Altered Zones

Peter Swanson of Yellow Swans says:
My 2010 was dominated by old favorite weirdos, problematic electronics, and a whole lot of new goth moves. While I think a lot of brahs were real into the more new agey and lo-fi bongo zones that seemed to be all over the place this year, I skipped a lot of that stuff and headed for the miserable and the confusing. I got into a lot of stuff that I think is against my better judgment. Witch House has been a genre on my stereo that I can't help but love and hate. The whole phenomenon seems so canned and a product of internet copycatism, but the reference set really hits my pleasure points, and it's been hard to resist the amalgam of shoegaze, screwed beats, and goth. The genre is really new and will probably not last long or develop very fully, but I'm checking it out while it's around and that might be enough. I like about half of the Salem album "King Night" and the White Ring 12" has been on my turntable a lot. I think the Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting LP Bubblethug was a more successful interpretation of screwed music taken to an abstract end.

Another possibly transient scene that I've been really into is the Odd Future hip hop crew. I particularly like Earl Sweatshirt, who's this 16-year-old rapper who is really into rape, complaining about his mom, and being reckless. They're probably the punkest thing going on right now and seem to be the product of a bunch of teenage buddies trying to impress each other. I expect success will make them totally shitty, but I hope these kids are smarter than that.

Rel Records, and the whole Eli Keszler/Ashley Paul axis, is another label/genre phenomenon that I think has a bit more integrity and staying power. Eli's Oxtirn album on ESP is a fantastic collection of percussion compositions from a guy and a scene that have really brought their own approach to free improv. Portland's music scene has also had a few interesting artists pop up in the past year. Dangerous Boys Club, Operative, Golden Retriever, and Litanic Mask are all new bands from old friends that I've particularly enjoyed in 2010. Operative's Ramp/Pulse 12" single is easily my favorite electronic dance music record from the last...  decade or so. Their music is extremely driving, tense, and propulsive while having a strange austerity that is not at all couched in any minimal techno clichés. The Operative live shows have been consistently exciting and they're developing quickly. The track on this mix is a live recording of a new track that will probably be on an album coming up in 2011 if the public is lucky. Litanic Mask and Dangerous Boys Club have both played a number of great local shows and really bring an individualized approach to the goth resurgence. Rene Hell, Baronic Wall, and The Skater's Spencer Clark moved here and started the Pacific City Nightlife Band, who have all been fantastic to have in town.

My favorite records of 2010 have been from old favorites. Gate, James Ferraro, Alastair Galbraith, Ensemble Economique (Bryan from Starving Weirdos), Aaron Dilloway, Jefre Cantu, Keith Whitman, and Call Back the Giants (Tim Goss from The Shadow Ring) all produced work that seemed to take ambitious steps in some direction or other. My favorite records were Gate's A Republic of Sadness and the Call Back the Giants LP. Both albums provided very primitive and problematic takes on electronic music and an antidote to the orthodoxy of synth music and lo-fi music that has crystallized in the last few years. Thanks for showing me a path forward again dudes.

A lot of the tracks on this mix are edits of longer work. I tried to keep things short and all over the place for folks with short attention spans, but if anyone likes anything on here, I strongly recommend you seek out the full pieces, since this isn't really how any of this shit was intended to be heard.

01 Gate: "Trees (edit)" 
02 Call Back The Giants: "Call Back The Giants" 
03 Operative: "Homeworld (Live)" 
04 Eli Keszler: "Oxtirn (edit)" 
05 Litanic Mask: "Virgin Spring" 
06 Earl Sweatshirt: "Drop" 
07 Alastair Galbraith: "Money Is So Sad" 
07 Baronic Wall: "Room With One Lightbulb" 
08 James Ferraro: "F-150 Night Eros at the Highways End (edit)" 
09 Keith Fullerton Whitman: "Generator 2 (edit)" 
10 Salem: "Hound" 
11 Ensemble Economique: "Real Things" 
12 Zola Jesus: "Manifest Destiny" 
13 Jefre Cantu Ledesma: "Stained Glass Body" 
14 Aaron Dilloway: "A Foxhole Point of View (edit)"