nowlikephotographs

Nowlikephotographs episode 398: last week of the port-royal tour

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:45 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 398: this week is the last few days of port-royal’s Fall 2012 North American Tour, things are wrapping up with a show at The Middle East club in Cambridge on the 11th, and the 12th at Pianos NYC in New York.The Photographic plays a suite of port-royal tracks, bookended by tracks from n5MD and affiliated artists.New music featured this week: Nils Frahm, Mariel Roberts, Leaving Richmond, Balmorhea, Arms of Tripoli, and North Atlantic Drift.

Record of the Week: Caspian – Waking Season

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Nils Frahm	Fa	Screws	Erased Tapes	2:26
Nils Frahm	Sol	Screws	Erased Tapes	2:30
Mariel Roberts	Three Shades, Foreshadows (feat. Andy Akiho)	Non-Extraneous Sounds	Innova	10:23

bitcrush	Of Embers	From Arcs to Embers	n5MD	6:14
Tineidae	Rigel	Lights	Tympanik Audio	5:33
port-royal	Hermitage, Part 1	Dying in Time	n5MD	5:21
port-royal	Hermitage, Part 2	Dying in Time	n5MD	5:24
port-royal	Hermitage, Part 3	Dying in Time	n5MD	6:06
Dryft	Avatar	Cell	n5MD	3:07

Caspian	Gone in Bloom and Bough	Waking Season	Mylene Sheath	10:24
Leaving Richmond	New Machinery	The Bird and the Submarine		3:55

Balmorhea	Days	Stranger	Western Vinyl	8:46
Greg Haines	Nuestro Pueblo	Digressions	Preservation	15:26

Arms of Tripoli	City Speak	All the Fallen Embers	Fluttery Records	4:21
North Atlantic Drift	Constellation Two	Amateur Astronomy	The Long and Winding Road	12:24
Lanterna	Atlantic	Sands	Badman Records	7:07

Collapse Under the Empire	The Beyond	Fragments of a Prayer	Self-Released	6:48
Caspian	Fire Made Flesh	Waking Season	Mylene Sheath	7:49

via http://bit.ly/WmWPRj

Episode 396

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:43 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 396: featuring new music from Bouquiniste, Hammock, Collapse Under the Empire, Falcon Arrow, Caspian, The American Dollar, and Eus.

This week’s Photographic checks out 5 tracks from artists playing with port-royal on their Fall 2012 North American tour – sponsored by n5MD and Nowlikephotographs!

Record of the Week: Sophie Hutchings – Night Sky

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Greg Haines	183 Times	Digressions	Preservation	9:08
Bouquiniste	The Day They Came	Bouquiniste	Dope Records	9:03

port-royal	Putin vs. Valery	Afraid to Dance	Resonant	7:10
Lights Out Asia	Ghost Identifier	Hy-Brasil	n5MD	5:54
anklebiter	Nested	Raintree	Tympanik Audio	5:54
dryft	Knives as Gifts	Ventricle	n5MD	7:42
Jatun	Overhead the Air Waves	Blanket of Ash	Other Electricities	8:31

Toundra	Lilim	III	Aloud Music	7:25

Hammock	Ten Thousand Years Won’t Save Your Life	single	Hammock Music	6:27
Bitcrush	All at Once It Was Erased	Collapse	n5MD	11:06

Collapse Under the Empire	Breaking the Light	Fragments of a Prayer	Self-Released	5:04
You May Die in the Desert	West of 1848	International Waters	Self-Released	6:39
Falcon Arrow	Obvious Cipher	Anti-Matter	Self-Released	3:57
Caspian	Porcellous	Waking Season	The Mylene Sheath

Collapse Under the Empire	Closer	Fragments of a Prayer	Self-Released	4:29
The American Dollar	Faces in the Haze (Ambient)	Ambient Three	Yesh Music	4:44
Eus	Mesé	Los Otros	Self-Released	6:45
Sophie Hutchings	The Near Side	Night Sky	Preservation	6:30

via http://bit.ly/101XXx8

Episode 397

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:43 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 397: this week it’s 4 30-minute tracks, from Dirty Knobs, Current 93, Equus, and Jakob. Longer tracks can often be overlooked, but it’s important from time to time to sit down, tune in for (at least!) half an hour, and get immersed in the music.

New music this week comes from Duluth, Minnesota-based Zac Bentz, also known as Dirty Knobs. He released a 4+ hour album of cinematic, deep drone music earlier in 2012.

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Dirty Knobs	Hollow Salinon	Ghost Geometry	Self-Released	32:20:00
Current 93	The Sound of the Storm Was Spears	Haunted Waves, Moving Graves	Coptic Cat	34:29:00
Equus	Hyracotherium	Eutheria	Get a Life! Records	31:16:00
Jakob	Dominion	Dominion	Midium	29:16:00

via http://bit.ly/WmWPAX

Episode 394: From Minneapolis to Boston

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:41 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 394: From Minneapolis to Boston follows our recent relocation from the state of Minnesota, to the capitol of Massachusetts.

We take a listen to instrumental tracks from our old home of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, cities passed through on the way to Boston like Chicago and Pittsburgh, and finally a whole hour of Boston & greater-Massachusetts epic instrumental music.

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Nomia	Jp	Nomia	Self-Released	9:32
Falcon Arrow	Hobo Days in Britt	Anti-Matter	Self-Released	7:00
Aquarelle	A Strange Sweet Woe	Sung in Broken Symmetry	Rest & Noise	7:50

Tortoise	Gigantes	Beacons of Ancestorship	Thrill Jockey	6:22
Cougar	Stay Famous	Patriot	Layered Music	4:50
Pelican	March to the Sea	The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw	Southern Lord	9:37

The Sea, Like Lead	Twilight of the Gods	Belegost / The Sea, Like Lead	Electronic Human Project	11:58


Glenn Jones	A Snapshot of Mom, Scotland, 1957	The Wanting	Thrill Jockey	8:03
Caspian	Ghost of the Garden City	Tertia	The Mylene Sheath	7:31

Sparrows Swarm and Sing	Part I	Untitled II	Self-Released	4:35
Arms and Sleepers	Lisbon	Nostalgia for the Absolute	Self-Released	2:40
Hadoken	The Ballad of Floating Fire	Luminary	Self-Released	6:12

Constants	Abraxas pt. I	The Foundation, The Machine, The Ascension	The Mylene Sheath	4:54
(The) Slowest Runner (In All the World)	Marsupial Patterns	We, Burning Giraffes	Self-Released	3:05
Irepress	Diaspora	Sol Eye Sea I	Translation Loss	10:51

via http://bit.ly/WmWNsM

Episode 395

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:41 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 395: featuring new tracks from Greg Haines, Sophie Hutchings, Bitcrush, Toundra, and You May Die in the Desert.This week’s Photographic focuses on recent releases from the Australia-based record label Preservation.

Record of the Week: Greg Haines – Digressions

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Slow Six	These Rivers Between Us	Tomorrow Becomes You	Western Vinyl	9:26
Sunwrae	Chinook Winds	Autumn Never Fall	Self-Released	7:55

Greg Haines	Caden Cotard	Digressions	Preservation	12:56
Fabio Orsi	Soon I’ll Be At Home	Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul	Preservation	10:34
Sophie Hutchings	Between Earth and Sky	Night Sky	Preservation	7:45

Emanuele Errante	Inner	Time Elapsing Handheld	Karaoke Kalk	9:48
Deaf Center	Stone Beacon	Pale Ravine	Type Records	3:30

Bitcrush	To Collapse Into	Collapse	n5MD	12:18
Bitcrush	To Collapse Out Of	Collapse	n5MD	5:50

Toundra	Cielo Negro (Black Sky)	III	Aloud Music	6:00
Kerretta	Sleepers	Vilayer	Midium	4:40
Leech	Echolon	If we get there one day, would you please open the gates?	Self-Released	9:07

You May Die in the Desert	International Waters	International Waters	Self-Released	7:58
Greg Haines	Azure	Digressions	Preservation	14:15

via http://bit.ly/W3RWdE

Episode 393

recklessengineer — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:40 -0600

Nowlikephotographs episode 393: featuring new music from Sontag Shogun, Tineidae, r.roo, and Frames.

This week’s Photographic is a half-hour set of dark ambient, electronic, and IDM, heavily featuring artists from the Tympanik Audio label.

Record of the Week: Frames – In Via

Artist	Track	Label	Album	Time
Brian John Mitchell & Andrew Weathers	Coming to Terms	Silber Media	Drone Is in the Blood	11:37
Sontag Shogun	Hungarian Wheat	Palaver Music	Absent Warrior, Abandoned Battlefield	6:57

Tineidae	Azure	Tympanik Audio	Lights	4:25
Swarms	Polar	Lodubs	Old Raves End	4:26
r.roo	Medlenno	Tympanik Audio	mgnovenie	8:21
Waves on Canvas	Voix dans une Voix	Psychonavigation	Into the Northsea	5:23
Subheim	Away	Tympanik Audio	Approach	6:15
Trentemoller	Miss You	Poker Flat Recordings	The Last Resort	4:04

Frames	Departure	Self-Released	In Via	7:05

The Ascent of Everest	Alas, Alas! The Breath of Life!	Shelsmusic	How Lonely Sits the City!	12:29
(The) Slowest Runner (In All The World)	We, Burning Giraffes	Self-Released	We, Burning Giraffes	9:29

The Evpatoria Report	Acheron	Get a Life Records	Maar	19:36

Collapse Under the Empire	Dragonfly	Self-Released	Dragonfly (single)	6:17
Dumbsaint	Inwaking	Birds Robe	Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form	4:38
Frames	Dont Stay Here	Self-Released	In Via	8:35

via http://bit.ly/WmWP3W

Episode 411: kid enkidu

recklessengineer — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:46:52 -0600

“kid enkidu” is the January show at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis, and is being scored in a live & improvised fashion by local Minneapolis artists Dosh and Tom Woodling. The show combines music with live drawn computer animation and large scale shadow puppetry loosely based on the Epic of Gilgamesh, and premieres on Thursday, January 24th at 8pm.

We take a listen to snippets of Dosh’s improvised score for “kid enkidu,” as well as new music from Cass., Brokeback, Pleq and Hakobune, and Mountains.

Record of the Week: Sunlight Ascending – Leaving My Waiting Room

Links:

www.doshfamily.com
www.hobt.org
http://bit.ly/146PpVS http://bit.ly/146PnNQ
http://bit.ly/146PpVV http://bit.ly/146PpVW

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
SaffronKeira	First Steps	Tourette	Denovali	11:09
Brokeback	Don’t Worry Pigeon	Brokeback and the Black Rock	Thrill Jockey	8:13

Dosh & Tom Woodling	kid enkidu	kid enkidu		15:13
Dosh	Capture the Flag	Wolves and Wishes	Anticon	5:18

Lights & Motion	Faded Fluorescence	Reanimation	Deep Elm	7:56
The American Dollar	Somnambulance	The American Dollar	Yesh Music	4:29
This Will Destroy You	Burial on the Presidio Banks	This Will Destroy You	Magic Bullet	7:43

Mountains	Propeller	Centralia	Thrill Jockey	20:29

Cass.	Rustling and Pure	Loops & Farewell Sketches	Self-Released	5:28
Arafúra	Haima	Humores I-IV	Garden of Eyes	7:20
Pleq & Hakobune	0.2	0.0	Murmur Records	9:45

Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek	Slow Wave II	Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek	Self-Released	5:40
Stafraenn Hakon	Soft Fence	Prammi	Sound of Silence	4:31
Sunlight Ascending	Kalkaska	Leaving My Waiting Room	Self-Released	6:33

via http://bit.ly/146PpVY

Episode 410: Am I Happy? Or Am I Sad?

recklessengineer — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:12:40 -0600

This week’s program title is taken from a track by Elohymn, a post-rock band from England; the program features a mix of darker experimental drone and electronic music, and a spot of uplifting post-rock.

New music featured: Elohymn, Gate, Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek, How Comes the Constellations Shine, Arafúra, Stafraenn Hakon, and Lights & Motion.

Record of the Week: SaffronKeira – Tourette

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Ethernet	Pleroma	Opus 2	Kranky	13:33
Elohymn	Am I Happy? Or Am I Sad?	single	Self-Released	6:55

Gate	Sekai Part 3	Sekai	Fluttery Records	12:24
krill.minima	nachtigal	sekundenschlaft	Psychonavigation	7:26

Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek	Slow Wave I	Michel Banabila & Machinefabriek	Self-Released	9:12
Pleq & Philippe Lamy	Behind the Black Horizon	Momentum	dataObscura	10:22

How Comes the Constellations Shine	Shattered Glass	Mémoire	Fluttery Records	8:49
Arafúra	Humores I: Phlegma	Humores I-IV	Garden of Eyes	8:33
Stafraenn Hakon	Hvarf-12	Prammi	Sound of Silence	5:51

Sunlight Ascending	Multivac	Leaving My Waiting Room	Self-Released	6:02
Lights & Motion	Aerials	Reanimation	Deep Elm	5:46
Explosions in the Sky	Your Hand in Mine	The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place	Temporary Residence	8:17

SaffronKeira	The Disease	Tourette	Denovali	8:25
SaffronKeira	The Hope	Tourette	Denovali	12:10

via http://bit.ly/1410I14

Top Instrumental Records of 2012: Post-Rock

recklessengineer — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:09:06 -0600

Dumbsaint - Something That You feel Will Find Its Own Form (Birds Robe)
Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form is not a typical post-rock record of the year, and it’s a real banger. Coming a bit from the left-field of heavier “post-metalish” music, and packaged as a concept record to which each of its tracks is paired an original video for live performances, the debut release from Australian instrumental trio Dumbsaint absolutely wowed us around mid-2012 with its stunning maturity. Debut single “Don’t Forget to Bring Down the Sky” perfectly captured the record in its entirety – searingly intense at times, contemplative, and tied together with a keen sense of sparsity. Definitely one of the finest harder instrumental releases in recent years. Originally featured in program # 376 here, and full review from The AU Review here.
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Balmorhea - Stranger (Western Vinyl)
We’re no stranger (pardon…) to Austin, TX based Balmorhea here at NLP, having played them since their selt-titled debut was released in 2007. Where 2010′s Constellations might have felt a little subdued and somber at times, Stranger lengthens the compositions (and is a considerably longer record, too) & exudes a more playful and optimistic atmosphere. Stranger is a gorgeous, genre-spanning record, one that barely fits into the post-rock category, but its compositional variety is a primary strength. Read a full review here courtesy of Earmilk.
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The Calm Blue Sea – Arrivals & Departures (Modern Outsider)
Another Austin, TX instrumental band (it’s a hotbed for this kind of thing) made its way to the NLP 2012 lists. A band we had in-studio following the release of their score for the Fritz Lang film Siegfried, and whose track “We Happy Few” maintains its status as one of the best post-rock tracks of the last decade - The Calm Blue Sea have crafted another post-rock record steeped in instrumental lyricism and melody, and even got attention on the often-indie-focused NPR Music. Check out a review from ovlrd here, and the episode with Arrivals and Departures as the record of the week.
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pg.lost – Key (Black Star Foundation)
If you need a soaring, intense post-rock experience from outside the US, you might turn to the Swiss Evpatoria Report, Japan’s Mono, or Denmark’s The Seven Mile Journey – NLP also recommends trying the most recent offering (and the entire back-catalog for that matter) of Sweden’s pg.lost. Key follows 2009′s In Never Out, which was comparatively subdued when stacked against their 2008 behemoth It’s Not Me, It’s You! Featuring a little less bombast and a little more of the finer details, Key shows the band evolving. Review from The Alternative Review here, and NLP episode 386 here.
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If These Trees Could Talk – Red Forest (Science of Silence)
Hailing from Akron, Ohio, If These Trees Could Talk bring a harder, more punch-happy edge to post-rock music that has been very refreshing since the debut of “Malabar Front” from 2006′s self-titled release. Red Forest more fully fleshes out some of the moods and ideas present from 2009′s Above the Earth, Below the Sky, with the ever-present brooding (and loud) dynamics the band employs. A “feel-good” crushing post-rock release, if that’s your sort of thing. Full review from The New Review here, and NLP episoide 373 here.
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Leech - If we get there one day, would you please open the gates? (Self-Released)
Leech is a Swiss band with a long history. Initially formed in 1995, put on hiatus in 2000, and reformed in 2006, they have consistently focused on instrumental experimental & progressive music. They released a split record with Germany’s Long Distance Calling in 2008, before preparing to write a monstrous progressive post-rock release for 2012. If we get there one day, would you please open the gates? runs over 76 minutes across 10 tracks, and just plain sounds good. It’s polished, well-produced, lyrical progressive post-rock at some of 2012′s best. Earning a 4.5 on Sputnik Music, we originally featured the record in episode 373.
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Mono - For My Parents (Temporary Residence)
Perennial international favorites Mono return once again for another outing into orchestral, bombastic post-rock – or so we expected. With every record, the Japanese quartet dial up the orchestral mojo and down the post-rock, sounding more compositionally mature. Perhaps at some point the band will score a film. For My Parentsthrows no unexpected loops or surprises, but is comfortably a very listenable record, one that tells a story of a child’s love for its parents. Review courtesy of Consequence of Sound, and NLP episode 404.

via http://bit.ly/XuGKX1

Top Instrumental Records of 2012: Ambient

recklessengineer — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 01:54:52 -0600

Hammock - Departure Songs (Hammock Music)
It’s no secret that we have a lot of love for the Tennessee duo Hammock here at NLP. They’ve consistently been one of our favorite artists across the years, from the earlier releases around Kenotic, through the improvised ambience of Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow, to 2012′s monolith double-disc set Departure Songs. Focusing on themes of grief, death, and loss, the pair set out to craft an album broader, deeper, and more emotionally expansive – and intense – than their previous works. For all intents and purposes, Hammock have utterly succeeded, and they received critical acclaim for it (read a full review here, courtesy of Matt Gilley & Fluid Radio). Featured as Record of the Week for our 7-year retrospective program, episode 400.
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Richard Skelton – Verse of Birds (Corbel Stone)
Richard Skelton is another name often seen here at NLP, frequenting the contemporary classical, drone, and ambient categories. His previous works, including the acclaimed Landings, set the standard for dark, brooding, slightly depressive drone-classical music. Verse of Birds, released on Corbel Stone following the archiving of his previous works on Sustain-Release, is a sprawling double-disc set of some of his best work to date. Featured in episode 389, you can find full reviews courtesy of A Closer Listen and Fluid Radio here & here.
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Brian Eno – Lux (Warp)
There really isn’t much left to be said about the UK ambient and pop music giant Brian Eno. He returned to his ambient roots (think Music for Airports) in 2012 with a four-part excursion into the land of Eno we know and love. Glittering, shimmering minimal electronic & piano soundscapes dance around for the better part of an hour – it feels as though Eno never made any missteps between Airports and Lux, though they are separated by several decades. Even Pitchfork couldn’t downgrade the release below an 8.0, and Slate hopped in with a full feature article. Originally featured on NLP in episode 403.
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loscil - Sketches From New Brighton (Kranky)
loscil is another perennially appearing artist here at NLP, consistently releasing some of the finest records in ambient dub and minimal ambient electronic music. Coming a bit full-circle in thematic elements from several records’ previous with First Narrows, Scott Morgan returns with an evocative electronic painting of the expansive and quiet Canadian landscape. Find a full review here courtesy of Headphone Commute, and the original NLP feature in episode 405 here.
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SaffronKeira - A New Life (Denovali)
The music project of one Eugenio Caria, SaffronKeira resides firmly in the darker corner of electronic music on the Denovali imprint out of Germany. A stunningly mature and expansive debut, A New Life is the third double disc set that made the cut for 2012′s best ambient releases. Its music evokes imagery of desolation & empty hospital corridors and beds at night. A full review courtesy of Headphone Commute can be found here, and the original episode 391 here.
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From the Mouth of the Sun – Woven Tide (Experimedia)
From the Mouth of the Sun is a collaborative effort from Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist of Jasper TX. Planted firmly in the ambient drone and modern classical realms, Woven Tide elicited a wide range of emotions upon each independent listen. A quick NLP review & the original episode 369 are here, and a full review from Headphone Commute can be found here.
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bvdub - Serenity (Darla)
Brock Van Wey produces an incredible amount of material, and unlike so many artists who attempt to produce multiple albums per year for consecutive years, bvdub maintains exceptional quality of composition and production. Serenity is not his most recent work – that would be All Is Forgiven on n5MD - but it’s what made the NLP end-of-year lists for 2012. Deep electronic with swirls of ambient dub and beat-driven soundscapes, Serenity pulses along for over an hour. Not one to miss – find a full review with snippets here.
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North Atlantic Drift – Canvas (Self-Released)
Rounding out the best of ambient releases in 2012 is North Atlantic Drift with the Canadian duo’s debut release. Sounds ranging from post-rock to dark ambient to experimental electronica are all contained within the span of an hour. A brief NLP review & episode 371 are found here, and a full review from A Closer Listen is here.

via http://bit.ly/VZDJkm

Top Instrumental Records of 2012: Neo-Classical

recklessengineer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:05:08 -0600

Christoph Berg – Paraphrases (Fluid Audio)
Christoph Berg is the German artist behind the neo-classical & ambient mashup moniker Field Rotation, and now has released a record more than worthy of mention under his own namesake. One of the year’s freshest releases in the category, it contains both familiar and unfamiliar territory musically. Very much in the feel of Featured as Record of the Week in episode 407 here, and an in-depth full review on Hear-Feel can be found here.
Sophie Hutchings – Night Sky (Preservation)
Sophie wowed us in 2010 with Becalmed, a first glimpse into her compositional world of delicate piano & string structures, tinged with minimal electronics and sampling. Night Sky is a more mature, fleshed-out neo-classical effort with more expansive ideas; it garnered excellent reviews, including this one by our own James Catchpole for Fluid Radio here. Featured as Record of the Week in episode 396 here.
Bersarin Quartett – II (Denovali)
II, the latest effort from Münster, Germany-based artist Thomas Bücker, is far and away ome of 2012′s best genre-hybrid albums. Predominantly an ambient electronic record, it’s sitting here among the purer neo-classical releases due to its extensive use of strings and its reserved, “chamber” feel. This record was featured during our Earth Day 2012 special, episode 378. The fantastic Headphone Commute has a full review here.
Greg Haines – Digressions (Preservation)
The Preservation label has a habit of releasing records in the loosely-defined ambient/neo-classical/electronic realm that 1) defy classification, and 2) are often really, really good. Not quite as sad a record as Berg’s Paraphrases, but lacking some of the youthful hope exuded by Hutchings’ Night Sky, Haines weaves piano & string-centric swirls, mostly across the better part of 10 or more minutes per track. But for a record with as lengthy compositions as these, it’s remarkably listenable. A full review at A Closer Listen can be found here, and episode 395 where Digressions is featured is here.
Anoice - The Black Rain (Ricco Label)
One of 2012′s best international releases, Anoice hails from Japan & the Ricco Label collective, amongst music friends of Yuki Murata, Takahiro Kido, RiLF, and others. Owing no small debt to Murata’s solid classical piano skills (which were on display during a netcast concert in December, videos here), the record is firmly anchored in sweet neo-classical and chamber territory, but does break out into a post-rock finale in its conclusion. Introspective, sorrowful, and speckled with hope, The Black Rain continues the legacy of excellent music from these Japan-based artists. Full review courtesy of Richard Allen and A Closer Listen here. Episode 375 is here.

via http://bit.ly/101Y0sT

Episode 409: stars decorate the fire

recklessengineer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:39:11 -0600

This week’s program (title taken from the 2008 Lakes of Russia record) features a host of new music, including the first new records for 2013. New this week: SaffronKeira, krill.minima, Thalamos, Pleq & Phillippe Lamy, A Sudden Burst of Colour, and the latest from Sunlight Ascending.

Record of the Week: Ethernet – Opus 2

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
SaffronKeira	Obsessive Compulsive	Tourette	Denovali	12:02
krill.minima	mamor (dedub)	sekundenschlaft	Psychonavigation	7:10

Amp Rive	The Apocalypse in F	Irma Vep	Fluttery Records	7:23
The Polar Dream	Leaves in the Sky	Follow Me To the Forest	Self-Released	5:49
Thalamos	Tomorrow Forever	The Listening Room	Self-Released	4:58
Lanterna	Summer Break	Desert Ocean	Bad Man	6:00

Pleq & Philippe Lamy	Momentum	Momentum	Self-Released	14:01
Last Days	Nothing Stays the Same, Nothing Ever Ends	The Safety of the North	n5MD	5:58

1 Mile North	In 1983 He Loved to Fly	Minor Shadows	Ba Da Bing! Records	9:06
MGR	Equilibrium	Wavering on the Cresting Heft	Conspiracy Records	5:45
Lakes of Russia	Dead Trees	Stars Decorate the Fire	Self-Released	8:02

A Sudden Burst of Colour	Afterglow	N/A	Self-Released	4:53
Neko Nine	What can you feel when the day dies	Summer Is You	Fluttery Records	4:16
Sunlight Ascending	The Dhanbad Rails	Leaving My Waiting Room	Self-Released	7:53

Ambidextrous	School of Dub	Radio Not	Self-Released	8:33
Ethernet	Cubed Suns	Opus 2	Kranky	10:10

via http://bit.ly/VVsIRg

Episode 408: top instrumental records of 2012

recklessengineer — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:18:41 -0600

It’s year-end rundown time here at NLP. In the past we’ve compiled a single list of the best 20 records of the year, but as the world of instrumental music is vast and spans an incredible web of moods, colors, and genres, this year we’re breaking it down into three broad categories. Neo-classical, ambient, and post-rock.

Summary lists for each of the categories will soon be available here, here, and here.

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Anoice	Colder Than Thermite	The Black Rain	Ricco Label	4:20
Greg Haines	183 Times	Digressions	Preservation	9:08
Bersarin Quartet	Niemals zurück	II	Denovali	5:18
Sophie Hutchings	Last Quarter	Night Sky	Preservation	3:13
Christoph Berg	Buildings at Night	Paraphrases	Fluid Audio	4:40

North Atlantic Drift	From the Static	Canvas	Self-Released	6:16
bvdub	Serenity	Serenity	Darla	7:00
From the Mouth of the Sun	A Season in Waters	Woven Tide	Experimedia	10:00
SaffronKeira	First Denti	New Life	Denovali	8:43

loscil	Collision of the Pacific Gatherer	Sketches from New Brighton	Kranky	5:09
Brian Eno	Lux 3 (Radio Edit)	Lux	Warp	4:01
Richard Skelton	Promontory	Verse of Birds	Corbel Stone	5:01
Hammock	Tornado Warning	Departure Songs	Hammock Music	4:50

Mono	Dream Odyssey	For My Parents	Temporary Residence Limited	8:03
Leech	Endymion	If we get there one day, would you please open the gates?	Self-Released	7:40
If These Trees Could Talk	The Aleutian Clouds	Red Forest	Science of Silence	3:03
pg.lost	Vultures	Key	Black Star Foundation	5:04
The Calm Blue Sea	We Will Never Be As Young As We Are Tonight	Arrivals & Departures	Outsider	4:29
Balmorhea	Fake Fealty	Stranger	Western Vinyl	4:30
Dumbsaint	Don’t Forget to Bring Down the Sky	Something That You Feel Will Find Its Own Form	Birds Robe	7:29

via http://bit.ly/10JETDZ

Episode 407: poems written by an old (prepared) piano

recklessengineer — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:55:37 -0600

This week’s episode name is taken from a track off Christoph Berg’s latest release, “Paraphrases,” this week’s Record of the Week.

A bunch of new music featured this week, including Horses Die Standing, Ambidextrous, Ana Never, Amp Rive, Late Night Venture, Neko Nine, and Solar Fields. This is the last new music program of 2012 before we do our annual countdown of the year’s top records.

Record of the Week: Christoph Berg – Paraphrases

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time
Horses Die Standing	We don’t actually fear death, we fear that no one will notice our absence	Synesthesya EP	Self-Released	10:43
Lights Out Asia	The Eye of All Storms	Hy-Brasil	n5MD	8:42

Ambidextrous	Arp in the Fridge	Radio Not	Self-Released	9:44
SaffronKeira	Intrepidation	Old Life	Denovali	9:11

Ana Never	Gorgeous One	Small Years	Fluttery Records	16:14
The Dead Sea	Nulla Desiderata	The Dead Sea	Self-Released	2:47

Amp Rive	Clouded Down	Irma Vep	Fluttery Records	8:38
Late Night Venture	Birmingham	Pioneers of Spaceflight	Oxide Tones	6:18
Gespenst	Departure	The Bloodline	Self-Released	4:53

Neko Nine	Some People Are Not Like Me	Summer Is You	Fluttery Records	3:47
Cloudkicker	The Discovery	The Discovery	Self-Released	8:17
A New Silent Corporation	Time Discipline	Everything Is Exactly As It Seems	Self-Released	7:37

Solar Fields	Light Control	Random Friday	Ultimae	4:57
Solar Fields	Random Friday	Random Friday	Ultimae	6:16
Christoph Berg	Poems Written By an Old (Prepared) Piano	Paraphrases	Fluid Audio	7:38

via http://bit.ly/TFTvST

WOUB-AM to start broadcasting NLP on Jan. 5th

recklessengineer — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:29:01 -0600

WOUB-AM 1340 in Athens, OH is becoming the 4th station in the US (and 8th between the US & Canada) to broadcast NLP – in a primetime slot of 10pm EST, Saturdays. The addition of NLP & other scheduling changes will begin on January 5th, 2013.

The full nowlikephotographs broadcast schedule can be viewed here.

via http://bit.ly/Vb7pL7

Radio | Episode 392: late-summer ambient

recklessengineer — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:56:33 -0500

Nowlikephotographs episode 392: late-summer ambient plays a continuation of last week’s heavy concentration on drone, and dabbles in some ambient electronica records from the first quarter of 2012 that we haven’t played yet.New music featured this week: Bersarin Quartett, Shy Low, signalsundertests, Stray Theories, and Mender.

The Photographic takes a listen to ~40 minutes of a live set from Bersarin Quartett, recorded in February of 2012 in Moscow, Russia. Their live performances feature way more experimental jazz influences than the recorded music, with improvisation, live instruments, and a little bit of German “darkjazz.”

Record of the Week: Brian John Mitchell & Andrew Weathers – Drone Is in the Blood

Artist	Track	Label	Album	Time
SaffronKeira	Endless Agony of Being Sick	Denovali	A New Life	12:48

Bersarin Quartett	LIVE AT DOM, Moscow	Denovali	LIVE AT DOM, Moscow	40:00

Shy, Low	Confirmation Bias	Fluttery Records	Shy, Low	7:00

signalsundertest	Nascent	Fluttery Records	Nascent	6:56
Bytkowianin	Bittkow	Psychonavigation	Tamte Czasy	6:32
Biosphere / Deathprod	Journey to the Centre of the First 1.2	Rune Grammofon	Nordheim Transformed	9:02

Stray Theories	Blackout	Self-Released	Even Though We Sleep	6:59
Mender	Chi Killer	Self-Released	Fractional EP	5:23
Ex Confusion	Be Still	n5MD	Embrace	5:28

En	The Sea Saw Swell	Students of Decay	Already Gone	4:09
Brian John Mitchell & Andrew Weathers	Drone Is in the Blood	Silber Media	Drone Is in the Blood	17:55

via http://bit.ly/NoHL42

Radio | Episode 391: drones

recklessengineer — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:33:48 -0500

Photographic: 40-minute track from Silber Media recording artist Promute.

Record of the Week: SaffronKeira – A New Life

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Time	New?
Brian John Mitchell & Andrew Weathers	Almost Forgot	Drone is In the Blood	Silber Media	12:05	y
Promute	Drone of the Norns	Drone of the Norns	Silber Media	40:00:00	y
AJ Nutter	Track 10	The Birds	Silber Media	5:54	y
Lights Out Asia	Arbres Paisible	In the Days of Jupiter	n5MD	1:37
SaffronKeira	Symbiosi	Old Life / New Life	Denovali	10:06	y
Sabi	Halfspine	Glued on Thin Memories	Boltfish Recordings	7:36
Winter North Atlantic	Opportunity Mist	A Memento for Dr. Mori	Boltfish Recordings	2:14
The Nest	Music for Drivers	Music for Drivers	Denovali	20:00
Svarte Greiner	Ocean Out of Wood	Knive	Type	3:44
SaffronKeira	Acceptance of Mental Disorder	Old Life / New Life	Denovali	16:53

via http://bit.ly/PGwAy3

Anklebiter – Raintree

recklessengineer — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 20:23:20 -0500

Buy

Listen

Official Site

Tanner Volz is the man behind electronic and IDM artist Anklebiter, bringing us his third release in as many years with Raintree. For the next hour we are treated to aural delights; ambient melancholia and synth a staple of most of what we hear. The album kicks off with “Homonymic” and swirls and ethereal tones of strings. It’s a gentle awakening, to which industrial drums enter slowly. There’s a suffocating aura to this track as it progresses, and it’s negativity we’ve not seen the last off in this release. Echoing piano bass notes holding a haunting melody begin “Nested”, reminding me of a lesser known artist in Blah Kesto, and this builds and gives way to high pitched space synth, rolling high and low volumes. Again we are short of breath – no space is vacant – like the instruments are sucking the air from the speakers when the industrial reverbed drums enter.

“When Your Ghosts Outnumber your Living” is one of the highlights of this release, Volz confidence rightly placed in it by releasing it prior to the album landing. It starts in a similar vein to its predecessors, with a kindly awakening and percussive action before hitting us with a bounding melody and droning synth – this is one you may be sad to hear come to an end. There’s positivity on this track which is followed through to “Clever Drunk” which after an initial slow start turns into an all-round more upbeat affair. “The Lazy Pioneers” is a playful number layered on a solemn violin reprise. Chiming notes juxtapose deep bass synth lending to another lifting in emotions – welcome relief from the album’s opening numbers.

The album takes its darkest form in the industrially lathered “Feature Creep”, with Venetian Snares style glitch to start, with plenty of tension at the forefront. This industrial sound remains for “The Best People” which is the most uncomfortable listen on the album with constant distortion making it quite a suffocating experience. This reviewer’s pick of the album is the beautiful “Colorado Recursion” and it’s fair to say it serves as a reward for those who have endured much of the tracks before. Swells of delayed guitars akin to Lowercase Noises coupled with simple drum pad ease instrumentation in and out seamlessly. Album closer and title track “Raintree” plods slowly on a backdrop of more industrialised bedlam, coming full circle back to our starting point with erratic and quirky glitches, and a suffocating calm to finish.

- Lewis Woods

via http://bit.ly/PvJLle

Hildur Gudnadottir - Leyfdu Ljosinu

gunpowdertemple — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:11:41 -0500

Website - http://www.hildurness.com/

Listen - http://www.last.fm/music/Hildur+Gu%C3%B0nad%C3%B3ttir

Buy - http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=513

Slow-motion waves of nuanced ambiance from Iceland’s one-woman, one-cello drone machine.

I’ll admit, in a moment of sheer arrogance, hearing the glacial strings on the title track come in with the pitch-perfect falsetto all wrapped up in the recognizably Icelandic package drew immediate comparison with the nation’s other vaguely experimental post-rock ensemble. But no, Hildur Gudnadottir is a person, and she is decidedly not an ensemble, but a singular, cello-playing person making expansive, progressive ambient music, every bit as gorgeous and rewarding as it is sparse and cold.

Leyfdu Ljosinu is not “cold” in the grim or unforgiving sense of the word, but isn’t very embracing either, even for all the beautiful string and vocal work. There isn’t much to latch on to: no real melody or solid ground, especially in the first third of the piece where the sparse cello and vocal lines drift but never settle. All the while, however, the massive half-hour-plus piece is churning and shifting towards a whole range of peaks and swells.

As said, the whole album is the sole work of Gudnadottir, and it truly is a solo work with an uncountable array of loops, filters and effects shaping the sounds far beyond anything resembling “just” cello and voice. Choirs and quartets creep in and out of the mix, somehow conjured behind the scenes. Much like Colin Stetson’s work, it is immensely cool to hear what one person can do with creative mind and a single instrument, and likewise both musicians have the compositional talent to back up the technical flair.

Save for the eruptive finale, the album embraces a washed-out subtly, slowly dredging up drones and casting them out just as slowly. It seldom tries to emulate as “big” of a sound as possible, as can be the impetus behind extensive looping, but instead uses it to explore texture and translucent layering. It exists in a beautiful little place between modern classical and ambient, with enough of an adventurous experimental bent to make it stand out from her previous works. Her first officially released long form composition here shows an artist up to the challenge - especially in the more tense moments of the piece - and hopefully it’s something Gudnadottir will find herself doing again.

Anthea Caddy & Thembi Soddell – Host

mtgilley — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:29:13 -0500

Buy: http://room40.org/store/caddy_soddell_host

Listen: http://cajid.com/iland/releases.html

Website: http://cajid.com/iland/

A tough listen but Caddy and Soddell’s sound art is fascinating and frequently exciting.

Experimental musicians have long been fascinated by the relationship between space and sound. Some of the interplay is direct. Resonance, reverberation and echo will change from place to place and some composers have made astounding use of this, playing the space almost like another instrument. The Deep Listening Band have made some incredible site-specific pieces exploring the unique acoustic properties of spaces such as the so-called ‘cistern chapel’, a two million gallon underground water storage chamber in Fort Worden, Washington with a reverb response time of over forty seconds. Other times artists are inspired by the geography of a place and its emotional effect on them, making music that is both homage to that place and the product of it. Richard Skelton spent four years mapping the West Pennine Moors to create his masterwork Landings. The natural sounds – or those sounds made without specifically musical intention – of a space are collected by field recordists, cut with other field recordings, composed music or left unadorned. Their music recreates an image of the spaces recorded, but one coloured by the artist and one simultaneously distinct and inseparable from the original place.

Anthea Caddy and Thembi Soddell follow in this expansive tradition with their new album. The source material for Host was recorded in, amongst others, a scientific anechoic chamber, the wall of a fifty-metre deep hydroelectric dam and an old Soviet oil tank in rural Estonia. Some of this is manipulated and combined with electronics and field recordings, but the effect of the spaces is still apparent. Even through the staccato bursts of noise that frequent “A Shut in Place” you can hear the dull, quivering resonance of metal walls. Sometimes the duo seem to do a little too much and stifle the locations – often all a musician needs to do is to cast out a few notes and let the room do its work – but perhaps this is just part of their experiment, to throw whatever they can and see what happens.

And Caddy and Soddell certainly have a lot to throw. In her previous work Soddell has tested the limits of dynamic range and some of that bleeds over into Host, which swings between silence and impenetrable atonal cacophonies. These wild variations make for a challenging listen but there are a lot of rewards. Caddy’s cello drones, though they are infrequent, are deep and luscious in the way that only that instrument can be. The outbursts of noise are thrilling in their unpredictability – even after multiple listens you can still be surprised by them – and it is carefully constructed, layered noise, as demonstrated by the final crescendo of opener “Dissembling”, which begins with one of the cello drones, slowly amassing portentous thuds of percussion and scurrying electronics (or possibly twisted field recordings) then rising to fever pitch. Music shouldn’t always be easy on the ear.

The rewards do diminish slightly by the third track. Caddy’s aggressive scrapes of her cello and the hiss of indefinable industry are still just as frightening, but somehow they seem to have been tamed, perhaps by the “Intimate Geometry” of the title. So the abrasiveness remains, but some of the thrill is gone. In the first few minutes there seems to be too much comfortable broiling, the tension of the other tracks disappointingly absent. The end of the piece improves with some of Caddy’s most terrific string abuse but by this time it is a little late. It’s a shame because the resonance of the space (possibly the anechoic chamber) sounds like it could be one of the most interesting on the album. Hearing the experimental unleashing of “Dissembling” released into it would have been fascinating but instead it seems too safe. Host as a whole, nevertheless, remains a more than worthy addition to the continuing exploration sound and space. Like a lot of good sound art it rewards repeat listens and close attention; the clash of instruments, notes, walls, ceilings and recordings offers plenty to be discovered.

Matt Gilley