It is my theory that playing songs loud helps to get them unstuck from my head. Well, at least sometimes. It certainly took a couple of attempts with this one! Good thing Shuwen had to leave the house for a dentist appointment. 😉
electronic
Field Rotation — Tiefflug
Maybe it’s odd to have a chill-out/downbeat track in my “songs to play loud” selection… but there’s something about Field Rotation’s “Tiefflug” — it’s not just catchy, but rather addictive, to me. How it creeps into my brain can only be cured by playing it loud. 🙂
Herasphere — Product Of Us
This progressive house track pushes all my buttons.
Thomas Köner – Daikan (2002)
Mille Plateaux’s recent re-release of Thomas Köner’s long-form dark ambient piece “Daikan” reminded me that I should probably add it to my personal “best of ambient” selection that I’ve been “curating” over the years. 🙂
Void Vision — Sour (Vanzetti & Sacco Remix)
I’m having a phase where I intensely enjoy “synth pop” or whatever its revival is called today* so today’s song to play loud is “Sour” by Void Vision — a great track already — in the Vanzetti & Sacco remix. Both the original and the remix have their distinct qualities, but the remix distills the best of the original.
Farewell, Vangelis
Within about three weeks, the world has lost two pioneers of electronic music. First Klaus Schulze and just two days ago, Vangelis. Damn. I can honestly say that there’s probably no other musician who’s work is so strongly connected with my memories than Vangelis.
Music: Confusion
I’ve been meaning to add this older trance track (it’s from 2012) to my “series” of songs to play loud for quite a while, and most recently I’ve gotten a little bit more into electronic music again, and it inevitably resurfaced. 🙂
Music: more FAX & Namlook on Bandcamp
So far, the late Pete Namlook’s music, as well as other releases on Germany’s iconic FAX+49/69/450464 ambient/electronic label have been rather sparse or Bandcamp. A couple of Namlook’s collaborators made their releases available on their own Bandcamp accounts (Bill Laswell, Lorenzo Montana, Gaudi, Geir Jenssen and others), but the master’s own enormous back catalog remained out of reach and much of it was only available used.
The Music That Accompanied Me Through 2020
In addition to his own annual music review, my friend Tracy has compiled blog posts in which people reflect on their music from 2020 in a list. He asked me if I had done a post of my own too and the answer was no (and is yes now, that you read this).
Music: Dark Star
It’s 2021 and I can’t believe that this entry for my “songs to play loud” series is from 1991 — 30 years ago! That year tells you that I’m not writing about Crosby, Stills & Nash here (Dark Star, 1977), or the Grateful Dead (Dark Star, 1969), and not Beck either (Dark Star, 2006).