Decrepit Dark

Laundry Room:
I'd be delighted to join the fans of Bauhaus in Guadalajara (date: 11/29) at the "near the atmosphere" tour. I imagine it's a helluva show ( "we love our audience!" ) and even if it sucks, I'd go just to see the old generation vamps 10 years after. It's a breathing muscle museum, not as great as the deadheads exhibition but still worth every cent.
I'm also uploading mp3's from Lacrimosa and The Cranes. They're only similar to Bauhaus in their chromatic textures but I'm uploading them anyways. I'm not into Lacrimosa, but the crucifixio song is one of their best, sounds like morosed dark gospel (whatever that means). The Cranes ain't dark (their exact musical genre would be "trance-pop/shoegazing") but it's hard not to think how much resemblance Alison Shaw's voice has with the sound of a falling guillotine (Believe me, it's really hard not to think about it).

Bauhaus - king volcano
Bauhaus - hollow hills
Lacrimosa - crucifixio
The Cranes - beautiful friend

Today's image was created by Mark ryden. Thanks to my beloved for directing me to this artist.

Peligroso pop

Laundry Room:
Y te veo reflejada en la television...

The Notwist - one with the freaks
Looper - these things
Tigerbaby - sweetheart
Sebastien Tellier - la ritournelle
Dntel - the dream of evan and chan
Death cab for cutie - title and registration




Image by Tim Biskup

The dance of the dead

Elevator Beat:
Well, the illustration is the work of Guadalupe Posada, he was born and raised in Aguascalientes (for those who didn't know this is also the standing ground for "motel de moka") and a giant reproduction of his "Catrina" stands at the southern entrance to this city (it's really nice having a skeleton lady as a welcome message to the city, I think). His satirical work full of calaveras (skeletons) has influenced countless designers and artists over the world, the most recent and popular one being "the corpse bride" from Tim Burton.
I just don't know why I'm telling you all this useless information...let's proceed to the music:

Chavela Vargas is...whats the word? miserable? passionate? drunk? emblematic? Ok, let's say she's always been (and always will), a timeless "sad drunken diva". I love her. She's our third world Billie Holiday, sadder and equipped with an infinite thirst. Colorful tears is the pretentious description I often use to explain her music to other people.

About lhasa; it should be a shame to most traditional mexican singers and composers nowadays the existence of the canadian born, Lhasa de Sela. On her first record "La llorona" (the weeping woman,the title being an homage to Chavela Vargas), he made use of a well-applied vast mexican influence and a very intense performance to create some songs that still leave all of the music made in Mexico for the past 7 years or so, sounding quite grounded and bored. This record inspires, it's deep and artsy and all those things that make me happy. To be honest, most of my friends just don't get it, but none of these people will read this anyway, so I'll just leave this songs here and see if any of our three readers likes it...

Chavela Vargas - la llorona
Chavela Vargas - la zandunga
Chavela Vargas - paloma negra
Lhasa - de cara a la pared link 2*
Lhasa - la frontera

* The 2nd link to the "de cara a la pared song" isn't a direct link but it's faster than the direct one provided here.

Folktronics

Laundry Room:

The laptop electronics club has become more and more overcrowded nowadays and the so-named Folktronica...mmm well,...reviewer, Bryan Berge, states in much better words what I feel about this genre's euphemism: "the increasingly empty label "folktronica" will soon be buried at the bottom of one. Folktronica is identified with circular guitar melodies, hushed vocals burdened with cliched rural lyrics, and the occasional banjo and mandolin flourish, all backed by with electro-pop production. Unfortunately, the folk aspects of folktronica so often sound like tired imitations desperately striving for authenticity (...) I blame much of this stagnation on the label itself, a clunky portmanteau that suggests the collision rather than integration of folk and electronic music. Since the two labels are presented as juxtaposed yet irreconcilable, a dialectic relationship emerges in the minds of artists, and the resultant music sounds like two songs played at the same time-one and old folk ditty, the other an IDM burner. Since music is all about synthesis, musicians are already bursting the boundaries of the genre. So the term will die naturally."
I must point out that the origin of the "folktronica" label remains unclear and it seems to have originated on the british press. That's all we know...emblematic musicians on the label include Kieran Hebden under his Four tet moniker or as a member of (postrocktronic trio, wtf!?) Fridge, as well as, Greg Davis and The Books. Some people believe that Mum and Efterklang are folktronic, but this illustrate how useless this label is , how many people out there are playing with laptops and acoustic guitars, are they all folktronics?

Well, this post has gotten a bit long, so I'll keep it simple from now on. The Books "Safe and Lost", is one of the most exciting releases I've heard this year and the best one from the outfit in my opinion. I'd give away the whole stuff here as a zip but I really want you to go out there and hunt it, I'm uploading two random tracks from the record: "Be good to them always" and....let's see..."it never changes to stop", if you'd like another song go to everythingisfire and seek it. Mmm....Stylus Magazine gave this record a "B" and overrated Pitchfork gave it an insulting "7.0". Go to almostcool, where this album got a well deserved 9 rating (hooray!).
I'm including a Tunng song from their site. Also you'll see down here "softness of senses" from Xela's album "Tangled wool", , Ah yes....I'm also including a Fridge track hosted directly from brainwashed , go there for more mp3's by fridge.

The Books - be good to them always
The Books - it never changes to stop
Tunng - tale from black
Xela - softness of senses
Fridge - cut up piano and xylophone

Image comes from the Adrian Johnson site.

Magic Summer

Elevator Beat:
Yes, I know summer is gone, but it's so hard to face it when the A/C from the elevator has been broken since the beginning of autumn, sometimes when it's really hot it begins to drip.
Here are some songs from the compilation entitled Magic Summer (duh), This is the first part in a series of the Magic Seasons compilations, and they all feature pics from famous photographers at the covers. Erotic photographer, David Hamilton, grace us with one of his photographs on this first cover. Yes, now come on and enjoy another one of those 1,362 chillout compilations prolliferating out there.

Groove Armada - remember
Tim Love Lee - twilight reservation
I monster - heaven
Ian Pooler - cloud patterns

Front Desk Announcement - 03

At last... for those of you visiting the motel in the past three days or so, you may have noticed the template was everchanging from hour to hour, well it was due to the fact that I'm an imbecile while working with source codes, but be happy, the final design is here and we owe it grandly to akane.
She's the one who conceived this really nice design for the blog, now come on kids, don't be shy and say "thank you very much, ms. akane".
I'd also like to thank Buba for her contributions and support.
Well, now let's go on with the music.

Depeche Mode

After a 4 year hiatus, depeche mode has finally released "playing the angel" some weeks ago. It's a bit of a comeback in terms of sound and it really brings some sort of redemption to the group.
The first single "Precious" is the most familiar sounding track on the disc, sultry and dark, the Depeche Mode we all love. Another personal standout from the album is the lovely song "I want it all". "A pain that I'm used to" made me believe I was listening to NIN at first, as it goes from an industrial noise to a more techno-style beat. Dave's voice is a great highlight on the record, he sounds fabulous on this one.
It may not break any new grounds but it is certainly the best of the depeche mode's albums since the departure of Alan Wilder. Plus it makes me very nostalgic hearing any depeche mode trax.

Depeche mode - precious
Depeche mode- all I want
Depeche mode - a pain that I'm used to

Deep and Tender Sex

Bedroom Rockers:
Wednesdays are lazy days at the motel, I can wake up late and usually there's not too much to do. So for those of you wondering why 3 posts in one day, this is the very reason. Some songs are quite old. The lay lady lay is one of the best Dylan covers I've heard and Gabor Szabo is one of my favorite elevator artists. See you back till Sunday.

Gabor Szabo - love theme from Spartacus
Os mutantes - baby
Magnet - lay lady lay
Mazzy Star - fade into you
Santana - samba pa ti

The image is supposedly by Degas, but I'm not so sure about it...
*I scrambled those links, already fixed.

Rhytmic and exotic odyssey

Bedroom Rockers:
Joe Strummer and the mescaleros - mondo bongo
Gustavo Cerati - tabu
The stone Roses - breaking into heaven (edit)
Curtis Mayfield - give me your love

Some stupid Notes:
Breaking into heaven by The Stone Roses, is the edited version of the song, the complete one runs up to 16 min., not much there besides jungle sounds. The links to this song and the Curtis Mayfield one, may be a tad slow, have patience.
Any recommendations for Bedroom Rockers is very appreciated, so comment about sexy songs now! We might give you some credit and lie about how good your blog or site is.
Oh yes, the image comes from Richard May.

Chemical Tears

Laundry Room:

Your eyes feel itch, they are red, you're crying chemical tears and then it stops.

Telefon Tel Aviv - lotus above water
I am robot and Proud - a proposal to tune the world to F
Christian Kleine - bitter things
Pan American - Het Volk


Image by Tim Biskup. For more mp3's by I am robot and proud, go here.

Some surf basis

Elevator Beat:
An elevator's playlist would just sound utterly incomplete without some classic surf guitar in it. To be honest Surf excites me, I don't have my surf collection near, reason I'm posting very popular (dick dale?)and lo quality songs but I promise I'll post more and better surf songs sometime ahead when I find my surf.

The Shadows - apache
The Ventures - pipeline
The Bel airs - Kamikaze
Dick Dale and his del-tones - misirlou

The image isby Nate Williams

Cosmic Sexual Trip

Bedroom Rockers:
I was talking to one of the girls at the laundry room this morning, and she thinks cosmic sexual trips must be done under the influence of LSD or any other psychotropic and good music to make love in the background. Well, here at the motel we don't support drugs (or at least we don't sell them, ahem) but we do support music, and we're providing you, lucky visitor, a 5 track playlist to aid you in your journey. Below you'll find some quick notes on some tracks.

Goldfrapp - hairy trees
Nitin Sawhney - breathing light
Air - Ce matin La
Bonobo - the plug
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - sweet pain

Some notes: When you download the track hairy trees by Goldfrapp, the title will appear as twist instead of Hairy trees. I just dont know why. Just rename it if it bothers you.
The song Breathing light, has as intro a dialogue from the sarajevo war (not sure about this), which isn't sexy, but the track soon starts with a very sexy piano which is why this song made it onto the list.
It appears that the sweet pain song comes in different versions, I bought a cd with the song but it's kind of a different edit. If anyone knows if the one published here is a rmx, please let us know.
The image is taken fromthe morphnaked blog.

Upset and Frenetic Mating

Bedroom rockers:
Today I feel a frenzy lover. I'm sorry for the indie kids, next time this list will display more underground. Remeber not to eat the beak or the legs.

Portishead - cowboys
The Cure - lullaby
Radiohead - The national anthem

After sending the casino to bankrupt...

Laundry Room:
Laundry people share a common dream: making big money at the casino, winning the lottery, that kind of things. And big dreams come with big bands with horns, strings, doowoop-y feelings and all...so we'll just hum along

Koop - summer sun
Bob Dylan - wygwam
Gry - princess cocodrile

On ghost horses

Laundry Room:
Some velvet morning all of this will vanish, will fall, will make me nostalgic, this dirty towels, this land, this blogs that are given birth each second, will be swept by hurricanes, will be swallowed by earth, will crack with raining rocks, will burn like the roman empire will burn again soon. And we'll go riding on ghost horses, or maybe ghost ponies, and it might just happen one velvet morning, indeed...

Mirah - cold cold water

Francoiz Breut - si tu disais

Nancy sinatra - some velvet morning

Sunday Morning Sex

Bedroom rockers:

Well, to be honest, this sunday morning is pretty much sexless for me here at the front desk, but for those who isn't, here you have a small sunday morning sex list:

The Beatles - flying

King Crimson - walking on air

Mike Flowers pops - wonderwall

Brian Eno - deep blue day

Ravel - Bolero

We are the robots

Elevator Beat:
I never really cared that much about those robot people from Kraftwerk, but it's hard to behave with indifference to "pocket calculator", either it's just too lovely or I'm still too sleepy.
Oh yeah, happy 37th birthday, Thom.

Kraftwerk - pocket calculator
Daft Punk - technologic
Radiohead - backdrifts

Academic post-depressions

Elevator Beat:
Week of exams is finally over. There's this strange soothing feeling when it happens, but there's also this depressive feeling, it's just like somehow everything seems wrong, the calm before the storm.
Yep, those clients that came this week to the motel may have noticed the absence of painkillers in many room's baskets, the reason is I ate them all as breakfast and dinner throughout the week. Sorry, lack of sleep makes me wonder, lack of sleep makes me drift...
No more stress, well no, there's still some stress pending; some projects I still need to finish before tuesday, but today I'll just sleep away this day. In times like these I just crawl into the elevator, and lay there half asleep in the corner.
Sutemos published a really good 14-trax compilation at the beginning of August, entitled "Red, Green, Blue & Other Summer Feelings", beautiful, melancholic and plain perfect for elevator naps.

Marsen Jules - coeur saignant
Sleepy Town Manufacture - Long Time No See
Reed Rothchild - The Great Century

Kitschy Latin wonders

Laundry room:
Cheap beatboxes, ugly synths, lame lyrics, stupid references to b-movies and an overall ugly production at the service of electronic kitsch, tonight, at the laundry room.
Well, Miranda are currently huge with their single "don" in almost every place of latin america, sons of the trasvestite vampire rhytms of fangoria and alaska & dinarama, this is the ultimate triumph of kitsch in the last years, and this is as far as it goes also...so enjoy it while it lasts.
Sonido Lasser drakar and Maria Daniela y su sonido Lasser are actually the same band, one of the members is a member of electronic trio Titan (anyone remembers them?). The song "soy pobre" is a sort of funny third world reworking of "dear prudence", right in the middle it morphs into an electroclash-kinda thing that rips off the song "gorda" from banda zarape, and it finally lands as the song"flying" from the beatles again. And that "secret mexican band" you ask?...well, it's a secret...

Miranda - don
Sonido Lasser Drakar - pontiac firebird '82
Maria Daniela y su Sonido Lasser - miedo
Miki - soy pobre
Secret mexican band - unknown 2

You can find more mp3's at the nuevos ricos site. Now scram:
http://www.sonidolasserdrakar.com/
http://www.nuevosricos.com/
http://tropisms.org
Note*: there was a problem with the link to the pontiac firebird song already fixed now.

On with the drooly Beats

Elevator Beat:
The site is almost done now...let's us celebrate reminding some of those 90's bristol-born morosing beats.

Portishead - roads
Moby - whispering wind
Cinematic Orchestra - the awakening of a woman

Front Desk Announcement - 02

Been redesigning the motel...not quite finished, working with templates is quite difficult for people with so limited computing knowledge like me.
But look at that beautiful coffee-shop-like header, yes I know...nice. Now I just need to put it up there, my head hurts I'll come back later...any suggestions? I need some help with the template, anyone out there?

Front Desk Announcement - 01

Hello there.
From now the post's titles will be named under 3 major arbitrary categories:

• Elevator Beat: music from our 2-floor elevator, mostly instrumental.
• Bedroom Rockers: yes, title taken from a k&d song, bedroom rockers is erotica-charged music for bed which is in turn sectioned into other 7 categories: Rhytmic and exotic odyssey, Deep and Tender Sex, Upset and Frenetic Mating, Cosmic Sexual Trip, Sunday Morning Sex, Kinky Collection and Slowers/Quickers. Enjoy.
• Laundry Room: Laundry people at motels are most of the times bleak or crabby, and I understand them; cleaning sheets in a motel isn't a very gratifying job, there's this usual amount of condoms and fluid scabs that have to be removed, once in a while you find lost wallets from weary travellers but trust me it is very uncommon. So, this section represents our fine laundry people: moody and undetermined.

Apart from these 3 major categories, posts will remain the same, when reviewing any specific artists the posts will be entitled after them. Any announcement will be posted in Front Desk. Somewhere in the future when the whole page is redesigned we'll put pretty filters on the sides for faster searches, but until then...

Lexaunculpt

Lexaunculpt - the tuning of miniature modems
Lexaunculpt - has been trying not to wonder
Lexaunculpt - Le elancholia

Not so long ago in this very chair I wondered which path would music take. The answer was obviously towards the electronic side, almost every genre out there is nowadays sprinkled and crumbled with digital effects, but then?

I'm still fond of the thought that electronic music will one day have it's own language so developed, that it will be possible to create classical compositions with complex rich sections, electronical debussys indeed, still noone seems to be that inspired these days, poverty grows and a new victorianesque-era seems far, very far, yes, electronical music hasn't established it's own language yet.

Lexaunculpt was one of the first groups that I heard that sort of advanced through this predictions. A project from Alex Graham, IDM guru that suddenly vanished from the scene ocassional returning as a rmx-er. "The tuning of miniature modems" opens the disc with the sounds of a symphony warming up (modems?) and then turns into the best track, "has been trying not too wonder" morphing into 4 different sections in about 8 minutes with several dashes of classical in it. Technically this disc is amazing, you can see Graham went through lot of details in the making of this record, every sound was carefully programmed, but while most part of the disc is Autechre-ish atmospheres (tri repetea era) and spluttering beats it's the songs with a classical touch that make it worth. Think of a less deconstructed Fennesz and a less ambient Gas. Filtered broked-down classical songs through the lenses of a computer, Lexaunculpt had an indirect spark and it seems like it could have been much more.

There was a problem with the upload links, seems it's already fixed. Oh yeah, and the song "has been trying not to wonder" is now complete ;). Follow the links, the song is at the bottom of the page.