I have a quick three-fer edition of The List for you dear readers today. (A score-focused one is coming next week — Obsession, amirite?) Today you’ll find a healthy offering of experimental fare, paired with a dark and catchy retro number. Enjoy.
Daniel Quasar — I Am…
The hyper talented Daniel Quasar, creator of the ubiquitous Progress Pride flag and crafter of catchy electronic music, recently released an entrancing experimental record entitled I Am… It’s not entirely dance-ready and laced with hooks as their previous work, but it is no-less captivating and engaging for those who like the downtempo, IDM, and Boards of Canada side of electronic music.
The Portland, Oregon-based musician’s EP is a repeat-listen for me. With each additional exposure to the five cuts there is some new sonic layer that presents itself: ethereal synths; a galactic, bluesy guitar lead; a contemplative, big-bottomed rhythm section straight out of a laidback corner of 1997; vapory synth pads dipped in detachment; smooth vox put through a light blender setting; and a whole host of catchy soundscapes and passages that aren’t tied down to any particular genre or descriptor. It’s a rewarding release to experience. Go pick up the digital and special CD versions on Bandcamp; released via RetroSynth Records (and mastered by Miami Nights 1984’s Michael Glover). You can also stream it via your usual suspects.
Discovery Zone — Library Copy Do Not Remove
JJ Weihl is an intriguing musician. She can put out a stunning and adventurous synth-pop album like 2020’s Remote Control — with the retro-fantastic “Dance II”; deftly pull off late-1960s pop bliss with John Moods; and dive deep into experimental ambient electronic quests like on 2024’s Quantum Web, replete with the expert glue of Heba Kadry’s mastering chops. Last month she gave us Library Copy Do Not Remove, which is closer to Quantum territory on the roster of Weihl sounds.
The result is the sonic equivalent of seeing Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey on a really big cinema screen for the first time: uncontrollable wonder and awe. This actually makes sense, because as Weihl says on the Discovery Zone Bandcamp page, the album is “a sonic document of an immersive multimedia program originally written for and performed inside of the historic Zeiss-Groß Planetarium dome in Berlin, Germany.” A track that sticks out for me is “Dusk,” but they’re all a spiritual and scientific adventure expressed through oceans of synths and samples and a deeply human sense of how to properly use those things. It’s available now, notably in digital and physical forms on the DZ BC page.
Blone Noble — “High Society”
Blone Noble’s recent single is a powerful blend of the 1990s and modern variations thereof with some Information Society mixed in for good measure, then you take that blend and rinse it through 25-30 years of internet music trends. The disco-tinged back beat propels a host of acid synths, cinematic soundscapes, and chunky, Gravity Kills-style guitar riffs, as a breathy-cool male vocal flies over it all. Maybe if you want to tell your friends about it, you can say it’s as if KMFDM made a post-disco number. Regardless, it’s damn good. You can find it on the new Dominator EP, out via Mystic Transfers on the streamers.
For all editions of The List, walk this way.
