mercredi 26 décembre 2012

Radar Men From The Moon - Echo Forever

During these hard times, when it is cold outside, when the sky is grey and when you've not seen the sun's glittery beard for what seems like years, I want you to know that you are not alone.

I have changed, for the zillionth time in my life, my musical tastes. In fact, it happens once a year, the cycle continues. I usually spend half the year listening to electronic music, chillout, psytrance, electro, anything, until everyone begins to think I am an electronic fascist, destroying all the friendly non-electro parties in the world to quench his horrible thirst for robotic repetitive rhythms and violent outbreaks of bass.

And when this belief is firmly rooted in all the brains touched by my grisly fingers, everything changes. Because then starts the other half of the year, when I want to go back to where I was before then, when I listened to music with instrumental sound, with humans singing, with monstrously distorted guitars and a vibrating sound that reminds me of old times.

And thus, La Mojoteque will embroided itself with more rock, reggae, instrumental music and folk. I cannot really guarantee it, because as I said before, finding good, very good non-electronic music on the web is way harder than the other way round. I still don't really know why. When I do, I'll let you know.

Until then, I'll let you enjoy this nice rock/stoner release I just found. If you like long guitaristic instrumentals with a hint of futuristic fragrance about it, you'll probably end up sated. Because sometimes it is the oldest sounding music that produces images of the farthest future. Bisoulord.


mercredi 19 décembre 2012

Gergaz Netlabel - Beat Garden Compilation

It is weird. Sometimes I begin writing reviews in English, and then I try to translate it the best I can in French, and sometimes it is the opposite. But I end up every time with two different reviews, meaning overall the same things, but still, using different expressions and words. A while ago I wanted to become a translator specialised in books, but I'm still just some guy in a room listening to music, and that is just as well.

But where were we ?

I'm sorry for my weekly ramblings, if I could, I would erase them and start anew (I can, but I won't). What is this ? A compilation of the weirdest music I used to call "Mushtronic" in the early days of La Mojoteque. Distorted, WTFish, but still very much enjoyable. This is clearly not the kind of music you want to put at a party, unless you want to get your ass kicked, or if you manage to gather very strange people, such as silver-skinned root-eating cave-gnomes, at your place. It's up to you.

I feel like I've been listening to this kind of music for a very long time now.

mercredi 12 décembre 2012

Mathias Fekjaer - Growth

Searching for good psydub on bandcamp is not such an easy task. Some labels tend to take all the blanket to their side of the musical bed, and leave independent artists drowning in a flood of small one or two-track releases... for which you have to pay ! This will not stand ! ... I hope so, at least. But here's the good news, I found this album from Mathias Fekjaer that is both great-quality dub and psydub music, and free-priced.

This album has been released on the Gliese 581C Records label, one I have yet to speak about, but it will come in due time. Until then, enjoy this very special day, and this soothing music.

mercredi 5 décembre 2012

Colour - Devine Moments of Truth

Tagadagadagadagada brwhiiii whrii wawawa brwhooo tagada taga brwhoooo dadada brwhiiiii is certainly what you will tell me, and I will indulge this, but just once.

It is also more or less what you will hear if you let this album tell its weird stories, which I can only entice you to do. And you will also tell me "but what the... ? this is psytrance ! where is the glitch, man ? you screwed up again !" but don't you think there is something glitcheous in Colour's music ? The atmosphere, how it sounds, it seems evident to me, there is something fun in there, fun and powerful, the right blend of glitch and psytrance, but the world of electronic music is so big, and the borders are so blurry that we could almost say anything about any subject without ever being completely right or wrong, so what the hell, let's do it.

I wish you a sweet listening, hoping this music will make you dance enough to warm you up in these difficult times. Oh ! I almost forgot but my birthday is coming soon ! I will post something bigger than usual that day, with more albums, more music, iiiiiih I love surprises !!

And to those who would tell me that there are evident drugeous references on my blog, I will answer, bound by the shackles of law, that this is far from being my fault.

mercredi 28 novembre 2012

Slightly Stoopid - 2013 Sampler

This is an old one, from my perspective at least. Covered with dust, and it certainly had its share of powdered molded wall and bleach. I used to listen to this release a lot during a certain period of my life. Weird, it is very recent, but it seems to me to be light-years from here. And if someone comes and tries to teach me that light-years are a measure of distance and not of time, I will tell them that they are perfectly right, but that I'm using this measure to give an idea of far far away. It's been so long I even wonder if this album is still free, let me check... No problem, 100% free.

So what was I saying, ah yes, there is a little bit of everything in there, reggae, rock and what not, played by various artists (as you may have guessed) who preferred keeping their identity secret. Most of it is reggae... could it be that I am opening my soul to this kind of music ? A music I have hated for so long, but certainly not for the right reasons. Who knows ? Maybe there will be a noisecore section on the blog later ? Well, not now, don't worry (I'm talking to myself).

See you, peace and love, youpi.


mercredi 21 novembre 2012

Mixes from Tobias Bassline



Ever had the feeling that some people get too much free time ? Well, me too. They spend all day making music and searching for more, stitching some to others to make big chunks of ear-pounding goodness, absolutely disgusting... but there's a bright side so we won't complain too much, or at least not too loud. Tobias Bassline, or TB, is one of these people. I am jealous of his Youtube channel and have no shame of saying it out loud. It is clear, clean and tidy, full of ambient, downtempo, psytrance, techno and psybient playlists and mixes... When I see that, well... I think it's time for me to tidy my own channel up a bit, so that human eyes can find their way through it. I'm going to give it a stab soon, but not now, because I still have a chair to burn (it's hurting my back so bad right now).

Take your time to stroll around. TB's mixes are high-quality music and always have a tracklist for the most curious of us. Listen to them online, and then you can usually find a download link in the description on Youtube or Mixcloud. Bon appétit to your ears !

Edit : This post was made unavailable after I found out his channel had disappeared. But while following him on Mixcloud, I saw he created a new one that you can find here. Check also his Mixcloud, which has even more mixes to listen to.

Here's a preview of what is to come : 




mercredi 14 novembre 2012

Dr Nigel - Downtempo Dubs


Let us take a moment to observe an artist that goes by the pseudonym of Dr Nigel. You will certainly ask why, why would we take a few of the precious minutes we are given by unknown forces coming from dark space, and give them to someone we never met. The answer is simple, but I will refrain myself from becoming a fanboy, this occurs too often these days around. Dr Nigel is a skilled musician bearing a deeply-crafted sound and giving it for free to our human eardrums. Already six albums and all of them are free-priced. I will not lie, I only listened to this one for the moment, but I hope it is highly representative of the rest.

Smells like groove and relaxation on a magneticotransformational long chair, it eases the nerves, plays with our senses and ravish everything in us that craves music. I will now leave all the pleasure of listening to you. Someone bless I don't know what.

mercredi 7 novembre 2012

Joel Robert Melton - Ghost

Melancholia here we come. But not your typical brand of melancholia, no, this is an upgraded version of long lost memories and dreams, with special options such as beautiful landscapes, old photographs and tranquility of the soul.

Through slow well-crafted instrumentals and hypnotic vocals Joel Robert Melton... (I don't want to say "takes us on a journey", it's getting old) leaves our brains, well... mine at least, free of its daily petty whining. This is typically the kind of music I like to listen to when autumn comes, a walk through the orange yellowish woods, here you go.


mercredi 31 octobre 2012

Merkaba - Rediscovery

We're here tonight to celebrate the marriage of Techno and Psytrance, step forward, love each other, etc. Cold robotic futuristic trance shall be your children and they will bring joy to human ears and distorsion to human brains. Some people will call them techtrance, but as it is really a blend of techno and psytrance we will not create a unique tag for them, because we think they will please the former's lovers as well as the latter's.

Phew, that was awkward. Merkaba gives us a selection of early works, a very good blend of psychedelic trance and techno, a little glitchy sometimes, but not enough as this to be considered a glitch release. Sometimes I wonder if my english grammar is really that good. Well that's not the point here. And for those who would ask, no, this is no jewish music.

Edit : Techtrance it is. So techno seekers won't be whatthefazed and psytrance lovers won't be whatisthissed. Sorry if I keep messing things up.


mercredi 24 octobre 2012

Erothyme - Coincidentia Oppositorum

I'm in an electronic mood, but to be even more precise I have ten minutes of free time, and so I decided I'd use them to listen to Erothyme's Coincidentia Oppositorum, one of the first releases I downloaded on Bandcamp, and also probably the first that had me create an "electro" folder, where I now put all this music that is so electronic and impossible to classify. Erothyme's music bounces, that is for sure, sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly, with a touch of groove and two ounces of glitchy material, hey presto, you've got yourself a very good blend of electronic music, and for free, mind you.

But what am I saying ? I have to admit I have a tendancy to put everything I cannot clearly classify in the "electronic" genre, but as electro has a sound of its own, it is clearly out of topic. Erothyme's album is (although you won't notice it at first) pretty relaxing, with a nostalgic and sometimes a little weirdly experimental atmospheres.

This album is from 2009, three more releases from Erothyme have appeared since then, two of them are free-priced. If you like this one, you might as well check them out.

Edit : The blog will change a little bit from now on. I realised quite a few things that weren't right. I'm going to delete some albums. In my sharing frenzy I wanted to share a great quantity of music, and sometimes forgot to listen to an album completely, some, I now reckon, are not so good and still shared, some are ultimately lord and sleep on my hard drive.

Some genres are going to change names, some are going to disappear or fuse themselves with others. Mushtronic becomes "?" for lack of a better defining word, Downtempo fuses with Chill, Progressive is gone for now, because it isn't necessary yet. Last but not least, there will be only one article per week from now on, wednesday evening, it will improve its quality, the site will unclog itself a little bit, and that will give enough time to enjoy each album at once. The design could change as well, and become less like a dark magic cave, and transform into an icy colorful greenish grotto, we'll see.

Edit : Well it seems this album is no longer available on Erothyme's Bandcamp page, I really don't know why, but you can still listen to and download it by following this link to Beardology Records.

mercredi 17 octobre 2012

Cybernetika - Colossus

Cybernetika just round-house kicked through my eardrums right now. I had forgotten the guy (yes, I know) but met him today at 9am in another of my hidden sub-folders. I said "Hey Beber, what are you up to these days ?" and he answered "t-t-k-tk-tk-tk-tsh-tk-tk-t-tksh ioowuuuiiitktktktktktkshhh pf tsh pf tsh tk tk tsh". Fortunately, I had learned the drum-and-bass language back when I was at school. So I knew I had to put him on the blog in order for him to be able to pulse a vibrating rhytmic energy through the greatest number of brains possible.

An excellent road companion, although a little dangerous for the neophyte, listening to Cybernetika while driving ensures an early arrival. Broken beats, robotic atmospheres, this really sounds like the Earth's last battle for survival, as the frame-story of Colossus tells. You can read about it by checking the flavour text on the download link. I'm not going to steal that from them, that wouldn't be very nice, and what good would be a blog that only copies other websites ?

Cybernetika released his three albums "The Scythe of Orion", "Atropos" and "Colossus" on the Ektoplazm netlabel. But this one is for me by far the best, and the one that shows best Cybernetika's mastery and craftsmanship. By the way, you shouldn't let the description you'll find on Ektoplazm fool you, this is no psytrance at all, but good old drum-and-bass, with a psychedelic twist. Get this release for free here.

Or listen :

lundi 15 octobre 2012

Camel Heads - Camel Heads

I woke up this morning and realised my dreams are getting weirder and weirder. Dreams, what are they ? Emanations of what transpired during the day or pure creation of unchained brains ? Let us hope nobody will ever know for sure.

Dreams of dark places, heat, of purple smoke, a setting sun in the desert while you run endlessly towards the horizon. Falling from a tiny platform in a gigantic sky filled with concerned thinking clouds.

Slow yet short, this album from the Camel Heads builds up a dreamy atmosphere and gives the listener cheap travel means : closed eyelids. Longing guitars and an omnipresent bass, as quoted on their Bandcamp page "Camel Heads sounds like a series of slow buildups for epic stoner jams".
 

samedi 13 octobre 2012

Rhythmik - I Is Learning

Glitch is another of these peculiar musical genres that I discovered not so long ago while browsing in search of something else. From a lo-fi aesthetic of weird noises generated by voluntarily malfunctioning machines, glitch has evolved into a genre in itself. This isn't really "glitch" as it was when it emerged anymore, but neo-glitch, or post-glitch, something like that, a weird bouncy midtempo music with... something funny in the air about it.

Glitch is fun, a little bizarre to the ear at first. But then you want more. It is a music that does not claim anything, it is louche as hell, even though a netlabel whose name I won't cite is trying to make glitch the new ultra-hype music genre. Nothing of that sort in "I Is Learning" from Rhythmik, as you will hear. If you're curious about it, listen to track number 5 to hear a typical glitch song.

Coffee ?


jeudi 11 octobre 2012

Pretty Lights - Passing By Behind Your Eyes

The first thing about music is we like music, the second thing a bout music is we can talk about it. I am always interested in new musical discoveries, in any style, coming from anywhere or anyone. I'm even interested in music that you have to pay for (I know, it seems crazy to me too...) so if you happen to know a good band/DJ/anything that is a little bit off the chart, please contact me via the comments or the Facebook page and let me know about these guys. For those who are free, I will of course listen to them and if they are deemed worthy (I'm getting over myself again) I'll share their music on the blog, just as long as it's free and overultralordzor.

For example, I had no idea Pretty Lights existed, and yet it seems a very successful producer. But thanks to Michou I was made aware and began to discover his music, a blend of positively energetic electro and groovy hip-hop. Now, to get this album for free go to this page. If you browse a bit, you will be able to download all his releases for free, and you also have a Paypal donating button, if you feel so inclined.

Have a good day dudeboys and dudegirls.

Download the album

Listen :

mercredi 10 octobre 2012

To The Sensi Tree - Hitching a Ride

Some people think I only listen to electronic music, but that is completely untrue. In fact, if you except most music genres that end with "-core", I listen to a little bit of everything. The truth is, however, that finding good and free electronic music is much easier than with rock, reggae, blues, you name it. Today is one of these days when you're looking for electro and you find yourself soaked in reggae goodness. To The Sensi Tree made their album "the old school way, live, and with analog tapes", and you can really feel that old-school feeling, don't you ? I think I can, but that may be the cold-treating homeopathic medicine talking.


mardi 9 octobre 2012

Citymouth - Holodecker EP

Broken rhythms that aren't breakbeat exist, I've seen them and they spoke to me, in a strange soothing hypralouche voice. And they said I had to put Citymouth's EP on La Mojoteque, they also said he was part of the Dropping Gems label and artist collective and so I said, OK. I have listened to this music for some time, and I admit I hesitated. It is thrilling from beginning to end, but the last track was so strange... at first I didn't like it. But now I do. I think it may be an acquired taste. Or maybe I had a headache the first time, you tell me.

dimanche 7 octobre 2012

Hope One - Scientist Beat Tape (Side A)

It's been a while since I wanted to know what is dub. I was always confusing it with electronic reggae, psydub, chillychill whatchamacallit, etc. To me, dub is like an electronically mutated reggae, without the ganjaweed yaman revolution legalize thing. I searched a bit with the help of my best friend Internet and found this website, very interesting resource for dub music, with a self-explanatory name. I'm only starting to discover dub, so far so good !


jeudi 4 octobre 2012

Hypnoxock - Acid Return Remixes

Feels like I've been searching for it all this time. But yes, there is another one ! Before anything, you should know that listening to this music while on the freeway is a good and a bad idea at the same time, it helps getting to your destination on time (and even earlier than expected), but also makes you think you're driving a space shuttle on its way for the nearest nebula, which might confuse other drivers. Use with caution, I am not responsible for what you do with this release. The last track is more psybientic, to help you release all the steam you accumulated during the previous ones.

vendredi 28 septembre 2012

Kubbi - Sleet

Browsing releases on Bandcamp sometimes seems to be a never-ending streak of discoveries. Just look at this 17-tracks awesome groovy bouncy 8-bit release, isn't it beautiful ? Does it not make you want to don your adventurer's hat and go searching for dozens of holy grails yourself just now ? It works on me, Kubbi's music is another very good discovery, especially in 8-bit music, which is so often transformed into something gloomy and violent. This one is sometimes calm, sometimes bouncy, enjoyable all the way. I'm going to listen to the rest of his releases, if you'll excuse me.


jeudi 27 septembre 2012

MMOSS - i

Funny it is how groups bands that are new newest in the music in the net of the music are able to create make or produce old-school atmospheres and manage to sound just like classics of the golden age of psychedelic rock. I know this sentence was badly constructed, but I did not get much sleep yesterday. MMOSS do not give a lot of information about themselves, to say the least, but in their music you can feel some far faring influences such as Kaleidoscope or Strawberry Alarm Clock, and that good old flute, what would we be without her ?


mercredi 26 septembre 2012

Gherat - Migration Routes

Both weird and magical. I was listening to this album just about ten minutes ago and thought "this is going to be the second mushtronic release on La Mojoteque". I should explain what I mean by "mushtronic", a cross between hip-hop, electro and chill. I began the explanation here, but I'll do it in detail later. Maybe listening to this music will help you understand. Maybe I'm just completely off. Good listening to you, as usual.

mardi 25 septembre 2012

Masmöd - Conscious Automata

Beautiful nostalgia and dreamy melancholic atmospheres embroidered in electronic beats are the main traits of this release, one that I had almost completely forgotten about, lost as it was in a sub-sub-folder of a sub-folder. But it reappeared in a very discreet fashion on my mp3 player while in a train at night, and I know I had to put it on La Mojoteque. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

dimanche 23 septembre 2012

DOMTRON - Pipe Dreams

I usually hate dubstep, or what most DJs and producers make of it : the sound of a robotic gangbang party. But there are interesting elements, rhythms, style, things to modify, sample, destroy and recreate. Yes, there IS good dubstep, it is situated at the exact opposite of Skrillex's position at this very moment. Yes, it is far away, but still reachable. Finding good dubstep that does not drill your ears to death is difficult but possible ! It is always a matter of taste, of course, so I hope you'll like DOMTRON's release. It is short, divided into electronic and chilly dubstep tracks. Good listening.

samedi 22 septembre 2012

BKBROWN - 17AFFAIR

This is a kind of music I'd like to be able to create. I'm always thinking to myself I should get into electronic music, I mean really into it. To create, to find samples, rhythms, to play with effects, it appears both so easy and complex. In fact I don't really know where to start. BKBROWN's music is all chill relax and mind relief. Clouds around you, wings of pure groove. But so short !


jeudi 20 septembre 2012

White Morph - Dream Catcher

Another proof that you do not necessarily need a large number of tracks to make a good album. Four powerful morning psytrance tracks full of positive energy.

I discovered White Morph's music only recently while going on Ektoplazm after a long time away. Everything on Ektoplazm is not always genius, sometimes very good release get bad notes and vice versa, astoundingly beautiful covers can hide flat uninteresting music. You can't really trust what you see, you see ? Trust me, I've listened to every single release on this website. That is why I'm putting only the very best on La Mojoteque. That will save you a lot of time now, won't it ?



By the way, you can get this release for free here.

Lost Twin - Birds

I like weird music. Well, as long as it is beautiful too. I like it when I find something impossible to define and have to keep listening to it in search of a fitting adjective. Sometimes I try to invent a new music genre (we'll see how popular chillcore and onirique music will be in the future), sometimes it's impossible. Lost Twin's release is impossible to describe in one word, it is certainly electronic, weird, dream-inducing and psychedelic in a manner of speaking. It sometimes feels experimental, a little bit of hip-hop here and there. I will use the tag "?" to classify releases that are impossible to classify, or blends of so many genres that it would become confusing.

But who cares as long as it is beautiful and free ?

Edit : Well, after listening to this release and others that SEEM to sound a LITTLE BIT like it. I decided to remove the question mark. I mean, why should a music get lost in a deep thick darkness, crying and screaming for tags while we don't care at all ? Some sounds are particularly well-suited for persons experiencing an altered state of mind, Lost Twin's is, I think, one of them. Anyone can find ways to alter the mind, but I will call this music "Mushtronic", a matter of love and distorsion, a cure for reality. Let us all sit down or up, or bend weirdly on the side, and listen to a bit of mushtronic.

mercredi 19 septembre 2012

Supertzar - Funeral Blues

Four stoner rock tracks, either to annoy your neighbours or to test your soundsystem's resistance to powerful saturated guitars. Let us hope those guys from Helsinki will continue delivering !


HelixNebula - Trip To Infinity

When roaming through Ektoplazm's many (MANY) different releases, I began to notice how so much psychedelic trance can feel and sound like each other. Sometimes it only goes as far as a "tagada tagada" rhythm and weird noises in the background. That is maybe because so many beginners are too hasty, they put their first release on the Internet without thinking, without really working on the details. Nothing psychedelic at all in these...

But there are also many great treasures to be found. I stumbled on HelixNebula's release by chance and wasn't even going to listen to it really. But I did, and at the time I remember I thought it was the best goa psytrance ever made : the rhythms shift and are used in an intelligent manner, weird noises are present but scarce and none are superfluous, and last but not least this music literally sends you into space in a luminous spaceship to meet yourself and others in a dancing world, a trippy galaxy... (sorry I got carried away).

This release really is where you feel the very threshold between good and bad psytrance. Get it here, or listen to a preview first :

mardi 18 septembre 2012

Brickman - The Dark

Cold Tear Records is what is called in French "une valeur sûre". You can always rely on them to provide very good electronic chill music. I used to listen to some of their releases while studying for my exams, but I fell asleep each time because the music was so relaxing ! If you want to study efficiently, use coffee.

After listening to a good deal of Cold Tear Records' records, I decided to place their music in the Chillcore category, a music so powerfully chill and groovy that the frail mind of a human cannot resist it. It has to chill. There are no options.

Brickman's music varies between ambient and (very) deep-tech to provide a very good blend of chillcore. It used to be free on Bandcamp, as were all other releases from Cold Tear Records. If you don't want to give 7$, you can still get it for free via the official Cold Tear website. Enjoy !

dimanche 16 septembre 2012

Amerigo Gazaway - Fela Soul

Never trust a book by its cover. The same can and must be said about this release. I almost overlooked it because I thought it was so weird... thank X I didn't ! This is again very good old school rap full of groovy atmospheres. Next time you see a horrible cover, give it a chance, it could be another pack of good free music.


jeudi 13 septembre 2012

Mixes from Spacemind2012


Hypnotizing ambient waves, chilly rhythm and a psychedelic atmosphere, that's what psybient is to me (no, you don't always need Indian chants and the sound of dripping water). Spacemind uses both classics and relatively unknown DJs and producers to make his (or her) mixes, resulting in long blends of relaxation and star-gazing. A tracklist is provided each time, artists usually easy to find, download and buy. I for one discovered Solar Fields thanks to the sample mix below.

Edit : I'm modifying this post because I found an even better way to get to download freely Spacemind's mixes. Go to his Mixcrate page, then register (it's fast and free) to get access to all his mixes. Good day, good night.

vendredi 31 août 2012

State Azure - Outlines

A release between psybient and electrochill (the difference is subtle but recognisable through the tracks). Made to observe the stars on a warm summer night or to watch snowflakes falling slowly in winter... in fact it can go along with pretty much anything. Beautiful and relaxing.

jeudi 23 août 2012

Ikaros Matsoukas - The Deep Techno Blog











I met Deep Techno at Boom Festival 2010 and we fell VERY deeply in love with each other. Until then I had no idea such Chillcore could be made by frail human hands and mere machines.

As soon as I went back home I searched for some quality sound that could be a match against what I had heard in Portugal, and the first thing I found what this blog : full-length freely downloadable deep-tech mixes with tracklists. Although it was not updated since 2010, it still contains very good free music. Feel free to browse his blog. My favourite remains "Below Surface", it feels like partying in the belly of a whale.

The Deep Techno Blog

I'm still hoping for an update in the months to come.

lundi 20 août 2012

Ochre - Early Learning

The french word "onirique" means "that which creates dreams". There is no other word to describe this release. Ochre, aka Christopher Leary speaks of "aural melancholia", see for yourself, and feel free to give a little something to this incredible artist.

Thanks Raphzor for this discovery.

Hypnoxock - Oddities

To begin on a positive note, a completely free release found on the great Ektoplazm netlabel, "Oddities" from Hypnoxock, a Spanish duo formed by Victor Solsona and Pedro Quijada. Incredible psychedelic trance at its best. Made for space travel.

Listen.