Umber

Send in the Drones: New Ambient mix, Free Download, 320kbps

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Ok time for a welcome change of pace and a return to the chill out room. This mix I've been planning for over a year now, but hadn't found the time to sit down and really work on the idea until just recently. Initially I wanted to make a mix of purely droney, ambient music but I kept coming across tunes that fitted too well with the flow of the mix which weren't droney at all, but the title, had to stay, so for those Ambient Drone purists, I hope you won't mind the occasional forays into recognisable melody and occasional beat. :). My original idea was to showcase ambient drones and, apart from the notable exceptions, I think that idea is still at the heart of the mix. If you disagree, well... tough. It's very important for me to thank a few people who were instrumental in making this mix happen: Ali at Inspiral Cafe who originally muttered that he didn't like ambient drones which made me want to prove him wrong; Ryan at A Strangely Isolated Place blog for the Ex Confusion track that will be coming out in ASIP's new "Places" series, along with the Echaskech "626" track which was specifically written for my BT Tower video as well as general awesomeness for all his support of awesome electronic leftfield music, without which I wouldn't have found so much of the music that I love today; to Future Sequence for their wonderfully free "SEQUENCE" compilations which you can get from their website, to Andy from Digitonal for the recommendation of the fantastic Leaves "Leaving Eleven" compilation, another great ambient freebie; to Ed McFarlane for his inspirational soundcloud mix "Bells of Adderbury Church (bellsofadderburychurch by edmacfarlane) (where I shamelessly nicked the first track from); To Echaskech for their continued patience and support, as well as the awesome 626 track; To Tom Green (Another Fine Day), for him generosity and musical genius, and finally to Jean "Moebius" Giraud (http://www.moebius.fr/), who's artwork I've used for this, who sadly died March 10, 2012. Moebius was, without a doubt, the finest and most moving comic book artist I've ever come across, and though his style and influence can been seen in most of the sci-fi blockbusters over the last 30 years or more, it's his stories that touch me the most; The Airtight Garage, Incal, Arzach just to name a few all moved in a different plane from other writers & artists, blending sci fi with a journey into surrealism, humour and spirituality. Gir, you will be missed and remembered forever and this mix is dedicated to your memory. STOE ORKEO! Tracklisting (links to the free downloadable ones) 00:00 Mark McGuire - Alma (reprise) 01:00 Echaskech - Tundra (from Future Sequence - SEQUENCE2 ) 05:27 Jonsi & Alex - Boy 1906 08:22 Future Sound of London - Max 11:06 Mara Carlyle - Pianni (From Accidental Records) 13:07 Maps & Diagrams - Domane (from Future Sequence - SEQUENCE2 ) 15:41 Mountains - Blue Lanterns On East Oxford 19:17 Panda Bear - Drone 22:39 Widesky - _____ is Also Movement (from Future Sequence - SEQUENCE2 ) 26:20 Ex Confusion - Before We Begin (Forthcoming release on Asip Places) 30:10 Digitonal - Polaris (From Leaves - Leaving 11) 32:54 Verülf - Iroko (From Verulf -Territorial) 35:00 Hammock - Longest Year 37:20 Vangelis - Love Theme 41:00 Umber - I Wasn't Aiming For The Ocean (Asip exclusive) 46:50 The Bird and the Bee - Spark 50:30 Parks - Song for Autumn 59:15 Biosphere - Monju-2 1:02:55 Jon Hopkins - Journey 1:05:11 Another Fine Day - Spring Song 1:07:37 Echaskech - 626 (Forthcoming release from Asip Places)  Send In The Drones by machv

Mach V @ Back To Mine, 20110727 & 20110720, Deershed 2011 & New free Echaskech track!

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Ok there's lots to tell you about this week. First off please accept my apologies for no update last weekend - I was with Echaskech at Deershed 2011 as part of Just Music's day up there, (along with lable mates Digitonal and Laki Mera) but more on that later. Last Friday morning Echaskech, along with the vocal talents of Napoleon Complex,  released their new track, "Change the Station" as a free download from Soundcloud. My video for it is on the Echaskech youtube page

As well as on my Vimeo page,

both available in glorious 720p. Initially I wanted to visually represent Napoleon's desire to make his point about broadcast news. The first idea was to have Napoleon being the one holding the bill board/placard, gagged. The idea being that the act of protesting would be his message, and even as an individual it could still be done, but sadly Napoleon lives in Naples, Italy (hence the name) so we changed it to just be Dom, representing Echaskech, or the music supporting what Napoleon has to say. Dom holding up the placard with Napoleon on it is a metaphor of Echaskech's music supporting Napoleon's lyrics. Shooting took place over the easter weekend on my trusty Panasonic HDC HS300 (we got Napoleon to film himself and send us the footage) and the editing was done in Final Cut Pro, then round tripped into After Effects to comp Napoleon on to the placard by Dom and then back to mine for a final treatment in FCP. We're all very happy and proud of it.

Deershed must be one of the most child friendly festivals I've even been to. We reckoned that the children out numbered the adults 2 to 1, the average age of the audience must've been about 12 years old. On Saturday night, at 11pm, just as we were ready to go out on the tented town and party, all the entertainment stopped and by 11:20pm the arena was a ghost town... quite an eerie experience for a old festival vet like my self. However as our soundcheck was at 8.30am(!) it was probably for the best.

Though we were playing at 1pm on a blisteringly bright Sunday afternoon, I was relieved to see that Deershed had sourced a properly dark tent for us to perform in, which meant that i hadn't traipsed up with my vj rig in tow for another wasted journey, only to watch the boys play from the sidelines. Much thanks to the lovely people at Deershed and at Just Music for making it a very special day for us all. And then, if that wasn't enough, Just Music announce that one of the Echaskech tracks "The Calm" is to be included on Linn Records "Just Music exclusive" compilations. Yes, that's right: the same Linn records that orginally signed The Blue Nile. How awesome is that?

Anyway, now on to the podcasts, which there are two of, this week. first off is the one I couldn't upload last weekend due to Deershed - BTM20110720 - and secondarily the one from this week, which is BTM20110727. There you go, 3 hours of music for you.  :) And here are the

Tracklistings

BTM20110720

Biosphere - Sendai-1
Future 3 - Frisk
Vital Substance - Riding Storms (Vsubs rerub)
Boards of Canada - Oscar See Though Red Eye
Jon Hopkins - A Drifting Up
Thurston Moore - Space
My Panda Shall Fly - Injury (Nightwave remix)
Ike Release - Nature Manipulation
Peverelist - Clunk Click every trip
Burial - South London Boroughs
Machine Drum - It's that Bass
Ellen Alien & Apparat - Way Out (Club edit)
John Tejada - Unstable Condition
Tim Exile - When Everyday's a number
Jamie XX - Beat For

BTM20110720 by machv

BTM20110727

Umber - A Song for Two Seasons 
Biosphere - Shika-1 
Future 3 - A Sound 
65daysofstatic - Debutante 
I'm not a Gun - Never Meant to Be 
Radiohead - No Surprises 
Echaskech & Napoleon Complex - Crusader 
Tim Exile - Carouselle 
Untold - Don't Know. Don't Care 
Scuba - Tense 
XXXY - Blue Flashing Lights 
Jack Sparrow - Loveless 
Sigha - Expansions 
Pangaea - Coiled 
Chechan - Siberia 
Perverelist - Infinity is now 
Machine Drum - Mean Mean 
Adam F (footwork edit) - Circles 
Omni Trio (footwork edit) - Renegade Snares 
Bibio - Saint Christopher

BTM20110727 by machv