Koti & Thee Immigrants – The Relaxing Sounds From Tinsley Prison (2012/2017)

Death Roots Syndicate

Bandcamp

Fon-Fon

• World music 
• Acid pop 
• Mood music 
• Psychedelic 
• Alternative pop 
• Psychobilly 
• World fusion 
• Art pop

Comment: we are listening to an album from Brazil under the fantastic California, US-based imprint Death Roots Syndicate. Koti & Thee Immigrants´ 10 track issue was initially released under Fon-Fon Records approximately five and a half years ago so it is quite surprising yet welcome to hear it under an imprint which has used to release issues being dark and gothic (yet playful and artsy). The Relaxing Sounds From Tinsley Prison is predominantly a psychedelic case with fluid dusty organ lines and suggestive singing. There is up a song called Gipsy Man with hints at the life of Romani people so could I presume these 33 minutes are about the life of the ethnicity with some dodges into other culture`s layers either? All this Balkan and Gypsy music influenced music has been a mainstream for more than 10 years largely thanks to motion pictures by Emil Kusturica. By listening to the final instrumental track Tinsley House Tea Time you can admit the collective`s tongue-in-cheek attitude with regard to Music Hall-alike buffoonish loosely sequenced rhythms and the acidic organ and Tiki Music drenched improvistation which funny facet can be generalized over the course.  The more I listen to it the more I hear similarities with Juan Naveira aka Mr Juan aka Juanitos aka Limbo Deluxe aka Miss Emma. That's hugely important especially for a starting weekend. In a word, this album is strongly recommended for all those music lovers who enjoy an artsy challenge and a moody aspect within one bound.

Distopia – Visuales (2012)

CABAÑA DISCOS

• Indie pop/rock 
• Dance rock 
• Electro-indie 
• Lo-fi 
• DIY 
• Organcore 
• Alternative pop 
• Drone pop 
• Psych-pop/rock 
• Chillwave 
• Alternative dance

Comment: my first thought about this short-running, 7-track issue was it is an example of the post-genesis of post-punk. In fact, this was my only opinion. However, the more I would have listened to it I got convinced it is a good example in term of the so-called retro music. An example of inferior retro music is something which just roughly copies elements from it and providing no further developments and so on. At Visuales which is an album by an Argentine-based artist Federico Maqui used to progress into a session of juggling of the contemporary chillwave and psych-rock scene while keeping up an intellectual and historic bound with the style. As we knew many post-punk bands´ first releases were downright experimental but later they into more dance-appealed areas and psychedelic music. For sure, the primary and secondary enterprises were influenced by krautrock and post-punk artists liked to dance. Visuales is a permanently fluid release veering away from crisp psych-pop/rock and dance rock numbers to chillwave-ish and drone pop excursions. Yet it is a wander-in-rags chillwave concept because the artist`s intention is not to provide a stairway to heaven or at least a slot into a roseate past. More credibility is added by another outstanding Argentine-based artist Transvorder (Mariano Peccineti) who mastered the issue (under CABAÑA DISCOS).

Marcel Pequel – From One To Nine (2012)

Headphonica

Archive.org

Free Music Archive

• Modern classical 
• Contemporary classical 
• Piano music 
• Mood music 
• Art music

Comment: from one to nine by having been illustrated with short compositions on a piano where one dim chord is followed by another in a loose yet refreshing way. It varies at length from a minute to a three minute. I guess the piano is played in a dark room being away from a hot summer day. The mood is being created, the relations between the chords equate the flowing, slowly and a bit hypnotic atmosphere which provides a forward-flowing and purgative impulse. For sure, it is a moody experience yet simultaneously it is an instance of active listening where any chord must be caught with stark seriousness. The outing is a bit of the discography of Headphonica.

Transvorder – Desmesuras (2012)

Bandcamp

• Indietronica 
• Lo-fi 
• DIY 
• Electronic music 
• Drone pop 
• Alternative pop 
• Electro-indie 
• Chillwave

Comment: Transvorder is an artist from Argentina whose 7-notch issue reminds me of those blissful times approximately 10 years ago when many lo-fi and DIY musicians conquered the world. Actually I can remember for a netlabel with a short discography (4 or 5 items in total), Scribble Kite, which included an issue by Transvorder. Desmesuras would be created 4 years later but it brings forth the earlier milieu and sensitivity. Droning and a little bit abrasive synths, airy guitar chords used to create a dreamy and lazy terrain for those elegant slackers who do not believe in the utopian visions anymore and being disillusioned with real life and just trying to survive under physical and mental pressure or just trying to get rid of it if possible. The communism is a utopia on its own and the capitalism is predatory and self-destructive. By producing and listening to such sort of music it is a way to get outside the rotten situation. In a word, it is a nice release with such sort of memories one would do away with them. Let's listen to it and feel this masochistic pressure.

River Carnival – Ep (2012)

Redstarcommunity

Bandcamp

• Alternative pop/rock 
• Indie pop/rock 
• Fuzz pop 
• Lo-fi 
• Electronic 
• Chamber pop

Comment: indie as a genre is something which used to have a little to say today. In restricted sense. On the other side, today many genres are considered parts of indie like vaporwave, many kinds of electronic music which used not to be so years ago. In a word, we would abandon the stylistic restriction as superficial and excessive. OK, it could be used in retrospective sense, though. River Carnival's 7-notch embraces old and new, and frequently at the same time. At Streets of Gold Remix one can hear 80s eurodisco pop being mixed up with fuzzed-out guitars. I suspect the remix is made by Desiree. It's joke but not a forlorn one. Its original version is an enchanting blend of gothic, death pop alike reverberant female and male mixed vocals, minor piano chords and cinematic orchestrations atop. Top notch (if you watch the official list of the tracks of the release one cannot see the additional mix track but by downloading it you will get it). However, the same description can be ascribed to the rest of the tracks either. There are up both catchy melodies and compelling dynamics. On the other side, it is a simple example of music without excessive bombastic load and annoying artsy burden. Of course, it is artsy but in a sublime way. Outstanding composition by any means. It is a discography of an excellent Swedish imprint, redstarcommunity.

Thierry Massard – A EN TIO (2012)

Editora Do Porto

Bandcamp

• Drone 
• Old school industrial 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Leftfield 
• Microtonal 
• Abstract 
• Electronic music 
• Non-music 
• Psycho-acoustic

Comment: I guess I made first acquaintance with the Frenchman Thierry Massard in 2009 while I started with the blog. It was a merry time within the blogosphere in general, including those blogs dedicated to free music mavericks. I can remember for a couple of blogs by him, one of them having spot on the nature and personality of artists through a fixed questionnaire. Later on, I discovered him as a musician who recorded his first music already at the end of the 70s (his birth year is 1959). I recommend reading my interview with him where he had shed light upon his doings and intentions behind his musical deeds. At A EN TIO he continues his initial impulse through the creation of abstract, austere soundscapes based on rough drones and abrasive yet restrained electronic music. Although it was issued 5 years ago it can be considered a pure instance of the old school industrial movement. I am always thrilled while listening to such sort of sound. It chimes in a very authentic way having clearly no rivalled counterparts from today. I guess this 3-notch release is also recorded with the same equipment he had been doing approximately 4 decades ago. It is a part of the discography of the Portuguese imprint Editora do Porto.

Erebus Redemption – A Pawn of Darkness (2012)

Sirona-Records

• Death metal 
• Brutal metal 
• Extreme metal 
• Electronic 
• Lo-fi 
• Cybermetal

Comment: this set of 12 tracks is as abrasive as an exceptional outing in the roster of Sirona-records used to be. It is overwhelming and suffocating in its excessively powerful leaps and mad steps. Mostly it is death metal with some exceptions into muddy, lo-fi electronic music. The ambience around the listener gets razed and destroyed so think twice if you would like to get into a dirty manifesto of power. It may push on your sinful mind and trigger some unintended emotions. And the cover print is great.

LFC – Encordoamento (2012)

pCloud

• Blues 
• Delta blues

Comment: while reviewing Lucas Pastina aka LFC's Maggots In The Tongue a week ago it was a case of freaked-out vowel madness without the accompaniment of blues music. Like it was properly ordered by me there is up a set of three tracks called Encordoamento based on instrumental blues numbers. Blues by numbers. Delta blues by numbers. In fact, it chimes like a lengthy blues rock without any interruptions and turns inside hell. Given that the artist's music should be considered as a whole rather than separating some bits from it you can then actually see it as a turn within Lucas Pastina's music. For me, he is an outstanding madman in music from Brazil whose recent release is catchy through those iterative patterns on quite fastly plucked guitar strings. Ultimately I have to admit it is not an ordinary example of blues rock by numbers by considering the premise the abbreviation LFC does mean Lucas Fucking Crazy.

Kara-Lis Coverdale – Triptych I (2012)

Bandcamp

• Piano music 
• Modern classical 
• Mood music 
• Contemporary classical 
• Art music 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Post-classical 
• Minimalism

Comment: I am honoured to listen to Kara-Lis Coverdale`s music who is a Canadian (Montrèal) musician of Estonian descent, and second, she has collaborated with Tim Hecker on his Virgins (2013) whose albums from the first half of the 00s can be considered one of the best ambient music having ever been created. Triptych (as the title says) is 3-track issue consisting of floating piano chords which create arousing moods and feeling despite its minimal and sparse format in a sense. The emotiveness of the outing is brought forth due to consisting of an incessant flow of chord changes while preserving some enchanting iterativeness in her music. As K-LC has stated once of being influenced by sacred music and beyond that she has been working as an organist in different churches across the domestic country for me this album appears as a shelter within it one can withdraw from our spasmodic and neurotic life. Her music can be compared with such artists as Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Lubomyr Melnyk (another Canadian modern classical artist) and by its light-heartedness and captivating mood it can also be compared with such female troubadours on guitar as Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs yet this is a special item by any means. 

Hu Creix – Gorgeous Sins (2012)

Sirona-Records

Bandcamp

• Electronic music 
• Electronic pop 
• Art pop 
• Singer-songwriter 
• Alternative 
• Dark ambient 
• Techno pop 
• Electro-indie 
• Synth-pop 
• Electro pop 
• Krautrock 
• Dub 
• Ambient pop 
• Psychedelic

Comment: Hu Creix is an interesting artist at least it can be assumed while listening to this 10-notch outing. Unfortunately I have not had enough time to put spots on other releases by him. As the title says it is about sins as much or less as he used to sing and recite here and there. These are small things and habits on its own but important to him. Or giving a fuck to more murky themes like death and having no future. Indeed, most of the compositions presented over there are instrumental ones. It must be said it is an album of balance both emotionally and musically and even stylistically. From chugging electronic and indie tinged music to some gloomy ambient glimpses. For instance, the title track reminds me of Kraftwerk when the legends were to move forward from early motorik to tranquil electro and techno pop. Hydro Key continues with the same path while adding dub inflected electronic effects and spaced-out psychedelic music and cool jazz whiffs to the mix. Astonishing stuff. Great dub. It talks about smoking as well. The release is a part of the discography of Sirona-Records, the prolific French imprint. Oedine is a beatific, atmospheric progression based on a pitched-up, lengthy droning of a Southeast female voice and being backed up by calm rhythms and swirling electronic effects. The most blissful composition on it without any doubt. That reminds me of Holger Czukay's Canaxis 5 and a composition called Boat Woman Song. RIP Holger we miss you! At Shoot Me Hu Creix sings I look out of the window I hear the birds are singing but I don't care. Oh yeah, it sounds so elegantly arrogant and lofty and even absurd yet the result is all but absurdity yet it makes my face smiling. In a nutshell call it excellent yet deformational (pop) music.

I/Dex – Arc (2012)

Foundamental

Bandcamp

• IDM 
• Experimental electronica 
• Post-rock 
• Electronic music 
• Glitchtronica 
• Ambient 
• Drone 
• Organic electronica 

Comment: just checked out to get more exact information of how many times Belarusian Vitaly Harmash aka I/Dex`s music has been appeared at Recent Music Heroes. Most of the albums by Harmash had been reviewed approximately 5-6 years ago and there was a certain reason to do it. For instance, by listening to this 7-notch outing you can get enough support to the cover print of consisting of the waves of oscillation. From granular ambient and sophisticated drone to sublime post-rock moments and ennobling organic electronic music at times running separately, at times running side by side. There are up many signals as intriguing shape-shifters to move on from one state to another. In fact, one can feel himself/herself to be tensioned in a positive way. The stunning issue is a part of the discography of Foundamental Network.

TÜNEL – Climb (2012)

Nostress

• Noise rock 
• Electronic music 
• Alternative 
• Musique concrète
• Improvised music 
• Field recording 
• Experimental electronica 
• Leftfield 
• Art music 
• Conceptual

Comment: let's go back in time for about five years when a duo called TÜNEL recorded an imaginary soundtrack for mountaineering and possible disastrous events tightly related to it. These seven tracks constitute a terrain where different influences and genres meet one another. Furthermore, it is a mind-provoking storytelling based on sounds which starts off with sprightly children shouting and then progressing into different kinds of electronic music and surprisingly into a noisy rock binge played flat out. It can be asserted it is the frenetic follow-up of disparate chapters full of loads of turns and dodges, exciting interfaces to connect and superimpose different parts on each other and imaginative buildups to show up this kinda audiobook as vivid and magical. Mostly its structure seems to be preset and determined yet at times the duo indulges in having more loose and elemental spans to be added to the mix. You can feel prodigious inner power and impulse oozing from different slots and pits which is not surprising because the intention and goal is to depict the mountainous, threatening landscape up to the listener. This astounding outing is a part of the discography of the Italy-based record label Nostress.

Antiplano – Prohibido (2012)

Soisloscerdos

• Experimental electronica 
• Alternative 
• Avant-electro 
• Electronic music 
• Drone 
• Minimalism

Comment: this bunch of 5 compositions consists of minimally evolving tracks where glowering drones are tightly mingled with ever changing sinuous poly-rhythms being frequently subjugated to stereophonic effects and mind-provoking pitch trickery. Machines are keeping us from being the slaves of our own including listening habits. They introduce us to a universe being wondrous simultaneously due to its fidgety roughness and restless mysticism. While listening to the intense record you can catch your breath. Indeed, it is fortunately all but a mentally oppressive shit. Although it does not involve many layers it will get hold of our thoughts and secretive wishes in a linear way. Throughout the course the artist provides a steady feedback to the previous points passed by. The result is coherent nevertheless how serpentine and disjunct it may be perceived. This pre-eminent outing is a part of the discography of Soisloscerdos Netlabel.

Schizoid Ops – Gerbil Feed (2012)

Eye Machine 

• Dada music 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Non-music
• Freeformfreakout 
• Plunderphonics 
• Sound collage

Comment: I can remember for a time when I decided to reverse the tape of The Fall`s dadaist post-punk issue Perverted By Language (1983, Rough Trade) and then listened to it from the beginning to the end. In fact, the result was not more frantic and weird with regard to the original one (being the favourite of mine by them). Schizoid Ops` 7-notch issue is a bit different case though obviously there is something which may remind of it. More profoundly, this issue is based on more and less known pop song structures which are heavily and thoroughly chopped up and warped. And they have done it with great pleasure. Furthermore, the volume level is very unstable, at times it is barely audible and at times it shouts into your ear. I guess the intention of it is to demonstrate its hostile antipathy against the music industry, towards the RIAA, against the established norms in producing mainstream music and representation of it. By its ideological context it is remarkably more enjoyable than by its nihilistic musical approach. The issue is a part of the discography of Eye Machine Recordings.

Sleeping Policemen – ePop028 (2012)

Eardrums Pop

Bandcamp

• Indie pop 
• Alternative pop 
• Folk indie 
• Twee pop 
• Alt-folk 
• Indie folk

Comment: Sleeping Policemen is a 4-member ensemble from Hamburg, Germany who represent the main line of a record, Eardrums Pop of which choice is based on cute indie/twee pop. I would prefer the term “meadow pop” as if music being produced somewhere in the countryside if people (especially human persons coming out from a city, “civilization”) after running around in the middle of a herd of cattle, and across the meadow and picking flowers and then arrive at a barn in the evening to produce an upbeat music. A contemporary approach to be the hippy. Even if the combo sing about visiting friends in Italy and French philosophy. Such sort of music has been popularised in the Scandinavian peninsula (mostly in Sweden during the 90s, and 00s). So if you are keen to hear such sunshiny, cloudless and careless music then do not hesitate to come close to the discography of the imprint. Yet it does not mean the release is somehow aesthetically second class even if they do not produce hell out of this 4-track outing. Bucolic guitar twangs and female and male mixed singing are wrapped up by cute synthesised strings and reverberant chords. The tempo is up and upbeat. Business as usual with regard to the outings on Eardrums Pop, one of the tracks is a cover version of the combo`s comradeship group Big Ideas` composition Jack Of All Trades. Get it for sure.

Njotoz – Amazing (2012)

Mindblasting

• Indie pop/rock 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Soft rock 
• Pop rock 
• Soul rock

Comment: there is another issue by an Indonesian artist and Indonesian imprint at Recent Music Heroes. The previous ones were The Barsand Mars, and Susu Ultrarock Records. Njotoz`s Amazing is clearly a disparate issue in comparison to The Barsand Mars` Teen Smiths Pizza (The Bars Version) because of playing gentle guitar-based music wherein the lyrics are sung in English and in Indonesian (or in local languages – sorry for my incompetency with regard to it). Hey You, and the self-titled track are gentle ballads with expanding orchestrated sounds and predominant vocal delivery. In fact, Hey You is a beatific soul(rock) ditty. At Selamat Ulang Tahun the ensemble employs more electricity to be pulled through guitars though providing a ballad song in principle. It is a short case – just three tracks and approximately 15 minutes. This fine release is a part of the discography of Mindblasting.

Copy Wrong #1 (2012)

Eye Machine Recordings

• Avant-garde 
• Experimental 
• Plunderphonics 
• Harsh noise 
• Grindcore 
• Sampledelic 
• Non-music 
• Electronic music 
• Sound collage 
• Leftfield 
• Freeformfreakout

Comment: by Wiktionary the term “copywrong” does mean the unethical use of, or disregard for, copyright law. Indeed, this miscellany of 13 tracks by 11 artists (or 12 artists because one of the artists is tagged as unknown and by Luxurious Dagger there are up a couple of tracks) is an example of how popular music can be changed into something peripheral and extreme being heavily mutilated, slowed down and excessively mixed together (for instance, J-pop-based light-hearted harmonies are interlaced with harsh noise torrents, or Luxurious Dagger`s version of The Beatles` Come Together is thoroughly ravaged, or different styles used to play from the both channels at the same time or being switched on and off incessantly. There are also up weird samples, barely audible sonic layers as if being thrown into water. Reality around an average listener is substantially warped and changed into mayhem. There are represented such artists as Ben Presto, Public Domain, noiseoftherose, Luxurious Dagger, MBD, Captain Missouri, Third Organ, Ryder Farms, Hat Goblin, Otto V. Rhino, (o)†hers, and The Implicit Order. This miscellany is represented by Eye Machine Recordings. I guess ideologically a purpose of this issue may be related to capture some basic pop values and employ them ridiculously to derail the mainstream control and intention to manipulate with the people in a certain way.

Niko Niko! – ePop029 (2012)

EardrumsPop

Bandcamp

• Indie pop/rock 
• Alternative pop/rock 
• Twee pop

Comment: the first remark of mine about this 4-notch outing is related to its tamed and silent nature. The listener should remarkably crank up volume to partake. Musically its roots seem to come out from the cute, twee pop-tinged Swedish indie pop scene (Acid House Kings, The Concretes, Billie the Vision and the Dancers, The Mary Onettes) which was particularly popular in the 00s. Earlier influences used to hark back to the 60s folk music. Cute male vocal lead, retrodelic keyboard sounds and droning, chiming guitars and bubblegum-ish bass patterns which purpose was to entertain the listener. On the other side it is unpretentious to develop indie music as a phenomenon. It is not the sort of Stereolab and Tortoise-alike ambition to cross its borders with every subsequent outing. However, those ditties are solid ones, for example A Lifetime in the Sun is a blissful shimmer dedicated to the spring. The outing is a bit in the discography of the Norwegian-based EardrumsPop. Niko Niko! Is the solo project of Bergen, Norway-based Nickolai Nilsen.

Diversion Voice - Feeling Of Snow

Broken Moods For House Kites – There There, Their Not (2012)

Kift Flipper

Bandcamp

• Indie 
• Alternative pop 
• Indietronica 
• Electronic music
• Chamber pop 
• Post-rock 
• Experimental pop 
• Ambient pop 
• Baroque pop 
• Ambient rock

Comment: Wales is a great soil for outstanding personae and musical groups like John Cale, Super Furry Animals, and Gorky`s Zygotic Mynci. John Cale as a producer and musician was an influential innovator within the rock scene, the latter ones were beatific glimpses at the time of Britpop. By the way, the groups sang in their native Cymric language as well while exploring experimental tendencies within the indie and indie folk scenes. Broken Moods For House Kites is the solo project of Cardiffian Marc Davies and There There, Their Not is the debut album by him. Musically it merges airy synthesised progressions with light guitar/string chords and volatile orchestrations and gentle rhythmic flickers with one another while sustaining a recognizable experimental touch. It might be you can find out some similarities with the likes of Durutti Column, and Seefeel. The fabulous issue is a part of the discography of Kift Flipper, an imprint from Wales.