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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.
As we argued in our review of Ange's Le cimetière des arlequins, the years 1968-1975are a golden time for many genres of popular and experimental art. One of the strains we did notmention in that particular piece is that of library music, a now seemingly extinct form ofmusic making that has largely escaped the public's gaze. Library music, alternatively referredto as source music or mood music, is music that is composed and recorded with the specificaim of being used for radio and television documentaries, series, and programs of all varieties.In the climate of the 1970s, where dozens of B-movies were released every year, there was alsodemand for cheap source music to add a little bit of flair and mystique to otherwise oftenlaughably incoherent strips of celluloid.
Matinee Orchestra's first album conjures up wonderful images of childhood stories, England’s rolling green landscape and the comfort of your bed as a child, tucked in tightly, listening to birds peacefully sing, as they lull you off to sleep.
Merzbow starts off the new year with a huge bang, in more than one way. Houjoue takes in six disks, a mammoth release in any artist's eyes, and Merzbow’s second biggest after the even weightier 50 CD set that is the Merzbox. Even more daring been a noise artist, near on six hours is a hell of duration to sit through. So I hear you ask is it any good? Oh yes, it’s very good and those hours, will zoom by as you get sucked deeper and deeper, into its churning audio tapestry.
The years 1968-1975 constitute, in retrospect, a magical time. Hippie ideals were slowly falling apart,and the revolt of May '68 had failed because of the deeply ingrained consumerist concerns of even themost hardened revolutionaries, who found school holidays more important than standing on thebarricades. Hollywood had not yet succumbed to the blockbuster disaster, and turned out some of itsfinest movies, such as The Conversation and The French Connection.Exploitation and B-movie cinema was at its pinnacle with dozens of titles released each month.In Italy, the dynamics of the time created fantastic film music (Ennio Morricone,Bruno Nicolai); In France, some of the greatest electro-acoustic music ever recorded(Pierre Hernry, Bernard Parmegiani, François Bayle) was unleashed bygovernment-subsidized organizations such as INA-GRM; And in Germany, a number of groups lumpedtogether under the krautrock monicker traveled down vistas unknown where post-hippie freakouts,Stockhausen-influenced avant-gardism, jazz, and adventurous rock met.
This is one little Gem from 2005 that would have made it onto my best of the year list if I had got hold of it sooner. I came across it being played across the brilliant Gibert and Joseph record store in Paris, the strange mesmerizing tones drifting over the shelves of records and straight into my unconscious. I enquired as to the source of this sound and I was directed to this EP by Cambridge resident Ryan Teague.
Drummer Morgan Ågren never let a chance slip to pimp the Belgian 'chamber-rockers' of Univers Zero and I'm sure he's proud to be their labelmate now. The music of Mats/Morgan Band is a bit different of course and on their seventh album you actually notice signs of 'growing up'. This means a little more emphasis on melody, a more listenerfriendly approach if you will.
Akira Rabelais is a software designer and musician that is perhaps best known for his creation of two pieces of software, Argeiphontes Lyre and Argeiphontes Recalcitrance. He has previously released a couple of Cds on the Ritornell label.
Volcano!’s Beautiful Seizure, crash's in with a chaotic mix of indie guitars, sometimes manic, often laid back electronics . A vocalist who mixes conventional indie fare with angry highs and melodic sensibility, but also drops into manic speaking tongues mode.
Since the original ten Masada albums were released we have seen many new arrangements of these pieces first given life by the quartet of Zorn, Barron, Cohen, and Douglas. Guitar, rock and chamber ensembles have all given these tunes new twists and perspectives. The original albums showcased John Zorns idea of radical Jewish music, contemporary but holding on to many of the traditions dear to Klezmer. The recent series of Masada releases subtitled the Book of Angels have been taken from over three hundred new songs composed by Zorn over the last couple of years, this collection he calls Masada book two.
Glissandro 70 Debut hints of summer days, spent partying as the sun,slops down out of the sky. You’re high on the people around you and your choice of stimulant. Put simply it’s a great joyous journey, brimming with musical surprises.