For the new 5:4 mixtape i’ve rather whimsically adopted my favourite colour—purple—as the theme. That colour invites a host of hues and shades, so the mix includes track titles alluding to the entirety of that part of the spectrum, including heliotrope, lavender, fuchsia, pink, plum, magenta, indigo, amethyst, violet and even ultraviolet. Such an oblique connection has enabled me to unleash a more-than-usually eclectic selection, taking in piano works (Ramon Humet, Luke Stoneham, George Crumb, David Rakowski), synthpop (John Foxx & Louis Gordon, Frida Sundemo), ambient (Peter Wright, Specta Ciera, Frond, Saturday Index, Dick Mills, The Denisovans, Tor Lundvall, Darren Harper), rock – electronic, math and (ir)regular (Nine Inch Nails, Frank Zappa, Sleeping People), easy listening (Enoch Light), electronica (World’s End Girlfriend, Time Attendant, Bauri, The Flashbulb, Labyrinth Ear, Da Wei), avant garde classical (Chiyoko Szlavnics, Aaron Cassidy), folk (Steve Peters), indie pop (StopTalk, The William Blakes), fusion (David Murphy), drum and bass (Tim Exile) and noise (K2). Read more
Mixtape #33 : Purple
Tags: Aaron Cassidy, Bauri, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Da Wei, Darren Harper, David Murphy, David Rakowski, Dick Mills, Enoch Light and his Orchestra, Frank Zappa, Frida Sundemo, Frond, George Crumb, John Foxx, K2, Labyrinth Ear, Louis Gordon, Luke Stoneham, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Wright, Ramon Humet, Saturday Index, Sleeping People, Specta Ciera, Steve Peters, StopTalk, The Denisovans, The Flashbulb, The William Blakes, Tim Exile, Time Attendant, Tor Lundvall, World's End Girlfriend
Mixtape #27 : Drone
It’s 1 July, so here’s the new mixtape, focusing on the intense genre of drone. Drone music suffers the same kind of malaise as more generalised ambient music—immobility and drift as tacet apologias for a dearth of imagination and subtlety of ideas. But these 21 tracks offer an insight into something altogether more profound, plumbing the depths of immobility and stasis, teasing out faint, furtive tendrils of exotica. They represent a broad sonic palette, in terms of colour, dynamic and texture, incorporating elements from dark ambient and noise as well as more experimental electronics.
In all, two hours of droning wonder; here’s the tracklisting in full: Read more
Tags: Access to Arasaka, ambient, Anduin, Asva, Benjamin Dauer, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Charlemagne Palestine, Christopher Hipgrave, dark ambient, Deaf Center, Decembered, Ekca Liena, Ektoise, electronic, Freiband, Herzog, Janek Schaefer, Jasper TX, Jonathan Coleclough, Leah Buckareff, noise, Organum, Peter Wright, Philippe Petit, Shinobu Nemoto, The Beautiful Schizophonic, The Hafler Trio, The Missing Ensemble
Mixtape #14 : Best Albums of 2009
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!.
Today marks the 2nd birthday of 5:4, so a big thank you to all of you who are regular readers for your time and interest in this blog. Following yesterday’s run-down of my favourite 40 albums from 2009, here’s the accompanying mixtape, featuring a track from each album. It’s probably the most diverse mixtape yet on 5:4, and lasts a little under four hours. 2010’s going to have to try pretty hard to surpass this remarkable music—enjoy!
Here’s the tracklisting in full: Read more
Tags: Alva Noto, Ambrose Field, Anduin + Jasper TX, Asher, Bass Communion, Bat For Lashes, Carl Sagan's Ghost, Celer, Chihei Hatakeyama, Chubby Wolf, Clouwbeck, Daisy Chapman, David Sylvian, Dragonette, Florence and the Machine, Hecq, IAMX, Imogen Heap, irr. app. (ext.), Leyland Kirby, Lustmord, NQ, Nynke Laverman, Oneohtrix Point Never, Operations, Peter Wright, Polly Scattergood, Richard Skelton, Robert Henke, Röyksopp, Ryuichi Sakamoto, SoiSong, Steven Wilson, Supersilent, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Tim Exile, Tor Lundvall, Venetian Snares
Best Albums of 2009
* Please note this list has how been superseded by the one on the Best Albums of the Years page *
Embarking on another list such as this, i’m reminded again of what i think of as “Paul Morley’s Dictum”; in his superb book Words and Music he writes of the provisional nature of all “best” lists, describing how they could (and perhaps should) change, perhaps quite radically, from day to day. i think he’s absolutely right, and there are many albums released in 2009 that i haven’t heard, so feel free to treat the following as the gospel truth with a pinch of salt. Put it this way, it’s true now, at the end of the year, and that’s perhaps as good as anything else. There really has been a dazzling display of imagination and innovation this year, of which these forty are, in my view, the best. Read more
Tags: Alva Noto, Ambrose Field, Anduin + Jasper TX, Asher, Bass Communion, Bat For Lashes, Carl Sagan's Ghost, Celer, Chihei Hatakeyama, Chubby Wolf, Clouwbeck, Daisy Chapman, David Sylvian, Dragonette, Florence and the Machine, Hecq, IAMX, Imogen Heap, irr. app. (ext.), Leyland Kirby, Lustmord, NQ, Nynke Laverman, Oneohtrix Point Never, Operations, Peter Wright, Polly Scattergood, Richard Skelton, Robert Henke, Röyksopp, Ryuichi Sakamoto, SoiSong, Steven Wilson, Supersilent, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Tim Exile, Tor Lundvall, Venetian Snares
