Loading
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.
Scott Tinkler is one of Australia's finest and most respected trumpet players- winner of numerous awards and accolades for his main incarnations as ensemble player. Backwards finds him step out of his usual collaborative and safer state into an improvised solo album.
This Russian collective who are named after the main river that runs through Russia, attempt to mix traditional Russian instruments,vocals and song elements with electronic textures and slamming techno/ electronia beat craft,plus the odd avant-garde nod.
Division One is the debut album from this Canadian noise/ dark ambient project. Delivering a shifting dark stew of sounds touching down in:dark ambience, sample driven dread be it ; voices, water drip, door slamings, metallic death machines chatter. With deathly rhythmic work-outs, all manner of metallic clunking and some more fiery noise moments though for the most part this stays fairly atmospheric more than anything, never really letting the noise run riot.
Follow This House feels like it's driping and oozing of cooling tar into your very being, the sound feels like it’s slowly winding down, but never fully reaching a stop- it feels like going round a round an every descending slide but never hitting bottom. One can define guitar elements, electronics and erratic percussion, but it’s melted together to make this heavy and limb weigh down stew of sound.
This is a very welcome reissue, remaster, etc of this classic progressive thrash album from 1989, that’s up there with the likes of Voïvod’s Dimension Hatröss in its distinctive sound and personality. Mixing together folk and dark fantasy elements, with break-neck complex riffing and rapid-fire mad hermit rant to more traditional metallic vocal fare.
Burning Rome is a live recording of Holy Mcgrails support show for Julian Copes Hammersmith Lyric show in 2003. The near on 50 minute is a good quality live recording touching down in all facets of Mr Mcgrails work from his solo drone/ ambient & the more rock traces of his solo album to the woodland drone project of slomo with Howard Marsden.
Topophonic Models offers up six track of drone craft based around modern cites & architectural space, from one of the old masters of the genre, who’s beign creating sound works since the mid 1980’s.
This is a soundtrack for little know 1979 sci-fi Fantasy tropical island adventure L'isola degli uomini pesce( The Island of the Fishmen) by one of the lesser know Italian film composers Luciano Michelini's. Mixing together romantic, dramatic and adventure led string themes, with jungle drum rock-outs and funked out grooves, to more mysterious and dark water bound string struggles.
Alessandro Stefana’s debut album Poste E Telegrafi offers up seven mainly guitar based cinematic and panoramic moodscapes, with surprising & creative avant-garde touches. Mixing together traces of the blues, ambience, flimatic themes- with gamelan percussion, quirky electronic elements and an array of other instrumental desert colours with some help from the likes of Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams.
Groundfloor noiz offers up an ear smarting chaotic 45 minutes mix of guitar feedback fires, overloaded vocals, whistling like distortion, piles of roaring and overloaded sound samples taking in; media samples, deflowered advertising jingles, raped J pop and easy Listening traces.