More to Say
As some of you already noticed I have launch my page on soundcloud. So, from now on I’ll put some stuff I make there as well as I post them to Listening Room. Actually I’ll use soundcloud more for my dj mixes since it is more accessible.
I’m also starting a new mix series called “Sense Of Sensible” on RBMA radio this month. My initial plan was to stick to post series here but this way it will be much better because the show will be monthly and you know how punctual I am about this page. So watch this space for news about the show.
Anyway, for those of you living in Istanbul and still don’t think that going out in winter is a depressing activity I’ll be mashing up discofunksoulhiphop together at Gizli Bahce on Friday night and will be spinning more deep also Detroit stuff before and after Jimmy Edgar at Ghetto on Saturday Night. So, see you later this week.
Welcome back to 2000
It’s the fifth day of 2010 and we are kicking into some icy weather here in Istanbul. So I thought it was an opportune time to sit and write a new post since we’ll hit 16 degrees soon. I have no will to make a rewind list for best music of 2009 and still think it’s quite boring to force myself to arrange some album/EP names which you’ve already seen million times. In actual fact I don’t even have enough albums to review, I think I can only be able to make 2009 list in 2011 or so. Last year was more of an EP year for me, though I got amazing records by artists like David Sylvian, Moritz von Oswald Trio, Mike Keneally, Trus’me, MF Doom, 2562, Juju & Jordash and Ryuichi Sakamoto. So far I’ve only listened to the albums few times and need more time to devour them.
I’m not sure if there was something kind of special about 2009, but musically speaking it was another unpredictable year in all genres. Actually the whole decade was unpredictable in its entirety – emerging technologies, rapid changes in world economy, altered social movements… All in all they made everything change so fast that as a result the way we perceive music has become ephemeral. I have never been a massive fan of pointing how fast we consume everythin, but I seriously think that we’ll never have enough of trends, hypes and fashion. At some point the music media has to pump certain things on the surface and forget about them next day to keep their masses excited. This is what happened to IDM, Kompakt, minimal techno/house or space disco in the last decade. The last toy is dubstep and we’ll see how long it’s gonna take until they tag it as boring which has already started actually.
Anyway, without a second thought the past decade was the golden era of new and emerging music genres/styles. Earth-shattering technologies have triggered big changes in music production at the end of 90’s and together with the great developments in audio hardware/software; the appearance of new ideas has increased substantially. As such a seminal turning point, the year 2000 is well worth a look back. So I whipped up a list by re-checking some of my favorite music from that year.
• Auch – Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (Force Inc. Music Works)
• Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Sunset Mission (Wonder)
• Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players – Just Landed (~scape)
• Château Flight – Puzzle (Versatile)
• D’Angelo – Voodoo (EMI)
Neo Soul: hate it or love it, there is the fact I believe the artists who can be labeled as Neo Soul are making much more interesting music than today’s other modern R&B acts. Though, the style is kind of invisible on mainstream level, there were some albums made major impact on charts. Just like D’Angelo’s Voodoo which is an album that provides enough material for being pop while achieves to exhibit different styles like jazz, funk or hip hop and combines them perfectly. Other thing I really fancy about late 90’s and early 2000’s Neo Soul records is there is this wide range of dynamics gives a great listening pleasure on high volume, not like today’s poor, squashed and loud R&B hits.
• Dettinger – Oasis (Kompakt)
Another sound I really miss: Kompakt’s good old ambient records. Oasis is the peak point of a kind of ambient music that combines both Chain Reaction style cold-atmosphere and shoegaze aesthetic. It’s definitely a music for the winter, yet it really fits to the mood of blurry early mornings or late-late nights. I think it’s never been more than 3 months I survived without listening to the album since the time I bought it. Hence, I can say that the record is quite addictive. Even though the layers are pretty repetitive and music is simple, it is incredibly hypnotic and truly brilliant.
• Dj Rolando – Jaguar (430 West)
• Eyvind Kang – The Story Of Iceland (Tzadik)
Eyvind Kang is one talented musician, he has worked with different names like Mr. Bungle, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, just to name a few. He is also pushing boundaries and creating different musics. This is an epic album that I enjoyed listening to when I was travelling with trains. Music is quite unique; it feels like it delivers a marvelous journey through an imaginary source. Can be considered as cinematic listening since the music slowly goes around a theme with variations which encompassed by engrossing soundscapes and medieval-like atmosphere.
• Gas – Pop (Mille Plateaux)
What a great year 2000 was for innovative ambient music. There are many similar music is out there right now, but back then it was kind of thrilling to have a music made with new approach. This record can really be described as typical Gas, yet it’s my favorite one among the other albums. The reason is I hear different sounds and visualize different images every time I listen to it. One scrumptious thing about Gas’ music; it’s hard to focus on individual sounds, mostly because of Wolfgang Voigt’s unique mixing and production techniques. Therefore it gives different pleasure or takes you to different places with each listening. It’s difficult to define the music when it comes to the feelings and the situation is not getting any easier here because it just sounds like a natural flow.
• Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven! (Constellation)
• Kid606 – Soccergirl EP (Carpark Records)
Kid606 is best known for his hardcore beats with mind blowing angry noises, but here’s a little exception. Though I’m not a fan of all his works, I really love his softer side. The albums he released on Mille Plateaux were genuinely good and I can say the same for this overlooked EP. It may not be his most original sounding work, because sonically it reminds of the time when first electronic ambient music emerged. However, the atmosphere that sequences make provides a delicate and almost a poetic line of beauty.
• Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Ninja Tune)
• Luomo – Vocalcity (Force Tracks)
This album was my first introduction to Sasu Ripatti and the whole Force Tracks label. It was the time when minimal or micro house was still tied to roots of house music. Though the tracks on the album have very groovy bass lines and a fluent structure, they probably can’t be perceived as dance-floor-ish by today’s young clubbers. The title is quite illustrative of what dominates the album and that is the soulful vocal lines. Sung in laid back style with simple lyrics, vocals get more intimate with the wise use of dub-like delay and reverb effects. If the track lengths weren’t about 12-13 minutes or the whole production wasn’t built in textural atmosphere, Vocalcity could easily be described as pop music but it soars high into some sonic ether that is too original to fit into any genre.
• Moodymann – Forevernevermore (Peacefrog)
• MRI – Rhythmogenesis (Force Tracks)
Oh, I can’t tell you how I miss Force Tracks. It was the time when we were actually waiting for the label to release next stuff and getting excited for it. I truly relied on their taste when they put an EP or album out. Now it looks, those times were kind of magical. Anyway, Rhythmogenesis is another fascinating example of early minimal-dub-house just like Luomo’s Vocalcity. I don’t know if it has become my obsession by the years to determine Basic Channel influence whenever I hear delayed chords in plain 4/4 texture but there are some moments I feel the same on this album. Not in a bad way, of course; MRI takes the influence to someplace else where staccato samples chops with melodic notes and some disco flavor.
• Pan•American – 360 Business / 360 Bypass (Blast First)
I can easily state this album as one of my favourites of all time. Quirky drones, ice-cold loops, gloomy soundscapes and fragile melodies; all is drawn together in a manner that can be only achieved by an artist like Mark Nelson. Back in the day, it wasn’t really common to come across music production quite like this: traditional use of real instruments in a context where both influences from minimal dubby techno and drone rock take place. 360 Business / 360 Bypass also provides a wide sonic space that combines the aspects of given styles in a way which wasn’t truly explored before.
• Pan Sonic – Aaltopiiri (Blast First)
I think one of the best concert experiences I’ve had was when I went to Pan Sonic’s gig soon after they released this album. Aaltopiiri is a bit different than duo’s other albums; it’s not really noisy or exhausting. It’s the very opposite actually; textures are really tidy that makes the listening experience very intense. Even though it’s filled with mechanic electronic signals and noises, emotions are kind of attached to the tracks which draws a great picture of urban human life.
• St Germain – Tourist [Blue Note]
It might be the favorite record of Lounge Café/Bars during the first half of the last decade; Tourist is a milestone in the history of fusion of jazz and electronic music. The album has many hits, even the mainstream ones but I don’t think there is any track on the album is below the average; the production at its best, everything’s well arranged and the most important is the mixture between genres is no faked up synthesis. It’s still a great album to play from beginning to end, especially on Sunday evenings.
• Super Furry Animals – Mwng (Placid Casual Recordings)
• Sutekh – Periods.Make.Sense (Force Inc. Music Works)
How cool experimental-minimal/click techno was back in early 2000’s, it had everything that it lacks today: mysterious ambience, interesting clicks and cuts, driving basslines which wasn’t necessarily written for dance floor and so on. Before the wide use of vst plug-ins there wasn’t many works in this class, however it has become less and less interesting with excessive use of micro sounds. It was actually tagged as experimental in so many reviews but after some point heavy beats kick into the music. Though the whole micro-click-glitch triangle is out of sight now, Periods.Make.Sense still sounds fresh.
• Sutekh & Twerk – Deadpan Escapament Reconstructed (Context)
• Soulphiction – Bust Me (Perlon)
• The Necks – Hanging Gardens (Fish of Milk)
• Vladislav Delay – Multila (Chain Reaction)
• William Ørbit – Pieces In A Modern Style [Maverick]
Sublime Porte Podcast #2
Here’s my Beto Narme mixtape i recorded for Sublime Porte’s blog. I’m not really good at labeling genres, but it’s somewhere between dubstep and techno. It contains some of my favorite heavy bass sounds from old-school to future classics. You can listen to it via player below. For direct download switch to here.
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Lagrange Points I
Derivate’s “Lagrange Points I” is released on Sublime Porte last weekend. In this project of Ismail Genc, he delivers some serious deep and warm chords encompassed by broken beats. I also have a remix on the EP, so go grab one since the label offers free download.
Ismail Genc’s most recent offering Derivate comes on the heels of his Havantepe project where he created dubby circles in techno. This time around the Istanbulite derives new approaches from emerging musical ideas in a bid to combine them in his distinctive style.
The title of the EP comes from the locations in space where gravitational forces and the orbital configuration of an object balance each other. There are five Lagrangian Points in the Sun-Earth system numbered from L1 to L5 and of the five points, three are unstable and two are stable. L1, L2 and L3 constitute unstable equilibrium points and the tracks on this first part of Lagrangian Points EP’s are named after them.
On these four tracks you are invited to experience a dreamy techno space, filled with human emotions and shattered beats. Inspired by some dubstep elements, Derivate delivers three tracks of dub-tech-based minimal grooves and Tufan Demir’s Beto Narme strips down L2 and appends more dubstep edge to it with sharp rhythms.
Beto Narme
I haven’t made much headway on new music productions but the EP I’ve been making for Sublime Porte will be out before the next year. Beto Narme is one of my new guises, yet it’s not exactly a recent project. It has been on the table since Sublime Porte was launched, however, I put the tracks together just recently. Even though the overall appearance of music is not very similar to the stuff they’ve been releasing, it has lots of dub techno elements within the sound. I don’t know how to depict it sonically, but it is in somewhere between tech-house and dubstep. (sounds ropey, huh?) Anyway, the next release of the label is Derivate’s “Lagrange Points I” and it consists of a remix of mine under my Beto Narme moniker.
Train Wreck Mix – Volume 4
I recorded the fourth mix of my Train Wreck series few months ago, the selection contains the tracks that I played the most at Gizli Bahçe during the summer. Click here to listen to it.
Playlist
Moodymann – Shades Of Jae (Part II) – KDJ
LoSoul – Remember Your History – Playhouse
M.D.3. – The Pressure Cooker (DJ Sneak Remix) – P&D
Tiger & Woods – Time – Editainment
Da Sunlounge – No Turning Back – Myna
Chez Damier – KMS 049 – KMS
Andy Vaz – Back To Square One – Yore
Dennis DeSantis – Five Minutes.. (Trevor Loveys Mix) – Third Ear
International Pony – A New Bassline For Jos – Skint
Ghettofunk – What Ya Want – Lawn Dogs
Pepe Bradock – 5550 – Versatile
I:Cube – Rhythm Track – Versatile
Aardvarck – Kutwell – Rush Hour
Back On the Horse
Alright, months have passed since the last update but it’s not so late to catch up.
It was another long-hot-boring summer here in Istanbul, but musically speaking I had the pleasure of seeing some of my biggest influences on stage, and those names were Larry Heard, Theo Parrish and Maurice Fulton. If you’ve seen any of these legends spinning behind the decks, you already know how incredible DJ’s they are. Larry Heard played at The Hall on RBMA’s club night, I consider myself lucky to be on stage before him and to do the warm up set for the night. His set was like a history lesson for house music, skillfully blended mixture of old and future classics. He dropped his timeless tune “Can You Feel It” at the end of the night and sung over the track, here are some snippets from the moment:
30 Patterns
Here’s the video of a track which is actually called ” This One Is Just 30 Patterns But a Blue Rose Case Inside” that i made ages ago. The video is created by my friend Çınar Çulfaz for his final project of school. As you can tell from other posts as well, we don’t really do so much if the school don’t force us to do something. Blame the education system of Turkey!
Sensible Sucker – 30 Patters
Together is the new arrow (no pun)
Elections are over, no one is satisfied with the results which is a quite typical aftermath-reaction in Turkey. I won’t reach any outcome here, sorry, i have to articulate that I’m not the biggest fan of this system that never seems working properly. What i extremely hate is the chaotic arrangements of promotions they provide everywhere at least for 1 month before the elections. I really need someone to tell me that what kind of constitution let this things happen and how can they have those rights to rape a city’s life for weeks with the money coming from x-budget!?!. If someone chosen assign a rule against flag orgies and sonic disturbance in the streets (fat chance!), sure I’ll vote for him/her forever. All those hideous posters, flags and their friends are gone with the elections, Istanbul is still ugly, but less dirty.
I’m stuck with the recording sessions, endless compositions & arrangements and field recordings for a while, I’m huddling all the stuff together that i created for Sensible Sucker project since 2005. I’ll give more details when i come near the end of process.
Okay, it’s been pretty hectic when this occupation combined with school’s final project but I’m running off to States for a short time. I’ll, also, play there at a party in Brooklyn along with ex-Istanbul-er fellow Taylan and some other artists, you can check the details on flyer below.
I’ll play at Gizli Bahçe on 18 & 25th of April and share the stage with Dave Clark at Indigo on 24th of April when i come back to Istanbul. Hope to see you there!
I can’t find any headline
As I’m swamped in final projects that I have to finish for graduating from school, I’m pretty much interested to write for my blog again. So I’ll briefly inform you about the things that I was planning to mention when I goofed off all day before I was busy, also some new topics, as well.
Sublime Porte’s Havantepe released an ep called Winterschlaf as label’s third net release few months ago. Just like his previous works, this one delivers unique sounding deep and dubby dream-scapes in calmed techno territories. My favourite is Hybernate which is an ambient track driven by deep layered chords, also remixed by Dubatech in 4/4 beats. Both artists, also, participates on split 10″ that is released by Baum Records. Check “Baum Limited Picture Edition 002”, download “Winterschlaf” and visit Havantepe’s brand new official page.
Punkt Music which was one of the influential labels that led me into djing is defunct now. I found about the truth when I wondered and checked the label’s page to see if they had any new releases coming up. I’m not saddened in a way, actually. Well the reason is they kind of managed to create great catalogue without being trendy and cheesy. The range of style the label put was a bit wide but always in high-quality. I’m still playing their old records from time to time and I guess it’s time for revisiting again. I loved the text on label’s page now:
I found this great coloring comic on George Clinton’s page, there are 6 pages of funkadelic flash based comics that can be colored also printed!!!
This is the most creative thing I’ve ever seen on youtube. The music sucks a bit, but the idea (video/game) is absolute fantastic.
After I posted my first Sense Of Sensible mix, I came across (free) mixes fractured, transformed and restructured by Thavius Beck for celebrating Mush Records’ tenth year. You can get the link for download here.
Tonight, I’ll be playing some disco grooves at Gizli Bahçe and I’ll be spinning before Audiojack at Indigo tomorrow. Come down if you want to leave tedious and rainy Istanbul behind for some hours.
+ I’d like to share this page that I started to spend so much time in it again. It is called Audiotool and kind of flash based workstation which comprised of some emulation of old school tools such as TR-909, TR-808 and TB-303. Well, it is flash and controlling is a bit deficient sometimes but sounds almost as good as the plug-ins that does the same job and it’s definitely the best one I’ve ever tried on a web browser.
Why Hip Hop Sucks In ‘96
I couldn’t come upon with any better headline than “Why Hip Hop Sucks In ‘96″, ironically, the title (which is a nifty interlude from Dj Shadow’s 1996-album “Endtroducing…”) defines something which is completely insignificant if we compare today’s hip hop music with the 90’s good old records. To be honest, I was a big fan of rap and other forms of hip hop music back in 90’s: from old school to softened Mtv hits, there was always good spirit on the tracks. (Well, let’s say most of the time) I’m no hip hop expert for sure, but as far as I can see hip hop -as one of today’s biggest selling genres- has lost its charming presence on the mainstream level.
I guess I’ve stopped listening to popular hip hop music around the time when Jennifer Lopez started to collaborate with well known rappers at the beginning of the century, however, there is a fact that today’s situation is no healthier than that, actually it’s much worse. I can’t even stand hearing any of those musics when I encounter them on TV or radio by mistake. It’s obvious that patrons of the music business don’t want rappers to express difficulties of today’s world since majority of listeners won’t be willing to buy it. Rather, they’d like to hear how many bitches they screwed and watch how many expensive cars they show on the videos. Beside the lyrics, I don’t find most of the beats interesting, either. Maybe they sound fatter on car stereos but lost the funkiness in a way.
While mainstream hip hop remains as a pretty awful genre, there is a lot of creativity takes place on the underground. So many different styles of hip hop have emerged in the last decade and there are still many rappers representing the spirit of the times when hip hop was developed by the aim of giving messages. … Alright, I wasn’t planning to complain about mainstream or analyze the genre; as a matter of fact, the very reason I wanted to give some thoughts about hip hop was to build an introduction to a hip hop mix I made few years ago. But since the topic has come to this point, I’d like to recommend some underground hip hop albums that were released in the last few years, too.
Black Milk – Popular Demand [Fat Beats, 2007]
Cyne – Starship Utopia [Project Mooncircle, 2008]
Dabrye – Two/Three [Ghostly International, 2006]
Guilty Simpson – Ode To The Ghetto [Stones Throw, 2008]
Headset – Spacesettings [~scape, 2004]
MF Doom – MM..Food [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2004]
Prince Po – The Slickness [Lex Records, 2004]
Quasimoto – The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas [Stones Throw, 2005]
Thavius Beck – Thru [Mush, 2006]
Wildchild - Jack Of All Trades [Fat Beats, 2007]
Tufan Demir – Sense Of Sensible Mix 01
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About the mix;
I decided to put some mixes that show different influences on the project Sensible Sucker, before I’ve launched this page, but typically I forgot to accomplish it. Anyway, I compiled this mix which consists of beats, breaks and hip hop in 2007 and it was broadcasted on my friend Kez YM’s Chill Size Radio around that time. You can also download it if you don’t like to listen to it from the application above.
Stars Of The Lid
Since i’ve started to open “2008″ case, i should put everything that I’d meant to write down last year but never got around to. An article about Marvel’s X-Factor will be up in next weeks, i just wanted to wait until the last adventure ends. But now, i am sharing a video which is said to be a teaser of Stars of the Lid feature film. To be honest, i can’t really figure what really is that movie, however, it looks pretty cool and thrilling.
I’ve also found a NYC subway ad campaign which features the band’s “A Meaningful Moment Through A Meaning(less)” from their beautiful album “And Their Refinement Of The Decline“, can be seen below;
Train Wreck Mix – Volume 3
Alright, before a new one of this series comes up, i should probably give this link for the last one i recorded on november. I, also, took a part on Red Bull Music Academy’s page in the news section last december; click Bosporus Boogie to read it.
here’s the playlist;
Linkwood – Fate – Firecracker
Andres – El Ritmo De Mi Gente! – Mahogani Music
Trusme – Drilling – Fat City
Black Jazz Consortium – Look To The Future – Soul People
KB Project – Feel It – Elevate
Jagged – Hello Kool Nice – Quintessentials
Motor City Drum Ensemble – Raw Cut 2 – MCDE
Myungho Choi – Lovin’ You Today – A Touch Of Class
Osborne – Ruling (Original Mix) – NRK
Consequential Theorists – What Do You Want – Plastic City
H.O.S.H – Under A Fig Tree – Diynamic
Sublime Porte – Charles Quint – Thirtyonetwenty
Then the morning claws
You can’t really expect a steady climate when you live in a city like Istanbul. You don’t rely on the season standards, so you never shelve your summer clothes to back of your wardrobe. It can sound pretty hideous for the people who affectionately have an obsession for cold monstrous snot dripping dark winter but I LOVE it. I really don’t give a darn if it doesn’t get cold here like some people do. In fact, I don’t think the feeling of waking up on the snowy pale winter morning can replace the pleasure of encountering the sun while you look blankly around in your warm room when you get off bed in the morning.
The sun I’m talking about the one we have these days in Istanbul, not the loathsome satanic one that comes out in August. So the new year has brung some great weather here, the number of days are not more than ten or eleven it’d been cold. I have no idea if it has anything to do with global warming, Cern or whatsoever; the thing troubling me is the time. Don’t you think that the earth is going round faster and faster every year or is it just a typical stage you start to realize when you draw close to age of 30? C’mon, it’s been only few days since the new year started, and we are already passed the first week of February? So, I’m right, the universe is moving faster, at least for the last decade.
(Note: This part was written almost 1 month ago, and it’s colder now)
This year, I just decided to not go back and rewind the year and put some better or best stuff to the lists, yet I’d like to thank you for some readers and friends who wanted me to make so. I just don’t have fun with that game any longer, and the worst thing is I don’t enjoy reading any reviews about music, movies and books anymore. I was thinking about any likely reason……and……..and…… it’s hard to say, not only the reason that I never thought that I should ever say it but, yeah, alright: I just started to hate internet. Not the internet itself, but the people who screwed every single page with their unsightly hateful, inattentive and disrespectful comments & reviews about anything they are allowed to write. It’s the same spirit which led me to decide not writing about the last year’s best records. Because almost every record which was released last year is there, placed on some list. So there is no need for me to repeat how great the Mogwai’s album was. (I know most of you hated it, though) Therefore, I’ve decided to write about the records (/ep’s) that I discovered in 2008, instead of the ones were released during last year.
Before dropping names to that list, I still want to draw some notes about 2008; contrary to some senseless top music critics, I liked lots of music in last year; either on records or on myspace. There are still lots of different music and inspiring artists out there and it’s quite easy to discover them (alright, I don’t hate internet that much) Needless to say that, dubstep was the most exciting musical movement for me last year; it just grows and splits into different directions with every release, I really enjoy it’s sub-style where chord based techno meets dubstep’s rhythmic formula. I think, the more it moves away from typical drum n bass form, it gets more interesting. There are some artists like 2562, Martyn, Benga, TRG or T++ produced amazing ep’s that already pushed dubstep’s boundaries in a short time after the genre was emerged.
It wasn’t a big surprise that house music hunted down the club scene after reaching its popularity again since people lost their interest in dreaded minimal tunes. I’m quite happy with this situation actually, but there is a fact that a lot of dull and soulless house music is around now. It, also, astonishes me how fast some club crowds change their taste in according with the trends. I know some clubs where you couldn’t play “slow” house tracks to lose crowd’s attention before (not the clubs in Turkey, you can never play slow house here, unless you wanna hear “hey dj, can you play something hard and heavy) however they like it now. Some of them have even put their minimal scarves out. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with minimal, in fact I play lots of minimal house…, well anyway, house (or some call it as modern-house?!?) is getting played in techno clubs now, that’s totally ermmsome!
OKAY, it’s time for some list.
Steel An’ Skin
Reggae Is Here Once Again [Em Records, 2008]
I’ve never been into Blur, Gorillaz or any band that Damon Albarn got involved in, but I appreciate him so much since I found out about “Honest Jon’s Records” some years ago because of him. The label released an ep of Steel An’ Skin last year, called “Afro Punk Reggae”, short after Honest Jon’s release, I discovered this album which is a collection of the band’s late 70 and early 80’s recordings. I’m so amazed by their songs and weird sound structures composed by steel drums. Dub based disco couldn’t be much sweeter than the song that has same name with the album. I searched but couldn’t find much about the band, except their appearance as the ex-members of 20th Century Steel Band, also they have been noted as Grand Master Flash’s favorite.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Tony Takitani [Commmons, 2007]
Sakamoto is a composer who doesn’t need no introduction. I’m not sure how I missed this record while we were in 2007, but I think it’s one of his most touchy works. What do you hear in the album is slightly familiar solo pianoscapes of Sakamoto; deep, atmospheric, intense and a bit melancholic (and sometimes a little jazzy). Actually, it’s a soundtrack of the movie “Tony Takitani” that is adapted from a short story by Haruki Murakami. Since I haven’t seen the movie I can’t say much about it, but the soundtrack is quite dramatic and the music can obtain to affect the listener on its own.
Slaraffenland
Private Cinema [Hometapes, 2007]
Slaraffenland is a band made me to listen to indie rock again which I wasn’t quite familiar since I-don’t-know-which year. Interesting thing about the band is their approach to song structure, I guess. What do they call it now? Post-rock, experimental-rock, math-rock, not-rock or whatever… Slaraffenland is quite good at constructing well-known guitar-based music in unknown paths while keeping it engaging. The mood of the album doesn’t change often, but a lot of different aspects of instruments come and go in a row; sometimes music becomes a bit noisy with agitated guitar noises joined by crunchy drum patterns, and sometimes it gets mellow with quiet chords accompanied by north-ic windy notes.
Harold Budd
Avalon Sutra [Samadhisound, 2004]
Considering the artwork of it, arabesque-ish name and the rumors about being his final work, I always avoided listening to this album in the past somehow. But “Avalon Sutra” is such a pleasant album. I believe there are not many composers can create such deep absorbing ambient textures like he does. I’m glad that I didn’t listen to the album when he said “I don’t mind disappearing” after it was released. The reason is; it is enclosed by ravishing melodies and sad atmosphere which can bring you to the point that you find out that you are about to cry. It’s sure one of his most emotional work; driven by piano and sparingly goes along with varied instruments and bring backs nostalgia over and over through the album.
Porter Ricks
Biokinetics [Chain Reaction, 1996]
I’ve decided to complete my Chain Reaction/Basic Channel collection when I was visiting Hard Wax and seeing those old records on the wall, last year. And I encountered this cd at some point and didn’t know about it before. I’ve become highly addicted to it right after putting it to the player. In general, it sounds like typical Chain Reaction style cold dark Berlin dub, but the little details and hypnotized loops help the album progress in a very deep direction. It’s splendid to see an album that is around more than a decade and still sounds fresh.
The rest of the list is below, in no particular order, without reviews;
Flat Earth Society – Isms [Ipecac, 2004]
Pub – Summer [Vertical Form, 1999]
Boogymann – Walk So Lonely [Superhuit, 2003]
Dj Premier – Haze Presents New York Reality Check 101 [Paydayffrr, 1997]
Dusko Goykovich – Soul Connection [Enja Records, 1993]
Eberhard Weber – Chorus [ECM Records, 1985]
Gemini – In My Head [Classic, 1998]
King Sunny Ade & His African Beats – Juju Music [Phonogram, 1982]
Roger Eno – Lost In Translation [Gyroscope, 1995]
Fariborz Lachini – Golden Autumn 3 [Lachini Media, 2006]
Sensible Inside
I just noticed that I’ve never mentioned about my project called “Sensible Sucker”, even though it’s the address of this page. So, Sensible Sucker is a modern electronic music project which I started around 2002 when IDM was living on its heyday. Despite the fact that the music was constructed by broken glitchy beats; it is mostly influenced by modern classical and ambient music. I didn’t really make a point of this project since composing takes so much time. Anyway, after I was invited to play in Frankfurt for an event during the Book Fair, I’ve chosen some of my tracks and re-arranged them for a live performance. I’ve put the recording of the mini-concert which was performed at Basis-Kunstverein two weeks ago, so you can download or listen to it below.
Sensible Sucker – Live at Basis-Kunstverein / Con tempo
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I’m going to touch down Germany again; I have a Dj gig tomorrow at Gewölbe im Westbahnhof & Westpol in Cologne. Last time when I played there it was mostly a house set, but I guess it will be a bit faster this time. So stop round if you are in Cologne. In the bargain, Havantepe and Rubsilent will play back to back set at Gizli Bahçe and Batu will be playing at Indigo along with Cess.
+ Sublime Porte’s track “Selam” took a part on the Ibiza Afterhour 2008 compilation!