There are those who run from chill, and those who dive headfirst. 214 aka J. Alvarez, real name Chris Jordan, has just the back-of-the-freezer chilled out tracks we need right now, that musical journey into Twin Peaks.
The North Bend, Washington USA-based Jordan has never failed to put out a lot of music. You know these fears today people have that it’s “too easy” to make music and there’s “too much of it”? Well… you could presumably be strategic about labels and styles. Or you could just go the other extreme and flood the world with fantastic sounds, which is what Chris has done – IDM, electro, whatever. To illustrate, I’m just going to copy-paste the labels he says he’s put out music on.
“Klakson Frustrated Funk Cultivated Electronics 20:20 Vision Houndstooth Where We Met Lunar Disko CPU Shipwrec Harbour City Sorrow OmniDisc w/ Danny Daze
La Beaute Du Negatif as J.Alvarez Hallucienda as J.Alvarez Hypercolour as J.Alvarez Fortified Audio Yellow Machines Touchin’ Bass Car Crash Set MikroluxAi records Digital Distortions”
Couple of those here and there were a big deal, couple of those he could easily have made up and I’d never know.
But it’s all quality as well as quantity. Just in the last few hours, there are repressings of two major releases available if you head to clone.nl (actually appears one may have just sold out):
Couple of represses incoming if you missed when released. First is my EP on Klakson which came out in October. This one went quick. Back at the Clone shop now, but should make way to other stores over the next few weeks. https://t.co/ldLyupjx8H
— 214 (@214isJAlvarez) December 12, 2018
Followed by a repress of my Submanouvers EP on Frustrated Funk from 2012. You may have heard one of the tracks on @PaulWoolford Fabric mix. https://t.co/JhE4S5dXXZ
— 214 (@214isJAlvarez) December 12, 2018
There’s so much music, though, that he’s dumping some wonderful coolness on us as a sort of Christmas present. I’m downloading all of these, for sure, and not deleting anyway, whatever he says.
I don’t use Spotify, but I’m sharing a grip of free tunes as a thanks for the support this year. A lot of these are chill and won’t be to everyone’s liking, but they’re free ?and I make all sorts of stuff. Feel free to share, use, or delete if shite. https://t.co/2o4ZI1bwn5
— 214 (@214isJAlvarez) December 7, 2018
You can grab these on Dropbox (and preview them there if you like).
For more like this, follow his Twitter account.
But there’s more – great electro-tinged mixes and general shadowy ruminations:
Count me in.
Photo at top (CC-BY-ND) Steve Corey. Don’t worry, those are just frozen berries, not the dismembered remains of an elf trapped in ice or something like that.