Phil philosophized – Philistines felt philanderous, filling fissures faithlessly. Phil’s phobia? Figurative phage-fighting phantoms photosynthesizing phonically. Phil fought fiercely, finding fiery physique faulty.
Fickly filtered fictionalization? Phil fidgeted, physically phasing, following fitness, feeling further, fuming, forever filibustering, finally freed.
Featuring fills.
A stately march for a head of state – though where they are heading is up for debate. Regardless of birth, we are all something great. Royals proceed, and one day abrogate.
Featuring pipe organ, glockenspiel, orchestral strings and brass, gran cassa drum, timpani, snare, oboe, flute, and piano.
Chocolate in the pocket – convenient, yet not without risk. Heat gathers in pockets as well, and is a natural enemy of chocolate. If you transport chocolate via pocket, be sure to do so with caution and expediency – and check your pockets before you do laundry!
Featuring a jazz quartet of piano, upright bass, brushed drum kit, and muted trumpet.
Sierpiński’s triangle, like all fractals, contains multitudes. What happens if those multitudes are rendered sonically? You get blues within blues within blues…
Featuring a compact jazz band of piano, upright bass, bass trombone, baritone and tenor saxophones, trumpets, and drum kit. Inspired by the harp-based fractal song by @RandomDavis.
All songs written and recorded at home by big blood except “Move On Fast” written by Yoko Ono. “We are Endless” was inspired by and takes its lyrics from Diane DiPrima’s poem “Revolutionary Letter #2”, and was done in collaboration with Erik Ruin
Erik’s video for “We Are Endless”: youtu.be/0450bB8B4TM
Making Tape Loops for “Sirens Knell”: youtu.be/7n_38Wbds8k
dedicated to Ted Lee and Sandra Barry
Big Blood is:
Colleen Kinsella, Caleb Mulkerin
released December 30, 2022
It’s been over a decade since heads have been able to enjoy a NEW song by New York City’s Regenerated Headpiece… an independent powerhouse that always delivers a unique and DOPE hip-hop experience. Over the past few years there have been collaborations which were essentially RHP joints, however, today with “Brothers” we have the first in a very long time that is RHP… Phon-X (a.k.a. Headsnack), Shred Lexicon, and DJ Exfyl! Let me tell you that it was most definitely worth the wait with its stellar production, cuts and lyrical content. Oh… and on the flip is a fantastic remix of “Enjoy The Veal”, a joint originally found on Headsnack’s 2018 solo album “Secret Handshake”. Alright, enough from us… download and enjoy.
What… RHP have returned?!? Thank you gents for the fire return! Seriously incredible joints. Keep it coming!
Of course, thanks once again to you for downloading & listening. We always strive to deliver the music you’ll love. Please spread the word about blocSonic, if you enjoy what we do. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!
Fortune can refer to riches, or taking chances – and Iritjinga offers both. What will a journey there yield?
Featuring orchestral strings, string quartet, brass, woodwinds, harp, taiko drums, female vocalists, synthesizer, and NASA sound sample.
An album about looking back because looking forward is too confusing in such a weird world. Songs about the strange melancholy of mid-30s contentment, a sadness that is only kept from descending into raw despair by having a partner to stare into the darkness with.
Thank you for sticking around for this one. This is the best I can do.
Dark Age:
After the world didn’t end
We came down out of the woods
and couldn’t remember where we parked the car.
When we got home the house was a mess.
We didn’t exactly think we were coming back.
I checked my Instagram
and you put away the Go Bags that we bought off Amazon.
“I guess I better mow the lawn.”
And will we ever find our places in this fucked up world?
Hold on to me and we’ll feel our way through this dark age.
Breaking Bad:
Should have rode my bike, instead I roll up in a cloud of smoke,
like some old man, but at least I… more
credits
released December 29, 2017
Recording Notes
Recorded at home in the room above the garage on Music St. in Novelty, OH 2015-2017.
This recording is meant to sound like that room, the natural reverb of the wood floors and sloped ceiling. The sounds of the insects at night, the rain, the generators in the nearby allotment after a wind storm. They are all night sounds since this recording was made entirely at night, between 9PM and midnight, a half an hour at a time over 2 years.
Recorded on a 2010 MacBook Pro using the Reaper DAW. Reaper’s EQ plugin was used extensively as was the Ozone mastering suite. No other software or software instruments were used. The songs “19” and “All that hasn’t burned is drowned” were recorded to click tracks (at 100 and 83 BPM, respectively). The other songs were recorded without tempo reference.
Recorded one track at a time with an Apogee Duet (FW) interface and a Rode NT-1000 large diaphragm condenser microphone. Some sounds were routed first through a Tascam M-208 mixer. No other outboard preamps, compressors, etc. were used.
Songs/music by MT. Sommer T sang harmonies.
Instruments used:
Primarily recorded using a 1966 Gibson ES-125t guitar (modded to be left-handed then modded back and refinished natural). Also a 1966 Fender Musicmaster ii (with a bridge pickup added) and a 1959 Silvertone U1 (shark-fin headstock) electric guitar were used. A recent model Taylor acoustic was also used for “Tired of IPAs” and some incidental guitar. A borrowed no-name 12-string electric guitar was used briefly. Bass parts were recorded with a 1978 Fender Precision Bass.
The guitars were mostly played through a 1972 Fender Pro Reverb (pre-master volume, blackface modded). Some sounds were recorded through a 60s Harmony solid state 5w amp, a Roland JC-55 combo, and a Fender Blackface Vibro-champ clone (built by Joe Golden) with 1×12 cabinet (Weber Ceramic Speaker). Bass was recorded direct but it was first run through the preamp of an Ashdown ABM 300 C110 combo.
A Wurlitzer 200a electric piano was used (though it does not do well with the garage’s dirty power and radio interference can be heard when it is used (Cleveland’s Z 107.9)).
A Casio MT-100 keyboard was used for all organ sounds.
A Korg MS-20 Mini synthesizer was used for sub bass and mono synth sounds.
A Korg MS-2000 was used sparsely for synthesizer pad and string sounds.
A ramshackle drumset was used for the small amount of drum recording, consisting of no-name gold sparkle snare, Pearl green sparkle floor tom (formerly used in 6/7), no-name sizzle cymbal and late-50s Slingerland 20” bass drum.
A variety of effects pedals and processors were used for guitars and keyboards, including:
Electro-Harmonix HOG and 2880
Moog MF-101
Strymon El Capistan
Maestro EP-4 Echoplex
Montreal Assembly Count to Five
Digitech PDS 1002
Roland RE-201
And a number of pedals manufactured by my coworkers and I at EarthQuaker Devices, including the Dispatch Master, Pulse Machine, Zap Machine, Avalanche Run, Transmisser, Speaker Cranker, Data Corrupter, and Disaster Transport Jr.
Sounds were also processed using a Panasonic Slimline cassette recorder and 2 home made cassette-based tape delays.
Many songs on the album include samples from previous Talons’ releases, notably:
“Dark Age” contains a sample from “Rowboat” and “Old Kayak” from the “Songs for Boats” 12” vinyl LP (Positive Beat 2012) and “September” from the “First Songs” 5” lathe-cut single (2016).
“Sounds” contains samples from “F the World”, “Rustic Bullshit”, “Conversation with my grandpa…” and “Plants & Animals” from the “Rustic Bullshit” 12” vinyl LP (Bark and Hiss, 2012; Broken Circles, 2016).
“The Plane” contains samples from the “MIDI Pillow (edit)” 8” lathe-cut single (2016).
“Driving home from Shows” contains a sample from the song of the same name, released on a 6” lathe-cut single in 2014.
“5 years ago” contains a sample from “Angela” from “Songs for Babes” 12” vinyl LP (Bark and Hiss, 2008)
“April” contains a sample from “Juice” from the “Songs for Babes” LP
“19” contains a sample from “Natalie” from the “Songs for Babes” LP
“All that hasn’t burned is drowned” contains samples from “The Cleveland Rocks” and “Sailboat” from “Songs for Boats” and a sample from the song of the same name on the “Chicago EPs” CD (Luau, 2016)
“New York Hardcore” contains a sample from “Fools’ Gold” from “Rustic Bullshit.
when i have fears that i may cease to be
released December 21, 2022
Sometimes, things don’t quite add up – or perhaps they do, just not as expected. Yet despite unevenness, one can still emote, and play the blues.
Featuring a jazz quartet of piano, drum kit, upright bass, and muted trumpet.
Long-time blocSonic listeners will likely remember Portland, Maine music artist Vik44, who, over the years has created a couple great remixes that we’ve released. Back in 2010 he remixed Friends or Whatever’s “Walk Through Walls” and in 2011 Jeremy Macachor’s “Choice”.
Well, for the first time he’s releasing new music of his own, right here at Tha Bloc! Today he brings us the excellent “Robot Overlords”, an EP packed with music he hopes will please and appease our future synthetic sentient leaders (It remains to be seen what terminology we should use to address them). Download and enjoy. If you’re training future A.I. models, please train them with these tunes.
Hey Vik44… welcome to the blocSonic Fam! Thank you so much for such a terrific EP.
Of course, thanks once again to you for downloading & listening. We always strive to deliver the music you’ll love. Please spread the word about blocSonic, if you enjoy what we do. Remember… everything we release is cool to share! Always keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it! If you’re in radio… support independent music and broadcast it!
One of my primary worries about the modern world is the erosion of dark skies. Stargazing has been a fundamental part of the human spirit since the dawn of humanity. But there is a clear future ahead of us where we are denied this part of our souls. I don’t know what that means for all of us, but I suspect it isn’t good.
To promote stargazing as a foundational human activity, I am releasing a series of albums to serve as a sound track for stargazing. I call this series “Music For Stargazing” and this the next album in this collection.
I hope you find the music as helpful in your stargazing activities as I do.
The movement of an amoeba may seem mere randomness – Brownian motion through an indifferent space. We believe our own machinations to be much cleverer, an improvement over the past. Are we in fact so sophisticated? Consider your own perturbations, while listening to this deliberation of a clever amoeba.
Featuring a jazz trio of piano, drum kit, and upright bass.
A Tape Full of Mistakes is The Hathaway Family Plot and Rrrrrose Azerty
chezmonplaisir.bandcamp.com
released December 5, 2022
A friend of the Gentle Giant, the ponderosa is a long-lived tree. If conditions are favorable, it can persist for more than 500 years – giving it time to live up to its name, and ponder.
This freely improvised track features piano.
![larsht_ – lobit screw tape (11/26-11/27) [11:52pm to 12:12am]](https://www.clongclongmoo.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/https://archive.org/download/s65116/cover.png)
Ready… start… go! But – make sure you stay on track. Going goes faster when you’re working with physics, not against it.
This quasi-soundtrack for an imagined racing game features instruments (sax, brass, drums, and more) sampled from SNES and other video game consoles.
“Irreparable Damage” is the debut album of Asshole Galaxy – a band of two angry artists really mad at all the assholes ruining the world, channelling some music through.
“You’re wrong […] I said quietly. “I’d love to have access to all this shit you believe. I’d love to be able to summon someone who’s responsible for this fuck-up of a creation. Because then I’d be able to kill them. Slowly.”
–Richard Morgan
Angry artist #1: Weldroid. The 8-bit emulation of an electrical engineer, a cgi artist and a coffee connoisseur merged into one person and left alone in the middle of a forest in the middle of a forgotten peninsula built of discarded and ancient electronic devices and lots of copper wire. Those little robotic things living in the forest tend to like the noises he makes…
Angry artist #2: Jeremy Rice. Boston-area lover of synthesizers and synth music, striving to make his own electronic music with a curious sense of introspection and mystery. As Abdicant and Curious Inversions he has notable releases on Kahvi Collective and Mahorka. Also in Cognition Delay with Paul Alexander (Pandacetamol, Fluffy Inside) on Rednetic and in The Hive Projectwith Anthony Paul Kerby (The Circular Ruins) on DataObscura.
“When you feel terrible about the unnecessary loss of life, value and sanity: get together with a friend, establish a band, make some noise. Somehow turn that murderous frustration into waveforms. […] not the last time you hear from us.” –Weldroid
Released 22.11.22 as free (cc) download and special digipak CD edition.
Composed and produced by Abdicant and Weldroid
Cover artwork graphics by Weldroid
“How can you pretend that you’re free when you’re so tied to yourself?”
“Slippery People” is a collaborative project between Austin based rapper Scuare, and Portland based production group sow. The catchy dark synth pop melodies coupled with a beat scene aesthetic serve to emphasize the themes of the project through their contrast to the subject matter. Scuare’s past works have mostly focused on his internal monologue and the way his interactions with the world shape negative feelings about himself and inform his growth. “Slippery People” aims to focus on external his observations of societal trends and mechanisms that seem to all operate on similar principles; leaching off of empathy for personal gain.
released November 18, 2022
Beats by sow
Mixed by Scuare
Mastered by Scuare
Artwork by: QED @soundsbyqed
Jazz is not improvisation – improvisation is jazz. If you listen, you won’t hear. A koan in a cone is neither cone nor koan.
Featuring jazz quartet of piano, drums, bass, and clarinet.
Improvised and recorded on January 9, 2021 by Keith Helt. Guitar, pedals, amplifier.
All songs are for Alejandro Morales Aponte. Alex.
Cover art painted by LB Briggs.
Full album available for free download here:
www.panyrosasdiscos.org/pyr319-keith-helt-something-of-a-hoosier/
Any proceeds from this album will be donated to Chicago Abortion Fund. chicagoabortionfund.salsalabs.org/makeadonation/index.html
credits
released May 15, 2022
Some things begin, and then – stretch on. You expect a resolution, yet instead receive reverberant reflections. Wandering, meandering, bordering on redundancy – an elongated epic.
Featuring violin, bassoon, clarinet, low woodwinds, orchestral strings and brass, taiko drum, drum kit, shaker, electric bass, piano, synthesizers, and effects.
