VoF 002: m.cro

A dark ambient mix to fuel your next tripped out RPG binge.

20 possible endings

VoF is a newsletter, digital zine, and record club dedicated to showcasing experimental music and documenting the lives of a group of underground artists and their insights into what creating art means. This newsletter will feature releases, mixes, interviews, art, and words curated by Mike Sheffield. 

For the second installment of the VoF newsletter, we are joined by Ridgewood’s M.Crowley, who presents a mind-melting 75 minute mix of dark ambient and experimental electronics.   

On a hot spring Saturday evening, we linked up over Zoom to talk about skate videos, depersonalization, and vibe-healing quarantine activities.

Explain the inspiration behind this mix.

I knew I wanted to make something droney and spaced out since I feel that being in quarantine and watching the pandemic unfold has felt like a slow motion shock where my sense of time is way off... Everything blurring together, kind of like when you’re lying down in the chill out room not sure if 5 minutes or 5 hours have passed, or like this time when I got hit by a car while skating and hours passed and I went to the hospital and got home super late at night completely surprised when I checked the time. I’ve also felt inspired by some amazing streams that have happened recently, like the ones on 9128.live with the Mysteries of the Deep takeover (I actually played Gunnar Haslam’s track in the mix off their new comp), Patrick Russel’s ambient marathon for the Bunker, and this one called the Quarantine Concerts which had an amazing performance by Lea Bertucci. I think a lot of people are in a similar boat as me where dance music isn’t their go-to at the moment, either because it feels like too much of a party or because it’s meant to be listened to in a crowd or on a huge sound system. 

I’ve done a few other mixers, like two for my coworker Selene who runs a show called Special Circumstances on Intergalactic.fm's Dream Machine. But this one feels more filled out, whereas the others had more empty space. 

Who are some of the artists that you featured? 

Organic Dial, Time Machines, Pavel Milyakov, Pontiac Streator and Ulla Straus, Otilo, William Selman, Gunnar Haslam, Mika Vainio, Drum Komputer, Alessando Andriani, Orphax, David Toop, Ancestral Voices.

What has your life been like in quarantine? What music has been sounding better to you, what music have you drifted away from?

I was actually talking to someone today about how I feel, and I came up with the analogy of feeling like I'm on a raft, floating in fog. I can’t see very far, there’s not currently any huge waves but maybe they’re coming at any moment, so I’m just making sure things on my raft are in good shape. I feel like I’m just maintaining. I cook my food, I get work done, I clean my place, I read up on what's happening, I tune out of the news and play video games or work on some creative stuff, and I have no idea where this is all going or what's going to happen. As for music like I said I’ve been listening to less dance music, slower and more experimental or ambient stuff. In addition to the streams I mentioned I was also listening to the marathon Autechre streams for a while because they were just wild, playing a massive range of music from metal, hip hop, gamelan, acid, or shit that just sounds like scratching and crackling. 

I love the skate videos you’ve been posting on your IG. What makes a good skate track to you? 

For those little instagram edits, I’ve actually enjoyed using techno or some weird electronic thing. They’re usually short loops so it's okay if it's something really repetitive (functional dance music often doesn’t go that well in skate videos because you want some more frequent changes to edit to). For the last one I made, I used a one bar loop. I spent a while trying to make it sound like James Ruskin (he has some amazing late 90s early 00’s loopy stuff). For songs to put in skate videos in general, that's a really hard one to answer because a lot of stuff can work and song choice is super important for a good edit on a full part. Some of my favorite parts are edited to hip hop, jazz, metal, or more recently a trend that popped up has actually been to put some dance music in a part but to do a mix half way through to break up the repetition, like in Bronze or Palace videos. I think 80s synthy stuff can work really well too, like in Polar videos. 

What quarantine activities would you recommend to someone who is in a bad way?

Well, that’s really hard to say without knowing in what bad way. But I’ve been making a concerted effort to move around (walking, skating, doing “no equipment home workouts”) and getting some sun/fresh air (obviously far away from people). One problem for me especially at first was the constant refreshing of depressing and infuriating news, as well as just absolutely terrible takes and back and forths on social media. There’s just no good news. It's tough because you want and need to stay up to date but also need to take your mind off of it all. I’ve been finding watching something like a movie or show isn’t engaging enough so I’ve actually been playing a good bit of video games. They’re so wild now and for most of my adult life I’ve played very little.

What video games have you been playing?

I played a bunch of Bloodborne at first which is cool, extremely difficult at first but that's the best thing about it. The kind of werewolves/Lovecraftian psychic horror story is cool, and the simple but actually really complex fighting mechanic is unlike anything I’ve played. I also played Doom Eternal which is just over the top extreme, like eyes bleeding intense. And the nu-metal soundtrack is hilariously sick. The last one I played is this game Nier Automata, which is a really incredible action RPG, reminds me of this kind of experimental anime called Mind Game which is famous for having a looping story that folds in on itself, multiple animation styles, and a credits roll about ⅔ of the way through the movie. Nier also loops, has like 20 possible endings, and has multiple types of game play from top down old Grand Theft Auto type-fighting to behind the body 3rd person view, to a bullet hell type scrolling shooter. 

Do you think you’ll go to the beaches this summer?

I really have no idea. I have no way of predicting when it will make sense to start trying to figure out how to see people or make choices about how much risk is worth taking or what. I don’t see any end in sight at all right now so I’m not counting on anything.