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The Scientific Contrast is this pairs debut album that offers up 12 shots of charming,tuneful and retro electronicia, which brings to mind a more naive, less threatening, and less sampled based version of Boards of Canada.
This plush if a little bulky three disk digipak set brings together the whole of the The Inmost Light trilogy which features some of David Tibet’s most accessible work, As well as some of his most difficult and layered work too. Featuring an all star cast and regular collaborators such as Michael Cashmore, Steve Stapleton, Lilith Stapleton, John Balance, Nick Cave and Shirley & Dolly Collins.
Crimson Umbrella presents two densely percussive journeys into grim & slowed black metal craft, cum dark space kraut rock. A devil rising ritual & black psychedelic tinged slab of atmosphere and calling to beyond the gate.
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is The Twilight Sad’s debut album. This Glasgow four piece mix together social aware often grim lyrical content sang in distinctive Scottish tones, with pounding and tuneful indie gitar work & accordion pump, with bleack pop and folk traces. Making a sound that is quite distinctive & memorable that stays rewarding for most of the albums running time.
Barco do Vinho is rather a bizarre concept album with songs about boat driven wine production in Northern Portugal 100’s of years ago. Which is told with an equally strange musically pallet by the two contributing projects Allerseelen & Sangre Cavallum- they mix together Neo folk, industrial electronics, Almost Resident's like avant-grad moments and progy/ soundtrack traces.
Jewelt Galaxies/Spirit Shambles is a compilation of two earlier small pressing CD-R's released on Root Strata and Foxglove respectively. Spekk has tastefullly packaged this re-release in an oversized gatefold case, with serene artwork which reflects the nature scene that the enclosed music evokes.
Fun From None offers up several visual snapshots from both 2004 & 2005 No Fun noise festivals in New York. Featuring live work-outs from a total of twenty acts/ artist over the two DVD set including the likes of Wolf Eyes, Jazkamer, Carlos Giffoni, Hair police and Double leopards to name a few.
The Absurdity of Symbolism is the new slice of surreal, ever morphing sound world that is Hoor-paar-Kraat. It finds Mr Mangicapra & his Grim sound Dr’s melding more guitar textures into their sound, following on from the excellent Nagaraja Movements from early this year, but in a more progressive and varied manner.
Vomit Orchestra is a project that is at odds with ones perception of them. Firstly their name suggest some sort of tacky Carcass clone. Secondly their puzzling artwork which is made up of old soft-core female pictures, out of focus matter and slight occultic learning’s- leaves you unshaw quite what to expect.
Moles is the first audio fruit of sound artist Adam _ is aka Michail Adamis, it offers up five road/ Tunnel making sound based tracks. That go from echoched purring, to machine idleing drones ,to often quite complex tapestry of different drill and machine tones.
Imagine if Popol Vuh at their most dreamy and mellow were mixed with modern soothing and tinkling quiet noise. Then you get something close to the wonder that is the Cloaks first widely available disk A Crystal Skull in Peru.
Merzbear throbs and purrs, chugs and pulses its way along. Coming off with almost a groovy and more rock related vibe running through the tracks, but fear not this is still very much in Merzbow territory.
Earthmonkey's second readily available album finds the project in fine and varied form going from: cleverly sampled layered melodic Krautrock grooves tipped with punky edges, to swirling psychedelic space rock jams to get lost in. To dubed-out guitar beat scapes heavy with hash smoke haze, or Jazzy Gong like space jams that go on and on in beautiful repetition.
Le Prix du Sang et des Larmes is French band Sturm's debut album. I have no idea how many members there are to this band, or who plays what, etc. due to the fact that there was no information provided with the promo CD. A search of the internet failed to elucidate the picture, because all that the label and band websites had to offer were scant information. Perhaps the band are trying to perpetuate an aura of mystery.
Ordo Ad Chao sees Mayhem with singer Attila Csihar back on board trying to recreate an atmosphere akin to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas with modern experimental touches and grim cinematic air. So does it soar to heights of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ?- sadly not- the key word above anything here is atmosphere- which is as deep as the night, but sadly more often than not it seems they’ve forgotten to write memorable tunes or song structures to support the atmosphere.
As its title suggests this is the first of a series of disks from those fine purveyors of ritual ambience the finish based Aural Hypnox label. This finds the collective stepping away from the more ambient and often acoustic based ceremonies of their previously released works and utilizing droning, dense looped synth and percussion layers. But still in the very cryptic, dark and down right chilling manner, which long time listeners of the label releasers will be familiar with.
Old Ghosts, New Ghosts, All Ghosts is the musical equivalent of 4am on a rainy autumn morning with your mind shrouded in melancholy tiredness. This is music hatched from emotional turmoil that’s dried out, leaving one feeling somehow empty and very lost. The music is spectral and ghostly like the shadow of a departed lovers hand or their laughter in the Conner of you psyche.
The music found on Tropism, Bexar Bexar's second outing, reflects the burning plains of its homebase Austin, Texas. It's not specifically American though, no country, western or americana, but just the sense that it's hot outside.
16 Bitch Pile-Up are an all female Ohio based noise/psycho ambient project. Bury Me deep is their first proper cd release, though they’ve been terrorising US stages and recording together since 2004.
Grinderman is inevitably going to draw comparisons to the Birthday Party because it's primal and stripped down. That comparison would be way off base, because this album is nowhere near as insane or experimental. Instead, Grinderman is an extension of where Nick Cave was headed with Abattoir Blues, with less embellishment, and in-the-red recording levels.
Cryosphere is the first frozen fruits of this new ambient label who as their name Glacial Movements suggests are offering up sound worlds which are meant to bring to mind frozen and deserted expanses. This compilation brings together some know names like Troum and THO-SO-AA, and some not so know names.
Days of thunder offers up just over half-an-hour of sawing and chair rocking guitar noise and electronic craft, with detours into more stale sweat ambient hazes and grimy folds of sounds.
It's In There Somewhere... is David Thomas Broughton's second album, after 2005's The Complete Guide to Insufficiency. This album is, I suppose, in line with the new indie folk music explosion which has spread rather rampantly (perhaps too much so) the past few years. Fortunately though, this album avoids fitting squarely into the aforementioned genre, and instead features shadowy, circular tunes, which roam and spin to create a song cycle which can only work as a whole. I say this because the first time I listened to this album, my CD player was set to shuffle mode.
Sturmpercht create a mix of neo folk, more traditional Austrian / south Bavarian folk matter, rich and emotional string flourishers, with marching trolls rhythms and avant-garde quirky twists and the odd nod towards more laid back prog rock traces. They call there form of music Alpine Folk, which is really very apt as it does bring to mind evergreen forest heavy with snow, strange timid eye forest folk, vast and misty mountain scapes dotted with fairytale like wooden houses, woodland magic and joyful drinking festivals of times past. This is the bands second album with some ltd Ep and singles in-between.