Let The Horse Run Free

 

Dublin based DJ and producer Mike Wilson is back with his project 100 Poems and released a new new album today. He continued his journey of taking tunes from the past and give them a new dress of Balearic, psyche or house. Now he has discovered the blues and shows us what can be made of ancient songs when acoustic instruments such as fiddle or harmonica merge into a cosmic sound. All proceeds of this album will go to two mental charities.

This Year in Music - Part 1

 

The year is drawing to a close and, like many others, I too have been reviewing the year in musical terms. In previous years, I have tried to compile lists of the best albums and songs. I abandoned this plan because I found it difficult to summarise the releases in a table. That's why I'm going to summarise the most interesting and perhaps best albums and songs for me in columns over the next few days. 

Enough preamble. 

One of the most impressive albums of this year for me was >>>> by Beak>. After Geoff Barrow left Portishead, he teamed up with Bobby Fuller to try out new forms of arrangement. Since then, they have regularly released albums with a progressive mixture of hypnotic electronics and drone-like rockism. An album for the head with deep roots in krautrock, somewhere between Neu! and Can. The opener already shows the direction. A church organ plays for a minute before synths and Liebezeit-like drums kick in. Incredibly good and a top-class album.

Craven Faults are another band that doesn't stick to classic song structures. They describe their music as background music for long walks through the north of England. All songs have a strong hypnotic and meditative touch that carries you far away and is unique in this form.

 

Johnathan Donahue aka Mercury Rev takes a similar, albeit completely different, direction with Born Horses. For years, he has been creating extraordinary highlights with his song structures. You can only love or hate his music, as he arranges his songs with a lot of strings and horns - right up to the edge of kitsch. On the other hand, he always manages to strike a sentimental chord, as he does with Ancient Love.

Since a couple of years Irish DJ and producer Mike Wilson releases superb music. The main thing is Balearic but with a lot of influences by classic music, psychedelia and house. His Shine A Light, which has nothing in common with the Rolling Stones is a belter.

10Mark Cooper and Bob Miles, both DJ's and masterminds and founders of Solid Gold/Agent Cooper are Bedford Falls Players a new but innovative project in electronic music. During the last months they released a couple of new songs in an electronic style and all of them were above the average. Cosmic Cascade is their latest release and a highlight of new electronic music. A steady rhythm with bleebs, electronic improvisations and a bit of hypnotic sounds, leading into a brighter future.0 Poems · Shine A Light (Ft Hyson Green)

Like I said back in May: Mark Cooper and Bob Miles, both DJ's and masterminds and founders of Solid Gold/Agent Cooper are Bedford Falls Players a new but innovative project in electronic music. During the last months they released a couple of new songs in an electronic style and all of them were above the average. Cosmic Cascade is their latest release and a highlight of new electronic music. A steady rhythm with bleebs, electronic improvisations and a bit of hypnotic sounds, leading into a brighter future.

The Woodentops are still alive and from time to time they release some new stuff. Most of them are worth to make a great rework like Coyote did this year.

Monday's Long Song

 

It's seldom that I feature the same artist within a few weeks but I can't resist doing this with the last release by 100 Poems, the project of Dublin's DJ and producer Mike Wilson. Ten weeks ago he surprised me with his first release Everything's Balearic When You Believe and now he's back with another album full of spaced out Balearic sounds. His trademark is the combination of typical Balearic beats and Westcoast sound guitars. Sometimes I think the guitars are played by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour but this doesn't disturb and fits perfect to the rest of the music

Shine A Light

 

This is not you might think. Not the song by The Rolling Stones from their album Exile on Main Street. It is from a new album Adam introduced us last week by 100 Poems, a band from Dublin by DJ Mike Wilson. Everything's Balearic When You Believe is a tripped out excursion in electronic, house, psyche, prog, dub and Balearic blissed out beats. Seldom heard such coherent mixes of different styles since a long time. Balearic beats meat Westcoast sound meets guitar solos, meets horns. A mixture that is far above many things I listened to during the last months. Maybe it is not everyone's cup of tea but for me one of those albums that makes the difference to other peoples stuff