dude has a pretty solid lineup spanning a wide spread of genres, all executed flawlessly, and he writes, records, produces, and mixes everything Silver Wilkinson (2013): spacious, almost ambient guitar ballads, all washed with reverb and decorated with field recordings. fav songs: Raincoat, You Won’t Remember…, Dye The Water Green, a tout a l’heure A Mineral Love (2016): a few songs are in a similar vein as the last album, this time a bit crisper and with the addition of some electronic elements. some moments are more funk/soul inspired. love the drum machines and clavs. fav songs: Town & Country, Feeling, Petals, Raxeira, C’est La Vie Phantom Brickworks (2017): the biggest switchup, a loop based ambient album interspersed with field recordings and samples, reminiscent of William Basinski, a concept album on the dilapidated ruins of the early industrial era that litter the Welsh countryside. also has a companion EP of Phantom Brickworks IV-V fav songs: Capel Bethania, Phantom Brickworks I-III Ribbons (2019): Bibio takes his usual guitar balladry but with a Welsh folk twist, all the songs are full of nature imagery. dude busts out the mandolin and fiddle on a few tracks fav songs: Curls, Beret Girl, Ode to a Nuthatch, Valley Wulf, Old Graffiti Sleep on the Wing (2020): FULL WELSH FOLK MODE. perfect morning music, lovely melodies and lush arrangements. dude plays all the parts too. fav songs: Oakmoss, Sleep on the Wing, Watching Thus the Heron is all Pool, Awpockes BIB10 (2022): his 10th album, more of a 80s pop vibe, sounds kinda like Prince. a lot synthier and groovier fav songs: Even More Excuses, Rain and Shine, S.O.L, Fools, Cinnamon Cinematic Sunbursting (2023): YACHT ROCK. steely dan vibes on this. fav songs: Sorry Won’t Cut It, A Matter of Fact, All of the Above, Sunbursting
Mar 7, 2024

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Here are my fav records that I have been listening to lately, this lineup strikes me as very "pi.fyi-core". Hope you enjoy :) (in order of appearance) -Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Lovelyville <discovered this reading some Robert Schneider interviews after seeing the Apples in Stereo play for the W.C. Hart memorial show in Athens> -DJO: The Crux <That guy from Stranger Things has a set of pipes, great happy album> Panda Bear: Sinister Gift <sounds like The Beach Boys! the parts that don't are kinda atmospheric and very very pretty> Bon Iver: SABLE, fABLE <he strikes again. very stripped back but absolutely gorgeous. Justin literally can not make a song that isnt somehow lush and cold at the same, like being covered in a sheet of ice that keeps you warm. He has this interview where he talks about the work and thought process behind it. Very cool!> Black Country, New Road: Forever Howlong <this album features almost entirely female vocals, a nice change since Issac Wood left the band, and the vocals, piano, and woodwind instumetaion are just absolutely gorgeous, sounds like rain smells. Cameron Winter: Heavy Metal <since half of this app is from Brooklyn, I'm sure you know this guy! He sings for the band Geese, but this record doesn't sound much like Geese at all. It has some of the craziest lyrics.I have heard in a hot minute, and is adorned by ~usually~ sparse and skeletal instruments, as well as Camerons odd yet alluring voice. Hope you enjoy! lmk what you think of these records :)
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"Why would you make out of words a cage for your own bird? When it sings so sweet The screaming, heaving fuckery of the world?" the crooner's sophomore outing, finding beauty and hope amidst the end of the world loved unreal unearth, loved the debut. but if you ask me, this is his strongest album. there's something about the imagery invoked in this album that is so specific, but feels so unique to him. that underwater cover art kinda encompasses that; normally when we think of wastelands, its just dry nothingness for miles. but this feels very "noah's ark flood" end of the world. the calm before the storm, the storm, and the aftermath the VOCALS on this thing go apeshit btw this also just has some of my favorite songs of his. MOVEMENT is criminally slept on. shrike is so bittersweet and beautiful. dinner & diatribes and almost (sweet music) are absolute jams. talk...? TALK?!! jesus christ. i can't listen to the title track without weeping. there's such a melancholy that almost makes me sick but it's like...the hug you'd want from a loved one as the world caves in good time😃! emotional damage😃! have fun😃!
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crisp & concise collection of instrumental dance tracks & indie dance/rock songs from the vampire weekend bassist . it’s bright & thoughtful & perfect for fall & the whole album is mixed together in a way that reflects his dj career . vastly underrated imo (i saw him on tour for this album playing to about 20 people)
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Top Recs from @royallmonarch

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just sit still and listen. drink it in.
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I consume a lot of music regularly, and a huge part of keeping a fresh diet of new listens going is having enough sources of recommendations that aren’t an algorithm that either 1) reinforces your existing listening patterns, keeping you stagnant in your tastes, or 2) platforms whoever paid enough to push their product to the top, serving you something that may not inherently be of inferior quality, but may not align with your tastes, may not be exciting beyond just being a new release, and realigns your current listening habits to be more in line with what the average user on the platform is also listening to — which socially might have benefits but which creates a homogeneity of consumption that can become bland since you’re listening to something really just because it’s the next product on the assembly line to have its public moment and not because anything about the music actually captured your attention. the current landscape of streaming is designed to keep you at an all you can eat buffet where you take what’s served to you, and as a result a lot of us have forgotten how to look at a menu and order. so what does taking a more active role in your own music curation look like? for me, it’s meant not using streaming as a primary listening platform. I mostly use my local Apple Music library on my phone that I curate with the vestigial iTunes Library framework that’s still a part of Apple Music on my laptop. probably going to find an alternative soon since apple seems to be cutting integration progressively. I like this method because it forces me to choose what to sync to the limited storage space I have, forcing me to take inventory of what I actually listen to and what I can offload. the files I get are mostly from Bandcamp or Soulseek depending on whether it’s available for purchase or entirely unavailable online (as is the case for a lot of electronic music that was on vinyl only, which is where soulseek comes in clutch). I also have freedom here to change the ID3 tags to better sort and organize, rate, change track info, and track my own listening data. Bandcamp and other music purchasing platforms are great because 1) it reshapes my relationship to music away from consumerism and back towards curation. I have to pay actual money for this thing now if I want to use it, so i’m forced to consider its value (usually i’ll stream a release first to gauge my interest). 2) having to spend money helps me to course out my meals so to speak, as i’ll buy a few releases i’ve accumulated in my cart over the month and cash out on Bandcamp Friday when 100% of my money is actually getting to the artist (TOMORROW IS BANDCAMP FRIDAY BTW!!!), and between purchases I can actually chew and savor and digest my last orders, they don’t get swept up in the deluge of new releases. my plate is full until i’m done and then I order more. also for the times of the year like now when new music isn’t coming out as regularly I take time to find older music that I would normally overlook while keeping up with new drops. currently very into early 80s/late 70s music with early digital production, kinda stuff that would evolve into synthpop and dance music. so how do you know what to order? for me, I’m getting recs through trusted curation platforms. whether it’s bandcamp daily, y’all lovely folks here on PI.FYI, friends, or most importantly musicians who I follow on socials that share their tastes through posts, stories, playlists on steaming, interviews, etc. I like this last one especially because it’s kind of like a musical game of telephone. if I like an artist and they share their interests and influences it’s like every layer in this process is stretching my palate further from the sound that I was originally interested in and into a new territory that has some shared DNA but would never have been recommended to me by an algo because there’s no shared category or label between them, only the musical influence and interpretation of it made by the artist. as an example, I was a huge Skrillex stan, he signed KOAN Sound to his label, they collab with Asa who collabs with Sorrow, Sorrow takes huge influence from Burial, Burial makes some ambient adjacent stuff and takes huge influence from 90s rave music and drum and bass and 2000s rnb, now i’m listening to Brandy - All in Me, William Basinski, Aphex Twin, none on whom would get recommended by Spotify to me from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. LAST thing i’ll say — because in yappin about this i’m realizing how actually passionate about this subject I am: MAKE LISTS! playlists are cool, but they can flatten your music into vague categories of ā€œvibesā€ and ā€œaestheticsā€ and encourage picking one-off songs from artists that you never form an active audience relationship with. I make a practice of making my own year end lists of top 25 albums (plus some honorable recs and top individual songs) and keeping them in a notes doc that I regularly update and rearrange over the course of the year. this forces me to consider the actual relationship i’m forming with what i’ve ordered for myself. did I like it in the moment but it didn’t have staying power? is it slowly growing on me? it also encourages taking albums as a whole. maybe I liked one or two tracks a lot but the rest wasn't resonating. that’s ok! maybe I rank it lower but now i’ve actually taken time to consider it, it’s in my library, and maybe (quite a few cases for me) something I ranked like bottom 5 albums becomes a retroactive favorite from that year as my tastes evolve. also 25 albums to take with me from each year is really more than you'd think, i struggle sometimes to even find 25 that I formed a true connection with. I think the biggest thing the itunes era ruined that led into now is the single-ification of music, the ability to separate the hits from the deep cuts. albums are meant to be taken as a whole, and then once you've really sat with the whole you can find what actually stuck. even then I like to keep the whole around because soooo often i’ll write off a track that yeeeears later I come to love. trust the artist, they made it like they did for a reason. aaannyyyywayy TLDR: get recs organically, be more active in deciding your listening patterns, fr*cken pay artists yall, trust the artist embrace the album, really consider what you consume
Feb 29, 2024
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