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.

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.

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.