Ditties (2016)

Bitchin Bajas cutting up, arranging, sometimes disembowling Bonnie Prince Billy's donkey cries = best donkey cries of the year and at a time where we want our voices processed and ghostly, a stand-out processed ghost voice record too. Bitchin Bajas aren't focused like they might have been on swirling arpeggio symphonies because that'd be competition and not collaboration- instead they use the donkey cries like an instrument and the result is low-key bizarro melancholy. Which on the surface sounds like them, but put this way sounds like a new way of Bonnie Prince Billy doing Bonnie Prince Billy

drag city / -o-

Patterns to Details (2016)

On From Patterns to Details the pieces left from Fis' process of making and then destroying dance music are put under such close observation that some listeners have complained that the album is clinical, but there is something emotional about sounds that have been separated trying to create new structures (evinced by 2015's The Blue Quicksand Is Going Now), and something haunting about those which remember and contain traces of the old ones. To me at least works about memory and decay are sort of the antithesis of 'clinical', and From Patterns to Details is one of the year's best because it's full of ghosts.

subtext / spotify / -o- / bleep / boomkat

Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness (2010)

Both tape-collage pieces which derived from an hour-long improvisation based around a setup involving a tape of chance field-recordings (a helicopter, walking on snow, children) bounced to a mono nagra tape machine, which is covered in contact mic's that translate not just the sound coming from the speakers, but the actual mechanical "interface" of the unit into control voltage & triggers that drive a modular synth that's processing said audio using the classic electronic music toolkit (i.e. ring modulation, panning VCA's, filters, etc).

Risk, chaos, chance, improvisation and all, the second piece (in particular) is gripping, aesthetic, and touching in a way that only risk, chaos, chance, and improvisation can be. At the same time it transcends the brainy notions attached to, and actually restricting, chaos and chance, and so the effect, like the cause, is intuitive, dazzling, and mind-freeing.

A-

try / buy / spotify

Oval - Ovalcommers (2001)

I won't pretend to know much about Oval. I've only heard this and the much more widely acclaimed 94 Diskont (noted for "deconstructing music and digital audio by using exacto knives, paint, and tape to damage the surfaces of the compact discs, only to stitch it back together in loops of melody punctuated by the disc's physical skips"). As far as I can tell, 94 Diskont is a masterpiece of glitchy microsound electronica (that's right, I get my tags from wikipedia), which, despite apparently deconstructing the music, seems to have much more of a direction than Ovalcommers. It sounds like a fucked up glitchy, repetitive idm inspired album, perhaps similar to something by Autechre.

Ovalcommers, on the other hand, is a directionless sea of distortion, glitches and sonic textures, which has lead some to claim that it is too harsh, or even gimmicky. I find the complete onslaught of synthesized noises almost invigorating, and that the attention paid to layers and textures makes the album a unique experience every time I listen to it. It's exciting that Oval moved into complete free-form territory for this release, I'll definitely have to look into more of his (Markus Popp's) releases, in particular the album's twin Ovalprocess.



A


256

Mazedude - The American Album (2006)

Happy belated New Year! For the final day of Weaboo Week I'm uploading something that barely fits the theme at all... in fact, this tribute to American video game composers came about partially as a reaction to the abundance of tributes to Japanese composers being released at the time. This pretty much ended up being video game music week, huh? Oh well!

In the American Album, Mazedude (a.k.a. Chris Getman) remixes music from several American video games in a very wide array of styles. Due to his unusual choice of audio software, Mazedude's style has a distinct sample based sound to it which you'll probably either love or hate. A follow-up called American Pixels is due for release later this year. Pre-order it if you're so inclined and in the meantime you'll also get a bonus EP of progressive chiptune remixes.

Because this is one of my favourite albums ever, I also put together a 'companion' download filled with bonus items. Download that too if you'd like to hear the original compositions behind every remix on the album, pieces of music that served as stylistic inspiration for the remixes, unfinished 'sketches' for tracks that never made it onto the album, source files in .IT format for three of the songs... and more.

Download (320)
Download The American Album Companion

Miscellaneous Goto80 songs (1997-2010) [MP3]

Goto80 is an incredibly prolific 8-bit/chiptune musician. When I say prolific, I refer to stuff like him and a few others releasing a song every day for a whole year. Since he's had such a ridiculously high output, I decided to compile a small (well, 2 hours long) collection of his songs from the hundreds I have listened to. I've talked to quite a few people about Goto80 over the years, often asking what their favourite Goto80 song is. Ever answer I remembered is included in this package.

There's a wide variety of styles here, so it's entirely possible you'll hate some tracks and enjoy others. However, if you loathe every one of the above four videos, I don't recommend listening further.

Download