smoke signals vol VII.

hey there! i have a new tape coming out tomorrow, so in anticipation of that, here is my newest smoke signals, a screwed mix of library, post punk, brasilian groove, minimal techno, & new age. i think it goes awfully well with the gray weather we have been having lately.

listen here.

falling grains of sand.

really lovely album from 03 by takagi masakatsu, reminds me of savath & savalas, & at points the books as well. yeah, if yr into scott herren at all, then this will be in yr wheelhaus.

summer of qualchan.

sorry i've been away, was busy last month. i had these three tapes come out in august. the top one, here, tyrant death. came out on shadowtrash outta boulder, co & is an exploration of the now age dedicated to my dad who has been battling a mystery illness for the last two & a half years. the middle one smoke break vol II is a screwed mixtape of pop gems that came out on adhesive sounds outta toronto. the third, a split with effed. came out on aescape sounds outta austin, tx & is concerned with the ecological nightmare humanity has wrought for all living species, & the never ending war on terror & the ever looming police state respectively.

i'll get to posting albums again soon. hope y'all have had a great summer. wanna give a shoutout to doc bronze for the top & bottom photos, yr one of the great ones my friend.


purchase

here, tyrant death.

smoke break vol II.

qualchan. // effed split. 

summer without waves.

don't really remember where i copped this from years ago, but here is some carnatic loveliness for a lazy laundry afternoon.

no words.

an album to lull the oneironaut on to greater voyages. drift drift away.

ps yr thinking to yrself, how the fuck do i know what i'm getting with this album since this jerk just gets high & posts some vague description which probably doesn't even relate to the actual album but sounds nice in his head. good question. watch out for a novel here... i've been running this blog for five years now, have outlasted many of my peers (rip to my circle, yr sorely missed in the age of bland tidal advertisements shilling whatever the industry thinks you want to hear), & i think i have created a general aesthetic for this blog. although the music wildly varies from this album of traditional drumming of the nile which is gorgeous to french psyche rock to gamelan to narcocorridos to giallo jazz, i think the albums i choose from each genre are always great. i think we have come to an interesting time where the blog is dying out, & curation is now seen as a fool's errand since i can just open spotify & their algorithm will tell me what to listen to next. & while yes, the ease & convenience afforded by streaming services is nice, & the breadth of these sites is somewhat impressive, it acts to further isolate the listener inside the panopticon that is the modern technological hellscape. i will take this moment to praise all of my comrades who have kept it going (shoutout to my man flash), & to the ones who are missed (owl, ghostcap, mutant sounds, the list goes on & on). i would also encourage people to reach out to their heroes while they're still around & let them know that you appreciate them. while i'm at it, please get outside & enjoy the fresh air & gorgeous vistas that nature has provided for us for the last 12,000 years of our existence & we have been able to destroy in the last 150 years. & before you come at me with some fuckshit about "keep this just about music & not about politics," then maybe you haven't been here to spookcity before or not really fucked with me that way.i may edit this later to go on a longer scree about the industrial revolution fueled by the ever pervasive hydra of capitalism being the worst thing to happen to the earth (also yes, i know i'm typing this on a computer which is yes a byproduct but is also a tool to be used to disseminate the roadmap). the earth will be uninhabitable in less than a hundred years. welcome to the anthopocene indeed.

qualchan. ~ vera's dream. c20 now available!

my newest album, vera's dream., has come out through the wonderful aescape sounds label outta beautiful austin, tx. i spent a lot of time on this album, & i think it might be my best yet. it continues off from the sounds i was exploring on my last tape, the spectacle., a sour take on new age inspired by robert turman, dj screw & ernest callenbach's ecotopia.

i have also posted my latest smoke signals mix over at mixcloud, because let's face it, most everyone these days streams music, so i thought i'd make it easier. a summery blast of screwed dreampop & minimal synths, it arrives just in time for you to get lost in the clouds.

purchase the tape here


listen to smoke signals vol VI here

walls are pages.

narcotic tunes for yr sampler.

sea of sound.

exquisitely uplifting carnatic violin for a sunny tuesday morning.

hanford.

beautifully enchanting stuff from bary fateh ali khan. soothing music for these troubled times.

ps have about ten tapes left still of the ustad vilayat khan bootleg, hit me up if you wanna cop one.

will be back soon.

till then i'll leave you with this song. bought this tape recently, this is my fucking jam. the rest of the album is questionable, but young lover is fire. catch ya on the flip.

catch me on the air today!

i'll be guest dj'ing along with my friend of the estimable blog walkingtrees, today at 4pm -6pm pst where we'll be spinning electro funk for the first hour, & then i'll be playing a song off of my tape coming out this summer, as well as some of my influences, & closing out the set with the first side of ustad vilayat khan's tribute to ameer khusrau which i recently bootlegged on tape. i have them for sale in portland at exiled records, mississippi & musique plastique, & in seattle at wall of sound & spin cycle. if you'd like to order a copy, email me or leave a comment.

listen to the show here

qualchan. ~ smoke signals reupped.

vol I



vol II



vol III (which came as a companion piece to my tape, ninety nine flowers, which you can still pick up here https://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/album/ninety-nine-flowers )

thought some people might like to hear the first three screwed mixes of mine since i've posted volumes IV & V recently. & a huge huge favor. if anyone out there has my age of the shrug mixes or my mountaineering mixes, i will make you yr own mix or make sure you get a copy of the two new tapes i have coming out this summer. thank you so much y'all for five years & a ton of great memories!



a good friend, al boudreau (who designed the cover for vol III & records under effed https://effedmusic.bandcamp.com/ ) pulled through with vol II of a young person's guide to mountaineering, would love to add all the other volumes of my mixes here for easy grabbing!

higher & higher.

gorgeous romani record, gabi has the voice of an angel. perfect way to start a sunday morning with coffee & a smoke.

memories of water.

really lovely folk record from 84. if yr a fan of the basho/fahey/etc school, you'll be a fan of this.

beyond the clouds.

swishy avant flute shit from the 80's for the folks stuck inside their apartments on a rainy evening.

ten am stroll.

to keep with the theme of cool guy french jazz, we have this jammer from 75. it reminds me at times of giallo jazz & other times tropicalia, this is a great album to clean yr apartment to at nine in the morning.

i will return.

nothing mind blowing here, but just really nice cool french jazz from the mid nineties with avant touches here & there. definitely has some slight eastern vibes to it, but doesn't veer full into romani territory. great afternoon jams.

qualchan. ~ smoke signals vol V.

here is the latest smoke signals mix. i recently got fired, so the songs are a little more downbeat than usual, perfect for the gray weather we're having here in cascadia. smoke some weed & get lost in the mix.

ps decided to switch over to mega since zippyshare has gotten to be really buggy.

qualchan. ~ smoke signals vol IV.

time to get lost in yet another one of my murky mixes of screwed electronic jams & dancefloor gems. meant for nite flites fueled by tussin & weed.

ps coming up on five years of the blog. feels like an eternity.

still dreaming.

beautiful tunisian jams for late night wandering through clouds.

rip gianfranco plenizio.

in the awfulness that has been 2k17, i think the maestro got short shrift in his passing, getting no notice anywhere. his music is beautiful & serene, & his passing is a heavy blow. 

this fucking song pt 2.

such a feel good song. what perfect way to welcome the apocalypse then to listen to this.

new wave.

i was thrifting recently & ran across this tape. i've never heard yanni before, i just always knew as a punk i was supposed to hate him, but this was released on private music (run by peter baumann of tangerine dream) & it was only ten cents, so i figured why not. i am so glad i took a chance, this album is amazing. it's kinda windham hills at points, but is really catchy in a cheesy kinda way. just trust me, you'll really love this album. sorry for the shitty bit rate, but it's free, & really you should just go buy a copy. i am sure there are tons of copies floating around for real cheap on the webs or in yr local goodwill.

this fucking song.

such a jammer. on par with that frank m gem i posted a while back. i'll get back to posting soon enough.

qualchan. ~ the spectacle. c42 out today!

the spectacle. was written in late summer/early fall of 2k16 & is influenced by ted kaczynski's anti-tech revolution: why & how & guy debord's the society of the spectacle. it is my sour take on new age & reflects my feelings towards the alienation of humans from each other & from nature & the rising wave of automation pressed on by late stage capitalism & what that means for human society at large.

buy the tape