Album synopses to tide you over until the BIG LIST.
Okay, it's going to be a while until I get my big-ass "best of 2006" list up here, since I'm still writing up a small comment for each entry (for best albums and best songs, of course). It takes a lot of effort to write up a best-of list! So many conflicts!
The cover to the Mary Anne Hobbs Presents the Warrior Dubz album, uploaded solely because I know it caught your eye. (the album is reviewed below, though)Anyway, until I post my list (not to mention the second experimental metal post), I thought I would post some album synopses. I share music through soulseek but also do so through a private ftp server with some close friends, and I always provide little snippets about the things I'm uploading, since they often don't know what the hell they're getting. Lately they've been getting a bit verbose, so perhaps I should be posting them on MOG, too. Though, some of the descriptions are real short and suck, but what the hell, I'll post those as well. I should also note that I tend to use the same words a lot - "expansive," "organic," "melancholy," etc. Sorry about that. Some of the stuff I've written about on my MOG too, but heck. I'm a bit too lazy to really edit the list.Here are all the posts since mid-December. Enjoy...----You know, I listen to a lot of obscure, weird stuff with a lot of fine-art and hipster cred (though I certainly don't listen to it for that cred). But sometimes, like today, I find myself with a cheesy song stuck in my head. Today that song is by a big Canadian artist from the 80's called Larry Gowan. He was the classic cheesy, macho synth-rock genius that the 80's loved. AND he had a glorious mullet (he is now the current front-man for Styx). Anyways... on to droning sound art...*Murmer - They Were Dreaming They Were Stones (2004)*Murmer - Elements (2004)Two companion albums by this great European sound artist who last collaborated with Jonathan Coleclough on "Husk" (one of my favourite records of last year). It kind of reminds me of a cross between contemporary Halfer Trio and Chris Watson (who himself was a member of early Hafler Trio). There are many clinically precise, expanding drones of pure sound. They are lovely too, the clinical descriptor here is a good one... they're clean and whole. But, they are mixed in with these unsually earthy sounds and plenty of what I imagine are field recordings. Like Peter Wright these drones are abstract but definitely have a narrative quality to them.Organum:*1998 Volume 1*2006 Sanctus*2000 Volume 2*2006 Amen (Unto The Aeon Of Aeons)For some reason I had neglected to download any Organum until very recently. He's a British sound artist by the name of David Jackman who was one of the earliest progenators or "THE DRONE," the odd sound collage art that started coming out of England in the early 80's (and has continued to flow forth ever since). Organum seemed to have been much more focused on timbre, ie the quality of sounds, than the kind of conceptual ideas groups like Zoviet France and The Hafler Trio were mining. There's a real quality of "musician" here which is often lacking in much experimental music. Volume 1 & 2 are compliations of his early, seminal work that stand (from what I read) as his best releases, groundbreaking, moving stuff. I guess I would say Jackman has something in common with the German Industrial movement of that time, as much of his stuff involving scraping metal and other objects to get big timbrous sounds (or, er, something... at a loss for words here). Sanctus and Amen are his newest works, both being made from the same source recordings. They make the musicianship very obvious - they are big, churchy things sounding like medieval hymns. Slow building vocal and organ drones, culminating every so often in interesting chord movements. Sanctus and Amen sound very similar through and through, and it's obvious he's fully exploring a particular musical idea. They're very very nice though, especially for meditative moments.*Toroidh - European Trilogy (2006)*A purposefully overpowering industrial/martial folk (think: Sol Invictus, Der Blutharsch, Death in June) epic focussing on the artist's attempts to come to terms with Fascism in Europe. What is truly impressive and magnificent here is how the artist has collected dozens of samples of fascist martial songs, marching songs and the like. He then mixes them together, and buries them under a dreary depressing haze of scratchiness and blurriness. Every so often he will whip out his acoustic guitar to make a few pronoucements that are very much along the lines of early Death in June. Since this is a massive triple-disc set, it is an emotionally harrowing listen that takes you through the states of suffereing, regret, and acceptance. Incredible - an essential piece of listening if only for the historic recordings presented.*Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come (1998)*Reccomended to me by a fellow soulseek user (the same person who reccomended Der Zyklus), this is one of the best punk albums I've heard and certainly stands as a big influence to most of the modern punk I have heard (which I listen to mostly through the college radio). Arty, political, and witty in a postmodern sort of way. It's not all punk here either - bits of jazz and more gentle rock are thrown in. Quite good!Rapoon - From Shadows Sleep (2006)New album from this Zoviet France alumnus (and I have to say, the only Rapoon album I've heard) Robin Storey. It continues to mine the weird ethno-archeologic drone that Zoviet France hinted at in some of their recordings. The titles of the tracks (all beginning with "The") hint at moments in history, or harsh conditions peoples of the past have encountered. It suits the sounds contained therein, which range from more colourful sound collage to chilly drones.J.P. Shilo - As Happy As Sad Is Blue (2006)An emotional collection of organic, instrumental folk-rock tracks. While very well played and varied, it's a little bit sentimental for my tastes. Pretty good though, regardless of that.Xasthur and Leviathan - Split (2005)Leviathan and Sapthuran - Split (2006)Urgh yes black metal! Both of these split recordings are great. The Leviathan/Xasthur is practically a match made in heaven, matching Xasthur's complex, super-black dynamics with some big-ass melancholy doomy blackness from Leviathan (whom is, as I have said before, one of the biggest innovators in black metal). The newer split with Sapthuran is even bigger in scale, though Leviathan's contributions contain more mean ambient scapes. Sapthuran, whom I haven't heard of before, lets out some awesome, extended, primitive black epics. They buzz and sear and are drenched in that great minor-key mournfulness I love.*Circle - 2006 Miljard*Newest album from the Scandinavian powerhouse finds them out of their usual psych-folk territory. Here they're making glorious icy ambient music. It is seriously icy and chilly too... tribal jams of bells, keyboards, and a subtle beat (lets not forget subtle field recordings and tapes). Still very cyclic of course, these jams go on a on, in frosty loops. Really fucking good.*Zoviet France - 1998 Digilogue*Likewise fucking good album from Zoviet France that I missed, but have been reminded of due to its recent re-issue. I think this is a critical document in the history of experimental sound collage, showing off an impressive skill at tape loops, overlaying sounds, ring delays, etc. All of this builds up into a moving sound atmosphere. Most of the newer drone stuff I've uploaded heavily mines the aesthetic that this group pioneered. And many newer groups miss out on great conceptual ideas, such as ZF's trademark acheological bent. They make the sounds sound like they've been unearthed... like some kind of ritual of an ancient culture.*Thomas Brinkmann - Klick Revolution (2006)*Wagh! Some seriously skipping, klicky electronic music based around the theme of... pinball? Glitched out beats get lost under a haze of skipping static, which then becomes the focus of the recording, modulating and shifting around to effect. Pretty impressive, certainly deep listening.VA - Mary Anne Hobbs Presents The Warrior Dubz (2006)Great great BBC-sourced compilation of the huge dubstep sound coming out of England right now. This is handy because I only really know a couple of dubstep artists (Burial, Kode9, some Techno Animal maybe) and this collects a great deal of obsure but awesome artists. Dubstep is that weird combination of dancehall, grime, and IDM, a buzzing, skittery but very dubby rhythm-heavy music combined with "toasting" vocals. These tracks range from straight vocal toasts and beats to all-out splattery IDM. Pretty awesome, though I think Kode9 is still my favourite, mainly due to his compelling lyrics.Tuk - Proud Princess Of A Brand New City (2004)Another great IDM artist to go along with Clark and Secret Frequency Crew. Though Tuk certainly has a more laptop-based experimental bent, more ambient and fractured. Excellent nonetheless. Looking for his/her new album...The Faunts - High Expectations, Low Results (2005)I finally got around to listening to this Edmonton-local band's first album, upon hearing they have a new release out. They are a really good post-rock band, what with the gentle ambience and psychedelic guitar scapes. There are even vocals, that don't suck! It's hard to mine this sound without sounding "soooo 2001" but it's very good.Stinking Lizaveta - Caught Between Worlds (2004)Pretty damn great band from Philadelphia that rocks the line between psych-rock and jazz. Fast pace and thrilling, grungy yet sophisticated. Really complicated, but somehow accessible.*Rope - Heresy, and Then Nothing but Tears (2006)*What the fuck. Unique Polish-American band that sounds kind of like a countryfied Khanate. By that I mean, the brooding spacious horror of Khanate, but with less "metal" and more palatable sounds. Still, there is a lot of tension here between silence and presence, with awkward arrangements that jar you in the same what Khanate does. Vocals are likewise scary, but instead of a shriek they are mostly smooth, intelligible, but still scary. Smooth but scary, I guess I could say.Michael Yonkers Band - Microminiature Love (1968)Blazing psych-rock band from the 60's San Francisco. It's pretty fucking awesome. Its kind-of-strangeness makes it unique, but really it's just an excellent rock n roll record.Brendan Murray - Everybody Wants the Tide CDR (2006)A great found-sound-centric sound sculptor along the lines of Peter Wright who definitely needs more exposure than crappy CD-R releases. Beautiful!COIL - (2006) Black Antlers (2006 Re-issue)The companion re-release that went along with "The Remote Viewer." It's not as good as that one but then again it's totally different. Much more song based, in the creepy incantation sort of thing. But it's COIL... it's fantastic all the same.*Mirror & Jim O'Rourke - Die Spiegelmanufaktur (2003)*A classic drone release by this legendary band. Slowly, shifting crystalline soundscapes. As with most droney stuff, hard to describe. This one is a total classic, really phenomenally good. Mirror's drones had a certain narrative quality that makes them quite evocative. They are also mostly acoustic drones... bowed sheets of metal, wavy guitars, etc. Recommended.BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa - Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna (2006)A new release that is a continuation of their last droney collaboration, "Vikinga Brennivin." It takes up the subject of being intoxicated by alcohol again. Not a fun kind of drunk... a depressing, stumbling, dark and moody drunk, like you're lost outside in the snow of iceland, wasted out of your mind, the light slowly fading from the day. Not quite as good as the first part, but this is damn fine quality stuff, that never takes itself too seriously.*Clark (Chris Clark) - Body Riddle (2006)*Wow! Take this and the Secret Frequency Crew album, and my faith in IDM is pretty much restored. The newest from this IDM stalwart (one of Warp record's oldest singings) is warm, organic, and fluid. It lacks the coolness and over-sophistication of much other IDM releases. Laptop fuckery is replaced by some serious soul and emotion. I've been really digging this, especially the big, epic final track, "The Autumnal Crash," a wonderfully expansive, powerful fuzz-filled blast of light.*Secret Frequency Crew - Forest Of The Echo Downs (2004)*A surprising find that I got by randomly searching record-labels. They are a New-York based collective that combine IDM and hip-hop beats, as well as remarkably Philip-Glass-like arrangements utilizing horns as well as synths. Very beautiful, lush and textured. I'm a bit sad it's taken me so long to find out about these guys. You'll enjoy them, for sure.David Thomas Broughton - Tour EP (2006)Yay! Another new EP from my fave new folk artist. This one is seriously low-fi... so much so the low production value gets in my way of enjoying it a lot. But... I'm very interested by the instrumental track. No singing, just weird looped guitar and such... hmmm!Chris Watson & Bj Nilsen - Storm (2006)A challenging, incredibly dyanmic album of altered field recordings from the two masters of the genre. Each recorded big ocean storms on the coastline of their homeland (England and Norway, respectively), as well as the animals that inhabit the coast. Each guy has one solo piece each, and one collaborative piece that melds their two distinct styles. Nilsen is more boomy storm, wheras Watson is (as you might guess) focusing on the weird bird noises one finds on the coast. It all makes for an oddly compressed environment, not the kind of big environment one would expect from such an idea. Really good!!Der Zyklus - Biometry (2004)A crazy-awesome techno release from the Netherlands and/or Detroit. It's hard to describe because it's quite new and innovative sounding. Kind of like micro/glitch music, with a big of heroin house thrown in. Glitchy and bloopy, but with an odd shuffling, thumbing bassline and some isolated computer noises. It all works along this theme of Biometric identification, too, so it's quite interesting. Weird, but pretty important, I think...*Bass Communion - Ghosts On Magnetic Tape (2004)*AWESOME album of reconstructions of EVP, the idea that ghosts can be recorded to tape if things are quiet enough. Deep, crackling drones. Dark and brooding. Amazing. I'm trying to find the Andrew Liles reconstruction of this album, which is supposed to be even better!*Æthenor - Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (2006)*Collaboration between Stephen O'Malley and guys from Guapo. Not what you'd expect, either... a slow, sea-sick soundscape reminscent of Nurse With Wound's more quiet pieces. Creaking, groaning drones and sea sounds. Really lovely, I just bought the vinyl of this...*Shapeshifter - Reticulum Flux (2004)*Bizarre post-IDM glitch insanity that takes production values to a new level. Dark, dark atmospheres of claustrophobia and alienation, pushing stereo pans and discreetness of sound elements to the max. Disorienting and fucked.Drudkh - Songs Of Grief And Solitude (2006)Whoa! I uploaded these Ukranian black metallers' first couple albums a while back and raved about them, especially their weird folky moments. Well here we are... an ENTIRELY folk album, no metal to be had at all! And as expected it's amazing, dark depressing dirges that bring up the best of the kind of black-metal mood of medieval evil, without the heaviness anywhere. Great, great songs!*Jack Rose - ST (2006)*Newest album from our favourite neo-appalachian guitar hero. Rose spins more delightfully obtuse steel-string improvisations. There must be magic in the air whenever he's around. You get a real sense of the history of the american folk guitar, but also an intriguing future, intellectual but not sterlie at all. Rather, he breathes a new life into the artform. Similar to James Blackshaw, but more straight-up American style, lacking much of Blackshaw's east-indian leanings.Fern Knight - Music For Witches and Alchemists (2006)In Gowan Ring - Beirths Birch Book (2005)Speaking of folk... here's some more new folk! I guess it could fall into the "freak folk" vein but there's nothing particularily strange or warped about it. Just lovely songs presented by great musicians. In Gowan Ring has one of the nicest, mellifluous voices I've heard. Fern Knight features members of Espers (our crazy psych-folk favourites).Entrance - Prayer of Death (2006)Awesome neo-psych-rock. Not very weird at all... sometimes it's good just to kick back and listen to some good ol' rock. Spiritual and moving.*Monolake - Hong Kong (1997)*Super-repetitive classic minimal techno from Robert Henke, aka Monolake. This stuff was hugely influential. It brings to mind a cold city scape, bright neon lights, relentless monotous forward motion. Long, long tracks, a slow-moving but unstoppable beat... wow... true "trance" music.Johannes Heil - 20.000 Leagues Under The Skin (2003)Now some great progressive "trance" music, a fun, colourful trip through various aspects of modern techno. Fresh and alive, organic but not lush. Definitely one to keep you moving. Upbeat and happy.*Robert Henke - Layering Buddha (2006)*Newest solo release from Henke. With this he bought many many Buddha Boxes (those things made by FM3, they were like little standalone speakers that played a selection of droning loops), with which he played all at once, layering and layering them, slowing them down, defragmenting them, fragmenting them, etc etc. Henke is one of the programmers of the famous Ableton music production software so this work is technically virtuosic. The Buddha Boxes are smeared into an intense, deep drone, cycling and whirring and coming to life. Hard to even imagine the source material anymore.----Where the heck's the post-rock? Here's the fucking post-rock! A new one on Temporary Residence from Maserati (a band Plateau members should be familiar with), the new EitS which surprisingly doesn't suck, and more!!Maserati - Inventions for the New Season (2007)I totally haven't listened to this yet because I JUST downloaded it, like, right now. I suspect it's good, because like most post rock bands (like Moly and EitS below), they put out a first album of standard post rock, and I'm hoping for some deviation here on later releases. Don't let me down, Maserati!Moly - ST (2004)Moly - Hello Shut Up (2006)Holy Moly! HAHA! I AM SO FUNNEH.Seriously though, this British (I think?) band that I just found out about is pretty dang good. Their ST album is standard huge epic post rock, loud/soft Mogwai rock action. But their new album is surprisingly more concise, with lyrics and space sounds and whooshes and it's all very lovely. Nice!Explosions In The Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (2007)Seriously guys I was totally not looking forward to this album. Since their last proper full length, they released a lame soundtrack to an American Football Movie, and a bland EP called The Rescue that was flat and overly sentimental. So I was expecting some weak-sauce post-rock. But... this isn't half bad at all! It's not excellent like "The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place" was, but it's very good and well-recorded to boot. The music is very similar to "The Earth..." but is more open, with a fair amount more droning going on, which is never a bad thing. There seems to be more space and restraint. Again, I'm not sure if this is excellent but it's some good stuff.*A - ST (2006)*Okay, I don't know if this is post-rock. It's seriously avant-garde Italian experimental with a heavy dose of post-rock in the mix. All you have to do is look at the song titles, and you know it's at least a little post-rock.This is an excellent album, concise bits of super-weirdess. Epic at points, skittery at others, blown-out feedback here and there, dreamy vocals, good lord this album was made for me. It's awesome.(The band name is actually supposed to be the A with the little circle over it, ala Scandinavian languages)Minsk - The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment (2007)Ruargh metal post rock! Yes more! I always need more of this stuff! You know I love Minsk too, since I basically wet my pants over a few of the songs on their 2005 album (which is here!). This album is more of the same chugging, powerful roar of that last album, but much more refined and, I was pleasantly surprised, more concise. That concision thing seems to be a common trend actually. The songs, while longer than on the last album, don't noodle like they used to, rather than just getting all jammy they'll go into some weird found sounds, or an odd electronic textural drone, or a simple riff. Not anymore do they just busy out a big aggressive jam for no reason. Also, the vocals are better this time around, taking a queue from Isis and tempering the throaty vocals with more smooth crooning. And of course it's epic and big, especially when you start paying attention to the lyrics.Overall, I'm impressed by this one, it lived up to my expectations in some ways and is challenging them in others.*Negura Bunget - Om (2006)**Negura Bunget - 'N Crugu Bradului (2003)*One of my favourite metal bands, due to their fusion of metal, ambient, and Romanian folk music. Really imaginative and deep. If the earlier album is too heavy for you (which it is, heavy and epic), the newest album is much less heavy and more folky.Paul Wirkus - Deformation Professionnelle (2006)Gorgeous electronic improvisation from Poland. This guy has a knack for organic-sounding songs.*Part Timer - ST (2006)*Lovely, fuzzy deconstructionist downtempo pop music with pretty female vocals and fuzzed out acoustic instruments. Seriously good, moody, and beautiful. You want this, and I imagine it would be hard not to like it.*COIL - (2006) The Remote Viewer (2006 Release)*I picked this double-disc up on sale a couple of weeks ago and forgot to encode it. It was originally released in 2002 as a cd-r only, and I can't imagine why they would want to limit its run like that. This is awesome post-industrial tribal jams, ritualistic and mysterious with a serious edge of menace. A very simple musical exercise executed perfectly, a breathing living thing. It's totally awesome, you should check it out. This new version came with a second disc with two new tracks not on the original.*Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Raw Materials (2006)*Rudresh Mahanthappa - Mother Tongue (2004)Where'd the jazz go? Here's the jazz. I haven't uploaded much jazz lately, so here's some new-wave American jazz improv featuring the rad sax stylings of mathematician/musician Mahanthappa. Crazy-complex playing that not only progs-out out but is sensitive and melodic. Nice! The collaborative album is the best, as the other guy accompanies with great piano playing. Yay jazz!Simon Joyner - Skeleton Blues (2006)Sad, slow blues-rock that reminds me a lot of mid-70's Dylan or The Band. Great lyrics, but the execution is a little bit too retro to come off as inspiring or novel.Seaworthy - The Ride (2006)Way nice dreamy post-rock. Mellow and intricate and lush, like if Do Make Say Think had a sexy female vocalist.*Sven Libaek - Inner Space OST (2005 Re-issue)**Sven Libaek - Solar Flares (1974)*More jazz! Old school, 70's easy-listening soundtrack jazz! Do you remember "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" movie? A lot of the music ideas on that soundtrack were in homage to Libaek, who composed totally lounged-out, slap bass and gentle-horn section 70's jazz. It seems cliche now, but at the time it certainly wasn't and these compositions come off as being very sophisticated. Smooth as hell. Carth, you would LOVE this. I did, however, have some problems playing back a few tracks on "Inner Space" on my iPod, but I think that was just my iPod's fault.*Strotter Inst. - Monstranz (2005)*Crazy fuckin' turntable experiments dealing with the compositional ideas associated with loops and locked grooves. This isn't wild-and-funky turntablism, this is the kind of modern-composition turntablism of Philip Jeck, all spare and minimal, dark and haunting. This album was very hard to find, I didn't think I'd ever be able to find his work online. This album contains an epic 30-minute track that is just mind-boggling in its slow-evolving simplicity.VA - Plague Songs (2006, Advance)Weird complilation curated by 4AD of various artists each singing a song about a biblical plague. It's pretty hit and miss though, but the first track by Kalashnikov (a slammin' hip-hop number) and the track by Imogen Heap (a wonderful dance-floor marvel) make up for it.VA - Big Apple Rappin (The Early Days Of Hip-Hop Culture In New York City 1979-1982) (2006)Wow! A huge compilation of very early hip-hop full of obscure but obviously highly-influential rappers and rap collectives. This was back when hip hop was a small niche, and most of the songs are happy and somewhat reverent. A blast from the past. Unfortunately a few of the mp3s are damaged and I'm too lazy to get new ones.*Zombi - Digitalis EP (2006)*Great new EP from this American prog-revival band (other albums here already). Totally cheezy epic synth songs. It's so good. SO GOOD. The execution is dead-on.*White Magic - Dat Rosa Mel Apibus (2006)*Lovely neo-folk album of gentle songs with gentle instruments. For fans of the new american folk scene, this one is a big new addition to your collection.*Vacuum Era Gelid Atmosphere (V.E.G.A.) - Cocaine (2002)*AUUUUUUUUGGGGH!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGHHH!! AIIEEEEEEEE!!!! HOLY SHIT THIS IS MOTHERFUCKING TERRIFYING. A HUGE, eight-guitar black metal onslaught from, of all places, Italy. I don't really need to say more. It's misanthrophic, evil, fast as hell, and really really loud. Have caution with this one.James Blackshaw:2006 Waking Into Sleep - Goteborg 27.05.06Expertly recorded solo live show from our favourite steel-string guitar explorer. A short selection of his best tracks. I'm amazed at how well he plays live - it's flawless! Beautiful as always. (Bonus trivia: I'm applying to postgraduate study at the University in the town this was recorded in).Chevreuil - Capoeira (2006)Super-cool mathy post-rock, kind of like Hella if Hella didn't totally suck. They manage to pull off nerdy, complex arrangements while still sounding interesting and fun (as opposed to lame and nerdy). The instrumentation is strange too. Drums are everywhere, but so are harmonicas and odd guitar harmonics. Shuffling, weird, loud fast and dense. It's pretty dang good!*Forensics - Things to do When you Should be Dead Anyway (2004)*Just found out about these guys... pretty much one of the coolest records around. Kind of like a more post-rock Boris (Heavy BORIS), big epic metal soundscapes. It's got it all - metal, ambience, sweeping arrangements, you name. Quite cool.*Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (1974)**Harmonia - Deluxe (1975)*Some lovely old krautrock that just got the re-issue treatment... this band was a collaboration between Cluster and Neu! So you know it's dreamy, krautrocky goodnees filled with mellow electronic jams and motorik rhythms. It's like pastoral krautrock, very cosmic/spacey. Think Boards of Canada, in the 70's.*Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen (2006)**Jan Jelinek - Kosmischer Pitch (2005)*Speaking of dreamy electronica... Jelinek combines pastoral almost field-recording like elements and mixes them with spare, synthetic electronic sounds in wonderfully soothing arrangements. Not only is it nice, it's also incredibly brainy, revealing an interesting aesthetic, like tree roots cracking their way into an electronica studio.Disappearer - ST EP (2006)SOOPER-heavy doom-infused post-rock, a big ultra-dense smear of bass drums and guitar, minor-key waves of post-rock bliss wiping you out. Not really songs, tough, as much as environmental noises... interesting twist on the post-rock-metal thing.*Conrad Schnitzler - Trigger Trilogy (2006)*A really dense, brainy, conceptual triple album from this krautrock/ambient legend who was an original member of Tangerine Dream and collaborate with Cluster. This guy has spent years and years crafting intricate new musical ideas and theories in his home studio, slowly amassing the pieces to an epic. Each disc in the trilogy is an example of a Trigger concept that Schintzler has developed, and each adds to the next. It's pretty intense, and it's obvious that this guy has had huge reach on the music world. More info here: http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec114_release_page.htmKode9 & The Spaceape - Memories of the Future (2006)More wicked dark, doomy crackly hip-hop from some of the guys who made the awesome Burial album I uploaded a little while back.*KTL - ST (2006)*Collaboration between Stephen O'Malley (SUNN O)))) and Peter Rehberg (glitch-tronica master), a doom-drenched, fuzzy whorl of epic proportions. Apparently a soundtrack for an art event, it's pretty awsome on its own. It's dark and dreary, but also crispy and kind-of warm. Fucking rad cover art too, check it out.John Zorn - Astronome (Patton, Dunn, Baron)Patton and Zorn re-unite for some INSANE stuff. Remember the "Leviathan" track from Zorn's album "IAO?" That crazy, backward-sounding speed-metal churn with psychotic vocals from Patton? Yeah, this is pretty much a whole album from that. Brutal cinematic soundscapes of hellish whirlwings of off-kilter drums, manic fuzz-bass, and totally amazing demon vocals from Patton. The guy is seriously a wizard, making different sounds so fast, he's like a car that can turn on a dime. His vocal cords are like a gymnast - stretching, contorting into a odd positions, squealing, gurgling, and finally screaming like a demon from hell. Amazing, breathtaking, and totally scary. Hard to handle.Knut:2006 Alter*2000 Challenger*A Swiss band that I think has heavily influenced the whole Neurosis/Isis crowd, a metallic-chug, fast paced and brutal. Very complex, mathy and technical, but not without heaviness. And don't forget the angry vocals! Interesting thing about Knut is that they don't have a "dark" feel to them like their contemparies do. They are not doomy, or evil, or gloomy or anything like that. The have an indie-edge to them, like if metal could jangle, this is what it would sound like. There's a more electronic, techno feel too it that rather than evoking evil, evokes fun times. Weird. "Alter" is a strong remix album.*Nadja & Methadrone (Split) Absorption (2005)*NADJA ALERT. I have to say they threw me for a loop here. The track starts out in a very un-Nadja way, a loud power-electronic squally, then it moves into a slow fuzzy shuffle, with an odd looping drum beat, mid-tempo and kind of actually boring. Then there is a piano tinkling out a slow melody. I started to lose interest actually, thinking "oh no!" but they managed to pull it together at the end, concluding with their trademark almost-bursting wave of dreamy epic fuzz. So good, and I'm sorry I doubted them. The other artist on this split is pretty awesome, too, they pound out these super-fuzzed out minor key guitar jams, like a super-heavy, distortion-drenched version of the Cure or the Smiths, all post-punk guitars and sad-bastard ambience. Pretty rad!*Nachtmystium - Instinct-Decay (2006)*OH MY GOD. This is super-heavy, super-black black metal, raspy and fast and evil but... then it turns into something like a black-metal band jamming with M83! It's like, psych-black metal. I am totally, totally digging it because it has a much fuller, more colourful sound than most black metal (which is usually, well, just black). It even has hooks, and is kinda catchy. They second track just totally rocked my world, one of the best guitar riffs I've heard in a while, not blackened but rather rounded and juicy. But still evil, somehow. Rad to the MAX. Probably one of the year's best, I say.
The cover to the Mary Anne Hobbs Presents the Warrior Dubz album, uploaded solely because I know it caught your eye. (the album is reviewed below, though)Anyway, until I post my list (not to mention the second experimental metal post), I thought I would post some album synopses. I share music through soulseek but also do so through a private ftp server with some close friends, and I always provide little snippets about the things I'm uploading, since they often don't know what the hell they're getting. Lately they've been getting a bit verbose, so perhaps I should be posting them on MOG, too. Though, some of the descriptions are real short and suck, but what the hell, I'll post those as well. I should also note that I tend to use the same words a lot - "expansive," "organic," "melancholy," etc. Sorry about that. Some of the stuff I've written about on my MOG too, but heck. I'm a bit too lazy to really edit the list.Here are all the posts since mid-December. Enjoy...----You know, I listen to a lot of obscure, weird stuff with a lot of fine-art and hipster cred (though I certainly don't listen to it for that cred). But sometimes, like today, I find myself with a cheesy song stuck in my head. Today that song is by a big Canadian artist from the 80's called Larry Gowan. He was the classic cheesy, macho synth-rock genius that the 80's loved. AND he had a glorious mullet (he is now the current front-man for Styx). Anyways... on to droning sound art...*Murmer - They Were Dreaming They Were Stones (2004)*Murmer - Elements (2004)Two companion albums by this great European sound artist who last collaborated with Jonathan Coleclough on "Husk" (one of my favourite records of last year). It kind of reminds me of a cross between contemporary Halfer Trio and Chris Watson (who himself was a member of early Hafler Trio). There are many clinically precise, expanding drones of pure sound. They are lovely too, the clinical descriptor here is a good one... they're clean and whole. But, they are mixed in with these unsually earthy sounds and plenty of what I imagine are field recordings. Like Peter Wright these drones are abstract but definitely have a narrative quality to them.Organum:*1998 Volume 1*2006 Sanctus*2000 Volume 2*2006 Amen (Unto The Aeon Of Aeons)For some reason I had neglected to download any Organum until very recently. He's a British sound artist by the name of David Jackman who was one of the earliest progenators or "THE DRONE," the odd sound collage art that started coming out of England in the early 80's (and has continued to flow forth ever since). Organum seemed to have been much more focused on timbre, ie the quality of sounds, than the kind of conceptual ideas groups like Zoviet France and The Hafler Trio were mining. There's a real quality of "musician" here which is often lacking in much experimental music. Volume 1 & 2 are compliations of his early, seminal work that stand (from what I read) as his best releases, groundbreaking, moving stuff. I guess I would say Jackman has something in common with the German Industrial movement of that time, as much of his stuff involving scraping metal and other objects to get big timbrous sounds (or, er, something... at a loss for words here). Sanctus and Amen are his newest works, both being made from the same source recordings. They make the musicianship very obvious - they are big, churchy things sounding like medieval hymns. Slow building vocal and organ drones, culminating every so often in interesting chord movements. Sanctus and Amen sound very similar through and through, and it's obvious he's fully exploring a particular musical idea. They're very very nice though, especially for meditative moments.*Toroidh - European Trilogy (2006)*A purposefully overpowering industrial/martial folk (think: Sol Invictus, Der Blutharsch, Death in June) epic focussing on the artist's attempts to come to terms with Fascism in Europe. What is truly impressive and magnificent here is how the artist has collected dozens of samples of fascist martial songs, marching songs and the like. He then mixes them together, and buries them under a dreary depressing haze of scratchiness and blurriness. Every so often he will whip out his acoustic guitar to make a few pronoucements that are very much along the lines of early Death in June. Since this is a massive triple-disc set, it is an emotionally harrowing listen that takes you through the states of suffereing, regret, and acceptance. Incredible - an essential piece of listening if only for the historic recordings presented.*Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come (1998)*Reccomended to me by a fellow soulseek user (the same person who reccomended Der Zyklus), this is one of the best punk albums I've heard and certainly stands as a big influence to most of the modern punk I have heard (which I listen to mostly through the college radio). Arty, political, and witty in a postmodern sort of way. It's not all punk here either - bits of jazz and more gentle rock are thrown in. Quite good!Rapoon - From Shadows Sleep (2006)New album from this Zoviet France alumnus (and I have to say, the only Rapoon album I've heard) Robin Storey. It continues to mine the weird ethno-archeologic drone that Zoviet France hinted at in some of their recordings. The titles of the tracks (all beginning with "The") hint at moments in history, or harsh conditions peoples of the past have encountered. It suits the sounds contained therein, which range from more colourful sound collage to chilly drones.J.P. Shilo - As Happy As Sad Is Blue (2006)An emotional collection of organic, instrumental folk-rock tracks. While very well played and varied, it's a little bit sentimental for my tastes. Pretty good though, regardless of that.Xasthur and Leviathan - Split (2005)Leviathan and Sapthuran - Split (2006)Urgh yes black metal! Both of these split recordings are great. The Leviathan/Xasthur is practically a match made in heaven, matching Xasthur's complex, super-black dynamics with some big-ass melancholy doomy blackness from Leviathan (whom is, as I have said before, one of the biggest innovators in black metal). The newer split with Sapthuran is even bigger in scale, though Leviathan's contributions contain more mean ambient scapes. Sapthuran, whom I haven't heard of before, lets out some awesome, extended, primitive black epics. They buzz and sear and are drenched in that great minor-key mournfulness I love.*Circle - 2006 Miljard*Newest album from the Scandinavian powerhouse finds them out of their usual psych-folk territory. Here they're making glorious icy ambient music. It is seriously icy and chilly too... tribal jams of bells, keyboards, and a subtle beat (lets not forget subtle field recordings and tapes). Still very cyclic of course, these jams go on a on, in frosty loops. Really fucking good.*Zoviet France - 1998 Digilogue*Likewise fucking good album from Zoviet France that I missed, but have been reminded of due to its recent re-issue. I think this is a critical document in the history of experimental sound collage, showing off an impressive skill at tape loops, overlaying sounds, ring delays, etc. All of this builds up into a moving sound atmosphere. Most of the newer drone stuff I've uploaded heavily mines the aesthetic that this group pioneered. And many newer groups miss out on great conceptual ideas, such as ZF's trademark acheological bent. They make the sounds sound like they've been unearthed... like some kind of ritual of an ancient culture.*Thomas Brinkmann - Klick Revolution (2006)*Wagh! Some seriously skipping, klicky electronic music based around the theme of... pinball? Glitched out beats get lost under a haze of skipping static, which then becomes the focus of the recording, modulating and shifting around to effect. Pretty impressive, certainly deep listening.VA - Mary Anne Hobbs Presents The Warrior Dubz (2006)Great great BBC-sourced compilation of the huge dubstep sound coming out of England right now. This is handy because I only really know a couple of dubstep artists (Burial, Kode9, some Techno Animal maybe) and this collects a great deal of obsure but awesome artists. Dubstep is that weird combination of dancehall, grime, and IDM, a buzzing, skittery but very dubby rhythm-heavy music combined with "toasting" vocals. These tracks range from straight vocal toasts and beats to all-out splattery IDM. Pretty awesome, though I think Kode9 is still my favourite, mainly due to his compelling lyrics.Tuk - Proud Princess Of A Brand New City (2004)Another great IDM artist to go along with Clark and Secret Frequency Crew. Though Tuk certainly has a more laptop-based experimental bent, more ambient and fractured. Excellent nonetheless. Looking for his/her new album...The Faunts - High Expectations, Low Results (2005)I finally got around to listening to this Edmonton-local band's first album, upon hearing they have a new release out. They are a really good post-rock band, what with the gentle ambience and psychedelic guitar scapes. There are even vocals, that don't suck! It's hard to mine this sound without sounding "soooo 2001" but it's very good.Stinking Lizaveta - Caught Between Worlds (2004)Pretty damn great band from Philadelphia that rocks the line between psych-rock and jazz. Fast pace and thrilling, grungy yet sophisticated. Really complicated, but somehow accessible.*Rope - Heresy, and Then Nothing but Tears (2006)*What the fuck. Unique Polish-American band that sounds kind of like a countryfied Khanate. By that I mean, the brooding spacious horror of Khanate, but with less "metal" and more palatable sounds. Still, there is a lot of tension here between silence and presence, with awkward arrangements that jar you in the same what Khanate does. Vocals are likewise scary, but instead of a shriek they are mostly smooth, intelligible, but still scary. Smooth but scary, I guess I could say.Michael Yonkers Band - Microminiature Love (1968)Blazing psych-rock band from the 60's San Francisco. It's pretty fucking awesome. Its kind-of-strangeness makes it unique, but really it's just an excellent rock n roll record.Brendan Murray - Everybody Wants the Tide CDR (2006)A great found-sound-centric sound sculptor along the lines of Peter Wright who definitely needs more exposure than crappy CD-R releases. Beautiful!COIL - (2006) Black Antlers (2006 Re-issue)The companion re-release that went along with "The Remote Viewer." It's not as good as that one but then again it's totally different. Much more song based, in the creepy incantation sort of thing. But it's COIL... it's fantastic all the same.*Mirror & Jim O'Rourke - Die Spiegelmanufaktur (2003)*A classic drone release by this legendary band. Slowly, shifting crystalline soundscapes. As with most droney stuff, hard to describe. This one is a total classic, really phenomenally good. Mirror's drones had a certain narrative quality that makes them quite evocative. They are also mostly acoustic drones... bowed sheets of metal, wavy guitars, etc. Recommended.BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa - Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna (2006)A new release that is a continuation of their last droney collaboration, "Vikinga Brennivin." It takes up the subject of being intoxicated by alcohol again. Not a fun kind of drunk... a depressing, stumbling, dark and moody drunk, like you're lost outside in the snow of iceland, wasted out of your mind, the light slowly fading from the day. Not quite as good as the first part, but this is damn fine quality stuff, that never takes itself too seriously.*Clark (Chris Clark) - Body Riddle (2006)*Wow! Take this and the Secret Frequency Crew album, and my faith in IDM is pretty much restored. The newest from this IDM stalwart (one of Warp record's oldest singings) is warm, organic, and fluid. It lacks the coolness and over-sophistication of much other IDM releases. Laptop fuckery is replaced by some serious soul and emotion. I've been really digging this, especially the big, epic final track, "The Autumnal Crash," a wonderfully expansive, powerful fuzz-filled blast of light.*Secret Frequency Crew - Forest Of The Echo Downs (2004)*A surprising find that I got by randomly searching record-labels. They are a New-York based collective that combine IDM and hip-hop beats, as well as remarkably Philip-Glass-like arrangements utilizing horns as well as synths. Very beautiful, lush and textured. I'm a bit sad it's taken me so long to find out about these guys. You'll enjoy them, for sure.David Thomas Broughton - Tour EP (2006)Yay! Another new EP from my fave new folk artist. This one is seriously low-fi... so much so the low production value gets in my way of enjoying it a lot. But... I'm very interested by the instrumental track. No singing, just weird looped guitar and such... hmmm!Chris Watson & Bj Nilsen - Storm (2006)A challenging, incredibly dyanmic album of altered field recordings from the two masters of the genre. Each recorded big ocean storms on the coastline of their homeland (England and Norway, respectively), as well as the animals that inhabit the coast. Each guy has one solo piece each, and one collaborative piece that melds their two distinct styles. Nilsen is more boomy storm, wheras Watson is (as you might guess) focusing on the weird bird noises one finds on the coast. It all makes for an oddly compressed environment, not the kind of big environment one would expect from such an idea. Really good!!Der Zyklus - Biometry (2004)A crazy-awesome techno release from the Netherlands and/or Detroit. It's hard to describe because it's quite new and innovative sounding. Kind of like micro/glitch music, with a big of heroin house thrown in. Glitchy and bloopy, but with an odd shuffling, thumbing bassline and some isolated computer noises. It all works along this theme of Biometric identification, too, so it's quite interesting. Weird, but pretty important, I think...*Bass Communion - Ghosts On Magnetic Tape (2004)*AWESOME album of reconstructions of EVP, the idea that ghosts can be recorded to tape if things are quiet enough. Deep, crackling drones. Dark and brooding. Amazing. I'm trying to find the Andrew Liles reconstruction of this album, which is supposed to be even better!*Æthenor - Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (2006)*Collaboration between Stephen O'Malley and guys from Guapo. Not what you'd expect, either... a slow, sea-sick soundscape reminscent of Nurse With Wound's more quiet pieces. Creaking, groaning drones and sea sounds. Really lovely, I just bought the vinyl of this...*Shapeshifter - Reticulum Flux (2004)*Bizarre post-IDM glitch insanity that takes production values to a new level. Dark, dark atmospheres of claustrophobia and alienation, pushing stereo pans and discreetness of sound elements to the max. Disorienting and fucked.Drudkh - Songs Of Grief And Solitude (2006)Whoa! I uploaded these Ukranian black metallers' first couple albums a while back and raved about them, especially their weird folky moments. Well here we are... an ENTIRELY folk album, no metal to be had at all! And as expected it's amazing, dark depressing dirges that bring up the best of the kind of black-metal mood of medieval evil, without the heaviness anywhere. Great, great songs!*Jack Rose - ST (2006)*Newest album from our favourite neo-appalachian guitar hero. Rose spins more delightfully obtuse steel-string improvisations. There must be magic in the air whenever he's around. You get a real sense of the history of the american folk guitar, but also an intriguing future, intellectual but not sterlie at all. Rather, he breathes a new life into the artform. Similar to James Blackshaw, but more straight-up American style, lacking much of Blackshaw's east-indian leanings.Fern Knight - Music For Witches and Alchemists (2006)In Gowan Ring - Beirths Birch Book (2005)Speaking of folk... here's some more new folk! I guess it could fall into the "freak folk" vein but there's nothing particularily strange or warped about it. Just lovely songs presented by great musicians. In Gowan Ring has one of the nicest, mellifluous voices I've heard. Fern Knight features members of Espers (our crazy psych-folk favourites).Entrance - Prayer of Death (2006)Awesome neo-psych-rock. Not very weird at all... sometimes it's good just to kick back and listen to some good ol' rock. Spiritual and moving.*Monolake - Hong Kong (1997)*Super-repetitive classic minimal techno from Robert Henke, aka Monolake. This stuff was hugely influential. It brings to mind a cold city scape, bright neon lights, relentless monotous forward motion. Long, long tracks, a slow-moving but unstoppable beat... wow... true "trance" music.Johannes Heil - 20.000 Leagues Under The Skin (2003)Now some great progressive "trance" music, a fun, colourful trip through various aspects of modern techno. Fresh and alive, organic but not lush. Definitely one to keep you moving. Upbeat and happy.*Robert Henke - Layering Buddha (2006)*Newest solo release from Henke. With this he bought many many Buddha Boxes (those things made by FM3, they were like little standalone speakers that played a selection of droning loops), with which he played all at once, layering and layering them, slowing them down, defragmenting them, fragmenting them, etc etc. Henke is one of the programmers of the famous Ableton music production software so this work is technically virtuosic. The Buddha Boxes are smeared into an intense, deep drone, cycling and whirring and coming to life. Hard to even imagine the source material anymore.----Where the heck's the post-rock? Here's the fucking post-rock! A new one on Temporary Residence from Maserati (a band Plateau members should be familiar with), the new EitS which surprisingly doesn't suck, and more!!Maserati - Inventions for the New Season (2007)I totally haven't listened to this yet because I JUST downloaded it, like, right now. I suspect it's good, because like most post rock bands (like Moly and EitS below), they put out a first album of standard post rock, and I'm hoping for some deviation here on later releases. Don't let me down, Maserati!Moly - ST (2004)Moly - Hello Shut Up (2006)Holy Moly! HAHA! I AM SO FUNNEH.Seriously though, this British (I think?) band that I just found out about is pretty dang good. Their ST album is standard huge epic post rock, loud/soft Mogwai rock action. But their new album is surprisingly more concise, with lyrics and space sounds and whooshes and it's all very lovely. Nice!Explosions In The Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (2007)Seriously guys I was totally not looking forward to this album. Since their last proper full length, they released a lame soundtrack to an American Football Movie, and a bland EP called The Rescue that was flat and overly sentimental. So I was expecting some weak-sauce post-rock. But... this isn't half bad at all! It's not excellent like "The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place" was, but it's very good and well-recorded to boot. The music is very similar to "The Earth..." but is more open, with a fair amount more droning going on, which is never a bad thing. There seems to be more space and restraint. Again, I'm not sure if this is excellent but it's some good stuff.*A - ST (2006)*Okay, I don't know if this is post-rock. It's seriously avant-garde Italian experimental with a heavy dose of post-rock in the mix. All you have to do is look at the song titles, and you know it's at least a little post-rock.This is an excellent album, concise bits of super-weirdess. Epic at points, skittery at others, blown-out feedback here and there, dreamy vocals, good lord this album was made for me. It's awesome.(The band name is actually supposed to be the A with the little circle over it, ala Scandinavian languages)Minsk - The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment (2007)Ruargh metal post rock! Yes more! I always need more of this stuff! You know I love Minsk too, since I basically wet my pants over a few of the songs on their 2005 album (which is here!). This album is more of the same chugging, powerful roar of that last album, but much more refined and, I was pleasantly surprised, more concise. That concision thing seems to be a common trend actually. The songs, while longer than on the last album, don't noodle like they used to, rather than just getting all jammy they'll go into some weird found sounds, or an odd electronic textural drone, or a simple riff. Not anymore do they just busy out a big aggressive jam for no reason. Also, the vocals are better this time around, taking a queue from Isis and tempering the throaty vocals with more smooth crooning. And of course it's epic and big, especially when you start paying attention to the lyrics.Overall, I'm impressed by this one, it lived up to my expectations in some ways and is challenging them in others.*Negura Bunget - Om (2006)**Negura Bunget - 'N Crugu Bradului (2003)*One of my favourite metal bands, due to their fusion of metal, ambient, and Romanian folk music. Really imaginative and deep. If the earlier album is too heavy for you (which it is, heavy and epic), the newest album is much less heavy and more folky.Paul Wirkus - Deformation Professionnelle (2006)Gorgeous electronic improvisation from Poland. This guy has a knack for organic-sounding songs.*Part Timer - ST (2006)*Lovely, fuzzy deconstructionist downtempo pop music with pretty female vocals and fuzzed out acoustic instruments. Seriously good, moody, and beautiful. You want this, and I imagine it would be hard not to like it.*COIL - (2006) The Remote Viewer (2006 Release)*I picked this double-disc up on sale a couple of weeks ago and forgot to encode it. It was originally released in 2002 as a cd-r only, and I can't imagine why they would want to limit its run like that. This is awesome post-industrial tribal jams, ritualistic and mysterious with a serious edge of menace. A very simple musical exercise executed perfectly, a breathing living thing. It's totally awesome, you should check it out. This new version came with a second disc with two new tracks not on the original.*Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa - Raw Materials (2006)*Rudresh Mahanthappa - Mother Tongue (2004)Where'd the jazz go? Here's the jazz. I haven't uploaded much jazz lately, so here's some new-wave American jazz improv featuring the rad sax stylings of mathematician/musician Mahanthappa. Crazy-complex playing that not only progs-out out but is sensitive and melodic. Nice! The collaborative album is the best, as the other guy accompanies with great piano playing. Yay jazz!Simon Joyner - Skeleton Blues (2006)Sad, slow blues-rock that reminds me a lot of mid-70's Dylan or The Band. Great lyrics, but the execution is a little bit too retro to come off as inspiring or novel.Seaworthy - The Ride (2006)Way nice dreamy post-rock. Mellow and intricate and lush, like if Do Make Say Think had a sexy female vocalist.*Sven Libaek - Inner Space OST (2005 Re-issue)**Sven Libaek - Solar Flares (1974)*More jazz! Old school, 70's easy-listening soundtrack jazz! Do you remember "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" movie? A lot of the music ideas on that soundtrack were in homage to Libaek, who composed totally lounged-out, slap bass and gentle-horn section 70's jazz. It seems cliche now, but at the time it certainly wasn't and these compositions come off as being very sophisticated. Smooth as hell. Carth, you would LOVE this. I did, however, have some problems playing back a few tracks on "Inner Space" on my iPod, but I think that was just my iPod's fault.*Strotter Inst. - Monstranz (2005)*Crazy fuckin' turntable experiments dealing with the compositional ideas associated with loops and locked grooves. This isn't wild-and-funky turntablism, this is the kind of modern-composition turntablism of Philip Jeck, all spare and minimal, dark and haunting. This album was very hard to find, I didn't think I'd ever be able to find his work online. This album contains an epic 30-minute track that is just mind-boggling in its slow-evolving simplicity.VA - Plague Songs (2006, Advance)Weird complilation curated by 4AD of various artists each singing a song about a biblical plague. It's pretty hit and miss though, but the first track by Kalashnikov (a slammin' hip-hop number) and the track by Imogen Heap (a wonderful dance-floor marvel) make up for it.VA - Big Apple Rappin (The Early Days Of Hip-Hop Culture In New York City 1979-1982) (2006)Wow! A huge compilation of very early hip-hop full of obscure but obviously highly-influential rappers and rap collectives. This was back when hip hop was a small niche, and most of the songs are happy and somewhat reverent. A blast from the past. Unfortunately a few of the mp3s are damaged and I'm too lazy to get new ones.*Zombi - Digitalis EP (2006)*Great new EP from this American prog-revival band (other albums here already). Totally cheezy epic synth songs. It's so good. SO GOOD. The execution is dead-on.*White Magic - Dat Rosa Mel Apibus (2006)*Lovely neo-folk album of gentle songs with gentle instruments. For fans of the new american folk scene, this one is a big new addition to your collection.*Vacuum Era Gelid Atmosphere (V.E.G.A.) - Cocaine (2002)*AUUUUUUUUGGGGH!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGHHH!! AIIEEEEEEEE!!!! HOLY SHIT THIS IS MOTHERFUCKING TERRIFYING. A HUGE, eight-guitar black metal onslaught from, of all places, Italy. I don't really need to say more. It's misanthrophic, evil, fast as hell, and really really loud. Have caution with this one.James Blackshaw:2006 Waking Into Sleep - Goteborg 27.05.06Expertly recorded solo live show from our favourite steel-string guitar explorer. A short selection of his best tracks. I'm amazed at how well he plays live - it's flawless! Beautiful as always. (Bonus trivia: I'm applying to postgraduate study at the University in the town this was recorded in).Chevreuil - Capoeira (2006)Super-cool mathy post-rock, kind of like Hella if Hella didn't totally suck. They manage to pull off nerdy, complex arrangements while still sounding interesting and fun (as opposed to lame and nerdy). The instrumentation is strange too. Drums are everywhere, but so are harmonicas and odd guitar harmonics. Shuffling, weird, loud fast and dense. It's pretty dang good!*Forensics - Things to do When you Should be Dead Anyway (2004)*Just found out about these guys... pretty much one of the coolest records around. Kind of like a more post-rock Boris (Heavy BORIS), big epic metal soundscapes. It's got it all - metal, ambience, sweeping arrangements, you name. Quite cool.*Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (1974)**Harmonia - Deluxe (1975)*Some lovely old krautrock that just got the re-issue treatment... this band was a collaboration between Cluster and Neu! So you know it's dreamy, krautrocky goodnees filled with mellow electronic jams and motorik rhythms. It's like pastoral krautrock, very cosmic/spacey. Think Boards of Canada, in the 70's.*Jan Jelinek - Tierbeobachtungen (2006)**Jan Jelinek - Kosmischer Pitch (2005)*Speaking of dreamy electronica... Jelinek combines pastoral almost field-recording like elements and mixes them with spare, synthetic electronic sounds in wonderfully soothing arrangements. Not only is it nice, it's also incredibly brainy, revealing an interesting aesthetic, like tree roots cracking their way into an electronica studio.Disappearer - ST EP (2006)SOOPER-heavy doom-infused post-rock, a big ultra-dense smear of bass drums and guitar, minor-key waves of post-rock bliss wiping you out. Not really songs, tough, as much as environmental noises... interesting twist on the post-rock-metal thing.*Conrad Schnitzler - Trigger Trilogy (2006)*A really dense, brainy, conceptual triple album from this krautrock/ambient legend who was an original member of Tangerine Dream and collaborate with Cluster. This guy has spent years and years crafting intricate new musical ideas and theories in his home studio, slowly amassing the pieces to an epic. Each disc in the trilogy is an example of a Trigger concept that Schintzler has developed, and each adds to the next. It's pretty intense, and it's obvious that this guy has had huge reach on the music world. More info here: http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec114_release_page.htmKode9 & The Spaceape - Memories of the Future (2006)More wicked dark, doomy crackly hip-hop from some of the guys who made the awesome Burial album I uploaded a little while back.*KTL - ST (2006)*Collaboration between Stephen O'Malley (SUNN O)))) and Peter Rehberg (glitch-tronica master), a doom-drenched, fuzzy whorl of epic proportions. Apparently a soundtrack for an art event, it's pretty awsome on its own. It's dark and dreary, but also crispy and kind-of warm. Fucking rad cover art too, check it out.John Zorn - Astronome (Patton, Dunn, Baron)Patton and Zorn re-unite for some INSANE stuff. Remember the "Leviathan" track from Zorn's album "IAO?" That crazy, backward-sounding speed-metal churn with psychotic vocals from Patton? Yeah, this is pretty much a whole album from that. Brutal cinematic soundscapes of hellish whirlwings of off-kilter drums, manic fuzz-bass, and totally amazing demon vocals from Patton. The guy is seriously a wizard, making different sounds so fast, he's like a car that can turn on a dime. His vocal cords are like a gymnast - stretching, contorting into a odd positions, squealing, gurgling, and finally screaming like a demon from hell. Amazing, breathtaking, and totally scary. Hard to handle.Knut:2006 Alter*2000 Challenger*A Swiss band that I think has heavily influenced the whole Neurosis/Isis crowd, a metallic-chug, fast paced and brutal. Very complex, mathy and technical, but not without heaviness. And don't forget the angry vocals! Interesting thing about Knut is that they don't have a "dark" feel to them like their contemparies do. They are not doomy, or evil, or gloomy or anything like that. The have an indie-edge to them, like if metal could jangle, this is what it would sound like. There's a more electronic, techno feel too it that rather than evoking evil, evokes fun times. Weird. "Alter" is a strong remix album.*Nadja & Methadrone (Split) Absorption (2005)*NADJA ALERT. I have to say they threw me for a loop here. The track starts out in a very un-Nadja way, a loud power-electronic squally, then it moves into a slow fuzzy shuffle, with an odd looping drum beat, mid-tempo and kind of actually boring. Then there is a piano tinkling out a slow melody. I started to lose interest actually, thinking "oh no!" but they managed to pull it together at the end, concluding with their trademark almost-bursting wave of dreamy epic fuzz. So good, and I'm sorry I doubted them. The other artist on this split is pretty awesome, too, they pound out these super-fuzzed out minor key guitar jams, like a super-heavy, distortion-drenched version of the Cure or the Smiths, all post-punk guitars and sad-bastard ambience. Pretty rad!*Nachtmystium - Instinct-Decay (2006)*OH MY GOD. This is super-heavy, super-black black metal, raspy and fast and evil but... then it turns into something like a black-metal band jamming with M83! It's like, psych-black metal. I am totally, totally digging it because it has a much fuller, more colourful sound than most black metal (which is usually, well, just black). It even has hooks, and is kinda catchy. They second track just totally rocked my world, one of the best guitar riffs I've heard in a while, not blackened but rather rounded and juicy. But still evil, somehow. Rad to the MAX. Probably one of the year's best, I say.
Locating MOG account...
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