i’ve been slowly getting to know the skeletons and the kings of all cities new record “lucas” in the last few weeks… its one of the few things i’ve ever heard that i would truly describe as ‘beguiling’. sometimes i feel like i’m close to unlocking it. actually this is what it felt like when i first started listening to sung tongs, i didn’t really understand what the hype was about and couldn’t really connect with that album beyond its most accessible elements. and then, driving around spain in a rental car, the penny dropped and i just got it. sometimes you has to listen to a record 1000 times hey.

MP3: Skeletons & the Kings of All Cities - What They Said

“driving around spain in a rental car” - what a wanker!

well if listening to lucas feels like going down the rabbit hole… heading to the shinkoyo website to find out more about the man/people/label behind skeletons, i feel like i’ve crashed the party next door where i don’t know anyone but everyone is cool and they’re definitely smoking something upstairs. its the annual neuroscience students ball afterparty, there’s jazz on the turntable and people are wearing skivvies. i get the feeling that if i wanted to immerse myself in the shinkoyo catalogue i would have to do so at the exclusion of all other music.

one of the most curious and immediately fascinating things i’ve found associated with the skinkoyo is ciat-lonbarde, website of mad scientist synth-maker peter blasser who makes analog synths that look like someone has taken your favourite wooden toys from your childhood and screwed pegs and speakers into them.

the fyrall intuitive sounder and a cat

listen to the fyrall:

Oh, it’s like… I think they’re some of the most fascinating instruments that there are. Most of them are like analog synthesizers, but he builds them in such a way that they’re not… they’re not idiomatic. They’re not normal musical instruments. He has tools that you can get… You can buy kits for them and build them yourself. One’s called the “fourses” and one’s called the “fyrall”. They’re basically completely random instruments. They just have a bunch of pegs and a bunch of knobs and he doesn’t tell you what any of the knobs or the pegs do. When you build it, you can connect the knobs randomly to other stuff on the synth. You can build it in a way where you don’t have any idea what anything is at all. That’s the way it’s designed. says matt mehlan

cocolase modulated delay:

sidrassi organus:

the stuber:

go to ciat-lonbarde and get lost, its fun. people from around the world have ordered kits, assembled them at home, and sent peter pictures to post on his site.

its my birthday today, now y’all know what to get me.