Archive for December, 2011
This is it… the last entry in the prequel to our Best of 2011 albums! But let’s not forget all these wonderful interviews with your favorite artists! Here’s your chance to learn the story behind the music, the name and the inspiration. I want to extend my personal thanks to all the artists who shared [...]
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In 2011, Headphone Commute’s mixes have been more popular than ever. As long as you keep listening, we’ll keep on producing podcasts for your commute! As a matter of fact, we’ve already started scheduling some amazing artists for 2012, and are all booked up until March! So keep your dial on our frequency and be [...]
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Please believe us when we say that we’re dying to tell you about our favorite album selections of 2011. It feels like everyone has already announced their choices, but we’ll stick to our principles and wait until the very last day and begin on January 1st (only three days away)! Meanwhile, let’s pay tribute where [...]
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As I finalize the Best of 2011 lists, I begin to admire all of the great music that was released this year. And behind the music are the people who share their inner message through this amazing medium. Perhaps it is the people all along that we fall in love with through their music. With [...]
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Interview with Daníel Bjarnason
It’s about time that you and Ben Frost collaborated on a project. Was it long in the making and what finally brought it together? The whole process since we made the first recordings for the album in the Greenhouse and until the record came out was probably somewhere around 18 months, so all in all [...]
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Mix : Nils Frahm – Plagiat
Before the year is officially over, we manage to squeeze out yet another mix. This is our 70th podcast! If you’re just discovering our mixes, it’s time to subscribe via iTunes and download all of our previous releases (we’re thinking of cleaning up the archives and only keeping the last year online)! For this end [...]
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Tags: modern classical, neo classical, piano
Over the last year, Headphone Commute has produced and hosted numerous mixes from our favorite selectors, DJs, and artists. Today we look back at some of our most popular podcasts as picked by YOU! After all, it is you, the listener, who votes on these favorites just by listening! Oh, and speaking of voting, click [...]
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I will be the first to admit that mini-albums, EPs, and 12″ singles do not get as much attention on these pages as they deserve. These brief glimpses of miniature releases fall and melt like tiny snowflakes in the night. But unlike short-lived crystals of water, this beautiful music leaves a lasting impression on our [...]
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Best New Labels of 2011
The world seems to be virtually sinking in its own imaginary void. I tried to explain the bad economy to my dog, but he just doesn’t get it. With digital, cloud, and streaming media seemingly dominating the landscape, newly independent labels turn to hand crafted physical releases. Besides publishing beautiful music, the limited packages made [...]
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Sometimes an onslaught of amazing music actually depresses me. I feel like a rabid squirrel trapped in a glass cage filled with delicious treats – running from one corner to another, gathering food for the winter that will never come! I am actually nostalgic for the days when I used to play the same album [...]
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Publishing the first half of our favorite compilations and mixes of 2011 took a great weight off our shoulders. Finishing it up today will complete our celebration of genres and labels of the year. But all of this is just a prelude to all the great things to come. First of all, there’s yet another [...]
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Selecting our favorite albums of the year is always a chore. It is especially difficult when it comes to compilations. Besides picking out our favorite mixes in each respective genre, we also wanted to highlight the compilations that showcase our favorite labels’ artist roster. Alongside the continuous mixes in techno, dubstep, and drum’n’bass, we’ve got [...]
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[editor's note: all questions are answered by Adam Wiltzie] Firstly, congratulations on the album. Can you talk a little about your use of composition as opposed to improvisation in making this record? i suppose over the course of time that i have been making music it has always been assumed that all of my records [...]
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Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran must get on very well. They have combined here to release their first collaborative work, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, and done so in spectacular fashion. Guest appearances by the Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir and violinist Peter Broderick only excite our neurons further. Delicate and restrained in its approach, [...]
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Tags: ambient, modern classical
I suppose I haven’t written up a for a Sound Bytes column in a few months now… I can give you many excuses (most of them have to do with getting ready for the end of year lists), or I can just get on with it and share the latest hidden gems that I’ve uncovered [...]
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Interview with Parhelion
You first emerged to many as an artist on the first Phantom Channel compilation – a few years ago now. Was this the first outing for a new project or was Parhelion already established in some form or another? That was a while ago so I don’t really remember the particulars. The Phantom Channel compilation [...]
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Taking the particular route of icy, semi-aquatic landscapes and a borderline-religious respect for nature’s power and fragility in the wider context of one’s ambient music can be a risky thing to do. Fairly often it can come off seeming a bit cheesy somehow, like the artist has thought for a few seconds that their work [...]
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Tags: ambient, dark ambient
We’ve got another special treat for you today! Selecting his favorite tracks for his own headphone commute, Martin Juhls takes us on a journey through chilled out ambiance of pure arctic bliss… Just look at the track names from his selections: Frozen Signpost, Polar, Abandoned Wind, Radiant Ice… This is a perfect soundtrack for the [...]
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Tags: ambient, ambient dub
Belong – Common Era (Kranky)
It’s hard to believe that almost five years have passed since I first heard Belong‘s fantastic debut, October Language (Carpark, 2006). I still remember the day when the New Orleans duo, Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones, unleashed upon me a torrent of noise-heavy shoegaze drowning everything in its path with a distorted cacophony of pure [...]
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Tags: noise, shoegaze, synthpop
We begin our Kranky label special with one of our favorite artists on this Chicago based label – Tim Hecker. As the press release fairly warns, “this is not a new Tim Hecker album, but rather a peek behind the curtains into the working process.” Dropped Pianos is a series of sketches and outtakes from Hecker’s 2011 [...]
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Tags: piano
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