magic sound fabric

in my waking life i found i've started to appreciate the tonal, the nonverbal and the silences in between conversations - finding that most conversation is a means-to-an-end rather than the end. 'talk is cheap,' i say, 'show me some action!'

enter magic sound fabric. cameron akhunaton (the name self-styled after the ancient egyptian sun-worshipping pharaoh) is a veritable empresario of formless mind-expanding ambient music. on uplift drift, however, he goes out on a limb, picking up percussion and rhythm, and blending the electronic with the acoustic, the profound with the carefree. what he's created is utterly clean, gently disciplined, undeniably infectious.

electronic voice-over, sultry basslines, surprise waves of wah-peddling electric guitar, trumpeting horns, poignant piano riffs, hints of celebratory hand-claps and a pensive tabla solo give 'my thoughts have become visible' its delicious and unexpected flavours.

expertly sequenced, the tracks on this album flow effortlessly with a perpetuum that exudes the very motion, the very relentlessness of life, the drama of nature unraveling with birth, death and everything that happens in between. without words. expect the unexpected.

but i digress. yes talk is cheap, let me listen-you the music.

magic sound fabric - my thoughts have become visible:


magic sound fabric - galaxy rise:


magic sound fabric - space traffic control:


can't wait to lay my hands on this year's release, observer. listen to this or get the release at www.magicsoundfabric.com or amazon.com

related to this:

• four tet - as serious as your life
  
• yonderboi - riders on the storm
  
• bruknahm project - siba dub plate
  
• heliocentrics - once upon a time

music from a tree

a friend sent this to me last week and i just couldn't help sharing it. diego stocco is a composer and music designer (pretty great filmmaker i might add) who lives in california and makes surreal music from objects in nature, self-styled instruments or traditional instruments in distress.

i embedded the video for this one because it explains so much about what has gone into planning and laying down the track. i was shocked to read that it was not sampled, but played live. the whole arrangement is pretty impressive...

diego stocco - tree music:


i couldn't stop there. in one of his videos, diego uses light to control music, in another he actually makes music from sand... yeah. my thought exactly. what the heck does sand sound like? take a listen, it's pretty tropical and the video is cool too.

diego stocco - music from sand:


so if i were banished to a desert island, i'd definitely ask this guy to come along for some fun!

check out more at diegostocco.com.

thanks to dd for the introduction!

somewhat related:

• perpetuum jazzile - africa
• uakti - minimal 13 m1
• heliocentrics - once upon a time

see you on the other side...

sonar kollektiv orchester - rej

jazzanova's berlin-based label, sonar kollektiv, marked its 10th annivesary by inviting their best musicians to make guaranteed niceness - a collection of select label re-workings. the centrepiece - in my opinion is a wicked minimal techno track, "rej" by âme.

they took the techno epic orchestral.

if i had any doubt before, i don't anymore
life after death exists, and it sounds like this...

sonar kollektiv orchester - rej:


now listen to âme's original.



apparently quentin harris agrees. here's him mixing rej into david gray's "see you on the otherside".

related to this:

• four tet - as serious as your life
  
• mulatu astatke - yegelle tezeta
  
• yonderboi - riders on the storm / pink solidism
  
• the blow - the love that i crave (strategy's strata club mix)
  

thanks to paul at aurgasm for the introduction.
find this at www.sonar kollektiv.com

riders on the storm / pink solidism

behold the boi-yonder....

i'm entering a phase of mind expansion. and nothing better to set it to than yonderboi. by age 24 this budapest-based composer had already released his second masterpiece-release, splendid isolation.

off his first - the double-length shallow and profound - comes this quasi-cover of the doors' riders on the storm.

easily, the most beautiful storm i've heard.

yonderboi - riders on the storm / pink solidism:


related to this:

• mc 900 ft jesus - the city sleeps
  
• bruknahm project - siba dub plate
  
• heliocentrics - once upon a time
  
• heliocentrics - sirius b
  

13.1 heliocentrics - sirius b

so there's more where that came from...

heliocentrics - siris b:


related:

• heliocentrics - once upon a time
  
• pyro music

13.0 heliocentrics - once upon a time

there's nothing quite like brain food, the stuff you listen to late nights working on something good. and while everyone around has fallen asleep, you stay awake addicted to the beat.

ok....
enough said.
this is what it sounds like in my head.

heliocentrics - once upon a time:


related:

• heliocentrics - sirius b
  
• pyro music

10.0 hifana - wamono

ok people!

special interactive instalment of 'this is what it sounds like...'
this one is for the movers, the shakers, the music-makers:)

get your inspiration from hifana - a 'hiphop' / breakbeat / electronic / experimental duo from tokyo, who gave up backing bellydancers (seriously) to do their thing. pushing the boundaries of description, they use sampling, beats, breaks, video games, percussion and distortion in a way that i can best only compare to coldcut.

first check the wamono video:


ok - your turn to 'fresh push'

hifana's site has a sound machine (à la mixman studio) so now you too can play!
check it out here.

instructions:
- once the welcome screen stops spinning, click it!
and there's your playground, so play the record!
- choose one of the two orange presets at the top of the console on the right (i like 'lanlan')
- play around with the thing in the middle! seriously, almost everyhing including the cans and keys on the page is clickable.

et voilà, you're making music. or maybe dancing?!

6.0 yamasuki singers - aieoa, black blood - aie a mwana, bananarama - aie a mwana

after a little departure from posting music... i've returned with something special. i'm happy to see my folks back from uganda safe and nicely toasted, and to celebrate i'm posting something that was conceived in the '70s, made its way to the african continent and traveled north and west, but kept it's original soul...

the japanese yamasuki singers first issued the track "aieaoa" on their wacky album "le monde fabuleux des yamasuki":


the track then took an african twist when it was reissued by a '70s band from zaire. we used to dance around to this as kids. if i played it for my mom she'd go wild. [edit! they were actually belgian - which explains how the track got play in europe... read on]
black blood - aie a mwana:


three models heard the black blood cover in a paris nightclub and went home to london to record the song on their debut album.
bananarama - aie a mwana:


thanks to wfmu.org

and totally unrelated...

• bill cosby and quincy jones - hicky burr, sargeant pepper's lonely hearts club band
  
• go go golem