It’s time to re-visit one of my all-time favorite albums ‘Trails/Traces’:
Incidentally, Arkhonia has collaborated with James Zeiter in the past. One of their collaborative tracks, “ddrhodes.wav” off this 7″ from 2001 (which appears in longer form on ‘Trails/Traces’ as “DDRhodes”), found its way onto Kompakt’s timeless and stellar “Pop Ambient 2002” compilation.
Looks like you can still purchase “Trails/Traces” over at Forced Exposure.
JS: JSCD-01
If you come across the complication album above, be sure to buy it. It’s a superb compilation of re-released, rare late 90s dub techno tracks.
Alright, spring is here. Time to get down to business. Below are the albums I’ve been enjoying over the first few months of 2014 – most are new, others are from 2013. I highly recommend each.
Janek Schaefer – Lay-By Lullaby [12k, 2014]:
A clear contender for top album of the year.
Raum – Event Of Your Leaving [Glass, House, 2013]:
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Liz Harris.
I’ve recently discovered the work of Earn (Matthew Sullivan), I highly recommend:
A Following Shadow:
Hell On Earth:
In A Year:
Fennesz, Guitar and Electronics
Lillevan, Video
Fantastic show, as expected.
In descending order (to build suspense):
5. Only the Good Die Young
4. The Entertainer
3. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
2. Allentown
1. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
“‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’ can best be described as a timeless, epic journey.” – Chuck Crow, ccrow Networks.
Top album of the year:
Oneohtrix Point Never: R Plus Seven [Warp Records]From Boomkat:
Daniel Lopatin debuts for Warp with an eagerly awaited ninth solo album. ‘R Plus 7’ follows the increasingly complex vectors of his ‘Returnal’ and ‘Replica’ sides with an ambitious fervor, scoping ten dazzling planes of hyper-reality framing analog/digital productions. While the grand scale of his hypersonic architectures has increased, it’s not at the expense of emotional impact: it’s just that the route to those breathtaking widescreen moments has become more intricate, labyrinthine, and the resolutions more pretentious, striving ever higher for the crenellated heights of sacred ’70s prog. Wrenching us between massive organ crescendos, strobing trance arpeggios and vaulted space-station sim-deck zones with rapid cuts and scene changes, he really allows his imagination and technical expertise to run wild from the pseudo-classical ornamentation of ‘Boring Angel’, through the playful new world optimism of ‘Americans’ and the intra-planetary soul of ‘He She’ to the glitched flux of angelic synth choirs and lush, sprawling panoramas of ‘Inside World’ and ‘Zebra”s kaliedoscopic strobes. At its zenith, the lush ‘Along’ affords a rare respite from it’s fragmented chaos, and works all the better for its relative simplicity and sweetness, presenting a tipping point which follows the cyber-sensual soul stasis of ‘Cryo’ and the divine, prismatic reduced R&Boogie/rave-like fractals of ‘Still Life’, and the tantalising closing sequence of ‘Chrome Country’.
The rest, in no particular order…
Home listening:
Queens: End Times [Dial]
Christian Fennesz: 17.02.12 [Song Cycle]
Tim Hecker: Virgins [Kranky]
Mountains: Centralia + Live At The Bottletree, Birmingham, Alabama [Thrill Jockey]
Koen Holtkamp: Liquid Light Forms [Barge Recordings]
Harold Budd: Perhaps [Root Strata]
Steve Hauschildt: S/H [Editions Mego]
Julianna Barwick: Nepenthe + Pacing [Dead Oceans]
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma: Devotion [Devotion]
On-the-Go:
Arcade Fire: Reflektor [Merge Records]
Wild Nothing: Empty Estate [Captured Tracks]
