Bedroom Sketch 1

Note: I’ve accumulated some fantastic minimal-techno & micro-house lately, but I’m going to hold off on another electronic list until that pile gets sorted. Also, there’s been a bit too much of that lately, so off to genres I don’t normally listen to and, sometimes wince at when overdone. Originally I had wanted to do a somewhat lavish list (10 tracks?) based on the American West Coast and its mythic promises: think The Mamas and the Papas on repeat and never growing tired. It would’ve been something a of hyperbolic escapist list, full of nostalgia and warmth that doesn’t really have a place in my soul right now. Being rooted and being okay with that fact for the time being; figuring out where you stand on life’s road; keeping an eye out for the various signs and posts that might come in your current position. There’s also something about faith to be found in this mood list too, but I neglected to jot down what exactly.

Bedroom Sketch 1

01. Kings of Convenience – The Weight of My Words
Quiet Is the New Loud (Astralwerks, 2001)

02. Andrew Bird - First Song
Weather Systems (Righteous Babe, 2003)

03. Dusty Springfield - I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today
Dusty…Definitely (Philips Records, 1968)

04. The Innocence Mission – Tomorrow on the Runway
Befriended (Badman Recording, 2004)

05. Bibio - Lovers’ Carvings
Ambivalence Avenue (Warp Records, 2009)

06. Conor Oberst with Gillian Welch – Lua
Dark was the Night (4AD, 2009)

07. Red House Painters - Smokey
Shanti Project Collection 1 (Badman Recording, 1999)

08. Neko Case – At Last
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (ANTI-, 2006)

::stream::

Thus, a playlist with guitars, among other things. Guitars and hearts of all kinds–reserved, observant, brazen; all are equally warm. Something to listen to when life is moving too slowly (or too quickly), and you need a little pick-me-up from the mundane. Being aware of the immediate moment, the motions of (re)heating the morning coffee, the snowy glaze outside, the yellow of your pea and ham soup, mulling over the classifieds, writing letters to nowhere and no one. Beneath the reserve and lackadaisical, there’s some indistinct sadness. It should be a very likable list, even if you’re by yourself and yourself isn’t exactly all that likable.

image: 24th Street Intersection, 1977 – Wayne Thiebaud

Welcome to 2010: We are so glad you could make it.

‘Headphones on standby: you are cleared for launch.’

A list for beat-junkies, with a smattering of IDM/techno/micro-house all churrned in a vacuum and spat out again. Repetition isn’t exactly the mode here; rather, like being caught in a spin dryer with unpredictable gyrations. Between the bass and synths, a clean approach was taken: like the feeling of being in space, all manner of design is in service of conservation, efficiency, and practical application. Not an ounce of oxygen is spared, not a drop of liquid is wasted, and machinery is in harmony. Like the now classic scene from that classic film, space truly becomes a ballet of interlocking gears, gases, valves, orbital steps and the odd moment of knowing between man and something above and beyond.

01. Kraftwerk – Aerodynamik (Hot Chip’s Intelligent Design Mix)
Aerodynamik/La Forme – Hot Chip Remixes (EMI, 2007)

02. Reinhard Voigt – Am Limit
Kompakt Total 10 (Kompakt, 2009)

03. Eine Klein Nacht Musik - Besuchen Sie Mich Einmal
Eine Klein Nacht Musik (Modular Recordings, 2008)

04. Digitalism – Digitalism in Cairo
Idealism (Astralwerks, 2007)

05. Bloody Mary – Moesta et Errabunda
Black Pearl (Contexterrior, 2009)

06. Nicolas Stefan – Closer
Kompakt Total 10 (Kompakt, 2009)

07. Röyksopp – A Higher Place
Melody A.M. (EMI, 2001)

08. Lindstrøm – I Feel Space
It’s A Feeedelity Affair (Feedelity, 2005)

::stream::

The list is going by a looseknit German personality, with some artists I’m getting to know on the Cologne-based Kompakt label, as well as, of course, Kraftwerk heading up the odyssey. Eine Klein Nacht Musik, a London-based artist takes a huge slice out of golden-age Krautrock. Digitalism are from a different scene (flashy electro-rave), but they are from Hamburg, and the glitchy, Cure-sampling track here seems to work. Berlin-based Bloody Mary’s debut is aptly named, as each track forms a string of self-contained textures both dark and smooth. Finally, its the Norweigans to close off in great form; Royksopp segues in with a piece from their excellent Apple-Macintosh suite (“Eple” is the startup music for Mac OSX 10.3), while Lindstrom’s cosmic-disco track planted this whole idea long ago and its roots have finally weeded a playlist out of me. You might almost think of it like a “what-if” scenario: imagine if Düsseldorf or Stavanger had their own launch facilities and explored the possibilities of electronic sound in space. A studio set in space sounds like something very romantic and very plausible in the near century.

All in all, one of the easier lists to compose in recent memory(biting two tracks from a comp. helps), what with electronica being very open to “futuristic” interpretations, and, I believe that very vacuous idea of “space” writes itself: you can conjure up your own fantasies (or nightmares).

See also: ‘Owl woman/stars and sons’ (very similar in mood/texture/rhythym; pretty much a predecessor to this list).

spontaneous music

Parisian music site La Blogothèque has a feature called Les Concerts a Emporter, directed by indie filmmaker Vincent Moon, and they’re well worth looking at. He follows musicians around mostly Paris in some of the most unusually candid, impromptu performances (stripped down to the barest of instruments) at various “venues” if you will. The sessions are gorgeously realized with close shots of both the artists and the reactions of unsuspecting audiences (some even singing along in some of the most awesomely staged block parties ever–see the Architecture in Helsinki performance). The sound quality is incredible. Loads of artists featured and is a real hoot to see a favourite band light up an unsuspecting corner or restaurant or public transport. Don’t miss the latest with Phoenix fighting for the tourists against the Trocadéro. It’s all very inspiring stuff; also check out La Blogtheque’s Youtube channel for other streams.

List One: Vanity Sketch

If Spin was right to name “Your Hard Drive” the best album of 2000, we’d like to formally nominate “The Internet” as Most Unforgiving Asshole of the 2000s. As of ‘09, bands have an official life span of about nine months dating from the launch of their MySpace pages, thanks to the comically accelerated, DSL-enhanced hype cycle. Faster than you can tweet “Serena Maneesh,” entire genres of music are “discovered” by attention-starved writers; bloggers engage in hilarious slap-fights about who was there first; magazines feel pressured into writing clueless, hackazoid, late-pass trend pieces; bands get elevated to a critical mass of attention they can’t possibly handle; and the phenomenon is promptly abandoned once we find a newer, shinier toy to play with.
Christopher R. Weingarten, The Decade in Music Genre Hype

What is the use of making mixes? Mixology is a term borrowed from the practice of making appealing libations, somewhat clumsily applicable to the DJ’s task of gathering and organizing disparate pieces of music. Composition is artificial; it uses the work of others in a bid to produce something original. It is a derivative, and one might argue degenerate, form of art because it often excludes context in favor of another agenda. It can offend the ears on many levels and at its worst, appear arbitrary or predictable. It’s also pretty fun, if you know the thin line between being serious and taking yourself too seriously.

01. Hecuba – Paradise
Paradise (Manimal Vinyl, 2009)

02. Gang Gang Dance – House Jam
Saint Dymphna (The Social Registry, 2008)

03. Tracey Thorn – It’s All True
Out of the Woods (Astralwerks, 2007)

04. Marbert Rocel - Eleanor Birdbath
Speed Emotions (Compost Records, 2007)

05. The xx – Basic Space
XX (Young Turks, 2009)

06. Herbert – Those Feelings
Scale (Studio !K7, 2006)

07. Glass Candy - Rolling Down the Hills
B/E/A/T/B/O/X (Italians Do It Better, 2007)

08. Tennishero – Alone
Alone 12″ (DNM, 2006)

::stream::

List One: Vanity Sketch
A quickly put together with an undisciplined focus. This is my contribution to the “end of the year/decade” lists blogs are fond of making, but its not much of a best-of nor is it even a retrospective, just songs I’ve been digging in recent memory. There are similar sonic patterns and textures, but its “anything goes” beyond point. I suppose you could call it a dance list, though it has slightly lower BPMs than a purebred IDM or house track. I tend to make lists in couplets or triplets at a time, which means overall structure is oftens sacrificed in favor of more closed, segmented listens. I try to follow a formula of starting loud (or soft), escalating in the second and third tracks, followed by a slower/softer mid-section, and lastly the whole thing is rounded out by a return. “Splurge, purge, resurge.” A pretty generic rhythym, but I think it works. Maybe it shows my lack of material/skill, though I’m still learning and really, there is only so much you should be doing in a 20-30 minute list.

image: “Nixon as a Present Day Hipster”, unknown artist

Techno-Heimat: Three Decades of Kraftwerk [Part Two]

Kraftwerk in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 1981 by Koh Hasebe. All photography & imagery provided by Kraftwerk Official Fan Website.

In contrast to the prolific output of the previous decade, Kraftwerk’s releases from the 1980s onwards have been prefaced by more than 5-year production periods, presumably spent perfecting upon the state-of-the-art at their reclusive Kling Klang studio. It is understandable then, that Kraftwerk releases since have been treated with a special kind of reserve and exuberance. After Computerwelt, it did not seem obvious that another Kraftwerk record would surface. Beyond the 1983 ‘Tour de France’ single, nothing more was heard of the band save for the complications surrounding Electric Café’s eventual release. That album, treated like conceptually weaker B-sides to its predecessor led to more silence–another half decade–until The Mix was released in 1991.

The modern era: 1980 – 1990
Released in 1981, Kraftwerk’s Computerwelt read alongside the best of science-fiction, guiding listeners through the era’s decade of promises and disillusionments, and proved to be a watershed in electronic-music’s golden era. The album is quintessentially Kraftwerkian in temperament: thrilled at the possibilities of newfangled sciences, while at the same time wary of the abuses of technology. It is perhaps their most pessimistic work since Radioactivity, set in a backdrop of Reagan-era fears. ‘Computer World’ imagines a world connected by the latest telecommunications, while being a part of the network means governments and banks might track your every movement.

Kraftwerk digitized by Rebecca Allen using state-of-the-art facial animation software developed at the Institute of Technology in New York, for use as Electric Café’s artwork and for the increasingly complex media components in their live-shows. Transitioning from composers to performers of their art, Kraftwerk began to incorporate the visual with the aural for the ultimate in live experience.

‘Pocket Computer’ signals the age of the microchip and a vast variety of daily tasks made simpler, while ‘Home Computer’ ventures, self-knowingly into the distant future and at the press of a button, one is beamed there. Despite being littered with personal computers and a dizzying array of digital interfaces, the Kraftwerkian future is one which bears a striking continuity with ours. Though technology has expedited the means of communication, the human elements of alienation, loneliness and malaise are still present, even exacerbated by the loss of the traditional lebenswelt. “Another lonely night, lonely night” the speaker intones on ‘Computer Love’, before dialing an anonymous number for “A data date / I don’t know what to do / I need a rendezvous”. As the only personal, heart-on-a-sleeve techno-ballad on Computerwelt, the simplicity of the writing bellies the emotional range of the song: from longing to empathy and finally numbing, the song is resolutely human.

download: Kraftwerk – Computer Love (‘The Mix’ rework, 1991)

Following the 1980s, a greatest-hits compilation seemed long overdue, but for a band like Kraftwerk, technical brilliance in the compositions was more important than repackaging for sake of staying noticed in the 90s. The album featured some substantially reworked material, but with little in the way of original material except for ‘Dentaku’, a Japanese version of ‘Pocket Computer’. Again, silence at the Kling Klang studio, interrupted only by a rigorous touring schedule in the early 90s with the setlist now featuring those from the dancier and more mechanical Mix renditions, which they still play to date, albeit with yet more reworkings.

2000 and beyond:
Presumably spent doing activities other than fiddling around on keyboards and synthesizers, Kraftwerk entered a hiatus lasting until 1999, where they briefly returned with the single ‘Expo 2000′, commissioned for the Hanover Expo 2000. It’s not a classic by any means, but it did assuage concerns that Kraftwerk might have went defunct. By this time, Sony Vaio laptops had replaced the large Minimoogs and other analog instruments once lugged upon stage. The result was a live experience that was visually uncompromising while keeping a clean aesthetic. Despite streamlining their setups with new and powerful machines, the music was never automated, with Kraftwerk layering their own sequencing on-top of pre-programmed tracks.

A common feature of the current Kraftwerk repertoire: the neon-lit suits in sync with the performing of ‘Planet of Visions’, while the overhead CGI and live mixing is done behind the four lecterns.

The lines uttered on ‘Expo 2000′ reiterate their manifesto: “Man nature technology / Mensch Natur Technik / The twenty-first century / Das einundzwanzigste Jahrhundert”. In time remixed by Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance, the song was further reinvented as ‘Planet of Visions’, prominently proclaiming “Detroit, we’re so electric / Germany, we’re so electric”, confirming the kinship between the two capitals of electronic music.

download: Kraftwerk – Planet of Visions (Minimum-Maximum, 2005)

It is very easy to venture into hyperbole when speaking of Kraftwerk’s significance, and it is perhaps undeserved. Despite being called futurists, Kraftwerk have always written music about the present state of man’s relation to his technoverse. Rather than tempt prognostication about some impossible, utopian future, Kraftwerk’s music remains grounded to the possibilities of today, and in this way they sound effortlessly relevant, timeless even. Despite all clarity and foresight, even the greatest of speculative science-fictions often risk losing verisimilitude by the more it projects. Kraftwerk offer no spacemen, they do not promise highways free of congestion, or that banal human longing will cease with better telecommunications, but simply record the experience of interacting with technology as it concerns today’s fears, pleasures and aspirations. One only need look at Tour de France, released in 2003 in commemoration of the eponymous sporting event’s centennial.

Far be it from Kraftwerk to deny even the most rudimentary of machinery their due, Tour de France distills the essence of cycling as a perfect harmony between man and machine–just as long as you don’t fall off the bike.

As their only collection of original material since, the album is an underrated offering that far surpasses many electronic albums released from the past decade. Like the figures depicted on the album cover, with their trim body-suits and the musculature beneath, the album is lean and disciplined, functioning both as a paean to the wonderment of cycling while exploring (literally) breathy textures, syncopated grooves and circadian beats. And, to the surprise of no one, it works incredibly well as a workout mix if nothing else.

download: Kraftwerk – Tour de France (Kling Klang Analog Mix, 1983)

Now into their fourth decade and despite losing founding member Florian, the future of Kraftwerk remains resolutely optimistic. Having explored pretty much everything that can be experienced about the modern condition between man and machine, Kraftwerk’s legacy truly is complete, and it is a legacy in motion. More than any other band in recent history, the music speaks for itself, apart from the band; like the robots that have replaced the members of the group, the music too becomes Kraftwerk’s final disappearing act.

Also see: Techno-Heimat: Three Decades of Kraftwerk [Part One]

Techno-Heimat: Three Decades of Kraftwerk [Part One]

Kraftwerk playing in Germany, 1981.  Photography & imagery provided by Kraftwerk Official Fan Website.

I have yet to order my own copy of Der Katalog but will look forward to doing so when funds allow me to. For now, my own small take on the indomitable Kraftwerk. Most of the publications that have reviewed the 2009 remasters have gone the route of retrospection, opting to commemorate the band’s output and assessing their legacy as something in stasis, too precious to be trifled with. While their importance for 20th century music is undeniable, Kraftwerk themselves have never been much for nostalgia or keeping history intact and untouched. The latest remasters, more than anything proves they are willing to expand and improve upon the past (Much to the chagrin of  the reviewers who’ve decried the loss of analog warmth and layering in lieu of clinical, digital clarity in the remasters, Kraftwerk simply don’t care about what you think). Kraftwerk themselves have always been more of a collective than a band with recognizably unique personalities. Beyond the founding imprints of Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, the lineup has changed drastically, with musicians and technicians coming and going as the music (and later on, the multi-media performances) required. Their music, so concerned with motion in all its forms and implications, is remarkable in that it never sounds dated, nor do the underpinning themes ever come across as anachronistic.

A brief history: 1970 – 1980
Kraftwerk possessed an incredible energy at the very start of their inception, beginning with modest roots in the Krautrock scene as ‘Organization’, before settling upon the current name and helping fashion the embryonic electronic-music movement. By the mid 1970s, they had produced a trio of experimental rock albums and their first two major artistic statements, Autobahn (1974) and Radio-Aktivität (1975). Arguably conceptual through-and-through, the two records both celebrated the recovery of a post-war Germany and decried the horrors of an atomic age.

The iconic album art for Autobahn, by Emil Schult. The logical conclusion to the introduction of the automobile: a seamless, high-speed motorway that celebrates the act of locomotion in the context of a reified German romanticism for the 20th century.

While those two albums were trials for the average listener because of their epic scope (think: length) and atmospheric composition (think: non-pop), the succeeding albums is where I suspect Kraftwerk will have made their biggest impression to most, especially contemporary listeners like myself. The release of Trans-Europe Express (1977) marked a refinement to the theme of travel introduced earlier. Ameliorative to many, many listens, the album is gorgeous, often haunting, and conceptually tight. Opener ‘Europe Endless’ in some ways betters ‘Autobahn’ with its shorter length and simpler melody–which stays simple in spite of ‘Autobahn’s layered, shifting 22-minute Kraut-jam.

download: Kraftwerk – Europe Endless (2009 Catalogue remaster)

Elsewhere, ‘Hall of Mirrors’ finds a man coming to terms with some of his darkest inner revelations; ‘Showroom Dummies’ predates ‘The Robots’ with its topicality of artificial, man-given life, while the eponymous title track betrays Kraftwerk’s penchant for extended pieces as it segues into ‘Metal on Metal’ and ‘Abzug’, mimicking a long train of thought finally coming to a steamy halt. It’s one of the finest motifs Kraftwerk have given to modern music, and they do well by ending the album in tribute to Franz Schubert in the form of the central refrain from the album.

A year later, the follow-up to TEE was released: Die Mensch-Maschine. For many, this became Kraftwerk’s most important work, and not the least in part due to the iconic robot surrogates which have since functioned as visual and thematic focal points in their live performances.

Video-still from ‘Die Roboter’ music video. The Kraftwerkian robots, like the album art, are clad in red, black and white recalling the Russian constructivist work of El Lissitzky and the modernist movements of the 1930s with its striking lines, bold colors and angular geometry.

‘The Robots’ remains their calling-card today, and the Die Mensch-Maschine, more than any other album before was heavily song-centric. ‘Metropolis’ conjures a sprawling cityscape in all its menacing grandeur with its opening bars before dropping a Blade Runner-esque beat before Vangelis even set to work on that other classic. It’s a frightening trip: like the best of soundtracks, it sets a place and a verve in simply 6-minutes, but one never gets a feel for exactly when this futuristic cityscape is, and perhaps it doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s followed to great effect by ‘The Model’, one of Kraftwerk’s cheekiest moments and an instant delight to behold. The lyrics speak for themselves as one of the band’s more verbose 3-minutes.

download: Kraftwerk – The Model (2009 Catalogue remaster)

Again, Kraftwerk tend to deliver themes in couplets or more, and the idea of enchantment and wanderlust in the city is followed by the dreamy, wide-eyed ‘Neon Lights’, a lullaby for the city at night with all its various pleasures and assurances promised by neon-billboards. Not ones to break from format, the album ends with its thematic core restated. In ‘The Man-Machine’, Kraftwerk envision the fullest potential of machinery: complete integration with our existing selves. Instead of viewing  technological synthesis as man’s compromise–Mensch Maschine, Halb Wesen und halb Ding/Man Machine, Semi-human being–the opposite is insisted, as man’s reach is finally met with the aid of his technological genius–Mensch Maschine, Halb Wesen und halb Überding/Man Machine, Super-human being. The ‘Man-Machine’ is reiterated several times almost as a mantra for evolution; the melody sparse as if composed by robots, and the meter hypnotic, unfeeling, and thoroughly frightening. To call the song ‘avant-garde’ would not be far from the truth, but its uncanny accessibility and unforgettable resonance make it one of the finest Kraftwerk tracks and simply must be heard.

download: Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine (2009 Catalogue remaster)

Stay tuned tomorrow, for part two of this feature.

Seasons Greetings

image: White Christmas, 1954

Hoping everyone is enjoying the holidays with loved ones. Or alone, but with some decent music. This holiday’s objective: find companionship! Wherever you are no one should be alone.

Brief update:
HKE will hope to close off 2009 with a few more pieces. Maybe 3 at best. Those year-end lists that people love making, and a very special post on a very special occasion. No, I refuse to make a holiday-themed post. Several reasons that I can’t think of but I know are there. I might do a winter themed list though.

No guarantees, though, stay tuned.

Elle porte un béret de framboise

image: ‘No Promises’

My mind & body is feeling addled after a run-in with a Bernardo Bertolucci film. I feel it all hit at once like a slippery, rain-drenched rag, vibrant with colours, places visited, scents and conflicts. There are unequal parts in me: jealousy, angst, hope, misplaced hope, and a very generous helping of lust.

01. Jimi Hendrix Experience – Third Rock from the Sun
Are You Experienced? (MCA, 1967)

02. Liz Brady – Partie de Dames
Femmes de Paris Vol. 1 (Wagram, 2002)

03. Nouvelle Vague – Blue Monday
Bande à Part (PIAS Recordings, 2006)

04. Miles Davis – The Big Green Serpent
The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (1998, Columbia/Sony)

05. Leonard Cohen – Dance with Me to the End of Love (Live in Zurich ‘93)
unreleased

06. Roxy Music – Pyjamarama
Kitsune Tabloid by Phoenix, (Kitsune, 2009)

07. Françoise Hardy – L’amour ne dure pas toujours
The Vogue Years (2001, BMG)

08. Air - Do the Joy
Love 2 (2009, Astralwerks)

::play::

******

Apologies to the audience, as technical delays have now been resolved and we will be resuming tonight’s fare: A list with cinema as its sound and mood,  mimicking the flavour of French New Wave, if that’s even conceivable. The style (or movement/collective) is interesting for its own purposes because it too, borrows as much from preceding film lineage as it has given to contemporary culture. Consider this an eclectic soundtrack for a film that may or may not yet already exist.

Longing Beyond the Grave

image: ‘Pride & Prejudice & Zombies’

This sleepy condition is not to be confused with sleep proper.
It is the Waking Sleep that calls maidens and men to a darker, more remote purpose.
They walk with chins down and arms outstretched; a pace languid with a hunger on their lips.
Do you know any loved ones that are among the Waking Dead?
What if you are, as of now, walking with Them? Would you know? Who could wake you then?

01. Kelli Ali - The Savages
Rocking Horse (One Little Indian, 2008)

02. Haruko – Welcome to Loveland
Wild Geese (Bracken Records, 2009)

03. Philip Glass – In the Upper Room/Dance VIII
Glassworks (Dunvagen Music Publishers, 1987)

04. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron & Fred Squire – Flaming Home
Lost Wisdom (P. W. Elverum & Sun, 2008)

05. Marissa Nadler – Dying Breed
Songs III: Bird on the Water (Peacefrog, 2006)

06. Tape - Moth Wings
Luminarium (Häpna, 2008)

07. Maria João Pires - Chopin: Nocturne #21 in C Minor, Bi 108 – Lento Con Gran Espressione
Chopin: The Nocturnes (Deutsche Gramophon, 1996)

08. Ane Brun - Laid in Earth
A Temporary Dive (DetErMine Records, 2005)

09. Comus – After the Dream
To Keep from Crying (Dawn Records, 1974)

::listen::

***
HKE is easing into the Halloween spirit with this set of (unorthodox) zombie-inspiring songs; haunting yet beautiful all the same. A dark necrotic fantasy; pastoral as twilight journey; cold roses & cold faces.
Here you will find: an impending apocalypse, safe houses, empty streets, dark forests and a sense of deep longing.

A Safe Stasis

‘A safe stasis…’

Being immobile for extended durations is unhealthy lest you atrophy in more ways than the physical.

But there is sometimes a logic to remaining still and listening for the birds.

01. Radiohead – Kid A
Kid A (EMI, 2004)

02. Sian Alice Group – Love That Moves the Sun
Troubled, Shaken, Etc. (The Social Registry, 2009)

03. Tycho – Cloud Generator
Sunrise Projector (Ghostly International, 2004)

04. Dntel – Fireworks
Life is Full of Possibilities (Plug Research, 2001)

05. Björk – Cocoon
Vespertine (One Little Indian, 2001)

06. Flying Lotus – Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum (feat. Laura Darlington)
Los Angeles (Warp Records, 2008)

07. The Album Leaf – Asleep
One Day I’ll Be On Time (Tigerstyle Records, 2001)

08. Jónsi & Alex– Happiness
Dark Was the Night (4AD, 2009)

::stream::

***

A speculative list lumbering along at its own pace without fanciful breaks or rhythms. Aurally and perhaps philosophically the list is trying to break away from the immediacy of pop-hooks, or the kind of sounds that might generate too much kinetic lust. This list wants to prolong the sensation of being still, asleep or awake. It is the simple but difficult act of listening to an extended piece of music without doing anything else. It is the music we often take for granted. With frequent shafts of light and the odd crest or two, the list actually turns out to be quite likable, despite the aforementioned anesthetizing effects it may induce. It only demands a limited threshold of pleasure, content to linger by itself and not soar off or dip too low.