Monday, July 03, 2006

Blogariddims 1 / Shwantology : 2


Encouraged by the success of the first Shwantology set, we've decided to delve deeper into the world of ambient music for our contribution to the Blogariddims series, and the result is this follow up to February's mix. Progression is the name of the game for us, so our aim with this set was to widen our field of vision and hone our techniques to try and build on the original concept. Unlike the first time round, we had a working method, and an idea of what to aim for, so in the intervening months suitable tunes had been noted, sequences considered, and CDrs compiled - though as spontaneity seems to be an essential part of the process, we didn’t go too far in planning things in advance...

The setup was the same as last time, except for the addition of a laptop and an XP10 MP3 deck to Slug's station - evening up the score, and effectively giving us 6 sources to work with. This added flexibility, combined with the extra contemplation of potential tunes seems to have smoothed out the rough edges prevalent in the first mix, giving us smoother transitions, and a more dynamic range of moods and textures. As I mentioned in the last Shwantology post, this whole approach is radically different to what we've been doing for most of our DJng careers, and the experience, though still hard work, was even more remarkable second time round. We had originally intended for this one to have a more electronic sound to it, but as usual, the mix took us where it wanted to go, and we ended up using a much more expansive repertoire of sounds, with avant garde, classical, minimal and drone rubbing shoulders with contemporary and dance based tunes. Having a wider set of sonic criteria amplified the textural aspects of the mix, and at the risk of sounding pretentious, the best way to describe the execution of this set is as a kind of sound 'painting', each deck acting as a brush, dropping in different sound colours on the fly as we reacted to the dynamics and flow of the music, an approach derivative of John Cage's 'random ("aleatoric") outcome of events' idea, with an end result dictated as much by the randomness of performance as by composition or consciously predetermined manipulation.

Not to give the impression that this session was any less frantic or sweaty than the our usual panicked escapades - we were literally back to back in a cramped studio, with only a few corner mixes and tunes worked out in advance, and there was a mountain of CDs and discarded vinyl strewn around the room by the time we'd finished - not to mention a lot of scrawled tracklistings plus a few happy mistakes on the recording... But despite the lack of organisation, things just seemed to fall into place; bass dropped in time with tunes that hadn’t been beatmatched, elements stayed in key despite being wildly pitched and stretched, and we managed to avoid any nasty peaks or troughs in density. I suppose the DJng gods must have been smiling down on us, as after multiple listens, we are of the opinion that (despite all the odds) the resulting 60 or so minutes is more than the sum of its parts - though you'll have to be the judge of that!

NB: For transparencies sake, its worth mentioning that all the field recordings were again added after the original mix was done, using the method described here, but the other 69 tunes were all played live (it took 4 takes btw), with no digital editing or post production other than the removal of one or two loud vinyl pops that peaked in the mix.

Now I'm sure to some non-trainspotting readers (if you even exist!) a lot of this description of method seems tedious at best, and you'd prefer to get straight to the audio - but one of the motivations behind this blog is to give us a chance to document and explore the less widely discussed aspects of DJng, and investigate the 'whys' and 'how's' of our projects, shining a light on the background processes behind what we do. There’s plenty of straight up guides to mixing out there, but very little material that explains the more nebulous aspects of DJng, such as set structure, selection and 'flow', so the hope is that at least some budding turntabilists out there might appreciate the information - plus it gives us a much needed platform upon which to organise our scattered thoughts!

So - on to the download. If you want this you're going to have to sign up to the blogariddims podcast. (More info on which blogs are involved here). Its simple enough - click the link below and then paste the URL into your podcast software. If you dont have a clue what that means, theres a brief instructional guide here. If for some reason you cant get the podcast, email me and Ill (probably) send on a link. The Mp3 itself is a 192kbps version with artwork and tracklisting in the ID3 tags as per usual. Ive also included a few LP images below - some snapped by myself (hence the bpm stickers in the corner of sleeves), some pilfered from the web. There not all there though - or else this would've run to 2 pages!

As for the next Podcast - you'll just have to wait and see...

Blogariddims 1 / Droid + Slug - Shwantology : 2 - 63 Minutes Approx (96mb.mp3)


1. Nesa Popov - Berlin: Underground Passage - SoundTransit Field Recordings
2. John Baker – Structures - Rephlex (Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop LP)
3. Sunken Foal - Foathing - Front End Synthetics (FEStering LP)
4. Jawzah Taqsim - Unknown - World Gala Records (Music of Iraq: World Gala Collection LP)
5. Sesselberg - Eintrachtkreis-Paranoia - Sesselberg (Synthetik 1 LP)
6. John Hopkins - Oslo: Echo Chamber - SoundTransit Field Recordings
7. Heldon - Michel Ettori - Urus Records (Allez-Teia LP)
8. Phoenica - Orinca - Schematic Records (Brown Out LP)
9. Deep Space Network - Ten Waves (Live at XS) - Rising High (Chill out or die Vol.2 LP)
10. The Caretaker - Memory 28 - VVM (Theoretically Pure Retrograde Amnesia LP)
11. Alireza Mashayekhi - Ost-West II (Opus 80) - Retro Records (S/T LP)
12. Brian Eno/Robert Fripp - Wind on Water - Editions EG (Evening Star LP)
13. DJ Food - The Sky at Night - Ninjatune (Kaleidoscope LP)
14. Harold Budd/Eraldo Bernocchi - Fragment 5 - Sub Rosa (Fragments from the Inside LP)
15. Cedic Peyronnet - HongLinh: An evening in HongLinh - SoundTransit Field Recordings
16. The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental Music - Warsaw 4 - Phillips (Electronic Panorama (Warsaw Disc))
17. David Bowie - Subterraneans - RCA (Low LP)
18. Toru Takemitsu - Ki, Sora, Tori (Tree, Sky, Bird) - ECJC Japan (Concert: 20-21)
19. Godspeed - Static (end section) - Constellation (Raise your skinny fists LP)
20. Stol - 04:26 - Kitty Yo (LC2816 12")
21. The Caretaker - Memory 70 - VVM (Theoretically Pure Retrograde Amnesia LP)
22. Biosphere - Green Reflections - Touch Records (Shenzhou LP)
23. Byrne and Eno - Mountain of Needles - MLITBOG LP - Sire Records
24. Jara Schirris - Vientiane: Bees in Vientiane - SoundTransit Field Recordings
25. Slag Boon Van Loon - Pedals - Planet Mu (Slag Boon Van Loon LP)
26. Slag Boon Van Loon - Spc-Ch-Pn - Planet Mu (Slag Boon Van Loon LP)
27. Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon - Editions EG (Thursday Afternoon LP)
28. Harold Budd/Eraldo Bernocchi - Fragment 3 - Sub Rosa (Fragments from the Inside LP)
29. Arcon II - Wasteland/ Inter 90/Freefall - Reinforced (Arcon 2 LP)
30. Vangelis - Tears in the rain - Atlantic (Blade Runner OST)
31. Friends, Lovers and Family - Turning the screws - Rising High (Chill out or die Vol.2 LP)
32. Arturas Burmsteinas - Vilnius: Video camera left on - SoundTransit Field Recordings
33. Faultline - Closer Colder - Leaf (Closer Colder LP)
34. Harold Budd - The Algerbra of Darkness - All saints (The White Arcades LP)
35. Jaques Thollot - Quiet Days in Prison - Futura (Quand le son devient aigu, jeter la girafe a la mer LP)
36. Vangelis - love theme - Atlantic (Blade Runner OST)
37. Coil vs Elf - Cowboys in Bangkok 1995 - T & B Vinyl (Chris and Cosey Present... Twist LP)
38. A Silver Mount Zion - Sow Some Lonesome Corner So Many Flowers Bloom (Middle Section) - Constellation (This is our punk rock LP)
39. Heldon - Perspective 3 - Cuneiform (Agneta Nilsson LP)
40. Fleishmann - The rise and fall of a drinker - Leaf (Invisible Soundtracks 4 EP)
41. Muziq - Sick Porter 2 - Rephlex (Bluff Limbo LP)
42. Cluster and Eno - Steinsame - Water Records (Cluster and Eno LP)
43. Tortise - Millions now living will never die (Oval mix) - Thrill Jockey (Millions Now Living Remix 12")
44. Thomas Koner - Serac - EFA (Teimo/Permafrost LP)
45. *** ******* - ********** * * - *** ***** ***** - *****
46. LFO - Nuture - Warp (Tied Up Remix 12")
47. Ruben Garcia/Harold Budd/Daniel Lentz - Pulse Pause Repeat - Gyroscope (Music for 3 Pianos LP)
48. The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental Music - Warsaw 1 - Phillips (Electronic Panorama (Warsaw Disc))
49. Derek Holzer - Belem Para: Frogs by the bridge II - SoundTransit Field Recordings
50. Pete Namlook - Escape (Trip To Mars) - Rising High (The Definitive Ambient Collection Vol.2 LP)
51. LFO - Tied Up (Spiritualised' Electric Mainline Remix)- Warp (Tied Up Remix 12")
52. Hex - Interference - N-tone (Antistatic EP)
53. A Silver Mount Zion - 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed - Constellation (He Has Left Us Alone... LP)
54. Burial - Nightbus - Hyperdub (Burial LP)
55. Bioshere - Chukhung - Touch Records (Substrata 2 LP)
56. Jan Philm - Berlin: Sozialpalast elevator - SoundTransit Field Recordings
57. Aphex Twin - Side E Track 2 - Warp (Selected Ambient Works Vol.2 LP)
58. Bass Kittens - Another rainy day - Mephisto (Another rainy day EP)
59. Peter Kolman - E15 - CECM Records (Anthology Of Slovak Electroacoustic Music 1966-1991)
60. Req - Crack - Skint (Frequency Jam LP)
61. Richard Thomas - Muffin Spencer-Devlin/Hawaii 2 - Leaf (Invisible Soundtracks 2 EP)
62. Harold Budd - Ice foles in eden - All Saints (Lonely thunder LP)
63. Spectrum - sounds for a thunderstorm - Space age recordings (Forever alien LP)
64. Howie b - Cry - Polydor (Music for babies LP)
65. To Rococo Rot and d - a3 - City slang (Set this sandy piece EP)
66. Bernard Herrmann - Nocturne the flashlight - Varese (The Day The Earth Stood Still OST)
67. **** ***** - ****** - ******* (****** **)
68. Rufige Kru - Fabio's ghost (Shwantology re-edit) - Reinforced (Ghosts of my life EP)
69. Mira Calix - Little long gone - Warp (Skimskitta LP)
70. Aphex Twin - Side D Track 2 - Warp (Selected Ambient Works Vol.2 LP)
71. Derek Holzer - Skaftafell: Mountain Stream - SoundTransit Field Recordings
72. Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic - Venture (The Sinking of the Titanic LP)
73. Peter Green - Witches - Rephlex (Macbeth EP)
74. Harmoanius Gloop - Closetface demo - The Fear (Unreleased)
75. Tim Tetlow - a cyreinc - Planet Mu (Planet Mu 7")
76. Uli Schuster - Adlershof parc: A park with some bird sounds - SoundTransit Field Recordings




1. Nesa Popov - Berlin: Underground Passage - SoundTransit Field Recordings
2. John Baker – Structures - Rephlex (Music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop LP)
3. Sunken Foal - Foathing - Front End Synthetics (FEStering LP)
4. Jawzah Taqsim - Unknown - World Gala Records (Music of Iraq: World Gala Collection LP)
5. Sesselberg - Eintrachtkreis-Paranoia - Sesselberg (Synthetik 1 LP)


So - what better place to start than in a tunnel? Ive bigged them up before, but SoundTransit really is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in 'real' sound. We'll have to put our portable DAT to good use at some point and return the favour by uploading few field recordings of our own. Quick as you know it (and faster then I can type), a tune from John Baker on Rephlex's fantastic Radiophonic Workshop Box set drops in, providing an opening bit of fanfare and setting the tone and key for the dominant piece of this section, Sunken Foal's remarkable 'Foathing', from Irish label Front End Synthetics' third compilation of electronic music: FEStering. Built almost entirely around guitar samples put through some incredibly complex custom-processes in Logic, this is one of the stand-out tunes from the LP, and from the other demos I’ve heard Sunken Foal (aka Dunc Ambulance) has a very promising future ahead. Never content with playing one tune when three will do, Sesselberg provide a bit of background ambience as Jawzah Taqsim's haunting Nay meanders through the fractured percussion of the Sunken Foal, before the sequence falls in on itself as it's timestretched into oblivion, taking us to roughly the 4 minutes 30 seconds mark.






6. John Hopkins - Oslo: Echo Chamber - SoundTransit Field Recordings

7. Heldon - Michel Ettori - Urus Records (Allez-Teia LP)
8. Phoenica - Orinca - Schematic Records (Brown Out LP)
9. Deep Space Network - Ten Waves (Live at XS) - Rising High (Chill out or die Vol.2 LP)
10. The Caretaker - Memory 28 - VVM (Theoretically Pure Retrograde Amnesia LP)
11. Alireza Mashayekhi - Ost-West II (Opus 80) - Retro Records (S/T LP)
12. Brian Eno/Robert Fripp - Wind on Water - Editions EG (Evening Star LP)


Its actually very difficult to break this mix up into distinct sections, there are so many overlapping tunes - even the tracklisting is made on the basis of the order we played the records, and not necessarily in the order they (seem to) appear in the mix. This section is a case in point, with the intros to the Heldon (looping guitar and swirling synth, the Phoenicia (scraping metal and bells over a dark drone) and the Deep space network (low rumbling ambience) all coming in prior to the end of the previous section. A trip to an Oslo echo chamber adds some very subtle atmosphere and a few thuds to ease us out of the sequence, with a tune from the recent Caretaker LP providing the same service on the way out as the pulsating guitars from the Fripp and Eno comes in to replace the more sedate plucking of the Heldon tune. A high end drone from Iranian composer Alireza Mashayekhi (who seems to be a very interesting character indeed) helps bleed things together at the top, before it all runs out of steam at about 9:50.





13. DJ Food - The Sky at Night - Ninjatune (Kaleidoscope LP)
14. Harold Budd/Eraldo Bernocchi - Fragment 5 - Sub Rosa (Fragments from the Inside LP)
15. Cedic Peyronnet - HongLinh: An evening in HongLinh - SoundTransit Field Recordings
16. The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental Music - Warsaw 4 - Phillips (Electronic Panorama (Warsaw Disc))
17. David Bowie - Subterraneans - RCA (Low LP)


DJ Food, better known for his breaksology on Ninja chimes in here with a short lived ominous string line from the eclectic 'Kaleidoscope LP', which then drops down a level into an effected version of the random found sounds of The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental Music from the famed 'Electronic Panorama' LP from 1956 (written about extensively by Woebot so I won't go into it here). A drone style ambient intro from Harold Budd and Eraldo Bernocchi's 'Fragments from the Inside' LP adds a bit of body to the mix. SoundTransit helps us along the way with what (if you listen carefully) sounds like a trickling stream - which flows neatly into the last tune from the ambient side of Bowie's brilliant 'Low' LP. It’s a testament to then brilliance of this track that it just works as well at 45 RPM as it does at 33!

The vocal 'ahh's' of the first tune of the next sequence calls an end to the fun at 14 minutes or so...




18. Toru Takemitsu - Ki, Sora, Tori (Tree, Sky, Bird) - ECJC Japan (Concert: 20-21)
19. Godspeed - Static (end section) - Constellation (Raise your skinny fists LP)
20. Stol - 04:26 - Kitty Yo (LC2816 12")
21. The Caretaker - Memory 70 - VVM (Theoretically Pure Retrograde Amnesia LP)
22. Biosphere - Green Reflections - Touch Records (Shenzhou LP)
23. Byrne and Eno - Mountain of Needles - Sire Records (MLITBOG LP)


A bit of antique Japanese concrete vocal experimentation (from Japanese soundtrack master Toru Takemitsu) offers a distinct break from the previous section here – an ‘event’ which developed in the first couple of practice runs. The Stol and the Caretaker again function as background atmospherics (The Stol mainly providing vinyl crackle), the consistently excellent Biosphere gives us a bit of warm harmonics, and the Godspeed provides a dark drone with radio interference and virtually inaudible voices. This selection is dominated by a tune that needs no introduction, Byrne's and Eno's oft sampled 'Mountain of Needles', played off CD rather than vinyl - and it holds up well under a barrage of timestretches laid down by Slug.





25. Slag Boon Van Loon - Pedals - Slag Boon Van Loon LP - Planet Mu
24. Jara Schirris - Vientiane: Bees in Vientiane - SoundTransit Field Recordings
26. Slag Boon Van Loon - Spc-Ch-Pn - Slag Boon Van Loon LP - Planet Mu
27. Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon - Thursday Afternoon LP - Editions EG
28. Harold Budd/Eraldo Bernocchi - Fragment 3 - Fragments from the Inside LP - Sub Rosa
29. Arcon II - Wasteland/ Inter 90/Freefall - Arcon 2 LP - Reinforced
30. Vangelis - Tears in the rain - Blade Runner OST - Atlantic


The mournful echoes of 'Pedals’ starts to fade in at 17 minutes, accompanied by a chorus of Vientiane wildlife. This tune, from an early release on Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label, is one of several beatless tracks on Paradinas' excellent 1998 collaboration with Dutch wunderkind Speedy J. Another number from the same LP picks up where 'Pedal's leaves off, 'Spc-Ch-Pn' providing the downbeat bass and piano before the sequence is resolved by the rich strings and considered keyboard of Vangelis' instantly recognisable closing number to Bladerunner. In the background, Harold Budd and Eno chime in with some complimentary reverbed piano, and Junglist Leon Marr, aka Arcon 2 provides an overlap with a desolate ambient tune from his 1996 debut LP on Reinforced.




31. Friends, Lovers and Family - Turning the screws - Rising High (Chill out or die Vol.2 LP)
32. Arturas Burmsteinas - Vilnius: Video camera left on - SoundTransit Field Recordings
33. Faultline - Closer Colder - Leaf (Closer Colder LP)
34. Harold Budd - The Algerbra of Darkness - All saints (The White Arcades LP)
35. Jaques Thollot - Quiet Days in Prison - Futura (Quand le son devient aigu, jeter la girafe a la mer LP)
36. Vangelis - love theme - Atlantic (Blade Runner OST)


The Vangelis fades out at 24:30 or thereabouts, leaving a weird confluence of tunes in its wake. ‘Turning the screws’, one of a pair of tunes on this mix from the ubiquitous ‘Chill out or Die’ compilations accounts for the squelching knob twiddling, SoundTransit provide a wash of cold ambience, Harold Budd pops in with some piano and high end melody, and Jaques Thollot and Faultline deliver the strings, pitched way down/low in the mix respectively. It isn’t long before Vangelis makes a repeat appearance with a sax solo, and pretty soon we’ve got a serious prog breakdown on our hands.





37. Coil vs Elf - Cowboys in Bangkok 1995 - T & B Vinyl (Chris and Cosey Present... Twist LP)
38. A Silver Mount Zion - Sow Some Lonesome Corner So Many Flowers Bloom (Middle Section) - Constellation (This is our punk rock LP)
39. Heldon - Perspective 3 - Cuneiform (Agneta Nilsson LP)
40. Fleishmann - The rise and fall of a drinker - Leaf (Invisible Soundtracks 4 EP)
41. Muziq - Sick Porter 2 - Rephlex (Bluff Limbo LP)


Coil and Elf put a stop to these shenanigans at 29 minutes with the acid-meets-sound collage of ‘Cowboys in Bangkok’ (taken from a very strange secondhand compilation), which is echoed by a pitched down version of the arpeggiated synth taken from Heldon’s 1979 LP ‘Agenta Nilsson’. A silver Mount Zion come again with the lush strings, which meander slowly overhead, wandering in and out of time with the pulsing electronica of Fleishmann’s ‘The rise and fall of a drinker’. Its worth pausing for a moment here, as the next mix is the only ‘proper’ (or intended) beatmix featured. Muziq’s ‘Sick Porter 2’, with its high, poignant, piano line was an early contender for a place in the mix, and, as we noticed a nice blend between these two tunes when we were previewing tracks we decided to use the combination as a lynchpin for the set – which is why it hits at almost exactly the halfway point. Only problem is that the Muziq is in 6/4 time and the Fleishmann in 4/4…







42. Cluster and Eno - Steinsame - Water Records (Cluster and Eno LP)
43. Tortise - Millions now living will never die (Oval mix) - Thrill Jockey (Millions Now Living Remix 12")
44. Thomas Koner - Serac - EFA (Teimo/Permafrost LP)
45. *** ******* - ********** * * - *** ***** ***** - *****
46. LFO - Nuture - Warp (Tied Up Remix 12")
47. Ruben Garcia/Harold Budd/Daniel Lentz - Pulse Pause Repeat - Gyroscope (Music for 3 Pianos LP)
48. The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental Music - Warsaw 1 - Phillips (Electronic Panorama (Warsaw Disc))
49. Derek Holzer - Belem Para: Frogs by the bridge II - SoundTransit Field Recordings
50. Pete Namlook - Escape (Trip To Mars) - Rising High (The Definitive Ambient Collection Vol.2 LP)
51. LFO - Tied Up (Spiritualised' Electric Mainline Remix)- Warp (Tied Up Remix 12")


Another disparate section here. As the Muziq is pitched down, an-act-that-cannot-be-named drifts in with some hectic sound collage. The desolate soundscape of Thomas Koner is practically inaudible in the background along with Cluster and Eno, as LFO’s nurture (played by mistake!) marks the rare appearance of regular percussion in the mix – which is swiftly EQ’d out to make room for the high-end reversed glitches of Oval’s remix of Tortoise. That sequence brings us along nicely to the melancholy keyboards of ‘Pulse Pause repeat’, and The Warsaw Radio Studio of Experimental music makes it’s second appearance with some Theremin like sound FX – masked slightly by some frogs under a bridge being pitched up from -99%. The smooth and menacing electronics of Pete Namlook’s ‘Escape’ then lays the ground for the entrance of Spiritualised’ pulsating remix of LFO at about 39 minutes.(the flip-side of the tune above – and the one I meant to play in the first place!).







52. Hex - Interference - N-tone (Antistatic EP)
53. A Silver Mount Zion - 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed - Constellation (He Has Left Us Alone... LP)
54. Burial - Nightbus - Hyperdub (Burial LP)
55. Bioshere - Chukhung - Touch Records (Substrata 2 LP)
56. Jan Philm - Berlin: Sozialpalast elevator - SoundTransit Field Recordings
57. Aphex Twin - Side E Track 2 - Warp (Selected Ambient Works Vol.2 LP)
58. Bass Kittens - Another rainy day - Mephisto (Another rainy day EP)
59. Peter Kolman - E15 - CECM Records (Anthology Of Slovak Electroacoustic Music 1966-1991)
60. Req - Crack - Skint (Frequency Jam LP)
61. Richard Thomas - Muffin Spencer-Devlin/Hawaii 2 - Leaf (Invisible Soundtracks 2 EP)
62. Harold Budd - Ice foles in eden - All Saints (Lonely thunder LP)


This is another of those amorphous sections where the tracklisting is little use in identifying the tunes. Better know these days as Visual chill-out artists, Hex’s ‘Interference’ (also available as an interactive ‘CD-I’) is an early release on Ninja offshoot ‘N-tone’, consisting of warm ambient synth's which compliment the sweet and mournful strings of the Silver Mount Zion – one of the stand out tunes of the mix IMO. This is all accompanied by more background atmos from Biosphere, and the static of a pitched down tune from Burial’s excellent debut LP. A Berlin elevator takes us to the next level, where we’re greeted by snatches of the random vocalisations and experimentation of Czech composer Peter Kolman. A tune from the ubiquitous Selected Ambient Works 2 combines with ‘Mephisto’ (some anonymous ‘chill out’ 12” from our early days of DJng) to lay down a base coat of tones beneath the still degrading Burial and Biosphere, whilst Req picks up where Kolman left off, with some raw and random high pitched electronic squeals and distorted murmurings. The big combo here is between Harold Budd, and Richard Thomas - Budd providing the sedate keyboards and Thomas the elusive but ominous high end.










63. Spectrum - sounds for a thunderstorm - Space age recordings (Forever alien LP)
64. Howie b - Cry - Polydor (Music for babies LP)
65. To Rococo Rot and d - a3 - City slang (Set this sandy piece EP)
66. Bernard Herrmann - Nocturne the flashlight - Varese (The Day the Earth Stood Still OST)
67. **** ***** - ****** - ******* (****** **)
68. Rufige Kru - Fabio's ghost (Shwantology re-edit) - Reinforced (Ghosts of my life EP)
69. Mira Calix - Little long gone - Warp (Skimskitta LP)
70. Aphex Twin - Side D Track 2 - Warp (Selected Ambient Works Vol.2 LP)
71. Derek Holzer - Skaftafell: Mountain Stream - SoundTransit Field Recordings
72. Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic - Venture (The Sinking of the Titanic LP)
73. Peter Green - Witches - Rephlex (Macbeth EP)
74. Harmoanius Gloop - Closetface demo - The Fear (Unreleased)
75. Tim Tetlow - a cyreinc - Planet Mu (Planet Mu 7")
76. Uli Schuster - Adlershof parc: A park with some bird sounds - SoundTransit Field Recordings


The beginning of the end commences as ‘Muffin Spencer…’ starts to fade out at 50 minutes. Spaceman 3 side project 'Spectrum' takes up the baton with some more overt sci fi influences and traditional analog electronica. Whilst Howie b makes his second Shwantology appearance with the woodblock melodies of ‘Cry’, a tune from the same LP featured in Part 1 - the sublime ‘Music for Babies’. Its around here where another tune-that-cannot-be-named (but you’ll all recognise!) pops its head into the mix, before the whistles of To Rococo Rot and the symphonics of Bernard Herman leads us into the cold digital arms of Goldie – making a rare appearance in an ambient set with 1993’s epic ‘Fabio’s Ghost’. There’s a nice bit of texture here as Goldie is timestretched to fluidity thanks to another intervention from SoundTransit, and the psycho-acoustics of Peter Green rubs up to the the bass of the Mira Calyx whilst it props up Rufige Kru's strings – Richard D James shamefully employed (once again) as tonal foundation.

The ascending string line of Fear mystery man ‘Harmoanius Gloop’ almost bring things to a close, and there’s a slight pause before some conversation and orchestration from Gavin Bryars’ ‘Sinking of the titanic’ (the original version says Slug!) drifts slowly into Tim Tetlow’s suitably simple, yet touching piano.

We emerge, exhausted, into the bright sunshine of Aldershof parc.

14 Comments:

Blogger AAA said...

Droid ye freak. Another mix of immense proportions. I want to be able to listen to it in work. whats the story? Where do you get the time?

12:30 PM  
Blogger GTTRBRKZ said...

Wooooo, first time I ever delved into the podcasts section of itunes...and it works!! nice werk, Droid 'n Slug. S'pose i better put the finishing touches to mine now..

3:59 PM  
Blogger droid said...

Something happened to your other comments there triple A - I saw them though - much appreciated... Blogger can bea bit strange at times...

Problem with I-tunes is that it strips all the ID3 tags of the MP3, and you cant repopulate them fully using the RSS feed - very headwrecking - but at least (phew!) it works... lookin forward to yours btw gutta!

4:19 PM  
Blogger mrgn said...

epic man, simply epic...

james joyce would be proud!

4:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jaysus, that's an average of something like 1.2 records per minute. Haven't listened yet, looking forward to it. Gwan the Northside.

BTW, the link to Front End Synthetics is not to Front End Synthetics, but to Sound Transit again.


dq

4:22 AM  
Blogger droid said...

Cheers dq - and thanks for the heads up on that link - ill fix it as soon as...

We cant check em all Im afraid!

12:45 PM  
Anonymous Paradigm X said...

Not listened yet but really like the sc podcast so looking forward to the dl

Nice one

12:49 AM  
Blogger paul autonomic said...

wow guys! i wasn't able to get to this right away but i'm really impressed. fantastic. and a really impressive write up. excellent start to the series.

i'm in the planning stages with mine, and building a blogariddims category into a new blog by me that i might eventually make public :)

1:20 AM  
Blogger cocklesby said...

Thanks. I played this and the first one to a room full of receptive people last weekend. It was constantly changing from being background music to the main centre of attention and back again. Went down very well. Then I got asked to leave for making unwelcome comments, walked half an hour away from the house, realised I had left my iPod there, walked back and then went in to pick it up. At least 4 of the 7 people there saw me when I came back in but pretended they didn't. I was quite hurt by this, more so than I would have expected.

I blame you because if it wasn't for this mix I wouldnt have taken my iPod out of my pocket in the first place.

3:42 AM  
Blogger Neilio Iglesias said...

bah... somehow i only downloaded 3 mins of this... the others seem to dling okay.

8:54 PM  
Blogger droid said...

Hi Neilio. Seems to be working ok - I just checked it. Try downloading it from here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/

11:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

these look astonishing,
can d/l the othe two as mp3zips,but everytime I click to d/l this It just goes to the xml page,anfd I get linked round in circles?! :(
Whats going on in the kitchen?

11:44 PM  
Blogger droid said...

Ah - we started off trying to get people to subscribe to the podcast - but soon gave it up... ;)

You can get this mix, and all the other Blogarididms here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/

If you like the Shwantologies - you'll probably like Tim Rambler's and Soundslike's mixes as well - Blogariddims 6 + 7.

10:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ah great,that sorted that out!
Again,these look great,kudos for all the hard work,I look forward to throwing an ear on them later!

Eamo

12:05 PM  

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