No Filler Music Podcast - Ep 15: Loscil - "First Narrows"

Episode Date: July 2, 2018

We hit pause on indie rock and mellow out with the ambient electronic music of Loscil. Scott Morgan's approach to Loscil started as an exploration on how to represent abstract concepts such as physics and thermodynamics in musical form. On this episode, we cover his third studio album First Narrows and talk about the special relationship we both have with ambient music and how Loscil's approach sets him apart from others in the genre. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/music-review-loscil-first-narrows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. With me as always is my brother Quentin. And today we are taking a break from rock and roll, from rock and roll specifically from the 2000s, because that's kind of our wheelhouse. And instead we're talking about another artist from that era. but in a different, a whole different building. And that artist would be Lossel. Q, are you as excited as I am to take a break, take a breather, and kind of relax and chill

with this excellent, excellent ambient electronic music? I'm really excited, man. Also, I just want to ask you a question. Go ahead. What exactly is a wheelhouse, dude? What is a wheelhouse? I don't know. That's a good question.

Yeah. I mean, you've heard the saying, right? I guess, yeah, but what the fuck does that mean? I got Google right here for you. Okay. A wheelhouse is a small enclosed part of a bridge which historically held the ship's steering wheel. Ah, okay. Wow, okay.

Cool, dude. I learned something new today. So, hey, and you know what? you used that beautifully, my friend. I mean. Because really that, I mean, indie rock from the early 2000s is definitely in our will house. Yeah. And I think we've, we've kind of hovered over that era for the last few.

I mean, a couple months now, really. The last few months, yeah. Especially with our spoon series of episodes. So. Our spoonathon, which we're almost done with for now. Yes. Yes. So we're going to finish it off.

in a month with with give me fiction um or no not a month it'll be like two weeks from now two weeks from now yeah but uh yeah so we decided before we we do that to uh to sort of change it up a little bit mix it up um this is kind of i think we're going to have a lot of the same discussions that we had on our taska episode as far as yeah um the repetition that sometimes can happen with electronic music, you know? I mean, this is just a different flavor of it. And yeah. So briefly, and we're going to move along quickly here because our clips are quite lengthy. Backtrack to Toska. That's a down tempo band, one of the greats, in our opinion. And Lossel kind of falls into that category, but it's not as dancey. I mean, I don't think

There's nothing down tempo about Lausole's music, though. Okay, you're right. Ambient. Electronic music. Yeah, I mean, there are parts of Tosca music that is ambient for sure. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, this is, like, more so than any artist we've covered, this is ambient music, you know. So this is.

Yeah. And another artist that we covered that's in the same vein would be Tyco, which was our second episode was on Tyco. Yeah, that's a good call. But yeah. Well, yeah. So if you look at, I mean, if you look at those three artists, though, Tyco is certainly more ambient than Tosca, but like flirts with down tempo a little bit, right?

Yeah. Tyco has a much more approachable sound, I guess. And Lossel is, so one thing that we said about down tempo music, and I think this applies to Lossel. and this ambient electronic music for sure, is that it can easily retreat into the background, but also demands your attention. If you pay attention, it's worth it.

It's the same thing, like with Tosca, it's all about layers, you know, and it's a very, very subtle, really gradual change in the song as it progresses. And that's why if you noticed our intro clip, which is track three on the album that we're covering today, it's actually the title track called First Narrows. We played a pretty lengthy intro clip.

I think it ran about 45 seconds or so. You know, things start to change. So you have to pay attention, and you've got to be patient with, fossil, you know, for it to pay off. Yeah, I mean, and that's, I mean, that's, that's the thing with, with ambient music, you know, um, it's, it's meant to be played in the background, you know, it's definitely meant to be, um, you know, sometimes it, it sort of puts you in like this trance, right? Like, it's,

it's supposed to do that. So, yeah, this is, you know, this is, the reason you listen to this kind of music is, you know, maybe while you're focusing on something or you're, you're, working on something or you're just trying to relax you know yeah more so than taska more so than tyco um i'd say this is headphone music you know yeah sure put on some earbuds throw your throw your headphones on zone out you know study you know take a walk in in a park or something this is perfect for that um so let's real quick dive into our watch your hurts for the week. So this is just a way for us to share more music with you every week. This is just music that we've been listening to lately. A lot of times it ends up kind of falling in the same vein as the artist

that we're covering for the week. Just because a lot of times, you know, we just get into that mindset. And I know mine, my pick is going to tie in pretty well with Lossel, definitely in that same headspace. Travis, what have you heard this week? We'll start with you. So, this is certainly not a new artist to me, but I sort of discovered this guy the same time that I discovered Lossel. So this artist goes by the name of the site below, and he started in Seattle, Washington, of course. Okay, now. Which is interesting because Lossel started in the Pacific Northwest as well. Yeah, dude.

So anyway, this guy, his actual name is Rafael Antoine Irisari. Probably didn't say that right. Jesus. But, you know. So this is more than just one person, actually. But it's mainly that one guy. So these guys can be found on Ghostly International, which Lossel has released one record on Ghostley.

I think you're going to hear a lot of similarities between the site below and Lossel once we get into it. But with the site below, he always has this constant bass drum bass hit throughout almost all of his tracks, and you'll hear that in this as well. well. But I would say that the site below is is is more ambient than Lossel. Like it's more I don't want to use the word drone. I don't like using that word because I feel like it's

negative or it has a negative connotation to it. But the site below is more like meditative almost and more kind of puts you in a trance. Whereas Lossel I feel like he takes more risks, I guess. He experiments more and like kind of has a more varied sound with his songs. Of course, the site below only came out with two records, so there's not as much

material out there. But either way, he's classified as an ambient techno slash shoegaze act, which is interesting. That's, you know, shoegaze, right? I mean, that's where that comes from. But he probably

he gets called techno because maybe because of the bass drum or whatever. But anyway, let's just play the song. This is called Dower. And it is off his first record. And I keep saying he, apparently there are more than one artist in this. It's like a collective almost, I guess. But this is from his first studio album called Glider. And again, this track is called Dower.

So yeah, Q, like you said to me, while we were listening to that track, it sounds a lot like Lossel, right? Yeah. A lot like Lossel. So, yeah, so this is the kind of music we're covering today. Yes, exactly. It's, yeah, very repetitive. It's usually, like you said, there's always like a driving beat of some kind of these songs. You know what I mean?

Yeah, I guess like you're saying, it's. Because it doesn't, it, with the site below especially, it's the entire track. Yeah. Blossel, not necessarily. And so with that track that I just played, he adds some symbols later on in the track. And you got to hear that. But it starts with that, with that bass drum and that stays the entire time. Never changes, you know.

When you look at the, like when you look at the profile, like, when you look at the profile, If you pull it into like garage band or some sort of audio editing software and just look at the like the spikes and stuff, it's just this consistent. It's just super consistent, you know, because he's not doing much, you know, there's no, there's no change in the tempo or anything. It's kind of like, you know, as we said earlier, like Tosca, where it's about layering. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of layers, adding layers and taking them away, but not necessarily. changing the, like the bass, not the base, but like the, the base layer, you know, like the

skeleton of it, I don't know, you know what I'm saying. Yeah. You start with, with something basic and you just add to it and add to it. Yeah, these songs are always really simple, but again, you know, if you pay attention to it, it's worth it. It really is. So, yeah, let's get into what you're, what you've been listening to this week, you. Yeah, so this guy, no, I'm sorry.

I made the same mistake as you. This is a trio based out of Michigan. They go by Kiln. And I love, I love this band. There's something really special about Kiln and their music. I know you agree with me, man. There's just, there's nothing, there's no one like Kiln, really. Yeah, I agree with that.

The way that they approach, they're, I mean, yeah, it's hard to even classify them, you know, really. Yeah. Yeah, so the thing with Kiln, and you'll notice this too when we start, when we dive into, to Lossel here in a little bit, The kiln will take these samples of like, man, it just sounds like something you'll hear, you would hear in nature. And I'm not talking about birds chirping or, you know, the wind rustling leaves and branches. I'm talking about, like, bubbly, like, I don't know, man. I don't, like boiling water.

You know, it's hard to describe. I don't know how else to say it, but just to play it. And the thing with Kieln, it's very similar in the same vein with the site below and Lossel in that there's always a driving beat, but there's just so much going on. And if you happen to have a pair of decent headphones near you, grab them, plug them in, and put them on before I push play here. So this is actually a song from their latest release, which, speaking of Ghostly International, they have been on there since 2004. This is a song from an album called Meadow Wat.

This is track two. It's called Pine Martin. I think there's only one word to use, and that's delightful. Yeah. There's, like I said, there's just some. something about the sound that that these guys make. It's just so unique and it just, all their music sounds like this. Just that unique, like, do you know what I mean when I said like that bubbly sound?

Yeah, it's hard to describe or even know how they do it. But I mean, so. Yeah. I'm on the artist page for Keln on Ghostly International. I think this is a good description of them. They described them as master oral architects. And they have been creating full spectrum sonic landscapes since the early 1990s. So you go.

Yeah. And yeah, I think more so than Lossel and more so than. than site below. I think they do a good job bringing in organic instruments into the mix, like the guitar that we heard and all that other good stuff.

So yeah, I think our what your hurts kind of get us into this mindset and prepare us for Lossel. So let's dive into them, shall we? So this is Scott Morgan.

And he, And he is from Vancouver, BC. He's lived the majority of his life up there. He's lived his entire life in the Pacific Northwest. And he, well, where do we begin, man? So here is, I read this great interview and sort of a profile on him from this website called the Red Bull Music Academy Daily. So this is their blog.

This article is called The Patient Sound World of Lossel, which is a pretty cool way to look at it. So this is actually, you know what? This was, I think they did this profile on them, but the interview was actually RBMA radio, whatever that is. So anyway, they talk about

his early days and how he actually started out doing, started out in rock bands. And he was a guitar player and a drummer. But he was then sort of like, he became really interested in electronic music, like more specifically sound design and recording practices and whatnot. And so the birth of Lossel, and this is from him, this is him telling this story from the interview, he was, so he had a friend when he was finishing school who had this experimental movie theater that he ran called the Blinding Light. And a group of him and some of his friends, including Scott, they would curate this. this monthly show called the multiplex,

which was a, he describes it as a very early exploration into video accompanied with music. He said that, so he basically says that was the birthplace of Lawsel as a project. So my guess here is that, you know, if you're doing these kind of artistic videos, the music that you're going to accompany with those. videos is probably going to be more like soundtrack ambient type stuff which is probably where he where he started or like the kind of music that you hear in video games and stuff like that yeah so like he so he goes on to describe it he says um I'm just going to quote him he says the multiplex was really about me recognizing in my circle of friends that

people were doing interesting things in their bedrooms or basements with four tracks and with all kinds of weird electronics. Even just stringing a guitar in some weird way, like tuning every string to the same note and hitting it with a stick. There were people naturally experimenting who weren't academic people. These were just friends that I played with in bands.

So you can see how that would sort of kind of turn into the type of stuff that he did with early Lossel recordings, you know. Yeah, and that's, that's just like Scott Hanson of Tyco. You know, he just, it was just a thing he did on his laptop to start off. And so from what I read, the name Lossel comes from this computer program called C-Sound, which is a computer programming language, also known as a sound compiler.

audio DSL. But a lossal is a compound word, combining the two words loop and oscillate. So, Lossel. That's pretty cool. There you go. Okay, so like I said, he was influenced early on as far as the idea of like ambient, organic sounding music that was made from, you know, hitting a guitar. with a stick, you know, using a stick to play your guitar, tuning it, you know, all do the same key and all that kind of stuff.

So when he started to focus on his own work through the Lossel side project that he started, he said that he wanted to, he wanted to sort of represent or like convey the abstract scientific concept in musical. form. He said that he found the language of thermodynamics to be quite evocative, particularly in relation to music. So, yeah. Which is interesting, right? Yeah, I was going to say, like, I don't know how thermodynamics relates to music at all. So here's a quote. So, okay, let me, let me back up. Before we talk about the album that we're talking about, which is first narrows, I wanted to play, play a track off of his very first record because I think more so than anything else he did,

this really showcases like what he was trying to get across with this whole science, sort of themed kind of like exploration. Well, yeah, dude, I mean, it doesn't showcase it. It is that because this is his demo, right? Yeah, this is, yeah, exactly. This is the demo that he. sent to cranky. This is the music, you know, that came about from this inspiration.

Yeah. So the name of the album is called Triple Point. And when you go through the titles on this album, track one, hydrogen, track three, pressure, track eight, conductivity. So like, you know, basically he was taking a sort of an abstract idea like hydrogen and trying to represent it in his music. So anyway, he goes on to say, and we're going to play this track, he says that pressure, for instance, sounds exactly like a group of beakers bubbling with condensation or fissures in the earth breathing out vapor. So yeah, so with that in mind, let's listen to pressure because he just, I mean, we're supposed to hear a group of beakers bubbling with condensation or fissures in the earth breathing out vapor.

let's hear it okay so you know it might not sound exactly like it but i mean it definitely that's what you you know that's sort of the imagery that you might get in your head you know it definitely sounds like some sort of you know representation of of science so yeah mission accomplished right i think when you get into his later music i think it's a really cool starting point for for like an exploration in creating music you know especially if you're like if you're like if you're If you're going to start making ambient music, like, that's actually a really good, like, exercise, you know. Like, let me take these ideas and just make a, make a song based off of, you know, what I think of when I hear or,

like, see or feel like, you know, hydrogen or, you know, vapor or whatever. Yeah, these, like, yeah, chemical reactions and whatnot. Yeah, exactly. So, so when you hear that, I think it makes. It makes perfect sense that that's his starting point, you know? So when we start to talk about first Narrows, which I think it's about that time. It is, man. It is about that time, dude.

So I think we've, so we've painted the picture, I think, pretty well. I think so. First Narrows is the album that I really, I was just going to say that's probably, I mean, it's hard. Let's just say this. Sick Bay is my favorite Lossel track, and we're going to play that for you. I don't think First Narrows is my favorite Lossil album as a whole, but Sick Bay is such a, like I love that song so much, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. So I know for sure that First Narrows was the first music of Lossels that I heard. Yes. And this is an album that came out in 2004. So this is his third full length. album on Cranky. So the name First Narrows actually came from this bridge in Vancouver. It's called the Lionsgate Bridge, but it's also known as First Narrows,

which actually links Vancouver, like central Vancouver to North Vancouver. And, you know, I feel. I feel like when you live in an area that's really distinct and different, it really can kind of inspire you as an artist. And I feel like it's definitely the case with Lozal. He's lived up in the Pacific Northwest for the majority of his life. And I've got this clip here where he kind of describes, you know, influences that he pulls from the surroundings of where he lives when he's making his music.

So let's play this clip. This is from an interview. Probably down around some sometime around 2015 or so on Rocket Radio. Yeah, so here it is. I've actually only lived on the West Coast of Canada. And I do think there's something psychological that, you know, with the, the water and the mountains and the natural environment meeting the industrial environment and being a port city it's very diverse and very i don't know i i i mean i don't know anything else

because that's where i've always been but it definitely is part of my music and part of my approach yeah so i mean that that makes perfect sense for somebody who has always like tried to incorporate like his like nature and whatnot into his music you know yeah he's influenced by you know where he lives the materials and whatnot you know that he comes across yeah and i love it man i love that quote because i'm up here in seattle and it's it's almost the same the same kind of thing dude it's a port town you know you've got your mountains you've got your industrial areas it kind of meets in harmony. There's something about living up here in the Pacific Northwest.

Really inspirational. There's quite a few artists that I've gotten into that are based up here where you can definitely hear that influence in their music just with the surroundings and the nature and the city. Yeah. So, hey, let's play sick base, shall we? Yeah, we'll do it, man. So I think this is, you know, I was going to say this is my favorite song on first Nero's,

but honestly, our second pick from this album is probably my favorite. And I won't get into it yet. But Sick Bay is the first song on the album, and let's fucking do it. This is going to be a lengthy clip, as they have been on this episode, but it's worth it. So let's listen to it. So that song for me, like as soon as it starts, like it immediately like puts me in this headspace. I don't know really how to describe it, but like it's just, it kind of like envelops you. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's such a cool starter for an album. Yeah. What a great, what a great start. Like I said, like it puts you in that mood immediately. What I like about this song as a, like I think it's a great start. I think it's a great pick for an opening song on an album. Like it doesn't gradually build up to to what it eventually becomes, you know,

like most songs in this genre. Like you said, it envelopes you straight from the beginning. And it doesn't let go, man. The entire song is like that. It just keeps, it just drives through. You know, it just keeps, it's such a subtle build on itself. you know. Right.

And that's lossal, man. And I think what's great is, you know, our other pick for this album is pretty different. Like, it's really more delicate. You mean our next pick? Our next pick. Yeah, the next song I'm going to share with you from this album is. Well, let me say this, dude. And you got to hear a little bit of this on.

on pressure, the track we played from his first album. He has a lot of tracks that also, I would describe as dark ambient music. Yes, especially, dude, if you listen to, like, his later stuff, like his last album, Monument Builders, right? There's some dark stuff on that. I mean, I've always loved the darker flavor of ambient music. I don't know why. Yeah, I think Lossel does it really well.

man, I can't, not off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone else who does it effectively like he does. To where it's, it's something that's still approachable and enjoyable to listen to, you know? Right. Yeah. So I think Sigbae is more along the lines of, you know, I'm going to say what I always say, but upbeat. I mean, it's not upbeat.

I'm not going to say that it's upbeat. It's not a beat. All right, just wait until we, just wait until we play our second pick. Okay. Because to me, I feel like that one's even more, like, it's more uplifting. It's light. It's lighter. It's, uh, it's, uh, you're talking about sick bay still?

Sick Bay and brittle. Okay. As far as like, it's not dark, okay? It's not, uh, yeah. It doesn't sound like it could be the soundtrack of like a, you know, psychological thriller or something like that. Not even thriller. You know, I'm going to say it. So let me say something about this record.

And, you know, I don't know. I can't say this about every Lossel record. And I don't know if it's because I've been up here in the Pacific Northwest for the last four years. But this music is perfect for like an early morning jog in the fog because it rhymes. But, uh, jogging the fog. Like jogging the fog, man. Dude, I hear you. I don't.

Yeah. Yeah. It's great for that kind of stuff, man. Just like, yeah. And I, you know, like, when I go out hiking, I don't put earbuds in, man. I enjoy the sounds of nature. Yeah. But if I was going to, I would play lossful for sure.

Or you know what, man? If I, if I was going to take a leisurely stroll through Seattle, um, or through, you know, along the coast up here. This is the music for it, man. And, you know, it's just, it's born from someone who's lived the majority of his life up here, you know, up in Vancouver. I get it. And I feel like it helps that, like I said, I mean, I feel like I'm just like trying to fucking brag that I live up here because I love living up here so much. but yeah dude i totally get it dude yeah i hear you man uh this is like i feel like lossill is

really good music for um you know if you need to clear your head or uh you're just you're you're you're working on something uh that maybe you need to focus on like this is great great uh music for somebody like me who who programs all day at a computer um yeah you know it's just It's good, it's just great music for, for, like you said, dude, like, if you, if you imagine, like, a lot of times when you take a walk or you're hiking or whatever, like you are a lot of times you're alone with your thoughts if you're by yourself, right? It's nothing better, man. There's nothing better. And this is the kind of music that, to me, gives me the same feeling when I listen to it as like taking a stroll, a little. alone with my thoughts.

Like, it's the same kind of feeling, you know? Yeah, dude, I think what you want, what you're trying to say is taking a jog in the fog. Yeah.

Taking a jog in the fog, uh, metaphorically or literally, like, you know, this is the kind of, this is the soundtrack for that, you know.

So yeah, let's go into our next clip. Well, before, before we get into this last one, uh, I've got a few quotes from him that I, that I,

that I wanted to make sure that we, that we, that we got to. kind of involving his approach to composing, stuff like that, like his overall process. I think this is kind of cool. And if you're a musician, especially if you're someone who creates, you know, sample and loop-based music, I think you'll appreciate this.

So he says, so this is an interview from this website called, headphone commute.com. I don't know much else about the website, but I love the name. And I feel like Lossel is in, you know, if headphone commute only covers artists that you would listen to with some headphones on, you know, Lossel's the king of that, I feel like.

Yeah. So this was an article called In the Studio with Lossel. And it came out in May of 2014. You know, they were asking him, what is overall process is for composition. And he says, I can often sit and listen to loops for hours. It's a weird meditative state of composing that I really enjoy.

And he says, sometimes similar to performing live, I just do this in a very improvisational way. Other times I tackle it like post-pronger. production on a film and surgically add or remove stuff until it sounds right. So he'll just take a loop that he's made and just listen to it for hours and just kind of zone in on it and then see what happens from there. And another thing I thought was cool, they ask him, after the piece is complete, how do you

audition the results? I thought that was kind of a cool way to ask that. Yeah, and he says, when I'm working on new material, I find it really important to take the works in progress out of the studio. He says, I'll bounce out temporary mixes, transfer them to my phone and go for a walk or ride my bike to a nearby park

and sit and listen out of the usual context. This helps change my phone. focus from being in that editor's state of mind to being a listener. I thought that was really cool. And I totally get it, man. And I'm like, I'm not like bragging or anything because this isn't impressive. But, you know, and you do this too. We've made mixtapes in our, in our pastime for New Dust, our defunct music blog. And I totally get it. Like when you're piecing together mix tapes and stuff, you know, trying to get these songs to kind of flow together. It does help to, you know, throw your current mix on as an MP3, play it in your car, or, yeah,

throw some headphones on and play it on a walk, you know, through the park or whatever. It kind of helps you, it helps change your mindset. And, yeah, I thought it was cool. that that's his approach as well. So let's listen to Brittle, which is track six. So this is a pretty short album. There's only seven songs in there. Most of them are around, you know, six to eight minutes.

They're all pretty lengthy. So this is the second to last track on the album. And again, this is probably my favorite song on the album. There's just something about it. Let's play it. You know what I'm saying? Like when I say it's like uplifting. Yeah.

Yes. I mean, it's very, there's almost like a melt at the end of the tunnel kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, yeah. There's, it's inspirational almost. Yeah. Like it's something that I've, like, that I'll notice with myself as I'm listening to the song. As it starts out.

and as it builds you get he adds you know that I think you call it a click track or yeah he's adding something

it's another piece of percussion or whatever you know and then like I'll notice that I'm starting to actually kind of move with the song you know what I mean like you don't necessarily start at least I don't start

at that with the song like right as it goes on he starts to add more of the stuff he starts to bring in all of these um percussion hits and whatnot like i start to actually kind of groove with it a little bit like he like it's it builds like you know what i mean there's like some momentum with this song yeah even though even though it you know again the tempo never changes um right it's the same skeleton underneath it and then he just adds on it and it's got this momentum going it's it's layers and layers you know right and this is a

prime example of what we've been trying to you know like like like the one thing that that you need to know if you're going to start listening to down tempo or ambient electronic music it's worth paying attention to because like think about it if if say you're you're hanging out at a friend's house and they've you know they've got their playlist on shuffle and you've in this song pops up but you know all deep in conversation or something, you're not really paying attention to the music in the background. You're probably not even going to notice this song until that click track comes in, you know? If you're not paying attention, sure.

Right, right. But it's just like it's worth the journey that he takes you on. Yeah, but, you know, really, this, like I said earlier, this music is meant for meditation in a way. or it's meant for like you you shouldn't be distracted while you're listening to this music

you know what I mean like this is the kind of music you want to put on if you're working if you're walking like you said earlier like you need to be alone with this music

to really appreciate it you know yeah do throw a collar and leash on your dog take him on a walk and yeah and press play

yeah and that's that's to me if you're a music lover then sometimes there's like There's nothing better than being alone with your music, you know, where it's just you and you're, and you're, you're, you can concentrate on it. You're fully right there with the artist, you know, as they throw in the, the symbol hit or whatever, and you can appreciate that they did that, you know,

and you know that they did it for the, for, for that exact reason, you know, to make you notice it. And, uh, Lossel has always been like the perfect artist for that for me. because of how, like, intimate the music is, you know? Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. This is a great album. It's a good example of kind of what Lassel brings to the table. And that's going to do it for us today, man. We only covered a couple songs, but we gave you a pretty good idea of kind of what

Lossel can do with his songs. Well, yeah, I mean, I think we, you know, we played three. really, we played three songs of his. So you got to hear kind of what he started out doing. And I think when you consider that he started trying to make these sort of abstract representations of like these broad scientific and like physics-based ideas. And then you know that that's kind of like how he cut his teeth in ambient music. and then you listen to what he was doing on first narrows,

you know, it follows like perfectly, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, yeah, I think we did it. Hopefully we did a good job introducing you to Lossel, if you've never heard him, or just maybe introducing you to the idea of like how enjoyable ambient music can be, ambient electronic music, you know.

There's probably a lot of people out there that, you know, maybe don't ever stumble upon this kind of thing, you know? I think I heard Lossel, I think I heard Sigbay for the first time on Pandora. Who knows what artist radio I was listening to, but I think that's how I came upon him. Yeah, dude, Pandora seemed to introduce us to a lot of artists that we love. And it's funny because I stopped using Pandora years ago. I think it's still a thing, dude. I'm pretty sure it's still a thing.

Oh, it absolutely is. Yeah, but I don't use it anymore because basically Spotify came to town and that was the end of it for me. Yeah, and Spotify has its version of what Pandora does. You just, you know, you can play artists radio. So unfortunately, you know, there's this phrase that my old boss used to say, he's like, oh, you got to, you got to dance with the girl that you brought to the prom or whatever. But the point I'm trying to make is like, What?

Okay. Pandora is the... That has to be Chuck, right? You're talking about Chuck? Yeah, Chuck, right. Pandora is the girl that I brought to the prom, but I'm over here dancing with Spotify, you know? Okay.

You feel me? What I'm saying is like, Pandora, like you just said, introduced me to so many different great musicians, but like the prettier girl showed up, and that would be Spotify. Got it. I can't not use Spotify. Spotify, you just can't beat it, you know?

and if I can't immediately go and listen to an album all the way through that that piques my interest, you know, that's where Pandora loses for me. Yeah, because you can't stream full albums. Because I can't, I can't,

yeah, I can't dive deeper. And that's what I'm all, you know, that's what this whole podcast is all about, dude, deep dives, you know.

Yep. Hey, and hey, speaking of diving deeper, if you enjoyed Lossel's tunes, check out our, episodes on Tyco and Tosca, kind of in the same vein. We mentioned them earlier.

Tyco was our second full-length episode. We covered his album, Dive. And then on episode four, we covered Toska's album, Suzuki. So if you enjoyed what you heard today, dive back, you know, jump back into some of our older episodes. listen to those episodes and listen to the side tracks that go along with them. We kind of cover the same kind of music. So that's going to do it for us today.

And as always, you can find everything that you could possibly want and more on our website, no-friller podcast.com. There we've got our show notes. We've got links to our SoundCloud player. You can actually stream our episodes through SoundCloud directly on our website. Our show notes dive a little bit deeper as well. We've got links to any of the articles or interviews that we pull our material from for each episode. You can click a link and subscribe to us on iTunes.

You can also listen to us on pretty much any app, including Stitcher, that streams podcast. We should be up on there. And I don't know what our sidetrack's going to be for Lossville, dude. We haven't figured that out yet. But there's a lot of, there's a lot of ambient electronic artists that I listen to. So, I mean, I could definitely come up with something good. Yeah, yeah, we'll find something cool and interesting. So check back next week.

We'll have our sidetrack episode for Lossel up. And in our next full-length episode, we're going to finish up our Spoonathon, our Spoonfest. We're going to cover their fourth studio album, Gimmie Fiction, and that'll wrap, wrap up our Spoonathon. For now, I'm sure we're going to cover some more of their stuff later on. But until then, why don't you take a deep dive yourself? Listen to some of our older episodes. Comment, subscribe.

Let us know what you think. Tell us how we can improve. We always want to hear from you. And again, that's going to do it for us today. Travis, I believe you've got the outro lined up for us today. Yes. What you got. So Scott Morgan, aka Lossel, if we didn't make that clear enough,

was a guitar player and drummer. He played for rock bands back before he became Lossel, right? So he mentioned that he was into Mathrock. at the time, which, hey, you know what, if you want to hear some more Math Rock, go listen to our Foles episode, where we kind of get into the history of Math Rock and what it is and whatnot. Anyway, one of the bands that he mentioned as not only a Mathrock band that he was into, but also sort of an influence on his, the way he influenced on experience on experience, experimental music, I guess, is this group called Gastro del Sol.

And he was kind of interested in the way that they would sort of interweave guitar and piano. And, you know, there would be a song where there would be a 20-minute, like, drum, really experimental drum percussion thing thrown at the end of a song. So anyway, this is a math rock group. but I would say they're definitely more experimental than they are math rock. I chose a song from them that was more math rock than experimental

just because, you know, we love math rock around here. Anyway, this is called the season reverse and it is on their 1998 album Camelior. I don't know why we always have to pick albums and artists

with hard names to pronounce, but here we are. So again, this is called the Seasons Reverse by a Math Rock group from the 90s called Gaster Del Sol. That'll do it for us this week. Again, my name is Travis and you are Quentin. That's my name. You never let me say it myself too. You're Quentin?

My name is Quentin. All right. we'll talk at you guys next week.