klimek

klimek - true enemies and false friends (yesteryears suite)

The opening track to Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2009 compilation, available here, appears in abridged form on Klimek's masterful new record, "Movies Is Magic." The album cut lacks the gorgeous, elegaic horns that intone here as if from across a great expanse, like the sound of distant vikings blowing into hollow tusks. As you might gather, "Movies is Magic" is suffused with all manner of soundtracky scraps, which Klimek has with great agility and sophistication allowed to breathe, ebb and flow like cosmic Morricone.

"Movies is Magic" has been awarded the Pleasant Cubicle award for Best New Work Music by A/C/K/C/L

true widow

true widow - corpse master

we here at A/C/K/C/L are all in favor of more 90s-style grunge rock. This is not out of personal nostalgia, because personally we were a big dork in the 90s. We're cooler now, although we still are capable of feats of dorkness like leaving the stove burner on so long that the tea kettle stopper completely melts off and the kitchen is coated in a plasticky smell that reminds us of swimming pool floaties from our childhood.

a trio from our hometown of austin texas, true widow play a sort of lightly doomy, stoned-out grunge gaze, kind of like Alice in Chains except more melodic and slower. "corpse master" is our pick from true widow's self-titled release, it sounds like Cormac McCarthy taking bong hits alone in winter. You might, if you were so inclined, trace this sound back to Earth's current sound. If Earth's first incarnation as apocalyptic drone doom spawned a host of imitators, including SunnO))), we can only hope that "corpse master" is a sign that Earth's sound today, a kind of sprawling, dusty doom-country rock, played almost impossibly slow, has been having a similar effect.

malaria!

more synth-goth Neue Deutsche Welle shadows from Berlin - an all-women quintet from the early 80s, Malaria was founded by Gudrun Gut, an early member of Einsturzende Neubaten. Their song Kaltes, Klares Wasser was covered by Chicks on Speed in 2001.

Poster using a photo of Malaria backstage at Studio 54.

Malaria! - Eifersucht (Jealousy)

Interview (English subtitles) with the band when they were called Mania D

Circlesquare

Circlesquare - Dancers

Circlesquare's new album is called Songs About Dancing and Drugs.  It has that moody handmade electronic vibe, half techno half rock, that you find on Colder or Thomas Brinkmann's last album When Horses Die. Call it bedroom Joy Division.  It's excellent if you like shadowy synthetic sounds but also Leonard Cohen. The song 'Dancers' is my jam. There's a number of album tracks where the lyrics are positive but they're weirdly undercut by minor-key chords and deadpan singing..so when you hear "now we're all dancers.." it sounds oddly alienated. 

The key word in the title actually is 'about', it's all about the about. It's not songs for dancing and drugs, but about them. The whole record feels like you went out clubbing and partying and there was a big rush of sensations and you stayed out very very late and all your friends went home, and now you're back at your laptop with a midi board, and maybe the sun is coming up, and you should drink some water, and all the loud pulsing sounds, with firebomb bass and siren swirl, are still echoing somewhere in the back of your skull.

here's a mix from Circlesquare as well, more downtempo gothic beats for your solo trek home through the neon wilderness.

Circlesquare- "Super Late Night Music For People In The Dark" (DJ Mix)

Circlesquare- "Super Late Night Music For People In The Dark" DJ Mix

This Mortal Coil- Thais II (excerpt)

Glass Candy- Lovin Machine

This Mortal Coil- Thais II (excerpt)

October- Doxa

Circlesquare- Dancers (Konrad Black Remix)

This Mortal Coil- Thais II (excerpt)

Jefferson Airplane- Lather

Aphex Twin- Mookid

The 6ths- The Sailor In Love With The Sea

Circlesquare- Ten To One

Tones On Tail- Rain

Matias Aguavo- De Papel

October- Listen, Move, Dance

David Bowie- Up The Hill Backwards

This Mortal Coil- Thais II (excerpt)

Circlesquare- Music For Satellites

This Mortal Coil- Thais II (excerpt)

Weekend Prince Podcast: Ridin' High #1

Weekend Prince - Ridin' High #1

Franco Battiato & Juri Camisasca - Himalaya

Track List:

Fox - The Juggler
Faze-O - Ridin' High
Cole Medina - Love You Inside Out
Lee Ritenour - The Countdown
Stroer - Don't Stay Till Breakfast
Vivian Vee - Alright
Patrick Cowley - Mind Warp (Remix)
Tussle - Rainbow Claw
African Suite - Grass
Trouble Funk - Trouble Funk Express
Franco Battiato & Juri Camisasca - Himalaya




The WP podcast series is now officially named "Ridin' High" after the cosmic love stonker by Faze-O, brought to my attention by Zade. It's one of the horniest, most stoned-out escapist psychedelic jams I've heard. It sounds like you will never have any problems again, because it's 3am and you are in another world. I tried to do an edit of it once, except that you can't edit it, because editing involves taking out the not-cool parts of a song and looping the cool parts more, and "Ridin' High" is already just perfectly cool parts looped forever.

The mix ends with a looped break from DC go-go masters Trouble Funk underpinning a weirdo 1975 T.Rex-y mystical pop track from Italy called "Himalaya" - it's compellingly, hypnotically goofy-glam enough, with great two word chorus "Himalayyyaa.....Katamandu!" with a general misty-mountain hippie vibe, that it's one of my recent favorite dug-up oddball tracks, so I present it to you in full as a bonus treat from my heart. Plus the album cover is an awesome iron death ship. Or a gladiator mask, I can't tell.