Posts filed under: Discovery

Releases like this are calling me back to my dub techno roots. Well done.

I love record stores for discovering music.

Not-so-much in the mode of rifling through stacks and dropping needles.

But, for witnessing the shopkeepers’ currently spinning selection.

I’ve stumbled onto so many rubies in this way.

Over the years.

As was discovered the mysterious and entrancing XVARR – Echoes of Time at the wonderful Matéria Prima, on November 24, 2019.

Sincerely yours,

Dave Wesley – Viana do Castelo, Portugal

I was lucky enough to receive this promo in my email inbox on a dark and gray Autumn morning. This is the type of expertly crafted gothic rock that gives inclement weather and depression an attractive patina.

According to a fan review on Bandcamp “Mert Yıldız, who plays almost everything here, attains an enviable tone on his excellent bass and guitar work; echoing greats like McGeoch and Gallup. His strong, vocals eschew theatrical effect for a straightforward power and integrity. The music could be said to straddle the line of demarcation between Post-Punk and the earliest flowerings of Goth, before it became a stylistic straitjacket.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I want to be in this band.

If you’re into The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, The Comsat Angels, etc., this is for you.

Highly recommended.

Wesley Mayhem – Etter, MN

If you woke up this morning thinking that you’d like to find a masterful evolving experimental drone track, you’ve landed on the right page, in this distant corner of the web.

Not a lot more to say about this other than, “Wow.”

This concept album from the late Marcus Fjellström honors “classic old music libraries used for TV and low budget movie productions in the 1960’s and 1970’s”.

It’s unusual and refreshing, which is ironic given it’s dusty vintage tone.

Definitely a lean back experience – where imaginary educational visuals dance across the visual cortex.

Warm regards,

Dave Wesley – Viana do Castelo, Portugal

This is a minimal post on relatively minimal muted jazz. I’m constantly on the hunt for non-schlocky slow tempo music that contains space and distance between notes/sounds. Maybe it’s my age or maybe I’ve listened to so much music in my life my brain is reaching its “note quotient” and is moving into conservation mode for its remaining capacity.

Regardless, check out Jakob Bro – Returnings on the wonderous ECM Records label. Soothing and patient sketches of intimate jazz.

Sincerely yours,

Dave Wesley – Viana do Costelo, Portugal

I really wish that I went to high school with John Maus. Instead, I went to a small town school chock full of rural jocks and burnouts who revered Gary Richrath’s “Flying Turkey Trot” as the epitome of music culture.

If only John Maus lived in Etter, MN, near me, in high school.  We could have made vaporwave artifacts from a future revolution on my Fostex 4-track.

And, this guy claims he had never heard of Ian Curtis.  Uh huh.

Regardless…  Wonderful stuff.

Love,

Dom

I’ve been really getting into Reddit lately as an alternative to the usual suspect social media outlets.  One of my favorite subreddits is The Overload, which describes itself as:

“A sub for unconventional club music. Ebm, noise, house, lo-fi music, techno, hardware jams, acid, chicago house, detroit techno Labels like L.I.E.S, Hessle Audio, Raster Noton, Token, Cititrax, Downwards, Ilian Tape, Detund, Crème Organization, Opal Tapes, Clone, Dance Mania, Lobster Theremin, Minimal Wave, Pinkman, The Trilogy Tapes, Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, Murder Capital, Perc Trax, Construct Re-Form, Mathematics, Mannequin, Killekill, Crimes of the Future, brokntoys, Tabernacle Records…”

I created a post which asked for recommendations for artists/labels similar to Huerco S (one of my favorite producers) and received a ton of wonderful responses from the community.  I assembled the below Spotify playlist based on those recommendations.

It’s a deep rabbit hole.  Bring your miner’s helmet.

Yours truly,

Dave Wesley – Somewhere in Northern Portugal

With music production software is now ubiquitous and available to anyone with a smartphone, tablet, and/or PC, some amazing esoteric sub-sub-sub-genres and online communities have emerged that deserve attention (i.e. vaporwave, aestheic, simpsonwave, club bathroom remixes, and lo-fi anything, etc.).  As a producer, it’s all so very fascinating, especially given that my productions over the last decade have leaned in the lo-fi and appropriation directions, which is now in vogue.

While surfing the super cool site hearthis (the underground alternative to the uber commercialized and over cooked Soundcloud digital landfill), I luckily ran across lo-fi remixes of already lo-fi vintage blues recordings by a producer going by the alias of Vicksburg.Glacier.

These remixes and aesthetics resonate with me very strongly, so I’m paying it forward.

Below are a few choice examples.  You can check out the whole collection here.

Sincerely yours,

Dave Wesley – Somewhere in Portugal

Amoeba Music is one of the world’s coolest independent record stores, based in California.  They’ve been posting their “What’s In My Bag” YouTube series for many years now, which Amoeba describes as “Our award-winning series featuring artists and tastemakers sharing what they found shopping at Amoeba.”

It’s educational and entertaining.  And, thanks to “What’s In My Bag”, I’ve made some great music and artist discoveries from current hipsters and music legends.

Warm regards,

Dave Wesley – Somewhere In Portugal