Filed under: Ambient, Chillwave, Electronica, Psychadelic | Tags: ambient, beautiful landscapes, chillwave, dream pop, dreamy, music, northwestern passages, Psychedelic, Synth, visual
Canadian producer TAWD released his Northwestern Passages EP this time last month and I’ve finally gotten the chance to give it a listen-through. As the perfect counterpart for the dreamy Sleep ∞ Over or Boy Friend style chillwave records, TAWD hits the nail right on the head with his own label of ‘chillgaze’. Synth-heavy and atmospheric, much of TAWD‘s EP induces feelings of soaring through the pink sky over beautiful landscapes.When that last synth trail slowly fades to silence at the end of the EP’s last track Eight Years, it’s like you’ve finally waved goodbye and disappeared into the horizon riding on a magical cloud.
http://soundcloud.com/t-a-w-d/spotlight
Filed under: Ambient, Electronica, Psychadelic | Tags: Electronica, future beat, many moons, music, Psychedelic, science fiction masterpiece, Soothing, Synth
If music genres were the same as film genres, then Subvader‘s Forever Leaving EP would be right up there as a Science-Fiction masterpiece.
The whole EP is very well-crafted and atmospheric. Rather than a mish-mash of various tracks, the whole thing has a particular tone and theme but manages to express it in ways that do not get boring. I would have ordered the tracks differently, having it open with the swirling synth arpeggios of The Cave and then having it move in deeper- but there’s no use needling down criticism on small stuff like that when you have such a great overall piece of work.
Download:
Listen:
Filed under: Ambient, Mellow | Tags: ambient, Chilled, mellow, quiet, Selected Ambient Works, Soothing, winter air
When it comes to ambient music there’s only really 3 ways that you can go when naming a track… there’s the Autechre method of mashing the keyboard with your fist and calling your new masterpiece something like ‘Derfg’, there’s the somewhat pompous method of naming it something like ‘Tulips Dancing in the Winter Air’ and then there’s the method that David Bonas has chosen, simply assigning a number to the track which, when paired with a genre results in something like Ambient 2. While it may not be much in terms of creative titling, it gets the job done.
It may be an oldie, but it’s still an underground gem. Just needed this to cure my morning-after-a-big-night feeling.
Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/davidbonas/
Filed under: Ambient, Beats, Chilled, Chillwave, Experimental, Mellow | Tags: Chilled, chillout, downtempo, Electronica, experimental, mellow, post-trip-hop, Soothing, Trip-Hop
Everyone has bizzare rituals; whether it be conditioning thier hair before they shampoo, purposely wearing socks inside out- or something a little more involved, like sitting in the same seat at the same bar every Friday after work and ordering the same drink. We all have little things that we like to keep to ourselves- it’s what keeps us sane. For me, every Sunday night after I get home from the radio station, I pour myself a small glass of red wine, turn the TV onto the ‘classic movies’ channel (where they play all the old black-and white films), mute it, and listen to music.
Kwala‘s album Shabang may be the perfect soundtrack for these moments. As wine slowly stains my lips and the suave-looking detective in the movie lights up his cigar, Kwala‘s expansive pads and smooth down-tempo rhythms fill the full aural spectrum. Not demanding enough to be abrasive or distracting, yet far from being boring or repetitive- the best way to describe Kwala‘s music would be something like ‘post-trip-hop’. Excuse my ‘typical-music-blogger-making-up-meaningless-genres-to-avoid-actually-describing-the-music’, but being superfluous when it comes to these things does nothing justice. Plus I want to enjoy my wine.
The full album is available here for a pick-your-price download and it comes with my highest recommendation:
<edit: It seems to have disappeared, but there is still some great stuff up there>
Filed under: Ambient, Chillwave | Tags: ambient, chillwaved, downtempo, glo-fi, oliver tank, relaxing, Soothing, stumbleine, wintercoats
Reminiscent of Oliver Tank, Wintercoats and even Steffaloo, the Bristol-based glo-fi artist Stumbleine is consistently superb, and with the recent release of a new album off of bandcamp, now is as good a time as ever to post the relaxing ambient chillwave peice Bloom released a little over a year ago within the pick-your price All For Your Smile.
Make sure you check out the new album:
http://stumbleine.bandcamp.com/album/drifting-youth
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled | Tags: ambient, ambient track, Selected Ambient Works, Soothing
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a soothing ambient track, and coincidentally I’m very hung-over today, so now would be as good a time as ever right?
Dreams West has created a real textural beauty with Distant. Reminiscent of Aphex Twin-style Selected Ambient Works, the sounds in Distant create a vast aural soundscape… Falling in short at 2.13, I would prefer the track to have lasted longer, however it’s more like splashing your face with cold water on a hot day- a quick and satisfying refreshment.
The come-down is a smooth fade out which isn’t jarring. You could even say that Distant calmly rests your mind and primes you for more listening pleasure (follow it with something like this).
Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/dreamswest
Bandcamp:
http://dreamswest.bandcamp.com/
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Chillwave, Dance, Electronica, Experimental, MIXTAPE | Tags: ambient, Dance, Electronica, experimental, Mixtape, progressive
I’m going away for the week to enjoy the great Australian summer, so to keep your ears satisfied while I’m gone…
Another Fuck the Radio mixtape!
Fuck Melody features some artists you’ve already seen on this blog, and some you haven’t- it plays out like a DJ set, however the tracks are all split into individual files to make listening a breeze. Also included are links to all the artists featured.
I guarantee you’ll love it- or your money back it’s free! You literally have NOTHING to lose.
Filed under: Ambient, Electronica, Experimental | Tags: ambient, audio art, Electronica, experimental
Sound Toned‘s works are all unique examples of audio-art rather than traditionalist ‘music’. Also found on his Soundcloud page are a unique variety of spoken-word soundscapes and world-music.
Dark Waters is a space-y electronic piece, with beautiful sounds and tight percussive sounds that go against the normal conventions of ‘ambient’, while not quite crossing over into the miasma of ‘experimental’.
Download:
Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/sound-toned
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Concrete | Tags: ambient, ambient track, geotic, Soothing, visual
Will Wiesenfeld has operated under numerous aliases, including his most famous monkier Baths and his older project [Post-Foetus].
Geotic is an ambient/minimal side-project by Wiesenfeld that has seen the multiple free releases on here. His most recent release- the EP entitled Bless the Self is what I’m posting about this fine summery night.
In Australia, we have summer during Christmas time, and so rather than associating the festive season with snowmen and ice-skating- it’s all about sitting back on the beach with your mates under the hot summer sun… Or enjoying a sunny Christmas bbq with a beer in hand. If you were to capture the feeling of Christmas in Australia on a super-8 film (to the young kids… that means something like the ‘hipstermatic’ app on your iPhone), Bless the Self would be a suitable soundtrack, joyous and colourful, filled with smiling girls wearing sunglasses laughing happily on the sandy beach. This probably comes from the soothing field-recording of the sound of light wind that Wiesenfeld has utilized throughout the record reminding me of waves at the beach.
The whole album plays through gaplessley- working much like a 14minute long ambient track, it is true that the whole is much greater that the sum of each individual track. In fact, I would hazard a guess and say that Bless the Self began it’s life as one track that was split up into 5 separate parts. For this reason I’m not going to bother posting a Fuck the Radio download, but rather link you to the official download for the EP itself. Don’t worry- it’s still free. Although Geotic appreciates donations made here.
Download:
Website (with plenty of other free goodness):
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/postfoetus/geotic.html
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Electronica | Tags: ambient, Chilled, Electronica, independant, Soothing
Apologies for the slack posting, I was recovering from my Dubcage launch hangover. As a shameless publicity stunt, every 10 likes we got at http://www.facebook.com/dubcage resulted in us doing a shot of liquor on air… and let me tell you, 22 shots of bourbon was never meant to be consumed by any human. You can catch Dubcage at 10pm Melbourne time Sunday nights at dubcage.com or on 88.3 Southern FM.
Speaking of Melbourne, our artist Thrupence also hails from this part of the world. I’m really digging his soothing electronica, in-between chillwave and ambient with a romantic twist, Thrupence writes nothing on his Soundcloud page description other than I try to make beautiful things – an accomplishment well earned I think. I’d love to post all of his music, but I’ll give you his latest track and leave the link to his Soundcloud for you to explore.
Download:
Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/thrupence/tracks
PS: Check out another Fuck the Radio Radio Show coming soon…
Filed under: Ambient, Mellow | Tags: ambient, Chilled, independant, mellow
Positive Limitation is a track I found hidden away in my ever-growing maze of music folders with no hint as to how I acquired it.
All I know is that it’s credited to ‘Insun‘. This may or may not be the same Insun as this Sweedish trance producer who has similar stylistic attributes in his music; but he doesn’t seem to have a track named Positive Limitation available… which further deepens the mystery of how it ended up in my possession.
Regardless; if you are into looming ambient music- check out Positive Limitation– a track which you might not be able to find anywhere else!
Here in Melbourne Australia, I laugh while I watch high-school students scramble to get through the most terrifying, over-bearing and stressful time of their lives: End of year exams.
High School Exams are like a rite of passage… No matter how great or disappointing your result, the feeling of accomplishment granted on that final utterance of ‘pens down’ by the overly self-important pensioner paid minimum wage to supervise you is like no other. Angels fly down from the heavens and lift you into the clouds on a pure-white unicorn-fur blanket as you drift slowly-but-surely to your celebratory hangover the next morning. You awake with no memory of your post-exam drinks other than the fleeting moment of the night where you stood upon the tallest table you could find and shouted “I DID IT!”
Analogue Interrupt‘s beautifully composed Between the Stars is reminiscent of what the soundtrack would be to the aforementioned scene were it in an 80s teen-film.
Wide pads accompany a soft melody to create a Vangelis-like ambient piece. It’s a testament to Analogue‘s musical ability to create a peice as engaging as Between the Stars that at the same time retains it’s inherently ambient feel.
A song for high-schoolers to listen to while studying… and beyond.
Download:
Analogue Interrupt – Between the Stars
Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/analog-interrupt/
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Jazz | Tags: Acoustic, ambient, Chilled, chillout, downtempo, Jazz
Juzhin is a downtempo artist from Moscow putting out some really amazing music… and he’s giving it away for free on Soundcloud, so get in there before the rest of the world discovers him.
Tupona is a pleasurable mix of acoustic sounds. I’m guessing there are samples in there because I can hear the pop and crackle of vinyl. It’s really neat stuff, a laid back fusion of chamber-jazz and ambient; artfully crafted in a way that pushes Jason May (the man behind the music) beyond the negative stigma of ‘producer’ and into the respectful realm of being a ‘musician’. That said, everything is well produced to a very professional quality, and although his soundcloud following may be small, you can safely bet Juzhin is no stranger to being played through the headphones of many.
Download:
Soundcloud:
Sorry for missing a few days of posting… not going to lie, I decided I was going to play video games all week.
So I re-install Half Life 2 and play through that… Then HL2 Episode 1, then HL2 Episode 2… and all the way through I’m thinking how amazing the music is. This is not a blog about video games so I won’t talk about this too much, but my favourite part about Half Life 2 is its atmosphere- the dystopian future it is set in really has a personality of its own that contributes greatly to the way the game feels… one of the ways this is accomplished is through its amazing soundtrack.
I pulled up my Orange Box soundtrack in iTunes and gave it a listen- the Portal soundtrack is exceptional. Self Esteem Fund is a haunting ambient piece that adds a layer of depth to the isolated, lonely feeling that the game possesses at parts. But even better is the fact that on it’s own, it’s still great music, I recommend you give it a listen:
Portal Soundtrack – Self Esteem Fund
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Rock, Vocals | Tags: Hypnotic, Trip-Hop, vocals
Hooverphonic were one of my first experiences with trip-hop. I can’t believe I’ve neglected to post them, the trouble is that I just want to post all their music.
They released a new album in 2010 that moved away from their trip-hop roots towards a pop/rock type sound that kind of disappointed me, because tracks like 2Wicky just sounded like they had so much more depth to them. However, I highly recommend you listen to their earlier albums The Magnificent Tree and A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular.
fucktheradio 