[2010] fr*dl*yb*x instrumental m*x (redux)

Boy Eats Drum Machine

There were so many great instrumental tracks leftover from my first mix and I heard a few more in the last quarter of the year, some of which have been recently blogged here, and I decided to go ahead and make another one. There are only a few bands in common with the first mix. Click the picture to listen.

01. Andr*w B*rd - Make Hay
02. Bl*ck Pra*rie - Full Moon in June
03. dné - Time Is Fabulous
04. Happenstance - Even My Goosebumps Shivered
05. Dalot - Infinite Window
06. Arandel - # 3
07. Asura - Asura III
08. James Stephen Finn - Twelfth Floor
09. Anenon - Damiel
10. Br**n En* - Flint March
11. Arcn Templ - Eighteen Steps Of Evil
12. Boy Eats Drum Machine - Battle Hymn
13. Dorian White - Luxated Hip
14. Balmorhea - Clamor
15. Dirk Geiger - Gewitterregen

[2010] fr*dl*yb*x m*x

DMCA'd motherfucker

 

That picture above is interactive! try to poke senator Turt L. Face's nose with your cursor. He makes a funny sound!

[2010] Dorian White - Holding a Ghost

static + synths = crack. nice vocals too. that's right. I still like vocals.
via musical coma, the blog I want to be. 


Dorian White - Holding A Ghost by Moodgadget

[2010] dné - Eating a Wrapper Instead of Candy

I seem to be in the mood for instrumental stuff lately. This has been sitting neglected on my drive for awhile. Either found this on folktronica or siren sound. Put on headphones. Always put on headphones.

[2010] Balmorhea - Candor/Clamor 7"

Sounds like the Balmorhea of their recent full length, "Constellations", but having some sort of proggy Jethro Tull hypnotic seizure.

[2010] Happenstance - Happenstance

Excellent little mostly instrumental EP. Just listen and see for yourself, words won't do it justice. Should not be hard to find; when I google for information about the artist, I get more download links than anything else. Release was apparently limited to 300 copies, good luck finding one.

Happenstance - Even My Goosebumps Shivered

[2010] Blank Dogs - Landed and Fixed

Re: Blank Dogs: Under and Under (2009) > Landed and Fixed (2010), but I still love it. It doesn't have the high points of Night Night, L Machine, or Around the Room comparatively, but it comes in a better length and is more listenable and consistent. Plus it has a really sweet synthy instrumental track. I wonder if there are any soundboard Blank Dogs live bootlegs? I should actually look instead of just posting out loud first.

Try Northern Lights (mp3) via P4K

[2010] Instrumental Mix

I don't make any grand, egotistical claims like this is the "best of" instrumental music in the past year. They aren't the best instrumental albums of the year, either. Many of the albums these tracks come from are not themselves entirely instrumental. It is, however, a damn nice mix of some of the best instrumental tracks I've heard this year, and I hope you end up getting into one of these artists because you like their track.

so, download the mix here and enjoy
fradleybox - 2010 Instrumental Mix (link updated with new itunes-friendly version)


Tracklist (artist-album-title):
01 - Boy Eats Drum Machine - 20 Beats - The Rabbit
02 - Fly*ng L*tus - P*ttern+Grid World - Kill Your Co-Workers
03 - T*bacco - Maniac Meat - Nuclear Waste Aerobics
04 - Autechre - M*ve of Ten - y7
05 - Waggers over the Station - Uphekka - Blankets of Oracle Bones
06 - Noveller - Desert Fires - Toothnest (For Chris Habib)
07 - Errors - Come Down with Me - The Erskine Bridge
08 - Balmorhea - Constellations - Bowsprit
09 - Black Prairie - Daytrotter Session - Ostinato Del Caminito
10 - Evenings - North Dorm - Favorite Maze
11 - Flotilla - flotilla - Cathedral
12 - Eluvium - Similies - In Culmination
13 - Mount Eerie - Song Islands Vol. 2 - (wind lyrics)
14 - Ólafur Arnalds - ...And They Have Escaped... - Loftið Verður Skyndilega Kalt

edit: the woman in the lower right hand corner of that image kinda looks like my mom

[2010] Small Black - New Chain

Holy. Motherfucking. Shit. Yes.

Small Black - Goons

[2010] Sri Aurobindo - Cave Painting

I couldn't find out a whole lot about this band. Named for some famous spiritual dude. Genre label tells you all you need to know. Click below to listen to one of my favorite tracks, "Find The Door". Found this on (new to me) music blog weedtemple, which also has a link to download the album, though I recommend you listen to it for free on bandcamp and buy it if you decide you like it. That's what I would do if I had money! (I don't have any money. If you have any money, can I please have some? no? jackass.)

[2010] Waggers Over The Station - Upekkha first impression

Waggers... appears to be the work of one Casey Shew, an unsigned artist who mixes ambient soundscapes full of pops and crackles, thoughtful and engaging percussion, and ethereal acoustic guitar with vocal samples and mostly mumbling male vocals. Climaxes build out of howling wind, twinkling bells, nice thick synths, and escalating guitar, and you wonder if this is what Mount Eerie would have sounded like if it had been taken in a more instrumental direction. And that's just the first two tracks. Suddenly, traditional melody appears. Accordion, more croon to the vocals...is that a marimba? I'm thoroughly engaged - and just as quickly, the tone turns darkly vicious. The anguished shrieks are a bit too earnest and jarring, but on the whole, the transitions on this record are actually fairly smooth and feel quite natural. The pacing of this record will either really please you, or will have you hitting "delete" before the first song even really gets going. Only halfway through the album as I write this, I can tell it won't appeal to many, but this is the kind of self-indulgent turd-sculpting that I love most. I found it on Dying For Bad Music, my favorite blog that's also a label, and it says here that there's an overt Mount Eerie reference on the album, but I haven't noticed it. Maybe the tiles of the first & last track? Who care.

Since it's being distributed online for free, that means I can too. Click here to download Waggers Over The Station - Upekkha

Moon Duo - Live @ KEXP, 2010

Moon Duo live @ KEXP, a nice studio session. To all the REAL Moon Duo fans (you know who you are) this is old as the hills but still, watch and love Stumbling On 22nd St., with it's jaw-dropping guitar work (that is my jaw you hear dropping, actually):



You can also see Killing Time, Dead West, and Motorcycle, I Love You on the youtube. If you want to listen on a non-YouTube device of some sort, here's some mp3s!

Moon Duo - KEXP 2010 (mediafire)

Gary War, The New Lines, and Flight!

What do these three bands have in common? I've been listening to them non-stop for a few weeks now. Helplessly. Also they're kinda obscure-ish. But am I listening to them BECAUSE they're obscure? I don't know. I'm self-aware enough to know if I'm being a tool, I think (just take my word for it) so probably not. So because I'm listening to these three bands all the time that I love, but they're obscure, it leads me to the conclusion that the internet has magically found me (at least) three bands that appeal to me in a very niche way. Sort of like the G-spot is hard to find but if you get a thousand tries you eventually find it (wait, nobody else has that problem? I AM A TERRIBLE LOVER). Overexposure = good.

Gary War (cover(?) of upcoming EP Police Water above.) JUST LISTEN TO BORN OF LIGHT ALREADY. Very excited about November whenever/etc/whatever when it comes out via Sacred Bones. I really don't have anything to say about Gary War other than "psychedelic insane genius" and don't expect me to go into why I love this sound beyond reason. I know this is a "blog" for "writing" but really. Swirly synths, punchy tempo, hacked up vocals tearing through the songs like a chainsaw and it ALL WORKS. ah. Buy all of his albums and singles and stuff. The MP3 is from internet blog of note Gorilla vs. Bear (more Gary War posts, GVB). Also, watch this Viva Radio video of a song from his '09 Horribles Parade album:


Flight. They / him (whatever) is a loud crazy band from Mississippi that rocks my socks. Style over content wins the day here but hey, who cares? If you're going to rock, do it in STYLE or STYLE BEFORE COMFORT etc. You know what I'm getting at. Give Ghosts a try @ Weekly Tape Deck. If you buy the single, Crackerjack Woman is one of the best b-sides (ever).

The New Lines. Brooklyn band that writes great pop tunes, ah! I see them as an early Broadcast in technicals, Belle and Sebastian in feel, and with a sort of charmingly unguarded simplicity of sound that feels very unique to me. Other things that get me: lots of repeated phrases, interesting time signatures, and overlapping melodies mixed with vocals that hover above in their own world. It's interesting stuff. Admittedly, I've been limited to their myspace tracks and last.fm songs, but luckily they've come out with a Beko single (GOD I love Beko. even when it's bad it's good.) Love it. 'Kings Civil Calendar Control' & 'Windimir And The Gift Of Death' are two songs that encapsulate everything great about them (though they are more polished than the other stuff you find floating around). Download their Beko single here.

Anyway, enough about the stuff I love and can't get enough of. The earnestness of this blogpost is DISGUSTING.

[2010] Eluvium - Similes

Also, the Eluvium album. You probably already know it. I like it too.

[2010] Small Black - Small Black

I'm sorry. I love it. I just can't help myself. It's catchy, it's thoughtfully detailed, and it's unashamedly twee in some way that's difficult to describe. I've heard they suck live. They're getting plenty of buzz without my help. I don't care. Good music is good.

[2010] Wires, Bunnies, Horses, & a Panda

Bare Wires - Seeking Love LP (Castle Face, 2010) Oh here comes the glam fuckin rawk! So sweet, like mother's milk. Maybe not the top album of the year but the title and opening track amount to the best kicking off I've heard and the quality sticks for all 23 & change minutes. As much as I liked the White Fence album, I have to admit that Seeking Love is the kind of thing I was hoping from them after first hearing those first couple of preview tracks back when (unfair comparison, but I shared it with you because we're pals). Oh man, this one track “Family Heat” has a great guitar solo… *drifts off* … anyway. This album has immediate love on lockdown and while I'm hoping for staying power, I know that I like it a lot right now so... I'm happy. BUY or taste a couple of tracks over at the ever loveable Raven Sings the Blues and here's the Official Bare Wires video for I (heart) You Tonite:



VA - Welcome Home_ Diggin' The Universe (A Woodsist Compilation) (Woodsist, 2010) Y'know, after falling absolutely head over heels in love with Moon Duo because of Escape I would have expected a good friend to let me know about this Woodsist comp that kinda passed over (under?) my radar, but no, I had to find out about Moon Duo covering Errol Dunkley (reggae maker of note) all by myself. These imaginary friends must think I’m a jerk. P.S. this is my diplomatic way of saying that the Moon Duo track is the saving grace here despite my liking a bunch of the bands. *sadface* BUY IT HERE

Electric Bunnies – Pretty Joanna 7” (Sacred Bones, 2010) Pretty Joanna is a loud anthemic rock track that’ll play well while you’re cleaning a garage somewhere or training for a fight (trust me on this). The B-side is upbeat, tone-deaf and retro, somewhere between a mid 90s MTV sketch comedy show theme song and another more annoying thing. Buy it if you hate me and never want to listen to good music. JK!

Super Wild Horses – Fifteen LP (Hozac, 2010) I want to like Super Wild Horses, and part of me does, but the other part of me says they compare unfavorably to the fucking Dum Dum Girls ARGH, isn’t that just so cliché? Anyway, they do. Upbeat girl rock with a modicum of vocal fuzz (just enough to give ya a little “how do ya do!” and no more), it is. If you like the DDG’s and want more, but with a little bit of Go-Betweens jangle thrown in buy Fifteen (I do, or at least thought I did).

Panda Bear – Tomboy 7” (Paw Tracks, 2010) s’good. It’s going to be tough to impress people after Person Pitch, but I’m very digging the emphasis on pairing things down here to just rhythm, melody, and vocals, then layering a bit. I’m really looking forward to a whole album of this stuff.

Five is enough! Thanks to PartyBus @ the CBox for letting me listen to some of this.

[2010] Black Prairie - Feast of the Hunter's Moon

This is the first release by the indie-americana supergroup formed by Decemberists Chris Funk and Nate Query. Expect acoustic guitar, haunting fiddle, and the occasional soft vocal. There are more instrumental tracks than there are vocal tracks, and the balance between the two is quite nice. I've been listening to this a lot this year, and I hope I can be in Portland for their performance at this year's Pickathon. They did a set for Daytrotter back in April, which you can download here. I think I found this album on Music Is Amazing.

Red Rocking Chair - Daytrotter


In other news, you can now follow deadly boars on twitter at twitter.com/deadlyboars and if you have a question, an album submission, or wish to write for this blog, you can send an email to deadlyboars@yahoo.com.

[2010] Wavves - King of the Beach | 1st IMP!

FIRST IMPRESSION: I feel neither high nor lows when I listen to Wavves. Not unlike a blowjob when you really want anal sex, they deliver but with slightly less exhilarating results than you had anticipated. As I crack open my obviously low-bit rate zip-file containing King of the Beach, I expect to have my opinion changed (THE NEW WAVVES IS DIFFERENT says folks! and oh, oh it is) but instead, I'm as bemused as the other album only less so. Whereas before I got about half a dozen enjoyable staticky listens before moving on and then never even thinking of the album again (wait, I LIE), this time I'm halfway through the Wavves when I think "MEH, where's the heart?" Super Soaker is like self parody and I could barely control my rage during Convertable Balloon. But since this is a "first impression" (i.e. dumb) I'll hedge and say that Idiot at least is a good tune + I'd feel like a complete ass saying anything negative about Baseball Cards. Their early release track Post Acid falls somewhere between (more towards the UGH side, tho!) Overall, despite it not being as entertaining and dangerously stupid / weird as the last album, Wavvves, I can see it being loved by many (that means YOU! and maybe me, in the future when I get over myself already, right?) Enjoy!

DL Post Acid here from the Mountain Dew Website What Makes With The Indie Music Nows.

[2010] zxyzxy - C.A.B. | first impression

At first glance, you might think you're in for something generically overwrought and devoid of surprises. The first track begins with guitar-driven postrock-by-numbers (Mono, God is an Astronaut), and while it's done well, you've heard it before. But there's a lot of range on this release. The second track builds out of electronic whistles and howls, melodic piano, and glitchy beats with a touch of good static. The live drums and dense synths kicking in halfway through give the song serious teeth. The next two go a bit more ambient for long stretches. More piano, more good static. Since all but one track clock in at over fifteen minutes, they can be difficult to characterize individually. It's mostly relaxing stuff and it's better on headphones. I probably found this on Exhale The Sound, but there's also a zxyzxy megapost on The Siren Sound that has a ton of stuff. This is my first listen, and this record is apparently not zxyzxy's typical sort of output, so you can bet I'll be checking out the others in short order.

III

[2010] Junip - Rope and Summit | first impression

I don't know Jose Gonzalez's solo work or Junip's first ep, but this kicks a little bit of ass. It's densely layered and satisfyingly percussive. The vocals are soft and the repetitive lyrics manage not to get old. These songs get better as they go along. Pretty sure I found it on Bolachas.

Rope and Summit