ECSTATIC DANCE :: Brian Eno & Laraaji - The Dance #2

Brian Eno & Laraaji - The Dance #2

This song brings me incredible joy. Played primarily on the dulcimer by Laraaji, The Dance #2 is from the album Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. The album was produced by Brian Eno with Laraaji playing instruments. It's the third in Brian Eno's Ambient series which includes Music for Airports (highly-recommended).

This one is equally great for quiet meditation or crank it for some overpowering chords and energy.

BALKAN POWER :: Smallman - Two Rivers

Smallman - Two Rivers

I was hanging out at the local watering hole last night and ended up meeting this Bulgarian, Ivan, who was in town on business. The topic quickly turned to music and he shared this band - Smallman, with me. Later on, once I got home and was able to properly hear the music - it really resonated with me. The core of their music is mixing the Bulgarian bagpipe into aggressive, slow and deep-sounding guitar and bass lines. Check out more on their Bandcamp page.



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FLOAT TANK :: Hammock - Ten Thousand Years Won't Save Your Life

Hammock - Ten Thousand Years Won't Save Your Life

Nashville natives, Hammock started as an homage to Jónsi & Alex, the artistic collaboration between Jón Þór (Jónsi) Birgisson (lead singer and guitarist of Sigur Rós) and Alex Somers (graphic designer and member of the band Parachutes), on the night of their United States premier, which was also their first-ever exhibition outside of Iceland. They've also collaborated with Steve Kilbey of The Church. The influence is not lost.

Hammock members, Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson originally intended not to release their original studio recordings or become a band. I for one - am thankful that it happened.

Ten Thousand Years Won't Save Your Life is a lush ambient track. The kind that makes a beautiful day even better.

BT - 13 Angels On My Broken Windowsill

BT a.k.a. Brian Transeau has created 13+ minute epic track with 13 Angels On My Broken Windowsill. This one starts off very softly and ambient, then drops into a glitchy, dubstep sort of realm. The accompanying video is a sight to behold - simply gorgeous.

Brian started his career in the early 90's collaborating with Deep Dish. He soon became a pioneering artist in the trance genre movement and does not consider himself to be a DJ, rather a classical artist. In June of 2012, he released If the Stars are Eternal So are You and I which is one of the first albums where he incorporates ambient, glitchy and more minimal sounds. It's from this album, that we have 13 Angels On My Broken Windowsill.



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TAKE ME AWAY :: Tycho - Dive (Full Album)

Ghostly International wunderkind Scott Hansen a.k.a. Tycho, has been has been making ambient music since 2004. He didn't really come to prominence until 2008 though when his music was played on Cartoon Networks Toonami block and later Adult Swim. His music might often be mistaken for Boards of Canada, as the sounds are so similar.



TRACKLIST:
00:00 : A Walk
05:16 : Hours
11:04 : Daydream
16:35 : Dive
24:55 : Coastal Brake
30:32 : Ascension
34:54 : Melanine
37:48 : Adrift
43:47 : Epigram
46:20 : Elegy

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Jon Hopkins Boiler Room LIVE Show

Jon Hopkins is a technical genius! After a rough start at the Boiler Room with some faulty equipment, he shows what he is really capable of - which is bringing mad beautiful, glitchy beats to the masses.

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Nova Nova - Tones

After many years of searching, I've finally found it. This was my favorite track from a chill out CD I once owned. Having lost the CD long ago, the only thing I knew was that it might be one of the Cafe Del Mar series. I was right.

This might be one of the greatest piano tunes ever. So powerful, so beautiful ... words don't do justice.

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Boards Of Canada - New Seeds

And it just keeps getting better ... music that is! I'm blown away by how good the new tracks from Boards of Canada's Tomorrows Harvest are. New Seeds is a glitchy trip through mysterious sounds. It could almost be classified as krautrock. What do you think?

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MELLOW :: Bulb - Tenderness

Daniil Vavilov or Bulb, which is his stage name (also sometimes know as Fill), has produced some real gems. Tenderness is a warm embrace of sound after a long stressful day. Most of his songs and collaborations are created with the same intention in mind. Bulb is truly the new sound of Russia!

BONUS: Bulb feat. Tiiu - Gray Snow


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MOST RELAXING MUSIC EVER :: Marconi Union - Weightless

Weightless by Marconi Union has been found to be the most relaxing song ever according to studies done by shower gel makers Radox Spa and Mindlab International.

According to one scientist - "The results clearly show that the track induced the greatest relaxation - higher than any of the other music tested. Brain imaging studies have shown that music works at a very deep level within the brain, stimulating not only those regions responsible for processing sound but also ones associated with emotions. In fact, Weightless was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous."

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Essáy ft Rhian Sheehan - Morning Mountain

German Essáy Warminal has a knack for producing beautiful downtempo electronic music or what he calls "emotional electronica". It's perfect music for taking a stroll in the rain.

BONUS: Essáy - Find You (Nocow Distant Mix)


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PRETTY :: Atlas Sound - Quick Canal (Ft. Laetitia Sadler)

Atlas Sound
Quick Canal (Ft. Laetitia Sadler)

Bradford James Cox is an American musician best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the psychedelic and ambient band Deerhunter. He also pursues a solo career under the moniker Atlas Sound. Cox formed Deerhunter with drummer Moses Archuleta in 2001. The band has released 5 LPs along with several singles and EPs. Atlas Sound is a name Cox has used since he was ten to refer to his own music.
http://4ad.com/artists/atlassound

GIFT OF THE MAGI :: URBAN SWAMP ART CART - Humpty dumpty - Spring 2013: Moments of Knowing

Sometimes, you just need to meditate and exclude the voices in your head and sometimes replace those voices with a positive influence, Music is a form of meditation. Urban Swamp Art Cart seeks to transform the world, one head at a time.

Here is their bio:
Urban Swamp Art Cart is a collective of magi warriors who align themselves with a universal transformation of the self. This multimedia smorgasbord of creativity is spearheaded by Josh Baigelman, a Chicagoan with a passion for freak folk hippy circus. We promote awareness and exploration of powers that are infinite in energy, that ceaselessly engages many beings in questioning the source of their existence.

Humpty dumpty- Spring 2013: Moments of Knowing by Urban Swamp Art Cart on Mixcloud

Mountain Range - It's Lonely Around People, Too (Teen Daze Remix)

Canadian Teen Daze likes to chill. That is evident in his songs and remixes. This tune is not a loud tune. It is made for meditating. The simplicity of it makes it appealing. If you like what you hear, check out more from Teen Daze below.

http://asilentplanet.com/

friðsælum :: Múm - Green Grass Of Tunnel

Iceland has produced some of the most talented musicians of our generation. Along, with Bjork and Sigur Ros, we should include Múm. Múm released Green Grass of Tunnel as a single in 2002 on the Fat Cat label. The music video for Green Grass of Tunnel was created in computer graphics by Semiconductor's Joe Gerhardt and Ruth Jarman team and was inspired by the place in which the album was created. It follows the view of a flock, and presents a lighthouse, presumably very similar to the house in which they stayed.

http://mum.is/
https://www.facebook.com/mumtheband
https://twitter.com/mumtheband

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BRAINY MUSIC :: Einstein In A Patent Office EP

Einstein In A Patent Office is a one man downtempo project from Utah. Taking time away from his job as front-man / blues guitarist in his band JoJo & The Missionaries, Jackson Kelley has created an indelible EP of ambient tracks which include Fugue No. 1, Nightmare Music, Nadir, Em's Dirge and Koren Av Tag. His EP gets released in March on Swedish Label Mareld Records.

BONUS: Einsteininapo - JMB


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Ifan Dafydd - Celwydd

This incredible song could easily be mistaken for a James Blake tune, but it's not, although he did live with him in his last year at university. Ifan Dafydd is a welsh producer with a knack for making incredibly ethereal music. His EP Treehouse came out in Feb. 2012.



BONUS: Lil Wayne - A Milli (James Blake Harmonimix)


Ifan Dafydd - Miranda


https://www.facebook.com/IfanDafydd
http://soundcloud.com/recordiaulliwgar/ifan-dafydd-celwydd

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GOT CHILL? :: Nosaj Thing - Try feat. Toro Y Moi

Los Angeles bas producer Nosaj Thing aka Jason Cheung has partnered with Toro Y Moi aka Chazwick Bundick to create this beautiful, ambient masterpiece. Bundwick has his own projects going as well and has an album - Anything in Return coming out on Jan. 22.

http://toroymoi.blogspot.com/
http://www.nosajthing.com/

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ON TARGET :: Sasha - Airdrawndagger (full album)

1. "Drempels" 00:00
2. "Mr. Tiddles" 01:23
3. "Magnetic North" 06:16
4. "Cloud Cuckoo" 11:33
5. "Immortal" 19:59
6. "Fundamental" 24:53
7. "Boileroom" 34:06
8. "Bloodlock" 41:10
9. "Requiem" 49:03
10. "Golden Arm" 55:11
11. "Wavy Gravy" 60:56

Considered by some to be the greatest Trance / Progressive album of all time, Sasha's Airdrawndagger raised the bar in the EDM world in 2002 and greatly influenced a minimal sound which was becoming very popular during that time. This album builds and builds and builds. "Cloud Cuckoo" and "Bloodlock" might be my favorites here, but each track can stand on it's on merit. Along with original tracks created by Sasha, it featured appearances by Charlie May, Junkie XL and James Holden. The final track - Wavy Gravy reached #64 in the UK Singles Chart and was the basis of a remix contest held by Sasha.

BONUS :


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Tranquility Bass - They Came In Peace

One of the original innovators in the ambient/trip-hop movement, Tranquility Bass aka Mike Kandel submerged for most of the '90s before finally issuing his debut album in 1997. Kandel grew up in Chicago but moved to Los Angeles in the early '90s; inspired by his hometown's acid-house ideals, he formed the Exist Dance label in 1991 with Tom Chasteen and began producing classic ambient-house singles like "They Came in Peace" (available on Mo'Wax's original Headz compilation) and "Mya Yadana" (from the influential first volume of the Excursions in Ambience series). After Chasteen left Exist Dance in 1993, Kandel released a label compilation named Transmitting from Heaven but then disappeared to a remote island off the British Columbian coast to begin work on his debut album. Two years later, after trip-hop's influence had spread far and wide, he emerged from seclusion with Let the Freak Flag Fly, an album that reconciled his electronic fantasies with elements of psychedelia, funk and blues.

http://us.myspace.com/tranquilitybassmusic
https://www.facebook.com/pages/tranquility-Bass/47878418085
http://tranquilitybass.bandcamp.com/

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