Collected: Vol 3

James Bernard - Atmospherics (30th Anniversary Edition)

Many of you will know James for his releases here on ASIP, but since then, James has made a home with the crew at PITP, and so of course they got first dibs on reissuing this beast of his. Atmospherics is one of the seminal electronic ambient albums of the 90’s, and one for the heads. You won’t often find it on many, ‘best of’ lists, but you will hear many reputable DJs and producers reference it as a major impact on their productions, with its acid-tinged synthesis that James is now well known for, and straddling the lines of trance, downtempo and ambient with a full throw-back to the chill out rooms of the time. One of the people it impacted some 30-years ago, is Brock van Wey aka bvdub, who has been enlisted to reinterpret the entire album for this Anniversary Edition.

I would imagine an entirely new set of tracks to be born from Brock’s mind - not just remixes, but complete deconstructions, reimagined from the ground up.

Old Amica - F​ö​r alltid

About as organic and textured as ambient music comes, this is one of those records to find subtle details in every time you listen, while wandering an expansive landscape of nordic winter. For fans of Ous Mal; with Sigur Ros, Johann Johannson and Thomas Koner on backing duties.

Minotaur Shock - Salina Pulse Streams

I’m new to Minotaur Shock, and it looks like I’ve got some catching up to do. I gravitated toward this album due to it’s ‘mixtape’ nature as described in the album notes. Experimental downtempo and trip-hop with lush metallic tones and clean, clean drum programming. Recommend a full album listen from top to bottom to hear the evolution as intended.

Ovid - Dream Sequence

Synkro’s Ovid alias turns out a beautifully lush piece of dub-techno on Dream Sequence EP. The title track is as classic dub-techno as you can wish for, with its muddled beats, syncopated patterns and subtle hi-hats. One to get lost in. The other two tracks open up the highs a bit more, but remain on point with more glitch-focused elements, for an all-round superb EP.

3.11 - Illuminate

Lastly, it’s an awesome day when a certain ‘vinyl-only’ artist until now, releases their collection on Bandcamp. 3.11 has made some of the most sought-after ambient and ambient-leaning techno vinyl of recent years (I’m only missing a couple luckily!). 3.11 styles can vary between lush swathes of ambient textures and swampy dub-techno, to italo house and 90’s sounding downtempo. Now they’re all available digitally.

Expect to see more 3.11 music in ambient mixes in, 3, 2, 1….

Find these albums and many more over on my Bandcamp Collection.

Oddity Radio ASIP Label Profile + Inspirations mix

Curated by Alexis Le-Tan and featuring a host of brilliant, inspirational labels, it’s an honor to be invited to be a part of the growing Oddity Radio collective.

The ASIP label profile is now live on the site, including a playlist of tracks from the label so far, which can be added to your listening rotation on the station, a short interview, and an Inspirations mix by yours truly (cue biggest picture of me on the internet).

Oddity asks each label contributor to submit an inspirations mix, and it felt like an extremely daunting task at first. Capturing my inspirations in one mix would send me in circles, and I needed a more specific angle (you know I love a constraint when it comes to mixes!) So instead of looking far and wide or deep into my record collection, I looked to the many artists who have defined ASIP over the years and made it what it is today. They appear in the mix under different guises, collaborations, or with earlier releases before they were on ASIP.

Somehow, it manages to capture the sound of the label and is probably one of my favorite mixes I’ve put together in a while… maybe because of the nostalgia - it reminded me of times many years ago, discovering some of these artists for the first time a long time ago.

Head over to Oddity Radio to listen to the playlist and the Inspirations mix.

Big thanks to Oddity Radio for spreading the love and curating such a great platform, please check it out and the many other great labels featured!

ODDITY RADIO · ASIP - Oddity Influence Mix

Inspiration Mix tracklist:

01. Scanner - Anna Livia Plurabelle
02. Silence - Santur
03. Charlie May - Custard
04. Plastik - Herna 6
05. Scanner - Scanner 2.4
06. 36 - Geiga
07. Arovane - scapen te
08. ASC - Echo Location
09. bvdub - I Would Have Waited
10. Leandro Fresco - El Valle
11. Herrmann & Kleine - Leaving You Behind
12. Chymera - Umbrella (Beatless mix)
13. Influx - Dreamscape (ambient mix)
14. Joel Mull - Alden Plateau
15. Strië - Capsule
16. Yagya - Rigning einn
17. Wanderwelle - The Haunted Shores of Hiva Oa
18. The Sight Below - Further Away (Benoît Pioulard remix)
19. Olga Wojciechowska - Primal Fear
20. Tempelhof & Gigi Masin - Tuvalu
21. Stareaway - The Loss Of Breath
22. Johaness Schmölling - Icewalk (Ulrich Schnauss remix)

Inspiration mix MP3

ASIP on Rinse France - Ed Isar invite A Strangely Isolated Place

A big thanks to Ed Isar for inviting me to contribute a mix to his Rinse FM show. Ed is behind the Musique Pour La Danse label (recently reissuing Coil and rEAGENZ albums amongst others), as well as the brilliant Tursiops label.

Below is the text sent along to accompany the show and introduce the rough idea behind it.

I'm a father to two young boys, so finding time to dedicate to a vinyl mix is tough, but I found myself inspired to get behind the decks late one evening and see what would happen. My only intention was that I wanted to include a couple of upcoming releases (test presses) from the label somehow but they are almost the outliers in the set style-wise., so I had to work around them a little. It ended up quite dark, very deep, and pitch-bent, with a few good crackles for good measure and moments I am sure people will be familiar with.

Listen to the mix below or on Soundcloud, with Ed taking the reigns for the first half and some lovely vibes to set up my darker piece!

Rinse France · Ed Isar invite A Strangely Isolated Place - 10 Juin 2022

Download (ASIP mix only)

Tracklist:

01. Enkai Ohakosh - Unknown
02. Avont - Non-Brio Interlude [Residence Records] (2021)
03. Off And Gone - Uncle Mike’s Beard [Isla] (1994)
04. Unreleased (A Strangely Isolated Place)
05. 3.11 - Reduktion [PRS] (2021)
06. J.S Zeiter - Untitled [Expanding Vision] (2022)
07. Flying Fish Ambience - Monuments in Easter Island [Hospital Productions] (2021)
08. Joachim Spieth - Hyde [Affin] (2021)
09. Muziekkamer – Op Zee [Stroom] (2021)
10. Anatolian Weapons – An Afterthought [Dispari] (2021)
11. Tomas Jirku - Entropy8 [Silent Season] (2020)
12. The KLF - Last Train To Trancentral (Mu D. Vari-Speed Version) [Arista] (1991)
13. Being - Space Again [Firecracker Recordings] (2021)
14. James Bernard - UW07 (A Strangely Isolated Place) (2021)
15. Unreleased (A Strangely Isolated Place)

ASIP – A Weird Winter Gathering (Label mix for Kraftfuttermischwerk Advent Calendar)

10 years ago (back when music blogs outnumbered Spotify playlists), Das Kraftfuttermischwerk invited me to create a mix for their annual Advent Calendar mix series.

Fast forward to 2021 and a lot has happened between our two websites and the world of blogging. But above all, I’m still glad to see people like Ronny (who runs it) keep music blog culture alive, featuring many of our mixes over the years, and now my 2021 Advent Calendar mix contribution.

Focusing on all things ASIP related, with forthcoming bits and a few exclusives, the mix is titled ‘A Weird Winter Gathering’, for many obvious reasons, but inspired by this AI picture received after inputting ‘A Strangely Isolated Place’ on AI Curio Bot.

“A mix of music from the extended world of ASIP, be it forthcoming in 2022, unreleased with no plan as of yet, or a hidden gem, traversing a few different styles. A moment in time capturing just some of the many characters, sounds and styles that will define ASIP in 2022.”

KFMW Adventskalender · 2021 #23: ASIP - A Weird Winter Gathering

Tracklist (for what it’s worth!)

01. James Bernard – UWA10 (Loop + additional samples)
02. Unreleased
03. DNA – Ecstasy (Charlie May lower gear remix)
04. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
05. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
06. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
07. Unreleased
08. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
09. Unreleased (forthcoming on 9128.live, 2022)
10. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
11. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
12. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)
13. Unreleased (forthcoming on ASIP, 2022)

2021 ASIP Label Compilation (mixed by todos)

For last year's label compilation, I mentioned how I hoped to invite a guest DJ to compile the next edition, and here we are! Of course, it just had to be our long-term musical companion, a good friend of mine, and well-respected DJ, todos.

I was first introduced to todos through his well-respected Kilchurn Mix series. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, they remain some of my favorite mixes of all time (listen to them all here). His ability to craft a narrative, manipulate samples and respect the grey area between ambient and electronic music, is second-to-none.

Since blogging about his mixes all the way back in 2008, and inviting him to compile a special isolatedmix a few years later, Doug (todos) and I have stayed in touch and connected further after learning we grew up with very similar musical trajectories. Doug also coincidentally, ended up living where my family is today (and where I spent my life growing up) in a surprising twist of fate. And in 2021, after years of speaking online, we finally got to meet, play records (in real life!), and go for a long overdue beer.

I always earmarked Doug to be a part of ASIP somehow, so it is my absolute pleasure to hand over the DJ reins for the 2021 compilation edition. Doug had free choice over which tracks to choose, as long as he included one track from each release of the year. The result is a very special mix, taking us through the ASIP 2021 release catalog in his unique, signature, todos style.

“2021 has been another tough year but the music that has come out of it has been wonderful. With so many excellent releases on the ASIP label, it was exciting yet challenging to be asked to showcase a few on this mix. Massive thanks go out to Ryan for the opportunity and trust in letting me do this, the artists for their incredible talent and hard work, and lastly all the supporters of this music we love, I hope you enjoy.”

— todos

ASIP 2021 mixed by todos is available on Bandcamp, and the digital is currently name your price, with the mixed CD version also available on Juno (and more stores to follow soon).