Getting Deep || Four Tet // George Maple // SOHN // James Blake // Chance the Rapper // Movement // Chrome Sparks

I mean, this is one of the best definitions of the beauty of minimal. I've always leaned more towards minimalist ambient sounds, and this just goes to show why. The sound runs through your veins and into your heart, not to be dramatic or anything, but it just does something to the mind and body. Mmmm, Four Tet.



I mean. Did I call it or did I call it with her. She's killing it. I'm really trying to find a more articulate way of saying "this is the sexiest song I've heard in a minute" but ooops, there it goes. It is, no denying. Her voice, the lyrics, the rhythm. It's perfect.



He kills me. He will always kill me with these synths. This heart palpitating rhythm and build up actually makes my heart beat faster when I hear it then BAM, I'm dead because I become paralyzed. Good luck to all of you who listen.



We all saw the Instagram picture James Blake put up a month or so ago of him and Chance the Rapper, and like me, you thought "oh that's super cool that they know each other, wonder where that will lead..." and voila, here we have a collaboration of my husband James and everyones fave new acid rapper Chance the Rapper.



My friend sent this to me and I'm all like "yea yea I'll listen later.." but then I did and I was like :O This is some seriously deep tuneage. You ever wanna put me in the mood? Throw this on some speakers.



Put out by Future Classic, another minimal beauty of the sound realm. I want to listen to this when the world starts to end and pieces of the sky start falling all around and I just stand there in the midst of it all watching it happen in slow motion. Or something.

Anna Lunoe - Breathe

Oh my gosh. What a freaking banger. Anna Lunoe, can I just be you?

YOUR BEST PLAYLIST EVER. GOLDROOM // CANBLASTER // BANKS // KAYTRANADA

IT'S OUT IT'S OUT IT'S FINALLY OUT! If you haven't bought the EP yet, then stop reading, enter your iTunes and get cracking. I'm completely stunned by this track. I was walking along the beach gearing up for my run when I heard, and I broke out in chills, tears filled my eyes (because it was so overwhelmingly perfect) and I fell in love. Such an incredible track. The vocalist, Ariela Jacobs completely slammed it. Fantastic tune all around in every single area.



OK I know this is just a teaser, but even the teaser is freaking cool. But it makes sense because I didn't realize Canblaster did music for video games prior to being with Marble, so that makes sense why I love his music so much. But even the entry into the tracks "track 1, 2, 3.." sounds like I'm in Mortal Combat or something, and it excites me. And that track he does with Para One is going to be absolute fire, I can't wait. September 16th!

The producers this chick has got on her tracks are absolutely killing it. SOHN, and now Jamie Woon? Not only are they two of my faves, but these tracks are so SO good for the oncoming of Fall. And her voice, girl has got a range. Together this is like, the epitome of the kind of sound that sends chills down my spine, and my entire personality to turn.



This came up super randomly when I was streaming through my Soundcloud but as soon as it got going I was like WHOA. Really, just like that. I sent it to my friend and he said that he had one of Kaytranada's tracks out ready to show me, which is insanity cause I had never heard of him before. But, Kaytranada, you now have a new obsessor.

James Blake - Retrograde

It's kind of cold out. Which mean, guess what? I'm listening to James Blake once a day, and starting to embrace my depression. Happens every fall, so stay with me these next couple months cause I get weird. I yearn for these days, and now that they're here I couldn't be more comfortable.

HAPPY FALL! || SIR SLY// GOLD FIELDS // BRODINSKI // TENSNAKE // LONDON GRAMMAR // SHADOW CHILD // THOM ALT- J

YAY. Was awaiting this release since I heard the sample, which I played over and over and over and over again for forever. SO unbelievably happy with this track, it's so dark and deep and creepy and eerie and all things Brodinski. I saw him and Gesaffelstein play at Le Bain the other night and when this was played, I think I stopped talking to whoever I was conversing with and was like "sorry have to wait a couple mins" and just soaked in it's glory. UGH it sounds so good.



OK. This song is insanely sexy. But more than sexy, it's stunning. It's like sensual, and warm, and perfect. And that part "I'm feeling my fever start to riiiise" oh, it just sends chills through my body every time.



I'm falling more in love with London Grammar every day, and this Shadow Child remix is just a deliciously juicy cherry on top. Her vocals are so like...deep and precious, it takes a really special remix to be able to cater to them, if that makes sense. And this remix handles her sounds just beautifully.



OK so when I found out a while ago that Thom from Alt-J was doing remixes and djing, I obviously was all over that like white on rice. Then I listened, and I wasn't down, and I was kinda super bummed because I expect anything and everything Alt J to be perfection. However, this remix stole my heart. Possibly because of the fact it's a Moby song, but he did a great job enhancing that haunting piano. Beautiful track for walking through lowly lit streets with dead leaves falling all around you.




Remember when I posted this OG? Such a good track, I got nervous at the thought of remixes but THIS GUY right here. Holy great job. That 1:30 mark is just genius. It's absolutely breathtakingly dancey, and I just want to put this on at every club/venue/bar/hair salon I go to from here on out.

BANKS (prod. by SOHN) - Waiting Game

BE. STILL. MY. HEART.

Two Hearts that Beat as ONE || Anna Lunoe // Eric Sharp // Lars Moston // Purple Disco // LIPS // Joel Compass // Bondax

This is just fantastic. Ahhh after her solo'd vocals it's just so deep and perfect and beautiful and hits ya RIGHT in the stomach. And it's sing-a-long-able! If I ever had to do vocals for a track, I would totally want it to be for a track like this one.



Heard this at one of my friends friends house the other day and totally and completely fell in love with it. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's got some 80's vibes in it and I think that's what I love so much about it. It's been in my head every day since and now it's going to be in your head every day too muwahaha.



Off Mad Decent, eh. BUT whatever, because I actually can't stop listening to this. It's a bit harder, a little dubbier than I normally roll, but hell, this is straight fire. The 1:25 mark is chill inducing, it gets your heart racing and when it breaks into madness I can't sit still. Feels like I'm gearing up for battle or something. ...on the dancefloor. Then they add some violins in and it's just a stunning piece of music.



We know we know we know, new Bondax! It's so fire yadda yadda...HOWEVER, this remix is the one that got me going. The French Kiwi Juice one is super good, too, but for some reason this one took precedent in my ears.



I think I put up a Joel Compass song a couple months ago, but now as I write this I'm remembering I didn't because the title is rude and the lyrics aren't suitable if the babe sister hops on and shows her friends my music. Gotta have boundaries somewhere, ya know? Anyway, there were a bunch of remixes that came out for Astronaut, but this one takes the cake in my kitchen. So dancey.

Flume feat. Moon Holiday - Insane

Get More: 

www.mtvu.com

YAY my favorite track off of his album finally has a video. And it's an absolute stunner.

Pre-Fall Perfection || LONDON GRAMMAR // GOLDROOM // BANKS // HENRY KRINKLE // LOVE MANSUY

My obsession has done nothing but grow from when they were a hidden trio with no press at all and released a little bitty track that I couldn't even find the name to. Then they were featured on Settle and then they made more and more and then THIS. My eyes still produce tears every single time I listen to this masterpiece of a cover. Her vocals are absolutely unreal. So powerful, so strong, so natural, and so stunning. I cannot wait for their debut album.



Oh for the love of perfect covers. 1: To have the balls to cover an Elliot Smith song is a feat of security I wish all musicians had and 2: to succeed in this wins you trust points for the rest of time to come. Especially to electrodisco it out and make it so you can do nothing but smile when it plays, man, you DEFINITELY have to know whats good with production.



Oh my gosh HOW HAVE I NOT BLOGGED THIS YET. I am so far behind on life right now, I've been out of town and now I'm off work so I've been rallying like crazy in Manhattan and WHEW if you cared, I'd keep going BUT anyway, this track....is absolute fire. Now this might be one hell of a statement, but I think this might be one of my favorite tracks to release this summer. That bass after her little pretty vocals is just JAW DROPPING, heart melting and skin bumping. I feel like when I listen, my heart beat syncs up to this and we live life in some dark tandem coexistence for a hot minute. Good-NESS.



GOODNESS it's like Henry Krinkle just sweats out good music, and this Pham remix is the absolute favorite so far. Highlighting the piano, slowing it down and extending the synths, making it really something so powerful. Great job, team.



This was sent to me a couple of weeks ago, and typically when I'm sent over tracks from people I don't know it takes me a while to get to, I'm so bad with my email as it is, but for SOME reason, I don't know if it was his kind words or what but I listened to his track as soon as I opened the email. (Worst run-on sentence ever, sorry.) But holy moly, I have such a soft spot for really beautiful atmospheric sounds, and when that is interlaced with soothing male vocals, I melt. And this track is a beautiful example. I can't wait to hear more from Love...(and keep your eyes and ears out for his EP that may or may not drop super soon !)

Goldroom - Pacific

You can get much heartfelt then this track right here. What a perfect soundtrack to end the summer with. It's like listening to the deepest, most genuine "goodbye, and thank you for everything you did this season" in a song. And the stunning visuals to coincide with, it's honestly and truly a work of art.

A Night with James Blake

I promised myself I wouldn't listen to any more James Blake until Autumn, but because I have no self-control and I have about four articles due by the end of the week,  what do I do? I listen and now I can't get any work done until I write about it.

The other night I was making playlists for some of my clients, and as I was going through all of my music, I stumbled upon "Life Round Here" by James Blake and I don't know if it was the time of night, weather, or mood I was in, but it struck a chord in my soul and I completely forgot what work I was doing and my night all of a sudden became entirely dedicated to listening to James Blake. And I visited his album Overgrown. And then I visited it after it ended, and revisited again until I found that I had listened to that album four times in a row. I went back and listened to his self titled album to try to understand how he was with his music, if he was solely experimental, or just a born genius, and I came to the final conclusion that he is absolutely a musical savant. Which may or may not be public knowledge, but either way, I found myself up until about 3 am crying over his music because it had hit me so deeply, and I ended up googling every live show I could find and trying to understand HOW the hell it was possible to make the sound he made with his music. But as I listened to "Retrograde" in and out and over and over again, I decided there wasn't really a literal explanation for his music. It just is. "Retrograde" is a track that is so unbelievably brooding, so deep, so intense that I couldn't for a moment be interrupted while it played. I couldn't even see or hear anything else. I couldn't focus on anything beside the song playing in my head at that exact moment. I was broken out in chills all over my body, I felt my soul lift out of my body, and as dramatic as this may sound, I feel as though I had an outer body experience. But when I came back, I fell in love with James Blake. But not like the kind of "but I love him, he's so cute" kind of love, the "holy shit I need to be surrounded with anything and everything James Blake because possibly through internet osmosis I can learn from him." I can't imagine how his mind works, how he has the ability to sing with his instruments, his voice, his pitch, even his damn lyrics, everything so entirely tied together in this brilliant package of sound. This magnetic pull he had on my heart has only been done with single tracks, but with James Blake, it was every. single. song. he produced. Present tense. Still to this second, he pulls something out of me that is so deep inside of me that I don't even know what it is. God, every single chord progression, every single sound his voice makes, it's all an extension of his head. This shit can't be written out. It's like music is a third arm, a part of his natural being, it's not tried or attempted. It's done. It's perfection in sound. It's art. It's soul. It's dark, it's light and it's ethereal. He's ethereal.

I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be alone with him. Seriously alone. I feel like I hear a heartbeat in every beat of his song, so maybe being with someone who can produce that would be a similar sound. Or maybe I would just be entirely disappointed and he sucks. 

Either way, his music tortures me. In the best way possible. And I think that's the only way to describe it, other than the essay I just wrote.. But it's beautifully torturing. I hear it forever after I listen. 

And I can not f'ing wait to listen to his music in October, when it's cold, the leaves are blowing across the streets, the skies are dead grey, no ones around, and I can stare into Milligan Place and live inside my head for a bit. 

James Delay - Howl

James Delay - Howl from Christopher Tirrell on Vimeo.

I tried really hard to have self control and not post this until Fall, but since my attention span is that of a squirrel I had to put it up now. I cannot stop myself from watching this since I saw it for the first time yesterday. The music, the visuals, the leaves. It's absolutely perfect.

Daniel Avery - Drone Logic

I saw Psychemagik & Daniel Avery play the other night, and it was actually (only surprised because I don't know them THAT well) but a super, super good night. I was so feeling everything that was being played and just about got sent to heaven when Avery played this. I gave him a big ole' kiss afterwards for it too and said "THANKS." Like my opinion matters in the slightest, you know?

Soul Sounds || JAMIE WOON // SAMMY CHELLY // BASECAMP // SAILOR & I // PEDESTRIAN

The past couple weeks have been one hell of a whirlwind, and I've been in a moderate to severe melancholic mood, and really delving into the deeper, house-ier, more melancholic sounds of the world, so this playlist is just that. One of my best friends over in Russia and I talked the other day and just complained and complained to each other about boys and life and then got really deep with the meaning of what we're supposed to be doing, and it seems she and I always end up having this super existential conversations, which I never mind. But afterwards she sent me this Jamie Woon song and I could not have asked to hear anything at that moment more perfect than this. I love Jamie Woon, ever since "Blue Truth" and I will continue to love him forever. That voice, that passion, can't be taught my friends.
 

I hate posting OG's then remixes right after but this is an exception because they are both so beautiful in their own ways. I love this remix because it keeps the original ethos of the song, it just bumps it up a bit. Still visceral as all hell.
 

It was game over after I heard this song last week. Like, this is the most beautiful thing to enter my ears in a long while. It's so deep, so passionate, the vocals are absolutely gorgeous, the lyrics are perfection and yeah, all around fantastic.
 

OK there's about 700billion remixes to Sailor & I songs, but not ONE has caught me like this. The reason being: this remix sounds as if you can hear the struggle that coincide with the lyrics. Do you feel me? Like the breaking in and out and choppiness of synths with still a stunning overlay really pulls at one's heartstrings. Just another really great example of remixes really cradling the original message of the song.
 

So I saw the video of this track first and I think that may have helped my initial attraction to the track, but after listening to just the stream the attraction stayed. The 3:47 mark in particular. Really a pretty work of music.

NASSER - The World is Ours

OH THE FRENCH. Stunning song, extremely odd, yet visually alluring video. And to hear it without the interruption of gunshots, stream it here.

Music is so good || TEED // Disclosure // Classixx // Justin Martin // The North Sea // Drums of Death

I don't know, I would assume TEED was sitting alone one night drinking earl grey tea and thought "what's a remix I could do that would make Allison Baughman extremely happy, AH I know, "F for You" by Disclosure." And then he did and he made sure to make it extra magical and perfect. I could not have asked for a better remix. Thanks music gods, you rule.



Before this weekend I was searching high and low, from land to land for the perfect song to take care of that itch of a mood I wanted to be in, and WELP here it is. This is so damn stunning I almost have no words. The vocals, the low synth, the piano, everything is so perfectly deep that I think this might be one of my favorites this month. Fantastic.



Freaking. Cool. I had no idea Franz Ferdinand had a collaborative group with Todd Terje. This is awesomer than any collab I've heard of this summer. Can't wait to hear more.



Duh. Plus after seeing them for the second (third?) time at the House of Vans on Thursday night, I couldn't be more in love. They played a live set and just killed it. They are so damn good. So damn chill, and I want more from them at all times of all days always.



Ooo, ooo, guys, I heard this out the other night and I fell absolutely head over heels in love with it. I'm pretty sure it's been out for a while but holy moly me oh my, this is exactly the sound I need to hear right now. Actually, the kid that put it on looked identical to Howard from Disclosure so for some subconscious reason I trusted his music judgement juuuuust that much more.

Milligan Place

Sorry guys, I'm upset right now and writing is my outlet. Deal with it.

This weekend I was in the city, and I think I underwent the most emotions in the course of three days that I ever have before. I felt happy, giddy, in love, mortified, hurt, angry, calm and sad all in a weekend. When someone hurts you it sucks, but after groveling apologies, talks with girlfriends, attending many concerts together and realizing that there is no one else who quite understands and feels music the way you do, I decided to give a person another chance. In my head. Because, you see, I'm too scared to commit to anything because I hate the feeling of a broken heart. But after mind numbing thoughts and margaritas and drinks with a best friend talking it out, I had finally decided that night to let  a person know how I felt. I felt my heart open and I just wanted to love someone again, and I wanted to be loved and cared about in return. And of course, as soon and my heart broke down the cement walls I had put up around it, it was crushed. Crushed. I felt gutted. And stupid. And the only person I wanted to help me was the person who hurt me, but the person who hurt me never will understand what that feels like, because it's about the 4th time it's happened.

I walked around the west village and Greenwich village before I went home, and I passed the most adorable little inlet apartments called 'Milligan Place.' I just stood in front of it and stared at it and holding back my tears I daydreamed of living in this oasis of a NYC neighborhood with a dog and books that would fulfill any hope or desire I had to find a loved one. And in that span of time I hurt more because I just want someone to share those feelings I have with. I don't want to rely on books and other stories of other people in love. I don't want to have a dog and channel a person into it. I want someone real and tangible. I deserve better and I deserve someone who will treat me like the woman I deserve to be treated like.

I guess some people just don't get it. And that's ok. But it sucks because it takes me far too long to find someone to feel comfortable with. And I wish I wasn't the way I was. And I wish if you listened to Jack Johnson or your favorite band was Phish that I would be OK with it, and I wish if you hated God and all organized religion that I could get past it but I can't. I'm just not that way. So with a heavy heart I'll continue to write and to listen and to write about what I listen to.

And any male that may read this, please remember that leaving details out is lying. Looking someone in the eye and lying hurts more than anything, and as feminist as we may seem, as strong as we may come across, we're women. And we're emotional beings, and as much as we try to act like this isn't true, we want to be loved.

And one day, I'm going to find someone and we're going to live in Milligan Place and have a dog named Beauregard and a room full of books that doesn't even compare to the story that we will have.

Classixx - All You're Waiting For (feat. Nancy Whang)

Favorite video 2013.

ITS TOO HOT OUT || MIRROR PEOPLE // PSYCHEMAGIK // HOT SINCE '82 // XINOBI // RAC // INDIANA // JUSTIN FAUST //

OK so I was so excited to get the Discotexas Picnic II compilation, and not only was the entire album absolutely unreal, this song could have left me overly content, more than, overly ecstatic on it's own. This is some seriously deep shit, and it sings sweetly to my soul.



Another deep one that just speaks such kind rhythms to me. I would probably do anything to be able to hear this someplace super late and dark, preferably a Le Bain type place, and just dance my heart out to it. Hot Since '82, make this happen?



Xinobi does it again. He just GETS it. A lot of DJs get it, but I haven't felt personally connected with an artists work, MANY works in a bit, and you know what it's really nice to feel like a producer is just reading your mind and then making it into music. Another from the compilation, and absolutely fun.



(Another from the compilation) and gorgeous. GO RAC, you rule.



Do you guys remember when I wrote about INDIANA? She's freaking dark, and I think I might be in love with her. And this remix just highlights every perfection from this song and heightens it to the most pleasant of sounds.

Postiljonen - Atlantis

You know those songs that make you wish you were somewhere else, somewhere like Miami or NYC in late 1980, at the same age as now, walking back from an elaborate dinner party alone but on the way meeting your soul mate standing on the corner in a leather jacket? Or something similar? This song does that to me. Man this is beautiful, and the video is just as visually stunning.