The Top 25 Tracks of 2013: 1-10

Alright here we go. 10 to 1. 0 to 60.  Back to front. Moms and dads. 

(Again not all of these were on Spotify so you'll have to click the links for the ones in blue.)

• 10. Nils Frahm - Says - Brian Eno's Big Ship used to be my go-to for huge, epic sounding ambient that made any normal day seem like the last hours you would spend on Earth. Now Says has taken the torch on that one.

• 9. Close - My Way ft. Joe Dukie - Simple, short, and sweet. You don't need flashy effects when the core elements already sound so good. This one was on repeat for weeks.

• 8. Darkside – Golden Arrow - Darkside is Nicolas Jaar's new project with his friend Dave on guitar. Jaar is a master of dynamics and uncommon builds. Add in some choice guitar licks and you have one juicy piece of music. Let this one fill up the room. The video is pretty badass too.
• 7. Tessela - Nancy’s Pantry - This one is unruly.  It sounds like nothing else in 2013.  It feels underground in that it is so different from your typical dance music formula and yet it is eminently danceable.  I see it being an anthem to a huge basement party for the Occupy crowd.
• 6. Foxygen – No Destruction - Sure you could track down and buy a bunch of exquisite vintage gear and hire some knowledgeable producer to record your would-be 60's psychedelic album, but at some point you'd need to play those instruments and make real music. What sets Foxygen apart is their ability to master both - the music and the sound. If someone played this for me blind I would not be surprised at all if they said it was recorded in '68. This is really a placeholder for the whole album, No Destruction is just one of the more fun, whacky tracks off of it.
• 5. Disclosure – Help Me Lose My Mind ft. London Grammar - I'm not one for singing along to songs, but your better believe I was testing out the pipes on this one.
• 4. Dirty Projectors – Socialites (Joe Goddard Remix) - Joe Goddard consistently puts together well-rounded tracks that make you want to play them over and over. The muted intro and steady build made this one my go-to for leaving the office and re-entering the madness that is New York City.
• 3. Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal - Hopkins has spent most of his career creating moody, ambient albums rather than dance music and you can tell. The songs on Immunity are long explorations into simple grooves that are in no rush to pull any gimmicky bass drops or cameo appearances. They kind of just grab you by the ears and say, 'hey look at this.' That being said, there is a lot of energy here and the album is a ton of fun to listen to while you yourself are in motion - on the train, running, biking whatever. Open Eye Signal captures that well and made a lot of Best Of lists as a result.
• 2. Jim James – State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U) - This song came out around the time New York was dealing with the reality of Hurricane Sandy's devastation. It was insane. Everywhere below 39th St. in Manhattan, which might as well be the center of the modern universe, was dark - unable to function. ("I mean it, the powers goin out). People lost so much: TVs, rugs, whole homes, tragically even fellow family members. When you go through something that traumatic it makes you more grateful for the things that truly matter in life. You start to question all the things that you thought were important ("state of the art technology, supposed to make for better living"). What does it give us anyway? ("Are we better human beings?"). State of the Art felt like someone pulling back the curtains reminding us that we are merely human despite our best efforts to distract ourselves into thinking we are more.

• 1. Rhye - Open - This one speaks for itself.

Thanks for reading folks. Godspeed in 2014.

image: forgotten-hopes

Like Riding a Bike

 

For those of us who like a good bicycle ride.

Originally made for my brother's morning commute,

this has equal parts motivation, fun and patience.

1. Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - Shake It Out
   Throw some gear in your backpack or basket and let's go...
2. Amadou & Mariam - Dougou Badia (ft. Santigold)
   Best played loud.
3. Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It
4. Buddy Holly - Slipping and Sliding (Jacques Renault Remix)
   The part of urban biking that gets me is the feeling of gracefully sliding in between the immobile skyscrapers and slow pedestrians.  It's like you've discovered a better way to travel and everyone else is still asleep.  It's fun to cruise around, look up at the buildings and see how the daylight changes from street to street.  These next three songs go well with that feeling of awe.
5. Air Waves - Knockout
6. Flume - Sleepless (feat. Anthony for Cleopatra)
   At first this will sound like just another instrumental hip hop track, but the tension and build up lead to an all-encompassing outro where vocal samples are coming from all angles.  Great stuff.
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dance, Dance, Dance
   Yeah that's right, I put a Chili Peppers song on this playlist.  I wouldn't normally put this much bubblegum on the blog, but I happen to put this on when I was biking home from Mt. Tabor at sunset and it just FIT.  Best going downhill so you can feel the wind on your face.
8. SBTRKT - Pharaohs
   Somehow London's Aaron Jerome managed to squeeze two of the most fun tracks of 2011 on his selftitled album.  I almost didn't put it on here, because I didn't want anyone dancing so hard they don't notice that truck heading right for them.  You're on your own.
9. High Contrast - Racing Green
   Now you're not going to want to listen to this when it starts, but give it time and you'll soon be cutting off taxis running red lights.  The genius of High Contrast is that he hooks you with emotion rather than aggression like most Drum 'n Bass artists. He almost tricks you into becoming a DnB fan.
10. The Winstons - Amen, Brother
    When you get hired as a bike messenger they give you a Walkman
    with Amen, Brother and Sea Groove on it.
11. Big Boss Man - Sea Groove
12. Youth Lagoon - Daydream
    How can you have a bad day and listen to this song?  Man I feel like I just had a picnic with my sweetheart and now we're biking home in tweed on a Saturday in June.  Sheesh.
13. LCD Soundsystem - All I Want
    For those long rides alone.

 
Links
------------
Interview with Brendt Barbur, Founder of the Bicycle Film Fest
NYC to get largest bike-share effort in the country
Copenhagenize (pre-eminent bike blog)
Support NYC Bike Efforts
Reasons to bike to work
Bowery Lane Bicycles
Extraordinary Paths
NYC Bike Maps

Friends can message me for a download.

image: Design Sponge and Regular Basis

Happy Weekend

   
Here are some gems that I couldn't wait to share. 
They work well with a giddy weekend vibe.

1. Tycho - A Walk
   Tycho released his much anticipated new album Dive this month.  With these seven new tracks (and three re-releases) Scott Hansen breathes new life into his sun-drenched, Northern California wonderland.  You can't say this sound comes from the Haight & Ashbury 60's, because it's far too optimistic and perfect to be rooted in reality.  It's more like the soundtrack to your memories of a perfect day on the Mendocino coast.  I love a good album opener and A Walk delivers.  This is the best intro I've heard since the Secret Machines'   Alone, Jealous and Stoned.
2. Real Estate - It's Real
   The new surf rock of New Jersey's Real Estate returned this month with Days.  RE really gets me, because you can listen to their whole albums straight through and then easily decide to do it again.  I wish they had released Days on tape so it could be that album that never left my car's tape deck player - a perfect go-to that is creative and laid-back but not without it's sing-a-longs (see It's Real).
3. Os Mutantes - Bat Macumba
   The next time I come back from a particularly fruitful banana picking adventure, I'm going to load up my old wheelbarrow and throw this on.  The bass sounds like a rubber band.
4. Daphni - Yes, I Know
   I could never really get into Caribou, but Daniel Victor Snaith's side project, Daphni, has my full attention.  Snaith picks his samples wisely: a soulful chorus, native chants and tribal drummings - then he arranges and tweaks them in the true Caribou fashion to make an utterly timeless piece of music that is as much for your body as it is for you head.

 

MFNW - Day Four

Typhoon in Pioneer Square

Saturday
Explosions in the Sky
The Antlers
Typhoon
Eluvium

Portland's Living Room was the perfect setting to experience the instrumental post-rock of Explosions in the Sky and the big-picture ambient droning of Eluvium.  Pioneer Courthouse Square is a brick covered park in downtown Portland that is surrounded by skyscrapers and constant city life.  

If you bought a wristband to MusicFest NW you were able to go to every club show and one of the big three shows (Iron & Wine, Band of Horses and Explosions).  Having seen Band of Horses before (excellent) and being not so enthused about I&W's newest release I opted to see Explosions in the Sky again given the urban setting.  The fact that you had to put some thought into going to this show meant that everyone there really did want to see one of these bands.  You could tell this type of crowd could get into emotionally charged power chords and maybe even a Friday Night Lights episode or two.

Can you count how many people are wearing feathers in their caps?

I have been a big fan of Matthew Cooper's ambient releases as Eluvium for a long time.  Ambient music requires a certain setting and the listener to be in certain mood in order for it not to sound like overhyped nonsense.  Don't click on these links and expect to immediately "get it".  Don't even try to listen.  Instead I encourage you to listen to something like Indoor Swimming at the Space Station  as you go to sleep tonight.  Eluvium excels at transferring emotion and atmosphere into long pieces that truly transport the listener to a different level of consciousness.  Time seems to slow down and reality is observed rather than experienced.  I believe they call it "an out of body experience."
   Going to an ambient concert is bizarre in that nothing much happens in the way of visuals but yet there is an incredible layering of sound for your brain to process.  Eluvium's Matthew Cooper (Portland via Kentucky) came on stage in a humble manner, picked up his guitar and slowly hypnotized everyone in attendance.  It didn't make sense at first, but once he had looped a few guitar lines without you noticing, the streetcar that could be seen over the venue wall slowed down and the sun on the skyscrapers turned a little more orange as their shadows shifted to the right.  By the time Cooper finished Underwater It Glowed I had to shake my head to remember where I was.  He played a few gentle piano pieces like Radio Ballet that didn't quite hit home for me like they do on the album.  He ended by looping a dark, sustained piano tone to the point where it absorbed every other sound. 
  And then it stopped.

Typhoon huddle up before the show.

Oregon native Typhoon was next up.  Kyle Morton could put on an interesting singer-songwriter show all by himself but he takes it to the next level by inviting 12 or 13 ragtag musicians to bounce through his serious harmonies with him.  I was getting hints of Arcade Fire.  Two synchronized drummers made the live show pretty fun to watch and the band has a clear chemistry on stage as if they're delighted to be together let alone playing to a big audience.
   The Antlers play some version of post-rock that I never care to listen to again.  Too many bad hairdos and I'm sure there's some street performing drummer that could have done a better job in the percussion department.  Although there was a cool moment when a fire truck drove by with its siren blaring and surprisingly, instead of ruining the music it went perfectly with the sparse, distorted guitars and moody keys.  

Explosions in the Sky playing that one song where the running back beats that one tackle only to turn around and see his girlfriend necking with the new kid in the bleachers.

The guys in Explosions have clearly been seeing some success.  They know which songs people have played on repeat late at night while they waited for sunrise or walked by that one swing set.  First Breath After Coma and Your Hand In Mine definitely steal the show.  They also have somewhat of a light show that adds to the "epic" effect.  

Seeing them again reminds me why they were so cool to begin with.  They play conventional rock instruments in a different manner entirely.  Instead of simply picking a rock beat, drummer Chris Hrasky will do a build up on the cymbals to set the scene and then fire off machine gun snares.  Basic song structures are nowhere to be found and stories are told through quiet periods (there were literally a few moments of complete silence) and suspenseful, quick passages.  Long before Friday Night Lights hit the small screen EITS evoked the stark desolation of small Texas towns (its home state).  Yet despite this bleak setting their is a sense that change can occur, that there are bigger players at work here....that there is hope.
  

Musicfest Northwest wraps up under a harvest moon.

Images: Noel

MFNW Preview

 

All my new-playlist-digging time has been devoted to biking around to different shows at Music Fest Northwest this week.  (Think Austin's SXSW, but smaller and with more moustaches.)  Now I don't see this blog as a music journalism site, but when an expertly curated music festival happens to occur in your city and you find yourself blogging about music, then well, I guess you should at least mention the highlights. 

All that and more is still to come, because the Fest is only getting started (it began on Wednesday), but in the meantime here are some well-crafted songs that I have come across while sifting through the largely underground lineup.

 Celilo - Baroque Blues myspace

 Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard

Typhoon - The Sickness Unto Death/The Honest Truth (first video)

The Heligoats - Goodness Gracious 
and Glass of Water (second video)
 

p.s. If you have time look at the Willamette Week's write-up on each artist.  They manage to capture each act's essence, history and hook in a few sentences.  Excellent reporting.