So this post is "ephemeral" because it's about music - the blips and beeps of which are necessarily momentary. These are the best new albums I discovered just this semester. After writing this I discovered that all of them are electronic albums! I didn't mean to do that intentionally.... I guess I just listen to a lot of it.
Charanjit Singh: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat. Many thanks to my former roommate and master DJ King Anne for recommending me this one. It's the best album I've heard not just this semester, but all year. It came out in 1982, but was mostly ignored until it was reissued a couple of years ago. All experimental electronic, each song is in a different mode of Indian Classical music. One of the albums I listened to on the drive up here today. Here's an example.
Radiohead: King of Limbs. Pip, pip, pip. What to say about this album? I still don't really know what I think about it. I've listened to it loads of times. It seems too short. But it's not really. Only 5 minutes shorter than most of their other albums. It's like it's a work in project... I dunno. But I really can't wait to see them in concert again. Here's one of the songs from the single that just came out a few weeks ago. Are they part of the album? I just don't know. Maybe they are tree limbs too.
Gold Panda: Lucky Shiner. An electronic musician out of England (actually all of them except the first are!) he came onto the scene last year. His schtick is old Indian and Japanese records that he dices and mixes. This is my favourite song on the album.
Four Tet: There is Love in You. Another British electronic artist. Four Tet's been out for a while. This is his newest record. I didn't think any of the particular songs was brilliant, but it's a good whole album and mixes really well with DJ sets. His Essential Mix last year may be the best one I've heard. Here's the last track on the album.
James Blake: James Blake. This may be the best new album of the year (out of England of course). In articles about him he's described as a "wunderkind" because he's so young yet making such great music. It's R&B dub-step if such a thing exists. The only problem with his music is that you can't really passivly listen to it. You need to pay attention. This is not the song I wanted to post - unfortunately it's not available online to listen.
Sun Glitters: Everything Could Be Fine. I literally discovered this just a couple of weeks ago. It'll easily become one of my most listened to albums of next semester. It's pretty bloody underground. It also just came out a couple of weeks ago. There's not a whole lot of information about it or the artist who made it. It sounds an awful lot like Burial. I would not be surprised in the least if it actually turn out to be Burial under a different name. Whoever it is it's known that he's out of the UK (I said they all were!). Here's a pretty tune.
