Author: Stoneygate

Playlist of the Week (2018/38)

Playlist of the Week (2018/38): r/DreamFolk_, curated by Tommy Wilson

This week’s Playlist of the Week comes from the recently formed “Dreamfolk_” community on Reddit.com.  There are some really lovely tracks here, mostly from artists I hadn’t previously discovered, like Ben Howard and Wilsen. To be honest, before I found this group (via the Indiefolk subreddit), I was unaware of the ‘Dreamfolk’ genre label, even though it turns out it’s entirely my kind of music!  (So many sub-genres, so little time, as I’ve probably said before.)

The list is quite short at present, weighing in at under an hour at the time of writing, but hopefully as the Reddit community grows, there will be new additions and further discoveries to be made.

Being Quiet about the Noise

It’s ages since I wrote anything about what I’ve been up to musically. Although I’ve been really quiet, I’ve been pretty busy, apart from when I was decorating a room at Dad’s house.

I thought at the start of the summer that I’d be doing another Tune-A-Day-June, but was feeling really burned out and decided not to go forward with it, because it gets pretty exhausting anyway. Instead, it’s been a summer of collaborations, starting with a single that I worked on with another producer I met on Drooble. That hasn’t come out yet, as there are some admin type things that need sorting out before it’s released, but it’s finished and ready to go when we are.

Then there has been a track I’ve been helping Matt Steady develop for his upcoming album.It’s my return favour for Matt playing pipes on Home to Roost. I’m not sure quite how much of the specific detail I am allowed to reveal here, so I’ll avoid giving too much away, but it started out with me being sent an Uilleann pipe melody – just by itself, apart from a sound effect that ran under it. I figured out some chords for it, added a beat and synths, then it has bounced back and forth a bit ideas-wise, with Matt adding more layers with various instruments, switching the arrangement up, and me commenting on progress. Along the way, quite early on in the process, it turned into two separate tracks, in order to incorporate more of the ideas for where it might go.  It’s looking like I will get a final stab at the track to push the synths further on, once the drummer has recorded real drums to it, now that the structure and arrangement of the piece is so much more fully developed. I’m really looking forward to being able to hear the final version & for it to be released.

Something else that has been happening is the remix I started doing for John Clark. I had a selection of possible tracks for remixing and couldn’t decide which one to go with, and started playing with several different tracks that John had provided the audio for. That indecisiveness meant it has grown into an EP project, with me doing some vocals on the songs, too, as John was quite keen for that to happen. That project is about half-way to two-thirds complete, depending on whether it grows again before it goes out!

There are a few more collaborative projects simmering as well, plus some tracks of my own I was originally hoping to release during the summer before I realised quite how burnt out I was after the album release. It’s looking like I’ll be doing well to get those out as an EP during the autumn at the moment, but let’s see.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/37)

Playlist of the Week (2018/37): Into the Weekend, compiled by Ralf Dee.

This Monday’s Playlist of the Week is Into the Weekend by Ralf Dee. (Don’t be put off by the title, you can play it any day of the week you want!). This playlist is another by an indie artist supporting the broader community and features a wide range of styles and genres.

Ralf Dee is a folk/roots singer-songwriter / songwriter, based in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, in Bavaria, Germany. Although he is currently recording in German,  he has released two English language albums: Destination Unknown and Your Time Is Now and an EP, Just For A Little While.

After being asked repeatedly for German lyrics, he started writing in German at the end of 2014 and presented his first songs at open mic events in Bavarian cities. His first German-language album Glück Gehabt was released in Aug 2017. In addition to acoustic guitar and harmonica, he plays cajon with his feet to provide the rhythm section. His songs are miniature stories – often humorous – about quirky characters, traits such as greed and envy, global issues like climate change, or smaller, everyday problems.

His latest German-language single is called “Guilt belongs only to the others”,  released June 2018.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/36)

Playlist of the Week (2018/36): Adra Sengué's Independent Vol. 1

This Monday morning’s POTW is another one from Adra Sengué, manager at the independent electronica label Rogalist Records, whose ‘lis’ playlist I featured earlier in the year.

Independent Vol. 1 consists of some very listenable electronica – and other genres – from a range of independent artists.  The clue is in the title, of course. The electronic sounds are  supplied by such accomplished artists as Dephinite, Spaceschneider, Bufinjer and Leg Puppy; on the rock and acoustic side, Levy, Crooked Cat Adams, Errol Chugg and Deleo are among the goodies present. Not to mention the pop sensibilites of Kristina Lachaga and Electric Casanova.  Like the earlier playlist, some of the electronic artists are from the Rogalist stable, but not exclusively.

NB. Please be aware that a small proportion of the tracks on this playlist carry the ‘explicit’ label, so this playlist is not suitable for play within earshot of children or bosses.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/35)

Award winning choreographer Laura Kriefman's 'Star_Gazing' playlist is this week's POTW.

This week’s POTW is Star_Gazing by Laura Kriefman. It’s a crowd-sourced collection of songs about stars, space and the sky. I thought it would be an appropriate playlist for sitting outside after sundown, staring into space after a busy day in the heat of summer*.

Laura is an award winning choreographer, and founder of Hellion Trace, a Bristol-based company which specialises in ‘augmented dance’, bringing movement and technology together. A great example of their work was the Crane Dance in Bristol, where the group animated three cranes to music, captivating a live audience of 10,000 people – and a further 4 million online. Other creations have included a LED Dress that reacts to live sound, wearable controllers and a collection of street-installed constellations made of interactive lights that you have to step on to illuminate.

 

*If the weather isn’t behaving, please listen indoors – we don’t want you or your headphones to get wet!

Playlist of the Week (2018/34)

Playlist of the Week (2018/34): Relaxing Ambience, compiled by Susan Moss

This week we have another of DJ Sue’s playlists as POTW, and this one’s a cracker. Her Relaxing Ambience playlist brings together globally stellar artists such as Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey and Ed Sheeran. But it doesn’t stop there: a selection of unsigned artists feature, including Dan Fogelberg, Tracy Colletto, the must-hear Zialand, and yours truly. Barry Mcloughlin, whose Acoustic Treasures playlist was POTW a fortnight ago is also included, with his song Far, Far Away.

It’s a good playlist for working to, but you’ll need to put it on repeat or combine it with other playlists for a full workday, as it is one of the shorter playlists, at 50mins.

Playlist of the Week (2018/33)

Playlist of the Week (2018/33): ENILSounds' Traffic Jam List 2018

This week’s POTW is the fantastic Traffic Jam List 2018 from ENILSounds, aka Line Munch-Petersen, an indie musician from Copenhagen, Denmark. Line produces mainly electronic pop with a “sprechstimme” (simultaneously sung and spoken) style vocal delivery, but her collaboration with ZODALITT (Lise Jonsson) has taken her into some quite different musical territory with overtones of 1930s music halls, where her vocal performance style sounds very much at home.

Line’s Traffic Jam list focusses in on songs about travelling and journeys, both physical and metaphorical.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/32)

Playlist of the Week (2018/32): Barry McLoughlin's Acoustic Treasures collection.

This Monday’s POTW comes from a Dublin-born and Canadian-raised acoustic artist, Barry McLoughlin, who has been lauded for his songwriting as well as his vocals.

A resident of a small town Sioux Lookout, Ontario, McLoughlin is a prolific songwriter, who first appeared at Toronto’s Massey Hall, at just 17 years old.  For a taste of his sparsely produced guitar-folk ballads, check out the beautiful love song “Dulcinea“, or “Do You Still Believe?“.  If you like the music of Gordon Lightfoot, Iain Archer or Glen Hansard, I think you’ll enjoy his writing, too.

The Acoustic Treasures playlist is a collection of songs by lesser-known artists, which fit with the aesthetic – but not necessarily the genre – of his own music, where the songs speak for themselves. I really enjoyed playing it and hope you will too.

Playlist of the Week (2018/31)

Playlist of the Week - No 31: Electronic / Ambient / Future Garage, by Amanda Krause.

This week’s playlist of the week is Electronic / Ambient / Future Garage from Amanda Krause, a self-confessed workaholic bassist from Colorado, USA who has a day-job in Digital Marketing.

Amanda has assembled a wonderful collection of laid-back tunes, including some of my very favourite artists in the ambient electronica and trip-hop scenes, such as Boards of Canada and Massive Attack, who I consider among my musical influences. It’s a real honour for me, therefore, that Amanda accepted my instrumental Polarisation onto the list.

Playlist of the Week (2018/30)

Playlist of the week no 30 2018 - Cool for the Summer / Hot Summer Songs by Susan Moss

Cool for the Summer / Hot Summer Songs – this week’s POTW.

If you’ve not yet brought out the barbecue, or boogied on the beach this year, now’s the time!  This week’s playlist, Cool for the Summer / Hot Summer Songs is another from my friend Susan Moss, who has been working incredibly hard to support the indie music community, all while working on her own new material and keeping family life going.

This playlist is a fun one with a party flavour, with a mixture of chart hits and songs from lesser known artists. It’s perfect for a hot summer’s afternoon sizzling burgers over hot coals, but if the weather won’t play fair, stick the meat in the oven, play it loud and try to imagine some sunshine!