Where have all the flowers gone? - a 1978 BBC film that traces the hippies of ten years ago to find out how they are living today.

Fire On The Mountain - Andrew Ryce writes about his experience during the LA fires.

Related: Entire Arnold Schoenberg Musical Archive Lost in LA Fires

Some Mood Machine links:

1. What Spotify took from us by giving us everything - review by Elizabeth Lopatto
2. Music for nothing and your chill playlists for free: a new book by Liz Pelly on the horror story of Spotify - review by Sasha Frere-Jones
3. Liz Pelly Wrote a Book About Spotify and the "Systemic Grift" of Streaming - interview with Shawn Reynaldo (paywalled)

When Electronic Music Became 'Electronic Music' by Sean Albiez

Chris Zaldua talks to James Whipple, aka M.E.S.H. about his new alias Hesaitix and album Noctian Airgap

"Why Physical Album Variants Have Exploded in the Streaming Era"

From Giorgio Moroder's use of a sequencer in dance music to Roger Linn inventive use of quantization and swing in drum programming, Attack Magazine cover 10 Key Moments in Music Production History

All the authors that were featured on Tamara Palmer's Music Book Club choose their favourite music books of 2024

Longform: Exiting the Vampire Algorithm - an article from last summer by Chris Zaldua on defeating the algorithms:

In music, the algorithm is responsible for a flattening of discovery, a horizontalization of possibility, a one-size-fits-all approach to curation.

‘I don’t like being revered’: Brian Eno on art, AI, and why he hates talking about David Bowie

‘You’re so creative!’, and in that they’re saying: ‘I’m just a guy with a humdrum job who never thinks of anything new.’ And I want to say: ‘Just fucking get up off your knees and be proud of yourself! Don’t put it on me to be your agent in the world to do brilliant things.’

Fifteen years since its release, Kind of Bloop, an 8-Bit Tribute to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, is being released on vinyl.

"The UK music industry is reporting record revenues. The reality is much gloomier" - much gloomier for artists, that is. Eamonn Forde says that measuring the success of an album today is impossible:

Streaming comprised around 85% of the total recorded music market last year, while physical sales made up 13%, and downloads the remainder.

...streaming effectively is the market.

What If We Were Wrong About Pono? Ten years since its ill-fated launch Nate Rogers revisits the hi-res audio player designed by Neil Young

Shawn Reynaldo rues the demise of XLR8R.

David Hillier writes for Mixmag, exploring current drug use in the music scene, specifically by millennials, and its devastating results.

Matt Karmil in the mix for Feel My Bicep with ten of his own tracks

Song of the Atom: Electronic Music before 1945, a new newsletter from Sean Albiez. Recent article: Lee de Forest and his Orchestra of Audions - The audion vacuum tube and early developments in electronic music

An old article written by Meaghan Garvey about The Caretaker's magnum opus Everywhere at the end of time and how its themes touched a wide range of people on TikTok

Ticket resale prices for live UK events to be capped in crackdown on touts - a government initiative to prevent tickets touts

Six Tracks #61

1. Varg - Stoorn
2. Evigt Mörker - Hemliga eldar
3. Milton Bradley - Transitive Relation
4. Jas Shaw - Dawn Gleams Like Mercury
5. V/Z - It is cold in Baltimore
6. Nat Birchall - Further Shores

The Complete History of the Music Video: From the 1890s to Today - 3 hour video

All the authors that were featured on Tamara Palmer's Music Book Club choose their favourite music books of 2024

This week's RA podcast mix courtesy of upsammy

I wanted to make a mix with a narrative. Something that slowly builds up in intensity, towards a more ravey moment and then also the melancholic moment afterwards.

Unsettling experimental Jazz from Maria Bertel who makes her trombone sound like heavy guitar: Monophonic

Love is the Message is a podcast hosted by Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert which explores connections between music, dance and politics. There's over 140 episodes to dig into, including Beat Down Babylon: Reggae Arrives which looks at the birth of Reggae in Jamaica.

Gwyneth Paltrow says her Spotify Wrapped data was wrong

Spotify has faced a number of conspiracy theories from music enthusiasts throughout the year, with many questioning why artists like Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter appeared in their most listened-to artists

Brian Eno on AI

The Wire’s Releases of the Year 2024 playlist

Andrew Ryce wrote about his fav albums of the year in Futureproofing #8: The Best Of 2024

Ben Cardew write about the new Aphex Twin album Music From The Merch Desk - a true reflection of Aphex’s chaotic genius and (separately) about the connections between Altern-8 and Detroit Techno.

The latest vinyl-only mix from Sputnik Rekordz: Habibi Funk's captivating musical journey from the Arab World to Southeast Asia

A Crash Course in Jazz Appreciation by Brett & Kate McKay. I love their opening gambit:

It’s the music that many men say they like, but don’t actually know anything about.

Here's my year in music summarised by last.fm. There's also a fancy animated version with insights and opinion called Playback but I believe that you need to be logged into your last.fm account to view it.

"Spotify is hardly the only platform offering functional music playlists. There is one company which offers ONLY that: Endel" 

Via Spotify’s fake artists vs. Endel

The season's best wishes to you all! I'm enjoying a bit of downtime at the moment, I hope you are able to too.

I've lined up an end-of-year post (for publication some time in the next week) but in the meantime, in case you missed them, I made five mixtapes to reflect my year in music (covering Ambient, Jazz, Dub & Reggae, Techno and Pop). You can download each on the website or stream them on Soundcloud.

A quick note to say that I've scheduled five mixes that represent my year in music. Covering Ambient, Jazz, Dub & Reggae, Techno and Pop, the first one will appear tomorrow, with a new one on subsequent days.

Five of the best music books of 2024 according to Alexis Petridis

Philip Sherburne list his fav 16 LPs of the year, alongside 30 more exceptionally good ones

This week's Resident Advisor exchange with Berghain's infamous bouncer Sven Marquardt

basscomesaveme with their musical highlights of 2024

‪Chris Thorpe-Tracey has produced a 'zine ‪with all his best bits of writing from 2024 called Just A Truffle Race to the End.

Related: his song obsessions of 2024

I put together a thread of festive albums, if you're needing some inspiration

38 new tracks from Aphex Twin: Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023)

The Ghosts in the Machine by Liz Pelly, who highlights that Spotify has been accused of filling its popular playlists with cheap stock music from ghost artists to save on royalty costs, and the effect this has on independent musicians.

Listen to Silent Night by William Basinski

I updated the massive Ambient compilation I put together in the summer to cover the whole of 2024. Now includes more than 80 tracks! Just stick it on, and it'll last all day!

"don’t tell me to chill I’m the chillest guy in the fucking room" - a new mix of downtempo tracks from Mr Mitch

Boomkat's annual collection of top tracks of the year, as chosen by an elite squad of muscians and cool musos. I particularly like The Caretaker's selection