That's the Dao, or Tao, depending on your preference. It means "The Way". As in way of living, way of being, way of existence, or my family name. The path... the road... the way to... enlightenment. Just BE. Be like the water that flows around the rocks to the path of least resistance yet fills all with liquid love and light... and SOUND. There will always be sound, and we humans only tap the source and drink of its essence. We're LISTENING. Always creating and listening and shaping and flowing because sound is the Dao.
The dao is the way is the flow is the motorik rhythm and strange sonics of bands like British pioneers Stereolab, this completing my 3-month feature called MULTI-PLAY with the third and final installment featuring multiple tracks from a highlighted artist, this time mixing two tracks from their groundbreaking album 'Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements'. Peel Dream Magazine exist as a simulacrum of Stereolab's ethos, with a name referencing both the late great John Peel, champion of musical esoterica, and popular fanzine music that may have somehow bypassed most of the populace. Brightonians Electrelane exist in a similar vernacular, as do krautrockers from diverse places as Sei Still (Mexico City) and Minami Deutsch (Tokyo).
Then it's time to switch gears with the blissed-out noise-for-noise-sakes of Soviet Soviet (Italy), Is Bliss (Wales), and Helicon (Scotland). Continuing into modern psych cuz that's what we do, we have Halo Noose (Scotland), Las Cobras (Uruguay!), Vintage Cucumber (Germany), Trad Gras Och Stenar (Sweden), and Verstarker (Kentucky, US!).
To wrap up this set we set forth on an epic journey (replete with more motorik/dao splendor) of space exploration out into the cosmos, seeking the sun (the LIGHT), and back inwards deep into our psyches, with lengthy tracks from Mt. Mountain (Australia), the double sun of Kanaan (Norway), and finally we wrap up this MAD MAD crazy bad/good weird WTF and just plain glad-it's-over year by swimming into the sun with Kandodo, the side project of The Heads' Simon Price. GOODBYE and good riddance, 2020! You brought us some great music (just wait until you hear the Best Of 2020 playlists in the upcoming months!), but that's about it, so FUCK YOU, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out (same to you, "Mr. President"). BYEEeeeeeeee...!
Spacerock Continuum Intro - bRambles
Our Trinitone Blast/Analogue Rock - Stereolab
Eyeballs - Peel Dream Magazine - Agitprop Alterna
Bells - Electrelane - Axes
El Camino - Sei Still - s/t
I've Seen A U.F.O. - Minami Deutsch - With Dim Light
What To Believe - Is Bliss - Strange Communication
Kolorskope - Helicon - Mind Explosion
Rollercoasting Your Mind - Halo Noose - Magical Flight
Evil In Your Eyes - Las Cobras - Selva
La Fruta Bomba - Vintage Cucumber - San Tropico
(Hallo) Commando - Verstarker - single
Double Sun Part 2 - Kanaan - Double Sun
Swim Into The Sun - Kandodo - k2o
