Clicks, washes, squawks, riffs & twangs

I love Kammerflimmer's assurance, their confidence that what jazzy drum 'n' bass really needs is their highly idiosyncratic mixture of clicks, washes, squawks, riffs & twangs over the top of it.

They're right, of course. For proof, take a listen to Lichterloh from 2005's brilliant Absencen (buy here)...

Frail As Breath

You wouldn't call it easy listening, but Mark Templeton's stuff has a rich beauty in its drones & textures & layers that I find quite moving. It seems to have the same emotional impact - on me, at least - as fellow Canadian Tim Hecker (though the assumption that they're connected by nationality is probably not worth exploring - suspect they live in different parts of the country & could even be sworn enemies for all I know :-)

Anyway, try Not Alone Anymore from his 2005 Frail As Breath, which I seem to remember he gives away somewhere online; I'll update this if I track it down again. UPDATE: I half-remembered right - he provides a couple of tracks from FAB, as well as some other goodies, here, & more at music.download.com

Of course, you could (& should) also be less cheap & pay for this year's excellent Standing on a Hummingbird album here...

Step on the night bus

Last week saw the release of the second album by reclusive dubstep producer Burial. The addition of vocals to the tracks on new album Untrue lends a yearning quality to the minimalist dubstep beat that makes this one of the releases of the year so far. Listen to this short ambient piece from the first album evoking the comforting bleakness of a rainswept street and aptly entitled Night Bus.

Buy the new album here or here

A Paler Shade of White

Couldn't get an interesting (though also wrong & a bit dubious in parts) New Yorker blog on "How indie rock lost its soul" to appear in our 'Worth Reading' section, so read it here.

For what it's worth, I hear lots of black influence - thankfully - in much of what LMYE deals in (naturally enough, since you could define that space, as Eno said somewhere about his original inspirations, as music with Steve Reich & Tony Allen as its main forebears).

Sure, "the lassitude and monotony that so many indie acts seem to confuse with authenticity and significance" is & long has been a recognisable side of the indie rock world. But there's plenty else around outside the mainstream, thank God (hasn't the author ever heard of electronica, IDM, post-rock?).

&, rightly, black musicians wouldn't thank you for the assumption that the indie ethos isn't available to them because of the piece's banal reduction that indie = white.

More importantly, terms like 'segregation' & 'miscegenation' don't need throwing around so lightly - there's a bit more at stake than whether Arcade Fire should loosen up & feel the funk...

Resistance is futile...

Tortoise & Spring Heel Jack in one 15-minute extravaganza (Reference resistance gate)? What's not to like?!