low light mixes

Ambient Twang

 

I remember the first time I heard the Daniel Lanois tunes From Eno's Apollo album, I didn't really care for them. I didn't like the pedal steel guitar. I absolutely hated country music back then and I associated the sound of pedal steel with country and nothing else. 

 

Eventually, the tunes grew on me and I've come to love the sound of pedal steel guitar. I also came around on country-tinged music as I fell in love with indie-folk which can make great use of traditional instrumentation minus the pickups trucks, girls & booze of crappy country.

 

This brings me back around to pedal steel in ambient. There's not a ton of it out there but definitely enough for a good mix. There are four main practitioners of ambient twang - Daniel Lanois, Chuck Johnson, Bruce Kaphan and Chas Smith. I think they all have appeared in earlier Low Light Mixes. All four are in this mix as well as Eno/Lanois tunes, some oddball selections, and some YouTube recordings. Many of the tracks here use an actual pedal steel guitar and some use lap steel.

 

Up next - synth sequencer heaven.

 

Cheers!

 

 

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Brian Eno - Weightless
• 04:15    Bruce Kaphan - Outpost
• 11:55    Chas Smith - Santa Fe
• 14:00    Chuck Johnson - Balm of Gilead
• 21:05    Daniel Lanois - In Crystal
• 24:22    Will Van Horn - Aphex Twin - Avril 14 on pedal steel
• 26:18    Joe Carolino - Ambient drone with lap steel & guitar
• 32:53    Youth - Lotus Rhubarb(Colliding Sky Whale Dub)
• 34:18    The National Pool - Solace
• 36:15    Ryan Lutton - Ambient Improv XXIII
• 39:03    Brian Eno - Deep Blue Day
• 42:28    Xploding Plastix - Ritalin For Four Pedal Steel Guitars
• 49:05    Chuck Johnson - Eye on the Sparrow
• 55:42    Brian Eno - Last Step from the Surface
• 59:31    end

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guitarissimo #2 - In a Languid Mood

 

I've been planning on doing a follow up to Guitarisimo, a mix from April of 2017. When several albums from 2018 fit the sound I knew I had to do the mix now.

 

The album that got me started is "Con Todo El Mundo" by Khruangbin. It's one of my favorite records this year. Entirely guitar-based it's sound include surf music, Latin, Thai & Indian music. I highly recommend it.

 

https://khruangbin.bandcamp.com/album/con-todo-el-mundo-n-s-america-edition

 

Most of this mix sounds like it grew from that album with a few ambient sidetracks. This is a nice follow up to the Warming Trend mix post a couple of weeks ago because this music sounds like it should be listened to in hot weather. Grab an El Diablo or a Chalino Special and enjoy.

 

Cheers!

 

 

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Opez - Carlos Primero(2015)
• 03:00    Dans Dans - Zephyr(2014)
• 07:05    Youth - Lotus Rhubarb (Colliding Sky Whale Dub)(2018)
• 08:47    Fleetwood Mac - Albatross(1975)
• 11:50    Dead Combo - In A Mellotron(2018)
• 16:00    David Byrne & Brian Eno - Solo Guitar with Tin Foil(1981)
• 17:05    Alexandre Desplat - Les Paris(2012)
• 18:05    Dan Phelps - Cumulonimbus(2011)
• 21:50    Khruangbin - Como Te Quiero(2018)
• 25:46    Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos - Aurora en Pekhn(1998)
• 31:08    Ozgur Yilmaz - Karincalar(2016)
• 33:49    Ezra Feinberg - Experinece Near(2018)
• 39:52    Seabuckthorn - Inner(2018)
• 43:00    Calexico - Longboard(2018)
• 45:50    Paul White - Returning(2018)
• 50:05    Dans Dans - Au Hasard(2013)
• 54:35    The National Pool - Solace(2018)
• 56:40    Slow Clinic - Salt(2018)
• 58:55    Chequerboard - A Field of Night(2013)
• 64:35    Ruven Nunez - Evening Song(2017)
• 78:08    end

 

 

 

Guitarissimo

 

 

I love moody guitar music with a bit of dust and twang. In an earlier mix, Mysterioso, I included a cut by Dead Combo.  Their music was new to me.  I was interested to learn from a listener that they are from Portugal and have achieved cult status there. 

 

That listener directed me to a mix he'd done with a Dead Combo track.  I love the mix, you find it here...  https://www.mixcloud.com/jorgempaulino/here-it-begins/   His other mixes are excellent as well.

 

After hearing that mix I just knew I had to create a guitar based mix that was a bit spaghetti western and dusty, moody, twangy with a little Latin feel.  The result is this new mix - Guitarissimo.  I stole that title from an album by Roxy Music guitarist, Phil Manzanera, who also has a track in the mix.  I tried not to steal too much from the "Here It Begins" mix but I just had to use the Yo La Tengo song from that mix in this one too.

 

I really like how this turned out and I hope to do a follow up sometime.

 

Cheers!

 

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Dead Combo - Aquele Beijo Eterno
• 01:50    Ry Cooder - Paris, TX
• 04:15    Daniel Lanois - Satie
• 08:14    Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow
• 13:18    Ocelote Rojo - Untitled #1
• 15:55    Phil Manzanera - Criollo
• 20:42    Calexico - The news about William
• 23:10    TSU! - The Sun Club
• 26:10    David Sylvian - Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples
• 27:55    Matt Borghi - Truth and Being
• 32:20    The MDH Band - Bathtub
• 33:15    Eraldo Bernocchi and Prakash Sontakke - From Star to Star
• 38:15    Dead Combo - Quando a alma nao e pequena
• 40:50    Brian Eno - Weightless
• 45:00    Cyber Zen Sound Engine - No East, No West
• 50:30    Danial Lanois - Plains of Abraham
• 52:43    William Ryan Fritch - Siri Song
• 54:38    Peals - Blue Elvis
• 59:03    Calexico - Amor Adolescente
• 59:40    Dead Combo - Ana
• 61:55    TSU! - Dadebe
• 63:50    One Mile North - Parents Arrive
• 69:22    end

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guitar-scapes

I believe I have professed my love for ambient guitar in previous posts here.  So a mix like this is no surprise.  Just as many of the artists collected in this mix are no surprise. Dirk Serries, Scott Solter, David Tagg, Windy & Carl, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Fripp & Eno - these are all artists that have appeared in many of my mixes over the years.

The music here is fairly straightforward - ambient tunes where the guitar is the most prominent instrument.  Some of the cuts are beautiful, others a bit darker, but all will easily transport the listener to a favorite meditative place.

Enjoy

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Tonepoet - Headspace
• 07:00    Chas Smith - False Clarity
• 10:50    A Lily - Hunter and Sky
• 13:45    David Tollefson - Pattern of Islands
• 16:45    Jasper Tx - Embers
• 21:10    Fripp and Eno - Heavenly Music Corp(half speed)
• 26:20    Dirk Serries - The Lament Broke
• 36:40    Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Hungover
• 46:25    Robin Guthrie - Misty
• 49:45    Matt Borghi - The Elysian Plain
• 54:27    Sleep Robot - Prayer Wheel
• 1:00:37    Windy and Carl - Ode to a Dog
• 1:04:50    Gareth Hardwick - Five Points
• 1:14:14    David Tagg - Wolf Suite III
• 1:17:55    Hakobune - A Distant Loss
• 1:24:10    Shaula - Sea of Trees
• 1:27:27    Manual - Always Alone
• 1:33:36    Brian Siskind - Graham Bell
• 1:38:00    Koda - Moment on the South Shore
• 1:42:10    Scott Solter - The Palace Wedding
• 1:46:10    Dirk Serries - Radiant Down
• 1:54:36    end

left in the desert

These are songs that conjure up images of wind blown landscapes, tumbleweeds, sunbleached rocks, dusty roads and heat waves rising off the ground. Of course most of the music in this mix has an ambient/atmospheric feel. I remember the first time I heard Daniel Lanois' use of slide guitar on "Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks", I hated it. I guess I thought of the slide guitar as too close to "country music" which I definitely hated. Well over the years I've come around on the slide guitar, I love it now. I'm still not a big country music fan, though I do have a ton of Johnny Cash recordings. I've come to appreciate the lonely, melancholy feel that can be expressed through twangy, dusty western music. Of course the ultimate in great ambient twang is Ry Cooder's "Paris, TX" soundtrack. That makes an appearance in this mix along with standbys like Lanois, Steve Roach & A Small Good Thing. I was happy to sneak in a piano tune, "Alice & twins" by Japancakes. It just sort of fit with the overall feel & then the slide guitar comes in to make it even more "dusty". Whether it's the twang of an acoustic guitar, the wail of a harmonica or the ethereal sound of a slide guitar, this mix will drop you off on an abandoned rail line in the middle of nowhere.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Earth - left in the desert
• 00:45    George Winston - Farewell
• 01:50    Ry Cooder - nothing out there
• 03:00    Chas Smith - an hour out of desert center
• 03:50    Bill Frisell - lonely man
• 04:52    p.g. six - 6 for wire, strung harp with slide
• with Steve Roach buried underneath
• 06:15    A Small Good Thing - drowning light
• 09:00    Daniel Lanois - Asylum
• 11:30    Steve Roach & Roger King - rain & creosote
• 15:30    Six Organs of Admittance - oak path
• 18:50    Balmorhea - Palestrina
• 20:10    Steve Tibbetts - kili-ki drok
• 21:10    Balmorhea - on the weight of the night
• 25:00    Esmerine - There Were No Footprints In The Dust Behind Them
• 27:35    Badgerlore - goodnight, sweet rabbits
• 29:20    Chronomad - aksak
• 33:50    Ennio Morricone - man with a harmonica
• 34:10    Japancakes - Alice & twins
• 37:50    Steve Roach - new moon at forbidden mesa
• 38:20    Loren Mazzacane Connors - lullaby (the 1st)
• 40:10    July Skies - branch line summers fade
• 41:45    end

I wish I could drown the world in reverberation

I am starting to repeat myself. I've done two piano mixes, two string theory mixes, two winter mixes and now a second guitar mix. I decided to do a new guitar mix because I seem to have come across a lot of good guitar music lately. All the tracks on this mix are new, from either 2006 or 2007. The music ranges from electric to acoustic. Originally I intended to do a feedback-filled guitarscape like a long Peter Wright song. But in the end the music in this mix is fairly straight forward. Some is ambient, some is pretty, some is droney(is that a word?). I hope you enjoy it. T R A C K L I S T :

1. 00:00 - 00:50 Peter Broderick - Balloon Bomb
2. 00:50 - 02:00 twinsistermoon - I wish I could drown the world in reverberation
3. 02:00 - 08:20 Robert Fripp - Tallinn
4. 08:20 - 20:30 Meursault - Sleeping Debris
5. 20:30 - 23:30 Origamibiro - Gathers in Puddles
6. 23:30 - 25:30 Wooden Spoon - Untitled #10
7. 25:30 - 30:20 Wixel - Nowhere
8. 30:20 - 33:40 Brian Grainger - wind calmly bends our hair
9. 33:40 - 36:20 Hisato Higuchi - Kizauto
10. 36:20 - 40:30 øjeRum - tonerum
11. 40:30 - 41:40 Area C - Daymarks
12. 41:40 - 45:10 Peter Wright - Folk Song for Contradiction
13. 45:10 - 49:20 Christopher Flores - Farewell Son
14. 49:20 - 53:30 Oren Armbachi - fever, a warm poison
15. 53:30 - 59:20 Meursault - Mirror
16. 59:20 - 02:20 Six Organs of Admittance - Goodnight
17. 02:20 - 04:30 Wooden Spoon - Untitled #1