Where do we find the chillin' tracks??

Today I saw @UBLF 's blog post about Twitter accounts to follow to find chillout/downtempo music and I thought I would do a quick post on where I find some great chillout tracks.

When I am doing stuff around the house I usually have Sirius/XM Chill on my TV/stereo system (channel 857 on DirecTV). They have a strong mix of different artists (popular and obscure) and various types of downtempo/chill, but it is usually always perfect for chillin'.


I get a lot of suggestions from Blip.fm (see our Blip playlist HERE) off of other people's "Blips." I previously blogged about Blip here at ChilloutScene.com. I love hearing what misoc other people like to chillout to and hear their playlists. It's also great to get feedback on our playlist and Blips too. Good to know what works and what doesn't!

Pandora.com has been my favorite for listening at work. Works great on the Iphone app on my phone and I can listen to thousands of different artists/tracks/genres/etc. Some of my favorite "channels" are- David Holmes (from Ocean's 11 soundtrack fame) radio, Sure Thing (by St Germain) radio, Air radio, and In the Waiting Line (from Zero 7) radio.
The best part about Pandora is you can input a track, artist, or album and it will play tons of similar music for you. I LOVE it!!

I also listen to Last.Fm, which is a great compliment to Pandora, but I prefer the Pandora app's ease of use and deeper track selections.


Of course MySpace has given us a lot of great friend suggestions and free listens to all sorts of chillout tracks. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them. Check us out there at myspace.com/chilloutscene. I really think MySpace has some great things to offer musicians; especially indie acts that are just coming on to the scene.

A couple blogs I like are of course UBLF, Bedtime Tunes where you can listen to some downtempo tracks while drifting off to sleep, and of course my favorite Lakers fan Anji Bee at the Chillcast. Anji always has some great tracks to chill to on her podcast. Also check out her work at www.lovespirals.com.


That's just a sample...feel free to post your favorite websites to find chill tracks in the comments area below.

Keep chillin'

Chris

Boy is Fiction

Thank goodness for Last.fm! I was listening to my "Arms and Sleepers" (previously blogged about artist here at Chillout Scene) radio station and came across "If You Hear Me Fall" by Australian artist Boy Is Fiction.

If You Hear Me Fall begins with a spacey intro and a great driving beat. It is more of an ambient track that has random high hat hits and offsetting piano chords that build into a beautiful melody. It is blissfully hypnotic and perfect for chillin'. Later in the track, some more synth chords start to build to a magnificent crescendo.

"Should Have Stopped" begins almost as a soundtrack to a final scene in a film with a heart wrenching ending. Then an eclectic beat begins and it takes off into a downtempo almost trance-like track.

There are so many interesting sounds in this music, you have to listen to each track multiple times to hear them all. The artist (not sure if it's one person or multiple) uses a lot of chime sounds for melodies, kind of like Ulrich Schnauss.

I'm making this a short post as I'm heading out of town tomorrow but I would really love to hear more from this great chillout artist! Check out Boy is Fiction on MySpace or LastFM to hear some great chillout tracks!

Thunderball is icy hot!

Was listening to one of my chillout stations on Last.fm and came across a great track by Thunderball named "On the Sly" from their "Scorpion Rising" album.

Checking out their Myspace page, it seems like they enjoy putting some great bossa themes in their music. Just the name Thunderball conjures up images of James Bond and the 1965 classic movie and this music is a great replica of the music from that time.

If this music were for a spy film soundtrack, "On the Sly" would be the moment where the superspy has his encounter with a sexy adversary. The track is built around two echoing synth melodies with some bluesy electric guitar mixed in. It vaguely reminded me a bit of the Lethal Weapon soundtrack when I heard this one.

"Chicachiquita" featuring Miss Johnna is a light bossa-flavored track with a great groove and features a jazz flute intertwined with some electronic sounds and a soft guitar in the background.

"Thunder in the Jungle" begins with the sound of a driving storm broken in by some funky guitar and scathing trumpet hits. These guys specialize in chillin', in my opinion, but this is a great upbeat dance track.

"The Road to Benares" was the first one to play on their MySpace page for me and immediately reminded me of David Holmes' work on Ocean's Twelve. It has a great percussive beat with middle eastern sitar and other strings throughout. Again it brought to mind the spy movie where our hero descends upon Morocco to chase the world-class criminal.

If you're looking for some great atmospheric chillout music, check out the cinescapes of Thunderball!

Keep chillin'

Chris

Beautiful Randomness = Boomclick

Beautiful Randomness

While chillin on a lunch break the other day a track by Boomclick came on my random chillout playlist on iTunes.

Stone Tape (found on Chillout Sessions- Volume 5) has a great intro with synth keys and the static-y sound of presumably a radio searching for a station. It periodically finds a station and you briefly hear a man’s voice. There is some great sounding guitar and strings interspersed within the track to go along with a bossa nova sort of beat. It’s a great track and I could listen to it on repeat all night. The keys at one point sound very similar to Zero 7’s chord progressions, but it could just be a fortunate coincidence.

After researching a bit more about the band, I found a video for their track “High Tide.” It's a a lighter track with a medium paced beat and accompanied by Rosa Fernandez' beautiful light vocals. The video really stands out though. It appears to be a really tall man walking down the street and people smiling at him (into the high camera's point of view). At the end, the camera finally shows the man and also his son that has been sitting on his shoulders the whole time. So cute!

Sometimes- The most played track on Boomclick Soundsystem's MySpace page seemed very similar to Portishead’s darker style. The ghostly synth tones are backed by snare drum rim taps. It evolves into a more complex track with more electronic sounds added as it moves along. Fernandez’ vocals are stripped down and then are added to as the song progresses. What a beautiful voice she has!

I definitely recommend checking them out!

Boomclick is:

DJ's-

Paul Burnley

Sam Johnson

Rui Teimao

Vocals-

Rosa Fernandez- on myspace- www.myspace.com/rosavox

Boomclick Soundsystem is a project of Rui and Rosa and are on myspace at- http://www.myspace.com/boomclicksoundsystem

Keep Chillin'

Chris

Around Midnight

Coming up with grand ideas for blog entries can be difficult at times. I've encountered a bit of writer's block recently and have had a hard time deciding what to write about.

I recently got a direct message on Twitter from @alexhudish requesting a write up on his new project "Around Midnight." This message made my decision a lot easier, especially after listening to a few of the MP3 previews at the Around Midnight website.

The first track on the preview playlist is "Even So", a relaxing, ambient track with a catchy guitar melody, soothing keys, and a potpourri of electronic-ambient sounds.

"Between Sounds" features delicately beautiful piano playing and an orient-like synth melody (kept thinking of Nintendo video game music for the synth part at times).

"Premonition" is a VERY well done track. A quiet bass intro is proceeded by more terrific piano playing and a great drum track. The synth adds nicely to the music and it builds to a big sound, which reminded me a bit of Ulrich Schnauss' style of electronica. This was my favorite of the four tracks I previewed.

"ElectroPositive" is a fun, uptempo track with lots of great electronic and guitar sounds mixed together with a great dance beat. The outtro gently fades out with waves of ambient synth chords and ends abruptly making you want more.

Alex's piano playing is superb and is the highlight of this great electronic chillout music. I highly recommend picking up his album available for download at Amazon, iTunes, etc.

Keep chillin'

Chris

Another place to chill

I just recently found another great place to chill (based upon Urbanspoon reviews) in Toronto, Canada.

It's called Insomnia Cafe and it appears as though they have tasty martinis, a comfortable atmosphere, good food, and also "downtempo breaks" on Fridays with DJ Riss-K.

If you're in Toronto or anywhere near, we'd love to hear your reviews on the place as well.

Keep chillin'

Chris

Give us some more JUICE!

JP Juice, that is. He also goes by Naoki Kenji and I've been listening to quite a few of his tracks lately. To say the least, they are GORGEOUS!

"Le Soleil" from his "Fukai" album seems to fit perfectly with waking up in the morning and watching the sunrise or even meditating. The laid back beat and whispering vocals make it a perfect chill track. Here’s a video for Le Soleil.

The breathtaking video of varying natural landscapes is a great backdrop for this song. There are a myriad of other JP Juice/Kenji videos on YouTube and you can check out some of Naoki's work on his MySpace and LastFM sites as well.

Naoki Kenji has an extensive discography between his self titled and JP Juice records. His latest release titled "Less Ordinary" features the track "Lost" which is first on his myspace playlist. Lost is similar to Le Soleil in its laid back beat, however Le Soleil is a bit more hypnotic where Lost is a bit more of a dance track. It's not really fair to compare the two tracks, but those are the first two that caught my attention, so I thought I would. He definitely has the chillout bug and I am going to be picking up most of his albums soon. JP Juice is quintessential chill music.

Keep chillin'

-Chris

Arms and Sleepers

Wow!

Words can hardly describe what I heard last night on my first listen to Arms and Sleepers' "Butterflycatcher" while on Blip.fm. The track off of their Black Paris 86 album has a somber feel to it until an odd middle section which emphasizes horns picks it up for a bit. After that section, some light vocals go delicately with the constant horn crescendos/decrescendos. The sections are separated by a snare SNAP which I can only interpret to be the butterfly being caught with a net.

The title track from the same album is similar in shape and scope. All of their tracks would seemingly produce a great film noir soundtrack.

Here's a YouTube video of a live performance of Black Paris 86.

Their recently released 5 song EP "The Motorist" is available at their Blogspot account/store for only $7. If you'd like to help contribute to our site, purchase Black Paris 86 at our Amazon store. I would highly recommend you check out Arms and Sleepers and take some time to sit down and take every sound in while listening. Enjoy!

Keep chillin'

-Chris

Blue Stone = Beautiful!

Through the magic of MySpace I have come in contact with a great chillout artist from Ft. Lauderdale, FL called Blue Stone.

Blue Stone are: Robert Smith (no not the Robert Smith from The Cure), Bill Walters, Sheyenne Rivers, Samantha Sandlin, Maura Hurley, Sara Bloomfield, Sarah Day and Veronika Gunter.

Just listening to some clips from their new album "Messages" will make you want to buy it and enjoy their chill soundscapes. The tracks I listened to

feature beautiful female vocals (not sure which female they were, but will find out after I purchase the album) and spacey synth melodies and groovy drum tracks.

Checked out Blue Stone on Last.FM and found Break of Dawn from their "Breathe" album. The instrumental track is nice and airy with a great drum track to accompany some lovely ambient synth (their specialty, in my opinion). I may have to pick up all of their previous albums, but I would highly recommend you buy "Messages" as soon as you can this July 28th!!

Keep chillin'!

-Chris

New playlist on YouTube!

Check out our new playlist on YouTube!

The URL is http://www.youtube.com/user/ChilloutScene

You're sure to find our favorite chillout tracks and accompanying videos there. Also make sure to send us any recommendations to share with others who follow us on Twitter, Blip.FM, etc.

Here's one of our favorites to get you started. Keep chillin' !

Get Loaded!

An opportunity to chill begets itself in London on August 30th. "Get Loaded in the Park" will a ton of great electronica artists including a few of my favorites- Orbital, Royksopp, Felix Da Housecat, and Junior Sanchez.



The lineup-

ORBITAL

RöYKSOPP

CARL CRAIG'S INNERZONE ORCHESTRA (UK debut)

RONI SIZE REPRAZENT (UK festival exclusive)

LAURENT GARNIER

PEACHES

SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM

FREELAND

BOOKA SHADE

MISS KITTEN & THE HACKER (live)

MAGNETIC MAN feat. SKREAM & BENGA

ESSER

TRIP

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS

DEVILS GUN

DJ Sets ---------------------------------------

PENDULUM DJ SET (+ mc jakes)

FELIX DA HOUSECAT

CROOKERS

THE COUNT & SINDEN

CHASE & STATUS (& mc rage)

ROB DA BANK

KRAFTY KUTS

STEVE AOKI

THE BLOODY BEETROOTS

EDDY TEMPLE MORRIS

JUNIOR SANCHEZ

LIVE TECH REBELS

FISH DON'T DANCE DJS

Don't miss it and keep chillin'!