Journal
20 April 2025
- Pullman – Turnstyles & Junkpiles
- Takagi Masakatsu – Pia
- Whatever is playing at 30 min - "Water Fall"?
- Quiet Evenings - Intrepid Trips
- Giancarlo Toniutti - La Mutazione
- O Yuki Conjugate - Undercurrents
- Enjoyed. "Ascension", "Last".
- Seziki Tetrasheaf – Keys To Kishore
- Shudder To Think – Funeral At The Movies
- First time listening to "Red House", which they were weirdly insistent on releasing, apparently; they included it on three different EPs between 1991-1994, then they finally put it on an album, 50,000 B.C., in 1997. I wonder if it's a good or bad thing that they could fit the same song on both an early EP and their final album...anyway, this is a pretty good EP, has that classic emo-tinged post-hardcore sound; melodic vamps instead of aggressive chugging and feedback and expressive, crooned vocals, but with more time signature jumps than usual.
- The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
- First full listen in probably 9 years, last time was one of the first times I heard it, in college. First three tracks are great, of course, but then it kind of gets into those atmospheric non-song pieces that don't really captivate me. I do like the foghorn recordings though. Also, I don't really like "You’ll Be in the Air", but I love the way he whines "You'll be in the air, I'll be in your bed when I'm awake".
- Pale Blue Sky - Apricot
- Max Corbacho - Ars Lucis
- Soda Stereo - Dynamo
- "Sequencia Inicial", "Toma La Ruta", "En Remolinos".
- Aaron Dilloway - Modern Jester
- "After The Showers"
- David Sylvian - Gone To Earth
- My appreciation for this album is growing, especially the second side. Some great ambient on there.
- Pink Floyd - Meddle
- "Fearless", "A Pillow of Winds", "Echoes".
- Snoweffect - Rustic Physiocrat
- "Round Midnight"
- Mathias Grassow - The Fragrance Of Eternal Roses
- Heitor Alvelos – Faith
- A revisitation. Very low-freq dark ambient, typical of many Touch releases (thinking of Hazard in particular). Take it or leave it.
- Vidna Obmana – Landscape In Obscurity
- Actually really enjoyed this. It's "giving" ECM, especially the reissue cover art. It's like a very smoothed out, liquefied ECM jazz album. Kind of like a precursor to the ambient-jazz/"nu-jazz" we got some of earlier this decade; Nala Sinephro, that Floating Points/Sun Ra album, etc.
- Dave Gilden – Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend (1/2)
- Fumio Kosakai - Earth Calling
- Solo cassette by a member of (at least) three prominent Japanese noise bands at some point in the '90s: C.C.C.C., Hijokaidan, and Incapacitants. It's actually fairly ambient, but kind of noisy, probably due to the lack of low-end, and probably made with guitar. "Drive To Universe" is a trebly, somewhat ominous drone that just blends into "Look to the Light". At some point it stops and a new trebly, ominous drone begins...
An aside - apparently, Fumio Kosakai's first discographical appearance was on a compilation called Azabu 1980, which was a collection of student recordings made to celebrate their graduation from Azabu Gakuen high school; they did this for 1978-1980 graduation years, according to Discogs (I can't seem to find any of these in full online, though). From what I gather, Kosakai was the only student featured on the comp to actually pursue career in experimental music. At least, he's the only one who has any other credits on Discogs.
- Solo cassette by a member of (at least) three prominent Japanese noise bands at some point in the '90s: C.C.C.C., Hijokaidan, and Incapacitants. It's actually fairly ambient, but kind of noisy, probably due to the lack of low-end, and probably made with guitar. "Drive To Universe" is a trebly, somewhat ominous drone that just blends into "Look to the Light". At some point it stops and a new trebly, ominous drone begins...
- Brainiac - Smack Bunny Baby
- "Cultural Zero", "Anesthetize", "Draag".
- Troum - Mare Idiophonika
- One of early '17 sleepytime albums that never stuck. Hey, towards the end it starts to sound like Piano Text.
- Hakobune - Momentarily Endless
- Hakobune - Isohel
- Hakobune – Love Knows Where
- Long ago upload by thecoldwaters. My favorite by Hakobune so far.
- Greg Foat - The Honeybear
- Listened soon after release (when I was in college, wow!); "Call Of The Forest", "Crows Feet" are still my favorites.
- A Produce - Smile on the Void
- One of these tracks ("The Big Sleep" I think) is very Greinke. Mostly uninteresting ambient.
- Hum - Caldron of Winds
- I uploaded this to YouTube without having actually listened to it. Just some nondescript drone.
- Paul Bradley - Sophia Drifts
- Very relaxing. Up there with some of Oophoi's recordings.
- Coelacanth – Mud Wall
- Check out this guy's demo policy.
- Hazard - Wind
- Enjoyed!
- Lukas Rickli - Fremde Zeit Addendum V
- First listen 21 July 2019, while I was working outdoors near Chadds Ford. I still like it.
- Necropolis - Necrosphere
- Hazard / Fennesz / Biosphere - Light
- I can't fucking stand that "When I Leave" sample.
- Troum - Objectlessness
- Essentially 70 minutes of guitar feedback. Not my thing.
- Boards of Canada - Twoism
- Been pretty into "Iced Cooly" the past few days. It's funny how the title is technically a racial slur, though not that I give a shit anyway.
- Thomas Ankersmit - Figueroa Terrace
- Listened in college, didn't really stick with me. I like the middle section.
- Fennesz - Field Recordings 1995-2002
- "Instrument 4", and "Betrieb", which is just an Ekkehard Ehlers track that shares a name with one of his studio albums but doesn't actually appear on that album. Not a fan of the loud noisy stuff.
- HASYMO – The City Of Light / Tokyo Town Pages
- I mean, "Tokyo Town Pages (Ambient)" is basically a Sakamoto/Noto track, but I like it.
- Ramleh - Hole In The Heart
- There's one part of "True Religion" where the vocals sound quite like the vocals on "Bite the Bolster"....I haven't paid much attention to most of these tracks, but maybe it's a medley of sorts? "Bite the Bolster", "Do Not Come Near", "Redcap Part II".
- Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
- Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
- Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Bloodstream Sermon
- Heat Sureens – The Beast At Peace
- Gimu - A Season In Your Soul
- Fishmans - Uchu Nippon Setagaya
- "Weather Report", "Walking In The Rhythm", "うしろ姿".
- Heat Sureens – The Beast At Peace
- The beast is now at peace.
- Curve - The New Adventures of Curve
- They really double down on that sci-fi cyberpunk femme fatale sound on here, which honestly sounds better without the distorted guitars. Also, really cool to hear Dean finally sing on "Joy". "Till The Cows Come Home", "Every Good Girl".
- Thanasis Papakonstantinou - Agrypnia
- Arauchi Yu – Śisei
- Hi-Posi – かなしいことなんかじゃない
- Isao Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing
- Listened to a bit of this back in early college, but back in those primitive old days the full album hadn't been posted to YouTube...I remember liking the upward glissandos of "Clair De Lune".
- Dim - Stereo 45
- Being Dead - When Horses Would Run
- "Last Living Buffalo", "Muriel's Big Day Off", "Treeland".
- Theater 1 - Theater 1
- Tetsu Inoue & Jonah Sharp - Electro Harmonix
- Brian Eno - The Shutov Assembly
- Metamatics - Spook Tinsel Shoal
- Pole - 1
- HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club
- Pendant - Make Me Know You Sweet
- Hiroshi Yoshimura - 環境演出音 (Ambient Sound)
- Sachi Kobayashi - Clouds in the Sky
- Didn't really listen, but rather put it on and proceeded to take a fairly deep nap after the ~3rd track.
31 March 2025
- Low - The Curtain Hits the Cast
- Flying Saucer Attack - Further
- Not too big on this one, admittedly. Takes a meandering ambient form which, combined with folk elements, isn't my thing. Still big on his (their?) debut, though.
- Flying Saucer Attack - Flying Saucer Attack
- Duster - Contemporary Movement
- Thunder/lightning/heavy rain at the moment. Never was that into this album until now. It's on par with Stratosphere, I'll say.
- Valium Aggelein - Hier Kommt Der Schwarze Monde
- Continuing my tradition of listening to this album during storms. I love rock you can sleep to. Title track's still my favorite.
- Theater 1 – Theater 11
- "Terry"
- Stereolab - Fluorescences
- May be my first listen to this whole EP. Love the horns. Obviously, the title track is their best song by far.
- Katatonic Silentio - Tabula Rasa
- "Cartography Of Nowhere"
- Demdike Stare - Circulation
- B side is much better. Is that a "Shamany Enfluence" sample arount 13:00? Amazing. It's also got that annoying UFO hunter sample from Photek's "UFO" though.
- Silent Season - The Wandering II Compilation (1-15)
- Sonitus Eco - "Frost", Brother Blue - "Summoning UFOs". Much more good stuff here but I need to take it in in doses.
- Polykroma - Radiaphane
- "Daliant Luxre 2"
- Bielizna – Taniec Lekkich Goryli
- "Kuracja doktora Granata". The instrumental sections sound like '90s American alternative rock.
- Kinoko Teikoku – ロンググッドバイ
- "Flower Girl"
- Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot
- First day in new apartment. Much enjoyed this. I like their "deep" stuff, like their late '90s material when they dove full force into that somber, sparse, lethargic sound.
- Yassue - A Fine Day (most of it)
- There's a couple good melodic piano pieces, but most of it is really insipid, especially when those hopelessly dated '80s synths show up. It would be well suited as background music in a promotional videotape for a self-help retreat or something. "With The Wind".
- Masahide Sakuma - Lisa
- "Dim (3)"
- Sa Pa - The Fool
- The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
- "In A Hole", "It's So Hard".
- Hi-Posi - Gluon
- Pretty blown away on first listen. Definitely going to revisit.
- Hi-Posi - House
- There's a version of "The Queen is Dead" on here! ... and another one at the end? Or rather, The Queen Is Dead is just an EP of remixes of "Shadow of Your Smile" and "Little Red Riding Hood"?
- Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
- Somehow I timed this to end exactly as my work day ended, and it was triumphant. "Kicked It in the Sun", "Velvet Waltz", "Untrustable / Part 2 (About Someone Else)".
- Loveliescrushing - Xuvetyn
- Second listen, and I actually really enjoyed this.
- Wha-Ha-Ha - 死ぬ時は別
- "On The Floor", "Whaha Whaha".
- NEU! - NEU!
- I was never that big on this album, even in my college avant-teen phase. It's pretty good. I still don't believe the gap in "Sonderangebot" was fully intentional; maybe it was a mixing glitch that they decided to keep. I doubt Conny Plank or whoever was like, "and here, zere is going to be a split second silence, jah!" when they were making the track. "Sonderangebot", "Negativland".
- Jeff Greinke - Lost Terrain
- Jeff Greinke – Over Ruins
- Enjoyed. This one was always overshadowed by Cities In Fog, but it's pretty good.
- Jeff Greinke - Timbral Planes
- Most of Loveless, except, weirdly, for the last 2 tracks, which are my favorites.
- The Church - Hologram of Baal
- It's more classic-rock-ballady than I remembered/expected, but "The Great Machine" is good.
- Pop-Off Tuesday – Pop Ahoy!
- "Day In Strollers"
- Jeff Greinke – Moving Climates
- Pretty good, predictably weird.
- Kevin Drumm - June
- Haven't listened to quiet Drumm in a while. Still pretty good!
- Voice of Eye - Vespers
- "Drifting"
- John Beltran - Aesthete
- Classic Beltran sound without being a rehashing of his best two albums. (I thought I'd ignored this on release even though I was big into him at that point, but according to HIB on Discogs I've already listened to this). "Amaranth". "The Sun Would Shine" is interesting for its really mellow synth-piano riffing with noisy drums. It reminds me of '90s drill n bass stuff with hectic drums contrasted with soothing synths. Also, hate to say it, but the synth-piano tone is very user48736353001-ish.
- 0N4B - Somewhere, Left Behind
- "Like a Floating Leaf"
- Miguel A. Ruiz – Climatery
- Very much a precursor to that '00s-'10s cassette-based psychedelic sound collage stuff. I'm actually surprised this was released as far back as 1986. I see people comparing it to Yume Nikki, which I don't really see. Some of it's kind of like a midpoint between that cassette stuff and Maurizio Bianchi.
- About half of O Yuki Conjugate's Into Dark Water. "Ascension", "Raindance", "Cloud Cover".
- Chi - The Bamboo Recordings
- Steve Roach - Possible Planet
- Alex Kassian - Leave Your Life
- Sachi Kobayashi - Clouds In The Sky
- Gift from Josh. Pretty damn good. Main album is glassy drones, last track is a 27 minute jungle-ambient piece.
- Yo La Tengo - The Sounds of the Sounds of Science
- :)
- The Necks - Silent Night - "Black" only.
- Hi-Posi - The Queen Is Dead
- Not too into J-dub, but I enjoyed the vocal melody, though the kawaii Japanese girl vocals can kind of grate after about 3 minutes.
- N1_Sound – Mantras
- Will have to revisit this sometime. Thanks, French Kettle Station.
- Lush - Gala
- :)
- Vanity Records - Music
- Decided to check this out after enjoying some Tolerance tracks. Kind of an interesting flow for an early minimal-avant-industrial compilation: much of it is, expectedly, intentionally bad minimal-avant-industrial stuff that sounds like it's made by children (I think it's the Daily Expression tracks I'm thinking of, whatever was playing at the 45 min mark), then there's a decent drone track (third track, the one with the telemetry beeps), and then the one or two songs that are just catchy pop but really lo-fi. The tracks playing around 30-35 min are decent. "Dolby Nr On" by Nose starts out good with a steady synth rhythm and some windchimes, then unfortunately verges on "played by children" territory and gets annoying. Overall, not too motivated by this comp to explore this label.
- T. Kamada - After Music
- Final – 2
- """"""""", "///////".
- Swept - Cult Desire
- Saw Coroner last night. Openers were meh, just monotonous thrash, but that's to be expected. Lots of legit longtime metalheads in the crowd, obviously. There was a tall nerdy middle aged guy within a short, modestly dressed, Indian-looking woman who started bopping along when the band played "Internal Conflicts". They were pretty good. Unsurprisingly, though to my satisfaction, most of their setlist consisted of songs from Grin. They also did a really cool performance of "Metamorphosis", which I'm not really familiar with but need to check out soon.
- Tujiko Noriko - Hard Ni Sasete
- The sky is white like on the cover of this album! "Bikini", "Yashi No Ki Tengoku", though the latter is not actually part of the main album but was apparently on a bonus CD-ROM that came with the 2003 reissue.
- Curve – Radio Sessions
- Digging the Peel treatment on them. They sound a tiny bit more like a regular shoegaze band here, but the guitars and live drums sound amazing.
- Curve - Doppelgänger
- I initially dismissed this as made redundant by Pubic Fruit, but within a day it's growing on me. "Already Yours", "Doppelgänger", "Think and Act", and "Fait Accompli" (though the Pubic Fruit version is better, and it's ashame this one plays down the wailing vocal hook.
- Curve - Pubic Fruit
- Finally dove into this one after getting "The Colour Hurts" stuck in my head repeatedly. It's pretty damn good, and it flows well as an album.
- Curve - Doppelgänger
- Curve - Gift
- More ignored-but-pretty-damn-good Curve. "Gift", "Want More Need Less", "Perish" .
- Haunted Plasma - I
- The Necks - Sex
- 2nd listen. God damn this is relaxing.
- Ex-Easter Island Head - Norther
- Paul Horn – Inside
- Was going to listen to White Light from the Mouth of Infinity. But just before I was going to put it on my piece of shit motherfucker Camden hood trash neighbor put on his TV at wall-shaking volume, so I had to retreat to the bedroom with my earplugs in and headphones on blasting Steve Roach. Maybe when I move I'll actually get to listen to music, undisturbed, in my own living space, after work.
28 February 2025
- Sketch – Reasons To Sway
- Enno Velthuys - A Glimpse of Light
- "Germinating", which reminds me of Alio Die's choral works.
- The Necks - Bleed
- Enjoyed. Weird how it ends so apruptly.
- John Beltran - Moving Through Here
- "Morning At The Window (I Was In Heaven)" - classic Beltran sound on this track.
- Listened to "Tidal Convergence", focusing specifically on the bassline, which is good, but close listening revealed that the timing and attach seem a bit off and it's mixed a little too loud. It sounds like the bassist recorded himself playing along to the completed song. I'm not usually finnicky about mixing, and it's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the song, but it's a strange observation now considering I've listened to it so much. It's typically a sunny wild-weathered morning track to me that goes along with the lot of ambient techno and new age I lik; the synths evoke sunlight and have a minimal but captivating melody; the guitar and bass generally share a melody that's vaguely wistful, in contrast to the otherwise summery, lighthearted feel of the album. This and "Crackerblocks" just have that atmosphere that I love so much in ambient from around this time. Some shit music rating website tends to tag their album "psybient" - I guess that's the word for it, but I've never really enjoyed anything exemplifying that genre.
- Listened to some Tolerance at work. Tolerance.
- The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
- Ozric Tentacles - Erpland
- "Tidal Convergence", "Crackerblocks", "A Gift of Wings".
- Pteranodon - Pteranodon 2
- Time Machines - Time Machines
- Zoviet France - Shouting At The Ground
- Maurizio Bianchi - Gene-P
- Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
- Ekkehard Ehlers – Plays
- Gilles de Rais - Gilles de Rais
- Jonny Nash - Exit Strategies
- Wasn't expecting a guitar album. Pretty decent. Weirdly reminded me of the Hylics soundtrack at points.
- Suso Saiz & Suzanne Kraft - Between No Things
- "Beloved Din", "The Weak Wheel Of The World".
- Coolwater - Coolwater
- "World's Milk" sounds like that Ludwig A.F. Röhrscheid track, "Velocity" I think.
- Cabaret Voltaire - "Project80" (from The Conversation).
- Long track of spacy ambient techno, relaxing, but the mood's broken by somewhat disturbing vocal samples from what's probably dystopian films and such. Not complaining though, CV isn't really the "turn your brain off" type of group I guess, you still have to think about crumbling democracies and eugenics and televised violence and such while you listen to your techno.
- Picnic – Picnic
- I only gave a passing listen to this back on 30 April 2021. I think I actually listened to bonus first. Enjoyed it much more now. That was around the time I moved in with my aunt, listened to "This Must Be The Place" and Unknown Pleasures for the first time, and discovered Jam.
- Duster - 1975
- Working ("working") late. "Memphis Sophisticate", "The Motion Picture", "August Relativity".
- Calm (pre-Duster band) – S/T
- Henry Kawahara - Shaman
- Max Corbacho - Ars Lucis
- Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
- "YRP", "Volcano", "I Love You This Much".
- Bill Laswell & Mick Harris - Somnific Flux
- Use to listen to this a lot in college. Still pretty good.
- William Basinski - Watermusic
- Pendant - Make Me Know You Sweet
- Jeff Greinke - Cities in Fog
- The Wrens - Secaucus
- Not the biggest fan, though it's better than the wimpy softboy emo I was expecting based on what I'd heard of The Meadowlands. Sometimes it verges into that theatrical, melodramatic emo that I don't care for either. Some good melodies though.
- Sakamoto & Noto - Insen
- Monolake - Hongkong
- Monolake - Cinemascope
- Coaltar Of The Deepers – Yukari Telepath
- "Wipeout", "AOA", "Yukari Telepath".
- Matrix – Isolated Dot
- X or Size - All Avail
- Sounds like those weird cassette sound collages (eg. Seziki Tetrasheaf) but set to ambient dub beats. "All Avail".
- Bloodthirsty Butchers – Yamane
- "Happy End", "Wagamama No Hotori", "-100%" and "-100% No. 2" (the latter reminding me a bit of YLT at the beginning).
- D York - Music for Long Attention Spans, Vol. 9
- Tetsu Inoue and Stephen Vitiello w/ Andrew Deutsch – Humming Bird Feeder Ver 0.2
- Pretty good ambient-glitch for introducing the spring (guess it's premature in early February). Couldn't tell at first if the bird noises were coming from this or outside. "~".
- Taylor Deupree - Sti.ll
- Still think this is awesome.
- Oren Ambarchi - Suspension
- "Suspension" is my favorite, starts out sparse and atonal(?) but grows into a layered, harmonious piece (when I heard it I figured it must be the title track). I put this on for naps countless times in college but had no idea what it sounds like beyond the first couple minutes of "Wednesday". According to Discogs I added the CD to my collection on September 9th 2017 at 4:22AM.
- Flying Lotus – You're Dead!
- Her New Knife – Chrome Is Lullaby
- "Vesselera"
- Chari Chari - We Hear The Last Decades Dreaming
- "Luna de Lobos"
- David Bowie – Scary Monsters
- "It's No Game Pt. 1", "It's No Game Pt. 2".
- The Young Gods - Data Mirage Tangram
- Swans - Cop
- M.F. Doom - Mm Food
- Vladislav Delay - Whistleblower
- "I Saw A Polysexual"
- Zazen Boys - Zazen Boys
- "自問自答"
- Sun City Girls - Torch of the Mystics
- "Space Prophet Dogon", "The Shining Path", "The Flower".
30 January 2025
- Swept - Cult Desire
- May/may not have been somewhat inspired to relisten by my recent replay of Hylics and embarkment on Hylics 2. I liked it better this time!
- The Sea and Cake - Nassau
- Elastica - Elastica
- "Connection"
- Earth Crisis – Destroy the Machines
- Most of Snoweffect - Desktop Caffeine
- Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Floating Weeds
- Undying – The Whispered Lies of Angels
- M. Geddes Gengras - Enduring Doubt
- 1958-2009 - 1958-2009 II
- Earn - Hell On Earth
- Huerco S. - QTT4
- Attitudes in Error - Vplay EP
- Fell asleep to A Red Score In Tile :)
- Money Morning – Corporate Karma
- Heard this back around New Year's, 2021. Pretty good.
- Possessed - Seven Churches
- "The Exorcist"
- Sun City Girls - Sun City Girls
- "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Trick"
- Efdemin – Efdemin
- "Knocking At The Grand", "Stately, Yes."..."Salix Alba" using the Windows "chord" sound effect?
- Eucaristia - An Image of Sin
- Elysian Fields - Clinical Trial
- Doldrums - Acupuncture
- EZ Rollers - Weekend World
- It's pure devastation, it is this
- The Stickmen - The Stickmen
- Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
- Christmas - In Excelsior Dayglo
- Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
- Most of Juno's This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes. I liked "The Young Influentials", but it's mostly that Mineral-ish style of whiny emo I don't care much for.
- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Architecture & Morality
- Forgot how good this is. Glad I still love it.
- Red House Painters - Ocean Beach
- "Summer Dress", "Shadows".
- 4 – The Past And The Present
- Needless to say I didn't do my regular thing of cramming all my new release listens into the last 6 days of the year, but I did hear one decent album - Total Blue - during the last days of 2024.
- Scritti Politti – Skank Bloc Bologna
- Not proud that this is my first EP-listen of the year, but hey, I never made the resolution of listening to better music this year. Somehow I got the title track stuck in my head this morning, so, yeah. It's not that bad, though you can tell they're young new to this - just listen to the lyrics. (Actually, the first song I listened to this year was "Soon It Is Going to Rain" by Unrest.)
- Cat Power - Moon Pix