UPDATE, 6/26/2020: For the second fucking year in a row, i've failed to finish the liner notes. I've also failed to create and distribute the CDs. It's a miracle i've even gotten the track listings finalized in time.
This has been sitting here in draft form since last November. I'm just gonna publish it as-is, and maybe try to finish it later.
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This thing has really snuck up on me this year. In March, i moved to Los Angeles, got busy making films, and spent next to no time thinking about or looking for or doing damn near anything with music. Hell, Tegan & Sara and Sleater-Kinney released new albums this year and i...didn't...even...buy...them. I haven't even listened to them on Spotify or YouTube or anything.
What i did do, though, is follow my synthwave addiction from last year straight into a giant pile of electronic cocaine. Right before Amanda and i drove out to California, i strip mined Bandcamp for any and all synthwave albums i could get for free. This yielded 1213 songs, or 3.5 days of music. I dropped that into my iPod, along with the Feminachos playlist you may remember from the past few years, and the Amanda's Bands playlist (featuring all 12 bands that Amanda can recognize), and hit the road with that shit on shuffle. It was actually a pretty good mix. I continued to listen to it in the car for most of the year as i drove around my new city, from job to job, getting comfortable with all that beeping and booping mixed with my regular diet of crunchy guitars. I think i made it to about 3000 songs before the shuffle got accidentally reset. So much of what you're going to see here is a direct result of that decision.
1. Joslyn Sky - Drop Me Low
youtube.com/user/OfficialJoslynSky
When i dropped into downtown Los Angeles, a confused and bewildered 34 year old man who had lived his entire life in the county where he was born, the first thing i needed, obviously, was a place to stay. The friend i had initially planned to move in with had left LA just before i headed out, leaving me in a bit of a bind. Well, before leaving Wisco, i planned nothing, and on the drive, Amanda and i started paging through craigslist ads and other web sites. This led me to Artist Housing, or 807 as the residents call it, probably, maybe, or maybe the landlord just calls it that because he thinks it sounds cool and he hopes the hip kids that live there will adopt it. I went from living in a 1400 square foot house with just my wife and our pets, to sharing a 100 year old church with 36 strangers.
One of those 36 new roommates of mine was Joslyn Sky. I first met her in the hallway, where she was selling tickets to a rap showcase that she was playing. We talked for a few minutes, and then she mentioned she was shooting a promo video for her new album soon, and i asked if she needed any help with that. So, her album promo became the first project i worked on in LA. She ended up moving out of 807 not long after, well before i did, but even after that, i ended up on set as an extra for the video to this song, Drop Me Low. My scenes didn't make the final cut, but i'm still happy to have been part of it. And it helps that i like her music, and the video is cool. I certainly can't say that of all the music videos i've worked on in LA.
2. Tai.Kun - I'll Never Tell
https://www.instagram.com/taikunlofi/
I was on set pretty late working on Joslyn's album promo that night, even knowing that i had my very first job working on an actual film early the next morning. The film was called Incognito, the most ambitious student film in the history of Loyola Marymount University (LMU). That first gig was instrumental in my success in LA for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was meeting my friend Russell. I didn't find out until later, when Russell and i were working together on a different film, that he is also a musician, creating lo-fi hip hop beats under the name Tai.Kun. I was a stranger to this entire genre of music, but i've really enjoyed what he's played for me. I particularly enjoy this piece, and the fact that it uses samples from Cowboy Bebop is not the only reason why.
Oh yeah, also i finally watched Cowboy Bebop this year. People have been passionately urging me toward that show for years but somehow i've just never made the time. It's basically Lupin III in space. In other words, perfect.
3. melodysheep - Oh My!
melodysheep.com
Here's one from my Bandcamp Synthwave Collection. I don't remember exactly how i found my way to melodysheep, but i've actually been largely obsessed with his Symphony of Science album this year. It's 25 tracks of synthwavey goodness loaded with lyrics that are actual scientific facts, presented in a pleasing and easily parsed way. It's amazing. Since i had essentially done no work on the PAC this year up until early November, when i've usually closed it to new additions at the beginning of October and have a track listing locked down by Halloween, i had briefly considered just burning his shortened Best Of Symphony of Science and handing it out to friends this year. But, that would be unethical.
This track is not from Symphony of Science. It's one of his other mixes, featuring audio samples from The Wizard of Oz, which the record will show i was very into as a kid. Like i read L. Frank Baum's extended Oz universe books and everything. I just love how the line "follow the yellow brick road" comes across in this song.
For a long while i thought i'd be including two melodysheep songs, this plus a selection from Symphony of Science (most likely We Are Star Dust), but in the end it just wasn't working out. Here, just head over to Bandcamp and download the entire symphony of science for yourself. It's worth your time.
4. Le Matos - 58 Minutes in the Pool
lematos.com
Here's another one from my Bandcamp Synthwave Collection. I don't have much to say about this one, i just like it is all, i guess. The sample from 12 Monkeys, a movie i fucking love, is just icing on the cake. All of their stuff is pretty good though, i can recommend flipping through their whole discography.
5. Dan Terminus - Stratospheric Cannon Symphony
dan-terminus.bandcamp.com
Is not "Stratospheric Cannon Symphony" one of the most baller titles for a song you can think of???
So as i was hastily trying to decide what should get included this year, i immediately came to the problem that most of what i've listened to is instrumental, electronic music. Without a voice or lyrics, i have a hard time retaining a distinguishing feature of a song in my brain. And since i've mostly only listened to new music (ie, this playlist) while driving, driving in LOS ANGELES no less, it's tough to distinguish which songs really impressed upon me this year. It's not like i was sitting at a desk, doing a shitty data entry job i hate, with Pandora playing in a minimized window that i could just click over to and thumb up a song i liked. But the stereo in the Yaris interfaces with the iPod, and has a screen where it displays artist and title information. So i started concentrating on the artists whose names i had noticed popping up frequently on songs i liked. Dan Terminus was among them. So i sifted through all of his works that i had access to, and picked the song i liked the best.
And it's called "Stratospheric Cannon Symphony." Music is amazing.
6. Perturbator - Humans Are Such Easy Prey
This has been sitting here in draft form since last November. I'm just gonna publish it as-is, and maybe try to finish it later.
---
This thing has really snuck up on me this year. In March, i moved to Los Angeles, got busy making films, and spent next to no time thinking about or looking for or doing damn near anything with music. Hell, Tegan & Sara and Sleater-Kinney released new albums this year and i...didn't...even...buy...them. I haven't even listened to them on Spotify or YouTube or anything.
What i did do, though, is follow my synthwave addiction from last year straight into a giant pile of electronic cocaine. Right before Amanda and i drove out to California, i strip mined Bandcamp for any and all synthwave albums i could get for free. This yielded 1213 songs, or 3.5 days of music. I dropped that into my iPod, along with the Feminachos playlist you may remember from the past few years, and the Amanda's Bands playlist (featuring all 12 bands that Amanda can recognize), and hit the road with that shit on shuffle. It was actually a pretty good mix. I continued to listen to it in the car for most of the year as i drove around my new city, from job to job, getting comfortable with all that beeping and booping mixed with my regular diet of crunchy guitars. I think i made it to about 3000 songs before the shuffle got accidentally reset. So much of what you're going to see here is a direct result of that decision.
1. Joslyn Sky - Drop Me Low
youtube.com/user/OfficialJoslynSky
When i dropped into downtown Los Angeles, a confused and bewildered 34 year old man who had lived his entire life in the county where he was born, the first thing i needed, obviously, was a place to stay. The friend i had initially planned to move in with had left LA just before i headed out, leaving me in a bit of a bind. Well, before leaving Wisco, i planned nothing, and on the drive, Amanda and i started paging through craigslist ads and other web sites. This led me to Artist Housing, or 807 as the residents call it, probably, maybe, or maybe the landlord just calls it that because he thinks it sounds cool and he hopes the hip kids that live there will adopt it. I went from living in a 1400 square foot house with just my wife and our pets, to sharing a 100 year old church with 36 strangers.
One of those 36 new roommates of mine was Joslyn Sky. I first met her in the hallway, where she was selling tickets to a rap showcase that she was playing. We talked for a few minutes, and then she mentioned she was shooting a promo video for her new album soon, and i asked if she needed any help with that. So, her album promo became the first project i worked on in LA. She ended up moving out of 807 not long after, well before i did, but even after that, i ended up on set as an extra for the video to this song, Drop Me Low. My scenes didn't make the final cut, but i'm still happy to have been part of it. And it helps that i like her music, and the video is cool. I certainly can't say that of all the music videos i've worked on in LA.
2. Tai.Kun - I'll Never Tell
https://www.instagram.com/taikunlofi/
I was on set pretty late working on Joslyn's album promo that night, even knowing that i had my very first job working on an actual film early the next morning. The film was called Incognito, the most ambitious student film in the history of Loyola Marymount University (LMU). That first gig was instrumental in my success in LA for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was meeting my friend Russell. I didn't find out until later, when Russell and i were working together on a different film, that he is also a musician, creating lo-fi hip hop beats under the name Tai.Kun. I was a stranger to this entire genre of music, but i've really enjoyed what he's played for me. I particularly enjoy this piece, and the fact that it uses samples from Cowboy Bebop is not the only reason why.
Oh yeah, also i finally watched Cowboy Bebop this year. People have been passionately urging me toward that show for years but somehow i've just never made the time. It's basically Lupin III in space. In other words, perfect.
3. melodysheep - Oh My!
melodysheep.com
Here's one from my Bandcamp Synthwave Collection. I don't remember exactly how i found my way to melodysheep, but i've actually been largely obsessed with his Symphony of Science album this year. It's 25 tracks of synthwavey goodness loaded with lyrics that are actual scientific facts, presented in a pleasing and easily parsed way. It's amazing. Since i had essentially done no work on the PAC this year up until early November, when i've usually closed it to new additions at the beginning of October and have a track listing locked down by Halloween, i had briefly considered just burning his shortened Best Of Symphony of Science and handing it out to friends this year. But, that would be unethical.
This track is not from Symphony of Science. It's one of his other mixes, featuring audio samples from The Wizard of Oz, which the record will show i was very into as a kid. Like i read L. Frank Baum's extended Oz universe books and everything. I just love how the line "follow the yellow brick road" comes across in this song.
For a long while i thought i'd be including two melodysheep songs, this plus a selection from Symphony of Science (most likely We Are Star Dust), but in the end it just wasn't working out. Here, just head over to Bandcamp and download the entire symphony of science for yourself. It's worth your time.
4. Le Matos - 58 Minutes in the Pool
lematos.com
Here's another one from my Bandcamp Synthwave Collection. I don't have much to say about this one, i just like it is all, i guess. The sample from 12 Monkeys, a movie i fucking love, is just icing on the cake. All of their stuff is pretty good though, i can recommend flipping through their whole discography.
5. Dan Terminus - Stratospheric Cannon Symphony
dan-terminus.bandcamp.com
Is not "Stratospheric Cannon Symphony" one of the most baller titles for a song you can think of???
So as i was hastily trying to decide what should get included this year, i immediately came to the problem that most of what i've listened to is instrumental, electronic music. Without a voice or lyrics, i have a hard time retaining a distinguishing feature of a song in my brain. And since i've mostly only listened to new music (ie, this playlist) while driving, driving in LOS ANGELES no less, it's tough to distinguish which songs really impressed upon me this year. It's not like i was sitting at a desk, doing a shitty data entry job i hate, with Pandora playing in a minimized window that i could just click over to and thumb up a song i liked. But the stereo in the Yaris interfaces with the iPod, and has a screen where it displays artist and title information. So i started concentrating on the artists whose names i had noticed popping up frequently on songs i liked. Dan Terminus was among them. So i sifted through all of his works that i had access to, and picked the song i liked the best.
And it's called "Stratospheric Cannon Symphony." Music is amazing.
6. Perturbator - Humans Are Such Easy Prey
