(animation by joshua twentythree)

(genre: ambient, experimental, field recordings)

(right click “save as…” to download)

Sonambulo

download Sonambulo and animation as a .zip file

Jamie Drouin debuts on Rope Swing Cities with an amazingly beautiful and haunting composition, Sonambulo A thirty-three minute ambient masterpiece, Sonambulo is a stunning piece of art.

Jamie Drouin first came to our attention at 2007’s Mutek, where he performed with Yann Novak. It was such a beautiful performance that we not only arranged for his recent appearance with Karl Kliem at the inaugural Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts in Boulder, Colorado, we now have one of his wonderful compositions in the Rope Swing Cities family.

The first in a series of pieces concerning sleepwalking, Sonambulo is composed entirely of field recordings taken in the rain forests of Costa Rica during a recent trip. As the name suggests, Sonambulo is a meandering journey through dream states. The piece stands as an immersive and engaging path through the mind of the sleepwalker. The recordings float between clean and processed, creating a feeling of the mind drifting in and out of reality. Brief moments of rain and wind, the sounds of the forest, bugs and birds give way to otherworldly drones. Sonambulo represents deconstruction of the mind’s cohesion into an empty vessel, to be peacefully refilled.

If this glowing review of Sonambulo has piqued your interest, well, you should go check out more about Jamie Drouin by clicking here. We have also produced a limited edition CD version of Sonambulo, which you can purchase in our store! We hope you enjoy this release as much as we have.

(Photo by Luke Hazard, Animation by Joshua Twentythree)

(Brian Grainger and David Tagg - Sawdust Aromatics)
(Genre: IDM)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Summer’s Parting Ways
02. Autumn Harmonic Mirage
03. Brittle Harvest Memory
04. Vision Through Cloth

Download the entire release as .zip file.

Cover

For day three of our Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts extravaganza Brian Grainger (Milieu, Coppice Halifax and on and on ) returns to Rope Swing Cities with partner David Tagg to present us with a beautiful, warm EP of ambient sounds and subtle layers of strings and guitar.

With nary a concrete rhythm in sight, the sounds that make up the four tracks on this EP create an internal cyclic rhythm, building on spontaniety to create a cohesive whole. Sawdust Aromatics represents a place of safety and comfort that exists inside all of us. The nostalgic magic of childhood can most always be felt in Brian’s music, and he has found a perfect partner in David Tagg. Flowing timeless music, perfect for exploration of the inner core; we recommend headphones and darkness and a little bit of empty time to fully take in the lovely Sawdust Aromatics ep.

Brian and David have been running a label of their own these days, if you aren’t checking it out, you most definitely should be, you can do that by going here.

(Design by nodeOne)

(Ed Colmar - Everything Has Another Meaning)
(Genre: IDM)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Christopher Willits - Colors Shifting (Ed Colmar Remix)
02. Cultivate/Demolish
03. Embrace/Withdraw
04. Avoidance
05. Nourish/Crisis

Download the entire release as .zip file.

Front Cover. Back Cover.

Continuing our week of new releases in celebration of the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts we are proud to present Ed Colmar’s debut on Rope Swing Cities, Everything Has Another Meaning.

Ed Colmar is an adherent to the continual cycle of creation and destruction, and this preoccupation shows itself in his music. Everything Has Another Meaning is a collection of atmospheric soundscapes, dissonant at times, soothing at others. Rhythmic but erratic drum programming, gives way to hissing waves of sound and aggressive synth stabs.

Ed Colmar brings an exciting new sound to the RSC roster, bringing a more hard, and driving sound to the table. We hope you enjoy this excursion into the darker, more industrial realms of electronic music, at once dissolution and coalesence.

For more on Ed, go here. And don’t forget to check out Ed and the Trust Collective family camp out this summer in Stanislaus Forest, California.

(Art and Animation by Joshua Twentythree)

(Loafeye - A Valid Life)
(Genre: ambient, idm, lo-fi)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Dark Hours Turn To Sounds
02. Red Fox Walks
03. Dashes
04. A Valid Life
05. Familiar Pain
06. Small Sacrifice
07. Rest, You Are Home
08. Grayshade
09. Different Hopes Of Voice
10. Still Water Town
11. Trinimazeroeight
12. Broken Shed
13. Here Today
14. Don’t Lose Time
15. Rest, You Are Home (Coppice Halifax Remix)
16. Red Fox Walks (Ten and Tracer’s Red Fox Rests Remix)

Download the entire release as a zip file.

front cover back cover

Rope Swing Cities kicks off its Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts Super Duper release extravaganza in fine style with the newest album from longstanding RSC cohort, Loafeye.

A Valid Life, Loafeye’s third full length for RSC, continues the artists exploration of the darker, more bleak side of electronic music. Fusing supressed hissing and mournful synth pads with subtly jarring drums, Loafeye has carved out a particular sound to call his own. In his compositions, the mysterious Loafster draws on many influences while staying true to his own musical aesthetics.

The music of Loafeye calls to waking up from the dream world, feeling confused and lost, unsure of oneself. IDM music for those darker moments, not of anger, but of longing and frustration. With Loafeye though, there is always the lingering feeling in the back of ones mind that the world can still be a wondrous place, bathed in the warmth of the sun. Loafeye fans will not be disappointed, while new listeners may discover a new love. Enjoy!

Form more on Loafeye, as always, poke your head over here.

And, hey, take some time to look at the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts featuring a relaxing afternoon showcase of all Rope Swing Cities artists at the wonderful Trilogy Wine Bar. Maybe we’ll see you there!

Stay tuned all week for new releases!

Rope Swing Cities was recently chosen as Denver’s Best Record Label in Westword’s Best of Denver 2008 awards.

Check it out!

for more Rope Swing Cities an Colorado radness, check out the upcoming Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts this April in Colorado. It’s going to be amazing!

(Artwork by Jonathan Canupp)

(Ten And Tracer - Mishia-F-Lehkla)
(Genre: Post-Experimental)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Horatio Alger Myth
02. Heart Complaint
03. Basquiat’s Shoes
04. Self Awareness as a Suffocation
05. Ilona Qlo
06. Piano Sales
07. Tandarts

Download the entire release as .zip file.

Front Cover. Back Cover.

Rope Swing Cities is giddy like a school girl today. Seriously. If you’re still asking yourself why that is, than you obviously haven’t looked above this text and observed that we are celebrating the arrival of spring with a brand new Ten and Tracer release and CD. It probably all makes sense now.

The music of Ten and Tracer is evocative of nature and the exploration of man’s place inside the constructs around us. With this theme in mind RSC presents Mishia-F-Lehkla, wherein Ten and Tracer continues the new direction in sound that he has been exploring beginning with the sister EP on Archipel. With another beautiful EP out last year on Zymogen, Jonathan Canupp appears to be falling into a new cycle of creation, releasing what we feel is his most interesting and beautiful work to date.

Through percussion patterns that seem to continually change and morph without end, Ten and Tracer manages to build a chaotic precision not found often in any genre of music. The tones and sounds that make up Mishia-F-Lehkla call equally to the rising warmth of a summer morning as to the chilly hush of a winter night. Flowing effortlessly through the songs, these haunting sounds provide an emotionally grounding counterpoint to the subtly aggressive qualities of the underlying drums. Thoughtful and temperate, yet mildly antagonistic, Mishia-F-Lehkla constantly wrestles for balance while taking the listener along on the journey.

The current crop of music from Ten and Tracer shows an artist coming into his own, finding the pathway between his myriad influences and creating his own unique and original take on the world. In addition to the MP3 release, we are offering incredibly, way rad limited edition hand made CD-R copies of Mishia-F-Lehkla in our store. Once you see them we are pretty sure you will be interested in having one, because they are super cool, dude. If you are listening to the EP and thinking to yourself, “I wonder if Ten and Tracer ever managed to get his domain name back from THE MAN,” the answer is that he did, and you can go look at his sweet new site here. Regardless of all that, please enjoy this beautiful release from one of our favorite artists.

(art by Derrick Hart, Animation by Joshua Twentythree)

(Numazu - Numazu)
(Genre: ambient, post-rock, experimental)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Darling
02. Infinite Storm
03. Numazu Or Somewhere Else
04. Birds
05. A Love Theme For The Wilderness
06. Hobo Parade #1
07. You Are Happening Now
08. Trains And What’s On Their Track
09. Stolen Transmission
10. Hobo Parade #2
11. Dreams Shaped Like Diamonds
12. They Found You
13. Rare Flowers
14. Where The Puppies Are Tortured
15. Dying Iceberg
16. Above The Waters

Download the entire release as a zip file.

front cover back cover

Numazu make their debut on Rope Swing Cities with a collection of beautiful and hypnotic music for your soul. The sixteen tracks run the gamut of sound from minimal soundscapes and field recordings, to post-rock interludes and dreamy jazz jams. Rope Swing Cities is honored to be releasing one of the most versatile and compelling albums of experimental music that we’ve heard in some time.

Numazu is comprised mainly of Kirill Nikolai and Derrick Hart, as the masterminds of the experiment they have surrounded themselves with a wealth of talented guest artists (Justin Robert, Haruki, Mariko Sugawara, Jay Demko, Kate Morris & Joey Halter.), who help to round out the sound of the band. Alternately contemplative and dissonant, the album holds the listeners interest through each subsequent listen, as new sounds, voices and melodies creep out of the musical ether, creating a forest of sound, ripe for exploration.

Numazu represents an expert blending of laptop orchestrations and talented analog musicians. By bridging this gap, Numazu finds its own place to stand in the landscape of modern experimental composers, entering a space which is scantily populated. We hope you love this album as much as we have, and that it finds a special place in not only your music collection, but your heart. Enjoy!

In addition to the full web release of Numazu’s new album, there are limited edition professionally produced CDs packaged in handmade cases available for a nominal fee in our store. And even more! Numazu front men Kirill and Derrick appeared alongside contributors Justin Robert and Kate Morris at the first ever Rope Swing Cities showcase, and it was quite a powerful show. If you were unable to make it to the show, the video taped performance is available here. And if you still haven’t gotten enough Numazumania after that, well then we think you should probably go over here.

(artwork by joshua twentythree)

(Roger, Roll - Dodging and Burning)
(Genre: indie, rock)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. D=RT
02. The End
03. All We Want
04. My Memory Of Us
05. Drop Everything
06. Into The Pavement With Light
07. No New Messages
08. Happy Machine
09. Untitled
10. Nine Months (Can’t Wait)
11. Like A French Girl On Holiday

Download the entire release as a .zip file.

front cover. back cover.

Rope Swing Cities is very proud to offer up this debut release by the wonderful Colorado indie band, Roger, Roll, in preparation for their soon to be available CD.

It’s rare that when handed a demo of a friends local rock band that you are as blown away as we were by the songs represented here. Roger, Roll crafts rock music without a hint of pretension, something not seen a lot in today’s flooded indie rock market, which makes them even more impressive. Emotionally honest, well crafted songs define the sound found on Dodging and Burning. The music of Roger, Roll flows from soft, melancholy ballads, to hope filled, rock rollercoasters. All of this is tinted with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek humor, making the album wonderfully balanced and a joy to listen to again and again.

Roger, Roll is sure to be a big thing in the next few years, which is why we’re so happy to be able to offer their sound to you now, so that we can look back and say, “i told you so” (RSC staff loves to say I told you so.). But also we’re honored to get the chance to spread the sounds of a truly great new band. If you’d like to know some more about Roger, Roll, see when they’re playing and whatnot, you could do worse then start out by clicking here

(art by: the madking design and animation: joshua twentythree)

(Eric McIntyre- Exercises Vol.1)
(Genre: dub, idm, techno)

(right-click “save as…” to save)

01. Amatory Cathexis
02. Daedal Glyptograph
03. Ecdysis of Exuviae
04. Subfusc Caryatid
05. Noetic Portcullis
06. Loxodromic Ipse Dixit
07. Oneiric Madeleine
08. Sanguinolent Mammatocumulus
09. Callipygian Ecdysiast
10. Crepuscular Esplanade

download the entire release as a .zip file.

cover one. cover two. cover three. back cover.

Eric McIntyre is a young music producer from Boulder, Colorado, and Rope Swing Cities is proud to present this prodigy’s first album, Exercises Vol.1 for your listening pleasure. An intelligent mixture of dub, techno and idm influences, the release presents an immensely satisfying confluence of sounds and textures.

Deep and hypnotic, Exercises Vol. 1 is a prime example of the craftsmanship one can find in the burgeoning electronic music underground in Colorado. With his first full length album, Eric marks himself as one of the shining stars of this movement, crafting delicate and emotional tunes with an ear turned towards meditative atmospheres.

If this release leaves you wanting more, Eric will be appearing alongside techno elder statesman Pole at the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts to take place this April in Boulder, Colorado. If you’d like to speak to young Eric, well, go on ahead and email him here.

(art by: cyrille garcia, design and animation: joshua twentythree)

(Switzerland - Make It On Water)
(genre: house)

(right click “save as…” to save)

01. you won’t like me
02. make it on water
03. to listen to
04. the right prescription

download the entire release as a .zip file.

front cover. back cover.

Switzerland debuts on Rope Swing Cities with an amazing release of sexy, deep, house music. It’s been a while since RSC has done a dance music release, and Make It On Water is a perfect addition to the eclectic catalog.

Switzerland creates music for sweaty, late night dance floors; sophisticated house music for lovers. “Make It On Water” the title track is a pure, house gem. The thick vibrating bassline, and funky percussion and synths create a dimly lit disco make out party in the mind.

DJs, put this one in your crate, house lovers, put your headphones on and get whisked away on a magical adventure to a warmer world away from the encroaching winter. If you feel like stalking Switzerland on the web, you can go here.