ANTS Podcast

Vancouver-based tape label 1080p has been one of the most covered if not THE most covered label on AiMT over the past couple of years, so it’s only right that I give it a proper spotlight in the form of this 50-minute mixed tribute sampler, which features all dance and experimental material from the label’s 2015 catalog.

I can still very vividly recall the first time I heard ambient music. It was during my teenage years. I popped in the record store at our local mall—a Sam Goody or something like that—and picked up Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II by Aphex Twin. I had read about ambient but had never actually heard it. I remember being very surprised and delighted to find this album at such a small shop in our relatively small town. (Mind you, this was in the mid ‘90s, so music consumption via the internet wasn’t really a thing except for the tech elite.) I wandered back to the car, popped in the CD, and was absolutely mesmerized and transplanted by what I heard. The dark, eerie vibes of SAW2 aren’t exactly the ideal introduction to the genre, but I managed to gulp it all down without any trouble. From that moment forward, I knew this music would be a passion of mine. And fittingly, the SAW duology is some of the most celebrated and sought after material in Richard D. James’ (aka Aphex Twin’s) catalog. However his ambient work at large is scarce in comparison to his vastly more plentiful beat-centric material. When James shocked the electronic music world earlier this year by leaking 175 previously unreleased and unheard early demos on SoundCloud, it was no big surprise that ambient music made up a tiny fraction of the flood. Not that I’m complaining—this clutch of tracks is an absolute treasure—but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t hoping for more SAW2-style ambient out of the whole ordeal. After all that’s the era of his career that shaped me the most. I’ve noticed that many of the fan mixes dedicated to the flood—both simple SoundCloud sets and intricate DJ sets alike—seem to favor James’ SAW1-era ambient techno tracks over the beatless tracks more akin to SAW2. (Even James put together a SoundCloud playlist entitled SAW 1.5, which is all techno.) But since I’m clearly biased toward his beatless efforts, those were my focus for this podcast. Luckily James’ friend and collaborator Mike Paradinas (aka µ-Ziq) followed James’ lead and leaked 156 of his own demos, which include a few beatless numbers. The combined beatless efforts of the two producers exceeds an hour, and it makes for good album-style listening. This may be the closest thing we’ll ever get to another SAW2-style album out of RDJ, so let’s savor these selections.

The new age revivalist sounds of elusive Lake Geneva-based producer Inner Travels have been featured on previous Gentle Daps episodes, so it is my privilege to let him curate his own mix, Welcome the Day, for the series. An avid new age cassette collector, Inner Travels has contributed mixes for folks like Sounds of the Dawn and Rainbow Pyramid, and I am happy to add Gentle Daps to that growing list.

Here’s my spotlight on the past quarter’s subdued musical offerings in quarterly Armchair Backlog series for ANTS Podcast.

Here’s my spotlight on the past quarter’s subdued musical offerings in quarterly Armchair Backlog series for ANTS Podcast.

Beat Bachs is a Fayetteville-based DJ and jack of all trades. He’s been active in radio for 16 years and counting with a few different projects, namely the film industry talkshow The Drive-in Speakerbox. That show got its start as a spotlight on film scores (and still incorporates film score material between talk segments). Beat Bachs, who goes by The Boom Operator on the show, has been amassing a gigantic collection of scores over the past decade for the show. He was kind enough to pour over this entire archive and pick out the quietest, dreamiest pieces he could find for Gentle Daps XV. For more of Beat Bachs’ projects, check out Art Amiss, a local art collective of which he’s the president.

The Gentle Daps series ventures into a ‘70s centric episode of healing jazz.

As we approach the second quarter of 2015, the time has come to recap the best subdued music released this year so far as well as a few selections from the tail end of 2014.

Hard to believe this is the first ANTS (proper) episode in over five months. I’ve taken a break from the flood of Gentle Daps and other quiet-themed projects for this dance set of pastoral, lo-fi ambient techno. I’ve been noticing more and more techno songs coming out that evoke the gentle, lush synths and drum machine pitter-patter of Selected Ambient Works, 85-92. Here are 12 of them. Is this the start of a new trend, or is it just a coincidence that these tracks were all released within the past few months?

ANTS Podcast mostly works the “deep finds” angle, but the time has come for a healthy dose of hit worship with a guest episode from DJ EJ, a longtime Fayetteville music scene staple. He was a station manager at KXUA, where he hosted Wheels of Steel, a show that spotlit local DJs. The show ended a few years back but lives on in the form of a party series, which has become one of EJ’s best known projects. He’s currently the music director for Art Amiss, a local organization dedicated to art, fashion and music in Arkansas. I’m very happy to have him contribute this mix of unabashed soft rock essentials for FTV.