Sunday, May 19, 2013

Essential and arbitrary electronic/trip-hop/dubstep/etc mix from over the years


Goth-Trad - Mirage

mechanically fluid, a combination of the systematic, robotic tendencies of dubstep and a more natural but still alien kind of oscillating insect-language.

Chronos - Towards the Light House

peacefully grandiose, a score to the most larger-than-life orange sunrise. Driving, electrifying ambient music.

Assemblage 23 - I am the Rain

accusingly disillusioned, bitter social message wrapped in a package of dark, accessible, melodic dance music. Not without a little optimism.

The Glitch Mob - Animus Vox

organically energetic, incredible sense of rhythm and melody and songwriting/pacing, great production job. All the buildups and crescendos of post-rock with all the dynamics of this kind of big beat electronic music.

Carbon Based Lifeforms - Tensor

creatively surreal, recalling early mornings and drops of water traveling toward the bottoms of window panes. Or science fiction biodomes and the dew on extra-terrestrially grown grass.

Fatali - I Believe

hypnotically enchanted, classic primitive goa dance rhythms meet dreamy melodic lines and advancing/receding songwriting.

Saltillo - Blood and Milk

sublimely melancholic, from one of the most brilliant trip-hop albums ever made, straddling the false dichotomy between sadness and beauty.

Labs Cloud - Evolving Natural Forms

cautiously progressive, exactly what the name implies, a shifting pattern of melodies leading from one to another, gradually replacing and adapting.

Neuroticfish - I Don't Need the City

painfully nostalgic, ready to abandon everything. Not hopeless, but not satisfied. More disillusioned, bittersweet, vocal-driven dance music.

Ott - One Day I Wish to Have This Kind of Time

knowingly wakeful, beginning with the wisdom of an Alan Watts sample and the sounds of early dawn critters before exploding into the day with playful, child-like psychedelic dub music.

Slackbaba - Drink More Tea

pensively aware, neither too positive nor too negative, breathing with the energy of the whole. Some Terrence McKenna samples thrown in just because. Psychedelic trance-ish ambient-ish.

The Flashbulb - Lawn Wake IX

madly animated, a guitar solo gone dubstep, alternating between moments of rapid, frenzied inhalation and quiet, necessary deflation.

VNV Nation - Space & Time

openly embracing, poppy, bombastic and insanely infectious dance music. Saccharine, but I'll take the cavities.