Emerald Park - Slow 2004-2005 (2011)

23 Seconds
Af-music
Jamendo

8.6

/Alt-folk, Indie pop, Britpop, Indie folk, Baroque pop, Folk indie/

Comment: As the album title suggests, indeed the issue is about 4 songs being released 6-7 years ago. The group comes from Malmo, Sweden and showcases some examples of folk-inflected Britpop, Swedish (indie) pop carnival, and baroque pop, in detail, demonstrating its affinity toward mellow chords and pleasant melodies. By the recent point, however, it can be considered classic (indie) pop. Nostalgic and decent.

Ataque Escampe - Violentos anos dez (2011)

Aregueifa

8.5

/Alt-folk, Indie folk, Baroque folk, Folk indie, Indie pop, Psychedelic/

Comment: Aregueifa is a honest label from Galicia, dedicated to the Galician music and musicians who mostly used to sing in their native language (which reportedly is more close to the Portuguese than Spanish language). However, a smorgasboard of genres are presented under the label, from nihilist punk attacks to strongly Celtic folk influenced ethnic music. Ataque Escampe is one of the most profilic collective under Aregueifa, playing up folk music with a tough touch of indie pop. Exalting harmonies, joyous rhythms, more concretely, wherein alt-folk used to get embellished with orchestrated sounds, jangle-y strums, brass sounds and at times psychedelic easiness as well. It can be compared to the other Spanish-based harmony alchemists like Nodding by the Fire, and Wild Honey.

Jose Travieso - Don`t Kill The Vinyl (2011)

Jamendo
Lastfm

9.0

/Downbeat, trip-hop, Hip-hop, Rap, Jazz, Epic, Experimentalism, Electronic pop, Film noir, Cinematic/

Comment: Are you used to enjoy high-tempered Spanish hip-hop/rap? Beside it, however, you can listen to smoky, cinematic trip-hop scratches (oh, Portishead, Portishead!!!), noir-filled downbeat progressions, solid jazz shakes, some cool glockenspiel interludes, reversed sound effects, and decent tributes to the Kraftwerk-ian tradition, however, all of those fundamental stones are finely juxtaposed to each other. Indeed, Travieso`s notch is whimsical and melancholic simultaneously. Deliberately perverted by language.

Book of Burrow - Book of Burrow (2011)

No-Source

Lastfm

8.4

/Folktronica, Experimental folk, Glitch/

Comment: Intriguing 12 minutes of glitch-induced folk music by Michael Carrier and Morgan Quirk. The duo`s debut album showcases lots of metallic-inflected shadows, bleak guitar fingerpickings, from metronomic yet slightly strikeless to suggestive clock-alike beats, all of which is brought forth without singing and words. Awesome listening indeed.

Wonder Wheel - Speakeasy (2011)

Beko DSL

9.8

/Free folk, Shoegaze, Alternative, Glo-fi, Poptronica, Post-psychedelic electronica, Psychedelia, Lo-fi, Avant-pop, Primitronica/

Comment: Wonder Wheel is the brainchild of the californian Paul A Rosales, already being known as a demiurg of a great mix of psychedelia, lo-fi, glo-fi, and shoegaze. In fact, this 9-track album continues to ooze greatness out of every pore, though, this time Rosales` shoegaze element is even a bit more subdued in comparison with his usual practice (and replaced by a kind of trance-induced Animal Collective-esque repetitiveness, for instance). Yet, it does not mean it is not an example of nowadays shoegaze album at all. Exhilarating progressions is filled in with the washes of serotonine. At times it chimes like Ariel Pink meets Slumberland Records sound. By the way, some grooves of deliberately primitive dance music are made out on it as well. If you have been involved in sound of Ariel Pink, Wavves, Coolrunnings, Animal Collective, and Memoryhouse, such sort of quality is thought for you. One of the albums from the path of 2011 so far. Music is not dead yet. Fortunately.

Saur - Saur EP (2011)

Saur

Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.4

/Post-rock, Power rock, Instrumental rock, Experimental rock, Synth rock/

Comment: This is a trio from Lisboa, Portugal, and Saur EP is their debut issue. It is represented through 4 tracks (within 23 minutes), drifting between instrumental-induced post-rock-ish noise and silentful tunes, searching densely for peaks and bottoms during their sonic explorations. However, massive guitar vibrations, guitar fingerpickings, whimsical near-electro synth snippets, all of it is packaged into powerful energy and nice still life-ish contemplation respectively.

Moses Luster - I`m The Lion

Radere - Maple Drip (2010)

Rural Colours

9.7

/Ambient, Organic electronica, Sound-art, Musique concrete, Post-rock, Soundscape, Minimal/

Comment: Philly-based writer and sound artist Carl Ritger`s sophomore album consists only of 1 track (23 minutes long, though) , which is a solid wash of ambient sounds, organic soundscapes, synthetic swirls and exhilarating post-rock-ish vibrations. A kind of post-music indeed, which is filled in with lots of dreams and imaginations. By the way, the release is mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri aka Sight Below.

Joxfield ProjeX - Hypnotic Wash Up (2011)

Clinical Archives

9.2

/Kosmische musik, Krautrock, Psychedelia, Avant-rock, Fusion, Progressive rock, Space rock, Dance rock/

Comment: One of my favs (from Sweden) are back with a brand new release...it reminds me of the first CAN`s issue I have ever heard - CAN (1979), which is used to be ashamedly underrated by the musical press worldwide. More detailly, those subtly flowing, high-ridged guitar riffs are pulled off to the frontline, slightly danceable spaced-out washes ride into a listener`s consciousness, subdued autotuned vocals, altogether making lots of sense through dynamic jamming sessions. Space-funk, kraut-fusion etc... Hipernotik.

fydhws - Fikcii, II (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.4

/Post-rock, Drone, Krautrock, Minimalism, Experimental rock, Avant-garde, Sound-art, Experimentalism, Progressive/

Comment: This is a beautiful and irritating post-rock album simultaneously. Fikcii II does not come over to the high ridges of guitar explosions, preferring to play with other "toys", for instance, with minimalistic, very slowly progressing primal sonic atoms, threatening infiltrating drone overthrows, static krautrock effects, and a kind of sound which comes very close to the sound-art-like approach. Knob-screwers` output indeed. Could this sound be described as the progression of the cancer disease throwing its metastases over to the every angle of a body? Fydhws is an artist from Macedonia, Balkan, whose sound has been very underrated so far. So if you have been interested in such (post-rock) bands as Transient Waves, Grails and Radian, however, this group would be similar to your taste.