Ebauche Music Recommendations

2011-09-19T05:50:00.002+01:00

Amazingly, blogger in draft seems massively improved.

I'm not using it or anything, just testing it out. Real website over at www.ebauche.net (though I really need to update it...)

Hotel Ballymun

2007-04-29T16:15:00.000+01:00

I recently played a gig at Hotel Ballymun. It was a fairly laid back affair, with a small audience and a variety of art work and installations located around the Hotel. So what is it? From their site:

Guests at Hotel Ballymun will be able to appreciate the spectacular views over Dublin, just weeks before these views cease to exist. Clarke Tower is due for demolition in Spring 2007.

In addition to the nine individually designed, single and double bedrooms there will be a garden room, a tv lounge, communal kitchens, reception area, breakfast and seating area, as well as an intimate conference and events centre.

The rooms will be furnished with one-off pieces, customised and remodelled from existing furniture, which have been designed and made by people from the Ballymun area, during a two month series of workshops with Irish design duo Sticks and recent RCA graduate Jonathan Legge.

http://www.jonathanlegge.com/

Hotel Ballymun - Invisible Agent Showcase

Above are some photos to have a look at, which will probably do a better job of demonstrating the place than I could. Unfortunately my camera ran out of charge so I couldn't get any photos during the day. Also I suggest having a look at their website

It's not music but it's funny

2007-04-27T09:17:00.000+01:00

I couldn't resist posting this up. The most amusing graffiti I've seen in a long time.

Gizmodo against the RIAA

2007-02-28T18:24:00.000Z

There is a very well written article you should check out from Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/gizmodos-antiriaa-manifesto-239512.php

They call it their Anti-RIAA Manifesto. I recommend having a read of it.

Moog Goodness

2007-02-01T22:43:00.000Z

I've been awful quiet.

To start the ball rolling I suggest some good listening - check out this wonderful covers album, The Moog Cookbook.

A thoroughly enjoyable romp of synthertainment. Hilarious at points and guaranteed to put a smile on your face (especially Buddy Holly). Excellent!

Click here to buy from Amazon

Click here for Discogs information

First release available for download

2006-12-12T03:27:00.000Z

After a bit of an extended absence where this release was not available for download (due to a bit of reorganisation at Invisible Agent), you can now download my first release, "Man, This is so crazy", from Invisible Agent.

It's a hectic journey through a relentless barrage of noise and drums. Each track spills into the next and stamps its own unique style. I have quite a fond place in my heart for this release and would love to hear any feedback even if it is about 3 or 4 years old.

Tracklisting

This Funking Intro
I can dig this
I think we melted, then fell away again
This is only a cultural resolution

Birthday Time

2006-12-09T19:44:00.000Z

Well, it's my birthday. And for those that have never heard it, I think you should all listen to Birthday Boy by the Residents, the best Happy Birthday song ever written.

You can download it from ebauche.net - click on this link!

The Incomparable Falco and the Amazing Jeanny

2006-11-25T13:42:00.000Z

This is one of my all-time favourite music videos. I think everyone should see it. An absolute classic of dramatic proportions.

Falco, better known for "Rock Me Amadeus", produced quite a large amount of music in his short time on this earth. Some of it is better left under the carpet, but other songs, such as this one, the amazing "Jeanny" and other classics like "Der Kommissar" are incredibly unique and absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure I've ever fully understood the lyrics (most of them are in German), and I've put them into an online translator but I don't think it quite got it right. However, even if you don't understand what he is saying, the tune, his passionate outbursts (especially around the 3 minute mark) and the surreal ending easily make up for not knowing what is going on.

This has come up since I had a skype chat with a friend of mine and it transpired that he had never seen Jeanny, and didn't know who Falco was. I think I said to him, "Warren, you haven't truly lived yet".

Enjoy, and for those of you who are seeing this for the first time, I envy you. Falco gives every ounce of his being in this performance. Turn up your speakers and let it wash over you.

Watch Falco - Jeanny

Legal downloads galore - Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher

2006-11-24T00:07:00.000Z

If you are comfortable with Bit Torrent (my preferred client is Burst) then you should check out the Xltronic Torrent Download page.

There is a nice collection of live sets and xltronic radio shows, with a good variety of artists performing on them. Some of the live sets are bootlegs, but I haven't had a chance to work through them all yet. I'll post up any highly recommended ones when I come across them.

BitTorrent?

BitTorrent is a fast way to download large files. Rather than downloading from one location, you download from all the other people who are sharing the file, or even in the middle of downloading it themselves. Therefore, if there are hundreds of people sharing and downloading the file, you will download a small "bit" from each person and you can take advantage of very high download speeds.

Bit Torrent Links

Burst - http://krypt.dyndns.org:81/torrent/
Bit Torrent originators - http://www.bittorrent.com/
uTorrent - http://www.utorrent.com/

VLR - he gives us some computer love

2006-11-23T01:21:00.000Z

Some quality mixes available from VLR.

Aphex Twin,
Autechre,
Warp artists,
Squarepusher

VLR? Who the hell is that?

I came across VLR through the xltronic site (a site dedicated to Aphex Twin).

This post is lame

Well, it is and it isn't. There is good enjoyable music to be had free of charge here. Other than that, yes it is lame.
It's 1.30am; sleep has been in short supply the last while; work is wrecking my head.

*sniff*

Debauched Radio

2006-11-16T21:47:00.000Z

powered by ODEO

Well, here it is. I have decided to test out Odeo as a vehicle for "Debauched Radio", where I will be playing a variety of new, old, tried and tested, experimental and plain good music.

I hope you like it. Hopefully it is something I will stick at and get better and better at as I go along.. who knows I may even start speaking on it?!

Tracklisting

Kettel - A french composer
Richie Wharburton - 00
Gaudi & Testa - Dawn's Cliffs
Keith Fullerton-Whitman - Lettera
Third Eye Foundation - La Dispute
Aphex Twin - Tree
FFWD - Hidden
John Foxx - Through Summer Rooms

Autechre - 15 minute mix - Free download

2006-11-15T23:50:00.002Z

Please note this post has moved and the download link below no longer works.

You can visit the new location by visiting:
http://www.ebauche.net/2009/04/20/free-download-autechre-15-minute-mix/

A special posting tonight. I've uploaded a recording I came across of Autechre's 15 Minute Mix for Radio 3 Mixing It. This recording was made on 30th March 2003.

It features one of the most densely enjoyable mix sets I've heard, with a huge variety of tunes layered on top of each other. I can pick out snippets of things that I recognise, but for the most part I haven't a notion where one track ends and another begins.

Fast paced

Another thing about this mix is just how much energy it has. It's bouncy and quick and funny.

According to the radio commentary at the end, there are 30 tracks included in the mix, but unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find a track listing.

Highly recommended! Download here from this link

Jazz Conspiracy

2006-11-15T00:49:00.000Z

Just a quick post as I'm totally jacked and need to get some sleep.

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours listening to Jazz Conspiracy this evening. They play through quite a few recognisable jazz standards, and some quality tracks such as "Straight No Chaser" by Thelonius Monk.

They play well, and though I wouldn't say they are the most challenging in jazz terms, they certainly are an enjoyable listen.

Based in Chicago, this quintet have made available a large number of recordings on their website for free download.

Enjoy.

Links

Jazz Conspiracy music download page: http://www.jazzconspiracy.com/music/

Mickey Eats Plastic

2006-11-10T01:11:00.000Z

Came across "People Eating Tasty People" by Mickey Eats Plastic a couple of days ago and have been listening to it fairly consistently since I got it. It's a free download (or you can buy it for €5 inc. shipping). They have kindly provided a zip of the whole album and all the tracks are encoded at around 192kbps VBR.

Released under a Creative Commons license and running in at 55 minutes over 10 tracks, People Eating Tasty People is an extremely well produced electronic album with lots of natural organic sounds weaved through it. I've found it very pleasant for late night listening whilst I'm working and keep discovering lots of splendid flourishes and detail blended into it.

The album as a whole is varied and each track develops well - it never seems to fall into a repetitive rutt.

Stand Out tracks

01. A Transitorily Abstract Piece of Music - very nice intro to the whole thing. Lots of layers and builds very pleasantly.

04. Failed Breakfast, Chinese Tea - I'm a sucker for cello's and this track uses them simply at first but builds up good harmonies. There are hints of something like Do Make Say Think or Tortoise or something, but I can't quite place it.

05. Exactly as my identity... - Another good builder with an organic feeling blended well into the electronic melee that jumps around the place on this one. Some instrumental chopping here that makes me think of the Matmos album, "A civil war".

Minor side thought

Occasionally there are moments where you can hear a little bit of what sounds like Max/MSP digitisation creeping in, although this might have been intended, it does remind me of a couple of other artists that I know to use Max/MSP which is why I suspect that. I wouldn't take this as a complaint though, just an observation ;)

Who are these guys?

Mickey Eats Plastic is composed of 2 people - lucz and bluermutt - and they live in Rome making music with a variety of instruments and a computer.

Links

Album Download

Gescom/Autechre "MiniDisc" Re-release

2006-11-07T23:36:00.000Z

I'm intrigued by this one as I've never heard it and am definitely thinking of ordering it.

Warp Records re-release

I believe the original concept of this album was that you should play it on shuffle (this was assisted by minidiscs being able to play without gaps when playing on shuffle).

If I get round to picking up a copy I'll let you know what I think.. if anyone else knows it I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Brainwashed Radio

2006-11-06T20:55:00.000Z

Today I'm recommending another on-line radio station for those times you can't decide on what to listen to. Brainwashed Radio is run by brainwashed.com and is a free on-line radio feed that runs in programs such as Winamp and iTunes.

It plays quite a variety of music and you may well find something in there that you really like. I've been listening to it for the last while and they've played Keith Fullerton-Whitman, Kid606, Doormouse, Coil, A Silver Mt. Zion, and Knifehandchop to name but a few. All of the artists played, or their associated labels, are hosted on brainwashed.com which has quite the name-roll, including luminaries such as Godspeed, Hrvatski, Matmos, Tortoise, Luke Vibert, Kranky Records, Tigerbeat 6, and VVM!

On top of a radio stream, Brainwashed offer a weekly hour long podcast featuring the same crowd of hosted artists - as well as video podcasts for those that like their music videos.

About Brainwashed

Brainwashed have been around for the last 10 years and have gone from giving small artists a place to have their web-presence hosted to running a record label, offering daily news updates and even running a festival.

Links

Brainwashed Main site
Brainwashed Radio playlist
Brainwashed RSS Feed

Locsil - Stases - Free download

2006-11-01T21:23:00.000Z

I came across this beautiful ambient album yesterday and recommend you download it and have a listen. You can choose to download single tracks, or the entire album in a zip file (which includes all the album artwork)

The album is by an artist called Locsil, who generally releases on Kranky, but for this, his most recent release he has plumbed for One (yet another netlabel) who have been releasing free mp3 albums under a Creative Commons license for about 3 years.

Stases is a 12 track ambient exploration that lasts for 72 minutes and carries you away on layers of gentle washes, deep drones and distant synths. Very relaxing and highly enjoyable. I recommend putting on a good pair of headphones and lying back in bed and closing your eyes.

Some Highlights

Nautical2 pulses and breathes, long gong sounds with gentle attack curves are layered with beautiful deep drones and eerie distant high pitched squalls, although these high pitched sounds never irritate the ears.

Biced is really beautiful, and has quite a bit more going on than some of the other tracks here. Although these goings-on are still a moment captured and very incrementally developed.

Micro Hydro feels like it is dragging you up into the sky, constantly drawing you further and further into it, all the time underpinned by a steady drone loop.

Windless is the most extreme of the static drones on the album, with an extremely slow development from low growling drone to a large expansive chord which slowly falls back to its origin.

Nice.

Links

Loscil's Website - www.loscil.com/
One (yet another netlabel) - http://one.dot9.ca
Loscil's Discogs page - www.discogs.com/artist/Loscil
Kranky - www.kranky.net/

One Month and so far so good

2006-10-30T18:49:00.000Z

A quick self-congratulatory post as I've only had 3 hours sleep and am about to have breakfast at 7pm (nothing quite like breakfast at 7pm) - I've managed to reach a month of blogging without losing motivation. I think this is a good sign that I'm going to stick at it. 23 posts in a month, not quite the one a day that I planned, but I think I can live with that.

Future Plans

My next aim is to begin uploading a once a week mix set of music that interests and inspires me.

I thought I'd throw a question out there whilst I'm at this: I plan on playing a decent amount of Creative Commons / Open Music in these sets, but I think I'll find it hard not to play clearly copyrighted music.. I can't imagine I have any need to worry about this, but any comments would be welcome.

Thanks for reading and if you're liking it pass the link on to anyone you think might be interested.

Soundmurderer Mix Sets

2006-10-28T03:20:00.000+01:00

I came across this tonight and thought I'd pass it on.

3 Soundmurderer live/mix sets from 2004!

For those of you that don't know Soundmurderer at all, he's a DJ/Producer based in Detroit. I met him playing a gig at Gray's of Newmarket Square a few years ago organised by the good heads at the alphabet set. I really couldn't quite believe that this unassuming, quiet white-boy was producing such wonderful mentalist ragga.

He's quite brilliant and I've listened to a recording of that gig on many occassions, but I'm really pleased to find some more stuff. He does an excellent job of shifting from extremely hefty jungalist stuff to much calmer dubby and reggae based tunes and then back again.

There are actually 4 mixes listed, but only 3 are working links:
Breezeblock 7 June 2004 - 150 Kbps Mp3
Bristol 17 April 2004 - 128 Kbps Mp3
Vancouver BC 24 Oct 04 - 192 Kbps Mp3

Links

Mix Set Download Page
Soundmurderer on Discogs

T-Woc on the Radio

2006-10-27T02:39:00.000+01:00

On the off chance that you are up to nothing on a Saturday night (GMT), then I recommend tuning into the Irish Language station 'Radio na Life' to hear T-Woc's new reggae-tinged radio spot.

It should be an absolute joy to listen to, T-Woc has an excellent ear and quite a stunning collection of records to match.

Show Times

Start on 21st October 2006
Every Saturday Night
Midnight - 1.30am GMT

Tune in on FM 106.4 in Dublin and surrounding areas - or visit their website at http://www.rnl106.com/.

T-Woc's Ancillary Information

T-Woc will be keeping his own site updated with track listing's and audio archives of the shows, so you can keep on top of what he's been doing.
Check out the T-Woc website!

He is also looking for good homegrown material - so anyone making tunes that is interested in sending demos/releases should visit his contact page - http://t-woc.alphabetset.net/contact.html to get in touch.

Hope it works out really well Mick!

Soma FM Online Radio

2006-10-26T12:11:00.000+01:00

I spent the day yesterday listening to Soma FM, something I haven't done in a long time. Why? Similar to why I sometimes use Pandora, I just didn't know what I wanted to listen to.

Soma FM is a free online radio station with a variety of different channels - 11 in total. All of these channels are available at 128kbps mp3 streams, which is decent enough such that sound quality won't be too poor. Streams are also available at lower bitrates and a variety of formats (wma and aac). I've always used the mp3 playlist (.pls) format.

There are no adverts, no DJ's waffling, just pure music. Sometimes the track selection seems a little random (possibly due to it being entirely random?).

Stations Available

Doomed

Space Station Soma

Groove Salad

Secret Agent

Illinois Street Lounge

indie pop rocks

Beat Blender

cliqhop idm

Drone Zone

Boot Liquor

Tag's Trance Trip

Cliqhop IDM

This would be my most listened station of the lot, playing favourites of mine like Autechre, Bola, Thomas Fehlmann, Detroit Escalator Co., Aphex Twin, as well as frequently throwing in tunes I've never heard of. Unlike Pandora there is no way to skip tracks that you don't like, but such is the way of it.

About Soma

Soma FM broadcasts from a basement in San Francisco. Rusty Hodge launched Soma in February 2000. They've been slowly adding channels to the station (starting with Drop Zone). Around 2002 the DMCA CARP ruling came down and forced SomaFM to either pay $500 a day in royalties to the record companies or go off the air. Soma stopped broadcasting and started campaigning.

In November 2002 congress passed the Small Webcasters Amendment Act. This allowed Soma to go back on air with a requirement to pay $2000-5000 a year, plus $6000 in back fees. On November 19th, 2002, Soma returned to the air.

Soma is entirely reliant on donations from listeners to stay afloat, which allows them to avoid any hint of commercialism.

For more info about them check their detailed about page http://somafm.com/about/ (from which this is paraphrased!)

Firefox 2 is out

2006-10-25T02:50:00.000+01:00

Well this isn't a musical reference, but Firefox 2 has just been given it's final release and is now available on Mozilla's main site. I recommend this highly and suggest that if you are a Firefox user, you should upgrade. If you're and Internet Explorer user, then you should switch over. It really is a better browsing experience all over.

What's New

There are a number of small and helpful improvements to the general user experience in the new version.

Tabbed Improvements: Tabs now have an "undo close tab" function - which is something I've wanted on many occasions.; It is easier to move tabs about the place (keyboard shortcuts!); Tabs now have a minimum size, so that you can always read the tab title. If there are too many tabs to fit in the width of the browser, you get a scroll function to move left and right - there is also a drop down list of all your tabs.
Inline Spell Checking: This is great, I have become accustomed to this instantly and it is useful for posting to the blog, multiple forums, or submitting a query on a contact form. Nice to know you are spelling things right.
Better RSS Management: Hitting the RSS link on a page brings you to a more detailed screen displaying information and options on how you would like to subscribe to the feed - you can specify a default action as well.
Session Restore: Available for a while through a variety of extensions, this is nice to have by default and is very effective.
Improved Security: Anti Phishing tools that explain things in plain english.
Better Browser Management: Themes and Extensions management is improved. Managing your search engine list is better.
Suggested Search: A simple but useful feature that picks up google's auto suggest when typing a search into the search box.

Links

Mozilla Firefox
Spread Firefox
Mozilla Thunderbird - much better than Outlook Express

Bedroom Research - Free downloads

2006-10-23T21:45:00.000+01:00

As I write this I am listening to the most recent Bedroom Research Compilation (V3) - something I would consider a good place to start if you've never listened to any of the myriad of Bedroom Research artists before.

A Weird and Wacky World

These guys are wonderful. First up, all the music on their site is licensed under creative commons - so you're free to download to your hearts content and pass it around as much as you like. Secondly, they are really really good.

From wildly chaotic circus music that's been fed through a disturbed mind and a distortion pedal, to mentalist breakcore played whilst killing a squeaky toy, to funky fat surreal electro.. they have it all.

The best thing is that at all times the production is incredibly solid and crystal clear.

Not for the faint hearted

Deework is the most prolific as far as I can tell and has 5 releases on the label. One of my favourites is the 2003 release "Darker than me", which is a fantastic 14 minute EP that squelches from track to track with erratic thumping kick drums and incredibly wet electronic glitches. It's kind of hard to describe... check it out.

Deework also has a nice website which you can check out here: http://www.deework.com/

The Show Must Go On

Tep is another artist that I've downloaded specifically. Wonderfully bizarre - I mentioned chaotic circus music before, well this is the specialist here. Bouncy and quirky with never a moment for you to get bored. It might be something that Tom Waits would do if he was heavily into breakcore.

Complete Package

Finally I feel I need to mention the wonderful artwork that accompanies their releases. I'm not entirely sure who's responsible, but across the board it continues to impress. Unfortunately they are sold out of t-shirts at the moment - but I think I'd certainly pick one up if they were available.

Links

http://www.bedroomresearch.com/
http://www.deework.com/

New Mix by Bruce

2006-10-23T03:18:00.000+01:00

Just a quick link as I've been off the boil the last while. This is a free download of a mix set by Bruce.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K518PPNV

The download site is horrible, but just enter the generated code at the very top of the page and you'll be redirected to the download.

More thought-through posts throughout the week.

Ebauche has a new skin

2006-10-18T02:01:00.000+01:00

Well, I knew when I set this blog up that I was better off just using a default template and getting on with it. I was bored with it though and wanted to fiddle around with a different design.

So here it is. Hope you like it. Any and all comments welcomed. There may well be an element or two that aren't working right, and if anyone spots one, could you let me know.

Common Content

2006-10-17T14:33:00.000+01:00

This site has come about as a result of the good work of the Creative Commons people. Common Content is a catalogue of Creative Commons licensed works. Obviously given my primary love, music, I am referring to their catalogue of CC licensed audio works. Have a look around and maybe you'll find something you'd like to download and check out.

http://commoncontent.org/catalog/audio/

About Creative Commons

Founded in 2001, Creative Commons is a licensing system that allows people to choose from a variety of licenses that can be applied to pretty much any content, whether music, photography, video, web sites, coding, and a whole host of uses. The aim is to give people greater choice in retaining some control of their work, whilst not entailing a complete copyright process.

Stuck for music ideas?

2006-10-12T13:42:00.001+01:00

If you're ever bored with your own music collection and can't bothered searching around for what to play next, I suggest trying out Pandora - www.pandora.com.

Pandora is a web based music player. You start out by suggesting an artist or a song that you like. Pandora goes off and searches it's extensive music database and plays you a song by that artist. After this it starts playing music that it considers similar, related or something that might appeal to you.

Pandora calls this a station. What is nice about it is that you can add multiple artists to a station and it will use that to make its suggestions from. Pandora will allow you to skip ahead a track, but never back. The theory is that it will only ever play a song once.

After you have tried it out Pandora requires you to create an account to continue listening to music. This is nothing suspicious (I think it has something to do with whatever deal they have struck with the music companies), and to create an account you have to register as though you lived in America (probably to do with the music companies again). Easy! Make up and address and away you go.

Once you've gotten set up, you can start adding multiple different stations and teaching the system.

Teaching the system?

Another nice feature of Pandora is that you can tell it when you like or don't like a track. Just hover your mouse over the album cover to bring up some options. It is worthwhile doing this as it helps train the system. I have found that usually after an hour or so, it starts throwing some really random curve balls. If it feels like it's off the rails, just close the window and restart it.

Loving it?

If you absolutely love Pandora, I suggest getting "Open Pandora", which is a small desktop application that runs Pandora instead of it running through a browser. One nice thing about this is that it allows global shortcuts - thus letting you control it no matter what else you are doing.

Finally

Last thing to mention is that Pandora will give you a wealth of information about artists, tracks and their albums. If you hover over the album cover and click the up arrow it displays a menu that links you into information about the artist, track or album. Their level of detail is very good and you'll probably find out a whole lot of stuff you don't know. You can also use this function to buy the album from Amazon or iTunes.

Links

http://www.pandora.com/
http://openpandora.googlepages.com/home

Fairlights - Scraps

2006-10-10T09:46:00.000+01:00

Driving to Dublin last night I was once again listening to Fairlight's last album "Scraps" and I thought, I really should throw this one out there as well.

Scraps is the debut album from Fairlights (Enda Bates) and was released last year by the Alphabet Set. The album is full of waves and waves of granulated, distorted and reverbed guitar, loops, Enda's own vocals and crafted samples.

The album kicks off with "Need" which sits as very good introduction to what is coming. Quickly building up those layers of granulated distortion, the guitars overtake the vocals and everything falls out to a long reverberated, delayed ending.

Following this "You're still in my head" and "There's nothing you can do" strike me as the catchiest tunes on the album, and I can easily imagine these tracks appealing to the most pop-addled minds. "There's nothing you can do" reminds me somewhat of the style of The Notwist, with drum machine style loops backing the catchy guitar driven melodics.

The other two highlights of the album for me are "Scattered" and the end track "Blissfully sinking beneath the waves". "Scattered" has no vocals, but is backed instead by a distant cry, that builds and harmonises excellently with those grainy guitars. "Blissfully sinking.." is an ambient exploration which I find hard to describe. The effect is gorgeous, with string like sounds layering on top of each other and moving left to right to left, all backed by pedalled washes of guitar chords.

The whole album develops extremely nicely and the only trouble is that at the end of 35 minutes you are left wanting more. I'm very much looking forward to his next release.

Listen and Buy

If you'd like to hear some samples from the album, check out his website:
http://fairlights.alphabetset.net/FairlightsScraps2.htm

This CD can be purchased online from Road Records:
Visit Road Records Website

Lost Chocolate Lab

2006-10-09T14:09:00.000+01:00

Here's one that allows you a little bit of free exploration. Generally leaning towards the ambient side of things, Lost Chocolate Lab have a whole collection of free releases that you can download from their site.

I haven't by any means explored everything they have on offer, but I've thoroughly enjoyed The Butterfly's View and Beautiful Flute.

These two releases are slow builders, with The Butterfly's View building layers of distorted instruments on top of looping synths and simple drum loops.

The first two tracks on The Butterfly's View are sweet and easy to listen to. The title track branches out into heavy distortion and noise. It's a bit of a shock and somewhat intense and you certainly wouldn't want to have it queued up on a playlist that lets you drift to sleep before being rudely awoken. This release finishes with a simple short piece with flutes and gentle percussion.

Beautiful Flute is a series of explorations of looping flute samples, slowly building and falling away. This is one to put on when going to sleep for certain. Soft, melodic and hypnotic.

Links
http://www.waste.org/lostchocolatelab/LCLMusic.html

9 Beet Stretch

2006-10-06T22:22:00.000+01:00

I'm going to keep this short, as it's late, though this recommendation doesn't need a lot of introduction.

9 Beet Stretch is an adaptation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony by an artist called Leif Inge. Leif has taken an original recording of the 9th and time-stretched it, so that the original piece is now 24 hours in length.

The work by Leif was originally presented at the Norweigan network for Technology, Acoustics and Music (NOTAM).

This time stretching has been done with absolutely no pitch distortions and the piece is a fantastic ambient piece. It takes a while to get started, but I think it is worth spending a little time listening to.

You can either tune in to a continual 24 hour audio webstream by going here:

http://www.park.nl/park_cms/public/index.php?thisarticle=118

or you can download all of the the piece in mp3 format here:

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/9beetstretch/mp3/?fl=

The Alphabet Set Net EP

2006-10-05T10:04:00.000+01:00

The Alphabet Set have recently started doing a series of releases in a new format. ABCNET is a single mp3 download of a 30 minute mix by a variety of artists.

Currently they have releases from 5 different artists. These mixes are great. They aren't too long that you lose interest, and they allow the artists to not feel too constrained either.

At the same time it's a little different to a live set.

I'd be intrigued to hear what anyone thinks. I've really enjoyed all of them and am not even sure if I can suggest a favourite. They are all quite unique and quite a lot of fun. All in all I think this format is great.

Head over to the Alphabet Set and get downloading!

http://alphabetset.net/audio.html
(to see the rest of the site just go to: http://www.alphabetset.net/ )

A bit about the Alphabet Set

The alphabet set are a loose collective formed in summer 2002. They have organised & collaborated in a variety of sessions involving local & international electronic musicians. Guests at the alphabet set have included dj/rupture, kid 606, random number, v/vm, soundmurderer, biosphere, multiplex, printed circuit & reels of home talent like destrvkt, 2-BiT, t-woc, ebauche, spectac, sarsparilla, psy, herv, thalamus, halo darkly, maschine, somadrone & love rhino among many others.

Mimaroglu Music Sales

2006-10-04T02:23:00.000+01:00

A seemingly strange title for an online music store, but it has it's reasons which I'll explain later on.

Mimaroglu Music Sales is the intriguing baby of an equally wonderfully named gentleman, Keith Fullerton-Whitman.

Keith runs the store entirely out of his bedroom in a co-op house in Somerville, Massachusetts in the States. The music he sells is mostly hand-picked from items that he considers of interest. His catalogue deals with quite a wide range of rare and unusual items. In his store you'll find extremely early examples of electronic and electro-acoustic music, musique concrete, circuit bending, drone music, field recordings and much much more.

I recently purchased a few titles from the store including:
a fantastic album by Richard Devine called Cautella;
a surreal album by Robert Ashley called String Quartet Describing the Motions of Large Real Bodies;
and an excellent ambient minimal compilation from 12k records called E.A.D.G.B.E..
I found the shipping prices from the U.S. to Ireland to be entirely reasonable and the order arrived in good time.

A perfect place to start if you are in any way interested is his featured music section, where you can happily browse through some titles that have especially taken his interest. Audio samples are provided and detailed information about the recordings.

Who is Keith Fullerton-Whitman?

Also known as Hrvatski (which is how I first encountered him), Keith is an excellent music producer in his own right. Under the name Hrvatski he released some excellently chaotic and intriguing electronic music. Under his own name he has created some astoundingly beautiful soundscape/ambient work (“Playthroughs” is particularly nice). He is an extremely nice guy too and I've had the pleasure of playing support for him last year, as well as bringing him over to play a concert in Dublin 3 years ago. He likes a good breakfast.

Why Mimaroglu?

Ilhan Mimaroglu was an early pioneer of electronic music, as well as a producer on albums of some jazz greats such as Charles Mingus and Freddie Hubbard. Keith has some respect for him.

JK is back!

2006-10-03T11:56:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was an important day for music lovers in Ireland (at least as far as I'm concerned). John Kelly made his long awaited return to the radio waves. For those of you that don't know him. John Kelly is a radio presenter that ran the Mystery Train on RTE Radio 1 for the last 6 or 7 years, before that he worked for Radio Ireland hosting the Eclectic Ballroom, and before that he worked with BBC, UTV and Channel 4.

To me he is the most interesting and entertaining presenter on Irish radio waves.

The Mystery Train was a fantastic show that covered a very broad spectrum. I enjoyed the show from the outset, when I was introduced to it inadvertently by my mother (the radio was on all day in my house). Unfortunately for whatever reason RTE decided it was time to move on, and on the 13th of July he broadcast his last Mystery Train.

Now he's back. I don't think I should say much more, and absolutely let him do the talking. He's funny and quirky and you can tune in from anywhere in the world by following the link at the bottom of this post.

His new show is called the JK Ensemble, and as it is broadcasting from Lyric FM, he will be taking a slightly more classical/jazz influenced route, but as you can tell from yesterday's show.. I think we'll be hearing quite a bit of variety.

Good to have you back John.

John Kelly is on the JK Ensemble at 2.30 – 4.30 every Monday to Friday on 96.7 or 98.7 FM.
Every day his show is archived and can be found at http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/thejkensemble/

See Mi Yah

2006-10-02T10:21:00.000+01:00

A little while ago I came across this wonderful album on the Burial Mix label. The album is based on a single rhythm and different vocalists play over this rhythm. This may not sound like the most enlightening experience, but the variation is sublime and the result:

It's beautiful.

An album that from start to finish sounds like one track but it never sounds dull or repetitive. Instead it carries you along in a slightly dream like state, and when it ends, 46 minutes later, you are left wanting more, and also left with an impossible task of what to play after it.

Following it is no easy task, I don't think I have a single album that can match the mood this one sets.

Highly recommended!

You can purchase it from hard wax in Germany (you can also download mp3 samples from here):
http://hardwax.com/47174/

Or if you prefer something like Amazon, you can get it here:
Amazon - Rhythm and Sound

Songbird spreads its wings

2006-10-01T12:20:00.000+01:00

Mozilla do music!

http://www.songbirdnest.com/

This new media-player is at a very early stage in development (0.2), but I'm going to keep an eye on it. As with all other Mozilla developments, it's open-source, which means it's free!

It has all you would expect from a good media player, namely complete media file support: MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WMA, and more.

However, it's big thing that might set it aside from other media players is the way it goes about integrating web browsing and 'subscribing' to digital music blogs/sites/etc. Basically it is a web-browser that automatically finds music on pages that you visit. You can subscribe to these pages and you get an automatic update whenever new music is put up on the site.

I am still wary of any of the 'media library' functions of any mp3 player I have come across. Having a large collection means that inevitably files are incorrectly tagged.. maybe they'll integrate something to correct mistakes in tagging. Or maybe someone will build an extension - this is the real beauty of the Mozilla projects, allowing people to expand the functionality by building extensions.

It will be interesting to watch it develop. Certainly, other Mozilla developments have been very interesting and have completely converted me, Firefox and Thunderbird, so keep an eye on this one.

The Eraser

2006-09-30T13:10:00.000+01:00

I've been listening to Thom Yorke's new album, The Eraser, quite a bit in the last while. It's not all great, but when he gets it right it kicks ass.

Highlight of the album - Track 9 - Cymbal Rush.

You can download the album from www.muchmusic.net

I'll be interested to hear Radiohead's next album. I would consider Radiohead to be the most interesting mainstream band about. It was certainly quite something to see them play a vastly electronic set at Glastonbury a few years ago and to see 70, 000 people loving it.

New Invisible Agent website

2006-09-29T23:41:00.000+01:00

Invisible Agent have gotten together a brand new website.

It looks a whole lot slicker than their old site and I believe they'll be adding a whole chunk of new content as well as making their whole back-catalogue of net releases available as zip file downloads.

Visit Invisible Agent

Kid Kameleon mixes

2006-09-29T23:11:00.000+01:00

Check it out - Mashers without Borders - an excellent mix by Kid Kameleon. Really enjoyed listening to this. Some interesting use of tunes, including one fantastic a-cappella version of a Pixies tune called Mr. Grieves. The band is TV on the Radio, definitely someone I'm going to check out.

Get the mix here:
http://www.kidkameleon.com/2005/04/limitless-mishmash.html

You can visit his main site and download other mixes here:
Kid Kameleon

Just Starting

2006-09-29T22:28:00.000+01:00

This is just going to be a general place to post up links etc. Stuff that interests me.

Check out my main site at www.ebauche.net

Ebauche Music Recommendations

Hotel Ballymun

It's not music but it's funny

Gizmodo against the RIAA

Moog Goodness

First release available for download

Tracklisting

Birthday Time

The Incomparable Falco and the Amazing Jeanny

Watch Falco - Jeanny

Legal downloads galore - Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher

BitTorrent?

Bit Torrent Links

VLR - he gives us some computer love

VLR? Who the hell is that?

This post is lame

Debauched Radio

Tracklisting

Autechre - 15 minute mix - Free download

Fast paced

Jazz Conspiracy

Links

Mickey Eats Plastic

Stand Out tracks

Minor side thought

Who are these guys?

Links

Gescom/Autechre "MiniDisc" Re-release

Brainwashed Radio

About Brainwashed

Links

Locsil - Stases - Free download

Some Highlights

Links

One Month and so far so good

Future Plans

Soundmurderer Mix Sets

Links

T-Woc on the Radio

Show Times

T-Woc's Ancillary Information

Soma FM Online Radio

Stations Available

Cliqhop IDM

About Soma

Firefox 2 is out

What's New

Links

More links than you can shake a fist at?

Bedroom Research - Free downloads

A Weird and Wacky World

Not for the faint hearted

The Show Must Go On

Complete Package

Links

New Mix by Bruce

Ebauche has a new skin

Common Content

About Creative Commons

Stuck for music ideas?

Teaching the system?

Loving it?

Finally

Links

Fairlights - Scraps

Listen and Buy

Lost Chocolate Lab

9 Beet Stretch

The Alphabet Set Net EP

A bit about the Alphabet Set

Mimaroglu Music Sales

Who is Keith Fullerton-Whitman?

Why Mimaroglu?

Related Links

JK is back!

See Mi Yah

Songbird spreads its wings

The Eraser

New Invisible Agent website

Kid Kameleon mixes