Eskimeaux - I Am a Spiral (2010)

Mine All Mine

Archive.org

/Dream folk, Singer-songwriter, Epic. Experimental folk, Indie folk, Folktronica, New Weird America, Free folk, Alt-folk, Folk indie/

Comment: Eskimeaux is the project of New Yorker Gabrielle Smith whose 7-track issue chimes like a fairy tale. It has been produced in a silent and dreamy way though offering up many poignant moments within the consistent production. Indeed, I had to crank up the volume in a marked way. The listener can enjoy Smith`s daydreaming of more or less extended chords with addition of glitched-out noises which could reach something of a vertigo, and glockenspiel induced blissfulness broadening the borders of the listener`s psyche. Indeed, throughout this course the term “beauty” can be understood as an organic relation between contrasty or even striking elements. Since the appearance of noise music there has been an impellent force between noise and silence, between something and nothing (paradoxically, the nothing which seems to be existing nonetheless). However, School Lane chimes in a downrightly epic way. Ultimately it can be concluded it is fabulous in its restrainedness yet being rich in implication. Good things come in small packages.

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.        

Troy Schafer – Supreme Happiness Forever (2012)

 Mine All Mine
Bandcamp

 9.8

/Drone, Ambient drone, Epic, Chamber music, Modern classical, Experimental electronica, Avant-garde, Avant-electronica, Post-rock, Noise, Experimentalism, Crossover/

Comment: Troy Schafer (Madison, Wisconsin, USA) offers up a set of 3 pieces which is highly recommendable. More profoundly, his vanguard-ish, violin-led soundscapes are craftily tense, accentuated with different, massively droning keys thus getting close to such masters as Tony Conrad, and John Cale, though, he is idiosyncratic in his creative process (The Breath Of Life Is But A Kiss). Or on the other side, he is able to leave the academical tradition and to get involved in more poppy traditions (flirtations with Americana, noise and epic post-rock-ish seeds at Hail, True Body). TS`s soundscape is hell-ish and solemn at the same time. Apparition is an example of how classical tradition meets successfully modern days thereby establishing new frontiers and frameworks for the listener to understand music on a new level. In a word, it is a very fine crossover issue.

John Praw - Four Twenty Twenty Twelve (2012)

Mine all Mine
 Mine All Mine

8.8

/Organic electronica, Musique concrète, Experimental electronica, Modern classical, IDM/

Comment: these handful of tracks are infiltrated with "accidental" concrete sounds and crackling IDM-alike minimal throbbing and subtle touch of modern classical feeling.  

Myles Coyne - I Love You Mom (2012)

Mine All Mine
Mine All Mine

8.7

/Anti-folk, Lo-fi, DIY, Singer-songwriter, Alt-folk/

Comment: "homesick blues", singer-songwriter/folk songs. Just a guitar, harmonica, recorder, and hotblooded/or even hysterical singing. The set of 7 tracks involves lots of energy around there which at times used to evolve into more synergical moments and frantic outbursts. The ending track Chapter Three used to run on piano drops, however, being more contemplative and profound than the rest of the songs. Very beautiful, being the outstanding glimpse on it for me. In conclusion, not bad at all.

[praw] - From The Valley To The Sea (2009)

Mine All Mine

9.3

/Ambient, Post-rock, Minimalism, Microsound, Drone, Ambient drone/

Comment: the yearning pulsations of austere ambient progressions, as if coming from very remote distances and vast plateaus, exerting huge leverage on the listener. However, less is more, a byword, applies very exactly to the case. All of that is housed into the 21-minute track. In addition to that I recommend to listen to the likes of .slept, Radere, docks, the late-period Slowdive, The Post Riot Era, and Loscil. By the way, now [praw] is known as John Praw, by the musician`s proper name.

Castles - Cancer (2011)

Mine All Mine
Mine All Mine

8.6

/New Weird America, Freak folk, Free folk, Indie folk, Lo-fi, Folk indie, DIY, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: Castles is Cassidy “Thunderhorse” David-Weber, a singer-songwriter from Milwaukee, USA who makes up uplifting folk music based on a bit abrasive guitar-driven gears. Suggestively jubilant vocal manner supplemented with catchy skidding chords and unexpected noiseful hooks reminds of Animal Collective`s sound and concept. No doubt, the enormous influence by Avey Tare & Panda Bear will obviously endure for over a long period of time on prospective artists, on the other side, if to watch the present case, it is positive on its own.

John Praw - John Praw (2011)

Archive.org
Mine All Mine
Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.2

/Ambient, Post-rock, Soundscape, Minimal, Modern classical, Experimental electronica, Crosover, Dark ambient/

Comment: This is the debut album by a musician previously known as [praw] and who founded the Mine All Mine Records. However, his concept is revealed through 10 tracks recorded in 2006-2011 in Wisconsin and in Norway. The basis of the album relies on a kind of refined atmosphericness running mainly on the ambient mode, beyond it recruiting the elements from the realm of post-rock and modern classical as well. Praw is skillful enough for playing up the counterparts of diverse sonic elements against each other - all those blissfully light-hearted sounds are filtrated through the dark-hued zones. However, there can admit some exceptions either - for instance, the starting track Vokaler watches for such progressions as similar to Sigur Ròs or På Jakttur is a sort of the Kraftwerkian dream set up on the rule of ambient music. In most cases, Praw`s result can be compared to the ones by Mark Nelson aka Pan American.

The Munitionettes – Fast Jurassic (2011)

Mine All Mine
Bandcamp

8.7

/Electro-punk, Post-punk, Crossover, Chiptune, 8-bit, Tracker music, Psychedelic, Dance rock/

Comment: I guess it is not an ordinary example of that danceable punk rock with strong post-punk influences will be set out in the combination with chiptune/8-bit/tracker music blasts. In any cases, it sounds more convincing than most of nowadays dance rock groups.

Electric Sea Spider – Mohican Beats (2010)

Mine All Mine
Bandcamp

10/8.5

/Hip-hop, Soul-hop, Indie-hop, Jazz-hop, Crossover, Sound collage, Cut and paste, Leftfield/

Fur Devastate The Details (Mine All Mine)

The US band Fur is back with its sophomore release, and the 6-track offspring does sound rousing and refreshing. Do you guess the quartet is coming from? Of course, from Detroit, from the motor city. And their music is quite comparable with the acceleration and chase of vehicles, and mesmerizing gazing of the go-by of route bollards and grey-green-esque mixed panoramas. Their majestic rock pose is digged deeply into an eloquent incarnation of shoegaze, grunge, post-punk, gothic and alternative rock shades. Overrolling guitar hooks and overdrives do pinball around epic and abrasive area, creating vital pop conceptions, being compiled of the shoegaze-influenced Smashing Pumpkins from the 90`s, the Interpol`s murky pop rock sheen, Joy Division-esque ennui screen, the Lycia-alike overhead hovering sombre shapes, and of course Break Me, My Love having a kind of pattern as if Kurt Cobain has made his feature for the Devastate The Details. However, my very fondness is moulded into title track, with the natural-born-breakbeat-paid-for rhythm section, penetrating riffs, and atmospheric synths, being wrapped in by a lot of key changes; and Houston played out via the meeting of a bittersweet verse-chorus and shape-changing guitar appearances. The rock music in its honesty.

Listen to it here

9.1

[Artists] FUR

FUR
Mine All Mine
Myspace