Whatever you do, don't see Kruder DJ live.
Goddamit. It's w-lfs-n's thread now.
I was going to suggest RJD2, MSTRKRFT, Savath & Savalis, and any instrumental MF Doom, but now I will not, for fear of seeming hopelessly middlebrow.
Kraftwerk maybe? I have trouble listening to music without paying it full attention. Natalie Merchant.
(My psychologist brought some N. Merchant recordings to our session last week and was playing them while we talked. Seemed to free up my head a bit for the self-investigation.)
Clownae, there are many reasons why you must be executed, but asserting "Natalie Merchant" is the most potent.
6: why is that offense worthy of capital punishment? I don' understand.
I think you should be listening to show tunes.
7.--He can't mix live to save his life. We're talking jarring, uninteresting beat-matching, no sense of arcs or narrative, boring effects... and of course since he's a known name, a very expensive lame evening.
Wait, a little research reveals that "Natalie Merchant" is not the name of the musician my shrink was playing for me. I got that one wrong. I will try and figure out who it was.
For about a year, I listened to Satie on low volume in the background. I drift in and out of all-Goldberg-Variations-all-the-time periods.
Aha! Natalie MacMaster. Different person entirely, and not a former member of 10,000 Maniacs.
(But you could see how I would get the two confused.)
The post-rock instrumental stuff is good background music. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions In the Sky, Mogwai, etc.
He can't mix live to save his life.
The sound you hear is my soul imploding.
Funny, i was thinking about Satie too, and the Goldberg variations work well for this. Pauline Oliveros is the drone of the moment.
In downtempo, I like Amon Tobin enormously because I'm middlebrow like that, and Boards of Canada are okay not great. Can I recommend playing Gainsbourg's reggae album on endless repeat to skeeve out the young female undergrads?
Did you nab that Amon Tobin?
Isn't it spring at FL University? I'm on a serious pop jag—Kraftwerk et al. sound like just the wrong thing right now.
I like Foley Room even more than the Amon Tobin thing before it. Holy shit, I talk like middlebrow w-lfs-n now...which is, in a way, what I am.
I have difficulty concentrating on work with any sort of background music, because I appear to be incapable of not listening closely.
If you're in the Satie world, you might as well do the Debussy piano preludes, since they're superior in all ways.
18.1 to FL, since AT came up in the last FL bleg. Though I'm glad I'm not the only one with pedestrian tastes in muzak. I have the confidence now to admit that I've enjoyed on several occasions Squarepusher's Hello Everything.
You could also listen to my new favorite song as of 2 am this morning, but it's slightly more distracting than a gymnopedie.
15 - Or you could punch things up some with some rockier stuff -- Unwound, Isis, whatnot. Weirdly, I've been listening to a lot of C-86-influenced stuff at work lately. Nothing says "hardworking professional" like a rousing chorus of "P.U.N.K. Girl".
17: Oh I love that Gainsbourg album. It's skeevy why?
More from the middle: Ratatat, Prefuse 73.
Surpassingly weird, but appropriate to your needs: Mort Garson's "Plantasia: Warm Earth Music for Plants"
I have difficulty concentrating on work with any sort of background music, because I appear to be incapable of not listening closely.
Ditto. All these other people are obviously doing shoddy work.
It's skeevy why?
Do you speak French?
15 gets it right. 26 does not, although Heavenly is indeed awesome.
The only music I ever put on intentionally (instead of a radio station) in the background while I study/work is Steely Dan. Even though I don't like Steely Dan very much, they're less distracting than most of the music I do like, without being boring.
29: Kinda wish I did now.
It's difficult for me to put into words how excited I was when I met a brazilian who could translate bailé funk lyrics for me. It's even more difficult to put into words how unbelievably dirty those lyrics turned out to be.
Ulrich Schnauss, Fila Brazillia, Boards of Canada, The Cinematic Orchestra, Danny Breaks, Massive Attack, Portishead. The Zen CD double compilation on Ninja Tune.
It's even more difficult to put into words how unbelievably dirty those lyrics turned out to be.
Of course it was, that was what you needed the Brazilian for.
Ooh, Aphex Twin, "Selected Ambient Works"
Well, here are the lyrics to "Marilou Reggae":
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Ouvrir braguette et prodiguer
Salutations distinguées
De petit serpent katangais
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Sur Marilou passer à gué
Beaucoup caresses et endiguer
Spermatozoïdes aux aguets
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Au bord climax faire le guet
Changer vitesse changer braquet
Et décoller avion Bréguet
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Elle et moi plaisirs conjugués
En Marilou moi seringuer
Faire mousser en meringué
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Quand Marilou bien irriguée
Jamais jamais épiloguer
Record à corps homologué
Quand Marilou danse reggae
Petit détail à divulguer
En petit nègre dialogué
Après l'amour pisser sagaie
It would take me quite some time to translate this, as Serge has a knack for turning a really dirty allusion into something much more clever. I've always laughed at Marilou's being described as "well irrigated," though.
31: As excited as a tiny guy mouse squeaking frantically while he humped his little girl mouse? That excited?
I could probably work to Brian Eno's "Music for Airports", but it's noise-blocking properties wouldn't be that great.
"When Marilou dances reggae Petit detail to be revealed As a small negro dialogued After the love to piss sagaie"
Sexy!
From what I can glean, way, way less dirty than the bailé.
36: Eerily accurate.
24 has finally given me the courage to admit that I really like Reich Remixed.
The Goldberg Variations were intended to be background music. They were also intended to put you to sleep.
Satie wrote music he called musique d'ameublement ("furniture music") which you were not supposed to listen carefully. At the first performance some people listened carefully, so he attacked them with his umbrella -- or something like that.
Paul Hindemith talked about Gebrauchmusik, which could be sort of like that. But he was a tedious old German although (by contrast to Wagner and Beethoven) he was at least not a Nazi.
30 - But it's the cheeriest feminist pop tune about date rape evar! God, they were great, and it leads to wonderful things in Wikipedia like "Amelia Fletcher (born 1966) is a British singer, guitarist, and economist".
My love of "music for airports" extends even to some of the cheesier types of "downtempo" and "chill."
Offhand, in no particular order, some of my favorites are: the eponymous Kosheen CD, Luomo, The Present Lover, just about anything by A Man Called Adam, but Duende, especially, Gotan Project, La Revancha del Tango, Lemon Jelly, Future Loop Foundation, José Padilla.
Mouse excitement is low-wattage and very high voltage.
the eponymous Kosheen CD
s/b Resist.
2,7 otoh, if that's your sort of thing, *do* go see kid koala live.
How about Múm? Everyone likes Iceland, right?
The Goldberg Variations were intended to be background music. They were also intended to put you to sleep
For shame, JE. It's a commonly held myth, but a myth nonetheless.
Kid Koala rocks.
The Goldbergs put me to sleep every time, if I listen to them straight through while lying down. It's wonderful.
Sifu, after looking up the various words I didn't know, here's the correct translation of that last verse:
When Marilou dances reggae
There's a little detail to divulge
As they put it in creole
After sex with her, you piss javalins.
Hah! That's pretty good. Still doesn't compare to rubbing glass dust on your... hands before... doing things (in this one bailé track), but it's nice to know that about those songs. Adds a certain spice.
some favourites of mine for this sort of listening, from a bunch of different genres: The Books, Christian Fennez (most of his stuff), Mouse on Mars (selected few only), Sigur Ros, Iron & Wine, Claude Chaloub, Anouar Brahem, some John Zorn, some Boredoms, particular classical pieces (Mussorgsky comes to mind) ... I'm not sure exactly what makes it work well though
Wait a second, how did we get from K&D to the Goldberg Variations in three moves? I just can't possibly imagine a world in which those two things would perform the same function.
I mean, for crying out loud, if you want to listen to Bach, you should do it. Hell, go all the way to Domenico Scarlatti if you have to. But it's not the same thing as listening to "Bug Powder Dust" and getting all heavy, with the head nodding and the stare of profundity.
I once tried to write an academic paper on Karl Kraus, while listening to Steely Dan, and it turned into a speculative sequel to Tristram Shandy. Steely Dan is 70s picaresque.
As for what I would actually recommend, assuming that you've already exhausted Massive Attack and Air -- give Four Tet a try. It's beautiful, pristine, marvellously well-programmed. The first album was called Rounds.
Calling Amon Tobin middlebrow is like saying that Rififi is middlebrow. In the world of noir, obvious is the new subtle. (He saves the little boy!)
René Daumal, Author of Tristram Shandy -- The visible work left by this novelist is easily and briefly enumerated. Impardonable, therefore, are the omissions and additions perpetrated by Ben w-lfs-n in a fallacious catalogue which a certain blog, whose crypto-homophobic tendency is no secret, has had the inconsideration to inflict upon its deplorable readers--though these be few and emasculated, if not new-age and circumcised.
Actually, Miles Davis "In a Silent Way" is about right. It's as close as he ever got to easy listening.
Hm. I ought not have bothered. It seemed like it was going to be funny.
Also, Labs, if you really want to block out your colleagues, crank up the Ofra Haza. Then, if anyone interrupts you, or asks you to turn it down, call them an anti-Semite.
51: You're going to want to be pretty careful what Boredoms track you select, though. Unless piercing screeching and clanging is what you're looking for in inoffensive background listening, I guess.
I know! The Boredoms! For about six months, while I tried to understand Super AE, they managed to convince me that I neither understood music nor liked it.
57: I'm thinking more seadrum/house of sun than, say, chocolate synthesizer. Later boredoms and/or spinoffs much safer than earlier, of course!
(aside, Super AE is wonderful stuff though not for this purpose)
I listen to jazz as background music. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue is my favorite.
Jack Johnson is also good background music.
Beck, Sea Change is also good background music
Since everything clicky and ambient that I listen to has already been paid respek (Yay Four Tet, Music for Airports, mum, Natalie Merchant), who's got favorite gittin-it-on music? I will say that recent field tests have proven Meredith Monk to work NOT AT ALL for this sort of thing.
Just kidding about N. Merchant. My ex and I had a rule that I couldn't play Zappa in the house and she couldn't play Natalie Merchant. It was a decent rule.
In fact, I am listening to Miles Davis's The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions as I type. Perfect background music. Although I prefer The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions.
Any of the Ambient Albums by Eno are great. Music for Films is great too. Mitchell Akiyama, dosh, and aMute are good too.
I second the post-rock suggestions.
favorite gittin-it-on music
This.
Unstoppable.
I think so, but the last time I linked to it, Labs threatened to drive to North Carolina and attempt to kick my ass.
Any of the Einstürzende Neubauten tracks with a jackhammer, obviously.
A looped clip of rain and thunder works very well for drowning out conversational noise. I use it daily in the student computer lab.
Don Cherry, Symphony for Improvisers, or Where is Brooklyn?. Maximum Joy. Probably play the Don Cherry over again, and over and over if past experience is anything to go by. Arthur Russell, so sleepy-making, The World of.... Ute Lemper singing Kurt Weill. Scritti Politti Early singles, probably the only thing with lots of words in English that doesn't distract me when I'm working.
Don Cherry puts me in mind of Don Caballero. I can listen to that and walk at the same time.
Don Cherry's daughter is eighties-ish singer Neneh Cherry who before her later lesser work sang for the interesting Rip Rig & Panic, on some of whose tracks Don Cherry plays. (Er, this is important if you like sixties-ish free jazz. Which reminds me that I like the Chicago Art Ensemble when I'm working on stuff if it's cleaning or organizing but not writing.)
I hope you're not calling Buffalo Stance a "lesser work," because that song is a stone cold classic.
73: Well, Chacun a son gout as the French say when they're not writing dirty reggae songs. Or at least, they usually say it as if it had the circumflex and the accents and the other stuff I'm not adding.
And now Neneh's presenting a food programme on the Beeb.
The Field is the best background work music I've heard in a long time. It is electronic and beautiful, but does not compel a distracting close listen. You can sample them at their myspace here, and download their new album here.
I'm not up on ambient music, but is there any love for Stereolab?
Also, speaking of Brian Eno, I recall liking "Another Green World"
free ambient music . free remixes with good beats
78: Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night is a good record.
Kinda slow around here today, no?
The stuff Don Cherry did in Norway was great. He more or less invented world music but his stuff is more interesting than almost all of that. Jan Garbarek is another guy from there who does great stuff.
52: I think by "first album", you mean "first amazing album". Four Tet released Pause and Dialogue beforehand.
For Labs, you should definitely look into LCD Soundsystem's "45:33", which is entirely instrumental and pretty much album-length with really nice movements that aren't too intrusive. Also, Caribou's most recent album, The Milk of Human Kindness, is worth a try. His previous albums under the Manitoba moniker are probably to percussion-heavy and non-repetitious for quieter work music.
This thread reminds me that I need to finish up those couple mix CDs that I promised the Unfogged hivemind (though I'm pissed that I have no actual mixing equipment/ability for the dancable stuff).
Satie wrote music he called musique d'ameublement ("furniture music") which you were not supposed to listen carefully.
Kant mentions something similar in the third critique.
Apo mentioned Neubauten above, presumably facetiously, but I think "Pelikanol" from Silence is Sexy would work. Nur zur Erinnerung, mind.
Ignore the guy who recommended the Books, but do consider the new EKG + Giuseppe Ielasi album (which I haven't heard, but it got good reviews). Or this stuff.
Also, Labs should listen to the March 20 show.
Or just get Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Earth, in the Iron Age. Such a great album.
My favorite Brian Eno recording is his fantasia on several movements by Satie. You can find it sold as Music for the Furniture in Airports.
Also good: Skyphone; Food; some of the higher-numbered Supersilent albums (eg 5, 6). All out on Rune Grammofon.
86: Not enough jackhammer for Apo-style loving.
Stefano Scodanibbio (for example, this album) is double-bass awesomeness, and John Cage-approved. Also gagaku, if you don't find it too enthralling for background music.
Hanging Gardens, rather. I can say now, six minutes from the end of the only track on the album (begun about 54 minutes ago), that it's fantastic. Go Necks!
I mean, I already knew that. But it's been reäffirmed.
Tune out the world with some relaxing SunnO)))
That's not a bad idea, actually. Or you could listen to Boris' magisterial Absolutego.
Ooh! Or Earth's Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method.
Am I revealing my central brow by pointing out the absence of Thievery Corporation? Also, K&D's Climbing up the Walls is the Best Remix Ever.
87: bah; you're wrong about the books (or are you, i'm not quite sure what you meant by that...) but i'd forgotten supersilent ... some of that works really well for this too.
Am I revealing my central brow by pointing out the absence of Thievery Corporation?
Even my mom is over Thievery Corporation.
Ahh! The dulcet tones of Drexciya, perhaps?
Hey, Ben---I've been hopelessly unhip for a couple of years. Is anyone doing neat things today with the sort of rhythms that used to be described as breakbeat?
I don't know because I was never into even the larger scene of which breakbeat is a part.
You know what's not at all helpful to the topic of this thread but has been stuck in my head for several days?
This song by Gym Class Heroes
and
This song by Akon
Yes, I typed that. Yes, I'm ashamed. But, gah, what the fuck is wrong with me?!
Fair enough. If you hear tell of what's become of this music since I became uncool, do try to let me know.
103: You bet. On the more commercial tip, check out Stanton Warriors and Evil Nine. On the underground tip, there's a lot of cool stuff coming out of Brighton in the UK, from what I hear. I'm not sure I could give you specific names, but it's definitely a resurgent scene right now.
It's still called breakbeat.
So wait, are people who read unfogged actually into electronic dance music? This would be exciting and rare in the corners of the blogosphere I inhabit. Who wants a mix?
Of course this (the love of, e.g. house music and breakbeat, the act of DJing it) may now mark me irretrievably as elderly: the latest trend in "raves" in LA is to bring back the DJs that were big in '95 - '96 to play all their old records so the kids can figure out what was fun about the scene.
So wait, are people who read unfogged actually into electronic dance music? This would be exciting and rare in the corners of the blogosphere I inhabit.
Seriously? What do people on the blogs you usually read listen to?
(Somehow I suspect this discussion is only going to lead to heartache, though, with the house people on one side and the trance people on the other. Meanwhile the EBM and psytrance folks will be off in a corner complaining that no one pays attention to them anymore.)
Who wants a mix?
Yo.
I've been hearing good things about Sufjan Stevens.
BTW, you guys have seen Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, right? (Sample entry title: "Speed Garage: aka The Worst Music In The World".)
"EBM" is the stupidest genre name ever, with competition coming only from "IDM" and "darkwave".
109: Who ever paid attention to EBM? Psytrance could afford to have a lot less attention paid to it.
The lefty blogosphere I have found to have majestically shoddy taste in music. Everything from the Decembrists to Yes, with nary a black person to be seen. Every time I start a music thread people are always chiming in about Dave Matthews or A Perfect Circle. Just look at the crap videos we post on The Poor Man.
Two more possibly topical albums I just thought of: Hot Chip, Fabric Live, and Cut Copy, Fabric Live.
Ooh, also Isolée.
I want a mix. Thanks for the names, all new to me.
Dave Matthews
Calumny! Even those of us who primarily listen to guitar-based rock don't merit such accusations.
112: Uh, I think IDM takes it. What kind of dumbass makes a point of calling their own music intelligent? It's the Jonah Goldberg's Thoughtful work of Groundbreaking Genius of musical genre names. I make big, stupid dance music and I'm proud of it!
Everything from the Decembrists to Yes, with nary a black person to be seen.
What are you talking about? I bet Emerson likes Sonny Sharrock.
I think "psytrance" beats "EBM", though.
nary a black person to be seen
113 meet 106
Also one time I heard this Deltron song that was better than other songs I had heard before. So I'm, like, hip, man.
I know, Sifu, calling your own style "intelligent" is pretty idiotic. But come on: "electronic body music"?
At one point in my trajectory to uncool I managed to sort of jog to breakbeat. I'd get about five steps forward, then I'd have to syncopate. Now, mind you, I'm not jogging at all, so perhaps some new tracks could help out.
I bet some of those pasty indie rock dorks like TV on the Radio.
117: Wow, adding "Portrait of Linda in Three Colors" on the soundtrack just made my picture of Emerson that much richer.
One of my favorite songs to play for an unsuspecting crowd.
Psytrance could afford to have a lot less attention paid to it.
See, this is what I was talking about. I've been listening to a lot of psytrance lately, heathen.
120 was a postscript to 114, in which I embedded my email address because I really fucking want a mixtape, or cd, or whatever.
Where was this desire when I was offering to send people CDs, JM?
Oh, I remember: it was scoffing at my taste.
Heartbreaker.
I didn't scoff, Ben! I just didn't pipe up.
Heartbreaker
I assure you all there was, sadly, no Benatar on the w-lfs-n Mix that I received. Fact.
The sad truth, w-lfs-n, is that I learned to have ultra snobbish beat-based tastes and then abruptly left that scene and recently threw away all of my corrupted dubbed cassette tapes. And I like to dance.
One can dance to anything, Jack.
I appreciate that you're trying to let me down easy, though.
128-9: She tried to teach you to dance, and I have proof, you knave.
The even sadder truth, w-lfs-n, is that I didn't want to impose on you.
It wasn't the right venue. I don't see where I'm denying or indeed saying anything inconsistent with that, though.
Who said I was going to send people anything? Are we on the internet, or what?
(That's the mix, see)
Thanks Sifu. I'll listen to it tomorrow, for now I must sleep.
123: I kid because I love. Or, rather, I kid because I can't stand, but used to love, and find uncommonly easy to mock. What can I tell you, I'm a sucker for intentional harmony in my dance music. But on the other hand, the brain's energy has been completely absorbed, everything remains intact-act-act-act-act-act-act-act OHMIGOD IT'S THE ALIENS! Cue 303 olympics.
Like I said, because I love.
119: What makes it even funnier is that it's all warmed over mid-90s trance with some greying industrial dude yelling over it. Way to reinvigorate the genre, fellas.
What exactly is this mix, Sifu? I'm at 19% and curious.
136: Dance dance woo party time bass is thumpin' raise the roof, etc. Contains exactly one song from the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie.
95%: Is it this Hyphy the public radio keeps telling me about?
138: No, no, much less authentically urban than that.
Features one remix of a ginormous worldwide mega-hit that Sasha Frere-Jones no doubt heaped praise upon, the jerk.
If you'd like to hear some Hyphy, check out the new DJ Shadow, is what I hear. Haven't yet downloaded "bought" it myself.
Sifu: this mix is most excellent so far. Thank you again. It will carry me through my workday tomorrow. Was this prepared by you? Was it prepared for something special? I don't understand mix culture, apparently.
142: Just a mix I made one night when some people were over. Two records playing at the same time, that's my secret.
Dudes, Hyphy is awesome, and has given rise to the best song and attendant music video, ever. I love songs that cryptically explain what they're about.
If looking for more hyphy, just downloadbuy some Mistah F.A.B.
M.Leblanc:
I actually enjoyed that video.
That's because it's awesome. The more times you watch it, the awesomer it gets.
146:
For some reason, I am certain that I am not supposed to enjoy it. I'm just not cool enough or young enough to know.
144:00:35: I love you more than I have ever imagined it was possible for one person to love another.
150: I've made babies with you that look like giant, reflective astral lima beans, entities that will absorb all the negative energy on earth and -- crossing the streams -- emit pure sideshow sorted Ray Parker Jr. holographic hyphy ghostbuster whips tailing fat, smoky 720 burnouts with the ghost of 2pac and a Jerry Brown blowjob robot faint in the clouds like James Earl Jones ascendent on the Simpsons. That is what I felt when watching your video.
Ah. Becks-style? Ray Parker Jr.? Prank caller! Prank caller!
Wow. Can somebody remind me to listen to Beefo Meaty's mix tape and to watch M. LeBlanc's linked video when I get home from work this evening? And can I pipe up in the meantime with a "guitar-based rock and roll can be really spectacularly good, as witness" comment?
Don't forget to listen to Sifu's mix tape and watch leblanc's video when you get home from work.
(Now you go watch the video I linked.)
(Oh wait never mind, I think I already alerted you to its existence.)
144: That's a great song... but it can't be hyphy, it doesn't have a guest spot by E-40.
If you guys liked m. leblanc's video, you might also like this. (No clue who the guys in the video are, it's the music that's important.)
Well, it says it's hyphy in the song.
stunnas is glasses
thizz is pills
rippers is brawds
scrapers automobiles
hyphy is hyper
our version of crunk
thizzin is high
and perkin' is drunk
Having no coherent taste in hip-hop or dance music, I'll just link to this, because I like it. There's no actual video, so enjoy the comments; some of them have almost-rational opinions that I've never heard befoer.
157: Saying it doesn't make it so. For example, Murder Inc. isn't "the world's most intelligent record label" (claimed here).
I bet some of those pasty indie rock dorks like TV on the Radio.
And Bloc Party! If they're English and under 25.
I'm many, many years past the time when I was hip and down with what the kids listen to these days, but I'm a total sucker for the Definitive Jux stuff.
103: Ah, crap, way too late now, but you should check out some of the mixes by DJ Donna Summer (aka Jason Forrest) or any of the stuff coming out of Trouble & Bass (Drop the Lime and Mathhead are their two biggest producers/DJs). It's more influenced by hip-hop, and heavier on the bass, lighter on the snare than most of what I used to think of as breakbeats, but it's amazing stuff.
Also, for pure rhythm joy, check out Holy Fuck's self-titled album. That will probably be closer to breakbeat in the more traditional, drums-that-sound-like-sampled-funk kinda way.
158: Would a semicolon and a right-parenthesis have helped clarify my intent?
138: NPR had it wrong. Hyphy is from the Yay Area.
165: NPR needs to Young Jeezy on as their regular correspondent on cocaine slang-related issues.
Where was this desire when I was offering to send people CDs, JM?
I ask the same question, darn it..
On the other hand, as far as we know she won't actually listen to it, so don't feel too bad.
Dude, I listen to your CD all the time, Nick. 'Tis good stuff.
On the other hand, as far as we know she won't actually listen to it, so don't feel too bad.
I don't. There was an implicit smiley in my comment.
Dude, I listen to your CD all the time, Nick. 'Tis good stuff.
Thank you.