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Variations for Piano and tape music seems to echo it’s cover artwork- the cover picture is of bleak, but beautiful costal village and the surrounding coastline. The middle of the photograph is out of line with the rest. The music is just the same -a set of melodic piano notes are taken out of their original setting, then looped and sculptured with- like a few seconds film re -running endlessly, with each new revolution it takes on a new context and beauty.
Husk seems to hover in an English autumnal rural dread, it emits the smell of decaying plants, potent rotting of fungi. It brings to mind abandoned rusting and decaying corrugated steel farm buildings, walks through moss slippery forest as dusk is just ushering in. odd animal calls that sound like human screams echoing across crisp night air.
The Happy Electropop Music Machine finds electronic, tapesplice-innovator and Moog-popster Jean-Jacques Perrey, joined by the talented musician and retro-obsessed Dana Countryman. The two create one of the most fun and happy albums you'll have come across, in a very long time: it literally jumps out of the speakers shouting 'be happy, smile!'
American composer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Wiley, who lived in Europe for some time where he recorded a self-released cassette named Songs From The Hamster Theatre, inspired by a lot of musical styles. When he moved back to the US he formed this band to perform these pieces.
Nina Nastasia On leaving, is an enchanting collection of tuneful folk tinged singer song writer songs, that utilizes acoustic guitars and gentle heart-warming piano gold. Embellished ever now and then with haunted string work. Each song plays out its own perfect painted lyrical tale, of broken love, secret affairs, small town’s ups and downs.
F.I.D (Fur Is Dead) followers the lead of the recent Minazo Vol 1, the tracks are coated in defined melodies and ultra noisy denser textured ambience, the use of guitar feedback taken to a new sculptured level. Each track here is very different, not staying in one set of sounds, which makes it a wonderfully balanced double album, standing as one of his best releasers of this year.
This new collaboration between Mr Wiese and Gerrit does exactly as its titles suggest, it literal disappears. A surprising turn of events for a noise release really, but this is all about balancing of silence and noise and the build up and down of both elements. To brain melting, body disorientating effect.
Leafcutter John aka John Burton is a member of UK avant-jazz outfit Polar Bear where he adds his field recordings and electronic touches to their modern sound. The Forest and the Sea is second solo album and is far removed from anything he has done with the jazz group. No saxophones and very little drumming, the album lurks in that area that has been given the unfortunate title of Folktronica. Pointless categorisations aside this is an intriguing and beguiling record.
As a child I was fascinated by falling snow, I’d watch from our houses largest window.The heavy flakes spiralling and drifting down, altering the everyday landscape into a wonderful white almost glowing world. Northern recaptures this wonder and the beauty of slowly falling snow perfectly. Influenced by Taylor Deupree move from New york City out into the US country side, at winter time. Its endless rewarding and soothing music that relaxes, but not enough to sleep- just in case you miss an elegant and enchanting sound texture.
Coins and crosses is the eagerly awaited full length debut from UK composer Ryan Teague. It follows on from his critically acclaimed EP Six preludes. That record mixed electro-acoustic techniques, electronics and romantic orchestrations into an epic melting pot, this full length album ups the ante further.
This classic reissue of Electric Wizard's 2nd album from 1996 finds the band drug hazed take on doom sludge, exploring the depths of strange star systems and hellish worlds beyond most imagination. The led weighted riff’s buzzing and churning with black star cannons, and dark audio psychedelics .
The Ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden is surely one of the seven man made wonders of the world, built each year in the winter purely out of ice, then as the spring comes on left to melt. Igloo is recorded and made purely in and around the ice hotel, only human voice and ice it’s self, are the used as instruments.
Lithuanian electroinca /sound artist Gintas K has been making music since 1994. This double disk set offer up two very different albums in one package. Lengvai moves in denser and ambient warmed Raster- Noton sound space. 60 x one Minute Audio Colours of 2kHz Sound 01-60 is 60 minute one snapshots of the sound frequency 2khz that’s altered and twisted in his machines.
Agrippa’s 3 books is this bass clarinet quartet’s celebration of all things occultic and heavy metal influence. They artful and effectively turn the bassy depth of metal to their advantage in this concept album, it all's seems to be based around occultic philosophical texts.
Based in Maine, U.S.A., Tumbledown is basically a one-man-band of Tom Gagne. His debut CD Safe And Sound contains a varied mix of songs which can be described as an intelligent and emotional type of rock music.
Merzdub is one of the more defined and musically ‘normal’ albums from Merzbow in a long time, since the chain beat records released by important records . There is defined musical melody and beats here and also defined Instruments, such as piano Synth, bass ect. It’s all brought to life with the help of Jamie Saft.
Nightmania literally Finds the listener inside of Mr Ortmann’s dreams and I can safely say, it’s one of oddest , bad acid like , skin crawling creepy, nausea inducing audio trip's I’ve been on, in some time, maybe ever!. All I can say is I’m glad I don’t live In Mr Ortmanns dreams.
Metal box brings together the all the live work of improvisional group Text of Light, the three disk nicely presented in a facsimile of Public image Ltd metal box album. The band consitst of all or some of( depending on performance) :Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, ( of sonic youth) William Hooker, Christian Marclay, Tim Barnes, Ulrich Kreiger and DJ Olive. It starts from their first concert in 2001 through to may 2005.
Bizarrely enough Minimum chips are from Australia, they seem the most unlike band to come from sunny climes. As the tracks seems to hovering in English suburban air of faded net curtains and peeling wall paper. The tracks plod along in a wonderfully downbeat, trying to be happy maner. 70’s time locked organs rumble along under bassy toped indie, sailed over by charming sing- song female singing.
Graves at sea mix upbeat doom, with slow-riffing stretched out moments, touches of grimy ambience and all toped off with growled vocals. They seem to perfectly balance between sounding morbid and groovy, evil and memorable.
This dark and edgy, ahead of it’s time rap masterpiece was original meant to have released back in 1997, but with the fall of Loud records it remained unreleased. Now Anticon gives us back a chapter in hip-hops evolution and a damn fine album to boot.
The dominant tradtion of Greece in the last 100 years has been rembetika. Originally the music of outcasts of society, gangsters and hookers and not seldomly singing about weed. In a sense is gangsta rap, even to the extent that it has grown the popular representative music of the country, despite its less glorious background.
The post punk period of the early 1980’s gave us some of the most interesting innovative and ahead of thier time bands, that often seem not part of any scene or genre. Ike yard is one such band and this excellent compilation brings together, their one and only album on factory records, along a ep and unreleashed tracks
Nostalgia has a haunted, eerier and emotional edge not often found in noise. Sure it’s still noise, and brutal as hell, but there seems something in the sounds and the way their put together, which really hits you in different places to most noise, sort of like body blows to soul, so to speak.