moodmat

His last two shows on RBMA have featured the first decade of ECM records and they’ve been outstanding. Most definitely essential listening if you’ve ever wanted to dive in to the otherwise intimidating ECM catalog. Anyays, over on his blag, Mr. Kirk gets up on his soapbox and delivers his State of The Union in [...]

One question and one question only: What’s your favorite full length album of this decade, and why?

Twenty years ago the Aussie improv trio The Necks recorded one of my absolute all time favorite jazz jams. A tip of the nod to Encore records employee Tadd Mullinix for dropping this in my bag about nine years ago. “Sex” is an hour long jam which lives up to its name. A slow burner [...]

Do you remember those frosted miniwheats commercials where the adult would turn into a kid when the shredded wheat biscuit flipped over to reveal a whole pound of glazed sugar icing on the other side? That’s approximately what is going to be happening for the remainder of this post. I will be freeing myself from [...]

The track title, those two little words, still brings chills and looks of spooky reverence to even the most jaded “nothing is cool anymore” techno DJs.  Kuri breaks it all down about the Teste track from 1992 that remains timeless, seared into the brain, acidic and atmospheric yet never self-indulgent. But “The Wipe (5am Synaptic)” [...]

Okay. My love for Last.fm is no secret. I visit daily, I have the iPhone app, the lunchbox and the dental implant that scrobbles as I sing in the shower (alternately Celine Dion and GWAR). But when they rolled out their beta redesign back in May I downloaded the scratched record sound effect and played [...]

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark reissued their 1983 oddball album Dazzle Ships back in March. Coming after 1981′s incredible Architecture and Morality you had to wonder what was next. Well, something sort of lovably awkward. I recently came across a cool blurb at Quietus on Dazzle Ships that puts it in great political and cold [...]

(Aus Music) Let me skip right past the fact that this should be a proper review of Lee Jones’ latest. Instead, let me geek out for a second. Here we have two of my favorite artists, and what’s more, my two of my favorite remixers coming together and blowing my mind. Matt Chicoine remixing Lee [...]

ario j Too often, academic discourse of dance music retreads the same ground: explaining the dj-as-musician, the participatory nature on the dancefloor, and the subtleties of “the mix.” Granted, any understanding offered by master theses on these subjects doesn’t seem to “stick.” It’s more-or-less accepted as part of popular culture, but the masses never remember [...]

Via Mog, I found a fun (if a bit over-wrought) review of the new M83 album Saturdays = Youth. Here’s a snip: All of this is meant to accompany a listener’s interpretation of the 1980s, and how each year the music changed, and sometimes it brought you closer to someone, and sometimes the songs were [...]

(Medschool) Dear Tony Colman, First of all, congratulations on your 50th podcast. I realize I’m a few weeks late, but that does not lessen my sincerity. The Hospital Records podcast is one of the highlights of my weekly listening experience. Having followed the program since around episode #7 or so, I’ve been jealous of those [...]

While the Environ love fest is in full swing, I thought I’d unearth this review of Metro Area’s first release from my Reverb days. A landmark in flat out genre disrespect. ** Metro Area – Metro Area 1 (Environ) It’s rare thing in music, especially electronic dance music, when a recording becomes “timeless.” Tastes are [...]