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Icon Of Coil is back with its second full-length EBM album "Soul Is In The Software".
After hearing Beady Belle's song "Moderation" on a Jazzland Records compilation I was very impressed by this duo. It's a very well written poppy and catchy song, a mix between jazz, pop and drum 'n bass.
I dare to say that the Japanese duo Yasumi Okano and Takayuki Souji, known as Xinlisupreme, have just released one of the most interesting and fascinating guitar based records of this year already.
The everflowing stream of Laswell releases brings us a collection of music used in and made for films. All the usual ingredients are present on 'Filmtracks 2000'.
The French Active Suspension label is quickly putting itself on the map for releasing quality electronic music. This time with O.Lamm, a seemingly very talented laptop artist.
I really want to know what they put in the Norwegian water. There is so much good music coming from this country that I'm thinking of buying a ticket and never come back. Take for instance Kåre João, with his new release "Sideman".
Noise! Masami Akita aka Merzbow is and has always been the leading figure in the Japanese noise scene. His enormous discography, including numerous collaborations with a wide range of artists, is still increasing and "Amlux" is the first release in 2002, on Important Records.
Paul Devens has been active in different regions of audio and visual arts, yet this is my first encounter with the Dutchman. "DJ Lait Russe" is his latest output, supported by Niew Interactivities, the province of Limburg, the foundation for fine arts, design and architecture and hedah (centre for contemporary arts in Maastricht).
Usually I'm not really into progressive-metal, I'm certainly no expert with this kind of music, but I can hear if a band has talent and writes good songs. The Dutch Sun Caged released the impresive 'Dominion' EP in October of 2001.
After getting the wind knocked out of them by 1997's La Masquerade Infernale, fans of experimental dark-metal have held their collective breath until now: the release of The Sham Mirrors. How does it compares?
I think I may now be a Rain Fell Within fan. Before listening to "Refuge" I didn't know much about this band and I figured that they were some kind of standard "doomy-gothic-metal with female vocals" type of outfit.
The Scottish duo is back after their groundbreaking debut album "Music Has The Right To Children" (1998). It has been a long wait; the years have produced many Boards Of Canada-wannabees and only one EP to fulfil our needs for trippy ambient-based music.
Kranky Records has the habit of releasing music that ends up having some of the most carefully crafted textures I have ever heard. Last summer I meditated, read and nearly had out of body experiences to the sound of the new Stars of the Lid.
Why does everybody always think of Godspeed You Black Emperor! when you mention Do Make Say Think? They are both on Constellation and write beautiful music, but aside from that they are totally different beasts.
This band is marketed as "the new band from the former Hooverphonic singer". A smart commercial move, given that Hooverphonic have gained a lot of popularity since they released their third album "The Magnificent Tree" in 2000.
taktaktaktak PHFEWBBBMMMMMMM taktaktaktak PPFFIEEEWBMM.That's how Kid606 opens this album, almost blowing up my speakers with some harsh noise.
Surprised I was, but not by the unbelievable unexpected power and greatness of this album. That came afterwards. Surprised I was because this band is not from Sweden but from Germany, while sounding more Swedish than its Scandinavian colleagues.
Finally the first Winds full length! After 2000's promising "Of Entity And Mind" MCD, the band didn't waste time and went into the studio to record "Reflections Of The I".
Domotic is a fairly new French artist active in the electronic pop area. After a 12" released last year, "Bye Bye" is (unlike the title announces) the first CD release, and also the first CD on the Parisian Active Suspension label.
After "Coincidentia Oppositorum", which I regard equally important to the IDM-genre as Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 85-92", a year waiting for the next release seems way too long. "Drei", as the title indicates, is the third release from this German duo.
Why is this band marketed with metal bands? I suppose that the fact that many of the musicians played in death-metal before bands has something to do with it, but this third Pale Forest album (first on Listenable Records) doesn't have much to do with metal at all.
Besides Hypocrisy and his work with the famous Abyss studios, Peter Tägtgren has another successful output with the name Pain. Starting as a melodic experiment, the project ended up as the most accessible work of the well-known Swede.
A couple of years ago there was a promising experimental band hailing from Norway called The Third And The Mortal. On the first release the music was a mix of dreamy doom/gothic-metal. Over the years the band developed their sound into something close to experimental post-rock.
Intuition is a strange thing: although I am not sure and only time will tell, I believe that this album could be up there with Opeth's Orchid, Solefald's Linear Scaffold and Agalloch's Pale Folklore in the pantheon of extremely promising debuts.