In celebration of the newly designed Digitalis Recordings website, the consistently progressive label collected a group of fresh tracks from the labels ever-expanding roster. This 23 track experience is an important listen—and it happens to be free for full download here.

The other day I rode the New York scented subway nowhere in particular. And not one other of the accidentally-put-together people seemed to be going anywhere either. Each of us 14 haphazards had a separate pair of headphones, earbuds, noise devices. Which lead me to wonder what music made the backgrounds of those who had no relation other than the perchance touching of elbows. Did sophisticated jazz mask the real life trash of she whose feet couldn’t reach the floor? Or was nothing playing, and those listening devices were just deceptive pleas to not be solicited for human interaction for however many minutes we rode. Were those 13 at the last stop of the line going where I was? Into the sultry vibrancy of “Love and Happiness”. Or into the contrary, scratched at thrash of Brainshadows‘ “Slow Bump”. Or were they going nowhere, over and over, into the inexplicably alone caves of “Loop 7″ by Sovetskaya Gone. I’ve always found it curious how music can take you somewhere when you’re going nowhere, and how that somewhere may be a place someone else has been, or even presently is. And how maybe, she or he who’s presently in that somewhere is right next to you, accidentally grazing elbows at overwhelming turns. But mostly, I become curious as to where the composer was when creating the place unplanned listeners then go. I asked the artists of the 3 songs I listened to repeatedly on that aimless train ride where they were when creating them. Here’s what they had to say:

As far as my track is concerned it’s basically a concept I’ve had in my mind for a long time now, really it was the first song I ever made as Thug Entrancer. It’s gone through several variations, this final version was the one I was most happy with. It’s largely about my relationship with the TR-808 and how organic the rhythms from the machine feel. I think Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” is one of the greatest songs ever, the rhythm has an incredible feeling to it. I wanted to re-work that feeling into a contemporary ghetto house fashion (footwork), replacing the grime with soul. -Thug Entrancer

We improvised “Slow Bump” with multi-tracked first-take abandon, a dark, bare-bones funk soundtracking urban dread in the midst of a hot summer. Wah’ed Casio and electric bass are the only melodic elements; the spoken vocals a grimey beat-haiku of existential filth. – Brainshadows

Loop 7′ was recorded a few days after I settled into my current residence in October 2009.  It means nothing more than a proper lullaby & sonic embodiment of my memories of Los Angeles, October 2009. Bitter cold LA October morning.  Relieved of unpacking 3 years worth of crap from boxes from my prior place.  Moving in with a girl that I still would give my left arm for, for the first time.  This is the sound of an instrument that has since been fine-tuned and fine-wined into a Europa state of consciousness and state of mind.  This track embodies the person I was then, and the instrument I know I am now.   Ever gaze down @ your feet as you walked along a dusty foreign terrain & remember the brown moon dust that kicked up after every step you took?  That’s “Loop 7″. - Sovetskaya Gone

Well done Digitalis, and thank you very much.

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I recently discovered this nautical video by Seattle’s Panabrite (Norm Chambers), produced by Ivy Meadows (Camilla Padgitt-Coles) back in late 2011, and the song has an even older history than that. The album, Sub-Aquatic Meditation was actually originally released in 2010 as one half of a split with Hobo Cubes, but it’s slated to be reissued on vinyl through Aguirre Records on the 21st. I asked Norm for some comments about how Sub-Aquatic Meditation came to be:

“I made this album a little over two years ago. I was really into these underwater-themed library and soundtrack albums at the time… vintage guys like Francois de Roubaix, Sven Libaek, Armando Sciascia, Eugen Thomass; really evocative and moody stuf with a slightly off-kilter sensibility. I wanted to fuse this kind of feel with some more spacey electronic tones to create little vignettes.”

“There’s definitely a kind of nostalgic trip going on here in a way, which I can’t deny. Growing up in the 80′s a lot of those science films and documentaries featuring bloop-bleep type music really got ingrained in my mind, and to this day I look back at that aesthetic or idea for inspiration. I love aquatic-themes in music and films, etc… but I’m in no way an aspiring scuba-diver or anything. What really appeals to me is the visual/aural aesthetic and trying to create an auditory travelogue.”

In addition to Sub-Aquatic Meditation, he will be putting out a new LP, Soft Terminal, through Digitalis Recordings sometime in 2012.

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