The idea of time is something I have been fascinated with for quite a while. I believe most people consider time to be a unit of measure, only as a reference to organize their lives. To me, the concept of time is much larger than just the association given with measure. I came to this conclusion in a dream one night a long time ago, I was expressing the limit as ‘n’ travels to infinity of 1/n. Simple calculus will tell you that evaluating the limit of such a problem will render an answer of infinity, because in infinity’s mass, even dividing it will still give you infinity.

I came to conclude in this dream that time should not be looked upon as a measurable object but instead, an immeasurable one, much like infinity.

You may ask, “How can this be so? In about one billion years, our earth will be uninhabitable for humans due to the suns’ heat, and everyone on the earth will cease existence”.

First of all, time cannot be limited to just our galaxy, for it has been reasoned that the Milky Way Galaxy is not the only galaxy in the universe. Where life ends in one place it may be alive in another, and the idea of time should be applied to that of not only humans, but to the stars, too. Much like humans, stars are born and eventually die. The average star begin their life as a nebulae, and end as a black dwarf. Stars, although not considered a biological organism, still model the idea of life, death, and time. The end result proves time to be immeasurable.

Waking up from this dream, I must admit a song similar to that of Porcelain Rafts’ dreamy track See Through would illustrate this moment of wake with an immense resemblance. Musically, the sound of this track reminds me of a wind-up snow globes, presenting the idea of ‘getting lost in another place’. This track has beautiful, swirling vocal melodies which will make you feel lost in a dream of endless time. Below, enjoy a track and video, curated by my great friends at Delicious Scopitone.

Porcelain Raft – See Through from Delicious Scopitone on Vimeo.

Porcelain Raft: See Through

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Soft Powers’ newest and flawless glowing pop tunes were recently made for free on their Bandcamp. These gems were aforementioned in my previous post about them but were only avaliable as a stream then. These tracks are so amazing I couldn’t resist making a post about them.

Soft Powers: It’s Like A Dream

Soft Powers: Gummi

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The majestic blue whale is not only one of the largest mammals to ever populate the earth, but is also the loudest. A blue whale song will usually render a rating of about 180 decibels, which is about 40 decibels louder than that of a jet engine. Their songs can travel for miles, and are believed to be used for communicating with other whales and finding mates.

Some might say that the internet blogosphere is much like a whale song, because the existence of a new act can easily be found from a blog miles and miles away.

In addition, I’ve always wondered how whales might see the ocean in that they reside in, for I’m sure it’s much different than the way any human would. I personally imagine a mammal of that size trekking with force and beauty throughout the giant mass of ocean much like a human would travel through a fast-paced dream.

Albatross is an australian duo that illustrates in my mind the majestic whale and its’ travels through the ocean water. Albatross blur the lines between dreamwave and electrofunk, the basis of their music is an ambient background with driving beats and vocals suttle enough to bring attention to their songs as a whole.

We may never know how a whale feels as it swims throughout the ocean, but perhaps the Albatross will one day tell us, with its observant birds-eye view of the ocean and its inhabitants.

Albatross: Sirens

I was first introduced to Irelands’ experimental psychedelia scene with the very talented Patrick Kelleher, of whom will remind Americans of Ariel Pink, I have been told. Lefse has recently signed Low Sea, another psychedelic experimental act from Ireland.

It seems fitting that this duo is called Low Sea, as their music seems to come from the deep with its dark synth tones. The small touch of fuzz pop in their songs add positive buoyancy, carrying their sounds up to the surface of the ocean from the depth at which they were created.

This sound is much like the geographical feature the lagoon. While Low Sea may sound similar to other artists of the genre and possibly the influences that their music is based off of, they stand alone because of the way they interpret these influences and sounds. Much like Low Seas’ music, a lagoon is composed of the same properties, chemically, as the ocean, yet is its’ own separate feature.

Below, are two songs from their upcoming EP dropping next week (9/13)

Low Sea: Falling

Low Sea: Never Yours

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We’re quickly approaching one of my favorite seasons of the year, autumn. The season of autumn might not be appreciated as much in other places when compared to New England, for the colors of the leaves on the trees here change into beautiful colors. This happens because of the longer night length in the fall season, where chlorophyll production slows down, eventually coming to a halt and destroying all the chlorophyll in the leaves. The chlorophyll is responsible for keeping the leaves green and holding that color, without it the leaves’ ‘true colors’ show, so to speak, as they are hidden beneath the chlorophyll.

The Delfields create music that remind me of autumn and the color-changing leaves, as their sound is a manifestation of the beauty of this season, with its’ crisp air and vivid colors. The New Jersey duos’ indie pop bounces between catchy guitar riffs and synth lines, with vocals reminiscent of the mysterious Summer Camp and a band I listened to a lot in my high school days, called Annuals. The nine track album is pretty solid, with every track a bit different than the next. Each track flows into the next with ease, such as the leaf making its steady turn from green to red and orange. The album starts with the title track Bedroom Girls, and the tracks that follow it are all about a different girl, or at least titled with a different girls name for every song. The whole album is available for download for free at their Bandcamp, and it’s physically dropping at the end of September.

The Delfieds: Lydia

The Delfields: Justine

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Justin sent me this really rad textured jam he worked on with Mickey Mickey Rourke over Facebook chat this morning, which consists of Miller Rodriguezs’ classic textured psychedelia with Justins’ vocals, some bass and a sample looped over it. While the rest of the album explores multiple sub-genres of ambience, Justins’ poppy edge adds a bit of depth to the album, making it an interesting listen all the way through. This track is going to be coming off of Mickey Mickey Rourkes’ full length tape dropping next week titled Inner Gazing, featuring a few other collaborations with artists including Foxes In Fiction and Lester Brown.

Mickey Mickey Rourke & Craft Spells: Gloomy Guts

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Music in the forms of sine waves and pulse waves travel through the cold, mountain air, from the mysterious lair in which RxRy creates his music from. This music travels with the morning light, and carries it over oceans and valleys by binding itself to Nitrogen gas molecules, which make up about 78% of our earth’s dry air. It is, essentially, the music of nature but manufactured by a MIDI keyboard, among other things. His abundance of free music can be found on his Soundcloud, where he has been posting his music since we had last heard about him on Salad Fork, with the post titled Vaeiouwls. The two tracks below are from his upcoming album, Omega.

RxRy: Negat-ve Patterns

RxRy: Bl?dy Knuckle

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PREFACE

I met Lea Mandana Roche in Brooklyn at the Underwater Peoples Showcase. She is one of the bloggers for Delicious Scopitone, the european blog powerhouse that also shares a spot with many other great music blogs on Pitchforks’ sister site, Altered Zones. This morning, she asked me if I would be interested in working on a post with her about Gatekeeper, a band that played with Games at their vinyl release show. I could not resist her offer! Below, is the post we wrote together.

Des lignes de synthé noires, des rythmes lumineux et des oscillations fantasmagoriques: Gatekeeper nous a offert un superbe live à Glasslands, Brooklyn, le 19 août dernier, avec Games, D’eon et Blissed Out.
Le groupe est clairement inspiré par John Carpenter, Claudio Simonetti ou bien encore par la musique macabre de Goblin pour le “Suspiria” de Dario Argento.

Deep synth lines, bright beats and phantasmagoria oscillations: Gatekeeper played at Glasslands on August 19th with Games, D’eon and Blissed Out.
Inspired by John Carpenter synthetic drama, Claudio Simonetti’s work and ghoulish music from the 1977 Dario Argento horror film “Suspiria” performed by Goblin, their sound is like a soundtrack to a cheesy cherry horror movie.

Leur premier vinyle “Optimus Maximus” est sorti sur Fright Records en octobre 2009, un label assez récent crée par Michael Mayer et Jon Berry de Kompakt.
La vidéo suivante a été réalisée à l’occasion par Tommy Boy de Arawa.fm.

Their first LP, ‘Optimus Maximus’ was released on Fright Records in October 2009, a recent label set up by Kompakt’s Michael Mayer and Jon Berry.
This video was done by Tommy Boy of Arawa.fm fame:

Je vous recommande vivement d’écouter leur incroyable “Halloween mix” pour Fact Magazine.

Also, check out the past Halloween mix that Gatekeeper made for Fact Magazine with Wendy Carlos, John Carpenter, Goblin etc. Incredible!

Tracklist:

Wendy Carlos – Clockwork Black (GK Frizzi edit)

Mark Shreeve – Flagg from ‘Leigon

John Carpenter – Das Philidelphia Experiment

Chris & Cosey – Take Control

Beau Wanzer – Fuclax

Front Line Assembley – Attack (GK Diablo PC edit)

Goblin – Phenomena (Bonus Hit 3)

White Car – Not Right

Jean Michelle Jarre – Ethnicolor

Skinny Puppy – Assimilate

Harold Faltermeyer – RV From Hell

Fockewulf 190 – Bodyheat

Tanzen – Tragic Error

Logic System – Person to Person

Dopplereffekt – Sterilization

Squandra Blanco – Night of the Illuminati

Depeche Mode – Big Muff

Harry Manfredini – Friday the 13th part 3

Skatt Bros – Walk the Night

Nitzer Ebb – Control I’m Here

Michael Boyd – Unsolved Mysteries Theme

Chris Carter – Interloop (GK Derbyshire edit)

“Serpent” est le nouveau morceau qui sortira sur le prochain EP “Giza”, cet automne, via Merok.
L’album sera accompagné par six vidéos, à partir de début octobre. Le produit final sera une édition limitée d’une cassette VHS. Il semble que la sortie sur format cassette VHS est approprié pour le type de musique que Gatekeeper crée. Quand j’écoute “Serpent”, ça me fait penser à ma cassette VHS des Tortues ninjas que je n’arrêtais pas de regarder quand j’étais enfant. Les Tortues ninjas vivaient dans la clandestinité sombre où ils avaient subi une mutation en raison d’une substance mutagène. La musique de Gatekeeper reflète les sons de cet environnement sombre et caché où les tortues ont passés de nombreuses années à grandir et à être formées par le maitre Splinter. Aussi, le son qui accompagne les Tortues ninja pour lutter contre le mal, personnifié par Shredder, semble très similaire à celle de Gatekeeper. Et, comme je suis à l’écoute de “Serpent”, des scènes de ce film que j’avais vu il y a déjà plusieurs années viennent de nouveau flotter dans ma mémoire qui s’était égarée.

‘Serpent’ is a new track from out upcoming EP ‘Giza’, out this fall on Merok.
The album will be accompanied by six music videos, starting around early October. The final product will be a limited edition VHS cassette release of all videos which will accompany the LP.

It seems as though the VHS cassette release bundle is fitting for the type of music Gatekeeper creates, because when I listen to Gatekeepers’ all I can think about is my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VHS I would watch as I child. The mutant ninja turtles’ lived in the dark underground where they had mutated from normal turtles due to an ‘ooze’ substance. The music of Gatekeeper reflects the sounds of this dark, hidden environment where the turtles has spent many years growing and training under Splinter. In addition, the music that scored that film as the Ninja Turtles venture to fight the evil Shredder sounds very similar to that of Gatekeeper, and as I am listening to ‘Serpent’, scenes from this film I had watched many years ago come floating back from suppressed memory and back into my main memory banks.

[MP3] Gatekeeper – Serpent
[MP3] Gatekeeper – Visions

Si vous êtes à New York, je vous invite à aller les écouter jouer le 9 septembre pour la release party du LP “Autre Ne Veut” avec Laurel Halo et Airbird. Bonne écoute.

The band is going to play on September 9th for Autre Ne Veut’s LP release party with Laurel Halo and Airbird at Zebulon! You should come.

Words by Lea Mandana of Delicious Scopitone and Louis Kishfy, Salad Fork.

Soft Powers have been on my radar for a while, with their introductory fictional short story themed post about a song released on their Bad Pop album called Mary Never Sings Our Songs. Soft Powers blur the lines between different pop influences and generations creating a very cool sound that is so diverse it makes it difficult to get bored. You would think it’d be hard to tie a disco song with a track beginning with some astral synth on an album, but Soft Powers pulls it off and makes it look easy. Their Bad Pop album is now avaliable for free download at their bandcamp, and so is their shoegaze based album, Tim Durmah. Below is a stream of their newest song, It’s Like A Dream.





Soft Powers: Strawberry Soup

Soft Powers: Moon Culture


Previously:

Soft Powers: Mary Never Sings Our Songs [mp3]


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Lightning Bolt and Sonic Youth played a show together at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel back in 2002 and luckily, someone recorded it. Below are three songs from the legendary noise pair-up, with the Sonic Youth track White Kross played as one band. Lightning Bolt, of course, played in the audience, and are not seen on camera. It’s kind of surreal sometimes, to live in the same town as these legends. In more recent Lightning Bolt news, Load Records is reissuing Wonderful Rainbow, Ride The Skies, The Yellow Record, and Hypermagic Mountain. Currently, Wonderful Rainbow is in stock (as seen by my own eyes about an hour ago). You can get it in store from Armageddon Shop or online here.





Sonic Youth: Disconnection Notice

Lightning Bolt & Sonic Youth: White Kross

Lightning Bolt: Ride The Sky


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