Fall Colors

 

I have a whiteboard on the wall outside my office at work where we compile random lists of things - "Best Pizza Topping", "Favorite Kitchen Utensil", "Best First Track of an Album", etc. Recently the category was "Songs for Fall/Autumn." I posted about the list on Mixcloud here - https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/posts/songs-about-fall-autumn-fall-colors/

So I grabbed a few tracks from the suggestions, some of my own favorites & some instrumentals to come up with this new Fall Colors mix. The set alternates between vocal tunes & instrumentals. 

Btw, the cover art pic is one of my own, taken ten years ago in my backyard.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ a p p l e _ p o d c a s t s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Neil Halstead - Seasons (Sleeping On Roads 2002)
• 05:21    Jonny Nash - October Song (Point of Entry 2023)
• 09:21    Fleet Foxes - Wading in Waist-High Water(Solstice Version) (A Very Lonely Solstice 2021)
• 11:25    Trembling Blue Stars - Two Octobers (Her Handwriting 1996)
• 12:40    Iron & Wine - Autumn Town Leaves (Weed Garden EP 2018)
• 15:50    Jeff Pearce - The Last Warm Day In October (Rainshadow Sky 2008)
• 20:03    The Declining Winter - Autumn Hours (The Definition Glance 2021)
• 25:50    Brian Eno & Harold Budd - Late October (The Pearl 1984)
• 30:00    Willie Nelson - September Song (Stardust 1978)
• 34:31    The Modern Jazz Quartet - Autumn in New York (Django 1953)
• 38:06    Bill Fay - The Geese Are Flying Westward (Who Is The Sender? 2015)
• 40:48    Early Day Miners - Autumn Wake (Let Us Garlands Bring 2002)
• 46:00    Neil Young - Harvest Moon (Harvest Moon 1992)
• 50:50    The Six Parts Seven - Changing The Name Of October (Silence Magnifies Sound 1999)
• 56:33    Yo La Tengo -  Autumn Sweater (I Can Hear The Heart Beating 1997)
• 61:33    end

Quiet Indie Songs - Fall '23

 

I haven't done a quiet indie songs mix since this time last year. This one started when I heard the latest Peter Gabriel track, Love Can Heal, which I adore. And the timing is good as I'll be seeing him in concert on Oct. 2nd. I've heard that in his live show he plays a lot of the new tracks he's been releasing monthly. Several months ago that would have given me pause because I didn't much care for the first few new tracks. But they have been getting better and better with each new song.

The rest of the mix is just what it says it is - a collection of quiet indie tracks, all of them released in 2023. It includes some old faves like Neil Young, Kevin Morby, Slowdive, & Julie Byrne along with new to me artists like Scott Orr, The Finks, This Is The Kit, & Jörgen Kjellgren. 

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ a p p l e _ p o d c a s t s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Jörgen Kjellgren - Bluebird Waltz (Bluebird 2023)
• 04:09    Scott Orr - Horiszon (Horizon 2023)
• 07:45    Peter Gabriel - Love Can Heal(Darkside Mix) (2023)
• 12:57    Silvana Estrada - Milagro y Desastre (2023)
• 16:54    Julie Byrne - Flare (The Greater Wings 2023)
• 20:14    This Is The Kit - Careful of Your Keepers (Careful of Your Keepers 2023)
• 23:01    The Finks - Marco Polo (Birthdays at Solo Pasta 2023)
• 27:06    Arborist - Dewdrop Cherryoak (An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros 2023)
• 32:19    Kevin Morby - Like a Flower (Music From Montana Story 2023)
• 35:30    Dean Johnson - Faraway Skies (Nothing For Me, Please 2023)
• 39:00    Neil Young - Star of Bethlehem (Chrome Dreams 2023)
• 41:35    DeYarmond Edison - Ragstock (Epoch 2023)
• 44:04    Allegra Krieger - Lingering (I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane 2023)
• 47:21    Indigo de Souza - Younger & Dumber (All of This Will End 2023)
• 51:50    JFDR - The Orchid (Museum 2023)
• 56:00    Slowdive - prayer remembered (everything is alive 2023)
• 60:30    end

As usual I listened to a lot of music in 2022. Anyone who says there's no good music being released is just not trying. There's a ton of it and it's hard to keep up. My Spotify playlist of 2022 albums has 4000 tracks in it. I end up making playlists called Heavy Rotation & More Time in an attempt to give select tracks & albums a more in depth listen. I also have separate 2022 playlists for ambient, electronic and jazz in an attempt to keep it all straight in my head.

All that is to say there was a lot of music in 2022 and I have some favorites that I'd like to share with you.

MY 2022 FAVORITE ALBUMS:

1. Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph
2. Angel Olsen - Big Time
3. Sprints - A Modern Job EP
4. The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
5. Shearwater - The Great Awakening
6. The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
7. Yard Act - The Overload
8. Beth Orton - Weather Alive
9. Gang of Youths - angel in realtime.
10. Hermanos Gutierrez - El Bueno Y El Malo

#1 - Inspired by his father's illness and paging through old photo albums, this album celebrates all the joys and heartaches of life and is catchy as hell.

#2 - Perfect country-tinged album with beautiful melodies and gorgeous pedal steel guitar.

#3 - Bursting with energy & angst, I love this EP.

#4 - Yes, it sounds like a Radiohead album but that's a good freaking thing!

#5 - this whole album has a late-stage Talk Talk vibe going on. A beautiful album.

#6 - Excellent indie jangly guitar music. The title track compares breaking up with someone to being an expert in a dying field - you have all this knowledge that is now useless.

#7 - Another album that is bursting with energy. This one is fun as heck.

#8 - This sounds like Beth Orton doing her own take on a Radiohead vibe and it works. This may have been the most surprising album of the year.

#9 - I don't really listen to this type of music much anymore - big, bold, fist-pumping arena rock - but I latched on to this album early in the year and kept returning to it.

#10 - I found Hermanos Gutierrez via Khruangbin. It's an instrumental album on which they use heavily reverbed guitars creating a kind of film soundtrack-esque atmosphere and vibe.

Here’s the rest of the list in alphabetical order:

• Beach House - Once Twice Melody
• Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
• Courtney Marie Andrews - Loose Future
• Curse of Lomo - People in Cars
• Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses: Phantom Limb
• Florist - Florist
• Horsegirl - Versions of Modern performance
• Hurray for the Riff Raff - Life on Earth
• Julia Jacklin - Pre Pleasure
• Los Bitchos - Let the Festivities Begin!
• Lucrecia Dalt -¡Ay!
• Makaya McCraven - In These Times
• Mitski - Laurel Hell
• Momma - Household Name
• Nilufer Yanya - Painless
• The A’s - Fruit
• Wet Leg - Wet Leg
• Weyes Blood - And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
• Wild Pink - ILYSM

I'll post ambient favorites soon but until then what are your favorite "normal" albums from 2022?

Quiet Indie Fall 2022

 

As we are getting closer to the end of the year I figured it was time for some quiet indie tunes from 2022. 

This collection goes from the slow pop of Monica Martin to the ambient vocals of Brian Eno to the simple folk sound of Phosphorescent to a Joni Mitchel cover. My favorite track is "This Is How It Works" by Angel Olsen. It will probably be in my top three songs of the year.

Enjoy these vocal tunes, I'll get back to ambient soon.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ a p p l e _ p o d c a s t s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00    David Byrne And Yo La Tengo - Who Has Seen The Wind
02:42    Monica Martin - Go Easy, Kid
06:37    The Smile - Open the Floodgates
10:44    Kevin Morby - Stop Before I Cry
15:33    Shearwater - Aqaba
20:30    Angel Olsen - This Is How It Works
26:42    Courtney Marie Andrews - These Are The Good Old Days
29:11    Peter Gabriel - Here It Is
34:10    Brian Eno - There Were Bells
38:34    Flock Of Dimes - Amelia
44:16    Big Thief - Change
49:04    Mamak Khadem - Dead and Alive
54:14    Phosphorescent - Meridian, MS
56:27    end

Quiet Indie Songs #3 - Autumn 2021

 

WORLDS COLLIDE! In this mix I combine my love for new indie music with my love for all things quiet. The third installment of the Quiet Indie Songs series is here. 

All tracks are from 2021 and it features artists like Jose Gonzalez, Billy Bragg, Matt Maltese, Cassandra Jenkins, Big Red Machine, Big Thief and more.

Go for a nice walk in the woods while listening to some quiet indie songs.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Jose Gonzalez - Swing
• 03:25    Chorusing - Watching the Beams
• 06:43    Art School Girlfriend - Eyes on You
• 11:10    Slow Meadow - Artificial Algorithm Snorri Hallgrímsson Rework
• 15:39    Sandrayati Fay, JFDR, Damien Rice - Song for Berta
• 18:53    Cassandra Jenkins - New Bikini
• 23:00    Big Red Machine - New Auburn feat. Anaïs Mitchell
• 26:14    Big Thief - Change
• 31:00    Matt Maltese - Oldest Trick in the Book feat. Bedouine
• 34:15    Cande y Paulo - Treaty
• 38:44    Allison Russell - Montreal
• 42:11    Billy Bragg - I Will Be Your Shield
• 45:36    Big Red Machine - Hoping Then
• 49:24    Avocet - Callina
• 51:28    Sun June - Colors
• 54:11    Jose Gonzalez  - En Stund På Jorden
• 56:48    end

Quiet Indie Songs #2 - Spring 2021

At the end of 2020 I posted a mix called "Quiet Indie Songs" and it did a lot better than I expected. A few folks thought it should be a recurring series and I agreed. So here you have installment #2 - "Quiet Indie Songs #2 - Spring 2021."  

I'm sneaking this in under the wire as it's barely spring anymore. Most of the songs are from 2021, with 4 of them from 2020. There are some old favorites in there, like Damien Jurado & Phoebe Bridgers. And also a lot of new to me artists like Arooj Aftab, Becca Mancari & Mt Went.

I'm always open for suggestions for new indie artists to use for this series so let me know in the comments if you have some ideas.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Vagabon & Courtney Barnett - Reason to Believe (2021)
• 02:25    Damien Jurado - Helena (2021)
• 05:05    Helado Negro - Sound & Vision(Bowie cover) (2021)
• 08:16    Damielle Durack - There Goes My Heart (No Place 2021)
• 12:46    Bryce Dessner - Another World(String Arrangement  (Impermanence/Disintegration 2021)
• 16:31    Arooj Aftab - Saans Lo (Vulture Prince 2021)
• 20:22    Jack Symes - Overwhelming (Tompkins Park 2021)
• 25:08    Phoebe Bridgers - Halloween (Punisher 2020)
• 29:20    Piers Faccini - Together Forever Everywhere (Shapes of the Fall 2021)
• 33:27    Mt Went - Light in the Dark (Lit Way Down 2021)
• 38:20    Dawes - St. Augustine At Night (Good Luck With Whatever 2020)
• 43:23    Laura Marling - For You (Song For Our Daughter 2020)
• 47:14    Alexia Avina - Inner Garden (Unearth 2020)
• 50:31    Gia Margaret - Solid Heart (2021)
• 54:08    Waxahatchee - Streets of Philadelphia(Springsteen cover) (2021)
• 58:03    Skullcrusher - Song for Nick Drake (Sorm in Summer 2021)
• 60:47    Becca Mancari - Annie (Juniata 2021)
• 65:23    end

Quiet Indie Songs of 2020

I listen to as much indie music as I do ambient music. I always keep a list of favorite albums and favorite songs of the year. As I was looking at some of my favorite songs I noticed that several of them were quiet tunes that would be appropriate for an LLM mix. So I grabbed those and a few more favs and came up with "Quiet Indie Songs of 2020."

Squirrel Flower was my big discovery this year. I'd never heard of the artist before and a few of her songs turned out to be some of my most played tunes of the year. Phoebe Bridgers had one of the best albums of the year but my two fav songs on it were a bit loud for this mix so I went with the beautiful "Moon Song." 

Devendra Banhart - Franklin's Tower just showed up in my Spotify Release Radar playlist a few days ago but I immediately knew when I heard it that it would have to be included in this mix. It's slow, spacey with a languid guitar that I love.

Also be sure to listen closely at 43:28 for the tune "The President Sang Amazing Grace" by Kronos Quartet and Meklit. It pays homage to the moment President Obama sang Amazing Grace during the funeral of state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney on June 26, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

I also want to give a shout out to a local band that made my top ten list this year - Field Report. Their album, "Brake Light Red Tide," has a great sound and beautiful production. The song "Puget Sound" appears on this mix because I listened the heck out of it this year.

There's not much else to say other than enjoy this diversion from the usual LLM fair and an ambient 2020 mix is coming soon.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Squirrel Flower - Seasonal Affective Disorder
• 03:33    Field Report - Puget Sound
• 07:54    Devendra Banhart - Franklin's Tower
• 16:19    Phoebe Bridgers - Moon Song
• 20:48    Clem Snide - Roger Ebert
• 23:36    Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
• 27:58    Kevin Morby - Sundowner
• 32:56    Sarah Jarosz - Hometown
• 35:48    North Americans - Rivers That You Cannot See
• 39:28    Mute Forest - Crater Laugh
• 43:28    Kronos Quartet with Meklit - The President Sang Amazing Grace
• 47:15    Alexandra Savior - Soft Currents
• 50:20    S. Carey - Take It With Me
• 55:06    Tresspassers William - Winterstorms
• 58:18    H.C. McEntire - Hands for Harvest
• 62:28    Squirrel Flower - Headlights
• 64:55    Bedouine, Waxahatchee, Hurray for the Riff Raff - Thirteen
• 67:51    M. Ward - Migration of Souls
• 71:19    end

Walking with Myself

Earlier this year I quickly threw together some tunes for a walk in Madison, WI.  I liked the way it sounded so much that I made a few changes and made a proper mix out of it.

Most of the music is fairly new, half are from last year, with the oldest cut being the Mojave 3 track from 2000.  As usual, most of the tracks are laid back.  Even a loud cut like JM by Strand of Oaks is slow, but awesomely loud, very Neil Young-like.

This is a mix that you can also find on my second Mixcloud profile, Elements of Sound, which I mentioned in a previous post.

Enjoy.

[ s t r e a m ]   [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    DeYarmond Edison - Love Long Gone
• 04:25    Middle East - Deep Water
• 12:00    Field Report - Pale Rider
• 16:50    Strand of Oaks - JM
• 24:06    Waxahatchee - Half Moon
• 27:13    Barr Brothers - How the Heroine Dies
• 31:17    Damien Rice - Trusty and True
• 38:08    Mojave 3 - In Love with a View
• 44:00    Amateur Love - Ether Egg Hunt
• 48:00    Blaudzun - Wingbeat
• 51:51    Low Roar - Phantoms
• 54:16    DeYarmond Edison - Ragstock
• 56:44    Strand of Oaks - Pope Killdragon
• 61:54    end

Walking with myself by Elements Of Sound on Mixcloud