Gentle envelope

Fjord & seascape backdrops probably do little to discourage those 'glacial' cliches. But to these ears The Sight Below (MySpace/LastFM) is lushly warm, not frigidly cold.

A snapshot of his gentle, enveloping pop-drone:

Life's Fading Light (from Glider)



Twice Failed, With Her Kiss (I'd Pass the Sky) & No Place For Us (from No Place For Us)

Bonus: Live on KEXP (also iTunes giveaway: GhostlyCast#18)



Art by Mike Cina.

Tectonic cathedral

Reasons to be, well, 'cheerful' may not be quite right - but new Tim Hecker is always welcome: after the monumental Fantasma Parastasie with Aidan Baker (one of LMYE's 31 Albums of 2008), the no less immense, organ-driven Sea of Pulses [or lower-res here]. 

From An Imaginary Country - due on kranky in March, apparently. Or February, possibly...

The lighter - even pretty - Shosts in Silver also out on Kompakt's Pop Ambient 2009 next month, in any case. Hear it here. 

Living stones

Trailing, as often before, on others' coat-tails (assuming in this case that mapsadaisical sports a tailed coat, but you know what I mean...), I stumbled back across Lithops lately. There's a lot to stumble on: that impeccable Mouse on Mars & Von Sudenfed lineage! That wry Teutonic humour! That art-world cred!

 

Anyway, delight in the whirring avant-pop of Handed (from Ye Viols, Thrill Jockey) - originally premiered at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin to accompany an exhibition by Rosa Barba and David Maljkovic, we're told. Who knew?

Well, we could have consulted the handy Jann St Werner project archive...

From which, an LMYE hack of a nicely noisy & warped extract from the man's Noisemashinetapes Archive (download them all here): Textmessage. 

In stillem Gedenken

Courtesy of Berlin's fine zero", a Modeselektor giveaway: the Modes' brand of kitchen-sink techno can be a bit cartoon-ish - to these ears, at least - but their encounters with Radiohead's Thom Yorke were quite tasty, as was Godspeed (the intense first track from Happy Birthday). 

For a scraping, whirring, almost ambient Mode, go here for a free download of the lovely  valedictory In Loving Memory (from the eponymous EP & Hello Mom!); enter the code 5801248655406313 [use by January 30; registration may be required]. 

zero" Last.FM group for more goodies...

Also in BPitch Control territory, the best track from Telefon Tel Aviv's imminent Immolate Yourself to penetrate LMYE consciousness so far: the ravishing The Birds. 

Update: striking, defiant TTA commentary on Immolate here (NB: both Birds & Helen of Troy are BPitch-sanctioned giveaways). 

Before the backlash

Before the inevitable backlash (give it two months at most..), one last Inaugural airing for this awesome splicing of fairly minimal techno pulses & swirls with soaring Obama rhetoric - a rare & inspirational moment. We Cannot Turn Back is an LMYE-curated extract from Francois K @ Minitek last year. 

Apologies as before for the somewhat abrupt ending, & the remorseless re-upping.

Any guidance on the underlying tracks still most welcome...

Hope/Progress image by Shepard Fairey.