circumjacence

I cannot say enough about the sunny cut up electro-pop track “Homeless Hero” by Bufi (Mateo Gonzalez Bufi), from the Homeless Hero EP.

Thanks to the good folks at Phlow Magazine for this discovery!

[Download Track]

Complete release at Poni Republic.

A few updates to the blogroll today.

The first addition is the Russian netlabel: Fragment. Their releases seem to run from microhouse and minimal techno through glitch and ambient. Their most recent release “sur-dramatic nature” by Gorje Hewek has been in heavy rotation here for the past few weeks!

The second new netlabel in the list is Pueblo Nuevo, a Chilean label (and netlabel) whose releases span the electronic spectrum.   I’ve only recently started exploring their catalog, but it is quality material.

The last link is for Phlow Magazine.  I’m not sure how I neglected to add Phlow for so long, but it is a significant oversight.  The site is a great resource for exploring the electronic netlabel scene with multiple reviewers, a podcast, playlists / compilations, etc.

Digitalverein’s (aka Joerg Schuster of Dortmun, Germany) “San Marco by Night” is beautiful, evolving, melodic dub. This is an older release (from 2004) on Thinner, but I’ve listened to it many times in the past few years and continue to enjoy it.

Unfortunately I cannot seem to get scene.org hosted files to play properly in the inline player, but you can easily download and listen to it at “San Marco by Night” by Digitalverein at scene.org.

Complete release at Scene.org.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the downtempo piano+strings formula. Drop a simple beat somewhere in there, and I’ll listen ten times in a row.

Another track from the terrific Featherfoil compilation released on Camomille.

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

Upbeat cuts of acoustic guitar, electric piano, and the Amen break with a simple progression that I’ve found myself humming from time to time (no, really!).

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

Fans of Amon Tobin’s early catalog may feel they’ve heard this before (and I suspect both Tobin and Beak may have drawn from the same sample sources), but for me the acoustic guitar work really adds a new depth and sonic interest. We’ve highlighted Beak here before, and I plan to again in the future — solid work.

Released on Monotonik.

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

Being a big fan of Lullatone, I was still surprised at how much I’ve enjoyed this remix of one of Antoine Monzonis-Calvet’s tracks (I’ve listened to it *many* times). Released on Autres.

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

Beautiful, repetitive and muffled — “Kyle Parker” is from “Music for Students released on Observatory.  It is a great introspective electro-acoustic EP.

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

“Philosophy of Time Travel” was another early and favorite netlabel experience for me (from the same Camomille “Featherfoil” comp as the previous review). Ultimately it led me to Alex’s Milieu blog, which was quite an inspiration to me a few years ago (alas, he is not doing much with it anymore).

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.

“Can’t Translate” was one of my first experiences with the netlabel world a few years ago. At the time, it was right up my alley, and for the most part it has aged well for me.

“Absorbed in the Spring” is a collaboration between Transient (whose track “Bedroom Ambient 02″ was reviewed last week) and Adrienne Leasa. This particular track was included on the fantastic Camomille “Featherfoil” comp, but they also released a complete album called Sounds from the Post Office on Noisy Vagabond.

Update: Ponder this quote from the Sounds from the Post Office page:  “The entire record including the vocals was done is DOS impulse tracker on a 133mhz pentium computer.”

[Download Track]

Complete release at Archive.org.