Drifting Away With Headphone Commute
My favorite web discovery of the past couple of weeks is Headphone Commute. First of all, I love the name. It instantly conjures images of foggy morning train rides and late-night buses – hands in pockets, head in space, bobbing along to the music. From the “About” page:
Headphone Commute is an independent resource of candid words on electronic and instrumental music. The range of covered genres includes electronica, glitch, idm, drum’n’bass, breakcore, dubstep, trip-hop, modern classical, post-rock, shoegaze, ambient, downtempo, experimental, abstract, minimal and everything in between. HC is not associated with any artist, band, record label, promoter, distributor or retailer covered by the reviews. There is no hidden agenda behind these words. What you see is what you get. All that means is that we share our love for music because we want to – not because we have to.
A word of caution – this blog is is easy to get lost in upon first visit! Between album reviews, in-depth interviews with labels like Somnia and bite-size interviews with artists like Max Richter, on top of my favorite Headphone Commute feature – mixes available for download, it’s kind of impossible not to spend hours reading, researching and hoarding new music. It’s thanks to Headphone Commute that I found out about The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and had my ears taken to their special place by this incredible Best of 2008 Modern Classical mix. I actually can’t recommended this one enough, especially if you’re somewhere that’s beginning to show signs of autumn. Stunningly beautiful, moody, inspiring. For more mixes see Intelligent Breakcore mix and Ten Favorite Mixes of 2008. Happy listening, comrades!
August 19th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Thank you! Thank you! Finally a good new music resource. Last.fm get’s old really fast.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
My pleasure! If you have a chance to listen to the Modern Classical mix I’d love to hear your thoughts.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Z, that Modern Classical mix has been in my stereo ever since you showed it to me last week. Can’t wait to explore the rest of this site. Cheers!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Thank you for your kind words. It’s exactly the kind of thing that keeps me going. I’m going to have to check out some of the categories on coilhouse as well! I didn’t realize that mixes would be such a success, so there will be more coming soon!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Mer, same here – an almost-daily listen for me!
HC, you’re most welcome – for the post and to Coilhouse. You have excellent musical taste. I think one of the reasons the mixes are so popular is that, for those of us with less time to devour every article, they’re a quick way to acquaint oneself with a bunch of different artists at once. So a listen during work hours + the track listings you post = crash course in new music! I, for one, am definitely looking forward to more.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks a bunch!
I haven’t been able to dig into the site too much but what I checked out helped my workday fly by.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Holy cripes, the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble is freakin’ incredible.
And once I’m done listening to them, I’m gonna have to hit those mixes, and then, oh boy. I know what I’ll be listening to at work tomorrow… thanks, Zo!
August 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Only made it a few feet down with my net-archaeology equipment and already hooked. Ett isht de uber.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Greatly enjoying, and spreading the word.
I purchased a Darkjazz Ensemble album in MP3 format as well, tasty stuff.
Thanks, as always, for the golden info.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:01 am
this awesome, I have only just recently started getting into electronic music after only listening to metal/goth/industrial music for the past 8 years. its a great source for those not really not knowing where to start.
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:23 am
Wow, thanks for this. Perfect for this lazy Saturday afternoon.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Thank you thank you thank you for this!! The music that you’ve linked to is some of the most beautiful and amazing that has blessed my ears. The modern classical mix alone I now use to do a light meditation or I’ll even read. Definitely more music to dig into and enjoy.
Again, thank you for this!!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Oh man- this is so killer. Thanks, Zo!
My late-late writing nights have been made ever more productive
with this new source of aural magic. That Modern Classical mix
really is insanely addictive- it’s all I’ve been listening to lately.
October 17th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I spent the last few days in a haze cloud of reading Coilhouse blog posts and randomly associated blog and forum posts, and feel very happy and warm and lucky to know that two issues are now on their way here. I’ve been meaning to check out HC for the past week or so, but I finally started the Modern Classical Mix and just wanted to say thank you…it’s the perfect time of year, perfect time of day/night and perfect personal time for this. Thanks!