Leave Trace

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

presspauseplay.com @presspauseplay Facebook: on.fb.me/y4gEK1

If you like the film you can support us by rating it on IMDB – imdb.to/jUqhFn. Thanks!

You know about Monster Planet, right? It’s where we take over a bar with 5 musicians, terrible B-movie montages, and improvise the rest from 9pm-1am.

Tune in tonight, Monday, January 9, 9pm-1am PST, as we attempt to live stream the Monster Planet insanity for your delight and bewilderment. Expect technical glitches (from space!) as we work out the bugs (from beyond time!), along with our regular cast of weird, strange, sick and twisted. Tonight’s auditory experience will be provided by Pezzner, Nio, Gel-Sol, William Mempa, and Blake Peterson. With visual entertainment by Killing Frenzy.

I’m really digging the fusion of ambient, crunky dub, and glitchy IDM in this new album from Liquid Stranger. I was not super into his last one, The Arcane Terrain, but I knew this one was different mere seconds into hearing the first track. Cryogenic Encounters is sure to get a lot of play time from me.

Image morphing has been pushed to new heights in this new Matthew Dear video.

Matthew Dear – Headcage from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

Yum! This preview of the new Solar Fields album is absolutely mesmerizing. It’s the type of music that compels you to stop and just listen. New Solar Fields is always a good thing and this sounds like it could be one of his best releases yet. It drops on December 20, but you can preorder now so you get it on day 1.

Feast your ears on this new and stunning deep ambient release from Ishq. Buy it in digital or phyical format from here.

Ishq makes a welcome return to Interchill with an otherworldly excursion into sublime ambience. And Awake is the next chapter of their meditative chronicles that began with the 2004 debut album ‘Orchid’ (Interchill/Dakini) and left off with their most recent release ‘Sama’ (Electronic Soundscapes). Imbued with mystical properties, the rich harmonic layers of And Awake create space for the busy mind to unwind and drift away to a subtle realm of inner quietude.

This is too cool not to post. Click the image to view its full glory.

Spotted at Gizmodo.

Psilicon Dreams 20 channels inspiration from the embers of summer. You won’t hear anything too heavy or trippy in this mix, just smooth, feel-good vibes to light your way though these coming darker, colder months. Enjoy!

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in the second Saturday of every month at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the latest episode of Psilicon Dreams on DI.FM.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 20 (October 2011) (1hr 13min, 168MB)

Track list:
01. Kuba – Bringin It All Back Home [purchase]
02. Fingerprint – Kingstoned [free download]
03. Nada – Raja Mati [purchase]
04. Lab’s Cloud – I Always Did Love You [purchase]
05. Talvin Singh – One [purchase]
06. Tabla Beat Science – Palmistry [purchase]
07. Ott – A Nice Little Place [purchase]
08. Astral Waves – Falling Stars [purchase]
09. Laya Project – A New Day (Pitch Black Remix) [purchase]
10. 8219 – LoveMi [free download]
11. Prometheus – Sweet Tooth [purchase]
12. Dextro – Pillar [purchase]

The cover art contains a photo by Daniela María Chang.

This is absolutely stunning….

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.

Here’s a stupendous netlabel mix by ColtEP, featuring a fine selection of tunes from the British Columbia-based, dub techno label Silent Season. It’s perfect for those grey moments, when you want music that will alter your headspace but doesn’t command too much attention. Enjoy!

Here’s a bit of video from our special Monster Planet show at ReBar on Halloween:

And a few photos….

Thanks, Lara!

The latest Younger Brother album was pretty much meh, but the electronic remixes they are stating to tease us with sound like they are going to wash all those bad memories away….

Pound a Rhythm Electronic – Younger Brother by TwistedMusic

Hello …… this is a ruff draft of the electronic version of Pound a Rhythm . You’ll hear the final version when we release Vaccine – electronic ( crap title I know – its a working title i promise)

You’ll probably catch some sort of version of this if you come to any of the Younger Brother sound system gigs coming up.

hope u enjoy

I finally got my Chillography 401 pics up on the old Flickr tube.

If episode 19 of Psilicon Dreams, my monthly mix series for Digitally Imported Radio, has a theme, then that theme is Psy n’ Bass. It features a fine collection of tunes that combine the right kinds of interesting fiddly bits with a healthy amount of bass. Not all of the tracks exactly fit this description, but most do. The rest are there for contrast and dynamics, but all are presented for your supreme enjoyment.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in the second Saturday of every month at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the latest episode of Psilicon Dreams on DI.FM.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 19 (September 2011) (1hr 11min, 164MB)

Track list:
01. Tara Putra – Dubland Mountains [free download]
02. Deep Fried Dub – Submerged [purchase]
03. Brujo’s Bowl – Najd’s Squelch [free download]
04. Globular – Seeker [free download]
05. Easily Embarrassed – Triplets [free download]
06. Auma – The Old Magick [free download]
07. Desiseq – DeQuanta [purchase]
08. Krusseldorf – Verticulate [purchase]
09. Liquid Stranger – Veil of Forgetfulness [purchase]
10. Heyoka – Shmazdipdoodlydurkayoda [purchase]
11. Kalya Scintilla – Epic Synthesis [purchase]
12. Timonkey – Sleep Patterns [purchase]
13. Tripswitch – Collider (Codemonkey Remix) [purchase]
14. Mood Deluxe – Shadow Law [purchase]
15. Abakus – How Does it Feel to Be Real [purchase]

Wow. Just watch…..

Better late than never is Psilicon Dreams episode 18, for July 2011. Psilicon Dreams is my monthly mix series for Digitally Imported Radio and features the best in all flavors of psychill, downtempo, ambient, dub, IDM, dubstep, or whatever. As along is it squishes my mind grapes in that special way, it makes the cut.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in the second Saturday of every month at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the latest episode of Psilicon Dreams on DI.FM.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 18 (July 2011) (1hr 17min, 178MB)

Track list:
01. Androcell – Seahorse Dreams [purchase]
02. Flooting Grooves – Across the Threshold [purchase]
03. Novsanus – Forgotton Ages [purchase]
04. Warp Technique – History of Dreams (Doof Remix) [purchase]
05. Frechbax feat. Alex Rutschmann – Summertime [free download]
06. Blue Planet Corporation – Mangrove [purchase]
07. Ascoil Sun – The Swallowed Sun [free download]
08. Lab’s Cloud – My Sacred Place [purchase]
09. Hello Mellow – Amanita [free download]
10. Tripswitch – Tessellation [purchase]
11. Shpongle – Nothing is Something Worth Doing [purchase]
12. Radioactive Sandwich – Elephant Parade [free download]
13. Asura – Virgin Delight [purchase]

This was too good not to repost:

“The creative and the curious are never truly happy unless they have entered a “flow-state”: a rapturous state of consciousness in which we “loose ourselves and find ourselves” exploring our unending curiosity. This is a state of enhanced lucidity and increased pattern recognition that feeds upon itself. For those of us with that itch, that splinter in our mind that never wavers, our lack of complacency feeds a hunger to always know more….. Curiosity is bliss!” -Jason Silva

Spotted at Imaginary Foundation.

Is this a teaser video for a new Sigur Rós album? I sure hope so!

Check out this stunning deep IDM/trip-hop tune from Melbourne-based Auma, featuring a twisted B. Spears “Toxic” a cappella. On Aug 13, he’s got a new EP dropping on Enig’matik Records. More details on that here.

Toxic by auma

Here’s a great video montage of the fun in the sun we had at Chillography 401. A huge thanks to everyone that came out to support mellow beats and friendly vibes.

Here’a great new video from Beats Antique. It’s nice to see something a bit more conceptual and cinematic from an electronic(ish) band. I’ve seen them a couple times now and their live show does not disappoint. Catch them if you can!

Stock up on Beats Antique music here.

Here’s episode 17 of Psilicon Dreams, my monthly mix series for Digitally Imported Radio. I’m super happy with how this one turned out, and it’s been on heavy rotation since I recorded it earlier in the month. It features some sick bass n’ ooze beats and rock-solid downtempo grooves, with a thick coating of dubbed-out fx by yours truly. This is not your typical psychill mix, but then again, typical is not what I’m going for. There were 3 new compilations that formed the central inspiration for #17: Painting Pictures On Silence V1, Elysium, and Psycho Navigator. If you dig the set, I can’t recommend picking up these comps enough.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in the second Saturday of every month at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the latest episode of Psilicon Dreams on DI.FM.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 17 (June 2011) (1hr 22min, 188MB)

Track list:
01. Vieux Farka Toure – Wale (Warp Technique Remix) [purchase]
02. Ashtech – R.E.M. [purchase]
03. Sun In Aquarius – Wytaliba [purchase]
04. Kalpataru Tree – Spoonbender [purchase]
05. Tiki – Past Present Future (Pitch Black’s Sleep Whisperer Mix) [purchase]
06. Grouch – Deep In Your Burgers [purchase]
07. Indidginus – Lost Coast (feat Colin Angus) [purchase]
08. Bird of Prey – Walkabout [purchase]
09. Helios – Dreamtime [purchase]
10. The Mollusk – Exodus [purchase]
11. Shulman – One Step Closer (Eitan Reiter & DJ Shahar Remix) [purchase]
12. Lenny Ibizarre – Sub Drop Shop [purchase]
13. Auma – Sygnal [purchase]
14. ManMadeMan – Flower of Light [free download]

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan

The footage in this little film was captured by the hardworking men and women at NASA with the Cassini Imaging Science System. If you’re interested in learning more about Cassini and the on-going Cassini Solstice Mission, check it out at NASA’s website: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/​science/​index.cfm

Track: 2 Ghosts I, Ghosts I – IV by Nine Inch Nails

Presenting episode 16 of my Psilicon Dreams mix series for Digitally Imported Radio. This mix dives right into the heart of the psychill/psybient genre and highlights some of the melodic stormers that have recently caught my ear. There’s even a touch of sloa goa to keep the energy up without taking it too far.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in every second Saturday at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the newest episode of Psilicon Dreams on DI.FM.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 16 (May 2011) (1hr 20min, 184MB)

Tracklist ::
01. James Murray – Empty Spaces [purchase]
02. Lab’s Cloud – Winds Fairy [purchase]
03. Jaïa – Le Chat des Sirenes [purchase]
04. Digital Drop (Israel) – Salam Bombay [purchase]
05. Ott – The Aubergine of the Sun [purchase]
06. Kadang – Maktub [free download]
07. Chronos & C.J. Catalizer – Across the Universe [purchase]
08. Dreaming Cooper – Space Trip [purchase]
09. Capsula – Mindfulness Intention [purchase]
10. Perfect Blind – Nimbus Cloud [free download]
11. ShizoLizer Gin – Sweet Dino [free download]
12. Senzar – Before the Morning Sun [free download]

Great tunes for a great cause….. here’s the story directly from Bluetech:

I’m proud to announce Rainforest Reverbation: An Amazon Benefit. 100 percent of the proceeds of this album work to end deforestation, species loss, and cultural upheaval in the amazon. You can find out a lot more about the specifics at: www.amazonvoice.org and www.criticalbeats.org.

I’m full of gratitude that I found a way, a tiny way to give back a tiny bit through this tiny offering that I made. I hope you enjoy the music, but even more, I hope that it inspires you to take one little action that matters, and to think about your art and your offering, and how to make it count.

If supporting the protection of the plants, people & culture of the amazon through this music feels good to you, you can find some purchase links below, including full album streaming at bandcamp.

Links below:
Bandcamp
Itunes
Unmixed files at Addictech

Feast your eyes on this new Mars-1 painting. Sci-fi-meets-visionary-art at its finest.

Please enjoy this amazing slice of “psystep” from Birds of Paradise, a collaboration between Bird of Prey and Gibson.

The final version of ‘Quicksilver’ by my partner Gibson and I (Birds of Paradise) from his upcoming solo release, ‘In This World EP’, coming out soon on Addictech Records.He makes me proud!Be on the lookout for loads of new stuff from us…these are just the beginnings

Check out this great compilation, ​Painting Pictures On Silence V1, compiled by Sun In Aquarius, including tracks from Sun In Aquarius, Hypagog, Grouch, Mr. Bill, and more. Fans of my Psilicon Dreams mixes will recognize some of those names and my love for this breed of genre-blending tunescapes, with elements of downtempo, dubstep, glitch, idm, psychedelia, and dub. I don’t know what you call it, but I do know it pushes all the right buttons in my brain. The price is a bit high for a digital release, but it does contain 17 ear-pleasing tunes, and there’s always the option of just buying the individual tracks that move you most. Preview the entire album via the player below and head over to its Bandcamp page for purchase.

Exploring the vast and unexplored expanses of Experimental Electronica, Enig’matik Records presents 16 Artists From Australia,The U.K & New Zealand that have been meticulously handpicked by Label Creator and Artist SUN IN AQUARIUS. All these artists bring forward thinking glitch tinged productions to the table. Songs that contain unsurpassed attention to detail , rich emotional depth and blistering sound design techniques, creating dense Sonic Environments begging to be explored.

Attention PNW-based ambient heads: The venerable Rafael Anton Irisarri (aka The Sight Below) is curating an intentionally very limited capacity music + visual event. Substrata 1.1, happening July 15-17, and will feature work from Biosphere, Oren Ambarchi, Eluvium, Nils Frahm, Benoît Pioulard, Marcus Fischer, Crys Cole, and I3O.

Full event info, tickets (only 100 will be sold!), and artist bios can be found at www.substratafestival.com.

Substrata 1.1 is a three-day sound & visual art event held in Seattle, WA, scheduled for July 15 thru July 17, 2011.

Substrata seeks to explore varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals – an international showcase featuring accomplished artists working in the cutting edge where structural abstraction meets physical dynamics.

By creating compositional spaces dealing with a sense of mass, along with openness of structure, the perspective of scale and the listeners place in relation is shifted to allow for greater a sense of ‘place’ beyond the environ of the performance in the interplay of the moment and physics of the larger world.

Wherein the most minute of gestures are made significant, or massive planes of perspective become revealed, as dynamic interplay builds these spaces that are as much acoustically sensed, as perceived in the mind’s eye. Each showcase features distinctly different takes of the potency of this kind of minimalism, varying between weighty combinations of bass and tonalities used to sculpt out atmospheric ambiance, or powerful dynamic structures made up of the subtlest filigree of sonic building materials.

As the name “substrata” implies, it is about subtle aesthetics that go beneath the surface and into deeper aural territories.

At its nucleus: a two-day performance program, followed by an auditory field trip to the beautiful Cascade mountain range. During the field trip, a small group of participants will spend time with the performing artists while capturing environmental recordings. This exercise will foster a newfound appreciation for our natural surroundings and create a platform for meaningful interaction between artists/participants while exploring a new locality.

Like much of the Internet, I was slightly underwhelmed by the new Younger Brother album Vaccine. There are certainly a few gems on the release, like “Sys 700″ and “Tetris”, but for the most part, it didn’t live up to the greatness they achieved with The Last Days Of Gravity. UK fans did get treated with a Deluxe Edition of the album, however, that includes this track “Delina Did It”. A tasty cut for sure. It doesn’t seem to be available outside of the UK, though, which is a crying shame. I want to buy this track and simply can’t. If anyone knows of where US customers and purchase it, please leave a comment for the greater good!

UPDATE:
I spotted this on the Twisted forum…

Delina did will get released later this as part of vaccine part 2 – we will probably work on it again for its official release…… Vaccine part 2 is dark.electronic.largely instrumental remixes of vaccine …. we started on it in December and plan to put it out later this year , we will also be doing a purely acoustic version of the album – both will be released together – stay tuned for more info

the reason we never play stuff from FOB live is the hard drive will the album’s studio sessions corrupted and we lost it all – as a result we only have the stereo files…. to play crumblenaut live we had to recreate it

peace n out

benji

x

Amon Tobin posted his new album, ISAM, in its entirety for your streaming pleasure. It’s a departure from the jazz-infused broken beats that he became famous for, but it retains and showcases his meticulous sound-design chops. It all sounds lovely to my ears—with equal parts of melody, crunchy bits, and ambient atmosphere—and I can’t wait to dive deeper with repeat listens. Check out the excellent write-up on Create Digital Music, which contains much more info about the album, including some making-of videos.

You can buy ISAM here: www.amontobin.com/store/album/isam.

Download » Leave Trace - Live at Chillography 301

For your listening and downloading pleasure is my live Leave Trace set recorded at Chillography 301 on July 31, 2010 at Myrtle Edwards Park, on the lovely Seattle waterfront. This chillin’-in-the-sunshine inspired performance included the premier of several new tunes, including a melodic downtempo remix of “Monday Mimosas”, the spaced-out “Zero G”, and closes with an unofficial Leave Trace downtempo remix of “Canyon Hymn” by post rock gods, Grails.

Enjoy!

Tracklist ::
1. Splendor
2. Breach
3. Monday Mimosas (Chill Then Serve Mix)
4. Shellshock
5. Zero G
6. Grails – Canyon Hymn (Leave Trace Mix)

MONSTER PLANET PART 12

Monday, April 11, 2011
9pm – 1am
21+
The Can Can
Seattle
FREE!

Monster Planet is a live improvisational, experimental, ambient night featuring local musicians, visual artists, and rotating guests with a random Sci-Fi / Horror B-Movie.

Movie theme: WTF

Featuring music by:

GEL-SOL
LEAVE TRACE
BRIAN OBLIVION
WILLIAM MEMPA
BLAKE PETERSON

So come down and enjoy a nice cocktail or two while having your brain fried with sonic bliss and movies so weird that they have to exist in order to keep balance in the universe.

The Can Can is now located on 1st and Pike Street in the Pike Place Market up the stairs by where the fish are thrown.

Happy Hour Absinthe specials all night.

9PM to 1AM, 21+

And it is FREE!

Facebook event post:
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191904340852359

Keep track of Monster Planet awesome sauce on the official website!
itcamefrommonsterplanet.com
soundcloud.com/monster-planet

Here’s a great live version of one of the many fine tunes Shulman is responsible for. Most “live” performances from electronic musicians sound exactly like they are just playing their CD and pretending to twist really stiff knobs, so I give Shulman extra points for changing it up on stage. I really wish this was the norm, but sadly for most psy musicians it’s not….

Presenting episode 15 of my Psilicon Dreams mix series for Digitally Imported Radio. The first half of the set is some super chill, meditative ambient that I’ve been setting aside for inclusion in a mix for a while now. I could (and should at some point) easily mix an entire set of nearly beatless ambient, but since that is not the true format of the Psychill station which Psilicon Dreams is created for, I pick up the pace and feature a slew of awesome new tracks by newcomer Subaqueous, Ott, Phutureprimitive, and Digital Drop (Isreal). As usual, this episode bounces all around the psychill genre, hopefully showing off the wonderful level of variety in styles that all contribute to this re-blossoming class of music.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in every second Saturday at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the newest episode of Psilicon Dreams on Digitally Imported radio.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 15 (March 2011) (1hr 23min, 199MB)

Tracklist ::
01. Enuui – Chimbre feat. Mauxuam & Greg Hunter [free download]
02. Blamstrain – Frame Math [purchase]
03. Invader Tron – Native Planet [free download]
04. Planet Boelex – Suunta [free download]
05. Erothyme and Subaqueous – Nautilus (Erothyme Remix) [free download]
06. Morphonix feat. Irina Mikhailova – Fuzz Machine [purchase]
07. Digital Drop (Israel) – Shakti [purchase]
08. Uth – Reflections of Consciousness [free download]
09. Ott – Adrift in Hilbert Space [purchase]
10. Phutureprimitive – The Changeling [purchase]
11. Mauxuam – Jahnesh [free download]

With the unmistakable opening melodic flourish, Kinetic announces without a doubt that Phutureprimitive’s looooong awaited second album is finally here. And there was much rejoicing!

Where his first record, Sub Conscious—released on Waveform records in 2004—was a moody, Shpongle-influenced, psydub exploration, Kinetic shows how Rain has updated his sound in line with current musical trends and expertly fuses heavy doses of dubstep and West Coast womp with hints of big-room trance and his trademark melodic tendencies. And boy does this combination work! The distorted basslines ground the compositions and command your attention while the trance gates and arps keep it all from getting too heavy.

Check out “The Changeling” via the player below. It’s a free download until the official album release on March 15, 2011. This track is one of the mellower songs in the lineup, but perfectly illustrates Phutureprimitive’s new sound pallet. Though, most of the other tracks are vocal free, including the noticeable absence of Alyssa Palmer who appeared on Sub Conscious and the Luminous EP.

The whole album is smokin’ hot, but my personal faves are “Xotica” for its bassline so filthy you may need to check your undershorts, the perfect crunch-to-smooth ratio of “The Changeling”, “High Rez” for its perfectly balanced level of sunrise trance cheese, and “Predatory Instincts” which is just begging for a proper psytrance mix. Seriously, there is not a dud on the album… that is a rare thing to say indeed.

This album is going to be big, and with the extensive tour lined-up Rain will surely be destroying a mid-tempo dancefloor near you in the coming months.

Get Kinetic when it’s released on March 15 at phutureprimitive.bandcamp.com.

Here’s the official release blurb:

Esteemed Northwest producer Phutureprimitive is set to release his sophomore LP Kinetik this March via his own imprint, Native Harmonix. This long awaited album is his first full-length to follow up his iconic 2004 debut Sub Conscious. On Kinetik Phutureprimitive explores a heavier, bass-centric sound that adds raw energy to the meticulously detailed tracks this trusted producer is so well known for. In support of this release, Phutureprimitive embarks on a 24-show tour across North America with fellow sonic mastermind Ott.

Kinetik will be available for download through phutureprimitive.bandcamp.com, as well as at all major online retailers and limited physical copies will be available on the tour. See the dates below and be sure to get your copy of Kinetik when it is released on March 15th.

Here’s what Phutureprimitive has to say about the album:
“This album is a reflection of the times we are living in … hard and aggressive, lush and beautiful, kinetic, frenetic, distorted, ever changing … but with each passing moment, a chance to move through life and make it a better place than we found it.”

~Rain, Phutureprimitive

Tour dates and locations ::
March 10, 2011: Fox Theatre – Boulder, CO
March 11, 2011: Agave – Avon, CO
March 12, 2011: three20touth – Breckenridge, CO
March 13, 2011: Ghost Ranch Saloon – Steamboat Springs, CO
March 15, 2011: George’s Majestic – Fayetteville, AR
March 16, 2011: Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS
March 17, 2011: 2720 – St Louis, MO
March 18, 2011: Majestic Live – Madison, WI
March 19, 2011: Kinetic Playground – Chicago, IL
March 20, 2011: The Loft @ Barfly – Minneapolis, MN
March 23, 2011: Soundlab – Buffalo, NY
March 24, 2011: Middle East Downstairs – Cambridge, MA
March 25, 2011: Canal Club – Richmond, VA
March 26, 2011: Public Assembly – Brooklyn, NY
March 27, 2011: Castaways – Ithaca, NY
March 30, 2011: Proud Larry’s – Oxford, MS
March 31, 2011: The Hookah – New Orleans, LA
April 1, 2011: Limelight – Nashville, TN
April 2, 2011: Newby’s – Memphis, TN
April 3, 2011: King Plow Arts Center – Atlanta, GA
April 6, 2011: Ukiah Brewing Co. – Ukiah, CA
April 7, 2011: Red Fox Tavern – Eureka, CA
April 8, 2011: 103 Harriet – San Francisco, CA
April 9, 2011: Refuge – Portland, OR

Feast your eyes on the mind-bending video work of Taras Hrabowsky:

Presenting the most hauntingly beautiful thing you’ll hear all day….

For this month’s Psilicon Dreams episode, I again explored the fringed edges of the psychill genre. With two cups of bounce, 4 oz. of squigglies, one-and-a-half wobbles (minced), a dash of sub-oontz, and a sprinkle of psydrops (to taste), Psilicon Dreams 14 is a set of grade-A, peak-hour downtempo, meant to get those heads a bobbin’.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in every second Saturday at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the newest episode of Psilicon Dreams on Digitally Imported radio.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 14 (February 2011) (1hr 20min, 183MB)

Tracklist ::
01. Grouch – Chops [purchase]
02. SeventhSwami – The Art of Letting Go [purchase]
03. Nagual Sound Experiment – Systema (Coopers Theme) [purchase]
04. Globular – Squabbling Gods [free download]
05. Hol Baumann – Benares (Vârânaçî edit) [purchase]
06. LuneCell – Alkaloid [free download]
07. Shiloh – Bleed [purchase]
08. Greg Hunter and Mauxuam – Hydra.phonica [free download]
09. Mr Projectile – I Am Back [purchase]
10. Invisible Allies – Turquoise Rain Chant [purchase]
11. Tipper – Neuron Huskie [purchase]
12. Sonoio – Not Worth Remembering (Ricard Devine Mix) [free download]
13. Shpongle – Walking Backwards Through The Cosmic Mirror [purchase]
14. Tripswitch – Strange Parallels [purchase]

The Monster Planet audio archives are making their way onto Soundcloud. Please enjoy these momentary snippets of our aural misadventures.

Latest tracks by Monster Planet

Here’s my favorite image from the fantastic series of Dia-de-los-Muertos-meets-pop-icons letterpressed images by Jonathan Koshi. Check out the full set here.

Followers of my Psilicon Dreams mix series should recognize the Sun In Aquarius name. I regularly feature his new releases, as they just push all my bassy-psychedelic-ambient-glitch buttons like few others do. And look what I found! A Sun In Aquarius live set. I do love hearing how an artist strings their tracks together to make a set. About the set he says, “A recording taken from my live set at Earth Freq Festival 2011, without the live sampling i perform over the top.” I’m sure that live sampling adds an extra layer of slippery goodness to his music, so it’s too bad that didn’t also get recorded. He must be mixing that stuff in at the main board and this recording is straight from his computer. Still a damn tasty mix, nonetheless, so stap on your snorkels and prepare your mind grapes for a squishin’. SiA is taking us deep with this one.

Voice: Bill Hicks (16 December 1961 – 26 February 1994)

“Life is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever. Because this is just a ride….But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between FEAR and LOVE.”

Spotted at Paradise Engineering.

I have a new uplifting, mid-tempo, nostalgic-romp of a track, Quintessence, featured in Solipsistic Nation’s Twitter Mix 3. As of this moment, that is the only place where you’ll be able to hear it, so download the mix, or use the player below, to give it a listen.

[See post to listen to audio]

Solipsistic Nation is consistently one of my favorite podcasts, so I highly suggest adding it to your subscription list and let the weekly episodes exploring “the best of all genres of electronic music” flow your way.

For January 2011′s episode of Psilicon Dreams, my monthly mix for Digitally Imported’s Psychill channel, I decided to honor one of my favorite record lables, Ultimae Records, by crafting a set entirely of music from their vast catalog of powerful and well-crafted electronica. Nearly every episode of Psilicon Dreams has contained a track or two from Ultimae, and after a recent purchase of several of their newer releases, it was an easy choice to just go all in this round. This mix is but a wee sampling of their expansive catalog, so I can’t encourage you enough to do some exploring of your own. You seriously can’t go wrong with anything with their name on it.

And of course, what would a tribute to Ultimae be without a cover in their iconic style. It looks like they’ve changed it up for their most recent releases, but that heavy black letterbox look with abstract photography made for an instantly recognizable CD.

Like what you hear? Let me know! And don’t forget you can grab lots of other mixes from my downloads page. You can also subscribe to the Splendid Beats Podcast and never miss another splendid download!

Tune in every second Saturday at 9am US PST/12pm US EST/5pm UK/18:00 Central Europe to catch the newest episode of Psilicon Dreams.

[See post to listen to audio]
Download » Crispy - Psilicon Dreams 13 (January 2011) (1hr 14min, 170MB)

Tracklist ::
01. Sync24 – Memloop [purchase]
02. Solar Fields – Unite [purchase]
03. I Awake – Inferno [purchase]
04. Malik Trey – Sleepy Shadows [purchase]
05. Hol Baumann – Breathe [purchase]
06. H.U.V.A. Network – Indigo Room (Live Version) [purchase]
07. Sundial – Together, We Are? [purchase]
08. Scann-Tec – ASD [purchase]
09. Asura – Erase [purchase]
10. Cell Featuring Aes Dana – Switch Off [purchase]
11. Aes Dana – Heights [purchase]
12. Solar Fields – The Stones Are Not Too Busy [purchase]
13. Asura – Regenesis [purchase]

As I work towards completing my first album, I’m keeping most of my new music secret (or for live sets only) at the moment. However, I would like to share this new slice of deep, ethereal ambient techno with you all. Enjoy!

Hear and Know by Leave Trace

Here’s a perfect unofficial video, by the sharp-eyed Neil Krug, to my favorite Boards of Canada song, “In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country“. Mr. Krug’s sun-drenched ’70s vibe perfectly pairs with BoC’s nostalgic sound. Go spend some time exploring his portfolio and enjoy.

Spotted at Abduzeedo.

Rotary Signal Emitter – Side A from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

Rotary Signal Emitter – Side B from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

Sculpture present a flattened zoetrope on the surface of a vinyl record. The Victorian zoetrope, invented in 1834, was a three-dimensional object that consisted of a spinning cylinder with vertical slits through which still images appeared to move.

Sculpture’s animation requires the use of a video camera to convey its magic, but as can be seen from their videos the effort is well worth it. Just the knowledge of the latent potential contained within the vinyl surface serves to enhance the experience of the music and the spinning disc, even to the naked eye, is a hypnotic spectacle.>

What a spectacular idea and execution! Full details can be found at Hardformat.

Pixelthis on Etsy is making this crazy awesome wall clocks out of old and broken turntables. Get yours here.

Perhaps you are looking for a something a bit smaller? Then there’s always these great laser-cut “Re_Vinyl” clocks from Pavel Sidorenko. There’s a load of different fun designs to choose from.