CCBYNCSA30 – ojdo

{tantrum} – [2011] {tantrum} EP

Brass indie pop from Indonesia. Refreshingly conventional piano arrangements and vocals.

If you remember the sound of Badly Drawn Boy‘s soundtrack for the movie About a Boy, this is exactly how this band sounds. Leisurely paced pop songs with pleasant vocals and recipe book song structures. Trumpets and Indonesian lyrics add flavour to some of the 11 tracks.

The Smashing Pumpkins – [2000] MACHINA II / The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music

A true case of an underground release. Uncompromising hard rock, akin to Nine Inch Nails marrying AC/DC, straight from vinyl.

Yes, this is a release by the Smashing Pumpkins, released by the artists partly in protest against their record label. The original release consisted of only 25 hand-pressed LPs, which found their way to radio stations and devoted fans, with instructions to duplicate and spread the record. And so it did. This version was digitized by a radio station, so hopefully this is as close as possible to the band’s intentions, and those are: rock hard.

dUASsEMIcOLCHEIAS iNVERTIDAS – [2011] SADITREVNi SAIEHCLOcIMEsSAUd

Exceptionally virtuous psychadelic jazz rock frenzy. Like Mr. Bungle’s slightly more experimental cousin.

Wow, what a ride this is. At times, I scratch my head wondering “what the heck did they want with this?”. But mostly, virtuosic saxophone, galloping guitar, furious drums make you want their 13 minute long track to last even longer. Similar to progressive or post rock, all tracks start slow, to then slowly ramp up to a loud finale. If you can forgive occasional weirdness, please follow me to exhibit no. 1:

Ant Neely – [2008] Not Fit For Human Consumption

Wide range of styles and techniques on a single solo artist review: pop album, movie score and a little bit of funk.

Ant Neely is one of the few artists on this blog who have their own Wikipedia article. And then there is this single free album, released on Jamendo and CDBaby. The style is… special, in that this album probably is the artist’s business card, showing off quirky production techniques and repertoire from vocal pop to dark cinematic.

Bit Shifter – [2006] Information Chase

Essential chiptune album from the (g)olden age of Creative Commons music.

Six 8-bit style tracks produced on the Game Boy, the album itself an oldie by now, coming from one of the genre’s great names. While I don’t recommend to listen to hours of chiptunes in a single run, the nostalgic vibes one can get out of this genre well justify exposing your ears to raw sawtooth, blank noise and only mildly filtered sine waves…

As Above So Below – [2016] Ritos I

Debut EP of “Portugese project doing cinematic postrock”. Special treat: excellently crafted melody lines.

What I like about post rock as a genre is how consistent it is. Once you have heard 3-4 albums, you immediately can recognise it and start concentrating on subtle differences, or bath your ears in the never-ending chord progressions above percussive loops that slowly build up to a loud, but modestly self-restrained instrumental finale. And that’s what awaits you here, as well…

University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra – [2012] Design and Intent

Live recording of excellently performed classical music. Though not exactly hi-fi, the performance excels.

Without surprise, recordings of full orchestra performing classical symphonies are rare. But the productive university orchestra in Chicago is so kind to provide full recordings of some of their concerts. While they do not (and to not want) to compete with proper (and pricey) studio recordings, they give us an opportunity to try out some classics:

Various Artists – [2009] Footprints

Massive trip hop infused electronic compilation. 30 tracks from dance to experimental.

Netlabel Bump Foot is special in that it consists two separately numbered release channels. One is labelled bump, dealing with house and techno, foot the other for IDM, trip hop, chiptune, ambient… everything else electronic, basically. In 2009, both series hit their 100th anniversary. This one is filled with two hours of high quality trip hop, pop-y and funky electronica from the golden netlabel era.

Electric Mirrors – [2016] UFO Stories

Slightly dark synth-pop at its best. Stomping beats and almost spoken vocals included.

If Depeche Mode and David Byrne did a collaboration (maybe they did? didn’t check), it might sound like Electric Mirrors.
Densely produced songs, with no second wasted on padding, are filled from start to finish with lyrical puns, glockenspiel interludes or gently sprinkled in ’90s pop music references.

Professor Kliq – [2011] Athene’s Theory of Everything OST

Cinematic electronica with little percussion, but lots of atmosphere.

While I cannot recommend you to watch the movie this album is the original score to, I very much endorse its soundtrack. To paraphrase, the “documentary” is either a very crude joke or a blunt hoax by an internet celebrity. But under the ludicrous voice track, there is an ambient electronic masterpiece by Professor Kliq.