WILTT: August 2024 Recap
Recapping the inaugurul month of my Substack Notes series sharing my daily listening experiences (WILTT = What I'm Listening to Today)
Hello, friend.
It’s time to start something new… while continuing something familiar, for those of you who follow my posts on Substack Notes.
Last month, I started a new routine of sharing additional music recommendations beyond my weekly newsletters via the Notes platform here on Substack. This quickly became a series called What I’m Listening to Today (WILTT), in which I shared an album or track I listened to, along with some brief thoughts or insights.
I thought it might be nice to start compiling these in longform posts like this one so those of you who aren’t active on the Notes platform can hear more of what I’ve been enjoying—including records, tracks, DJ mixes, and live performances. These recommendations will also include releases old and new.
Now, let’s take a look back at August’s WILTT picks.
One moment, though—before I jump in, I would like to recommend to those reading this who haven’t tried out Substack Notes to consider using the Substack app so you can see all my posts on Notes, like these WILTT recommendations. Come chat with your fellow music lovers!
Saturday, August 3, 2024:
Boards of Canada - The Half Awake Mix (2021, 55 mins / compiled by Gabriel O. on YouTube)
Boards of Canada are an iconic group in the electronic music space (more specifically, IDM, downtempo, ambient). They’re probably responsible for inspring thousands of artists who try to replicate certain elements of their unique music that utilizes odd field recordings and samples, a variety of electronic textures, and lush layers of synth pads. This is an enjoyable mix of about an hour of their tracks across different records.
Stream on: YouTube
Sunday, August 4, 2024:
U. F. Orb by The Orb (1992, 74 mins)
As someone born in 1997, I truly feel a bit of grief over missing the incredible decade for electronic/ambient music that was the ‘90s. This album is just one fun and weird example of that time. I also hope this doesn’t make some of you other ElectronicMusicStack folks feel old. 🖤
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: O.O.B.E. (13 mins)
Monday, August 5, 2024:
Safe by Nolan Green (2024, 21 mins)
Had a lovely 5K run this morning while listening to Nolan Green’s EP, which I was grateful to discover here on Substack.
Safe is a phenomenal 5-track instrumental tapestry sewn with lovely piano and guitar work, unexpected sounds of voices calling from afar, and ambient synths interwoven throughout. The percussion carrying Tone Poem is crisp and satisfying, while Last Days of May features intimate guitar that sounds cut from the same cloth as Gustavo Santaolalla’s masterful The Last of Us soundtrack.
Bravo, Nolan, and thanks for scoring my morning run.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Bandcamp
Featured track: Last Days of May (5 mins)
Tuesday, August 6, 2024:
Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk (1977, 43 mins)
This record was my introduction to Kraftwerk, a German group considered pioneers in the electronic music and krautrock scene. After Stephan Kunze commented on yesterday’s note about early 70s german electronic artists, I decided it was best to start my venture with something familiar to whet my appetite—in this case, Kraftwerk’s essential T.E.E. record.
Upon relistening today, I did feel that some of the tracks dragged a bit with their repetitive synth sequences, but the album still feels overall infectious and groovy, like you want to pop and lock like a robot. It’s a true representation of “electronic music” in the purest sense—the meshing of man and machine.
The cycling beats on the title track convey the sense of being on a train as the robotic vocals signal the conductor’s call that we’re on the “Trans… Europe… Express!” The opener Europe Endless feels a bit like a precursor to more straightforward synthpop records you would hear another decade or so later, with shimmery, vibrating synth leads cascading over brushy beats (it called to mind The Blue Nile or Gary Numan).
What do you think of this record? What’s your favorite Kraftwerk album?
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: Europe Endless (10 mins)
Wednesday, August 7, 2024:
The Last of Us Part II (Original Soundtrack) by Gustavo Santaolalla & Mac Quayle (2020, 77 mins)
This game and franchise have endlessly inspired me as a writer, gamer, storyteller, music lover, and human being. A recently released teaser for season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us show compelled me to revisit the second game’s soundtrack. This soundtrack is far darker than that of the first game (which was already pretty bleak), and it beautifully melds Gustavo Santaolalla’s plucked acoustic guitar melodies with Mac Quayle’s hair-raising dark ambient textures.
I remember the hype of the first E3 trailer for Part II taking not only the gaming world by storm, but a much wider audience thanks to the original game’s cinematic qualities. It’s why HBO’s The Last of Us became one of the most successful film/TV adaptations of a video game ever.
Anyone can enjoy The Last of Us—even if you’re just watching a friend play it—because it tells a beautiful, harrowing story of love and hate, peace and violence, humanity and inhumanity. And the soundtracks to both games (and season 1 of the show) reflect those polar struggles. There are moments of somber beauty and brutal horror, white-knuckled anxiety and tender longing.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Tidal
Featured track: Unbound (2 mins)
Thursday, August 8, 2024:
Duran Duran by Duran Duran (1981, 40 mins)
When I think of the 1980s, I think of 3 things: BLADE RUNNER, big hair, and Duran Duran. And while Duran Duran released 5 studio albums during the decade, their self-titled debut has endured in my library as the most revisited.
It was a statement in so many ways. The band leaned into the New Romantic aesthetic that people initially lumped them into, while also delivering a concise record that was still executed with wide-reaching ambition.
While the opener Girls on Film signaled glam with its iconic riffs and camera shutter sounds, the band instantly pivoted to the spacey, futuristic synth vibes of Planet Earth. They playfully echoed Pink Floyd-esque prog rock on the mysterious Night Boat after singer Simon Le Bon had already demonstrated an attitude with the biting vocals of Careless Memories. And we haven’t even gotten to the unexpected instrumental closer Tel Aviv featuring a mixture of dancing strings, soaring synths, and crooning guitar.
Then Is There Something I Should Know? came, a beautifully produced song added to the tracklist following more mainstream success a couple years later with the album Rio. At this point, Duran Duran showed that people didn’t need to understand their poetic lyrics to sing along to them, especially when they were as hooky and harmonic as ITSISK.
This album is just one of those records that will always be nostalgic for me even though I wasn’t alive until long after it released. Duran Duran was my father’s favorite band and my first ever concert, and this record represents, to me, some of the best new wave sound that the 80s had to offer. And god, does it make me want to dance and shout along.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: Planet Earth (4 mins)
Friday, August 9, 2024:
The Derelict by Cousin Silas (2024, 84 mins)
I’m feeling a bit under the weather today (literally, it’s been a week of so much rain here in the northeast US), but this album just released and is a really dark atmosphere to match the gray skies. Inspired by the ALIEN franchise, this is dark, echoing ambient in which old machinery lies almost dormant and vicious creatures creep almost silently. Eerie enough to indicate cosmic horror, but also calm and steady like deep space, keeping it listenable while doing whatever.
I recommended this album in today’s issue of The Living Music List from Hum, Buzz, & Hiss.
Stream on: Bandcamp
Featured track: Landing (11 mins)
Saturday, August 10, 2024:
The Last Ballad of Damrod by Bear McCreary (feat. Jens Kidman) [2024, 4 mins]
Had to share this recently released track from the upcoming Rings of Power Season 2 soundtrack. It’s such a cool mix of growling metal vocals mixed with Bear McCreary’s grand orchestral film music that feels both at home in the darker regions of Middle Earth and also completely new to the franchise.
Anyone who’s a fan of video game and film soundtracks has probably heard Bear’s music, for games like God of War, movies like Godzilla, or TV series like Outlander. He adapts well to different worlds and fantastical feelings, but he always brings his own flair. Excited to see the massive troll on screen that will accompany this track.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Sunday, August 11, 2024:
tiny but scary by Juliet Ivy (2024, 14 mins)
A pretty, little (but scary! jk) EP of soft indie pop carried by Juliet Ivy’s wispy vocals and folksy acoustic guitar. Especially loved the ethereal feel of the final track girl talk, its cloudy harmonies floating along with the strings behind the melody.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: girl talk (4 mins)
Monday, August 12, 2024:
Selene by Akira Kosemura & Lawrence English (2024, 37 mins)
An album worthy of deep contemplation and wonder.
Thela includes meandering but purposeful piano work from Kosemura, layered atop ambient drones and noise from English. Other tracks like Tint of Ionosphere and Mirroring Feldspar have rarer key strikes and more encompassing drone beds.
Selene is a stunning collaboration that is the perfect background for whatever Flow State you want to enter (p.s. I recommended this album in a guest recommendation post for Flow State on Substack!)
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal / Bandcamp
Featured track: Thela (5 mins)
Tuesday, August 13, 2024:
The Los Angeles League of Musicians by LA LOM (2023, 40 minutes)
An instrumental album pleasantly scratching the itch in my brain created by the music of Khruangbin. While not ambient, this is the kind of chill, skillful instrumental band cohesion that is so smooth, you can do anything with it in the background… or listen intently on the couch. Its Latin jazz vibes are simply immaculate and, as noted by a YouTube commenter in one music video, would feel at home in a Tarantino flick.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: Figueroa (3 mins)
Wednesday, August 14, 2024:
Jazzy House Mix at a Cocktail Lounge by Various Artists (DJ mix by Tinzo) [2023, 59 mins]
Inspired by a great house track recommendation from Ichigo Tentōchū today (Wonder by Zuuba), I’m revisiting one of my favorite Book Club Radio mixes.
If you don’t know BCR and you’re into house/electronic music and DJ mixes, definitely check them out. This one has some real bangers in it. I had a crazy good time at one of their Brooklyn rooftop parties a couple of months back.
Great background set for working or whatever, as long as you don’t mind feeling like dancing in your chair.
Stream on: YouTube
Thursday, August 15, 2024:
alone by WILLOW (2023, 3 mins)
I’ve been a vocal proponent of WILLOW among friends and in online forums over the last several months because of vocal performances and arrangements like this. She’s truly ascended to a very unique place among singers, free from genre boundaries and societal expectations due to her family background.
Her recent album empathogen was a contemporary jazz pop smash hit in my eyes, and her previous work contributed to the Gen-Z wave of 90s/00s rock pop vibes also heralded by artists like Olivia Rodrigo. If you’ve been sleeping on WILLOW’s talent, start here. And then maybe go watch her Tiny Desk from earlier this year!
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Tidal
Friday, August 16, 2024:
Bodymelt in the Garden of Death by Austyn Wohlers (2024, 31 mins)
This new ambient release, featured in today’s issue of Hum, Buzz, & Hiss, caught my eye when perusing Bandcamp thanks to its title. In the Bandcamp description, a quote from Wohlers explains the dark name:
“I recorded most of it during a pretty intense year for me — the title is a phrase that came into my head while I was hugging my mom in Atlanta the summer after an extreme medical crisis I wasn’t sure she’d make it through. She’s a gardener and we were surrounded by her flowers. It was sunset and had just rained and all the colors were lush and hot and glistening.”
The record delivers on its name, pasting together a complex collage of at times overwhelming nature field recordings, drones, noise, and experimental sounds. Rife with emotion, it can be simultaneously harrowing and calming.
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal / Bandcamp
Featured track: Preagricultural Summer (4 mins)
Saturday, August 17, 2024:
Alien: Romulus (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Benjamin Wallfisch (2024, 57 minutes)
Saw Alien: Romulus last night and had an absolutely delightful theater experience, thanks in no small part to Benjamin Wallfisch’s deliciously frightening score. For you cinematic ambient fans who also enjoy some more thrilling film cuts, try this on for size (and go see this very welcome return to an iconic sci-fi horror franchise).
Stream on: Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: The Chrysalis (3 mins)
Monday, August 26, 2024:
Opus by Ryuichi Sakamoto (2024, 97 mins)
I discovered the music of Ryuichi Sakamoto in the year before his passing with his beautiful but melancholic record async. From there, a new world opened to me—Sakamoto’s work spanned nearly 5 decades and covered heaps of genres, moods, and settings.
Throughout much of his ambient work that I’ve heard, though, there has usually been that air of melancholy. This is all the more recognizable in his final couple of projects, Opus and 12, which both feature reflective piano work meandering its way into a cool, calm darkness.
Rest in peace, R.S. And thank you Flow State for bringing this posthumous album to my attention.
Stream on: [See streaming links in the Flow State post linked below]
Tuesday, August 27, 2024:
Rooftop Live (Arun’s Roof, London) by Fred again.. (2024, 102 minutes)
There are few artists that I’ve wanted to be real life friends with more than Fred again.. His music and energy are infectiously uplifting.
Fred’s Actual Life trilogy struck a chord deep within me, dancing a zig zagging line between tender piano, emotional vocal samples, and festival-worthy house production. He’s also showed his ambient chops on Secret Life, a collaboration with Brian Eno, and flexed his club muscles in his expanding USB series of collaborative bangers with other producers like Skrillex and Four Tet.
This DJ mix features a variety of his music and edits, including new tracks off his forthcoming album ten days (out Sept 6). What makes this mix even more special is that he is playing it at a rooftop party with all of his friends, and we’re given an opportunity to enjoy the fun sunset vibes with them.
Happy Tuesday, my friends. ☀️
Stream on: YouTube
Saturday, August 31, 2024:
Ashes of the Wake (20th Anniversary Edition) by Lamb of God [2004/2024, 79 minutes]
If you follow me for ambient/electronic recommendations, you may be surprised to see today’s featured record. But this album is one of my all-time favorite albums for so many reasons. In fact, I believe it is one of the most important albums of the 2000s.
I used to listen to a lot more metal than I do these days. Ashes of the Wake is one project I frequently revisit for its energetic pacing, its intelligently crafted lyrics, and Randy Blythe’s trademark growl. It essentially requires head-banging and stank face throughout its entire run time.
20 years ago, this record shoved a mirror in the face of every American to question and criticize the war in Iraq (2004 was the same year American Idiot came out, by the way). The title track sampled a recording of former U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey in an interview after his return from the Iraq War:
I honestly feel that we're committing genocide over here. I don't believe in killing civilians and I'm not gonna kill civilians for the United States Marine Corps.
I mean, man—the guitars sound like they’re shredding through armor. The drums fire off like salvos of machine gun bullets. Blythe’s growling anger spits phrases like this one, in Break You:
You taught me hate, I’ll teach you fear… son of a bitch I’m going to break you
This is an album of disappointment, distrust, and disgust, begging its nation to be better. It conveys the anger and shock that so many felt after 9/11 compounded by the atrocities that followed. It represents what “an eye for an eye” feels like, and makes it clear that many people saw what was happening and refused to forget it or brush it under the rug. I’m glad to see this anniversary re-issue, because it’s a good reminder to continuously reevaluate the state of our government and our affairs abroad.
Last set of lyrics I’ll leave you with, from Now You’ve Got Something to Die For:
Now you’ve got something to die for
Infidel
Imperial
Lust for blood, a blind crusade
Apocalyptic, we count the days
Bombs to set the people free
Blood to feed the dollar tree
Flags for coffins on the screen
Oil for the machine
Army of liberation
Gunpoint indoctrination
The fires of sedition
Fulfill the prophecy
Now you’ve got something to die for
Stream on: : Apple Music / Spotify / Qobuz / Tidal
Featured track: Ashes of the Wake (6 mins)
That’s all for the first month of WILTT. Hope you found or rediscovered some records you enjoyed during the month of August. I’ll be back next month with September’s listening notes.
In case you missed it, check out more new music recommendations in my most recent issue of my weekly Friday newsletter The Living Music List:
Thank you for reading. Until next time.
Your friend,
Melted Form
Remember to listen to the hum, buzz, & hiss of the world around you—there is music to be heard there.
Contact me: Please feel free to send me your music and I may feature it in an upcoming post! For all self-promotion, record suggestions, press inquiries, and advertising interest, email me at meltedform@gmail.com.