POTW (2019/7): Anima 27 by RE Junesworth

This week’s Playlist Of The Week is RE Junesworth’s lovely Anima 27: Surreal / Cosmic / Lo Fi / Synth / Psychedelic / Atmospheric / Ambient which they describe as, “a selection of electronic music with industrial influences, downtempo and lo fi, and some ambient tracks for calm breaks”. With it being instrumental, it’s the kind of playlist you can put on and leave playing in the background, allowing you to dig into work that requires some fairly deep concentration. And at over 8 hours long, you’re not going to need to worry about what to play next in the middle of a tricky task. Tracks range from those from better-known artists like Alan Gogoll, Lemongrass, Seneca B and Shpongle, to some hidden gems from some underground acts.

Although they would sit well in this playlist, it doesn’t include any Flungundi tracks at the time of writing. Flugundi is the home of RE Junesworth’s own artistic endeavours, which are well worth checking out.

And, if you enjoy this playlist and would like to explore further, there are actually a whole load of other Anima playlists from the same curator, with emphasis on different genres each time, but staying within the realms of chillout music.

POTW (2019/6): Electronica by Independent Female Artists

This week’s POTW is another compiled by Line Munch-Petersen (ENILSounds). In this playlist, she features tunes by female electronic artists who are unsigned or with independent record labels.

The music ranges from ambient through to electro-country with various shades of electronica, pop and rock in between. Some of the tracks have a darker feel to them, like Brexistentialism and The Elders Secret and some have clubby vibes, e.g. Corazon de Lluvia and There’s a Place for You. There are a lot of tracks on this playlist from artists I’d never heard before, so it’s a really good one for new music discovery, too. And if I’m not mistaken there’s a European flavour pervading the list, Brexistentialism included.

Rating: PG – it has a song or two flagged ‘explicit’, but is mostly ‘clean’.

POTW (2019/5): Yoga Chill by Michelle Qureshi

This week’s playlist of the week is Yoga Chill, from Michelle Qureshi, and brings together a selection of beautiful pieces in the chill out, new age, ambient and acoustic genres. You don’t need to be doing yoga to enjoy this playlist – it makes great background music for reading, studying or other non-physical activities, which is great if you’re an unbendy couch-potato like me.

Michelle Qureshi is an acoustic artist in her own right, writing and recording almost classical style new age and ambient pieces, often guitar based. She has several tracks in the playlist, so you can get a feel for her style. (She’s also included a couple of tracks by Andy Salvanos, who I’ve mentioned before in the blog.) Michelle brings a great deal of feeling to everything I’ve heard her do, and pieces like Never Odd Or Even can leave you floating off into some imaginary sunset, so I think you’ll really enjoy listening.

POTW (2019/4): Anything New

This week’s Playlist of the Week is more conventional – lots and lots of new music, collated by Trent Herzman, who is an indie artist himself, from Oceanside in California. If you’ve not heard Trent’s work before, check out the first couple of tracks for a sample, he has a great voice, a 60s psychedelic vibe and you can really hear the Californian influence.

Trent’s playlist Anything New is a collection of recent songs by independent artists. It’s not exclusive to any particular genre, but rock is well represented. It’s a nice quality collection – great recordings and production, strong melodies and lyrical content.

POTW (2019/3): Audiobooks and More!

And now for something completely different! I’ve featured a lot of music playlists in this feature so far, but this is the first time I think I’ve come across an audiobook playlist in my meanderings. This particular playlist also includes other spoken recordings. There are some classics on here, so it’s worth checking out to see if there is anything in this collection that you’ve always fancied reading or watching an adaptation of.

Happy New Year!

I’ve got off to a bit of a false start to the New Year. Having first got ill between Christmas and New Year, then recovered, I went down properly with whatever nasty virus it was a couple of days after the obligatory late night party with good friends and board games. (I knew something wasn’t quite right when I needed coffee at 11pm to stay awake to see the new year in & get home safely). Apparently there’s a lot of sickness about at the moment – hopefully you’ve avoided it!

False start aside, next week it’s going to be all systems go, with another Sync Songwriting Challenge – this time only 5 days long. If we are producing full tracks in that time, it will be tougher than last time, when we had 8 days, but very rewarding. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in.

The last few weeks have been a time to reflect on the ‘wins’ of 2018, and to consider goals for the new year. Obviously, releasing Survival was a major win – even though it feels like much longer than a year ago, it was only last May. I’ve been pleased with how well some of my songs from the album have been received, and with the feedback for Death Blinked First, the new single I put out in October.

The other big musical win for me has been working on my keyboard playing to try to become more proficient, which will give me more options for live performance. (It should also help with recording). I’m not yet at a stage where I would feel confident playing keys in front of an audience, but that is where I want to get to in the next few months – I’ve been using material I pre-prepared so far. I have wanted to be able to play ‘properly’ since I was about 10 years old, and I haven’t ever really cracked it. Earlier attempts have been with a classical approach, learning each hand separately then trying to make them work together, which is where things usually fell apart. This time, I’m approaching it as the guitarist that I am and making it all about the chords, working two-handed from the start to work on songs I already know. The songbooks are the same ones I used when I was learning guitar chords, which show the chord names over the piano part. There has been definite progress! I don’t have any plans to be able to play classical pieces, though. Just to be able to accompany singing with the right chords and improvise around that when the feeling takes me (without hitting any obviously bum notes) would make me very happy. If this approach helps me get to where I can sight-read some easier pieces, even better.

Before the drive to improve on keyboard got started, I took up playing mandolin in about mid October. I’ve had the instrument several years since a friend was cutting back on their collection and I couldn’t resist increasing mine. I had never quite got my head (fingers?) around it or put much time into learning the chords before. This time there’s been more of a purpose. I played this in public for the first couple of times just before Christmas, supporting my church’s service and some carol-singing outside a local supermarket. Sure, I made plenty of mistakes, especially at the open air event – my excuse is that my fingers and brain got a bit frozen. It was good fun, though, in spite of the chill, and we all warmed up afterwards with hot drinks and soup.

My next big musical win for 2018 was all the collaborations. I still have to complete various projects, but the ones that got finished relatively quickly are already out there and available to listen: my Bean Bag Remix of What Good Are the Stars by Manipulant, and synth work/song development on Durdle Door, by Matt Steady. I have a big ongoing project with some remixes for John Clark and several other smaller projects with other indie artists.

Finally, on the personal side, the big win has been the dramatic improvement in Dad’s health since he got out of hospital in February. It’s been great to see him recovering and his determination to get back to normal as far as possible. The icing on the cake was in mid-December, when the GP said he is happy Dad is fit to drive again. We still have some hurdles to jump over, but that milestone really made me feel happy.

So, that’s where things are up to… I’ll maybe post a bit more about some of my goals for 2019 soon, as it feels like there’s more to say, but this post is already a bit long. (It has been a while, after all…)

POTW (2019/2): Chillout at the Moondreams Cafe

Apologies, this is almost a day later posting than expected – I got knocked out of action by a New Years’ cold for a few days there. (Recovering now; normal service to be resumed ASAP).

This is one of my favourite playlists at the moment for when I’m doing non-musical work like filing my tax-return, which I did the other day. It does exactly what it says on the tin, as they say, with a bunch of songs familiar and new, many from artists you may well not be familiar with. There are covers, acoustic versions, and original versions and all perfectly suited for that half-listening-but-definitely-enjoying thing you do when the music is in the background to your main task.

The brains behind this list is Susan Moss of Moondreams Music, whose playlists I’ve featured before. This has got to be one of her best yet – enjoy!

POTW (2019/1): Simon's 2018 Top 10 on Spotify

I probably with hindsight should have made a playlist with all my own favourite tracks from the year, but that would have required I start making notes a year ago. Maybe next year! Instead, I have this lovely little selection from Simon Irvine, aka the artist Stuffamebobs, who I have mentioned before. (I’m extremely honoured to have a song included on this list, as well 🙂 )
Got to dash! Wishing you a Happy New Year, and I’ll be back on Monday with a new playlist for you, with the focus being on the new.

POTW (2019/1): Simon’s 2018 Top 10 on Spotify

I probably with hindsight should have made a playlist with all my own favourite tracks from the year, but that would have required I start making notes a year ago. Maybe next year! Instead, I have this lovely little selection from Simon Irvine, aka the artist Stuffamebobs, who I have mentioned before. (I’m extremely honoured to have a song included on this list, as well 🙂 )
Got to dash! Wishing you a Happy New Year, and I’ll be back on Monday with a new playlist for you, with the focus being on the new.

Playlist of the Week (2018/52)

Playlist of the Week No 52, 2018 Winter Wanderer, curated by Barry McLoughlin

You’ve probably still got a way to go with last week’s Alternative Christmas playlist, but here’s another choice for your Christmas listening, and it’s very classy.

Our POTW this week is the lovely Winter Wanderer playlist, compiled by Barry McLoughlin, whose Acoustic Treasures playlist I featured all the way back in August. This set of songs is in much the same folky singer-songwriter vein, with a fair sprinkling of songs about Christmas, snow and the winter season.

I imagine you’re more organised than me and had the Christmas presents wrapped months ago and you’re pretty much all set to go. (I always manage to leave something to the last minute).  Hopefully you have some time off over Christmas, for time with family and time to reflect on the actual meaning of the season as well as enjoying the trappings and a glass of something comforting.

So it’s a very happy Christmas from me… I’ll be bringing you some more playlists in due course, but would love to know what you’ve thought of the series so far and where you’d like it to go next year.