a couple months ago, mika vainio returned to sähkö for a new album by way of his longtime alias Ø. it's called konstellaatio, it comes more than five years since the last Ø album oleva though work on it began way back in 2006, and it's pretty fantastic, i'd say - generally more subdued and spaced out than the project's usual fare. here's the wonderfully mellow opening track, "otava." the youtube video has some distortion in the low end, but who cares when there's *those* heavenly pads and twinkling tones? if you haven't checked out the album yet, hopefully this helps convince you.
you should make sure this one is on your radar: a new album from iceland-based producer ben frost. it's called A U R O R A, and it's due out through mute on may 26th.
for more than a decade, frost has been cooking up abstract and often very aggressive music that defies simple genre tags (though i suppose 'ambient' might work the best). counted among his works are a handful of solo LPs (i first discovered him by way of by the throat, his last solo album from 2009)and film soundtracks - he self-released three albums on that front in 2013. you can hear a lot of his stuff streaming on full over on his bandcamp page.
apparently there's a press release that describing A U R O R A thusly: "starved of all the adornments of its predecessor... a defiant new world
of fiercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins
and pure metals." i want to go to there! for now, frost has kindly posted a track from the album, "venter" for free streaming via soundcloud. nervously chiming bells, searing synths and heaving drums abound... tune in and hold on:
the album seems to be a collaborative effort, with frost getting some help from some friends. he's about to lead a live group on tour in support of the album, and i'll hope that some US dates are in order. i was able to see him perform here in chicago about four years ago and was really impressed. anyway, follow ben frost on facebook and twitter, and check out his homepage too. happy friday!
exciting news, another album to look out for in 2014: abdulla rashim, a personal favorite here on smilecoldanatomy, will release his debut solo LP in may!
unanimity is its name, and it'll be the tenth transmission from northern electronics, the label abdulla started a little over a year ago. since then, northern electronics has moved back and forth between deep-diving techno and wintry dark ambient, putting out records from fellow swedes varg (including a series of collaborative joints from varg and abdulla's ulwhednar project), acronym, korridor and råd kjetil senza testa. unanimity looks to be abdulla's first solo effort on the label, as he's continued to put out records on his own self-titled imprint. as usual with the artist and label, details are scarce - which is fine with me - but we do know unanimity will see release on 2xLP, CD, cassette and digital formats. you can stream one of the tracks, "afar depression," right here or via the basic soundcloud player below.
...and here's the full tracklist:
01 - Under The Wasted Sky
02 - Path Inwards
03 - Red Uprise
04 - No Borders
05 - Moral Blinds
06 - Afar Depression
07 - No God
08 - Nothing Existed
09 - Unanimity
abdulla also checked in with juno plus a couple weeks ago for a rare interview, which you should definitely take a look at. and, this great news gives me another opportunity to point you to his excellent anatomy mix from december 2012, which remains his most recent online set. quality over quantity is never a bad thing, i'll say, and there's now been more than 2200 downloads for that one, split between official.fm and soundcloud. hell yeah! oh, and pardon the really slow start to the year here on the blog. life has kept me really, really distracted, but things are starting to clear up, and i promise there will be more smilecoldanatomy action soon, including a few new mixes. until then...
my name is brian and i live in chicago. i appreciate, among other things: good music, good parties, and good people who share these interests.
an important part of my mission here is sharing abstract sounds from around the world via the anatomy mix series. outside of this blog, i write for resident advisor (check out my reviews here), and occasionally i play my records around chicago under the dj name patty (check out my mixes here). the opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. i will not upload official releases; please support the artists and please support vinyl!
