Now Listening

[SineSwiper]

Figured we start a music version of this. This isn't for cool music videos; there's another thread for that. Just stuff that you've been listening to. (We've been abusing that video thread for that, anyway.)

Florence + The Machine | Strangeness and Charm

First of all: Holy shit... this is a B-side?! I only found this on the Deluxe version of Ceremonials. This is a FANTASTIC song! Between Florence's switch between rapid fire lyrics and her beautiful voice chorus, The Machine's loud beats and lush soundscapes, and the wonderful backing vocals, this is excellent example of F+tM when everything melds perfectly.

I think this is my new favorite F+tM song actually.

[Julius Seeker]

Been listening to a lot of early hip hop, along with a lot of New Wave and Synth.

[SineSwiper]

I have to say that I like David Bowie's Outside a lot better than Earthling. Wasn't really impressed with Reality, but I did like Heathen. I guess Reality was a bit too old skool for me, and Heathen had just the right amount of modern mixing without being outright electronica.

Daft Punk's Alive 2007 is a really good live album. Haven't really listened to Random Access Memories much yet.

Didn't really like State Shirt's latest (Let's Get Bloody), but that shouldn't stop you from listening the first two; those are great.

Also, if I haven't raved about how fucking awesome Amon Tobin is, then here is me raving about ISAM. The guy is like the exact opposite of Daft Punk or Fatboy Slim. The latter two steal old funk albums and put some light mixing into them. On the other hand, ISAM stands for "Invented Sounds Applied to Music". The guy spends a lot of time making sure not only the music composition is great, but also recording all sorts of sounds to produce them.

[Flip]

I made a tumblr to post a bunch of indie videos i like and it is usually songs and artists i'm currently listening to:
http://indievid.tumblr.com/

You should give Random Access Memories a listen, i really like it. Very polished and smooth. Some reviews claim it is a little too jazzy and slow for DP, but then i also heard that they plan to release RAM again and make it more Daft Punky for their fans. What a crazy concept, but also a pretty cool idea! It isnt admitting that the first RAM is wrong or bad, but just showcases what they can do with their own songs. I hope the second RAM is true...

[SineSwiper]

I made a tumblr to post a bunch of indie videos i like and it is usually songs and artists i'm currently listening to:
http://indievid.tumblr.com/

Besides Arcade Fire, the only artist I recognized was The Knife. Silent Shout is a pretty good album.

[SineSwiper]

Really getting into Siriusmo. Good ol' fashioned techno house, but done really well. Think something in the range of Daft Punk.

High Together
Sirimande
Too Simple

OTOH, Hooverphonic is just fucking dead to me now. The singer left and they replaced her, and while that's happened before, it's just finalized their direction into a pure pop group now. Nothing trip-hop or downtempo or anything electronic about them any more. They've lost their flavor ever since LSD Golf Club. They should have just changed their name. To me, the band broke up after The Magnificent Tree. (The shift reminds me of Garbage 2.0, actually.)

I also somewhat disappointed in the latest Moderat album. I mean, it's okay, but like Apparat's latest album, he's just neutered all of the beats from the thing. I remember reading some review talking about how 2009 was a different time than now because of stuff like dubstep. It really shouldn't matter. Just because dubstep is popular doesn't mean IDM should go anti-beat. Clark's latest seems to have similar problems; it's just not memorable enough.

[Shrinweck]

Anyone ever listen to Del tha Funkee Homosapien's side project Deltron 3030? He's finally releasing a follow up and I listened to an EP today with a few of the songs on it and it was quite good. Might stand up to the original.

Favorite song off the original:

[SineSwiper]

Anyone ever listen to Del tha Funkee Homosapien's side project Deltron 3030?

Heh, had to hear his voice to realize he was the rapper on Gorillaz' Clint Eastwood.

[Shrinweck]

Lol, yeah, oops I forgot that he's like five thousand times more renowned for that.

It's like saying "You guys heard of this guy Paul McCartney from this band called Wings?"

[Julius Seeker]

Lol, yeah, oops I forgot that he's like five thousand times more renowned for that.

It's like saying "You guys heard of this guy Paul McCartney from this band called Wings?"

I enjoyed this song by him, a shade of my favourite era for rock music:




I'm looking very forward to Janelle Monae's new album The Electric Lady which contains Suite 4 and 5 of her Metropolis concept series. The album launches in September, but there're already three tracks available. Still following the Sgt. Pepper tradition of doing a multi-genre mix. One of the songs features Prince, that one hasn't been released.

Dance Apocalyptic is the single I like best, even though her first one "Q.U.E.E.N." is much more popular:

[ManaMan]

I've been listening to all of the Pink Floyd albums on Spotify. I'd never heard anything besides the classics: Dark Side, The Wall, & Wish You Were Here. My favorite so far has been Meddle. it's them right as all of their experimentation pays off and they find the classic Pink Floyd sound. I liked Atom Heart Mother as well, even though the band themselves hate it. The early Syd Barret psychedelic stuff was OK but not something I'd want to listen to all the time. The later Post-Wall stuff has a few gems but I thought a lot of it was boring and self indulgent.

[Replay]

A lot of trance...plus I'm feeling Kendrick Lamar's new vid.

Might be too hardcore for some, but honestly Kendrick deserves the love he gets in my eyes, so much rap is artificial and Kendrick always brings the real sound and rhythms of the hood in to his work.

[ManaMan]

New Wilco album is great. Definitely has a nostalgic sound. Better than anything they've done in years.

[Julius Seeker]

Interesting unreleased Lana Del Ray track,



And back to this 90's 1 hit wonder,



And the 80's and 70's

Spoiler: show

[Shellie]

Currently obsessed with Moderat. Group composed of Apparat and Modskeletor. Sine was a huge fan, we went to their concert in Chicago recently and I fell in love.

Rusty Nails


Bad Kingdom

[SineSwiper]

Hey, now. Republica was not a one-hit wonder. Both of those were solid albums.

I've listened to so much new music on Spotify that I can't really keep track. Plaid, Ochre, and DJ Shadow had new albums out. Blanck Mass' World Eater is amazing. Here's an example:



Listening to a lot of post-rock, which is basically the modern day equivalent of prog-rock. Vessels is very good here:



Want vocals? How about Braids?



Solar Field's Mirror's Edge Catalyst is fucking amazing. It's FIVE hours of incredible soundtrack. I mean, I was listening to this thing and marking almost the entire soundtrack as favorite tracks.



Speaking of VGOSTs, Axiom Verge is both an stellar game and soundtrack.

[Julius Seeker]

[Julius Seeker]

[ManaMan]

I like to listen to electronic/ambient music while I work. Podcasts & music with words distracts me. I found this guy "Four Tet" last week & I've been listening to everything he's done since. Very nice. Sounds similar to Aphex Twin. He's worked with Thom Yorke from Radiohead before.

Anyway, give him a listen.

Newest album "New Energy" from this year. My favorite stuff of his that I've heard:


Also, really digging "Pink" from 2012:

[Julius Seeker]

My go to for background music is usually 90s alternative. I can't do rap because it gets me too worked up... I find rap is GREAT for workout music though, gets me really motivated to push the boundaries. Alternative generally keeps me fairly chill and productive. Particular stuff that has enough vocal distortion that it sounds like an instrument. I suppose synth-pop falls in that category as well, I love synth.

Foo Fighters (Album) 1995 - Technically, this isn't by the band Foo Fighters, because Dave Grohl did it all on his own, and a lot of it was side-work while he was a member of Nirvana. Songs like Alone + Easy Target date all the way back to the Nevermind era in 1991.



Loveless - 1991 - It sounds like the band recorded vacuum cleaners at parts... almost to household appliances as industrial is to factory machinery. but it was really some kind of guitar recording technique they used to echo the soundwaves

[ManaMan]

Loveless was a great album. Peak "shoegaze" rock. I definitely hear the influence of that album on the Smashing Pumpkin's Siamese Dream.

[Julius Seeker]

Loveless was the sound Corgan and Vig were going for. They even got My Bloody Valentine producer Alan Moulder to do the mixing on Siamese Dream. He also worked on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

[Julius Seeker]

An unreleased track that's censored?

[Julius Seeker]

[Julius Seeker]

Crappy music I listened to 20 years ago because I thought it was awesome:
(Well, maybe not crappy, but it sounds crappy to me now; it seems like this kind of music could only live in the late 90s)






Some music I actually still like that I used to listen to two decades ago:

[Julius Seeker]

80's synth remixes of existing songs.

[Julius Seeker]

Chvrches latest.

Synthpop, I really like the beat and the vocals, but the male background singer kind of spoils it a little.



The first three songs from the upcoming album are similar. I dig the direction, it reminds me of Keep You On My Side which is my favourite song by the band:

[Julius Seeker]