Aphera Music

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Producer Julio Bashmore’s as of yet unreleased track “Well Wishers”. I heard this along with the track by the Portico Quartet called “City of Glass” which I’ve uploaded to the player. It is also unreleased as of yet. Dig it.

The Bashmore track is just a really slick groove and I’ve had on repeat for a while now. The Portico Quartet song is a really cool song in that it was recorded 100% live. This is incredible because as you can notice it’s heavily electronic. It’s a quartet too, not your mom and dad’s string quartet though. The idea of four guys getting together to collaborate and perform electronic music of this nature excites me as the standard four piece rock band format falls apart around us. It’s a new direction and example of the synergy that small intimate “bands” can achieve. So dig it.

ps sorry about all the talking during the beginning of the track. I ripped it from Gilles Peterson’s radio show about a week ago.

Lastly, a new James Blake song for y’all.

It happens all too infrequently where I’ll revere an album and adore the sounds on it till I tire it out. Then I’ll sometimes look up live versions of certain songs from the album which can sometimes give me a new appreciation of the album tracks or I’ll simply fall in love all over again with the live version. Well both these things happened for two songs from two of my favorite music makers of this year.

First let’s talk about SBTRKT. I recently missed out on an opportunity to see him live here in Chicago because I flew to Philly that weekend to see family. Several of my friends went to see SBTRKT and of those who weren’t kicked out (ha ha!) they said it kicked all kinds of ass. I’m mad jealous. But anyway here’s a live studio recording made for the BBC of SBTRKT’s “Hold On”, a song which is well in contention for bets song of the year.

hold on (live at maida vale for bbc 1xtra) by sbtrkt

Next is James Blake. I’ve had the opportunity now to have seen him twice in Chicago. Both times blew my mind to say the least. Here’s a performance of his song “CMYK” from this summer at Pitchfork fest where I saw him the first time. I’m was to the right of the stage if you wanna look for my head It’s incredible how full of  a sound he gets with just three guys on stage. The band’s coordination also is incredible as, if you can notice, the guitarist and drummer trade off triggering the song’s characteristic vocal samples.

Aside from right here, I will not mention anymore the long break that apheramusic took because it was inexcusable and silllllly. I feel like I’m starting a new page and I’m also 21 which I’ve been told means something.

I saw James Blake perform twice in the last 4 months. Both times I can safely say my mind was blown. This guy is taking long strides towards a future of musical domination. His new EP, Enough Thunder, does little for me except for this one song but no worries because he’s got a new EP coming out later this year and I’ve heard some of his unreleased songs when he played them live and they kick ass.

I was surprised to hear that James Blake was being called dubstep so I looked up what dubstep meant and I discovered it has a rich history steeped in two step and house and all those weird genres that come from London. Not only that, but I found out that an electronic artist with whose work I am sorta familiar, Burial, is a pioneer of dubstep. funny. Then I found Mount Kimbie, a group loosely associated with Blake, and I heard this song, “50 Mile View” and it blew me away. A lot of richness to their sound – ear candy for anyone with an ear for electronica. A lot of it comes from the way they use reverb to keep sounds lingering; every new sound sits on the residue of the previous blips and synth struts, lingering and fading simultaneously.

Next, Pitchfork just posted a new track by Gonjasufi, everyone’s favorite stoner electronica raspy-voiced psychadelia singer. That’s right kids. Anyway he’s got a new EP coming out or something and again the tracks are produced by my very favorite Flying Lotus. Listen below but first I’m going to express my excitement over the news that Flying Lotus tweeted about his new album, for which he apparently has so much music that he either has to pare it down or make a double album. Now excuse me while I clean up the mess I just left on my keyboard (eww gross).

GONJASUFI – “EATFISH” w: BLU (Produced by Johnson&Johnson) [aif] by Hydroshare.tv

It’s nice to see you guys again, signing off, this is George aka Yurij.