and some favorite songs of 2012 (so far)

here are just three of them:

(A Predictable) Favorites of 2012 so far...

Here are 5 albums that I've really liked this year and have put on repeat wherever I am. I've listened to more dance music than usual this year and this short list reflects that. I used to listen to a lot of IDM in high school, and a lot of bands now are returning to that grimey, cerebral, nostalgic mood-creating, and alienating brand of electronic music, while at the same time, doing very cool things with it. But besides that, no surprises.




Blues Control - Valley Tangents - Drag City
My friend Mikhael once described Blues Control as sounding like the very notion of playing music three rooms away. Against and reinforcing this paradoxical ascription, Valley Tangents features a more polished, dynamic, and thoughtful sound that only penetrates yet supports the felt walls that had distinguished their unique emotionally engaging psych jam band ethos. As a result, the album is more intimate and deeply accessible in a good way.



Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - S/T - Spectrum Spools
Formally, this album is intimidating: four songs of length 20+ minutes, but listening to the album you forget the partitions and get lost in a Neu-agey celestial quasi-post-temporal experience distinctive of an 800%-slowed-down generation that is arguably punk.



Daughn Gibson - All Hell - White Denim
Mixing elements of Scott Walker's vocal performance, a heart-melting baritone, heavy 'country' thematic and sonic overtones, and familiar electronic-techno production, Daughn Gibson comes up with an original brand of hunk-pop that is refreshing and endlessly replayable.



Death Grips - Money Store - Epic
Violent, visceral, unrestrained hit after hit.


Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland - Black Is Beautiful - Hyperdub
My favorite album of the year so far, but then again, I am partial to everything Hype Williams related. In the proper sense, this is definitely an 'album', featuring half-pop songs separated by sub 1-minute half-dubbed-out grooves that make sense only within the context of the collective body of songs. Interviews with John Maus focus on the empowering and retaliative possibilites in playing with pop music and its conventions. But Maus' sentiments often sound pretty hopeful. To me, the duo are interesting because they seem to have the knack for expressing the mystery of pop and dance music in such an appealing and liberating way. It expresses a technological-social environment that is always changing and is never predictable. Why pop and dance music is engaging in its infinite regress of smoke-screens and references makes it impossible to pin-point down in terms of its exact retaliative or social causes and effects. It's a sneaky and unclear thing. This maybe nihilistic message and skepticism about other quasi-theorisms about music is hinted at throughout Black Is Beautiful in a way that is effective and undeniably sublime. 

Other favorites:
Grimes - Visions - 4AD
Stephen Steinbrink - I Drew A Picture - Self-released
D'Eon - LP - Hippos In Tanks
Various Artists - Atlantics Vol. 2 - Astro Nautico

Playlist 7/18/12

Special show in which I am visited by a space bunny, and princess kimmie (it was her birthday!) and jeremy

(*) new release

highlight of the week:

Shoulda - On My Roost - Atlantics Vol. 2

esc ?? - Nightvision (overture) - Black Horse

Hymie's Basement - All Them Boys - Hymie's Basement

(*) Daughn Gibson - Tiffany Lou - All Hell

Aaron Dilloway - Eight Cuts Scars (For Robert Turman) - Modern Jester

The Dead C - Half - Tusk

Laurel Halo - MK Ultra - Quarantine

Dream Love - Be My Man, Woman - Dream Love

The Dovers - She's Gone - We're Not Just Anybody

(*) Peaking Lights - Cosmic Tides - Lucifer 

Macintosh Plus - 420 - Floral Shoppe

Out Hud - Dad, THere's A Little Phrase Called Too Much Information - S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.

Melt Banana - Tail In Garbage (Tekepake) - Squeak, Squeak Creak

Julee Cruise - Rocking Inside My Heart - Floating Into The Night

Windy And Carl - Remember - We Will Always Be 

[request by Saniya] Matt Baldwin - African Genesis - Night In The Triangle

Playlist 7/11/12

hello:


Dreams - OooO - Atlantics Vol. 2

Rustie - Ultra Thizz - Glass Swords

(*) Daughn Gibson - A Young Girl's World - All Hell

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Only In Dreams - Mature THemes

Wet Hair - Strange Romance - Spill Into Atmosphere

Close Lobsters - A Prophecy - Foxheads Stalk This Land

[request!] Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland - 5 - Black Is Beautiful

Arrington De Dionyso And Kuda Lumping - Track 2 - Trance Music Of East Java

Blues Control - Iron Pigs - Valley Tangents

Mondo Lava - Fade Away Jump Shot Under Streetlamp - Mondo Lava/Eternal Tapestry

Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos - Jungle - FRKWYS Vol. 9

The Pop Group - Don't Call Me Pain - Y

Swans - Big Strong Boss - Filth

Mutators - Bourgeios Fantasy - Secret Life

Pop. 1280 - Burn THe WOrm - The Horror

Alpha Strategy - Append And Divide - Muck

Playlist 7/4/12

sorry this is way overdue! but I am here for this groovin' summer


my first show of summer quarter: 

Dane Chadwick - Qucken - Atlantics Vol. 2

Clams Casino - Human *unreleased - Instrumental Mixtape 2

Polysick - Loading.. - Digital Native

Friendzone - I Have Nothing - Collection 1

Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe (Dan Deacon Remix)

Boredoms - Bubblebop Shot - Soul Discharge 99'

Nautical Almanac - Try It 2wice - Cover The Earth

Peaking Lights - Cosmic Tides - Lucifer

0000-A70U-0075 - NW-10V - ///

Grimes - Vanessa - Darkbloom

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Born In The USA (W Concern) - Advance Base Battery Life

White Poppy Wish & Wonder - I Had A Dream

Cankun - Where's Zion? - Idle

The Avengers - The Amerikan In Me - The Avengers (Pink Album)

Brian Eno - Needles In The Camel's Eye - Here Come The Warm Jets

Lantern - Out Of Our Heads - Dream Mine

Brian Bawinkle - Oh Mother, The Handsome Man Tortures Me - Choubi coubi (Folk And Pop Songs From Iraq)

Gustoforte - Evry Courcourrones - Gustoforte

Bill Callahan - America! - Apocalypse

Dean Blunt - Choice Of A New Generation

Russian Tsarlag - Take U Home - Eternal Flame

Playlist 6/13/12

Diana of Dory Previn's Power Hour subbing for me and doing a fab job as always!


(*) new release


Dustin Wong - Anniversary Song - Let It Go

Frankie Rose and the Outs - Hollow Life - Frankie Rose and the Outs

Dustin O'Halloran - Opus 26 - Piano Solos Vol. 2

Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree - Soft Airplane

John Maus - Do Your Best - Love is Real

(*) Liars - His and Mine Sensations - Wixiw

Can - She Brings the Rain - N/A

Los Yetis - Me Siento Loco (Quiero Volar y No Puedo Gritar) - Olvidate

NO - Stay with Me - N/A

Deep Time - Clouds - Deep Time

Ruth - Polaroid/Roman/Photo - BIPPP: French Synth Wave 1979-85

Teengirl Fantasy - Dancing in Slow Motion - 7AM

Purity Ring - Obedear - Shrines

Blood Diamonds (feat. Grimes) - Phone Sex - N/A

Balam Acab - My Boo - N.A
Book of Love - Boy - N/A

Chairlift - Guilty as Charged - Something

True Gold - Undulate - N/A

Chelsea Wolfe - The Wasteland - Apokalypsis 
Day Joy - Talks of Terror - Animal Noise EP
The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 4 - Song Islands

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space

Ganglians - Blood on the Sand - N/A

Warm Weather - I Only Know - Dances EP

Trippples Nipples - Golden Road (Oil Change Remix) - N/A

Tiger Waves - Weekends - Weekends

Blank Dogs - The Station - On Two Sides

Women - Drag Queen - Public Strain

Zorch - E.M.F. - Comic Gloss/E.M.F.

Playlist 6/6/12

Definite highlight is Thrill Killer from Terror Bird's newest album Secret Rituals.


(*) new releases

Laurel Halo - Hour Logic - Hour Logic

Polysick - Smudge, Hawaii - Digital Native

Boards Of Canada - Olsen #3 - Peel Sessions

Terror Bird - Thrill Killer - Secret Rituals

Avengers - Desperation - Pink Album

Human Teenager - Fourth Reich - Animal Husbandry

Teenage Panzerkorps - Shopping Blitz - Games For Slaves

Owen Marshall - Electric Flower - The Naked Truth

Zinja Hlungwani - Ntombi Y Mugaza - Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa

Wet Hair - Tarantula - In Vogue Spirit

Deux - Game And Performance - BIPPP: French Synth Wave 1979-1985

(*) Liars - No. 1 Against The Rush - WIXIW

(*) Daughn Gibson - In The Beginning - All Hell

Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - Late Day Sun Silhouettes - Luminaries & Synastry

Magik Markers - Don't Talk In Your Sleep - Balf Quarry

(*) Willis Earl Beal - Take Me Away - Acousmatic Sorcery *requested by Saniya

Stephan Eicher - Sweet Jane - Spielt Noise Boys

Inner Tube - Faisal's Pad - Inner Tube

(*) Broken Water - Drown - Tempest

Mutators - Get It Clean - Secret Life

Slowdive - Altogether - Souvlaki

Opposite Sex - La Rat - Opposite Sex

Bats - I Go Wild - Tuatara