Alright, I'll stop trying to break your device.
Sep 3, 2021
The music players on this site are JavaScript wrappers for the in-built HTML5 players on your browser. To make everything a little more intuitive and easy to use, I wrote functionality to pause other players when a play was clicked and the ability to sync volume levels across player instances. The end result is tracks won’t play on top of one another and if the volume needs to be decreased, users won’t have to keep adjusting the volume for each track.
I accomplish both of these tasks by monitoring events happening on the webpage. An event fires when the volume is changed in one player, and I use that event to trigger similar volume changes across all the other players. After writing these scripts last year, I paid no more attention to it since everything seemed to be working. Only recently, when I was investigating the lagginess of the volume adjuster, did I notice a glaring bug I didn’t catch.
An infinite loop was being created every time the volume was changed. In the situation above, volume changes across all other players themselves constituted events which in turn trigger even more volume change events, leading to an exponential increase in events. Luckily, the JavaScript engines on our devices were constantly working to stop these loops from being a problem or even noticed. So, your phone/computer was probably using a little more computational power/energy for this site than it should have been using (sorry).
I have fixed this bug so volume ajusting should now be risk-free and smoother. Today’s first post is Lous and The Yakuza, who I discovered through a collab between Sfera Ebbasta and Lous. Her debut “Gore” is full of extremely strong and unique tracks and I would recommend the full album to everyone. Below are a couple of my favourites.
I consider Untrue to be a certified electronic classic. So powerful, so dark, so encompassing, so mechanical, and yet so human. Since the release of this album and its predecessor, Burial has achieved resounding sucess across the internet and in awards. Despite this, no one knew who Burial was for many years; he kept his identity secret to prevent his history or personality from affecting the music. But the music scene turned austere intentions of this producer into a sprawling meme as Pitchfork covers here.
Versatile Records has many experimental gems. On Danse Comme Des Fous is one of them. Gilb’r brings together some extremely diverse textures and sounds throughout the album, it’s a fascinating adventure.
Of course you can’t go wrong with some Скриптонит.
It’s easy to see how Abra is one of the bosses on Atlanta rap’s Awful Records. After a relatively conservative upbringing in London (with missionary parents), her family settled in Atlanta where she has been developing her style since high school. She’s Atlanta’s early-days Grimes; initally recording with minimal equipment in basements/closets, throwing callbacks to the 80’s and 90’s.
Berlin-based Get Physical Music was founded by M.A.N.D.Y., Booka Shade, and DJ T. They kicked everything off with this classic. Digging through their catalog, I was impressed and excited to see a compilation album of some Indian artists titled India Gets Physical Vol. 1. It didn’t disappoint.
Hypercolour Records have some seriously good artists. FaltyDL has shown up before. Don’t currently have too many other records from Hypercolour (have to to change this) but Huxley has made it into a couple House playlists.
Shortly after releasing Protection, UK chart-topper Massive Attack asked dub guru Mad Professor to remix their album. What came out of that interaction was No Protection. All of Massive Attack’s stuff is really enjoyable, and defined electronica in many ways, but I find No Protection to be the second most most enjoyable Massive Attack project (first is Blue Lines).
I feel this album should recieve more attention. It’s in the same vein as Bonobo, Emancipator, Prefuse 73, Sound Tribe Sector 9, and others. Ostensibly a heavier focus on drums.
It’s unfortunate El Guincho doesn’t make too many albums these days. But we still hear him producing for heavy hitters such as Lous and the Yakuza (above), Rosalia, and J Balvin. I still ocassionally listen to Pop Negro and HiperAsia and have even posted about El Guincho on this blog before. But I don’t think I’ve posted this video, which I find hilarious, quirky (as usual with the Guincho), and enjoyable to listen to.