Loading
This is a highly welcome reissue of Circle's first album from 1994, which I’m sure many won’t have heard before. It has all the familiar Circle elements in place i.e. locked rocking grooves, musically genre pick ‘n’ mix and general adventurous, playful vibe. But with a more indie/ post- rock feel to the tracks, also the songs are in a smaller bite size than their later sprawling work- filling here 70 minutes with 15 tracks.
This is a superb, varied and near faultless double disk compilation from the German/ Austrian Percht/ Ahnstern label, which I’m sure long term MM readers will have heard me rave about before. This is an ideal primer for the uninitiated and a welcome back to old friends alike as it a mixes together already released material and with exclusive material for this compilation.
This is a new American folk & stripped-down blues/ rock project from Geoff Farina(Karate, Secret Stars) that brings to mind a more wordy and serious take on some of Jonathan Richman work, who’s know to most for his comic/tragic chorus work on the soundtrack for Farrelly brothers There’s Something About Mary.
Lumrapideco presents 6 tracks of sometimes quirky, sometimes windswept and often sprinkled with noise instrumental music that falls some where between experimental/ space rock, folk, retro electronica and drone craft. Utlizing electric guitar, guitar synth, synths, percussion & voice textures.
Fish forms brings together three pieces of edgy & rewarding improvising, with each piece full of its own depth, surprise and effective atmosphere.
Though the production & feel of The Principle of Cosmic instability is extremely nasty and lo-fi there some very dramatic, grimly tuneful and well put together slabs of black metal craft going on here that have an added atmospheric edge with the recorded in a steel crypt vibe.
Fractured offers up 11 shots of dark /edgy cinematic electronica & drum ‘n’ Bass with the odd hint of metallic & dub tendencies here and there too.
Bonnou Machine is a just over 40 minute billow nuclear storm of an industrial noise, jagged electro discharged and metallic sci-fi dread spat from the fevered mind of cut-up cyber punk writer and noise artist Kenji Siratori.
After the folk meets noise,meets bizarre sample charming yet chaotic debut from 2006 by this young American three piece. Here they return with a slightly more polished yet still chaotic second album which brings together a haphazard, often epic and soaring mix of post-rock, ambience and noisy/ emotional charged vocals.
Named after a rare and threatened animal, the musical project Snöleoparden shares a uniqueness with its counterpart among the animals.
The Tangent are unashamedly Prog Rock as one could imagine with nods towards the likes of Pink Floyd, Yes and Rush. With some very nice jazzy edges, a few more modern electronica touches here and there too.
Vigil is a highly polished and often tuneful collection of sombre, forest bound folk songs, that are striped down yet darkly passionate with most of the tracks consisting just of layered acoustic guitar playing, kettle drums and sombre, deep and dark melodic german vocals.
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