ASIP – Shattered Sky

Watching it grow. Watching it break. Watching it melt away.

A mix made whilst watching the above… featuring a host of my favourite tracks both old and new, as well as an exclusive preview of Markus Guentner’s contribution to the Places Series.

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Tracklist:

01. Module – The World Spins Without You (Imagineering / Self released)
02. Claro Intelecto – Still Here (Reform Club / Delsin)
03. Donnacha Costello – Rebuild (Composure /  Mindgames)
04. Loess – Viscer (3D Concepts / Toytronic)
05. Aeroc – Summer’s almost over (Viscous Solid / Ghostly)
06. Boards of Canada – Peacock Tail (The Campfire Headphase / Warp)
07. Orange Crush – Cosmic Shores (Self released / Free download)
08. Petar Dundov – Ideas From The Pond (From Ideas From The Pond / Music Man)
09. Chromatics – Tick Of The Clock (Night Drive / IDIB)
10. Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – a1 (Stare / Erased Tapes)
11. åpne sinn – Still Transmitting (En Seier / Relaxed Machinery)
12. Markus Guentner – Dockside (Forthcoming on The Places Series / ASIP)

isolatedmix 28 - Crisopa

Santi Lizón is an artist i’ve had the pleasure of witnessing grow these past few years, and I like to think that he has inspired me along the way. I’m not sure how I came across Crisopa at first, but a quick look back at the ASIP archives and it may have been one of the very first mixes I heard from Winterlight back in 2009. Funny, seeing as they are both now signed on the legendary n5MD label. Santi has floated around with several netlabels prior to this years release on n5MD and it was probably his 2010 release ‘Last Membrane’ that ultimately sealed the deal and the chance for a further album with one of the best electronic labels of today.

‘Biodance‘, released last month, is undoubtedly Santi’s best work yet and a culmination of his organic sound; combining glitchy electronics, instrumental shoegaze touches and drifting ambience. I didn’t think you could get better than ‘Dancing Curtains’ on ‘Last Membrane’ – it was like Tycho, Winterlight, and Ulrich Schnauss were jamming on a Summer evening – yep that big (have a listen). But Biodance is an evolution of Santi’s sound, and more electronic noises give it much more variety and depth. ‘Es Todo Mental’ for example, stays very close to ‘Dancing Curtains’ in style, but just absolutely kills it with a thoroughly electronic, oscillating climax.

Take a look at the tracklist for Santi’s isolatedmix and you’ll probably see what I mean. Two of the previously mentioned artists are in there as inspirations, alongside the likes of Jon Hopkins, Ochre and Ametsub – a rich mix of recent electronica pioneers. It’s pretty easy to hear the Crisopa sound in amongst this lot, and if this mix serves any purpose, it’s crowning glory will be to introduce you to the beautiful sound of Santiago Lizón Martínez.

You can purchase ‘Biodance’ from n5MD, and download ‘Last Membrane’ for free here.

“I Pretended to create a trip from quiet introspection to more dynamic feelings without losing the connection with sensitivity, beauty and power. This also pretends to be a little tribute to the artists in here to appreciate their infuence over me and the great moments provided to me.”

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Tracklist:

1. Ametsub – Snowy Lava.
2. Ochre – REM sleep research.
3. Tycho – Adrift.
4. Ulrich Schnauss – Between us and them.
5. Yimino – Firen (read edit).
6. Tobias Lilja – Spineless.
7. Jon Hopkins – Vessel.
8. Vaetxh – Clipper.
9. Stable Mechanism – Curious Eye.
10. Eleven Tigers – Wind.
11. The Flashbulb – Undiscovered colors.

Tracknotes:

1. Snowy Lava — Ametsub. Fits me gorgeously when I go out of the city to a lonely place when human presence begins to vanish.
2. REM sleep research — Ochre. A magic, delicate dream where I come back when I need to.
3. Adrift — Tycho. Blinding sun light, warming and encouraging.
4. Between us and them — Ulrich Schnauss. A train taking off from land and flying. A personal classic.
5. Firen (read edit) — Yimino. A voice inside me tells me: “activate the magic in everything by a simple touch”.
6. Spineless — Tobias Lilja. A powerful ball of energy grows inside my chest and propagates to my extremities.
7. Vessel — Jon Hopkins. Sensitivity and force.
8. Clipper — Vaetxh. Electrocution and time jumps in my brain
9. Curious Eye — Stable Mechanism. Android birds and apocalyptical landscapes. Great spanish artist here.
10. Wind — Eleven Tigers. Seducting darkness
11. Undiscovered colors — The Flashbulb. A departure, a farewell of something inside me.

Artwork photo credit: Arantxa Lizón

Crisopa on Soundcloud | Facebook | n5MD

isolatedmix 27 – DF Tram & Rich-Ears: Earth Apogee

It’s been an extended period since the last isolatedmix from Loscil, mainly because i’ve been focused on getting the Places Series off to go a good start. But also, as with all isolatedmixes, they don’t come around too often and I make a conscious effort to reserve the series for producers, DJ’s or artists that have a profound influence on me, be it recently or many moons ago.

Rich-Ears, with his many mixes, tribute sets and mind-bending journeys (half of which have featured on ASIP over the years), definitely falls into this category. His curations are reminders of just how expansive ambient, chill and electronica can be. They are packed full of crate-diggers gems and nostalgic samples. There isn’t a set that goes by without new music to my ears, classics re-emerging or favourites re-imagined.

And like all good journeys, it’s better experienced with a good friend. Rich-Ears’ parallel mind from across the ocean, DF Tram, joins him on this one, to rekindle a very special partnership which was evidently brilliant through their last masterpiece, Lunar Fizz.

This mix, titled Earth Apogee, is another dive into a vivid spectrum of ambient, chill, downtempo and samples that co-exist between two die-hard music fans. Their collections are expansive, their taste immaculate and this mix is a testament to their extensive music libraries and skills in curating a all-immersing musical journey.

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Tracklist:
01. David Axelrod – The Warnings Part 1
02. David Axelrod – The human abstract
03. Carlos Niño -Rabbit Island Featuring Jesse Petersen
04. DF Tram & Future BC -Sonic Breakfast
05. Brian Eno & David Byrne – America is waiting (DF Tram edit)
06. Donovan – Barabajagal
07. Air – Modular mix
08. Ursula Rucker – 7 (feat. M.A.D.)
09. Carlos Ciño and Miguel Atwood Ferguson – Fall In Love
10. Mort Garson – Symphony for a Spider Plant
11. Wild Rumpus feat. Cosmo and Gary Lucas – Tikkety boo
12. Animat – Gogo’s dub (DF Tram & Future BC remix)
13. The Doors – Riders of the storm (DF Tram’s Dirty Windows edit)
14. Sense – Praise
15. Linah Rocio / Gigi Masin – Love Letter
16. Gigi Masin / Charles Hayward – Clouds
17. Daphne Oram – Lego Builds It
18. Kid Koala – Emperors Main Course In Cantonese
19. Abel – Skipping Puddles
20. Small Black – Intro
21. Schubotter – No Healing Through Pharma
22. XNTR – Bell Mountain
23. DF Tram & Future BC – Rue De Musique
24. Unknown – Nude Interlude #1 (Kinky Ladies of Bourbon Street)
25. Lush – Stray (Hole In The Sky Mix)
26. Amorphous Androgynous – Another Fairy Tale Ending
27. Barbarix – With Every Waterfall Comes A Rainbow
28. Dave Greening & Owsey – Purgatory (Owsey cover)
29. Scanner – Sounds Of Love
30. Kid Koala – Vacation Island
31. Eprom – If
32. Loop Guru – Katmandu…Crab People…
33. Ajanta – Perception of Time
34. The Normalites – The Sun Rising (Afterlife Remix)
35. Maps & Diagrams – Jupiter Incidental
36. Pharaoh Sanders – Astral Travelling (Boozoo Bajou Remix)
37. Saturn Never Sleeps – DRK
38. ActivePhaze – Soaring (Deep Haki Remix Pt2)
39. Maurizio Miceli – The Hope
40. The Orb – Pluto Calling (Twinkle)
41. The Beatles – A Day In The Life (Terminus/JFK Edit)
42. The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – Yellow Submarine

Rich Ears Soundcloud | Twitter | Facebook
DF Tram Soundcloud | Twitter | Facebook
Artwork photo courtesy of Hikaru Funnell http://capturecollect.co.uk/

ASIP – 1.00.00

Do you have an hour? This is where we are going. Some place different.

The ambient music has gone for this one. The closest you’re getting is the first two tracks, but this quickly changes. I started this mix with the intention of producing a journey full of repetitive, melodic electronic music. That was the brief to myself: repetitive and melodic. But as always, given it was closing in on 3am and I had a few beers by my side, this quickly changed and turned into a set that i’d play, or at least want to hear if I was stood surrounded by hundreds of people in the desert with the sun slowly descending behind the dusty mountains [insert your moment of escapism here].

I dag into quite a few old records and looking back at the track listing, quite a few of them are big inspirations of mine (and for many others i’m sure), and especially influential in not only getting me into ‘techno’ (or more club orientated music), but served as introductions to a completely different musical world. If it wasn’t for this early Paul Kalkbrenner remix, I would never have stumbled across SInce 77 – one of my favourite tech-ambient tracks of all time. If it wasn’t for Donnacha Costello’s Colour Series (of which Grape features), I would never have discovered his earlier ambient (and more recent) productions. Same with Jesse Somfay, his 2005 album, ‘Between Heartbeats‘ is still some of his best work yet in my opinion, and without this, there would’ve been no introduction to Borealis (or one of his many other guises of today).

Anyway, you get what i’m saying… there’s an underlying inspiration to this mix, be it in my eyes only, but I hope you can find it and enjoy it with me.

Download.

Tracklist:
01. Jon Hopkins – Amphora (Unreleased)
02. Âme – Doldrums (2008)
03. Ellen Allien & Apparat – Jet (Paul Kalkbrenner Remix) (2006)
04. Donnacha Costello – Grape (2004)
05. Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Heimat (Robag Wruhme’s Turmkolle Rekksmow) (2011)
06. The Field – Everday (2009)
07. Pantha Du Prince – Saturn Strobe (2007)
08. Andre Lodemann – Where Are You Now? (2009)
09. Roland Klinkenberg – Mexico Can Wait (2007)
10. Jesse Somfay – Walking Through Rain On Cloudless Days (2005)
11. Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain (2009)

Mach V – Send In The Drones

Send In The Drones. Send in the beauty. Send in the classic ambient. Send in a few upcoming releases whilst you’re at it. Send in Mach V.

If you want any of the above, look no further as our favourite curator of all things musically brilliant, Mach V has put together a sublime ambient mix. Over one year in the making, Mach V has been intending to produce a ‘drone’ mix for some time now, but just as I find when mixing, he had little influence on what made the cut when faced with such amazing music. The drone is in there, but it’s peppered with some beautiful moments that break the drone-only mould and keeps this mix interesting throughout.

Like a true gentlemen, Mach V has paid homage to his sources and included some kind words about ASIP and the brilliant Futuresequence in the write-up. He’s also included an exclusive we were lucky enough to receive from Umber and two upcoming tracks from the ASIP Places Series too. One from Ex Confusion and another from Mach V’s audio-visual maestros, Echaskech. More to come on those releases soon, but for now, go ahead and join the inspiration of Jean “Moebius” Giraud and drift away with the drones.

You can read the full post on Mach V’s blog here. Also included below is a brilliant video put together by Mach V and featuring ‘626’ by Echaskech, forthcoming on the ASIP Places Series.

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Tracklist: (with links to the free downloadable ones)

00:00 Mark McGuire – Alma (reprise)
01:00 Echaskech – Tundra (from Future Sequence – SEQUENCE2)
05:27 Jonsi & Alex – Boy 1906
08:22 Future Sound of London – Max
11:06 Mara Carlyle – Pianni (From Accidental Records)
13:07 Maps & Diagrams – Domane (From Future Sequence – SEQUENCE2)
15:41 Mountains – Blue Lanterns On East Oxford
19:17 Panda Bear – Drone
22:39 Widesky – _____ is Also Movement (From Future Sequence – SEQUENCE2)
26:20 Ex Confusion – Before We Begin (Forthcoming release on the ASIP Places Series)
30:10 Digitonal – Polaris (From Leaves – Leaving 11)
32:54 Verülf – Iroko (From Verulf -Territorial)
35:00 Hammock – Longest Year
37:20 Vangelis – Love Theme
41:00 Umber – I Wasn’t Aiming For The Ocean (ASIP Exclusive)
46:50 The Bird and the Bee – Spark
50:30 Parks – Song for Autumn
59:15 Biosphere – Monju-2
1:02:55 Jon Hopkins – Journey
1:05:11 Another Fine Day – Spring Song
1:07:37 Echaskech – 626 (Forthcoming release on the ASIP Places Series)