> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://wlxpvn.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# music: august 26
- URL: https://wlxpvn.com/blog/music-26-08/
- Published: 2026-09-06T17:57:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-06T17:57:32.000Z
- Description: on the solar eclipse, collective attention and mass intimacy – plus a month of ambient, dub techno and club music
- Author: wlad
- Tags: wav

What I loved most about the solar eclipse in August was that everyone stopped to look at the same thing in the sky, at the same time! The eclipse itself is a cool natural phenomenon (not as captivating as a full moon though!). However, as a social phenomenon, it creates an increasingly rare sense of belonging to the same moment.

I thought about shared experiences a lot over the last few weeks and landed on the term **collective attention**. There are multiple dimensions to this.

A shared experience can be open or coded. Open means it’s accessible to anyone who participates, without much explaining needed (sunsets, fireworks, first snowfall, a full moon, or a solar eclipse). Coded means some background knowledge is needed to participate (in-jokes, cultural background, lyrics at concert singalongs or karaoke).

An experience can also be shared with many people as part of a large group (counting down to midnight on New Year’s Eve), or with few people (locking eyes with that one other person who also anticipates that next beat drop).

All of this raises a few stray thoughts:

- Even if you don’t know the other people around you, for a few minutes, you feel intimate with each other. It’s almost an oxymoron, but *mass intimacy* seems to describe it well.
- Sharing attention seems to be transforming the experience itself into an interaction. With just one other person looking at the sunset with you, all of a sudden you’re interacting: “I know that you are looking at this, and you know that I am looking at it, too.”
- Being in sync, being there at the same time together, seems to be the most important part. In a digital on-demand world, everyone can live an experience on their own schedule. For example, TV shows used to air on a fixed weekly schedule, and everyone talked about the same events the next day. Nowadays, some people binge watch, while others wait for all seasons to come out, and no one talks with each other.

Sharing experiences makes them better! With that said, here is my listening journal for August, [all tracks on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5U4SsNGQbSxEoNbtLTbB7Z?ref=wlxpvn.com).

# Eclipse

- **Album:** [**The Dead Texan – The Dead Texan**](https://open.spotify.com/album/55mLyioYUt6V3TxkFObTEo?ref=wlxpvn.com) **(one-time side quest by Adam Wiltzie from Stars of the Lid; very peaceful, melancholic and cinematic ambient)**
- Album: [Charles.A.D. – Luminous](https://open.spotify.com/album/2TMX4vay9XCvAJxpttiBeM?ref=wlxpvn.com) (repetitive warm and calm dub techno, glassy chords, good music to think and work to; hard to tell the tracks apart, but the title track stands out with a tiny vocal chop looping and slowly getting louder; fav track: Luminous)
- Album: [Higher Intelligence Agency – Colourform](https://open.spotify.com/album/4mTqs8onoAtoUIPXvJ0tO5?ref=wlxpvn.com) (early 90s ambient techno / dub album I spent time with this month, very futuristic, spacey, slow acid lines over dubby beats; fav tracks: Spectral, Speedlearn (Empathy Mix), Re-echo)
- EP: [Martinou – Ever Changing](https://open.spotify.com/album/6AtHrdIngrULzxxePoq88C?ref=wlxpvn.com) (melodic, melancholic, progressive – I love ambient and I love breaks, so no surprise I fall for ambient breaks (hello Placid Angels, Aphex Twin), even when they get somewhat cheesy; fav tracks: Unfold, Continuum)
- **EP:** [**other joe – the best is yet to come**](https://open.spotify.com/album/7FqF2icRmInvR7jOnLj0Og?ref=wlxpvn.com) **(slow, heavy trip hop; fav track "inhale the Mist", it's very chill and floaty until the AG Club "Memphis" vocal drops halfway and you want to get up and energetically swing your arms)**
  - Album: [other joe – Flawless](https://open.spotify.com/album/0PahvJwtUTkH4Ac5qaNg0K?ref=wlxpvn.com) ([mentioned Flawless in December](https://wlxpvn.com/blog/music-25-12/), had time to get into the full album now and it's just as good, IDM ambient, very cool sound!)

# Flare

- Album: [Unspecified Enemies – Romance in the Age of Adaptive Feedback](https://open.spotify.com/album/1PPYxTxQIjs8Gm23YQ2H8Q?ref=wlxpvn.com) (90s style detroit techno + electro; fav tracks: Her Husband is a Lawyer, Mathematics Parc)
- **Album:** [**DJ Swisha – First Hand Smoke**](https://open.spotify.com/album/5M6JiEs4uiMCTXNkyffytx?ref=wlxpvn.com) **(I'm getting more into bmore / jersey club, this also has some electro, very fun, good for listening at home and out, as long as you can move to it)**
- **Album:** [**Gold Panda – TON UP**](https://open.spotify.com/album/5iQAfeKPOroT201igMqPsI?ref=wlxpvn.com) **(repetitive, raw, energetic house, lo-fi and loud (**[**on purpose?**](https://ra.co/features/4472?ref=wlxpvn.com)**), which is apparently what makes it outsider house according to RYM; fav track: DING THE MOTOR)**
- **EP:** [**Djrum – I Wander**](https://open.spotify.com/album/02yCblfjlo1MFWBMLWXwbr?ref=wlxpvn.com) **(ambient breaks (hello again!), very fast, hectic, experimental and unpredictable; fav parts: II, IV + V, as well as the alien intro and ambient outro)**

# Halo

Beyond the tracks I mentioned above, the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5U4SsNGQbSxEoNbtLTbB7Z?ref=wlxpvn.com) has a lot of other music I (re-)discovered or just had fun with in August:

- Black Rave Culture released their full album.
- In anticipation of John Beltran's new album, Sunrise and the Way We Live (11 September 2026) I listened to a lot of his older music.
- I tried to figure out what my favourite Chemical Brothers album was (Surrender? Or was it Exit Planet Dust??). Btw, how cool is it that Eris Drew & Octo Octa announced their new joint project and it's called [Alchemical Sisters](https://ra.co/news/85842?ref=wlxpvn.com)? (Is this the beginning of a [big beat](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4KnFaS4DMvmY4LdEDRRVIK?ref=wlxpvn.com) revival?)
- And, of course, lots more ambient, ambient techno, house and dub techno!

Thanks for reading!

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/41/b6/41b66770-b7e4-4fac-ae78-6c18aefb4c6a/content/images/2026/09/music-26-08-sun.webp) 

Subscribe for more :)

Subscribe 

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.