This is one of the best dub techno releases of all time. It’s a nighttime ride through the sonic world of an imagined Neo-Tokyo, on the bleeding edge of an inevitable cyberpunk reality. It’s a propulsive dream.
full album streaming
Until The Quiet Comes Comes
Just because.
This has been out over a week and the leak for half that, but tonight, alone, listening to the proper stream on NPR, my excitement is reborn. There are details, sharp edges and vocal snapshots bursting out at me, entire stretches brimming with instrumentation I haven’t noticed. I listened to the leak ten times and haven’t heard the album like this. My thought confirmed: the vinyl leak is muffled, distant and compressed sounding. Everything’s in there, buried then rendered in high fidelity. I kept wanting to lean inward and focus on the elements I knew were inside. It’s a treat to know that what I’ll be receiving in a couple weeks is even better than what fans have been going nuts over.
Stream the entire album here:
Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes
[NPR stream]
Thanks, NPR. Also a question: why can’t your player embed?
Also here is the video for first single Putty Boy Strut. Regardless of how you feel about this song, remember that with this man’s work, it’s all about context.
[Pre-order the album from Bleep, especially if you want the ridiculous collectors edition like I do.]
The Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania
This exists: a new Smashing Pumpkins album which is not terrible, not in the least. The band whose output sustained my entire teenage existence is back (metaphorically) and making music worth hearing. I was embarassed listening to 2007’s abysmal Zeitgeist, feeling my soiled adolescence paraded before the entire world. I swallowed any hope for something better. I basically hoped Billy Corgan would just euthanize the project and do anything else to spare us all.
And then this happened. And it’s streaming here, introduced by Mr. Corgan himself. Ladies and gentlemen, a new Smashing Pumpkins full length: Oceania.
In full disclosure, I am only now finishing up a first full listen and have yet to fully digest this new work. I simply heard the opening salvo and got excited; I need to share this, shout the news from rooftops. The quality is sustained throughout, and my strongest gut reaction is: “milder cousin to Siamese Dream.” The cohesive production wraps a mixture of new and vintage textures around signature Corgan guitar tones and vocals, yet pinpricks of welcome surprise dot most of the one hour running time. Like all proper Pumpkins albums, it even ends on a typically dreamy note.
That’s all I have to say right now. Enjoy?
Demdike Stare – Elemental
Demdike Stare hit my radar when a friend insisted I listen to The Stars Are Moving because it was totally my sort of thing – and a massive understatement. Liberation Through Hearing was not only on my Best of 2010 list, but part of the Tryptych compilation serving up a universally praised 160 minute slab of deep nocturnal bliss across three albums and discs. Having so much aural brilliance to chew on felt like an embarassment of riches before the craving for new material hit well before a year had passed. Thankfully the duo of Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty were busy interlocking the pieces on an even more audacious free fall into the abyss with a 4 EP / 2cd set which stretches their sound in increasingly hypnotic new directions.
The music here is given more space to move and to sit still. There are great leaps beyond their established spooky dub dream style into riots of kraut percussion, melodic poems buried in noise fields, and climaxes of bloody tribal warfare. This is nothing short of the full realization of their shamanistic trance ritual ethos, both more explicitly sculpted and expansive than all prior work combined. Songs cover wildly varying grounds – from beatless waves of digital grain to mountains of swarming disembodied vocals – while retaining a unified identity that would make the cover artwork jealous. Elemental strikes this perfect duality of technical bass mastery and unhinged manace, igniting every dark pleasure center in my auditory complex. It’s a soundtrack to my strangest apocalyptic dreams and the kind of art we could only wish more artists knew how to craft. This is a self contained cult in album form, a ritualistic palate cleanser which will make other music obsolete for a while.
Elemental, in its 2cd form, is fully streamable on soundcloud, right here:
For those lacking time or attention span, a couple highlights: cinematic Mephisto’s Lament and steamrolling Erosion of Mediocrity both destroy worlds and illuminate vastly different aspects of this set.
The fidelity is great but buy the real thing to fully absorb the meticulous near-chaotic detail in Demdike Stare’s work. If you’ve got the fetish and the cash seek out the extremely sold-out 12″ vinyl set from sellers on discogs or ebay. If you want to hear this masterpiece in optimal form for a reasonable price, grab the 2cd set, featuring alternate edits and new cuts fleshing out the experience; believe me, they’re essential and can’t be considered bonus. Keep in mind that this is selling out quickly as well!
For fans of: Shackleton, Actress, Oneohtrix Point Never, Coil, David Lynch, Joseph Conrad, exciting nightmares
Shadow Piece [mixtape]
Change begs itself.
I needed to do something different here. Too much has happened to remain the same. This will now be a home for mixtapes. I will still write about music that I love, sometimes even in the same fashion as before, but this place will change. I have a large mix backlog that can and will be shared, but I assembled one special for this occasion. Here is the inaugural Optimistic Underground mixtape:
Alice Coltrane – Transcendence
Transcendence is my favorite Alice Coltrane album. In my humble opinion, it’s one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, by anyone. I’ll try to concisely extol the many virtues of this wonderfully titular-promise-fulfilling album.
“Transcendence is the key that unlocks the indelible mystery of Alice Coltrane’s music. It is the unerring creative mission statement, the irresistible driving force that pushes her soul towards your own.
Reaching the listener emotionally, psychologically and spiritually is an essential part of the endeavor but the act of going beyond conventional forms of communication, of acceding to a higher state of consciousness, is the ultimate raison d’être.”
Since the liner notes in my handy CD reissue lay it out so succinctly, I feel the need only to briefly describe the music itself. Divided into two distinct phases, the album starts off with meandering cloud shimmers of Alice’s effortlessly magical harp. At first nearly traditional sounding, emulating the first rumblings of a symphony, the amorphous harp-centric sound winds through the second, more abstract tune, before gathering into a purposeful rhythm by the ending of the third track. The final echoes softly give way to the low end hum of Coltrane’s sublime organ workout, which drives the rest of the album along a hand-clapping gospel singalong evocation of the various names of the gods.
This western gospel/eastern philosophy mashup feels so comfortably entwined that it comes across like the most natural progression of this idea possible. The sharp tonal divide would stand out more if it weren’t the perfect combination of contrast and duration: the buildup feels like meditation, being lost in thought and nothingness, before a moment of clarity snaps the world into focus. The local cohabitants emerge and reach towards the outer edges of the world as the gods’ names are chanted in the communal practice of Sankirtan, Alice’s favorite sacrifice. It’s an elated ride from introspection to vocal providence; such an enjoyable trip that we’re nigh unaware of the spirituality fueling the journey. Turn this on and let it get you high – or get high before turning it on. Transcendence is all that matters.
[purchase this truly essential album via cd universe or amazon]
Optimistic Underground 