Since first delving into the array of styles collectively referred to as “electronic music,” I’ve gone through phases with your usual assortment of non-techno/house/drum’n'bass horseshit — ambient, proper glitched-out IDM, downtempo, electro, electronica, “folktronica” [cough], etc. While I don’t really listen to much in the way of Venetian Snares or Cylob or µ-ziq these days, I still occasionally toss them on and realize full-well why I appreciated them at the time. Furthermore, looking back, I realize that the one common tie for all the shit I still find listenable is some sort of strong melodic presence — and this extends itself way outside of “electronic music,” and isn’t even necessarily always a requirement, mind you, but it is ultimately a commonality.

One of the things that I appreciate so much about “electronic music” (please continue enjoy my ridiculous abuse of quotation, thank you) is its profusion. A lot of artists are goddamned prolific and expound maniacal discographies and publish under pseudonyms and with collaborators. It’s also one of the things that I hate about “electronic music,” given the over-abundance of samey shit, which even at times has its wonderful place (see “anything that sounds exactly like Boards of Canada” [obviously not a bad thing in my eyes, as it certainly has its time and place]). That said, the internet’s fucking amazing and you stumble upon new shit and old shit all the time — dudes releasing music in [insert place here] that literally a couple hundred people, tops, in the entire world are privy to and potentially overly-obsessive about. It’s the same in so many other genres or categorizations of music, of course, but I’m narrowing this to the scope of “electronic music.” Follow me here.

A few years back, my friend Jeff turned me on to a good handful of amazing artists that I’m still drawn to — brilliant pop music, instrumental or otherwise, with beautiful melodies and discernible style. The [now-defunct] Swedish artist Bliss (Henrik Jose) is/was amazing. His EP “Goodbye Brain, Hello Heart” is one of my favorite pieces of mellow, melodic music — and it’s also, as a side note, a precise example of why archive.org doesn’t completely suck. While tons (the bulk) of artists dump bullshit and live shows and other flotsam to the floating mass that is, a considerable amount of great netlabels have been releasing some serious quality shit, including Bliss, for years. So, all of that said, highly recommended across the board. Beautiful, beautiful stuff!

Download Links:

• “Goodbye Brain, Hello Heart” EP on Archive.org
• “It’s Not The Sweetness..” EP on Archive.org
• Henrik Jose / Current and Past Music

Honestly — for as long as I’ve used a computer, I’ve used pirated software. I’ve been well-entrenched in piracy from a pretty early age in childhood.  I remember pirating stuff on 720KB floppies (pre-high density) — the Sierra games and all of that shit. Having had a conversation with someone a couple years back, someone who had been much more entrenched it in than I (and someone who’s name eludes me completely), it made me realize for someone of my age, I don’t know a lot of other kids who grew up with that same exposure to computers. It’s so much more common now, naturally, that computers felt a lot more novel then, obviously. Terribly obviously. Really no point in writing it!

But all of that said, this form of piracy inextricably ties itself to all of the others and, given the confusing state of piracy — and the debate over piracy creeping into the mainstream of late for the past, oh, several years — it seems even more puzzling to continue to watch piracy evolve, expand, and consume the way it does. It’s got that amazing quality of a storm front, quite colorful and dazzling in an odd and ominous way.

It’s only been in recent years that I’ve begun purchasing software, most predominately my music software (Logic), plugins, design tools, etc. 

And so I release music under the name Obfusc, which you may or may not know. Nobody should ultimately really care, but it’s something that I enjoy doing in any capacity I can. I’ve been lucky enough to meet fine folks through the internet who are willing to put out my music, if even on a small scale. People have been pleasantly supportive and occasionally buy it, either through iTunes, record shops specializing in that type of music, through the label, or through me. At the end of July, when I released an album, I’d poured a lot of time into it, especially for the last few months — and so with some strange regard and pride, I almost anticipated its piracy on the internet more than anything else.

It’s strange to think of the insane quantity of music I’ve been exposed to through piracy. I’ve purchased a great deal and still do, but certainly listen to ten times the quantity of music I purchase. Maybe more. A great deal of the artists are people in my same boat — creating music, being a fan of music, downloading music made by people making it for the sake of sakes — and in some weird way I’m giddy in accepting and appreciating that fate of pirating and being pirated. It’s of late that I’ve checked the torrent sites, keeping an eye on whether-or-not people are downloading myself, my friends (Milieu, Electricwest, Ova Looven, Mint, Cheju, etc., etc., etc.), but also just more-or-less wearing it like a further badge of honor that the shit gets validated through that form of exposure, via piracy. A lot of music isn’t heard otherwise, certainly not for music with an extremely limited audience.

So really, nothing poignant here at all — it’s just a batch of words. If you have any, thoughts are welcome, but feel free to also recognize that I have nearly no clue why I thought to communicate any of this. Seems, well, contemporarily nostalgic or something. And also completely perplexed and trivial.

It’s not a completely original observation, but the person responsible at Avery (most likely a bored graphic designer whom I imagine is no longer subjecting him or herself to the corporate rigmarole) certainly deserves as much of a spotlight as they can get. 

Atrocious introductions aside, I’d ordered Avery 8293 1 1/2″-diameter round labels for a project. Upon puzzled glare at the always ridiculous mock-ups gracing their packaging, I exclaimed with glee at the name and address on the “sample” mailing label:

Tyler Durden
420 Paper Street
Wilmington, DE 19886

It’s safe to say that somewhere — possibly flanked by insanely massive bongs — the graphic designer responsible for such an obvious “Fight Club” reference is still, after four years, smiling satisfied with the knowledge that he or she made the only certifiably genius Avery labels package.

Like a lot of folks, I’m an avid listener of music. A few years back, my then-co-worker, still friend Chris and I had a conversation that more-or-less started with The Byrds (a band sadly overlooked by a great deal of my generation, most likely due to the historically great but tremendously overplayed “Turn, Turn, Turn! [To Everything There Is A Season]“) and ended-up touching on several other bands and genres, as it so often does. We were both immense fans of the quintessential San Diego instrumental band Tristeza, especially “Dream Signals In Full Circles,” “Spine and Sensory,” etc., which inextricably came up in conversation via the keywords “psychedelic” and “melodic.” Chris then said, “What about Languis?”

I’d never heard them in any of their various line-ups and sonic configurations, so my first introduction to the “Other Desert Cities” EP was completely blind. First listen, I was hooked — it was like the psychedelic tambourine jangle of The Byrds mixed with the shoegaze sound I’m so often drawn to. For an EP, it’s a truncated but complete idea — it starts strong and meanders through a beautiful wash of dense pop melodies, leaving you simultaneously satiated and yearning. Personal highlights include “I Forgot, I Forgot” and “City of Lights.” Highly recommended. Beautiful psychedelic, melodic music.

Languis “Other Desert Cities” EP on iTunes
Languis “Times Are Changing” Video on YouTube

It’s been a long time coming — but after a great deal of deliberation and several hours-long, intensely-focused Google Image Search sessions, I’m pleased to announce that mountain goats are my new favorite animal.

[Note: I have positively no idea what my previous favorite animal was.]

Break out the Louis Roederer Cristal Brut, pop the cork, and slowly pour it into the long flowing coat of Jasper, the Official Mountain Goat of blog.josephx.com, where all August is “Epic Mountain Goat Image Month.”

I’ve always held the belief that if you want to say something loud and/or proud, you start with a symbol representing the ideal you’re hoping to convey a steadfast regard for. Next, you stretch that symbol disproportionately. “Wider the better,” I always say.