Author: Stoneygate

Playlist of the Week (2018/13)

This week’s POTW is the wonderfully named Keep Calm and Walk with the Elephant*, from Iced Note Music.   The Elephant in the title is a reference to Elephant State, which is a band in Iced Note’s stable and who have some tracks included on the playlist – I particularly like the driving Heritage.

The playlist has a broad variety of electronic music from electro house to noise, as well as tracks from other genres, so there should be something in there to please most listeners.

*No animals were harmed in the writing of this blogpost.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/12)

This week’s POTW comes from Russell Suereth. Russ creates spiritual new age music and you can best hear his work via another playlist of his, Enigma and Russell Suereth.

Russ’s Freshly Picked Selections playlist is an eclectic mixed bag, as far as genres are concerned, but the common theme throughout these songs is that Russ has championed unsigned artists.

Disclaimer: there are a few songs in this list with the ‘explicit’ label. If that is likely to cause offence, please do use the skip button when these come up!

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/11)

This week’s POTW is from Daniel Feinberg, an indie artist based in Seattle.  My personal favourite of his (so far) is the charming Hand Drawn Map, which I’ve included in my Chilled Folk Playlist.

Daniel’s playlist is a showcase of unsigned artists, and is aptly titled Undiscovered.

Playlist of the Week (2018/10)

What’s really great about being in a community of independent musicians is how many artists really understand that we’re in this together, and that we all benefit when we do things that help each other out and work together.

My POTW for this week is another female-focussed playlist, drawing attention to lesser-known women in music. Let’s Hear it for the Girls is another playlist from Susan Moss / MoonDreams, who has been amazingly supportive of my work; she’s even been very kind, putting Sleepwalker at the top of this list (at the time of writing) – the best spot. Being a fairly prolific playlister, her name will crop up again – I just haven’t written that article yet!

One of Susan’s most recent offerings, Keep Moving (Basement Recording), is on my Chilled Retro playlist currently, and is a raw folk-rock song about keeping going when the going is tough, which I can rather relate to after everything that’s been going on with my Dad’s health the last few months.

I hope you enjoy listening to this little slice of girl-power… more to come!

High Time for A Dad Update

As I write this, I’m at my parents’ house, waiting for a delivery. It’s to replace a mobility aid which was already delivered for Dad, but my sister tried to demonstrate how it would fold down to fit in the car and one of the plastic levers broke off in her hand. Dad’s still in hospital but could be home by the time you read this, it’s that close.

The last week or so has been chaotic, including Dad having an operation and then a false alarm late last week when the hospital staff briefly forgot that they hadn’t finished the job off. Dad was looking too well to still be in hospital a couple of days after going under the knife and they were so pleased with his recovery they told him he could go home later that day. I got a somewhat jumbled message which sounded like Dad might be taking French leave and trying to make his own way home (with no money or house key), and had to make an unexpected hospital dash to track him down because his phone was going straight through to voicemail every time. By the time I got there, he’d been told it was an error and everything looked normal apart from the bed looking like it had been made up already for the next patient.

There are still a few loose ends to tie up, but moves are now underway to sort out the final details after Dad escapes. I’m half expecting him to do a little dance when he gets here; he has had his bags packed and ready to go for several days already after last week’s near-miss.

The plan earlier this afternoon was that when the replacement kit arrived, I would phone someone from the hospital, and that would be the trigger to finally allow Dad’s escape from the hospital. I’m still waiting, but the goalposts have moved and they are going to allow Dad to go home this evening, as soon as his meds have been dispensed. Sensible decision: it’s only a lever for folding the mobility aid down that broke off.

It seems like every time Dad has been moved to a new place during the 4 months+ that he’s been in hospital, it has snowed this winter.  So it’s fitting that today we’ve had a few blasts of heavy snow – interspersed with bright sunny weather.

Playlist of the Week (2018/9)

This week’s POTW is another one from Atom Collector Records, who are doing a great job of championing musicians who release music independently of any record label via their site, Soundcloud and Spotify in particular.

This playlist is from their ‘the 100’ series, where they put together 100 tracks (or thereabouts) from lesser-known musicians, and it features classical and ambient tracks. It is still being compiled as I write, as there are much less than 100 tracks currently. That means you’ll have to come back later and listen again if you want to get the full ambient goodness of it.

Playlist of the Week (2018/8)

Today’s POTW, Girls Who Can, is compiled by CeCe Hemmingway, one half of British electronic act Hemmingway.  Based in Chelmsford, Essex, the band have a big, contemporary, sound bridging the gap between electronica and guitar based rock, with David Moriaty’s cutting solos.

It’s worth pointing out that CeCe not only provides the vocals, she’s also a skilled music producer, as you will hear on tracks such as Rise Again. In fact, all the tracks on this playlist are produced by women: let’s hear it for the girls!

Playlist of the Week (2018/7)

This week’s POTW comes from artist The Transient Creep of Olivine, from Texas, who has kindly included Savannah and Spiralesque in their Instrumentals playlist. Again, this playlist features artists that would mostly fall under the radar, so it’s another great one for music discovery.

The Transient Creep’s own music is magical and ever so slightly dystopian – I recommend With the Rabbit, Down the Hole, which conjures up that whole feeling of Alice in Wonderland, which is presumably an intentional reference in the track’s title.