These new V-Moda Vibe earphones are raising eyebrows due to their classy all-metal design. But what about the sound? The manufacturer says the V-Moda Vibe has "vibrant bass, vivid mid-range, and vivacious highs" and most reviewers says that's actually fairly accurate.

Ah, the Sennheiser HD-580! This is an elite headphone, with quite a reputation! For many years, the Sennheiser HD-580 has been lauded by stereophile magazines for it stellar sound quality and durability. It's a comfortable set of 'phones with soft, velvety earpads. It has a metal band at the top — lesser headphones have plastic instead. It sells for about $120 today — and that's a bargin (it used to retail for $300).

The Grado SR60 headphones are made in Brooklyn — and they look it. The black-plastic design has a slightly retro feel, and indeed, Grado SR60 has great staying power. Though these headphones have been on the market a long while, they are still review favorites, scoring points for bass reproduction and durability. In terms of sheer audio reproduction, these headphones stand up to headphones costing a hundred dollars more.

Hmm...Tom Jenkinson, Herbie Hancock and Brian Eno have a jam session. This bodes well for quite a metaelite album. I found a first-hand report of the session over at S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded by Steve Jones (who was also at the session but I don't know who he is):

There it was. A text from Brian Eno saying “We’re on for 12 at … Brondesbury Villas”. The day had finally come - I was going to be in an all-day freeform recording session with the legendary Herbie Hancock. Almost amazingly, the fact that he is such a legend put me completely at ease - he has worked with the best musicians of the 20th century, so there is just no point in trying to impress (not that I would anyway) - the only thing was to make music.

After a hiatus of many, many, year we saw the release of a new Fripp and Eno album called Equatorial Star. But now these two societal misfits have released a new album of miscellaneous material, and the compilation is modestly titled: "The Cotswold Gnomes: Unreleased Works of Startling Genius". You can find it on DGM Live. Here's a quote from that site:

Comparable to Eno’s recent Curiosities series this selection has been compiled by the man himself and gathers together a sequence of sketches, out-takes, work in progress and alternative mixes of which many are being made commercially available for the first time.

Standout tracks are: Cross Crisis In Lust Storm and Ringing Beat. MP3 excerpts can be found here.

Bjork has finally decided to come down from the realms of non-linear noise experiments, to create, in her words "a fun dance album" called Volta. Personally, I was expecting her to release an album of collaborations with Tuvan throat singers, backed by the sounds Greeks smashing plates, and overdubbed with off-kilter oboe chords. But instead Bjork's first single from Volta is "Earth Intruders", produced by Timbaland. It gets a digital release April 9th. You can download the MP3. The full ‘Volta’ track listing is:

Ah yes Tundra, — awesome track, great example of isolationist funk. Here's a homemade Squarepusher video (wait — it gets better in the second half). Now check out a different take on this track after the jump...

I'm not sure if those are real insects. Here is a link to the EP.

It's a nice surprise to see ladies in a Autechre video.

That's Rimbaud staring out balefully in the background.

I believe this is a video of Bogdan eating a late night meal with Obi Wan.

Somebody mashed together this video in their basement disco tech lab.

All right, I've featured quite a few of these hyper-fluctuating videos lately — but this is some serious Dutch chinscratching action. It's all about the metaelite pondering and argumentative cognitive dissonance drawn into duncery. I want to attend this fellow's class in Holland.

Pretty cool track by an artist called Binary. The video, however, is similar to watching paint dry (rotating wingding paint). Binary sounds a lot like Autechre, I don't know much else about them, but here's alink to their 1998 "Brickwall Music" album.

I first saw this interface a few years ago, but it still inspires, even someone as bleary-eyed and world weary as me. I believe it is called Reactable, and it allows you to assemble elemental electronic sounds, and manipulate them piecemeal on a table.

Many a stripped down beat here. Subfusc atmospheres — slightly depressing. Ramifications about audio addictions. Boomkat has sample tracks. The album is available on Amazon. Here's a review by Dummy Mag:

Global Modulations & The Infinite Technique" represents about 3 years of Blackhurst crafting tracks. The styles range from global electronica, glitch-idm, dub, & minimal techno.

Stream a sample track "Give Love Riddim":

Via: Fake Science

This two disc set is the conclusion of Steve Roach's Fever Dream series. The discs offer up some febrile soundworlds for listening immersion. The second disc features a 72 minute epic: Melted Mantra. Here's sample track: Borderland (excerpt). More info here.

This track is available as a bonus on Bloodstone EP by Amon Tobin. The atmosphere is ominous but intriguing. The music is adapted from part of the score to "Taxedermia," an avant garde Hungarian film that Tobin soundtracked whilst also working on "Foley Room". Hear it on Bleep.Com or right here.

Here's a new EP that's been getting a lot of attention due to the rumors that Aphex Twin is the man behind the sheep on this one. Anyways, it's a good EP offering very abstract beats and other sounds. Here is the Warp Records page for the EP, but to hear samples you'll have to venture over to Boomkat.

More info from Warp on the EP: