I figured if I were to make my first post on a ‘jam band’, I’d start with one that will surely be leading the scene within a few years time. Tauk is a 4-piece, psychedelic, rock fusion band with all the elements required to join bills on major festivals like Bonnaroo, Hangout Music Fest, and more, but also a youthful energy and edge to bring together an even broader audience (if that’s possible). The first single released from their new record Homunculus, produced by Grammy-winning Robert Carranza (Mars Volta, Jack Johnson) is ‘Dead Signal’; the opening song is stacked with Frusciante style riffs within a deep pocket, supported by unique, ambient sounding organ parts. The group never breaks from their communicative web throughout the entire album and this single is a shining example of what masterful players and visionaries make up this band. Check it out live at their NYC record release party April 24th at Sullivan Hall! @thinknotsleep
Public Transport is the performing moniker for electronic musician Duncan Bailey who resides currently in some random location in Maine. While streaming this eerie, instrumental track ‘Dark Days’, I imagine a fictional scenario (because I know nothing about this dude) of Duncan producing his ambient, dream-pop songs loudly in his bedroom while his 14 year old sister dances like a member of The Breakfast Club on the other side of the wall. The track is dense with droning keyboard sounds and effects with a contagious drum beat all throughout. Music supervisors should be hip to this and be sure to pitch it for a sync license in the next Bret Easton Ellis movie. @thinknotsleep
The majority of songs on this EP were written throughout the course of all four seasons, keeping in mind the changing of weather, tone, and all around environment in which we work and live. Beatmaker and producer Moods compiled this EP of soulful instrumentals both capturing and transcending the changes in time and seasons. Some songs incorporate chimes or a free flowing breeze to help listeners picture a warm, relaxing scene while others like ‘Snow Steps’ in title alone help us cool out and approach the winter blues in a positive way. Ambient background sounds, soaring electric piano, bass synth and jazz guitar samples mixed with drum loops perpetually behind the beat create a very human and genuine feel throughout this album. @thinknotsleep
With droning, repetitive beats made up of what could very well be leaking valves, conveyor belts and squeaking hinges, the music of Recycle Culture sounds exactly as the name suggests. Industrial, electronic sounds built on minimal keyboard and computer-like synth parts as backdrop, the 3 tracks of this release range from 8 to 12 minutes and oddly provide a soothing ambience as I write and go about my day. Sonically it makes me think of Aphex Twin but I can’t help but think of Bjork playing the role of a factory worker losing her vision who turns her shop into a musical playground in the Lars von Trier film Dancer in the Dark. Imaginative soundscapes with inhuman beats that both provoke and discourage the modern drummer, expect to be hearing more from Recycle Culture. He’s also making quite a name for himself being picked up by the likes of Fader for his remix work on tracks by The XX, Grimes, and even Taylor Swift. @thinknotsleep
An odd Saturday morning run-in with my roommates’ hung over friend over coffee recently turned into a not uncommon in-depth conversation about art and music and technology. Quick to judge, as most of us are within the first minutes of meeting someone, these interactions tend to almost always end up more pleasant and meaningful than first expected. During the discussion, JC (shirtless and picking through a Ziploc of almonds and raisins he pulled from his messenger bag) brought up his friend Pete Gardner, an acclaimed (by not many I assume) bedroom talent. Writing and recording music in his Hell’s Kitchen apartment, Pete didn’t even own a computer and would borrow JCs’ from time to time to upload tracks to his Soundcloud page. I was intrigued to hear of such pure, honest music being made with no intention of recognition and almost zero search history on Google. I listened through to a number of his songs and although it was music I probably would not be into if not for the mystique built around it, it was refreshing still. The songs hop around through genre and pay no mind to pop song structure or consistency in production. Some of the work is instrumental, some groovy, and all around a weird, lo-fi, genuine expression of one mans’ life. I am grateful to have started my day off in an unanticipated thoughtful discussion and to have been given a window into the very low profile world of Pete Gardner. @thinknotsleep
Less than a month ago, NYC indie record label Ten Million Sounds unleashed their second compilation of instrumental hip hop jams titled Finding Time. The thirteen-track album is available as a name-your-price download and all proceeds will be donated to Smile Train, an organization that raises money for cleft palate correction surgery for young children in developing countries. The individual producers/beat makers all bring something unique to the table, many of the songs consisting of piano-heavy, illbient hip hop beats with atmospheric samples from tucked in vocal stabs to bird sounds to 70s Marvin Gaye-esque synth to Fender Rhodes. Songs like ‘Soft Touch’ by Evil Needle put me in a J Dilla, off tempo tambourine groove while opening track ‘Solace’ by Aether took me right to a place I thought only the main man Bonobo could take me. Whether you’re walking along the East River at sunset with headphones in or ditching the city for a journey through the woods, Finding Time is a well-crafted compilation that will smooth out each step along the way. @thinknotsleep
What can I say, the 9 minutes go by quick. This mix is tighter then a you know what, and deserves some attention assuredly. Gentlemen you know your instruments and play them with a ferocious exactitude. Also, I know this is about music and what not, but a quick aside for Greg McCarthy and Ger Colhoun, for what can only be described as a sick illustration. Listening to this type of progressive instrumentals from Ireland, I can’t help but know that everywhere in the world is a solid band just like this one, in it for the heart and soul of the game. @TheSnakeRecords
In Flux EPis dynamic and visceral. There is a track for every frame of mind (or at least four). Similar releases tend to be fussy, but The Watermark High finds a musical idea, develops it, and sticks with it so the listener can experience its rhythms without over-thinking. These songs are ideal for when you aren’t sure what mood you’re in and you’d like the music to pick one for you. [Free Download].@AshleyCanino
By golly, what an interesting week. I live in backcountry CT near the NY border, and we got creamed by Superstorm Sandy. We spent all day Monday cooped up indoors, most of the day with power, until about 5 or 6 pm when we finally lost power. I still don’t have power, and there are massive trees entangled with wires every hundred yards along our main road to my house. I managed to write a little bit about a band I found on Monday afternoon, and here’s my blurb from that day.
This music is a rawer, more eloquent Opeth, that reminds one of the power of the earth. The stark dead trees as the album art conveys the image of life and death, of growth and desolation. Considering the earth is ripping itself apart right now in the case of Hurricane Sandy, which I’m gladly stuck at home while access to the trains is unavailable. I woke up and I usually have an evergreen in front of my window, but it wasn’t there! The wind was blowing it out of my vision. This music seems to convey the raw untamed nature of…nature. Ah, it finally started raining, and the Water Witch’s entire album may flood your brain with these lovely eternal sounds.
The Water Witch has a 7 track album available on their Bandcamp called The Heavens in Motion. It was released on October 9th, 2012. The Water Witch are based out of the rainy UK.
I’m also a huge Microsoft fan, and Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT came out on Friday. I pre-ordered one and I’m using it now to write this post. The keyboard is fantastic, with great little mechanical keys(I got the Type Cover), and it flips up to cover the screen. I can multitask, use Office and the desktop, switch apps, use touch gestures to get around my apps. The Surface is an iPad-slayer. I’m also getting the new Lumia 920 for AT&T, I’ll show that to you guys next week if I get it by then.
I just found a fantastic easily approachable ‘instrametal’ band. That just means instrumental metal and it’s a wonderful way to get used to the riffing and complexity of metal music without the often offputting vocals. Instrametal is generally different in many ways from metal with lyrics, and it has to have excellent guitar work and riffing to be successful. The guitars in Intervals are very well done; they dance across your cerebellum, tapping into undiscovered dimensions, before cascading down with powerful riffs that motivate you to do a little headbanging. For anyone who has been previously scared of some of the extreme metal I post, make sure to check this out. Close your eyes for twenty minutes and rest your soul on top of the sexy little arpeggios found in Intervals. If Sandy has wrecked your week, In Time will set you back on your feet, ready to take on the world.
Intervals is a four-piece progressive metal band with two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. They hail from Toronto, Canada.
I AM VIOLENCE by Drag the Lake (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Let’s switch gears now and head back into some hot and heavy metal by looking at a release that comes out today, on this fine dark Halloween, the last day of October. Drag the Lake exemplify powerful deathcore with a huge sound, great headbanging potential, and a real love for the music. These tracks are really catchy and I’m finding myself grooving out to these tracks. And yes, I just redefined the word grooving. Listen to see what I mean.
Bonus:
Xenocide, who I featured earlier, released a new single called Xenomorph! Check it out below!
That’s all I got for you this week, to see some personal photos of Sandy that I took, click HERE. Over and out @MetalMicroscope
Smart, smooth, clean and cool, ‘Triptych‘ is a beat that is just the way I like it. It’s like the end of the flick, the day is done, you grab your lover, hop in your spacecraft and cruise through the nearest star cluster because you are a cavalier (or a G, whichever you prefer). Be sure to listen all the way through because there is more to this one then a hook and it leaves you feeling tasty and satisfied. @TheSnakeRecords
Manifesto
With technology growing exponentially, personal computing is challenging the recording business and the internet is challenging the publishing business. Now more than ever, we see the pool of music and design growing deeper. But as always, the more music there is, the harder it is to find what really matters.
Dingus is dedicated to the search. It's here, on this humble blog that we shed light on bedroom artists in their most defining moments. If you want what's popular today, Dingus is not the blog for you. But, if you want what's fringe, pure and passionate then you've somehow landed on the right URL. So check back daily and enjoy your fellow peers' endeavors.
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