Moon Runners/Kevlar Klein – Minneapolis Minnesota (2008)

 

Mediafire

 

• Art punk 
• Post-punk 
• DIY 
• Lo-fi 
• Outsider music 
• Punk rock 
• Post-hardcore

 

Eksisteeris aastatel 2008-2011 netileibel nimega Rack And Ruin Records, mille boss Dean Birkett korjas muusikafoorumitest ülesse kodus salvestavaid artiste. Palju huvitavaid muusikuid ja põnevat muusikat, mis samas osutas muusikaprotsessi demokratiseerumisele ja isetegemise väärtuslikkusele. Siin on kaks korralikku kolistajat, kelle baas on punk, ent mitte ainult energia- ja inspiratsiooniallikana, vaid ka mässu alusena, mida murendada ja lõhkuda. Elik mässu enese vastu mässata. Elik pungist on täitsa poogen artistidel. Lühikesed lood, mille energia pekstakse ülesse nurgeliste kidrade ja happeliste süntidega, kolisevate trummide ja karjuva vokaaliga. Tõsi, paar lugu on ka jutustavad – näiteks üks artist räägib oma eesnime saamise loost. Kohmakas ja ülendav samaaegselt. Samuti on üllitis näide, kuidas eksisteeriv asi võib pealtnäha kõikvõimsas netis jäljetult kaduma minna.

 

7.5 (6.5-8.0)

dessktop & tiny feathers – split EP (2009)

dessktop

• Lo-fi
• Experimentalism
• Sound poetry
• DIY
• Avant-garde
• Psychedelic
• Musique concréte
• Improvised music
• Primitive music
• Bedroom pop
• Ambient

 
Noil hetkil, kui ma olen muusikalisest olukorrast rääkides ülistanud nullindate lõppu ja kümnendate algust, siis olen muuhulgas silmas pidanud lo-fi ja DIY-kultuuri õilmitsemist. Viimast rõhutatult silmas pidanud. Olulisel kohal liikumises oli USA platform CLLCT ja Hollandi netileibel Rack & Ruin Records, mida juhtis tulbimaal resideeruv inglismann Dean Birkett; kes korjas internetifoorumitest üle ilma koduste vahenditega muusikat loovad artistid kokku, toimetades järjepanu kolm aastat (2008-2011). Küllalt artiste varjus mitme pseudonüümi taha (sh Robby Massey, olles tollal dessktop ja A Warmth). Kokku kogunes natuke üle sadakonna üllitise, milledest käputäis jääb jutuks olevate artistide hingele. Nende hing on äraspidiselt vuajeristlik, ent kombekuse piiridesse jääv. Avatud teistele, et siseneda, pealt vaadata ja saada inspireeritutki. See kogum, mis koosneb küll 11 heliepisoodist, ent saavutab vaevu keskmise poploo pikkuse kokku, on ühelt poolt kibemagusalt nostalgiline ja teisalt piisavalt meeli ärgitav. Olles ühtaegu infantiilne ja lõbus ning teisalt kompromissitult otsinguline, on see meeldiv teos, milles mängutoosidest maha mängivad helid ja mäuguvad-määgivad inimhääled vahelduvad psühhedeelsete oreliimprode, väänatud (konkreet)helide, kummituslike kajade ja vabas vaimus kilina-kolinaga. Ehk žanriliselt oleks seda väär nimetada magamistoapopiks, kuna selle kese on eksperimentaalne ja laialivalguv. See on keskkond, kus inimese enesesse käänduv mängulisus pääseb valla, andes eksistentsile nii mõtte kui tulemuse.

8.0 (8.0-8.5)

Auger Shell – The Narrows (2008)

Rack And Ruin

• Drone 
• Drone rock 
• Avant-garde 
• Avant-rock 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Experimental rock 
• Minimalism 
• Ambient drone 
• Abstract

Comment: Detroit, US-based Pat Callow under the nom de plume Auger Shell did have released all his three items under the Netherlands-based Rack And Ruin Records which has been activated in a span of 2008-2011. At RMH Holdstill Ocean is previously reviewed as a wondrous drift between experimental electronic/glitched-out developments, shoegaze/post-rock, minimalism and ambient music. The Narrows as the title suggests got more narrow or restricted. Mostly it chimes like a hard rocker who finally got sick of his lengthy, honoured career as the player of decent riffs and moderate gears being played day after day decided to develop more naughty and experimental offshoot. Indeed, all those gears and riffs are proudly represented over there yet played heavily through echo chambers and effect/control panels (it looms as if the guitar was pushed to a remote distance). At times (at its more austere and abstract moments) it is just a pure example of drone and ambient when the format is overwhelmed by a pulsating, coil-alike pattern, at its more exuberant moments the 3-track outing can be described with the prefix “rock”. Sometimes the artist opens the door to let the more or less determined sounds go out and mingle with surrounding ambiance. At times the soundscape gets more blurred due to swapping the accents with hisses and noises. For sure, the outing is enough a struggle to get through (for the listener it does mean many subsequent listening times). You can find out this issue under the number 073 in the discography of Rack And Ruin Records.

dessktop – Selsey Bill EP (2008)

Rack & Ruin

dessktop

• Organcore 
• Lo-fi 
• Drone pop
• Improvised music 
• DIY 
• Bedroom music 
• Electronic 
• Psych-pop

Comment: Selsey Bill EP was the first sonorous appearance by Robby Massey aka dessktop, an artist who did have like to record in the bedroom (or at least at home). Later on, he would have released such issues as Kirpi EP, Galleon Quilt, and Voicemeal EP and also the Split EP in liaison with Tiny Feathers all along at Rack & Ruin Records, one of the most important imprints who (in the embodiment of Dean Birkett as the head of the records) picked up grassroot/home recording musicians to be allowed to get some focus on them. If you wish one can find out my interview with him on this site. Fortunately almost all the outings of the imprint are still nicely up on the home site (unlike many other imprints from the period of the end of the 00s/ beginning of the 10s who and whose artists have just tracelessly disappeared. For instance, Holiday Records and its artists as Bonfire Kids, Young Michelin, Victory VIII etc). This handful of primitive compositions (RRR012) is something being conjured up on such instruments as a xylophone, an Indian flute, an Indian bass drum, toy accordion, a couple of acoustic guitars, a melodica, a Casio synthesizer and his vocal. I guess most of the instruments can be distinguished from one another over there to create a frantic blend of drones, glockenspiel plays based on an awkward yet charming scale of notes and key changes. At times it is emotionally heated up, then he gets calmed down and at times the sound disappears as if a river meandering inside the desert just vanishes at one moment. Robby Massey once mentioned that he had been improvising for hours on different instruments to discover and conjure up new motives. Regarded I can only agree with him the music is hard thing to get ultimately accomplished. Secondly, it seems to be a fight between managed songcraft and free improvisation to have provided welcome tension within the creative process. Yeah, it is a little bit more than just an intriguing lo-fi release (although the following outings did it even more) it is also a worth legacy of the aforementioned frenetic era.

Auger Shell – Holdstill Ocean (2008)

Rack And Ruin
Soundcloud

• Ambient rock 
• Experimental rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Lo-fi 
• Drone rock 
• Glitchtronica 
• DIY 
• Epic 
• Post-rock 
• Electronic 
• Glitch ambient

Comment: nearby Detroit, US-based Pat Callow aka Auger Shell did have released all his three items under a cult imprint, the Netherlands-based Rack And Ruin Records, having been doing a decent promoting from 2008 to 2011, by the lead of Dean Birkett. Holdstill Ocean was the first and the longest issue of the three parted discography of Auger Shell under Rack And Ruin. Maybe one can find out a prescription coming out from the following sequence/number set in a queue – 037, 051, 073. Additionally to Holdstill Ocean, there are also up Bee Lions, and The Narrows to be listened to. A description by him, a blanket of evocative swirling sounds from one guitar and an arsenal of effects. The music teems with life, at times vacillating between tremble and pulse, shriek and wail, bite and grasp. Soul brother to Christian Fennesz, Kevin Shields and even Lee Ranaldo, his mostly improvisatory compositions are structured in layers and loops, sometimes stitched together with the aid of a computer. Indeed, by listening to this set of long compositions I felt to split the 4-notch issue into a disciple of My Bloody Valentine due to those slightly powerful tremolo guitar treads and lofty guitar transitions within a tangential blend of throbbing hiss and asymmetrical drone-drenched sonic bowl. The second, finishing part was clearly more about laptop and digital technology dominated experiments, it was clearly more about a contemporary laptop and digital processing-based shamanism (Tim Hecker, Pan American, Alva Noto/Carsten Nicolai, Vladislav Delay, Fennesz, Pan Sonic). More magnified loops and glitches pitched up to a higher extent. However, the more I listened to it, the more it seemed to be about magic and something transcendental. At times I feel like listening to an anthology of noise and electronic music by Sub Rosa. The artificial borders set up by me became hazy. Actually a listener can hear exalted (sic!) droning doom metal progressions as if providing some glimpses within a deadly greyish landscape. In a word, by the form it is somehow flawed yet blissful nonetheless (it might be, on the contrary, thanks to it). The beauty is not simply a state, it is the relation/move between/from an inferior/rough to superior/refined one.

Roger Haddad – 27 White Miles (2008)

Rack And Ruin

• Noise 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Microtonal 
• Drone 
• Leftfield 
• Non-music 
• Minimalism 
• Ambient noise

Comment: noise as a genre is considered as the counterpoint to the music. Undoubtedly there has been a set of strategies. One of the purposes of the noiseniks is to undermine the role of pop music through conquering the area by taking it over. Given that there must be attributes belonging also to the (pop) music. For instance, melodies and harmonies. By talking about such artists as Glenn Branca, and My Bloody Valentine you can agree about the fact their inner power and verve was adeptly bound to something larger-than-life. Truly melodic, truly epic something which used to be bigger than life. At some point even better than dreams in fact. Because it used to be witty as well. The same strategy seems to be the base for this 3-notch outing by Roger Haddad whose music is very loud and resonant yet involving majestic climaxes even if it is minimally running through microscopic changes and colours in timbre. Noise can be negative and noise can be positive. The first of them is clearly pointed to destroy the structure of something, the other pigeonhole is to represent something on its own. On the issue there are represented both of the categorisations. The release is a part of the discography of Rack And Ruin for this 3-notch outing by Roger Haddad whose music is very loud and resonant yet involving majestic climaxes even if it is minimally running through microscopic changes and colours in timbre. Noise can be negative and noise can be positive. The first of them is clearly pointed to destroy the structure of something, the other pigeonhole is to represent something on its own. On the issue there are represented both of the categorisations. The release is a part of the discography of Rack And Ruin (rr023).

Neil Scrivin – Twenty Years On Ben Nevis (2008)

Rack And Ruin

Fonolith

• Ambient 
• Drone 
• DIY 
• Electronic music 
• Lo-fi 
• Dreamwave 
• Drone pop 
• Organcore 
• Mood music

Comment: just discovered that Blackpool musician Neil Scrivin`s both albums Twenty Years On Ben Nevis, and Tomorrow`s World are uploaded at Bandcamp, both of them are remastered and are available in tape format being now closely related to such Blackpudlian imprint as Fonolith. However, my intention is to review it as a bit in the discography of Rack &Ruin Records, a record label reflecting upon an interesting microscopic sonic space at the end of the 00s, and the beginning of the 10s. Rack & Ruin Records had been heading by the Englishman Dean Birkett from 2008 to 2011 whose taste was DIY friendly while experiment orienting. There was up enough noisy indie, peculiar folk-based issues, clumsy lo-fi and bedroom masterminds, warped electronic and deranged ambient-alike stuff. If to name only some artists I would like to denote such artists as Gnomefoam, starstarstar, Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit, Zgress, Chad Golda, Patrick Hussey, If The People Were Paper, Tyson Brinacombe, Hipster Youth, Dog Bite, Cody England, Gnouli Monsters, Vincent Lillis, The Macadamia Brothers, Lean Horse Marathon, Frost Faire, dessktop, Andy`s Airport Of Love, Chimney Fish. This album of 14 compositions which will clock in at a 35 minute is a sublime drift within droning ambient coated electronic music where the listener can perceive dreamwave-tinged seeds to appear. It is almost (indie) pop music but I have to emphasise the word almost. It is being always admirable if electronic music is produced in dreamy mode (to do it one hs to surpass the mechanical, machine-drenched nature of it). In fact, such sort of sound would mostly get popularized some years ago after the recent release thanks to such artists as Oneothrix Point Never, M Gedded Gengras, Steven Hauschildt. All of that is the contemporary counterpart of Kosmische Musik where adorable vibrations and otherworldly beatific drones are followed by one another or superimposed on eath other. While listening to it you do not need nothing else for your fortune. It sounds like going backwards the past you could find the future from it waiting for you. Originally it was released in 2007 yet at Rack & Ruin it was released one year later.  

Sam Golden Sings – Watch Out For The Quiet Ones (2008)

Rack And Ruin

• Lo-fi 
• Acoustic pop 
• Singer-songwriter 
• DIY

Comment: this is a simplistic yet catchy album of 6 pieces just based on the twangs of acoustic guitar, a few storytelling lines, some melodica whiffs and subtle stereo effects. And the singing with a catchy impetus is placed in the front page. For sure, it fits properly in to the lo-fi aesthetic of Rack And Ruin Records because it is played with great enthusiasm believing in a better future where one could perceive the thrill within it. The issue was produced in a time when all seemed to be possible. More profoundly, the DIY scene had appeared through blogs and independent music sites to get thousands of followers in the end of the 00s. That`s all. The simple things make highly sense on it.  

Rob Bridgett – Vorticist (2008)

Rack And Ruin

• Rnb 
• Alternative dance
• Alternative pop 
• Hip-hop 
• Illbient
• Avant-pop 
• Dark ambient 
• Leftfield pop
• Electronic music 
• Lo-fi 
• DIY 
• Experimental pop

Comment: Rob Bridgett`s music on this 8-track issue chimes extraordinarily without being superficial and thin at its centre and its extremes. For sure, this is an avant-garde issue providing different mental corners and alternative visions due to creating idiosyncratic soundscapes. For example, Boneless Chicken is screwed and chopped rnb madness yet this madness is expertly channelized not prevailing over the course and not hurting the backbone of the track but instead amplifying strengths of the composition. Indonesian Donuts has been managed to continue the pathway, however, Rob doing it tongue-in-cheek with some hip-hop flavour. More deeply, Indonesian Donuts/yum-yum donuts/so fruity. What else more reasonable could you add to this advertise-alike statement? Later on, one could perceive twisted ambient progressions where hyper-realistic revelations are spiced up with strange word puzzles, uncanny samples and some blissful overdrives. At Black City Interlude ominous illbient swathes are tightly yet embracing enough air interwoven with a glitched-out undulation. Charcoal is a composition of mechanical folktronic guitar arrangements and baggy hip-hop cadences. Vogg is an ill-omened breakbeat strike with lots of changes in upstairs and downstairs therefore conveying enough dynamics throughout the track. It could be said sometime 8 years ago Rob Bridgett made up hugely as an artist to contribute with the recent one (RRR056) and Pacific (2008), and Arkhives (2008), and Londra (2008) to the legacy and image of Rack And Ruin Records.  In a nutshell, it is one of the most pre-eminent issues under the excellent lo-fi/DIY imprint.                      

Tropical Australian Stinger Research Unit – Ex Stinger EP (2008)

Rack And Ruin

• DIY
• Lo-fi
• Alternative pop
• Indie pop
• Electro-indie
• Psychedelic pop
• Bedroom pop
• Acid pop

Comment: this 6-track EP reflects upon naivety and playfulness which was partly prevalent within the lo-fi and DIY compartment in the end of the 00s and the beginning of the 10s. Cheap synths, clumsy rhythmic setups, volatile singing and spacey guitar twangs constitute something magnificent which might not to have born due to the rough predispositions. Those synths atop the rhythms chime almost like the outcomes from an 8-bit/tracker outing. It is both hirsute and unagitated simultaneously thereby reminding a bit the C-86 movement in the mid-80s. I guess it was ironic faith in their doings with regard to the both movements. Of course, at the time the issue was released a few indie, psychedelic and free folk artists were able to surpass the influence and traces of untamed energy of Animal Collective. However, those traces could be harked back even more further to The Russian Futurists (Matthew Adam Hart), and even the Magnetic Fields (Stephin Merritt), and His Name Is Alive (Warren Defever), for instance. Traces of the aforementioned influences are especially up at Simple Things to Live By. The more you listen to the whole the more poppy and catchy it gets and more immersed one gets in it. I guess one of the secrets of it might be related to the fact of being freed from hi-fi hermetic, and quite predictable production. Let`s enjoy this lo-fi greatness having a notch in the discography of Rack And Ruin Records (rrr009). 

Beeches of Madame Ess - While We're Away (2007/2008)

Rack And Ruin

Bandcamp

• New Weird America
• Experimental folk
• Electronic music
• Indie folk
• Musique concrète
• Free folk
• Avant-folk
• DIY
• Improvised music
• Weird folk
• Americana
• Lo-fi
• Found sounds
• Freak folk
• Folk indie
• Primitivism

Comment: Beeches of Madame Ess`s 12-track issue is a thought-provoking issue both by its sounds and concept. It was recorded while the Pennsylvania, US-based quintet was travelling to arrive at Nova Scotia, Canada. They recorded while staying at various campsites in Bangor Maine, Cheticamp, and Blomidon. All the soundscape which consists of freaked-out yet heartfelt lo-fi folk and indie compositions, warped electronic appearances (especially The Gather of Sticks) and some field recordings were created by using acoustic and electric instruments and battery powered synthesizers. The issue was created even as there had been the highlight of the so-called New Weird America movement since the first half of the 00s. These ditties are expertly conceived surfacing the pristine nature of a natural world where is left no place for the temporal categories but pure beauty of nature seems to overwhelm all what used to be inside it and around it. However, at Flora And Fauna slowed-down, slightly murky electric guitar progressions do tingle one`s pure sensations to have emerged previously from elemental sounds. Evening of Bliss might remind of early experiments by Animal Collective though the Beeches of Madame Ess`s experiment is more incisive in its obvious primitivism which reminds of an old-fashioned computer game or something. It cannot be wrong to say the amalgamation of natural sounds and artificial sounds provide invigorated impulses to the whole. The outing was initially released in 2007 and a year later on Rack And Ruin (it is catalogued as rrr096 in the discography of the label) which had been a definitive imprint within the webaudio world from 2008 to 2011.

Laika`s Child – The Great Sacramento Fire

Rack And Ruin

• Lo-fi
• Ambient pop
• Primitive pop
• Experimental pop
• Electronic
• Bedroom music
• Post-psychedelic
• Avant-pop
• DIY

Comment: if you think Google is omnipotent to find out easily any sort of information from any edge worldwide then you`re obviously wrong. Indeed, I have had Laika`s Child`s album The Great Sacramento Fire in my mp3 player for a while but I could not connect to any record label anymore. Finally I found it thanks to a vague hint. Indeed, Laika Child has issued its albums through Rack And Ruin catalogue fitting nicely with its accentuated lo-fi/DIY/primitive music aesthetic. More profoundly, Laika`s Child`s 5-track issue is composed of clumsy piano chords in progression, rough rhythmic bits and serene synthesiser induced layers thereby constituting the balanced whole for the listener`s joy. At times those sounds are vamped with concrete sounds (for instance, one can hear wintry gusts moving from one channel to another and burning logs in the stove and exploiting the sounds of a driving car). Such sort of music reveals more honesty and chimes more organically than many profoundly produced issues around us at the time. Furthermore, you need more listening times rather than just having one to discover all the nuances hidden adeptly to the whole. The artist says that the oeuvre is the product of boredom, dental work, and pure ambition. That`s OK.

Nota Bene! I was quite disappointed having no success while trying to download Dylan Ettinger`s issue One Rude Dude (2008). Indeed, his album is still up on the site of the imprint. As we know very well Ettinger moved on to publish releases under well-known underground labels like Not Not Fun, and NNA Tapes but that fact should not exclude his earlier sonic footsteps within the netlabel area.

If The People Were Paper – Rotten Sugar (2008)

Rack And Ruin

/Lo-fi, DIY, Anti-folk, Electro-acoustic, Psych-folk, Space folk, Freeformfreakout, Singer-songwriter, Ambient, New Weird America, Experimentalism/

Comment: I don`t know how should this handful of pieces be tagged for? Is it electro-acoustic music with plenty of folk music influences or vice versa? Or is it an ambient music album with remarkable inclination toward primitivism? Or is it a spoken word album with hints at spaced-out folk/rock music? Maybe even something else? However, the result is impressive in its madness loaded with desperate chants and freaky shrieks. At times the way is paved by the dada tradition fuelled brown noise produced bits. Indeed, it is the kind of songwriting coming out of a remote corner. For instance, Mountains is a solid folk song with some indirect grunge influences in the blend. The soundscape is rough due to primitive noises and echoes thereby giving it verve to change into an idiosyncratic punch. It can be said the album is almost being undiscovered so far (you can trace for only few listening times at Lastfm for instance). Furthermore, I was not able to figure out who is the person behind the project. There is no information about it. However, let`s find out the issue in the discography of Rack And Ruin Records. 

Para Contra - ..Offered With Many Apologies EP (2008)

Rack And Ruin

Lastfm

/Improvised music, Art rock, Alternative pop, Free jazz, Indie rock, Musique concrète, Progressive rock, Electro-acoustic, Avant-rock, Lo-fi, Psych-rock, Space rock, DIY/

Comment: actually the title of this 7-track issue is misleading in multiple ways – firstly it is categorized as an EP though it involves music with a length of 53 minutes. Secondly, the title`s intention seems to provide self-indulgence about the music though by listening to it I can assume it is a very uncompromising issue at abandoning stylistic borders by Ontario, Canada-based trio Para Contra. Of course, it is possible that Alex, Brad and Jake think of quite inferior sound quality represented over there. However, it does not matter and actually adds some charm to the pot. Furthermore, their music is being a part of Rack And Ruin Records whose goal was to pick up home recorded music. The trio`s music is at times full-fledged to extend to the space, at times it is nervously brooding searching for backdoor to leave behind shortages in mind. At times provokingly primitive, at times showing up more sophisticated compositions through psychedelic progressions, artsy progressive rock-alike piano taps and even adding some field recorded sounds to the blend. There is even up one immersive jazz inclined composition called Para Jazz which now and then resembles Sun Ra, the huge mystic in the pop culture. One seems to be true – these guys probably have enjoyed their sessions altogether. Ultimately I could acknowledge that the issue used to grow up on me.

Gnouli Monsters - Hi (2008)

Rack And Ruin

/Lo-fi, DIY, Indie, Singer-songwriter, Synth, Fuzz pop, Experimental pop, Electronic, Alternative pop/

Comment:  Nick Grover aka Gnouli Monster`s album Hi was one of the first swallows (26<sup>th</sup> in queue) released under the do-it-yourself label Rack & Ruin curated by the Netherlands residing Englishman Dean Birkett. These 13 tracks extended over 34 minutes will constitute a fine listening experience where some quite ordinary lo-fi/bedroom drenched pop progressions are moderately variegated with more experimental approaches where the artist`s instrumental music is infused with electronic manipulation acts, singing variations and poignant sonic effects or just exploiting some sorts of synthesised syncopation to create more electronic pop/and chillwave resembling templates. In a word, the listener shall have to find out the proper knack across the tracks and moody balance within the album. The album seems to be a grower.       

ZGERSS - In the Labratory of a Nationally Known Scientist (2009)

Rack And Ruin

Bandcamp

/Electronic pop, Chill out, Lo-fi, Neo-soul, Mood music, Digital funk, Bedroom pop, Alternative, DIY, Improvised music/

Comment: Zachary "Zgress" Gresser is a musician from Arlington, USA who had been a part of Rack And Ruin Records, a DIY/bedroom pop music record label from the Netherlands.  The label`s discography embraced such artists as Gnomefoam, Megazord, starstarstar, Chad Golda, Tyson Brinacombe, Dublin Duck Dispensary, Teacups, Witchporn, Vlantis Urotanki, Moon Runners, Hungry Owl…and many other ones. ZGRESS` 9-track issue is a loose blend of chill out/moody pop, autotuned soul hovers, some digital funk chips and some gently improvised music progressions which frequently will conjure nostalgic sensations and intentions to look back toward the past. On the other side, there are some exceptions either – for instance, the ending track Return Home which is an instrumental indie progression with slight hints at funk music. The introduction of Soft Songs is a beatific glimpse through the exploitation of ambient music templates. Ad Hoc is an instrumental piano driven interlude. By the way, I like the ironical title of the album and poignant coverprint. In a word, discover the album and the rest of Rack And Ruin`s discography which was a corroborant dodge within the DIY/lo-fi inclined underground music movement at the end of 00s and in the beginning of 10s. 

DaNile – Ducky Sees… (2008)

Rack & Ruin

/Indie rock, Singer-songwriter, Alternative pop, Lo-fi, DIY, Americana/

Comment: just noticed that four years have passed very quickly since Rack & Ruin Records (Dean Birkett) decided to finish off its activity. Rack & Ruin was a great record label due to releasing a honest DIY music albums, some of them were more tricky electronic and noise soaked, the rest of them were more alternative pop and rough rock inspired ones. DaNile`s 5-track issue is a part of the last-mentioned compartment consisting of bold guitar chords, epic organ lines and suggestive singing replete with different tones and hues. The result is very worth to be picked up. 

Memoirs of a Fallen Bomb - This Semester Is Going To End (2008)

Rack & Ruin

/Noise rock, Experimental rock, No Wave, Art rock, Space rock/

Comment: it is great pleasure to return to the catalogue of Rack & Ruin Records again and again. Memoirs of a Fallen Bomb`s 5-track issue consists of noisy and hirsute guitar riffs and more restrained noise burning on inferior levels. Maybe it is a contemporary, spacey instance of blues rock. However, on the other side there are also represented arpeggio-laden guitar arrangements which nature is remarkably circumspect yet filled with aesthetic tension. By the way, the release involves a video either. In a nutshell, this issue is worth to be remembered.  

Patrick Hussey – Assimilation (2008)

Rack And Ruin

/Ambient, Soundscapes, Ambient drone, Space music, Modern classical, Minimal/

Comment: Hussey`s 4-track issue chimes truly in a wondrous way balancing somewhere in between static and dynamic. The music`s nature is truly beatific which at times sounds rather in an abstract or hyper-realistic way. Indeed, the main layers of sound are craftily accentuated with microscopic noises and sonic effects. I can remember for that once such sort of music was named as holophonic poetry. Indeed, few yet expressive sonic bits conjure up something which can be classified as vague pictures or fictions. Great by any means. It is a classic one released under an unforgettable label, Rack And Ruin Records.             

Tyson Brinacombe - EP (2008)

Rack & Ruin

• Alternative pop
• Singer-songwriter
• Lo-fi
• Alt-country
• Americana
• Electronic pop
• Psychedelic
• Art pop

Outstanding tracks:

The Golden Age Of Ballooning

Forget the World