Strategy's Ambient Mix Will Soothe Your Winter Blues

Welcome to THUMP's Labels in Residency series, where an esteemed record label takes over our (CMS) decks, showering DJ mixes on you like manna from heaven. Crank the foam machine, lower the disco ball, and check back here often—there'll be a different party every two weeks. Now up: the ambient and experimental trailblazers, Kranky.

If you're looking for a soundtrack to go hog wild to, some adrenaline-pumping tunes to accompany a night of crashing luxury cars and fondling stripper tits, maybe look somewhere else. But if you're looking for music with a little more restraint, ah, hey there—welcome. Presenting: Kranky, the Chicago-based label that has been cranking out ambient, psychedelic and chill-out goodness for the last twenty-odd years. Their catalog, which is now spiraling into the triple digits, is perhaps best known for titles from Deerhunter, God Speed You Black Emperor, and other champions of the so-called "post-rock" scene. Celebrated for its hardy forays into experimental music, Kranky is also considered somewhat of a sleeper label by some, and a criminally underrated cornerstone of Chicago's underground by many.

Perhaps no other artist on the roster is more emblematic of Kranky's abstract eclecticism than Strategy (Paul Dickow), a prolific Portlander with a hand in several other pots, including the space jazz-y band Fontanelle, the agit-art-punk group Emergency (now defunct), and the IDM trio Nudge. He's also the director of the Community Library label, co-founder of the indie imprint Archigramophone… and apparently doesn't need much sleep. His down-tempo offering for Kranky Record's first week with our Labels in Residence series opens, most fittingly, with archival audio footage from Apollo 13. The rest of the mix is a cosmic haze of piano tinkles, laconic reverb, and globby basslines, floating at zero gravity above nostalgically satisfying scratches, random hisses, and pops. Stick through the end for gorgeous standouts from minimal/ambient masters like Jetone (Tim Hecker), Khan & Walker, and Klaus. Don't (fall) sleep on this.

Tracklist:

Andrew Pekler - "Roses On Piano"

Man On The Moon – The Flight of Apollo 11

White Rainbow - "Warm Clicked Fruit"

Tomorrowland - "Sea of Tranquility"

Robert Ashley - "Automatic Writing"

KLF - Excerpt from Chill Out LP

Strategy - "Drumsolo's Delight"

loscil - "Khanamoot"

Pan American - "For A Running Dog"

if.then.else - "Pause"

ISAN - "Betty's Lament"

Mouse On Mars - "Chagrin"

Khan/Walker - "Empire State Building"

Jetone - "Thousand Oaks"

Kit Clayton - "Surba"

Klaus - "Neph"

Chris Herbert - "As Blue As Your Eyes Lover"

@MichelleLHOOQ