Cover By Dan Love
Artifacts, the debut solo record from San Antonio producer Aether, was last year’s most underrated beat record. Come list time (it finished at a too-low #46), I claimed that few artists were as accurately defined by their name. In Greek myth, Aether is the personification of space and heaven, and Diego Chavez’s music successfully embodies that notion with its celestial strings and samples and bedrock of breakbeats that come loose from their moorings and drift off into the void. Collecting the splintered shards of the Mo Wax’ aesthetic, Aether ensures that DJ Krush, UNKLE, and Shadow’s lamps stay lit.
Trip-hop only died because music journalists got tired of trumpeting a stupid name and Talib Kweli started rapping over Morcheeba instrumentals. But really, the idea of grimy hip-hop drums set to drugged down-tempo melodies only went dormant until it could mutate and recombine. Aether and the rest of the criminally unsung Exponential Records camp (Ernest Gonzalez, Diego Bernal, Mexicans With Guns) represent some of the best of the revanchists. Along with stylistic kinsmen, Take and Nosaj Thing, they synthesize trip-hop, boom-bap, and IDM into something warmly familiar but very fresh. His mix for PotW collects older rarities, previously unheard new material, and a remix of an artist named Zoon Van Snook. In my opinion, the mix is as good as being named Zoon Van Snook. Maybe even better.
Tracklist below the jump.
Download:
MP3: Passion of the Weiss Mix Series – Volume 2: Aether (Left-Click)
Tracklist
1. A.M. Architect – Road to the Sun II
2. Aether- Love Theme
3. Lazy Bones – Lovers
4. A.M. Architect – Distant (Demo)
5. S.E.L.F. – Trapped
6. Aether -Dejame Dormir
7. Rae Davis vs Aether – Drama Free (Feat Tina Hanae Miller)
8. Ernest Gonzales – Dancing in the Snow (Aether Remix)
9. Aether – Leaving Me
10. Aether – Tomorrows Thief
11. Zoon Van Snook – The Gloaming (Aether Remix)
9 comments
Jonah says:
May 12, 2010 at 9:41 am (UTC -7)
Whenever that song Anywhere comes up on my phone I think “this is what I loved about hip hop” clean, grimy drums, like DJ Shadow, but it also reminds me of some of Kno’s interlude beats. Thanks for the mix.
JPop says:
May 12, 2010 at 6:06 pm (UTC -7)
Beautiful mix. This was my first exposure to his stuff and it passed the first listen test. This mix series stuff is great, I like the Robot Koch mix as well. Many thanks
Dart_Adams says:
May 12, 2010 at 10:10 pm (UTC -7)
I’m definitely gonna have to check this one out…
One.
podm says:
May 13, 2010 at 12:55 pm (UTC -7)
Distant & Trapped, back to back, took the soul by surprise.
Namaste Aether
a.muse.in.absurdity says:
May 14, 2010 at 11:51 am (UTC -7)
aether is two steps ahead
Ben says:
May 14, 2010 at 7:15 pm (UTC -7)
ethereal and sublime as always, like the AMarchitect material.
Passion of the Weiss » Blog Archive » Exponential Function: Gun Toting Mexicans and Diego Bernal says:
May 17, 2010 at 4:58 pm (UTC -7)
[...] Aether and label founder Ernest Gonzales have already been covered in this space, but their roster runs deep, as evidenced by Besides, the sophomore album from civil rights attorney/beatmaker Diego Bernal. The barrister’s recent interview with Travis Glave of Bloggerhouse is recommended reading for those interesting in a deeper understanding of Bernals’ aesthetic, but in brief, imagine blunted instrumentalism equally in dept to Lowrider oldies, Latin funk and other Latin and South Texas music as much as Tribe and Dilla. This is a man who has a song called “Cumbiatches Brew” and in a way that explains everything. [...]
sebastiano says:
October 28, 2011 at 1:58 am (UTC -7)
can anyone tell me where i can find more S.E.L.F. material?? That song “trapped” is amazing, can’t find it anywhere.
sebastiano says:
October 28, 2011 at 2:31 am (UTC -7)
Found it!
It’s from ‘The Art & War of Misanthropic Philanthropy’ album, if anyone else is interested.