ILAD & A Northern Chorus

Tying together topics of the previous few posts (canada and post rock), i just saw an excellent show at The Boot with virginian spazz-jazz-jam-rockers ILAD and canadian post-rockers extrodinare, A Northern Chorus. ANC has been one of my favourite spacey shoegaze-rock bands since the MP3.com days and it was great to see them live again. this time i had my camera and i took a few artsy photos. check out the gallery here. anyway, i highly recommend both these bands, you can check out their websites and myspaces to hear the music. i especially recommend A Northern Chorus' album Bitter Hands Resign. its an excellent album of slow spacey but powerful post-rock jams full of swirling strings, guitars and guy+girl vocals.

Altus

now for another complete change of pace - spacey ambient music from canadian musician Altus. at times reminiscent of Jonn Serrie, Chuck Wild (Liquid Mind), Thom Brennan, or Steve Roach in his more melodic moments. peaceful synth pad chords with just the right touches of ambient sounds and atmosphere. almost all of his excellent releases are available as hi-quality mp3s for free download, released under a Creative Commons license. especially recommended are: The Wanderer, Autumn Breeze, Winter Embrace, Excursion One, Elements - Air. if youre a fan of ambient spacemusic, dont miss this very prolific musician!

Explosions in the Sky live shows

here at hiddenplace music(tm) , were very much into free music, so here's a couple excellent live shows from the aformentioned Explosions in the Sky which are available for free [legal] download right here on the internets.


Live at Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, England
courtesy of the Live Music Archive at archive.org
(these files are in FLAC format, but if you have a new version of winamp you should be able to listen to them)


Live at the 930 Club, Washington DC (opening acts Eluvium and The Paper Chase also available for download)
courtesy of NPR's All Songs Considered

Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

i know big epic post-rock isnt everyone's thing, but ive really been digging the newest album from texan lads Explosions in the Sky, All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone. i heard they recorded the tracks on this album live, with no overdubs and minimal editing (i didnt bother to check this fact, but it sounds cool). anyway, its immediately obvious upon listening that each track is precisely planned, endlessly rehearsed, and flawlessly performed - all to great effect. blazing emotional soundscapes brimming with an almost exhausting intensity at once assault and soothe your ear. other long and meaningless descriptive phrases spring into mind, but theres plenty of other blogs and reviews for that....
definitely get your hands on the two-disc 'special edition' with a second disc of remixes. i know, at first i raised my eyebrows at the thought of explosions in the sky remixes, but the ones presented here are quite fascinating in contrast with the album versions. each one is expertly produced, but still very respectful of the emotion and energy of the original - none of these screams 'this is a remix' like so many remixes do. the only one with beats of any sort is the Four Tet remix, a fascinating idm+rock blend which works surprisingly well.
many have hailed this album as Explosions' most mature work yet, and i quite agree. chances are, if youve head of explosions in the sky and liked them at some point, or think you might like them, youll love this album.

My Brightest Diamond - Youkali live on KCRW

on the heels of the last post, i wanted to put this up because i find it so awesome. a rare, exclusive recording of My Brightest Diamond playing some french song live in the KCRW studios on an old broken harmonium that happened to be there. strange.. in a few instances, she sounds exactly like Edith Piaf! sorry for all the background noise, i recorded it with my sound card off the streaming audio.. but i liked it so much, i had to save it for posterity. listen to the whole show here.

download:
My Brightest Diamond - Youkali live on KCRW

My Brightest Diamond - Daytrotter Sessions

and now for something completely different - a few live songs by freaky rocker chick My Brightest Diamond. available for free download at Daytrotter. these songs totally rock my face off. dont forget to check out Daytrotter's archive for lots of other live sessions by other cool indie artists. I had the privilege of seeing My Brightest Diamond opening for The Decemberists earlier this year, and she rocked then too. and btw, her album Bring Me The Workhorse is quite excellent, probably one of my favourites in the genre.

Bergen - Spring Interval EP

i was in the mood for some chilled house music today, and this release from a previously-unknown netlabel (to me) fit the bill nicely. i heard the track 'higher than high' in Micha's Ruhnsong Ruhnsong014 from hybridized.org and it immediately caught my ear. i was quite pleased to see it was available for free download. view and download the release here. this is techno music just how i like it - relaxed and chilled but having enough energy to keep you from falling asleep at work! floating pads, moving subtle beats, and cool mysterious vocoder vocals keep this ep interesting throughout...

Sneaker Pimps - Becoming RemiXed

just picked up this album recently through lala.com. some very cool remixes of a classic trip-hop album. styles range from progressive house, to breakbeat, dnb, electro, whatever.. recommended especially if youre familiar with the original (Becoming X)

Mudville - Iris Nova

for my very first post, i wanted to plug the NY band Mudville. i just won a free copy of their debut cd from my favourite podcast - Anji Bee's The Chillcast! thanks, Anji! (you can even hear her announcing me as the official winner on episode #72.. yayy) overall its a nice cd-- quality trip-hop with some classical, film soundtrack, rock and soul influences. check out their website for previews.