Let's talk about Avalon Emerson

Beloved of ILM for years but there's no thread for her. She's done the latest DJ-Kicks, full of new material, and while I'm only half way through it is so good, exactly what I wanted an Avalon Emerson mix album to sound like.

Anyway, talk amongst yourselves.

I think this is still my favourite thing of hers I've heard. So deep -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY1XOvV29bI

The cover of Long-Forgotten Fairytale is unexpected!

Agree w/ Chap that the Octo Octa remix is up there w/ the best. Looking forward to hearing the DJ Kicks, is it out yet?

Aw, yeah, I was really hoping someone was going to start a thread for her, because she's amazing.

Second - third - her Octo Octa remix, also her Slowdive remix is one of the most swoonsome things I have ever heard!

The cover of Long-Forgotten Fairytale is unexpected!

It's really sweet, and I don't even like the Magnetic Fields.

The mix itself is a pretty good reflection of what it's like when you see her DJ, in that she goes hard from pretty early on but she isn't afraid to throw as much melody and colour and as many arpeggiated bleeping noises in as she wants. The cover has her wearing some kind of sci-fi racing helmet and it's that kind of mix. 'Poodle Power' is probably the best of the new material but apparently she's been playing it out for two years.

good article

https://crackmagazine.net/article/long-reads/avalon-emerson/

good picture

https://i.imgur.com/xgACfio.jpg

decent producer, not really my style per se compared to, idk, springier vancouver or australian sounds or whatever

the octa octa remix for example is nice but the breaks are kinda clunky and the arpeggios kinda grinding in the way post-weatherall producers like daniel avery often are, which is a style, just not entirely my thing

Yeah I'm not crazy about the Octo Octa remix either, I prefer her when she's in widescreen mode - 'One More Fluorescent Rush', 'The Frontier', 'Natural Impasse' etc, or where she's making lazer-tunnel bangers like 'Constantly My Cure'. Daniel Avery isn't in the same league even on the rare occasions when he's good.

"poodle power" reminds me of old stuff from creme or bunker, like early legowelt or bangkok impact (it's that arpeggiated italo thing) and again while i think a lot of ppl would see that as a great compliment for me i always preferred maybe funkier, more swinging and jacking stuff with a lighter touch

ok i hadn't heard "constantly my cure" or "natural impasse", these are pretty excellent especially the former

still not convinced about the widescreen way out west italo arpeggiations but just a matter of taste i suppose

a lot of her textures remind me of Nathan Fake and that mid-00s Border Community sound, but her sense of melody and groove is a lot more muscular. I think she's really good at avoiding the trap of the four-bar loop that a lot of melodic techno falls into - her lead lines sound improvised and loose.

Her RA Art of DJing is so good,

https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3392

it's just such a good read and watch that I couldn't wait to hear her mix sets and discovered that I don't actually like them much! I do like most of her tracks though and really love 'One More Fluorescent Rush'.

'One More Fluorescent Rush', 'The Frontier'

I like both of these a lot but I don't know much else of her stuff

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54t25RRO4FM

banging oppenheimer analysis cover