lookin' out

heading out for some heartbeats later but for now, here's some news and music and music news. sorry, no pictures for now - i guess blogger is sick right now.

magda's new album drops friday, via richie hawtin's m-nus records. get on it!

on a related matter, check out this interview with richie's visual artist, ali demirel. if you've paid attention at all to what richie's been doing with his plastikman project, you've probably seen this guy's work.

take a look at this guy's artistic depiction of the berghain experience: partying at the world's most (in)famous dance music club. on a more objective note, check out this building profile of berghain. neat blog, that one.

on to some music: check out these two mixes by the forward strategy group guys. i've been really enjoying smear's jam, raw but deep.

back to berghain, check out this fwd mix by xhin, a live recording of him in action at the berlin club. (register first, to get the download link) intense, twisted, loopy... very nice stuff.

keepin' it deep, tune in to this all-vinyl mix of abstract, atmospheric sounds by alan backdrop. alan found me online after listening to my mix (posted below), and it seems like we have similar tastes when it comes to techno... go listen!

oh, and chicago locals, don't forget: stroboscopic artefacts label-head lucy will be in chicago this friday at the migrashun party in the lair in vision's basement. any self-respecting techno head in chicago needs to make it to this one!

lost in a hallucinated romance

new mix by yours truly. a hazy story full of long hypnotic grooves and tense noises:



tin man – birds | white denim
monolake – swamp | monolake/imbalance computer music
perc – bcg (milton bradley beyond the silence mix) | perc trax
giorgio gigli|obtane|nax_acid – the child that was watching the moon | zooloft/aconito ZAltd
the gods planet – no nation | thegodsplanet
xhin – link | stroboscopic artefacts
ben klock – czeslawa | ostgut ton
obtane|giorgio gigli – the different perception of silence | zooloft
darko esser – onmacht | perc trax
nax_acid – synthetic nature | aconito
marcel dettmann – reticle | ostgut ton

i had been wanting to record a new mix for a few months, but only recently did all the pieces come together to get a good quality recording. this mix is made completely with vinyl records in one take, on two technics 1200mk2's with shure whitelabel needles and a vestax pc-175 mixer, connected to my computer via an external rca/usb interface box. audacity 1.3beta was used to capture the sounds and do some minor editing (mostly boosting the levels), before converting it to mp3@320.

thanks to everyone i know - people/friends/musicians - who are constant sources of inspiration. extra hugs to elly and andrew, as well as andrea, claudio, and giorgio, and all friends from around the world who don't mind a bit of darkness...

october chart!

figured i'd keep any readers out there busy with some more stuff to stroke your chin at... so here's my top 10 tracks for october, in no particular order:

1. perc - BCG (milton bradley beyond the silence mix) | perc trax
2. giorgio gigli|obtane|nax_acid - the child that was watching the moon | zooloft/aconito LTD
3. the gods planet - no nation
4. marcel dettmann - drawing | ostgut ton
5. hironori takahashi - outgass (nax_acid edit) | aconito
6. giorgio gigli|obtane - the psychological scene of the imagination | zooloft
7. xhin - link | stroboscopic artefacts
8. monolake - ionized | monolake/imbalance computer music
9. darko esser - onmacht | perc trax
10. anders ilar - unfold | yard rec

one year!

hey hey! looks like today is smilecoldanatomy's first birthday. oh, how the times have changed! well, not really... i do have a fancy new phone now, but that's about it. it's also been about 6 months since the birth of this blog's anatomy mix project. there's only been three mixes so far but i think each one is special in its own way, and there's definitely still more to come. stream and download the mixes at smilecoldanatomy.official.fm.

i've been late with my sonar chicago review and i'm really not sure if i'll get around to finishing it. i've had a lot to write about lately; i just finished a review of anders ilar's new album stories of old for bleep43. read it here! my quick final thoughts on the album: while i wasn't terribly impressed with it, i grew to admire ilar's warm sound design, especially on some of the more gorgeous tracks.

anyway, just a few notes this wednesday morning:
early warning, friday 10.22: migrashun will have lucy, the head of stroboscopic artefacts, return to chicago to play in the lair, the basement room of the vision megaclub. i'm very excited about what should be an intimate night of techno. if you haven't done it yet, read RA's label of the month spotlight for stroboscopic, as well as a sick mix by lucy (direct link), made entirely of tracks from the label's 'monad' digital series; he'll also be releasing a record on prologue soon as well. there's a lot going on that night but this is my priority... $6 presales - a steal! - are still available at the RA event page.

here's this excellent new ambient mix by black dog ... much respect to these guys for sharing their musical thoughts with the world, besides their excellent album from earlier this year.

and a lot of mixes have popped up lately that i'm about to jump on. no reviews yet, but i think/hope these will be good:
iori - modyfier process234 (soundcloud link)
sandwell district radio mix 2 (tracklist at where next?)
ancient methods - FACT mix 188

that's it for now. more mixes to come soon, including one by yours truly!

fresh jams

hello! i'm still kickin'.... been busy as always. last weekend's inaugural sonar chicago festivities went pretty well (more on that later), and i am working on a review of anders ilar's new album for bleep43. so until my next essay, here's a bit of what i've been tuning to lately...


dasha rush live act, berghain berlin 2010 - dasha just put this up last week, a 1.5hour extract of a 2.5hour live set at berghain club in berlin earlier this year. this is deep and dirty, with dasha throwing down tons of nonstop hypnotic rhythms and noisy effects. if you want a good introduction to the sound of dasha rush and her fullpanda record label, i'd recommend this.

graphite north mix volume 5 - now, here is a mix series with potential. dj identities are kept hidden, but you can see the tracklists which all look intriguing. this one is an absolute banger: rough, hard, industrial, as the 'unseen selector' slowly tightens the noose and drops a twisted vocal track right smack-dab in the middle... check out the graphite north blog for more mixes. i think i found out about this a while ago but - my fault - got distracted elsewhere... now i'm definitely keeping my eye on this project.

clyde drexler september 2010 promo mix - made in anticipation of opening for a show on marcel dettman's australia tour (as well as a smashing debut here in chicago), clyde drexler throws down 50 minutes of slinky, slow-burning grooves. i really like how long the tracks blend together on this one, as well as the dirty ending. (EDIT: i am an idiot, and just realized that this is not dettmann, but clyde drexler, who provided dj support for dettmann at his tea party in australia)


go go go! expect my sonar review soon, as well as a new anatomy mix...