Parametric Delay’s bubbly electronic visions of childhood

Parametic Delay - Love Song Before Sleep (NS035) (nk082)

The best way to describe this release is to paraphrase something our lead vocalist once said onstage in-between songs at a live gig: “Nice place, lotsa bubbles.”

Parametric Delay’s EP on the No-Source netlabel and the Nowaki Net Label is all light beats, flittering melodic lines on wispy thin synths, and bubbles. Lots of rainbow-colored bubbles flying in random patterns everywhere. There is just a hint of the sinister in these arrangements (which draws a host of similarities with early music by Air and Plone), but as a whole, the EP is meant to encapsulate the innocence and bright-eyed optimism of children by creating modern lullabies. Even the titles of their tracks seek to exude child-like wonder: “Drizzle Ice,” “Love Song Before You Sleep.”

It’s sweet and sugary. And at 5 songs long, it’s the perfect dessert after a lifetime spent listening to the bitter, psychotic ramblings in a lot of music these days.

Listen to a sample song below: “Depict the Dream” by Parametic Delay. Track 3 on the EP.

About the Artist:

Parametic Delay is two-person electronic group from Malang, East Java (Indonesia) who make music using Ableton Live, Casio mini keyboards, noise boxes and funny toys.

Details:

• Download Parametic Delay’s Love Song Before Sleep on their No-Source netlabel page.
• Parametric Delay’s artist bio.
• Parametric Delay’s Facebook page.

Eliethel’s Haunted Dreampop in Ding Dong

Eliethel's album: Ding Dong

Once you listen to this music, you get drawn into the dream. Especially if you’re a musician. And just as in Inception, you’re never really sure whether you want to ride the kick back to reality.

Eliethel (aka Greek multi-instrumentalist Evangelina Alexaki) creates dainty, haunting pop music laced with downtempo electronica, carefully pieced together and balanced to the point of obsession. You can tell when music has been slaved over. And this collection sounds like it took upwards of half a year. Possibly more.

Her album Ding Dong is eight tracks of folktronic, keyboard-based vocal pop that showcase some unique arrangements and instrumentation (the drums and bells of the title track for example). When she sings in English, the words come out with a pretty Greek accent that adds to the entire mystery of the experience. The music is sometimes world music, other times, folksy, and sometimes even ambient.

It makes sense when you realize she’s an undergraduate in music composition in Ionio University, Greece. Hence the attention to sonic detail, and the brilliant use of arrangement and texture.

SUMMARY:
With vocals like Dido or Kate Bush, and instrumentation like Sophie B. Hawkins, Eliethel’s music is the sort you listen to at night while writing heartfelt pleas for love on your LiveJournal blog, or while finding yourself lost in a strange country where every corner holds a promise of adventure.

Details:
As of June 2011, you can download her latest album Ding Dong for free by registering with your name and email on her artist website. A truly worthwhile deal if you ask me.

Fan her on Eliethel’s Facebook page.

Follow her on Eliethel’s Twitter stream.

Capac’s downtempo shoegazing live electronics

Capac - EP sampler

Capac is Gary Salomon, Stu Cook and Joshua Davenport — a three-person live electronica act based in Liverpool, England. Formerly known as the group A Cup Of Tea,  they concoct their sound from primarily organic sources – using these as starting points for their unique blend of progressive live electronica. And they raise the “live” banner  high, in opposition to acts who press play and dance onstage.

Their free 2 track sampler EP available on their bandcamp website showcases how they put together expansive instrumental pieces using a minimal sonic palette, but are able to tweak effects and note parameters for variation. “Imagine This Was All Purple” is a downtempo track which flows from a clean sterile beat to all-out fuzzy white noise chaos by the 4-minute mark. “Palindrome” is the equivalent of a high-flying guitar solo, complete with wall-to-wall delay and reverb effects, except using keyboards and very live-sounding drum patterns.  Shoegazing electronica? Minimal live downtempo? Whatever pigeonhole you want to tag their music as, Capac will make your ears happy.

Their full EP is due in early 2010 on Ontheshelf Records.

DETAILS

Download their 2-track EP sampler via their bandcamp site.
Capac on MySpace.

Capac playing live

Computer Truck’s riotous toy party dance music for daft punks

Computer Truck’s “Rock The Boulevard, Reach The Bourgeois.”

Combine a lifetime of playing Family Nintendo and an innate talent for concocting thick electro beats and you get Computer Truck’s first release on the netlabel Da! Heard-it Records (DHR) entitled “Rock The Boulevard, Reach The Bourgeois.”

Released way back in September 2006, the 1-hour long album is 16 full tracks of nonstop enjoyment that goes from Daft Punk-y breakdance anthems to tunes that sound like 808 State (does anyone still remember them?) and The Orb, mixed with a palette of 8-bit sounds and a knowledge of hip hop. His vocal edits are crazy, quick-cutting from syllable to syllable. His tunes are monstrous, chunky, but always danceable — even if you have to twitch like a zombie to do it. This is lovely upbeat electronic chaos, everything melodic. No artsy-fartsy texturing, just wonderfully utilitarian dance music. Solid work from a french genius composer who describes his music as “riot toy party music.”

Also, if you’re in San Francisco this week, Computer Truck is playing live with StarPause at SpaceGallery on Thursday January 15th. Details of the gig here, here and here.

FILE DETAILS: 16 MP3s encoded as 256 VBR kbps, 44.1 kHz stereo.

DOWNLOAD LINKS:
Download album in one zip file (67 MB).

Album page on netlabel Da!Heard-it Records.

ARTIST BIO:
Artist writeup on netlabel page.