twistedsun hi-fi #5
Nov.04.06 Filed in: music
It's been a while since my last hi-fi post so I
thought I would throw one together. Lately I've still
been stuck on a lot of the music from the last ts
hi-fi because there are some albums that have stuck
in my head that I just can't stop playing. My music
listening has been torn recently because there has
been a whole lot of great music to come along
recently that I just cant shake off. This year has
been pretty slow for music in my opinion but suddenly
here in the fall things have really started to come
together and a lot of really great music is getting
released. So anyways, without further mess...
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Viroon
Everyone has times in live where they need nothing more than to sit down with a pair of headphones, close their eyes and meditate with some sort of forgiving, easy on the ears, not so distracting music. Recently that need has been met by a pair of releases by Japanese composers Alva Noto and Ryuchi Sakamoto. The album above is the one I picked for this list simply because I got it fairly recently. The other release is called Insen and I think edges out Viroon overall. Within these sound waves you can expect to hear some of the most beautiful ambient piano music you have ever heard from Ryuchi which is perfectly complemented by Alva's gentle electronic edge. You just cant beat these releases. They come highly recommended. Here it here (itunes link)
Arovane - Lilies
I featured Arovane's first full length album here on the first hi-fi a month or so ago and this time around I am adding his newer album called lilies to the mix. Although his music is not all that groundbreaking it is very very good. He has a great since for subtle, simplistic melodies that drift through his music. There are a few samples in here from a trip to Japan that he took if I am remembering right from reading about this record on the labels site which fit nicely into his style. If you check this album out at least listen to the track Tokyo Ghost Stories which I find gorgeous and haunting but what do I know, right? Hear it here (itunes link)
FourTet - Remixed/Remixes
This is the latest album from the now infamous FourTet Is a double album. One disc is full of songs that he has remixed and the other are remixes by other artists of his own work. At first listen I could take it or leave it but the more I listened to the remixes side (remixes he has done) the more it becomes clear to me that he is one of the best electronic musicians remixing music today. Being an electronic musician myself I can say that it is one thing to be good at making music on your own terms but to take another musicians music and make it your own while still letting the soul of the original track live on is a tricky balancing act that I feel that he has mastered. There are a ton of great remixes on here some that I have head and some that are pretty new to me. The disc of other artists remixing him has its moments but I feel as though his own remixes are where the real treasure in this release are.
Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
I remember years back I used to listen to Sunny Day Real Estate a lot. They were one of the first indie rock bands that I really got into and what drew me in was the dynamic vocals and melodies of the singer Jeremy Enigk. I knew that he had done a solo record a year or so back and I heard it but never really gave it much of a chance. Well a couple weeks ago he released a new solo record and I got my hands on it to check out and at first listen I just kind of shrugged it off. Then one night I was sitting down going through some new music and came to this album and lay back and listened to it nearly all the way through because I found that I didn't want to stop listening. I think what did it was the second track which is called Been Here Before. It really stuck with me, the song builds up through a chorus or two and then out of nowhere breaks into this great melody played on a huge sounding pipe organ. It's just a great track and leads right into a really amazing album that I can't seem to get enough of. The song I mentioned that I like so much is on the labels website I think you can buy the whole album there as well.
Nina Nastasia - On Leaving
I first started getting into Nina's music when I heard her reissued first full length album called Dogs and loved her smooth sounding singing and the swaying rhythms within her melodies. I have since picked up her other albums and have really enjoyed all of them so I was excited to hear that she had a new one out. The thing I really like about this one is the scaled down approach to the production of the music. I like the stripped down approach to these songs. Styles seem to vary a lot between songs as well, one will sound a touch irish in a way then one will sound more like american folk and there is one song on here that I swear sounds like a quasi song. At any rate, its a great album and well worth checking out if your looking for some relaxing singer songwriter type music. Hear it here (itunes link)
The Places - Songs For Creeps
I first heard Amy Annelly when I found one of her solo albums on emusic years ago called A School Of Secret Dangers and couldn't stop listening to it. She has been called a female Elliott Smith which I only slightly agree with. I mostly just enjoy her lo-fi approach to her song writing and recording. You will often find samples of fuzzy radio stations which add to the feel of the recordings that really add to the overall mood of the albums. So other than her solo record she also has released albums with a "band" made of what pretty much seems to be other musician friends in the portland area and these are released using the name The Places. The last album released as the places was on hush records and felt a little over produced and was almost painfully slow moving. Absolutely gorgeous but very very sleepy. Songs For Creeps seems to be a perfect bridge between these two worlds. The album is riddled with new favorites of mine and I really cant recommend the album highly enough.
You can pick the album up on her website via paypal. Here you can also sample plenty of music should you be curious. Link
Squarepusher - Hello Everything
Ah Squarepusher is at it again, this time he had a lot to live up to in my opinion. After his brilliant album Ultravisitor and killer Venus No. 17 EP I was really wondering how many more tricks he had up his sleeve. I have to admit that when I first picked this up I put it on and skipped through the whole album without feeling the least bit excited and was left pretty disappointed. This is not another Ultravisitor, there is no Stienbolt on this one and I couldn't help but feel really underwhelmed. A couple of days later I came across a huge article where fans asked him questions and it opened my eyes to what he is doing with his music. He seems to release music that he wants to hear. With this album he decided to try something lighter than usual and took a more direct interest in writing melodies and synth/bass lines that he thought were fun to play a listen to and now listening back to it I find that I'm no longer comparing it to everything else he has released and started listening to it for what it is. It has really helped me get into it and I would have to admit that it's really growing on me. There is this one song in the middle called Vacuum Garden that is a 6 minute ambient song and its one of the most interesting ambient tracks I have heard in a while. Really has a distinct mood to it and overall you will find everything from his classic dnb to his jazz inspired more acoustic type tracks. Hear it here.
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Viroon
Everyone has times in live where they need nothing more than to sit down with a pair of headphones, close their eyes and meditate with some sort of forgiving, easy on the ears, not so distracting music. Recently that need has been met by a pair of releases by Japanese composers Alva Noto and Ryuchi Sakamoto. The album above is the one I picked for this list simply because I got it fairly recently. The other release is called Insen and I think edges out Viroon overall. Within these sound waves you can expect to hear some of the most beautiful ambient piano music you have ever heard from Ryuchi which is perfectly complemented by Alva's gentle electronic edge. You just cant beat these releases. They come highly recommended. Here it here (itunes link)
Arovane - Lilies
I featured Arovane's first full length album here on the first hi-fi a month or so ago and this time around I am adding his newer album called lilies to the mix. Although his music is not all that groundbreaking it is very very good. He has a great since for subtle, simplistic melodies that drift through his music. There are a few samples in here from a trip to Japan that he took if I am remembering right from reading about this record on the labels site which fit nicely into his style. If you check this album out at least listen to the track Tokyo Ghost Stories which I find gorgeous and haunting but what do I know, right? Hear it here (itunes link)
FourTet - Remixed/Remixes
This is the latest album from the now infamous FourTet Is a double album. One disc is full of songs that he has remixed and the other are remixes by other artists of his own work. At first listen I could take it or leave it but the more I listened to the remixes side (remixes he has done) the more it becomes clear to me that he is one of the best electronic musicians remixing music today. Being an electronic musician myself I can say that it is one thing to be good at making music on your own terms but to take another musicians music and make it your own while still letting the soul of the original track live on is a tricky balancing act that I feel that he has mastered. There are a ton of great remixes on here some that I have head and some that are pretty new to me. The disc of other artists remixing him has its moments but I feel as though his own remixes are where the real treasure in this release are.
Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
I remember years back I used to listen to Sunny Day Real Estate a lot. They were one of the first indie rock bands that I really got into and what drew me in was the dynamic vocals and melodies of the singer Jeremy Enigk. I knew that he had done a solo record a year or so back and I heard it but never really gave it much of a chance. Well a couple weeks ago he released a new solo record and I got my hands on it to check out and at first listen I just kind of shrugged it off. Then one night I was sitting down going through some new music and came to this album and lay back and listened to it nearly all the way through because I found that I didn't want to stop listening. I think what did it was the second track which is called Been Here Before. It really stuck with me, the song builds up through a chorus or two and then out of nowhere breaks into this great melody played on a huge sounding pipe organ. It's just a great track and leads right into a really amazing album that I can't seem to get enough of. The song I mentioned that I like so much is on the labels website I think you can buy the whole album there as well.
Nina Nastasia - On Leaving
I first started getting into Nina's music when I heard her reissued first full length album called Dogs and loved her smooth sounding singing and the swaying rhythms within her melodies. I have since picked up her other albums and have really enjoyed all of them so I was excited to hear that she had a new one out. The thing I really like about this one is the scaled down approach to the production of the music. I like the stripped down approach to these songs. Styles seem to vary a lot between songs as well, one will sound a touch irish in a way then one will sound more like american folk and there is one song on here that I swear sounds like a quasi song. At any rate, its a great album and well worth checking out if your looking for some relaxing singer songwriter type music. Hear it here (itunes link)
The Places - Songs For Creeps
I first heard Amy Annelly when I found one of her solo albums on emusic years ago called A School Of Secret Dangers and couldn't stop listening to it. She has been called a female Elliott Smith which I only slightly agree with. I mostly just enjoy her lo-fi approach to her song writing and recording. You will often find samples of fuzzy radio stations which add to the feel of the recordings that really add to the overall mood of the albums. So other than her solo record she also has released albums with a "band" made of what pretty much seems to be other musician friends in the portland area and these are released using the name The Places. The last album released as the places was on hush records and felt a little over produced and was almost painfully slow moving. Absolutely gorgeous but very very sleepy. Songs For Creeps seems to be a perfect bridge between these two worlds. The album is riddled with new favorites of mine and I really cant recommend the album highly enough.
You can pick the album up on her website via paypal. Here you can also sample plenty of music should you be curious. Link
Squarepusher - Hello Everything
Ah Squarepusher is at it again, this time he had a lot to live up to in my opinion. After his brilliant album Ultravisitor and killer Venus No. 17 EP I was really wondering how many more tricks he had up his sleeve. I have to admit that when I first picked this up I put it on and skipped through the whole album without feeling the least bit excited and was left pretty disappointed. This is not another Ultravisitor, there is no Stienbolt on this one and I couldn't help but feel really underwhelmed. A couple of days later I came across a huge article where fans asked him questions and it opened my eyes to what he is doing with his music. He seems to release music that he wants to hear. With this album he decided to try something lighter than usual and took a more direct interest in writing melodies and synth/bass lines that he thought were fun to play a listen to and now listening back to it I find that I'm no longer comparing it to everything else he has released and started listening to it for what it is. It has really helped me get into it and I would have to admit that it's really growing on me. There is this one song in the middle called Vacuum Garden that is a 6 minute ambient song and its one of the most interesting ambient tracks I have heard in a while. Really has a distinct mood to it and overall you will find everything from his classic dnb to his jazz inspired more acoustic type tracks. Hear it here.
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