Oliver Cheung

The Beginning and the End – Adam Fielding

19 June 2018

Adam Fielding is a UK based electronic musician – funny story how I encountered his stuff…

Many years ago, I was looking into Propellerhead’s Reason, a Digital Audio Workstation that was very popular among electronic musicians. Adam Fielding uses Reason exclusively  to produce his tracks,…

Sing me to Sleep – Jeremy Blake

12 June 2018

Red means recording! Super excited to put this track on this list.

If you do not know who Jeremy Blake is, he runs a YouTube channel called “Red means Recording”, where he makes really entertaining music videos giving the viewer an insight on how he makes his music. He’s most well known for a series of videos where he uses the teenage engineering OP-1 as the main driver in a piece of music.

Bloom – Arch Echo

8 May 2018

Arch Echo is a 5 piece fusion progressive rock band based out of Nashville, Tennessee.

Once again, the wonders of related videos on YouTube got me to this band when I was surfing through Plini, David Maxim Micic and Nick Johnston…

Law – Richard Spaven

29 April 2018

Richard Spaven is a fantastic drummer from London, UK and this track is a single from his album “The Self”. I first encountered this track on Youtube when Spaven did a live performance version on Meinl Cymbals’ channel. If you have never checked out Youtube channels of drum manufacturers, you are in for a treat – I have discovered some amazing music through their gear videos.

Bruised and Bleeding – Okada

23 April 2018

Okada is the musical brainchild of Gregory Pappas, with a focus on an ambient electronic sound edging on drone/loop based/meditative music but with enough development to keep one interested throughout the track that is 15 minutes long…

I Walk Alone (feat. Justina Soto) – Sungazer

16 April 2018

Some of you may have expected this since I mentioned Adam Neely in the previous track.

Sungazer is his musical project with drummer Shawn Crowder, where its sound palette is mainly driven by glitch sound effects, bass, guitars and drums….

Didn’t know it – Hannah Sumner

10 April 2018

I first encountered Hannah Sumner’s name through one of Adam Neely’s videos on Youtube and decided to look her up as I have not been paying much attention to vocal-based music recently (Adam Neely is a performing musician in New York with a YouTube channel that has some really interesting educational content on music)…

Line – Akisai

2 April 2018

I first encountered Akisai through a playlist channel on Youtube, which led me to their official channel and music video for this track.

Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.) – Gabriel Kahane

26 March 2018

On March 19, 1991, Latasha Harlins was shot and killed during a dispute over a bottle of orange juice.

She was fifteen.

Her killer received no prison time

Electric Sunrise – Plini

25 February 2018

When I grew up with progressive music such as those of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, King Crimson and Pink Floyd, it is inevitable that other lay listeners would have this perception of “progressive music is always so gloomy and moody, I wouldn’t want to be listening to it all day long, especially on my commute to work”…

Endless – Portico Quartet

25 February 2018

I first encountered this track from the Red Bull Music & Culture YouTube channel where the Portico Quartet played the track at their live space. I was hooked right away.

Portico Quartet’s sounds are one of those where you’d just go “are they jazz? are they electronica? are they – nah screw it, its Portico Quartet.”…

Beyond Styx, Pt.1 – Hubris

25 February 2018

If you are well versed in the genre of music known as “post-rock”, you would know that techniques such as delayed guitars, swells (long notes that fade in and out), and a really “wet” band mix are all common techniques that have been used time and time again by bands in the genre to the point where they may be perceived as cliches…