Thank you

If you’re reading this, thank you. Thank you for still being here after this unexplained lull of the past several months. I’d like to finally explain what I’ve been doing and the state of Think or Smile.

I started blogging as a way to process and share all the things I enjoy. It’s helped me grow tremendously and understand why I loved them in the first place. It’s opened doorways and seeded friendships that I hadn’t foreseen as even possible when this began over 2 years ago.

With growth comes change, you’ve no doubt noticed the slow down in activity. It’s not due to lack of interest but more so a period of hibernation as I refocused and rethought where I fit in the broader art/music/internet community. This began as a collection, I simply curated a space I liked being in. When that wasn’t quite enough I tried my hand at creating for it. That felt right. Not long after, I started collaborating with others, which made even more sense to me.

Through this I met Dave Sutton, who is behind the blog Stadiums & Shrines. We must have crossed paths in a past life. I have no other way of explaining how quickly our friendship developed. We realized early on we shared a vision within the arts and have since been collaborating in various ways behind the scenes, with the eventual goal of working together.

That time has finally come, as we are officially joining together under the S&S banner.

Many months have been spent re-envisioning S&S, visually and conceptually. It builds on the foundation of music set by Dave and puts more of an emphasis on the arts as a whole, exploring the spaces of overlap. Spaces built of collaboration.

One such place is Dreams, a new ongoing feature that brings together image, sound and word. For over a year now, I’ve been working on a series of place specific, black and white collages. We’ll be releasing them one by one as they are scored by artists. Each collage will also be written for as Dave takes them deeper with short prose. I’ll elaborate more on these in the future.

While these collages are static images I couldn’t help but bring them to life as part of their introduction:

Headphones, fullscreen, HD recommended. Sound design: M.Sage

As for the future of Think or Smile, it will certainly continue on but with a new focus. It will no longer be a general arts blog. I feel the time has come for me to focus on creating my own art rather than blogging. That said, I do plan to start sharing more of my work—process, collabs, thought, finished pieces—the stuff I’ve kept relatively private thus far. I plan to make it more personal and less heavy handed.

Some of the features that I’ve started here will find new homes. Musical Eyes will take on a new life as part of the new S&S. The Free Music Collection will find a new home as well, it will be in good hands.

I couldn’t be more excited about the road ahead. I hope you’ll join Dave, Vic and I on our journey as S&S. As well as continue to explore with me here.

Much love,
Nathaniel

A Conversation with Ray Bradbury

Words to absorb.

Mr. Bradbury, I hope you enjoy the next journey as much as this one.

Love.

Free Music Collection: May 2012

We’ll pick up where we left off, piecing together our scattered interest to form a new whole.

Free Music Collection: May 2012

Mutual Benefit live at SXSW 2012: For rare stretches of time, things can be perfect, and this was one of those times. Recorded by Tonje of the great No Fear Of Pop, this beautiful backyard set/stand-up routine (and our favorite moment of SXSW 2012) can now live on forever.

• Moodymann – Picture This: Detroit techno from a master, getting you ready for the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
• Four Tet – Conference of the birds (DJ mix): space, birds, tribes, funk, house, four on the floor.
• Ghibli – Rare Pleasures: dance album sampled entirely from youtube videos.
• musicForProgramming(); – 07: Tahlhoff Garten + Untitled: for listening while programming, to aid concentration and increase productivity.
• Monroeville Music Center - Le Progrès EP: playful video game pop to be taken seriously.
• Low Light Mixes – alien architecture: exploring ambient voids in the distance.
• d’Eon – Music For Keyboards Vol 2: all songs are variations of Blink-182′s “What’s My Age Again”.
•  2muchachos – vesnywki!! EP: romantic ambient wanderings.
• little spoon – dreem sweet: induces adventurous dreams.

• The Wandering Lake - Ashame: Another stunning collection from the Fayetteville folk-ist that pulls at those Young Prayer-esq strings via guitar, piano, and isolated vocal.
• Some Ember – Hotel of Lost Light: Brought to us by the ever-reliable Crash Symbols, Some Ember’s debut LP is a ‘body music’ saga narrated with power and séance atmospherics, distinctly dark but not without some glowing embers of pop.
• Marble Lion - Foliage EP: This short EP (that snuck by last year) finds a young Montreal band in experimental mode, clearly getting heady on their quest for catchy.
• Dreampeter - Boneglow // Delusions Split: Dreampeter split in half to chill in different corners of the warped-pop sandbox, making this resulting Split quite the playground.

• Unlimited Free Milk Shakes – Art Week 2012 Compilation: Newly friendship-founded label, Unlimited Free Milkshakes just released this compilation of some of their friends, label affiliates, and lovers, music. It’s full of lo-fi gems, from tape-pop, dream pop, beats, and more. Don’t sleep on it.
• Friendzone – Collection 1: A beautiful compilation of the collective Friendzone artists. Soft and waving beats. This is something I’d want to play constantly at my spa, if I were to ever open a spa for some reason.
• PORTALS April Mixtape: This monthly mixtape is strong. Full of exclusives from some of our favorite projects. Perfect for a pure listening experience, and a discovery session all in one.
• Gay Vegan Vinyl Cassette Compilation – C86: An amazing weirdo collection of some of Japan’s most rare gems. This one is all over the place, but really worth a listen!
• M|O|D tape I and II: M|O|D crew are making some serious strides to prove themselves. And after these two compilations of each of the five young producers, it’s clear that they are well on their way. Here is the nasty trap beats your all to still booty has been waiting for. Listen and get down.
• Svengali – Volume 1: More amazing young electronic producers collecting their efforts to bring us beautiful sounds. Don’t want to miss out on each of these amazingly talented artists.
• Blacks& – A Ghost That Follows Me EP: LA based pop project debut their sound with this sugary sounding three track EP. Solid minimalistic goodness.

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.

BECAUSE my hands hear the flowers thinking

I scooped up the moon’s footprints but
The ground climbed past with a sky
And a dove and a bent vapor.
The other half of cling together wove by
In the breath of the willows; fall in
Sang eagle ox ferret and emerald arch.
O we, too, must learn to live here;
To use what we are. O fall in now!
For only love is community! Of various likenesses, none
Unless one love! In the lionleaf, the sonshade
Spreading over a father’s road! When we love,
God thinks in us. And in that home-going time,
We see with the eyes of grass; and in the trees
Hear our own voices speak! So gently, gently, I say
That sleep is the secret-releasing key to this world.
Our lives are watching us—but not from earth.

- Kenneth Patchen

From We Meet.

Free Music Collection: April 2012

Free Music Collection: April 2012

• d’Eon – Music For Keyboards Vol. 1: painted Steve Reich-esq swirling synth fields.
• Playground – Self-Titled EP: vibes from the otherworld best imagined on a hill overlooking the darkening sea.
• Electronic Encounters – The Special Edition | Electronic Encounters: lofty almost haunting spaces inspired by Close Encounters of the Third Kind. via NOFOP.
• Kuhrye-oo – House of Edits: reworked/rewarped heavy soul. click the cube.
• Matthewdavid – Jewelry: brainfeeder funk+beat tape.
• many moons – former selves: ambience. no more, no less.

• Celista – LP: The beats know no end. Mysterious “Icelandic” producer makes smooth and enticing beatscapes – personal favorite is the Biggie sampling “Brooklyn” $
• RUMTUM – Beat Tapes I & II: Columbus producer off the heels of his release with fellow producer Monster Rally, has been releasing some really solid beat tapes. 16 minutes each, they are perfect for losing yourself for a moment in a day.
• Maston – Voyages: The ‘one man psychedelic pop band’ from LA has a knack for flooding the nostalgia spaces in your brain, and simultaneously bringing you something fresh. $
• DAY JOY – Animal Noise EP: Some extremely solid dream pop from the heart of Florida. Look for the mediafire link to the right of the page.
• Thrupence – Voyages EP: The thoughtful beats of Jack Vanzet somehow cross over into the world of naturalistic music. Creating something natural out of something unnatural is quite the feat to behold.
• Bronson – Moth: More experimental heartfeltedness than you can handle. Oddly straightforward croons, cutting to the core with the honesty of it.
• XXYYXX – XXYYXX: The 16 year old Floridian is achieving sounds light years beyond his age. This is his sophomore s/t album filled to the brim with advanced beats, bright atmospheres, and doped-out samples. Color me impressed. $

• Steam Orkestre - Steam Orkestre: Kitchen appliances falling down a bottomless pit, followed by an executive meeting underwater, followed by an impromptu assembly line by the spirits of deceased factory workers, and so on.
• M. Sage – Chautauqua: 4 loops recorded and repeated at 10 minute intervals to make “cassette meditation music for slow afternoons in a landscape.”
• Teen Suicide – DC snuff film: That surf punk band that decided to make some extra cash playing birthday parties but then decided one song in that they’d made a huge mistake and broke into a set of noise that left 2 kids really stoked and 13 others crying in their mother’s arms. They eventually warmed to the idea and softened up, but for most (and by the time the infamous skate witches made a cameo), the point of no return had already been crossed.
• Walrus – Onetwotree: Adorable, slightly anxious hop-on-pop from Halifax.
• Acid Aura – All Flows EP: For those sad souls who ride two bicycles… this should slide right into your headspace designated for acoustic ambient.

 

Support music you love. See shows, buy physical releases, show love.

Note: Due to bandcamp’s terms of service artists are required to charge a minimal price after a certain number of free downloads. If that’s the case after our posting you can always stream it and if it moves you, support them with a purchase.