Port Blue - The Airship (320)

Many of you are familiar with Adam Young, whether you know it or not. Adam is the multi-instrumentalist behind Owl City.

Before you disregard this post, however, let me tell you that The Airship is one of the most incredible ambient albums of the last decade. It sounds absolutely nothing like Owl City, but actually sounds more like a piano-laden Helios. Each song is layered with keys, piano, downtempo beats and rather than vocals, various audio clips of people talking. The quotes are often religious in context, but do not sway in favor or against any kind of religion. They are more philosophical in nature, and they compliment the music well.

Have an open mind and check out this amazing album. You will not believe it is by the same man who wrote "Fireflies," trust me.

Download here and buy it here.

Low - Transmission EP (FLAC)

Transmission EP includes a cover by Low of the song Transmission, from The Peel Sessions 1986, released by Jow Division. It does great justice to both the legacy of Joy Division and to Ian Curtis himself. Transmission EP also features other unique works written by Low, perhaps in tribute to or in the spirit of Joy Division. This may be the best mix between the darkness of I Could Live in Hope and the clarity of Things We Lost in the Fire, and as a result it's highly recommended to anyone interested in Low, newcomers and old fans alike.

Radio, live transmission.
Radio, live transmission.

Listen to the silence, let it ring on,
Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun,
We would have a fine time living in the night,
Left to blind destruction,
Waiting for our sight.

Saltillo - Ganglion (FLAC)

I didn't really appreciate trip-hop until very recently, after a fellow blogger here at animationmusicvolume posted Portishead's Third. After having my mind blown, I went back and listened to all the trip-hop albums that I had neglected over the years. Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, and all the giants of the genre now became more relevant to my taste than ever before. So you can imagine the fascination that ensued when I revisited this masterpiece.

Saltillo's Ganglion is full of unique and heavy beats, but it yet retains the downtempo feel that I've come to know and love in electronic music, so it's like a meeting point between the mellow Boards of Canada-esque mellowness and the twisting melodies that many trip-hop artists make use of. The album's opener, "A Necessary End" starts with a somber stringed instrument that hits me like a truck. The inevitable beat and samples start to tug at you like some sort of anxiousness and the song manipulates your feelings with thought-provoking quotes and samples, and it almost feels dramatic.

The entire album plays with your emotions, and is truly a wonderful listening experience. This is one LP that deserves more attention.

Download in V0 here and in FLAC here.
Buy it here.

Bomb The Music Industry! - Scrambles (V0)

This album will kill you with fun.
It'll make you want to flail your arms wildly in the middle of traffic, steal a car, crash into a candy store, fill your mouth with whatever candy it is you like the most, get back in the car, drive off the bridge, turn the car into a submarine with your new found superpowers, find an underwater fissure and go through it, end up in another dimension where everyone is you, kill everyone there and eat their hearts to gain their power, build a statue to monument your penis in a dimension that is now entirely empty, leave that dimension, go home, 100% all of the final fantasy games, liquefy your computer and inject it into yourself, surf the internet inside your head, buy everything on the internet and have it delivered to "thirty-dick or leave it in the car", finally finish chewing all that god damn candy, burn a hole into the sun, and maybe then the album will be finished.

Did you know its hypocritical to point fingers at the people who point fingers?

Download here.

Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek - Blank Grey Canvas Sky (320)

I had only had experience with Peter Broderick before getting this masterpiece. I think it should speak for itself, but I suppose if you had to put a tag on this you might call it ambient classical. There are hints of electronic influences throughout the songs but the whole thing is basically an ethereal wonderland. When you listen to this, try and listen with your heart, and let your imagination go crazy.

Download here, buy it here.

It's short, so just give it a shot.

The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas (V0)

Coming home from a Los Campesinos! concert seems like the worst timing to want to listen to melancholy guitar on tape recorder folk. Oh, but it wasn't at all.
Not even a bit.
Nope.
It was exactly what I needed right then at that moment, an absolutely perfect ending to a perfect day.
This has to be one of the most emotional and simple albums I've ever heard in my life, nothing but John Darnielle singing and strumming an acoustic guitar while a slight buzz in the background backs up whatever he's singing. If there was an album for your life that you wanted to play while the credits rolled, this would be it.

Download it, because this is the best ever death metal band out of Denton.

Suuns - Zeroes QC (V0)

Do you know what something awesome sounds like?
No, seriously, do you?
No, that wasn't nearly as awesome. Neither was that. Oh shut up, you didn't nearly enjoy Sgt. Pepper's or Pet Sounds enough to actually say that honestly.
This here, this is fucking amazing.
Pie IX might as well be named as one of the greatest 3 minutes of sound ever put into a recording. Yeah, I said that, and yeah you're going to disagree now but you wouldn't disagree if I didn't say it so you can just go and cry in shame, you easily influenced swine.
You need this in your collection now because its the only way to redeem yourself. You need this mess of sludgy tones, pop goodness, and passive shoegazing.

Download what's going to pretty much be the best album of 2010 (for me) here.