November 29, 2008

Guess What Wesley is Dressed as! Plus: Superb Saturday Mix!

This is it! The last Wesley the Robot Cartoon of the year! I decided to take a hiatus from the squid battle and do something more festive and cute. Who would have ever thought that “Cute” would be the word to describe this emotionally impaired automoton? Stay tuned for more on Wesley’s meteoric rise to fame.

June 17, 2008

AZLTRON’s Dance Antidote Mix

On the cusp of summer and my full-time employment, I impart to you, my faithful readers this creation of mine, the dance mix antidote. But wait? Don’t I largely support dance music? Yes, but dance music is largely loud energetic and entices you to move. Which are all great things that I will continue to revel in at almost every opportunity, but you know what? Sometimes I get tired. I bet you do too. So why not bask in a collection of healing and soothing songs that will re-energize you for another synth/punk/indie/electro dance party? After all, we are not robots, no matter how much some of us might like to be.

Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle (Jim Noir Mix)

Stereolab – Cosmic Country Noir

Air – Left Bank

Graig Markel – Black Mesa

Brian Eno – And Then So Clear

Alaska in Winter – Balkan Low Rider

Au Revoir Simone – Don’t See The Sorrow

The Bird and the Bee – I’m a Broken Heart

The Walkmen – New Year’s Eve

World Leader Pretend – Lovey Dovey

Midlake – We Gathered In Spring

The Notwist – Gone Gone Gone

Daft Punk – Make Love

Kings of Convenience – Misread

The Octopus Project – Snow Tip Cap Mountain

Jens Lekman – Jen’s Lekman’s Farewell Song to Rock Dennis

Jon Sonnenburg – Yesterday

Goldfrapp – Clowns


Moby – Mothers of the Night

Ratatat – Shiller

Jose Gonzales – Down The Line

Spoon – Bring It on Home To Me

May 11, 2007

A Cascade of Graig

Filed under: Air,Andrew Bird,Graig Markel — AZLTRON @ 9:31 pm

Graig Markel provides wonderfully layered down tempo pop, rich with slide guitars, violins and chiming melodies on his new album “Via Novella”. The inventiveness of the instrumentation helps avoid the usual pitfalls of down tempo pop. The lush soundscapes evoke at times the sounds of Air or Andrew Bird while being intimately unique at the same time. There are some absolutely stunning instrumentals here. “Black Mesa” (1) and “Figures in the Snow” (10) both allude to nature’s beauty in title and in sound. I hate to be redundant with the term “beauty” here, but I would use that adjective again for most of the ballads here as well, in particular the subtly electro-acoustic romp “Cascadia”. Graig Markel also has the knack to inject his songs with a certain emotional weight while nudging the song along at just the right pace, best exemplified in “Knives Drawn” (2) and “Sixes and Sevens” (5). While not flawless from start to finish, you’d be hard pressed to find a better formed diamond in the rough.

Buy Via Novella

Graig Markel

MP3 – Cascadia – Graig Markel

Graig’s Recording Journal:

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