Sky Event Sky Event (pan y rosas sitio)

2 musicians, Hathaway Hester (cello, little instruments), and Keith Helt (guitar, little instruments), are influenced equally by modern out and avant composition as well as contemporary Chicago creative music. As it is said, their soundscape is full of plinks, plucks and percussive slaps surrounded by abrasive chamber and electro-acoustic ambiences. At the half time it sounds really austere and rigorous, the first and third track do reflect more delightful approach. In fact, I can´t give it utterly positive agreement because sometimes it seems obvious that involving in the creative process do offer much more fun than the very output for listeners.

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7.5

[Concert] A Silver Mt Zion Live at La Sala Rossa on 2005-06-16 (Archive.org)

A Silver Mt. Zion (and its various titles), a band from Montrèal, is probably the best known act which is grown out or related somehow to Godspeed You! Black Emperor (formerly as Godspeed You Black Emperor!) and is the most involved band via its members (Efrim Menuck, Thierry Amar, Sophie Trudeau) as well. In fact, the aforementioned musicians have been influential collaborators not only on the post-rock scene but also related to alt-folk and indie circles in the North America during last 10 years at least. However, after GY!BE was going on hiatus, therefore the prime privilege was delegated over to ASMZ. If to compare differences between two bands, in the first place, it is the using of vocals, and the soundscape of ASMZ is inclined more to psych-oriented numbers, and indie music as well. For an argue, it seems a bit slower, having been involved in classical music-based arrangements (eminent cello and violin undercurrents), and via Menuck`s gratingly lamenting and sometimes euphorical vocal manner as well. All of those elements are to be heard in an excellent way on this live session also, recorded at La Sala Rossa in their hometown in 2005. Inbetween the songs you can be a witness for the interactivity between Menuck and audience and jocularities regarding "dudes", iPod and Coldplay, and birdfeeders as well. My cue toward indie music wasn`t arbitrary because of Menuck`s euphorical and lament manner (sometimes simultaneously) and the exploiting of chamber music devices and elements so you are getting to see more the link between ASMZ and Arcade Fire (moreover, they have more common through of recruiting the same musicians, and using the Constellation-related studio Hotel2Tango too).

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Blezna Árbole (Alg-a)

The soundtrack of my day comes from Asturia, Spain. Blezna is an experimental sound project, inspired by asturian forests and those trees. Behind it is Juanjo Palacios who took care of soundscapes recordings, virtual instruments, plugins, sample manipulations, composition, process, photography and graphic design. Indeed, it is not wrong to be named it as a kind of the-one-man-orchestra, because this does not consist only of vivid and intense snapshots among the trees, where you can predominantly hear the cracks of burning wood, and at a time the rustling of rain which will be overtaken by lighter and darker soundscapes which by this side will be developed into funeral neoclassical orchestrations and even martial-alike undertows. Such a kind of adduction of neutral-minded field recordings and epic classical music developments is not common at all. By its approach Palacios´ work does remind a bit of another spanish composer Bosques De Mi Mente. What else could I add that those brisk eight tracks constitute a sequent top-notch in the long array of the 2010 best releases.

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9.5

[Artists] Citizen Flagpole

Citizen Flagpole/Bandcamp
Myspace
Lastfm

Manuel Buerger The Midi Opera (Shalom Salon)

No doubt, Manuel Buerger`s The Midi Opera is a thankworthy output, dedicated to the midi file format, which has been boycotted by the predominant part of computer users. However, played on an inbuilt synthesizer of a computer Buerger does offer 15 short tracks of a very short longitude, going their way through a lot of peculiar sonic details reminiscent of space age pop tunes back to the 60`s and 70`s. Played up in a fine mode you can be caught driving on a route of weird sample flushes, high-pitched chords, roughly sounding caustic swirls, sublime glockenspiel combinations, in a primitivistic way conjured bubblegum funk and trance beats. Moreover, it might even be considered a bit mocking regarding different styles and currents (for instance, some prog-rock-esque eagerness at Tuburalbells). Though built up in a rough way, it does sound lushly because of being squeezed into a polyphonic result, being caught between format and nostalgia. For an argue, compared to his contemporaries his work gets the spot really close to Dave Keifer`s (aka Cagey House) compositions, though, Keifer is used to exploit more haunting samples. In a short, it is a funny and serotonine-pumping work, being a pro-flag for the midi format for sure.

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9.1

[Artists] Low-fi

Low-fi
Myspace

...And The Earth Swarmed With Them The Fading Voice Of The Old Era Speaks To Us, But Where Are The Ears Left To Hear It? (Hawk Moon/Bandcamp)

The long-named bands with even longer album titles are used to be having a reference to... . To what exactly, I mean, actually?

The four-track debut release, not including their demo issue approximately 6 months ago, by the Essex-based band, consisting of Mitchell G. Johns (guitars, bass, keyboard), Ted Parsons (drums), Kat Stanbridge (vocals), Chrysa T (vocals), Jeff Ball (violin). Quartet`s high-chorded guitar pieces, solid channelizing into sublime sonic upturns and crescendos, middle-paced and low-paced tempos, obligatory march rhythms, and in-chamber noir-drifting ambiences; indeed, after broody low-key shuffles around there it is going to have epic turns into instrumental trance-evoking soundscapes. Infinite drifts inbetween silence and noise, (as one of the main concepts of music is used to be), inbetween ascents and slowdowns. In short, the array is not surprising if you are used to get involved in post-rock tradition, though, there are some unexpected moments hitting against your experience and premiss-swamped networks. For instance, using the female vocalis not an usual pattern, moreover, in the ending track The Slow Decay Had Already Begun Kat Stanbridge has embodied into a role of a soprano fury directing the band`s conception across on the other side, being rather placed closer to the likes of symphonic metal acts (for instance, Diablo Swing Orchestra, and Nightwish) than the epicness of instrumental (post-) rock music. By the way, the album is fringed by some peripheric pop luminaries: In addition to Ted Parsons (Jesu, Godflesh, ex-Swans) behind the drums, the album is mixed by Justin Broadrick, and mastered by James Plotkin. In a nutshell, even it might be seemed a bit decayed it is a strong work yet. Take your time out and concern on it.

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8.4

Inverness Somewhere I Can Hear My Heart Beating (Psicotropicodelia/Jamendo)

The southern side of the American continent is and has been full of great artists, and Inverness is undoubtedly one of the best entries I am being honoured to listening to.

Four friends from Sao Paulo are there to push their idiosyncratic conception forward - Lucas de Almeida (voice, guitar, sampler), Marcio Barcha (drums), Mateus Perito (voice, guitar, sampler), and Flávio Fraschetti (bass) are joined together to create the experimental rock band Inverness. The name comes from a dream, a successive theme in the group's work.

However, four organic instruments (voice, guitars, bass, drums) plus samplers do constitute up a very reminiscent instrumental array of My Bloody Valentine, though, their intention is inclined to be going in a bit different directions. Besides lush noise outbursts, strumming beauty of guitars and fabulous cinematic orchestrations you can hear shitloads of different influences via intense sampling synthesis - from hazy sunshine pop and doo wop-infused easy listening and techno vibes to psychedelia and sub-ethnic music numbers (involving in new age-y flute passages and weird vocal manners). If you are not satisfied yet searching for some solid ground, to find out some examples, I maintain you to make some steps toward The Avalanches, and The Guillemots as well. 10 tracks full of fucking greatness indeed, being one of the best killers of the 2010 so far. Obrigado, lads!

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10.0

Caustic Reverie Remainders (Jamendo)

Have you ever listened to a least one of the fiveteen albums by Bryn Schurman (also know as TheForgotten)? I meant just an one time at least? In fact, Remainders is not an album on its own terms though, being compiled of different tracks having had no locus on the previous albums. In fact, Schurman would be called as the king of metallic drone music, whose monotonic soundscapes and minimal sonic conceptions are paradoxically fulfilled with a lot of warmth and powerfully conclusive feelings. It seems like a logical follow-up to the tradition of minimal composers for nowadays. Or you can imagine it as if La Monte Young or Angus Maclise would have sat behind a computer board and building up some new frontiers within borrowed borealic aesthetics of Tim Hecker. Yet might there be any adjectives to describe the whole in a better way? "Caustic reverie", it would be an obvious answer, though. A lot of impacts are associated with it - the nothern lights shimmers, elemental dust-coloured iceness, epic sub-classical approach, creeping microtonal dirges and subtle hiss-inclinedness. No doubt, it could be thought or illustrated out in other ways also, speaking out the very pictures-evoking soundscapes, or even a new kind of metaphysics (no contradictions between the sounds being contrasted up against the history of human thought and word). It also does sound as a pessimistic approach not being ready yet and probably never to believe in the positivism of technical progressions which is felt into a bumpy nightmare being paralyzed by remote breathes and oncoming steps of malignant robots ready to march on to have a part of destroying the human being as a species for tomorrow. The music of this kind with ambient drone feeling bound up with a pessimistic emotive declination I am used to tag it as "dystopbient".

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9.5

Ballpen The dreams trilogy (La bèl)

In recent years, among others, I am used to get deeply involved in music of some Italian labels having stylistically been offering different yet conceptually cutting-edge outputs. More specifically, every release under Barbie Noja, Chew-Z, Kill Mommy, Zymogen, and La bèl is an unexpected one and really worth to give a try. In fact, concerning specifically on in Italy residing projects I have discovered such ones like The Last Meredina, Nicola Ratti, con_cetta, Christian Alati, Barbagallo, The Japanese Gum, Menion, Elisa Luu, Difondo. By the side, speaking about the music from the Apennine Peninsula in a more general way, it would be a kind of crime not to mention the likes of Hox Vox, Ornitology, Les Dix-Huit Secondes, The reason is clear - because all of these aforementioned bands have put on their very own mentality to some Anglo-American influences. However, it seems so that there are two geographical peripheries in Europe which are really rich by their innovative music - Finland (their powerful avant-garde folk experimentations, so-called forest folk) and Italy. In the context, no chance to get over by Kraftwerk - Eleganz und Dekadenz Europa endlos

Actually the array will be completed with adding of Ballpen, the project of Alessandro Coronas, conjuring up really interesting and intimate dream-alike soundscapes. (And other billions of strange and funny combinations of the puzzle-pieces of my life - as he says himself) 11 tracks do search for their place and borders hovering between folk music, cowbell indie, sub-IDM beats, chamber music, dream pop, child music, even the classical approach of minimal, sometimes really minimal sonic palette (which is not suprising because of Coronas` conservatory-related background). Of course, the easiest way to chart the whole it would be tagged as "folktronic music", and indeed, this is correct on its own - at least partly. For example, fabulous tracks Anna Lisa goes to bed, and The magazine dream. On the other hand, all of those slowly progressing chamber music lines built up to half-evolved crescendos, intimate sonic insights and introspections, a lot of key changes, subtle minimal electronic and glitch-y ghosts-infused undercurrents are up for to eliminate stylistic walls around its concept and allowing to bring forth a lot of transcendental feelings for a subject. Listening to this I can remember (or it is remembered by) for some soul mates - Oscar Hallbert (Sweden), and Thuoom (Finland). Altogether, a great composition indeed.

Listen to it here

9.7