Here’s an example of an album that still makes you feel the same as the first time you listened to it.  Back in the fall of 2006, I came across a compilation on iTunes called The Rorschach Suite, a chance meeting with the young record label Moodgadget, and an album that changed the way I think about electronic music as both a means of production and as a sensory experience.  Simply put, I was quick to see what Moodgadget was out there to expose– the diversity in electronic music.  The Rorschach Suite has been hailed nearly unanimously as a landmark advancement of a unique blend of electronic, IDM, ambient, and indie pop, the label’s first significant step towards bringing that mix to a larger audience.

These picks are my conflictedly chosen top 4 (in no particular order, I couldn’t even attempt that), it’s tough to chose from such a colorful mix of sound.

Dykehouse – 1905-4-15

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1905-04-15 is the track that made me stumble across the Rorschach Suite in the first place, it’s by , who is currently signed to Ghostly.  I first heard Dykehouse on LimbikFrequencies, and then found him at Moodgadget.  This track was, amazingly, composed in Dykehouse’s bedroom, and possesses a shoegaze-tinged acoustic backing, complemented by alternating bratty and glassy synth melodies, among other effects-heavy details filling out this rich and almost triumphant-sounding theme song.

Warez – Salt for Wounds

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Salt for Wounds is a track that captures a bunch of disparate memories I have and fuses them together into this strange recollection, it puts me into a sort of shifted mindset when I listen to it.  While I doubt that was the original intent of artist , also sometimes heard as Mi6, it’s quite clear that this music was beamed to him from a spaceship in the future, and is not of this earth.

The Hexx – Revista Moda

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Revista Moda is a driving dancefloor tune that get’s listeners going as soon as they hear it.  Ambient artst (who’s album came out last month) has confessed his admiration for the track, by , saying, “when I hear that track, it’s going-out time, whether I like it or not.”  The Hexx is a collaborative nom-de-plume of The Reflecting Skin and , the latter of whom recently did a free mix called Goodnight Gracie.  Lucky for you, Revista Moda is also free.

Direwires – Halfsmiles And Careful Stepping

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Halfsmiles and Careful Stepping is a lo-fi ambient drifter I would listen to on hot days atop Flagstaff Hill, a hill in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park.  The hill has a very nice view of neighboring Oakland, which I would sit quietly and admire when I needed a place to clear my thoughts, often with this track playing at some point.  It’s by , and you can hear and download (for free) his 2007 ambient collaboration with Freder, entitled Sleeping Near Highways for free over at archive.org.

Posted in Moodgadget and Music Posted by Alex on Aug 13 2009 12:00 pm

Tags: Aarnio, Direwires, Dykehouse, The Hexx, The Reflecting Skin, The Rorschach Suite, Viul, Warez