Nonwrestler Blog

Weekly mp3 #97: 48/4 - Hlibt

Hopefully when this post gets published you can still listen to this track on Hlibt's Myspace, because it's only available as a download as a zipped up album, New Weird Australia Vol 3.

A nice melody on what sounds like a harp or acoustic guitar with grainy clouds of sound ascending skyward around it. Glicky (Yeah, "glicky" muddyfunster!) sparse beats take it into that "I've obviously heard dubstep, but is this still dubstep?" territory. None of that leaden bass that bores the shit out of me - in fact the vibe is kind of light. Reversed and obscured vocals loop around and come and go. Restrained. Layers of near and far stuff add up to good doses of niceness. Yeah, I said it.

48/4 (pronounced "forty-eight four") is Hamish Dixon from Sydney. You've got his myspace link at the top of this entry, according to his artist page on the New Weird Australia site he studies electroacoustic / acousmatic composition.

I played this on the Australia-themed Malty Media show last December.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #96: The Goodie Mob - Is That You God? (Dabrye Remix)

You can download this from a page that automatically loads really loud music when you go to it. It's part of a free album of remixes of Atlanta hip-hop artists, and I reckon it's the stand-out.

Gospel harmonies courtesy Cee-Lo Green and fam, singing over a nice swung hip-hop beat and bassline that actually gets it right. So much of this kind of beat falls flat, IMO. This is supposed to be hip-hop, but there's just one rap verse a bit over half way in, and otherwise the harmony vox lead the way. Lots of great squeaky synth bits.

I've raved about Dabrye on more than one occasion. I think I called him my favourite producer. So, yeah, Goodie Mob. Basically gospel-infused hip-hop from back in the 90s, recently reunited. Cee-Lo has been cruising around as half of some outfit called Gnarls Barkley, doing a smash hit or two. Pretty sure he produced the Pussycat Dolls' version of 'Don'tcha' - it's definitely him on backing vox.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Nature:1 Electro-acoustic Composers: 0

Someone linked me to these amazing sounds of ice cracking, which sound a hell of a lot like lasers from Star Wars. Go click and listen, they're amazing.

I don't know the details of the physics, except inasmuch as I understand that it relates to the speed that the different frequencies of sound travel through the medium of ice. So the high frequencies travel faster, the low slower, and that results in these huge glissandi (aka doo! doo! laser zaps).

Ages back another friend linked me to this footage from a Herzog documentary, where scientists are listening to the sounds of the Weddell seals. It's quite amazing, bordering on unbelievable.
If you can read this it means you're missing an embedde video. Click "View Original Post".


I got suspicious to the point where I went hunting around for more. Thankfully some institute called the Macaulay Library has hours and hours of streaming audio examples of the Weddell seals doing their thing, as well as plenty of recordings of Bearded seals (or, "Xenakis seals" as I like to think of them). Man. It's doing my head in.

There's a great recording from the 60s where you heard the recordist saying "I'm now switching on my hydrophone". :D

Labels: music

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Weekly mp3 #95: Major Lazer - Cash Flow (Classixx Glass-Bottom Dub)

Mad Decent, Major Lazer's label, have this track up for download under the title What did they use of the original Classixx remix!!!" Punctuation aside, it's a fair question. Some little bits of vox. Same chords?

A downtempo house beat starts things off. In comes a bit of synth bass and some absurdly big handclaps. Breakdown to some echoing vox and ... hey, whaddaya know? It's a downtempo house track. Plenty of different parts weaving around - lots of 80s synth vibes. Some distant slide guitar and arpeggiating synths combine at times to make something suspiciously like Tangerine Dream's oft-sampled / covered / re-hashed 'Love on a Real Train'.

As this track has close to zero to do with Major Lazer, I'm not even going to bother linking to them. If you like this at all you'll be more interested in following up on Classixx who are two guys from LA. Throughout 2009 I listened to a lot of this kind of gear and I reckon Classixx actually write decent licks (lixx?) more often than most.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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Weekly mp3 #94: Toro Y Moi - Blessa

Download this absurdly sunny tune (and 3 others if you like) from RCRDLBL.

Backing vox of the drawn-out "Ahhhhh" variety start the track, half-suggesting a contented sigh as much as 60s pop. A loud burst of slide guitar drops in seemingly out of nowhere, bends completely out of shape in a way I can't even begin to do justice to, and then surges up again in a canyon-size wash of reverb. Turns out that's just the intro, and the track switches direction with a bouncy backbeat and bassline, the backing vox laying out some chords. The guy starts singing, and it's hard to say whether he's harking back to Brian Wilson or just been listening to Panda Bear or Atlas Sound doing the same. From here it's basically just a really mellow little pop song. Somewhere towards the end, everything breaks down to a shambling guitar lick and then the song gives up the ghost.

Although this is a full song, the overall feel reminds me quite a lot of the El Guincho mix of Kuroma I wrote about 40 weeks back...

Chaz Bundick is a wild enough name, so not sure why the guy goes by Toro Y Moi for his music. I was not exactly shocked to hear he's from Southern California. Am really hoping the album is as good as the best of the MP3s I've heard.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

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