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Notes of Obscure Origin was original recorded in 1996, but it has languished in some subterranean cave or sewer untill now. Brought to everyones ears on 140 gram black vinyl by Andy Ortmann and his lable Nihilst . What we have here is a mix of organic and plainly unpleasant tones, environmental sounds most of unknown origin, lo -fi choking synth sleaze, and unconformable electronics that hover in between the world of maggot crawling ambience and noise.
With a name like Chrome Hoof you know this is going to be a little tongue-in-cheek, when you see the bands picture, their song titles and of course their music- the humour seeps out. Their costumes seem to be a mix of sunn0)) via Sun Ra with a little 70’s campness thrown in. Musically I guess it’s a mix metal with doom edge, 70’s metal cheese, a sprinkling of jazz rock spacey vibe and 70’s schlock horror soundtrack .
Slumber Tides is a wonderful apt title for 18 year old Greg Haines debut album, with it’s lush and dramatic mix of classical droneing string work, heavenly voices and subtle electronics. The sound through out seems to glow with great gold and ornate wonder; Haines really bleeding all the beauty and sad grace from the sounds within.
Arktau Eos debut album is a journey into ritual and dark occultic ambience with guitar elements on a few tracks. But for the most part it’s stick to purely organic and acoustic elements such as piercing blasts of windbones, accelerating steel-plate rolls, singing bowl and various kinds of stringed instruments along with the human voice in all it’s eerier wonder, to summon up dark and often deeply chilling atmospheres
Horizontal Mover finds classical trained pianist,improviser and sound artist Claudio Parodi playing tribute to American sound artist Alvin Lucier and in particular his piece I am sitting in a room, which was based around recordings of recordings- that are built up untill they make there own drone form.
Welcomes debut feels like if you had a big white bowl and mixed in: Syd Barrett’s take on Pink Floyd, all manner of late 60’s psychedelic pop rock, The velvet underground’s sensibility to more churning avant guitar work, and The Pixies one of there more rough and ready days. All squeezed toothpaste like into your mind- a mix of juddering off angle guitars, quirky/ wonky harmonies, and songs that threaten to fall apart beneath you, like a trap door leading down a multicoloured Helter Skelter.
Francisco López paints hyper reality audio paintings or maybe huge more convincing versions of those 3D laser pictures from the late 1980’s. Sound and noise elements are cut up and throw back in your face,Or you drift on gossamer like threads, through slow unwinding caverns of sound, always weary you might drop to the caverns floor hundreds of feet bellow.
Andexelt is often as cited been one of Circle's best albums, dating from 1999 and been out of print for sometime- here it's been reissued by San Francisco tUMULt label. So what's all the fuss about, well Circle stand as one of the great instrumental bands period, in any genre.
As many long time readers of this site and my reviews, will probably know I’m more than a little bit of a horror movie geek. The reason I mention this is the first time I played Neronoia album, I was immediately hit by a moive and that movies characters that could well have Listen to this ,the movie in question was 80’s teen Horror vampire film The Lost Boys. Un Mondo In Me seems to fit pefectly into that world, with it’s mix of 80’s synth work, pop rock guitar elements, gothic undertones and a splattering of horror filmatic moments.
This Australia three piece really carve out a beautiful and sometimes aching sadly mix of guitar textures, piano and electronic drones. Always having an ear for sun-warming–the-skin melody or gentle leaf falling tunefulness. The sound here is much like the albums cover picture, which is of a hazy sunshine casting its light on a field of long grass, just as autumn dusk is edging in. It feels both tranquil, warmly mellow, with a slight shrug of melancholy.
If the news were to believe Israel would have nothing more than religious fundamentalists and war. Of course this is not the whole truth, and a band like Igor Krutogolov’s Kruzenshtern i Parohod illustrates that. Their energetic mix of Jewish music and western influences ranging from jazz to mathcore proves that there’s also people living a more ordinary life, yet making extraordinary music.
Telegraphy by the sea finds Haynes building a rich and varied collection of drone textures, going from clearly organic dry crackles to deeper more lushly dark electronics. Covering a lot of ground in it’s near on hour running time-from mysterious, haunting, to rewarding.
Rat Tapes One almost feels like Mr Stapleton & co have wondered into remix mode. with beats of all manner been to the forefront of much of the material, some of it even wondering towards almost normal electronica territory, but worry not this stills has a strong whiff of NWW about it. Claiming to be a collection of discarded musical vermin dating back to 1983, this feels doubtful, some of the material may well date back to then, but it feels this has been put together and supped up in the last year or so.
Sculptor is Agnivolok first album from 2002, here it's reissued & repackaged in a nice fold out black card package with silver and gold print by Eastern front.Were Agnivolok Cherries album mixed together Russian music, ambient and folk. Sculptor concentrates more on ambient, experimental and more difficult elements of their sound.This is also somewhat darker and wrong sounding,weaving almost doom like textures in places of the album. There’s little of the wintery hope of Cherries here, but that doesn’t make it a less album, just a little more difficult and challenging.
Khlyst is James Plotkin’s(Khanate, Phantomsmasher) New project, which finds him joined by Runhild Gammelsaeter (ex Thorr's Hammer).They summon up a mix of grim blacked metal, deep dark droning tones, dread weighted ambience.That really has the power to breed real fear in ones mind.
Beneath the lakes second album finds the Two piece project mining ambient and gloom filled guitar drones and guitar repetition. Mixed with dense environmental sounds, organ and other instrumentation to pick out the more melodic elements. Coming off like a darker version of Biosphere guitar tracks on Substrata, or like more Environmental and less cowboy freindly version of Earth's more recent material.
With Negative Damion Romero has managed to conjure up one hell of a shifting audio storm. Which drifts along with great menace, to suddenly rip apart with huge columns of feedback. If playing on head phones, it literal makes you jump in your seat, making one look much like their in the electric chair for a second or too.
Shit & shine mix drum machine pounding ,all manner of Percussion, stuck droning guitar riffs, noise and lots of silly, bizarre and often funny samples. All in a very British way,whether non brit listeners would get the some of the references and the humour is difficult to say. But I found it a wonderful haphazard noisy ride, that possible sometimes out plays it's comedy factor.
Lock up your daughters because Al Jourgensen is back with another blast of spite from the industrial metal anti-Bush camp. And if you thought he was pissed off on Houses of the Mole well this time he’s practically boiling over with rage.
Misty Roses are real Camp customers -both in their musical mix of easy listening, lounge music and electronics, all tipped off with experimental edges. And with their flamboyant musically delivery, the lead singer offten sounding like he’s just stepped from a Broadway show.
Greetings From The Great Void finds us once more drifting and invesgating strange star systems via the Opalio brothers intergalactic rich droning come (off) world music. From the openers cascading star tunnel tones right untill the last moments of the exit tracks melancholy ritual space float, your utterly transfixed and lost in the sounds here .
I don’t care where I go when I die is a bloody horned -devilry loving, twitching slab of ‘wont die ’ harsh sludge grind. The tracks often hammed and slashed with psychotic and grim experimentation elements. The album keeps you on your toes though out, unsure weather you’ll been battered and pumpled by bent horrific riffing or slowed to a dieing crawl by atmospheric guitar work.
Season of the witch is a horrifying and spine tingling collection of drifting dread scapes. Using dark ambient, horror filmatic snthy work , noise elements, death breath and bone brittle drifting rhythmic thuds. Which all builds a really creepy haunted house or dead black wood of an album.
Max Richter is one of the most remarkable, and remarkably underexposed composers currently working in the UK. He has lent his piano playing and compositional skills to a variety of collaborators including Future Sound of London and Roni Size. He also co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble piano circus. Songs from before is his third solo album.