Derive This: Cloudcycle

I was thrilled today to discover Cloudcycle, a site hosting a collaboration between three of my fave artist: Greg Hunter (a legend involved in some of the most influential electronic artist and recordings such as The Orb, Juno Reactor, Killing Joke, and now operating as Dubsahara), Mauxuam (a newcomer to me but has a winning release on Interchill Records and some great collaborations), and Master Margherita (who's bag of tricks spans from traditional reggae to psy-trance and who's output includes some of my most essential favorites).

Being familiar with the three electronic dub specialists' other work, I anticipated some really interesting results. I'm still exploring the expansive, deep tracks and have yet to be disappointed.

There are a few things in addition to the artists and music that make this an exceptional site. First they actually have high quality options. After years of being grumpy that MP3 was the only option for purchasing music downloads, I'm glad to see the momentum for lossless and high resolution formats finally taking off. Second, they have a great pricing model. You can download high bit-rate MP3 for free, CD quality FLAC for a no-minimum donation, and high rez uncompressed files for those with more discriminating ears and equipment for a minimum donation. What an intelligent way to promote, distribute, and sell. Finally, they offer samples to download, brew your own remix, then load back up to share. The project seems open-ended, organic, and under constant evolution.

Go check out Cloudcycle.

Music Recommendations, Cheap And Easy: Sounds From The Ground

I just received the latest CD from Sounds From The Ground, 'Brightwhitelight'. For their sixth full length release they closely follow their winning formula: Spaced-out atmospheric dub, clever rhythms, and carefully crafted sounds. (And as I usually prefer, no vocal tracks on this one.) I absolutely love and recommend it, as I do any SFTG CD. (My least favorite are 'Natural Selection' and 'Footprints', but even they are quite good. For $10 you can get it direct from the label, Waveform Records, or most music retailers.

Music Recommendations, Cheap And Easy: The Beloved

I listened to an old favorite this morning: 'X' by The Beloved.

I generally don't care for house music. 'X' however, I find very appealing.

Even though the structure is mostly typical pop (except Crystal Wave, an instrumental DJ journey), I find the sound very original and distinct. The lyrics are sentimental but somehow not sappy or annoying. Instead there is a sense of sincerity I credit to Jon's mellow, unforced vocal style. 'X' is a notch darker than other Beloved albums.

The atmospheric backdrop contributes immensely to each song. It makes me wish Jon Marsh would release an ambient album. Production quality is tops. It is enjoyable on any system, but the listening experience played loud through quality speakers justifies a substantial hi-fi budget.

After more than a decade, I find 'X' a durable favorite, enjoyable from start to finish.

'X' is not too hard to locate for under $15. I also recommend the previous two Beloved albums 'Happiness' and 'Conscience', which are even easier and less expensive to locate.

Area Under A Curve (1)

Download it.

This is a live recording of one of my cafe sets from March 2008.

• Dub Trees: Magnetica (The Love That Moves The Sun And Stars Mix)
• Dreadzone: First Steps (Intro), King Dub Rock
• Orient Expressions: Istanbul 1:26 AM
• Pitch Black: Harmonia
• Palyrria: Askia
• Makyo: Soar Angelic
• Sounds From The Ground: Snow (Instrumental)
• Desert Dwellers: Om Namo Bhagavate

Tonight's Playlist

Thanks to those at Sugarhouse Coffee tonight for listening . Here's what I played:

• (Sound check) Elvis Costello: Watching The Detectives

• Dub Trees: Magnetica (The Love That Moves The Sun And Stars Mix)
• Dreadzone: First Steps (Intro), King Dub Rock
• Orient Expressions: Istanbul 1:26 AM
• Pitch Black: Harmonia
• Palyrria: Askia
• Makyo: Soar Angelic
• Sounds From The Ground: Snow (Instrumental)
• Desert Dwellers: Om Namo Bhagavate

As usual, I suggest the bold releases are essential.

The Elvis Costello track I have on 'Greatest Hits, The First Ten Years' which is not in the Discogs database yet. The track was found on his 1977 (!) release 'My Aim Is True' and is on several greatest hits compilations. I'm not crazy about Elvis, but this 30 year old dub track is brilliant.

Orient Expressions 'Divan' is still not in Discogs.

'Snow' by Sounds From The Ground is better served as an instrumental as on the harder to find 'Mosaic' CD, rather than the vocal found on 'Footprints'.

The set was a bit short, just under an hour, but I really like the way it came together. I recorded it and will try to post it for download.

Tonight's Playlist

Thanks to those who came out to hear tonight's set. Here's what I played:

• Makyo: Suzhou River (Underwater Dub)
• Eurythmics: This City Never Sleeps
• Yello: Tied Up (In Red)
• Juno Reactor: Jardin De Cecile
• Xymox: Dreamhouse
• Banco De Gaia: Starstation Earth
• Palyrria: Space Blues
• Pitch Black: Please Leave Quietly
• Hallucinogen: L.S.D. (World Sheet Of Closed String)
• Jairamji: Chime
• Art Of Noise: Camilla, The Old Old Story
• Shpongle: Saudade (2)
• Pop Will Eat Itself: Intense
• Gaudi: Chaine A Chaine
• Dead Can Dance: Bird
• Peaking Goddess Collective: Purple
• God Of Luxury: Empirical Measures

This mix was a little more eclectic and had a few tracks in common with my previous set. Again I highly recommend these albums. They range from very good to essential.

You can get Makyo and Jairamji direct from Makyo's label, Dakini Records. All of the Dakini releases are fantastic.

The Gods Of Luxury CD is impossibly rare and expensive. I lucked out some years ago and got it for $36 on ebay. Now it goes for $200. It's so good though it's not a bad investment.

The best deal I know for Palyrria is at CD Baby.

I'll be out of town for the next few weeks so my next gig will be mid-late March.

Earthday 2007 Set

Download it.

Last Spring Stroud gave me a 1 hour slot on the DJ stage at Earth Jam, the Salt Lake Earth Day festival. The weather was miserable and the turn out was small, but I had a ball playing the following set:

Timeshard: Cosmic Carrot (Parts 1 And 2, Live) *
Eat Static: Ufo Over Trenchtown *
Transglobal Underground: Templehead (Youth Ambient Meditations Mix) *
Test Dept: Critical Dub
Meat Beat Manifesto: Memory Unavailable
Flexitones: Roaring Lion
Morcheeba: Tape Loop (Diabolical Brothers Remix) *
Banco De Gaia: Sakarya
Ott: Billy The Kid Strikes Back *
Dzihan & Kamien: Smile (Aromabar Remix)
Underworld: 8 Ball *

(* Recommended as essential CD's)

Tonight's Playlist

Thanks to those who came out to listen tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed playing and the response I got. Also thanks again to Stroud for inviting me. I had only planned to play for one hour but the second DJ was a no-show. I had brought a stack of extra music so I got to spin for two hours.

I'll re-record the set and post it for download sometime. Here's the playlist.

Palyrria: Askia
Dead Can Dance: Bird
Peaking Goddess Collective: Purple
Gods Of Luxury: Empirical Measures
Art Of Noise: Camilla (The Old Old Story)
Shpongle: Saudade (Part 2)
Orient Expressions: Istanbul 1:26 AM
Doof: Star Over Parvati (Orchestral World Groove Mix, Gaudi)
Ensemble Bash: Mopti Street (Banco De Gaia Mix)
Continuo: Weather Girl
DJ Food: The Crow
Gaudi: Chaine A Chaine (Backroom Beats Version)
Pop Will Eat Itself: Intense
Sounds From The Ground: Where The Wild Things Were
Hallucinogen: Solstice (Warwick Bassmonkey Mix By Ott)
Pitch Black: Harmonia
Cell: Explicit Rotative Movement
Orient Expressions: Ehmedo
Woob: On Earth

I've linked each track to the respective source album on Discogs. I highly recommend most of these source CDs , though some are extremely rare. The compilations are less consistent and may include a dud or two, among some worthwhile tracks. The two Orient Expressions tracks are not yet linked to they source album, 'Divan'.

Music Recommendations, Cheap And Easy: Bhakta

Bhakta:

Open Transmission
<$5 @ Amazon, Ebay, Half

Snow On Venus
$15 @ CD Baby, artists homepage

Today's recommendations are inexpensive, obscure, and essential.

I stumbled across 2 tracks from Bhakta's 'Open Transmission' while doing some "research" on Usenet. They immediately sparked my interest and I ordered the CD. It is a hybrid of modern electronics and traditional Eastern rhythms, instruments, and vocals. As many of my recommendations this is not interesting in itself, but the execution is so skillful and organic that it never becomes repetitive or monotonous. It has the dynamic passion of performance rather than the cut/paste feel of short samples. A broad spectrum of styles are deployed: Some danceable global-trance, dub, chill, drum and bass... Very fun.

'Snow On Venus' was my next Bhakta purchase. It was a bit expensive at the major online outlets, but my search eventually unearthed one of my now favorite independent online shops, CD Baby. 'Snow On Venus' was a surprising contrast to 'Open Transmission'. It is completely ambient and electronics play a subdued role. Most tracks are solos, primarily using Eastern instruments, accompanied by subtle electronic atmospheres. What this album captures and recreates is the sound of magic quietly occurring. It has the feel of looking down on the city from a rooftop at 3am. Traffic lights cycle patiently over abandon streets. Machines are quiet. The mutual oblivion of those that sleep creates a calm energy only a few of the conscious feel.

I like Bhakta's other releases as well, but they will have to grow on me a bit more before I can recommend them as essential. YMMV.

Music Recommendations, Cheap And Easy: Banco De Gaia

Toby Marks performs and produces as Banco De Gaia. He has a very distinct sound and style which primarily combines eastern rhythms and dubby bass lines into electronic dance tracks with extended ambient transitions. On most albums you will also find a soulful track or two that would be comfortable on a Pink Floyd album. None of this is unique in concept, but the complex, unhurried progression, organic performance sound, and disrespect of typical pop-music structures create a rare listening experience. Though often meditative, Banco albums are generally optimistic and celebratory.

Most Banco De Gaia CDs can be had used for $5 or less on Amazon, Half, or Ebay. Don't hesitate to grab Big Men Cry, Igizeh, Maya, The Magical Sounds Of Banco De Gaia, You Are Here, and Ten Years (a mixed hits compilation). Also recommended is Last Train To Lhasa, a double priced $12 and less used. Farwell Ferengistan is the only CD I find weak and suggest skipping initially. If you want to really support the artist, buy directly at Banco.co.uk.

Music Recommendations, Essential And Obscure: Orient Expressions

I was listening to the Buddha-Bar 8 compilation, not a bad double CD to have, and one particular track really grabbed my attention. 'Istanbul 1:26 a.m." by Orient Expressions is a dramatic contrast of chilled dub and raging, Middle-East percussion. The rhythms are live, complex, and varied. I was intrigued.


Orient Expressions are not well documented in Discogs.com, so I fell back on Google and Amazon and eventually came up with their Turkish label, Doublemoon. While many artists and labels are satisfied to sample and loop global sounds into manufactured music that has no basis in art or tradition, I was fascinated and impressed with Doublemoon's apparent dedication to tradition and evolution. I found a Turkish seller on Ebay who had most of the Doublemoon catalog for fair prices and shipping rates and tonight there were six Turkish CD's in my mailbox; Three by Orient Expressions.

I'm listening to 'Divan' as I write this, and it's consistent with my initial expectations and impressions from 'Istanbul 1:26 a.m.'. Electronics provide subtle atmosphere and foundation for a very organic performance on a variety traditional string and percussion instruments. The one misfit track is a jazzy English vocal track at the end of the CD. It's not entirely inconsistent or unwelcome, but surprising. Overall I love the CD and am glad to have made the effort to track it down.


The other discs in this purchase are:
Orient Expressions, 'Hirsiz Polis'
Orient Expressions and Sabahat Akkiraz, 'Kulliyat'
Baba Zula, 'Duble Oryantal' (Sexiest cover ever!)
Mercan Dede, 'Seyahatname'
Various, 'East 2 West, Crossing Continents'

Probably no write-up for these, but 'Kulliyat' and 'Duble Oryantal' are shaping up well.

Music Recommendations, Essential And Obscure: Ott

This guy Ott, I'd never heard of until a couple years ago, is incredible. He's involved in three of my all time favorite CDs. They are European imports, and hard to find used because nobody would want to get rid of them. All three are essential and easily worth the cost and effort of digging them up.

The first one I was introduced to was the incredible 'Are You Shpongled?' by Shpongle. Shpongle is a collaboration between Simon Posford, a trance producer and electronic musician, and Raja Ram, a flutist and electronic hippy. Ott was not part of the act but did edit and arrange the album. Doesn't seem like a big role until you hear how much better it is than the other Shpongle releases where Ott was not involved. (I generally love and recommend Shpongle and Posford's other projects, but 'Are You Shpongled' is a stand-out.) 'Are You Shpongled' is dynamic and lively, drawing on Eastern, Latin, dub, ambient, and psychedelic styles. Great care is taken to craft detailed sonic landscapes, and complex, evolving, organic music, that takes you on a mind bending ride.

This lead me to another Simon Posford project: 'Hallucinogen In Dub'. Hallucinogen is the name Posford used to do 4/4 trance music, but Ott applied his signature tripped-out dubby remix signature to a bunch of these tracks, adding subtlety and complexity, resulting in another incredible musical trip.

Finally Ott's own 'Blumenkraft' release was a collection of tracks he had created over years and finally compiled into a release. There is a track or two weaker than the rest but it's still a CD I wouldn't be without.

There is much anticipation for his new album, Skylon, which will be his first solo work that was created to be a cohesive album. I speculate that this will be consistent with his other work and an essential listening experience.

To find these CDs, you may get lucky and find a deal on Ebay, Half, or Amazon. Psyshop and Amazon UK are pretty reasonable sources.

Music Recommendations, Cheap And Easy: 80's

My roommate Jennie hooked me up with a DJ gig for the Utah Cyclocross awards party in January. It was an 80's theme party so I got to dredge up a bunch of great tunes from my youth. To celebrate the event I'm recommending a list of great selections from from the 80's that are all fun, fantastic listening experiences, some of which may be iconic. I won't offer many comments, but will suggest that they are all well worth owning for the few bucks they will cost.

Police: 'Synchronicity'
Just get the whole collection with 'Message In A Box' (4xCD).

Men Without Hats: 'Pop Goes The World'
PGTW may be their best, but doesn't include their iconic 'Safety Dance', which is tricky to locate.

Men At Work: 'Business As Usual'

Eurythmics: 'Sweet Dreams', 'Touch'

Tears For Fears: 'The Hurting'

Alphaville: 'Forever Young', 'Afternoons In Utopia'

Peter Gabriel: 'So'

Yaz (or Yazoo in Europe): 'Upstairs At Eric's', 'You And Me Both'

Yes: '90125'

The The: 'Soul Mining'

Wang Chung: 'Live And Die In L.A.'

Devo: 'Oh No! It's Devo', "Freedom Of Choice'...
Many good releases but some suck. My fave Devo comp is 'Pioneers Who Got Scalped'.

Propaganda: 'Secret Wish' and/or 'Wishful Thinking'

Human League: 'Reproduction'

OMD: 'Junk Culture'...
Many great releases but everything after 'Pacific Age' blows.

Howard Jones: 'Human's Lib'

Talking Heads: 'Stop Making Sense'
Available on CD, but get the DVD.

Flock Of Seagulls: 'Flock Of Seagulls'.

Oingo Boingo: 'Dead Man's Party', 'Boi-Ngo'...
All of their 80's releases are great. I guess 20 years is long enough that many don't realize Boingo is where film score composer Danny Elfman started his brilliant career. Don't forget his 'So-Lo' release.

The Cars: 'Greatest Hits'

Thomas Dolby: 'Golden Age Of Wireless'

Duran Duran: 'Duran Duran', 'Rio'

Depeche Mode: 'Black Celebration'

The Cure: 'Staring At The Sea'

Yello: 'You Gotta Say Yes', 'Stella', 'One Second', 'Flag', 'New Mix In One Go'
Watch for a dedicated entry regarding this favorite band.

Pet Shop Boys: 'Actually', 'Disco'

The Fixx: 'Shuttered Room', 'Reach The Beach', 'Phantoms', 'Walkabout'

Art Of Noise: 'Who's Afraid', 'In No Sense, Nonsense'
The best is 'In Visible Silence' (seek versions with the instrumental, non Max Headroom version of 'Paraniomia') which seems to be out of print these days. I expect a reissue.

English Beat: 'What Is Beat'

B-52's: 'Wild Planet'
Other super-silly-fun tracks scattered around their releases. Avoid anything after '86.

Music Recommendations For Nobody.

Nobody is looking for a new listening experience. Nobody is sick of radio, MTV, and XM. Poeple just want to hear more of the same stuff they already like. I tuned out popular radio ages ago and now my ears bleed if I'm forced to listen. I'm qualified to make music recommendations to nobody. I'll continue two series of recommendations. One series will be on obscure, possibly expensive, but essential music. The other series will be on music that is probably still obscure to most, but a great value; Stuff so good and easy to afford you'd be an idiot not to buy it.