Vulpiano Records / My Bandcamp
Further links at Vulpiano
This is my second Netlabel Day release for Vulpiano after Sea Cave / Indigo (available here). Listen and/or download Gemstone Study at the links above.
Tag: electronic music
Top 5 Albums of 2019 (so far) / #5 – Nonlocal Forecast – Bubble Universe!
electronic / video game music / new age / sequencer & MIDI / synth pop
More like this – Eyeliner, New Atlantis Volume 1, Ecco: The Tides of Time SCD soundtrack, “Aquatic Ambience” from Donkey Kong Country, “Dire Dire Docks” from Super Mario 64
One in countless Angel Marcloid creations, Bubble Universe! displays her gift for dense, oceanic synths. Song-wise the album flips between beatless new age glitter and jittery drum+synth suites. The latter nears a chaotic pace, but Angel unites it all through the gleeful virtual sheen of 90s video game music. Imagine such a soundtrack fused with guitar cameos and some modern computer polish (best shown on “Triangular Format”) and BU! is the result.
Some of the best VGM is water-themed, so I applaud Angel for making her own album in this vein. Now I’m wanting to play the made-up water-metropolis fantasy game she’s conjured here.
♥︎ – “Triangular Format”, “Cloud-Hidden”, “The Evolutionary Game”, “Classical Information”, “Conscious Agent Combos”
New single Gemstone Study Vol. 1 coming July 14th!
This will be my second Netlabel Day release for Vulpiano Records. Here’s the cover art by Marilyn Roxie.
Track list
1. Fluorite
2. Aventurine
3. Amazonite
4. Chrysocolla
5. Tourmaline
Karen O & Danger Mouse – “Nox Lumina” (Lux Prima, 2019)
The new Karen O/Danger Mouse collaboration takes plenty of interesting directions in it’s duration, but hearing KO on something like “Nox Lumina” is most thrilling of all. It forms a rich bookend for the album with the ambitious opening single “Lux Prima”, it’s counterpart.
Over an eccentric guitar+synth+string blend, she repeats these cryptic lines over and over:
Somewhere in my room
Sometimes I don’t lock the door
Every time I close my eyes
Someone else’s paradise
Turns me into someone new
She sounds calm but unsteady or even possessed as the melody suggests a lurking danger. Suddenly her voice distorts and slows down along the lines of her wordless wailing in “Lux Prima”. As if it wasn’t fit for a surrealist short film already, “Nox Lumina” ends the album with a reprise of “Prima”’s orchestral flourish like the credits are rolling.
New music video: “Spires” created by Marilyn Roxie
And in case you missed Marilyn’s video for “Moonbow”, watch that one below:
Dannii Minogue – “Everybody Changes Underwater”
On Deep Cuts I highlight notable album-only/non-single tracks, especially if they differ from someone’s usual style.
This lengthy suite should surprise you if you figured Dannii’s music boiled down to a more generic/’b-grade’ Kylie. With the downbeat aquatic synths, dramatic whispers and chilly title refrains, it’s closer to a lost Impossible Princess b-side.
More from Dannii Minogue: “Xanadu”, “Do You Believe Me Now?”
Beautiful Robots / Dancing Alone
Image credit: Translucent Iridescent #04 by MachineEast
Listen here
A fun and melodic dancefloor mix with a focus on vocal trance and trance-inflected pop: high drama, expansive cool-down interludes, ecstatic choruses, and hypnotic synth backdrops.
Track listing
- GRACE – not over yet
- DANNII MINOGUE – all i wanna do
- RENI JUSIS – ocale cie
- DOSS – the way i feel
- OCEANLAB – lonely girl
- ANDAIN – beautiful things
- ATB ft. HEATHER NOVA – desperate religion
- RENI JUSIS – ostatni raz
- CYNDI LAUPER – raging storm
- OPUS III – hand in hand
- DANNII MINOGUE – who do you love now?
- RENI JUSIS – niemy krzyk
- KITTY – miss u
- GIRLS ALOUD – untouchable
Soft Metals – Lenses, 2013
synth pop / dream pop / minimal synth
More like this – Glass Candy’s Beatbox + “I Always Say Yes”, Robert Gorl’s “Mit Dir”, Pink Industry’s Low Technology, HTRK’s “Chinatown Style”, Nouvelle Phenomene’s “Caresse”, Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame
Some cliched 808 aside, Soft Metals show a great ear for that colder edge of analog synths the minimal wave fans crave without getting obvious. Like their own name suggests, it’s all about the contrast of softness (as in airy/gentle) and metal (as in sharp/gritty).
Thankfully, they’ve cut out most of their debut’s repetition for a subtler and more flexible sound here. Hypnotic arpeggios in the vein of a lost sci-fi OST merge with a slick bass pulse and immersive pads to find a middle ground between EDM’s energy and space music’s weightlessness. The occasional hint of Glass Candy is another plus.
The 100% synth setup is a great balm for Patricia Hall’s already elevated vocals. She has a bit of a dream-pop approach that gives even uptempo moments like the acid-house “In The Air” a sense of flight. Not the most distinct singer of this kind, but refreshing to hear in a minimal synth context.
♥︎ – “Lenses”, “When I Look Into Your Eyes”, “Hourglass”, “Tell Me”
Artists you should know: Claude Larson
Claude Larson (AKA Carlos Futura, Klaus Netzle) was a frequent contributor to the German music libraries Sonoton and Selected Sound. Many of his albums focused on cinematic backdrops with a tech slant (plants, space, snow, fantasy) and early experiments with digital synths, being one of the first to make extensive use of the Fairlight CMI. As with a lot of 80s library music, his songs were an earlier example of the polished synth-pop/electronic sounds now popular with modern vaporwave/synthwave producers.
Several CL songs have resurfaced on Youtube in the past ten years. Aside from a Fiat LX reissue in 2018, though, they haven’t attracted the same attention as most of Youtube’s other revitalized 70s-80s favorites.
Youtube playlist
I’ve gathered my favorite Larson songs on Youtube with this playlist. Of course, the limits of Youtube’s selection means I can’t make aim for something ‘definitive’, but it make be a good sampler for the curious listener.
Note: I focused on his Sonoton history as most of his Selected Sound albums are rare jingle collections or full of 10+min songs that could disrupt the flow.
1. Sand-Dunes / Environment, 1978
2. Industrial Plants / Surroundings, 1979
3. Helicopter / Synthesis, 1980
4. Marshy Ground / Scenic Sequences, 1980
5. Panorama / Panorama, 1980
6. Biopulse 2 / Scenes And Images – Developing Underlays Vol. 1, 1981
7. Machine Language 2 / Industrial Future, 1981
8. Wolga / Rivers, 1981
9. Harpsi 1 / Digital Patterns, 1982
10. Hardware / High Tech, 198?
11. Blossom / Plantlife, 1983
12. Transformation / Digital Landscape, 1983
13. Dramatic Impact / Dramatic Impact, 1984
14. Autumn Mist Drama / Soundscapes Vol. 1, 1984
15. Wings In The Sky / Wings In The Sky, 1986
16. Aurora / Soundscapes Vol. 2, 1986
17. Synchrosonic / Synchrosonic Patterns, 1987
18. Haunted Clockwork / Synchrosonic Patterns, 1987
19. Alpha-Dream / Euphonia, 1988
New EP ‘SPIRES’ is here!
Vulpiano Bandcamp / My Bandcamp / Soundcloud
Original post + further links from Vulpiano
Stream and/or download the full EP at the above links. As usual any listens and/or feedback are hugely appreciated.
Along with showing a more rhythmic side to my music, my main idea with this EP was forming a ’techno’ sound with more frequent shifts and build-up as I didn’t have much patience for the minimal approach in a lot of popular techno like Autechre and The Orb.
I wanted it cold and mechanical most of all (going along with the techno aesthetic), but as with most of my music, an aquatic/murky accent snuck into it (mostly on “Zemūdens”, whose title is the Latvian word for ‘submarine’). Crashing waves and giant towering structures came to mind, hence what you see in the cover.
If there’s any two things that inspired this EP most, it’s Laurel Halo’s Hour Logic and The Knife’s Silent Shout, to the point you can hear a few similar synth tones. I tried to build a dense atmosphere/backdrop behind the more prominent beats as you hear in those albums.
Moons And Melodies 