[PS 019] Dustmotes - The Containment Sessions

Dustmotes - The Containment Sessions
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 019
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 19 Apr 2010
Genre: Electronic
Style: Downtempo, Broken Beat
| Art by Fernando Mateus |

“We have rarely experienced here at the Lab the build up of expectation behind a release like we felt for this one. “Beats for the Subverted” was one of the releases that reached out from our usual listening base and brought other listeners to the Lab. Right after [PS012] was released we started to get asked, by mail, in talks or on twitter when the next release from Paul Croker would see the light of day. That moment has arrived and the wait was well worth it. Dustmotes delivers with his “Containment Sessions” a release that is a few notches above “Beats for the Subverted”. When listening to it for the first time I could feel a sound that is more confident and, but I might be wrong, I think that has a lot to do with all the positive feedback Paul got from his first ever release. Nothing in “The Containment Sessions” is out of place and the same attention to details that Paul got us used to, is here. I feel privileged for being one of the few that got to enjoy this release before everyone else and it is my opinion that we all should be grateful to Paul for sharing his immense talent with us.”

[PS019] Dustmotes | The Containment Sessions by PublicSpacesLab

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[PS 018] DigiTube - Time to Chill

DigiTube - Time to Chill
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 018
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 18 Apr 2010
Genre: Electronic
Style: Modern Classical, Ambient, Chill
Art by Fernando Mateus based on a photo by Michelle St. Sauveur
Release Enconding and Release Production Jordi Urriaque @ the Lab
 
DigiTube, a.k.a. Scott Lachance, returns to the Lab and, once more, we are thrilled by having him releasing with us.
After the really well received “Soundtracks for Media, Sound Tracks for Life” [PS016], DigiTube brings us a new EP that it is a true showcase of his talent. Relaxed, well humored and with moments of true musical genius, “Time to Chill” points out the future of the genre. To listen to in a relaxed environment with a daiquiri nearby.


[PS018] DigiTube - Time to Chill by PublicSpacesLab

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Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

[PS 017] Subterminal - Bright Dawn Sketches

Subterminal - Bright Dawn Sketches
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 017
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 17 Mar 2010
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient

“Bright dawn sketches” is an ambient album focused on exploring different environments, from urban solitude, sirens crying, ocean waves crashing in the shores and sunbeams reflected in the clouds. Some instruments were used (a crackle box and a sruti box), some composition techniques were also used (for example, minimalism and time stretching) as well as some software (iphone) and voice. All the tracks contained in this release were made with some concepts in mind.



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Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

(PS 016) @digitube – Sndtracks for Media/Soundtracks for Life

digitube – Sndtracks for Media/Soundtracks for Life
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 016
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 15 Jan 2010
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Modern Classical
Art by Fernando Mateus |Release Enconding and Post Production Jordi Urriaque |

[PS016] digitube – Sndtracks for Media/Soundtracks for Life brings the work of Scott LaChance back to PublicSpaces Lab, after one of his tracks being featured on PS010.
Scott LaChance brings a fine and detailed ambient EP that calls for a careful listening to be repeated over and over again. Our general opinion is that this is that kind of EP that you take with you, to listen while traveling but also when reading back: These are indeed pieces of the soundtrack of our lives.


[PS016] digitube - Sndtracks for Media/Soundtracks for Life by PublicSpacesLab

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(PS 015) Various - Number Stations

Various - Number Stations
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 015
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 15 Jan 2010
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, IDM, Dubstep, Experimental
Curated by Jon Sykes for PublicSpaces Lab
Release Art by Rita Monteiro @ PublicSpaces Lab
Cover Photo by Slightly North via Flickr under a CC License by-nc-sa
Mastering and encoding by Jordi @ PublicSpaces Lab

his is a compilation album based around the theme of Numbers Stations samples.
Number Stations if you are unfamiliar are shortwave radio stations that broadcast strange and cryptic content, often ordered or seemingly random series of numbers repeated over and over again. Other stations played weird music, and other still just repeated tones over an over. They were all the rage back in the Coldwar era and are often thought to have been spying agencies means of communication.
Probably the most famous Number Station sample is from the Wilco album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, partly due to the album being named after it but maybe more so because it lead to complex legal wrangles over who “owned” the recording, eventually settled out of court.
The most authoritative collection of Numbers Stations recordings is the Conet Project by Irdial Records, who make available the entire collection under their Free Music Philosophy. There are also plenty of other places online to find other samples that can be used in recordings as samples.
The challenge was issued to an international assortment of artists, with genres ranging from Ambient, to Dub Step to Interpretive. This compilation of tracks is the result. We hope you enjoy.





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(PS 014) Swaying Smoke – Unbroken Lantern

Swaying Smoke – Unbroken Lantern
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 014
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 16 Dec 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style:  Dark Ambient, Drone
Cover Art: Rita Monteiro @ the Lab (concept by James Lowery)

This is Swaying Smoke’s follow up to “Hidden Beneath the Soil”, his first release with PublicSpaces Lab. James Lowery brings us, once more, a masterpiece where detail is everything. Purely a dark noise work, James manages to take us into a complex journey where emotions blend with sounds and where the listener always comes up winning, at the end.
When asked to describe this new work James tells us:

To create the album, I spent a few months recording a large bank of ambient melodies and drones. Each loop was recorded into tracker software, where I manipulated and refined them.
Once I had the bank of loops prepared, I loaded it into different software where I played them all together with a MIDI controller. The end result is a meandering and somewhat improvisational album of five movements. It is akin to an ambient/electronic symphony, if you will. Each loop was an instrument and I used them differently for each movement.

To be listened carefully, “Unbroken Lantern” is a delicate sonic work that reflects the growth of James Lowery as an artist and composer on his way to become, in our opinion, a name to be taken into account on this genre.

Tracklist:

1. Never Been Darker
2. The Hermit Stares Blindly
3. Morning Daws Darker Yet
4. A Stain_of_Light_in_the_Forest
5. The Ancient_Hearth_Abandoned_to the_wild

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(PS 013) Adamned.age – Whiteout

Adamned.age – Whiteout
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Cat#: PS 013
Format: MP3, FLAC
Released: 09 Dec 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style:  IDM, Experimental, Ambient

I am still surprised to learn that even some of my closest fellow netaudio enthusiasts never heard the name of Hanne Adam or her musical solo project ‘adamned.age‘. To me, Hanne is one of the most important and creative figures of an ever evolving scene, that still hasn’t reached it’s limits – and so hasn’t Hanne. When I first discovered her music, I was attracted by the fine sound design art that runs through all of her works. While cold at first glance, all her compositions are never repellent, in fact they contain a common hypnotic element that opens the door to deeper and deeper explorations that will never let you go again.
Like every great composer Hanne is an extremely fine observer, an attribute she also lives out in her work as a photographer. Together with her ‘partner in crime’ Tanja Dovens, better known as ‘Die Minimalistin’ to some lovers of fascinating drones and soundscapes, she is a part of Berlin’s ‘Urban Exploration’ scene, where she haunts in abandoned places in the eastern part of the city, which by now haven’t been found by investors or carpetbaggers to turn those pearls into money making appartments or expensive spas for the upper class of Germany’s lavish reborn capital. The pictures Hanne takes as well as the feelings she carries home convert to sounds, melodies and compositions that give these places an everlasting memorial far beyond the mere photographic moment.
But there is another driving, darker force behind Hannes Adam’s music and her often abstract and bleak sound design: Pain, whether physical or emotional, has been a constant companion on her path through life and art. “Music sometimes was the only language that gave that pain a voice, the only thing that literally kept me in this life“, she confessed during a conversation we had in November 2009. It is in these precious moments of composing, of feeling that special occasion when a very private emotion transforms into a sound, when Hanne enters into a world without constant struggle and forgets about the defeats she suffers against enemies she can’t win against in her real life. It might be considered a sweet irony of her life that it is this pain, that actually leads her to her highest artistical summits. And her wise smile showed me she knows about this antagonism very well.
It is my pleasure to witness one of the most precious jewels of today’s netaudio scene coming together with one of the most caring netlabels around for the best release adamned.age had so far. Enjoy every sound, beat and emotion this musical giant has for you.
Thomas L. Raukamp in December 2010
You can follow  adamned.age on Twitter.
Tracklisting:


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(PS 012) Dustmotes – Beats For The Subverted

Dustmotes – Beats For The Subverted
Label: PublicSpaces Lab
Catalog#: PS 012
Format: WAV, FLAC
Released: 11 Nov 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Downtempo, Trip Hop

Paul Croker is a versatile artist, reflected by his various musical influences from past to present.

His love affair with the vinyl format started at the age of 4, when he was given his first 7″ single, and would grow throughout the next few decades throughout the Hip Hop, Trip Hop and Big Beat movements.
During the early years, he ruined a few parentally-owned record players teaching himself to scratch and mix records. From the age of 14 he learnt the guitar, joining like minded friends from school, playing in
Zeppelin/Hendrix/Floyd influenced bands, gigging all over the country at pubs, clubs and festivals. Finding particular resonance with Eastern influenced sounds, he experimented with alternate tunings and backwards
phrasing, forming the core of his sound. In the 90’s after becoming immersed in the Big Beat scene in London and Brighton, Paul began to experiment with creating Digital based music, finding an affiliation with the use
of samples and loops to build soundscapes. DJ’ing in local clubs, he learnt to beat mix and also layer sounds within a live environment.

His first release, ‘Beats for the Subverted’ is primarily influenced by early DJ Shadow, Portishead and UNKLE. The simple aim was to set about recording a vinyl-only sample based work, overdubbing bass and
percussion where necessary. The result is a dark, ambient hip hop flavoured album, with a light social commentary.

Following the coherency that we have always sustained at the Lab, PS012 is not what you would call our typical ambient/noise release. In the same way that Paul approached us with his fabulous work, and surprised us
with his sound, talent and concepts we hope that you will also feel what we felt, the many times we have already heard these tracks. For those that still need a “logic” explanation the answer is very simple:
We love it! And that has always been the reason behind every release we have made so far and will continue to be for many more to come.
Paul would like to thank to:
My wonderful understanding family & friends, all at PublicSpaces Lab, my Twitter family, and Ableton & Technics..



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