cankun

cankun ~ jaguar dance (not not fun 2011)

"French haze aesthete Vincent Caylet has been active on the marginal music frontlines in various capacities for several years at this point but Jaguar Dance is his debut outing under the Cankun parasol, and it’s a even brighter-lit hideaway of mirages to pass out in. Choppy, chiming guitars balance-beam above looping heatwaved keyboards while skittery beats glitter like a glare on the skin of the sea....Escapist, joyous, and psychedelically sunburned in equal measure..." nnf

si tuviera que elegir entre todas las transformaciones de Vincent Caylet: Monks of the Balhill, The Pistil Cosmos, "V" y Archers by the Sea, ahora mismo me quedaría con la exótica brisa tropical de Cankun (con permiso de 'Grand Cornoel' de los monjes de Balhill).  'Jaguar Dance' es simplemente perfecta....relajante, fluida, agradable, envolvente, seductora, bonita. me tranquiliza saber que siempre puedo volver a ella, o a 'o mountain o', o a 'Lichens Beat'. y aunque no venga al caso pero hablando de títulos de la vida, nadie como Vicent cuida y mima todo lo que rodea a su música: 'sometimes we should dance', o 'they were floating over the mountain, they were kings', son algunos de los títulos de Archers by the Sea. en breve... 'Ethiopian Dreams'.

filed under: easy psychedelic piña colada listening

foto: via onyx earth

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elodie

elodie (timo van luijk & andrew chalk) ~ echos pastoraux lp (la scie dorée 2011)

"...the record opens with a layered piece of various wind instruments and as such may count as a drone piece, but other pieces are more of an open spaced improvised nature of rattling bells, small metallic sounds, Van Luijk’s curious collection of small acoustic objects and wind instruments and Chalk's watery electric guitar, along with charming field recordings...Throughout a fine record of shimmering, small melodies, rusty percussion, bird calls and a gentle mood. The perfect early spring record: open your windows, let outdoor sounds in and simply enjoy the good life." vital weekly

"...Van Luijk plays the Nick Drake to Chalk’s Joe Boyd, re-imagining “Way To Blue” as a psycho-spatial investigation of the endless hues on the way to dawn with heavenly choirs of bird song over rolling acoustic guitar that could almost be taken straight from the legendary Hawaiian 1973 acid folk masterpiece, These Trails, or even the music of Harry Partch. There are shorter tracks that feel like snippets of eternal music, sudden streams but the overall feel is wide-open, pastoral. This is folk-based drone that succeeds in joining the dots between traditional rural forms and future-visioned kosmische with a gentle, celebratory aspect that is pure Chalk..." volcanic tongue

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mpala garoo / sunbells fenimore / kon tiki gemini

mpala garoo ~ ou du monde (sweat lodge guru 2010)

"Mpala Garoo is Ivan from Moscow who also plays in a duo Kon Tiki Gemini and Sunbells Fenimore. Ivan plays a similar kind of summery tropical heat-haze as Ducktails." not for resale

"Music crafted for the sunny and tropical paradises of our minds. Seasonal temperament is shared via magnetic vibes; we can all exist in the same balmy and tropical headstate no matter what our physical locale may be. Pure vibrations that ebb and flow on the appeal of tidal moons." sweat lodge guru

buy / download

sunbells fenimore

"Ivan from Mpala Garoo also plays in Sunbells Fenimore; a project that features the same island guitar tone and pace from Mpala, but deeper oceanic;...things gets pretty turbulent in Paradising, but no less hypnotic as the chaotic crashing and fizzing carries the metaphor of the sea, blistering heat, salty spray and boiling breakers into sonic realisation, recalling the fiery return to Earth of Oneohtrix Point Never or the tranquility of Dolphins Into The Future, a lucid sky-gazing treatise on sun-soaked mystical spirituality. Go to his bandcamp for three tracks of meditational serenity." not for resale

free download

kon tiki gemini & cavernes ~ deep discovery (sweat lodge guru 2011)

"Pairing the side-projects of luminaries like Mpala Garoo, Magic Beach, Hobo Cubes, and Bedroom Bear, this split from Kon Tiki Gemini and Cavernes begins with a roiling hot mudbath of crackling drones and claustrophobic melodies on the a-side. The kind that cakes to your hide and doesn’t slough off until your skin does. Cavernes softens the dried glaze with a gauze of shimmering notes on the flip, then peels your face off with sheer will to expose the beautiful, porcelain bones beneath..." sweat lodge guru

buy / download / free download kon tiki gemini

silver louise

silver louise ~ silver run (self~released 2011)

"Silver Louise learned to play guitar and banjo at the foot of the black mountains in North Carolina. Dark, modal banjo tunes and the blues of the rural south inspired her early work, which evolved as she discovered John Fahey, Robbie Basho and composers such as Steve Reich, Lubomyr Melnyk, and Meredith Monk. Her lush, hypnotic guitar compositions recall rhododendron thickets and countless hours playing by her crackling woodstove, and her voice reflects the soul of the field recordings she has absorbed over the years. Now based in San Francisco, her music has evolved into a mature and original sound that pushes the boundaries of folk and experimental music."

takoma, banjo, canciones a capella y una voz que 'refleja el alma de las grabaciones de campo que Louise ha ido absorbiendo a lo largo de los años'. lo más nuestro

foto: sara gossett

listen & buy

svetlana the anthropologist • ethereal doom cosmonaut

svetlana the anthropologist • ethereal doom cosmonaut ~ punk gregor split (steak au zoo 2011)

"Svetlana The Anthropologist is Dasha Bulatova, formerly a member of Railcars. She has recently embarked upon a solo project that combines elements of folk and drone music. She seeks to use sound to show reverence to everything inside and outside, both to the blood booming through our bodies and the sky thundering overhead.

Ethereal Doom Cosmonaut is Sebastian Dionisio, formerly of Campfire fame. His music is what happens when you want to sit in the forest listening to dub and kompakt records all day but instead you have to go to the city for work and school. Some of the songs are all digital, some have guitar." steak au zoo

estratosféricos. dionisio y dasha, dasha y dionisio!

buy / listen / download

the caretaker

the caretaker ~ an empty bliss beyond this world (history always favours the winners 2011)

"...Leading medical research explains how Alzheimer's patients who endure increasing memory loss can still recall songs from their distant past. The prefrontal cortex is among the last brain regions to atrophy. With this in mind, The Caretaker once again recalls fifteen occasions where memories were locked in a timeless and haunting loop. The Caretaker is the work of James Leyland Kirby, also sometimes known as Leyland Kirby and The Stranger" experimedia
"...His new material is marvellous. Timeless. A collision of Past and Future Tense. The metaphysical Clock of History has began ticking again. We can now re-embrace the Future." kid shirt

'all you are going to want to do is get back there' es lo más bonito y atemporal que he escuchado desde if i never touch you de cap n' jack...'todo lo que querrás hacer es volver allí una y otra vez'. 'libet's delay' es la elegancia absoluta, fragmentos que nos trasladan al hotel overlook de kubrik y nos llena de nostalgia entre crujidos de vinilo y viejas canciones de los años veinte.

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ben vida

ben vida ~ music for a soft epic (root strata 2011)

"Originally composed in 2008 as a soundtrack to a 5-Channel synchronized video projection 'The Soft Epic or: Savages of the Pacific West' by Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib. Two long tracks of classic environmental ambiance. Get lost on a lunar safari." root strata

"...the label describes it as some kind of sonic safari, and it really does sound like it, maybe like some synth/flute performance, taking place in some remote forest glade, the entire thing recorded onto a four track with dying batteries, the results, a dreamily druggy, atmospheric ambience, a warped ritualistic Jewelled Antler styled new age, and a seriously divine soft epic." aquarius

ben vida, synthesizers of the atlantic east, pajarindos!

buy / download

félicia atkinson

félicia atkinson ~ the driver (hibernate 2011)

"Félicia Atkinson was stirred to create The Driver after embarking upon a four month trip to the US last Summer. Journeying by car but unable to drive herself, she was thus free to fully appreciate the scenery and became particularly enamoured with the romantic Cascadian landscape of the Pacific Northwest which has proven so inspirational to artists and musicians for generations...

...The Driver is steeped in the atmosphere of the American road trip and can be considered as another faithful entry in a long line of musicians paying homage to the road. Optimistic and sunny in a manner which makes it more reminiscent of Jack Kerouac than Cormac McCarthy, this work is a faultless representation of the romance of travel and will surely stir a longing for adventure in anyone who listens." Adam Williams, Fluid Radio

gus van sant estaría feliz

foto: ryan mcginley

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charlatan

charlatan ~ meridians (hobo cult 2011)

"Charlatan's Brad Rose busts some crazy alien moves then drifts into nice synth soundscapes... Aquatic, bubbling pop from the future"

 ladies and gentlemen, we are floating into the deep deep sea

 listen / buy

vollmar

vollmar ~ island in the river (crossroads of america 2011)

"Vollmar's Island in the River reminds me on an acoustic solo session of early Microphones. A boy with guitar on an open window/in the backyard, record some songs on his guitar. Lot's of outside noise and sometimes some nice and simple sound effects are added to the tiny little storys" dying for bad music

"Released as part of Laminar Excusion Monthly, a 3" cd-r subscription service, two discs per month, featuring Richard Swift, Damien Jurado, J. Tillman, Cotton Jones, Bexar Bexar, Everything, Now!, Vollmar, Danny Paul Grody, the rosters of Flannelgraph and Crossroads of America Records, and more....order at crossroads of america."

justin vollmar, tan entrañable como siempre

buy / listen / download

doc dunn

doc dunn ~ mountain wind, mountain rain (medusa 2011)

"Doc Dunn's release is a cassette reissue of his 2004 private press cd-r, Mountain Wind, Mountain Rain. It originally appeared in a miniscule edition of maybe 25 copies and included a small block of painted wood, wrapped in beautiful paper and some pine needles. Listening to this tape is like driving up a circuitous route around a holy mountain through dense fog, rain and sunlight. Carrying the weight of the psychic past ascending towards breaking though into the atmosphere in orbital spiritual modal nodes. Handmade, fold-out 'cigarette box' with 2 inserts by Jacob Horwood." medusa

foto: marshall ryan

 buy
download up on mud flats & you are the water

cap'n jack

cap'n jack ~ aren't you ashamed? (nicknjack 1972)

cuando piensas que ya nada será como trees, chants and hollers aparece aren’t you ashamed de capn’jack, un disco invisible que surge de la nada, sin fecha, silencioso, que me produce ternura y no sabría decir porqué. de esos que mil años después sigues deseando que se vuelva a repetir, o que al menos puedas conectar con sus canciones de la misma manera...de los que querrías poder descubrir muchas veces. supongo que no es el mejor disco del mundo, o sí, pero hay tantos pequeños detalles  que lo hacen especial: la voz sweet oklahoma soul de cap'n jack, las canciones, if i never touch you, song to kim -verse II (red horse), built a better day, roll car roll, el sonido comestible de la aguja recorriendo el vinilo, el clima, la ilusión de recibir, muchos días más tarde, y cuando ya casi había perdido la esperanza, un email de jason elbogen diciéndome que mi mensaje se había perdido en la carpeta de spam pero que afortunadamente había podido leerlo antes de borrarlo, y que me grabaría esa joya sólo a cambio de escuchar su programa de radio ‘and write a 'hello' message when i’m there”

foto: via onyx earth

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hand in hand

hand in hand ~ prayers to an echo god (medusa 2011)

"No-Neck Blues Band's Dave Nuss can usually be found at the centre of the world. Working, collaborating, teaching and expanding his cosmic and psychic reach ever outwards in his eternal work to be and bring redemption and peace through sound, art and the work of truth. Together with Stellar Om Source, Susanne Skov Gronland and Jakob Olausson, they are Hand In Hand and they bring you LIGHT."

"Another beautiful handmade release from Ayal Senior’s Medusa imprint..." volcanic tongue

delirantes, y portada preciosísima que inexplicablemente me recuerda  a ésta de these trails

 no goal can be too high (mp3)

monster rally

monster rally ~ deep sea ep 7" (gold robot 2011)

"One of the more admirable qualities of music is its ability to take you somewhere. Sometimes it is somewhere you've already been. Other times, it takes you to a Midcentury pool party where everyone is blazed, doing the Watusi on the patio and enjoying an endless summer. Monster Rally resides on this plane of permanent vacation." imposse

sol para todos

buy / listen & name your price / download

diva

diva - the glittern end (alt. vinyl-self realeased, 2011)

"The Glitter End" is Diva’s first solo shot and it’s a fantastic piece of work. 80s noir rubs shoulders with vibrant tropicália and mutated pop forms in this mysterious netherworld (...) “Glow Worm” is a case in point, as its steel drums, fuzz guitar and bubbling bass provide the perfect counterpoint for Diva’s captivating vocals. In contrast, the title track slow dances across the L.A. skyline, an analogue caress of whose lyrics the city’s mystical adventurer Jack Parsons would doubtless have approved. Leaving the stratosphere entirely, “Andromeda’s Lullaby" is a wonderfully woozy interstellar excursion, collapsing and re-emerging from waves of vintage synths. The album is interspersed with dizzying instrumentals that maintain the pace of the record beautifully. Take the tribal thump of “Spinning Vines” or the closing jangle and drift of “Highest Cloud” that leaves us driving up to the canyons as the Sun rises. Like I said, it’s a trip, but in Diva we have a true original as our guide". picadilly
a
foto: marlon kowalski
a

listen / buy

inez lightfoot / je suis le petit chevalier

inez lightfoot / je suis le petit chevalier ~ split (stunned 2011)

"...from the hush of a winter’s midnight, Inez Lightfoot opens this hour-long ceremony evoking animal powers and seasonal forces of nature. Presiding with the intimacy and strength of a curandera, Inez synchronizes the flow of analog electricity with raw expressions of blood & breath. Captivating as the light of a full moon, this is beautiful hyp-gnosis at an earthen altar. Felicia Atkinson echoes these sentiments with her own brand of mysterious music generation. Performing as Je Suis le Petit Chevalier, Felicia unites the energy of synthesizer with her voice into a brew of humid atmospherics. Every sung line and keyboard pulse is like a pebble dropped onto the still surface of a pond, leaving behind distinct after-impressions yet always giving way to the next entrancing note..." stunned

foto: ananda serné

buy / listen & free download je suis le petit chevalier side

listen inez lightfoot

wyld wyzrdz • stag hare / high wolf • annapurna illusion

wyld wyzrdz & stag hare ~ antelope island 7'' (inner islands 2010)

"Two peace offerings from Wyld and Stag"

buy / download

high wolf & annapurna illusion ~ split lp (group tightener 2011)

"High Wolf's 23-minute contribution, "Amazonian Love Call" recalls the sounds we have enjoyed from him to date, a humid combination of tribal beats, expansive guitars, and whispy synths. Annapurna shares in a similar jungle trance, but is harsher in tone..." altered zones

foto: sara gossett

buy / download

high wolf

high wolf ~ a guide to healing 7'' (bathetic 2011)

"This record is like a mental postcard from Varanasi (India). It’s probably my favorite place in the whole world, being there is like being on lsd. And if you dive in Ganga water - the purest water on earth according to the hindus, the most polluted and unhealthy according to science-, hold your breath and open your ears, this music is what you’ll hear." high wolf

foto: via onyx earth

~~libera tu campo de energía~~

download

caballos y entusiasmo

caballos y entusiasmo • hidropony [Self Release, 2010]

"Since recently Salvador Cresta has added an extra musician, his girlfriend. With her the ideas expanded to something more serious or perhaps not. There's more in charge than creative fire-lighting ideas of fun in kitchen, bed room or dining room. The ideas are expanded to studio-like settings, so I wonder what would happen in a few days in a real studio. Obviously there's the same amount of pleasure in the making, and all the splendour of instant invention in arrangements. Often we hear dual acoustic guitars, dual vocal overdubs harmonies, overdubs with piano like toy piano and other keyboards. New are a few “group” project additions, sounding like a full choir (the girl?), communal psych madness (an educational group turning educationally berserk during a break?), strange harmonies, gamelan with spoons on glasses and similar odd ideas, in song format mostly, here and there with an event, a story. Like every album by Salvador : very good !! They're planning a European tour and will bring their home recorded audio and video material with them." psychedelic folk

buy: salvadorcresta@yahoo.com

hidropony nace de una conexión que acerca un mar lejano a la montaña. es el resultado de un intercambio musical entre pupa y salvador cresta. provoca afinar antenitas para estar atentos al sello mariano mermaid... ansiosos esperamos "el cátalogo de 600 páginas, que podría venir adjunto a la guía telefónica de todos los países, con una copia de "La Guía de la Industria 2003" de regalo... y una biblia... y un corán" si se da el caso of course ;)

spirit spine

spirit spine ~ glossolalia (lovegiraffe 2011)

"...meaning "the religious practice of speaking in tongues," Glossolalia, the soundtrack to an imaginary desert epic, follows the story of a preacher traveling by airplane who crashes into the desert, leaving him the only survivor. As a result, the preacher must wander the desert in search of food, water, and civilization. Along the way he questions the religion that brought him there and the God who may, or may not, exist." joseph denney~spirit spine

foto: via onyx earth

listen & buy / download

ethereal doom cosmonaut / bleak tails

ethereal doom cosmonaut / bleak tails ~ mr. and ms. erotic america (ace of tapes 2011)

"our first release in a long time. dang. 18 minutes each from two east bay area kiddos. bleak tails is stephen, whose side is like watching 100 years pass in one day from inside of someone's mouth. ethereal doom cosmonaut is sebastian, whose side is like the sweatdrops off the back of whatever holds up the sky. edition of 50." ace of tapes

foto: via onyx earth

buy / free download

love cult

love cult ~ nebulaes (brave mysteries 2011)

"Hailing from deep within the songlands of Karelia, Love Cult is the duo of Anya Kuts and Ivan Afanasyev. When asked to tell us a bit more about these sessions, the duo only told us things that made us feel even more alien and confused than we were when we knew nothing at all. These are truly sounds of a thoughtfully intimate and exclusive nature, like the soft concentration of singing lullabies to your first love. Using only acoustic guitar, voice, bells, kantele, lap slide, kazoo and effects, Love Cult construct two side-long epics that are fully enveloping...While fragile acoustics are fingered in pensive circular patterns, sinewy loops wrap themselves around the shimmering esophagus gently intoning it's mantras. The expansive atmosphere of these workings give extra blur to the ghostly strands of melody slowly arching over fully hollow spaces between and around each note. Welcome to the shadowy bliss of the songlands." brave mysteries

foto: anya by nick post

bandcamp / buy

~reflection~

linda perhacs / mira billotte

"...our astonished love of her timeless album “Parallelograms” will never fade. We feel so incredibly honored to have connected with her personally and to have co-presented her first ever live, public performance as part of dublab’s 10th anniversary celebration. She connected with many talented, progressive musicians as a result of that concert and has since been performing live and recording new music. Linda Perhacs and her band composed of Julia Holter, Michelle Vidal and Aaron Robinson blessed our studio for a live performance. We hope you enjoy these live versions of Linda’s classic songs “Chimacum Rain” and “If You Were My Man” performed by this trio of young talents." dublab

linda perhacs band ~ live “sounds of symmetry”

&

see “chimicum rain” live at mccabe’s

"Mira Billotte of White Magic visited the dublab studio for a live “Sprout Session” transmission. Get entranced by her sound spell." dublab

mira billote ~ live sprout session

see

weyes blood

weyes blood ~ the outside room lp (not not fun 2011)

"...Weyes Blood is the work of a solitary lady, best known as Natalie Mering from Jackie-O Motherfucker. It’s a collection of downbeat torch songs predominantly backed by organ or guitar and drums, but with some mysterious clanks and screeches going on in the background too. She has quite a low voice and a sort of stoic Nico-esque delivery which I like, which combined with the slow pace of the record often lends it a kind of spiritual feel. The casual way in which she knocks out these memorable tracks and the vocal harmonies kind of bring Woods to mind in places, but this is really something entirely of its own, fragile and compelling." norman records

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jennifer castle

jennifer castle ~ castlemusic (flemish eye 2011)

"...Jennifer Castle and her new record, Castlemusic, is like a moving picture, set firmly in the present, living, breathing, and taking shape as you’re listening to it. It’s an animate, evolving record offers a new experience each time you listen to it.

...on “Way of the Crow” her voice soars above the clouds, using her upper register to take the listener airborn, presumably on the calmer currents of air above the storm hinted at in “Powers”. Then once you get to “Poor as Him”, Jennifer sets you down on a hot and humid beach to shake and shimmy along with the ghosts of kids in polka dot bikinis and surf shorts. It’s heady, sometimes trippy listening.

And so it goes through this record. It was recorded so that the natural reverb and sonic textures of the room were preserved, and throughout Castlemusic, you get the impression that much of what you hear happened exactly as it was recorded..." quick before it melts

bienvenida de nuevo señorita castle, y gracias por ragalarnos el disco más literalmente bonito del año

definitivamente, elegance is her way

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wyld wyzrdz

wyld wyzrdz ~ free magic (inner islands 2011)

"The pieces that comprise Free Magick are best understood as destinations on an unseen map for an unseen world, or places of the heart. During the recording process I entertained energies within and outside myself that were new and fascinating. Because of this I do not feel that it is solely my album, but rather collaboration with the unknown. It stands as my most sincere work to date, a true reflection of my inner journey and a statement to the magick of mystery." braden j mckenna • wyld wyzrdz

"...oceans, bees, whales and wind bolster the already pastoral feel of Free Magick, while electronic sounds try to sound organic." tome to the weather machine

foto: luke byrne

bandcamp / buy

dragon's garden & forest light