Recommended music: 'At or From a Distance' by Steiner

The third release in Glass Reservoir's series of commissioned recordings is a contemplative affair. Mixing field recordings with waves of musical sound, the overall effect is one of transience, of moving from one state to another, and of a general sense of not belonging. It's hard to tell whether the music has been created on keyboards or naturally - there's a recurrent sound that could as easily be the sound of a ringing bowl as its electronic counterpart.

When you put the rather mystical song titles together with the sound ('I seem to glimpse you in every window', 'The opposite of now', 'I seem to glimpse you in every window', 'Topography/Hiro') you end up with something that becomes the aural equivalent of a Haruki Murakami novel - you're not entirely sure where the journey is taking you, and ultimately it raises more questions than it answers, but it's an engrossing experience that you'll want to repeat.

'At or from a distance' is released on 17th February on download and a limited run of handmade CDs - click here for details.

New Band of the Day: Yong Yong

Hailing from Lisbon, Portugal, the due of Rodolfo Brito and Francisco Silva, mine a late-night seam of warped electronics, ambient sounds, effects and loops. The overall effect is a bit like going to sleep with the radio on and drifting in and out of consciousness while the radio slowly re-tunes itself. Their album 'Love' initially appeared towards the end of last year on a C60 cassette, and has since been afforded a digital release.

It's hard to pick out specific tracks or key points as it's very much something that should be listened to as one piece, but there are signposts on the journey - like the bit in 'Loboz' that sounds like Wall-E, or the dialogue on 'Bujumann' about Gandhi and Mother Teresa - that reflect just how trippy the destination is.
In part the lo-fi nature of the recordings and occasional dubby feel reminds me of early Peaking Lights stuff, but really the record inhabits a world of its own. Here are a couple of tracks from it, first off you can download 'Helder' here courtesy of the band themselves - let yourself sink into its repetitive vibe...



Next you can listen to 'Spray', which was the track that first brought them to my attention:



And then there's the final track from the album 'Escarnio Popular', which sounds like an Arabic souk from a sci-fi film:



Rodolfo Brito also occasionally post things on Youtube, here's the latest one that he's put up



Finally from their Soundcloud page, 'Material' appears to be the newest thing they've put out:



Plenty for you to get your teeth into there - enjoy!

New music: 'Social Cognition' by Fiocz

The second release on Glass Reservoir (read about the first one by Benjamin Shaw here) is another in their series exploring the boundaries between electronic and acoustic sounds.

Constructed on an analogue modular synthesizer, and using field recordings from his work life, home life and surrounding environment, Fiocz has created a stuttering, glitchy record that accurately reflects the paranoia and angst of modern living. Titles like 'Dysphoria' (a state of dissatisfaction, anxiety or restlessness) and 'Drosophila' (a fly used in laboratory studies of genetics) accurately reflect the themes of this record - not so much 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' as 'Modern Life Scares The Crap Out Of Me'. It's one thing being cognisant of your surroundings, but the oppressive air that abounds here seems to imply that maybe knowing the imperfections of toady's world but not being able to change things is a bigger burden than being ignorant.

Not necessarily an easy listen then, but definitely a thought-provoking one. You can watch a taster for the album below, and pre-order it from Glass Reservoir by clicking here.

(TGRR002) Social Cognition - Seq021- from fiocz on Vimeo.

Recommended music: 'Summer In The Box Room' by Benjamin Shaw

First off, a bit about new label Glass Reservoir. Formed last year to examine the boundaries between electronic and acoustic music, they've challenged a series of artists to make recordings that must include both sound generated synthetically (computer, synthesizer etc.) and sound from the real world (instrumentation, field recording, samples).

The first fruit of this labour is 'Summer In The Box Room' by Benjamin Shaw, which will be released on 25th February, and which sets the bar high for those that will follow. From the first crackles of 'A Dramatic Title' the warmth and atmosphere of this record really draws you in. 'Trouble At Mill' is an eerie wave of bass synth and garbled vocals followed by some backward loops, which leads into the disturbing 'Onions In your Eyes' which for no apparent reason whatsoever made me think of Scandinavian vampire flick 'Let The Right One In'.

'Ms. Chlorphenamine' undercuts some wobbly guitar with the sound of electronic waves crashing onto a microchip beach. The track is bookended by 'Oh Jesus, Close The Curtains' and 'Oh Jesus, Shut The Blinds'. '...Curtains' is a beautifully sparse piano-driven piece which hums like the electric train wires on a wet morning, while '...Blinds' overlays some pensioners discussing the merits of black vs. white gym shoes onto another sparse piece of backing.

The only singing on the album comes on 'All Meithered, Me'. The guitar chords in this are warm and inviting, unlike Shaw's melancholic vocals and lyrics which, to summarise, invite the listener to piss off and leave him alone. 'Milk' closes the album in a suitably downcast style with some discordant sounds casting a gloom over a gentle guitar melody.

This is definitely an album that rewards solitariness - listen to it staring out the window of a train, or alone in a dimly lit room, and immerse yourself in the world that Shaw has created.

You can pre-order the lovingly handmade cd here but be quick - there are only 5 left!

Each track is accompanied by a video - these are being released one by one in the build up to the release date. You can watch a few below and I'll continue to add the rest as they are issued.



PS You should also check out Shaw's brilliant album 'There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet' here.