tecznotes

This music:

1. made its way to iTunes in 2015,
2. and got listened to a lot.

I’ve made these for 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. Also: everything as an .m3u playlist.

1. Grimes: Flesh without Blood

2. Trust: Shoom

3. Klatsch!: God Save The Queer

4. Zed’s Dead: Lost You

5. The Communards: Disenchanted

6. Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom: Relevee (Carl Craig Remix)

7. The Smiths: Rubber Ring

8. Hot Chip: Need You Now

9. The All Seeing I: 1st Man In Space

10. Missy Elliott: WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams

This music:

1. made its way to iTunes in 2014,
2. and got listened to a lot.

I’ve made these for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. Also: everything as an .m3u playlist.

10. Voyou: Houseman

Gem pointed me to DJ Jeb Edwards’ Beat Bash mixes early in the year, each a themed collection of late 80’s and early 90’s dance music. Some industrial, some hip-house, some techno. Voyou’s Houseman was included on March 6th in a selection of Cold War tracks.

9. Pet Shop Boys: Bolshy

We saw Pet Shop Boys perform in Oakland in the spring, a fantastic show. I hadn’t realized they were touring in support of a new album. Fluorescent is another good track on that album.

8. Gidge: You

Neb proudly called out Gidge as a new addition to the slooowly-changing music rotation in his convertible.

7. Aphrodite’s Child: The Four Horsemen

I was curious to learn more about Vangelis, composer of the 1982 Blade Runner soundtrack. Aphrodite’s Child was his Greek progressive rock band formed in 1967, with Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, Anargyros Koulouris, and Vangelis Papathanassiou on keyboards. I found this song sticky, and was briefly scared that I like new age music. I had a song called Four Horsemen last year too, a popular theme.

6. µ-Ziq: Roy Castle

From the altogether-excellent Trance Europe Express vol. 3 compilation, which also introduced me to Biosphere and other key trance and ambient artists in college.

5. The Melvins: A History Of Bad Men

True Detective featured music selected by T Bone Burnett, and there’s a chunk of music here that I pulled together from track listings for the series. A History Of Bad Men can be heard in the background of the bar scene where Rust goes to meet Ginger.

4. Grinderman: Honey Bee (Let’s Fly To Mars)

More from True Detective. Honey Bee comes in right at the end of the infamous six-minute tracking shot.

3. Bosnian Rainbows: Eli

I played this one when Burrito Justice had me on his show in November. Haunting.

2. SIL: Windows (Original Mix)

Basically perfect 1991 Amsterdam prog-house.

1. Junior Vasquez: Live at Sound Factory 1993

A complete mix of New York disco and house.

The thing about not blogging for six months is that you lose your sense of what’s worth talking about. For the most part, I’ve been using Twitter, Pinboard, Tumblr, and Code for America’s own mailing lists to let out my daily allowance of words and pictures. However, I remain a believer in Jeremy Keith’s suggestion that in a universe of pre-baked publishing platforms, there’s no “more disruptive act than choosing to publish on your own website,” so here I am making an effort to write on this site again in 2014.

This music:

1. made its way to iTunes in 2013,
2. and got listened to a lot.

I’ve made these for the past four years, lately. Also: everything as an .m3u playlist.

1. Mark Reeve: Planet Green

One track from Cocoon’s excellent compilation series.

2. Trust: Candy Walls

Came to me by way of Sha’s mixtapes for friends.

3. Laika: If You Miss (Laika Virgin Mix)

Spookiest, most earworming thing on 1995 Macro Dub Infection compilation.

4. Hot Chip: These Chains

5. Metallica: The Four Horsemen

From when Metallica was still playing screechy speed metal in the East Bay, 1983.

6. Burial: Truant

Loner might be a better track, but this one made the 2013 number-of-listens cut.

7. Fuck Buttons: The Lisbon Maru

Thanks Nelson for the recommendation. Surf Solar is also excellent, like a bad dream.

8. Grimes: Oblivion

9. John Tejada: Stabilizer (Original Mix)

Perfectly reminiscent of Orbital.

10. T-Power: Elemental

1994-ish proto-jungle.

This music:

1. made its way to iTunes in 2012,
2. and got listened to a lot.

I’ve made these for the past three years, lately. Also: everything as an .m3u playlist.

1. Goto80 and Raquel Meyers: Echidna, Moder Till Alla Monster

Do not miss the associated videos, 2sleep1.

2. Calvin-Harris: I Am Not Alone, Deadmau5 Remix

Sort of a stand-in for the entire remix collection by Deadmau5, on par with the Jesper Dahlbäck remixes. Also good is the Tiny Dancer remake.

3. VCMG: Spock

“VCMG” = Vince Clarke and Martin Gore, they of Depeche Mode making techno. Thanks Tomas for this recommendation.

4. Vitalic: Terminator Benelux

5. Operator: Midnight Star, Vocal LP Version

6. Orbital: The End Of The World

Orbital made a new album this year, and it’s good!

7. Yaz: Situation

8. Skinny Puppy: Assimilate, Live Amphi Festival 2010

This performance of 1984’s Assimilate has a harsher, more sawtooth wave timbre to it that I like very much.

9. Rihanna: SOS

10. Public Enemy: Harder Than You Think

This song crept onto the list in just the past few weeks, and it’s been on regular rotation in our house for weeks.

I am kinda losing my mind over this hour-plus ambient audio/video construction by Goto80 and Raquel Meyers:

Press play, go fullscreen and lie down. 2SLEEP1 is a 66-minute playlist of audiovisual performances in text mode, designed to make you fall asleep. Made by Raquel Meyers and Goto80.

The first and fourth tracks are especially genius.