ASIP - Reflection on 2015

This years' ASIP Reflections mix closes out the annual "Advent Calendar" for our friends over at Das Kraftfuttermischwerk. 

Featuring just a few of my favourite tracks from 2015 the mix process is always organic for me, so ultimately always misses out several styles. This one, has focused more on the ambient and techno side of things, and doesn't include some of the many electronica, IDM, shoegaze or softer ambient music we have featured this year.

As a special treat, I've finished the mix with the first listen of a remix coming out on ASIP in January, as part of ASIPV003R.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who has been reading, listening and supporting ASIP in 2015. We couldn't have had such an amazing year without you.

Download over on Soundcloud.

Tracklist:
01. Hior Chronik - Nest Of Autumn Feat. Sophie Hutchings (Kitchen) READ
02. Offthesky & Pleq - Ashes Of America (Infraction) READ
03. Leandro Fresco - Los Pasos Vacilantes De Los Reyes (Kompakt) READ
04. Heathered Pearls - Cast In Lemon & Sand (Ghostly)
05. Halftribe - Shells (Dewtone)
06. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Persistence (Room40) READ
07. ASC - Deluge of Thought (Silent Season) 
08. Synkro - Your Heart (Apollo) READ
09. Refracted - The Jungle Is Thick (Silent Season)
10. Voices From The Lake - Orange Steps (Editions Mego) READ
11. Martin Nonstatic - Granite (Ultimae) READ
12. Nautil - Mue (Further)
13. Acronym - Letting Go Of It All (Northern Electronics) READ
14. Voices From The Lake - Max (Editions Mego) READ
15. Donnacha Costello - Farewell (Self released) READ
16. Alessandro Cortini - Rimasta (Important)
17. Arovane & Hior Chronik - Day After Tomorrow (AMX) (A Strangely Isolated Place)

Tracknotes

Hior Chronik - Nest Of Autumn Feat. Sophie Hutchings (Kitchen) READ
This album is being heralded as one of the best by many in the past few weeks. My full review summarizes this beautiful piece of work, but this track with Sophie Hutchings is pretty outstanding.

Offthesky & Pleq - Ashes Of America (Infraction) READ
Infraction are one of the most consistent underrated labels out there, and this colab proves it. I'm pretty sure plenty of people skipped this album, but it's one of the most special soundtrack moments of 2015 - a true grower with an emotional climax.

Leandro Fresco - Los Pasos Vacilantes De Los Reyes (Kompakt) READ
Leandro has had a spectacular year, with the release of his dedicated Pop Ambient album and this, a contribution to the annual Pop Ambient compilation. His sound never falters and this is one of his more finer, articulate moments, slightly different to his regular stuff.

Heathered Pearls - Cast In Lemon & Sand (Ghostly)
Jakub's album is another being heralded across the many best-of lists. Body Complex crossed into more of his 'club' sound, whilst keeping his warm textures and this track was the closest to his previous ambient sound we've covered here on ASIP many times.

Halftribe - Shells (Dewtone)
Despite a relatively quiet year for the label, Dewtonw had a few stunners including the Shells EP by Halftribe.

Rafael Anton Irisarri - Persistence (Room40) READ
A Fragile Geography will undoubtedly be known as one of Rafael's best. Power, emotion and delicacy such as this beautiful track, traverse the album to show RAI's ever-growing library of sound.

ASC - Deluge of Thought (Silent Season) 
ASC on Silent Season is a guaranteed combination. His past outputs have been some of the best music of the year and Fervent Dream is no exception. Deep, dark and mysterious, James Clements crafts the finest of details into vivid landscapes.

Synkro - Your Heart (Apollo) READ
I'm a big fan of Synkro, along with his other guises such as Kiyoko. Changes switches between epic synth-laden ambient music and more upbeat electronica, all in a unique new-beat Synkro style that straddles the likes of Burial, the Autonomic sound and Drum'n Bass.

Refracted - The Jungle Is Thick (Silent Season)
Silent Season went deeper than ever this year and Refracted dug deepest. Bubbling, daunting techno that encapsulates and transports.

Voices From The Lake - Orange Steps (Editions Mego) READ
VFTL didn't do anything particularly new this year, but their LIVE album was another reason to fall in love with the duo. Whilst this track wouldn't stand out in its own, it fitted well in the mix and my favorite from the album was actually the below 'Max'.

Martin Nonstatic - Granite (Ultimae) READ
The sounds in this track and across his album are addictive, like an industrial clang of warm dub-techno. Martin's praise for this album is illustrated in the review, so it was no surprise he would have a place in here.

Nautil - Mue (Further)
A relatively overlooked techno release that more-or-less defined a few of the styles I really got stuck into this year, alongside the Refracted track and the likes of wndfrm. Further also had an amazing year as a label and look unstoppable right now.

Acronym - Letting Go Of It All (Northern Electronics) READ
I could have included a host of Northern Electronics tracks in a year-end mix and it was hard enough narrowing it down to this one from Acronym. I've seen the album, June, pop up on a few lists and I'm glad Abdulla Rashim's ever growing techno label is getting some well-deserved attention. 

Voices From The Lake - Max (Editions Mego) READ
This track epitomizes VFTL's album productions and their stray into the ambient world. Melodic, warming and above-all, memorable.

Donnacha Costello - Farewell (Self released) READ
Donnacha's Love From Dust may be my favorite album of the year. An amazing return centered on his spectacular synth work. Donnacha went on to release another album, Stay Perfectly Still, which was just as good.

Alessandro Cortini - Rimasta (Important)
Alessandro continued his yearly Forse analog assault to great effect. Despite being one of the most 'famous' people on this list through his Nine Inch Nails involvement, he was surprisingly my biggest discovery of the year which led to me hunting down all of his previous synth work.

Arovane & Hior Chronik - Day After Tomorrow (AMX) (A Strangely Isolated Place)
A little taster of the next ASIP release - a remix EP of Arovane & Hior Chronik's In-between.

isolatedmix 59 - Martin Nonstatic: Inside

It's been an amazing 2015 for Martin Nonstatic, with his crowning moment arriving in the form of a stunning release on Ultimae Records. As I wrote last month, and as many have no doubt since heard, it's one of the best ambient electronica albums released this year, so I feel extremely lucky to round out this year's isolatedmix series with a very special effort by Martin.

After a busy few years producing the likes of Granite and rearranging his set up, studio, workflow and recording ­sample libraries, Martin decided to take himself back Inside again. Accompanied by "hundreds of hours of ASIP's beautiful mixes" (his words not mine!) Martin came up with the idea to curate several pieces of his material and create a live mix, dedicated to one of his favorite places.

Inside invites you closer behind the scenes of Martin's studio, through dusty crackled samples, dub chords, layered atmospheres, drones and sonic ideas salvaged from previous live sessions and recordings, found throughout his hardware and recording libraries. 

To make the mix even more special, we've had three parts of the mix mastered by NikosF and prepared for download over on Bandcamp. There's a minimal price for the release on Bandcamp for the people seeking extra quality, but the actual mix is as always, free to download below. 

Thanks to Martin and NikosF for the stunning effort and making our last mix of the year extra special. We hope you enjoy it.

Download.

Buy high quality on Bandcamp.

Martin Nonstatic | Web | Facebook | Soundcloud

Anonymous Various Artists - Covert

Martin Boulton, the man behind the label, Touched, is doing the music world a favor in every sense of the word. Not only is he dedicating his label and any profits to a good cause, but he's also enlisting help from some of the best electronic musicians in the world along the way.

Past Touched compilations have featured everyone from Arovane, Autechre, Ulrich Schnauss, 808 State, Bibio, Christ, Loscil, FSOL, U-ziq, Hecq and Orbital to name just a few recognizable faces. So you'd be forgiven for getting extremely annoyed at the latest Touch release as this time, contributors have been kept a purposeful secret...

What does that leave us with? Well, it's an IDM/electronica affair. A sincerely great one, at that. The compilation is quickly becoming a guessing game amongst the die-hard and various names from IDM/electronica eras of great are being thrown out for consideration. Christ, Aphex, Boards of Canada, Mike Paradinas, Plaid, Autechre ... you name them, there's a sound, synth, analog glitch or ghostly drum pattern in here that will make you dig through your late 90's, early 00's CD's to try match the signature sounds.

It's hard to pick a favorite from such a solid bunch. The breaks of Streetscape sent me rocking. Charm, sent me back to the hey-days of the many big-beat Orbital parties I went to. Doloxan, Northwest Territories and Even If I Lose Everything made me revisit BoC's 'Tomorrow's Harvest' once again for a dark, nostalgic trip. 

Whether it's imitators of the real-thing, names shouldn't matter at this point. It's some of the best electronica you'll be hearing for a while. 

CD+ Digital available on Bandcamp.

Neel, Donato Dozzy, Just Music, Dewtone

Neel - Live at Free Rotation '15

From one of our favorite producers comes a rare live set recording, featuring tracks from WNDFRM, Global Communication and a host of other warm, driving atmospheric techno artists. My experience seeing VFTL a few years back was still one of my most memorable gigs of all time and Neel is still evidently pushing the magic far and wide. Available to download on Soundcloud.

Phonatic - Dozzy Dives under 120

You can't really have Neel, without Dozzy, so here's a tribute mix by Phantic that captures some of Dozzy's more subdued (<120bpm) ambient productions as himself, in remix mode and as half of Voices From The Lake. Available to download on Soundcloud.

Ambient Zone 2: Just Music Café Vol 5

Just Music have been around for over ten years now and are solely responsible for introducing the world to Jon Hopkins, and ASIP friends and favorites, Echaskech. Just Music's newest compilation shouldn't simply be glanced over as your average chill-out compilation simply because of the rather cliché title. Melancholic ambience from Digitonal, an individual piano piece from Jon Hopkins, driving atmospheres from Xspance, and that infamous ethereal-Schnauss sound from Echaskech grace this compilation, curated by the mighty Chris Coco. This is the type of music that I used to write about when I first started this site, and it makes me happy to know it's still going strong today. Available on Bandcamp.

Dewtone - Reflections

Dewtone have been relatively quiet recently, but that hasn't stopped Dustin and his collective from piecing together some of their finest work over these two Reflection compilations. Remastered and edited for re-release, the compilations capture the very essence of the label with tracks from some of their most notorious releases of recent years including Purl, Deflektion, Martin Nonstatic, Alveol, Sven Laux and ASIP's Halo. Available on Bandcamp.

isolatedmix 58 - Joachim Spieth

In 2001, the very first Pop Ambient compilation was released by Kompakt.

Track one; You Don't Fool Me. It was a sound that had me hooked from the very start, amongst a series that still reigns supreme today.

Joachim Spieth had the pleasure of kicking off the legendary series but is yet to return, unlike many other Pop Ambient artists gracing more recent compilations. Instead, Joachim focused on producing techno, going on to release across Kompakt and in 2008 establishing his very own label, Affin.

The label has grown to become one of the most respected outputs for minimal, techno, and indeed ambient music, playing host to two Markus Guentner releases; Counting Stars (2008) and Crystal Castle (2009) as well as fellow Pop Ambient contributor Gustavo Lamas, and many more cultivated artists from the mind of Joachim.

With such an esteemed background and deep interest in ambient music I invited Joachim to contribute to the isolatedmix series without any expectations of the sound he would put forward. As you'll hear, Joachim's gone back to his early ambient days, with a well-balanced respect for techno throughout. The dubby presence of Echospace Detroit plays an integral part and he's even been so kind to include one of Markus Guentner's ASIP tracks. 

It's also the shortest track list we've ever played host-to in the series, but with names such as Brock Van Wey and Echospace gracing the list, you can be sure this thing has enough depth to keep you submersed for years. 

Download

Tracklist:

01. Model 500 - Starlight (Intrusion Extended Dub) Echospace Detroit
02. Claudio PRC - From The Nebular Stars to The Mosses on The Granite Rocks - 06 Plantae - The Gods Planet
03. Markus Guentner - Limb - A Strangely Isolated Place
04. Brock Van Wey - Forever A Stranger - Echospace Detroit
05. Intrusion - Static Waves - Echospace Detroit

Tracknotes from Joachim:

Model 500 - Starlight (Intrusion Extended Dub) 
It’s an all-time favorite of mine. The original version touched me so much when I got into electronic music.. and years after I fell on this extended dub .... amazing... could be 20 min longer ...

Claudio PRC - From The Nebular Stars to The Mosses on The Granite Rocks - 06 Plantae
This is part of an installation at Botanischer Garten in Berlin. I was there when it happened. It was an amazing atmosphere... You can find the whole album as a free download on The Gods Planets Bandcamp shop...

Markus Guentner - Limb [available here]
Markus is a master of layering sounds... since our early Kompakt days I love his music.

Brock Van Wey - Forever A Stranger
...like voices of love...

Intrusion - Static Waves
Intrusion, another tune that should never end....

~

Joachim Spieth | Web | Affin