the duo's self-titled EP is four glorious tracks of synthesizer soundscapes (it's like they want me to buy it or something).  Awesome stuff.  Take a listen to "Stealing Reason" below and get the tape or download here.

Panabrite

Retro-analog-synthesized-library-new age music.  That about sums up the word of Seattle artist Norm Chambers, heretofore to be know as Panabrite.  His upcoming "Cortex Meridian" cassette promises to take us all deep within the circuitry of our old and dusty data processing units.  Get it from Constellation Tatsu and listen to "Abyssal II" below.