Phirnis

Kai Ginkel from Darmstadt, Germany is recording under the Phirnis moniker, producing what was recently tagged as “enigmatic and evolving washes of sound”. His latest work is called Apnoea which has been just released by Fwonk netlabel.

http://phirnis.de/

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1. The Beach Boys - Friends

The whole Friends album is a treasure trove of unorthodox ideas, yet at at the same time everything about it feels incredibly bright and peaceful. There really is no other music quite like this.

2. Alice Coltrane - Los Caballos

This track is based on a riff totally worth obsessing over. To me, the Eternity LP always seemed to exist in a world of its own and I think there's something magical even about its cover art.

3. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle - Gustavo

Kozelek's work has been consistently great and inspirational over the years and I find this particular song to be every bit as touching as it is thoroughly grumpy.
4. J.S. Bach - Contrapunctus IV

One of my very favourite Bach compositions and I just love the somewhat controversial sound of Gould's unfinished organ recordings of The Art of the Fugue.

5. Incapacitants - Track 3

There's a video circulating where you can see these guys perform outside in the Fukushima mountains sometime in the early 90s. Beautiful stuff. They're pretty much the ultimate Noise act as far as I'm concerned.

6. Kyuss - One Inch Man

I grew up on Kyuss and rediscovered their records as soon as I got old enough in order to feel nostalgic about the music of my youth. It's fascinating how they got such a huge and heavy sound out of such sparse arrangements.

7. M.B. + E.D.A. - Universal Order

Bianchi teamed up with Emanuela De Angelis for this unique effort. This is some of my favourite drone or loop music around, bordering on actual static but still driven by a somewhat peculiar sense of rhythm.

Enablers

Enablers are a post-punk band from San Francisco, California which features the poetry/spoken word of Pete Simonelli.

In addition to Simonelli, a published poet and writer who was working as a courier in the band's early years, the band's original lineup included Joe Goldring (guitar, formerly of Swans, Toiling Midgets and [concurrent with Enablers] Touched by a Janitor), Kevin Thomson (guitar, Timco, Nice Strong Arm,Morning Champ, and [also concurrent with Enablers] Touched by a Janitor), and Yuma Joe Byrnes (drums, ex-Tarnation / Broken Horse, Touched by a Janitor).

Enablers' last album, The Rightful Pivot, was released on Atypeek Music, Lancashire and Somerset and Exile on Mainstream in 2015 with European tours.

http://enablers.bandcamp.com/

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1. Joy Division - Disorder

I first heard it in 1983 in Austin TX in a dorm room. Mind fully blown. That bass line?... give me a break, I could skate to it all day in the Texas sun. The freak singer. Shit. I immediately copied and pretty much worshipped Ian Curtis for awhile.

2. Birthday Party - Friend Catcher

Out of my mentor's 7" collection came this fucking screech of guitar and an animal bass riff. I knew right away that I wanted to play guitar like Rowland S. Howard and I still try to on occasion. HERO.

3. Brian Eno - Baby's On fire 

The tune is weird, and lyrically funny enough, but the first time Fripp's solo hits your ears you are done for. I've been getting inspiration off that tone and technique for decades; even tried to straight up copy it with lots of overdrive. Hello? Anybody listening? I'm still waiting for my Fripp "call-out" which can only mean that I am failing.

4. PIL - Pop Tones

From the tape swish intro into the best bass line ever and a totally incomprehensible guitar part this song builds a completely falling down a staircase in slow motion feeling. Evil. This tune is so pivotal for me in so many ways. I don't know Keith Levene and I don't have to; I have this guitar part to thank for many twisty circus riffs.

5. Gang of Four - Damaged Goods

Perhaps one of the most aggressive songs aside from 12XU from that era. That crazy dry-assed production. Raw when turned up. Again, first heard in '83 in a dorm room. I borrowed a guitar shortly after hearing this.

6. Sonic Youth - Tom Violence

This song and this band opened a lot of doors. I was literally about to never play a guitar again until I heard this and suddenly anything seemed possible. My first serious band, "Nice Strong Arm" was oft compared to these greats and rightly so on our first LP. It was truly special to get to open for them.

7. David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes

I taped it straight off the radio in 1980 onto my boombox, missing the first ten seconds or so. The atmospherics were like nothing I had ever heard before and the vocal melody has never left me. I don't know. I can't really listen to it anymore but something about it really wormed into my teenage head.

L'effondras

L’Effondras it’s a French instrumental trio. Two guitars, a drum and a dialog between noise and silence. L'Effondras explores and stretches sounds, play with time and emptiness, excitement and frustration. Hypnotic like the few seconds of the deafening peace before the first thunderbolt crack the sky...

www.leffondras.com

www.facebook.com/leffondras

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1. Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments Voices & Organ

We chose this one for the fantastic ability Reich had to compose pieces that appear repetitive at first but are actually in perpetual motion, like molecular processes. His use of tones is incredible and creates a special space, almost palpable, out of time, constantly modern. I love the Music for 18 Instruments piece aswell.

2. The Gun Club - Mother of Earth

For me it's simply the most beautiful song in the world. The evocations are universally shared, well-identified, classic in a way (endless westward roads, heat, dust, etc) in the collective imagination of the faded american dream. But there is something particularly broken and desperate in this one. It's like a leak, a suffered renunciation, a sacrifice. The pedal steel guitar is fabulous and the lyrics incredibly good.

3. Skip James - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues (late version)

Regarding to his skills, Skip James could be seen as a prince in the pantheon of the 20s'-30s' bluesmen. He had everything : an astonishing, nimble fingering technique and a clear, beautiful and appealing voice. He could also play the piano. Most people know the story : he was paid a few bucks for his early recordings, lived quite poorly until he was rediscovered in the mid-60s', earning enough money then to pay for his funeral. On this recording he is at the end of his life, but his voice still delivers something luminous and hopeful eventhough the lyrics are sad.

4. Cheval de Frise - Phosphorescence de l'Arbre Mort

The most remarkable thing with this duo is that they succeed in making us forget all the extreme complexity of their compositions, all their technical tricks evaporating to materialize a free-associations poetic field. They compose the way wheatgrass grows. I chose this track because I can't put a whole album here but La Lame du Mat is their summit.

5. Nirvana - Milk It

We could have chosen any song from this band we still love and listen to regularly since our early teen years. This one pushes the limits of its songwriting, including a twisted violent riff, dark tattered lyrics and the creepiest solo ever. One of the best of their last period. Most generally I feel the music of Nirvana as the most upright thing ever made in rock and its purity refocuses myself each time I listen to it.

6. Erik Satie - Danses de Travers (played by Leeuw)

It's pretty hard to explain why I find this piece sublime... What moves through this (the feeling of absence, the breath of time, immemorial stuff, etc) are indescribable things. His work is unlike anything else, isolated from all the artistic movements of his time, but nobody represents this period (Paris end of the XIXth century) as great as he did. Technically, behind the apparent simplicity, each note is essential and his pieces are very difficult to play, all is about interpretation, feelings.

7. Neil Young - Harvest Moon

Because it's the classiest ballad ever.

Rosetta

Rosetta is an American post-metal band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania incorporating elements of post-hardcore, shoegazing, drone, post-rock, avant-garde and ambient. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts", and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel. They have just released a new album called Quintessential Ephemera.

http://rosettaband.com/

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1. Oceansize - Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs

For me, Oceansize is the sound of early-Aughties despair. For whatever reason, I spent an enormous amount of time listening to their entire discography last year, as it clicked for me in a new way. This particular song, though it's an early one, is representative of a lot of what I like about them... it has the slightly weird tonality, shoegazey vibe, big dynamics, etc.

2. Boards of Canada - Sundown

The most recent BoC album is great because it's a concept album with a topic but it has no lyrics. And it works perfectly! This one track is really short but it's detuned out of concert pitch and has a beautiful melancholy to it without a defined harmonic center or key.

3. Nine Inch Nails - La Mer

NIN's The Fragile turned out to be a huge harmonic influence on the new Rosetta material. The Fragile has a recurring motif of a major tonic chord as part of an otherwise minor progression. That same thing showed up a lot on the new Rosetta record, sort of by accident. This song does that major/minor tension the best; you don't even notice it as dissonance. I've never met anyone who didn't like this song.

4. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atomos VI

Probably my favorite currently active band. I think this is the best track on their new LP, with a lot of beautiful variety and interplay between electronic and classical instrumentation.

5. YOB - In Our Blood

The new YOB record has a strong progression from dark to light, which I love coming from a very heavy band.

6. Gorguts - Forgotten Arrows

It's easy to write consonant harmonies because there's so much precedent to draw on. We expect things to resolve in specific ways depending on context. It's hard to write good dissonance. Gorguts does a tremendous job of creating specific moods with innovative dissonance. They build up these hugely complex layers and then let it fall apart.

7. Stars of the Lid - Anchor States Part 3

Favorite song ever. Favorite band ever.

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.

Multicast Dynamics

Samuel van Dijk is an electronic music producer, sound designer and media artist from the Netherlands, having released electronic music under a variety of projects, namely, Mohlao and VC-118A. With his current project Multicast Dynamics he creates ever-evolving sound textures culminating in intriguing soundscapes while preserving a tranquil cinematic atmosphere.

http://denovali.com/multicastdynamics/

http://www.facebook.com/multicastdynamics

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1. Vladislav Delay ­- Raamat
A soundtrack for vision.
2. Oddworld Inhabitants -­ Fire Free Zone
Ellen Meijers videogame ambient from 1997.
3. Brian Eno -­ Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)
Warm and dreamy electronics drawing cinematic landscapes.
4. Edward Artemyev -­ Stalker
Incredible soundtrack to a monolithic film.
5. Martin Stig Andersen ­- Mirage
Absorbing acousmatic music from Denmark.
6. M. Von Schommer ­- Untitled 9
Downtown Detroit 3:00AM ­ covered in thick fog.
7. Phalangius -­ Falcklands Flashback: Assault on Goose Green
Eccentric sound adventures played solely on a Roland Juno 6 synthesizer.

Dollboy / Oliver Cherer

Dollboy is the project started back in 2001 by Oliver Cherer. He had been a fan of the early Eno records in my teens and had just discovered the ambient stuff and when he discovered the Laraaji album (Ambient 3).This period produced the first two Dollboy albums, "Plans For A Modern City" and "Casual Nudism", appearances on various compilatons and radio shows, a couple of 7" singles and remixes and acclaimed shows at The Big Chill. Now there's "Further Excursions Into The Ulu With Dollboy". The fifth Dollboy album is a vocal album of twelve songs. It's less electronic, there's more singing than before.

www.olivercherer.co.uk

www.dollboy.co.uk

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1. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

This has stillness, fragility, boldness, soul and intellectual rigour. It’s been with me since I was 15 but has been a regular touchstone throughout everything I have done in the last 15 years. Still sublime to me after more listens than is healthy.

2. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

This, in its stark, bare bones simplicity taught me about melody in a way nothing before it did. When I first heard it on Janice Long’s Radio One show it soared and yet when I examined its constituent parts it seemed to be made of nothing.

3. Brian Eno - 1/1 Music For Airports

First hearing this was like being rescued after four years of making very noisy dance music and jolted me (gently) into making a series of ambient records of which I’m still proud. It also led me to making experiments which still occasionally reward with listenable and useable results.

4. David Bowie - Art Decade

This tune, amongst many, many others by Bowie strikes me as the perfect balance of craft, discipline, art, pop, cool and cultural savvy that I’d love to stumble upon one day. It exudes decadence and elegance in equal measure and I have not made my last attempt to steal it.

5. Matching Mole - O'Caroline

This sounds too simple to be this breathtakingly beautiful. How do you do that?

6. Jack Hayter (featuring Suzanne Rhatigan) - Sisters Of St Anthony

I can’t overstate how important my friends are to me as an artistic influence. Jack has a rigorous approach to his words which work, for me, as a bench mark to which I can only aspire. Jack will never include a throw-away line and will agonise over the right words until they are just that – right. This sets him apart.

7. King Creosote and John Hopkins - John Taylor’s Month Away

I came to this a year late and it made such an impact that I’m still working on avoiding the slavish copying of this tune and others from this record.

Old Lost John

Old Lost John is the folk-noir project of singer-songwriter Tomas Thunberg. He used to be a woodsman and a horse-keeper. These days he lives in Malmo, Sweden, delivering newspapers in the morning hours and writing songs in the evening.

oldlostjohn.com
www.facebook.com/oldlostjohn

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1. Greg Brown - My New Book

A true masterpiece by one of my absolute favourite songwriters. His picking, phrasing, relaxed delivery and lyrical imagery have all been pivotal to my development as both writer and performer.

2. Gordon Lightfoot - The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle

Less famous than his other shipwreck epic about The Edmund Fitzgerald, this was nevertheless the one that caught most of my attention. Solid picking, no chorus and a set of lyrics that plays like a movie before your eyes.

3. Bert Jansch - Rosemary Lane

Bert Jansch was my guiding light into the world of Britsh fingerstyle folk, and this traditional the first song to catch my ear.

4. Townes Van Zandt - Our Mother the Mountain

For a long time, I was only familiar with two or three TVZ songs, and it wasn't until I dug deeper and found mournful gems like Rake, St John the Gambler and this enigmatic masterpiece that I got hooked for real. It reads like an evil fairytale, shrouded in mystery.

5. Christy Moore - One Last Cold Kiss (Live in Dublin 1978)

Written by Felix Pappalardi and originally recorded by heavy rockers Mountain, brilliantly interpreted by Irish folk hero Christy Moore. The arrangement is a whirlwind of various stringed instruments and made me wanna get myself a mandolin to go with the guitar.

6. Bob Dylan - The Man in the Long Black Coat

One of Dylan's darkest and most atmospheric songs. Daniel Lanois' production ideal with a close and warm centre surrounded by distant embellishments has always been a strong influence.

7. Hank Williams - Alone and Forsaken

Hank wrote a barrelful of songs but very few in a minor key. When I first heard this, it was an instant favourite with me and a song that I used to cover in my formative years. And what young man hasn't at one point or another felt completely alone and forsaken?

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.

Allysen Callery

Allysen Callery is self taught folk artist from Rhode Island, USA, with an intricate & unique finger style, & a voice that has been called mesmerizing & angelic. Her first two albums Hopey (2007) & Hobgoblin’s Hat (2010) were self released, but reached an international audience, thanks to radio stations. Her first EPs were released by Woodland Recordings. September 2013 marked Allysen’s 5th release, the full length Mumblin’ Sue on JellyFant Schallplatten. 2014 saw the release of an EP Allysen Callery Folk Radio UK Session.

http://allysencallerymusic.com

http://allysencallery.bandcamp.com/

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1. The Incredible String Band - Witches Hat
 I was a kid laying on an oriental rug in room filled of incense & furniture from Taiwan, the images in the song reflected where I was , & who I would become. ISB taught me that there need not be chorus verse/chorus verse in every song, but you could just do whatever you wanted.

2. Steeleye Span - Edwin
When I was just picking up guitar as a teenager I was drawn to murder ballads especially, and also wanted to play finger-style as my father had done. I loved how the songs were written on a loop, and that style influenced my songwriting a lot. I also loved how you could tell a compelling story within a song. Later on I recorded a version of this song for my record Winter Island.

3. The Rolling Stones - Lady Jane
The first few bars of this song break my heart, before even the singing starts. I love that music can take us away and make us feel strong emotions, it doesn't matter what language we speak, we can just understand.

4. The Yardbirds - For Your Love
I was 13 and there was a boy I liked, we were hanging out at night in a park and I decided I would sing to him. I sang For Your Love, and a few others...it worked and we ended up making out.

5. Cat Power - Devils Daughter/Troubled Waters
When I was still playing in my bedroom I read an article about Cat Power and looked her up. When she sings she is almost acting, there is so much emotion in her beautiful voice. She played slow, sad songs, and I no longer felt alone. In the beginning most of my set list was Cat Power covers, of covers she had been doing. Cat Power/Chan Marshall made me feel like it could be done . She gave me so much courage.

6. Neil Young - Like a Hurricane
Neil Young was another big influence on my early days of learning guitar, he played easy chords and had simple lyrics , yet went so incredibly deep. It's the way he sings it, with that weird reedy voice, so honest and true.

7. Joni Mitchell - You Turn Me on I'm a Radio
It's always a beautiful sunny day when this song comes on, we're in the car and driving to the beach. We're in love or something close. To me, music is being able to tune into what someone else is all about, sometimes it's static and sometimes it's clear as a bell and you can sing along.