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The Shepherds are a band of Brooklynites who play Kosmische infused psychedelic extendo-jams. The band, like lots of bands these days, are made up of members of other bands, in this case three quarters of Meneguar and G. Lucas Crane, of the Vanishing Voice and Non-Horse. Loco Hills consists of four long tracks, which don't veer too far from their parent band's footprints, which is no big surprise. There are representations of Can-like bongos and tribal drums, blocky analog synth patterns and tons of semi-aimless noodling.
Bliss Torn from Emptiness is a highly successful, epic and atmospheric marriage of ambience, drone craft, post rock and pummelling yet beautiful guitar heaviness. Managing to mix genre traits with ease making a sound and sonic world that is completely and utterly on their own.
One of the special qualities of the work of David Lynch is his use of incidental sound and music. His soundtrack for Eraserhead (1977) was an example of industrial paranoia writ large only one year after the debut of Throbbing Gristle in London. His aesthetic was simultaneously contemporary and ahead of it’s time. Another example of his use of music was the frequent use of the singer Julee Cruise who’s elfin tones were deployed on Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks (both the TV series and film). This album is an amalgamation of the best of Julee’s Lynch inspired work.
This strangle titled project, mini two track album and puzzling packaged has little or no info to who or what created it. Falling somewhere between the cracks of ambient, black metal, doom and blacked guitar psychedelics
This an enjoyable and fairly consistent compilation of the new wave of thrash music that’s reared its ugly headbang head over the last few years from the earache label, that features not just earache bands but a whole slue of other labels work too.
Burning Orange brings together two long pieces by this Japanese two piece noise project, who grow to a three piece on the second track with help from Finnish noise- head Tommi Keränen (Testicle Hazard), & it’s all recorded in suitable loud yet clear volume from last years All ear festival in Oslo.
This collaboration between Italian noise/industrial/ ambient legend Maurizio Bianchi & fellow electronic artists Emanuela De Angelis follows the drone and sampled based loop path, sort of like a more urgent and less dissolving take on William Basinski work.
After the recent excellent reissue of Christina Kubisch’s Night Flights masterpiece from 1987, Five electrical walks sees her returning with a new work- built around,as the title suggest walks around city spaces with wireless headphones on that pick up aboveground and underground Electromagnetic fields. And though this may sound a little dull on paper the pieces here are often surprisingly rhythmic,musically and atmopshric.
This is the second epic release from his dark folk/ ambience/ prog/ forest bound instrumental music duo consisting of multi instrumentalist Chet Scott(Ruhr Hunter, Blood of The Black Owl) & Guitarist James Woodhead- it’s Really an album of two sonic tales or journeys offering up two hour long disks that create their own audio place and environment.
Sometimes descriptive terms fall short in describing an artist's music, in the case of Bersarin Quartett "imaginary fictional filmscores" doesn't. The group from Münster, Germany makes darkly melancholic music that meets the requirements for late night, urban moodscapes.
Sand snowman make autumnal, rich, instrumental dense & often creepy mix of; 70’s folk/ Rock, soundtrack elements, horror dipped psychedelics with a sprinkling of electronics and other more modern elements here & there.
Higanbana sees Merzbow building in more ambient, atmospheric touches & a greater feeling of space into his noise craft- but fear not this still smarts and singers when needed
Volume objects presents the listener with nine separate audio snap shots or sound paintings that mix together environmental recordings, minimalist electronica elements, ambience, subdued guitar and other instrumental elements.
The Burning world is a moody and apocalyptic meeting of neo-classical grander, doomy cinematics, slight techno touches & crunching fuzzed industrial beat work, with traces of distorted singing here and there too. Though hardly the most original thing you’re likely to come across it does manger to conjure up quite a dramatic & enjoyable air.
I’m ashamed to admit this is the first of Colin Potter's solo works I’ve heard, having been so familiar and fond of latter-day NWW- it’s nice to hear one of the masterminds behind some of those classic album sshowing he’s more than capable of crafting an focused, atmospheric, creative audio trip in it’s own right with The sights of the drowned fable.
Drowning the Virgin Silence is the suitably dada-esque name of this project by Richard Vergez, a sometime member of Hoor-paar-Kraat. This nicely packaged CD-R comes in a minimal, hand screened cardstock sleeve with some warped music charts on the cover. He's also a visual artist, and the classy, somewhat surreal cover art is a good match for the music contained within its cover.
Zone’s take on ambience submerges the listener in an strange aquatic and uneasy world where you visit 7 sound rooms with in a vast creaking and slowly flooding asylum- the rooms a-swim with patience battened and bloody possessions, yellowed photos and their clinical records.
South Saturn Delta make nasty & corrupted psychedelic/ improvised rock music that gets burnt, singed and often complete swallowed by roaring noise overloads- think C.C.C.C in moments when they move more towards conventional structure & easily defined psychedelic rock instrumental elements.
Neil Campbell's Astral Social Club project is both a continuation and a detour from the work that he has done with his group acts Vibrathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! and, going way back, the A Band. Campbell's one of those guys who releases boatloads of music each year, and always manages a couple of true gems, yet rarely puts out anything subpar. Neon Pibroch, which is dedicated to the memory of Textile Records founder Benoit Sonnette is one of those gems. It includes three tracks, each of which takes a different approach.
Silver Tongued Sisyphus is a 20 minute EP which is a teaser for a new full length album which is due out in "early 2008", according to the Kranky Records website. Cloudland Canyon is the duo of Kip Uhlhorn and Simon Wojan, a couple of dudes who are obviously indebted to the influence of early Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Temple, leavened with classic pysch touches.
White Rainbow is Adam Forkner, a multi-instrumentalist out of Portland, Oregon. He has kept pretty busy playing music, to say the least. He was a member of Yume Bitsu, Surface of Eceon and World. He's done solo work under the name [[VVRSSNN]], meaning "version" and of course, most recently, White Rainbow. His first release under that name was ZOME, recorded with members of Landing in 2005. 2006 saw the release of BOX, a 5CD plus DVD collection, which you can still pick up at some distro's despite being limited to 500 copies. Prism of Eternal Now is the third White Rainbow CD/CDR album this year. It would seem difficult for an artist to maintain a high level of quality with such a prolific output. I'll admit to being new to White Rainbow's music, so I'm listening to Forkner's music without any preconceptions or expectations.
The cover picture of Rancor keeper is of a humanoid/ octopus headed gowned figure appearing from out of a cave mouths & it fits the musical vibe found inside perfectly. With it’s a mix of primal noise/ sludge guitar music, ritual percussion,blacked chants & bleak unfolds- like hymns to blacked underworlds.
This collaboration between Norse noise master Lasse Marhaug & Argentinean musique-concrete artist Anla Courtis summons up a wonderful oppressive, organic and grey hallucinogenic nightmarish world that sits less in the all out sonic attack territory & more in the creepy suffocating dread connor.
Misericordia make traditional/ authentic European medieval music that thankful for the most part side-steps being stuffy, dry or too academic. With the tracks here sew-sawing between joyful, foot-taping and buoyant to elegant, beautiful and almost spiritual quality about them.