I have been listening to “Lullaby” by _Ghost for a few weeks now and find my self coming back to it. It really only has the one idea but it’s not bad one. Everything in this piece revolves around the voice and it’s ethereal treatment. The chime tones are pretty and the washes in the background are captivating.

_ghost has a slim biography, read non existent.  OK, he’s from Poland and “Lullaby” was used for the game Crayon Physics Deluxe. His songs can be found and downloaded at ccMixter or his MySpace profile. Not really a lot , is it.

What’s ccmixter, I hear you ask? Here’s a bit about them…

ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want. Remixers If you’re into sampling, remixing and mash-ups grab the sample packs and a cappellas for download and you can upload your version back into ccMixter, for others to enjoy and re-sample. All legal.

Head over and have a listen, despite “Lullaby’s” title, it’s a chaotic piece, rough in places, way to busy in other and you know what? I don’t care, nor it seems do a lot of other people.

Recommended

Websites at www.myspace.com/ghostrust and ccmixter.org/media/files/_ghost/3631

The Morrighan are great, no two ways about it. I stumbled across them last year and was totally blown away by the energy this band develops. But, lets start this review somewhere back in our childhoods…

Remember the buzz you got at Christmas when you discovered the biggest package under the chrissie tree had your name on it and even better,when you opened it up, it turned out to be just what you wanted? Well that’s the feeling I got when opened the parcel the band sent me and I loaded up the Morrighan’s CD into the MP3 player.

The Morrighan’s music is truly yummy stuff. Take a riotous mix of electro, classical, techno-rock and trance. Dirty it up a bit. Shoe-horn in some samples from some of my favourite movies like Contact , Star Trek and some bits from assorted TV doco’s. Jam it all together and somehow it all just works. It also doesn’t hurt that Jon-X’s vocals occasionally remind me of early Genesis era Peter Gabriel in places.

And that’s just the first track Wilderness. There are still another six tracks to go. Lets have a quick look at a few more…

“Back In The Game” is up next, a track with a slower tempo that gives space for Cecily Fay’s vocal to develop, great production with the layers and layers of vocals and guitars. Works for me.

“Money Magic” is a track that seems forced and slightly out of place, this is probably the least successful track on the album. Cicely’s vocals lack engagment. The production is good but it doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary.

“Inferno” on the other hand is a wonderful atmospheric trip through sonic landscape. You can hear the dry heat, it would make a great sound track for a Spanish road movie. This track is a killer, the vocals intrigue  and draw you in to the song, the drums and guitars evoke a slight hint of a Moorish sound, it works so well and I fully expect to hear it on CSI one day. Inferno has taken up permanent residence on the MP3 player.

Inferno

Radio Friendly? I hear you ask. Hell no. The shortest track on this album is six and half minutes long. The length of these tracks let the songs unfold and gives the band time to play with their ideas and develop them. There is light and shade here, the production and arrangements have managed to preserve a sense of dynamics and the ideas presented I find are genuinely interesting. Basically all the stuff radio programmers hate.

This album seems to move in many directions at once. It successfully explores the dichotomy between electronic and more natural textures, between Cicely’s and Jon’s vocals and say the V Drums that Rita plays. In many ways it’s as primitive as it is futuristic. It has an exuberance that isn’t found in a lot of more commercial music these days and while these seemingly divergent themes might sound like some post-modern musical meltdown, it’s clear that this is the sound of a band growing into its own voice.

Every time I watch this band’s live videos I am reminded that music is an event; a social experience that should be shared rather than, (as Jeff Tweedy from Wilco pointed out “A piece of art is not a loaf of bread”) just  another commodity to be consumed. JON-X (singer/co-producer/writer) Cecily Fay (singer, co-writer/producer) and the rest of the band have turned out a fine piece of work in “One Hour On Earth”.

Highly Recommended.

Websites at www.morrighan.com and www.myspace.com/themorrighanband

My original review of “Wilderness” can be found at duggup.com.au/2007/10/16/the-morrighan/

Today we will have a look at Greg Baumont and his remix using Tukan’s acapella of “Light a Rainbow”. A slick and sophisticated arrangement that oozes craft. The backings are so understated and yet so musically intriguing especially with the contrasts between the acoustic and electric guitars.

His 2004 piece “The New Day” is an attempt at a worldfusion/rock ballad with vocals from the middle-east via a vocoder. The sounds and textures that he offers are symphonic but the song works (well it does for me).

Greg Baumont has a deft touch, a great imagination and it should be noted that he is an ardent supporter of Creative Commons licenses. There is a lot more music on offer at both his site and teh Jamendo site, it will take you a while to get through it but it is worth having a look and sampling a few of the tracks on offer. Another one that has been on the MP3 player for a while is “Why“.

Highly Recommended.

I honestly have no idea how I stumbled on this, but bloody hell this band could solve the energy crisis. I was totally floored when I discovered this was actually a band, not just some guy in his bedroom with a ton of toys (nothing wrong with being just some guy in his bedroom with a ton of toys but it rarely attains the intensity this band generates).

The Morrighan’s music does a shopping trip through genres at high speed, you can find electro, classical, techno/rock and trance, all mashed up and something really interesting comes out at the other end. Jon-X’s vocals remind me of early Genesis era Peter Gabriel in places.

Sadly the video I found first, which was distorted and the people shooting it are having a great old time has been removed and replaced with the more sanitised version below.

Wilderness is all about sound and texture, it’s an evocative journey through a landscape populated by firm beats, solid bass, an even more solid drummer and interesting vocals. Check out their website and have a listen to Paper Tigers 2007 and Cecily Fays vocals. You will be left wondering why we don’t hear more of this band.

Highly recommended.

I was chatting with a friend of mind earlier in the week about trance and he had never heard of Armin van Buuren. So we chatted about how he worked as a producer and a DJ and how he has the prettiest MySpace site that I have seen for a long while. Seriously, it really slick, go have a look and while you are there you can sample some of his music and remixes.

Armin started in the mid Nineties and I first heard him on an early Ministry Of Sound release (I didn’t it was him at the time, he was working under a different name). I next ran into him when I was pointed to his ASOT (A State Of Trance) radio show, he has now done over 300 episodes of the show. I

He has recently started doing a Podcast containing a highlights package that you can find the linlk over on the Myspace site.

If you are at all curious about Trance and remixes, this is a great place to start. He has a great touch.

The Devil’s Toxin comes from the album of the same name and is the latest creation of Ambient Teknology. This album drives at 100 miles an hour, and when it slow’s down it’s an exploration of the dark and mysterious places at the back of your mind.

I am seriously taken with the Devils Toxin title track and the wonderfully titled. “But Satan Rules The Universe” but the standout slow track has to be the textures and sounds of the downtempo track, “Atek 1st Movement”.

The band have a very slick but really really annoying Flash site that you cant link to (see Marks comment below). Fortunately they are on the ever reliable Magnatune site, magnatune.com/artists/atek

Ambient Teknology aka Mark P. has been recording uptempo underground electronic music for over six years and is influenced by such artists as Kraftwerk, Orbital, Gary Numan, and Sven Vath. Ambient Teknology fuses early synth from the 1970′s and 80′s with the dance driven drum and bass riffs of the late 90′s, resulting in a driving, upbeat sound full of ecclectic beats and the deliciously dark undertones of early new wave.

Born in Cornwall, England in 1966, Mark P. lived and grew through the UK punk and electronic scene and developed a sense of the true depth of sound synthesisers were meant to bring to music. Much of Ambient Teknology’s music, in fact, is based on ideas involving a departure from the old, and a dawn into the new, and Mark continually incorporates new ideas, techologies, and sounds into his music as electronica and techno continue to evolve.

Now their site is annoying but it has an offer you can’t really refuse. If you sign up there they will send you a CD for free. So listen to their latest album first at Magnatune and if it takes your fancy head over to the bands site and order yourself a free copy of one of their previous albums.

While researching up some more contenders for the weekly Chill section I found the amazing tranceportal.org.
They are a trance music collective based in San Francisco, California, who host a regular music show called Trance Tuesday which they then turn into a podcast.

You can subscribe to their podcast from their website and have each episode automatically downloaded to your computer through iTunes or do as I did which was visit the podcast web blog and rummage around in the the past episodes. Browsing is so much more fun.

The episode I am currently listening to is #27 Recorded on May 30th, 2006
It features …
01. Perpetuous Dreamer – Future Fun Land (Descending Fun Land Mix)
02. Deepwide – Canyon (Original Mix)
03. Aled Mann – Cold Fusion (Sean Tyas Mix)
04. M.I.K.E. – Voices From the Inside (M.I.K.E.’s Proggresiva Mix)
05. Matthew Dekay and Roob V – 2 Da Groove
06. John 00 Fleming vs. M.I.K.E – Dame Blanche
07. Logic Bomb – Deuchland
08. Freakulizer – The Awakening Process
09. Johann Bley – Stranded (Atomic Pulse Remix)
10. Yotopia – You got too close
11. Polaris – Spiralized
12. Pixel & X-Noise – Beats from beyond
13. M.I.D.O.R. – Heatseeker (Original Mix)
14. Mark Thornton – Out of Silence (Andy Bagguley Dub)
15. Signalrunners – Backfire
16. Selu Vibra – Divine
17. Inertia – The Chamber (Activa Remix)
18. Kamil Polner – Heart of Sun
19. Jirah – Healer
20. Protoculture – Sweet Fine Crystalline
21. Laughing Buddha & Hopi – Subatomic Spiral
22. Elec3 – Plugged (Wizzy Noise remix)
23. Narcophone – Sub Atomic Particles
24. Black and White – Blade
25. Mike Foyle vs. Signalrunners – Love Theme Dusk (Airbase pres. Parc Remix)
26. Jose Amnesia vs. Shawn Mitiska – My All (Original Mix)
27. Goldenscan – Halcyon

The episode runs for about 2 hour 45 minutes and will keep you going for a while. So far the absolute standout is Deepwide’s track Canyon, oh yeah remember this is a radio show and every so often they back announce the tracks, quite handy really.

Enjoy.