Northcape - Alluvial EP (2011)

Elpa
Lastfm

9.2

/IDM, Electronic pop, Ambient, Experimental indie, Shoegazetronica, Soundscape, Crossover, Dream pop/

Comment: Arghh, it is simply filled in with beauty. Indeed, it is highly intricate by its concept and ouput. It starts out as a buffer zone between soothing electronic pop and IDM-esque shadows, which soon will be evolving into another zone, getting running on dream-alike soundscapes and electronic-drenched shoegaze music similar to Bing Satellites, Northern Picture Library or M83 having its run on restraint mode. The EP consisting of 4 tracks and issued on the Latvian label Elpa can be considered a classical one. First of all, it is recommended for all those old indie guys and gals having acquired their favorite music experiences during the 80s and 90s, and for those people as well who just used to love beautiful music on its own.

Dublin Duck Dispensary - Be Happy

kirameki - exercises in style (2009)

Rack & Ruin

8.6

/Sampledelica, Sound collage, Experimentalism, Samplecore, Weird pop, Avant-garde/

Comment: Rack And Ruin was a shrewd label enriching the DIY-based musical scene from 2008 to 2010. By headed up by Dean Birkett, the label issued the kinds of idiosyncratic sound veering from anti-folk and the New Weird America to lo-fi indie and sampledelica, from primitive electronica and sound-art conceptions to dizzy conceptions of psych-rock and of-kilter psychedelia and much more else. Dylan Ettinger, starstarstar, Hungry Owl, Dublin Duck Dispensary, Testicular Manslaughter and many others were parts of the R & R`s roster. However, this album is a confronting act between the domestic Japanese artist _ and The British artist *. As the album title suggests, this case is compiled of sampling parts just following to each other. The most important characteristic is that between a loads of aspects can be perceived for refreshing synergy played astutely out, obviously thanks to different kind of elements snatched from metal music, chamber music, film scores, urban futurism. Heavily pounding rhythmic vistas are variegated with more subtle downbeat paces, industrial and electro-based motorik electronics, ordinary classical music snippets, suggestively vibrating harmonies and all of that mostly wrapped up in the sort of stealthy ambience.

Tracing Arcs - Eye See You (2010)

ID.Eology

9.5

/Trip-hop, Electronic pop, Film noir, Cinematic pop, Nu jazz, Chamber music, Urban music/

Comment: It was not much time ago when this album of 7 tracks was remixed by a bunch of various artists under the title Eye See You Too (issued on the 23 Seconds records). Tracing Arcs is a British duo consisting of Fran Kapelle (vocal/lyrics) and Paul H. Addie (synths/programming) who started out the project in the mid of 90`s. In fact, their musical characteristics revealing itself as coming forth from this time either. Their soundscape used to be profoundly smoky, more detailly Bristolian trip-hop beats-backed, their purple-hued chamber music backdrops are mixed up with Kapelle`s highly sensual, seductive vocal ramblings. At times Addie does add cinematic orchestrations and nu jazz-y parcels and spacious noir minutiae. By listening to the album you will get evidenced that the duo`s ideological elements descend somehow from indie music (having similarities with Pulp, and Ian Brown) and more straightforwardly from 4 Heroes seminal album Two Pages as well. All you can do is just to soak it up. It is really worth to do it. Unfortunately for the band, first of all, this album should have been recorded approximately 15 years ago.

Children of the Drone - St. Mary Arches, 04/05/11 (2011)

Children Of The Drone
Children Of The Drone

9.4

/Psych-folk, Avant-folk, Improvised music, Chamber folk, Ambient, Experimental folk, Downbeat, Drone folk, New Weird England, Dream folk/

Comment: Every new (and voluminous) appearance of this Foggy Albion-based combo (with some core members and loads of occasional members for every session) does have worth enough to pay huge attention to it. However, throughout the appearances on the two last albums/sessions (including the recent one which is recorded in a church) COTD has somewhat completed their obvious raga/ drone folk-based concept with some new sonic additions. For instance, the Exeterians` soundscape is evolved into more synthetic, exploiting more electronic devices (sampling units and low-end synths) for it and on the other side playing up jazz-hued (those saxophone-relied cool passages) and downbeat improvisations. The change is welcomed in any cases, moreover, as the combo have previously managed to maintain their profound approach for the progressions into the kinds of transcendental state of minds.

Ocaixi - Niku

Yellobelly - GM01 (2004)

Giant Manilow
Mediafire
Lastfm

8.6

/Instrumental rock, Post-rock, Experimental rock, Epic, Alternative rock/

Comment: The friend of mine told me once that all he used to need from pop music is just a good rhythm and melody. This 4-track single/EP by a Birmingham quartet (at the moment they are re-formed being known as Echo Lake and residing in London) was the first release of the Giant Manilow imprint and still being my favorite one under it so far. It is instrumental-only post-rock characterized by the epic ridges of guitar and repeated gears of this style, on the other side by the catchy harmonies and impetus of indie rock. Is there represented all of that do you need for yourself from pop music actually?

ただ何となく我々は放置されている - NOISEorDIE (2011)

Toyoneu

9.2

/Punk rock, Hardcore, Noise rock, Crustcore, Art-rock, Psychobilly, Experimental punk/

Comment: This miscellany of 7 tracks plays up a screwing course of essentially frenzied punk rock (coming from Japan, of course). In fact, it can be considered as punk on the macroscopic level, on the other side it forges the elements of psychobilly, noise, crustcore, hardcore and some minutiae of experimental electronica (by mixing it up with the punk-ish main line, however it resembles of the aesthetics of such legends as the Screamers, for instance). A manifesto of pure energy/close to the best punk rock appearances.

Plaens - Cabin (2011)

Bandcamp
Soundcloud

8.8

/Post-psychedelic, Chillwave, Krautrock, Dreamwave, Tape music, Glo-fi, Avant-pop, Post-pop, Dream synth, Experimental pop/

Comment: This publication (rooted in Atlanta, USA) consists of one notch only. On the other side, you have possibility to think out your thoughts profoundly because of the longitude of the track reaching the 40 minutes, though. However, the issue confronts (post-)psychedelic/krautrock-ish repetitiveness and glo-fi/dreamwave-ish/chillwave-ish beatificness. All the whole rings out really organic as if were made out in the midst of nature. However, it is an example of how cutting edge-y yet highly enjoyable (pop) music has surpassed the aesthetical and stylistical borders for its own sake.

The Ghost Dance Project - The Ghost Dance Project (2007/2011)

OM HA SVA HA KSHA MA LA VA RA YAM
Free Music Archive

8.6

/Improvised music, Jam sessions, Experimental folk, Psychedelic, Drone folk, Live session, Avant-folk/

Comment: Such sound used to be called "deep" indeed. The Finnish forest folk/drone ambient stalwart Uton is jamming with a German-based hippie couple and an Australian guitarist in an island of Diu, Gujarat, India. The dropping rhythms of tablas and frame drums, sensible guitar fingerpickings and shamanic vowel experiments (just throat vocalisation) are the basic instruments for conjuring up a magical soundscape consisting of silentfully fluttering drone-ish key changes searching relentlessly for an optimal state of mind. During those 34 minutes, however, it has been found many of times either.