Los Pilotos – Under The Breath (2018)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Doom rock 
• Sludge rock 
• Art rock 
• Avant-metal 
• Improvised music 
• Experimental rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Post-metal 
• Angst rock

Comment: Los Pilotos is the solo project of Keith Helt with a swarm of rotating musical collaborators. In fact, Keith Helt has headed a prolific Chicago, the US-based imprint, Pan Y Rosas Discos for years and it is obviously one of the most represented if not the very most represented project in the discography of the record label. Regrettably I have to admit my experience with the oeuvre by Keith Helt is being moderate because I have reviewed just an album (The Process Of Learning, 2016) before the recent one. However, by comparing these issues I have to assume the releases are quite different ones by their accents and formats. The Process Of Learning was more motorik, psychedelic and electronic music soaked and obviously krautrock influenced but on Under The Breath Keith Helt does away with any electronics and synths. On the other side, this 10-notch whole is a fascinating result due to its repetitive chords on rough yet vibrant guitars and basses and a bit interrupted, convulsive singing manner (yeah, his voice does convey strong passion and intense pain) as if a weird bastard between doom, and sludge rock/metal being subjugated to an improvised algorithm. In a sense, the sparse instrumental premises put huge pressure on the artist's technical virtuosity and aesthetical creativity. At times the listener can perceive even cinematic hovers atop the aforementioned guitar and bass built scaffolding as if some kind of salvation for compensating artsy suffering and fear. All in all, the result is impressive due to Keith Helt's ability to balance between expressive playing style, and a creative formative output. This interaction as a result is truly worth on its own.

Alan Morse Davies – The Morse Codex (2018)

 At The Sea

• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimental electronica 
• Crossover 
• Plunderphonics 
• Micronoise 
• Musique concrète 
• Contemporary classical 
• Art music

Comment: I am not going to wish you a happy new year because no one would care of it, and secondly, the life is not going to change better and happier during the next 365 days. Some things may be better, some things will be worse. Most things are averagely mean. The same could be said about the music – in fact, I do not have belief in the mainstream music at all regarding also the music which is wrongly considered as indie music. The only hope by my side is related to music coming out from within the netlabels, Bandcamp, Archive.org, Jamendo, and Free Music Archive. European culture is declining due to being impotent to create something inspiring and refreshing and seminal. As impotent as one European leader used to be in 2018 who was not able to resolve problems within his country and got heavily punched by his own people. And of course, he did not feel any guilt but blamed the so-called populists for organising the riots. Europe's fate can only be saved by abandoning Christianity as a religion of the slaves. The Europeans should go back to their heathenish roots, directly to clear incantation, directly to the nature and God (however, a true Marxist considers himself/herself a god – he/she knows how the things must be set out). Most of good sonic things are related to the US-based underground scene but also Russian independent creators showcase their power with every new year more and more than before. And Asia's experimental scene is about to explode (especially in Indonesia). Today I am going to review an American creator, Alan Morse Davies whose 12-track issue The Morse Codex is an outstanding one by employing different strategies including the plunderphonic strategy by taking something from other musicians and building something new on them or mashing other authors' music or concrete sounds up. At times one can feel as if dialing a short wave radio. Furthermore, some shortwave-based things seem to be even more cryptic and mystical and thereby reminding a bit of The Conet Project's Numbers Stations. One part of this 12-track outing embraces uncanny yet overcoming noise symphonies and shifting sonic phases. In one song – indeed, the song with the lyrics – he takes a shot at artsy composing a la Robert Wyatt. One can discern the issue to be influenced by world music threads although the threads are warped and indirectly represented. In general, these minutes used to incorporate very different aspects and it is mostly because the release is a collection of tracks from the years 2016-2018. All in all, it is truly inspiring and providing a hefty sort of mental restart. It is a work and joy of non-genre as the artist likes to reckon. As most of his albums used to be this recent one is released on At The Sea.

[Teaser of the day] Cory Allen - Vipassana

Test Tube

• Drone
• Minimalism
• Epic
• Avant-garde
• Kosmische Musik
• Microtonal
• Ambient drone
• Experimentalism

Artist: Cory Allen

Release: Satori In Atlantis

Label: Test Tube

Year: 2007

[Teaser of the day] Erkki Hyva - Klassiõhtud

• Spoken word
• DIY
• Avant-garde
• Bedroom music
• New Weird Estonia
• Storytelling
• Lo-fi

Artist: Erkki Hyva

Release: Varjust rambini 

Label: Õunaviks

Year: 2004

Austin Smith/SLP – Dissolution of the Cube (2010)

Spettro

Archive.org

• Experimentalism 
• Rhythmic noise 
• Avant-garde 
• Acousmatic music
• Improvised noise 
• Psycho-acoustic
• Abstract 
• Post-industrial 
• Non-music 
• Power electronics

Comment: this 6-track issue is a split between such artists as SLP, and Austin Smith on the Italian imprint Spettro. One can hear impressive noisy orchestrations full of pulsating nodules and elliptically rounding soundscapes, elemental hurricane-alike outbursts,  signal-alike static tensions and smouldering grayish reverberations within this 40-minute body. All of that is both physically and mentally pushed forward to drill one`s cerebral hemispheres. On the other side, it can be seen from the perspective of a grasshopper who is frightened due to impending death by an oncoming lawnmower. Microscopic and macroscopic levels are set out to reflect upon each other in a destructive way. Every part of the whole reflects mirrors toward the whole, and vice versa. That`s a crazy horse.

[Teaser of the day] Fusz - Wish Wave

• Ambient pop
• Synth-pop
• Indietronica
• Drone pop
• Alternative
• Electronic pop
• Crossover

Artist: Fusz

Release: MNMN NEW YEAR

Label: MNMN

Year: 2018

[Teaser of the day] Brice Catherin - symphonie consternante movement 2

Free Music Archive

• Electro-acoustic
• Avant-garde
• Experimentalism
• Free jazz
• Improvised music
• Crossover

Artist: Brice Catherin

Release: Early Works

Label: Pan Y Rosas Discos

Year: 2014

[Teaser of the day] Tortoise - Salt the Skies

Archive.org

• Jazz rock
• Avant-rock
• Post-rock
• Cinematic
• Art rock
• Live
• Experimental rock

Artist: Tortoise

Release: Live at Littlefield on 2016-03-17

Label: NYCTaper/Live Music Archive

Year: 2016

Soletik – Directional (2017)

Fusion

Archive.org

• Glitch-hop 
• Electronic music 
• Avant-techno 
• Breakbeat 
• Post-industrial 
• Glitchtronica

Comment: this 22-notch mammoth release by Soletik reflects upon some sort of incongruousness within the Directional structure and following and questing subsequent tensions because of it. The breaks are heavily chopped-up, magnified and amplified to take a cacophonous lead over the course of an 86 minute. Stylistically one can hear different club and electronic music elements like techno, house, electro, breakbeat. Frequently the dominant aspect is challenged by fragmented melodies and harmonies as if the irritating counterpoint to it. It is like a symptom describing a deranged human mind, and it is also a prediction what will have happened in societies in 2018. As many signs will have shown people get tired of artificial arrangements of the economics, societal relationships, an imminent, unreasonable burden of migrants. They are searching for a free version of life, seeking for the true version of democracy, for the vox populi. The question is not about either the right wing or left wing, it is all about the survival of (representative) democracy. The mind-provoking issue is a part of the discography of Fusion Netlabel.

[Teaser of the day] Lycia - Silver Sliver

• Indie pop/rock
• Art pop/rock
• Ambient rock
• Ethereal wave
• Epic
• Alternative pop/rock

Artist: Lycia

Release: Estrella

Label: Projekt/Silber/Bandcamp 

Year: 1998/2005