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Wednesday 30 September 2015

In The Loop: Episode 2

The second episode of  "In The Loop" shines the spotlight on Microvolt, Kure, Merrimans Ghost, Slow Deep Breath and International Debris.
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Microvolt hadn't posted any new tracks on soundcloud for a couple of months but its fair to say it was worth the wait. Last week he posted a new track called "Love Echo Fade" and it's everything I've come to know, and love, about his work embodied into one track. Experimental glitchy sounds filtering through, while haunting notes tinkle away in the background. Tracks like this are the reason I was eager to have him on board the collective.



Paul Randall, the man behind Microvolt, also runs his weekly show Bluetown Electronica on Sheppey FM radio. The latest episode is 3 hours of solid electronic goodness.



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At the end of August, Kure posted his longest track to date on his soundcloud page. Until recently his longest released track was two and a half minutes. "Universe Apollo" clocks in at almost 4 minutes and has all the Kure trademarks. Warm synths, nostalgic, psychedelic atmospherics and NASA samples. The track was dedicated to Andreas Mogensen, who became the first Dane to fly in space on the 2nd September this year.



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SlowDeepBreath is potentially the most well traveled member of the collective. Constantly on the go, travelling the world, utilizing field recordings and creating binaural beats wherever he goes. If you're new to the work of SlowDeepBreath then check out his full collection of meditation music over at his etsy page.

As I mentioned before, he travels regularly, here's a recent capture of a beautiful sunrise in Saskatchewan, Canada.



Anyone who has heard our debut compilation will be familiar with his track "The Crow Pheasant". Below is a visual accompaniment for the track. Gloopy, abstract colours on the screen fit unbelievably well with the natural sounds of the music.



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Merrimans Ghost is an artist who has been very productive over the last wee while. The last 8 days has saw him upload 3 new tracks to his soundcloud page. "Austerity Austerity", "Bells" and "Must Be You". Each one with its own individual characteristics and charms.

"Must Be You" is a dark soundscape with a broken beat bobbing along nicely beside it.



"Bells" is in a similar vein but with a less frequent beat which in turn creates a more spacious sounding track.



And finally "Austerity Austerity" is the the most frenetic of the trio of new songs. Experimental guitars give way to ricocheting drum patterns before a crescendo of sound kicks in and fades out to bring an end to the track.


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Behind "International Debris" is Ross Baker. Releasing quality music in vast quantities under many names but also sometimes just under the straight forward, no frills, Ross Baker. A few days ago a CDr of Ross'  album "East of Evening" was reissued on Assembly Field. You can grab a very limited edition copy of it at the Assembly Field bandcamp.

Have a listen below and get lost in the sounds that were inspired by still summer evenings.


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Monday 28 September 2015

Colours To Keep


Our debut compilation release has now been updated to include a downloadable booklet containing all 16 of the visual interpretation pastel artworks of the music.



You can head over to our bandcamp page and grab yourself a copy of the updated version with a free download.

Saturday 26 September 2015

In The Loop : Episode 1

"In The Loop" is a new section that we're starting up that will keep you up to date with what our members are up to inside and outside of the collective.

First things first, our debut podcast, that came courtesy of Lo-Jacker at the start of the month, is now available for a free download. It was previously only available for streaming at our mixcloud account. But as of today you can stream AND download it over at our new podomatic account. The same process will be in place for our future podcasts. They'll spend a week or two being exclusive to mixcloud and will then become available for DL at podomatic.





So tuck in and grab your download of Lo-Jackers melody laden mix and take it with you on your phone or mp3 player.
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Our resident French techno wizard H.ICH has been busy creating more beats recently. A few weeks ago he dropped a new track of his "Holy Tresor" over on his soundcloud page. Anybody that knows of or has been to Tresor nightclub in Berlin will know what to expect from the title alone......ferocious, dark, relentless techno.



There's also a neat remix cut from A6DE that's been doing the rounds over the last few days.



Both tracks are more than worth a listen.

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get-effect has also been quite busy recently. He's just released a new EP called "Trick Ladders" on Vanguardista Records. It's a journey into his take on the krautrock side of things. Think precision timing riffs and beats bathed in ambient synths. You can get a copy of the 5 track EP here.



Have a listen below to "Ya Pari" from the new EP to get a feel for the sounds he's masterfully created.



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Jazz Defector has always had a very prolific output and recent times have been no different than his usual standards. His soundcloud page is choc-a-bloc with some new ambient gems. The last 3 weeks has saw him release chapters 4, 5 and 6 of his "Lost In Silence" experiments among a few other newbies.

Here's a couple of my favourites.





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There'll be another "In The Loop" episode early next week that will shed some light on other artists and what they've been upto. There's also some news coming soon with regards to some future Bricolage releases and some potential new members.

Stay posted.

Sunday 20 September 2015

Volume 1 VA: A Colourful Storm (Part 2)








This is the second batch of visual interpretations of our compilation. The pastel drawings come courtesy of Emma Kempsell.

To see the first 8 sketches and read about how the sketches came about then check the first part of the "Colourful Storm" post here.

9. HIRAMATSU TOSHIYUKI - MOUNTAIN CALL




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10. INTERNATIONAL DEBRIS - HYPOGEUM




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11. MUTE BRANCHES - RIVER + CARPARK




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12. CHAIRMAN COW - MOKUSATSU




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13, MERRIMANS GHOST - OWL




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14. JAZZ DEFECTOR - WE MOVE TOWARDS A FADING LIGHT (HORIZONS EDGE MIX)




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15, MICROVOLT - A TOUCH OF THE VAPOURS




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16, LIAPEI - WHEN WE WERE ALL SO VERY DIFFERENT




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I'm looking into making a digital PDF booklet containing all the sketches and updating the compilation on Bandcamp to include the drawings as part of the download.

Stay posted.

Friday 18 September 2015

Volume 1 VA: A Colourful Storm (Part 1)


 So, as mentioned in the previous post, my friend Emma came up with the idea of drawing her own visual interpretations of all the tracks that made up our first release.

Armed with a notepad and pastels her task was to quickly sketch down the vibe she got from each track in the allocated time slot, which was each individual track length, sometimes played twice in the case of the shorter tracks. It's worth noting that Emma knew absolutely nothing about any of the tracks or artists, had never heard even one second of any given track and just subsequently went with the flow. The results vary from colourfully abstract to sometimes almost childlike efforts to near blank pages with splashes of colours sporadically placed. Below I'll post the first 8 songs along with their corresponding drawings. Click the images for a bigger viewing.

1. KURE - MOON ACID




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2. SLOWDEEPBREATH - THE CROW PHEASANT




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3. GET-EFFECT - NO ONE LEAVES HERE EMPTY HANDED




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4. FRAGILE X - AMYGDALA




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5. KOREAN WEST HILL - DESPERATE BRIDE RIGHT BEFORE MIDNIGHT




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6. SUBSEQUENT - SMALLBATCH



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7. 
Ħ ICĦ - LADYLAND PART II (MENTAL MIX)


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8. GEWATTE - X 08



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The second lot of 8 will go online over the weekend!

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Just Add Colour


Last week, a friend of mine, Emma Kempsell, offered to do pastel sketch drawings for all the tracks on the Bricolage Volume 1 compilation. The idea was to jot down her own visual interpretations of each track. 

The premise was simple. We sat down, got comfy and then I played the tracks back to Emma, one by one, and she had the duration of each said track to quickly jot down what she was feeling and seeing. For some of the shorter tracks we played them two or three times over. The results were 16 unique pieces of colourful and abstract lo-fi artworks. In doing these sketches, Emma has became the first visual artist to join The Bricolage Collective.


Tomorrow I'll post the first 8 tracks and Friday will see the second lot of 8 go up. Until then you can have a look inside Emmas sketchbook and at some of her previous doodles.














Monday 7 September 2015

Bricolage Podcast: #1 : Lo-Jacker


For our first podcast we've got the inventive and unique Lo-Jacker to take you on a melodic journey laden with bleeps, glitches and beats. It's the perfect blend of his own tracks and some of his favourite artists over the course of 60 rhythmic minutes. A combination that, I'm sure you'll agree, works ridiculously well. Put on your headphones or turn up your speakers and let this mix worm around inside your head


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Here's a few words from the man himself:

"I'm delighted to have been asked to contribute the first mix for the Bricolage Collective podcast. It was a bit of a challenge since I hadn't done a DJ mix in 2 years. I've spent much of that time focusing on producing my own tracks. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of them worked quite nicely within that sort of context so I took the liberty of chucking a load of them in. This is the result: a lot of stuff I've worked on over the past couple of years mixed with a ton of tunes by some of my favourite artits. Hope you enjoy it!"

Stream his mix exclusively from our mixcloud account. A download will be available soon.


Bricolage Podcast #1: Lo - Jacker by Bricolage Collective on Mixcloud


Wednesday 2 September 2015

Hi-Jacked by Lo-Jacker



Our first podcast will will be up online on Monday and it comes courtesy of the unique and genre defying 
Lo-Jacker. I've already had a preview listen through his mix and I can assure you that your ears are in for a melodic treat. Here's a short older mix of his from a few years back to get you in the mood. 

Tuesday 1 September 2015

BRICOLAGE: VA: Volume 1 (bc001)


Yesterday saw the release of our first compilation. Various Artists Volume 1. Major thanks go out to all the artists who contributed for making this release happen so quickly.

Volume 1 more than represents what the collective is all about. It's full to the brim with a wealth of music from the world over. Sounds from Japan, Denmark, Scotland, England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Holland, France and Sweden are all on show here. There's no bias against genre. Just a collection of quality and eclectic music for your listening pleasure.

The compilation covers a diverse range of ambient, glitch, techno, house, drone and experimental sounds. Hopefully there's something for everybody among the 16 tracks. As will always be the case, the compilation is a free to stream and download from the Bricolage bandcamp page.