Sandro Marinoni - Borderline (2009)

Clinical Archives

9.0

/Bebop, Modal jazz, Free jazz, Live session, Hard bop, Improvised music, Cool jazz/

Comment: Borderline is Marinoni`s follow-up to Ten Little Songs under Clinical Archives (his is also known as part of Flames). His tenor saxophone play is clearly dominating - introducing soothing themes and conjuring up suggestive solos, which at times is intervened with bubbling and whistling, twirlingly running electronics by Stefano Roncarolo). These 9 songs represented here veer from bepop and hard bop to free improvisation/free jazz and cool jazz. By any means, these 41 minutes are really worth to give it a try.

Bed. - ame_to_wonder.ep (2011)

Totokoko

9.7

/Folktronica, Ambient, Organic electronica, Avant-folk, Dream folk, Post-pop, Experimental folk, Toytronica/

Comment: Having no distinct preference of this 11-pieced whole`s general impression, however, should it be categorized either "electronica" or "(indie) pop"/"folk music"? This can be dissected as similar as whenever you were lost in thought regarding the sound by the Icelandic elfin combo mùm. Lots of feyness is played up here via naive glockenspiel/clockwork toy-relied snippets, slow melodica-based shifts and excellent chiming guitar approach as well. Moreover, such kind of sound is the brand one for Totokoko label, a Japan-based records. All is very fine on it, from the very start to the closure point, though, my special tracks are fourth (heartbreaking harmonies!) and tenth (otherworldly soothing minimal ambientas if coming from a remote, aluminium-coated wasteland) in the song list, respectively. Thank you, Daisuke.

Romantic States - The Fourth

Pollux - Crucial (2011)

Sirona-Records

8.8

/Drum and bass, Illbient, Conceptual, Dystopbient, Avant-industrial, Big beat, Remixes, Avant-garde/

Comment: This 4-pieced remix album comes from France. Here are remixed Godspeed You! Black Emperor`s The Dead Flag Blues - showcasing it as an instance to be adrift on a vista of industrial-filled dystopic ambient/illbient. Moonengineer`s All In Your Hands starts out with slightly diffusive big beat pounding and solemn church organs running this way off into the next one. Indeed, Boards Of Canada`s Corsair gets a drum and bass (actually dream and bass)-dominated coat wrapped in a little more amplified solemnity. µ-ziq`s Fall Of Antioch continues principially in similar vein, yet getting designed through more tense, rumbling rhythmic sequences.

Aux.Out - Read Quickly (2011)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.3

/Slowcore, Post-rock, Experimental rock, Shoegaze, DIY, Dreamgaze, Indie rock, Experimental indie, Lo-fi, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: There is possibility to consider the music history as an array of imaginable connections made up of contributions from young, talented musicians. Garrett Mombourquette is a 17-years-old sound maker from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada who has recorded a handful of albums during a pair of last years. However, his sound can be considered shoegaze/slowcore/experimental rock-influenced singer-songwriter-ism. Here are 8 tracks which are finely accented through slowly ascending orchestrated ambiences, merely buried vocal lines, strongly emphasized guitar fingerpicks and coiling wondrous harmonic loopholes. In any cases, you can find out a wide spectre of sounds besides (marching rhythms, progressions on noise and electronics). A superb result indeed.

Boca Chica - ePop016 (2011)

Eardrums Pop
Lastfm

9.2

/Alt-folk, Baroque pop, Alt-country, Indie folk, Experimental indie, Folk indie, Chamber pop, Indie pop, Cover/

Comment: This is a stunning, 3-pieced set of folk/US-based roots-inflected (for instance, country and folk music) indie pop by a quintet from Pittsburgh. Simple but recognizable, emotive but considered. Strumming guitar lines do flutter going up as the orchestrated progressions at times. Especially outstanding notch is Afternoon Tea, appeared in a subtle synergy consisting of wringed, guitar-based echo effects and whimsical chamber progressions. The last track is You`re the Blues, a cover version of the song of Nik & the Central Plains.

Call Me On The Allophone - Nite Train (2011)

pan y rosas discos

9.0

/Avant-folk, Experimental folk, Chamber music, Slowcore, New Weird America, Improvised music, Weird folk, Psych-folk, Alternative/

Comment: This is a split album by two crazy gals with guitars from USA. Call Me On The Allophone is a nom de plum of Kendra Calhoun who used to torture and wring her guitar, started out on "broken", angular guitar chords which step by step get evolved into a broader vista accomplished with tense, elemental hiss skrees behind it. Anyway, it creates the sense as if the whole were played up in an angular channel somewhere. The more the Walk On Wine comes to its finishing point the more bewilderness it used to show up. The second track by Teaadora picks up a more singer-songwriter-based approach dripping it with vowels (singing?), having acquired a very low level-based shift surrounded by highly stuttering, elemental noise. The last track is the collaboration of both at a festival taking on queasily improvised schemes where the influence lines between folk and electro-acoustic-ness and improvised music and high-registered singing will be clouded away.

Southern Shores - Bonfire

Southern Shores - Bonfire from jordan beard on Vimeo.

[Compilation] Theory Of Everything (2011)

I Heart Noise
Bandcamp

8.5

/Post-rock, Electronic pop, Electro-indie, Hardcore, Art-pop, Experimental pop/

Comment: This is one of those numerous compilations issued under the I Heart Noise umbrella. However, there are represented 4 tracks by the same copious set of artists. Phone Home`s Meds starts out as a loosely tinkling, reggae-hued beats will evolve into resplendent harmonic patterns. Telethon`s OwNixGolly is the heart-throb of mine on it. Fantastic gear amongst the surrounding nettlesome sonic shit. Indeed, it should be one of the electro-rock templates for all of us. Ted Bundy`s Volkswagen`s (what the heck!) Whorehopper is a heavily moshing, riff-loaded hardcore/metal-reflected rock. Old World Vulture`s Benny is more inflected toward instrumental post-rock where silentfulness is variegated with galvanized post-rock riffs. A good yet uncomprehensive overview of the artists under IHN. Obviously you have already figured out what to do next.

Tabar - Hugs EP (2010)

Tabar
Mediafire
Lastfm

9.1

/Indie pop, Art-rock, Experimental indie, Alternative pop/rock, Math rock/

Comment: Tabar is a quartet from Midlands, UK, offering a handful of songs, more concretely, wherein mouthwatering, artistic indie tendencies are at times adjoined by figurative math rock influences. Indeed, stunning choruses, catchy chord transitions, sublime synth soothing, angular full-clad guitar shapes make up their debut EP highly promising.