Electronic Music

[Music] RRUFF – Impresiones

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RRUFF are a band based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.  Though they are tagged as “dungeon-synth,” there is a dark, rather pleasant, atmospheric, air about this two-track album.  The work seems to come from a performance-oriented project focused on the ideas of Joan Fontcuberta regarding the state of photography and image.

From the band’s Bandcamp page:

Today photographs have ceased to be a memory to be ephemeral. The massification of photography has led us to a new situation in which it is not so important to own as to share. We live or perceive through the screens, which, like the shadows of Plato, are now our access to reality.

Perhaps it is because she was on my mind today, but the second track reminds me of American composer Pauline Oliveros, of blessed memory. RRUFF are in good company.

[Music] This Place to Be, by Steve Roach

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How can you go wrong with Steve Roach? His music gives such bliss.

Ambient Landscape

A free (Name Your Own Price) for now download from Mr. Roach

This Place To Be centers in on a sweet spot of serenity with a sense of perfect weightlessness and contentment, nowhere else to be but here.
CD with download and name your price for the a few days on the digital version.

After the run of concerts and the wide range of dynamic releases over the past few years, I am feeling deeply drawn towards a return to home and to my soul tone zone of pure immersion, deep atmospherics and textural healing. That is the best way to describe this work and the place I need to be.

Steve – May 27, 2016

Released May 27, 2016

So . . . sitting around in #QuaratineLife I downloaded this – and then began to tinker with it. I took 2 long sections of the composition, stretched them x…

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[Music] Philippe Simon – Android

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This is something of a revelation to me.  Until the good folks at Kalamine Records (run by Zumaia) told me about him, he was off my radar.  This I count as a loss, because Philippe Simon brings a vibrant, updated sound to the Berlin School of electronic music which peaked with artists like Klaus Schulze, Mario Schönwälder and others during the 1980s.  Simon’s sound is a fresh, even better-produced continuation of that tradition.

He has made 200 albums.  I have some exploring to do.

[Music] The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble – The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble

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If you are patient, you will indeed run into a charmingly freaky (or freakishly charming) release on Bandcamp.  Today, I want to introduce you to The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.  They hail from North Korea, of all places, and they have a catalog of at least 85 CDs available.  This compilation, release by the Manchester-based Maybles Labels, put a lot of care into curating these tracks.  From their Bandcamp website:

Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble – 보천보전자악단 is North Korea’s best known musical group. The group has been active for over 25 years and has released close to 200 albums. It is a household name in North Korea and also enjoys recognition in Japan and China. The ensemble’s recognition in Japan was celebrated with a tour in 1991.

The ensemble is famous for its’ inspired use of electronic instruments including bass, guitar, synthesizer and drums. Additional electronic effects are often created and edited in a sound studio following live recordings in order to achieve the hallmark synth-pop sounds.

The ensemble has written and performed marches, polkas, waltzes, bossanova, cha-cha and ballad pieces during its long history. It has also interpreted countless traditional and revolutionary folk songs from Korea and China as well as several Russian and European tunes.

P.E.E’s music is frequently on the themes of love of ones’ country, ideology and loyalty towards the political leadership of North Korea. Friendship, love and the beauty of nature are other common themes.

Former members of the ensemble have included iconic Korean singers such as Hyon Song‑wol, Ri Kyong Suk, Jon Hye Yong and Comrade Ri Sol-ju, wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

It’s best known melody outside of North Korea is “Whistle’ from 1990, which was covered and released in South Korea by Kim Yeon-ja, to great acclaim and success.

Totalitarian countries have a good reason to release nothing but happy music. If their people actually figured out that their situation wasn’t normal, there would be a lot of officials whose heads would be mounted on pikes, so the need to appease the masses is of critical importance.

[Music] Yeong Choi – Pizzapi

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The cover art grabbed my attention, I have to admit.  This is one of those times where I probably would have passed this up without the shockingly surreal cover art and cheesy tune titles, but I’m glad I stopped by.  Yeong Choi is a pianist, programmer and composer from Seoul, South Korea who puts up an album that has a feel like a soundtrack for a new, more acid-laden version of Alice In Wonderland.  Quite good, this.

[Music] Drew Schlesinger & David Torn – Summer Synthesis 1978

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Considering this release, featuring guitarist David Torn and synthesizer player Drew Schlesinger, was made in 1978, I’m astounded as to how fresh it sounds.  There are a few spots where the recording might be a touch thin (I’m playing this album on the speakers of a relatively new iMac), but overall, this is very solid, rather beautiful looping and synth programming.  If you are a fan of Brian Eno’s and Robert Fripp’s collaborations, or are simply curious about Torn’s early works, this album is a must.  It is also a fine introduction to Schlesinger, whom I knew nothing about before being pointed to this release.

[Music] Mexican brother-sister duo Sotomayor drop new album ‘Orígenes’ – a groovy house fusion of cumbia and Peruvian chicha — WORLD TREASURES MUSIC

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The new album by Sotomayor is Orígenes (“Origins”) and captures Latin American stylings, fusing them with contemporary electronic sounds. The Mexican’s third studio album (following Salvaje in 2015 and Conquistador in 2017) is produced by multiple Grammy award-winning producer Eduardo Cabra (Calle 13). Sotomayor’s electronic Latin music has a strong sense of roots and tradition, […]

via Mexican brother-sister duo Sotomayor drop new album ‘Orígenes’ – a groovy house fusion of cumbia and Peruvian chicha — WORLD TREASURES MUSIC

[Music] Pyroclastic – Blast Tunnel EP

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It’s nice when I get to tell one group of friends about another.  When I was young, my brother and many of our mates would go to what we knew then to be “industrial dance clubs.”  These were fun times, but the music was what I remember most.  Stark, brutal, with quasi-militaristic beats, perfect for stomping up a floor with your heavy boots.  My old friend Ryant Takai has continued mining in this field, and his latest project, Pyroclastic, continues on that nasty, thudding, beat-heavy tradition.  As someone who was working with electronic body music during the late 1980s, it is fair to say that he has been continuing hitting that perfect beat for the past 30 years.  If anyone can go 30 more, he can.