Tumblr

Low Light Mixes now has a Tumblr blog.  You can find it here...

low light on Tumblr

I plan on using for more frequent posts.  The main blog here on blogspot will remain for posting mixes & the occasional shout out to good music.  But with the Tumblr blog I'd like to post random msuic clips, some video, some pix, basically anything that interests me.  That way I don't pollute the main Low Light blog with a bunch of other random stuff.

So head on over to the Tumblr site & hang out, comment, reblog, tell me to take a hike.

Cheers

Sunday Morning Music vol. 7 - The Sun King

I found a cool clip on YouTube from the Beatles Abbey Road album.  It is the 16 minute medley that closes the album but it's only the vocals.  It's fascinating to listen to familiar vocals in a new way.  Here's a link to the YouTube clip... Abbey Road vocals.

The vocals for "The Sun King" caught my attention and I thought they'd make a nice start to a new Sunday morning mix.  I couldn't resist messing with the track a little bit so I slowed it down and mixed part of that slowed down track under the normal one  I like the way the sowed track fills the space between vocals.  Then I brought the slow track up full to finish off The Sun King.  It's really kind of amazing how beautiful the track still sounds even when slowed way down.

As I was adding tracks to the mix I stumbled upon the Sun Kil Moon song "Sunshine in Chicago" and it hit me that the mix should revolve around the sun.  So every song on the tracklist has "sun" in the title.

I love using a keyword to narrow a musical search because it always turns up cuts I had completely forgotten about.  In this case I was very excited to have dug up "Eternity's Sunrise" from the "Children of Men" score.  I'm pretty happy with how this "sunny" mix turned out.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    The Beatles - The Sun King(vocals only)
• 01:51    Lights Out Asia - Birds Sing Sun-Rising Hymns
• 04:55    Jon Hopkins - Sun Harmonics
• 12:10    Phosphorescent - Sun, Arise
• 15:05    Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - Painted Sun in Abstract
• 18:00    Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
• 23:00    Popol Vuh - Morning Sun
• 26:17    Alexi Murdoch - Towards the Sun
• 30:25    Ben Howard - Under the Same Sun
• 32:45    M. Ostermeier - Sunlight on My Desk
• 35:15    Underworld - capa meets the sun
• 37:00    Max Richter - Sunlight
• 42:28    Jon Hopkins - The Wider Sun
• 44:48    John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise
• 47:10    Vir Unis - Infinite Sun
• 50:20    David Sylvian - Sunlight seen through towering trees
• 52:55    The Seven Fields Of Aphelion - Sunburst Chemicals
• 55:33    Sun Kil Moon - Sunshine in Chicago
• 57:55    The Beatles - The Sun King
• 1:00:20    end

Sunday Morning Music vol. 7 - The Sun King by Lowlight on Mixcloud

dub transmissions

I happened to come across a new tune from Moritz Von Oswald Trio.  The song, Blue Dub, has this great, slow, sparse dub thing going on that I love.  I knew as soon as I heard it that I'd have to make a new mix of dub related tunes.

So, "dub transmissions" is, duh, is mix of dub tunes.  I've done them before & this one is similar to the others.  I think the previous ones have had parts that are a little noisier & spacier than this mix.  Most of these tunes have a beat, although that beat can be very laid back and muffled.  

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Blue Dub
• 05:30    The Black Dog - Sleep Deprivation 1
• 09:30    krill.minima - Kalypso
• 12:50    Holger Flinsch - Navigator
• 19:10    Massive Attack - Cool Monsoon
• 23:00    Deepcord - Theme From Silent World
• 32:20    Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - The Spirit Wore the Shoes of the Boy
• 37:10    Iminazole - Sunny
• 41:20    The Green Kingdom - dustloop4
• 44:05    Deadbeat - Portable Memory
• 47:30    As If - Crumble to Dust
• 54:30    Pablo Bolivar - Walk Man Fever
• 05:05    As If - To Be Ground
• 09:30    Bjorn Rohde - Forest of Forgotten Hearts
• 15:35    end

Dub transmissions by Lowlight on Mixcloud

A glitch in time

Sometime around 2001 I discovered the album Tides by Arovane.  I'm not sure if it qualifies as "post-digital" or "blip hop" or "micro" music but it was through that album that I began a brief love affair with the style of music known as "glitch."

I have always loved electronic & ambient music but at the end of the 1990s I had lost interest in berlin style electronics and mostly listened to straight ambient.  But with the emergence of glitch, and it's use of complicated beats, noise and samples, I found a new rhythmic electronic music to dive into.

The biggest purveyor of glitch music back then was the Mille Plateaux label.  With their Click & Cuts series they introduced me to a whole new range of sound in music.  There is definitely a lot of music from that time period that, while interesting, could become annoying as well.  I'm not a fan of loud and aggressive glitch.  I definitely am more in tune with the sort of stuff put out by 12k.

Over time I grew tired of much of the glitch scene and the never ending little pops & clicks & wee little sounds intruding on the music.  Although I still enjoy much of 12k music.

Recently I was organizing some of my collection & revisited some old glitch material.  I found that I am still very fond of some of it.  I started collecting tracks for this mix and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

So this mix is a little step back in time to the early 2000s.  A small glitch in the passing of time to when glitch ruled, for me anyway.

Btw, I made the clock gif myself!  Woo hoo!  Can't wait to try more.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Arovane - Tides (2000)
• 04:45    Carpet Musics - Phone Lines (2001)
• 08:24    Clickits - No Clickedy (2003)
• 11:35    Xela - Impulsive Behavior (2002)
• 15:30    offthesky - Down the Stream (2005)
• 20:50    Shuttle358 - I'm Not Afraid (2003)
• 25:05    Twerk - From Brown to Green (2003)
• 29:55    Jan Jelinek - Facelift (2003)
• 34:55    Bexar Bexar - Kt (2002)
• 38:30    Christopher Willits - The Seaweed Machine (2003)
• 40:45    Christian Kleine - Several (2002)
• 47:15    Arovane - Ambelio (1999)
• 52:20    Shuttle358 - Calty (2000)
• 57:11    end

A glitch in time by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Movement & Location - music for biking

This mix is completely different from anything that I've posted here.  It's not ambient, or electronic or Sunday morning jazz.  This is music for motion.

This is a mix I made last summer to listen to while biking.  I liked it so much that I added some new tunes this year and made it longer.  All of the songs have a propulsive, forward-moving feel to them.  There are some oddball choices in there but generally most of the music would fall under the heading of indie rock.  Artists include Yacht, Vampire Weekend, Japandroids, Lord Huron, Rural Alberta Advantage, Jonathan Boulet, Underworld, Shearwater, Givers, etc.

I like the fact that it's 2 hours long so I can go out on an hour long ride and still have enough left for the next ride.  The mix also works well on a treadmill.  I wanted to post this before now so anyone who downloads it hopefully can make good use of it before summer disappears.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Patrick Watson - Blackwind
• 03:45    Punch Brothers - Movement & Location
• 06:45    Willy Porter - Breathe
• 10:15    Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
• 14:09    Givers - Up up up
• 18:30    Jinja Safari - Mermaids
• 22:22    Benny Goodman - Sing, Sing, Sing
• 27:20    Mother Falcon - Dirt Summer
• 30:35    The Killers - Human
• 34:30    Yacht - Utopia
• 37:30    Shearwater - Animal Life
• 40:55    The Rural Alberta Advantage - Tornado '87
• 44:32    Matt & Kim - Don't Slow Down
• 47:33    The Boxer Rebellion - Organ Song
• 50:50    Lord Huron - Time to Run
• 55:20    Underworld - Dark & Long
• 1:02:15    Tilly And The Wall - Heavy Mood
• 1:05:20    Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us
• 1:09:35    Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers
• 01:12:55    Jonathan Boulet - You're a Animal
• 01:16:20    Underworld - Downpipe
• 01:23:30    Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself
• 01:27:10    Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
• 01:32:10    Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal
• 01:39:52    Avett Brothers - Kick Drum Heart
• 01:42:30    Jonathan Boulet - Mangle Trang
• 01:45: 55   Japandroids - The House that Heaven Built
• 01:50:35    The Rural Alberta Advantage - Barnes' Yard
• 01:52:48    Vampire Weekend - A Punk
• 01:55:00    Andrew Bird - Fitz and the Dizzyspells
• 01:58:20    faltyDL - She Sleeps
• 02:02:38    Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
• 02:07:31  end

Under Eno's Covers

At the suggestion of a listener/downloader I set out to do a mix of ambient covers.  Not so easy.

But I did find a bunch of Brian Eno cover tunes.  Some I was familiar with, Bang on a Can & Sakamoto, but many of the others were new discoveries made by cruising the web. 

The mix starts with probably the most covered Eno tune - An Ending (Ascent), from Apollo.  The cover of that song comes from a new album by Icebreaker & BJ Cole which covers the entire Apollo album.  It's excellent and any Eno fan will definitely enjoy it.

About a third of the way through the mix, the tunes shift to a few vocal songs. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted go this route but the more I listened to these vocal covers the more I liked them.  From there we switch back into ambient mode.

I think this turned out pretty well and makes for a nice change of pace in the land of Low Light Mixes.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Icebreaker & BJ Cole - an ending (ascent) ii
• 03:50    Teen Daze - Always Returning
• 07:55    Dan Piccolo - Music for Airports 1.1
• 13:30    Bang On A Can - Music for Airports 2.1
• 17:30    Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - By This River
• 21:15    Ida - Golden Hours
• 25:35    Irene Coco & Giovanni Sala - And Then So Clear
• 29:00    St. Vincent - Some of Them are Old
• 31:55    Unknown - Spider & I (ona banjo ukulele)
• 33:15    Band On A Can - Music for Airports 2.2
• 38:00    Doron Diamond - Music for Airports 1.1 (acoustic)
• 41:15    AcousticLabs - And Ending (Ascent) (solo guitar)
• 45:00    Icebreaker & BJ Cole - Drift
• 47:45    Nathan Fake - Music for Airports 1.1
• 53:00    Ryosuke Tomita - Becalmed (acoustic)
• 56:52    end

Under Eno's covers by Lowlight on Mixcloud

New Marconi Union

I love Marconi Union.  I have ever since their first album , Under Wires and Searchlights.  So I like to notify folks any time they have a new release.

Their new record is Anomic, which they recorded with Jah Wobble.  As with all MU music this is another fine album.  I stink at reviewing music so I'll just let the sample below speak for itself.

You can buy it here...
30hertz records

Marconi Union website here...
MU

BTW, a couple new mixes coming very soon.

Fixed links

Just a quick note to say that I fixed a bunch of bad links to old mixes.

Anything earlier than Feb of 2009 was questionable.  So I went back & re-linked the mp3s.  Hopefully everything is in place.

Some of the really old files are hosted on Mediafire & hopefully those are still good.  If not please let me know so I can correct it.  Someday I'll replace all those old mediafire links with podbean links.

I've started using cinemagraphs for the pix on some posts.  I love the look of a good, subtle cinemagraph.  Do they work?  I know sometimes certain browsers don't load animated gifs well.  So if they don't work I'll stop using them.  Maybe I'll try to make my own someday.

infinite ambient

I usually keep different folders of music for different types of mixes.  I have a "sea" folder.  And one called "dub & stuff."  Another is "piano."  And of course several "Sunday morning" folders as well.

The folder for this mix was called "just plain old good ambient."  And that's a pretty darn good description of this mix.  There's no special theme or concept other than the fact that these cuts are all excellent ambient tunes.

The mix has a classic sound, classic feel.  However, only one track is old - that's the Aphex Twin song.  I love how the cuts flow together, making it a perfect mix for sleeping if you use these mixes like I do.  I can also see listening to this while sitting on the front steps watching the sun set(unfortunately now instead of my nice farm across the street I have a subdivision of McMansions :(

Five or six of the tracks in this mix came from Bandcamp, which I love for buying music & discovering new things via collections.  I really have to control myself when I'm on that site or I'd be spending all sorts of money.  My collection there is not really that large, partly because I really don't buy as much ambient music as I used to.  If you're interested, here's a link to my Bandcamp collection... Dave's Collection

Enjoy the mix!


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Marsen Jules Trio - Œillet Parfait
• 04:34    Harold Budd - Jane 8
• 09:20    Caught in the Wake Forever - Chopin's 2 Nocturnes op. 48 no. 2 in F sharp minor
• 11:22    Taylor Deupree - Shutter
• 16:45    Aphex Twin - stone in focus
• 23:00    Dakota Suite - Things We Lost Along the Way (Loscil remix)
• 27:20    Maps & Diagrams - Utgores
• 29:15    Infinite Coil - Transmit 2
• 32:40    Unrecognizable Now - Two Rooms - One
• 39:50    Wouter Veldhuis - Side-effects of diversity
• 44:00    33 Bowls - Morning
• 46:00    Slow Dancing Society - After Twilight Takes Us
• 50:40    Ten and Tracer - By Twirling the Strong History
• 56:35    Cyber Zen Sound Engine - Mottomo Kodokuna Basho
• 1:00:00    end

Infinite ambient by Lowlight on Mixcloud

a leaf on the wind - field recordings & ambience 2013

The title pretty much says it all - this mix is a field recording mix.  I think I've done 3 field mixes in the past but haven't done one in a long time.  So I thought it was time for another sonic exploration.

The track that got me thinking about doing a new field mix was "El Divisader" by Chris Watson from the excellent "El Tren Fantasma" album.  Really a phenomenal track.

The mix starts with some church bells that I slowed down & messed with, then we get the Chris Watson track and from there the mix uses a variety of artists a field recordings to make an interesting(I hope) journey through various sonic landscapes.

I'm not going publish a formal tracklist because there is just too much stuff going on to keep track of. There are lots of other sounds and recordings mixed through out this collage.  Some are mine, some are just random things I found.  I hope it all flows well together.


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This is a list of the artists, and approximate times, that have tracks appearing for more a few seconds:

03:35  Chris Watson - el divisadero
10:30  Forrest Fang -  home in exile
15:00  Vangelis - Nocturnal Rain
18:00  David Chapman - an east wind through bomb ballistics and lab 2
21:00  Collin Thomas - blackjack afternoon
31:30  Moniek Darge - solstice sample
35:00  Rapoon - Melancholic Songs of the Desert
38:30  Chris Dooks - For Wolfgang Voight
40:00  Field Rotation - watermusic
45:20  Simon Scott - sealevel.6
50:00  Chris Dooks - Sola
53:45  Linda Aubry Bullock - near

There are lots of other sounds and recordings mixed through out this collage.  Some are mine, some are just random things I found.  I hope it all flows well together.

Enjoy.

A leaf on the wind - field recordings 2013 by Lowlight on Mixcloud