Inca Gold - Inca Gold (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.7

/Alternative rock, Psychedelic pop, Soft rock/

Comment: The debut issue by this London-based group is filled in with mainstream appealed pop rock touch and and subtle pop psychedelia. Yet, this is positioned out far enough from chillwave and drone pop notches as was claimed at some music sites so far. First of all, it sounds similar to the likes of Keane, The Doves and early Coldplay. More detailly, moving on space-y mode via vast and almost unbounded synth progressions, it makes out as beautiful pop album really worth be detected for a follow-up.

Ostenvegr's Travel - Crossing the Wild Wild "Oak Wood" (2010)

Jamendo

7.5

/Field recordings, Synth pop, Electronic pop, New Age, Crossover, Mood music/

Comment: This 6-track album is apparently a simulacrum of nature sounds, mixed above the borders of electronic/synth pop, new age-esque plectrums, and Morricone-esque film scores. The last influence is pleasingly brought forth at Moonlight (chapter V) and Outro (chapter VI).

Lowercase Noises - Ambient Songs (2010)

Bandcamp

8.7

/Ambient, Guitar ambient, Ambient rock, Post-rock, Minimal, Post-shoegaze, Epic, Instrumental rock/

Comment: Lowercase Noises is Andrew Othling who has released four albums during last years. Ambient Songs is written and taken onto tape with one shoot during live sessions. Anyway, this is a long-running issue with long-running tracks incessantly carrying on guitar based chords and elaborations, which ideological roots harken back to the mid 90`s, more detailly, to the Slowdive`s last album Pygmalion which did have nothing common with their shoegaze sound yet, and the reflection of still life conjured up by Pan American for instance.

Roberto Daglio - Bigbossa (2010)

Jamendo

8.4

/Nu jazz, Acid jazz, Chillout, Mood music, Fusion, Soul funk, Funk jazz/

Comment: This release of 7 tracks may become a classic one once. Made by a 52 year-old Italian bass player, however, who is intended to get a journey through lots of genres and making masterful dodges from soothing jazz and soul funk to chillout and downbeat, reminiscent of the workouts by Weather Report and 80`s Miles Davis and Morricone-esque blissful milieus (Ray Of Light; New World).

Antonina - Pakike (2010)

Bandcamp

8.6

/Poptronica, Chillwave, Remixes, Deep house, Fusion, Electro-house, Club dance/

Comment: Antonina is one of the flagships of nowadays new wave bands from Estonia with Music For Your Plants, Maria Minerva, and Laulan Sinule among others, loving to exploit and blend the details of poptronica, indie pop, chillwave, and the milieu of 80`s Soviet pop era. Herein are two original tracks, one of them (Pakike) is solidly remixed by three Estonian club dance gearheads, more concretely, veering from electro-house to deep house and fusion-infused shimmerings. A decent single with all the additional stuff indeed.

City Of Trees - Introspection (2010)

Bandcamp

7.9

/Alternative rock, Gothic rock, Math rock, Pomp rock, Progressive rock/

Comment: This is a quartet from Big Apple mixing together potently stomping hard cored alternative rock and some elements of gothic rock, math rock and progressive rock. All in all, it is excellently produced and played up into an obviously pop-influenced, even bombastic whole where Dan Cerney`s vocal reaches up toward its highest chords being quite playful at times. And the coverprint of the issue is a grandeur one.

Thierry Massard - 20:30 (2011)

Bandcamp

9.2

/Ambient drone, Abstract, Drone, Minimalism, Avant-garde, Sound-art, Microtonal/

Comment: Indeed, he did it again... . The French copyleft music legend and previous noisenik/old school industrial madman Thierry Massard who already started off in 1979 is used to experiment with more "soft" conception nowadays. Herein is a just one, long-running track which incorporates the characteristics of minimal ambient, microtonal buzzing and....ehh...abstract drone. Ok, it might even not to be so much detailed one as described, however, it obviously seems to be a matter of interpretation. Yet, the goodness of the album/track is beyond the question of doubt.

Beko_clandestine (2011)

Beko DSL

7.5

/Lo-fi, Primitive music, DIY, Experimental indie, Shoegaze, Witch house, Drag/

Comment: This compilation of 22 tracks contains the glides of shoegaze music/post-punk, heavy, martial music-alike brooding and punching, substantially rough, even primitive lo-fi/DIY-based electronic/synth-based chords and paces. Here are presented such bands like Meddicine, Mater Suspiria Vision, Petra Schelm and others.

Kevin McCraney - Nightwaves & Dreamscapes (2008)

MODICUM OF SILENCE

9.0

/Microtonal, Musique concrete, Ambient, Drone, Ambient drone, Minimalism, Conceptual, Avant-garde, Sound-art, Experimentalism, Acousmatic/

Comment: Kevin McCraney is a a founder part of the label MODICUM OF SILENCE and being a contributor or member on different albums of the label. However, by himself he has recorded 3 albums, the recent one was his start-off. As the title refers to, indeed, it is an obscure topic, generating and operating with deep, minimal and microtonal soundscapes, droning hisses and inclusive field recordings (yeah, the birds are singing on here). An opulently sensible, soothingly dream-alike, all in all, good shaped in any sense.

Umbra Nihil - The Borderland Rituals (2008/2011)

Free Metal Albums
Lastfm
Umbra Nihil

7.6

/Doom metal, Progressive metal, Death metal, Experimental metal/

Comment: Heavy guitar-riffed metal music with mighty down-tempo rhythms and slightly obscure vocal manner. The ending part of a 5-track issue is interesting via elemental, ambient-filled sounds, some riff swayings and changes of rhythms. Such kind of metal moaning comes from Finland, from the sophomore album by Umbra Nihil. In any cases, take your listening time and think about is it somehow close to borders or not?