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As the projects title suggest this really is an orchestra with in all 22 people involved in the chaos with-in & Through it stays in the noise genre fairly squarely for it's running time there are improv, electro acoustic & junk band elements at play too.
This three way collaboration is a real manic attack on the sensors, yet it also has great moments of alien beauty too. The album mixers deranged guitar runs, seemingly impossible and space funked bass patterns, complex and battering percussion, and the odd shot of demented vocal attacks too.
Highgate are a 3 piece doom project from Kentucky USA and this self titled album is their first grim sonic vomit onto the world at large. The albums made up of one long 54 minute track that for the most part makes an impressive, inventive and rewardingly grim apocalyptic doom listening.
From the heart of the town is the 2nd album from London based Gallon Drunk and their mix of psychobilly, garage rock, surf, jazzy noir sound-scapes. Originally released in 1993- here it’s given a reissue with 8 great extra tracks adding on.
Having been very taken with The Owl Service's wonderful debut album A Garland of Song and its refreshing and rewarding take on English folk and folk/rock, I was very egger to hear this collaboration with Alison O'Donnell (of Irish prog-folk group Mellow Candle).
Suzuki Junzo is a guitarist and vocalist known for his involvement in the Overhang Party, Miminokoto, Astral Travelling Unity, 20 Guilders, aside from his solo work and a couple of collaborative efforts. Pieces for Hidden Circles is volume 8 of Utech Records' "Arc" series, a consistently high quality line of recordings, most of which are guitar oriented. Each of these releases are appointed with classy and beautifully printed photographs by Max Aguillera-Hellweg, and the concept of the series is for each artist to tie the music to the photography. The fact that there is a distinctive personality to each volume is what makes this series so intriguing and artistically complex.
With Wasteland USA based Abhorrent strain kicks up one hell of a lot of noise debris. It’s the same mind behind Abhorrent Strain as the stalk and suffering noise project Thirteen fingers, but Abhorrent Strain has none of Thirteen Fingers atmospheric/ serial killer creepy edge. Wasteland goes straight for the throat and never lets go with it’s noisy junk meet crashing static tones.
Living underground is an ambient/ field recording cross breed, which as it’s title suggest takes all of it’s sound elements from field recordings of underground tube stations and other subterranean urban spaces then manipulates them into atmospheric and deep sounding expanses.
According to the late great Frank Zappa certain instruments have 'Humour Something' (HS in short), something inherently funny about the sound of the instrument. One instrument that has that HS for me is bass clarinet.
Passing out is the third album in the BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa series of collaborative albums & much like the other albums in the series this is made up of deep drone textures and field recordings.
Commonwealth is a single long form piece of hypnotic, captivating and dense drone craft by US sound artist Brendan Murray- this is his forth full length release.
Letters Letters are a trio based out of Montreal consisting of Mitchell Akiyama, Tony Boggs and Jenna Robertson. Though Akiyama has worked with each artist in the past, this is their first collaboration as a trio. The album resists pigeonholing because it takes several different approaches to songwriting. The unifying factor is the production, which is somewhat unique; almost all of the instruments, and vocals for that matter, sound close-mic'ed and over-driven. The instrumentation consists of analog synths (I'm assuming, that's what it sounds like), acoustic and electric guitars, hand percussion, and possibly some real cymbals and drums. The over-driven production is not over the top, as you may imagine. It's gauzy and reverb drenched. You could tag it as post-rock if you wanted to over-simplify, I suppose.
Legends Act 3-Cults is an cinematic, strange and often rhythmically rich but always atmospheric journey into the sounds of eleven invented cults by Swedish based fantasy music project Za Frûmi.
Défilé Des Ames take on folk is heavy with gothic grandeur and lush melancholy air as the acoustic guitars intricate and sombre melodics are often serenaded by cello, French horn and clarinet. Yet it also has it’s more up-beat/ fiery moments too with racing percussion and folk/ rock galloping pace-all making this a very distinct and original sounding album.
Heroinloops offers up a rewarding mix of head slamming concrete old school industrial music often lined with noise sharpness and greyed dronescapes /bleak abounded ambience. Primed perfectly for either creepy wonderings or neck snapping work outs.
With Stratification Wold return with their third slice of grim noise meets black metal cross breed and this time around been a bit more varied than past works as well as adding in a more droning/ dense sound with atmospheric underbelly to many of the tracks.
Netherworld is a project by Italian sound artist Allesandro Tedeschi. Kall: The Abyss Where Dreams Fall is a four part suite in the vein of what might be described as dark ambient in the classic sense. It retains a bit of Tedeschi's proclivity toward chilly arctic atmospheres for which he is known, giving it a little something to distinguish it from such influences as Lustmord and SPK, among others. It is a fairly dark album, and it has its moments. The use of light and shade is probably the best component to Kall. On occasion deep bass tones provide an underpinning for the sharp electronic tones. Also, cavernous reverb is used to add dramatic effect to the clanging, ghostly sounds.
The Progeny of Flies finds Liles and Menche presenting a heady, atmospheric and disturbed suite of songs built around darkly hued ambient tone, sustained organ dread, creepy and sinister looped subtle rhythmic elements and simple yet damn creepy piano notation.
This is an remixed and remaster reissue of Brighter Death Now 1995 classic album of unforgiving death industrial and sludge ambient tone with an second disk featuring an equally mournful, painful and vomited black live set from the same period .
Hey Colossus sound is a mixture of churning kraut rock groove, murky punk, doom and metal, All to make pounding and unrelenting, yet hypnotic sound. Happy birthday is their fourth album and first on Riot season.
Sharron Kraus is one of the most prolific, yet consistent and rewarding English folk artists working today with her solo work and various projects such as the excellent Rosalina & Tau Emerald. The Fox's Wedding is her 8th solo album since she started to releasing work in 2002.
Meso Meso debut album is knee deep in child like melodies, tinkinling tones, accordion playing and cute pop vibe.Think a more cute ‘n’ cuddly day-glow Mum with out electronics, with more folk learning’s and some quirky sampled elements.
Minamo, not to be confused with the Japanese band called Minamo, is a joint venture of Carla Kihlstedt (known from working in projects and bands like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Cosa Brava, Tin Hat (Trio), Charming Hostess and 2 Foot Yard) and jazzpianist and composer Satoko Fujii, who worked with many musicians, like Misha Mengelberg, Jim Black, Tatsuya Yoshida and Paul Bley and regularly with Natsuki Tamura with whom she runs a label called Libra.
Perhaps I Arrive was original conceived in 1997 as a long form drone work to be played in Atatürk Airport in Istanbul- but the airport authorities rejected it so Carl Michael came up with 4 more tracks that were used instead- this double disk set brings together the original un-used but superb piece and the four sneering easy-listening tracks that were excepted.