12 Nov 2021

Hopkins Buzz

I had the pleasure of reviewing Jon Hopkins' latest album for Buzz recently. It's called Music For Psychedelic Therapy and it's well ambient and it's well good. Like five stars good.

I wrote slightly more in my review for November's edition, which should be out and about on the streets of South Wales at the mo, or head on over to the Buzz Magazine site to read it now.

Music For Psychedelic Therapy by Jon Hopkins is out 12 November 2021 on Domino.

Related posts: 

8 Nov 2021

They've let me back on the radio: Amser Electroneg 001

Hey, so I returned to the airwaves for the first time in oof! Over ten years?

Last Friday, as a bit of a tester, Bro Radio broadcast a show I've been working on called Amser Electroneg, which focuses on Welsh electronic music.

Catch up now over on my MixCloud:

Tracklist:

  • Cotton Wolf - Ofni feat. Hollie Singer
  • Ifan Dafydd - Miranda
  • Lifting Gear Engineer - Lo-Hut
  • Plyci - Latex
  • Ffrancon - Deep Rural Knight
  • Kelly Lee Owens - Corner of my Sky feat. John Cale
  • Young Marble Giants - Choci Loni
  • Islet - Radel 10
  • Underworld - Twist
  • High Contrast - If We Ever

Thanks to Ben and Bro Radio for the opportunity, and if all goes OK I may be hosting a regular monthly show from CF61 in Llantwit Major. Stay tuned!

3 Nov 2021

Washed Out [and Repeated]

I had a quick dig through my likes on SoundCloud after the EGG MIX drew me back to the platform. 

Buried way down the list was a short mix from Washed Out. And I mean short, like 20 minutes short. Still, it packs in those 2010 vibes, proper chillwave like.

Tracklist: Washed Out - The Fantastic Symphony Mix for Platform. (March 2010)

  • Arch M – “Bedrm Band at Caf NVA (edit)”
  • The Samps – “Magnetic Thys”
  • Samiyam – “Wrap Up”
  • Toro Y Moi – “Brubek”
  • Koushik – “Homage”
  • Osborne – “Afrika (Bullion Remix)”
  • Iasos – “Inter-Dimentional Music”
  • Jack Nitzsche – “Untitled (edit)”
  • The Khalsa String Band – “Song of Bliss”

I think Platform was the magazine/website that spawned Boiler Room. 

If you fancy more of this type of music with terrible attempts at Blue Jam style humour over the top, I made Nos Da around the same kinda time.

[Just as I was finishing writing this post and was sorting the labels out, I found that I wrote about this mix in December 2009. We go round and round and round.]

24 Oct 2021

9 in 1 (10)


Another month, another list. Here's nine tracks I've been enjoying in October 2021, featuring moody post-punk, Thom Yorke sampling hip-hop, and lots of synths as per... 
  

The Roches - Losing True

Think I'm starting to get obsessed with this band. If you told me even five years ago I'd be digging a folk-rock vocal harmony group from the late 70s etc and so forth...

Aphex Twin - Xtal

A bit more like it. Some classic Aphex with the first track from Selected Ambient Works 85-92, made when he was 12 or some shit. Proper ambient techno mate.

The Isley Brothers - Footsteps in the Dark, Pts. 1 & 2

It was a good day when I heard this. So hard not to start quoting Ice Cube when it starts... 

CRS - Us Placers

So this is CRS AKA Child Rebel Soldier AKA Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, and Pharrell Williams. And Us Placers was meant to be the first track of a whole album made up of them rapping over Thom Yorke and Radiohead samples. Instead, it all fizzled out and Us Placers made it to Kanye's, sorry Ye's, 2007 mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing. I completely missed all this somehow.

Eurythmics - Love Is a Stranger

Picked up Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics' second album in the Dog's Trust, Cowbridge last month for a quid. Well worth it.

Mr. Flagio - Take a Chance

It wouldn't be one of these lists without some italo-disco in here somewhere. Epic, Daft Punk vibes from 1983.

Zombie Zombie - The Beach

A squelchy analogue cover of New Order's The Beach AKA the instrumental and slightly different version of Blue Monday.

Passarella Death Squad - In Heaven

Brooding, throbbing techno that I heard on an old Andrew Weatherall show. A proper moody chugger.

Section 25 - Knew Noise

Big PiL energy here, all doomy, hectoring post-punk with a tidy bassline. This came out on Factory, so I'm a bit baffled why I hadn't heard it before.

21 Oct 2021

EGG MIX

Need a big hit of nostalgia with "ALL YOUR FAVORITE ANTHEMS FROM BEFORE YOU REALIZED"?

As featured in Crack Magazine's 10 mixes you need to hear this month, estoc rams, crams, and blends early-to-mid 00s electro and indie rock into an hour of pure joy. 

We're talking your Justices, your Metrics (!), your Yeah Yeah Yeahs. 

We're talking remixes from your Soulwaxes, your Twelves, your Bloody Beetroots (!). 

If you need a lift any time soon, then break out the EGG MIX.

Original image: Pacific Southwest Region USFWS from Sacramento, US, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons