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: "Slack", Gar Hoover
Here's the PO-33/Monotron Delay tiny power combo again, making what the musician calls "Chill House" with more than a bit of French touch. Stands out from its genre with some strange sample freaking (is that Paul McCartney??).
Notice the YouTube synth community pro tactic of leaving some random objects on the desktop for Visual Interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18VSdLHR2H8
What I'm listening to today: "kickstart my heart", elricfd
oversaturated brainglaze vaporwave fuck music
This URL was in a text file on my computer where I must have stashed it at some point. I have no idea what this is and I do not remember where I got it from. Bandcamp informs me this musician is the inventor of "Frasierwave". Ok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_3D7deeIeY
What I'm listening to today: "[You Caught Me] Smilin'", Sly and the Family Stone
My favorite track from "There's a Riot Goin' On", possibly the most stoned funk album ever made. I have heard so many weird stories about the production of this album, and I don't know which ones are true. Everybody sounds like they just woke up. Everybody sounds like they love making music. The music itself sounds like it's drunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfljDrx9Tho
What I'm listening to today: "The Ocean Floor" (part 1), Kazumi Totaka (Nintendo)
In Japan, Mario Paint got a sequel for the 64DD (an N64 peripheral that added internet access, mouse support, and a floppy drive). The music for Mario Artist is amazing. This track is moody fusion jazz, vaporwave in 1999; it pushes the N64 to the limit, synthesizing most things but then dropping in what seems to be an entire realtime guitar track. (I think part 2 samples Massive Attack.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzM_G80xL0c&list=PL-pEm4IqI6c_DfCBqt5VBvR-atgwqTlZB&index=100&pp=iAQB8AUB
What I'm listening to today: " DRIVIN' ", Fox Capture Plan
Incredibly funky Tokyo jazz, tons of energy and wild futuristic synths that just slam you from the start like you're a movie character who just opened the forbidden box and it was full of otherworldly light that disintegrates you instantly. But like, in a smooth jazz kinda way. Do you like electric piano
https://foxcaptureplan.bandcamp.com/track/drivin
What I'm listening to today: "Level 3", Jim Andron
The Phillips CD-I is one of the most infamous video game system failures ever, and it hides a secret: *The CD-I Tetris game had a bizarrely kind of amazing soundtrack.* 10 tracks (I also love "level 0") of the kind of pure vibes "Vaporwave" was trying to chase in the 2010s slowing down 80s r&b. This version comes pre-slowed down! Strange murky easy-listening swamp jazz, general MIDI instruments only
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRVEtOL6Kho&list=PLFCp1PLqgPzCrfc4BALfINUs7ueJMkUcP&index=4
What I'm listening to today: "Wanted", Hiromi
Some chill loungey jazz by a Japanese pianist and her band. Wonderful feel.
This is the kind of music that trip hop was processed from and I believe trip-hop fans should listen to some of the raw uncut stuff once in a while, perceive the woman who casts the shadow. Actually I'm not sure there ARE any trip-hop fans under 40. Maybe liking Portishead in 2025 is the equivalent of liking jazz in 1998. But I did like jazz in 1998
https://hiromimusic.bandcamp.com/track/wanted
What I'm listening to today: "When The Catholic Girls Go Camping, The Nicotine Vampires Rule Supreme.", GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!
Basically whenever I listen to Tera Melos, Tidal recommends this next. It's actually a pretty good four-minute primer on "math rock"!
What is Math Rock, at core? It's jazz. It's just jazz with rock instruments. Or maybe metal with jazz instruments. In the 70s we called this prog, now it's math or post rock. Anyway here's guitar played very fast
https://giraffesgiraffes.bandcamp.com/track/when-the-catholic-girls-go-camping-the-nicotine-vampires-rule-supreme
What I'm listening to today: "Main Menu" (Mario Artist: Communication Kit), Hideaki Shimizu (Nintendo)
"Mario Artist" for the N64DD consisted of 4 separately-sold "games", of which this is the slightest and most utilitarian (a piece of modem software that let you upload and download creations from the other 3 games). It has possibly the most interesting soundtrack; it seemed to want to be unobtrusive, so it's minimal and ambient. This is a wonderful sparse techno track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmREOQxh0rU&list=PLWgMiwPdlU0WEnBTjEeCIRnf15uuvydJo&index=2
What I'm listening to today: "Hand of Doom", Black Sabbath
Have you ever listened to Sabbath's early stuff? They're still nailing down their sound (ie "metal") and so it's got this wild raw nature to it with currents in strange directions. I hear people describe parts of it as "blues". "Paranoid" is worth a listen in full; this track's a twisty, dynamic, genre-spanning little rock opera about drug addiction with Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025) using his entire emotional range
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNIgt6yKgDM
What I'm listening to today: "Ambassadors of All that is Good" β "40 Rods to the Hog's Head" β "Guy vs DC Sniper", Tera Melos
The magnum opus of Tera Melos's early instrumental-only days is this 3-track sequence. "40 Rods" is the highlight but it needs the windup and cooldown of the other two tracks. Incoherent noise slowly coalesces into gorgeous melody then dissolves back into noise. Ordo ab chao, order out of chaosβ
https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/ambassadors-of-all-that-is-good
https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/40-rods-to-the-hogs-head
https://teramelos.bandcamp.com/track/guy-vs-d-c-sniper
What I'm listening to today: "Breathe", Azkyll
This is a deeply strange album consisting almost entirely of indefinable "weird noises" (mostly, I think, coming from a granular synthesizer)? This particular track is all punchy, staticky percussion with the "music" part only present as a hint or aftertaste, sounds with implied colors, Γ©tude for violent coughing fit and string quartet
https://azkyll.bandcamp.com/track/breathe
What I'm listening to today: "Make It All Better", Neuro No Neuro
T!! ano!!!!__ !e i!!t e_s !!ur !t!en!i_!, _!y !i_!o _mpro!i!!_io!, p_a!e__! __!k t!r!u__ ! !!_!y sh!! a!k, _!_ il!u_, !_! th_!_!t !!!p_ __!!!!u!t!_! it_el_. ! s!_g!! !!ar! __ !an!!!. Do! !cr!!c!!!_ ! !! _!r tryn_ _ e! !n
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBT7VkH6ekM
I enjoyed the video; this one's really nice to just stare into and try to reverse engineer the pattern (I ultimately couldn't).
What I'm listening to today: "severe brain damage by dominator"
This is a 1996 "octamed" modfile/tracker tune for the Amiga soundchip that simply goes as hard as it possibly can, dialing in some sort of acid sound and then slowly turning one of the knobs more and more until it actually breaks. Simultaneously a audience-pranking brainfuck and a thoughtful mix of dance genres; the drum line feels like it might be one of the "classic" breaks but I can't identify which one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsro5DpnWNA
What I'm listening to today: "Close your Eyes (Autechre Corporation Street rmx)", Anodyne
One time Autechre dropped a whole ass Funky Drummer loop on a track and it ruled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nl4GaPMcx0
What I'm listening to today: "Jackin for beats", Ice Cube
On this track Ice Cube states an intent to steal every other rapper's beats, then follows through. Despite the claim of "jacking" Cube actually did pay for sample clearance on every beat used here, leading to a situation where 112% of this track's revenue is owed on sample royalties. If you buy this track on Apple Music, Ice Cube loses money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Vn12rvPfM
What I'm listening to today: "γ‘γγγγΌγ εζ (32ε)", Ikeguchi Laboratory, Tokyo University of Science
This is an entirely physical effect. Place two or more metronomes on a table and start them at different times. The metronomes will acoustically couple through the table and gradually interfere with each other until their oscillations move into perfect alignment.
You might have heard of this trick before! But try just listening to it. Like really listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWToUATLGzs
What I'm listening to today: "Weekly Beats #8 - Dustin'", Tristan Baldi
Elektron are giants in modern "DAWless" music production, a path they started onΒΉ with the pair of idiosyncratic "machine" synthesizers released starting in 2001. Here on a machinedrum with hacked firmware is a chill song for laying on a machine beach sipping coolant, watching a square sun set. Takes off once the beat comes in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AgGXOi-J4
ΒΉ I intentionally ignore the SIDStation here
What I'm listening to today: "Brutal", HarrytheHat
Core-competency Jungle from an EPΒΉ made on a restricted set of instruments (2 Pocket Operator samplers, 1 Monotron Delay, 1 Volca Bass dialed into 303-mimic acid mode).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsbwnOX8aQo
Heavy but smooth; Millenials will immediately have flashbacks to late-90s racing games. Of course this isn't the hardware people would have used in the 90s, it just has the same number of bitsΒ².
ΒΉ Full EP here https://harrythehat225.bandcamp.com/album/pocket-jungle-v1
Β² Twelve
What I'm listening to today: "shapely hedgerows of the dying world", Dragon Warrior
Shuffling, comfy instrumental folk / indie pop in the Elephant 6 style. Feelings like Polaroids of early mornings. You might know this musician as Brother Android or Harrison Lemke, depending on what genre you encountered him in.
https://dragonwarrior.bandcamp.com/track/shapely-hedgerows-of-the-dying-world
What I'm listening to today: "Dual Monomachine IDM with new aftermarket +Drives from MachineStore", MIDERA
An enormous emotion. Thinky techno production with a human pop core and a touch of chiptune feel on the drums.
I think we're at the point where this particular type of 00s electronic sound is as old now, as the 70s-80s sounds Boards of Canada was evoking in the 90s were then. Meaning the progressive parts of Boards of Canada now themselves qualify for nostalgia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3idTvkp-A
What I'm listening to today: "OB6 Dub Techno", dc11
The musician says this emerged from setting up a new synthesizer, so what I imagine happened: They were trying to make that "chonkchonkchonk" noise from reggae, stumbled into an amazing-sounding semi-repeating pattern, went "I have to stop everything and find a way to make this a song" and built a life support system around it. Result:
Lovely little ambient meditation over a 128bpm heartbeat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXeiQ6KdWM
If ur bored stop at ~5:00
What I'm listening to today: "New Instrument, new sound!", Fron Reilly
A short demo of a musical instrument created by this YouTuber/woodworker. It's⦠kind of a brilliant idea, actually, simultaneously shocking and in-retrospect obvious.
The video is 100 seconds of abstract noises that, if you'd played it for me without the video, I could tell you how to create with FFTs and DSP techniques but would not have believed was a recording of a completely acoustic device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGHIcU3g8Ps
What I'm listening to today: "The Terrorist", DJ Vadim & Motion Man
Motion Man is an Oakland rapper so far under the radar he has no Wikipedia page and at least one album of his I've listened to is not on Allmusic. If you know him it's probably from a guest spot he did on someone else's song, probably Kool Keith's, and you remember him because he absolutely steals every track he appears on.
Here, for a 1999 DJ Vadim single: Villainous pronouncements over supersaws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rOYGk6TV_o
What I'm listening to today: "Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra" (Overture), Friedrich Gulda
I don't know much about Gulda, but apparently his career was marked by a desire to work in both classical music but also jazz (back in an era when jazz was still cutting edge and/or illegal). This 1980 piece feels like he was asked to compose a concerto but he just really, really wanted to make funk music. This slaps. This cellist is fucking shredding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYTQQtwYYbQ
β 
οΈLoud static at 0:41
@mcc@mastodon.social woah neat find! How did I not know this person, apparently a teacher of Abbado and Argerich? Amazing determination to go his own way.
mcc