Sunday, 18 May 2025

MediaFired - 04 pixies


[2011]
A vaporwave eccojam video masterpiece. They sample and loop Kate's Wuthering Heights with the looped slow mo vision of a Pepsi Cola ad featuring legendary 90s supermodels Bridget Hall, Tyra Banks and Cindy Crawford. 

*Who the hell would deliberately choose to drink Pepsi when you could have the greatest soft drink/soda/pop of them all Coke?

Saturday, 17 May 2025

Tom Recchion - Flying Weather


[1986]
A classic plunderphonic exotica jam with possibly a ye olde Esquivel record on the turntables add in loops and fx, all done in real time. Experimental avant-garde is better when it's fun.

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Vomir - Claustration 1


[2007]
When noise becomes ambient, ultra minimalistic and psychedelic. To me it sounds like relentless weather occurring on my roof for an hour. Someone described this as every sound all at once. You could just listen to the first few seconds to get what the entire hour sounds like but that would be missing the point. The hour needs to be experienced.

The first comment on yt says: 
"No ideas, no change, no development, no entertainment, no remorse" - Vomir. 

I'm not sure if the dude behind Vomir said that but it's pretty cool except of course there is an idea behind it and disappointingly there is a slight alteration to the sound in the final few minutes. You could just stop it at the 57 minute mark to keep the concept pure. 

Actually it's worth trawling through the comments, these people are funny and insightful. Here are some other great quotes on the internet about this piece of sound.

"This is what I imagine the sun sounds like"

"Very quickly I started seeing stuff"

"Finally, something relaxing to listen to"

"Its like being dead"

"This cured my anxiety"

"It's psychedelic stuff"

"It just stays there and doesn't do anything at all for an hour when it ends just as abruptly as it had started"

"This shit is great for studying/concentration"

"Such a bop"

"It's like when I was 9 and used to stick my head out the car window"

"Great for noise cancellation, can't hear my mom"

"No art, no soul, no creativity"

"How to Vomir: Press REC on your phone, open your car's windows while driving on the highway, hold your phone out of the car's window for one hour (be careful not to drop it)"

"Love the chorus"

"Had this stuck in my head all week"

"Romantic"

"Awful"

Monday, 12 May 2025

K. Yoshimatu - Cosmic Colors


[1985]
Uplifting.  

DIY lo-fi outsider pop from the 80s Japanese cassette underground.

Cosmic Colors is like a naive art version of city pop. Pure beauty and innocence sans the too slick soulless sheen.

This guy released over 35 cassettes in the space of five years from 1981 to 1985.  None of these albums were issued outside Japan. Cult status in the western world awaits for K. Yoshimatu. 
 

[1982]
K. Yoshimatu - Spherical Voyage
Low key evocative minimal instrumental spacey ambience juxtaposed with strange almost cartoon-like clangorous percussion. 

This cassette seems like a precursor to hypnagogia with its vaguely psych prog aura mixed with echo-y new age touches.


[1985]
Juma - Lunar Lavender
Juma is a K Yoshimatu alias. This guy's just got a knack for gorgeous guitar and synth melodies, like he just can't help it. 

Sunday, 11 May 2025

The Goslings - Sanibel


[2006]
Blown out hypnagogic metal. 

The rumbling no-fi drone-y-noise-doom-gaze of The Goslings Grandeur Of Hair LP still seems pretty unique almost twenty years later. 

Good fun Stuff.

Friday, 9 May 2025

Bermuda Link - Exit



[2009]
From the noise-y ambient drone end of hypnagogia was Bermuda Link and their underground limited run c-30 cassette Exit. This is the outer limits of music, if it's even music at all. More like the sound of trying to tune a radio dial on a spaceship in another galaxy but the signal is jammed and all you get is is an interrupted transmission with confusing hints of life and music amongst the static and blurred radio waves. 

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

Arthur Verocai - Na Boca do Sol


[1972]
Bringing you all the misses of the 70s with divine funky grooves, splendid symphonic arrangements and luscious melodies. Na Boca do Sol is the ultimate in baroque samba soul. 

Sublime and smooth. Nice.

Monday, 5 May 2025

Mohave Triangles - Haze for Daze



[2011]
Peak hypnagogia. This lost tape of the hypnagogic pop underground is on the off kilter tropical new age side of the genre. 

Lo-Fi: Check.
Hazy: Check. 
Dreamlike: Check. 
Layers of heavily echoed sound: Check.
Tripped out backwards new age: Check.
Blurry beats: Check. 
Tropical aquatic atmosphere: Check.
Nostalgic flashbacks: Check.
Limited run cassette: Check.

Haze for Daze indeed. 

Saturday, 3 May 2025

Rick Cuevas - The Birds


[1984]
Starts out with glistening Vini Reilly-esque guitars then goes into hypnotic daydream pop elation years before dream pop was used as a label to describe what AR Kane were uo to and way before shoegaze or original post-rock. This tune was on that top compilation Fingertracks: Vol 1 from 5 or 6 years ago which i just happened to listen to this golden autumnal afternoon in my backyard. I still know nothing about Rick Cuevas but I am curious as to whether his music goes down a more dreamy jangly route or further into trippy echo chamber laden pop opulance Arthur Russel style. Then again it might just be a one off anomaly.

I was going to say this is the best unknown song from 1984 but a quick look on spotify reveals it has now been played over two million times. 

A rarely obtainable blissful vibe.

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Bill Bruford - Hell's Bells


[1979]
Like a BBC sports theme but with great drummage. It gets pretty off the wall for a minute in the middle thanks to the guitar shenanigans of the legendary Alan Holdsworth. Synth goodness supplied by Egg/Khan/Hatfield & The North keyboardist Dave Stewart.