Dead Blogs

Norm Chambers AKA Panabrite once ran one of my favourite blogs Lunar Atrium. This was a great place to find the weird and wonderful. I got to listen to many library and obscure electronic records that will never see a re-release. I don't know what happened but he started blogging less frequently and then bang all his files and critical comments were gone. Now it's like a ghost town blog with just it's header and zero content. Thanks Norm for the heads up on a lot of records I would never have known if it wasn't for your old/dead blog. Where else was I gonna hear Claudio Rocchi's classic Suoni Di Frontiera along with many others?

Another excellent blog on the more funky tip of library records, Funky Frolic, has called it quits too. This could possibly be the source of where I first heard Alan Hawkshaw's legendary Oddball! Another one bites the dust.

I could go on about many others who are disappearing by the minute. Then there's others who have slowed to a crawl like Pontone & Exp Etc. and the great Mutant Sounds. Many file sharing blogs are still online but in spectral form with most links no longer alive. Is the well drying up? Or are the authorities taking control? A golden era of obscure record sharing seems to be coming to an end and that's a shame.

Mixtapes again

Playground Mix 66-
Demdike Stare

Totally diggin this Playground Mix 66 by Demdike Stare. It comes from a Spanish website (I think) Playground Magazine. I once had a Demdike Stare record but didn't like it/give it much of a chance. Enjoying this mix so much and their musical tastes are up my alley making me reassess them, perhaps I should give them a second chance. Old faves Chrome, Branca and Cosmic Jokers mixed with unknowns (to me anyway) Jan Schaffer, Third Ear Band, Black Cat Bones and even one of their own tracks.

Then there are two (I don't think I've mentioned before) from Lunar Atrium aka Panabrite's blog. One is called Mix 3 Aquatic Sounds and is 25 minutes of the best underwater/aquatic library/oceanic documentary sounds you are likely to hear in such condensed form. At last check I had downloaded at least 12 aquatic themed records mainly from the Lunar Atrium site. Ever since I heard Sven Libeak's Inner Space LP many years ago I've been hooked on this kind of thing. I wish there was more of it out there. The mix includes Roger Davy, Eugen Thomas and Joel Vandroogenbroek amongst other luminaries of the library music scene. Choice.

Mix 3 Aquatic Sounds

Lunar Atrium

The other mixtape from Lunar Atrium is a fantastic cosmic synth mix with many arcane delights included. I think Phil Davies and Harry Ford are the only ones I know but that doesn't make it any less great. He's called it The Galaxyactivatorconnexionmix and it's every bit as quality as this years previously mentioned Lunar Atrium Mix.

Otherwise known as The Cosmic Synth Mix
From Lunar Atrium

Playground mix 73
by Mark Van Hoen.

This Playground mix 73 from Mark Van Hoen is much weirder than the last one on Pontone but no less interesting. Scott Walker on 16 rpm with Durrutti Column, Polysick, Cybertron and even Demdike Stare. What can I say this is one strange voyage. The wrong pills have been mixed with some bad punch and nobody knows what's lurking around the corner. Everything should turn out fine I think even if you're left a little disorientated.                                                                                                                         

Panabrite

So I was looking for where that Electric Rain Mix by Motion Sickness of Time Travel came from and the MMNL SSGS blog is from whence it came. Anyhoo I noticed in their list of 2012 mixes, Panabrite. I got a little excitement. Then I couldn't really tell if Panabrite did the mix or someone else made a mix of tracks from Panabrite's blog. It doesn't really matter though because it's the goods! The mix was perfect for the darkest, coldest and most wet early morning train ride through Melbourne this year. It would probably also suit your one man/woman journey into outerspace to flea the impending Apocalypse. Panabrite's blog, lunar atrium, I've been a fan of for a while as well as Panabrite's very own excellent output. I would consider myself a fan of electronic, kosmiche, library, ambient & some new age music but fuck me I don't know anyone in this mix except for two artists. This makes me happy because it's all good. More music to discover! So the artists cover the aforementioned musical territory, with a time span from mid 70s to 1984 as well as 2 tracks from 2011. This mix made my day!, twice.