mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Grone - 2nd Exploration", Somnambule
One day in high school, my friend Joe AIMed my friend JZ: "Say the first thing that comes into your mind. No thinking."
"Grone is coming now", JZ replied, then recoiled in horror. JZ feared he'd freed Grone from the collective subconscious with his careless words.
Then in 2020 Maneco Labs released "Grone", a synth module from which an ominous face stares. Is that Grone? Is he here? How long do we have?
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Drone Music With DIY Analog Synthesizer (Hana Synth)", Jeanie
Jeanie is really unique among synth YouTubers, using her collection of (actually pretty weird) modular equipment to make polished, Kraftwerky pop music incorporating her own vocals. Here she demos an ambient noise box she designed & sells herself, singing her own backup for a short atmosphere piece I'd describe as "Yoga class music but more epic". I kinda wish it were 4x as long.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Blizno / Cinematic video nature / Elektron Analog Four MK II / Ambient Drone", Mutant Manfred
Anybody like Boards of Canada? This is a piece on one of Elektron's more advanced devices, with indistinct, wavering synths and an absolutely killer vibe. It starts off in the standard drone "one loud, very sculpted note" mode but then melody gradually takes shape from the noise, like the sun consuming a horizon. This sounds the way VHS looks.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Starlight", Model 500 (Moritz remix)
My posts this week in this thread wound up with a dub techno theme, so I thought for Friday I should listen to some dub techno classics and pick a really epic track to post on Friday. What I then realized is that dub techno doesn't really do "epic". "Satisfying" or "chill" is more its speed. So here's a seminal dub track from 1995 that is just really intensely satisfying. A tiny understated funk groove.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Illusory Walls", Cobra Truth
This YouTuber makes some traditional-standards dub techno with some interesting modern equipment: The Make Noise trio of noisy synths, a 303 clone, and the Digitakt drum machine (probably driving the Make Noise). Okay, so 2/3 modern. This takes a minute to get going but then it jams pretty hard, really nice bright and clean production. PS: No, the MS-20 visible in the background isn't actually used in the track.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Killed By A Feedback", Dynamo
This is another track from the (Fact Magazine) "25 best dub techno tracks of all time" list I found. It's from 1996, and it's weird: The parts of a techno song as if heard from deep underwater, gradually building steam. There's a point where it flips over from confusing and abstract to extremely danceable and both sides of that flip are fun, in their way.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "11/7/23 'Blueberry 5200'? 'Smurf'? (2x Behringer ARP 2600 clones) + Mackie Mix12FX (02: Small Room)", Cfpp0
The ARP 2600 mega-synth is most famous not for music at all, but for *sound effects*; it's the machine that provides the voice of R2D2.
This track, made on *two* unauthorized 2600 clones, is itself practically more sound effects than music; it's a meditative, hypnotic sequence of sweeps, like AC waves breaking on an electronic shore.
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Comfortably Heavy", Travis Benjamin Simpson
I've featured the Lyra-8 in this thread repeatedly, but usually in aleatoric ("noise") compositions where they're just generating general drones. This musician meanwhile uses two Lyra-8s, whom he calls "The Girls", in this slow but meticulously composed piece where he plays the Lyras like strange, slow-motion pianos. It's intense and moody, ponderous, tones and pendulums and long decaying release
mcc
What I'm listening to today: "Wallfacer"
Vladislav Delay has been making distinctive, often cryptic glitch-adjacent electronic music since the late 90s, and is considered one of the foundational artists of dub techno. He's now releasing lots of rapid-fire EPs on a Bandcamp subscription plan. This is from this year and feels dub-like in spirit (if not in stereotypical elements), beats and isolated abstract noises floating in dark space. A zen rock garden made of sounds.
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