What I'm listening to today: "Tiny Setup, HUGE Sound: Jungle with the PO-33 KO! + Monotron Delay", Pocket Trax
The Pocket Operator and Monotron Delay remain the bang-for-buck champions of the desktop synth world, "toy" devices that at one time retailed for $60-80 in the Guitar Center checkout line (…before inflation…) and pair beautifully.
This shockingly hard track shows just how far you can push these little PCBs. Lightspeed 12-bit drum & bass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlK_16Wal8
What I'm listening to today: "4 dollar casio sa5 processed through EQD avalanche run, afterneath and transmisser reverb", Anne Sulikowski
Gorgeous, slow ambient music composed live on [see above]. Time-lapse video of clouds over cliffs, a cat sleeping for nine hours, chunky kalimba echoing over brainfog. Three blocks away there is a cement mixer running, just at the edge of your hearing, far enough the acoustics of the street turn the grinding into soothing white noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5Oqd-JB-8
What I'm listening to today: "Dawless Dreamz #2", Glemii
Here Korg's long-forgotten ur-groovebox, the Electribe, does a duet with an actual Game Boy to create what the musician calls "ambient jungle". This is one minute long and feels fantastic, objects from the past breaking through the envelope of time to show a glimpse of the beautiful feature we deserve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxV5gk8Ac
What I'm listening to today: "Tiny Setup, HUGE Sound: Jungle with the PO-33 KO! + Monotron Delay", Pocket Trax
The Pocket Operator and Monotron Delay remain the bang-for-buck champions of the desktop synth world, "toy" devices that at one time retailed for $60-80 in the Guitar Center checkout line (…before inflation…) and pair beautifully.
This shockingly hard track shows just how far you can push these little PCBs. Lightspeed 12-bit drum & bass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlK_16Wal8
What I'm listening to today: "Bound For The Floor", Local H
Grunge is really good actually and there's some great gems if you look a layer or two deeper than the big 3 acts. This, from 1996, is a late (last?) gasp of "alternative rock" before slick acts like Creed and Matchbox 20 took over the space completely. It's a beautiful sustained single note, a monotone intonation, a hoarse, frustrated yell.
Supposedly this album is about how much it sucks to live in Illinois.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Oe5YKhzCE
What I'm listening to today: "Dawless Dreamz #2", Glemii
Here Korg's long-forgotten ur-groovebox, the Electribe, does a duet with an actual Game Boy to create what the musician calls "ambient jungle". This is one minute long and feels fantastic, objects from the past breaking through the envelope of time to show a glimpse of the beautiful feature we deserve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxV5gk8Ac
What I'm listening to today: "Citrus Cirrus", Muscises
It's hard for chiptune to surprise me at this point, but this surprised me. Impossible sounds coming out of the Sega Genesis sound-chip pair, funk music that has returned from the planet Jupiter with terrifying psychic powers, an evening drive in a convertible while the skyline of an impossible ruined city rises in the distance. A plausible soundtrack for your dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJcFmSRsP_Q
What I'm listening to today: "Bound For The Floor", Local H
Grunge is really good actually and there's some great gems if you look a layer or two deeper than the big 3 acts. This, from 1996, is a late (last?) gasp of "alternative rock" before slick acts like Creed and Matchbox 20 took over the space completely. It's a beautiful sustained single note, a monotone intonation, a hoarse, frustrated yell.
Supposedly this album is about how much it sucks to live in Illinois.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Oe5YKhzCE
What I'm listening to today: "End Of The Abyss | Erica Synths Steampipe + Perkons x Soma Cosmos | Drone Day 2025 Live Jam", Travis Benjamin Simpson
Evolves in a way which suggests internal narrative, a journey through a long dark pipe. This is intense, atmospheric, horror-movie music given an unusual color by the fact it is being performed in a bright, sunny backyard with a pink flamingo. Three boxes, two near-designed for ambient drone, but the third is…a drum machine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rowPfubpPp4
What I'm listening to today: "Citrus Cirrus", Muscises
It's hard for chiptune to surprise me at this point, but this surprised me. Impossible sounds coming out of the Sega Genesis sound-chip pair, funk music that has returned from the planet Jupiter with terrifying psychic powers, an evening drive in a convertible while the skyline of an impossible ruined city rises in the distance. A plausible soundtrack for your dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJcFmSRsP_Q
What I'm listening to today: Yoyaku instore session, Karla Böhm
Here is a Belgian DJ spinning an hourlong techno set in a record store in Paris. Chill deep house beats, slowly transitioning into French Touch over the course of the set. Great feeling throughout. I think this video was produced as promo for the store, as the camerawork is unusually professional for this sort of video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCt_JY--F78
What I'm listening to today: "End Of The Abyss | Erica Synths Steampipe + Perkons x Soma Cosmos | Drone Day 2025 Live Jam", Travis Benjamin Simpson
Evolves in a way which suggests internal narrative, a journey through a long dark pipe. This is intense, atmospheric, horror-movie music given an unusual color by the fact it is being performed in a bright, sunny backyard with a pink flamingo. Three boxes, two near-designed for ambient drone, but the third is…a drum machine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rowPfubpPp4
What I'm listening to today: "Funknitium-99", Fearofdark
This guy is a prolific Bandcamp/YouTube tracker musician, and here he pulls out some fusion funk with an immaculately crisp, clean energy. If you like the music in Sonic the Hedgehog levels listen to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvPBEJVwn8
What I'm listening to today: Yoyaku instore session, Karla Böhm
Here is a Belgian DJ spinning an hourlong techno set in a record store in Paris. Chill deep house beats, slowly transitioning into French Touch over the course of the set. Great feeling throughout. I think this video was produced as promo for the store, as the camerawork is unusually professional for this sort of video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCt_JY--F78
What I'm listening to today: "BLK ZMBY", billy woods
As far as I can tell, this song is intended as a political condemnation of the living dead. Mr. woods makes hip-hop with complex and layered messaging, some of which is not intended to be Legible to me personally. This track is slow murky deep fried jazz
"In 2023, Woods published a children's book titled A is for Anarchist.[11][27]"
https://billywoods.bandcamp.com/track/blk-zmby
What I'm listening to today: "Funknitium-99", Fearofdark
This guy is a prolific Bandcamp/YouTube tracker musician, and here he pulls out some fusion funk with an immaculately crisp, clean energy. If you like the music in Sonic the Hedgehog levels listen to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvPBEJVwn8
What I'm listening to today: "Goldener Reiter", Joachim Witt
A long time ago I got captivated by this odd 1980 Krautrock track, with its weird mix of melancholy and peppy, 90s CGI video, and breaking into English with "und I'm feeling up" in the chorus. I was wrong about everything! The video (now copyright-claimed off YouTube) was for a 1994 remix and re-synced with the original audio; there's no English; and the lyrics are about medical abuse so uh, CW German speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6RLXwKBz_g
What I'm listening to today: "BLK ZMBY", billy woods
As far as I can tell, this song is intended as a political condemnation of the living dead. Mr. woods makes hip-hop with complex and layered messaging, some of which is not intended to be Legible to me personally. This track is slow murky deep fried jazz
"In 2023, Woods published a children's book titled A is for Anarchist.[11][27]"
https://billywoods.bandcamp.com/track/blk-zmby
What I'm listening to today: "Untitled A ( Rock To The Beat )", Ferro
Another from the "Techno Vinyl Records" account's collection, this one's a little more genrefucky, with a more variety, bringing in strange sounds and "House Music" feels. A good gradual buildup.
(Honestly, I linked you that other track yesterday so I could link you this track today. This is how much variety you can get out of a initially-seemingly-rigid genre with some slight changes in texture.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1pBghAeGpU
What I'm listening to today: "Goldener Reiter", Joachim Witt
A long time ago I got captivated by this odd 1980 Krautrock track, with its weird mix of melancholy and peppy, 90s CGI video, and breaking into English with "und I'm feeling up" in the chorus. I was wrong about everything! The video (now copyright-claimed off YouTube) was for a 1994 remix and re-synced with the original audio; there's no English; and the lyrics are about medical abuse so uh, CW German speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6RLXwKBz_g
mcc