Sinah

London-based producer Sinah (pronounced Xena) is debuting these days with a self-titled album. Hailing from Berlin, Sinah’s arresting style is influenced by a love of hip-hop, which she blends with dance elements and organic sitar sounds to create a unique electronic sound. Combined with her hypnotizing, ghostly vocals – a half-sung delivery she says is designed to bring to life the relatable anxiety of today’s youth – she has already drawn comparisons to the likes of FKA Twigs, Bat for Lashes, and Hundreds.

https://www.facebook.com/sinahofficial

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1. Seekae - Test and Recognise

Haunting tune that really develops into something beautiful.

2. FKA Twigs - Papi Pacify

This was my first exposure to her music. It's brave to create so much space within a song and build it up that slowly without loosing the listener's interest.

3. Aphex Twin - Avril 24

To me one of the prettiest and most soothing piano tunes out there!

4. Ben Kahn - 1000

Slightly schizophrenic music which I usually avoid. This one deserves an exception though.

5. Forest Swords - Thor's Stone

Brilliant sounds and atmosphere. I love the tribal vibe to it.

6. Jacaszek - Lament

My all time favourite song and greatest live act I have seen so far.

7. Little Dragon - Pretty Girls

The production and sounds are great as well as the lyrics of the song. This track puts me in good mood straight away.

Michiru Aoyama

Michiru Aoyama is a 29 year old ambient composer from Kyoto. He studied electronic music in Berlin and the result of that journey lead him to ambient music. Fast forward a couple of years and the young producer has managed to showcase an understanding of experimental music that rivals that of already established artists in the genre. His most recent piece, which holds the title In A Dream is a true soundtrack for the ambient aficionado worldwide releases by Shimmering Moods Records

http://michiruaoyama.bandcamp.com

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1. Eric Clapton - Layla
I played guitar this song when university. i played blues music when university.

2. Brian Eno - An Ending

Special ambient. i feel the mystery of the universe.

3. Spitz - スピカ

Japanese rock band. i heard all the songs of this band. Live act is great.

4. Fennesz - Glide

I respect him . i went to germany for hearing his live act.

5. Aiko - 光のさす足下

Japanese girl singer. Cute singer.

6. Aphex twin - Flim

Special rhythm. I think this song is best in his works.

7. Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry christmas Mr lawrence

Beautiful japanese soul. His piano works is amazing. I like all of his film music works.

Northern Valentine

Northern Valentine is a Philadelphia based ambient/drone collective anchored by husband & wife, Robert & Amy Brown. Coaxing sounds from electric & acoustic sources, they weave meditative drones & soundscapes with “barely there” post-rock instrumentation to create a tapestry that Phil McMullen (Terrascope Online) refers to as “minimalist ambiance at its best. Heartfelt, soulful & affecting, like gazing into a scrapbook of memories”. The music they create is largely improvisational & is often performed along with films or visuals that the collective has created.

northernvalentine.com

www.facebook.com/northernvalentine

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1. Aphex Twin - #3 ("Rhubarb")

This is an immediate trip to the most serene parts of my mind.

It challenged what I thought music could be and opened me to discovering so many new sounds.

2. Windy & Carl - Sunrise

I spent many nights and days falling asleep, waking up and drifting along to this album, and this song in particular.

Windy's hypnotic bass line slips in perfectly behind layers of Carl's guitar, and you just float for 8 minutes and 33 seconds.

3. Landing - Solstice

With this song, Landing captured a perfect moment in time...and I get lost in the bass line.

The song is a layered balance of order and energy that swells and then disappears, leaving me wanting it to hear more.

4. MONO - Sabbath

I have always admired how much emotion MONO carry in their music. My wife, Amy, walked down the aisle to this song at our wedding. It always reminds me of why I love being with her and making music together.

5. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Moya

I once watched several strangers begin to openly cry and hug each other, as a number of them were hearing Godspeed You! Black Emperor live for the first time. 17 years later, the movements of this song still give me goosebumps and it makes me want to never stop playing music.

6. Magnog - More Weather

Magnog were not around long enough. I often find parts of this song playing in my head and it sparks me to sit down and just create music in the moment. This song sounds so intentional that it crushes me every time I hear it, and recall that it was improvised.

7. Surface of Eceon - The Open Sea

When you have members of Yume Bitsu and Landing making music in the same space, you get this amazing gem. With the gradual build-up of this song, it always makes me feel like performing live.

Splitter

Splitter is the stage name of a nineteen-year-old musician born in Germany / Bremen. His musical pieces have a slight electronic touch to them and they convey a sense of freedom and zero gravity, nowadays probably only found in film music. The mostly intrumental tracks hover somewhere between bands such as "Boards of Canada" and "Arms & Sleepers". They tell a tale that emotionally captivates. 

www.facebook.com/Splttr

splitter.bandcamp.com/

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1. Nine Inch Nails – La Mer

The first album which opened the world of music for me was „The Fragile“ by Nine Inch Nails. I was pretty young for such destroyed music (12 or 13 years old) but immediately felt in love with „The Day The World Went Away“. Years later „La Mer“ turned out to be the most important song from this record for me (because I like the sea so much ;)).

2. Boards of Canada – Heard From Telegraph Lines

Through the remix site by Nine Inch Nails I discovered Boards Of Canada. All remixers at remix.nin.com who uploaded some really good stuff there, liked BoC on MySpace (MySpace was this site which Neanderthals used to explore new music. Only a few will remember) and I was so curious what artist made those remixers producing such nice work. At the same time I discovered my love to nature and quickly Boards Of Canada became the soundtrack for all my bike trips out in the country. I also discovered real freedome and longing at that time but a positive form of longing which got me that butterflies-in-my-tummy-feeling. And everytime, when I saw something so beautiful, that made me feel that there is something greater out there I listened to „Heard From Telegraph Lines“. When I hear this song now it's like opening a jam jar of good memories.

3. Aphex Twin – Donkey Rhubarb

Of course when you discover BoC, Aphex Twin will follow soon. One day I spontaneously decided to ride a little more farther than usual which tourned out to a 60 kilometers bike trip without a camera or anything to drink with me. I rode to all the places I lived before and to the place where I grew up and near the end of this trip I lied down a dyke nearby a lake and watched the sunset. In this moment I felt perfectly happy while randomly „Rhubarb“ was played on my mp3-player.

4. Trentemøller – Into The Trees (Serreniti Part 3)

Trentemøller is responsible for my turn to make more danceable music. When I made „Lost at Sea“ those 4/4 beatdrums where the only way for me to describe that feeling of floating purposelessly through everyday life. By Trentemøller I was guided to take my music to a perfectionist technoligy.

5. Burial – Homeless

Three years after discovering Trentemøller, Burial brought me to think the excact opposite of this perfectionism. His derelict music seems to be the only music that goes along with those psychological deeps a human beeing sometimes have.

6. Radiohead – All I Need

Before I got to know Radiohead I hated my voice and the way I sing. I have pretty much the same vocal range of Thom Yorke and sang a lot falsetto but didn't like it back then. But as I found Radiohead I got aware of the beauty of such a voice and now I love singing. Nevertheless I'm very spare with vocals in my music. That's just because I only sing, when there is something to say that other's don't already said. But that's rarely and mostly I spread messages through my FB-Site. Especially if it's politic.

7. Loess – Nomon

Loess is very special because in my view it's the conclusion of IDM. I love this glitchy sound but it has to be selected. IDM is very much random and so many IDM artist make crappy music. But Loess is what IDM should sound like in my eyes. I like to discover sounds I never heard bevore which is not easy by the situation of music today. Loess found the perfect balance. Their sound is innovative but mostly still passionate and organic. I often orient towards their mix.

Lorna

Lorna is a 7-piece band from Nottingham. They have been together over 10 years, have released many albums and have played in the UK, Europe and the US. Musically they mix dreampop guitars, brushed drums, loops and samples with clarinet, flute and strings. Lorna have toured with and shared the bill with acts such as The Lemonhead, The Psychedelic Furs, Six By Seven, Mark Gardener (Ride), American Analog Set and Midlake. This playlist has been compiled by their vocalist and guitarist Mark Rolfe.

lornatheband.com/

www.facebook.com/pages/LornaUK/11233842989

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1. Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday

I was a little too young to appreciate Bandwagonesque but when Thirteen came out I started to show an interest in TFC. I went to see them on the thirteen tour and I was blown away with the honesty, frankness and power of their music. I really think of this song as my first love who never left me.

2. Neil Young - Out on the weekend

This is the first Neil song I heard, it was around 4 in the morning and I was 18. It was in the back of a friends car. It sounded so desolate, lonely and sad. I fell for Neil straight away. His attitude to production, performance, art and artistry influenced me heavily, he still does.

3. Sebadoh - Soul and Fire

Lou Barlow is a genius of our time and it worries me he will never be appreciated as one. This song is perfect. Lou is a monster of a songwriter, he can terrifying, exciting and profoundly beautiful in the same song.

4. Aphex Twin - Flim

I got to electronica a little later than others in my early 20s. I remember this song being the first electronic piece of music that had a huge emotional impact on me, in the same way Neil Young could have. It opened up a lot more ideas and ways of thinking about electronic music for me. There is a sophistication to this song which kind of reminds me of Eric Satie, there is also something very twisted and unsettling about it. It's emotive and honest.

5. The American Analog Set - The kindness of strangers

Our good friends Coastal put us in touch with them and we opened for them a few times. Their music was one of the most important discoveries for me as introduced me to groove based music. The production on the Known by heart album is a masterpiece. Everytime we would play with I would quiz them about their recording techniques, mic placement, sonics, acoustics etc., in terms of sound design and production Andrew Kenny is a master. I think the AAS is one of the influences I wear on my sleeve, it's hard to shake.

6. The Beach Boys - 'Til I die

I think there comes a time in everyone's 20s when we start to look to the past for new music, not the future. In the late 90s I went through a huge Brian Wilson phase, reading the books, scouring record fairs for smile demos.. At the time Brian was still a recluse, every little bit of information I could get was valued, who was this strange man and why did he go to bed for so long? Nowadays Brian is healthy and touring again, I always feel so fortunate to see him play. We should never take Brian for granted.

7. Should - Turned Tables

I wanted to end on a piece of modern music. This reminds of what I fell in love with when I first fell in love with pop music. The song is sonically perfect, it's so simple and understated. I could listen to this all day.

Kerretta

Kerretta is an instrumental three-piece from the hinterlands of Auckland, New Zealand which has enchanted audiences with its rhythmic onslaught since 2006. Described variously as “lead-heavy” with “sparse and beautiful” moments, the trio have carved out a unique brand of dark rock that is scattered with melodic hooks. Fromn September 5th 2014, their third full length LP entitled Pirohia is available worldwide. The following playlist has been compiled by their drummer H.Walker.

www.facebook.com/kerretta

twitter.com/kerretta

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1. Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (from Brothers in arms, 1985)

One of the first songs I ever remember hearing. I was 5 years old on a bus from school and it came over the radio. The guitar part at the start got me into long instrumental riffs.

2. Headless Chickens - Gaskrankinstation (single, 1990)

I was 12 when I heard this single. So bleak and raw and all with a slight touch of humour.

3. Shihad - Derail (from Churn, 1994)

I saw them live at a festival in Auckland (NZ) when I was 14. The drumming was methodically tight and punishing while still containing a humanistic groove. Heavy and brilliant.

4. Helmet - I Know (from Betty, 1994)

John Stanier was one of my favourite rock drumers. I heard this track when I was 15 and totally dug how it had this heavy hip-hop type swing and yet sat in the pocket of a drop-d tuned riff. Unfortunately this spawned nu-metal...

5. Aphex Twin - Ventolin (from Ventolin, 1995)

Ventolin was one of the first electronic pieces I could relate to at highschool. Square-waved kick drums and distortion and yet so melodically challenging.

6. John Coltrane - My Favourite Things (from My favourite things, 1961)

John Coltrane is one of my favourite artists. He can take a simple melody line and turn it on it's head so quickly and yet never lose control. Genius.

7. Black Light District (Coil) - Unprepared Piano (from A thousand lights in a darkened room, 1996)

This was one of my all time favourite Coil tracks. Dischordant and yet so musical at the same time. Apparently influenced by John Cage's Prepared Piano.