Bill Van Loo

Musician

Electronic music, live performance, and sound as a teaching tool — where the instruments are often built as much as they are played.

Writing

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new release: heavyweight trouble

I am very pleased to announce that my new record "heavyweight trouble" is out now on Bandcamp. You can buy it today, or wait until Bandcamp Friday…

ambient guitar + tape

I love being able to get into the studio late at night to try out ideas and relieve stress. Tonight, it was some experiments with ambient guitar + tape…

Linen Ray launches new website

I am extremely pleased to announce that Linen Ray has launched their new website at linenray.com. Linen Ray is the musical duo of Rebekah and Gabriel…

2013 in review - a personal reflection

In the past, I've often compiled lists of favorite records,or of books I've read (here's books from 2011, for example) , but this year I've curated a…

2012 year in review - music

This was an interesting year for me, musically. Bill Van Loo album update - May 2012 I started a new album project in the first 5 months of the year with…

new solo album: monthly updates

As I mentioned in my last blog post about my music, I've been working on a new solo album during 2012. Here are links to my last few updates, which I'm…

new album project in the works

I've decided to record a new solo album during 2012. More details and an announcement video can be found on my label's site, chromedecay…

Favorite music of 2011

As in many years past, I've compiled a list of what music really grabbed hold of me this year. 2011 saw me spending much time working on one musical…

favorite albums of 2009

At heart, I'm still a DJ, and what good DJ goes without making lists of favorite music? (examples: 2005, 2006, winter listening, some favorites from early…

favorite records of 2010

As in past years (here's last year's list), I made a list of my favorite records from 2010. As always, this is an entirely personal list, not an attempt…

Some recent listening

Being a DJ at heart, I tend to clump music together in terms of like-mindedness, and I'm forever putting together playlists in iTunes. Here are a few sets…

top 9 records for 2006

As I've done for many years now, I present you my top records for 2006. Since my days of buying massive amount of vinyl and other recorded music are gone…

winter listening favorites

Here's a list from a mix I put together to showcase some of what I've been listening to lately. Winter usually nudges me toward quiet, introspective…

Shaun Groves and his recent experiences

This is quite simply some of the most powerful writing I've read recently. Shaun Groves, a musician whose work I only know a tiny fragment of, but whose…

best of 2005

As is customary for me, here are my "best of" lists for 2005. These are the records, songs and live performances that meant the most to me over the past…

John Davis interview

I read this interview with John Davis, former lead singer for Superdrag, and was really moved by it. I love the way he documents his experience in…

Tortoise ponderings

Is it just me, or is the drum part from Tortoise's "Seneca" one of the absolute best drum tracks ever? So raw, so funky, so noisy and restrained and…

Josh Garrels: a new favorite

Thanks to my friend Josue at shameless, I got turned on to a new artist who has quickly become a new favorite: Josh Garrels. Thanks to his generosity, you…

half-handed cloud makes me smile

Half-handed cloud, the artist on the extremely eclectic label Sounds Familyre, makes me smile big-time. I've heard it described as "Goofy childrens-church…

upcoming gigs in May

I'll be playing two upcoming gigs in May. Thursday, May 19, 2005: solo at Agora Coffeehouse I will be playing a solo set of music. Sometimes on guitar or…

audioscrobbler knows me now.

One nice thing about using Audioscrobbler for a while - top ten lists sure are easy! Here's my top artist list, for example, after using the service for…

seven swans

I know this is the second post about Sufjan Stevens in a short period of time, but I just got Seven Swans, and oh man it's good. I know I'm about 6 months…

audioscrobbler!

After using Audioscrobbler for about a month and getting some tracks built up in the system, I have to say I'm really enjoying it. I actually find myself…

Sufjan Stevens - "Woman at the well"

PasteMusic has a great song by Sufjan Stevens entitled "woman at the well" available as a free mp3 download on their site. Makes me want to get a set of…

2004 "best of" lists

I posted this on the front page of chromedecay, but thought I'd also capture it here, too. No year-end recap would be complete without some top 10 lists…

top tracks of 2005 thus far

A few favorite tracks for 2005 so far (all vaguely centered around hip-hop, though only the Mars ILL tracks are really anything "purist"). Mat Kearney…

The Shins!

You may have known about The Shins for years by now, but I'm just getting into them right now. Their record "Chutes So Narrow" is super good pop music (a…

top 5 hip-hop tracks of the moment

New Breed, "Love" (from "Nine", on Uprok) Who in hip-hop drops a line like "And rock it til the hands of time on clocks stop / til the speakers get burned…

Mutek wrap-up forthcoming...

Wow, there's a lot of dust around here. Sort of like my studio before I started the massive clean-up effort that I engaged in immediately after returning…

dert - "fledgling"

My favorite album of the moment (for the last week or so, really...) is Dert's "fledgling". It's my "Endtroducing...." for the spring/summer, I think…