March 4, 2005 | Posted by mark at 12:35 PM

One Track Each Month

Schnauss!
Ulrich Schnauss - As If You've Never Been Away.

With a melody borrowed from U2, and a sweet static-laced drum shuffle, this track is a perfect one to listen to while the clouds part and the sun bursts through on this soggy Friday morning here in Los Angeles.

Berlin's Ulrich Schnauss has been crafting electronic music of varying styles for many years now, but it wasn't until 2003's A Strangely Isolated Place that people really started to take notice. The album has been a real sleeper, getting sales mostly by word of mouth. It didn't hurt that his label was City Centre Offices, who work both in Berlin and Manchester. It was released in the US by Domino.

This track, a favorite of mine, comes from the bonus cd from that album. You can pick it up from Tonevendor or forced exposure, but it no longer comes with the bonus disc. Which is why I posted a track here. If you haven't heard it already, Ulrich's album is a fantastic piece of ambient music. Highly recommended.

Be sure to check his site for tour dates. He'll be at SXSW and touring the US with M83 this spring.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I've been doing some house cleaning in the inbox, and here are some pretty solid streams I found. So for those of you feeling guilty about downloading our other tracks, you can click these bad boys with no remorse. All of these guys have albums coming out very soon, and are worth checking out.

Futureheads "Decent Days and Nights" Audio: [win media] [.mov stream]

Blue Merle "Burning in the Sun" Audio: [win media] [real audio]

Aqualung "Strange and Beautiful" Audio: [win media]

Ash "Clones" Video:[win media] [.mov stream]

Reject False Icons
And don't forget to check out the new Reject False Icons site for the Gorillaz. Looks interesting. They've also got a bunch of fun little flash games up at their site:

Pong
Russel Says
Shooting Range

Comments

That Ulrich Schnauss is really nice...and just what I needed as I plow through the rest of my exams. Thanks for posting it and the innumerable other bands/groups/noisemakers you've turned me on to through this site!

Posted by: stressball at March 4, 2005 1:46 PM

I have fallen in love with Ulrich Schnauss' graceful, blissed-out dreamfests we call music and this is no exception. i didn't know about the bonus CD and i feel stupid i missed out. Thanks for posting! Buy this record! Ulrich rules.

Posted by: Tim at March 4, 2005 1:51 PM

good stuff - thanks!

Posted by: LLcoolJason at March 4, 2005 4:46 PM

that was bliss. thankyou.

Posted by: bluherb at March 4, 2005 9:28 PM

If I recall correctly, the bonus disc was sent out by Domino as a promo (packaged with the album, of course)... Then the licensing hit a crap-shoot so when the album was released by Domino, there was no second disc. Sad, but true.

Posted by: Rob at March 4, 2005 11:00 PM

The above poster's essentially got it right - the second "bonus" disc was never commercially available - that's a promo disc that never was, more or less! This particular track was an exclusive to the 2xCD "The Trip" mix by Tom Middleton...

Another nugget for you all - if you're fans, Schnauss has a few free MP3 downloads up on his website now - link's below, click on the download link? "A Lie For Breakfast" is the best of the lot to my ears, apparently one that ended up on the cutting room floor as opposed to being included on Schnauss' first album "Far Away Trains Passing By" :)

http://www.ulrich-schnauss.net/

Posted by: Brock at March 6, 2005 11:25 PM

Aqualung's "Strange and Beautiful" is a great song. It was featured on the "Wicker Park" soundtrack. I get chills everytime I hear it.

Posted by: Megan at March 8, 2005 1:29 PM
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