B. Toriyama – Episodes (2015)

basic_sounds

Archive.org

• Ambient techno 
• Downtempo 
• Electronic music 
• Ambient dub 
• Tech-dub 
• Deep techno 
• Deep dub 
• Crossover 
• Dub techno 
• Minimal dub 
• Dub house

Comment: B. Toriyama embarks on this 4-notch outing with wobbly synthesised chords and atmospheric layers in the vein of dub music. In truth, later the distinctive categorization will get a bit watered down by using also techno and downtempo reliefs, however, the spaced-out layer continues to emit through the other stylistic appearances. At Cloud the artist comes back to a deeply soaring inner space by interweaving dub and techno and even near house knots into a 9-minute apparition as if depicting a phantasmagorical plateau at the bottom of the ocean. Yeah, it is deep and minimal. The same can be admitted about Sauce which in truth is a bit more vivid and flaring due to those hypnotically loopy synth fadeouts. Yeah, the listener can imagine slowly swimming monstrous creatures coming out from the shipwrecks. All in all, it is an example of music for your dormant fantasies by allowing you a fantastic space engine for to travel to places of which you could never reach physically. For only thanks to the art one can cross his/her mundane and mortal borders. Music is obviously the fastest way to do it. Here it is. The solid issue is a part of the discography of basic_sounds.

Roel Goovaerts – we zullen wel zien e (2015)

BWAA

• Newbreed 
• Electronic music 
• Leftfield 
• Experimentalism 
• Free folk 
• Avant-garde 
• Avant-rock 
• Experimental rock 
• Minimalism 
• DIY 
• Witch house 
• Crossover 
• American Primitivism 
• New Weird Belgium 
• Avant-folk 
• Weird folk

Comment: yesterday late night I had been listening to Ak'chamel aka The Giver Of Illness´ issue The Man Who Drank God (2015) which was sent to me by generous Field Hymns imprint. It chimed like an extreme fringe of the New Weird movement as if coming out from a cave of the Neanderthals. It was sung in low and wobbly chords while emitting an almost festive milieu from those heathen arrangements. Thanks to being so wobbly and rough it was an utterly organic experience. In fact, by listening to the recent issue of six compositions I felt partly the same feeling. In spite of being compositionally a bit different by employing guitar chords subverting filters and effect blocks and stark, intoxicated electronics the ultimate experience says it is almost about the sort of epic music (especially at Francy, which is a 13-minute iterative climax). I would not dare to call it lo-fi music because similarly to the aforementioned issue by Ak'chamel it is against the premises of lo-fi as a genre and attitude either. You can intuit this on the defiant nature of the issue. For instance, the issue starts off like a lost form of witch/drag house/newbreed. Later on, it will be mutating into guitar primitivism, gravitates toward uncanny electronic locations and the aforementioned minimalistic, slightly spaghetti western-alike majesty of Francy. Indeed, it will be the music of a new breed, more profoundly, for neo(n) zombies. This truly overcoming outing is a part of the discography of BWAA. All is moving, changing and disappearing. Heaven knows we will be dust.

Co-Op – Neighbours (2015)

basic_sounds

Archive.org

• Soft rock 
• Yacht rock 
• Electronic 
• Jazz rock 
• Alternative rock 
• Indie rock 
• Crossover 
• Art pop 
• Mood music 
• Improvised music

Comment: this bunch of three tracks by Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based Oreste Camarra and his guest and neighbour Marcus Wong (who plays guitars) is a fine amalgamation of poppy electronic music, yacht and jazz rock shreds. The motives represented over there used to run in repetition thereof creating somehow compelling yet enchanting mood (Oak and Eli). Yet the other two tracks have been set out to run in a more variegated feel. I would like to praise the guitar play by Marcus Wong because it is the main propulsion in different penumbrae and shades and flickers in different strength and atmosphere. I would like to call it a contemporary version of soft rock because its intention apparently is not to overwhelm the listener with crushing riffs and volume but creating a subtle mood around his/her head (at the same time you have no chance to reject the technical adeptness of the release). By the way, the tracks are long (the shortest one clocks in at a 6-minute) so you nevertheless discern the impulse of an improvised format. The issue is a part of the discography of basic_sounds. Great stuff.

Ana Bogner – Multiple Proportions (2015)

Headphonica

Bandcamp

• Singer-songwriter 
• Art pop 
• Drone pop 
• No Wave 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimental pop 
• Minimalism

Comment: Ana Bogner is an artist from Berlin, Germany whose 4-notch outing had been released on Headphonica. By listening to it I can imagine she is a previous punk who has made many further steps on to land in that uncanny, deeply inside twisted whole. She used to sing in a decelerated mode about her demons, blurred surrealistic dreams, internal battles regarding life and love being backed up by sparse throbbing drones, lone guitar chords and sporadic field recording snippets. Musically it is all but multiple in its general variation and proportion. By kindred souls there can be drawn parallels upon such names as Lydia Lunch, Jarboe, H Stewart, Ludus.

The Sway - When Worlds Collide

Karl Frank - Red Eyes

Flady – Leave (2015)

Bunkai-Kei

• Electronic music 
• Breaks 
• Experimental electronica 
• Alternative 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism

Comment: I am back again by digging up in the discography of the Japanese imprint Bunkai-Kei. Some days ago I had listened to an album of being an amalgamation of J-pop, and Western disparate influences resulting in a truly aesthetic entertainment, however, this case of handful of tracks seems to be analogous though revealing its virtue on a bit other premises. It may be a bit less moody and more complicated through its strongly accentuated slamming rhythmic patterns, uncanny samples, glitched-out debris. It is a sort of dance music though standing discreetly apart from well-known styles like house, techno, electro, dubstep. I especially like those string-based samples as if suggestive snatches taken from a cello and woodwind instruments and thereafter magnified and modulated. And of course, it reminds of unforgettable Arthur Russell. All in all, it is a superb selection again. It injects much serotonin into the listener's brain. That's all what we need to get. And the cover print is suggestive for sure.

Deicida 69 – Vocem For Atonal Wave (2015)

Plataforma

NKS International Muzakillabel

Cieliro Diystro

Deicida 69

Bandcamp

Bandcamp

• Crust punk 
• Art punk 
• Alternative rock 
• Indie rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Psychedelic rock 
• Spoken word 
• Post-punk 
• Electro-punk 
• Crossover 
• Sampledelic 
• Jazz 
• Plunderphonics 
• Hardcore 
• Electronic music 
• Dada music 
• No wave
• Non-music 
• Jazz punk 
• Cold wave 
• Ambient
• Leftfield

Comment: this set of 22 tracks consists of a couple of joint albums, more profoundly, Côte, and Ntoa. The combo comes out of Mexico and provides something truly refreshing and mind-altering within the rock (and roll) genre. First of all, it is incisive and harsh by its formal shape and certainly dadaist and postmodernist by its conceptual approach. Of course, the discoloured terms “postmodern” and adjective “postmodernist” do say a bit little about certain phenomena but it can be mapped as a bastard of different genres and exploitation of different genres. It may be tagged as an example of exploitation punk by ranging from art punk/post-punk/electro-punk to hardcore, psych-punk, cold wave/gothic punk and crust punk with hints at spoken word, jazz, electronic music and downright plunderphonics/sampledelic art. But I can guarantee you could find out more cues to even more phenomena and stylistic/stylized pops. Frequently the guitars chime like an angle grinder. One more fact I can admit the artist is obsessed with more or less implicit sexual (under)tones (being inspired by the oeuvre of Marquis de Sade). Undoubtedly one can partake in a frantic pool of very different experiments and combinations. As it is explicated at the site of Plataforma Records their modus operandi is the constant violation of the rules of harmony which dictates the Orthodox Music. At times, at Barbichuettes Night (A Tribute) one can enjoy a submerged, schizoid dialogue being savoured by spacey synthesised atmospheric lines and scruffy analogue synthesiser effects. It comes from nowhere, in the sense that I have no idea of how to localise it. As if being everywhere, it does mean having no place at all. However, at the same time it does not chime in a cheapo and vacuous way altogether. By possible kindred souls it could be compared with the St Petersburg, Russia-based dadaist surf/punk/lounge/avant/sample/psych/fetish-pop combos Messer Chups/Messer für Frau Müller. But I am very sure they have listened to This Heat, Bauhaus, Throbbing Gristle, an early Cabaret Voltaire, Velvet Underground, The Fall, and many artist from within the No Wave pigeonhole either. The overpowering issue is a part of the discography of a French imprint, NKS International Muzakillabel, a part of the discogrpahy of Brazil-based imprint Plataforma, and a part of the discography of the Chilean Cieliro Diystro.

Bite – Calle Palma (2015)

basic_sounds

• Modern classical 
• Post-classical 
• Field recording 
• Ambient 
• Electronic music 
• Avant-garde 
• Epic 
• Experimentalism 
• Organic electronica 
• Minimalism 
• Piano music 
• Musique concrète 
• Art music 
• Drone

Comment: you are searching for profound and tranquil soundscapes to find a remedy for suffocating your desperate feels and borderline madness. You are aware of the premiss the ideal album must have the imposing centre point being surrounded by many and frequently changing satellite sounds. The method makes sense. Josè Barrera aka Bite's 9-track release on basic_sounds makes sense in that way. It is just an infinite moving where it makes no sense to remember the starting point and the finishing point. Any temporal moment and chord makes sense. The music is very present in any present moment. Given that you have entered into the sphere of continuous present and it does mean the term time makes no sense altogether. That's the point. Musically you hear at times hammering at times slightly lofty piano chords followed by one another and at the same time being accompanied by acidic electronic counterpoints, microscopic noises and ennobling natural sounds. For example, the self-titled track is a fabulous incantation full of profound, iterative, magic reality. Indeed, it bites you. And the rest of eight tracks do the same effect. Superb work by any means. I guess if Beethoven could have had the same technical possibilities he would produce an analogous stuff but instead of the known musical and historical reputation he might have a more hidden influence upon us.

Roberto Daglio – THE ROOMS (part 1) (2015)

Jamendo

• Nu jazz 
• Mood music 
• Easy listening 
• Lounge 
• Yacht pop 
• Smooth jazz 
• New Age

Comment: a couple of weeks ago I posted a teaser of the day, Obsessive Synchronization from the Italian Roberto Daglio`s THE ROOMS (part 1). It is a great track but by listening to it with the rest of 3 tracks it is a seamless flow of very similar tracks. In a word, it does mean that one and the same elements are represented in all the tracks just providing difference within the configuration of each composition. It seems to be so serene and cloudless as if am arousing glimpse from a hyper-realistic universe. It could even be considered a new appearance of New Age music though its roots are based on different jazz and yacht pop facets. For sure, nonetheless its laid-back nature the issue is apparently ambitious inside its core and thereby propelling a bit more further than just an average moody issue. So yeah, practically and functionally I guess it is a remedy for your soul and mind, it helps you cope with exhausting problems and conveys a perspective to move forward. What else I could add but just take your time to listen to the second part of the issue. Just wait a minute...there is no second part of it (at least I couldn't find them). Instead of it I recommend listen to other issues by the artist then.

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.

Akiba Jonze – Realm of Rain (2015)

Mothermantra

Bandcamp

• Ambient pop 
• New Age 
• Folktronica 
•  Musique concrète 
• Electronic music 
• Organic electronica 
• Chilltronica

Comment: this couple of tracks is imbued with concrete sounds, guitar twangs, synthesised gongs and gentle yet compelling electronic beats with intention to conjure up a mystical world somewhere in the middle of tropical warmth, sultry raining as if letting surface a fairy tale alike ambience. It is way too beatific to be a subject of belief. It partly reminds me of such an artist as it is Tont from Estonia whose soundscapes are similarly otherworldly and wondrous. Jokingly, this is a way of how the New Age musicians make folk music. Realm of Rain was the third single by the artist being released on Mothermantra Records. The sort of ideal music indeed.

Cinema Noir – Fernweh (2015)

Nostress

• Post-rock 
• Alternative rock 
• Epic 
• Electronic music 
• Indie rock 
• Indietronica 
• Remix

Comment: I am back again at the discography of Nostress Records though it is the first step of mine to Cinema Noir, a combo from Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Allegedly this 6-notch issue is their first step (partly) into electronic music. More profoundly, it includes majestic and blissful progressions through guitar buildups and synthesizer-based clouds, respectively. Indeed, the listener gets wrapped up in hazy, hiss soaked clouds and sublime dynamics of sonic abysses filled in with unknown surreal creatures because it chimes so beautifully and blissfully. Its beatific touch does have a remarkably more tremendous impact in comparison to every day's life. If you get stricken by the Sun then you may experience a similar feel. Frequently it reminds of a Mogwai's turn into electronic music (at Happy Songs for Happy People) though Cinema Noir's turn seems to be more overwhelming and crucial both mentally and physically. For example, listen to a track called Miles Davis, the most irresistible composition over there. You can hear many themes and progressions of running simultaneously in one and the same track. At Persepolis the music turns into something to get its power from the roots of minimalism. It chimes as if a post-rock track being produced by Steve Reich. There is up one track being remixed by another Italian combo Veivecura. In a nutshell, it is a sonic leviathan which must be heard.

Sabrina Siegel / Bryan Day / Tom Djll / Bob Marsh – Ocean Of Lakes (2015)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Improvised music 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Avant-garde 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Sound poetry 
• Avant-jazz 
• Experimentalism 
• Free jazz

Comment: in fact, there is much to say about this set of 6 compositions because it is musically and emotionally complex, intense, and mind-provoking. All the music is conjured up by such instruments as kalimba, modular synth, cello, bass guitar, trumpet, voice, and invented instruments (so listen to the issue to figure out the instruments more concretely). It can be said the issue is an fine example of interesting sounds yet all of that will constitute a perceivable whole subsequently. For instance, Sabrina Siegel`s vowel effects and other kinds of sound poetry (additionally I remmond listen to such artists as Maja Ratkje, Jaap Blonk, Roomet Jakapi) used to range from soothing to hirsute, the same could be said about Tom Djll`s synthesiser effects which used to lay over the whole spectre atop, at times changing into something being close to emergency signals. At times it is free jazz with modifications, at times it is more electro-acoustic music with creepy variations, at times the combo enjoys its more silent yet idiosyncratic soundscape being obviously winded from intense sections. Yet its architectural buildup is somewhere between the aforementioned styles. More profoundly, the tempo is slowed down, in fact it is the main approach of determining the pace which is accelerated by spasmodic trumpet whiffs, zigzag acoustic noises and Siegel`s incisive vocal acrobatics now and then. The lower tones are conjured up by a cello, and a bass guitar. The issue is a part of the discography of Pan Y Rosas Discos. As Heraclitus said many thousand years ago that no man ever steps in the same river twice the same could said about the recent one with regard to the perception of it.

Get- Effect – Trick Ladders (2015)

Vanguardista

• Krautrock 
• Alternative 
• Experimental rock 
• Drone pop 
• Motorik 
• Avant-rock 
• Art rock 
• Electronic

Comment: this handful of tracks is based on contemporary tendencies of krautrock/motorik music which was initially started off by an early Kraftwerk, and Neu!, and later developed by such artists as Stereolab, The Notwist, To Rococo Rot, Mina, Contriva and Fujiya & Miyagi, for instance. Get- effect is a project from Glasgow, Scotland whose the most distinctive track is obviously Giant On The Hill which chimes like a tribute to Simon Jeffes through fable short waves, and white noise frequencies providing the intriguing background for the catchy, iterative melody. Otherwise, droning, glacially glimmering synths with acidic vibrations are represented there which used to hover over obsessively iterative rhythmic structures and pulsating guitar gears and throbbing synthesised basses. This fabulous outing is a part of the discography of Manchester, UK-based imprint Vanguardista Records.

The Barsand Mars – Teen Smiths Pizza (The Bars Version) (2015)

Susu Ultrarock

• Electronic pop 
• Chiptune 
• Tracker music 
• Synth music 
• Chipbreak 
• 8-bit 
• Bitpop 
• Nintendocore 

Comment: Susu Ultrarock Records is a part of an imprint conglomeration called Indonesian Netlabel Union. Of course, there are represented the wide range of miscellaneous audible things within it. The recent issue is a frantic shift between wobbly 8-bit breaks and Nintendo intended rhythms produced on The Commodore 64 and catchy synthesised melodies and arousing harmonies (in fact, obviously being tapped out on The Commodore 64 either). The issue embraces 7 tracks yet being very short-running – just eight minutes and a half minute in total. On the 21^st of May (by the way, the birthday of Kevin Shields, the frontman of MBV) while listening to it in early morning it makes difference for me. I think it will make difference for the upcoming mornings and afternoons and evenings as well. The issue is an example of music which may be considered to be produced on primitive, even infantile hardware by contemporary standards yet the music chimes agelessly. Get it and eat that pizza.

Karl Frank – Fragments of Decay (2015)

Redstarcommunity

Bandcamp

• Indie pop 
• Alternative pop 
• Glo-fi 
• Post-pop
• Electronic
• Art pop 
• Chillwave 
• Hypnagogic pop

Comment: first of all, the album is quite peculiar due to embracing 9 tracks and clocking in at a 13 minute. Formally it is the album but by its nature it is a long-running (but not bothersome) track in fact. Yeah, it is an example of contemporary indie music because of ranging from guitar-based progressions to drum machine and synthesiser based build-ups. It starts off with Voices in the Dark with some stomping guitar riffs and skidding drums at mid-tempo. Shadows is a similar case though adding a spaced-out vocal template and joyous brass whiffs to the mix. Red Eyes is a step further in comparison to Shadows because of employing a mutant electro vocal within the usual vocal employment. A part of the rest of the tracks are formulated by using the aforementioned elements in different combinations but the favourites of mine are such tracks as Disappearance Delay, Recycling Dreams where the listener can enjoy blissful memories and synthesised space mixed bittersweet beauty which has been demonstrated at a large scale somewhere 5-10 years ago when chillwave and glo-fi and hypnagogic pop were a cut above within the indie scene. By the way, Karl Frank started his career more than 10 years ago so I like his statement to create such sort of art he himself wishes to create. That`s honest and ennobling. The issue is a part of the Swedish imprint Redstarcommunity. Outstanding pop music.

I/DEX – Vapour (2015)

Bandcamp

• Experimental electronica 
• Glitchtronica 
• Ambient techno 
• Kosmische Musik 
• Space music 
• Ambient

Comment: this is not the first entry by the Belarusian artist Vitali Harmash aka I/DEX at Recent Music Heroes because a little bit more than 5 years ago I did comments on his great issue Tetrapolar being reissued by Foundamental in 2009. Additionally, I have reviewed an album called Golem (2013, Foundamental) under his own name but it is a little bit different case. Similarly to Tetrapolar Vitali Harmash likes to straddle on borders of volatile ambient, dreamy electronic progressions, silent techno drumming and otherworldly still life. But is does not mean it is only a tamed flow – at Glacier the artist employs outstretched guitar riffs within a glitched-out galaxy as if an alien flying unhurriedly through it. It contains just three compositions (Coral, Glacier, Aurora) clocking in at a 12 minute. It is a pleasant instance of spiritualised experimental electronic music full of imaginable and real creatures who are exploring blissful spherical terrains and the fading of time. Just go out with headphones at a nocturnal hour to glare at the stars and it might be you will see a lonely spaceship over there.

Frenic – Monomyth: Separation (2015)

Dusted Wax Kingdom

Bandcamp

• Sampledelic 
• Nu jazz 
• Hip-hop 
• Psychedelic 
• Crossover
• Mood music 
• Ambient pop 
• Chilltronica 
• Alternative 
• Urban music 
• Big beat 
• Acid jazz

Comment: Bristol, UK-based DJ and producer Sam Fergusson aka Frenic has been active in releasing albums since the beginning of the 10s by excelling at the tradition of rhythmic music of his home city. In general, this mammoth issue of 22 pieces is a fine blend of hip-hop and trip-hop and big beat rhythms and on the other side by using cinematic orchestrated samples, glistening synthesised sounds and suggestive spoken samples. However, it involves a bunch of other turns and penumbras additionally. For instance, at Rhodes Home (feat.Alfie Grieve) Sam Fergusson used to exploit the softened electric piano based pattern (Rhodes-based chords?) being accompanied by a smooth jazz-inflected improvisation. At God Moves he employs flamenco guitar chords and tango vibes in a certain, effective way to result in a solid crossover mix of hip-hop. A following composition Refusal to Call (Skit) is a quite disparate case because Fergusson does introduce a thoroughly immersive spaced-out universe. At times the mood of the album used to change into a little bit murky and glowering. To create the issue was inspired by the artist`s first big and cordial tour in Greece thereafter decided to narrate the tale of a great journey in a musical language. As I said before it is an unique universe, it is immense enough to discover more elements with any subsequent listening time. And of course /Listen! listen to my heartbeat! Listen! Listen to me!/ Monomyth: Separations is a bit in the discography of a Bulgarian imprint, Dusted Wax Kingdom (as most of his earlier outings as well).

Mjatnaya Lovushka – Mjatnaya Lovushka (2015)

101.io

• Space pop 
• Lo-fi 
• DIY 
• Alternative 
• Indie 
• Electronic 
• Post-punk 
• Psychedelic 
• Avant-pop 
• Minimal synth

Comment: by listening to this 11-notch outing it reminds me of those times when I was listening to Devendra Banhart (it probably happened in the second half of 2003), and Ariel Pink (it was probably up in the beginning of 2005). It does not mean that Mjatnaya Lovushka, and Ariel Pink are stylistically very similar but it is all about do-it-yourself attitude, about home recording, about self-esteem to create something special and distinguishing (even if it is partly rehashed and borrowed from obscure, forgotten traditions of the underground music scene. In fact, we have no chance to exceed previously established cultural layers beneath and around us). The whole starts off at Melting Light Among Leaves with a soaring riff-o-rama being accompanied by clumsy stomping beats at the bottom and dreamy synthesisers and singing atop. While I was producing the sound of Autharktos I sometimes liked to exploit one of such a prepared rhythm on my synthesiser Casio Tonebank Sa-1 with intent to slightly modulate and change its initial pace. Later tracks, however, will reveal the artist`s more introverted nature even he likes to use hirsute guitar sounds and employ minimal and monotonous yet predominant post-punk/and minimal synth tinged drumming. It is because the Kosmische Musik/cosmic synth induced aspect is strongly presented within it. His soundscape is sometimes wrapped up in enchanting hisses to provide an additional value to the soundscape. You can find out many gems from within it (Komari, Melting Light Among Leaves, Drawings, Pink Flakes, Poison In Your Bag) but the whole is devoid of fillers and weak compositions. This spellbinding issue is a bit in the discography of Cologne, Germany-based imprint 101.io.