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stop-him · 3 years

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I’m a Bad Fan

I like music. I love music! I love the work of many bands and musicians, in many styles from pop to abstract. But if you ask me for details about the bands, I’m not all that up on what goes on with the bands outside of the actual music they make.

Elvis, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, now their fans would obsess over every detail that could be had about their personal lives, or perhaps gather every bit of trivia about recording sessions, what the backup singers had for lunch, the exact power requirements for the mixing board at Abbey Road or whatever the heck.

But I don’t. And it’s sort of a defense mechanism.

In my youth I checked out a cassette of Road Food by the Guess Who from the local public library and really liked it. There’s one song that’s a stinker, it’s 9 minutes long at the end of the album, and the album is like 20 minutes without it, but damn if I didn’t really like all the rest of the songs. It also was very hard to get on CD. At first there was only a Japanese edition that was outrageously expensive to get. Then there was a reissue that crammed it on a single CD along with another Guess Who album. Both these CDs were flawed - the former has tracks out of order and the latter was mastered badly, compressed to distortion. So I contented myself with the vinyl copy I’d bought much earlier - until a third reissue was released from a company that appreciated the material enough to do a better job at it. That one I got. The audio quality is lovely.

The CD booklet, however, contains a recounting of the condition of the band during the recording of this particular album, and it’s a story of a band in decline. Substance abuse was compromising a member or two. The lead singer and songwriter Burton Cummings had issues that led to disagreements and resentments among other band members, and was reportedly obsessing over the idea of having another hit song to boost the band’s career. Hearing a bit of a warm-up jam the guitarists were doing, he pounced on that, and the song eventually became Clap for the Wolfman, a novelty hit based around Wolfman Jack that did pretty well - but its unofficial title before all this was Napoleon’s Blues, which was a mocking reference to Cummings’ own self-important swagger.

Having read that, half the time I listen to the album I think about the band, falling apart, cracking at the seams, where before I just enjoyed the music.

In the mid-late 80s I bought my first Wire album, The Ideal Copy, and fell in love with the band. It’s a unique blend of art-pop, post-punk, europop - I don’t think there’s any other band that was doing things quite like Wire did them in the 80s. The Ideal Copy remains one of my all-time favorite albums, in the top 5 if not the top 3.

But if you’re hungry for details about the band, you could read Everybody Loves a History, a book about Wire’s trajectory from punk band to art-pop to technopop back to raw rock and on and beyond. And you could read how the band was going through some hard times. The drummer was dismayed by the artificial sequencing being used, and considered quitting. Another member did quit, halfway through recording the album, and only rejoined after the record was released, feeling duty-bound to tour for the album. None of the band members expressed any love for the album or the session that created it. Where once I just enjoyed the music, after reading the book I now know the album was a source of stress for at least half the band.

I like all three albums by Soul Coughing, and my favorite is El Oso. The band has long since broken up, but I never knew why. Lead singer Michael Doughty went on with a solo career, and YouTube just recently pushed a video at me of Doughty talking at one of his shows, where he starts detailing how he was marginalized in his own band, how he emotionally checked out, would drop his vocal tracks by himself in the studio and then leave and let the rest of the band work out the music--

I stopped the video and went to some other web page entirely. I don’t want to know any behind-the-scenes details about the bands I like anymore. I don’t want the music I love to carry around a sour aftertaste for the rest of my life.

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furtho · 4 years

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Playlist 2019

Music posted on furtho.tumblr.com during 2019:

23 Skidoo’s Just Like Everybody, biting post-punk collage

A Certain Smile’s Original Replacement, sweet janglepop balladry

Adrianne Lenker’s Abysskiss, wistful folk sadness

Ai Yamamoto’s Going Home (Excerpt), super-quiet ambient minimalism

Altered Images’ See Those Eyes, bittersweet pop perfection

Al Usher’s Lullaby For Robert (Bogdan Irkük remix), lovely downtempo house re-imagining

Ampersand’s I’m Still Waiting, homemade indie tune

Anemone’s Sunshine (Back To The Start), kitchen disco-friendly pop

Anne Clark’s Our Darkness, lost classic proto-technopop from 1984

Aphex Twin’s T69 Collapse, twisting, twitching, frantic electronics

Asilomar’s Shimmer And Faded, spacious-but-warm Californian dreampop

Aster More’s Bought It, sweetly fuzzy indiepop

Asuna’s Sea Above, Chubby Plane, Sky Below, blissed out longform drone

Beatnik Filmstars’ Apathetic English Swine, trashy Bristolian garage rock ‘n’ roll

Ben Chatwin’s Coruscate, oddly delirious ambient

Bernard Grancher’s Fluxion Des Mollesses, homemade electropop with echoes of acidity

Biff Bang Pow!’s Someone To Share My Life With, quietly impassioned cover of TV Personalities gem

Black Channels’ Two Knocks For Yes, longform collage on suburban hauntings

Blue Tomorrows’ Sound Of Moving, echoing, downtempo dreampop

Body Type’s Palms, energetic back-and-forth indie tune

Brambles’ Salt Photographs, quietly exhilarating modern classical

Brian’s Turn Your Lights On, big ecstatic I’m-in-love indie

Broadcast’s Before We Begin, glorious space age girl group pop

Buzzcocks’ Promises, lo-fi video for punk pop gem

Celer’s Rains Lit By Neon, drifting ambient drone

Chris Child & Micah Frank’s Debris Of The Days, dusty ambient folk chimes

Cloud Babies’ Dear Moon, too-fragile ballad from Kyoto duo

Corpse Factory’s Party Girl, “lo-fi mountain gloom rock from Thomas, West Virginia”

Cosey Fanni Tutti’s Tutti (edit), pulsing, joyful electronics

Cristina Quesada’s Hero, super-cute classic indie discopop

Darren Harper’s Slow Reveal, sweetly understated ambient

David R Edwards’ A Novel For Lazy Readers - An Antidote To The Headache Of BBC Radio 4, bleakly comic spoken word

Dayflower’s Sweet Georgia Gazes, Lightning Seeds-style indie jangle

Death Cab For Cutie’s Northern Lights, appropriately big-skied indie

Dedekind Cut’s The Crossing Guard, foggy, distant ambient drone

Depeche Mode’s A Pain That I’m Used To (Jacques Lu Cont remix), gripping, propulsive dance mix

DJ Downfall’s To Bring You Joy, heartbreaking vocodered robotpop

Edgar Froese’s Epsilon Of Malaysian Pale, classic prog ambient

Edward Artemyev’s Dedication To Andrei Tarkovsky, expansive late Soviet-era modern classical soundtrack

Emily A Sprague’s Piano One, quietly glitchy minimal piano

Emmanuel Witzthum’s Book Of Shadows, thoughtful modern classical

epic45′s Kaleidoscope Days, haunting, woozing post-rock dreamscape

Flaüta’s Pensar Mucho, lo-fi bedroom indie from provincial Argentina

Flying Fish Cove’s Sleight Of Hand, ramshackle but uplifting guitar pop

For Against’s Don’t Do Me Any Favors, catchily confident indie jangle

For Tracy Hyde’s 櫻の園, sweet-voiced shoegaze pop

Franziska Lantz’s Run For It, experimental minimal techno

Gabe Knox’s Lo Spettro, languid electronic pastoralism

Gavin Bryars with Philip Jeck & Alter Ego’s The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-), spine-tingling long-form modern classical

Geotic’s Actually Smiling, blissful warm house

Grand Veymont’s session for La Souterraine, Radio Campus, Paris, stunning live longform pastoral drone

György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes, live avant garde performance - great for fans of clicking noises

Harae Nagoshi’s Case1, glitchy piano pastoralism

Hatchie’s Sure, big open indie tune

Hazell Dean’s Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) 12″, thrilling 80s hi-NRG pop

Heartsease’s Blurs, drifting ambient sadness

Help Stamp Out Loneliness’ Pacific Trash Vortex, uptempo hooky indie with charismatic vocal

Hood’s Houses Tilting Towards The Sea, languid post-rock pastoralism

International Teachers Of Pop’s After Dark, anthemic, booty-shakin’ electropop

Jane Weaver’s Slow Motion (Loops Variation), dreamily melancholy synthpop

Jonteknik feat Malte Steiner’s Fernsehturm (iEuropean remix), glistening electro modernism

Kasper Marott’s Keflavik, beautifully, er, constructed house

Kenji Endo’s Curry Rice, charming snapshot of Japan’s underground folk boom of the late 60s and early 70s

Kevin Drumm’s A Puddle On The Floor, spine-tingling minimal drone

Kirill Mazhai’s Love Theme, hazily warm ambient drone

Komputer’s Skyskrapers, downtempo bleep-pop balladry

Kraftwerk’s Antenna, rare video of the electronic classic from 1975

La Boum Fatale’s Walls (Instrumental), warmly glitched-up technopop

Laveda’s Dream. Sleep, distant echoing dreampop

Listening Center’s Meridian, brisk synthpop experimentalism

Lives Of Angels’ Imperial Motors, lost classic of catchy post-punk drum machine pop

Lowfish’s Live In San Francisco, forty minutes of gorgeous funky electro

Lunar Vacation’s Blue Honey, sweet and fragile indie

Magazine’s The Light Pours Out Of Me, captivatingly gloomy post-punk

Malish Kamu’s Birds, ethereal minimalism from south-western Russia

Marble Index’s Love Talking To Boys, 1999 take on synth-driven post-punk

Marie Davidson’s Work It, funky as fuck minimal technopop

Martha & The Muffins’ Echo Beach, irresistible new wave classic

Martial Canterel’s You Today, frantically catchy minimal synth

Mary Jane Leach’s Bruckstück, breathtaking modern choral

Memoryhouse’s The Kids Were Wrong, catchily polished indie

Meter Bridge’s It Was Nothing (Rodney Cromwell remix), blistering disco’d up electropop remix

Mick Trouble’s Shut Your Bleeding Gob You Git, bracingly ramshackle punk pop

Mode Citizen’s Sex & Steel (The Dark Robot remix), pounding sequenced electro remix

Moving Panoramas’ Baby Blues, exhilarating piece of kind of Alvvays-esque indie

My Robot Friend’s Sex Machine, hopeful in lyrical theme, bleepy minimal wave in terms of sonic stylings

Naps’ Bad Vibrations, exciting indiepop from much-missed (by me) Florida outfit

Naw’s Still Breathing, looping electronic experimentalism

Night Hikes’ Avila, “you’re the only one who ever made my coffee right...”

Night Sports’ Substance, joyful disco-y synthpop

Nonconnah’s Driving Away For The Last Time Without Looking Back, determinedly lo-fi folk drone

Nov3l’s To Whom It May Concern, infectious modern post-punk jangle

Okonomiyaki Labs’ Blue Toast (edit), mischievous experimental bleepery by Japan-based former Pale Saint

Palais Schaumburg’s Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt, Neue Deutsche Welle post-punk angularity

Part Timer’s Nothing Changes, restrained modern classical vignette

Patrik Fitzgerald’s Tonight, acoustic punk poetry from back in the day

Pelopincho’s Puchos, exuberant two-chord indie from Argentina

Petrichor’s Petrichor Ten, charming minimal electronic sketch

Pet Shop Boys feat Example’s Thursday, scintillating hooky electropop

Piano Magic’s Dark Secrets Looking For Light, bleak post-rock balladry, as you may have inferred

Remington Super 60′s The Highway Again, luscious laidback jangle

Rico Loverde’s He’s A Wiardo, oddly funky electro experimentalism

Riton & Kah-Lo’s Fake ID, rough-around-the-edges funky house

Robert Rental & The Normal’s Live At West Runton Pavilion, incendiary live experimentalism from the lo-fi synth pioneers

Robjn’s Suburban Temple/Feel This Way (Corwood Manual remix), hauntological glitchpop, complete with captivating video

Rose Elinor Dougall’s Fallen Over, pleasingly brief loved-up pop

Roxy Girls’ Interjections, energetically catchy punk pop

Ruby Jaunt’s Jeune, haunting electronic indie

St Etienne’s Carnt Sleep, lovesickness + insomnia = popdub heaven

Saariselka’s Void, charming blend of ambient and folk Americana

Sector One’s Can Machines Be Sad?, delirious post-Kraftwerk synthpop

Six Microphones’ Overture & Part 1, minimal ambient experimentation

Slow Pulp’s New Media, melodic post-punk twang

Sobs’ Girl, tuneful indie jangle from Singapore

Spread Eagle’s Palatine Hill, distant, foggy Glaswegian indie

Stan Tracey Quartet’s Starless And Bible Black, extraordinary jazz tune inspired by Under Milk Wood

Steve Reich’s Come Out, ground-breaking tape loop experimentation

Sugar World’s Sad In Heaven, perfect rough-and-ready indie jangle

Surf Friends’ Outdoors, relentlessly upbeat guitar pop

Suicide’s Touch Me, can’t-break-the-spell synthpunk hypnotism

Susumu Yokota’s Grass, Tree & Stone, hypnotic cut-and-paste ambient by the late, great Yokota

Telefon Tel Aviv’s The Birds, hypnotic electronic glitch rock

Teleman’s Rivers In The Dark, winning melodicism from under-rated popsters

The Adverts’ The Great British Mistake, lost gem by punk legends

The Autumn Teen Sound’s Telegraph, Casiocore cover of OMD hit

The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness’ Close The Doors, laidback indie jangle

The Flirts’ Passion, trashy disco from early 80s New York

The Juan Maclean’s What Do You Feel Free About? (Man Power remix), driving techno-disco to get your party started

The Leaf Library’s Hissing Waves, lovely pastoral post-rock

The Screamers’ 122 Hours Of Fear (live at the Target), thrilling late 70s synthpunk

The Silicon Scientist’s Sinister Street, notably un-sinister vocoder-driven synthpop

The Slits’ Typical Girls, spiky post-punk pop

The Twin Roots’ Know Love, warm and soothing reggae deliciousness

The Wannadies’ You And Me Song, quiet-loud-quiet-loud indie classic

Thistle Group’s High, bittersweet solo tape loop experimentalism from New Zealand

Tiny Magnetic Pets ft Wolfgang Flür’s Radio On (Alice Hubble remix), dreamy electronics topped off with spoken word by ex-Kraftwerk legend

Tremelo Ghosts’ Paradise, sweetly lo-fi indie folk

Tvärtom’s Iltariennot, melancholy Finnish indie jangle

Utro’s Где-то там, hypnotic indie drone from Motorama spin-off act

VDOF’s Zooming In I Can Clearly See Your Heart Has Got Aliasing Issues, confident minimal electronic debut

Viktor Timofeev & Simon Werner’s Sphynx Cats Nuzzle, spookily experimental spoken word

Walt Thisney’s Shadows, delightful modern classical sketch

Will Burns & Hannah Peel’s Moth Book, charming blend of electronics and spoken word

William Doyle’s Millersdale, wide-eyed ballad inspired by the housing estates of England

Window Magic’s From Here Flows What You Call Time, pastoral found sound collage

Yazoo’s Midnight, killer-sweet electropop ballad

Yoshio Machida’s Synthi #04, whistling, gurgling, oddly pastoral electronic experimentalism

****************

The playlist for 2018 is here. The playlist for 2017 is here. The playlist for 2016 is here. The playlist for 2015 is here. The playlist for 2014 is here. The playlist for 2013 is here.

#folk #ambient #indie #indiepop #experimental #acoustic #electronic #synth #synthpop #electropop

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hifumi-matsuoka · 2 years

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Would it be weird if I made headcanons of myself that I know weren’t true? Like, I know I mostly listened to technopop, seishun (youth) punk, pop rock, etc, but could I make a “headcanon” where I listened to jazz-funk as well? I know I could just listen to jazz-funk music now, but I mean a headcanon where I used to listen to it in high school. I grew up listening to Kohmi Hirose, and during school I started to listen to a lot of ORANGE RANGE. None of them were jazz-funk.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m not making sense. For the record, the music genre thing was an example. I don’t actually want to make a headcanon where I listened to jazz-funk. I’m interested in the concept of creating headcanons despite knowing they contradict with my memories.

#hifumi's post

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askcecilylappin · 3 years

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Do you feel like you're pretty much in control when people start getting on your nerves or does your temper get the best of you?

I don't know anymore. I mean, I was an only child, so whenever my friends would talk about their annoying brothers and sisters, I couldn't relate. Mom and I mostly got along great. Yeah, we argued, but you know how on TV, there's usually something where the teenage daughter acts out and yells out, 'Mom, you don't know anything?' and runs upstairs and slams the door to her room and plays some kind of punk or technopop music at full blast? Yeah, that wasn't me. I'm more of a jazz, showtunes, light rock type and I never got THAT angry.

But since Mom died, I don't know what I am anymore. I feel like I'm all scrunched up tight and trying to get smaller inside, but I'm like a jack-in-the-box all pressed down and everything's trying to turn my crank. Sooner or later, that lid's going to burst off and I don't know what'll happen, what I'll say or do when it does.

#ouac #lost au #asked and answered #cecily lappin

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panterashadow · 6 years

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VÏDÉÖ KÏLL£D TH£ RÄDÏÖ STÄR TH£ ÄG£ ÖF PLÄSTÏÇ 1979 TH£ BÜGGL£S PÄÑT£R∆'SH∆DØ￦ JÜST DÄÑC£ V£RSÏØÑ https://youtu.be/y7yCbhNvQLo L¥RÏK: "Video Killed The Radio Star" I heard you on the wireless back in '52 Lying awake intently tuning in on you If I was young it didn't stop you coming through Oh-a-oh They took the credit for your second symphony Rewritten by machine on new technology And now I understand the problems you can see Oh-a-oh I met your children Oh-a-oh What did you tell them? Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star Pictures came and broke your heart Oh-a-a-a oh And now we meet in an abandoned studio We hear the playback and it seems so long ago And you remember the jingles used to go: Oh-a-oh You were the first one Oh-a-oh You were the last one Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star In my mind and in my car We can't rewind, we've gone too far Oh-a-a-a oh Oh-a-a-a oh Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star In my mind and in my car We can't rewind, we've gone too far Pictures came and broke your heart Put the blame on VTR... You are the radio star You are the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star You are the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star You are the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star You are the radio star Video killed the radio star Video killed the radio star You are the radio star Oh-a-oh, oh-a-oh... ÏÑFØ: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Plastic The Age of Plastic is the debut studio album by the British new wave duo The Buggles, composed of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. The name of the record was conceived from the group's intention of being a "plastic group". The album has lyrical themes of nostalgia and anxiety about the possible effects of modern technology. The titular song, "Living in the Plastic Age", views the experiences of watching media coverage of the Vietnam War, while "Kid Dynamo" follows a child over exposed to media and its resulting effects on him. Described by writers as the first technopop landmark, the record is an electropop new wave album that includes musical elements and influences of disco, punk, progressive rock and 1960s pop music. In a 1979 interview, Downes defined the album as "science fiction music. It's like modern psychedelic music. It's very futuristic." The Age of Plastic "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1978. It was first recorded by Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album English Garden, and later by British group the Buggles, consisting of Horn and Downes. The track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording would later take place at Sarm East Studios. "Video Killed the Radio Star"

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furtho · 6 years

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Playlist 2017

Music posted on furtho.tumblr.com during 2017:

48 Chairs’ Snap It Around, spikily joyful new wave

ABC’s The Look Of Love (12″), classic early 80s extended remix

xAF Moebius’ Blau, minimal synth from 1980s East Germany

A-ha’s Soft Rains Of April (piano demo), exposing the inner workings of the gloomy pop gods

Akira Kosemura’s Luna, gentle piano arpeggios

Alex Kolobolis' Closure, lightly elegant, floating piano

Aline’s Elle M’Oubliera, icy cool Francophone indie

xAlliance’s At The Dawn, 1980s synthpop from the Soviet Union

Alligator’s Riviera, angular minimal wave from exciting new French duo

Analogue Dear’s Obrecht, haunting piano ballad

Anna Meredith’s Honeyed Words, swoopy gloopy electronic drone

Aphex Twin’s Aisatsana [102], Satie pastiche of quiet piano patterns

Arsenic!’s Pure Ideology, ramshackle but heartfelt dreampop

Arvo Pärt’s Summa For Strings, poised, eternally unresolved modern classical minimalism

Asuna’s Her Fringe, Ferris Wheel, Ruins Of Twisted Yarn, gently interweaving acoustic loops

Australian Testing Labs Inc’s Moto Moto, pulsing motorik tones, with suitably hypnotic video

A Year In The Country’s A Measuring, fractured electronic sketch

Bachelorette’s Blanket, the warm embrace of analog synthpop

Beat Mark’s Flowers, sweet-but-scrunchy-chorded indie from France

Best Picture’s Isabelle, modern rock ‘n’ roll, huh

Blankscreen’s Dead Planet, gripping spoken-word post-punk

Blue Plutos’ Disagree, ecstatic Rickenbacker-driven janglepop

Brian Eno & Harold Budd’s An Arc Of Doves, ambient experimentalism shot through with warmth

Burning Hearts’ In My Garden, welcome return of the Finnish indie titans

Caroline Devine’s Driftspace, Space Ham, something for everyone: field recordings, radio experimentation and an interview with an astronaut

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone’s We Have Mice, bedroom pop supreme

Caught In The Wake Forever’s Under Blankets, super-slow evolving drone

Chuck Johnson’s Balsams album, mystifyingly successful slide guitar meets ambient drone

Chumbawamba’s You Can (Mass Trespass, 1932), acoustic paean to Benny Rothman and the Kinder Scout trespassers

Cindy & The Gidget Haters’ Pogoin’’s For Me, shoutily engaging homemade new wave

Closure’s Slow Drive, Motorama-esque doom-indie from Jakarta

CM-DX’s Radiophonic Reprographics, paean to the office photocopier

Colleen’s Your Heart Is So Loud, musical box rendered as looping, enchanting lo-fi ambient

Cosmic Ground’s The Watcher, long-form kosmische ambient

David Evans’ Suddenly Woken By The Sound Of Stillness album, field recording on the Trans-Siberian Railway

Deutsche Bank’s Zero Gravity, seamless post-Komputer synthpop

dné's Asos Model Crush, homemade percussion coupled with delicious piano composition

Dominique Grange’s Les Nouveaux Partisans, Maoist folkpop from late 60s France

Echopet’s Strung, tightly organised short-form drone

epic45′s Monument (Isan remix), blissed-out synth remix

Even As We Speak’s Bizarre Love Triangle, charming jangly cover of the New Order classic

Fader’s Laundrette, bleak kitchen sink electronic ballad

Fieldhead’s Accents, contemplative modern electronics

Foliage’s Dare, glossily frantic dreampop

Francisco The Man’s Take A Picture (Bodies In The Sun), driving Alvvays-esque indie rock

Freezepop’s Stakeout (Donnerschlag remix), Casiocore classic

Galaxians’ Out They Minds, super-catchy funky disco-house thang

Get Smart!’s Just For The Moment, dark-but-trebly post-Joy Division pop

Ghost And Tape’s Vár, spellbinding clack-and-crackle ambient

Good Shoes’ The Way My Heart Beats, fuzzed up Buzzcocks-y guitar pop

Greg Haines’ Azure, dramatic slow-build ambient

Group A’s Initiation (Tom Furse remix), darkly relentless synthpop

Grouper’s Holding, hold-your-breath gorgeous lofi pianoism

Günter Schlienz’s Outer Corridors Of Space, light ambient arpeggios

Hakobune’s Airworthy, weightless drifting ambiance

Hand Of Stabs’ A Month Of Sundays, creepy improv weirdness from the back lanes of Kent

Hidden Rivers’ In And Out Of Days, light-of-touch chiming ambient

Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green, supremely delicate ambient sketch

Holden’s Ce Que Je Suis, melancholy francophone indie ballad

Huerco S’ A Sea Of Love, weightless electronic dreamscape

Iko’s Digital Delight, minimal wave from early 80s Canada

I Tpame I Tvrame’s There’s No Place To Call Home, hypnotic Albanian minimal synth

I’ve Lost’s ... And I Saw Her Again, Then She Was Gone, minimal ambient guitar drone

Jeff Parker’s Slight Freedom, extraordinary long-form guitar loop/improv/ambient

Jess Garon & The Desperadoes’ The Rain Fell Down, classic bittersweet indie jangle

Jim’s Twenty-One’s Throwaway Friend, exhilaratingly ramshackle indie

Jóhann Jóhannsson’s The Cause Of Labour Is The Hope Of The World, socialist-inspired modern classical soundtrack

John Cage’s In A Landscape, solo piano elegance

John Maus’ The Combine, characteristically doomy synthpop

July Skies’ See Britain By Train (Pevsner version), sepia-tinged ambient post-rock

Justin Hopper & Scanner’s Low-Tide Crow, under-stated poetry/ambient collaboration

Kero Kero Bonito’s Trampoline (St Etienne remix), infectious dubby reworking of the London-based J-poppers

Kinder Meccano’s Atomic Energy Lab, playful arcade game-inspired experimentalism

Kirill Nikolai’s Dolly Dances, patterns of modern classical piano and strings

Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, extraordinary live performance on US TV in 1975

Letting Up Despite Great Faults’ Pageantry, driving oomph-laden electro indie

Liquid Liquid’s Cavern, much-sampled infectious post-punk rap

Look Blue Go Purple’s Cactus Cat, frantically-strummed love letter to a feline friend

Lubomyr Melnik’s Butterfly (live in Copenhagen), constantly ebbing and flowing modern classical

Luke Howard's Digits, captivating blend of bleep and piano

xMachinone’s 火の雨, electronic chimes as gentle lullaby

Maraudeur’s Value The Death, gloomy minimal post-punk

Mark Fry’s Aeroplanes, elegant folk ballad

Mechanical Cabaret’s 304 Holloway Road, synthpop commemoration of Joe Meek

Memory Drawings’ The Nearest Exit, creaking, creepy ambient folk

Mica Levi’s Love, synth strings drone from the soundtrack to Under The Skin

Middex’s Low Life, experimental minimalist noisepop

Milkmustache’s Submarine, dreamily aquatic janglepop, complete with memorable video

Mitra Mitra’s Indecisive Split Decision, minimal synthpop from Vienna

Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, towering performance of the modern choral classic by the Los Angeles Master Chorale

Nonconnah’s I Hope Every Week Changes My Life (demo), uncharacteristically light ambient guitar drone from ex-Lost Trailers

Norihito Suda’s Light Snowfall, beautifully judged drifting ambient

Ø’s Twin Bleebs, ultra-minimal techno experimentation

Olivia Chaney’s Eternity, sensational acapella recording of Rimbaud’s poem put to music by Emily Hall

Ourselves The Elves’ Wounds, restrained, slow-paced indie jangle

Pale Spectres’ D[r]iving, infectiously uptempo janglepop

Parliamo’s Lucy, youthfully exuberant Scottish jangle

Percussions’ Digital Arpeggios, hypnotic long-form technopop

Peter Maxwell Davies’ Farewell To Stromness, modern classical hymn to Orkney

Plinth’s Solicitude, chiming ambient electronics and piano

Polypores’ Deep Undergrowth, darkly pastoral drone

Pye Corner Audio’s Black Mist (long version), characteristically hauntological electronic pop

Relmic Statute’s Just A Thought, lo-fi electro-acoustic loops

Rhythmus 23′s Guerra Fría, Cold War-inspired minimal wave from Mexico

Robert Fripp’s Night 1: Urban Landscape, eerie ambient loops constructed with a Roland guitar synth

Rodney Cromwell’s Barry Was An Arms Dealer, bleakly infectious 80s-inspired synthpop

Roedelius’ Le Jardin, late 70s Berlin pastoralism

Ross Baker’s A Time After Computers (remixed by Cubus), experimental folktronic mix

Ruhe's Heritage, blissful long-form pastoralism

San Charbel’s Nacer Morir, laidback, homemade dreampop from Mexico

Sara Goes Pop’s Sexy Terrorist, bonkers 1980s agitpop

Sawako & Hayato Aoki’s The End Then Start Again mini-album, whispered field recordings and electroacoustics

Seazoo’s Shoreline, urgent indiepop with a big grin

Secret Meadow’s Endlings, Smiths-a-like pop from Indonesia

Skylon’s Skylon, heartfelt hymn to the Festival Of Britain

Sound Meccano & Jura Laiva’s Salty Wind And Inner Fire Part 1, spacious, airy electroacousticism

Spaceship’s The Imagined View, As Yet Unblighted, field recordings and drone from rural Kent

Spirit Fest’s Hitori Matsuri, charming bilingual down-tempo folk-pop

St James Infirmary’s Terry Marriagehead, under-the-radar 1990 janglepop gem

Stealing Sheep’s Apparition (Pye Corner Audio remix), squelchily hypnotic electro reworking

Susumu Yokota’s Tobiume, drifting beauty from the late Japanese electronica king

Swoop And Cross’ 10439, epically restrained modern classical

Sylvain Chauveau’s Find What You Love And Let It Kill You, melodic ambient dronepop

Tangerine Dream’s Live At Coventry Cathedral, remarkable 1975 footage of the electro-hippies in action

Taylor Deupree’s Fenne, drifting, take-a-bath electro-acousticism

The Bats’ No Trace, more janglepop from the kings (and queen) of Kiwi indie

The BV’s Neon, lofi guitar overload dreampop

The Creation Factory’s Let Me Go, infectious garage rock, stuffed to the gills with 60s stylings

The Donkeys’ Four Letters, unapologetic new wave powerpop from 1979

The Foreign Resort’s Skyline/Decay, Cure-esque dreampop from Copenhagen

The Harvest Ministers’ You Do My World The World Of Good, long-lost video for lovelorn treat

The Hum Hums’ London, pleasingly brief, polished-but-trashy powerpop

The Inventors Of Aircraft’s No Returns, slowly looping ambient

The Leaf Library’s On An Ocean Of Greatness, meandering ambient pop, stuffed full of ideas

The Luxembourg Signal’s Blue Field, big open-hearted indie jangle

The Mascots’ Words Enough To Tell You, Swedish Merseybeat from the heart of 1965

The Mells’ McCallister, blistering-with-a-touch-of-gloss dreampop

The Memory Band’s Norfolk Before Dawn, spellbinding country field recording

The Names’ Life By The Sea, epic Belgian new wave

The Royal Landscaping Society’s Goodbye, beautifully constructed janglepop from Seville

The Starfires’ I Never Loved Her, er-yes-you-did-really 1960s garage rock

The Wake’s Firestone Tyres, sprightly post-post-punk from Glasgow legends

Thomas Dolby's Oceanea, he's-still-got-it ballad from steampunk pioneer

Tobias Hellkvist’s Kaskelot (Segue remix), ethereal beats ‘n’ drones

Tomorrow Syndicate’s Okulomotor, kosmische pop musik from the heart of Mitteleuropa: Glasgow

Unhappybirthday’s Kraken, drum machine-driven indie from Germany

Un Verano En Portugal’s Hielo, frantic, blurred dreampop

Vacant Stares’ Ennui, perfectly-titled doomy gloomy dreampop

Vanessa Rossetto’s Whole Stories album, field recordings and musique concrète from the city streets

Vansire’s Driftless, echoing, distant dreampop

Werner Karloff’s Views Of Movement, thrilling minimal wave from Mexico City

When The Clouds’ The Dawn & The Embrace, managing to stand out even in the crowded category of Italian instrumental post-rock

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The playlist for 2016 is here. The playlist for 2015 is here. The playlist for 2014 is here. The playlist for 2013 is here.

#ambient #indie #indiepop #guitar #electronic #acoustic #playlist #drone #electroacoustic #synth #synthpop #electropop #minimal wave #janglepop

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