Yeah, welcome to the new year. test tube will complete 5 years next July and I'm still a bit overwhelmed when I look at the proportions that this little hobby has grown into. It has changed from an exciting adventure into a big responsability. In any case, I'm very happy that we're still alive and kicking.
While browsing the 2008 news I realised that I never posted the test tube top ten's (4XT) from second half. I'm really sorry for that, so... before anything else, let's review the most downloaded releases of the last six months:
#02 - tube148 - room101 - Subconscious [370 downloads] #03 - tube147 - Philip Croaton + Ilia Belorukov - Still Fire [346 downloads] #04 - tube149 - Tidy Kid - One Week With My Casio [343 downloads] #05 - tube072 - Michael Trommer - Sleeping Satellites [259 downloads] #06 - tube146 - Speed Chess - Speed Chess [235 downloads] #07 -
tube140 - Nicholas Szczepanik - Sundries
[184 downloads] #08 - tube150 - Naoto Taguchi - Untitled 9 Fragments... [161 downloads] #09 - tube071 - Penca Catalogue - This is Hair Care [156 downloads] #10 - tube145 - David Fungi - aal_sentieri [151 downloads]
Ok, by looking at the charts we can see that here and there we had some surprises (some of them big), like two-year-old and even four-year-old releases are still present occasionally. I can't explain why they are there, but the other ones seem pretty obvious because they were released by the time the month ended and server statistics were compiled. We also see some releases appear repeatedly in the top downloads, like the excellent 'Les Restes du Festin' by d'incise (probably the most downloaded release of the whole year) which is totally deserved. d'incise's album was present in a lot of netaudio fans' lists almost everywhere. Lezrod's 'Fear and Loathing in Rio/Tokyo' appears a couple of times also along with David Vélez mixed media experience '20:51'.
The name test tube also appeared in some of the 2008
lists and blogs that we respect, like Marc's always exciting Disquiet; The community moguls at Phlow Magazine; Matchdose's very complete information center and Benoit's little corner called Netlabels Revue. There may be others (of course there are), but I couldn't find more at the time this post was being written. If you have found some more, we would appreciate the sharing of that information. Thanks :)
All in all it was a great year for test tube. We were able to maintain a steady release schedule while keeping our standards high as usual. We hope that 2009 doesn't disapoint here as well.
Our big thanks go to everyone that keeps coming to check out our releases and ultimately enjoys the eclectic choice we strive to provide.
We'll get together again in a year. Happy listening!
«For the last release of the year, we bring you mon0. mon0 (with a zero in the place of the last 0) comes from a small place near Düsseldorf and Cologne, Germany and started his career in music as a Dj somewhere in the last half of the 80's. It was only some years later that he turned to computers and began composing, first with Rebirth and Reason and later with Live.
As he was (is) a big fan of Plastikman and monolake - who probably inspired him when he started to sign his work as mon0, his first compositions were something along the lines of minimal/ambient techno. Most of mon0's releases are along those aesthetics.
But from some time now, mon0 has turned his attention to pure ambient, using only sprouts of percussion elements in his tracks. His latest tracks sound like something Biosphere and monolake could be doing together, without the beats. It's some deep, dense and heavy form of very minimal ambient techno with all the beats taken out. 'Interference' and 'SeNØrd', two long tracks with roughly 20 minutes each, make up this small album called 'Beyond', and if you're into ambient music, you really should listen to this.»
- Pedro Leitão
Oh, and have a nice new year's eve! Happy 2009 to you all!
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December 27, 2008
TIDY KID FOR THE EYES
We've added a new video taken from Tidy Kid's 'One Week With My Casio'. It's called 'Coma For a Dog' and it's brilliant. Check it out below.
You can also watch both videos at Vimeo, in bigger windows or even fullscreen, here and here.
«This small album by Japanese musician Naoto Taguchi comes only a few months after he released a four tracker at on;(do) music. Those four tracks were re-mixed and re-recorded, Naoto added four more and an extra one which is a remix of 'Untitled Fragments #3' by Daisuke Miyatani, a fellow artist.
Presentations aside, Naoto's music can be described as a gentle and complex tapestry of electroacoustic, field recordings and lush drones sounds. The release notes of his previous release talk about an artist which «is also an active dj with own distinguished style. His music combines electronic sounds and real-life sounds into static and poetic soundscapes that breathe like living compositions. His unique and precisely detailed music style often evokes listeners moving pictures and stories.», and this is a very accurate description of what Naoto Taguchi's music sounds like to me.
Enjoy this late Christmas present» - Pedro Leitão
«'One Week With My Casio' is a little gem of an EP originally released in cassette by Germany's Froggi Records - talk about being oldschool... - which literally covers a week's worth of song composition and recording around a CASIO CT-102 by NYC based musician Tidy Kid. This K7 only release is limited to 150 copies, by the way.
In approximately fifteen minutes of music, Tidy Kid covers some electro-pop territory from the 80's to current time, while exploring some of its known boundaries. Examples? 'Mute Face's freak-pop which easily turns out as one of the best songs of this year; Shortest dance track ever 'I Lost My Mind', which fuses BoC style pads and eighties dance-pop (video here); 'Pretty Girl' and its 8bit drum kits and droopy synth. And this doesn't end here.
'One Week With My Casio' is a release not short of extraordinary and leaves us wondering about how a full album could've sounded if Tidy Kid spent a month with his CASIO instead of a week. Get this now!» - Pedro Leitão
As a bonus, here's two videos from 'One Week With My Casio': 'Coma For a Dog' and 'I Lost My Mind'. Great videos!
«Adam Balušík comes from Slovakia, one of the last european countries to regain independence in the 20th century and also one of the youngest members of the European Union. With his room101 disguise, Adam crafts some very nice drones based on low-frequencies hums and high-pitched samples. We usually identify this style as Experimental Ambient.
'Subconscious'
opens up with 'Neurosecretory Cell', one of the two pieces in this album that push the drones into agressive territory. 'Vertical Décalage', 'Cyclic Nucleotide' and 'Subconscious Suite' are much easier to assimilate and provide longer and lasting appeal to the ordinary listener. In fact, the last track is my favorite because it grows in its womb a big, phat and reverberating drone. A beautiful piece occasionally splintered with audio debris, which actually comes as a nice plus as it diverts the listener's attention towards other interesting elements. Well worth of your time.» - Pedro Leitão
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December 08, 2008
LIVE ANAGRAMS
This is for all you local netaudio and good electronic music fans: next saturday Organic Anagram will be playing a live show in Viseu's FNAC store (check out Google Maps for locations). Admission is, of course, free. If you're in the neighborhood, don't miss it.
