Emmerichk - Late Nineties

Offshoot: 2014

Sweet, a techno CD with a title recalling an era of techno that's no longer in vogue. Forget the logical assumption that Late Nineties won't be all on that tough, 4am bangin' shit - I've already convinced myself that's what will be on this album! Plus, it’s advertised by the intriguing ambient and experimental Psychonavigation Records label that released Oliver Lieb's Inside Voices earlier this year of Twenty-Fourteen. I’m not sure what that means in the long run, but it was enough for me to dive into this album from one Emmerichk Esquivel sight-unheard. Heck, I even sprung for the limited edition CD copy, which came in a thin plastic case that doesn’t open like traditional jewel or digipaks; instead, it has a spring load with a release in the top corner. Clever and crafty – I’m in love.

Of course, had I done some prior research into who Emmerichk even is, I probably wouldn’t have been so quick in getting this. His profile at Lord Discogs has musical jargon like “sound carpets” and “rhythmical micro-structures”, the sort stuff you’d associate with Mille Plateaux. Dear me, that’s nothing like what I imagined. Not even room for a fierce, percolating 909 rhythm? What have I gotten myself into?

A pretty cool album, is what. Oh, Late Nineties is definitely all about the dubby, minimalist sound associated with experimental branches of techno, but so was Plastikman’s Consumed, an album released – say it all together – the late nineties! Emmerichk states his influence in crafting this album was a paying tribute to the techno producers of that era while maintaining his own style in the process, so you have tracks with titles like The Hood andThe Jaguar, names anyone worth their techno salt should recognize. Alongside those, there’s Acid Twilight, Analog Fever, and assorted other stylistic points of reference. Alright, on board again.

Another thing that ties Late Nineties to that period of techno is the above-average BPM. Right from the opening cut (Deep Thoughts), things chug along at a brisk pace, far more so than most tracks in the dubby end of genre do these days. What’s remarkable about Emmerichk’s production is, without a good set of speakers or headphones, it won’t seem like it. You’ll hear the kick, but in most cases its very soft, barely a pulse as heard on weak sound systems – only Transforming The Past has anything resembling the chunky, distorted kicks of yore. Instead, Emmerichk somehow hides the propulsive attributes of his tracks within the sonic depth of dub effects, which is great for getting lost in the techno murk of his music but utterly reliant on quality playback gear. Don’t try playing this on laptop or smarphone speakers, is what I’m saying.

Despite not having what I (foolishly) expected, Emmerichk still turned out a mint album of high-tempo dub techno. Yes, I know those terms seem like an oxymoron, which is all the more reason for you to check out Late Nineties to hear how it’s done.

ACE TRACKS: April 2014

I had a good writing groove going for myself recently. Then a brutal weekend of work on a six-day stretch ruined that – now my brain feels like it’s taken an arrow in the ear. Oh well, at least I can still make Spotify Deezer playlists. Here’s April 2014’s big ol’ bundle.



Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Musik Non Stop
Prince - Musicology
Nobuo Uematsu - Music From FFV And FFVI Video Games
Various - Moving Shadow 99.1 & 99.2
Various - Motion: A Six Degrees Dance Collection
Various - Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Various - Mortal Kombat
Banco de Gaia - Maya (20th Anniversary Edition)

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 7%
Percentage of Neil Young: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: unknown - Izlel je Delyo hajdutin (sooo ethnic)

Though the actual releases are not on Spotify Deezer, this playlist has an abundance of tracks from The Music Of ‘Cosmos' and Muzik Classics: Techno. This makes for a weird combination of incredible diversity with batches of similarity – this, in a collection of tunes that’s already freewheeling through more styles of music than you can imagine. It’s remarkable that, despite having classic albums from The Prodigy, Photek, Boards Of Canada, and Solar Fields, their music gets a little lost amongst the symphonic compositions, dub techno, and harder rock.

This is also the longest playlist I’ve put together, clocking well over the eleven hour mark. Obviously that’s the full tracklist, but even without the missing tracks, it’s a lengthy listening experience. I honestly haven’t even given this one a full play-through as of this posting, sequencing tracks based on quick clips and gut intuition. If I’ve stumbled upon some amazing run of unexpected groupings, I assure you it’s almost accidental, perhaps sublimely or hilariously so. Reason enough to fire this playlist up, to sate your own curiosity of the result, I wager!

Carl Craig - Landcruising

Blanco Y Negro: 1995

Here's something that will boggle your mind. For all his musical innovations, creative drive and honoured status within the world of techno, Carl Craig's album output is seldom name-dropped when talk of essential electronic musics goes down. Not that he helps matters by shying away from the LP format, having released fewer than you could count on your hand – it's apparently all about the singles with Mr. Craig. Still, should you find yourself bluffing your way around the 313 Posse and in need of a C-C album to talk up, you can't go wrong with Landcruising. It may get overlooked on lists of Definitive Techno Releases, but at least it's from the mid-'90s, when everything was awesome sauce and radical radish-relish. Of course that's a real thing – a decade that gave us Pepsi Clear and hypercolor shirts would definitely have radical radish-relish. Sorry. Dignity, that’s what Detroit techno demands, and by Belleview I’ll give it for Landcruising.

Craig had spent more than enough time honing his craft with singles, remixes, and aliases. The fans demanded an album, and though ‘proper’-techno albums were still something of a rarity, he capably handled himself in the format. He even bookends the experience with the sounds of getting into and exiting a car, because obviously you would if you’re making a Detroit techno album about cruising over landforms.

What seems to go forgotten about Landcruising is just how sci-fi and - dare I say - geeky the music is. Despite its steady techno pulse, opener Mind Of A Machine isn’t all that dissimilar to space synth of the ‘80s, especially when a guitar solo makes its mark in the final stretch – I can feel the mullet growing on the back of my neck as it jams away. Follow-up track Science Fiction has a guitar solo too, though the percolating funky rhythms in this future-leaning track at least adds some class to the prog rock wailing.

Like Model 500’s Deep Space of the same year, these are rather musically optimist portrayals of future-music, an outlook for techno that sometimes goes neglected given the general urban decay Detroit suffers from is typically the influence most producers from the region draw inspiration from. There always was a sense of escapism in Detroit techno, but the landmark albums almost unanimously glorify the griminess of illegal warehouse events and future-shock existence, feeding into a self-perpetuating 313 mythology. It’s why Landcruising, despite having lovely music like the ambient A Wonderful Life, epic Technology, sexy smoothness of Einbahn, and neo-classiness of One Day Soon, gets overlooked compared to its contemporaries – it defies the established Detroit techno narrative, and didn’t have many successors when folks figured the genre could only go one way (to Berlin, apparently).

Still, you can’t go wrong with having this in your library. Landcruising may not be a definitive collection of techno, but there’s very little else out there like it. I mean, who’d be so bold as to usurp the mighty Craig legacy?

Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi

Warp Records: 2002

Geogaddi came out about the time the Cult Of BoC was at its insufferable worst, ridiculous amounts of love and praise gushing in on any and all music scene message forums you’d happen to frequent. It wasn’t just the ravers slobbering over the Scottish duo either, but the indie kids who never gave ‘techno’ much pause were citing Music Has The Right To Children as the best electronic album ever. Okay, enjoy your stay here; there’s more than enough Boards to go around. For the love of God though, please cease the idolization and trumped-up mythology surrounding these guys - they just make charming music for the after-hours.

Whatever you thought about their PR and fanbase, you couldn’t fault the music, much of which remained quite exceptional for its time. Unfortunately, with all the garrulous hype surrounding them, some backlash against the Boards was inevitable. To take the mighty Boards Of Canada down a peg though, you’d need an album that proved these nostalgic-glazed chill-out Emperors were lacking in bell-bottomed accoutrements. Geogaddi was that album.

Already tasked with the impossibility of following upon Music Has The Right To Children, Sandison and Eoin tried going deeply conceptual with Geogaddi, offering tons of sonic Easter Eggs and numerological nonsense for the true believers to dig and discover with repeated play-throughs. For the rest of us, it’s just a rather dull record. For one thing, despite a track list detailing twenty-three cuts, less than half of those are fully-formed pieces of music, some of which are ridiculously tedious experimental loops. Gyroscope in particular is hopelessly annoying and inane with clunky percussion and muffled child dialog that probably has some cool secret that you’d only understand if you were a real fan of the Boards. Or how about the effects wankery of The Devil Is In The Details, barely a piece of music save the gentle echoing synth pulse underneath garble noises like an evil being of demonic origin contrasted with wisps of ethereal pads and, of course, children laughing. No, wait, how about Magic Window, literally one-minute forty-five seconds of silence, just to reach an album runtime of sixty-six minutes and six seconds (though my player reads 66:04, hah!). Gads, see how pretentious this comes off?

Boards Of Canada’s strength is their seemingly effortless approach to song craft – no matter the depth in execution, the final result is simple and class. Geogaddi, on the other hand, sounds like the Scottish duo pushed and strained themselves in creating cleverness for its own sake, forgetting to write decent music in the process. There’s a flat, sterility to so much of Geogaddi, it’s small wonder it remains their most divisive LP.

That said, it’s the Boards we’re dealing with, and a few mint numbers do find their way in. I don’t doubt some fans will snicker at my inability to decipher all the codes hidden within Geogaddi, but I listen to Boards Of Canada for fuzzy, dayglow chill times, not to solve puzzled bollocks.

Speedy J - G Spot (& !ive)

Virgin Music Canada: 1995

The only Speedy J album you’re supposed to have, even if you’re not a Speedy J fan. I mean, who can argue with G Spot? It’s got future-cast techno, lovely ambient, big beaty electro, and even (whisper it) classic trance. Throw in the !ive CD that was released the same year as a double-disc package, and you’ve got yourself a definitive collection of mid-‘90s electronic music that many point to as essential Jochem Paap listening. Ginger? Definitely strong, but a bit stuck in early ‘90s mode and still playing by Detroit’s iron-clad rules. Public Energy No. 1 or A Shocking Hobby? He pushed himself for creative challenges, which is good, but in the process pushed away a number of fans he earned with his early work, which is bad. Loudboxer? Yeah... no – it’s a fun album for what it is, but far too musically singular for any but the most die-hard of techno heads. Many key tracks off G Spot and !ive have appeared on compilations and DJ mixes (erm, and music guides), especially the prog jocks who wanted a little techno roughness to go with their melodic grooves and constructs.

So G Spot it is then. Is that hesitation I sense though? Need a little convincing, do you? Since its kinda’ what I’m supposed to do with this blog, I shall tickle your most potent of music pleasure centers with what you’ll find on here …uh, in word form. In a totally non-threatening, respectful manner, if you want to that is. I suck at game.

Anyhow, this album features ten tracks, some long, some not. Mr. Paap opens with typical branches of techno that was making the rounds of the mid-‘90s: something a little jazzy with The FUN Equations, Ping Pong feeling the sci-fi electro, and Fill 25 has spaced-out acid groove. These all owe more than a debt to Detroit’s lineage, and though these are fine tunes, they aren’t that far of a stretch from what the various giants of that scene were up to. What’s G Spot’s big deal, eh?

Then Lanzarote and Extruma make themselves felt, ambient at its most lush – just eleven solid minutes of bliss. The only way to follow upon such a sequence is by hitting the listener with fat funky acid breaks as conceived by space station robots, but workers out at The Oil Zone will work too. Treatments comes off rather inconsequential after that, but it leads wonderfully into another great ambient interlude with Fill 17, which serves as a perfect respite before going back into the space acid techno-trance in the titular cut. Cap off with a final bit of cinematic ambient music in Grogno, and you’ve yourself an instant classic of the ‘90s. And then you can enjoy it some more on !ive, plus a couple older cuts (Symmetry, Pepper)and exclusives like Fusion, Scare Tactics. Yes, it’s the same Fusion that appeared on Northern Exposure 2, and the whole CD’s got music in that vein. No more excuses, mang.

The Future Sound Of London - Environment Five

fsoldigital.com: 2014

Considering the seemingly endless volumes of From The Archives and, to a lesser extent, Environments, The Future Sound Of London must have had shed-fulls of unused material stored. At least with Environments, they gradually sprinkled in some new stuff too, helping create distinctive album narratives between each edition. And now finally - finally - Dougans and Cobain either found enough inspiration to craft an entirely new album of fresh music under the FSOL banner, or they've used up their entire backlog.

I’ll get the bad news regarding that out of the way: as we’re dealing entirely with post-millennial FSOL here, you bet your bottom dollar Environment Five goes deep into the psychedelic bubble, an attribute that has made their Amorphous Androgynous material a bit of a chore for all but the most dedicated listeners. No, wait a second, that’s not bad news in the slightest! Why shoulda musically dynamic duo remain stuck making tunes they hashed out two decades hence? They can’t very well go around claiming themselves the Future Sound Of London if they don’t keep pushing themselves in finding what future sounds they can craft (for London). Going avant-garde psychedelic-classicalism is good news!

The better-good news is, as Environment Five is all new material, it means Dougans and Cobain had a specific theme in mind while composing this album. Not that the previous Environments lacked themes, but those felt cobbled together - tracks served in creating general moods or milieus, but having little to do with each other. Five, on the other hand, flows like an album proper, with lengthy set pieces, short quiet interludes, and musical ideas and leitmotifs sprinkled throughout. Seriously, they sure love using that... saxophone? I think it’s a saxophone, but knowing these guys, it could be a Tibetan reed-woodwind that only sounds like a saxophone, or even an overlay of the two.

Anyhow, the PR blurbs described Environment Five as an exploration of death. No, not in a morbid, goth manner – there’s more sense of spiritual awakening and contemplation with the music here, as though death is a release from our limited, mortal shells, with realms both grand and humbling awaiting us to explore. Definitely an ambitious venture, and the music does offer tantalizing glimpses. There’s sombre pianos (Source Of Uncertainty, Viewed From Below The Surface), minimalist electro-dub (Machines Of The Subconscious), ethno-fusion baroque (Dying While Being Held), creepy cinematic ambient (Beings Of Light, The Dust Settles), future-shock freak-outs (Somatosensory), and jubilant psychedelic world-beat (In Solitude We Are Least Alone).

Honestly though, this concept of ‘death experiences’ isn’t iron-clad, at least compared to some of FSOL’s earlier concept albums (Lifeforms, Dead Cities). It’s nice they gave us something to latch onto if we’re so inclined, but as a collection of new The Future Sound Of London musics, it’s an enjoyable play-through regardless. Well, so long as you’re not still clinging to Papua New Guinea retreads. Let some of those prog rocks jams worm their way into your eternal being, guy.

Biosphere - Dropsonde

Touch: 2005/2006

Pretty much the Godfather of Scandinavian chill-out, this Geir Jenssen fellow is. I’m sure there were others who were making European Northland ambient before him, but Biosphere endeared himself to a young rave scene, finding a comfortable niche within the realms of early ambient techno and dub. As the years wore on, he kept his sounds unique and fresh with each album while maintaining a distinct icy-ambient style entirely his own. His first few albums are often hailed as stone-cold classics for discerning chill-heads, many modern ambient producers in Norway, Sweden, and Finland citing Mr. Jenssen as a significant influence (I’m looking at you, Ultimae All-Stars!). And while his current output doesn’t garner nearly the same amount of notice as his ‘90s heyday (influence breeds multiple new options), that doesn’t mean Biosphere’s gone quietly into the night as a new generation takes over. Well, okay, maybe a little quietly. This is ambient we’re dealing with, after all.

I suppose with Wolfgang Voigt’s Kompakt print getting all the critical love in the mid-‘00s, ol’ Geir thought it was about time for a stab at Voigt’s ambient-drone work as Gas. Autour De La Lune was a start, and Dropsonde continued this minimalistic exploration, tracks often looping into sedative works of drone, even with occasional rhythms. Essentially three types of compositions are on this album: music guided along gentle key tones that are reminiscent of Steven Halpern’s seminal (if a tad sappy) Spectrum Suite work; future jazz stylee that wouldn’t sound out of place on an obscure Shadow Records release; and straight-forward loop-drone that rides along synth pads and dub effects. As per the Universal Law Of Good Album Flow, these various tracks are nicely paced between each other, letting the listener immerse themselves in one style before taking in another. For instance, opener Dissolving Clouds is a key tone one, followed by Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings’ going all groovy while riding looping hi-hats, then Warmed By The Drift comes through with, um, warm pads by a crackling fire in a snow-covered forest setting (probably). I shouldn’t have to tell you what fourth track In Triple Time features.

There honestly isn’t much more to say about Dropsonde. It’s a perfectly fine album of tastefully explored abstract ambient, but not a huge standout for that scene at large. While a few sounds and chord changes remind me of Jennsenn’s other works, it’s not as instantly identifiable as albums like Microgravity or Substrata. Thus Dropsonde gets a bit lost in the overall Biosphere discography, though the lovely cover art does help it stand out more than its surrounding abstract neighbors. For all the new musical roads Jennsenn explored during the ‘00s, they were still well traversed by others. Most of the sexy talking points regarding Biosphere comes from the ‘90s, which I’ll get to eventually – I don’t want to waste too much limited word count bigging up Patashnik or Substrata before I talk about them. Besides, it sells Dropsonde short in the process.

Boards Of Canada - The Campfire Headphase

Warp Records: 2005

Also known as that Boards Of Canada album with all the guitars. Fuzzy guitars, acoustic guitars, distorted guitars, folksy guitars, and, most definitely, nostalgic guitars. It can't be a Boards album review without that word getting in, so may as well do it post-haste. It also was the Scottish duo's last LP for a significant amount of time, some wondering whether it would be their final one period. If it had, The Campfire Headcase - sorry, Headphase - would have been a rather limp conclusion to the Boards saga, almost an afterthought of an album where their genre indulgences sidetracked them from whatever future-classics could come hither. Tomorrow's Harvest saved us from that fate. Now, instead of treating this album like a disappointing denouement to an adored career, we can enjoy it based on its own merits, just like these Boards Of Canada undoubtedly wanted anyway.

And as a self-contained album, separate from artist narrative, how is The Campfire Headcase - dammit, PHase? Sure, it’s good – I mean, would you expect any less? Boards, if nothing else, are experts at crafting warm, charming music on the trip-hop tip. Whenever they get too cute with their concepts, over-indulge in numerological Easter eggs, or waste potentially great tunes with pointless doodles, that’s where our intrepid non-Canadian Canadas stumble. Just give us music, mang, songs that we can hazily drift along with.

For all the lasting impression the guitar work imparted on this album, The Campfire Headcase - arggh, PHASE - maybe a third of the tracks actually utilize the six-stringers. Not that I blame listeners remembering it as such, so front-loaded on here as they are. It also doesn’t hurt tracks like Chromakey Dreamcoat, Satelite Anthem Icarus, and Dayvan Cowboy (which was also tapped for single duty on Trans Canada Highway) worm their way into the noggin as only ‘Boards Of Canada goes shoegaze’ music can. The other half of this album is Boards being Boards as per usual. Detuned, crackly synths, gorgeous ambience, functional rhythms, and a total lack of quirky skits.

Wait, that’s something new! You mean to tell me The Campfase Headphire (*sigh*... I’ll dyslexia a cure this for...) doesn’t feature any weird-for-weird-sake bits of children dialog, clips of National Film Boards documentaries, or whatever else that made Music Has The Right To Children and Geogaddi the distinctive albums they were? There are still ambient interludes, but even they typically run lengthier compared to prior LPs’ doodles, most breaching well over the one-minute mark (I forgive A Moment Of Clarity for being under, since making it any longer wouldn’t make it a moment). And man, those last few tracks - Slow This Bird Down, Tears From The Compound Eye, and Farewell Fire - my heart bleeds, it does.

While I wouldn’t recommend The Campfire Headphase (yes!) as your diving off point with Boards Of Canada, it’s a worthy addition to your collection if Musical Children has tempted you for more. Although, I’m only preaching to the converted, aren’t I?

ACE TRACKS: September 2014

I haven't posted a permanent entry for September's ACE TRACKS playlist, have I? Guess I was in such a rush putting it together and over-excited to get it into the sidebar that it slipped my mind.



Full Track List Here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Androcell - Entheomystic
P.M. Dawn - Of The Heart, Of The Soul, & Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience (FOUND...?)
Also, most of those single-track ambient-drone albums aren't on Spotify either (surprise, I know), but then only Hansen's The Dome got ACE TRACK status out of those anyway.

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 15%
Percentage Of Neil Young: 2%
Most “WTF?” Track: Neil Young - Misfits (yes, the lone Young tune is a right oddity in this bundle – you'd almost think it was a... 'misfit'! Yeah? ...yeah)

This one was all over the place, which made it fun to sequence (Oliver Lieb and Type O Negative, together at last!), but maybe not so much of a listen. The gargantuan seven-plus hour run time couldn't have been appealing either, but considering the length of some of those ambient tracks, not unexpected. I don't know what else to say here that wouldn't come off like redundant information though. It's sat on the right of your screen for a month, more than enough time for regulars to take it in. If you're stumbling upon this blog at a later date though, here's a quick-and-dirty of what's on this playlist: hip-hop, electro, ambient, psy, techno, jazzy downtempo... you know, the usual things you'll find in most of my playlists.

Sykonee Surveys Spotify's Senseless Suggestions: Round 2

Spotify sure likes sending me suggestions more often than I anticipated. I think its best that I save my surveys until I clear batches of my review backlog, lest they impede my regular progress. I already make enough tangents these days, and I’ve some large bulks to plow through. Just look how many ‘O’s I reviewed, and that’s traditionally one of the ‘lesser’ letters to name your album with!

So last round’s recommendations leaned way heavy on the rock side of things, and not even rock I care much for. I’m giving Spotify the benefit of the doubt on its erroneous assumptions of my musical tastes, what with having so little time to get acquainted an all. It’ll have to butter me up better if it wants me to take its suggestions seriously going forward though. Let’s find out what Round 2 offers.

Kenny Chesney - 1. American Kids / 2. Somewhere With You

Oh for… Spotify, you couldn’t be more off if you tried. This is full-on modern country, which I absolutely, positively never-in-a-zillion years go out of my way to listen to. I don’t hate the stuff, but I’ve no reason to bother with that field of music in my life either. Chesney’s apparently one of the bigger names to emerge from country’s renewed dominance with youthful, tailgating demographics, and I’m quite thankful these two tracks don’t tread anywhere near the Georgia Straight Line dirt road of ‘bro-country’ (yes, this is a thing, and yes, it’s as awful as you’re imagining), but… yeah. This is just one big “NOPE” from me.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 0/5

Radiohead - 3. Karma Police / 4. Paranoid Android

Come on, are you even trying, Spotify? You suggested these guys in the last email. Is Radiohead just a generic, go-to band to name drop? Are you trolling Thom Yorke’s anti-Spotify stance? Also, I’m somewhat disappointed that the next two tracks in this list are more from OK Computer. It’s clear the Top 5 has nothing to do with actual plays, as No Suprises from the last round lags well behind Karma Police by some seven million hits. If this is the case, why not feature more songs from their other albums, mix things up for the newbie Radiohead listener? Ah well, despite Spotify’s insistence at gumming the stats, my Odds score stands with this band.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 3/5

Wu-Tang Clan - 1. C.R.E.A.M. / 2. Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit

I take it all back. Spotify, you totally get me. How’d you know I’d absolutely be down for some Wu-Tang Clan? Sure, I’ve Playlisted Raekwon, U-God, Masta Killa, and Ghostface Killah, but you figured out I might like the Clan having not played anything from RZA, GZA, Ol’ Dirty BZA, Method MZA, or Inspectah DZA (yet). Seriously, this couldn’t have been a more obvious recommendation than suggesting N.W.A. because I played some Dr. Dre or Ice Cube. Yeah, I’m gonna’ listen to the Wu again – they’ll be eventually in an ACE TRACKS Playlist after all – but it would have been nice for Spotify to show a little more intuition than this.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 5/5

Mayday Parade - 3. Oh Well, Oh Well / 4. You’re Dead Wrong

I wasn’t terribly enthused by all the rock recommendations in Round 1, but I at least enjoyed the process of discovering a few new bands, some of which I’ll likely dabble in later on. Mayday Parade was not one of them, got’dang it. Seriously, I gave them an Odds score of 1/5 - I can’t even remember what I wrote about them, so off base with my tastes they were. These two songs are more of the same ‘arena-emo-rock-punk’ style I heard from the their first two, so it’s safe to say that’s the Mayday Parade stylee. No more for me, thanks.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 0/5

Kid Cudi - 1. Pursuit Of Happiness (Extended Steve Aoki Remix) / 2. Just What I Am

I’m assuming I’m getting a Cudi suggestion for the prior hip-hop I’ve listened to, and not because Spotify thinks I’d be down for an Aoki remix or that I might like MGMT (because Radiohead, obviously). I’m honestly surprised to see that track as the first one, as it’s little more than your standard modern-day anthem house rub – there’s thousands of tracks like this one out the. The second track has some cool ambient-electro vibe going for it, but the lyrics are just wack ‘get-wrecked’ party-hop nonsense. He doesn’t even sound that sincere, simply catering to the festival kids. Or maybe that Aoki impression’s still lingering. Will have to hear more of his material for a better idea, and I suspect Spotify will force upon me at that.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 2/5

Weezer - 1. Island In The Sun / 2. Say It Ain’t So

Well sure, may as well get these guys in there at some point. Like many of my teenaged era, I enjoyed their Blue Album, then promptly stopped giving a shit. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate – the ongoing drama of Weezer’s rise-fall-rise-fall-rise-fall in the world of pop is its own unique brand of fascinating for any music enthusiast. The last song I heard from them was the “we’re all on drugs” one, whatever it was called, and I can’t say I’m in a hurry to check out their back catalog. Although, hearing these two songs, especially Say It Ain’t So again, sure does tug at my nostalgic centre. Maybe I ought to finally check out that Pinkerton LP…

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 3/5

Pye Corner Audio - 1. Perfect Secrecy Forever / 2. Sleep Games

Ah, finally something that looks new and interesting. I’ve never heard of this guy before (Martin Jenkins), but he’s been quite busy on the digital release realm, putting out quite a few Black Mill Tapes between albums – he even offered them in tape formats! I should also mention these two tracks aren’t the first pair of suggestions at Spotify, but since the proper first two are both on the John Talbot DJ-Kicks mix, I figured these are more representative of what Pye’s all about. Perfect Secrecy Forever, which came out this year, has a chill-trance New Beat thing going for it, which has been seeing something of a minor bump in interest of late. Sleep Games, the older cut, has a similar sluggish rhythm, though has more of a classic EBM menace about it. I like it. The world could use more New Beat.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 4/5

Grateful Dead - 3. Touch Of Grey / 4. Truckin’

Another repeat. But wait, this Grateful Dead has a different picture. Maybe it’s a different Grateful Dead, one that- (*clicks link*) Nope, still the same ol’ Dead. What’s funny is Touch Of Grey is about the only Dead song I know off hand, and only because it was so ubiquitous on classic rock stations. I also didn’t know it was a Dead song because it sounds so bloody ‘80s, and that’s the last era of music I’d associate with the band, despite their activity lasting well into that decade. Truckin’ is more what you’d expect from a ‘60s hippie jam band. Nothing else to say here that I didn’t say in Round 1.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 3/5

will.i.am - 1. Scream & Shout / 2. Feelin’ Myself



Odds I’ll Listen Again: 0/5

Hybrid Minds - 3. Fade / 4. Trauma

Finally… finally, a repeat I was looking forward to. Only took you four tries to get that right, Spotify. These songs are also from two more different singles, so mixing things up too. I just might not give up on you after all, Spotify Suggestions. Fade and Trauma stick to the same smooth, jazzy liquid-funk vibe that’s given Hybrid Minds props within the jungle scene. Getting more of their tunes just became higher.

Odds I’ll Listen Again: 4/5


This Survey was even more erratic than the last one, yet somehow comes away with a near-identical final tally of 24/50. If this feature’s supposed to improve with the more data it gathers on my listening habits, this is actually a worse result than before. I can’t imagine the Artist Suggestions getting any lower than will.i.am though. It just can’t…