You Disappear

Cowbirds and Cuckoos, Part Two

john@twistedsun.net — 2010-02-23T00:10:35-05:00

Ryland Bouchard - Cowbirds and Cuckoos, Part Two

Here we have a great short collection of music that was released as part of a two EP set packaged as an album. The two sides holding two different aesthetics with one voice and this side, part two, is what I recommend for fans of the music on this site. Simple, stripped down songs sung with heart. Lyrically its a little on the dark side but the beauty of the melodies are what suck me in and I cannot help but relax when I put this on. Its beautiful stuff and I highly recommend it.

iTunes Link • Artist Link

Hey there

john@twistedsun.net — 2010-02-21T15:26:58-05:00

Well hello again, I realize its been a long time since any news has been seen around here but I would like to say that this is most certainly not an abandoned project which I have said before here I believe. I still believe it to be seen as a resource to discover new music and I hope everyone enjoys it. Hopefully I will start regular posts again and get the podcast going again as well which is secretly my favorite part of maintaining the site here. Just takes time which is something I spread out across a number of projects these days so thanks for being patient, those who still come here from time to time and check back because I hope to have some more new albums up here soon.

24 Postcards In Full Colour

john@twistedsun.net — 2010-02-21T15:13:59-05:00

Max Richter - 24 Postcards In Full Colour

It took me a while for this album to really get full absorbed but once I gave it a full, closer listen I realized it is pretty amazing work, and while none of the songs venture outside of a couple of minutes of length the album works really well as a whole statement. It seamlessly drifts between intricate little piano or orchestral pieces and more avant guard explorations into slightly experimental moments that explore sound and sampled sounds as a means to create emotion and he pulls it off without getting in the way of the overall peacefulness cast onto you as you listen. The music here is like a dimly lit hallway, a little haunting but totally fulfilling through and through.

iTunes Link • Artist Site

Casino Versus Japan

john@twistedsun.net — 2010-02-21T14:58:43-05:00

Casino Versus Japan - Self Titled

An amazing album from a musician that only seems to be really known of on the underground of the electronic music scene. Thick synth landscapes and melodies that move the songs like waves over you as you listen along. This is the debut album from Casino Vs Japan and was released years ago yet it manages to hold strong through the years and has just recently been re-released and possibly remastered along with its emergence from the depths of electronic music history. Think a moodier Boards of Canada if you want a comparison to work with. The Album is certainly best when listened to as a whole as the songs are divided and subdivided into movements which I really love.

iTunes Link • Artist Page

The Blue Notebooks

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-08-02T14:06:39-04:00

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks

This album was the first of its kind that I was introduced to, this new breed of modern classical artists that seem to be growing in popularity. Well, for all I know its been popular for quite some time and I have just been living under a rock, I make no claim to be an expert. At any rate, the first two songs that I heard from this album are two of the shorter pieces on the album but easily standouts and from what I know have been used in at least one film if not other places. Simply brilliant little piano compositions, one is Horizon Variations and the other is Vladimir’s Blues. These songs are heartbreaking in their short but beautiful existence and I could not help but fall in love with the music after hearing them. The rest of the album ventures all over from more orchestral moments to a few short moments where a narrator reads pieces of a story and while at first I found this strange It quickly grew on me once I started to pay attention. After finding this again recently in my ears I realized it had not been added to the pages here and it being a modern classic of sorts I simply had to add it and if you have not had the pleasure of hearing this release already, I highly recommend you do.

iTunes Link • Artist Page

Welcome Nowhere

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-21T00:12:54-04:00

Thanksgiving - Welcome Nowhere

You wont find any nice shiny production value here. You wont find any well rehearsed and perfected songs here. What you will find are songs performed with feeling and if not true spontaneity then a wonderful illusion of such. This is music that you put on and it simply exists in its quiet, honest way and it evolves with its slightly off pitch interpretations of songs and feeling which bring your eyes to close and your mind to a stillness. If you can appreciate music sung with this sort of loose interpretation of what acoustic guitars and singing should be then there is absolutely no reason for you not to pick this up. I’m nearly positive this album has a pretty successful following and for good reason, it sort of hides itself in a really beautiful unique way in my mind and when I put it on I cant help but hum along. I first discovered this by chance when I bought a vinyl copy of it at a Microphones show a few years back. It was begging to be bought what with its recycled record cover and mysterious presence among the other Microphones records. As for the music, think minimal acoustic guitar, a hushed singing with a breaking male voice, and sneaky layers of music that lull you into a state of calm. One of my favorites of this approach to music and the ‘singer, songwriter’ mentality. I have no idea why I have not posted it here before but now, here it is. It has since been reissued on vinyl after these originals all sold out and the reissue has fancier artwork and more music which I still have not heard but would love to one of these days...

iTunes Link • Artist Page

You Disappear Radio 4

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-16T20:48:41-04:00

Episode four of You Disappear Radio is available now! Please read the show notes included in the podcast feed and visit the links in the enhanced audio file to visit the artists sites. The idea is to let you hear some great music and hopefully turn you onto some great new albums/artists in the process. See the tags below for links to my reviews on You Disappear of the artists included in this episode.

Here is a link to the feed which you can put into iTunes or whichever reader you use for podcasts: http://www.youdisappear.net/files/blog.xml I don’t include direct links to the files in these posts simply because I am keeping this on the underground side of things and I want to keep things as simple as possible with them. Hopefully this will not alienate too may people. Let me know your thoughts should you have an opinion on the idea. I am always open to suggestions.

If you are an artist featured on this podcast and you wish to have your music removed please contact me directly at john-at-youdisappear.net and I will be more than happy to remove it for you. I completely understand, the intention of the site is to promote great music of a calm mindset, not capitalize on it. Its for the love of the music.

Halfway To You

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-14T00:20:30-04:00

Coastal - Halfway To You

While this band has been around for quite a while I only recently discovered them through a random Twitter comment of all places. I was hooked in all of 30 seconds of the first track on this album. It is music for slow motion moments in life and easily some of the best music of its kind I have heard in a long time. Slow moving compositions for reduced heart beats and the end of long days it comes layered with dreamy layers of male and female voices singing in a whisper on top of subtle electronics, guitar, drums and it all pools together to form a warm collage of sound. Perfect for lazy summer nights I would say. Very much looking forward to digging into their other releases.

iTunes Link • Artist Page

God Is Saying This To You

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-13T17:00:07-04:00

Kurt Vile - God Is Saying This To You

I have been listening to the album Wagonwheel Blues by War On Drugs for a long while now it seems and was one of my favorite releases last year, brilliant spacey noise pop sort of music. I never really dug much into who the band was, where they were from or their history. I recently discovered an album by this musician Kurt Vile on emusic that I instantly fell for and upon a tiny bit of looking around discovered he is one of the two founding members of War On Drugs which probably why it felt familiar listening to it. This album is probably not going to win over every listener that may check it out because of its loose form and lo-fi aesthetic but I really love his approach. He is one of those artists that can confidently take a simple idea and make it shine and the simplicity of it is what draws me into it. I hear he has been signed to Matador and I am curious to hear what that brings... It leaves me feeling nostalgic somehow for a road less traveled, only I’m not sure why exactly, sometimes music simply... connects.

iTunes Link • Artist Page

Map In Hand

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-08-05T14:33:22-04:00

Seaworthy - Map In Hand

More wonderful subtle music from the 12k label. Due to the name of the group I can not help but draw a comparison to water while describing the music in words. Imagine laying in a boat, birds flying overhead, the slow splash of water hitting the side of the boat... imagine the sea is singing, a soft ambience that drifts in and out like waves and the birds overhead are echoed with the sounds of meandering clean electric guitar spinning around swooping in and out of higher altitude. The sun shimmers against your vision and you squint through the glare and feel the warmth of it on your face. Its music that is inviting and warm and simply exists as you listen and get drawn into its understated presence in your ears...

Artist Page (on the 12k website)

Chessa

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-13T17:00:04-04:00

Shuttle358 - Chessa

The 12K label has been releasing subtle minimal ambient music for some time now and recently I decided to dive into their catalogue a bit deeper and came to discover I was missing out on some really phenomenal music. Among the releases I came across was this album by Shuttle358 which I believe recently sold out in its physical form. When it comes to ambient music I am pretty cautious and I have trouble jumping on every random ambient drone album that happens along my path so when an ambient album comes along that breaks away from the droning masses I cant help but take notice. The music on Chessa I can best describe by calling it lush and warm. As you listen through the album it takes you beyond what a typical ambient release may take you and covers a lot of territory with hints of a lo-fi folktronic sort of a feel at times as well as notes of subtle minimal IDM sneak through and its all hold together by its warmth and dream like presence. Its nearly impossible to describe ambient albums I realize because they have a tendency to be a pretty personal listening experience usually, not really party music and so everyone may have different reactions to the music inside so have a peak over on the itunes samples, which were more than enough to get me hooked, and have a listen to what I am fumbling around trying to describe.

iTunes Link • Artist Site

The Night Just Keeps Coming In

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-13T16:59:56-04:00

Dakota Suite - The Night Just Keeps Coming In

The Dakota Suite album ‘The End Of Trying’ (iTunes link) is a beautiful piano heavy instrumental album that never quite captured my attention as a whole and upon further digging into the history of Dakota Suite’s music I came to find that he had released a number of albums in that name and one of the ones I came across while looking through his various releases was an album of re-interpretations of all the songs from his End Of Trying album. Sort of remixes but more a retelling of the music he had written for that album and it managed to hit something in my music loving self even more than the original recording did. The collection of songs is performed by a number of wonderful artists, a couple of which I have written about here and a number of others that belong here on You Disappear one of these days.

The album flows really well and I think that its because of the fact that the music itself was already written and the artists that performed and re-imagined these songs simply added their own sense of beauty to the mix and pushed each song into a new space of its own. Im having trouble describing the experience the album brings so I will stop rambling and leave you to discover it for yourself.

Among the musicians featured are Loscil, Peter Broderick, Jacaszek, Swod, and Hanuschka....

Artist Page • Was limited to 300 CDs but is available digitaly on Boomkat

A Note

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-02T23:50:54-04:00

Just a quick hello to readers of the site, I know I don’t have chances to post nearly as often as I would like but I want to assure you that I am not going anywhere. I am still constantly on the search for the very best in the world of quiet music past and present to share with everyone and hopefully one day regular postings will occur more often, but until then I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for reading and sticking around through the slow times. More soon, I have a few wonderful albums that I am looking forward to mentioning when I have the time. Thanks for reading and until next time, have a good one! -John

Ten Duets

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-06-18T11:26:40-04:00

Peter Broderick - Ten Duets

I will start of my saying that this release is unfortunately already sold out and gone from buying existence, which is a shame really. It was released in limited number on cassette tape and quickly sold out at the various places which carried it. Peter Broderick has quickly made a name for himself in the past couple of years and for good reason, his peaceful minded approach to creating music is easy to fall in love with and this release is no exception. Its stunning in its simplicity, each song written and performed with only two elements, two instruments, ranging from piano to violin to sampled environments. Its a recent favorite and I can only hope that one day the music may be made available again in another format but perhaps it is best suited to remain a musical rarity in its physical form, scattered about the world in a small handful of collections. I usually dont ever condone the use of the internet to find music among file sharing sites but I may have to make an exception here because its very much worth tracking down. The version of it I have here is simply someone who recorded each side of the tape as two audio files which I kind of like because it feels like its being presented in a way that is true to its original format. So heres to hoping it will become available again but if not, happy hunting.

Artist Site

Clouds

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-06-18T11:03:48-04:00

Wixel - Clouds

I have written about Wixel before here on You Disappear and his wonderful series of releases from this year (2009) where he is releasing a new album of music each month for the whole year. Each holds a different idea or theme and so far all of them have been pretty wonderful considering most of the time I see musicians try to pull off this sort of project it sort of end up falling flat in a lot of ways. Wixel has done a wonderful job of keeping things interesting and continues to putt out release after release of beautiful, understated music from month to month. Among these releases Clouds, his February release, is easily one of my favorites. It comes across as an ambient music record only a highly organic one that, as the title implies, feels like a perfect soundtrack for watching clouds drift across a sky. The opening track sets the mood all to perfectly as it leaves your mind instantly drifting through your thoughts as you get tangled in its web of warm drifting ambience. Easily a record I highly recomend.

Artist Page • BandCamp page where you can purchase the songs (name your own price!)

Insen

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-07-14T00:10:41-04:00

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Insen

Its hard to deny the brilliance of this album. Its simplistic yet complex in its approach, taking the soft understated piano compositions of Ryuichi Sakamoto and combining them with the minimal clicks and edits of Alva Noto, a master of the clicks and cuts style minimal ambient arena. The result is one of my very favorite albums to put on when I need some peace within my mind. The way these compositions evolve is so completely unique. At times the piano is left to lead the way through the composition while the minimal ambient edits layer a tempo along its side and other times the edits make themselves the center of attention and take the piano notes for a ride. There has been a few albums in this series with them but this stands out in my mind as my favorite and it simply cannot be missed by anyone as addicted to the minimal side of music as I am. Do yourself a favor and at least listen to the song Logic Moon all the way through. You wont regret it.

iTunes Link • Raster Noton (label page) • Alva Noto • Ryuichi Sakamoto

Wooden Arms

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-06-08T18:40:30-04:00

This is certainly more polished and thematic than most things I post here but its an album I have really enjoyed and thought would fit into the fringe side of the you disappear spectrum. In comparison to his past solo records this album has been produced with more of a straight forward, less elaborately layered feel to it that I immediately fell for. While it still carries forward with a thick orchestral feel the music feels much more easy to grab ahold of and simply enjoy. The part of his music that captures me the most is his voice and the way he stretches it to all sorts of different places and this slower, more simplified recording approach has given it plenty room to breathe and lead the songs. Have a listen and see for yourself what I mean. I have included a video below of him performing a random song in the streets of Paris as part of the wonderful Take Away Show Series. Links to iTunes and the artists site below.

iTunes Link • Artist Site

Seeds

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-06-08T18:40:34-04:00

I cant say much about the artist here outside of the fact that he was involved in another project of his called The Robot Ate Me which I have heard of but not really heard. I cant even remember how I came across these recordings now that I think of it. Just something I stumbled across while wandering the never ending maze of the internet. I am referring to a release that is sold primarily as a collection of four 7” vinyl records packaged in fancy limited edition fashion and I would absolutely love to own the collection of records but at 50 dollars for the basic package its just a bit too rich for what I can pay. Why he chose to release it this way is sort of strange to me but I’m sure he had his reasons. I love the idea of limited vinyl releases and the special feeling you get holding this object full of music that only a hand full of other people in the world also hold but it’s not often they cost so much. Enough bitching, what about the music on these fancy little plastic discs?

The short of it is that I think its fantastic. Minimal, straightforward structures are a dime a dozen these days with the million other independent musicians out there trying to make their voice heard in this sort of subtle way but few really shine through the rest. Its why I started this blog here after all... It’s is a wonderful collection of songs where you will find the instrumentation sitting politely in the back of the mix while Ryland’s vocals sit up front and center pulling you into the songwriting with a subtle force that you hardly notice unless you pay attention. The often relatively short songs are split into four little collections of music, one on each of the records and numbered simply Seeds 1-4. I find myself gravitating towards the first disc and the fourth for reasons I cant fully explain, they just connected with me in ways that the other two did not do. I am a fan of simple, honest lyrics that walk along the border of coming across cheesy or over simplified and the lyrics here do a marvelous job of this and give you plenty of moments where you may find yourself nodding with a small smile thinking “yeah... I know what you mean” and its that simple connection that often feels good in this kind of music right?

The songs are available in a few different ways on his website which links to the site that sells them so I will keep things simple and send you there if you are interested in hearing or seeing more. Also, I have posted a video below as well featuring one of the songs and from what I gather, with the vinyl packages you get a collection of videos to watch as well which I wish I could see but so it goes.

Artist Site

You Disappear Radio 3

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-05-19T18:10:24-04:00

Episode three of You Disappear Radio is available now in the feed. Please read the show notes included in the podcast and visit the links in the enhanced audio file to visit the artists sites. The idea is to give you a sample of some great music and hopefully turn you onto some great new albums in the process. See the tags below for links to my reviews on You Disappear of the artists included in this episode.

Otherwise, here is a link to the feed which you can put into iTunes or whichever reader you use for podcasts: http://www.youdisappear.net/files/blog.xml I don’t include direct links to the files in these posts simply because I am keeping this on the underground side of things and I want to keep things as simple as possible with them. Hopefully this will not alienate too may people. Let me know your thoughts should you have an opinion on the idea. I am always open to suggestions.

If you are an artist featured on this podcast and you wish to have your music removed please contact me directly at john-at-youdisappear.net and I will be more than happy to remove it for you. I completely understand, the intention of the site is to promote great music of a calm mindset, not capitalize on it. Its for the love of the music.

Master And Everyone

john@twistedsun.net — 2009-05-19T15:15:51-04:00

Bonnie Prince Billy - Master And Everyone

With what is most likely Will Odhams most well known project he has created some truly beautiful music. Through the years of its releases I have gravitated to a couple of his albums much more than most of his others and it seems like he always has something new out but maybe thats just me. Master And Everyone is a beautiful album through and through. It rings out with a peaceful look into the world of love, heartbreak and life, much like many of the albums that grace the pages of You Disappear. I recently started putting on my vinyl copy of this more often than I even realized until one night it was playing and I found myself completely hypnotized by it’s calming sort of presence in my mind and my voice is always finding its way out of my mouth to sing along with bits of the songs here that manage to whisper truth into my ears. Now that it is back in heavy rotation in my mind I felt I should add it to the site here where it certainly belongs and If you have not heard his music this is a great place to start.

iTunes Link • Artist Page