Voltron Opening Theme (no narration)
A break from the usual. This one lacks the opening narration (“This… is the story… of the super force… of space explorers”) and lets you focus on the sweet horn breaks.
Whitenessmovesdownward – “Decay / Renewal”
Meditation: Ground Zero
A bit of atmospheric electronic piano I collected around ten years ago, in the supreme madness of the Audiogalaxy years. Obscure to the point of near non-existence.
Porcupine Tree – “Feel So Low”
Lightbulb Sun
A few of my friends in college were hugely into Porcupine Tree, and while I didn’t catch the fever, this song and a few others have been in regular rotation for ten years now. “Feel So Low” is a just a melancholy melody with no pretensions.
Raising the Fawn – “Drownded”
The North Sea
While parts of this album stray into the falsetto melancholy of bands like Aereogramme and For Stars, the meaty guitar and willingness to extend their songs into epic territory (at 11:11, this is the longest on the album but not by far) make Raising the Fawn a bit more exciting. “Drownded” covers a lot of ground, or water as it were, and while it leaves plenty of space to breathe, it never gets boring and the songwriting is just plain solid.
Tape – “Switchboard Fog”
Milieu
Crickets don’t chirp, nor birds sing, to a score. There is no conductor. Perhaps that’s why Tape’s haphazard harmonies and pastoral noodling are so compelling. They lack the exactitude of produced music. This track and others on Milieu, their best album, are less like songs and more like a dawn chorus of guitars, keyboards, and bells.
Tarentel – “Two Sides Of Myself (pt. 1)”
Ephemera
A shimmery exhalation from this variable band’s collection of singles. Like taking a slow boat through a tunnel of stars. And also, you’re drunk.
Kepler – “The Changing Light At Sandover”
Fuck Fight Fail
While their follow-up to this album, Missionless Days, is a quiet masterpiece, this one is far more ambitious and their sound expansive enough on it to rival Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky. But somehow it remains intimate. Past the first couple minutes of crashing intro, this is a remarkably delicate song. The same can be said for the other long track on this album, “Upper Canada Fight Song,” which has an even more Mogwai-esque closer. (insound)
Macha – “Calming Passengers”
Forget Tomorrow
The synth-rock Macha creates is usually poppy and forgettable (not in a bad way), but they occasionally exhibit just a fantastic ear for sound. The ripples constituting the waves of sound lapping along in this song are superbly matched, and the overall rhythm, while not dancey, is difficult not be become caught up in.
Gravenhurst – “Song Of The Summoning”
Internal Travels
It’s difficult to choose between Gravenhurst’s rich Flashlight Seasons and the delicate, straightforward Internal Travels. Fortunately, you don’t have to. They’re both great, and the latter is packed with songs like this one, unassuming yet melancholy, but without a hint of preciousness.
set fire to flames – “steal compass/drive north/disappear”
sings reign rebuilder
An album with a story, and a few actually great songs. The tender opening strains in “I will be true” recall the quiet sections of Godspeed’s earlier albums, and tracks like this one have the power of their more operatic tracks without the fluff.