Affable Noise & Luka Ueumura - Rehearsal Sounds (2011)

Bandcamp

9.1

/Guitar ambient, Ambient noise, Ambient rock, Experimental rock, Avant-garde/

Comment: monumental and massive guitar ambient/guitar noise/ambient noise outputs from Land of the Rising Sun. Potent guitar carcasses are at times decorated with arpeggio-backed warbles and fingerpicked strings, on the other side undermined with chaotically rolling electronics/and pitch bent effects below it, thus swelling and contracting the 7-track whole incessantly. Indeed, it can be classified as an example of uncompromising ambient exploration.

htrspltn – some mediavirus vol. 1 (2011)

Dystopiaq
Lastfm

9.2

/Sound collage, Experimental, Urban music, Plunderphonics, Sampledelic, Trip-hop, Hip-hop, Cinematic/

Comment: this 10-track decentration is an outstanding amalgamation in the realms of hip-hop and trip-hop music, sound collage and plunderphonics-induced world. Sublime infiltrated layers of cinematic pop, warped downbeat chords, haunting jazz-based detours, stabbing scratches, reversed bits and bites of world fusion, ethereal vowel experiments right and left do constitute your day for sure. All of that is wrapped up in obligatory crackling and hiss mist. It is insolent and alleviating at the same time. It could be described as an instance of demented Portishead, for instance. By the way, the album is created in Ulan-Ude, Eastern Siberia, Russia.

Various Artists - The Garden of Forking Paths (2007)

Hidden Shoal

9.3

/Post-rock, Ambient, Dream pop, Electronic pop, Experimental rock, Indie rock, Ambient rock, Indie pop/

Comment: only the best words can I have to describe the compilation that encompasses the music under the Hidden Shoal Records from the last quarter 2006 and first quarter 2007. The 9-track miscellany meets mostly at the crossroads of sublime post-rock, baggy beat-driven dream pop/electronica, elating indie pop/rock, ethereally washing drone experimentalism, endlessly swelling ambient music and brooding guitar-based experimentations. The Garden Of Forking Paths was the second collection in the array of 5 ones issued to date. Here are represented the tracks by Dilatazione, The Hero Cycle, Sankt Otten, Colour Kane, Moongoat, My Majestic Star, Wes Willenbring, Tangled Star, Slow Dancing Society.

Print(the)Seas - Coast (2009)

Bandcamp

9.2

/Alt-folk, Singer-songwriter, Indie folk, Dream folk, Folk indie/

Comment: intimate folk songs by Grant Monson, released back in 2009. Recorded at home. Simple but impressive 14 tracks are represented here which for much of the time turn out to be shivering and dropped in dreams. For instance, let`s enjoy Still Life In Motion, which figuratively hints at the album`s outreach and intention. Or on the other side, breathtaking post-rock-ish twanging and orchestrated arrangements at Subtitles. The album can be juxtaposed to Wilco`s and Elliott Smith`s ones. A gem indeed.

Smashing Pumpkins - Speed Kills

Cyclic Bits: The Raymond Scott Variations (2010)

Chinstrap
Free Music Archive

9.3

/Experimental electronica, Remixes, Avant-electronica, Exotica pop, Space age pop, Sampledelic/

Comment: a host of nowadays innovative electronic musicians are remixing the tracks of a legendary cutting edge electronic musician (who can be compared with Desmond Leslie, Bebe & Loius Barron, Mort Garson, Bruce Haack, and Delia Derbyshire). Here are represented Satanicpornocultshop, Tracky Birthday, Fireworks Ensemble, Ego Plum, DJPE, Orionza, Vernon Lenoir, Felix Kubin and other ones. All in all, the remixes of the musicians ring out really exotic and intricate, having an irresistible smell of the first decades after World War II. More detailly, all those proto-synths, tape manipulations, pitch bending, rough bits and analogue sound make highly sense.

Zoo - Atrox (2011)

Ducks

9.1

/Industrial techno, Avant-techno, Experimental techno, Lo-fi, Dystopic, Bubblegum/
Comment: Zoo (Marko-Luka Zubčić) is an artist working primarily in sound and theatre. His main interests used to revolve around blue disintegration, vulgar editing and romances outside networks. He tends to call his music "kitchen rave", even though it encompasses a diversity of genres. His composing process mostly consists of recorded sounds and found sounds, as well as dusty digital glitches and dance-rhythm-machines memorabillia, mashed into a bleak glitter of perspiration. He is interested primarily in beat economy, researching new tensions between a kick and a handclap, and tries to make places with his music. His discography consists of Curfew Disco (a sonic movie), Pile (collection of collaborations), Puke, and Atrox (a mothership), as well as work with Zloom, and Szilo. He is musically currently working on his next album, as well as next albums of the mentioned bands, and as a producer of Sara and probably some other new Ducks Records (Rijeka-based label) stars. He lives in Rijeka as a student and a part-time theatre director. Let`s have some words about his 5-track album. It does consist mainly of rough locomotive-like rhythms, which is varied with bubblegum-ish beats and dystopic ambience above it. It is very far away from this hermetically produced bloody mainstream dance sound. More concretely, if you are intended to get just about clear-cut picture in front of your eyes, it can be seen as making adrift between the early Cabaret Voltaire, Locust, and Techno Animal. Great work indeed.

Turn Off Your Television - Turn Off Your Television (2011)

TOYT
Bandcamp

8.8

/Alt-folk, Alt-country, Indie folk, Folk indie/

Comment: a nice set of chiming folk and country songs by a new trio from Malmö, Sweden. The group is already compared to The Avett Brothers, Sparklehorse, Band Of Horses, and Grandaddy. By my side I would add The Wind Whistles, and Jay Bennett as well. More concretely, you can imagine guitar-driven acoustic folk pop which is seamlessly embellished with the whiffs of harmonica and slight psychedelia now and then. However, some tracks are bigger than others (Never Rusting Symphony; The Days We have Today). I am sure TOYT does have big pop potential for the next years.

The Hirundu - Cinnamon Hill (Lost Hirundu vol​.​3) (2011)

The Hirundu
Pitch & Putt

Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.4

/Alternative, Avant-garde, Leftfield, Electronic pop, Psych-pop, Sampledelic, DIY, Weird pop, Avant-pop, Experimentalism, Singer-songwriter, New Weird Europe, Psychedelia, Crossover/

Comment: firstly I discovered The Hirundu (formed in 1987) 3 years ago and still having opinion about John Crewdson-headed combo as one of the craziest combos worldwide. If someone would dare to entitle it as the most frenzied one under the God`s sight I would probably agree with him/her. At least the British one for sure. Crewdson himself as a band leader can be compared to much of Mark E Smith`s doings, though, in a more nihilistic way. In fact, every Hirundu`s issue is an universe on its own, including the elements of indie rock, avant-garde, experimental electronic, dada experiments, industrial, acute psychedelia, radiophonic art, cut and paste/sampledelic aesthetics, club dance, DIY, lo-fi, and countless elements more to exist separately or in interwoven ways. Crewdson made Ariel Pink-like music before Ariel himself had the chance to realize his timeless pop ideas. While it might be that Crewdson did not have any idea about R Stevie Moore`s explorations, he is having some similarities with the US legend sometimes. And you can compare it with Speculativism, another highly eccentric singer-songwriter from the Foggy Albion.
Believe me this 14-track album lives up to your expectations, veering from hazy, gloomy electronic rock to atmospheric incantations to catchy symphonies to catchy guitar twanging to acid-fried drone electro to spaghetti electro blues to mariachi surf rock to unidentified cathartic explorations above your contained imaginations. Indeed, this time the album as a whole is established to follow more melodies and harmonies, though, in the Hirundu`s own idiosyncratic way. All in all, I have got a free-spirited experience again. Vitally certifiable. I am going to search for the Hirundu`s old publications once again. Thank you, Johnny.

222 - Friendly Fire