There are 20 albums I'm listening to right now. Sometimes this habit and the processes I've set up around it are too demanding.

It was amazing. I'm going to post a couple of photos this week.
Really want to go next year.

this is great

Loke Rahbek - City of Women (Editions Mego)

It's hard to say what makes this better than the next noisy droney thing that's interesting to listen to it, but it's something.

Christopher Willits - Horizon (Ghostly International)

raft.
I'm just now learning that this album is part of this whole multichannel thing...

Kara-Lis Coverdale - Grafts (Boomkat Editions)

[Goem's "Stud Stim" plays from the living room.]
"I don't think this is very good night time music."
"OK, I have something perfect."

Natalia Lafourcade - Musas (Columbia)

what a joy this is
the following starts the great video album:

Jessica Moss - Pools of Light (Constellation Records)

Fantastic electroacoustic violin work in 2 main parts. You can hear the processes churning. At time sounds like a daf could show up.

Felicia Atkinson - Hand in Hand (Shelter Press)

badass weirdo neck-tickling soundbath. don't miss

Son Lux - Remedy (Meru)

Maximalist but razor-sharp production on interesting songs and sounds. Favorite is Stolen.

Perc - Bitter Music (Perc Trax)

The noisy, ambient, "experimental" tracks are great, and the pumping tracks are immense.
Here are two of those... don't cheat yourself:

Today’s left tends to avoid giving such definite philosophical answers, satisfied with “problematizing” and never coming to a conclusion. Generally, thinkers do this under the guise of false humility. They substitute theoretical pluralism for theoretical commitment, presenting the latter as sheer hubris.

I agree.
And I do this.

so many options for time and effort

Justin Walter - Unseen Forces (Kranky)

Wind controllers are awesome, like this music.

Roger Robinson - Dog Heart City (Jahtari)

Oh, that Jahtari sound, dubby delays and video game bleeps. Here it's met with a strong concept, observing and analyzing a dystopian world that's really not so different from our own.

Valgeir Sigurðsson - Dissonance (Bedroom Community)

Big droney string music. Think of 50 strings bowing at different speeds on the same lowish pitch. Then give it narrative drama. Then make it much better than I've just described. I'm not very good at this, so here's YouTube:

Second Woman - S/W (Spectrum Spools)

Eustis and Dietrich roll pads out in percussive glitches. Reminds me of some Mark Fell releases as well, which means this probably pummels live. A dense score of one of these tracks could make a great visual.

That Colin Stetson album was really good, but I could do without the moaning.

why does this thing generate so much amusement and pleasure?

I often read things (intangibles: values, ethics, beliefs, systems) described as "bourgeois" that could just as easily be described as "enlightenment." I suppose the easy explanation here is the historical context of one coming after another, but I also wonder if the B is too commonly used for E-based dispositions that aren't necessarily politically aligned the way B's pejorative implications might suggest.

I'm less and less able to settle on a direction.
My political affinities often get swept into declarations or political maneuvers that I can't honestly agree with, but then nothing's perfect.
I've read so many arguments and directions. Where do they meet?
Should the government manage, or should it all be decentralized?
And isn't focusing on the former really undermining the latter? meaning picking sides is really picking sides
Why waste my time trying to change things that I probably won't and that I'm not even completely sure I agree with?
Or is this spoken from a position of privilege and security? And is there anything wrong with that?
There are so many things I could be doing... and by doing I mostly mean thinking about.

"You've done it again."
Yes, it's another one.
It doesn't carry the in-the-moment political intensity of the previous, but it makes up for that with the personal.
where to go from here

There has just been so much stuff to go through, so it's taken awhile to circle around and decide on nominations, but here are some recent favorites:

arkiv 4 (Raster-Noton)

“What are some of your favorite labels? What does their music sound like?” This is how one of my favorite labels sounds in 2016. I’m usually not crazy about compilations, but this one has been a pleasure. Raster-Noton delivers as usual with murky atmospheres, razor rhythms, machine funk, and floating ambiance, and the best packaging ever (really this CD is just an include on the new “source book 1.”) Looks like it has a weird little promo I can include.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Async (Milan)

New Ryuichi Sakamoto albums are always welcome. There’s probably some surrounding material I am yet to read, but the album stands firmly on its own. Sakamoto has a diverse toolbox. A simple melody on a piano transforms into a cathedral-organ overture. Electronic tones sit alongside traditional instruments. Dream-pop arpeggios follow crunching footsteps. Is that an owl, a howl, or just an electronic drone? The warm and cool circulate. This album could easily be called Neo Geo or Esperanto, but he's already used those titles.

High Plains - Cinderland (Kranky)

There are a lot of droney electroacoustic could-be-soundtracks. Not all carry this much saturate-your-ear softbass. Not all combine sweet vignettes into an arching whole. Not all have this cello.

deepchord presents echospace - live in detroit [ghost in the sound] (echospace [detroit])

How different is one echochord release from the last? And shouldn’t we just call this subgenre Basic Channel? Different enough, and sure why not. There’s some music that gets me daydreaming about my ideal lineup for a summer desert weekend. It gets me thinking about the few vendors, the budget, the sound, and how I’m going to open the conversation with my friends to get things in motion. Echochord has the 9pm-11pm slot.

Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet - December Avenue (ECM)

Stanko manages to be deeply emotive without threatening cringes. He's not mixed lightyears above the ensemble. The melodies are beautiful. The breakdowns are intriguing. The interplay sum is greater than its constituents. It's good.

not sure why I give myself more and more work

keep mouth shut

Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage (Rvng Intl.)

Publications have lost it for this thing. I share their infatuation. Reassemblage is a lullaby delivered through 98-degree goo, a haze of indistinct and comforting memories, accomplished with sonic precision rather than grainy reverb.

Tarkovsky Quartet - Nuit Blanche (ECM)

Couturier's group with Lechner amazes me again with a beautiful, contemplative exploration of melody and strained emotion. I would love to hear this group live.

Kassel Jaeger & Jim O'Rourke - Wakes on Cerulean (Editions Mego)

Another one of these Emego sleepers, Wakes on Cerulean quietly unfolds and drifts from a lazy river out into the ocean.

Kangding Ray - Hyper Opal Mantis (Stroboscopic Artefacts)

Kangding Ray goes off the rave deep end. Epsilon has the psytrance bass. Somebody get this man to the desert.

Sigha - Metabolism (Token)

Kangding Ray + Sigha = no more of this crunchy underproduced house for 2017. Ceramics is the bomb.

Is there any way to stop all this?

the increased military spending is really crazy

I was robbed.

how to rob

black rob

I've been working through so much that it's taken awhile to have nothing in the "maybe" queue.

Some recent highlights:

Parabolas of Neon - Lord of the Isles (Firecracker Recordings)

It's a well-executed genre excursion with some nice variety (dance-ambient-chill-etc) that I've enjoyed on repeat. The final/title track is great.

Oto Hiax (Editions Mego)

Really cool, noisy album with some nice harmonic gestures. Perhaps painstakingly constructed, but it sounds more to me like jams from some good-listener performers with some interesting material and patches lined up. Not always the most subtle ("there goes the bitcrusher"), but holds attention with its sawtooth, clattering, and sub-bass. I've been working on music with some friends lately, and I'd love to operate in the vein of this sound (we're not). Good stuff.

Sampha - Process (Young Turks)

On-point / contemporary voice-led pop production. "Like the Piano" is the sweetest. "Reverse Faults" drops the best. "Blood on Me" is my favorite.

Garth Knox & The Saltarello Trio - John Zorn: Leonard (The Book of Angels Vol. 30) (Tzadik)

This is beautifully performed and recorded music, with clear, bold melodic lines and progressions, melodies that are recognized, memorized, and hummed before the songs finish. Apparently this is the penultimate Book of Angels release. So for the expensive "here's everything package," let's hope for a nice book w/history, images, score elements, etc. and a slot for a USB stick with everything. Not a box of CDs or 8 million gram vinyl.

so I joined DSA today...

I know signs.
I make the best signs.

and

You're tacky,
and I hate you.

FUCK DONALD TRUMP

I hope it's not too reminiscent of Klebold ("You know what I fuken hate...")

The iPhone. A magical revolutionary device. Actually it's the iPad that was announced with those words, but they really belong to the iPhone.

Sure, it's useful, but its presence is not a pleasure.

I would be happier if we did not have them. The mobile phone with basic but not-that-convenient texting would have been a great place to stop.

It really is a useful augmentation. One step closer to cyborg.

but what a distraction

to others

A few minutes ago somebody I was friends with in high school accidentally messaged me on Google chat/hangout. Clearly she meant to message her fiancé, whose name appears near mine in her list. I could have just not responded, but I gave a sort of joke response, leading to an exchange of happy new year / hope you're doing well / have a good week.

This is not an interesting story.

The point is, it's strange how people come in and out of our lives. I was friends with this person (she was close with my girlfriend in high school and so we became/were friends), we were still friendly after high school, and as with all but a few, basically drifted into not talking. (This reminds me, there's someone I want to email.) I ran into her about 8 years ago in my hometown in a parking lot. Not sure I've spoken with her since then. It's funny to think that most likely we'll never talk again, or maybe we'll run into each other in 5 years again and exchange recognitions.

I run into people from work or the techno scene sometimes outside of those settings, but I rarely run into someone from school. This is OK, as the further from my past someone is (without continuation into the present), the worse the version they know of me is and the more ashamed of myself I am.