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a chromedecay chart

A chart of recent favorite listens:

1. Christopher Bissonnette – “comfortable expectations” (from “periphery”, on the chicago-based Kranky)

Chris Bissonnette is one of my friends in thinkbox. “Periphery” is his first full-length, released on Chicago’s own Kranky. He had a record release party last Saturday at Neptune Records in Royal Oak, and I was inspired to pick this record back up (I got a copy over the summer) and dig back into it. “Comfortable Expectations” hit me as a standout track while I was studying earlier this week.

2. Fennesz – “Venice” (the entire album; on Touch)

This is a nice, natural progression from “endless summer”…the distorted guitar is still present, but maybe isn’t as much of a focus as before. There are a couple surprises (the David Sylvian vocal contribution, the ROCKING LOUD TRACK at the end) but overall, a great continuation of his material.

You can download a non-album mp3 from the Venice sessions here:

http://www.fennesz.com/mp3s/mp3.html

3. Eluvium – “Talk amongst the trees” (again, the entire album; on temporary residence)

At the aforementioned Bissonnette release party, I got to talking with Rob Theakston. He mentioned he was collaborating with Eluvium on a track for an upcoming record Rob is working on (his first full-length solo effort), and asked me if I’d heard his latest (“Talk amongst the trees”). When I replied that I hadn’t, he insisted that I buy it. When I demurred, explaining that my record-buying money had been spent, he insisted on buying it for me. That’s a pretty strong testament to a record’s quality, in my opinion.

In terms of sound, it’s somewhere between Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series and fennesz. Beautiful washes of sound.

Eluvium’s site has 2 mp3s of his work available for download:

http://www.eluvium.net/

4. Sufjan Stevens – “Illinois” (the album; on Asthmatic Kitty)

I backed off on my near-obsessive listening to this (at any given day during the summer you could probably find me listening to at least one of the tracks) but it’s still getting some play time. Definitely my top record of 2005.

5. Rebecca Anderson – “live at the thunderbird coffeehouse” (unreleased)

A 30-minute set from Rebecca Anderson the night she opened for me at the Thunderbird Coffeehouse in Jackson, MI (September 23, 2005). Look for big things from Rebecca once she gets more of her solo material recorded.

Rebecca Anderson at MySpace

6. Brooks – “lost in lights” (from his MySpace page)

Also bumped into Brooks Mosher at the aforementioned Chris Bissonnette release party. He’s got a really nice track up at his MySpace site; it’s this sort of pitch-bendy little ambient thing that sits comfortably somewhere between Derrick May and Juan Atkins’ remix of Basic Channel’s “starlight”.

Brooks Mosher at MySpace

7. re:flex the architect – “here today gone tomorrow” (from his MySpace page)

re:flex is somebody I hooked up with from one of the Christian hip-hop forums I frequent. He’s a Nigerian who was born in Poland and lives in Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom. I’m a sucker for the sound of a British accent rapping (see Roots Manuva, check) but ‘flex brings his own style to this thing. “here today gone tomorrow” is from an upcoming mixtape project of his, I believe.

re:flex the architect at MySpace

He’s going to be on an upcoming project of mine, too, but I’ll say more of that once it gets closer to release.

OK, chart over.

A couple other things: I’ve recently started using MySpace, as you may have noted from the above mentions in my chart. I don’t really like the site very much (why does every third woman have to be almost nude in their profile photos?) but whatever. I’ve got an unreleased track from “chromedecay tracks pt.2: 2001-2005” up there called “rain at the airport” that you might dig:

Bill Van Loo at MySpace

Also, I just finished up the final mixes of my 2 contributions for the upcoming release from thinkbox entitled “thinkbox editions 03: structure”. This record, and the fourth in the series (“thinkbox editions 04: field”) will be released in March of 2006. Now that the two thinkbox: structure tracks are done, I’ll be finishing up my contributions for the thinkbox “field” record (another two tracks due next week) and finally getting “chromedecay tracks pt2” finished as well.

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Saturday, November 12th: Bill Van Loo with Listener (Flint, MI)

On November 12, 2005, Bill Van Loo will join Listener (avant-rapper with releases on such labels as Mush, Gotee and Deepspace5) for the Flint, Michigan stop on Listener’s “Tour of Homes”.

The idea behind the Tour of Homes is that of an intimate space; a house filled with people, food, and art. I’ll be playing a set of music before Listener steps up; I may also do some live video work. There will also be clothing displays courtesy brown, the shameless clothing mogul. Bring a passing dish and we can eat together!

Location:
620 E Newall Street (The House)
Flint, Michigan 48505
map

Please contact me or Josue (brown) if you want more details – we would love to see you out there!
Josue ([email protected])
ph: 810.656.9245
or Bill Van Loo ([email protected])
ph: 734.652.6883

http://www.listenertourofhomes.com/
http://www.forthelistener.com/

Here’s an excerpt from one of Listener’s early postings about the concept behind this tour:

“I want to assure you, and reiterate that this tour is not just so I can do a rap show in your living room. Even when I’m on tour in clubs I don’t really just do “rap” shows. I’m much more interested in the performance art aspect of writing and creating and I thought there’s no greater place than to do it in the comfort of your living room. We’re all friends, and I encourage you to invite many friends who aren’t interested in just rap music, but maybe other genres of independent music. This would be the perfect time to invite someone who would never set foot in a club, or a rap show because they think rap is stupid or all about bling. You can be sure that this will be an intimate evening of art expression and hopefully will push on some of the boundaries that you all might have about this genre. You might also consider letting me list the show that you host as an “open” show. That way if there are other fans in the area they can come and enjoy in this experience as well.”

Also:

“I think it’s crucial that we all eat together and talk and get to know one another before we can share openly.”

Hope to see you out there!

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Dredge, photo 1




Dredge, photo 1

Originally uploaded by chromedecay.

There haven’t been any new chromedecay photos on Flickr lately (due to a dead, but soon-to-be-replaced digital camera), but in the interim, enjoy this shot of an abandoned dredge, taken around this time of year in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1996 or 1997. Photo taken by j. schnable.

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get live at leopold bros. and help hurricane victims

Derek Sivers, president of CDBaby, has created an easy way for you to both donate to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and get great new music at the same time. A number of artists, myself included, are donating all profits from their records sold through CDBaby to the Red Cross.

So, just purchase live at leopold bros through CDBaby and the profit from your purchase will go to the Red Cross. My friend Jon is also doing this for his record; check out Yochannan’s Worshipmusic (inna DJ Shadow kind of style – great instrumental hip-hop).

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live @ leopold bros now available at CDBaby

chromedecay has recently begun setting up shop at CDBaby, and we are pleased to announce the first chromedecay release is now available via CDBaby:

Bill Van Loo: Live @ Leopold Bros.

AllMusic’s Andy Kellman had this to say about Live @ Leopold Bros:

“Live at Leopold Bros. is a practically flawless quilt of Bill Van Loo’s micro-tech productions in the form of an hour-long mix. Flowing smoothly with unpredictable spontaneity but coming off as meticulously mapped out at the same time, these ten tracks form a thoroughly enjoyable, all-in-one evidentiary record of Van Loo’s ability to craft a wide spectrum of sounds and moods that alternately translate to the living room and the club.” – Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

CDBaby will also be handling digital distribution for chromedecay releases, which means that we’ll start showing up on iTunes, Rhapsody, and other popular digital download services soon (probably in a week or so). The upcoming “chromedecay tracks pt2.: 2001-2005” will also be available via CDBaby, iTunes, and the other digital download services once it’s complete (getting closer every day…)

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announcing chromedecay tracks pt. 2: 2001-2005

Back in 2001, I released a limited-edition CD called “chromedecay tracks: 1996-2001”. My friend Harrison burned 50 copies on his duplicating machine that would print on the discs, I designed a cover in Photoshop, and I had something I could give out to people as demos and promo items, with an intent toward getting the material released on a proper record label.

That never happened, so “chromedecay tracks: 1996-2001” remained a limited-edition promo-only piece. I did release an edit of one of the tracks on the Planet E compilation “All Access”, but that’s as far as that material ever went.

Fast-forward to 2005. A lot has changed in the 4 years since the release of the first “chromedecay tracks”: I’ve broadened my musical horizons significantly, switched my primary compositional platform from MacOS 9 and Studio Vision Pro to OS X and Logic, and become a Christian in the summer of 2003. All during that time period, I’ve been writing music that I intended to be released on various labels as various projects. For one reason or another, lots of those projects never panned out, so I’m sitting on a ton of material. I recently decided that I would make that material available.

I’m still finalizing the tracklist, artwork, and release format, but it will be between 10 and 13 tracks, with color artwork and CD-R media. I’ve already made a few of the tracks that are going to be on the record available for free download, so they should act as a nice bit of promotion for the record once it’s all tied together. I expect to have it ready for purchase in the next few months.

Exciting stuff for sure! Thanks for all the love and support over the years.

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new blog

I’ve decided to split my Internet presence into two halves: “business” (chromedecay.org) and “personal” (billvanloo.com).

To that end, I’ve set up this new domain, billvanloo.com, to host all my personal stuff – info about me, my personal blog, and family photos. This site is very much a work-in-progress at the moment, but will be added to in the upcoming days and months.

So, why the split? I just switched web hosting providers (to DreamHost, who I heartily recommend), and they offered a free domain regisration. Since I’d thought about having “billvanloo.com” for a while, I decided this would be a good time to acquire it, so I did. The thought of then splitting things up seemed like a natural one.

I’ll be using the chromedecay blog to post about my music, and about the music that I’ll be releasing. Read more about that in the next post.