AlbinoLamb – Pure Phantasm (2013)

Bandcamp

• Drum and bass 
• Indietronica
• Art pop 
• IDM 
• Electronic music 
• Crossover 
• Neo-psychedelia

Comment: Pure Phantasm (AlbinoLamb is a project from Japan) is a fine example of post-indie music by embracing guitar sounds, drum and bass rhythms, psychedelic flickers, orchestrated beauty, dreamy incantations, IDM-esque electronic vibes and sonic effects in an organic way. This set of 10 compositions is something in a row of such transgressive endeavours as Pygmalion by Slowdive, Quique by Seefeel, Primal Scream`s Vanishing Point, Radiohead`s Kid A and My Bloody Valentine`s m b v. It is all about to rock off one`s socks while having no inclination to immerse in weary and often braindead cliches of indie pop/rock templates. In a word, it makes very sense.

Ak'chamel, The Giver Of Illness – Fucking With Spirits (2013)

Free Music Archive

Centipede Farm

• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Freeformfreakout 
• Abstract 
• Drone 
• Post-industrial 
• Improvised music

Comment: this set of 7 tracks continues to unveil the madness of the artist whose first outing was Old Norse Mara (2013) being issued some months before. The title is appropriate, of course, I feel myself like being a witness of a live bed show directly coming out from the Brocken/Blocksberg mountain. I first thought the issue to be pigeonholed as lo-fi and DIY among other ones yet obviously lo-fi says very little about it – it might be it is a simulacrum of it yet on the other side, there is no obvious need to create it – it is an original synthesis which might be something between a new coming of Captain Beefheart, and Sun City Girls. Or it might be a five times darker version of Animal Collective's Campfire Songs. More profoundly, blackened dirges are up there to slowly change into abstract sort of slowed-down drones, then again trance-inducing rhythms are set up to create hypnotic loops and serpentine labyrinths in one's soul. Intensities are up there to get variegated – it is the true algorithm of it. From lethargic witch dreaming to exalting bipolar appearances to come in a way you will find eventually yourself in a state of mind where time and space as the parameters of our physical world are completely eradicated. The mind-provoking outing is a bit in the discography of Centipede Farm.

Reckless Kickers – Conquer EP (2013)

Lemari Kota

• Skate punk 
• Pop punk 
• Hardcore punk 
• Skatecore

Comment: Reckless Kickers is not a North American band like Sum 41, The Offspring, Blink-182 and who have not sold millions of albums but instead of it coming from Indonesia yet playing an analogous punk style. More profoundly, high-energized melodic guitar riffs, fast drumming, invigorated and slightly happy singing is something which can be pigeonholed as melodic hardcore, pop punk, skatecore. By following the lyrics of one song regarding repulsive and desperate feelings related to urban life it might be more righteous to consider it eco-punk/agrarian punk. Just the failed joke of mine. In the first place, it is a sort of pop music rather than a bearer of early punk spirit in spite of the fact Sex Pistols was a business project by Malcolm McLaren. Undoubtedly it is produced very masterfully with some suggestive noise pop-inflected walls behind the refrains which can be considered the most arousing facet of the album. The 5-notch outing is a bit of the discography of Lemari Kota, a fine platform within the vast Indonesian music landscape.

Ak'chamel, The Giver Of Illness – Old Norse Mara (2013)

Sirona-Records

Free Music Archive

• Apocalyptic folk 
• Dark folk 
• Neofolk 
• Psych-folk 
• Improvised music 
• DIY 
• Improvised music 
• Lo-fi

Comment: with regard to the title and first of all to the nature of music it is a very unusual case of folk music. It is like an example of folk music which were a more conventional case if European nations would have rejected Christianity and gotten overwhelming power from their gentile roots. Like their mighty precursors Vikings and Celtic tribes having power to fight like berserks and having much in common with Nature which is a true face of God. Christianity is a bloody occult of the guilt. The more you are the so-called civilised the more you think of yourself to be sophisticated the more you used to be more declined and rotten in reality. This bunch of 7 tracks is something getting its frenzied power from the remote past. Of course, any kind of life used to provide some sort of interruptions and disturbed visions yet the main course of this thing is right. Additionally to neofolk and dark folk threads one gets impressed by lo-fi approach and free form psychedelic folk numbers a la Sun City Girls. Old Norse Mara was the artist's debut outing released on Sirona-Records, and Chaos Of The Stars.

T.E.A.M.S – Sierra City Center (Diamond Club) (2013)

Bandcamp

• Lo-fi 
• Alternative pop 
• DIY 
• Psychedelic pop 
• Post-pop 
• Hypnagogic pop 
• Singer-songwriter 
• Avant-pop 
• Art pop 
• Noise pop 
• Synth-pop

Comment: by the middle of October of 2018 there is a sufficient time span left behind to consider the most important, seminal musicians during the last decades. By my opinion the importance of Ariel Pink is impossible to overestimate. As one Estonian musician and DJ said about it when he first heard him that God started creating music. I can only agree with him. By listening to his first albums from the end of the 90s to the middle of the 00s it is something extraterrestrial even today for my ears. Many projects got inspired by him and Sean Bowie`s T.E.A.M.S is an amazing churning issue being obviously inspired by Ariel Pink. All those glitterball and stroboscope reflected synths used to bump up in syncopated way as if a faint remembrance from one`s subconscious mind regarding personal pop experience. One would wake up either being horrified and coated with frowsty sweat and exhausted with tremors or being elevated to heaven via gentle surreal and hyperrealistic sounds. From serene disco reverberations and cloudless artificial ambiances to ragged noise pop explosions and frantic drumming and bold yet artsy guitar lines as if an unstoppable liner at the sea. A true gem from the 10s, much better than Ariel Pink`s last issues (unfortunately).

Celesta en la cesta – Celesta en la cuesta (2013)

Bandcamp

• Indietronica 
• Folktronica 
• Art pop 
• Cover 
• Electronic 
• Alternative pop 
• Synth-pop 
• Crossover 
• Dream folk 
• New Weird Mexico 
• Cowbell indie 
• Mexicana

Comment: it is a fine 6-track drift from Monterrey, Mexico based on dreamy vocal incantations accompanied by the varied backgrounds – at times it is backed up by sublime guitar strums and natural sounds like water ringing in the middle of artificial sounds, at times by more electronic beats and faint crackling and different blocks of synthesised chords and lofty brass waves coming to tower over the rest layers. However, to get a perfect album it should more have been saturated with torrents of intriguing noises, arousing glitches and a more cinematic feeling in overall. A more spiced soup a la Mexico should be allowed to the listener. More eruptions to have injected more dust and epic chaos into the mix. There is no other way. OK, Bon Voyage is a groovy, top tier one with those massive basses, distant voices and noises, glimmering, ellipse-shaped synths, suggestive singing and explosive brasses. But nevertheless, it is a solid release with intention to unite different folk forms from the traditional ones to the more experimental ones with one another or just representing them in a sequence.

Narayana – Vacu Sessions 34 (2013)

Vacu Sessions

• Avant-garde 
• Black noise 
• Illbient 
• Dark ambient 
• Experimentalism 
• Power electronics 
• Leftfield 
• Neoclassical 
• Dystopbient

Comment: heavy or light, new and old, predictable or totally unknown: the important here is the dynamic of the music. A continuous exploration of sound. This is a description of the imprint Vacu Sessions of which description is literally relevant to Narayana's whole as well. I could add one more sentence to it – this is blackened and even more blackened, occult and spiritual. Similarly to most of the releases on Vacu Sessions Narayana's one consists formally of one composition of different merged sonic facets. The listener can hear acute noisy outbursts and malicious fadeouts, horrendous reverberations and stealthy serpentine monsters to leap to your backyard. And heartbreakingly wailing women. Tectonic basses with low frequencies are varied with high-pitched sounds as if being vamped up by the debris from an abandoned junkyard. As if a soundtrack for a story of H.P. Lovecraft, a tribute to Ctulhu. I mentioned the word soundtrack and I did suggest it with proper intention because the main course is somehow cinematic, spookily cinematic. Masterfully horrible, skillfully epic.

Joxfield ProjeX – Archives EP 1 - Pling Plang (2013)

Archive.org

• Pychedelic 
• Avant-rock 
• Experimental rock 
• Ambient rock 
• Synth-rock
• Electronic 
• Kosmische Musik 
• Art rock 
• Krautrock

Comment: Joxfield ProjeX as a project of a couple of lost musicians reappeared approximately 10 years ago under a Moscow-based cult imprint, Clinical Archives. Indeed, Janne Yan Andersson and Stefan Oax Ek started making music together approximately a half century ago until going to hiatus for decades. It sounds like once upon a time in Sweden… chiming like a fairy tale of the heroes of living much longer than the average human being. For sure, their music will do it. After releasing a bunch of albums under the Russian imprint they went on by issuing a couple of EPs on their own (Tin Can Music) and then they changed “commercial” by signing a deal with the French cult imprint Bam Balam and making collaboration with Cotton Casino, being known from a Japanese space rock juggernaut, Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. This set of 6 compositions comes out of their post-Clinical Archives period (also known as Archives (sic!)) although reflecting upon the same tendencies represented before. Their issues are always the same, always different. More detailedly, krautrock intensity on hirsute guitars and New Age-y and Kosmische Musik on spaced-out electronics with different threads within these 28 minutes set up a dynamic and colourful and vivid carnival-alike milieu. Emotionally it is a coherently ecstatic experience providing a stark remedy to get out of a hard day`s rubbish. However, there are up some more eclipsed compositions as well, Brana Funk Sun Ra, for instance. In a word, it is a top release analogically to the previous releases.

System Morgue – Gegenstrom (2013)

DNA Production

• Drone 
• Post-industrial 
• Abstract 
• Ambient drone 
• Dark ambient 
• Avant-garde 
• Microtonal 
• Experimentalism 
• Sound art 
• Drone doom

Comment: elementally I have reviewed Russian-based artist System Morgue`s brand new albums like Froid (2017, Frozen Light) and Distress (2018, DNA Production) but Gegenstrom is a thread from earlier years and aesthetically there are up some distinct features regarding comparison. The recent issues are more polished and structured (yet not suppressing its enchanting magic) and by its structure come into the experimental/avant/post-rock genre, however, Gegenstrom is conversely more hazy and foggy and subsequently oneiric. At its nucleus all of that is being headed by a ghost-alike drone which is galvanized and impelling by its physical and emotional appearance. It is like the maelstrom or black hole governing all the matter coming into their realms. For sure, it is not a sort of rock music with regard to the artist`s latter albums, it is more like a decent manifestation within the dark ambient, drone and partly sound art genre. Yet the self-titled track is the exception because it is the sort of drone doom rock by flourishing through oscillating pulses and lofty apexes. At first glimpse, it may seem the listener is trudging across a barren landscape where all is thoroughly destroyed and eradicated yet the more you listen to it the more you will see interesting echoes, glimpses, flickers, vibrations, even colours to come out of these five compositions. I cannot be wrong by bounding it geographically to northern, even subarctic hemisphere being generally dominated by northerly airflows and lengthy darkness. In a word, it is an outstanding work on a Russian imprint, DNA Production.

Hirotaka Shirotsubaki – After Hours (2018)

Bandcamp

• Ambient 
• Soundscape 
• Electronic music 
• Ambient rock 
• Organic electronica 
• Field recording 
• Musique concrète 
• Ambient drone 
• Minimalism 
• Drone 
• Epic

Comment: this bunch of 15 tracks clocks in at an 81 minute so it is an immense way for any listener to go. Yet it is a blissful and comforting listening experience full of lush soundscapes being embellished with halcyon droning ambient, suggestive concrete sounds, and broad guitar-based echoes. One can hear droning here and there but I would like to call it meta-droning because all of that seems to be somehow disintegrated and scattered yet the listener can perceive an inner impulse coming out of there. It might be there is the centre in the embodiment of a vector and being surrounded by more or less bound particles around it. At times these interactions will develop into very beautiful, even epic excursions (at Radiational Cooling). Most ambient albums being produced nowadays are solid ones but within them some issues are truly outstanding ones. In fact, I do not know what are those criteria to determine it as a great one but let me suggest that the variety inside the track and between the tracks is an important one. A second one is to mingle organic sounds with artificial ones. I have told about mad professors in rock music like Kevin Shields, Mark E. Smith, Captain Beefheart, Ariel Pink who have found their obsessions and daydreamy fantasies right counterparts in sound. But in ambient and experimental music there are also magicians like Tim Hecker, Daniel Lopatin, Vincent Fugère, Dave Keifer, Daniel Maze. Given that the aforementioned aspects are already represented over there it also needs strength and consistency and belief to realize all of that and give us a subsequent quintessential magic through the sound. The Japanese artist Hirotaka Shirotsubaki provides and synthesises all those sonic facets, and emotive aspects like stark dreams, and overwhelming yearning into a vivid whole. Great issue by any means.

Florian Wahl – Naked Souls EP (2013)

Bandcamp

• Soul 
• Singer-songwriter 
• Alternative 
• Urban music 
• Contemporary classical 
• Crossover 
• Art pop

Comment: Florian Wahl is a young and perspective artist from the Tallinn underground scene and probably the most fancy soul artist within the border of Estonia if his music can be considered soul of course. I guess it could be done at least the part of soul it is the biggest ingredient within it. Vice versa, it involves other stylistic elements like concrete sounds, loose piano improvisations, just airy pop. It is an artsy, pretentious pop example I would like to find out from the stage of Eurovision contest. With regard to songs of recent contests those ones used to suffocate the listener's subconscious layers through fake pretentiousness, softened banality and impotent bombastic ambitions and therefore creating a negative tension within the soul and mind. And these compositions do not stick in your brain. Could you remember them after a half year passed by? You would like to get an aesthetical event but you will get bare shadows of music on the wall of a cave. These 8 compositions do constitute a sublime harmonic whole without any pretenses and hollow statements. Moreover, it unites a recent human being with a primordial one who dwelled naturally in the middle of nature, in his/her utmost natural ambiance. The recent human being is decayed but not Florian Wahl-alike ones. He is a hero. Top notch indeed.

Pigeon Breeders – Oblique Temperatures (2013)

Capital City

Bandcamp

• Drone rock
• Improvised music 
• Experimental rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Psych-rock 
• Live session 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Post-rock

Comment: for sure, we have listened to such sort of music for a thousands of times yet any decent listening time is a particular one because by creating something spaced-out and moving something in the listener's head and subsequently in his/her heart. You have heard the releases of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Moonshake, Acid Mothers Temple, Grower, Jessamine, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Flying Saucer Attack and Natural Snow Buildings etc yet by listening to this handful of tracks you can feel yourself as you are born again. That's the effect of the music. What are the reasons? There seems to be a purgative effect due to immersing to the core of this half-improvised, half-determined nature and thereof getting rid of anxiety, tiredness and exhaustion. It is a remedy through change of the prolonged chords, feedback tension, metallic shrieks and clanging. It is like a template heading and shaping your minds and feels into a normal form and therefore doing away with residual noise in one's soul. The human being is an aggressive animal mixed up by his/her nature and social conditions and interactions and artsy music is a best way to tame him or even rebuild a new arrangement in his/her organism. By developing new virtues within him/her. Indeed, music can save you. This issue was recorded live with the intention of preserving music of local artists around Edmonton, Canada. It is a part of Capital City Records.

The Womb – Sex Tape (2013/2015)

Danielle

Free Music Archive

• Singer-songwriter 
• Alternative pop 
• Indie pop 
• Art pop

Comment: as the title hints at UK born Alan Driscoll sings explicitly about sex in terms of seedy full shades, quarter shades, and penumbras. He does it through a wide prism of colours. In fact, he has chimed about physical love before this 10-notch issue and also thereafter. The tracks used to be seductive in their lurking formats. However, it can be admitted Alan Driscoll's music is always different, always the same. He pushes right buttons to create an intimate milieu by giving you a chance to come along with the songs. His oeuvre can be put somewhere between Momus, and Pulp, being more close to the former, though. You can perceive his dry yet a bit cynical and mocking approach. On the other side, a sex tape is something which could be closely connected with Jarvis Cocker's voyeuristic tendencies. Just thinking of the term "romantic relationship". Does it mean either hints at pre-sexual flirtation period or does it mean a sexual intercourse included? I started thinking of it while listening to a song called L.B.N.I.A.S.W. /It's love but not in a sexual way/. By my side, the more I am going to be acquainted with a girl the more I can ultimately make physically satisfying love with her. I think it is the right direction because it celebrates love. Otherwise I would prefer "professional" ones instead of wasting my time for nonsensical times. There is no disappointments, there is no excessive expectations. Fine work. The issue is released under Driscoll`s own Danielle Records.

Angry Norwegian – Avant-Gardener (2017)

Torn Flesh

Bandcamp

• Sampledelic 
• Avant-metal 
• Grindcore 
• Hardcore 
• Electronic 
• Cybergrind

Comment: Ross, and Lane from Hell, Michigan, USA do create an explosive mix of metal and hardcore punk and heavy sampling. More profoundly, the plot of this 7-minute issue is quite simple – most of the tracks are started off either by witty spoken word snippets or electronic introductions and thereafter followed by heavy noodling on the guitars. For sure, the duo provides no rest-up with such hellish sort of skronks. It's all about outright power, angriness, cynicism and sarcasm. And presented by a healthy dose of misanthropy. It can be assumed those feelings are controlled by the artistry. I am convinced the duo's purpose is not to provide a singular sonic pattern but influence the audience with an overwhelming barrage of squalling changes and twitchy disturbance within the contrast-enriched buildup. It's a sort of stimulant. The 8-track issue is the duo's one of the earliest releases being released under the umbrella of Torn Flesh Records. From Hell, honestly?

Caroline Park – RIM (2013)

Vuzh Music

• Ambient 
• Drone 
• Electronic music 
• Minimalism
• Sound art 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Microtonal 
• Live session 
• Experimental electronica 
• Avant-electronica 
• Ambient drone 
• Abstract electronica

Comment: this 2-notch outing consists of interesting progressions based on two lengthy tracks though not much does not happen over there. It is all about minimal progressions, microtonal algorithmic creative events, it also used to play on your imagination and perceptible "mistakes". The first of them, We Can Be What They Are Doing, is a seductive drift between a loaded droning line, and ostensible ambient music. It feeds one's mechanical fantasies, and given that you have not been involved in fantasies yet before the listening you will be involved in that for sure. Your cerebral particles will be bombed with slowly ascending and descending waves. At Live at Soto Studio (8.29.12) the listener can perceive a more audible vamped up sound as if signal-alike vivid bits would play ping pong with one another. It is just a phase of the track because at times the interaction disappears due to melting down into longer signals and hazy drones. The outing is a bit of the discography of Vuzh Music.

Putro And The Money Making Machine Bedroom Session Part 1 (2013)

Ear Alert 

Soundcloud
Archive.org

• Anti-folk
• Lo-fi
• DIY
• Unplugged
• Singer-songwriter
• Covers

Comment: indeed, this set of 10 tracks embraces covers and the unplugged session with vocal and acoustic guitar and all this set of 25 and a half minute is played in the vein of agit-pop (based on the intensely strumming guitars, and straightforward and clear vocal line). The artist provides attention to such artists as Green Day, Operation Ivy, The Ramones, The Descendent, Social Distortion, No Use For A Name, Alkaline Trio, The Bouncing Souls, MXPX, and The Vandals. If you have not made acquaintance with the artists and songs before that yet it is time to do it now with regard to compare the original oeuvre with the cover versions. In fact, for me that agit-pop edge adds a welcome edge to the original ones. The more I listen to it the more I like it. The outing is a part of the discography of Indonesian imprint Ear Alert Records. 

Phasetron – 7=5 (2013)

Daydream Generation

Bandcamp

• Alternative rock 
• Blues rock 
• Hard rock 
• College rock

Comment: at the Daydream Generation (it is a whole universe of very intriguing combos) site it is admitted this album is quite unusual with regard to differentiation in style. Indeed, these 11 compositions are quite far away from more and less quirky folk genre being extensively represented via CLLCT, Quixodelic, and Daydream Generation (all these sites have frequently been or had frequently been joint platforms for the same issues). Phasetron's issue is enough hirsute and powerfully galvanised to get instant attention. It harks back to classic rock tradition of getting energy from muddy and dirty blues rock even if many songs are balladry inflected and slowly paced ones. On the other side, it can stand for contemporary college rock influences which used to water down a little bit its ferocious facade. Instead of it I would like to hear more stoned and demented garage and garbage induced madness. However, the combo's choice can be understood as a possibility of realising slots within the music. Moreover, it will open the doors to enter into AOR stations. So partake of something.

Warchalking – Diplomancy (2013)

Daydream Generation

Bandcamp

• Indie rock 
• Alternative rock 
• Blues rock 
• Psychedelic rock 
• Americana

Comment: there are up 13 tracks clocking in at a 40 minute being released under such platform as Daydream Generation being closely related to another platform, Quixodelic Records and now defunct CLLCT (oh yeah, I miss all the music being ever released under CLLCT). The platforms have been existed to bring varicoloured music to the world. From alt-folk/indie-folk to New Weird America and space pop to lo-fi and DIY-tinged experimental pop. Unfortunately I have not yet listened to Warchalking`s two previous albums before it but there is said it embraces the drums and a bass guitar for the first time. Before it the project was just Kris Baranovic, a man with an acoustic guitar. A first thing you can perceive on it this is power (read: electricity) added to the mix though you can clearly perceive acoustic guitar induced stumming on it. At times it is Americana-tinged, at times it is the sort of adult oriented rock, at times it is psychedelic, at times it is blues rock coloured. It is a nice listening.

Bouwakanja – Hajiba (2013)

Section 27

Free Music Archive

• Alternative dance 
• Electronic music 
• Electro pop 
• Breaks 
• Acid electro 
• Breakbeat

Comment: an artist called Bouwakanja can be considered an interesting artist since I listened to his album Incantation. Hajiba is a massive event due to a huge range of different sounds, intense rhythms and sophisticated patterns in both sounds and rhythms, basic sounds and counterparts to it and the synergy between the compartments. It embraces as much pieces as 16. That's challenging. Similarly to C-sium's Daze Loft EP it involves droning electro intensity and strained needle-shaped and smithereens-alike rhythms being backed up by dynamics providing it a coherent adhesive matter between the more or less rugged parts. Frequently those rough elements are saturated with gloomy synthesised progressions atop giving it a more spaced-out yet eerie approach. Furthermore, the artist employs more subdued and tranquil moments to provide shifts in mood and structure. For sure, although it might be not very apparent throughout the course at times there are up some Middle Eastern motives to have surfaced here and there. Indeed, the charming clash keeps going to appear from the very beginning to the very end. He also uses human voices to warp them into something new into something more mechanical and robotic. This intriguing outing is a part of the discography of Section 27.

Golgotha Communications Ltd – Music That Doesn`t Exist (2013)

Sirona-Records

• Electro-acoustic 
• Abstract 
• Electronic music 
• Post-industrial 
• Noise 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Minimalism 
• Acousmatic music 
• Microtonal 
• Non-music

Comment: Golgotha Communications Ltd is a collective from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA whose 14-track issue continues the artist's peripheral and uncompromising tendencies within the post-industrial scene. And the imprint is very proper fro that – Arnaud Barbe aka Pollux led Sirona-Records. More profoundly, it is filled in with repeated sounds, with a minimized approach to make the listener to be subjugated to certain sounds and certain sonic combinations. Indeed, the listener can discern shifts between harsh yet easy-going shapes and remarkably more strained noise drenched sounds and rough sonic effects as if coming out from a very tiny slot. Mind-provoking and challenging. By following and analysing the title it can be interpreted in different ways – it is indeed a sort of music which does not exist anymore after it is performed (the sort of acousmatic music). If the repeat button is switched off it will not be heard through earphones and speakers. And if it will be repeated again the listener`s perception will perceive it differently because of being alien and involving way too many elements to be remembered in the same way. Secondly, it can be interpreted as a sort of anti-music in terms of pop music. It is way too radical for the bourgeois` scene. It may even involve some “comfort” sounds but they are subjugated to algorithms having nothing in common with the pop scene. It is protestant and it is painful. And it is very impressive.