unholy rhythms

Hypnotized by your presence, I stand staring, unable to move along with the whirring outside forces. Foggy and delicate, you slink towards me with wanton steps. Your breath, velvet and misty, visible amongst the backdrop. Fixated, my eyes could focus only on you. Mirroring my every move, you begin to weave to and fro - like a shadow. Enveloped in envy, overtaken by admiration, our actions would slowly disintegrate and merge, unwillinginly, into one unified entity. We were unable to divide, velcroed like a tight-woven fabric, as I began to pull and claw through the invisible suture you created. Prodding at my own flesh, uncertain if it was mine or yours, I tugged, mangling and mutilating - paper sinews, gossamer cords. Tender departure. Relieved rescission - an achieved annulment from my forcefully-created symbiotic twin.

Drugg - My Words Are Sick - is a hypnotic and hazy tune that foggily glides through reverb, echo, and alluring loops and synths. It steadily builds to a finale - a resolution that no words are needed. While ailing, the yearning intent is found in the forceful, pulsating and throbbing notes. A departure from vocabulary - emancipation from vernacular.

Stream “Shackled” at bandcamp.

♫ Drugg - Weaklings & Cuckolds

♪ File under: electronic, hazy, hypnotic

As they worked, from morning until night, they began to lose their native tongue. Arising when the sun was barely visible, they would work until their hands were sore. Bleeding and calloused, they’d collapse from exhaustion every night. With memories of their childhood, their mother’s warm and large hands, they would toil until their backs would break. Small children suddenly transformed into work mules - dispensable tools - a commodity to trade away. Their memories would slowly fade, like their language, and they would adapt to their surroundings. Faces red from the sun, skin cut from the thorns - a lineage that would flow in my veins.

A Tribe Called Red is an all Native-American crew from Canada. They take chants and create music I’ve never heard the likes of before. Mixing electronic/dubstep/8bit elements with traditional pow pow and, at times, chopping it to the point of sounding like tropical birds in the rain forest, the songs mesmerize you until you have no choice but to click repeat. AMAZING.

♫ A Tribe Called Red - Electric Pow Wow Drum

♪ File under: electronic, pow wow step, electric pow wow rhythms

(photo credit: Sam Ray)

Standing at the edge of indecision, I couldn’t clearly focus on what the appropriate choice should be. There was heartbreak and freedom on one side and to the other imprisonment and stability. Would I choose to continue living the life I had lead for so long, repeat the same mistakes I had been making for the sake of preservation, or would I lodge myself away from the restraints? Suffocating and shivering, I could feel your hands lovingly clutching my throat. Gasping for air, I could barely envision the path before me - blurred and fading. As I began slipping further and further, enveloped in a fuzzy warmth, I felt euphoric. I shouted - unfretted and nearly choral - as I felt my countenance attenuate. Was this my salvation or was it my demise? Comforted and nuzzled - womb-like cosset - a ghostly vagabond now dwelling in ethereal realms. Released and realized.

Circuit Des Yeux’s “Barrel Down” from Ode To Fidelity is a vexing inspection of reality as sung by a ghostly apparition. Vocals flutter and fade over a melancholic strumming guitar loop. It begins a duet, and near its breaking point, its partner begins to wail and squeal. It’s a solution to a lingering dilemma - an awakening of near satiated sorrow. Like being pulled into tenebrous surroundings by a cloudy, siren-esque guide. 

♪ File under: minimal, experimental, ghostsongforghostlypeople

This track, along with Knight Stalker below, marks the start of good vibes/dance party Friday. Forget all of your troubles, all of your weighty worries and fiery frustration, and head bob/shoulder/universe dance by yourself. Headphones on - volume all the way up - and vibe. 

“Bird of Prey”, contains an inching beat that creeps over samples which glisten and glimmer. The steady pounding - resounding and persistent - meets delicate twinkling starry effects. Cosmic breakdowns combine with a foggy fortitude only terminate too abruptly. Fantastic.

Music does sound better with my boi - the seriously amazing - Leaving Scene.

theleavingscene:

YABBA - “BIRD OF PREY”

This track is like a foggy San Francisco morning.  An atmospheric head-bobber for the cold concrete. 

With a hip-hop twist, Yabba provides the perfect amount of starry-eyed synth; a hypnotism of sorts.

He’s got zero info available, just a tiny little SoundCloud and a mysterious icon. I hope to hear more from this artist very soon.

On that day, the day we committed a grievous error, the clouds blanketed the sky like dismal velour. Exposed and drenched, I feared my flesh would tear quickly from my bones. Those razor sharp raindrops, coupled with your nails - slashed and tugged at the exposed skin. Flat on my back, paralyzed, I hopelessly searched for answers in your eyes. Your breath, visible and warm, floated through the air like fog. I was confused by the beauty and violence, by the endless wanting of resolution, the forceful inspection in the secluded woods where no one would think to come calling. Alone with the twisted oak, the dampened and crackling leaves, you took everything I had to give you. All my devotion, my nativity, my foolish and lustful yearning, vanished like the parting clouds - signaling an end to the thievery. The appetent ransacking which would forever tarnish my core. 

The Skeleton Dead (http://soundcloud.com/skeletondead), a duo from London, create hauntingly delicate acoustic music. It is gorgeous and picturesque - swirling in imagery and atmosphere. 

♪ File under: acoustic, minimal, leonardcohenwouldbeproud

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Please note that at the moment - I cannot edit my posts with tumblr. I cannot provide hyperlinks, spellcheck, or edit HTML since nothing is working. They’re looking into the issue (I hear) but when the problem is resolved, I shall go back and re-edit the post with proper linkage. 

Many apologies to those that read this.

Unable to distinguish between reality and a dream, I stumbled through the night with only minimal vision. Grasping at what was around me, trembling and unaware, I found my way to a corner. At once I felt content and frightened, shivering and excited. My skin, moistened by dew and raised ever so slightly, felt a gentle touch. You lurked, silent and apprehensive, from the shadows and made your way towards me. Unaware of your beauty, you remained hidden away from everything, only revealing yourself when you felt was convenient. If the light hit ever so slightly, I could make out your appearance - beautiful and solemn. You, so gorgeous and divine, were what I longed for secretly. Murky inspection - secretive caressing, my quiet and solitary love forever clandestine. 

****Premiere - Ricky Eat Acid - Only Girl****

Prolific, chameleon-esque virtuoso intermingling drifting samples and conjuring minimalistic atmospheres into a new haunting rendition of a mega-popular hit. This isn’t what you expect - as you’re urged on and convinced to descend, explore, and reveal. Gorgeous. 

*Edit: D/L “Only Girl”.

♪ File under: electronic, minimal, dirgepopremix

Sacred Animals, from Ireland, recently released their gorgeously minimal cover of “Castles In The Snow” for Quarterinch Collective. The compilation (Quompilation #1) just launched and is full to the brim of cover songs. 

This cover is sweetly seductive - a crooning, spiraling downfall into a chilly blanket of loving solitude. Like a realization of a dream - a confession never meant to be heard. Mellifluous, lurking, glacial lullaby.

♪ File under: electronic, cover, swoon

In case you haven’t heard the news, Teen Daze and some friends are starting up a digital 7” label, Cultus Vibes on Feb. 1. Read more below:

The plan was really simple for me: I wanted to create a way to share some of my incredibly talented friends’ music, as well as a platform to release free music, myself.  I’ve come to find that in the last few years, one of the reasons I’ve been as inspired and challenged to make the music that I make is because of the strong influence of the people around me.  This label is a way for me to help share some of the successes that I’ve had in the last year with some people that I think deserve a chance to be heard. 

The first release will be the next Teen Daze Digital 7”. Here’s the A Side to the release - “Together”.

♪ File under: electronic, music, excitement

As he gripped my hand tightly, we began our journey. My eyes, adjusting slowly, could hardly believe what they were seeing. Shaking and overwhelmed, I tried desperately to swallow the gargantuan lump forming in my throat. Eyes swelling with tears, hands perspiring, I feared that I would become detached from you. Alone and above the atmosphere, we explored our dwellings in blissful silence - interrupted only by our laughter.

10th Letter’s latest “Virgo Rising” is experimental, abstract, psychedelic hip hop. While I may have been using this adjective a lot lately - it is nebulaic, cosmic, and macrocosmically magnificent. Enshrouded in textures and tribal/psychedelic tones, it is universe, transcendentally entrancing.

♫ 10th Letter - Return To The Stars

Purchase here for a mere $6.

♪ File under: psychedelic, experimental hip hop, far out

Lost Twin: glitchy, instrumental hop hop from Brighton. I cannot elaborate much more except to say that this falls exactly in place with my musical menu for the month. Want. Need. Love.

Get “Saskatchewan Suite” now.

♫ Bonus: Lost Twin - Comprendo Ahora

♪ File under: glitch, instrumental, hip hop, head-boppingly good.

Parched and exhausted, I remained cemented firmly where you left me. Unable to move, I could only dream of freedom, of a rescue that would never come. At times, I would become so lost in hope that I would start to hallucinate the rest of my life. I longed for your touch, for freedom, for that salvation that I had promised myself at the start of my journey. If stubbornness was my downfall, it would also be my redemption. For I remained headstrong in my trial, your face, benevolent and loving, my promise. My dream.

Gorgeous, dream pop from Keith Canisius. ”This Time It’s Our High” (out on Darla Records) is well worth the listen. It is lush and earnest without being overwrought - it ebbs and flows like a gentle haze at dusk. A bedroom, stargazing rhapsodist wooing you with heartfelt sonatas. 

♪ File under: electronic, dream pop, more and more!