Mank - Esoteria (2011)

Mankymusic
Lastfm

8.8

/Ambient, Modern classical, Chillout, Soundscape, Epic, New Age, Downtempo, Dystopbient/

Comment: Mank is a lone wolf from Wales, having been involved in making of music since the 90s. Moreover, he heads up a records, Mankymusic. However, this album includes 10 tracks with the total time of a bit more than one hour. The recent sonic combinations by him can be reified as a series of pictures based on icy yet somewhat warm impressions illustrating the kind of still life coming from the Northern Pole or the Arctic climate horizon (in fact, he used to have real experiences related to this realm). In a more concrete way, his soundscapes base on picturesque progressions backed up with mid-tempo gears (similar . The last track Anhedronia gets involved in running as a more modern classic-based arrangement. In a nutshell, this is a majestic and beautiful issue.

This House is Full of Noise - Mood Disorder (2011)

This House Is Full of Noise
Bandcamp

8.6

/Drag, Witch house, Noirgaze, DIY, Crustgaze, Lobit, Electronic, Synth noir, Lo-fi/

Comment: Wow, it is inspiringly destructive...not on the level of manipulating with the moods of a listener only. Those at times very slowly slugging gurgling segments and at times shoegaze-influenced progressions showing a refreshing counterside to the danceable drag scene. Yet, the common part through (a small amount of) pounding beats is represented either.

Dmyra - Imagine Away (2011)

Clinical Archives

8.8

/Art-folk, Electronic, Dark pop, Singer-songwiter, Experimentalism, Noise pop/

Comment: Undoubtedly Robert Demes II is being one of the most profilic artists on Clinical Archives to date. A musician coming from the USA while now residing in Costa Rica is approved by mixing up folk/indie folk with refined electronics. His recent issue of 15 tracks (plus a bulk of bonus tracks) is an intricate mix of restrainted folk, brooding electronic, noisy developments, soothing near-ambient notches and crafty experimentalism. Even some jazz-based numbers in-between all of that can be detected for. All in all, he seems to be enstranged from his initial indietronic approach.

Motorama - One Moment

Starmetis - Distance (2011)

Starmetis

8.5

/Post-punk, Electro-rock, Shoegaze, Crossover, New Wave, Synth rock, Experimental indie, Dub/

Comment: First time I met this Cēsis-based combo just one week ago at the Schilling festival in Kilingi Nõmme, Estonia where the quartet (consisting of two men and two gals being armed with a guitar, bass, synth, and electr(on)ic drums) were playing a catchy set of post-punk, shoegaze, electro-rock and a little of dub. It sounded like a solid blend of rigid, murky bass lines (Joy Division), warbling joyous synth passages (Zodiac) and bubblegum rhythms, and infiltrated atmosphericness (The Chameleons). By listening to their first proper album, however, I can see myself discovering for more elements on it. On the 9-track set can be detected for more traces of dub (rock), more electronic effects and even some post-rock structures. Altogether, their debut is promising and it is possible to see them very soon at the Positivus festival in Latvia (alongside with Beach House, James, Hurts, Royksöpp, Tunng, Editors, Kreatiivmootor (the members of this totally crazy dada-disco-industrial-punk-etc come from the circuits of the Estonian academical philosophy), Yoav, Mimicry, Ewert & The Dragons and many others).

For Solacing Grief - op. 1 (2011)

No-Source
Lastfm

8.4

/Slowcore, Art-pop, Experimental indie, Instrumental, Minimal, Post-rock/

Comment: In fact, Steven Deacid`s 5-pieced work can be classified as an instance of fingerpicked art-pop or acoustic post-rock or minimal slowcore or even a sort of a result, coming from the academical circuits, respectively. Arguably built only on two guitars (and including the ambience surrounding it) Deacon`s glass bead game needs more than just a pair of listening times from the very starting point to its closure to get up to the very synergy of the issue, i.e get influenced by those arpeggios and richly coloured tone textures.

Mathemagic - II (2011)

Bandcamp
Mediafire
Lastfm

9.4

/Indie pop, Art-pop, Experimental indie, Glo-fi, Dream pop, Post-rock/

Comment: Evan, Karen, and Dylan is a trio from Guelph, Ontario (the hometown for Memoryhouse either) who have been active since the spring of 2010 and having issued two 2 EPs and one split before their first proper long player. However, these new 11 tracks have a persuasive drift alongside an idiosyncratic long line between indie pop and glo-fi music, on the other side, at times it can be considered the acoustic version (with vocals) of such recherche post-rock bands as The Dylan Group or Mice Parade. Savory guitar strums with fine-grained synth chords (without any kind of blissful, chillwave-esque synth progressions) constitute a solid background for all those murmuring vocals by the female and male side co-operatively laced effortlessly with each other subsequently evoking a beatific sense getting above the usual standards in indie music. All in all, I got a sequent favorite band from Guelph (by the way, Mathemagic`s Evan (Euteneier) used to be not the same person with Evan from Memoryhouse).

Clinker - A Poison Tree

Sinead O'Connick Jr. - Live In My Bedroom (2011)

Recycling Records
Lastfm

8.4

/Mash-up, Plunderphonics, Sound collage, Cut and paste, Avant-garde, Non music, Freeformfreakout/

Comment: This is as frenzied and wild as the mash-up/bastard pop/plunderphonics could be ever. There are 8 tracks, every of them can be classified as a single universe on its own (those relatively long running tracks used to contain bulks of incalculable cut-ups and relentless turnarounds and numerous shifts regarding the structure and mood) making up a connection between lettrist/situationist dètournement conceptions, ravecore, DIY culture, breakcore, speedcore, digicore, glitchcore, noise, pitchcore and (of course) samplecore. Indeed, besides being throughout all the course in extremely skidding-skipping position the whole shows up itself like a vast reference or quotation on its own.

Luminous - Or Burn​/​BG (2011)

Bandcamp

9.0

/Avant-garde, Industrial, Krautrock, Experimentalism, Leftfield, Weird pop/

Comment: First of all, it happened in the autumn of 2010 when I reviewed Factory Kids` album Get Gone (Noecho Records). This was a mesmerizing output by the Scottish duo (Christina Marie & Tom Chaplin). However, Luminous is the solo project by Chaplin (who has released music under his own name as well) who continues to exploit similar language as the duo has done. Only 2 tracks are represented here - you can enjoy from within coming flashing krautrock-ish (Faust-like) bleeps inbetween the monotone repetitions all of that wrapped up in the hazy soundscape; the second track is about vaporous noise progressions ornated with elliptical orbits of cadences. Similarly to Factory Kids those tracks are seemingly experimentally lopsided, yet, regarding its (inner) content the issue can be considered an example of (weird) pop music. A convincing result indeed.