Matt Jenko

2 August 2023

Step back in time and immerse yourself in the futuristic sounds of the Retro Wave genre. This handcrafted playlist brings together the pulsating beats and nostalgic melodies of the genre’s pioneers.

Infected Mushroom mesmerizes with their unique blend of psytrance and synthwave, taking you on a mind-bending journey through cosmic soundscapes. Carpenter Brut’s dark and gritty compositions evoke a cinematic atmosphere, fusing electronic elements with a touch of metal to create an intense sonic experience. The Glitch Mob’s glitchy textures, combined with heavy bass-lines, will transport you to a cybernetic realm where machines reign supreme.

Let this playlist be your time machine, propelling you into a neon-lit universe where the past and future collide in a symphony of retro-futuristic brilliance.

Track Listing

• Riders on the Storm – Infected Mushroom Remix – Infected Mushroom
• Diabolic – Dance With the Dead
• Change Your Heart or Die – The Midnight
• Looking For Tracy Tzu – Carpenter Brut
• Dance Macabre – Carpenter Brut Remix – Ghost
• On the Run – Wolf and Raven
• Blue Monday ’88 – 2015 Remaster – New Order
• Crush – Otus
• Polyphobia – deadmau5
• The Moment – The Glitch Mob
• Dark All Day – Gunship
• Hunting The Night – Neon Boulevard
• Miami Days – Am 1984
• Converter – Lost Years
• Pacific Coast Highway – Fukkk Offf
• Ignite – Sandman
• Misanthropist Wolf – Futurecop!
• Rasengan – Turbo Knight
• Drone Sight – Power Glove
• Neo-Tokyo – Dance With The Dead Remix – Scandroid
• 96 Cruisin (Raydar Remix) – Lucy In Disguise

Playlist Image by Kenny Gaines on Unsplash

28 June 2023

Three humans selecting two tracks at a time provide the backdrop for a Meerkat’s transcendence:

“It was one of those ordinary days when Noah started humming. Can you imagine? There I was, sitting right next to Brian, as this wave of melodies washed over us. It was like the ark came alive with rhythm.

Couldn’t peel my eyes away from Noah. His voice echoed around, tickling my ears, nudging me to sway and groove, it was like even the sturdy beams of the ark were grooving along.

His music, oh, it was like a cozy fire on a chilly night, heartwarming, something you just don’t want to let go of. It stitched us all together, big and small, feathered and furry, all swaying to the same beat.

And Noah, there he was, eyes sparkling like stars. Made me feel this gush of hope, like the first rays of the morning sun. His tunes whispered promises to our hearts, sort of like, “Hold onto your hats, this is gonna be a wild ride!“

And here we are, on this floating timber fortress, sailing through waters no one’s ever seen. But those tunes, they’re still with me, right here, “tapping my chest lightly,” reminding me that whatever comes next, we’ll face it in harmony, with his music as our compass.

Noah’s tunes are my constant companions. They’re like my own personal soundtrack, nudging me that even in the wildest storm, there’s always a silver lining. A reason to wag your tail and smile, you know?

So, here’s to the journey, to the rhythm of life, and to Noah’s melodies, the anthems of our ark-bound adventure.”

Track Listing

• Looking For Tracy Tzu – Carpenter Brut
• The Owls – Yotto
• Theme For Great Cities – Simple Minds
• Kids In America – Kim Wilde
• You Say – Maur
• Woman Like You – kryptogram
• War – Dance With the Dead
• Angst – Rammstein
• Take the Power Back – Rage Against The Machine
• As The Rush Comes – Above & Beyond Dynaglide Remix Motorcycle
• Only For You – Croquet Club Remix – Mat Zo
• Good Thing – nimino Remix – Brookes Brothers
• A Deeper Love – Lawrence Hart
• To Infinity – Emancipator
• Une Touche De Funk – Ametronik
• Auo – Moodena & Sartorial Remix – Dirtytwo
• Change – obli
• Sleeping Chlldren Are Still Flying – Blue Sky Black Death
• Mariblue ft. lau.ra – Joe Turner
• Lobetrotter – PALLADIAN Remix – Emancipator
• Breathe – Weltmusik
• Binary Warriors – Humn_Error
• Ringo – Joris Voorn
• 2005 NYE – Model Man

Playlist image by Lachlan Gowen on Unsplash

23 June 2023

The closing chapter in a deeply moving story

This is a truly beautiful piece of music.

Robert writes beautiful music anyway, but this one felt particularly powerful to me. It sounds like the closing chapter in a deeply moving story. It’s an understated goodbye, and says so much without overcomplicating the message. I can’t help but well up when I listen to this. It connects with something so profoundly human, something that we can all feel even if we can’t put it into words

Sleep is very reminiscent of Circle 39, the closing track on Robert’s latest album as Foam and Sand. The two pieces feel as though they’d go hand in hand in scoring some of the most poignant moments of a person’s life

What makes Robert’s music so special is that he explores the alien and unconscious vistas of the human condition and transmutes them into something that feels like, at least on some level, these mysteries can be understood. There have been several times when listening to his music where I feel like I’ve encountered ‘forgotten’ emotions. It plays into an idea of mine that our emotional palette is far broader than we experience in adulthood, that like how children learning to speak ‘lose’ the ability to pronounce the phonemes that aren’t used in their language, so to do the emotions that a society does not or cannot express also get lost

Music has that powerful ability to reignite these lost feelings, and Robert is a master of channelling that ability through his work. If Sleep is your first encounter with Robert’s sonic ocean, then I’d say it’s high time you dove in

Support Robot Koch on Spotify, Twitter, FB, IG or through his website.

Image by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

15 June 2023

Matt and I discovered Dread Hunger in the winter of 2022 after seeing a couple of our favorite Twitch streamers like The_Happy_Hob and Elajjaz play it. We were immediately intrigued by the concept of a game all about bamboozling friends with hyper-violent shenanigans. In this respect it could even be considered the 3D equivalent of the 2D smash hit Among Us. Even if you aren’t familiar with Among Us (aMoGuS), you have almost certainly heard some youngster say its addition to the English vocabulary: “sus,” as in, “you are suspicious.”

The lore of Dread Hunger is almost as sparse as its Arctic setting, but it lands roughly in between Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies by positing that in an exploratory crew of eight people, two of them sold their souls during a previous disastrous expedition, and must now betray their current crewmates. See the track “Cultists on Board” for a song that is effectively this game’s unofficial theme song.

Technically, the only win condition for these soul-sellers, called Thralls, is to keep the boat from successfully making it A-to-B. However, armed with magical powers such as teleportation and summoning a horde of ravenous cannibals, to the more prosaic options of a cavalry saber or musket, a match of Dread typically ends with a bang rather than a mere whimper.

In the spirit of show-don’t-tell, we’re going to include some clips of our own experiences in this psychotic game. But, suffice it to say that when we picked titles like “Needled 24/7” and “Beartrap” in this playlist, we were envisioning them in their most literal and visceral sense.

Shoutout to the incredible folks of Sus Hunger—a Discord server we originally made just to organize matches of this game. Although we play Dread quite a bit less than we used to, the friendships it solidified will not be thawing any time soon. <3

At this timestamp and for about a minute after, you can witness me as a thrall framing an innocent Matt for sabotaging the ship’s boiler, then murdering him to the applause of the rest of his crewmates. Sorry pal.

And here I go killing again by fatally poisoning the inventor of no-hit runs himself…

Track Listing

• More Than I Could Chew – Mastodon
• Laid to Rest – Lamb of God
• Needled 24 / 7 – Children Of Bodom
• Follow the Water – Architects
• Old Nothing – Rivers of Nihil
• Shitstorm – Strapping Young Lad
• Follow The Signs – Born Of Osiris
• Bloodmeat – Protest The Hero
• Mourning Star – Means End
• The Widow Maker – feat. Gunship – Carpenter Brut
• Shinigami Eyes – Grimes
• nihilist blues (feat. Grimes) – Bring Me The Horizon
• Selling My Soul – Trevor Something
• Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here – Enter Shikari
• I’m Gonna Win – Rob Cantor
• Under the Radar – Foals
• Cultists On Board – The Darkest of The Hillside Thickets
• Reckoning – August Burns Red
• One of Us is the Killer – The Dillinger Escape Plan
• It’s Not Me, It’s You – Skillet
• BEAR TRAP (THEY FEAR ME) – Stalley
• That Curse of Being in Thrall – Napalm Death

Playlist Image from the game

16 May 2023

Track Listing

Paradise – Great Good Fine Ok
Don’t Miss Out – IHF
I Mingle – Mosey
Wide Awake – ODESZA
Equal – ODESZA
Crush – Otus
Musician – Porter Robinson
a.me – il:lo
focus (with Tim Atlas) – slenderbodies
New Gold (feat. Tame Impala and Bootie Brown) – Gorillaz
Am I Wrong (feat. ScHoolboy Q) – Anderson .Paak
King Kunta – Kendrick Lamar
LLC – Nicki Minaj
Enough – Flume
Medusa – GRiZ
TURN OFF THE LIGHTS – Dog Blood

Playlist Image by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash

16 May 2023

Embrace your inner rocker as Matt and Kelch turn back the clock to a time where life seemed so simple and the music was LOUD. It’s time to rock!

Featuring modern-day Rock ‘n Roll hits by Shinedown and Jimmy Eat World to classic rock staples by Guns N’ Roses; Sweetness possesses a fever dream of youth, belonging, and a whole lot of head-banging!

Track Listing

Sweetness – Jimmy Eat World
Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team) – Remastered – aking Back Sunday
Deep Inside of You – 2006 Remaster – Third Eye Blind
Out of It – The Story So Far
Vindicated – Dashboard Confessional
The Taste of Ink – The Used
Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) – Shinedown
BURN IT FEVER – 333
Black Honey – Thrice
when we were young – Architects
Meddler – August Burns Red
Mammoth – The Devil Wears Prada
The Diary of Jane – Single Version – Breaking Benjamin
Silence Speaks – While She Sleeps
Crawling In The Dark – Hoobastank
Blood-Red, White & Blue – Rise Against
Rusty Cage – Remastered – Soundgarden
California Crossing – Fu Manchu
I Can’t Figure You Out – Gin Blossoms
Stuck In The Middle – Four Year Strong
When I’m Gone – 3 Doors Down
Think About You – Guns N’ Roses

Playlist Image by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash

15 May 2023

Track Listing

Atopos – Björk
Waves – Robot Koch
KEEP MOVING – BRONSON
Hypnocurrency – Rezz
Rejoice – Steve Angello
War – Dance With the Dead
Sticky Drama – Oneohtrix Point Never
ZERØ – GHØSTKID
why you gotta kick me when i’m down? – Bring Me The Horizon
Day Stalker – Carpenter Brut
Survivalism – Nine Inch Nails
Get to the Gone – Static-X
Ugly Season – Perfume Genius
New Gold (feat. Tame Impala and Bootie Brown) – Gorillaz
caffeine – brakence
The Difference – Flume
Fever Dreamer (feat. Charlotte Day Wilson & Channel Tres) – SG Lewis
Fold – Bonobo
RATATA – Skrillex
Tarantula – Gorillaz
Damn (You’ve Got Me Saying) – Galantis
Breezer – Yotto
Unfold – Porter Robinson
Sleep – Robot Koch
4EVA (feat. Pharrell Williams) – KAYTRAMINÉ

Playlist image by NASA on Unsplash

27 April 2023

Track Listing

Mango Feedback – Four Tet
Superpowers (feat. Helen) – Curbi
Stay – Tchami Remix – Justin Martin
Easy – Autograf
Found – Matt Fax
American Boy – Lost Frequencies Remix – Estelle
We Find Ourselves – JODA
ADRENALINE – PRXZM
Kuaga – Yotto Remix – Pierce Fulton
Blue Ride – Diskay
Howl – Elderbrook
Colours & Lights – GoldFish
Borders (feat. Julia Church) – Joe Turner
With You Forever – PNAU
Abenaki – Mixed – Matt Fax
Odessa – Diskay
Sea To Sky – il:lo Remix – Emancipator
Alive (feat. The Moth & The Flame) – Kx5
Water – Bicep
Endless Vibe – 8ubbles
Hollow – Yotto
Ordinary – Lamorn
Nest To The Back – Pierce Fulton

Playlist Image by Deon Black on Unsplash

21 April 2023

Track Listing

Surrender Yourself – Lawrence Hart
Wide Awake (feat. Charlie Houston) – ODESZA
XYZ – deadmau5
Happy Music – Supershy
Cant Tell – Yuni Wa
Got To Keep On – The Chemical Brothers
We Find Ourselves – JODA
Turn Off My Mind – Morgan Page
GLY – Catching Flies
Drop – Cornelius
Together – E-Live Remix – Saucy Lady
El Layali – Barry Can’t Swim
Desire – Joe Turner
The Accord – Matt Fax
Something To Say – HOLOW
Hayá – Hang Loose

Playlist Image by Mel Elías on Unsplash

21 April 2023

Track Listing

Happy Music – Supershy
Kuaga – Yotto Remix Pierce Fulton
Breaking the Waves – RUNTOLIFE
Stay – IHF
FORMATIONS – Mild Minds
Sea To Sky – Emancipator
How Long Have You Been Away? – kryptogram
Surrender Yourself – Lawrence Hart
Harlem (feat. Malika) – Mickey
Wide Awake (feat. Charlie Houston) – ODESZA
Oh Honey – Angelo Ferreri
Turn Off My Mind – Morgan Page
Behave – LAMBERT
We Find Ourselves – JODA
Trust – SIERRA
Afraid To Feel – David Guetta & Dyro Remix LF SYSTEM

Playlist Image by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash

21 April 2023

Track Listing

On the Floor – Perfume Genius
Birch Tree – Foals
So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings – Caroline Polachek
Dreams – 2004 Remaster – Fleetwood Mac
Feel The Way I Want – Caroline Rose
Hold On – Little Dragon
The Steps – HAIM
Longshot – Catfish and the Bottlemen
Heavenly Maybe – Gengahr
New Sky – RÜFÜS DU SOL
Home – Caribou
Nights Introlude – Nightmares On Wax
Feels Right – Biig Piig
Lost In Yesterday – Tame Impala
Sympathetic Vibrations – Bad Sounds
We’re Alive – Band Of Skulls
Space Samba (Disco Volador Theme) – The Orielles
The Reeling – Passion Pit
Ready For The Floor – Hot Chip
Punching In A Dream – The Naked And Famous

Playlist Image by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash

15 March 2023

We approached this playlist with one very simple goal: for every single song to be a cover (or a remix!) of another. At least, it sounds simple in practice: sometimes nothing comes to mind; other times, songs you thought were covers turn out to be originals (I always though Don’t Speak by No Doubt was a cover – it isn’t)

What we found ourselves with was a playlist with tracks from all corners of the genre globe. When you give yourself just one goal, it opens so many possibilities for different ideas, and you find songs hanging out together that normally you probably wouldn’t expect to.

Who knows what cool stuff you might find digging through here?