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Monday 24 January 2011

Some new ambient from me

I've finished a few pieces lately, both ambient but very different from each other.

First one is called Shin'ei which is very meditative and features the most wonderful live flute played by Craig Organismic, whom I'm also doing another collaboration with, very excited for that one, as the Organismic boys make very high quality music, with superbly rich mixdowns. Anyway Shin'ei is named after a very old Japanese shogunate era word meaning 'Sound of the Gods', which I came across reading the Hagakure. It probably should have had an Indian name because that's the influence I was putting into it with the tabla, but then again the flute is actually from China. So there we go, my first Indian based, Chinese instrumented, Japanese named ambient piece.

Again my blog hosts have ignored my requests for soundcloud embedding, so you'll have to click to a new page.

So click here to hear Shin'ei

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A nice shot of Shiva meditating on the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh.

Onwards, the second track 'The Ninth Season' is something I started a while ago after being inspired my favourite album of last year, which if you look at the post below this one you'll see it's Woob - Repurpose. This track I dedicate to Paul Frankland aka Woob for creating an album that will stick with me for the rest of my life. It's much darker than Shin'ei and much more cinematic with choirs, trumpets, and borderline harsh bells and clanks of stirring a metal hotpot. I named the track 'The Ninth Season' as a little rearrangement of the name of Woob's blog - 'Season 9'.

Click to go to my soundcloud and listen to 'The Ninth Season'

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I can't remember exactly where this photo is. I think it might be the Tibetan plateau.

Let me know what you think ;)

Sunday 16 January 2011

A late happy new year! (and best of 2010)

Hope everyone's been fine and chilling to some nice beats over the holidays. 2011 is already shaping up over here with some interesting projects starting, which one special one which I'll keep fairly quiet. So far it's heading towards the vibe of Mark Isham crossed with Banco de Gaia and David Gilmour in a big jam in Utter Pradesh. Also I'm working on a remix for Eschaton, who makes really ambient drum and bass, hints of the old Good Looking vibes, but mainly a whole new revitalisation of the sound with lots of cinematic parts over the classic rich subs. I've only just started but I think it's going to take the 170bpm track and rejig it into a slower and very downbeat Global Communication-esque vibe. Some more things are coming up here and there, such as my second album, and I'm working on my hip-hop stuff as well so expect a shit load of music coming over the next few months.

2010 was an excellent year for music, so heres a rundown of what made it so great.

My favourite album of 2010 without a doubt was

Woob - Repurpose

This album I find very hard to put into words mainly because it's so damn good. As someone else mentioned it's cinema for the ears, which maybe might be an understatement. Anyway must love & respect to Paul Frankland aka Woob for this masterpiece. Also I hear he has got a full feature length cartoon coming out which is about 2 dogs based on his Max and Harvey alias, for which he mainly has releases on Ninja Tune. Check out Woob's season9 blog for more info.

Also in my favourite finds of 2010 are

Spectralite - Temple of Stars. A collaboration between Darren Sangita and Greg Hunter. Available here to buy

Kaya Project - Desert Phase. If you're reading this you've probably already heard this one, if not head over to Interchill Records.

Ashirvad's self titled album. Another fantastic album from Sangita Sounds, this one is a project spearheaded by Darren Sangita, and features Gopal Bannerjee, Sukhdev Mishra, Georgina Brett, Johanna Stein, Haradhan Das Baul, Kallol Mazumder, Shirin Sengupta, S.K.Indu, Dr.Ashwin Kalbag, Shiv Shankar Roy, Sadhu Seva, Eugene Moriarti and Debashish Haldar.

One of the most pleasant Indian/Ambient fusions of the year as unlike many it features lots of traditional Carnatic musicians, unlike many sampled things, also the tracks are based on traditional ragas.

Visit Sangita Sounds to hear more and buy.

Next, I was pretty pleased I managed to get my own album 'Mindstate Disposition' out. It hasn't been that successful, but the feedback and support from the people who have bought it has been amazing, so I'd like to say thanks to you guys. If you haven't checked it, please visit my bandcamp page which can be found by clicking the Shop link on the right.

Other mentions go to The Orb & David Gilmour for 'Metallic Spheres', nice stuff, and great to see Youth back in action. Kalpataru Tree's 'All Things Passing' album, very nice homegrown chilled out dub.

I'm sure theres more things that I've missed. I lost a folder on one hard drive which has most of the downloads I've bought last year. Have most of them backed up but they're on burnt DVD's and different pen drives all over the place.

What was your favourite of last year? send me a message.

Monday 27 September 2010

Qiūfēn (a dubby brewski)

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Qiūfēn (pīnyīn) or Shūbun (rōmaji) (Chinese and Japanese: 秋分; Korean: 추분; Vietnamese: Thu phân; literally: "autumnal equinox") is the 16th solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 180° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 195°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 180°

an ableton blend with added reverb splooshes, delay spangalangs and automaton, doing whatever the hell it feels like.

01. wAgAwAgA - Calm East
02. Duskky - Scratch
03. Master Margherita - Fabula Dub
04. Wahn - Elite
05. Deadbeat - Vampire Dub
06. Wahn - Final Frontier
07. wAgAwAgA - Mr. Choppy
08. Skream - Moving Snares
09. wAgAwAgA - Jah Liion
10. Bird of Prey vs. Random - Subtropics
11. Vacuum Science - Real Rock
12. Hoehle - Junktion One
13. Daat - Orange Line
14. Anonymi - Venturi (oS Remix)
15. Mauxuam - B4 After
16. Eat Static - Lo-Ride Sloucher
17. VX - Particle Isomorphia (Dubsahara Remix)
18. Solar Fields - Insum (Remix)

stream or download here: http://soundcloud.com/el-cubist/qiufen

pic by Rohan

Monday 7 June 2010

CD's in the making

Each CD of my new album is handmade & unique, they take me about 3 hours to do one, so I'm glad I'm not that swamped yet. But many thanks to the people who have bought it so far and put me into a little amount of profit.

Friday 21 May 2010

Okay here's the reason I've been quiet...

My debut album 'Mindstate Disposition' is out!!! It's been mastered, and sounds lush as. Bob Macc @ Subvert Central Mastering did an amazing job in creating even more clarity than I thought was possible.

I have upload it on my bandcamp for sale. It was going to be a free album, but I'm a little broke so it costs, not too much - £4 for 8 tracks, but I'm not just doing download, I have a CD on there for £5, which will be shipping in June, and is a CDR in a handmade octagonal origami screen printed CD wallet.

front500.jpg

So please head over to http://enuui.bandcamp.com if you'd like to buy a copy.

Oh and to keep with Mauxuam and Greg Hunter's Cloudcycle free music policy, the Chimbre track is a free FLAC + MP3 download, as Cloudcycle feature on it.

Peace + Love!

Thursday 8 April 2010

Ambient in the year twothousandonezero

syd_mead_shipwreck.jpg

This start to the year has provided some excellent ambient works. I thought I'd give you a little rundown on what's popped up on my radar.



Atomic Skunk - Portal

This I ordered last week, got the download, and just waiting for the digipak CD to arrive. On initial listen whilst mooching about in the fields, I have to say this is incredibly sculpted, quite a rare and exciting composition. I recognise some of the sounds he uses for we have a similar production setup, but the way he's intertwined all the elements and manipulated them as a whole gives me great respect to him as he has handled a powerful production tool extremely well. Definitely the contender for best ambient album of the year.

Check out atomicskunk.com



Tom Middleton - Aznyte Falls

I wish soundcloud would work with this blog because there so much great music on there. So you're gonna have to click for this free ambient track from Tom Middleton. It's 10 years old, but only just surfaced. An unreleased gem. Click here to hear and download



Cloudcycle - Intricacy

A new track from the clouds which just hitting play will describe itself better than I could. What I do love about it is that it's a perfect introduction for Lingua Lustra's album on Cloudcycle's online platform Bak$hish Music, so moving on here's....



Lingua Lustra - Ijatevuvun

Love the artwork for this... love the music even more. A mutation of delicate, intricate, and sometimes often bleak, industrial, and metallic ambient soundscapes, but definitely rich in lovely harmonics. Great pace to all of the tracks. Also in my 2010 ambient album of the year contender list. Cheers Mauxuam & Lingua Lustra.

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Spectralite - Temple Of Stars

An album which I haven't actually had a full listen to. I only came across this the other night thanks to Andrew @ Interchill. Looking more closely, its Greg Hunter & Darren Sangita. No mention from Greg on this which came out in February, but better late than never in discovering this. So this morning while I'm writing this, I'm downloading this album from the Spectralite bandcamp page. Having listened to just the first track and bought it based on that I'm very excited to hear what's in store. Although I didn't, you can have a listen to all the whole album on the bandcamp page.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

It's coming.....

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Friday 19 March 2010

Deep Auriga (Hejira)

I thought I'd fit in another track to my album, as an introduction.

To have a listen click here

I named this after this APOD picture of the constellation Auriga.

AurTezelV2.jpg Photo by Tunç Tezel

Enjoy!

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Thursday 4 March 2010

Tune of the day : Gas - Microscopic

Today's tune of the day was introduced to me by Woob (who over the next few days will get a nice big feature from me). I had heard of Gas, but had always thought it was the Gong Appreciation Society.... little did I know it was the alias of ambient extraordinare Mat Jarvis, who also provided quite a large amount of the soundtrack to the ambient game Osmos (which you should really check it out). Anyway he has given away a track from his album 0095 from the now defunct Em:t label, which Woob was on too. I'm 15 years too late on this, but the phrase 'better late than never', has never had more meaning.

So I am extremely pleased to be passing this on... a stunningly beautiful and sublime track named 'Microscopic'.

Right click and save http://www.microscopics.co.uk/music/gas-microscopic.mp3.

If you like this which I'm sure you will, then pop over to his site - microscopics.co.uk and his blog.

And if none of this new news to you, then get in touch with me and give some Gas recommendations because it's all fresh to my ears.

Also keep yer ears peeled over the next few days for some vibrations from Woob, which he says some of my blog readers can have a free download! Nice ay!

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Mindstate Disposition update

Well I've finally completed all the tunes for my album. It's made up of 6 tracks just shy of an hour. I'm investigating eco-printing & packaging for it for I have dropped the USB idea due to the fact it's totally a waste of plastic. So all them bonus things I was going to include will just have to be downloads which will be available with a download code with the album. Anyway, the music's all done, my good friend Bob Macc @ Subvert Central Mastering will be making sure all them frequencies are nice, and rich and harmonious. So that's going to be mastered in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of other issues to sort out in the meantime, which will be looking for a suitable host for the paid FLAC download (which I'm inclined to ask InSpiral Lounge). MP3 will be free, and then CD will be in some nice recycled eco-packaging. I've redesigned the front cover, as I'm not able to get hold of the hi-res of the one previously planned. Still I have the hi-res of all the other photos Mr Hilisalasi has provided. So here's the new cover.

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01. Slow Moving Thoughts
02. Kalikayai
03. Morality
04. Træna
05. Narayana
06. Chimbre (featuring Mauxuam & Greg Hunter)

Will have more to tell in a couple of weeks.

Friday 12 February 2010

Unimaginative Title #2984

What's been happening lately? I've finally got the final track of my album done, which is great, after not been producing much in the last month, apart from some really sketchy ideas. It's a pure ambient journey that represents what I imagine to be the morning after a Chimbre experience. Chimbre being a spiritual retreat in the Peruvian rainforest. It only has just been established but still has provided some excellent scenery to some heavy psychotheraputic work for many individuals. Check it out at chimbre.com!

chimbre.jpg

So you can have a quick listen (well quick being 15 minutes) to the track on my Soundcloud - http://soundcloud.com/el-cubist/enuui-chimbre-feat-mauxuam-greg-hunter

This track is a collaborative track with Mauxuam and Greg Hunter, who if you've been reading some of my earlier posts are Cloudcycle. I have a bunch of samples I got off them and have tried making a few tracks, but they just haven't cut it. This one though is more fitting towards a halfway point between my sound and their sound.

Also I am in the process of creating a Sufi-esque Persian piece of ambient drum and bass for the experimental noise/jazz/drumfunk d'n'b label Pinecone Moonshine. Nic TVG, the label boss, has been a good friend for many years back when I was running Exegene, and I'm glad to be now working on something for his wicked label, which has some great artists on like Macc, dgoHn, Fanu, Jiva, Ibunshi, Parallel, Eschaton, and of course Nic TVG himself.

Also looking forward to seeing Hallucinogen live, Shpongle DJ set, and Eat Static live in London in a couple of weeks, as well as seeing the African Soul Rebels tour in Manchester with Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Oumou Sangaré, and the Kalahari Surfers.

Thursday 4 February 2010

It's Orb Thursday!

A selection of some fine Orbish moments. Starting with

The Orb - Dolly Unit (Baghdad Batteries : Malicious Damage Records : 2009)

The Orb - Bedouin (The Sheik's Film Mix) (Orblivion Remastered : Island Records : 2008)

The Orb - Super Soakers (Baghdad Batteries : Malicious Damage Records : 2009)

The Orb - O.O.B.E. (U.F.Orb : Big Life Records : 1992)

and one of my favourites

The Orb vs Youth - Appletree In My Backyard (Abakus Remix) (Illuminations : Liquid Sound : 2006)

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Dubsahara - Luxor-8

This might just be contender for podcast of the year, even though its still January. Greg Hunter's nailed a sound that he puts it best , a soundtrack for a 'taxi ride to Cairo via Hyderabad'. So clean the Saharan dust out yer ears, and tune in to some exquisite Persian electronica.

Tracklisting:

oum kalsoum
rayo el 7abib
bahauddin dagar
egyptian folk beladi
cheb khaled
nusrat fateh ali khan – mustt mustt
assala
ethiopian vox + tipper
naa jeney bhool bujhona
persian clouds
shereen
divine thread
jannat_Menn
dubsahara – zentropy
wild marmalade – air (featuring avishai)

made in ableton live

for Abd Sattar

Now if I could only get the Soundcloud player to embed I'd have it here. But it doesn't work, so you're going to have to get your trigger finger to click either:

http://soundcloud.com/dubsahara/luxor-8 To Stream

or visit Greg's website - dubsahara.com where you can stream and download if you register.

I'll see if I can get permission to rehost.

Enjoy!

Saturday 9 January 2010

Best of 2009!

Hope everyone's enjoying the start of 2010 and getting creative. I'm in the process of selecting some artwork for my album, which should be done very soon. Also as of yesterday enuui.org is 1!!! Anyway I'd like to give a roundup of my favourite discoveries released last year.

1. It's got to be Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland. There were mixed reviews of this (mainly people who'd pinched it off the net before it was released). I was going to review it myself but I know I won't find the words for how magical this is. So album of 2009 for me, and the tune with Manu Delago 'Nothing Is Something Worth Doing' was tune of 2009.

2. Banco de Gaia - Dreams, Memories, Reflections. I was caining this when I first got it, brilliant production all round, but wasn't going to expect anything less. I've not played it in the last month so I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

3. Cinnamon Chasers - A Million Miles From Home. A quirky electro (borderline) pop album by Abakus. Totally what I wasn't expecting, and its quite different than my usual listening taste. It's got some great catchy tunes and the tune Luv Deluxe has one of the best music videos of the year.

4. Alaska & Paradox - Isolationist. Classic tight as funk breaks with extremely ethereal textures and the purest basslines from one of my favourite jungle producers. Best jungle album of last year. Shame about the album cover (no offense to Dev, the few times I've met him, he's been the nicest fella, but compared to his Outsider compilation art, it boils down to being a mugshot).

5. Cloudcycle's ongoing super album. Mauxuam & Greg Hunter's extremely varied collaborative project from the crunchiest dystopian dub to angelic drones and textures to dusty Saharan breaks. All of its free too and available from cloudcycle.net.

Also big shouts to some interesting producers of '09 - Zen Baboon, The 13th Tribe, Slownoise, Hunee, Manu Delago, Morphy, Eschaton, Fada, Master Margherita, Aes Dana !!! BIG POSITIVE VIBES FROM ALL OF YOU!

Monday 21 December 2009

Forthcoming Enuui album - 'Mindstate Disposition'

Sorry on the lack of updates, but its been worth it. I'm one track away from completing my album - 'Mindstate Disposition'. It's an hour of ethno-ambient works. There's a few drums here and there, but not many. Lots of meditative drones with Indian instrumentation weaved in and out. It's mainly inspired by Youth's 'Catching Fire From A Distance' album.

I've decided to let you own mp3's of it for free. Donation of your choice for flac/wav. Also looking at getting it pressed on CompactStick. A CD sized case with art, but where the CD should be is a USB stick, which I can have the high quality music, a collection of art, videos, text, and bonus mixes. Not sure when I'll be able to get this out, hopefully by February. This I'll sell for minimum unit price + p&p + £5 donation to amazonwatch.org, so I guess it'll roughly be £10.

Anyway, I have some artwork coming for it. It'll be based around this:

Photo by Chris Evans.

Preview of the album & one free flac download of 'Slow Moving Thoughts' available on my Soundcloud. Check it here, http://soundcloud.com/el-cubist/sets/mindstate_disposition

Thanks for the support over this year!

Tuesday 10 November 2009

A Varanasi Meditation Overdub Selection

It's about time I did another mix. This time its going more meditative ambient styles, theres a few beats here and there but not many.

I present a loosely blended and overdubbed selection of ambient chillout influenced by Mother India. Dedicated to the Holy city of Varanasi.

01. Transglobal Underground - Ana
02. Shpongle - Saudade Pt. II
03. Greg Hunter - Siliconectar V1 (Candle Dance Mix)
04. Kuba - The Operative Word
05. Urmila Devi Goenka - Shiva Manas Puja
06. Elysium - Fairytale
07. Mind Over Matter - Sri Ram
08. Mind Over Matter - Brahman

extra track with its vinyl crackling fabulousness
09. Quintessence - Sri Ram Chant

Right click here to download. 59mb : 45 minutes long : V2 mp3. Or to stream visit http://soundcloud.com/el-cubist/enuui-varanasi-meditation-overdub-mix

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Monday 7 September 2009

Banco de Gaia - Memories Dreams Reflections

A little post & heads up for the new Banco album (which arrived this morning, and is getting its full listen right now..... brilliant so far btw.)

I formed Banco de Gaia with Andy Guthrie back in 1989, that's 20 years ago in case you didn't work it out, so it seems appropriate to do something in an anniversary mood. (No, I'm not buying Andy a ring). The new album is in effect that something, a kind of 20 year retrospective with a difference.

The title, as revealed previously, is "Memories Dreams Reflections" and the music can be broken up into three sections. Oh, and it's a double CD for those of you who still buy such things, or a damned big download.

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Disc 1 begins with the 'Reflections' bit. This is a selection of cover versions of tunes which hugely inspired and influenced me in my formative years. To be precise it is a full length version of "Echoes" by Pink Floyd (that's 22 minutes), "Starless" by King Crimson and, as some of you may have worked out from recent live shows, "Spirit Of The Age" by Hawkwind.

The rest of Disc 1 is the 'Dreams'. These are reworkings of early Banco tunes which will be familiar to anyone who knows the original cassette albums but mostly unknown apart from that. Ranging from faithful recreation to extreme reworking, the tracks are "Soufie", "Tempra" and "Terra Om".

Disc 2 brings the 'Memories'. It's a 78 minute selection of live recordings taken from over the years and including early solo Banco rave anthems, through the 5-piece live band of the mid/late-90s and continuing on into the 'Toby and Ted' years up to the current live video show (without the video obviously, this is an audio CD).

So, getting on for two and a half hours of music, hope that makes up for the wait.

So head over to banco.co.uk to order! Very reasonably priced and impeccable delivery.

Friday 31 July 2009

Beardyman does ambient!

Made totally on the fly! Beardyman does some beatboxing into a rack of effects and comes out looking like Biosphere at the other end. BIG, and beautiful!


Beardyman - Clouds

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Some new music from myself.

Finally I got these done. Took a lot of tweaking and took a lot more effort to stop tweaking!

If you'd like to download them, then just right click and 'Save target as..' here to download a zip of both tunes and some artwork.

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Thursday 14 May 2009

Thoughts In Widescreen

I know much things haven't been said lately, for I've been working a lot on my own production (coming along real nicely after some epiphanic (is that a word? ) shit), and way to keep things moving check out these latest videos made for DJ Trax. Some stunning graphics and animation to some of my most anticipated beats this year.
These songs will explain themselves better than I can. Some chilled ambient breakbeats.


DJ Trax - Thoughts In Widescreen

DJ Trax - A Change Soon Come

If you like this then check out his website on my links to the right, and his new album 'Thoughts In Widescreen' is available with this months Knowledge, a drum and bass magazine, which can be ordered online from various places. So for £4 you get the album, and then you can do whatever with the mag, shred it up, use it as hamster bedding or whatever. Check kmag.co.uk for more info.

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