While I don’t announce every Loöq Records release on this blog, Marshall Watson’s new ambient/analog electronica album is exceptional. Listen to “Attack of the Little Straw” from I’d Rather Be In Space to get a taste. You can download a different track from the album here if you join the Loöq mailing list (about one email per month).
From the press release:
“I’d Rather Be In Space” is a stunning collection of instrumental music from accomplished composer Marshall Watson. Falling into the broad categories of electronic and ambient, the album transcends both. The sound palate is rooted in the classic instruments of analogue sound synthesis – Korg, Juno, Moog, Prophet. Piano, guitar and field recordings were also utilized. The result is a transformative album with a timeless feel. Enjoy this future classic.
In the artist’s words: I’d Rather Be In Space is a collection of improvisational and generative music, performed and recorded in San Francisco in 2016. It is my soundtrack for ordinary days as viewed through the windows of buses, and experienced on the city’s sidewalks and alleys. For this work, I relied less on the computer, and attempted to capture the music of the moment without a lengthy editorial process (if any.) I found myself getting lost in the sound as the machines interacted with each other, and often times, I just hit record and let the sequences run, playing along and hoping for the best. The result of this vérité style approach, is an ambient, cyclical, synthesizer- heavy soundscape inspired by works of Eno, Reich, Smith, and the city of San Francisco itself.
Available on: iTunes | Beatport | Junodownload
Personal Update
I’ve been posting less often on this blog lately, mostly because I’ve been writing short stories, including an eleven-thousand-word novelet “The Verdant” which I just finished. Selling my second story gave me a jolt of motivation–I’m trying to level up.
I’ve also been putting in more studio time, both with Mark Musselman (the other half of Momu) and Spesh (my business partner in Loöq Records and the other half of Jondi & Spesh).
But another reason I’ve been blogging less is a feeling of dissatisfaction with my blogging voice. Sometimes when I read older posts, they hold up. Other times they seem impersonal, or too know-it-all, or so abstract as to be useless and/or boring for the reader. It’s frustrating to feel irritated with your past work, especially when it’s up there for all the world to see. But I’m not going to edit anything or take it down. Ultimately that’s part of what a personal blog is–a record of a changing person with evolving ideas (including the awkward bits).
I’ll get my blogging groove back, and I’ll keep writing about pretty much the same things (I’ve got posts planned about the health benefits of berries, a long-term experiment with l-tyrosine, my brief experiment with Google AdSense ads, lessons I’ve learned in my mid-forties, and a bunch of other topics). My plan to get through this “awkward voice” thing that’s happening is just to blast through it.
Day to day, in addition to writing and making beats, I’m rehabbing my foot (it’s great to be bipedal again), looking for a new D&D game, watching The Great British Baking Show with my family, reading short stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov’s, training up Leia the puppy, and dealing with the logistics of my kid changing schools (more on that later).
Feeling grateful to be alive, walking around on two feet, having most of my family in good health, and many other fortunate events. Hope the same is true for you.
Aristo
Really good. Tx!
Sylvia from Australia
Ah JD, just had a little cry reading your self-reflection on your earlier posts sounding know-it-all, abstract, boring, or awkward. When a mother holding her dying son, bawls, “I love you,” or an awkward teenager mumbles it to his shoes rather than to the girl he can’t look in the eye, or a tired husband says it to his wife of thirty years, the words are spoken, they have meaning.
I just wanted to tell you I joined your readership because of one such post. I read it, thought there might have been something slightly white, middle-class and male about the knowing-it-all tone 🙂 but YOU DID KNOW IT. The piece was about your supplements regime and was written from a really nice combination of personal experience and plain-English translation of theory. It helped me enormously and I was, and still am, grateful for that.
I’ve joined many email lists for updates from blogs; I now only subscribe to 3, including yours. And yours is definitely the only one when it arrives in my inbox, I open without delay and read from start to finish. (I only just noticed that, but it’s true! Meaning they are an easy but enjoyable read.) Often I leave the page open over several days to let it sink in a bit and research your references.
B****r the tone, mate, just say it! We love your work.
J.D. Moyer
Thank you Sylvia–much appreciated!