Last Week’s Jams (2.13 – 2.17)

We’re not sure if you’re off or not for President’s Day, so we wanted to make sure those stuck in an office, or just browsing the Internet at home caught on to what we dished out last week! Ryan premiered a fresh track from Slow Fiction, plus he was able to get some SXSW coverage up via interviews with Dream, Ivory and Free Range. I was stoked to hear our friends Lola Tried return, plus I loved that new track from Ghosts on TV; the new stuff from Dry Cleaning and Lunar Vacation wasn’t bad either. Plus, there were lots of weirdo bits in between like Monde UFO and Swim Camp too! Oh, and did you see the IT Department was back on the grind with some Orbital coverage? Yep, stream away friends.

 

ATH IT Department Returns

Time for a reboot.

Given all of the reimagining of classic characters (what are we on, the eleventyeth Batman?), I thought it was proper time to reset the ATH IT Department. Now, while I will pop some electronic jams up, there will be some new content. We’ll talk technology, how I listen to music to hopefully help how you listen to music, streaming, supporting artists, industry stuff. I used the Put Your Ass In The Know (PYAITK) tag in the past, a reference to one of the original technology bloggers from WAAyayayAaayyy back, and it will be a theme here. We can do simple things to make our enjoyment of music better.

Reach out, drop a comment, whatever path, what are some topics you would like to know on the tech end of listening to the music we love? In the meantime, here is a recently released track by Orbital featuring Penelope Isles. Optical Delusion, their tenth full length, is available today wherever you stream your jams, which by the way, for me is mostly Qobuz. Why? Lossless CD quality or better available for all tracks and high artist payouts per stream. Stream ethically and buy the tracks you love.

Have a Nice Weekend

I wanted to highlight a few shows, but Nathan killed that.

Instead, I am going to focus on a PYAITK scenario. There has been so much hype around SURVIVE and deservedly so, super talented team of analog synth artists. Anyone obsessed with SURVIVE should certainly take some time to review the history of the genre, and in particular, spend time with Orbital. Orbital is Paul and Phil Hartnoll, brothers residing in Brighton. I have loved this band since the release of “Chime/Midnight” and “Belfast” singles. Their releases have been remarkably staggered over the last decade, long breaks between releases, sabbaticals, final tours, reunions. But there is a new single and from a new record, which I can only dream will result in them coming close enough to Austin for me to see them again for the first time since the late 90’s. They lead the path that many stopped following, but popularized again by the analog synth revolution, live programming their performances, even “recording live” on occasion. If you know not of the band, I recommend Orbital II (aka the Brown Album) and In Sides to kick you off.

The track featured in the gorgeous video below is called “Tiny Foldable Cities” from the forthcoming Monsters Exist due in September.

Andre Obin – The Arsonist

Rating: ★★★★☆

We rarely think of electronic artists carrying stage presence. We rarely consider live performance an important aspect of an electronic act. Andre Obin won electronic performer of the year according to hometown Boston’s Music Awards.

The reality is that having good material can trump all. The latest album effort from Andre is called The Arsonist, assumingly for the strong third track we have shared here. But we’ll get there, let’s start at the beginning.

The first seven minutes of the record is dedicated to a song called “Golden Hair”, a simple progression of tones set the stage for an oncoming bassline that starts in the higher octaves and is filled in with angrier deeper synth tones and an inevitable drum track no less that two and half minutes in. I love the slow builder, though formulaic, when the right sounds are peppered in, it can be raise the hair on your arms at high volume. This sends me right to my roots in electronic music of GOA trance, D&B and bands like Orbital and Higher Intelligence Agency. Lofty affected vocals, allegory to Rapunzel, fill the content so the wife doesn’t get mad about songs with out words.

“Blue Powder” changes things up a beat, slows it down, less dream, more synth ballad. Lyrically soft, but intentionally, so, think M83. Title track next, holy crap, I love this song. And quite honestly, it may be the biggest barrier to me upping the score on the album. It is a stand out for me, setting an unreasonable bar.

“Lemondrop” peppers in more M83 vibe, maybe even a little chill wave meets Massive Attack, coolly hollowed breaks and dominant drum track. “Soft Rain” is the probably the poppiest jam on the album. I used it in the SxSW preview and the synth hook makes you smile. Mood changer. “Gazelle” is a mantra-driven darker jam, perhaps the low point on the album for me, but the previous and next tracks are that much better. “Enjoy” deploys the longwave synth bassline and high atmospheric tags that I have always been a sucker for. It is brow down driving music.

The 43 minutes with Andre ends with track eight, “Anthem”. It is a statement, kind of all the things he loves in one song. Big synth hooks, changing tempo, breaks and beats; I think Andre is a Gary Numan fan. The circular lyrics run, “it’s a lot to take home, the thoughts that take hold, there’s so much at stake, it’s a lot to take.”

Unfortunately, my brief SxSW encounter was a late night technical difficulty. The tracks I heard performed were hampered by I/o issues, but did still sound solid as he tours with a drummer and and synth/bass/guitar. I would like to see him again in a proper setting…

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