Wednesday, December 31, 2008

happy 2009.



2008 goes out as one of the most blissful years for
music in existence. The Tough Alliance came to us
late in 07, and their Sincerely Yours label emerged
this year as one of our most beloved, managing to
casually place pop gems into our unexpecting hands
(ears?) that quickly became some of our most loved
songs of the year, and maybe, ever. Air France’s
No Way Down EP marked the start of the Swedish
Summer Beach Party 08,
where foreign CFCs and
the Chernobyl hangover dissolved the Mamma Mia!
workprint into something warped and exquisite. It
was as much of a dream as anything else, about
imagining an impossibly idyllic place through sounds
that could never have been performed that way in
real life. So Air France became an idea of bliss,
whatever that may be to you right here in the
present:
the sunny beach, the expansive countryside,
the virgin snow, speeding down the Don Valley in the
TT. Drifting in and out of musical genres, from pop to
electronic to afro-beat and back again. Sort of like a
dream? No. Better.

And then there was M83. Saturdays=Youth came in
with the spring and stayed all year, reminding us of
those bent-out-of-shape nights that were getting
further and further in between as we got another
year older. Me & you, over something to do? Could
this be true? That would easily be Cut Copy’s In
Ghost Colours
. As spring turned into the decadence
of summer, In Ghost Colours synthesized the
looming divide between rock and electronic music
and left us feeling ever so haunted. Coming in nearer,
reaching down deeper to grab the whispers here as
we floated overseas through the seasons of change,
this is what was playing in the background of our
lives and we were unbelievably lucky to have it.

So here it is, 2009. Happy New Year from us to you.
We await, with nothing less than faith, anticipation,
excitement.


HBWG Best Albums of 2008.

  1. M83 – Saturdays=Youth
  2. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
  3. Air France – No Way Down
  4. Portishead – Third
  5. Tricky – Knowle West Boy
  6. Foals – Antidotes
  7. Van She – V
  8. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
  9. Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke
  10. Morgan Geist – Double Night Time

Sunday, December 28, 2008

tokyo dreaming.


photo: elise castrodale

let's never stop. no excuses, no looking back.
welcome to the end of 2008. it's coming soon.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

02: so haunted



HBWG 02: SO HAUNTED wakes up with a clear mind
and hazy scenery to the ultimate display of being totally
lost and yet still on to something essential. this issue we
let the the ghosts back in, feeling loveless and yet...never
more in love. this is no fantasy, no stupid escape. this is
real life, this is you and me. this is real life honey, just
you wait and see.

download HBWG02: so haunted.

HBWG02: so haunted
heartbeast: these are the dreams of heartbeast.
wolfgang: these are the dreams of wolfgang.
so haunted: things will never be the same again.
october language: spectral transmissions of the season.
too late: there is no going back to the endless summer.
data loss: deleting the months.
3am mix: owen meyers gives us another late night.
tokyo: stories from a dream city.

now available and more present than ever.

neon nights


image: sandra croft

owen meyers releases his 3am mix in conjunction with
HBWG 02: so haunted, and it is a fitting accompaniment
of moody atmospherics and lush textures. taking it late
into the night to form a perfect sonic analogy of the
elasticity of time at 3am, this mix delivers an enticing
phantasmagoria of late night moods and a few surprises
that all come together beautifully to form a diverse
palette of sounds and textures that doesn't sit too
comfortably on either side of the dance-chillout divide.

if you've ever wondered what's between the clubs and
the blogs, this mix imagines those spaces between the
last club-banger and the light of morning, and coalesces
it all into an elusive, dreamy, pre-dawn mood of desire
enmeshed with technology.

you can download it for free here.

1. Gorillaz - Kids With Guns (Quiet Village Remix)
2. Deadmau5 & MC Flipside - Hi Friend (Original Mix)
3. Booka Shade - Charlotte (Dubfire Remix)
4. Bjork - The Dull Flame Of Desire (Modeselektor's Rmx For Girls)
5. The Black Ghosts - Some Way Through This (Plastician & Skream Remix)
6. Guns'N'Bombs - Nothing is Getting Us Anywhere (Acid Girls Remix)
7. Pantha du Prince - Moonstruck
8. Air France - June Evenings
9. Tricky - Slow
10. A-Trak - Say Whoa
11. Kill The Noise - Hey You
12. The Glass - Mad At You (Arveene & Misk Remix)
13. The Proxy - Raven (Erol Alkan Live Set Extract)
14. Plastikman - Spastik (Dubfire Rework)
15. Elektrochemie - Caiti
16. Lulu Rouge ft. Trentemoller - Lulu's Theme
17. Swayzak - Smile & Receive (Apparat Remix)

Monday, December 15, 2008

so haunted


photo: elise castrodale

FINALLY HERE!
HBWG02: SO HAUNTED
out 16/12

tokyo so haunted
october language
too late
dataloss
owen meyers's 3am mix

watch this space.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

berlinette



you can take the girl out of berlin, but it's harder
to take the berlin out of the girl.

bang my city up


image: elise castrodale

styrofoam ones - OTTAP