2015 All-the-Way Halfway Almost There It's Already July Music List

My 2015 favorites so far.

Dan Deacon - Gliss Riffer
I've long admired Dan Deacon, but Gliss Riffer has transformed me from casual admirer to Deacon fanatic.



Domenique Dumont - Comme Ça
Wistful beach-dreaming tropicalia pop music for dancing and gentle smiles.

Eric Chenaux - Skullsplitter
Chenaux has been creating slow-burning outsider blues and balladry for some time now, all of it consistently beautiful and weird. Skullsplitter though is weirder and more beautiful than the rest.
 

/F - pq:c
What happens, I assume, when you run your circuit board through a grocery store tortilla. This is the future of electronic tortilla music, and the future is bright.


The Go! Team - The Scene Between
Don't sleep on The Go! Team. I know, they seem like old news. Maybe they are old news, I don't know. But this album, The Scene Between, has been an amazing grower, flush with melodic brilliance, definitely the album I've replayed the most in 2015.



John Wiese - Deviate From Balance
What can I say? New work from John Wiese is new work from John Wiese. Harsh musique concrete to sate us faulty-wired texture nerds.


Mount Eerie - Sauna
The best album Phil Elvrum's made since he began recording as Mount Eerie.


Quicksails - Spillage
Awkward aliens, laser beam button-mashing, sunburst chaos streams, radio-hacked starship worship beauty pageants: the new Quicksails album has it all.


Radicalfashion- Garcon
Neatly composed, classically beautiful piano pieces that, as the album progresses, take on minimalist electronics and a spryly playful air. More conservative than his debut, Garcon has been my palette cleanser, a nice counterpoint to the more chaotic music that's been dominating my headphones.

Black Sky Black Snow - a FG winter mix

This here's a mix I made about this time last year, a ballet about a man lost on foot in a mountain forest during a severe blizzard. Don't worry, the narrative's totally legible.
Stay cold:

Black Sky Black Snow by ForestGospel
Black Sky Black Snow from Mediafire

tracklist, as best I can:
Mouthus - "The Duration Myth"
Zs - "Concert Black"
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - "Dark Night of the Soul"
Tom Waits - "Falling Down"
The See Through Boy - "Interview"
John Wiese - "Circle Snare"
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky - "Act I: Scene and Waltz of the Snowflakes"
Mount Eerie - "Wind Speaks"
The Fun Years - "The Surge is Working"
Mount Eerie - "Lost Wisdom pt. 2"
Frog Eyes - "Bushels"
David Lynch and Alan R. Splet - "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)"

John Wiese - Seven of Wands

(PAN, 2011)

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John Wiese 'Scorpion Immobilization Sleeve' (PAN 22) by •PAN•

38.

John Wiese
Soft Punk
(Troubleman Unlimited, 2007)

My ultimate conversion to Soft Punk forced me to realize that I was indeed insane, bi-polar and possibly schizophrenic. I mean, is there any other explanation for being able to enjoy Wiese’s towering, manic noise collage? I guess that means there are a whole bunch of us roaming the earth because I know I’m not the only one. Regardless of its abrasiveness, Soft Punk is really just that, punk. All of its sentiments embody a true punk aesthetic while being both more artsy and more filthy. It is a weird place to inhabit, but Wiese pulls it off magically and Soft Punk has become the aural exercise of the decade because of it.

-Thistle

John Wiese - Circle Snare

John Wiese
Circle Snare
(2009, No Fun Productions)
RIYL = Wolf Eyes, Daniel Menche, Kevin Drumm

I think that the dust needs to settle in my mind for a moment because I just had a fairly explosive thought. Just a couple more moments. Yeah, there is no arguing it really – when it comes to harsh electronic noise, John Wiese does it better than anyone else. My predisposition when it comes to noise based music is for those artists who employ an sub-basement melodies or elements of free jazz. Wiese doesn’t really fit into these categories so there is really no reason why I should latch onto his brand of noise the way that I do, but the guy somehow manages this astronomical gravitational pull in his compositions that just sucks me in. It is really pretty self destructive stuff but I can’t help but love it. Ever since his insane, schizophrenic masterwork, Soft Punk, I’ve been hooked. There is something about everything he does that simultaneously reeks of astute, meticulous intelligence while managing to sound like a ten tons of grit-laden punk rock exploding within a new dimension. Everything is built on the immediacy of an improvised live set and perfection of a patiently layered studio piece. I have by no means tracked down all of Wiese’s recordings - I don’t think that such a feat is possible with his output - but I think Circle Snare may just be the successor to Soft Punk for me in terms of noisy Wiesian perfection. Where Soft Punk turned noise into punk sized groupings and pummeled incessantly, Circle Snare is spread out over four tracks with moments of actual breathing room and plenty of space for building the most corrosive audio destruction that could even be considered enjoyable. And that is just it, this is pretty much the only extreme noise that I find repeatedly palatable. Wiese has created another one of a kind record, or perhaps I should say that Wiese has created an artistic guise that is one of a kind; a pummeling persona that is equal parts pleasurable and deplorable. Circle Snare marks a consistency level of magnificent proportions. For how much I love Axolotl in his given sphere, I similarly love John Wiese in his. This is my Noise music with a capital N. This is what warrants and similarly obliterates the meaning of a genre titled ‘noise’. I mean, where does he get those sounds? And how does he know exactly where to place them? Every time! Such amazing, amazing stuff. Top ten material for sure. I have been listening to a lot of really great stuff lately and this is amongst the pinnacle of what I have been hearing lately. Wiese’s laptop snarl is simply an essential component of what music is for me in 2009. Forget the Swine Flu - catch this.

-Thistle

John Wiese - Soft Punk

John Wiese
Soft Punk
(01.2007, Troubleman Unlimited)
Verdict = Art Noise Perfection

Almost exactly one year ago, John Wiese finally allowed himself to release a “debut album.’ The idea of this should come as a bit of a bold statement considering Wiese’s extremely lengthy back catalog of releases on seemingly every record label and recording format known to modern man. That said, Soft Punk somehow reveals itself as a seminal statement in Wiese’s convoluted history and if this is his debut only the most exiting of possibilities wait in store. Exhibiting a cut and paste aesthetic dealing with various blunt textures and punk samples, Soft Punk opens up new possibilities for the structure of experimental sound (de)construction. The compositions ebb and flow through schizophrenic flurries of noise and waning alleys of lightly glistening silence create an engaging listen that moves away from the lazy drones that seem to be so easily perpetuated by anyone with a loop pedal. It is truly a breath of fresh air in an otherwise deadening scene filled with little innovation. It is with this approach that Wiese has created something that not only contains that early spirit of punk that seems all but completely lost to the modern landscape of musicians, but also seems to be something that would fit aptly within a hip white walled gallery. It is a dual nature rarely achieved in any format and one which can only be created by true artistic sensibilities. Soft Punk is that creation and a seminal, unfortunately overlooked album on the lapsed horizon of 2007. If I would have had these tones running through my headphones in 2007 Soft Punk would most assuredly cracked the top ten spots on my year end list. A terrific case of high expectations being not only matched, but trounced in the wake of something wholly original and inspiring; bravo!

-Mr. Thistle

John Wiese - Winter Vacation