buddha machine 3.0

Yes!

embrace the random xli

zendesk FM3 Buddha Machine Wall

Send in the drones.

in with the new

185. Porcupine Tree -- The Incident
186. Morrissey -- Years of Refusal
187. Morphine -- At Your Service
188. Mirror -- Nightwalkers
189. John Zorn -- The Crucible
190. William Basinski -- watermusic
191. William Basinski -- watermusic ii
192. Jonathan Coleclough -- Period

one cd, two cds, three cds, ah ah ah

108. Suzanne Vega -- Beauty & Crime
109. Jeff Buckley -- Grace Around the World (live CD & DVD)
110. Eels -- Hombre Lobo
111. Sleep -- Dopesmoker
112. Laurie Anderson -- talk normal (2-CD anthology)
113. Roy Harper -- Once
114. Jah Wobble & Bill Laswell -- Radioaxiom: A Dub Transmission
115. Rainbow -- Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
116. a small good thing -- 'cool cool water'
117. a small good thing -- The Pink and Purple World of Dishonesty

Brought to you by the letter M and the number 10.

enjoying days off and new tunes

I'm on vacation this week, walking in the park when it's not raining and listening to new music when it is raining. On the speakers the past couple days:

92. Fish -- Zoe 25 (CD single)
93. Tim Hecker -- An Imaginary Country
94. Fennesz -- Black Sea
95. Zu & Spaceways inc -- Radiale
96. Isis -- Wavering Radiant
97. no-man -- wherever there is light (5-song EP)

ending the suspense

I know, I know, the suspense has been killing you--
"what tunage has Matt purchased lately?"
Wonder no more:

63. Mountains -- Sewn
64. William Basinski -- Shortwavemusic
65. Bill Nelson -- The Love That Whirls
66. Chris Abrahams -- Glow
67. Roger Eno -- fragile (music)
68. Peter Chilvers -- piano
69. Yellow6 -- bootleg#3
70. Yellow6 -- STHLM

Mostly in the ambient vein--
floating on a river of lava in a whitewater world.
The need for speed? I feel the need for slow.

three more for the hoard

Had to get new reading glasses yesterday, as my eyesight has worsened noticeably in the past couple months. So I consoled myself with the following purchases:

40. The Residents -- The Tunes of Two Cities / The Big Bubble
41. Bill Nelson's Red Noise -- Sound-on-Sound
42. Mountains -- Choral

Check out Sid Smith's review of Choral. I played this CD twice in a row last night--what a great combination of acoustic and electronic notes and drones. This is music to wrap around yourself like a down comforter on a winter's night.

the latest acquisitions

18. David Bowie -- Aladdin Sane
19. David Bowie -- Scary Monsters
20. tin machine -- tin machine
21. Supertramp -- Crime of the Century

Can you tell that I've been on a Bowie kick lately?

22. Duncan Sheik -- Whisper House
23. Be Bop Deluxe -- Postcards from the Future
24. Nurse With Wound -- An Awkward Pause
25. Nurse With Wound -- Echo Poeme: Sequence No. 2

I enjoy falling asleep to ambient music. Some discs are subtle enough that they can loop all night without being distracting. Other discs are better suited for inducing sleep and then automatically shutting off upon completion of said task.

Echo Poeme falls into the second category. I was lulled to sleep by the haunting, echo-laden female voices lazily ricocheting from speaker to speaker. However, I was quite disoriented when I awoke during the night and the disc was still playing, the voices now sounding like ghostly announcements from empty subway platforms. Next time I'll just take the train to the first stop, instead of riding it 'til sunrise.

what hast thou wrought, er, um, bought

Latest CD purchases:

7. Stars of the Lid -- Carte-de-Visite
8. Labradford -- Prazision LP
9. Aidan Baker -- Pendulum
10. The Young Gods -- Knock on Wood
11. David Bowie -- Space Oddity
12. David Bowie -- The Man Who Sold the World
13. David Bowie -- Lodger

Knock on Wood contains studio renditions of the songs performed on the Young Gods' acoustic tour. There are plenty of live clips from that tour on YouTube--start with this one and go from there. Very subdued compared to their normal electric concerts, but still intense.

you are number six

Another online purchase:

6. Stars of the Lid -- Gravitational Pull Vs. The Desire for an Aquatic Life

embrace the random xxvii

Musician Peter Chilvers has created a generative music website using multiple Flash players. The players run random loops of varying lengths so that the melodies and soundscapes shift constantly.

There are four pieces on the site currently. Alpha drifts along with dobro, cello, marimba, female voice, and a healthy dose of silence. Claude incorporates flute, piano, clarinet, and cello to establish moods that flow from peaceful to suspenseful to mysterious. Droplets combines a sparse collection of electric piano notes with a mutating Flash animation to accompany the music. Pentatonic sounds a bit thicker, using electronic drones and a shifting bass line.

My favorite piece so far is Alpha--very meditative and calming without fading into new-agey wallpaper pasting. I find myself engaging with it both consciously and subconsciously, depending on what else I am doing at a given time. The music is rewarding whether I actively pay attention to it or not.

For uber-randomness, try opening the same piece in two separate tabs, or do the same with different pieces. Alpha and Droplets merge quite nicely.

guilty! guilty! guilty!

I am guilty of many things lately. I have done the backslide boogaloo and have not kept my New Year's resolution of non-procrastination. I have slacked on my blog, especially in the chronicling of my out-of-control CD shopping. I am a slug, so please forgive me.

So what used discs have I picked up most recently? In no particular order:

Harold Budd -- The Room (ambient, beautiful, with a hint of menace)

Donovan -- Sutras (thanks to Harry for recommending this one)

Judas Priest -- Rocka Rolla, Sad Wings of Destiny, Hell Bent for Leather, Unleashed in the East (all remastered and ass-kicking)

Curve -- Doppelganger (shoegaze was never more sultry)

Twinemen -- Chicago IL 02.02.03 (fine two-disc live show)

Iron Maiden -- Live After Death (scream for me, Long Beach!)

Much more to come...

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Islands of Consciousness

The above site is simply stunning and amazing. Ever-changing photos meld and overlap in time with an equally random multi-layered soundtrack, creating the sensation of inhabiting someone else's memories. This will move you.

playing catch-up

I'm way behind in my CD-tallying, so in no particular order, here are some of the latest acquisitions from the past month:

29. Judas Priest -- British Steel
30. Judas Priest -- Screaming for Vengeance

Both remastered, these blasts from my past have been blasting from my speakers on heavy rotation for the last week. Rob Halford is probably my favorite metal vocalist of all time--no one else is that fierce and melodic at once. My co-workers must think I'm insane, regressing, or having a mid-life crisis. While they're talking about mortgages, children, and divorces, I'm cranking Priest tunes in the warehouse, singing along maniacally with Rob. What can I say? Life is short, so rock out.

31. Pole -- CD 1

This disc crackles, hisses, and pops like radio broadcasts from deep space. Subsonic frequencies mutate into ghostly basslines as whistles and sirens echo from within ancient black holes. Call it dub or glitch or whatever: Pole creates late-night music that gives my heebiejeebies the creeps. And that's a good thing.

32. Jethro Tull -- Catfish Rising
33. Jethro Tull -- Roots to Branches
34. Jethro Tull -- J-Tull Dot Com

Can you tell that I've been on a Tull kick? These are their three most recent studio releases, and I bought them all used for a combined price of ten dollars. Roots to Branches is my current fave of the three, having the longest, proggiest tunes; but the other two discs are just as solid.

35. Genesis -- Trespass

Speaking of prog, this disc gets snubbed by many fanboys as not quite being up to snuff with the other Gabriel-era releases. Bunk, drivel, and piffle, I say! Trespass holds its own in a raw and ramshackle way, lurching and lunging with a genteel malevolence. Naysayers who whine that prog has no balls have never heard The Knife, eight minutes of menace and agitprop, rallying earnest young men with beards to take to the streets. Killer stuff.

Much more to come--stay tuned...

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Score for a Hole in the Ground

disc six: music of the cosmos

Tonight I went to Border's in Strongsville. Using my remaining $1.00 of their holiday rewards program plus a 25% off coupon, I purchased:

6. Fripp & Eno -- The Equatorial Stars

Someone once described Robert Fripp's guitar-playing as "the sound of the universe crying." I wish that I had said that--what a great phrase. This disc is well-named: listening to it on the drive home, I felt as if the music was coming down from the night sky, not my speakers. Fripp's haunting guitar floats peacefully through Eno's solar wind drones and black hole murmurs. Dave Bowman definitely would have had Fripp & Eno on his iPod as he traveled through the monolith. Beautiful.

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Amorphoscapes

Intuitive and interactive, this page combines gentle loops and drones with digital watercolor canvases. Move your mouse around to create Rothkoesque washes of color.

The main Amorphoscapes site has links to many more interactive artworkouts. Dig deeper and enjoy.

send in the drones iii

Jem Finer has created a piece of music designed to last 1,000 years. Longplayer consists of looping sections of Tibetan bowls ringing and droning on and on. This piece will play without repetition until December 31, 2999.

I listened to Longplayer last night for about thirty minutes and achieved maximum mellow-ocity (not a word but I like the sound of it) after just five minutes. The tones swirl constantly from speaker to speaker, creating the illusion of an underwater belltower. Take a break and absorb this music for a spell--your blood pressure will thank you.

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PMusic: Singles

What if a jukebox mated with a slot machine? Paul Ramsay has created four virtual 45 RPM singles that never spin the same tune twice. The revolution will be improvised.

embrace the random xi

Potatoland is a world of interactive sights and sounds from the digital imagination of Mark Napier. My favorite area is p-soup, where you can create your own abstract art and ambient soundscape.