Strange Mountain - Slow Midnight

Here's some awesome music out of Jakarta, Indonesia. This is real sincere and delicate.

Pausal - Forms

"either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you"  - Charles Bukowski





(Sorry for all of the quotes lately. I'm reading again and starting to feel like everything is loosely connected.)

Rainbow Valley/Wind in Willows - Split

Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" scares me. Every time I read it I find some new feeling, thought, or belief to which I can relate. I should find comfort in knowing that I'm not alone; that I'm not the only one to ever think the same thoughts as the unnamed narrator. But there's nothing comforting about exploring the dark abyss of the human mind.

(Play "Startide Whisper" and read the excerpt below.)

“Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn't I better end my "Notes" here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I've been writing this story; so it's hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are all divorced from life, we are all cripples, every one of us, more or less. We are so divorced from it that we feel at once a sort of loathing for real life, and so cannot bear to be reminded of it. Why, we have come almost to looking upon real life as an effort, almost as hard work, and we are all privately agreed that it is better in books. And why do we fuss and fume sometimes? Why are we perverse and ask for something else? We don't know what ourselves. It would be the worse for us if our petulant prayers were answered. Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our activity, relax the control and we ... yes, I assure you ... we should be begging to be under control again at once. I know that you will very likely be angry with me for that, and will begin shouting and stamping. Speak for yourself, you will say, and for your miseries in your underground holes, and don't dare to say all of us-- excuse me, gentlemen, I am not justifying myself with that "all of us." As for what concerns me in particular I have only in my life carried to an extreme what you have not dared to carry halfway, and what's more, you have taken your cowardice for good sense, and have found comfort in deceiving yourselves. So that perhaps, after all, there is more life in me than in you. Look into it more carefully! Why, we don't even know what living means now, what it is, and what it is called? Leave us alone without books and we shall be lost and in confusion at once. We shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise. We are oppressed at being men--men with a real individual body and blood, we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalised man. We are stillborn, and for generations past have been begotten, not by living fathers, and that suits us better and better. We are developing a taste for it. Soon we shall contrive to be born somehow from an idea. But enough; I don't want to write more from "Underground."

Quiet Evenings - Patience Folding Water

Will need this tape to get me through the day.

Panabrite - Glass Corridor

Life doesn't have to be heavy.

Purchase the tape on which this perfect song appears.

Lunar Miasma - Observing the Universe

NOTE: For best results, please play the track below and begin reading

----------

I used to look at the stars. I spent my childhood with my head tilted up towards the sky. Warm summer nights—beneath the universe and its possibilities—I could have imagined anything. But I tried to imagine they did not exist, and everyone and everything never existed. I tried to imagine nothingness.

Late night car trip across the California countryside:

I closed my eyes and was floating in space; rotating in a slow circular motion. There were no planets—only stars. I was observing the universe. Stars in the horizon began to disappear as if I were on a hill watching a power outage slowly sweep across a city. I was on a path towards understanding nothingness, to which each fading star brought me closer. Darkness guiding illumination.

Almost alone. One star left.

Is this loneliness or peacefulness? And when the star is gone—what happens next?

Chills shot through my body and I snapped back into consciousness. I wasn’t able to answer those questions, and haven’t thought about them since. Last summer—listening to “Observing the Universe”—I was reminded of this childhood daydream. I brought the tape with me everywhere I went and used it to reflect on that experience, to rediscover other forgotten memories, and to create new ones to forget and remember years from now. I don’t see the stars much anymore, but that tape takes me there. It takes me there.

Buy the tape from Moon Glyph

RIP, Lunar Miasma

Ssaliva - RZA

Genre: loops and stuff

Sounds like: smokey haze

Bandcamp

Oh hey. How are you? Yeah I know, I had forgotten about this thing too.

New tape from Ssaliva. He's supposed to be Belgian I think. I posted something else by him and now I'm posting this too.  bet there's a whole genre that sounds like this but I don't know what it is. I bet you can find a download link somewhere too if you look (I didn't).

This post brought to you by your extremely dedicated blog author.

Rivière Amur - Bois Flotté

Genre: Drone, Psychedelic

Sounds like: Deep Magic, earlier Pocahaunted

Bois Flotté is like discovering something unfamiliar through the familiar. An alternate perspective on reality. Side A begins with the familiar sound of the ocean, as meditative chants and slow tonal changes emerge from beneath. Crashing waves decrease in force as if Rivière Amur could calm the most violent of seas. Bells chime in the background, like a hypnotist signaling you in and out of consciousness. Don’t fight it. Forget everything you know and accept this new reality. Approach the world with a naïve eye, as if just born. All knowledge is now a priori. Disassociate objects around you from the names given to them. Focus on the aesthetics: shapes, color, and movement. What do you see? What do you hear? Whispered voices and chirping birds in the background have become nebulous and have fused with the droning soundscape. Familiar sounds have transformed into something new. Something radiant. Don’t fight it. You’re now ready for Side B.

Note: Rivière Amur is a musical collaboration between Belgium’s Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier and Pittsburg’s Inez Lightfoot. Purchase a copy of Bois Flotté from I Had an Accident Records.

Marble Sky - No Matter How Close

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental

Sounds like: Cream of the crop drone

It never snows in California, or at least in any city in which I’ve ever lived. If California were ever hit by a blizzard I imagine that our daily lives would halt and we’d be forced to slow down and live simply for a few days. I’d really like to see this happen someday as I think it would do us all some good.

No Matter How Close is about as close an experience as I’ll ever have to a debilitating snowstorm. I don’t mean to suggest that the album is filled with cold drone songs, as it’s actually a very warm and gentle album, but that it always slows me down like no other. When listening, I close my eyes and picture myself in a cabin in the woods. I am alone and snow is falling gently outside. I find comfort beyond the warmth of the fireplace in knowing the freezing temperature outside. Time becomes an arbitrary concept when you don’t have anywhere to be and nobody looking for you. I’m simply living in the moment and not thinking about tomorrow or next week. I have finally found patience.

Download

Note: Get at me if you have a copy of this bad boy on cassette and want to sell it. This is my favorite of Jeff Witscher’s projects. I don’t think he’s doing anything under the Marble Sky moniker anymore, but you can check out what he’s currently up to as Rene Hell. If you like this album you should pick up a copy of Sway from Monorail Trespassing.

Belong - October Language

Genre: Ambient, Electronic, Shoegaze

Sounds like: Infinite Body, Mountains

I felt extremely isolated in my small studio apartment when I moved to the Bay Area a few years ago. Though the loneliness typically didn’t bother me, I found a lot of comfort in desolate sounding music that other people created in their bedrooms. I assumed the people creating this music were also lonely, and I found solidarity in that assumption. So anyway, be prepared to read about a lot of introverted bedroom music!

I’m not sure whether Belong recorded October Language in a bedroom, and come to think of it, they must not be very lonely since they are a duo. Regardless, this album is absolutely gorgeous. Much of this album contains thoughtfully orchestrated music buried beneath layers upon layers of rubble. Recorded in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina, I can’t help but think that the apocalyptic soundscapes on this album were an omen that should have been listened to more carefully. Put on some headphones and give this album an attentive listen and you might be surprised by what you hear.

Download

NOTE: I will generally not post albums that are still in print for download, but this one has been out for about five years and I just can’t help it.

The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

Genre: experimental, ambient, 78's, lounge

Sounds like: Gavin Bryars, William Gavinsky, shit your great grandmother loves

First post here at this lovely blog so I thought I'd share what was been helping me make it through this damn quarter (school). This is some seriously beautiful and disturbing tunes wrapped up in this record. Background a bit The Caretaker is also known as James Kirby, has been releasing interesting projects for a while now. This is one of his latest ventures and it dives into a vibe that isn't really heard much these days. It's like listening to slow and untimely death (use your imagination) of your great aunt, but there is one catch, you have had way too much nitrous. 

The concept behind it was to create something where Alzheimer's patients would have something peaceful to listen too. Frightening but methodic, this album crumbles slowly until you reach an undesirable end. But don't let that get you down, there is still a blissful ending, much like the some Alzheimer's patients would like to have closure.


3 words why you should try it.
Reverb, loops and pops .

Buy the album here
Buy the download here

Ssaliva - Thought Has Wings

Genre: Electronic, Ambient, Chill Beats

Sounds like: Aphex Twin's mellow stuff

Listen

I totally understand why a lot of blog writers hate filling out the "genre" and "sounds like" parts because for the most part I'm just guessing on this one. I found Ssaliva cause I follow John Campbell's webcomic pretty regularly and saw that he's been making some seriously weird videos lately. One of them was a short little music video for this band (linked below). I can't really find out anything about them but they've got some mellow tunes with good beats, nice textures and even a little bit of ambient noise thrown in. If you liked the Monster Rally link you'll like this.

Download

I was going to put the John Campbell music video here but couldn't figure out how to embed Vimeo links so just click here if you're interested.