Let's talk about Avalon Emerson

she had a dedicated site cybernedits (cybernetic edits) where she'd post free edit ep's from herself, Nathan Micay and a few others whose names escape me but the site seems to have gone. Her edit of Pump Up The Jam from those is great.

I put her DJ Kicks on and it had the same weakness as her Essential Mix - lots of really great music but no sense of pace. That Oklou track should be a climax, but it feels like the energy is gone straight after it's done

I felt that specific moment as well and I think it's a deliberate turning down of the heat, I dunno, having seen her live she definitely has a grasp of dancefloor dynamics.

need to listen to it again - I put it on earlier and found it really enjoyable but I was doing work and not really paying attention.

anyway, between the LFF cover and Kelly Lee Owens covering Arpeggi, it’s been a good year for women in techno improving upon indie songs I loved in college.

avalon emerson has a supernatural gift for sound design. i thought i'd already posted "Finally Some Common Ground". it's one of my all-time favorite techno tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWzzo5DWIgM

i stayed up late last night trying to reverse engineer just the first four bars of the percussion, got nowhere close. i couldn't come up with congas (sampled or synthesized) that have that kind of tone and sustain. there's also some very tricky, subtly executed automation on the reverb and slap-back delay effects. i'm gonna keep at it today cuz it's fun, but man, what i've spent hours trying to replicate is just a small piece of a track full of mind-bending sonics. how the hell does she do it, and hold a day-job as a software engineer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kutp_SR9QcU

!!!!

i think there's bullion involvement in this?

indeed:

Avalon Emerson & The Charm is an ongoing, ever-shifting collaboration.
The Charm has no fixed roster and no fixed rules; it’s a vehicle for expression and connection, with Avalon at the helm.

With ‘Sandrail Silhouette’, Avalon says:
“To me this song is about scale. Scales of time and how something that seemed so important and defining a long time ago, might not really matter that much now. And then taking a step back and feeling the smallness of your own lifetime in the shadow of a thousand year old tree. In that way it’s also about the here and now and not sleeping through the erosion of time.”

Produced by Avalon Emerson and Nathan Jenkins

SOTY

this song is absolutely perfect in every way

yes stevie! <3

Great song

Bullion might be a wizard.

https://pitchfork.com/news/avalon-emerson-announces-tour-dates-and-new-album-shares-new-song-listen/

new song! and an album!

seems like the record is going to be pretty pop-oriented? which wont be a bad thing -- the new song is great after all -- but i cant deny that i'm hoping for some bangers

This is being promoted as “Avalon Emerson & The Charm” so it’s probably going to be a “pop” side project and she’ll continue making her usual style of music without “The Charm”.

New song rules.

Not on youtube yet, but another lovely new track "Karaoke Song": https://open.spotify.com/track/5fxhtFc0h2TZ7SpezVl9SY?si=06e86dd6dc2e4a77

she talks about making a pop record here: https://mixmag.net/feature/avalon-emerson-the-charm-dream-pop-dj-interview-cover-feature

gonna be my aoty

Aoty material more people need to get on this. Every track is a winner.

Of all the albums that came out today this one sounds taylor made for me.

Pun intended?

Tailor lol

holy crap

sophistechnodream pop album of the year

this is so good

oh thanks for the heads up been meaning to jump on this

This is the good shit.

this is a great headphones album, turns out

I feel so alienated seeing how overlooked this album is. It should be as popular as idk the Caroline Polachek or Fever Ray albums because it’s as good if not better as those two.

I keep meaning to check it out

gorgeous record and agree that it deserves more love

I don't usually pay attention to lyrics but i love the little phrases that jump out at me from this - "these strangers aren't your friends", "hot dunes, an oasis"

I like those lyrics. It feels like it’s mirroring my current anxieties.

Both a song about impending global doom via global warming - which has been a major anxiety for me growing in a city with such drought that I suspect will turn into a desert in a matter of years - and growing out of the people and things that used to be fun for you. The only thing that has anchored me to my current city is friends and family and every passing year I feel like it’s not worth it anymore. But then “the world is a fuck” so it’s not like I feel there’s a better option out there.

It’s not sonically my favorite song in here - I think Dreamliner is the one I like the best atm - but the lyrics are probably the most relatable for me.

Dreamliner is my fave too <3

The song I was referring to was “astrology poisoning” btw!

aoty

love love love this album

I like this album very muchly.

Good album! My favorites are "Astrology Poisoning" and "Hot Evening."

"Avalon Emerson & the Charm" reminds me of "Selena Gomez & the Scene" lol

Wow, this is something.

"Entombed in Ice" is my arbitrary favourite right now. That quietly scatterbrained feeling