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High Mountain Tempel make swirling, psychedelic, spacey, dread filled and dark ritual chocked soundscapes with a mix of guitar, theremin, vocal effects, effects peddles and ltd percussive matter. A screaming comes across the sky is the projects first release.
This wonderful double disk collection shows a very different and often un-noisy side to one of the originators of the Power electronics genre Kevin Tomkins(Sutcliffe Jügend, Ex whitehouse,ect), with the tracks going from drone and ambient, electroncia, modern classical, electro- acoustics and all over the experimental map really to make a wholly consistent and rewarding set that will appeal to any experimental music fan.
Automne Fold follows the trend of many recent Raster-Noton releases by taking their distinctive and often clinically minimalist electronic sound into new and fascinating sonic places. Automne Fold is possible one of the most accessible, dense and atmospheric release so far on the label with some tracks even featuring vocals.
Bff is a day glow often dense mix of electroinca, hip-hop beats, disco, funk and jazz with the album starting off quite hectic and all over the place with beats, funky bass lines, synth, smoky sax and all manner cut up samples come at you from all angles, but later on it gets a bit more atmospheric and a bit more laid-back.
Wooden Shjips self-titled debut was a strange, yet cohesive album which was preceded by couple of hard to come by 7"'s and a 10", which were gobbled up very quickly. Vol. 1 performs the laudable service of collecting those releases for those who missed out the first time around. Last years' album, (also on the superb Holy Mountain label) included a lot of the elements hinted at in the grooves of the singles, yet in a more refined, somewhat more laid back form.
Paralyzed is the second album by Witch, a band who have generated a little ink as a result of the occupant of their drum seat, J. Mascis. Of course J. is better known as the guitarist and lead singer of indie-legends Dinosaur Jr., but his influence doesn't appear to figure too deeply in Witch's sound, at least on the surface. Instead, these guys seem way more intent in resurrecting the beast of Uriah Heep or something.
Pestilence and Peril is a bit of an off kilter take on black metal. If one chooses to categorise it as such. It's got quick tremolo riffs, scary voices, and distorted, post apocalyptic, burned world sound affects, which have certainly found their way onto many metal albums. Sometimes the vocals head a bit into death metal territory, as they're delivered with a guttural growl. But where black metal is, sometimes purposefully, poorly recorded, to the point where such a sound has become somewhat generic, Pestilence and Peril is clearly and professionally recorded. I say clearly, but that's not to say there isn't a fuzzy ambience present.
The Fun years are a duo, consisting of turntablist Isaac Sparks and baritone guitarist Ben Recht. Their music takes a few approaches to create an ambient space, some of which may spark memories of several similarly aligned artists, both recent and vintage. The scratchy, possibly old records used by Sparks will inevitably draw comparisons to Philip Jeck. The differences may be subtle, but what stands out is the fact that the Fun Years' music sounds relatively modern, not aged, as Jeck's music does. Some of the guitar passages throughout the album do echo Fripp and Eno, to the extent that the guitars are used to create a soft atmospheric backing. It seems as though anyone who uses a digital delay these days is designated with that comparison for some reason, yet Recht invokes "Frippertronics" without any of the stiff, unemotional detachment which often goes along with that tag.
Somnaphobia is a two way split between Polish based noise project The Sleep sessions and north Carolina horror obsessed harsh noise and dread filled grey drone project Thirteen Fingers with each party offering up six tracks each.
Arijigoku finds Merzbow returning to his former musical life before noise as a drummer, with heavy use of live drum rhythms to create what’s best described as a jamming noise record with rock and jazz influence rhythms abound. It’s another curious often rewarding progression in his shifting sound world.
Mattias Petersson take on electoinca is damaged, juddering and stuck, though it often shows great melodic flare and beauty as well as noisy and atmospheric learning’s too. Floodlight is his second full length and his first release for Ideal Recordings.
The Fighting Cocks make a very English and often comic mix of punk, rap, easy listening and cheesy music sampling/turntabling, pop, gypsy and world music, film samples and all manner of other madness. Think a deranged cross between Chumbawamba, Jive Bunny, Pop Will Eat Itself, drunken doo wop and plundertronics, chugging punked guitars. Music For Lapdancers is their second album on their label Fekete Galamb Zene
Drowned in Lakes take on ambient black metal is very bizarre and unequal with it’s mix of wonky and lo-grade keyboard, blacked surf and cinematic clear edged guitar tones taking centre stage. Backed up by shambling drums, assorted rain/ grim effects and the odd muffled blacked croak.
The Family’s Hot daughter is an manic and deranged rush of an album, the tracks like one sonic heart attack after another mixing together in a derange and chaotic manner death metal, noise, electronics, jazz, avant rock, bent cinematics and everything and anything they fancy throw into the sonic attack on the sensors.
It is with great pleasure and joy that I, N.S. Endebo, a born carioca now living within the American maze, write about this boundary-leaping, barrier-skipping group from Tampere, Finland. My relationship with Candy Cane is fairly old and bloomed by chance, in the unhealthy madness of Soulseek random chatting. Coincidence or not, it so happens that Marko Neuman, CC’s singer, guitarist, leader and spokesman, and I share not only very similar tastes in pop and rock music, but a passion for languages as well. The weird title of this excellent album, Fay-ra-Doowra, is anything but the Portuguese word for horseshoe, ferradura, pronounced by a sun fearing young musician who loves words and their intrinsic musicality. Strangely, this title somehow connects us, and I am delighted to be able to talk briefly about the band that conceived it.
English veterans Paradise Lost are back, this time with a live offering recorded last year in London. It’s been a long road: banished from some circles, unwelcome to others, accused of treason by metal fans, regarded as sellouts for works like Host and Believe in Nothing, credited for the pioneering of the doom/death metal blend that is so fashionable these days, much has been said about the British quintet. Besides having taken its name from the great poem by John Milton and naming this live album after Robert Burton’s literary masterpiece from 1621, I would not attempt an academic analysis of the contents of Paradise Lost’s body of work. Though I am well aware that many of their fans consider singer Nick Holmes a poet, a tormented artist in the fashion of Romanticism, my standards are sharp enough to let me ignore the unfathomable abyss that stands between these two English cornerstones and the cartoonish lightlessness of Holmes’ uttering. To Caesar what is Caesar’s, so I have heard.
Deathconsciousness is the highly enjoyable and addictive double debut album from Have a nice Life who’s sound is original mix 80’s synth pop, Goth electronics, doom, ambient, cold folk, Industrial and Shoegaze indie. Managing to be tuneful and atmospheric, noisy yet soothing and cathartic, epic yet shambolic.
Seelenlicht is the new project from Troy Southgate (H.E.R.R. / Horologium) and Butow Maler (Kammer Sieben) which brings together neo classical, powerful and dramatic folk/ rock mix, electronics and heady often dark cinematic wonder- it sees Southgate's distinctive vocals taking on a larger more varied and modern subject matters away from Herr’s often older literary text and Historically based work.
Nick Cave has presented many different faces throughout his storied career. I must admit that it has taken a long time for his solo material to make a dent in my psyche. Upon the dissolution of the legendary Birthday Party, his Leonard Cohen-esque lounge singer routine felt a bit too mannered and reserved, and though each of his albums boasts at least a few great tunes, Cave to me sounded a touch self-conscious. There are certainly many who will disagree with me, indeed the many who consider Let Love In his best work, and I won't begrudge them their opinion. For me, though, the real turning point for the Bad Seeds came with the release of the sprawling double-disc Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus. It may be argued that Cave's music has become more traditional since Blixa Bargeld left the band, and that may be partly true. But it also seems that Cave is freer and more confident than he's ever been, and as this latest album proves, not apprehensive in the least about experimenting a bit.
The tracks on Brain Cloud are based around rich and dense clouds of drone and sustained matter utilizing primal layers of piano and along with the sustained harmonics of voices, violins, horns.
The Maniacal Vale is this Uk Prog Doom metal bands firth album that see’s them weave in more post rock and expansive elements to their sound. But unfortunately to my ears it’s all rather disappointing and in the end a rather tiresome and uninspired ride.
The word Humus refers to any organic matter which has reached a point of stability, where it will break down no further and might, if conditions do not change, remain essentially as it is for centuries, if not millennia. So Humus is a very apt title for the 11 tracks that make up this album with each track concentrating on looped or stuck harmonic element thats mostly repeat on themselves to often captivating and hypnotic effect.
Young Dutch musician Wouter Jaspers calls himself the more or less the 'hardest working man' of the experimental music business as he performs a lot (160 shows last year) and often with the intention to engage with the audience as much as possible.
Early Love Music is a varied, soothing and often highly tuneful mix of traditional/ medieval folk, folk/ rock, prog, psychedelic airs and pop music from the nearly never failing Ahnstern label. This been probably one of the most approachable and normal sounding albums on the label thus far, with also many of the songs been sung in English too instead of the normal germanic singing that features on many of Ahnstern releashers.