April 2014 Listening

One of my favorite INA-GRM records reissued by Recollection GRM. Risset makes descending tones that anybody who likes electronic music need to hear. Sounds like falling down staircase while doing a science experiment.

Somehow I checked the Blackest Ever Black website at the exact right time to score their two new Krokodilo cassette tapes. This one is almost a complete mystery. Who made it? Why is the title a quote from a book review concerning rural class disparities during the Middle Ages? How is it so scary sounding and soothing? Drone countryside scariness.

Johnny Pemberton interviews Billy Stunt Rock for a long talk on the beach. Features a staggering recollection of midwest rave stories: raving hard, revolting against the rave, collecting Betamax tapes, and creating something every week.

Speaking of midwest rave memories, this record is built from the thudding acid techno of the 1990s. Yet it's a brand new record. And it feels slower, groovier. The other side of the record gets introspective and moody, the sunrise you see at the end of the night.

A mix of new digital reggae, soundsystem dub, and dubstep whatever genre I cannot believe I'm typing. The music is all sounding good. Stark and thick. I might need to check out some ZamZam Sounds releases.

Gene Krupa's 1956 self-titled album. Slowing down, speeding up, frenetic, and jumping jazz band tunes. Contains one of my all time favorite drum intros on "Drum Boogie". Found this digging for 1980s noir jazz, this might be better. Zelda digs this.

I still keep listening to the sound samples on soundcloud. Anxiously awaiting this record to arrive. Go to nap/sleep/dream in this ambient, chiming, mud music.

Sexy dance music from NYC. Or maybe elsewhere. Mystery music makers churn about Arthur Russell sounding keyboards while diva vocals edge toward sultry. Slow motion and steady four to the floor thump thump thumping. Sounds strangely good and addicting.

Robbie Robertson gathers together the classic rock, rowdy R&B, howling blues, and jazzy shades that sound tense and taut. I haven't yet watched the movie, but I already cannot stop playing the soundtrack. If I could learn all I know about music from Martin Scorsese movies, I would be a very happy dude. I actually first heard Gene Krupa's "Drum Boogie", listed above, on the Raging Bull soundtrack.

Ouch and burn. Pure Ground are a synth minimal wave band from Los Angeles. They make music that sounds like a bad day of woke up this morning feelings mixed with repetitive synth lines. Pure Ground use a sense of minor key melody and beaten up pop structure to make heavy music. "Atlantic Wall" gives me chills every time I hear the middle of the song, when keyboards suddenly lift off with an almost identical bass line. Could this be soaring industrial music? Vinyl pressing of music originally released on two cassettes.