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In the history of musique concrete Symphonie Pour Une Homme Seul is widely considered to be ground zero. Although Pierre Schaeffer had been experimenting with the techniques for a few years before it was this landmark work with his then student Pierre Henry that really set the standards for the next decade of research.
The previous album Souvenirs for me heralded the coming off age of The Gathering. The last bits of their ill-fitted rockattempts were shed in favour of a mature, dark and atmospheric popsound.
Brighton based Andrew Liles has been releasing his own brand of surreal sound collage for around ten years now. He has released a wide range of Cd-Rs vinyl singles and full length albums, and Mother Goose Melody or Sonnets for the Cradle is his latest.
Tango Saloon is an album of wonderful accomplished, mellow instrumental music, that users tango’s as a start off point. But mixes in lots of different genres along, the way. Like jazz, easy listening, slightly world music flavour, soundtrack elements and souring snthy work. And it’s all played with such conviction and flare, which makes it the more enjoyable.
This is harsh, even by Merzbow standards. All the safety nets like beats, melody and structure, staying in one places for anytime, have all but gone and we are left with a black encrusted grimy beast of an album.That from it’s first attack doesn’t , let go of your head and throat until near on 4 hours later.
Boris new album Pink is a supped up super charged psychedelic, heads down tribute to 70’s rock, twisting harmonies in to their pumped up rock muscle. In addition displaying some magnificent guitar scape atmospherics. But it’s all has their own identity, stamped on every note.
Whitehouse are all about intimidation, both musical and lyrical. This is not music to chill out to or unwind to, this is the audio equivalent of having your head held under water, then been let up for a few breaths and down you go again, bewildering and suffocating .
Something very strange this way comes, you see Sudden infants take on sound is macabrely devilish, leaving the listener wonder if they should laugh darkly or get creeped out. They use noise as a spring board, but touch down in lots of other genres, odd celectronica, and eerier soundtrack, punked and noised up rock, sinister ambience, and Musique concrète.
You may be wonder what a review of a pop album, Is doing here?. Well firstly Prince has always had an inventive and often experimental take on pop. And secondly he’s released some of the most inspired and influential music around, over his long career.
Machinefabriek’s Marijun dwells very much in streached and repetitive piano tones, that make up droning and slow moving canvas of sound, that drift into clouds of melancholy cords, often smudged by glitchness and other noise.
Up until now, I admit I had never really heard Beyond Dawn before. A friend gave me an mp3 of their severe rework of my old fav Autopsy’s Severed Survival, in which only the lyrics survived. The completely electronic arrangement left the song completely unrecognizable and very non-metal. Although coming from a metal background, nothing of that is to be found on In Reverie.
Oxbow Strip rock down to its most primal, savage and disturbing tones. Really creating music to confronting, challenging and often repulse. This two disk compilation is a great in road, into their twisted world. Seeing both sides of the band with music on disk one and a DVD showing their(very) visual side.
Space Level Blaze is Gerrit’s first CD release under his own name, though he has released a vinyl LP and a few splits , along with collaborations with Sunno)))) and appeared on the Merzbow’s Frog remix album. What’s on offer here is cut up layers of crashing and textured noise, making a highly enjoyable audio attack.
Katatonia have for the last seven years been one of the most consistent bands around playing the style of dark emotional metal. Since 1999s Tonight’s Decision they have changed their approach very little and their subject matter even less. Jonas Renkse’ very personal and sometimes obscure lyrics adding a very human element to their technical sound.
The Gentleman Losers debut mixes emotive and emotional guitar work with laid back electronics and hazy beats, making a very heart-warming and enjoyable album to chill out too.
Another month another bizarrely titled hand packaged Aranos record. Banished in Spattered Relish follows on from the fairly disappointing And soon coffin sings album which was pretty minimal and droney but with few ideas. Here Aranos presents ten tracks that vary in style but im pleased to say there is a big improvement in quality from the previous record.
Multiplication is a collaboration between, Japanese noise master Merzbow and USA noise masters John Wiese. It stands on a more traditional noise footing then a lot of recent Merzbow releases, for the most part, striping out things such as beats, and more traditional melody.And makes one hell of chaotic and take your breath away, audio roller coaster ride.
Dictaphones Vertigo II is an enjoyable mix of inventive electronica with a jazzy air, conjuring up a wonderful cinematic canvas to explore, from some unlikely sound combinations.
Sickoakes mix post rock with haunting classical ambient flourishes, the album has a beautiful silken texture to it, each track drifting hazily into the next.
Enough with the arty-farty-smartypants music, here’s some stuff that goes for the groin! A bunch of funk-addicts from Holland united under the name Track Addicts to drop a highly original hybrid of greasy funk and hiphop on the unsuspecting masses.
Black Ox Orkestar make superbly,rousing and haunting Jewish influenced music,which really seems to whisper of a world long past,of hope and loss.
The dead decaying bird that adorns the cover of this spit CD acts very well as a metaphor for the bleak audio mayhem found within. Shift and Mutant Ape are two British based power electronics acts hailing from opposite sides of the country. Mutant Ape from Bradford and Shift from the south coast area, but they come together here with a shared drive to produce the most tortured and angry music they can muster.
This is one odd puppy of an album, I can’t think I’ve heard something quite so odd and off kilter in a long time, and that’s saying a lot. Guess best way to try and describe the album is: take one large spoon of odd 80’s synth soundtrack music, one spoonful of a gone to seed and slightly mad 60/70’s lounge singer, a little sprinkle of 80’s pop, and to finish off a little tang of “when did they let him out and I hope he doesn’t live near me”.
Jel’s second solo album Soft Money is a addictive mix of head nodding beats, slick airy production and enough variation from song to song to keep you listening without getting bored. Or bog down with pointless samples, which is a lot more than most DJ/producers albums. Every sample and every beat has its place, to make a more fulfilling and relistenable album throughout.