"An arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds"

Friday 30 September 2011

Every 15 seconds



Footnotes coming out of our ears, or something like that...anyway, a batch of compelling new material that usefully augments some of LMYE's posts this week


Firstly, two more of Tim Hecker's diverting piano 'sketches' for the immense Ravedeath, 1972 - more muted & reflective than Sketch 5 (covered here), but still highly affecting. 


Tim Hecker - Sketch 2


Tim Hecker - Sketch 3




Plus a few stand-outs from the latest Oval salvo - 10 more (did I see 15 claimed somewhere?) slivers of snappy Popp from the bonus to the forthcoming OvalDNA (earlier coverage, & before that).


Oval - III (preview)


Oval - Inwendig (preview)


Oval - Glass UFO (preview)


 Oval - OvalDNA (Bonus Tracks Preview


Also further knotty, insistent treats from the Machinefabriek/Jan & Romke Kleefstra orbit (earlier). 



 Machinefabriek - 15/15 (fragment)


 Machinefabriek - Brokstukken (album preview)


Machinefabriek & Gareth Davies - Mackerel Sky


kleefstra/pruiksma/kleefstra - Twasidich wurde


Kleefstra / Pruiksma / Kleefstra - Stadich lit ik dy kalder wurde 




Finally, more of the celestial Yann Novak (earlier). 


Yann Novak - Presence (excerpts)


Portrait by Steven Miller. Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Lend Me More Shorts



All the way from Yann Novak's lovely diaphanous tranquillity to Sean McCann's analogue storm freak-out, seven more or less exceptional recent pieces to pass along after they lodged in these ears. Also featuring Machinefabriek (sultry slo-mo solo [made still more pungent by an epic Earlabs remastering], X-raying sea shanties in his slow-burning Piiptsjilling collab with Jan & Romke Kleefstra & soccer Committee), Billy Gomberg (ultra-dense & somehow ultra-close intensities), Minamo (groaning beguilement conjured out of a jangling, belling bed) &, several months after the rest of the world but anyway, Borden, Ferraro, Godin, Halo, Lopatin (way more reflective & mostly rather less kosmische than expected)...




Machinefabriek - Kreupelhout (EARLabs remaster)


billy gomberg - quiet barrier (album preview)


Yann Novak - Presence




Piiptsjilling - Skobbetreden


Minamo - Bound Letters




borden, ferraro, godin, halo, lopatin - frkwys vol. 7 (album preview)


Sean McCann - Broken Replicator






Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Monday 26 September 2011

Wooden room



Stop all the clocks, etc: a Tim Hecker bonus disc? A remix album?


It's not quite clear yet what exactly Dropped Pianos is, beyond a new release via kranky on October 10 connected in some as yet slightly murky way to this year's magnificent Ravedeath, 1972 (track 1: The Piano Drop). Oh, & a doubtless welcome addition to one of modern music's most compelling discographies, of course.


At least if the urgently sonorous cascades & fuzzy noises off of the downloadable Sketch 5 are anything to go by... 


UPDATE: murk averted - "A set of Ravedeath piano-based sketches - 33 minutes long...sort of in between an EP and full length i guess"


Tim Hecker - Sketch 5







Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Keepin' it Arboreal


Aural room tint of the day: Darren Harper’s fragrant Lavender Drift, prolific Twisted Tree Line's 29th offering of a munificent year. TTL is a micro label of Somehow, itself only established in Aug 2010 by Tim Brice and son, Nico (early releases+interview here). TTL has had up to nine releases appearing per month in its dinky 3” cd-r postcard series featuring new, upcoming and established artists alike, and more are already on the horizon.


Lavender Drift by darren harper

Grazing around the TTL site, soundcloud-watching, yields a veritable treasure trove of other goodies, most notably Elliot, lou & bill from 12k luminary, Pillowdiver


Elliott by pillowdiver

Lou by pillowdiver

Bill by pillowdiver

Once you get started, it's hard to stop, so here goes...

Cyclon Summers from Daniel Dorobantu


Cyclon Summers by Daniel Dorobantu

Old Tin Will Cry by Damian Valles


Part Two (Phase Transition) by Damian Valles

Futuregrapher’s TomTom Bike


Futuregrapher - TomTom Bike [album-sample] by Futuregrapher

You and I by Ex-Confusion


The Days We Spend Together by Ex Confusion

Elian with A Bit of Cinematography


Elian - A Bit of Cinematography Sample by timo david b

Pleq & Marihiko Hara with The Dawn Came Behind the Fog





Yusuke Kamijima’s Eating the Philosophy


Eating the philosophy sample track by Yusuke Kamijima

Invisible by Gallery Six


invisible - from Twisted TreeLine(UK) by Gallery Six

Three by Stefano Guzzetti


Stefano Guzzetti - Three (Sampler) by timo david b

And Koen Daigaku’s Wind has Risen


02 Wind Has Risen Sample by Koen Daigaku

Incidentally, a fragment of the last mentioned sets the tone of our recent End Summerless albient mix


End Summerless by albient



To be continued…


Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Friday 23 September 2011

End of the plain



It's all too easy to forget, but Sohrab is still out there & still needs support: one powerful & gratifying way of providing some is to buy his solidarity releases - You Are Not Alone, You Are Not Alone II & Shouting At Dictators. Not only do all proceeds help fund his appeal for asylum in Germany, but the trio also adds valuably to A Hidden Place - the two thrilling sets of remixes by leading Touch artists linking arms with Sohrab by conjuring rich new takes on one of last year's key albums (featured in LMYE's Festive 50 of the releases that mattered most to us in 2010 & a driver in naming Touch our pioneering label of the year). 


Philip Marshall's urgent yet dreamy meshing of, presumably, Somebody & the title track (definitely part of the outstanding You Are Not Alone II, in any case) is a personal highlight. But each of the three downloads repays investment handsomely. 


Worthwhile piece from Reinspired herePrevious LMYE coverage of Dictators here



JG Thirlwell - Susanna (Uxorial mix) 4:48 | Achim Mohné - Milan Knizhak mix#1 (side a) 6:05 | Jóhann Jóhannsson - Zarrin (remix) 6:01 (Mixed by Jóhann Jóhannsson at NTOV, Copenhagen, 24th May 2011) | Anonymous - Triple Exposure 9:10 (Mastered by a different Anonymous 24th May 2011) | Leif Elggren - No One Really Knows (destroyed) 11:46

Daniel Menche - Zarinn (menche mix) 11:45 | Jana Winderen - Susanna 7:00 | Philip Jeck - Susanna (remix) 5:23 | Philip Marshall - Somebody, Hidden 7:45 (Mastered by BJNilsen, Berlin, 20th May 2011) | Michael Esposito - Somebody's Ghost 6:47



Sohrab - No one Really Knows (free to d/l)

Sohrab - Tanhayi - Live in Tehran (free to d/l)

Sohrab - A Hidden Place (Spotify)


Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Textured manuscript



Talking of Oval, a sandblast from the past - a woozily abrasive track of the day from his monumental Ovalprocess album (Zomba, 2000 - stream in full below, along with the following year's Ovalcommers). 


Ovalprocess - Untitled 05 by Oval 




Ovalprocess - Untitled 02 by Oval


Ovalprocess - Untitled 12 by Oval


Ovalcommers - Untitled 04 by Oval




Ovalprocess by Oval




Blurb: "Ovalprocess is a flowing, textured manuscript that utilizes sublime low end rhythm and directive pulsation in a manner that eases the listener into a soft and pillowy world dominated by electronic bleeps, glitches and moans.

Ovalprocess equally represents an innovative music software application, designed by Popp, as much as it serves as the core engine to an innovative Oval sound installation. The installation is centered around one or several publicly accessible sound terminals running the Ovalprocess application, rendering the exhibit a customizable, collaborative workspace.
Making the installation accessible in a public space is the ideal aesthetic that Popp craves-he feels it is far more effective than offering a cdrom or another option that would make the application available on a more individual basis. The Ovalprocess installation allows the public to use sounds that are found on the album to produce their own Oval-like music."


Ovalcommers by Oval 


Blurb: "Popp describes Ovalcommers as a 3D musical obstacle course, a friendly and accessible invitation to complexity. Ovalcommers surprises with poetic and playful elements (organs and layers of guitar feedback), making room for understatement, sophistication and a new, almost absentmindedly casual atmosphere. Haunting emulations of processed brass, string and woodwind sections are carefully added to the otherwise still angular desktop rock. Listeners will leave Ovalcommers with a new perspective on Oval in general, as Popp's strategy becomes clearly visible: A friendly, yet relentless fanaticism to experiment and innovate musically."






Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Forest root





Let's party like it's 1998*. The soundtrack? A sudden, notable eruption of new music from the near-holy trinity of Jan Jelinek, Oval and Pole, three pioneering titans of experimental electronica. 


Jelinek has just launched only his second release as Farben since 2004 - a self-released 12" of deviant disco, like its predecessor. Stefan Betke is about to unleash his first as Pole in several years (also his debut under his own label & again a 12").


Meanwhile, the past year's outpouring of Markus Popp's reinvented Oval is poised to continue with - somewhat unimaginably, given his torrential recent output - the 'lost tracks' of OvalDNA. In contrast to his peers' vinyl-clad modesty, Popp's maximal "much more than a regular music CD" package is also to include a DVD & software).


To these ears, Popp's playful, textured workouts are particularly compelling. Inevitably, though, Farben's warped loops & Pole's bassy warmth offer much as well. 


Anyway, the comparison is probably witless & certainly unfair. OvalDNA excavates 17 years in unearthing its 35 tracks, even if some are recognisably of the zithery, twangy 'new' Oval (others are clearly not, as inspired glitches like Gegenlesen & Savvy below underline - "I am almost sure there will be a lot to like about this record, especially for fans of the classic Oval sound," Popp says). 


Jelinek & Betke's releases document their notable efforts to still be making new music after all this time. Still, OvalDNA manages to sound rather more contemporary than either (despite being the opposite, of course) - perhaps reflecting the constraints imposed by Farben & Pole's closer adherence to genres, especially Betke's willingness to keep mining dub techno tropes. Happily, Jelinek seems to smuggle in a little breadth to his palette from the Oramic sci fi territory he's been exploring as Ursula Bogner.  



Oval - Glass UFO


*OK, so Oval's legendary 94diskont. came out a few years earlier. But the point - unexpected, welcome resurgence of 90s legends - stands... 




farben - xango (album preview)


Farben - Xango EP - clips




Oval - Gegenlesen 30s preview


Oval - Pockyrocky 30s preview


Oval - Savvy 30s preview


Oval - Stealth 30s preview


Oval - IV 30s preview



Navigating Oval




Blurb: "As the next step in the evolution of a legendary producer, on September 1st 2011, Stefan Betke is founding a new artist label named “pole.” 
Made for the music of pole, this new imprint will keep Betke’s large back catalogue available, as well as give his forthcoming releases an autonomous structure for experimentation and creativity.
For over a decade, Stefan Betke has been working as a label owner, publisher and mastering engineer, contributing his experience to the development of electronic music.
The artist label “pole” is intended to create a place where pole´s original and unique sound can be developed further, and combined with new production methods and ideas.
In the second half of 2011, pole will re-release his full back catalogue digitally, including classical records such as “1,2,3,” “Steingarten” and “Steingarten remixes,” as well as his new music on a series of 12 inches released on vinyl and digital. 

As Pole puts it: “My new music will sound very warm, has a lot of bass and stands in a strong relation to my musical history."


Wurzel - Excerpt by pole


Wipfel Dub - Excerpt by pole


Wipfel - Excerpt by pole


Pole photo by Kai von Rabenau. Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
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