Here are a bunch of unsettling ambient and idm tracks to add a little unease to your otherwise copacetic Friday, without adding undue stress.  They are intended for pondering shapes, primary colors, spatial relationships and their human counterparts.

Rob Theakston – I Am Waiting for You to Stop Being Mad at Me (Off the Sky Reconstruction)

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Rob Theakston, an ambient producer and longtime fixture in Michigan’s electronic scene, is releasing his newest EP I Am Waiting for You to Stop Being Mad At Me, on Moodgadget.  It comes out March 30 (next Tues), and I got to pitch in for the physical packaging layout, as well as the digital cover, which features photography by Bill Van Loo.  I love the way Rob sets out to give us a perspective into a very unique slice of low level ambience, one that is definitely not sleeping on a cloud, but perhaps instead, out at 4 in the morning on a weeknight, walking through the ghost town-like streets of suburbia pondering life on the grandest scales conceivable.

Autechre – O=0 – Oversteps

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has a new release out called Oversteps.  If you’ve never heard Autechre before, you will definitely be in unfamiliar territory, but they’ve been around for a whopping 23 years, building a catalog that perhaps hasn’t evolved as drastically simply because their music has been evolved centuries ahead since the very beginning…I mean this is the kind of stuff I imagine listening to in the company of aliens and robots.  It’s frenetic, unpredictable, rife with abstraction, and filled with vague familiar sounds, but fans should feel right at home with it.

Proswell – Pizelle – Konami (2009 Remaster)

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Earlier this week, Calmer linked me to this remaster of Konami from up on Bandcamp, one of those name your price deals.  Let’s just say I started listening to this 2002 Merck release and to quote that goofy dude in Robo Cop, said “I’d buy that for a dollar.”  One of the things I love about Merck’s definitive collection of idm releases, is their well-documented preservation and ongoing existence, despite officially closing its doors to new releases in 2007.  The label’s founder, Gabe Koch, recently appeared on Percussion Lab radio a few weeks back, and the chatroom turned into something of a mini-Merck-reunion, it was quite an interesting sight to behold.

Loscil – Fern and Robin – Endless Falls

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has a new release out called Endless Falls, you may have seen Jakub talking about this one a couple times around ISO50.  This kind of music feels like it was intended for accompanying the simple observation of life.  It makes us realize that those who focus too hard on being realistic end up losing their grip on reality, and that even what we think we know may not even begin to explain the true nature of things.  It could provide the perfect backdrop for your own imaginary journeys, a chance to recede into the sound and just exist for a moment.

Posted in Music Posted by Alex on Mar 26 2010 03:54 pm

Tags: Album Art, Ambient, Autechre, IDM, Loscil, Low Level, Merck, Moodgadget, Off the Sky, Proswell, Rob Theakston, Warp