I love 14 tracks. And I love the latest 14 tracks for the city at night.
"Inspired by the dark and magical view of industrial North Manchester from our office windows, this two and a half hour selection of tracks is intended to complement the mise-en-scene of the urban environment for insomniacs and night owls...We recommend experiencing this music with the lights down low and the subliminal hum of air vents, distant traffic and electrical appliances as your ambient surround sound."
I listen to a lot of this kind of stars of the lid / deaf center / Leyland Kirby home listening / modern classical stuff, often as a drifting off to sleep soundtrack. But I've never pegged it to a specifically urban aesthetic. One waft of Burial or somesuch into the headphones and I'm immediately immersed in a Nico Hogg-esque vision of a South London Borough or reminded of driving late night through London or Manchester. Machinfabriek seems rooted in Berlin (although I don't even know if he's from there). Somehow I've always had more pastoral, seascapey or even starscapey associations with this stuff. Which with much of this and certainly say Hilda Gudnadottir that is maybe appropriate. But the urban angle makes a lot of sense. Most contemporary music is after all the art form of the contemporary city. I'm going to enjoy recalibrating some of these sounds and imagining those North Manchester cityscapes.
