Because indie rock is becoming more disposable than pop music ever was.

Diefenbach – glorious
Gravenhurst – animals
Love is all – felt tip hip kids
The National – secret meeting
The Attorneys – last september
Revolution smile – drive (the cars)
We are scientists – the great escape
Hope of the states – 66 sleepers to summer
Flaming Lips – Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung
Johnny Boy – you are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve

New recommended mp3 blogs added to the sidebar this week:

• Mad percolator
• Post punk junk
• Dilated Choonz
• Something I learned today
• An idiot’s guide to dreaming

Things the other members of the staff were doing this week:

• Kahlo opened a flickr account and uploaded sexy art pics of her with a keyboard. This is my favorite one. She also guided me to this site with tons of links to galleries of vintage erotica and naked hippies. Couldn’t love her more.
• Squashed posted a really nice fantasy #1 playlist at bricolage fantasy.
• Some idiot at kjhk cutted crish & oum’s show in half to transmit some women’s basketball game. They also need help to podcast their show, please head to spiritedradio and give them a hand if you know anything about podcasts.
• Issa’s blog is an obligated source if you live in Monterrey, she has the ability to track every cool concert and knows every band in the city. Right now she’s in laredo… I also heard she’ll interview Plastilina Mosh for a magazine in Monterrey, will keep you informed…
• Lisa Filter is on vacation… we still don’t know anything about her.
• Carl Kruger will finish moving this week and will be diving through a box of his archived mp3 cdrs to share them with us. Good luck with the new house Carl.
• I don’t know what Adam and Gil have been up to recently…

Image by Gerardo Montiel Klimt.

mr projectile & 1010 > wild orchids
dntel > anyone, anywhere
anorak > what i found last year
sketch show > attention tokyo (psapp leaving in coffins mix)
asa chang & junray > senaka
lali puna > together in electric dreams
dacm > angel
sora > untitled
piana > voice

Moka requested a while ago that I bring some of Oren Ambarchi’s music to the site; I finally got a chance to get all of my cds in order and was able to put together a little mini (incomplete) history of Mr. Ambarchi.

I’ll start by saying that Oren is capable of a good number of sounds and moods, however he has spent a lot of time perfecting his “signature sound” through the usage of a prepared guitar set up. Subtle tones almost like a music box bounce around and pop and click and are time-stretched. You could call it drone music if it weren’t so speckled with notes, which is why I was always drawn to much of it – I like some variety with my drone even if that doesn’t make much sense.

Lately Oren has been moonlighting with the infamous doom metal group Sunn O))) and peformed on their recent critically acclaimed Black One album. This is at least a million miles away from the sunny pop he created in the Australian group Sun a couple of years earlier.

So, I’ll start with his most recent solo album on Touch, Grapes from the Estate. This is easily his most accomplished solo work to date. He decided to incorporate additional instrumentation such as drums, and I think it’s nothing short of stunning. The mood falls somewhere between the spaghetti western openness of Brokeback and the warm pocket of reverberating dub which is Pan American. Here’s an edit of Oren Ambarchi’s Remedios the Beauty from that album. This is one of my favorite songs of the last few years.

Next I will repost (thanks Carl Kruger / Moka!) Oren’s remix of Tape, from the Operette remix album. Getting him together with those Swedes was a great idea…the music box feel definitely comes into play on this track: Summa Afrique (Oren Ambarchi Remix). I would also recommend Oren’s collaboration with Tape’s Jonas Berthling, “My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights (excerpt)” on Hapna. It’s one big, long, mind-bending drone.

Triste was recently reissued on Southern Lord and showcases some of Oren’s beginnings in his current sound. This “remake” by Oren with organist Tom Recchion is a personal favorite of mine. Tom’s swirling patterns on the organ bring a lot to the original track. Oren Ambarchi – Triste Part 1 Remake (edit). The next track comes from his 2nd album on Touch, Suspension. In some ways Suspension is his most succinct statement in album form. You definitely feel suspended as you listen to the drawn out notes stretched beyond their ordinary capabilities, and he was really able to bring both light and dark sounds together across the album. No easy accomplishment for a drone-based record. This selection is one of the darker moments from the record. Play at dusk. Oren Ambarchi – This Evening So Soon. (I recommend the vinyl version of Suspension available from Staubgold, as it has a bunch of extra remixes by Jim O’Rourke, Tim Barnes, Phil Niblock, etc.)

Now to take things way back…Before he went solo, Oren played in a noise rock trio called Phlegm with Robbie Avenaim. I will admit, I haven’t been able to track down any of their works, except for this post-Phlegm release with Robbie called Alter Rebbe’s Nigun on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. This was done for the Radical Jewish Culture series back in 1999. The track Beriah (meaning Creation) is a wild adventure, containing a pleasant backing glockenspiel melody that is layered with a guitar and drum freak out that would make Sonic Youth proud. Patience is definitely important on this one…but give it a chance, the ending is great. Oren Ambarchi & Robbie Avenaim – Beriah (edit).

The most interesting thing about Oren, is that his most unorthodox music is that of Sun…you could play this stuff for your parents. It’s sunshine pop of the highest order. Roll down your windows, let the wind blow through your hair, and kiss your mate. Sun – Sleepin’. This album was a favorite of ours when we used to live in Savannah and take afternoon drives through the marshes.

Note: Most of these songs have been edited to shorter versions. While I wouldn’t normally say that is the best way to appreciate someone’s music, I think this situation called for it. Oren’s music is best appreciated in its entirety and many of these tracks are two to three times longer than what you are hearing. Go pick up any and all of these records, I highly recommend it, and promise you won’t be disappointed.

A respuesta del post con covers de los bee gees que issa publico ayer.
En unas semanas el tributo a radiohead, “Exit Music Songs with Radio Heads”, sera sacado a la venta por BBE records. Como una autentica radiocabeza no me aguante y lo tuve que bajar via torrents.
La verdad el disco falla en muchos puntos e incluso peca de facilon (por favor chequen esta insipida version “funky” de high and dry de un tal Bilal, detractor confeso de Radiohead), aun asi, me levanto la falda y me quito el sombrero ante este cover de “just” por Mark Ronson:

Mark Ronson feat. Alex Greenwald – just

Aprovecho la ocasion para poner otros covers que me agradan y tenia aqui en la compu, incluida la infame “rodeohead”, un medley de cinco minutos a la bluegrass que me saca sonrisas cada vez que la escucho (si no te hace sonreir, es por dos razones: nunca te ha gustado radiohead o no tienes alma).

Osunlade and erro – everything in its right place
John Mayer – kid a
Hard N Phirm – rodeohead
Christopher O’ Riley – letdown
Kiki & Herb – exit music (for a film)

La imagen supongo es de Stanley Downwood. Disfruten su fin de semana.
Mmm… more… chilaquiles.

01. Jimmy Smith – Main Title from “The Carpetbagger”
02. Fridge – Lign
03. Scott Amendola Band – Masters Of War
04. Curandero – Intuitive Plane
05. Rovo – Ndam
06. Asian Dub Foundation – 1000 mirrors
07. Impractical Cockpit – Passion of a Cop (via 20jfg )
08. Lawrence K Newman – sugar of lead
09. Damon Che – Oh, Suzanna
10. Chevreuil – Bastogne
11. Tarentel – Two Sides Of Myself
12. DisJam – Junk
13. This Heat – Twilight Furniture (via 20jfg )
14. Good for Cows – Le Tigre (higher quality)
15. Minutement – The Glory of Man
16. Yoko Utsumi - Neji
17. Tri Cornered Tent Show – A frozen fish fiend facial
18. The Dead Science – Drrrty Magneto
19. Coughs - Sexual Hijinks (via 20jfg )
20. Rumah Sakit – no one likes a grumpy cripple
21. The Union of a Man and a Woman - Grand Design

chill down :
22. Owen – She’s a Thief
23. Grace Cathedral Park – play delicate, desire quiet

note : Big list with jazz, noise rock, experimental, math rock and post rock. Primarily about rythm pattern and beat.
image : Carotid-Kundalini Fractal