To the People of Haiti

Our thoughts and hearts are with all those who have been affected by the tragic earthquake in Haiti. If any of our readers know of a good charity to give to, leave it in the comments and we'll try to give it some time here on the blog.

the UBLF

Update: The wonderful Pixieguts has a suggestion, I'll just cut and paste her remarks here (I know they are in the comments, but as I said before - I'll give it some blogface time!)

I donated through Avaaz which goes through local community groups, more info on their site. Look for PayPal button if like me you don't have a credit card http://bit.ly/HaitiAppeal

The Chilldown Period - Episode Eleven

2010 - a new year and on the threshold of a new decade!

Heck, I still remember the whole Y2K thing like it was an annoying yesterday! But, we need to get back on track and we have a great show set up in store for you.

It seems like forever when I first started working on this show, and I think the work and the help has paid off!

Many thanks, once again, to the ambienteer for the theme song and to so many different artists who helped make this show happen.

Here comes the line-up!

Panda Transport - Dark Horse - Monorail

Sleaze - Devious - A Rose, By Any Other Name

Rumorse - Alexandra Avenue Orbit Will RMX - A Future Without Sampler #ONE - A Future Without

Alex Hudish - Ozone

Soft Words Traverse - Sprawling Certainty - Gently

henri.petterson - sensor - traveller e.p. - no response - CC

DJ Racy A.J. - Street Loony - Rust Tree LP - dusted wax kingdom - CC

Anno Bergman - Sunshine - The Free Tenderbytes - modular field - CC

M.W.D. - Rico - Singing Forest - Budabeats - CC

Autorotation - Mittelschmertz - Everything is Everything

ambienteer - december

My gateway into dubstep

When I first heard about dubstep, I immediately took to youtube to find what I could on this genre. I can't remember all of the songs I heard that night, but this one stood out the most. I think because of the color changing squid, but a good portion was the song is hypnotic and addictive.

Here it is: Benga & Coki's "Night"

Just Plain Ant "Songs About Something" Extended Version due out SOON!

Sleaze wrote about this on Just Plain Sounds' blogsite back on the fourth and Ant just gave me the word on twitter that the Extended Edition of "Songs About Something" is coming out February 2. I did a "Nightly Nine" on twitter a while back... (I should do that again) and the "original" version was on that. If you haven't heard it you are definitely missing out. So, I guess I'll have to post a link so you can do your homework and check it out.

Alright, there might be a pop quiz later on. :)

Creative Commons Choosings - 11 January 2010

A month has passed by and I thought I'd drop on in and get you guys updated on some Creative Commons music which I have found need to be shared with you, the readers, over the past four, maybe five weeks. If you haven't heard much about Creative Commons music, do a search for either CC itself, or netlabels or both - you will NOT be disappointed.

M.W.D.'s "Singing Forest"* is a fun little trip into the musical jungle.... you know what - I shouldn't have gone that cheesy. But the fun mix of "nu-jazz and broken beat with a little downtempo and electronic spice" (from the budabeats.com website) will keep you coming back for more. I love the fine mix of drums through out the record. To me, a good rhythm can make or break a song - all through out his loops keep my interest piqued with funky melodies and samples coming in to keep the album interesting. For some songs, like "Elephant", it seems as if M.W.D. has reached through time to find a swinging crooner to sing over the nouveau-antique beats he creates. His touch of guitar samples, such as on Rico and others, keep the energy dutifully flowing on this album as well. (Also, check out the jazzy goodness on "Snake" - you will not be disappointed).

On a side note, you'll get to hear Rico on my upcoming podcast due out this week!

For my next find, you have to read the review of her music over at Public Spaces Lab, for I cannot do her music justice like they have there! I'll do my best to give you an insight to how I dig the music, but they have the market on this piece.

adamned.age's "whiteout" is a brilliant minimalist album. It's got all the bits and pieces you will come to love such as glitch, a nice and slow tempo, some keen keyboards (see "infinite expanse"), dark and gritty emotion, and a hypnotic flow to keep you going back through the music time and time again. You'll have to check it out to see what I'm talking about.

Like I said earlier... check out what PSL said about her music, it's worth the read!

* Updated 12 January 2009: Singing Forest not Swinging Forest.

Just Plain Sounds blog is now up and running

Just got the tweet in from Just Plain Ant that Just Plain Sounds has launched their new blogsite. So, what are you waiting for: go there NOW!

Lowpitch's Boxing Bet EP is out (hey, and so is City Rain's These Days)

Sorry to take so long to get this out, but Lowpitch (who was on Episode Five of the Chilldown Period) has released their EP "Boxing Bet" on December 30th - just in time for the new year! Here's the official video of their single "My Game."

Oh, and by the way - another friend of the show, City Rain, has released his most recent EP - These Days - on Output Noise records. I can't find a video for the song "These Days", but we'll have to let this interview suffice for now.