Here's an update on my upcoming album The Mechanics of Mysticism, wherein I discuss why it's taken me more than a year, where I'm at and some of what's left before it's finished.
Here's a digest of this week's #OPM writeups! 5 tracks from indie Fediverse #music artists to expand your musical horizons. Unusual ambient, wild ADHDcore, and more this week!
If you want the full, undigested versions (i.e. where I have more to say about each one than will fit in a single post) of these writeups, they are here:
Lush, organic and cinematic, this is the sound of #jazz crashing into post rock while the ghost of #prog looks on with approval. Twisty, unusual rhythms and interesting harmonic movement realized by an array of impressive musicians, including both traditional rock/jazz players but also strings and more. Sounds like someone made a movie out of the weirdest dream you ever had and this is the score.
Next week I'm doing a special #Fedivision version! If you're a mutual who's submitted a Fedivision track and want some coverage, HMU and let's make that happen.
If you enjoyed my writing, and want to buy me a coffee, you can do that here:
Can I entice you to listen to my 2023 album Psychedelic Ghost Stories? 10 tracks of weird, spacy post-industrial psychedelia, alien electro dub, & the music you hear in a bad dream. Wizard synth anthems and ghostwave jams; sounds like tripping on Halloween.
I've picked up a few dozen new friends since I last posted this so it's time again...
If you haven't listened to my 2023 release Psychedelic Ghost Stories, can I entice you to do so? It's a ten track album of weird, spacy post-industrial psychedelia, alien electro dub and the music you hear in a bad dream. Wizard synth anthems and ghostwave jams fired in the crucible of classic games and film music; sounds like tripping on Halloween.
Enjoy the writing, make sure you actually listen to the ones that sound intriguing and, of course, support these artists with your follows, favs and, if you can afford it, your finances.
If you do like the writing and/or need more new music, you can find more on my site with the #OPM tag. If you really like the writing, you could always buy me a coffee:
Finished this week's #OPM, it'll go live tomorrow morning (8 am Eastern time). Nice eclectic bunch of tunes this week! House music! Ambient! Weird IDM/breakbeat! Jazz/prog/post-rock! ADHDcore! Find it all tomorrow at:
Or sub to the RSS feed or newsletter so it comes to you!
BTW, if you submitted this week but don't see your music in tomorrow's post, don't worry: I just got A LOT of subs. Yours will be in the next one or two, promise.
@etherdiver@mirlo I see an embed code option when you click on the share button. You can probably just copy paste the iframe html into the post (via the code tab).
Great insight from @hilljam's newsletter yesterday:
"my work got much better when I stopped worrying so much about what other people thought and delved more wholeheartedly into my idiosyncratic interests."
If you are an artist, of any type, at any level of success, and you aren't already putting this into practice as the core of your artistic journey, do it now. It's the single biggest thing you can do to make your art better, AND more satisfying to create.
@etherdiver@hilljam thanks I needed to be reminded of that. So easy to loose site of what really matters when their are commercial forces always trying to urge your outlook to their advantage.
Who's got music they want me to check out? Send me your links!
Up to 15 mins worth of music, hosted on a service that allows payments and/or messages directly to the artists (self hosted, #Bandcamp, #Faircamp, @mirlo, jam.coop, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc but NOT Spotify, Tidal etc).
Oh and you have to follow me in some respect (I'll follow back! Looking for community, not "fans" or whatever).
Godsdamn it, Pittsburgh Modular, if you could stop making badass synths that I feel like I can't live without for a while, that'd be great!
(This is in reference to the new Voltage Lab 2, as well as last year's Taiga, to a lesser degree.)
Especially since they're not cheap 😅
(No shade intended, I KNOW they're actually very cheap for what all they can do, but the raw cost is eye-watering to a indie artist who doesn't make $10's of thousands a year from music making.)
@LadyMarth01 as an opsix owner, it's SO CHEAP! I looked into grabbing it 6 weeks ago when I went back to DAW-based production but I couldn't find any info on the deal (I didn't look very hard LOL, I had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy in the switch over) but today, as I was tumbling down a series of rabbit holes, a link to the deal just kinda popped up and so I said to heck with it and grabbed it.
@LadyMarth01 I'll keep the opsix physical version tho, as programming it is such a pleasure that I don't think a mouse/keyboard-based editing experience could ever hold a candle to it
Explore the wilder, more #experimental side of my work with Metaphysical Shitposting, an evolving collection (new tracks added about once a month) of #drone, #ambient and #soundscape pieces, with the occasional splash of musique concrete, #kosmische and #noise mixed in to keep things interesting.
Look here, it's #NewMusic for you! Every week I cover 5+ new acts, listen to ~15 min worth of stuff, then tell you all about it so you can check out the ones that seem intriguing. This week we had a couple different flavors of #ambient and New Age, some #neoclassical (that also works as ambient 😅 ) and a really distinctive #rock track. Check them out!
I keep the writeups nice and short -- typically under 200 words. Just enough to give you a hint of what you'd hear and let you know if its maybe up your alley. I also include embeds wherever possible so if it's intriguing, you can click the button and hear it instantly. Cool!
Here's the weekly digest thread of my #OPM post: 5 writeups of new (to you, probably) artists and #music for your listening pleasure. #Rock, several flavors of #ambient and #NewAge and more await you within!
Of course, you can read the whole thing, with longer writeups than fit in a single post, here:
A fascinating and inventive reinvention of the #rock formula. To the base mixture of guitar, bass and drums, Phainopepla adds violin and vibraphone, more or less coequal with those core elements, adding intriguing new dimensions. That’s then topped with an elastic and expressive female lead vocalist who definitely lives in the same area as PJ Harvey without actually sounding all that similar.
Seven tracks of classic-style ambient – lots of #synth washes, an inoffensive arpeggiated synth here and there, the very occasional hint of a beat – each tied to a separate mood. The sound design is solid, showcasing a decent variety of typically ambient textures, with the occasional dip into #synthwave. In true #ambient fashion, this one is easy to get lost in – put it on, turn it down and zone out while it does its thing.
Well well, I think I just finished the design elements for the cover of my upcoming album... we'll see if this is the final_final_final(THISONE).jpg version (album is still a ways off and so there's plenty of time for me to decide I need to change/fix/tweak something) but feels pretty good at the moment!