Tycho – Coastal Brake (Lusine Remix)

September 2nd, 2010  |  by Kyle Suss  |  published in ambient, glitch-hop, remixes  |  1 comment

Let me take this opportunity to discuss my two favorite experimental artists with the Indie Shuffle community: Tycho & Lusine. Both artists create music under Ghostly International alongside those oh-so-sweet pop melodies of School of Seven Bells. An art gallery as well as a design house, this once-coined “boutique label” has branched out to encompass all elements involved in creating a piece of art.

O + S – O + S

August 31st, 2010  |  by Kelly Scott  |  published in ambient, dreamwave/chillwave, shoegaze  |  2 comments

O + S do a commendable job at creating encompassing sonic landscapes and amplified atmospheric texture. Generous, digestible, and best served with a stagnant and reflective afternoon, the self-titled O+S delivers.

Little Dragon – Machine Dreams

August 17th, 2010  |  by Christiana Bartolini  |  published in ambient, electro pop, female vocalists  |  6 comments

A miracle happened when sweet-beats R&B knocked up ethereal electro-pop. Little Dragon was born… and make no mistake, people, this is not a bastard child. No, no. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Eskmo – Cloudlight

August 16th, 2010  |  by Kyle Suss  |  published in ambient, dubstep, electronica  |  3 comments

The first single, “Cloudlight,” is a magical exploration of uplifting yet seemingly dark electronic sounds paired with soothing vocals. Sit back and enjoy as you’re taken into the depths of your senses where imagination trumps reality.

Jonas Reinhardt – Powers of Audition

July 6th, 2010  |  by Taylor Fife  |  published in ambient, electronic, instrumental, house  |  1 comment

Jonas Reinhardt is more art music than pop music, and closer to experimental synthesizer work from decades ago than it is to current trends in dance and independent music. Indeed, the whole album is a throwback to the time before synthesizers had been incorporated into mainstream popular music. If you’re an electronic music buff in search of an intriguing composition, this is highly recommended.

Blithe Field – Beautiful Wave ’74

March 25th, 2010  |  by Jason Grishkoff  |  published in ambient, electronica, experimental  |  3 comments

The best headache defense albums are ones that push a fair amount of repetition but introduce enough modulation to keep things interesting. The repetition helps me relax, while the modulation gives me something to focus on. My two go-to albums are Brightblack Morning Light’s eponymous debut and The Books’ “The Lemon of Pink”. Blithe Field’s latest album, “Beautiful Wave ’74″, is now among that rarefied bunch, an album that relaxes and focuses me enough to fend off a gray after-work headache.

Panthu du Prince – Black Noise

February 16th, 2010  |  by Jason Grishkoff  |  published in ambient, techno  |  2 comments

Like most minimal techno artists, Pantha du Prince (Hendrick Weber) requires deep listening. You cannot trust his records to passively play in the background. Unless you’re actively listening to him, he’s not really playing. Try to sweep up your apartment while listening to his latest album, Black Noise, out this week on Rough Trade, and you’ll see that you soon forget that it’s even playing.

Emancipator – Safe in the Steep Cliffs

February 1st, 2010  |  by Jason Grishkoff  |  published in ambient, instrumental, house, trip hop  |  no comments

Chill out. Seriously. Put those legs up, get a cup of warm tea, and melt to the sounds of Emancipator’s new album, Safe in the Steep Cliffs. You will be greeted by “dense layers of choirs, horns, American folk instruments such as the banjo and mandolin, violin and some distinct Asian influences make for a playful but refined album built out of intricate tracks listeners can enjoy on as many levels as they want. Dance to it, chill out to it, immerse your mind in it. It really doesn’t matter.”

Bibio – The Apple and the Tooth

November 11th, 2009  |  by Jason Grishkoff  |  published in ambient, experimental, folktronica, funk  |  no comments

It has been a matter of weeks since I first posted about Bibio, and his June 2009 album Ambivalence Avenue, and to be honest, the last thing that I was expecting was to see a new album released less than six months later. The feat is perhaps dampened by the fact that only four of these tracks are completely original to the artist, but the eight additional remixes featured on The Apple and the Tooth provide some real gems.

Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue

October 21st, 2009  |  by Jason Grishkoff  |  published in ambient, experimental, folktronica, funk  |  4 comments

Like English compatriots Bonobo and Caribou, Bibio has developed his own electronica style that is at once warm, funky, and full of all things experimental. Following a few releases that embodied a folk/field recording blend, Stephen Wilkinson signed with Warp records, home of my favorites, Boards of Canada. The product of his evolution stands in stark contrast to his prior work: it is as if he has evolved into a whole new beast.