Pontone & Simon Reynolds compiled this eclectic eelectronica mixtape for the latest Pontone podcast. Reynolds says the only thing that ties these selections together is a genre he made-up to fit the occasion – “eldritchtronic” music:

“eldritchtronic”, a non-existent genre that cuts across a bunch of zones (hauntology, the trippier end of microhouse, hypnagogic/glo-fi, the Brooklyn school of “ecstatic experimental”, etc). Mostly electronic but rarely intersecting with the dancefloor, this music merges blissy and eerie, the wired and the wyrd. And because the 2000s was when the linear temporality of music definitively dissolved, there’s leakage from the remote past, musique concrete and text-sound by artists I encountered for the first time during the Noughties.

Listen to the mix and read more @ Pontone’s Special Guest: Simon Reynolds – Eldritchtronica and Wyrd Bliss Mixtape.

Eldritchtronica and Wyrd Bliss Mixtape Playlist:

1. Black Moth Super Rainbow Rollerdisco (“Dandelion Gum” Graveface, 2007)
2. Belbury Poly The Willows (“The Willows” Ghost Box, 2005)
3. Ricardo Villalobos Fizheuer Zieheuer (“Fizheuer Zieheuer” Playhouse, 2007)
4. AFX PWSteal.Ldpinch.D (“Analord 8″ Rephlex, 2005)
5. Isolee Text (“Rest” Playhouse, 2000)
6. Mordant Music The Black Crush (“Dead Air” Mordant Music, 2006)
7. Ducktails Neptune City, NJ (“Landscapes” Olde English Spelling Bee, 2009)
8. Dolphins Into The Future B9 (“Mountain Saturnus” Dreamtime Taped Sounds, 2007)
9. Oneohtrix Point Never Physical Memories (“Rifts” No Fun, 2009)
10. High Places From Stardust To Sentience (“high Places” Thrill Jockey, 2008)
11. Henry Sauguet Aspect Sentimental (“Archives GRM” Ina-GRM, 2004)
12. Harrison Birtwistle Chronometer (“Creelsploitation 1″ Creel Pone, 2006)
13. Lily Greenham Experience (“Lingual Music” Paradigm, 2007)
14. Animal Collective Panic (“Here Comes The Indian” Paw Tracks, 2003)
15. Moon Wiring Club Roger’s Ghost (“An Audience Of Art Deco Eyes” Gecophonic, 2007)
16. The Advisory Circle Sundial (“Other Channels” Ghost Box, 2008)
17. Sean McCann Look Out (“Phylum Sigh” DNT Records, 2009)
18. The Focus Group Modern Harp (“Hey Let Loose Your Love” Ghost Box, 2005)
19. Gang Gang Dance Dust (“Saint Dymphna” Warp, 2008)
20. J Dilla Won’t Do (Instrumental) (“The Shining (Instrumentals)” BBE, 2006)
21. Blectum From Blechdom Bastard Child (“Desnaunted Haus” Tigerbeat6, 2001)
22. Ariel Pink Life In L.A. (“Worn Copy” Paw Tracks, 2005)

It seems like only yesterday our little monster was rampaging around the Bay Area like a bass wave on a sugar high. Hard to believe this will be the 5th time the loosely associated autonomous mobile soundsystems of the mutant variety have convened on an undisclosed, secret underground location for maximum sound reinforcement and fun times. That’s right – 2 monstrous walls of sound will be erected, combining the earth-trembling bassbins of 5lowershop & Army of Love with the massive mid-range towers of HAVOCSOUND, crowned by Czech-technology rocket tweeters of the notorious S.P.A.Z. soundsystem for ONE MASSIVE MONSTER OF LOVE 5!!!

Deets: ([More →])

Champion of left-field/experimental music on BBC radio, Mary Anne Hobbs is a musical pacemaker on the pulse of what’s pumping out of the global underground. Her weekly show is like a time-release capsule of the latest, greatest dubstep, electronica, techno, breakcore, hip hop or whatever new thing she digs up during the week. If you like San Francisco’s underground electronic music scene or club nights like Surya Dub, An-ten-nae events or the like, you won’t want to miss Mary Anne Hobbs performance on Thursday, January 29th in SF:

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I originally wrote this album review of the new Autechre record – Quaristice – for my “day job” at MOG.com. This is a slightly different version here because you are a different audience!

Longtime fans of Autechre will probably be ecstatic about Quaristice. It hearkens to early Autechre music – more experimental, more chaotic, and less dance friendly than the last 4 albums or so. I’ve been a fan for ages and bought nearly every album they ever released. But I started to pine for their earlier sounds, when they were trailblazing the experimental electronic scene that later became known as IDM. This is the Autechre album I was longing for! If this sounds like you, you need to listen to Quaristice!

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Overall, the album sounds less clinical than many of Autechre’s more recent releases. The sounds evolve more organically and the sequences have more random elements to them. I LOVE it! The synths on Quaristice sound like an Evolver (Dave Smith Instruments) with its quirky sounds and step sequencers. If it isn’t an Evolver, I would still hazard a guess that this music was inspired by some new piece of hardware. It’s just a guess, but this album sounds so much like a return to hardware for the band. Either that or some serious cut-ups and processing like the Matmos albums based on surgery instruments.

Autechre explore new ground with the use of human vocal elements on “IO” (something they rarely incorporate). The human vocal is nicely balanced by one of the most recognizable machine voices ever: a Speak-n-Spell (or Speak-n-Math). The main vocal in “IO” isn’t very comprehensible since it’s filtered through what sounds a bit like a megaphone and a distortion petal. It’s graininess is perfectly complemented by the digital voice of the T.I. toy.

([ Click To Add "IO" To Player ])

A few songs into the album, it begins to remind me of certain songs by Coil: experimental synth stuff like Elph vs. Glitch or Music To Play In The Dark or similar… My impression keeps changing with each song, because they all sound so different. The tempo varies widely from one song to the next, from ambient washes to triplets at 120 bpm. However, the closest thing to a dance track in the collection is the schizophrenic hip hop beats of “90101″ that sound like a Timbaland production on 45 rpm.

It wasn’t until Track 17 “WNSN” that I started to hear the Autechre that we have come to know in more recent years. A few tracks later, “Notwo” (track 19) gets so minimal it’s downright zen. “Notwo” and “Outh9X” (the last two tracks of the album) are pure atmospheric bliss, very similar to the planetary music of murcof, and a beautiful way to fade out the album. This is an unexpected pleasure of Quaristice – the music varies so much. No two songs are alike and they convey a range of influences and skills.

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Autechre have a new album called Quaristice that will be released on March 3rd 2008. The experimental electronica duo haven’t updated their own website since the release of Untitled in 2005, but Warp Records revealed that Autechre will release their 9th album in ’08. Autechre has scheduled one live show for March 10th in Poland and it seems likely that many more dates will be announced in support of the new album.
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This is a concert review of Murcof and .pig at the 2007 San Francisco Music Festival.

Last weekend featured an accidental theme of deep relaxation. Maybe it was cosmic alignment, or reaching an omega point of stress and fatigue, but everyone around me was discussing how to relax and feel creative. On Wednesday I reached a state of zen relaxation while sitting in the Artaud Theater at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival listening to Murcof play ambient atmospheric music over a wonderfully rich soundsystem. I have a sample for you, so that you can try to create a place of zen for yourself with the beautiful song “Cielo” off of Murcof’s new album Cosmos. But first, a review of the band who started off the evening and the entire Festival: .pig an electronic noise band from Mexico City. ([More →])

Hi Music Fans!
I have been on a whirlwind tour of San Francisco’s finest concerts all weekend and have so much to share with you! I’ve barely slept; all I’ve done is go to shows and edit concert photos…. So, there’s been a lull in new articles for a few days, but I will be back with a fury of good things very soon! Upcoming concert reviews include:

• Murcof and .pig at the SF Electronic Music Festival
• Underworld and Paul Oakenfold at The Warfield Theater
• Nommo Ogo, Kadet Kuhne with Mem 1, and Fred Frith with Patrice Scanlon at SFEMF

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Maybe it was the eclipse last week, or a special alignment of the cosmos when I stated here that I would fly to London to see Murcof play a planetarium show. I haven’t hit the lotto or become a jetsetter yet, but part of my wish will come true nonetheless: I will be relaxing and enjoying a live performance by Murcof tonight at the Artaud Gallery Theater in San Francisco! I’m so excited to go and become so relaxed by his soothing layers of ambient electronica. ([More →])

DJ Krush has compiled all of his music videos, 2 documentaries, plus a book of colour photographs into one complete DVD package! The box set enjoyed a limited release in Japan earlier this year, but that wasn’t enough for Krush fans. Due to a flattering demand for the discs worldwide, it will be re-released on September 18th. The two documentaries cover most of the turntablist’s career: from his debut album to his world tour in 2006, a full eight albums and ten years span. Krush was the first Japanese artist to join Mo’ Wax, and he is credited as the first dj in Japan to play music with live musicians. Legend has it that the boy decided to become a dj after leaving the Yakuza and watching the movie “Wild Styles” (an 80′s film about graffiti and hip hop dj culture). I didn’t know anybody left the japanese mafia alive, but it seems a high-profile lifestyle is a good choice if you do… ([More →])

Machine Girl (End.User and Line 47) once was half of a limited edition split with 3 tracks from End.User himself on the flip side. The record was released in 2003 and quickly sold out. But, for those who are looking to plump up their breakcore/noise/electronica collection, Sonic Terror has just provided a fresh opportunity to own this gem. Meanwhile, if you can be in the SF area on September 6th, you can catch End.User, Exillon, Fluorescent Grey and more electric Circuitry live and loud! ([More →])

As soon as possible, I am going to become a jet-setter; I will acquire a flat near London and a frequent flyer membership. Then, every time I hear about something happening in London that is INFINITELY cooler than anything happening in SF, I am going to book a seat, grab my passport and jump over the pond. If I were able to procure these things in the next month, you would definitely find me in London on 4 October for a very special live performance by Murcof. The Mexican laptop wizard is about to release his third EP, Cosmos, as a CD or triple vinyl on 17 September via The Leaf Label. To celebrate, he will be performing in surround sound at the Peter Harrison Planetarium, at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. I don’t know if there will be a laser show, but just leaning back and gazing at infinite space, swimming in a sea of stars and solar systems, and letting the Cosmos wash over me would be such relaxing bliss… ([More →])

Our favorite psychedelic space-rockers – Spectrum – are currently weaving across the Northern US on their way to V Festival in Toronto. If you heard Sonic Boom on his tour earlier this year, you may have been left with an appetite for a full Spectrum experience. Boom played a handful of songs from the Spectrum archives during his sets, and now we can hear them in proper stereo. Spectrum just played two shows in NYC over the weekend and Tuesday night they were in Cambridge Mass. After that, it’s on to Philly, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Then in September, they hit Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, and a lot of midwest in bewtween. And of course, Portland, SF and LA will get their turn before the band travels through the south, finishing up the tour at the Wall of Sound Festival in Fort Worth, Texas. ([More →])

We’ve got two grand tours by Ipecac artists: The Melvins with Big Business and Otto Von Schirach with The Locust! The Melvins have announced a jam-packed tour of the US from mid-September to mid-October where they will be screening the new DVD they created with hipster cartoon toy designer Dalek – “Purge of Dissidents” at each show! Big Business will be opening the shows, but first The Melvins play one show with Mudhoney in LA (which will also screen the new DVD). If sludge rock isn’t your mug o’music, but weirdness is, you might want to check out the Otto Von Schirach tour with analog afficionado insectoids The Locust that is winding around Europe! Ahhh, I remember when Otto was just a lad, playing underground warehouse shows in SF and The Locust were scaring kids at The Gilman… ([More →])

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything new from the french ambient artist, M83, but that’s about to change. Next month he will digitally release an album of songs that he recorded in 2006 and he is currently in the studio working on a full length studio album that will be released some time next year. The studio album is being recorded with Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, Sugar Cubes, Cocteau Twins, Suede) and Ewan Pearson (Tracey Thorn, The Rapture, Ladytron) and has not been named yet. Meanwhile, we have the chance to listen to Digital Shades Vol. 1 which begins a series of “textured richness” which will weave a “lunar and dream-like path.” ([More →])

Matthew Herbert makes great Bjork sounds. “Hidden Place” is one of my all-time favorite Bjork songs, and it was Herbert who produced the beats. He also produced music for 3 songs on Vespertine and remixes of “Pagan Poetry.” He’s most popular for his experimental electronica bordering on atmospheric noise, similar to Matmos (the found-sound audio collage artists who produced and toured with Bjork on Vespertine). ([More →])