Boards of Canada (commonly abbreviated BoC) are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Mike Sandison (born June 1, 1970) and Marcus Eoin (born July 21, 1971). They are signed with Warp Records and have released several works on that label with little advertising and few interviews, while also having an elusive and obscure back-catalogue of releases on their self-run Music70 label. They have also recorded a few minor works under the alias Hell Interface.
Boards of Canada's music is reminiscent of the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970s media and contains themes of childhood, nostalgia and the natural world. Mike and Marcus have mentioned the documentary films of the National Film Board of Canada, from which the group's name is derived, as a source of inspiration.
Jóhann Jóhannsson (born 1969) is an Icelandic-born musician, composer and producer. He is a co-founder of Kitchen Motors in Reykjavík, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in instigating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration and the search for new art forms.
Jóhann founded the Apparat Organ Quartet in 1999, who have played various European festivals to great acclaim. Jóhann has also produced and written music with artists as diverse as Marc Almond (Stranger Things album), Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, The Hafler Trio, Magga Stina and many others. He has written music for theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for several feature films. Jóhann is a member of the Icelandic electronica supergroup Evil Madness
Grabbing the number one spot in my rankings for the year is the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson with Fordlândia, an orchestral behemoth and a musical journey inspired by real stories (http://www.johannjohannsson.com/fordlandia/) of failed utopias and mystical scientists. It is a masterful symphony consisting of several movements with varying mood and instrumentation, all building slowly towards an explosive finale. Fordlândia has that rare ability to transport the listener in place and time into a fascinating, almost fantastical world it weaves and creates with music alone.And I mean it, too! :P
Neil On Impression is an Italian instrumental post-rock outfit blending dynamic explosive guitar, piano and drum workouts with epic string arrangements.Pretty apt description. Their simply brilliant 2008 album L'oceano Delle Onde Che Restano Onde Per Sempre instantly made them one of my favorite bands.
are a Japanese instrumental rock band influenced by the genres of experimental rock and shoegazing, as well as by both the classical and contemporary classical periods of classical music, and also by noise and minimalism.MONO - Follow The Map (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bAUK-aoqt8#normal)
Hiromi Uehara is a jazz composer and pianist born in Hamamatsu, Japan. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as jazz, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her compositions.Sonicbloom is basically her tour band, but they've recorded two albums together and released them under Hiromi's Sonicbloom. They play with some really jacked time signatures. I don't even know.
Mogwai are a Scottish rock band from Glasgow. Formed by Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison in 1995, Mogwai have since become one of the most influential and best known names in post-rock.[1] They typically compose instrumental, sometimes lengthy guitar-based pieces in the post-rock tradition. They are usually focused around the elaboration of a single theme and are known for dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar riffs, their use of guitar distortion and effects.
Can't have one of these without mentioning Mogwai.Word. They're actually top left on the thread intro pic. :P
Peter Broderick (b. January 20 1987) is an American musician and composer from Portland, Oregon. He has released solo material under his own name, been a member of Efterklang and, played with several ensembles as a session musician.
Broderick was born in the state of Oregon in 1987. He learned a number of musical instruments whilst at school, and went on to become a session musician, playing violin, banjo, musical saw, and mandolin on recordings by M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel, Dolorean and others. He played and toured with numerous groups, including Horse Feathers, Norfolk & Western, Loch Lomond and Laura Gibson. In mid 2007, Broderick joined the Danish ensemble Efterklang in Copenhagen to join their touring band after the release of their album Parades. After touring, he released a mini album of solo piano music, Docile, on the Swedish label Kning Disk, as well as a 7″, Retreat/Release, his first full-length album of piano and string based compositions, Float, and an orchestral concept album, Music for Falling From Trees, on the British label Erased Tapes.
The Samuel Jackson Five is a quartet from Oslo, Norway, that play post-rock with a slight folk, jazz and progrock influence.
Thomas Hagen Kaldhol: Guitar, Bass
Stian Tangerud: Drums, Percussion
Sigmund Bade: Bass, Keys, Guitars, Percussion
Thomas Meidell Wien: Guitar, Keys, Electronics, Percussion
Discography:
2004 - Same Same but Different
2005 - Easily Misunderstood
2008 - Goodbye Melody Mountain
Chris Alfaro is Free the Robots. The genre-defying artist pulls together heavy doses of traditional jazz, Hip-Hop, psychedelic sounds, Indian spice, progressive melodies, obscure samples and devastating drums into a rich pot of sound. His techniques create harmony between genres with the blending obscure samples with analog and digital compositions. Based out of Santa Ana, CA, Free The Robots started as a side project by Alfaro in 2003 while also playing with different bands, producing MC’s, and DJing full time. Having worked with so many different styles of music, Free the Robots brought everything together under one roof, allowing further exploration through sampling. To go along with the samples, Alfaro adds other sounds with controllers, and live instruments (keys, guitar, turntables) to keep the blend of sampling and original composition balanced. Free the Robots has reached a worldwide audience since its humble beginnings and found its place among the top artists in this genre. Since the development of Alfaro’s live show, Free the Robots has shared the stage with the likes of Prefuse 73, Afrika Bambaataa, Flying Lotus, and Devotchka.
Ólafur Arnalds (born 1987) is a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland.
Ólafur Arnalds mixes strings and piano with loops and edgy beats crossing-over from classical to pop.
The Abbasi Brothers consist of Yousuf and Amman Abbasi. Their debut album, Something Like Nostalgia, was released to considerable acclaim.
Joris Voorn (Schiedam) is a Dutch techno producer. He graduated as an architect, but soon decided to record music in the first place to turn.
One young genius from Iceland
The Abbasi Brothers
Hey guys,
Obviously we aren't quite fond of updating, but we thought we'd let you guys know what's going on.
First we have been scoring a few films. One just recently came out. A documentary called The Wall directed by Ricardo Martinez. Go check it out! I'll let you guys know when the others drop.
Secondly, I (Amman) have started a side project with one my good friends Josh called Amman/Josh (how fitting right?). We just came back from recording in Iceland so the EP should be coming pretty soon. Look out for it!
Thirdly, Abbasi Brothers have some really good news. We are just about to enter the studio. We have a few really strong tracks that will hopefully eat your brain.
Peace out,
Amman+Yousuf
Abbasi Brothers
Adopting the common pseudonym for depression as their name, The Black Dog are often credited with “inventing” the “idm” style of music, in producing a style of dance music equally enjoyable in the comfort of one’s living room. While their work was showered with praise from a great number of club DJs, the DJs themselves rarely played their tracks on the dancefloor.
The group was founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner, who had already been producing music under the Plaid moniker. In 1989, they were unable to find a label to back their releases and had to start their own, Black Dog Productions. Their first full-length album, Bytes, was released in 1992 on WARP Records, the label later to publish records from some of the most notable of IDM artists, such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Autechre. Their music was often produced under a number of different names, such as Close Up Over, Xeper, Atypic, I.A.O., Balil and Discordian Popes. These were often names for the different projects of the three artists.
Later on, Ed and Andy broke off from Black Dog Productions, to work full-time on Plaid. Ken Downie continued working The Black Dog on his own for a while, taking it easy, later to return to music production with Richard and Martin Dust, owners of the label “Dust Science Recordings”. Since, they have released eight EPs and two full-length albums.
Bosques de mi Mente is my solo project. It started by mid 2007 when, for diverse reasons, I decide on creating music on my own, to reflect some restlessness and feelings that were in my mind. The idea behind “Toy Trains” was rounding my head for some time. For me, it was an attempt at capturing the melancholy i felt trying to remember -without much success- my childhood, a happier epoch of which I keep very sparse remnants…
From the beginning, I knew that Bosques de mi Mente would be a project of free music, available to all. I started composing in a rush, like a Blade Runner’s replicant who suddenly discovers an old memory he believes his own, and wants to keep it just before it drives away and dissapears.”Toy Trains” was released in July of that same year.
With “Toy Trains” completed, I started getting more and more interest in the effect on ambient and background sounds over music, as much as the “LoFi” aesthetic. That led me to the idea of doing an album in which I would try to express with music the effect that some ambients, sounds and situations I had on my mind, and so “Lo-Fi” was born.
The creation process of “Lo-Fi” was very frenzy also, and it was completed in less than three months.
Some personal changes followed the release of “LoFi”, and I found myself lost in a big city of concrete, cement and steel (Madrid), far from my family and friends, ready to start a new life. The isolation, loneliness and distance from my friends, family has caused several mood states, and the fact of being reduced to just my piano and my guitar (just for a question of space) provoked the appearance of “Ruido Blanco”, a expression of all that feelings, needs and frustrations in my throat willing to get out… a more basic, harsh and raw release, but a much more expressive one for me.
With “Ruido Blanco” completed in April 2008, I entered a state of emptiness that led me to put the project in an temporary hiatus, allowing me to have some rest.
After a year of deserved hiatus, I felt like composing again for “Bosques de mi Mente”. Coinciding with a happier chapter in my life, I decided to start a conceptual work about a book I’ve always been fascinated by. The idea was trying to “connect” with the emotion of every section and write a song about it, while giving the work a full cohesion as a conceptual unit, both in the theme and the music, and see where I could go experimenting with the same melodic, harmonic and ryhtmic ideas, motifs etc. The result of all this process is “Inocencia”, the first “Bosques de mi Mente” album recorded entirely with digital resources (mac and logic pro), but as always with (mostly) real instruments.
Bosques de mi Mente is a solo project of a Spanish pianist-composer. The theme of Ruido Blanco (which translates to White Noise) is loneliness and isolation, feelings that stem from his move to Madrid, leaving all his friends and family behind. The result is one of the most simply beautiful releases I've heard in a long time. The music consists mostly of Bosques' sad piano melodies, often accompanied by a violin. The occasional samples, along with some moments of static and feedback bring some variety to the sometimes overbearing sadness. This gem is available for free download at Clinical Archives.
Lusine is the brainchild of Jeff McIlwain for his visceral, melodic vision of abstract electronic music. Having attended Cal Arts to study 20th century electronic music and sound design for music and film, he has since recorded for labels such as !K7/MAS, Hymen, Delikatessen and Isophlux. Since making the move to Ghostly in 2003, Lusine has released “Push” , “Flat” Remixes, and the “Inside/Out” EP, as well as the stunning and widely-lauded “Serial Hodgepodge” full-length from 2004. He is one of the foremost American producers in the abstract field and an artist with a boundless future in his craft.
In 2006 Jeff McIlwain did remixes for Alex Smoke (Soma), Alex Under (Apnea), and put out an EP titled “Emerald” (Ghostly), in honor of Seattle. He also co-wrote the score for the film “Snow Angels” with David Wingo, which was written and directed by David Gordon Green and will come out in 2007. Lusine has most recently been working on an ambient album titled “Language Barrier” for Hymen Records, a remix of “Workhorse” for My Brightest Diamond, and he just finished a remix CD album + 12” titled “Podgelism” coming out on Ghostly in late March, featuring reworks by John Tejada, Apparat and Robag Wrhume amongst others.
Previous appearance highlights include opening for Ricardo Villalobos at Fabric, performing at CMJ, SXSW, Decibel Festival, Popkomm Festival, the Finlandia Vodka tour with Matthew Dear and James Cotton, and playing at LA’s Getty Center amongst all major cities.
While there might be other producers who are more accomplished at making idyllic downtempo, or placid IDM, or abstract hip-hop, or haunting ambient techno, or blipping/skipping minimal house, few -- if any -- are capable of covering all of that ground with such sharp consistency.
Pogo is an emerging electronic music artist in Perth, Western Australia. He is known for his work recording small sounds from a single film or scene and sequencing them to form a new piece of music.
Flying Lotus, (born Steven Ellison) is an experimental multi-genre music producer, disc jockey, and laptop musician from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006. He is most famous (yet also uncredited) for the music in many of the segues of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and he has also contributed remixes to fellow Plug Research artists, including Mia Doi Todd. His great-aunt is the late Alice Coltrane. He is affectionately referred to as FlyLo by fans and critics.
Holy Fuck is an electronic band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band uses live instrumentation and miscellaneous instruments and non-instruments (including a 35 mm film synchronizer, toy keyboards and toy phaser guns) to achieve electronic-sounding effects without the use of laptops or programmed backing tracks.A very analog electronic band.
New Century Classics was formed in Krakow, Poland in March 2006 (though adding their final member and fine-tuning their sound in September-October 2006) by a group of friends and refugees from various parts of the world, centred around a mutual love of good music and the desire to fill their time and their hands with as many instruments as possible. The band consists of two Poles, a Polish-American and a Polish-Canadian hybrid, and an Italian who’s decent at banging on things with sticks. Always experimenting, New Century Classics is constantly acquiring new sounds and new instruments (when they can afford it) in an effort to transform the Polish music scene for the better.
NCC’s first full-length album, Natural Process, was released on November 23rd, 2009, and is available as a free digital download (physical copies are sold out for the moment).
New Century Classics is:
Anna - rhodes, synths, bells, guitar,ibook, egg (sandwich)
Antonello - percussion
Dana - violin, synths, guitar, macbook, bass, egg (salad)
Marek - guitar, rhodes, synths, bass
Mateusz - lead guitar, bass, keys
[Holy Fuck's new album "Latin" dropping soon, on May 11th!Holy Fuck - "Latin America" (Official Video) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd5gVwbRlvk#ws)
Sun Glitters sound is an ocean of lush melodies, pitch-shifted vocal samples, ghostly digi-diva choirs, warm bass melodies driven by alternately dense and relaxing beatwork combinations between downtempo and wonky beats.What they said. Yet again you can listen to the whole new album at the bandcamp page.
RIYL:
Boards of Canada, Burial, Balam Acab