In search of the Mystical Blue Lake (2007) Revisited

I just got back from a little road trip i did with some SOAS friends up to Norwich to see Matt and Steven (facebook photos here) Usually in the car I rely on hooking up the ipod to the car’s Aux line but this time I brought some CDs along just in case. There is always something novel about a Compact Disc, a start to finish physically printed (unchangeable) product which sounds fantastic on the speakers and doesn’t come with any connection hassles. Among them was this mix CD I made a year ago in France when my friends David and Jack came to visit and we went on a drive to find this cool blue lake I had once seen in passing. Cunningly i named the cd “In search of the mystical blue lake”. However, after 3 hours of driving and searching we failed to find it and decided to turn back. Perhaps I should have named it more confidently as “spending time at the blue lake that we found very quickly”.

But you know what they say, the best things are only found when you don’t go looking for it:

Nonetheless I put this dusty old mix on in the car today and it caught me by surprise. It turned out to be a very nice soothing mix that went well with a Sunday hangover while we were driving around Norwich in the rain. Even the cramped passenger audience in the back were quite impressed with it. So this is mostly for them that I present a download-able version of this mix but I hope others out there will do so and extract similiar amounts of pleasure from it.

In search of the Mystical Blue Lake / In search of parking on a Hungover Sunday in Norwich City
(special thanks to John Lewis who provided us with parking in the end)

1. Boom Bip – Roads Must Roll
2. Kaki King – Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers
4. The Chemical Brothers – The Sunshine Underground
3. Plaid – Ralome
4. Imogen Heap – Can’t Take It In
5. The Bad Plus – Dirty Blonde
6. Aphex twin – Girl/Boy Song
7. The Chemical Brothers – Surface To Air
8. Devotchka – The Winner Is (Little Miss Sunshine OST)
9. The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build A Home
10. Boards of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy
11. Apparat – Arcadia
12. Télépopmusik – Breathe
13. Boards of Canada – Bocuma
14. LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
15. I’m Not A Gun – Ripples In The Water

download the zip I tried including the xml playlist file but in case it doesn’t work please order the songs correctly for maximum enjoyment.

There are some real heavy weights in there. For those of you who know me, you will know a lot of these songs feature in my all time favorites list. Even beyond that, the mix is basically made up of my favorite song of each artist. Notable favorites are Dayvan Cowboy, Surface to Air, Winner Is, Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers, Arcadia and To Build A Home. Oh and Someone Great is just such a fantastic smiley song.

Fading Leaves – October/November mix

Here is my mix for the late fall season. These are some of the tracks I have picked up while watching leaves around me fall and crumple to their death. Moody reflectional work for cold windy walks around the city that yet cling on to the last remaining threads of optimism. Slowly these too will fade away and fall apart, like the leaves that leave a tree vulnerable and naked. Hopefully that complex mood is realised throughout this mix as you make your way from song to song. When winter comes around I will pull out some of my dark, heavy and end of the world stuff for you. In the meantime, this is for that silent deterioration of sunny summer dreams being poisoned by the oncoming darkness of winter. Don’t get me wrong, i love fall. This natural breakdown is actually a peaceful and beautiful process. A drawn out transition period from the easy and comfortable into the bare unknown. In many ways quite apt for my current personal changing of circumstances.

Surprisingly, despite my recent overdose of Indian wedding ceremonies, I resisted adding bollywood hit “desi girl” to this mix as it might not fit in the overall theme. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer:

Heliopath’s October/November mix

1. Amon Tobin – It’s A Lovely Night
2. Animal Collective – Daily Routine (Phaseone Remix)
3. Muffler – Hear Me Scream
4. Telefon Tel Aviv – TTV
5. Ben Benjamin – Sideways Cerebus
6. Bichi – Revolve The Sun / My Footfalls Are Superfluous
7. Nosaj Thing – Aquarium
8. The XX – Shelter
9. Low – Breaker
10. Thom Yorke – Black Swan
11.Kid CuDi – Persuit of Happiness (Feat. MGMT and Ratatat)

download the zip I tried including the xml playlist file but on some tests it hasn’t been working. So I need you to please place these songs in the right order in a new playlist for maximum enjoyment.

ooo aah

I’m really appreciating the CG space vistas from the observation deck of the Destiny on SGU. They’re pretty stunning…especially for a Syfy show. Last week, I came across a share-worthy two part series [1, 2] of photo epics on the Daily Kos taking us through the solar system (via Mithridates). It left me guessing at what real flybys might look like from the viewing window on a touring vessel. In particular, I like the photo at the top because, even though the Sun and atmospheric effects are otherworldly, it still has an unmartian feel.

RJD2 – Thine Planetarium from Tin Foil Hat

september mix

It’s been up for a while but I want to comment here on a mix I put on 8tracks before we leave September. Most of this playlist is songs that I’ve wanted to do something with but I’ve had a hard time fitting in elsewhere. Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts is a fun album. I probably would’ve put more songs from them if 8tracks allowed it. I picked ‘Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide’ because of this line:

“I’m done with all of that poop that brings me down…”.

I can’t turn down a song like that.

Listen on 8tracks or Download zip w/ playlist (77.43mb, 50mins)

1. Cloud Cult – Must Explore from Feel Good Ghosts
2. Volcano! – Fairy Tale from Paperwork
3. Hella - 1-800-Ghost-Dance from Hold Your Horse Is
4. The Antlers – Wake from Hospice
5. Cloud Cult – Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide from Feel Good Ghosts
6. Working for a Nuclear Free City – Asleep at the Wheel from Businessmen & Ghosts
7. Explosions in the Sky – A Song for Our Fathers from How Strange, Innocence
8. Blackfilm – Stalingrad from Blackfilm
9. Goldfrapp – Human from Felt Mountain
10. Glowworm – Lux from The Coachlight Woods

Heliopath’s August 2009 Mix

Mougins August 2009

For every summer for the past eight years I have spent the month of August it in a lovely little village called Mougins in the south of France. The car here, as lovely as it is, hasn’t picked up with the ipod generation and still depends on a diet of cds. It’s funny how cars with tape decks are actually better off than those with cds when dealing with the digital audio. I’ve tried out those shitty transmitter things but they never work unless you hold it in the perfect position. However, there is still something nostalgically refreshing in being forced to prepare a 70 minute mixed cd and getting everything you want on it. The art of being certain enough about what’s on there and the play order to “publish” it into physical finalized form.

So every year I end up making a few cds to smoothen the drive around and to get in the mood. Last year Girl Talk was a big hit. I’m quite pleased with the mix i created this year and thought it deserved a feature. so here is my August 2009 Mix for you to enjoy. It starts off strong and hard but cools down in the end. It features some surprising tracks (3OH!3 and plus 44 that i picked up from Aditi, which as naive as they are, still manage to tickle my fancy) and quite a few remixes.

Heliopath August 2009 Mix

1. Intro
2. Danny Byrd – Red Mist
3. Rye Rye – Bang ft. M.I.A.
4. 3OH!3 – I’m Not Your Boyfriend Baby
5. Plump Djs – Rocket Soul
6. Soul Assassins – World We’re In ft. Cynic
7. Groove Armada – Drop The Tough (Van She B-Live Remix)
8. J-88 – The Look Of Love (Two Fingers Remix)
9. Bloc Party – Where Is Home? (Diplo Remix)
10. White Lies – Death (Chase & Status Remix)
11. Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart
12. The Books – Tokyo
13. Plus 44 – Make You Smile
14. Dj/rupture – Plays John Cassavettes Pt. 2: Ekkehard Ehlers
15. Sebastian Tellier – La Ritournelle

Heliopath_August_2009_Mix.zip

I created the playlist .xml file that’s in the zipped folder, so just create a new playlist and drop the whole folder in. It should automatically organize the order of things for you. As always please listen to it in the right order and let me know if you have any issues.

I Choose Noise

If you scroll through my itunes list you will find ample of songs featuring smooth beats below flirtatious melodies, whether its party/hype-up music or chill out/thinking music. But every once in a while I get into a mood where none of those will satisfy my musical thirst. Instead, all I really want is to be smashed in the eardrums with LOUD heavy consistent vibrations. just plain musical noise with little deviations- a slowly morphing fuzz, very few beats or melody but mainly just a chainsaw of sound that surrounds you completely. Dark and Dense. At the right volume it vibrates your body, mind and soul. You can lose yourself in the loud and harshness where within I always manage to find beauty from it somewhere. I can’t really explain it without sounding crazy. So just have a listen and decide for yourself, perhaps its not really for you.

So I have created a compilation of tracks that fit this type of mood. They all lack standard musical structure and do not even really have any drums (with the exception of moderat because apparat & modselektor just can’t resist the temptation to indulge in a little dance beat). I find these songs to be just within the realm of audio tolerance without breaking too many treble or bass barriers that usually cause headaches (the art so loved by noisecore) To me these are still smooth soundscapes that can pleasantly fill your ears.

I Choose Noise

Ben Frost – Theory of Machines
Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love for Planet Earth
Moderat – 3 Minutes of / Nasty Silence
Rachel’s – Even/Odd
Esmerine – Histories Repeating as 1000 Hearts Mend
Tyondai Braxton – A Sentence Worth A Thousand Words
Mogwai – Robot Chant
M83 – By The Kiss
Epic45 – Early 80’s Snowfall
Boards of Canada – Sherbet Head
Burial – Forgive

I_Choose_Noise.zip

Theory Of Machines by Ben Frost (first song) is the song that inspired this post. Its exactly what I am going for here. Following him I have put in some other songs that I feel capture that intense craving I get from time to time. Its so loud and crunchy but something about it eventually becomes so beautiful to me. I was extremely tempted to throw in my ol favorite “birth and death of day (Jesu Remix)” because I find that one puts me in a trance as well, but I thought id save the repeat. Also there’s too much drums and normalcy. I hope it works for you and you find that you are able to lose yourself in an odd meditative sensation. Be sure to check the order of songs for best experience.

on a side note, Fuck Buttons

are coming up with something new, I am quite excited. A little teaser clip can be found here.

ants of the sky

(via)

Some people, like Ed Wilson aka the “Lord of the Ants” (on Hulu or PBS) have dedicated most of their lives to the study of ants. I wonder in what ways we’ve already made practical use of the things they’ve learned in ant research (other than more effective ways to kill them, obviously). Maybe at some future point we’ll see them as more than just pests? I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords

Cool facts!

• “They have social habits that differ from one kind of ant to the next. You know, each kind of ant has almost the equivalent of a different human culture.” – Ed Wilson
• Ants use chemical pheromones to mark a trail to food, to alert danger and possibly differentiate between threats, to locate a new nest, to mark position in a colony’s social hierarchy or “caste”, or to discriminate between other living and dead ants. A fire ant may have 10 -20 such communication patterns. – Ed Wilson.
• Some ants appear to herd aphids as a controlled food source. I’ve seen these ants carry the aphids on their backs to shelter during heavy rainstorms.
• Feynman was very curious about ant behavior and carried out some of his own experiments.
• In one type of fire ant, normal sexual reproduction takes place but only produces sterile offspring. All males are clones of a father who was able to destroy the maternal set of genes in an egg. All female ants are direct clones of the queen. Weird, right? from Cloners vs Sexuals, also “Has the mystery of sex been explained at last?”

Between the Buried and Me – Ants of the Sky from “Colors” (13:10)

bon iver

Bon Iver from ryan muir @ Flickr

I came late to the Bon Iver party, but ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ is a great album. I saw them when they did Skinny Love on Letterman. So I poked around looking for someone who had written up chords for Flume and, while the chords were mostly right, I felt the tunings were off (saw a lot of standard and 1/2 step down). This version from the album sounds 1/4 step down to me. I pulled the lyrics from some site and I’m just going to have to trust the internet on this one because I have no clue what he’s really singing with that voice.

Bon Iver – Flume from ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
Bon Iver – Creature Fear Live at Glastonbury 2009

may mix

Dodge Stratus - amitc1206 @ flickr

In high school, I just had a tape deck in my car so I packed the center console with cassettes and mixes I’d make from my CDs.  These are songs on those tapes that I used to play on the way to and from school.  Throwing on good tunes while waiting to get out of the parking lot was always a good way to exhale.

grin and bear it

from Matelandia @ deviantart

Years at college broadened my listening habits mostly thanks to the fine gents here at UA. If you seek a more palpable connection with music find some good friends to share it with. The natural social activity around music objects like tracks, albums, artists, live shows, and so forth has a home on the social web now. It’s a great way to invite the influence of others.
Anyway…despite horizontal explorations, I’ve always felt that fast & aggressive represents my core genre. It makes up a smaller percentage of what I listen to now but that slice has been trending to more extreme forms & subgenres ever since 6th grade. I’ve thrown up a few tracks to scratch the itch and get back to my roots.