paste
in
audiography
speechless
on a long bus journey a friend & i made playlists for each other & did a music player swap. he wanted to read at the same time so requested songs without words, less distraction. playlist made, i forgot all about it until a few weeks ago following a discussion with some friends about the merits of lyrics vs no lyrics, and the way that you can build your own stories up out of the music, let your imagination run wild with it. as i went to sleep that night i listened to the playlist i had made and now i'm completely obsessed!
so trying to choose some songs for this post is going to be rather difficult i feel, there is potential for it to get well out of hand!
thrift shop warrior : j. ralph
i am so obsessed with this song right now. i've been putting it on every night before i go to sleep, it just makes me feel so calm & happy. it's all epic & orchestral & i don't even know how to describe the feeling it gives me inside. just listen.
[buy the illusionary movements of geraldine and nazu]
weather storm : craig armstrong
i don't listen to the radio very often at all but it happened to be on in the kitchen the other day when i was making my dinner. zane lowe said 'here's some music to watch the sunset by' and played this track, which is indeed perfect sunset music. lush strings & piano, tinkly bits & a subtle beat.
[buy the space between us]
fahrenheit fair enough : telefon tel aviv
it seems that i've quite a fondness for music that sounds like robots talking to each other, and telefon tel aviv are very good at making that sort of thing. the robots don't really get down to business until a couple of minutes into this but everything else about this track just makes me feel all warm & floaty.
[buy fahrenheit fair enough]
roads must roll : boom bip
oh my. what a bassline. minimal drums. chimes? is that a keyboard? then some glorious strings. and hey look, robots again, funny that. this song continues to build, bringing in crashing drums & some guitar and by the end i think my heart feels like it could burst. i didn't post my top 5 cos i had a busy week but if i had, this song would have been on it for sure.
[buy seed to sun]
ralome : plaid
you're floating around underwater, it's all blue & bubbly, there's sunshine sparkling through from above & all manner of technicoloured sea creatures swimming past you.
[buy rest proof clockwork]
puffer : bibio
i stood behind bibio at a gig the other day but was too shy to go talk to him. really i just wanted to thank him for bringing me these gentle guitars & tinkly noises, so pretty.
[buy fi]
surfin' : william orbit
is that a glockspiel i can hear? and some weird space noises? you can't really say no to space noises. this tune takes you all over town on some random mission, probably it's sunny & you've been bumping into people you know, going off on tangents but always coming back to the task at hand.
[buy hello waveforms]
failed breakfast, chinese tea : mickey eats plastic
i've been on about MEP for well over a year now, pimping them out to anyone who can appreciate what compositional genius these two boys from rome possess. each track has so many different layers of sound in it, you don't even hear them all until you're lying on your bed in the dark with the volume up. their whole album is instrumental, and amazing but this gets to be my favourite track because of the strings that kick in after the tiny vocal sample, not to mention the little robotic conversation. if you won't take my word for how good these guys are you can find out for yourself cos MEP are happy for you to have everything they've made for free. they're nice like that.
[download people eating tasty people for free]
rabbit pushing mower : toy
this song is just fun all over, and really does sound like there might be a rabbit pushing a mower along somewhere. kind of computer game /cartoonish but also just sweet & happy making. there 's a small altercation with a baddie but the rabbit reigns supreme & carries on his merry mower-pushing way.
[buy toy]
as serious as your life : four tet
kieran hebden has huge hair, is shorter than i'd expected, and makes beautiful songs out of samples, loops, layers & tiny bits of whatever he's got lying around. most of his stuff is instrumental, or just uses vocals in an instrumental way, and i love all of it, however this song is the one that's been pushing my buttons most of late.
[buy rounds]
led foot : california guitar trio
as the name of the group would suggest, this is all guitars, all the time, weaving in and out of each other to create this piece, full of constant energy & intricate melody. [buy white water]
psultan [squarepusher mix] : chaos AD
most of the other stuff in this theme has been chilled but this is pretty jungly, squelchy & intense. maybe not everyone's cup of tea but it never ever fails to make me dance, even when i think i've no more dancing left in me! there's a tiny bit of vocalisation in there but it's just little yelps & whoops which always make me imagine small woodland creatures jumping up & down to this. oh, and it amuses me that squarepusher & chaos AD are both tom jenkinson so he's actually remixing himself.
[buy the braindance connection]
cherokee : the flashbulb
keeping in with the dirty electronica for a moment, i'm totally digging this track from the flashbulb. it's only short, so you get some moody soundscape with some squelchy acid sounds, then a really short burst of almost abrasive electronic knob-twiddling before it's all over & you want to start again.
[kirlian selections is out of stock]
hat hair : phelps & munro
phelps & munro were [was?] the opening act when i saw amon tobin play live in auckland four years ago. i was expecting a couple of people up on stage but instead there was just a boy & his laptop. he totally wins for best stage performance, just this nerdy looking boy intently focused on the task at hand, but every time he made a noise he liked he'd get this silly grin on his face and sort of hop up & down. i was completely blown away, bought the album the next day & haven't stopped listening to it since! there aren't any lyrics anywhere on the album though there is a cough, and a radio presenter interrupting in the middle of a track. the album flows together beautifully as a whole so it was incredibly hard to choose just one track to upload, i had to listen to each & every one of them and they are all awesome in different ways. hat hair starts off quite chilled, just meandering along gently, until suddenly it's all crashing down around you.
[buy slowpoke]
something wicked this way comes : barry adamson
slinky, sexy, cool, this track gathers funk, jazz & even a little bit of trip hop whilst you're just mooching along looking like hot stuff.
[buy oedipus schmoedipus]
jinsei no merry-go-round : joe hisaishi
this starts off sounding so melancholy but ends up with you waltzing around your bedroom by yourself. at least that's what it does to me!
[buy howl's moving castle]
under control, but only just, i definitely could have kept on going. totally loving everything you guys are posting, i'm running out of room on my hard drive!
so trying to choose some songs for this post is going to be rather difficult i feel, there is potential for it to get well out of hand!
thrift shop warrior : j. ralph
i am so obsessed with this song right now. i've been putting it on every night before i go to sleep, it just makes me feel so calm & happy. it's all epic & orchestral & i don't even know how to describe the feeling it gives me inside. just listen.
[buy the illusionary movements of geraldine and nazu]
weather storm : craig armstrong
i don't listen to the radio very often at all but it happened to be on in the kitchen the other day when i was making my dinner. zane lowe said 'here's some music to watch the sunset by' and played this track, which is indeed perfect sunset music. lush strings & piano, tinkly bits & a subtle beat.
[buy the space between us]
fahrenheit fair enough : telefon tel aviv
it seems that i've quite a fondness for music that sounds like robots talking to each other, and telefon tel aviv are very good at making that sort of thing. the robots don't really get down to business until a couple of minutes into this but everything else about this track just makes me feel all warm & floaty.
[buy fahrenheit fair enough]
roads must roll : boom bip
oh my. what a bassline. minimal drums. chimes? is that a keyboard? then some glorious strings. and hey look, robots again, funny that. this song continues to build, bringing in crashing drums & some guitar and by the end i think my heart feels like it could burst. i didn't post my top 5 cos i had a busy week but if i had, this song would have been on it for sure.
[buy seed to sun]
ralome : plaid
you're floating around underwater, it's all blue & bubbly, there's sunshine sparkling through from above & all manner of technicoloured sea creatures swimming past you.
[buy rest proof clockwork]
puffer : bibio
i stood behind bibio at a gig the other day but was too shy to go talk to him. really i just wanted to thank him for bringing me these gentle guitars & tinkly noises, so pretty.
[buy fi]
surfin' : william orbit
is that a glockspiel i can hear? and some weird space noises? you can't really say no to space noises. this tune takes you all over town on some random mission, probably it's sunny & you've been bumping into people you know, going off on tangents but always coming back to the task at hand.
[buy hello waveforms]
failed breakfast, chinese tea : mickey eats plastic
i've been on about MEP for well over a year now, pimping them out to anyone who can appreciate what compositional genius these two boys from rome possess. each track has so many different layers of sound in it, you don't even hear them all until you're lying on your bed in the dark with the volume up. their whole album is instrumental, and amazing but this gets to be my favourite track because of the strings that kick in after the tiny vocal sample, not to mention the little robotic conversation. if you won't take my word for how good these guys are you can find out for yourself cos MEP are happy for you to have everything they've made for free. they're nice like that.
[download people eating tasty people for free]
rabbit pushing mower : toy
this song is just fun all over, and really does sound like there might be a rabbit pushing a mower along somewhere. kind of computer game /cartoonish but also just sweet & happy making. there 's a small altercation with a baddie but the rabbit reigns supreme & carries on his merry mower-pushing way.
[buy toy]
as serious as your life : four tet
kieran hebden has huge hair, is shorter than i'd expected, and makes beautiful songs out of samples, loops, layers & tiny bits of whatever he's got lying around. most of his stuff is instrumental, or just uses vocals in an instrumental way, and i love all of it, however this song is the one that's been pushing my buttons most of late.
[buy rounds]
led foot : california guitar trio
as the name of the group would suggest, this is all guitars, all the time, weaving in and out of each other to create this piece, full of constant energy & intricate melody. [buy white water]
psultan [squarepusher mix] : chaos AD
most of the other stuff in this theme has been chilled but this is pretty jungly, squelchy & intense. maybe not everyone's cup of tea but it never ever fails to make me dance, even when i think i've no more dancing left in me! there's a tiny bit of vocalisation in there but it's just little yelps & whoops which always make me imagine small woodland creatures jumping up & down to this. oh, and it amuses me that squarepusher & chaos AD are both tom jenkinson so he's actually remixing himself.
[buy the braindance connection]
cherokee : the flashbulb
keeping in with the dirty electronica for a moment, i'm totally digging this track from the flashbulb. it's only short, so you get some moody soundscape with some squelchy acid sounds, then a really short burst of almost abrasive electronic knob-twiddling before it's all over & you want to start again.
[kirlian selections is out of stock]
hat hair : phelps & munro
phelps & munro were [was?] the opening act when i saw amon tobin play live in auckland four years ago. i was expecting a couple of people up on stage but instead there was just a boy & his laptop. he totally wins for best stage performance, just this nerdy looking boy intently focused on the task at hand, but every time he made a noise he liked he'd get this silly grin on his face and sort of hop up & down. i was completely blown away, bought the album the next day & haven't stopped listening to it since! there aren't any lyrics anywhere on the album though there is a cough, and a radio presenter interrupting in the middle of a track. the album flows together beautifully as a whole so it was incredibly hard to choose just one track to upload, i had to listen to each & every one of them and they are all awesome in different ways. hat hair starts off quite chilled, just meandering along gently, until suddenly it's all crashing down around you.
[buy slowpoke]
something wicked this way comes : barry adamson
slinky, sexy, cool, this track gathers funk, jazz & even a little bit of trip hop whilst you're just mooching along looking like hot stuff.
[buy oedipus schmoedipus]
jinsei no merry-go-round : joe hisaishi
this starts off sounding so melancholy but ends up with you waltzing around your bedroom by yourself. at least that's what it does to me!
[buy howl's moving castle]
under control, but only just, i definitely could have kept on going. totally loving everything you guys are posting, i'm running out of room on my hard drive!