Taylor Deupree & Christopher Willits - Deupree + Willits (Audiosphere, 2003)

This is the first collaboration by these two American producers, 12k boss Taylor Deupree and San Francisco laptop / guitar guy Christopher Willits. I posted about their earlier Mujo, but I think this is a more successful collab. Even if it weren't, the album ends with a lengthy live track by each of them, both of which are superb. Can't think of much more to add, except that it's highly recommended contemporary ambient gear.

Fennesz - Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" (Touch, 1999)

Another sale item this one, Fennesz's second album after his storming debut on Mego. Scored it for NZ$10 from a mail-order shop having foregone the thing when I originally listened to it in Wellington dance music store Flipside at the time of release. I recall discussing it with local drum'n'bass DJ and producer Sean at the time, which is a bit odd.

Anyway, the music. Gone are the occasional beats and more rhythmic elements of Hotel Paral.lel, but the stuff here comes before he…

Over The Atlantic - Junica (Involve, 2006)
Despite listening to an illegal copy of this all over Tokyo I held out to get back to NZ to pick up the version with more tracks on it. It's really good stuff, basically indie pop. In the style of most contemporary indie, the singer really can't sing very well at all, but that doesn't matter much. The songs are catchy, fairly opaque numbers and Bevan Smith (Signer) does a fucking great job on the beats and production. There're some really strong connections with fellow Kiwis of at least a decade…

Microsolutions #1: Microsolutions To Megaproblems (Soul Jazz, 2005)

Picked this compilation up nice and cheap (NZ$5!) second-hand, and it's pretty damn good, actually. It compiles a bunch of tracks from 12"s on Soul Jazz Records' more "electronic" imprint, and has plenty of highlights. It opens with a a bouncy 12 8 techno shuffle (schaffel?) from Kit Clayton, which brings to mind other goodies of the period from bods like Thomas Fehlmann and Akufen when he's not being all jittery radio samples… There's plenty more in the techno / house interface, including some fun things from a guy I ended…

LisM - Reverso (Disques Corde, 2007)
Yet more trip-hop type gear, after Lukid from the UK and Take from the US, this time we have a young guy from Japan. It's quite a different kettle of fish, really. Heavy, chopped jazz breaks, often with no basslines, synth chords and whistly melodies that would sound a lot like 90s electronica if they weren't allowed to distort so much, and blurry, lo-fi jazz samples with lots of reverb. The whole thing could've been recorded on to a home tape deck - it has a lot of dirty fuzz about it.

Although fitting…

Take - Earthtones & Concrete (Inner Current, 2007)
This is more glitchy trip-hop / instrumental hip-hop business, somewhat like Lukid, but I reckon he does have his own character. The sampling is generally more lush and varied, plenty of acoustic sounds, and a more varied pallette. Some tracks are beatless, some have rude basslines, some are more jazzy… There's something maybe a bit too mannered about it for me to love it to bits, something a bit too reminiscent of things from the trip-hop era like Palmskin Productions and Cinematic Orchestra, which I never loved as much as the…

Lukid - Onandon (Werk Discs, 2007)
Ended up putting this in my favourite albums from last year already. Wonky instrumental hip-hop, with three-legged beats and lots of muted and muffled textures like I like. Starts off something like Jan Jelinek's material as The Exposures and gets a bit more into banging bass thuds territory a la Flying Lotus or Dabrye's basslines. Love the Afro-beat diversion of Fela. No guess who's been sampled there…

Jodi Cave - Carbon Series Volume 4 (12x50, 2006)
Not perfect by any means, but a decent album of glitchy ambient business, with the order of the day being about half-and-half guitar harmonics scattered to the four winds and soundscapes based on lots of what sounds like lots of scuffed and scraped objects. I prefer the latter bits, but the way the album is structured means the more obviously tuneful stuff breaks up the necessarily very dry tracks. The guitar bits are fairly like Christmas Decorations, or maybe the free stuff available on here by The Moglass & Andrey…

Here's what I played on Tuesday night on Deep. Lots of stuff that's free for download.
Was pretty amazed to find Brian Eno calling Radio Active his favourite online radio station!

Jodi Cave - #Three (Carbon Recordings) UK
Fennesz Sakamoto - Kuni (Touch) Austria/Japan
To & Fro - Back Away from the Tree and Drop Those Leaves (Plug Research) Germany
Pellarin & Lenler - Alt for Damerne (Statler and Waldorf) Denmark
Build Buildings & Marlo Bright - Test Me (Marlo Bright Mix) (Standard Klik Music) USA (Free download)
Off The Sky - Ignore All (Term) USA (Free download)
Peel -…

Dntel - Dumb Luck
Not big on saying "ALBUM OF THE YEAR!" type stuff, but, hey, this is the ALBUM OF THE YEAR! Doesn't seem like many Dntel fans agree, and if someone said to me "listen to some guy who liked Aphex Twin and Autechre and shit doing tracks with sensitive indie darlings" i'd probably smack them one… but nonetheless, I've found myself faithfully following this guy's output under all his different guises and I've ended up enjoying this even more than his last effort as Dntel, Life Is Full Of Possibilities. The sounds are astonishing and for…