Colony Collapse, from Filastine’s new album £OOT, coming soon on Muti Music.

New artist to me, Nixti, but OMG what an awesome some. Pretty, haunting, and a super amazing humorous delivery from Yasus Afari. Can wait to see more from these guys. Production done by 20mm productions, who look wicked in their own right.

Coming at some point on Rwina records – no release date yet.

Also, have had a chance to preview the new Kelpe coming on Svetlana in full. It’s amazing (although check out their Brey release that’s coming next week first) – Check out a snippet below.

New Embassy recordings release out yesterday! Always a cause for celebration. More from Distal here.

Holy Schnikee’s! While I wasn’t looking Dave from 88DC has managed to put together one of the most engaging amazing lineups I’ve ever seen in the US. More interesting to me even than Decibel. Cograts! Includes a Solvoid set, the new project from Noah Pred that is supposed to be the follow on to the Shen project. Woohoo!

Creators Project comes to San Francisco! I bet David Bowie won’t be there, but Casey Reas, SosoLimited, Scanner, and Mira Calix all doing art. Woohoo!

Tinker and I hard at work in Hawaii. Photo by Light Being Photography.

A Quiet Bump is putting out their first CD, which is also their first compilation (hence it’s name, UNO!). AQB are a truly awesome digi dub label of the very best kind, inheritors of Pole and Rhythm and Sound’s mantle. Based out of Italy though its head dudes now live in Berlin (where else?). Check it out, and you can download ALL of the labels other releases from their website for FREE! + They’ve got a great little new logo too.

His free label, Cut, reached its 10th release today, the first release on the label by Alex himself, the Actaeon EP. It explores his take on the Autonomic sound I’ve been writing about, although Alex’s approach is decidedly maximal as opposed to minimal. But you still have great tricky rhythms going on. And, like always, it’s free! Supremely good stuff.

And, on a flipped note, a venerable DnB producer, Makoto, who has spent years making liquid DnB, the precursor to some of the Autonomic sound (or at least the flourishes) has done a release for the very strong french minimal tech-y dubstep label 7even Recordings, run by the awesome F. Check out the inverse below.

Also out yesterday is the latest from Donky Pitch, from Brighton, who’s been picking up key releases by some exciting new artists. This one though is from established heads Ghost Mutt and it’s true form digi weirdness from the man who brought you the dance floor smashing Thoroughbred. Sweat Mode pretty much rocks. Again, click below for the bandcamp page.

Also also, the Astro-Dynamics website has gotten a cool refresh (and he’s not the only one, check out the new Electronic Explorations website!). And while he’s at it, Luke Owen is introducing a new artist, 1991, for his next release, and then following that with a Samoyed remix of El Kid – which is like a match made in heaven for me. Check ‘em out below.

And finally, my top 10 list of albums, EPs and singles from 2011 is up now on Create Digital Music, although with the announcement that I’ll be contributing to that website occasionally. Check it out here!

I am extremely fortunate that every once in a while I get an unsolicited email about music and the music actually is mindblowingly good. Doesn’t happen all that often, and in order for me to read it I have to be clued in, in some small way, that it might be something I’m interested in (so often, though not always, the word “soulful” ends up getting archived). But in this case Bambooman hit me up and I saw that he had some stuff coming on Project:Mooncircle, one of my favorite labels of last year. And the mind was blown. It’s SO hard to mix up softer, more mellow vibes with glitch and wonky and get the proportions right enough to be both interesting and unique. Bambooman’s done just that. Check out the teaser tracks from his forthcoming limited release CD, and then the stuff from his previous Lost Souls EP. I THINK he might also be responsible for the mighty Sound Healers comp from last year, and his email hinted that the 2nd installment of was on the way as well. W00t!

01. Om Unit – Naiad
02. Om Unit vs. Kromestar – Merkabah
03. Krampfhaft – I Needed You (Om Unit Remix)
04. Om Unit – Fibonnaci 10
05. Comma – Mezcal Hologram (Om Unit Remix)
06. Om Unit – An Eternal Way
07. Silent Dust – The Giant (Om Unit Remix)
08. Ital Tek – War of the Ants (Om Unit Remix)
09. Arp 101 And Om Unit – Dr Funkenstein
10. Om Unit – Cold World
11. Starkey – Lost in Space (feat. Charli XCX) (Om Unit Remix)
12. Take – Juniper (Om Unit Remix)
13. Pixelord – Cybernator (Om Unit Remix)
14. Om Unit – Prawn Cocktail
15. Om Unit – The Timps (Alternative Version)
16. Om Unit x Lorn – Obsidian

Other stuff that’s been on my mind (lots of charts and graphics) include this fascinating chart of “Influencers” on Soundcloud – Would be super interested to know how they came up with their formula.

Little study put together by Root Music. Note that only 3% of bands on facebook consider themselves electronic! And this isn’t a case of misclassification, people categorize themselves! My world is very very very small.

Finally, I’ve been meaning to do a post about PROTECT-IP / SOPA and fortunately it’s been pushed off till January but this is still an issue near and dear to my heart. Awesome letter here from the 100 or so people that basically built the internet/web/networks of today about what a bad idea it is. Check it out, brought to you by the EFF, of course.

Best of list coming tomorrow, and possible also the final mix of the year if I can get it together!

Realizing I’m going to have released 10 mixes by the time the year is out, and I think across all 10 I pretty much said all the musical things I wanted to say in 2011. Maybe  I’ll do a recap post at the end of the year.

Now they’ve got a full length coming out on the always awesome Project Mooncircle, who basically can do no wrong and is a paragon of the way a digital label should be run. The 1000names album is called Invisible Architect and is due out tomorrow and is beguiling and beautiful and, as their press photo suggests, a little off kilter and funny.

You can get it from the PMC bandcamp page, and they made a little promo video for it below, and you can check out more of their stuff on their soundcloud.

Also one other release of note that’s been keeping me humming is a new EP from Masmod on his own Nueva Forma label (another super awesome, well kept, well run net label). It’s called Conscious Automata and it’s a real advance in Masmod’s sound, with each track branching out into different directions and tempos – all held together by gossamer spider threads glistening with dew, but each a unique creation. Powerful stuff. Click below to get it for free(!) from their bandcamp, and check out the label’s gorgeous site and latest podcast “Listening Pleasures” here.

Loops Haunt – Ark (Black Acre)
Danny Drive Thru – Eclipsemoonsun [Trevino's Front Remix] (forthcoming on Fat City)
Abjo – Stereocity (unreleased VIP)
Zack Christ – Iced Out (self released)
Sepalcure – Fleur [Sun Hammer Remix] (forthcoming self release)
Fedbymachines – The Place That Never Was (forthcoming on Falk Phonic)
Woulg – Elephant (enig’matik)
Recue and Jolea – We’re Not Like The Most (unreleased VIP)

In other news, my first article for Google Music came out a couple day. It’s on Sepalcure.

This is LAMA – they’re a super group from Japan and their album came out today! My connection to them is Mr. Kensuke Ushio otherwise known as Agraph, who’s all the way to the right in the above photo. The other members apparently have incredible pedigree, but I’m nowhere near as versed in that world as I could be, so the only previous groups I recognized the names of were Number Girl and Supercar. It’s not available in the US yet, but hopefully the internets will somehow overcome that gap. Here they are performing “One Day” – with I think Agraph possibly appearing live from his bedroom!

A second group of music makers on my mind recent have been Recue and Jolea from Helsinki. Riku and I have struck up a lively conversation in advance of my mix coming out on the BBC on Friday – It contains a world premier of a new song by the duo called “We’re Not Like The Most” that is truly stellar. They’re both producers in their own right, together they run the Audiobaum label, and Jolea is blessed with a truly incredible, shiver-inducing voice. Links to a couple of their albums below, and the track that got me into Recue below that.