Idyllic Music

This week we'll look at the life serving skill of reason. The process in deciding if something is true. It's based on reducing assumptions and making the best choice under the circumstances. The simplest answer isn't always the truest. This week we'll hear from six artists who gradually peal back layers to get to that essence. They are Advanced Suite, Kazuki, Lovement, The Microgram, D-Echo Project and Culture Horn. I'm Jim Nye.

This week, we'll listen to The City at Night. From the time the sunsets until dawn, the city changes neighborhood by neighborhood, from glittering to gritty, from evening to the early morning it sound different, somehow more distant than daytime.

This week we'll hear from seven artists who are not what they seem. Not entirely anyway. We make assumptions and have expectations that are not always met at first blush. Like the name of a band or the music from a particular place.

This week we'll lay out a spread of Cheesy Beats and Firecrackers. Embracing the schmaltz and finding our inner groove. It's cinematic music with modern beats nostalgic for camp Hollywood tropes and tv variety shows but ultimately it all leads back to Walter Wanderley's elevator classic ‘Summer Samba'.

This week we will reflect on how artificial intelligence is influencing music culture.

This week we take a look at the second generation of electronic music artists.

This week we'll look at Anima Mundi or the ‘Soul of the World'. Thought to be a vital force that permeates the world, the Anima Mundi is believed to be the feminine creative power of God.

This week we will celebrate our Crystal or 15th anniversary of podcasting independent Downtempo Music and Artists. Looking back I am happy to report most continue to make music or have a presence on the web. We will hear from six artists from our freshman year who, 15 years later, are still going strong.

This week we’ll look at the luminescence of candles, of wax and tallow. Mostly used in celebrations and ceremonies these days, candles brought light to the darkness for early lives constrained by the rising and setting of the sun. It meant extra hours beyond daily work to gather, socialize and create. Candles lit the way and we followed.

This week we will focus on mind wandering. When your attention drifts from the task at hand. Most of us feel this mild disassociation routinely. When you feel a million miles away. While it can be distracting daydreaming can lead to more creativity through decoupling and self reflection. We will hear six tracks that exhibit some of this dreamlike quality including Red Wine Riots, Aphilas, Dreza, Eva Schlegel, Azoora and Just Banks.

This week we will look at personal correspondence. Any private communication revealing private thoughts usually between just two people. It is often easier to put your true feelings down on paper. Shared thoughts of devotional love. Despair and hope of lovers on the edge. The loyalty of close friends and letters written with no intention of ever being sent. On this episode we will sneak a peek at the dispatches of High On Isra, Mr.S, Karmacoda, The Dubbstyle, Portal and Different Shapes.

This week we will look at personal correspondence. Any private communication revealing private thoughts usually between just two people. It is often easier to put your true feelings down on paper. Shared thoughts of devotional love. Despair and hope of lovers on the edge. The loyalty of close friends and letters written with no intention of ever being sent. On this episode we will sneak a peek at the dispatches of High On Isra, Mr.S, Karmacoda, The Dubbstyle, Portal and Different Shapes.

This week, we will look at change beyond the tipping point. The “no going back.” Before and After. How we accept and adapt to our new situation will take every effort. Embracing a new future takes courage and a sense of practicality. Seeing it as a new morning requires faith and adaptability.

This week it is Pastoral Beats. Warm gentle Electronica that evokes memories of carefree and less stressful times. It is music of comfort and consolation led by deceptively simple melodies over increasingly intricate rhythms. The arty side of chill-out where each has their own unique style of swing.

This week we will look at our tricky relationship with darkness and light. Light shows what is apparent and actual. We see things for what they transparently are but in the darkness all things are possible. It is where we keep our anxiety, fears and desires. It allows us to keep secrets. Darkness does not judge.

This week we will look at espionage. It is spies and spooks, coups and active measures. It is a shadowy world. All cloak-and-dagger. Carried out by those we will never know. Of the things that are supposed to stay secret. Aiding with the reconnaissance on this episode of Idyllic Music are Karmacoda, Hector Zarate, Frank Dorittke, Tommy Ptolemy, DTR, and the Policy Wonks.

This week, we look back at the golden age of online music distribution. For much of the past two decades netLabels and OMD communities have provided a safe and easy way for musicians to upload their songs for distribution via a Creative Commons copyright. Recently, we have seen the demise of nearly all free OMD sites and only a handful of netLabels remain. The gatekeepers are all behind paywalls. Thankfully many netLabels have uploaded their catalogues to archive.org before going dark. Here are eight bands we might not have otherwise heard without these independent online resources.

This week, we'll look at the ability to forgive. It's a mistake to think forgiveness is universal. While nearly everyone agrees the aggrieved and forgiven find the experience positive, not everyone is wired with the ability to move on from an insult. Research seems to suggest it could be genetic. Sharing a mixed of views on the subject are Dive Index, Fascinating Earthbound Objects, Soft and Furious, Rich Sudney and Down Review.

This week, we'll look to quiet the mind. It's a defense mechanism really as we try to cope with a world that has seemingly sped up beyond our capacity to keep up. The stress and anxiety it creates is often covered over by the cacaphony that is 21st century life.

This week, on the 200th episode of Idyllic Music, regular listeners of this podcast will find another best of mix unencumbered by the usual patter so that you can burn them directly to the blank CD of your choice. We have a podcast mp3 file of nearly 60 minutes worth of the best music featured over the past years.

This week, it's headphone electronica. Music created with the meticulous detail that only listening through headphones can reveal. It's electronica mixed, produced and, ultimately, consumed by people wearing headphones. It's created by indie musicians working with twenty first century tools to create, edit and sometimes perform their work. Headphone electronica isn't for dancing yet it can be danceable rather it is for focusing or letting your mind drift.

This week we'll examine a life at sea. Joseph Conrad wrote that "There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting and enslaving." More troubling is what lies beneath the swells and awful stirrings of what Melville called the "hidden soul beneath. Hoisting the main sail for us on the episode of Idyllic Music are Band of Mad Women, IOTA, MMPSUF, Sleepy Town Manufacture, beat.dowsing and Leon Somov.

This week, we'll listen for harmonics. We mostly think of harmonics as an element of music but there is a more fundamental physical quality underneath it all. Wave patterns are all around us. We know its how sound and light move and that changes in these wave can influence our perceptions and moods. Checking the frequency with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Sleepy Koala, Garaz, Dlay, MindsEye, Cutside and DU3normal.

This week, we'll try a little empathy. The ability to understand and share another person's feelings, experiences and emotions. It is a power sorely missed these days. Research seem to suggest there is a genetic basis to empathy, that some individuals are more prone to perspective taking. Now would be a good time to step up in the face of intolerance. Joining us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Ink Project, Planet B, Dan West, Lunascape, The Silk Demise, Tracing Arcs and Filafi.

This episode of Idyllic Music is brought to you by the number ten. It sits comfortably between nine and eleven, matches our fingers quite nicely and is the base for the decimal system nearly everyone uses every day. And as it happens, this is also our tenth anniversary. Ten years of podcasting independent downtempo electronica. I can't say enough about the great artists that have allowed us to showcase their music. Happily, there is still a lot more music out there waiting to be discovered. Counting it out for us are Ketsa, Navasa, Marque and Reprisal, Kirk Pearson and BIT, Vir Nocturna, Dissolved and Nonima.

This week, we'll look at the final season, the end of the cycle, of winters past and cold. It's a time many of us would like to hold up in bed for the duration, with it's shortened days and cold nights. Winter is a time for putting your head down and plowing ahead reassured by the certainty that this too shall pass. Our musical sweaters on this episode of Idyllic Music are Hungry Lucy, Winterstrand, Sara Grey, Mystral and Gorowski.

This week, we'll look at the effort it takes to pull yourself together after a relationship ends. Some seek sympathetic ears while other withdraw into solitude. We'll hear just what it takes from General Fuzz, Kognitif, BASIC, The Ganzfeld Effect, and Reflection.

This week, it's regrets and reconciliation. Regrets? I've had a few but by and large, I've moved on. It seems a measure of success by how little regret we take to our graves. The trick, of course, is in deciding how much of your personal past you are willing to overlook. Making that judgment on this episode of Idyllic Music are We came as Strangers, Surek, Vienna Ditto, Knoto, Zebrat, and Helicalin.

This week, we'll look at proximity and happenstance. The idea that just by being near another person or event can change the future for better or worse. Mostly the difference is unnoticable in the noise but sometimes you may just think you see a pattern. Taking a look at where the ripples begin are Hypersleep, Tab and Anitek, Refold, All India Radio, Cling, Ben K. Adams and Little Glass Men.

This week we'll look at word salad with Peterloo Massacre, Broke for Free, Sweet Play, Daddy Scrabble, Northbound and Small Colin.

This week we'll try to imagine the ends of the universe. It's one way to restore some perspective while your world is spinning around you. The vast emptiness of space, its cold, hollow expanse is the fact that we ignore while conjuring up tales of Death Stars and Restaurants. Taking a more expansive view are Rukirek, Dive Index, Jagoa, Me Zion Dread and Strad.

This week, we'll look at recovery and contemplate the possibilities inherent in second chances. Do they bring new focus and opportunity or squandered through indecision and inertia. It is a dilemma facing those who have faced traumatic situations and survived. Is survival enough? Helping us sort it all out are Aris H, Garmisch, Nic Bommarito, Jazzafari, Citizen Crane, and Ishdub. Thanks for waiting.

This week we'll look at tipping points. The value of the parameter in which the set of equilibria abruptly change. Sometimes we are quite aware of these changes other times not but they occur in everything from climatology and economics to personal relationships. We'll hear from Minds Of Infinity, Karmacoda, Zoungla, Phone Booth Robbers and Max Lilja.

This week we'll look at episodic or semantic memory. Where we store past events and learned meanings long-term. Memories of place,time and sounds. Memories we can't actually have had but still resonate are considered genetic semantic memory possibly harboured in our DNA. Think about that the next time you find yourself doing something you have no experience with.Remembering with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Marushka, Scenery, Brujo's Bowl, Antonia Vai, Rob Viktum and Kaminanda.

This week, we'll look at the Chronology of the universe. Don't blink because most of the important stuff happens between 10 to the 43rd seconds and 1 second after the Big Bang. From the planck epoch to Heat death some 10 to the 150+ years from now. Hurrying up and waiting on this episode of Idyllic Music are Tycho, Skeleton Trees, Arne Mulder, Artemis, Chad Lawrence and Dubsalon.

This week, we'll look into the fire. Mesmerizing as it is, fire is a perfect metaphor for love, desire and passion. From the dazzling white of 1,500 degrees C to Dull Red of 700, fire's ability to warm, over the long term yet burn quickly or smolder for weeks matches our personal histories, relations and ourselves. Passing the torch for us this week are Home Video, Jerome Chassagnard, Sparrow Orange, Peter Gabriel and Aire Redtree.

This week, we'll look at intimacy. The need for, the mechanics, complications and consequences of. William Butler Yeats lamented that The heart-revealing intimacy,That chooses right, and never finds a friend. Opening up for us on this episode of Idyllic Music is C85, Howard, Hayward, Frith and Laswell, Alma-me-gretta, The Orb, Smooth Gene-star and Saltillo

This week, we'll look at the illusion of permanence and the inevitably of change. The tricky thing about change is that it is often not even perceptible. Gradual and incremental, it often takes a change in perspective to see the change happening all around us. Pointing that out for us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Module, Canola Tenderfoot, Musetta, Scopes, Philip TBC and JIXJAX.

This week we look at emotional isolation. It seems the more we reach out the less we feel. It might be the continuing reliance on the intrawebs or fragmentation of society but increasingly many of us are alone and not by choice. Next time you are at a restaurant and see a couple glowing with the bluish tint of their separate mobile phones or simply sitting together but not talking, you'll understand what I mean. Demonstrating the ways we've becoming isolated on this episode of Idyllic Music are White Blush, Bioscape, Niyaz, Soulacybin, Winterstrand and Kate Martin.

This week, we'll look at loves first heartbreak. When young untested emotions are at their most potent and everything seems so damned important. As George Eliot so aptly put it. There is no despair so absolute as that which comes from the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and recovered hope. On this episode of Idyllic Music we'll hear from Globular, Jah Wobble, Zeus Scientist, EeBoO, mmpsuf, and Chriss SoLo.

This week, we'll head to the sub-continent for inspiration. In particular, Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science. While it's not unusual for ancient cultures to personify this manifestation of consciousness through art, Saraswati expands to include the sciences. We can all take as our Muse this expression of modern progress. Moving forward with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Maido Project, Joel Enzo, TheFlavor Foundation, Dubtrak and First Rebirth. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll look at mirages. In particular the superior mirage known as Fata Morgana, named after the fairy shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur. We come to rely on the normally stable optic perceptions that make up our daily experiences but now and again the physical world will throw you off. It's those moments that are the true reality of our existence. Testing us this week are Nicky Cairney, ShaMANoiD, Mustard Tiger, Rabbit Hole Revelations, Artemis and Merge of Equals. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week's episode of Idyllic Music is brought to you by the number 3. It is, I believe, the most ubiquitous symbol man has created throughout history. From religion to physics and beyond, the number 3 is found everywhere. The atom is made up of 3 components. Almost all faiths have a core aspect containing 3 parts. Shakespere, Tolkien and a host of modern authors have found the trilogy or number 3 irresistible. All of this despite the overwhelming dominance of the number 2 in our own biology, 2 eyes, ears, arms and legs. What is it about that added digit? Exploring the musical end of the number 3 for us are Nicolas Eller, Radioactive Sandwich and Ovalys. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll explore the many paths to spiritual enlightenment. It might come in a journey, a ritual of repetition or a chemical. Each method is personal. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll experience Epic Dreams. Dreams that are so compelling and so vivid the details remain with you for years. When you wake up from an Epic Dream, you feel that you have discovered something profound or amazing about yourself or about the world. They are the dreams shaped by Morpheus and dreamt by Siddhartha and Gilgamesh. Dreaming on with us on this episode of Idyllic Music are Smarton Trio, Viola, Karmacoda, Hello Mellow, Twin Muses and Earsauce. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week we will consider those times when things get wobbly. Not the early 20th century trade union but the feeling that things that once seemed solid and unchanging are now less so. They may be in politics and sexuality, personally or sonically. We will hear from 6 artists finding their footing in an unstable world. They are The National Pool, Auma, Metaharmoniks, Lovespirals, The Esoteric Gender and Korev.Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week we'll look at the Zeitgeist. This moment in time, our collective meme and the era of uncertainty. It's an era that portends the age of human technology while celebrating a kind of spirtitual nostalgia. On this episode of Idyllic Music we'll hear from seven artists reflecting "the spirit of the times". They are Esza Kaye, All India Radio, Andreia Dacal, Daybehavior, Aphone, Giyz and Curly Jefferson.Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll ponder the summer travel season. The world's a mighty big place filled with destinations that can be both beautiful and dangerous, often times in the same city. We'll hear from six artists with a musical itinerary stretching from Copenhagen to Christchurch, Calcutta to Brixton. Leading our tour on this edition of Idyllic Music are Jordan Reyne, Secret Archives of the Vatican, Tikki Masala, Project 5am, My Bubba and Mi and Chris Pettit. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week we'll look at women and men and the equally compelling perspectives they bring to music. We have come a long way from days when gender roles were specific and restricting. Now we find even in parts of the world where traditional divisions between men and women remain, within the arts those walls are collapsing. Helping illustrated that on this episode of Idyllic Music are Endless Blue, Boleros En Femeni, Fuji Kureta, Babbaracos, The Crisis Project and Sarah Fimm.Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll consider the contemplative life most often associated with religious devotion. On this episode of Idyllic Music we'll focus instead on the secular. The conscious decision to notice things. The little details of life that we often skip right past. We get help from Orange Crush, Natalie Walker, Motionfield, Vitamins for You, Text Adventure and Asaguare. Try the new Idyllic Music app.

This week, we'll look at deceptions and delusions and how the two often blend into the other in a sort of symbiotic fashion. It requires the need to believe and ultimately deceive. It is one of our most powerful tools in coping with emotional pain. Providing a bit of regression therapy for us on this episode of Idyllic Music are PlanetsCitizens, Naoned, Dave Gerard, Floating Spirits, Ovalys and AlikProject. Try the new Idyllic Music app.