For some time I’ve been playing around with the idea of “verbally remixing” music. The basic concept is that instead of reviewing music, or giving historical and biographical information about the music, the writer instead tries to create a brief visual and sensory scenario based on what the music would look like in real space and time. I’ve actually written a few of these in the past, and have been pleased with the outcome, but my imagination has felt increasingly dull as of late. I’m hoping to share at least one example of a verbal remix by the end of the day. You’re going to have to bare with my rustiness while I’m warming up.

Hey, so you know how there was that movie Borat, and everyone loved it, and Balkan dance music became popular, then it was slightly shameful and less cool to like Balkan dance music, even though no one had actually thought of listening to Balkan dance music before that movie borat. Balkan dance music is wonderful. Here is a live performance of the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band that you can download for free: You don’t even have to feel the soul crushing guilt of not paying anything on a pay what you can site. It’s literally free. I don’t even think you are permitted to purchase this album by state and federal laws.

Zlatne Uste Balkan Band

I rarely make a conscious note of what I’m listening to. Mostly I’ll just turn on the radio, or internet equivalent, and wait for a surprise. Often I will end up coming across something that is so good that I feel compelled to write it down or bookmark it somewhere. I’m always surprised at how often this feeling turns out to be created by the same hand-full of artists exploring different genres. Burnt Friedman, by far, is the name that comes up most often when I’m compelled to keep track of music, yet I rarely remember his name or make any effort to explore his discography. Not sure why. Here are some songs. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them, forgot you listened to them, then really enjoy them latter when you hear them again on an internet radio station.

One of my favourite new sites right now is Bandcamp. I’m sure many of you have heard of it. It reminds me of a very easy version of myspace, without the irritating wall posts and bandwidth hogging banner ads. I really think they’ve got the music band page just right. The most pleasant feature is definitely the regional searching. This makes finding bands in your area much easier. This used to be one of the best feature of the old myspace, but it has completely disappeared.

Anyhow, I was browsing around for new music and ended up in the breakcore section. I decided to use the poplularity sort feature. These were both the most popular and least popular breakcore albums on bandcamp, and I honestly can’t tell which album is which. Both have a bunch of facebook “likes”, both feature fast splattery breakcore, both hide under a thick layer of oozey irony and colourful designs, and I really like both of them.

I’m really pleased to see that breakcore is starting to explore happy hardcore. I’m not sure how long this has been going on for–possibly forever–but it’s nice to see people holding a torch to the genre. I’ve always been a fan of sappiness and insincerity. Anyhow, enjoy. One of the albums is a free/pwyc album.

Because Maybe! Renard

I couldn’t find my favourite Ilkae album, Pistashio Island, but there are some tracks on youtube. If you like what you are hearing, see below for two free albums (although, you can also pay for them)

I’ve become a huge fan of Ilkae over the last 40 hours. One thing I love about him, them, it, is their melancholic reaction to the hostile take-over of bass centered electronic music. It seems like beat centered music was blind-sided a few years ago, which seems kind of unfair until you realize how much idm nerds were starting to act like 80s hair bands. No one leaving their house was also a problem. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy cerebral blips and beeps until I had heard Ilkea, and Coppe. Here are some free albums by Ilkae. You could pay for them, the option is there, but at the very least you should give them a listen because it’s really beautiful music.

Ilkae, Light Industry+

Ilkae, stained glass pinata+