Valzi – I Nvr 3 U (2009)

Petite & Jolie

• Chiptune 
• Electronic music 
• Indietronica 
• 8-bit 
• Glitch pop 
• Alternative 
• Bitpop 
• Chipbreak 
• Crossover 
• Avant-pop
• Electro pop 
• Robot pop 
• Electro pop 
• Nintendocore 
• Tracker music

Comment: I assume glitch pop as a genre comes partly out of the tracker/chiptune/bitpop scene. I have always loved chiptune music even though I did not it consciously or being aware of the genre which started sometime in the 80s. Because the first playing consoles of mine were yellow cartridge-based, mostly Chinese productions. Milk & Nuts, Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lode Runner, Getaway, Konami NHL 1988, Tank, The Wild Gunman etc were the games I had spent very many hours within. I can vividly remember for a game called Bomberman which sounded as if an outtake from one of the songs by Throbbing Gristle. The rhythmic 8-bit lines within it would break to many sonic shards yet it would incessantly be trudging over the game scene. For sure, the genre was not the very first electronic music created ever (as we know very well thanks to the Sub Rosa`s compilations of noise and electronic music the first electronic and noise compositions were already peoduced in the second part of the 19<sup>th</sup> century). It was not the very first computer music ever created as well. However, I like the consistency and strength of people who follow the genre by promoting and creating by themselves. Valzi`s 11-track issue being released on Petite & Jolie is a great issue crossing at an interface of chiptune and indie electronic music. Its poppy yet elegantly exaggerated tendencies to come to the surface permanently used to provide it even a more cutting-edge shape. That's cool. It is a sort of electro pop but it chimes as if coming from a broken, abandoned computer world. Unfortunately it somehow resonates with sad news from the recent world where even celebrities do commit suicide. The soul of a broken human being can be compared with the one of a broken computer. The biggest problem in the nowadays world is that a human being is exercised to be machines but the soul within the creature is still not be ready to step to the next, robot level. The only way is to set robots free but the biggest consequence of it may be the man-machines will eradicate the human being as a species. Given that it is an example of chiptune music you should not take the adjective “exaggerated” seriously because within the genre there cannot be any of the elements exaggerated in the strict sense of the word. All is finely integrated and exposed to the ears of a hungry music fan. And the cover print is really cool by creating a psychedelic pathway to arrive at your positive self. Take it, remember it.

Radikal Satan – Nueva Marginalia (2009)

Discos Buen Pony

• Tango 
• World fusion 
• Alternative 
• Post-industrial 
• Neofolk 
• Dark folk 
• Art music

Comment: Radikal Satan is a combo from Argentina who has produced some suggestive music so far. If tango as a style is of Argentinian heritage then Nueva Marginalia is genuinely Argentinian. Beyond tango which is an adornment on the basis of post-industrial and neofolk music it ebbs and tides between heaven and earth, between an artsy heaven and an artsy hell. Mostly its murky components are concerted into a subtle whole yet at times the anarchy falls down to the ground. It is finely predominated by a deranged mind. If you used to enjoy Einstürzende Neubauten induced desperation and anxiety then such a sort of hell is also presented over there. Just listen to it to cope with your own devils. The aforementioned variety filled with spaced-out breathing attests to the fact the 4-notch issue provides memorable moments. The release is a part of the discography of Discos Buen Pony.

V.A Christmas (2009)

Petite & Jolie

• Indietronica 
• Art pop 
• Electronic pop 
• Conceptual 
• Improvised music 
• IDM 
• Folktronica 
• Drone pop 
• Organcore

Comment: today is the 29th of April, and it is a date quite far away from the Christmas but I have to admit it is one of the best Xmas compilations I have ever heard. It does not include traditional Christmas songs but new ones. Most of the songs used to chime and soar based on sublime electronic progressions and delicate chord changes, mutant frequencies and crispy beats. Additionally one can find out more technical and maybe less emotion arousing tracks either, for instance, two gentle improvised tracks by Makunouchi Bento. I guess it could be exciting, and at times ennobling and relaxing by listening to the whole while sitting with your family around the table. The compilation is a part of the discography of Petite & Jolie by including 13 tracks in total. There are up such artists as Makunouchi Bento, Julian Winter, Relative_q, QuasiMojo, Pam, Kaneel, Valzi and Blot, Windy Hill Mill, and The_Zwicker_Tone.

Les Louise Mitchels/Sex Drugs & Rebetiko – Split (2009)

Les Diks Qui Sautent

• Art punk 
• World music 
• Improvised music 
• Folk punk 
• Crossover 
• Surf rock 
• Drone folk 
• Avant-folk

Comment: Les Louise Mitchels` 6-notch part is an intense blend of artsy punk, dadaist attitude and Balkan/gypsy brass folk punk. But also surf music allusions are up there to provide a more puzzled soundscape. The France-based artist has managed to set a fast pace through the noodling on hirsute guitars, woodwinds, and drums where one can partake in repetitive patterns, improvised progressions and something else between the approaches.

Sex Drugs & Rebetiko`s 3-track is a different story because it is more subdued and restrained due to slowly progressing drones in the vein of folk music. Furthermore, it seems to  me that some phrases are sung in Greek and beside that distinct characteristic there are up obvious patterns from Greek ethnic music. The interesting split is a part of the Les Diks Qui Sautent (ldqs 068).  

Tana – H (2009)

Les Diks Qui Sautent

• Improvised music 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Ambient 
• Micronoise 
• Leftfield 
• Electronic music 
• Freeformfreakout
• Epic 
• Spoken word 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Ambient noise 
• Space rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Experimental rock 
• Post-psychedelic electronica

Comment: this 12-track issue can be considered an example of improvised music but for sure it is way too wide umbrella to get into a more detailed contact with it. You can hear undetermined sounds from different angles full of effects and various timbres and differing intensities. From rough metallic clanging and burbling electronic noises and gloomy smouldering beneath the upper music layers to extended guitar riffs and explorations of the instrument`s inner life and refined electronic glass bead games to more light-hearted and exalting psychedelic ambient progressions which may sound downright poppy with regard to the first mentioned aspects. The issue will be finished in a very fine epic key with Blanche. In a word, it chimes like a witty barbaric sonic attack in the midst of polished pop music instances yet being enormously more intriguing and interesting. The enchanting issue is a part of the discography of such an infernal platform as Les Diks Qui Sautent. We don't forget it's hellish discography, we will back to it soon.

Ayankoko – Dreaxine (2009)

tecnoNucleo

Ayan

• Rhythmic noise 
• Power electronics 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Leftfield 
• Electronic music 
• Drone
• Noise

Comment: this handful of tracks is intermittently advanced and retreated by the attacks of rhythmic noise, and bouts of more restraint appearances. Dynamically it creates the sense of moving further, from one detail to a different one. In the music history, it is a classic narrative to showcase the clash between noise, and silence. Within the whole the listener may perceive music as multiply shattered and crushed but the aforementioned wrestling gives it coherence and constructive tension. Pulsating signals being accompanied by convulsive glitches and cut-ups are the counterparts of one's heartbeats though as such kind of ones impending of an attack of cardiac arrest. Thereafter when all of that aggressive by its nature is succumbed the angels of the rusting are up there to fade away across a silent pathway to the corroded garden of an Eden. The outing is a bit in the discographies of tecnoNucleo, and Ayan Records.

Oberster Wurstesser vs Sigmund Stella Artois – Schlaue Füchse Und Frömmler (2009)

Vaatican

Bandcamp

Archive.org

• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Neoclassical 
• Electronic music 
• Alternative 
• Leftfield 
• Post-industrial 
• Primitive music

Comment: music must be fun and ironic, ear provoking and intense, primitive and accomplished. It should unleash beast from within its nature while being ridiculous and serious at the same time. Vaatican Records has been a good platform for artists with the aforementioned description. Minimal and primitive yet intensely compelling sonic progressions are something up there to prove its power and perseverance through an uncanny point of view which does not calculate for nothing because it takes all possibilities for granted. Absolutely democratic and egalitarian yet at the same time being vanguard and innovative. In truth, pop music as an instance is not represented over there. There are represented a couple of artists with dadaist name whose music can be described as experimental electronic music and there is no need to desperately draw the line between the artists because the purpose of this 5-notch outing is to complement each other with audible minutiae. Furthermore, two tracks are up there as collaborative ones. Even as you hear as different sonic aspects as murky neoclassical progressions and glowering synth droning and quite primitive smouldering within the realm of electronic music as parts of the whole. As if getting information from a broken black box or from other dimension. That's fabulous and horrendous at the same time. In a word, get immersed in it to partake in this glass bead game.

BESTSELLER + FRONCE de BONQUE - "SPLIT N°3 (2009)

Vaatican

• Broken beats 
• Alternative dance 
• Electronic pop 
• Post-dubstep 
• Sampledelic 
• Hip-hop 
• Electro pop

Comment: this bunch of 12 compositions is a split release being issued by an intriguing record label, Vaatican Records. Behind the split are FRONQUE de BONQUE, and BESTSELLER, the both of them delivering 6 compositions. There are many ways of how to approach the whole but I would prefer to describe generic mood and appearance of it. Given that the artists' aesthetic is quite similar. First of all, the release came out in the end of 2009 and my proposition is it happened to be ahead of its time. By my opinion it's a sort of pop music though a tricky one. It is filled in with different sorts of broken beats which in turn are (heavily) imbued with digitalised soul music, hip-hop glimpses, slightly haphazard breakbeat torrents, oval-shaped sampledelic art, and even post-dubstep rhythms though the style was not publicised at that time yet. Furthermore, at I Got Your Keys by FRONQUE de BONQUE one can consider it a weird twist of free jazz. Another composition which must be heard is Singapore by BESTSELLER. Very impressive indeed. However, there are no weak compositions on it. These 53 minutes are to have passed by very quickly due to the high rate dynamic flow of exciting bits and beats. Perfect accomplishment.

Noskovsolegs – Urbanspace (2009)

Proc-Records

• Hard techno 
• Leftfield 
• Powerelectronics 
• Digital hardcore 
• Rhythmic noise

Comment: Recent Music Heroes arrives at the discography of Proc-Records. Noskovsolegs` two-notch issue (proc259) is unique in that context because there have been only a couple of releases since involving a video file. As the title says it involves an industrialized landscape of a city, robotically moving plastic statues of comics heroes with frightening angry faces all of that being subjugated to flashing video treatment. Musically it is logically bound because of providing a bond between harsh rhythmic patterns, and white noise drenched mechanic noises. Indeed, by watching the visual scale of my music player I can say all the frequencies are cranked up to the maximum degree. It can be assumed it is the kind of anti-rave music because with such frequencies it may be possible to kill the audience. Very harsh, very peripheral.

Antique Phonograph Music Program 06/02/2009 (2009)

WFMU

• Big band 
• Jazz 
• Oldies 
• Spoken word 
• Dixieland

Comment: these 35 minutes introduce you to the beginning of the 20^th century music to spend time with such artists as orchestras as Black Face Eddie Ross, Cal Stewart, Bill Murray, Arhtur Collins and Byron G. Harlan, Clyde Doerr and His Orchestra, Gene Green, Golden and Heins, James I. Lent, Joe Hayman, Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds, M.J. OConnell, Six Brown Brothers, and The Columbia Orchestra. It is entertaining, lively and funny where jazz/and dixieland and big band-based compositions and orchestrations are variegated with more spoken word numbers. These tracks come from a time span between 1901 to 1922. Some of them are truly funny in their vehement oratory – for instance, listen to Joe Hayman`s Cohen at the Real Estate Office. It is a welcome interlude to enjoy such sort of music while you are intended to rest from contemporary sophisticated (experimental) music. Furthermore, today it is popular to take samples from historic and oldie music to either compose something truly offbeat or create a haunting atmosphere something like being created by Leyland Kirby aka The Caretaker. It is just a little notch in the series of Antique Phonograph Music Program by WFMU at Free Music Archive.

The Gifted Children – Open Windows (2009)

The Gifted Children
Bandcamp

• Indie pop 
• Alternative pop 
• Art pop 
• Noise pop 
• Chamber pop 
• Epic 
• Electronic 
• Jangle pop 
• Americana
• Baroque pop

Comment: it seems the only shortage of this 7-track outing is related to its shortness. It chimes as if there were represented one track only though the track with different facets and magnetic fields. From lofty chamber pop glimpses and luminous Americana induced developments to catchy jangle pop instances to a more tumultuous noise pop explosion (Here Comes The Flood) and dreamy piano driven numbers to a sublime, restrained electronic instance (Niblick). But it is not an instance of indie by numbers. It is a dynamic drift between the different genres and because of that many the so-called indie groups do have much to learn from it. It might be by using the word "indie" for that it is a pejorative case. It is highly sympathetic of how the soundscape of these songs used to soar and reach fairly blissful points eventually (for instance, at A Forest). Top notch by any means by the Rochester, NY, US-based combo. Give your valuable time to listen to it.

Pigeons & The Insane Porridgemakers – Le Voyage (2009)

Clinical Archives

Free Music Archive

Bandcamp

• Psychedelic rock 
• Noise rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Free jazz 
• Experimental rock 
• Dada music 
• Freeformfreakout

Comment: by watching the narcotic and dreamy mixed cover print of this 12-track issue it can be admitted it is a fine introduction to the outing. Indeed, it is full of psychedelic plateaus, the snippets of free jazz and airy lounge boogie jamming and other insane approaches both by lyrical and sonic side. All the lyrics are sung in very Russian and the content of it it mostly phantasmagorical and surrealistic. I guess if such an album were produced approximately 80 years ago the author of it would be Salvador Dali, or Joan Mirò or somebody from the Russian Futurism movement. However, the aforementioned celebrities are indirect authors as are the forefathers of the Dada art movement and Italian noise artists like the brothers Russolo because the influences of them are clearly discernible within it. More profoundly, it is a discourse between madness, and order, between correlated elements, indeterminacy and incontinence (in many ways it can be thought). The issue is a part of the discography of a legendary Moscow-based imprint, Clinical Archives. The favourite track of mine is the final piece St. Abbas because it is predominant by the shrill and slamming bass plateau being introduced by spoken words and surrounded by loose sonic effects. Fabulous outing. 

Che? Project – Vlack Kid Bagina (2009)

Gorrión de Miga

• Avant-garde 
• Noise 
• Spoken word
• Electronic music 
• Post-industrial 
• Experimentalism
• Sampledelic 
• Freeformfreakout

Comment: Che? Project`s 15-track issue is something acute, extreme, and predominant, at the same time it provides many funny segments and highly amusing snippets. In fact, it consists only of 1-minute long fragments on average. Mostly the tracks are build on the linear progressions of enchanting loops providing shrill noises and glitches or matt emergences and brownish sonic growths. At times it rings like a cutout from a frenetic video game. For instance, if you like the music of Big City Orchestra, and Zoviet France then you know very well what you could expect from it. That is a weird yet entertaining shit being released on Gorrión de Miga Records.

Kalix Necralia – Crionecròpolis (2009)

Gorrion de Miga

Gorrion de Miga

• Ambient 
• Experimentalism 
• Sound art 
• Illbient 
• Avant-garde
• Soundscape 
• Leftfield 
• Dark ambient

Comment: this handful of compositions is a fine listening session because it chimes like a soundtrack for the wind blowing over the empty fields. Indeed, it is precise because it feeds one`s imagination about a cold winter, secondly it is crafted in the manner to masterfully accentuate a certain range of sonic odds and ends and thereof exquisitely arouse one`s emotive centres in heart and mind. By the way, at Archive.org it is tagged as dark ambient, and polar ambient in a poignant way. On the other side, it searches for connection either with the deceased world or the world of the deaths or for connection with both of them. It could deliberately be imagined as an accompaniment to documentary motion pictures depicting catacombs and graveyards. Yet, In a word, listen to it and be ready to participate in a lonely and desolate world. Additionally, by listening to these long compositions one can imagine the abduction of Persephone by Hades and the follow-up to it – when Persephone leaves the Earth to go down to the underworld to her husband and then a great part of the nature either will be deceased or freezed for a long time. However, sometime all will be born again. There is up hope, there is the expectation for a better life. Undoubtedly it is a purging experience. The issue is a mote in the discography of Gorrion de Miga. 

Ieva – Insones (2012)

Test Tube

• Post-rock 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Avant-rock 
• Sampledelic 
• Ambient 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Field recording 
• Musique concrète 
• Drone 
• Art music 
• Acousmatic music 
• Ambient rock 
• Experimental electronica

Comment: Samuel Andrè aka Ieva's 10-track issue is a beast. It is like a dragon with many heads which are to shake and burst flames from their unfathomable throttles. It starts off in a ghastly droning way by using poignant concrete music samples, microscopic noises, vocal samples of unknown origin and hissing electro-acoustic shards to design something truly stunning and memorable. On the other side, it is a sort of ambient music and clearly chatting up with anonymity. It might remind you the first three albums by Tim Hecker. Later on, the (dis)course of Ieva's music turns into something surprising because it will be the sort of post-rock though a weird and staggering one. More profoundly, it chimes like being played by hippies from the 22nd century full of magic, elemental touch and power of nature. Being obviously more educated and sophisticated than nowadays rabid feminist and neo-Marxist crap imbued with useless exaggerations, warped political correctness and artificial restrictions. It is the philosophy of escapism being something natural and organic and fairly appealing. It can be considered a sort of rock music though with some reservations because other stylistic elements are there around ready to intervene. Let's listen to Implants, it is a spacey jangle pop with glitches and mystical singing of unknown language. It showcases a perfect balance between experimental and affectionate approach. Musically it slightly reminds me of Paavoharju's Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008, Fonal). Later on, it turns towards the emotionally more buried and hushed approach the album started with. In a nutshell, the result is an excellent issue not only in the world of post-rock and ambient world but in overall. The issue is a part of the discography of a finest one, Test Tube.

Strobcore – Funky Music EP (2009)

Chase

Jamendo

• Hi-NRG 
• Gabber
• Hellektro 
• Electronic music 
• Alternative 
• Harsh trance 
• Breakcore

Comment: this set of three pieces is managed to an extreme of electro music being overloaded by raspy, cut-up rhythms, iterative noise-near rhythmic blasts and galvanised glitches of digital madness. At times one can perceive how the energy behind those propulsions used to submerge all the whole and it will result in a weird picture of being partly eaten by itself. It is fun(k)(n)y music. Undoubtedly it is not a decent fare fro all those who have fancied dance music of different kinds because it is the kind of dance music which likes to destroy itself. On the other hand, it used to deal with the mighty stroboscopes because you could vividly imagine how the light is going to dance in a broken and fragmented way. There is up a paradox in such sort of music. The cheesiness and some sort of cheapness of the music is superseded by the immense frequency in rhythmic patterns and mind-blowing harshness in textures and fancy experiments with accelerated and decelerated implications in the middle of the mix at times turned to a ridiculous extent. In a word, it could be considered somehow the negation of electro music. Get involved in that stuttering madness. The issue is a notch in the discography of the French label Chase (Chase033).

The Bumblebee Bats – Leaving It Broken (2009)

Totokoko

• Lo-fi 
• Singer-songwriter 
• DIY
• Art folk 
• Indie folk 
• Folk indie

Comment: at times I guess it is much harder to speak something reasonable and appealing about the so-called simple musical issues in comparison to the more sophisticated ones. It is not surprising at all because those simple ones have been produced without pretense to embark on a new beginning (being the illusion and thereof eventually disappointment in most cases) and because of that these issues are frequently more direct and honest as well. Let’s have a focus upon this swarm of five compositions. It is composed of strumming guitars and affectionate singing which in turn are spruced up with lovely keyboard whiffs and synthesised orchestrations converted into catchy melodies and harmonies for opening the way for little joys and tickling delights. Yet having listened to these gentle moments many times in a row these ones got magnified inconspicuously into something elemental and immanent. The songs` intimate touch and awkward buildup used to make difference which as a result are immensely more worthy than many issues being produced throughout innumerable hours within the walls of professional studios. Catch the touch! It is easy to do thanks to a humble, home recording feel. For instance, listen to Better When You`re Dead. That`s mesmerizing. In a nutshell, as you could see by now I have found out many words and sentencesto describe his fabulous issue. Leaving It Broken just is. Just for me, just for you, just for the world, just for all the universe. And leave it broken. The issue is a bit in the discography of the Japanese imprint Totokoko Records. 

Olah Istvan – Signals to the North Horizon (2009)

Lomeanor

• Avant-garde 
• Glitchtronica 
• Experimental electronica 
• Soundscapes 
• Ambient

Comment: the Serbian composer Olah Istvan`s one track issue consists of 872 seconds which is inspired by the North Pole by its coldness, beatific radiance, and clear heaven atop those massive icebergs and polar bears. Undoubtedly it is something which stays beyond borders of our every day life. It is a totally disparate world. By starting listening to it I was not aware of his influences for this issue. Instead it aroused me to think of it as a situation of remote future which is imbued with mechanical insects, enthralling rhythmic ticking, and abstract chirping. One could experience strange warmness oozing out of those hypnotic layers and glitched-out noises. One might have experienced similar sensations with Tim Hecker`s early recordings like Radio Amor, and Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again. You could hear the ambience around you to breath and swell while adding new knacks to the blend. Coming in and then flutter around your ear. It is a hyper-realist glimpse you are get caught in. Fairly astonishing effort for sure. The issue was a part of the discography of the Russian-based Lomeanor which had been active from 2008 to 2010.

Alexander Strung – Party (2009)

The Gifted Children

• Indie pop/rock 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Indietronica 
• Synth-rock
• Art rock
• Post-rock 
• Electro-indie
• Singer-songwriter

Comment: although Alexander Strung`s 9-track issue Party was issued lately on the verge of the 00s the influence of some parts of the epoch could be heard throughout these 26 minutes. It seems to me that these slightly restrained indie pop songs are influenced both by the Rhein-area indietronica/neo-krautrock scene by the likes of To Rococo Rot, Pluramon, Kreidler, Tarwater, Lali Puna and the US-based post-rock scene by the likes of Mice Parade, Mercury Program, Sea And The Cake, Jim O`Rourke, The American Analog Set. It is the balanced sway between the guitars and synthesizers, between sensual vocal lines and programmed stomping drums and hovering pastoral orchestrations on a minor scale. On the other side, the artist is searching for relaxed balance between technological luxury, and emotive susceptibility. Given that the technological luggage embraces an innumerable amount of possibilities it is arguably not easy task altogether. In a word, the artist demonstrates adeptly its musical skills being not separated from emotions fortunately. The favourites of mine are Olympic Twin, Black Rabbit, Party (What's The Point), Valley Forge. There are up both Alexander Strung`s issues via The Gifted Children. In a nutshell, it is an astonishing one. 

Choke – Eponymous EP (2009)

Pen & Mallet 

• Art pop 
• Post-grunge 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Hardcore 
• Indie pop/rock 
• Experimental pop

Comment: Pen & Mallet involves an universe of bands and behind the musical groups is an universe of styles and genres of less and more experimental sort. With all those bands is involved a man called J. C Thorne. It is quite startling to read that J. C Thorne thinks of Choke as the most experimental band he is being involved in despite it is a relatively poppy group in comparison to others (for instance, I recommend listen to aboombong, Psychic Enemies, Dustdevil & Crow etc). The musician’s explanation is based on the approach of creating music to the band where music for the guitar-based soundscape is written by him who in fact cannot play the instrument at all (J. C Thorn is the drummer in the project). Furthermore, the other musicians have changed their roles with one another either. More concretely, I think of Alexander Orchid to be the most blatantly poppy issue on it due to those bombastic guitar riffs and David Liso`s flamboyant singing that fills the air unarguably. In fact, it is managed to the extent of chiming as an example of kitsch pop. Indeed, it is also an experimental approach. Another aspect related to the pop music scene is singing about romantic relationships and (ex)girlfriends in a doleful and even accusing manner. On the other side, the musicians like to demonstrate their teeth frequently to counterpoint mellow and softened approach. A nice example is Barcelona where the exuberant guitar line progresses into cacophonous noise. The favourite of mine is the final track Sheltering, an instance of light-hearted art pop. Browse is something of a very wicked one because in the beginning using an obscure, highly buried exploitation-alike storytelling being pointed against homosexuality and flabby behaviour (or at least something similar like that), which in the final part will be jettisoned in favour of a pummelling hardcore and technical metal blended torrent. In a nutshell, it is a mind-provoking issue.