Immersion - Always the sea

Guitar driven minimalist techno from Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact and Wire’s Colin Newman who have been collaborating on and off as Immersion for the last 25 years. This track comes off their first release since 1999 Analogue Creatures. You can read my review of the release on Drunken Werewolf.

 

Headsound: Antonymes - Snow on Snow

Amongst the slew of charity records released at this time of year, one that is worth six of your hard-earned pounds and a couple of hours listening time is Touched - a compilation of electronic music released in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. It contains a staggering 123 tracks by artists including 808 State, Future Sound of London and recent Headsound pick Jet Jaguar. I haven't listened to half the tracks yet but here's a nice ambient piece with a festive touch from Antonymes.

Headsound: Jet Jaguar - Five Production Mistakes Even Professionals Keep Making (They're Not What You Think)

Five Production Mistakes is the final EP in a series of 6 released in the last year by the very productive New Zealand musician/producer Jet Jaguar. Featuring spaced-out disco, warped easy listening and glitchy beats gently dissolve and reform in five multi-flavoured compositions.
Jet Jaguar aka Michael Upton is half of another Headstand favourite Malty Media.

Looking forward to more like this in 2014.

Headsound: Tom Adams - Migration

Migration is the first track to released from Tom Adams' new EP: In The Constant Noise. Ambient sounds, delicate piano and Tom's tender vocals building to a powerful crescendo create a spectacular cathedral of sound which gently dissolves into a silent void. Impressive results for a late night session with a hand-held recorder.

All the new songs on the EP were recorded this way. Tom explains:

"This brings an intentionally imperfect and intimate feel to each track as every recorded layer features the sounds of birds, wind, rustling leaves and other natural sounds unique to the recording location.
By emphasising and celebrating these imperfections, the EP explores the idea of silence in a world where high levels of background noise are the the norm.
The result is a highly emotional set of new songs that invite you to listen to music and the sounds around you differently. Whilst each new song tells its own story, they are all unified in a melancholic lament for the sounds that have been lost in the constant noise."

New EP From Jet Jaguar

New Zealand based Jet Jaguar has a new EP out, the first of six due for release this year. In 'Another World' spoken phrases echo amongst a bed of dreamy synths and wobbly basslines. It's like a soundtrack for the space between conciousness and unconsciousness. 'Single-Digit High' has an industrial edge with 80's synths, minimalist beats and vinyl crackle bumping into each other like marshmallow dodgem cars. Heavily processed female vocals echo in and out. The EP concludes all too quickly with the darker 'Mose.' What might once have been a human voice hums and groans a smooth melody as percussive elements build and disintegrate.

It's a deep, atmospheric trio of tunes. The use of vocals is effective but a little standoffish. Voices are warped, distorted and scattered sparingly, mixed up with the electronic instruments.  A track with more prominent vocals and audible words would give this lush electronica a much needed organic element. Looking forward to the other five.