Blog Archives

The Slow Music Movement Blog

Mostly we put our daily recommendations here for the blog readers among you, although occasionally we go longform.
Reading about music is a bit like looking at pictures of food - not nearly half as much fun as getting involved, so we scribble a brief intro to hopefully whet your appetite but you're better off just hitting play. Not very "slow" I know but there's a lot of music to check these days & hopefully you'll find the recommendations a handy filter.
Trust your ears, not opinions.

31/8/2022 0 Comments

Carlos Truly - Not Mine (Bayonet)

What your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

I can't believe I almost missed this gem, especially as I've always liked Carlos Truly - there's really just too much music these days. Anyway, make sure you tumble down this reimagined R&B rabbit hole to a wonderfully wayward, psychedelically soulful, future funk edged & leftfield pop place courtesy of Bayonet Records.

What The Release Notes Say

All songs produced by Tony Seltzer and Carlos Truly, except:

Vessel, produced by Nick Hakim and Carlos Truly, co-written by Nick Hakim

Breakdown, my turn, a strange bird produced by Stefanie Santana and Carlos

Mix, master, and additional production by Alex Epton

Additional production on quietness by Stefanie Santana

Bass on new growth by Eva Lawitts
Sax on dumb desire by Ben Chapoteau-Katz
Guitar on vessel by Danny Hakim
Violin on 108th by Marc Anderson
Violin on 108th by Laura Thompson
Viola on 108th by Hannah Selin
Cello on 108th by Susan Mandel

Cover photo by Raz Robinson
Layout, design and print by Gonzalo Guerrero
Drawings by Tiffany Ortiz
Piano drawing by Natsumi Yamase

Thank you: My parents, Stefanie, Raz, Eva, Antonio, Sarah, Joy, Elisa, April, Gerard, Natsumi, Katie & Dustin, Nayra, Liza.

IF You LIke Carlos Truly You Might Get Down To The Slow Soul Playlist

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29/8/2022 0 Comments

Singles & EPs Round UP August 29th, 2022

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Milkweed - YELLOW PLAGUE (DEVIL DOWN TAPES)

The wonderful vocal of who I'm not quite sure (musical credits have been overlooked, although everyone else gets a mention!) soar over the gratifyingly raw and hypnotic strings & there's even some bird sounds as well - "slacker trad", I'm sold. This is boding really well for the duo's debut LP due in September.

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Cloud Opacity - The Path Between Two Pines (Yellow Yellow Yesterday)

Cloud Opacity is a prolific & consistently solid contributor to the modern ambient scene, so it's about time he got a shout out. So dip your toe into his horizontal waters with this short but sweet, gently undulating ambient sound bath, augmented by the sounds of our feathered friends who provide a joyful foil to the slightly more sober strings.
Check him out on the Slow Ambient playlist.

JAMES VICKERY - THE REASON (Left Side)

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I do like to visit my soul boy roots from time to time & move with the R&B times to update my reference points lest I get stuck in a Terry Callier & Leon Thomas time loop, & the new tune from James Vickery is hitting the smooth out sweet spot with his thoroughly modern, somewhat familiar but pleasingly minimal approach to dreamy, late night lovers soul. Check him out on the Slow Soul playlist

Tikom - Narcisse (Radicalis)

I get a lot of beats sent to me and this one from Tikom starts off in fairly standard fashion but slowly develops a differentiating parallel dimensional, cosmic edge when the bass gets turned up to 11 and an electronic portal suddently opens for those who want to leave our sinking planetary ship to leap through. Check him out on the Slow Hop playlist which has all your head nodding beat needs covered.

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29/8/2022 0 Comments

Noah - Noire (Flau)

What your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

Minimal beatscapes swirl with chopped & looped instrumentation providing a sonic current on which Noah's dreamy, ASMR-like, whispered & softly sung voice drifts unhurriedly downstream to lend an empathetic ear during your quieter, more introspective moments.

What The RElease Notes Say

Nights can be ordinary, quiet. Most nights are. But, for some, nights also provide much needed alone time, space to relax and escape from the world. They can become the backdrop to grand stories made in one’s mind, imagined romances and introspective wanderings that make the time after dark the most magical.

It’s this sense of nocturnal freedom that weaves its way through Noah’s latest release, Noire. Noah’s work is characterised by her soft vocals and intricate, fantastic-exotic soundscapes. With Noire we’re invited to dig through the archives of some of her most personal tracks yet, and a process of creation that helped shape the artist herself.

This never-before-heard work from Noah is the sound of an artist finding themselves, a maturation. The minimalist tracks—a cocktail of late-night jazz meets Portishead—feature gorgeous space for Noah’s crooning vocals to breathe among sprinklings of sampled piano, flute and saxophone. From the emotive line, “The things I’ve left behind…” on ‘Shadow’, to the sleepy, far-off sounds of opener ‘Twirling’, the album showcases a lightness and a sensitivity to self: the joy of night twinned with the inevitable introspection that comes with staying up while the world sleeps.

Noah began work on Noire following the successful release of her debut album, Sivutie, toiling away on these nine tracks between 2015 and 2020—work from the past that has gone on to inform her current style, notably her 2021 Étoile EP. Though resonating more with her past self than her present, it’s only now that, fittingly, Noah has been able to put this night-born piece of art to bed.

CREDITS
all songs written & produced by Noah
mastered by Sean McCann
artwork by Yuto Kanke

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28/8/2022 0 Comments

Multi-Surface - Aesthetics of Inequality Triangles (Not Not Fun)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

The shimmering, positively vibrating future of New Age music is here courtesy of Multi-Surface & Not Not Fun, as they dare to imagine a world in which caring has replaced capitalism; abundant marine life frolicking in unpolluted waters and where disused petrochemical infrastructure is climbed to get a view over the reforested wildernesses.

What The Release Notes Say

Yamaguchi electronic landscaper Tomokazu Fujimoto aka Multi-Surface returns from an eight-year hiatus with a slow-blooming suite of radiant terrains and looping lullabies, named for a geometric technique utilized in Japanese gardening: Aesthetics of Inequality Triangles. Prior tapes for Lillerne and Patient Sounds explored parallel spheres of smeared tranquility, but his recent work skews even more sun-flared and crystalline, percolating patterns of texture, melody, and circuitry into states of suspended transience. The album’s 10 tracks lull, unspool, and refract, lapping like waves against aerial shores, flickering rainbows glimpsed in raindrops. The titles offer further clues, mapping a morning walk beneath too blue skies along a path lined with ceramics and stones, pastel flowers gently billowing in a breeze blowing from tomorrow.

CREDITS
Mastered by Tomokazu Fujimoto.
Artwork by Mie.
Design by Britt Brown.

IF YOU LIKE MULTI-SURFACE YOU MIGHT VIBE OFF THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

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27/8/2022 0 Comments

morimoto naoki - kotobo (Seil)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Familiar sounds arranged in unfamiliar ways rub shoulders with intriguingly ambiguous yet complimentary sonic oddities in this parallel dimensional feat of precision ambient sound collaging by morinoto naoki for Seil Records.

What The Release Notes Say

Each sound tells a story, each word has a sound.

Music by Morimoto Naoki
Mastered by Morimoto Naoki
Artwork by Boris Potschubay
Design by Aoki & Matsumoto

Published by Seil Records
© All Rights Reserved

*** 10% of Seil Records earnings go to charity. ***
It is our goal to make the world a more optimistic place. And music is one way to reach it. But we also want to help good people do good things. So every quarter we donate 10% of our label earnings to support a small non-profit organization, as there even humble amounts can make a real difference. These are organizations in the fields of helping the environment, fighting racism or providing music education to underprivileged groups. On our social media channels we let you know every six months to which charity our donation went and help spread the word about their work.

If You Like morimoto naoki then you might appreciate The Slow Ambient Playlist

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25/8/2022 0 Comments

Singles & EPs Round Up - 25th August, 2022

הפרי הראשון | אייל זוסמן - Eyal Zusman - THE FIRST FRUIT (Self Release)

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I've been keeping half an eye on Zusman for a while now as he's got an interesting line in hypnotic Israeli roots music, but he's only gone all Balearic house with his latest offering as he combines the evocative vocals and sound palette of his homeland with some organic, loose house production. Make sure you request this one at your favourite beach bar before the summer is out.

You can also check it in the eclectic Slow House playlist.

Deru - The Way Through The Forest (Friends Of Friends)

Programming his own software to hack a Yamaha Disklavier piano to induce rather than reproduce a performance as originally intended, Deru has conjured up a perfectly imperfect slice of neoclassical music where unusual patterns swim in the sounds of the piano's overloaded sonic distress. Recorded in an abandoned missile silo for good measure, with the haunting video highlighting humanities disregard for our home a perfect and poignant visual accompaniment.
Check the Slow Neoclassical playlist for more modern composition.

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derek Piotr - "Yes, They All Sing" (Nathan Salsburg Version) [Self Release]

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Two suitably wayward remixes of a track from Derek Piotr's equally wayward recent Alt-alt-folk LP. First off Salzburg grabs the hypnotic guitar motif & dials down the surrounding noise to great ambient acid folk effect, whilst Machinefabriek dials up the abstract ambient electronica, throws in some keys leaving the guitar struggling for air. Both are worth your time, but the Salsburg remix nicks it for me and is currently the opening track on the Slow Psyche playlist.

Vanishing Twin - Tub Erupt (Fire Records)

Another remix single worth your time, this one taken from the excellent (previously TSMM recommended) LP - Ookil Gekkou, as Cavern of Antimatter start off in familiar territory before drifting off into whimsical psychedelic ambient indulgence for 6 minutes. On the "flip" the Impossible Square remix injects some added attitude to the somewhat genteel post punk strains of the original.

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24/8/2022 0 Comments

Local Artist - Expanding Horizons (Mood Hut)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

On his debut LP for Vancouver's Mood Hut, Local Artist leaves a hazy vaporware trail through the Canadian dream pop clouds, New Age stratosphere and Balearic cielo azules on this generally easy going debut LP that belies the difficult personal circumstances surrounding th recording.

What The Release Notes Say

Up next from Mood Hut we have the debut LP from Local Artist aka Ian Wyatt. Previously known for his underground party starters Dancer and Touch Tone. This time Ian takes us further towards the intimate end of the radio dial, recording music as a way of processing the emotions of watching his father and partner battle cancer pre-pandemic. Themes of love, loss and life emerge in a moody brew to help you through.

In Local Artist’s world, the sun is setting on our old selves. Tonight is a slow ritual of letting go to gradually make room for the new. We’ve been up all night. It’s almost dawn and beyond the horizon, we can trust the light that morning brings.

RIYL - Jon Hassell, Laurie Anderson, Loose Ends, Sade, slow burns, ambient RnB, hypnotic funk, feeling better when you're feeling bad.

CREDITS
Written, recorded and mixed by Ian Wyatt at Mood Hut Studios on the ancestral unceded lands of the Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

IF YOU LIKE LOCAL ARTIST YOU MIGHT RESONATE WITH THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

You can stream The New Age of New Age playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

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23/8/2022 0 Comments

Haziz - Supertiger (Day end)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Breezy Balearic and smooth, stripped back synth led summer jams from Haziz, as they take a less is more approach to soundtracking your summer by improvising smooth soul, poolside disco, hotel jazz & bossa grooves over old school drum machines to great palm tree, linen shirt & shade wearing effect for Day End. Another top tip from New Commute

What The Release Notes Say

Haziz is the Hebrew word for thunder & lightning hitting simultaneously. On their debut full-length album Supertiger the Berlin based duo Haziz embodies the spirit of the word by exploring the boundaries of improvisational music.

Now based in Berlin, Dekel Adin and Omri Cohen first met working at a restaurant in Tel Aviv where they struck up a friendship bonding over some of their favorite records.

Adin has had a prolific run playing in various projects, including in Alice Phoebe Lou, strongboi, Hush Moss, as well half of the duo Ras and solo under the alias Daklis. Cohen’s expansive knowledge of music as a record collector, DJ and record store manager in Tel Aviv add to the project’s eclectic array of musical influences. After years working separately, the project finds the two complimenting each other intuitively. The sessions started simply and bloomed as time went on, usually starting with a beat coaxed from one of the duo's drum machines, layered over with a bassline, percussion, and keys. “The live feel is something we really want to preserve and not have lost in the production process.”

They began recording Supertiger together at Cohen’s childhood home in the small hilltop village of Mitzpe Hila right asthe COVID-19 pandemic forced a global shut down, and finished the recordings later at his rented apartment in Tel Aviv. The initial sessions were secluded, and began with a long walk to the nearby Nahal Kziv river. Using two shopping carts the duo borrowed the local synagogue’s Electone B-805 double decker organ, rolled it down the hill to Cohen’s home and set up a makeshift studio. The second session happened during a 10 day lockdown due to mandated stay-at-home orders, so they filled the house with food, cables, guitars, drum machines (Rhythm Ace FR-6), keyboards (Yamaha DX7ii, CS-15, PSR 380, Oberheim Matrix 1000), percussion instruments (congas, drums, darbuka), a Fostex 8 track tape recorder and got to work. “We were very much in our own world, listening and recording music all day long,” Cohen says.

The resulting sessions feature swoon worthy melodies and heavy grooves, warm tones and ancient technological rhythms—it feels strangely unmoored from time.

All music written, recorded and produced by Dekel Adin & Omri Cohen.

If You Like Haziz The You Might Dig The Slow Balearic Playlist

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22/8/2022 0 Comments

Swim Ignorant fire - Ancestral Motion (Shimmering Moods)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

WHAT WE SAY

Ancient ritual soundtracks collide with looped and loopy future tribal rhythms as free jazz psychonauts serve healthy measures of entheogenic punch in Swim Ignorant Fire's fun, freaky, trippy, tropical new LP for Shimmering Moods.

What The Release Notes Say

Loops of African Juju Witchcraft Dance, Chants from India, and Exotic Percussion record grooves swirl together on a SP202 once again to form a continuation of Bufo Alvarius, Ancestral Motion.

Once beginning as an esoteric diary of one man’s adventure through uncharted territory, polyrhythmia and lo-fi tropical charm transform simultaneously further into a warm sanctuary of light and its adversarial darkness with a new group of friends.

Improv contributions from Yea Big on bass clarinet, Ohtis's Adam P. and Nate H. on electric guitar and pedal steel with drums/percussion from Ian Sheridan create other worldly tropical music with occasional flares of improv jazz like lifting your sunglasses from a sunny day on the beach.

CREDITS
Produced and mixed by Stephen Holliger
Mastered by Ian Sheridan, 2022

Stephen Holliger - SP202, Bass Guitar, Aux perc
Adam Pressley - Guitar
Nate Hahn - Steel
Ian Sheridan - Drums/Perc
Yea Big - Bass Clarinet

IF YOU'RE TRIPPING TO THIS YOU MIGHT LIKE THE SLOW PSYCHE PLAYLIST

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21/8/2022 0 Comments

The Green Kingdom - AudioLoom 2 (ROHS!)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

After a prolific 2021 The Green Kingdom has been keeping a low profile, so it's nice to hear him back for ROHS! Records with a borderline Balearic collection of ambient reflections, which would sound equally great gazing at the sun sinking into the ocean or horizontal at home - deep in cobweb cleaning contemplation.

What The Release Notes SAy

"This release is a continuation of the sounds explored on Audioloom 1/Streams, which was a split release with Maps & Diagrams. These short ambient pieces are woven together from various sources, including acoustic and electric guitars, samples, synths and other acoustic instruments. My hope is that they provide moments of peace as a soundtrack to your daily activities or times of reflection.."

CREDITS
Music by Michael Cottone
Mastered by: Andrea Porcu
Artwork by: Annie Spratt
Record label: Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series
Publisher: ROHS! RECORDS

IF YOU LIKE THE GREEN KINGDOM YOU MIGHT LIKE THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

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YOUR CART

What your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

IF You LIke Carlos Truly You Might Get Down To The Slow Soul Playlist

Milkweed - YELLOW PLAGUE (DEVIL DOWN TAPES)

Cloud Opacity - The Path Between Two Pines (Yellow Yellow Yesterday)

JAMES VICKERY - THE REASON (Left Side)

Tikom - Narcisse (Radicalis)

What your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

What The RElease Notes Say

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

IF YOU LIKE MULTI-SURFACE YOU MIGHT VIBE OFF THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like morimoto naoki then you might appreciate The Slow Ambient Playlist

הפרי הראשון | אייל זוסמן - Eyal Zusman - THE FIRST FRUIT (Self Release)

Deru - The Way Through The Forest (Friends Of Friends)

derek Piotr - "Yes, They All Sing" (Nathan Salsburg Version) [Self Release]

Vanishing Twin - Tub Erupt (Fire Records)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

IF YOU LIKE LOCAL ARTIST YOU MIGHT RESONATE WITH THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like Haziz The You Might Dig The Slow Balearic Playlist

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

WHAT WE SAY

What The Release Notes Say

IF YOU'RE TRIPPING TO THIS YOU MIGHT LIKE THE SLOW PSYCHE PLAYLIST

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks LIke

What We Say

What The Release Notes SAy

IF YOU LIKE THE GREEN KINGDOM YOU MIGHT LIKE THE NEW AGE OF NEW AGE PLAYLIST

OUR MISSION STATEMENT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS

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