Andreas Bick – Eolo (2013)

Galaverna

/Musique concrete, Organic electronica, Conceptual, Experimental electronica/

Comment: this issue consists of two relatively short-running tracks particularly regarding the concept of it. It is a tight blend of concrete sounds, extended vowel experiments and spacey horizons. In spite of its mellow and dulcet nature the release sounds like an endless, even somewhat uptight outlet. However, these contrasty sides regarding the premises and effect allow an extraordinary dimension to the whole. It sounds like a lullaby for unidentified flying objects. If you are deemed to be an UFO then you should listen to it. It is thought for human beings as identified flying object as well. The issue is released on Galavrna, an Italian label for field recording music.      

Walt Thisney – Prangsta (2014)

Bandcamp

/Electro-rock, Alternative dance, Big beat, Hip-hop, Crossover, Ambient trance, Leftfield/

Comment: Walt Thisney`s concept seems to be a huge melting pot to use it for to get a vast mixed but delicious sonic cake. Prangsta presents powerful electro and static soaked indie tendencies to mix them tightly with bouncy hip-hop rhythms, glistening big beat cadences and sheeny ambient trance propulsions, however, being always tongue-in-cheek. All in all, this was my first meeting with this project and undoubtedly not being the farewell one (there are at least a dozen of issues by them at Bandcamp).      

fuyuru0 – Anemone (2012)

Bandcamp

/Modern classical, IDM, Glitchtronica, Noise, Experimental electronica, Remix/

Comment: fuyuru0`s 9-track issue is a mix of glitch noises and electronic progressions which are frequently accompanied with classical music glimpses and mildly intense sonic effects. More concretely, there are up lots of weird pitched sonic bits, microtonal rhythms, delicate noise scattering and uncanny vowel undertakings swaying through high and low frequency filters here and there. It does not mean at all these elements are somehow raspy and painful to the ear. These compositions used to be emotive and sensitive due to its contrasty sides at its core. Icicle is an outstanding track due to sublime microscopic rhythms and atmospheric explorations which also does have Daphis remix for its own sake. Nice listening by any means.      

Elisa Luu – Shebeen (2014)

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

La bèl

/Folktronica, Acid folk, Electronic, New Weird Italia/

Comment: Shebeen is the first single from Rome residing Elisabetta Luciani`s brand new album Enchanting Gaze. The single consists of manipulated sonic effects, catchy repeated folk chords, exuberant electronic hovers and ambient loaded panoramas. Undoubtedly she is an outstanding artist. For instance, I can remember for her album The time of waiting (2010, La bèl) which was a tumultuous but organic mix of spherical electronic music, spectral sound art, experimental rock influences and (modern) classical music. In a word, get her new album and enjoy it!    

DasKapital - Ruído Negro (2011)

Bandcamp

/Experimental pop, Alternative, Electronic pop, Electro-acoustic, Mood music, Leftfield, Indietronica/

Comment: DasKapital is a leftfield Spain residing combo whose 8-track issue is filled with different dodges and insights into an electronic and rock music related world. The project`s music is deliberately cutting-edge filled with spoken word snippets, uncanny sounds/noises and sonic effects (especially the finishing track Black Noise, and the starting O Anxo Do Desespero). Of course, it is not predominating throughout the course but present frequently, though. Mostly the album is a crossover of electronic sounds and programmed rhythms and rock music tendencies, however, bringing forth catchy melodies and suggestive harmonies. The singer`s approach reminds a little bit of Blixa Bargeld`s murmuring singing manner. In a word, the result is intriguing.          

Bird Paradigma – Abject Fields (2011)

Do Androids Dream Ov Electric Sheep

Bandcamp

/Noise, Experimentalism, Rhythmic noise, Improvised music/

Comment: Sara Santos aka Bird Paradigma is an artist from Lisboa, Portugal whose album is made up of a couple of long-running tracks (the total time exceeds over an hour) is saturated with heavy bass loaded noises and drones. More concretely, Bird Paradigma does take on wobbling bass sounds, bent higher frequencies, and resounding rhythmic noise brushes. Frequently these sounds will get infiltrated constituting a gormandizing assembly of different impulses. This album can be deemed a noise music example being equivalent to jazz/improvised music.     

Il Nostro Tempo Violento - Fuori La Tempesta (2014)

ViVeriVive

Bandcamp

/Singer-songwriter, Folk indie, Alt-folk, Americana, Indie folk/

Comment: behind this pseudonym hides himself Matteo Micheletti from Siena, Italy. He is also being known as Emme issuing the album Eravamo Come Non Saremo Piu' under ViVeriVeve in 2012. However, the recent issue is a decent example of how to write catchy songs with obvious Americana influences (though the lyrics are presented in Italian). Micheletti exploits different templates of song-writing extending from ballad makers to more psychedelic insights and even slightly spaced-out glimpses. Especially great used to be those harmonica snippets which are mixed up with predominating guitar patterns.     

Kamutao – Mondo Voyage (2013)

PIR▲.MD

Bandcamp

/Nu jazz, Sampledelic, Hip-hop, Mood music, Exotica pop, Trip-hop, Cuban music, Downtempo, Cinematic/

Comment: similarly to a recently reviewed album, Morriachi`s The Outer Sphere EP (2011, Dusted Wax Kingdom) the Barcelona-based artist Kamutao affords for the listener to say similar adjectives to describe the sound. The artist himself describes his music as an example of travelling music (watch the title either!). Indeed, his soothing, mostly jazz samples and loosely skidding rhythms based print provides a good, sublime feeling for the melomans (and the travellers as well). Of course, such kind of music is all about details and whitebaits and it can be described as a permanent experiment to `pile up` different sonic bits to figure out what will be happening with the listener`s sense and perception. Undoubtedly this 18-track album is fairly emotive because of coquetting with yearning whiffs and past loaded beauty. In a word, the album seems to be full-fledged and convincing. The album is issued on a Mexico-based label, PIR▲.MD Records.                  

23RedAnts – We Are Not Dead Yet (2014)

Etched Traumas

/Improvised music, Experimental electronica, Drone, Glitch, Experimentalism, Live session, Avant-garde, Electro-acoustic/

Comment: 23RedAnts is a duo from Vigo, Spain whose 2-track whole consists of setaceous cello based drones and laptop supported electronic effects. In general, Macarena Montesinos and Niet F-n`s music is a drift between silence and glitched-out noise, between electronic wobbles and acoustic configurations, between grey penumbras and clear-cut occurrences in sound, between superimposed torpor and unexpected stings into the listener`s brain. Because of it these 14 minutes seem to be composed of real and invisible, fictional patterns and perceptions.               

Morriachi – The Outer Sphere EP (2011)

Dusted Wax Kingdom

Bandcamp

/Nu jazz, Micro jazz, Mood music, Hip-hop, Downtempo, Trip-hop, Cinematic, Sampledelic/

Comment: Morriachi`s 10-track issue seduces by stealth rather than by grand gestures. Indeed, it used to move on across a pathway in a silent way made up of miniature but smoky jazz samples, some hip-hop wobbles and wonky downtempo induced rhythms. Furthermore, the artist shows up repetition as a musical instrument. The issue seems to be creepy and contrasty filled with half-majestic, half-horrendous progressions thereby affording another meaning to the whole. Very good.                

HIJ▲ – No (2012)

Bandcamp

/Alternative rock, Baroque pop, Avant-garde, Shoegaze, Experimental pop, Indietronica/

Comment: Mayra Yasmin Harazatey aka HIJ▲is a frenetic chic from Argentina whose 5-track issue is a hectic amalgamation of hirsute guitar progressions, psychedelic synthesizers, warped and uncanny electronics, mutant vocals and sonic/stereo effects and bristled baroque-alike dodges and panoramas. Stylistically her spectre extends from shoegaze and blues-induced slaps to more dada influenced cabaret music. However, at times her soundscape will be calmed down speaking in the language of murmurs and through the interaction of lone chords (the first half at No Te Creas). By kindred souls there can be drawn parallels upon the likes of PJ Harvey, Laurie Anderson, Maja Ratkje, and Juana Molina, for instance. It is cutting edge for sure.       

mnttaB - 3CR Session July 2014 (2014)

Bandcamp

/No Wave, Leftfield, Electronic, Noise rock, Sampledelic, Alternative dance, Art punk, Post-punk, Space rock, Dance rock, Alternative rock/

Comment: it is not the first appearance of the Australia-based collective mnttaB at Recent Music Heroes. I can remember for their cutting-edge guitar progressions with danceable electronic undercurrents. However, this 4-track session is an amazing outlet of much more elements being added to the mix in comparison to previous times. The issue embarks on with distressfully morose spacey guitar progressions which will be traded for a sampledelic content at Men Resisting Change: Second Wave Feminism And Western Films From 1960-1979. WhiteNoise is a hypnotic, spaced-out dance notch and Welcome To The Planet, Dear is saturated with heavy electro chips and noise flinders. In a nutshell, the result is refreshing and kick-ass. Mandatory for all those guys and gals who think punk is not dead yet.      

Killorgiveup – Winehoused EP (2011)

Bandcamp

/Electronic pop, Witch house, Alternative pop, Drag house, Poptronica/

Comment: although this EP contains 3 tracks all these ones will be channelized into one theme and form. Laura Vunk aka Spice Mouse`s vocal used to loom over slightly ominous progressions of tight synth mist and some adjacent sonic effects. Sometimes her singing is supported by the duo`s other part Felix Bondarev (also known from such groups as Red Samara Automobile Club, and Stones & Holes). Indeed, the release was issued in 2011 which was the heyday of drag house/witch house appearance and some (gentler) influences of it can be perceived on this issue either.    

Bell Monks – Lullabies (2011)

Mine All Mine

Bandcamp

Lastfm

/Alternative pop, Americana, Dream pop, Avant-pop, Experimental indie, Post-pop/

Comment: the Wisconsin-based collective Bell Monks` 12-track issue is a contemplative, beatific insight through indie/dream pop alternative pop pathways. The album deserves its name – it sways between oneiric and hyper-realistic, between fictive and ideal world. It can readily represent the time after the pop charts are lost their mind. In a word, it is an example of the so-called ideal pop where experimental tendencies are craftily adopted into pop structures. The album is filled with outstanding examples and presenting no weak tracks meanwhile.        

Bear Coat – Black Hills (2014)

Bandcamp

/Indie pop, Electronic pop, Alternative pop, Baroque pop/

Comment: Dublin, Ireland-based collective Bear Coat`s single Black Hills sounds in an intriguing way – its main template is based on the so-called renaissance indie pop (Real Estate, for instance) filled with gentle and mellow harmonies, however, being variegated with partly vocodered vocal lines and exuberant orchestrations. It is a contemporary sonorous counterpoint to fairy tales. The result is fairly marvellous.      

Nomsei - Epos of Loneliness (2014)

Noiseu

Bandcamp

Lastfm

/Post-rock, Post-metal, Crossover, Baroque pop, Epic, Alternative pop, New Age, Art pop/

Comment: by listening to this 8-track album it can insist that loneliness is a beautiful quality on its own. In spite of some presumptively depressive titles the whole is an exemplar of wide-range beauty whose focus is spotted upon different even disparate directions or using multi-coloured canvas – from majestic post-rock tumult and suggestive post-metal progressions and mind-blowing baroque pop whiffs to more contemplative arpeggio-centred guitar compositions and wide-screen panoramas revelatory of ambient/New Age music and hinting at intriguing electronic fringes. Furthermore, there are even up some references to flamenco music which is not surprising at all because of the artist comes out of Spain. However, frequently the aforementioned elements are seamlessly mixed up. All in all, it is one of the albums in 2014.         

Beast, Please Be Still - Beast, Please Be Still (2007)

Lastfm

Bandcamp

/Dark folk, Medieval, Americana, Post-folk, New Weird America, Indie folk, Drone folk, Folk indie, Art folk/

Comment: beast does not behave quite in a way how the title would like to see. More profoundly, this 7-track issue is an artsy interplay between silence and ascending and expanding (indie) folk numbers having hints at different folk music periods and locations – from hysterical, Arcade Fire-esque indie outbursts and joyous burlesque interludes to more restraint, even medieval/pagan folk-induced alike shards, beguiling Americana elegies and going to Appalachian at times. Even some post-rock alike scraps are presented in the periphery. The ordinary instrumentation is laced with compelling glockenspiels, overdriven synths and sublime accordions. Their soundscape is filled with emotive charge to the very last seconds of the issue. Beast, Please Be Still is a 7-head collective from Seattle, Washington whose music can be compared with the likes of Arcade Fire, Anahita, Espers, and Darkwood, for instance. In a word, it is an outstanding effort by any means.                      

ANALOGIC CAPTIVE - TYF (1996-1999)

CS Industrial 1982-2010

/Noise, Rhythmic noise, Dark ambient, Non-music, Power electronics, Illbient, Industrial, Experimental electronica, Psycho-acoustic, Avant-garde, Experimentalism/

Comment: I find any album dig out from the past is worth to be re-issued and analysed and further to put it into the adequate historical context. And those people and labels and bloggers who have revised old music are worth to be honoured. More concretely, this 13-track issue is re-released under CS Industrial 1982-2010 (firstly issued in 1999 under OLEUM product) whose purpose is to bring forth noise and industrial music in Czech and Slovakian Republic (as Czechoslovakia until 1993) from the above mentioned period of time. Roman Černý spawned result is wondrous – it sounds like an oeuvre by an industrial worker who has disillusioned regarding the future and perceives indescribable anxiety and psychic distress. By aesthetical aspect the outlet is mesmeric due to organic merge between harsh industrial music and brown/and black noise, between and pulsatory drone snippets and circumspectly fluttering damaged ambient music (read: illbient, dark ambient) and pounding power electronic appearances and incisive experimental electronic explorations and ghostly spoken word snippets filled with shrieks and gloomy murmurs. However, those warm analogue sounds do balance harsh nature of the album. In a word, the effect is overwhelmingly mind-provoking and magnetizing.                     

EPV NAVIES – VOLTAGE CIRCLE (2014)

Elementperspective

Bandcamp

Free Music Archive

/Glitchtronica, Experimental pop, Glitch techno, IDM, Experimental electronica, Indietronica, Art pop, Ambient, Ambient techno, Abstract, Glitch ambient, Glitch dub, Modern classical, Post-industrial, Electro-acoustic, Clicks`n`bleeps, Organic electronica, Dream folk, Crossover, Soundscapes, musique concrete, Ambient drone, Avant-electronica, Noise, Art pop/

Comment: by watching this list of a huge amount of tags wrote down above it implies a vary-coloured nature of this 16-track issue. Indeed, the main spots are `electronic` – ranging from refreshing alternative pop expressions and stereophonic fireworks to remarkably harsher, even abstract synthesised glimpses, with more or less bellying, protuberant rhythms; `ambient` - with or without drones, at times knee-deep and spacey, at times more morose, glitch-draped and noise-soaked; `classical` - at the time it does mean mutant classical music where the axial term is buried under other, electronic-induced elements. The only exception is a Finnish singer-songwriter, Violeta Päivänkakkara, though, make that this time her track (Sya; the compilation also includes the video version of it) chimes significantly more electronically than she commonly used to do. Additionally, there are represented such artists as sanmi, AUCHRE, Gallery Six, Rawpass, Senna, Makoto Masui, Nankotsuteacher, N-qia, --memor2, Yoshitaka Hikawa, SHOMOMOSE, Y:E:T, and gift. All in all, it is an excellent introduction to the Japanese label elementperspective. Great.               

Eluna - Trädgårdsmästarinnans Tillförlitliga Tillflykt (2014)

Zeon Light

/Indietronica, Chamber pop, Alternative pop, Electronic pop, Cowbell indie, Modern classical, Organic electronica, Post-rock, Mood music/

Comment: Zeon Light is a decent tape music label from Sweden whose vast discography (65 articles in total) embraces lots of outstanding releases. However, Eluna`s 4-track issue is an organic blend of fine indie electronic reveries, restrained post-rock styled panoramas and echoey piano chords fuelled chamber pop/classical music insights extended by concrete music fragments here and there. Every element on it is produced in a way to be out of razzmatazz every detail on it is thoroughly bound and fixed into the entirety. Those gradual progressions constitute a sublime feel getting into the listener`s soul thereof. It goes along effortlessly, without applying any power to reach its goal (reminding of Laozi`s main postulate). Furthermore, by watching the cover of the album it will insinuate pleasant rustic perceptions inside. By kindred souls there can be drawn parallels upon the likes of Oskar Hallbert (Sweden), and So I`m An Islander (Denmark), for instance. In a nutshell, it can be said the result is fascinating and wondrous at any point of its course.