The Womb – An Introduction to The Womb (2017)

Danielle
Free Music Archive

• Indie pop 
• Singer-songwriter 
• Art pop 
• DIY 
• Alternative pop 
• Funk rock

Comment: Alan Driscoll with her female friends are pushing forward another storytelling of The Womb. He has been active already for a couple of decades with a numerous of albums, compilations, and EPs all having been issued on his own imprint Danielle Records. Business as usual, this set of 15 compositions is discretely voluptuous and obsessive, it is all about huge egos and the so-called sperm wars and instrumentally it is accompanied by chalking guitars, programmed rhythms and electronic odds and ends. It is about the rise of self-awareness and self-indulgence and dominance through sex and relationships. Of course, this (partly) confessional set is incomparably much better than reading the bloody Co...an and more convincing than visiting annoying portals which dissect relationships because the aforementioned institutions in fact say nothing particular about you because they trying to say about everything. In fact, all this relationship stuff constitutes a quite adverse yet partly naturally, partly artificially determined horizon for a single human being. I guess the beasts are naturally more arranged because of following the call of nature and being not decayed and get obsessed otherwise than just dealing with survival (the most important thing is that they are smarter because of knowing of how to do it in the optimal way). And that's the very problem of the mentioned horizon by changing a human being into a foolish monkey. After all, does it really make him or her happier as a bunch of bones, vessels, muscles triggered by some chemical-physical processes? Rather it is called a state of affection. The very touch of this miscellany can only be found out from minutiae like funky rhythms, exhausted appearances in singing manner, exalting propulsions in guitar playing, more profoundly, by exploring gentle feedbacks and chopped chords and extended arrangements over here at times. Furthermore, it is an intelligently dynamic (inter)play between the main course and "exceptions" within it. A spastic and a bit interrupted sax development can be met at Sex Club. Suggestive melody progressions lead the listener at The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves, and at Don't Remind Me.

Tracing Arcs – Waste Not, Want Not – Wasteland Remixes (2016)

23 Seconds

Jamendo

Archive.org

• Electronic music 
• Remixes 
• Alternative dance 
• Breaks 
• Art pop 
• Ambient pop 
• Space pop 
• Chilltronica 
• Easy listening

Comment: Tracing Arcs is a British duo consisting of Fran Kapelle (vocal/lyrics), and Paul H. Addie (synths/guitar/programming) who have been active since the 90s and released music on such imprints as iD.EOLOGY, Mixedmode, Dusted Wax Kingdom, 23 Seconds. It is interesting that their albums would be accompanied by remix outings and their excellent Wasteland (2014, 23 Seconds) is not the exception in the case. Wasteland is a sublime mix of Fran Kapelle's seductive singing and love theme-ridden incantations and differing styles ranging from velvety downtempo, slowly flickering nu jazz and cinematic trip-hop beats to more propulsive big beat and synth-rock impulses. Let's call it a decent example of art pop. However, Waste Not, Want Not provides a difference due to stylistically more stable format. It may musically be less immersive and more volatile thereby there can be drawn parallels upon the like of Saint Etienne, another British charming combo. It is more straightforward due to be more cadence oriented. On the other side, some modes and paces are slowed down and magnified to provide some monumental seconds and profound minutes for a music lover's sake. Sultry rhythms, spaced-out flanges and ennobling progressions as motives are there inseparably around. In a nutshell, the result of nine tracks is thoroughly enchanting.

Meti Edoc – Microb (2018)

Raw Coffin Rec.

• Avant-garde 
• Post-industrial 
• Drone 
• Dark ambient 
• Experimentalism 
• Abstract 
• Ambient drone 
• Microtonal 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Power electronics

Comment: what else could you hear in between the layers of this handful of compositions but at times angry yet always ominous growling of drones and microscopic noises which are all about to depict a microbe – the horrendous microbe. The ghastly growling of serpentine drones is embellished with eerie gongs and metallic clanging, catty squalls and raving howling as if foretelling us something unpleasant which is going to happen in the future. About something invisible yet dangerous with the intention to destroy remarkably much bigger and slightly complicated as similarly as the human race used to stepwise yet permanently destroy a blue oasis called Earth, the gift by Lord for us. However, sometime in the future our descendants will be gifted by something truly unpleasant like it did happen in the middle of the 14th century in Europe. It will be as overwhelming and uncompromising as cancer but in terms of an infectious disease or diseases. It may be happening in a more adverse way as if the very example of contempt – imagine as if the disease was drafted in the human being and the next step by him and her is to have disseminated nothing else but death. Like the effect of King Midas in a different way. Let's call it dead touch. It ultimately may result in something which could be an enormous suicide machine. However, the third album by Meti Edoc on Raw Coffin Rec. is highly vital and uncompromising to convey an apocalyptic vision, a danse macabre. For the sake of our sober mental health to be endured. Thereafter I recommend listen to Pulp`s seedy and voyeuristic classic Different Class.

[Teaser of the day] Hule - En el museo de cera

Trastienda

• Noise pop
• Alternative rock
• Indie rock

Artist: Hule

Release: Qué está pasando

Label: Trastienda

Year: 2006

[Teaser of the day] The Womb - Don`t Remind Me

Danielle

• Indie pop
• Art pop
• Alternative dance
• Singer-songwriter
• Electronic
• Indie dance
• Alternative pop

Artist: The Womb

Release: Bang - An Introduction to The Womb

Label: Danielle/Free Music Archive

Year: 2017

[Teaser of the day] Tracing Arcs - Unravel the Thread (Mr Whippys Small Muff Mix)

Jamendo

• Electronic pop
• Indie pop
• Art pop
• Alternative pop
• Ambient pop
• Remix
• Alternative dance

Artist: Tracing Arcs

Release: Waste not, Want not - Wasteland Remixed 

Label: 23 Seconds/Jamendo/Archive.org

Year: 2016

Dead Month – In The Eyes Of The Beholder (2019)

Raw Coffin Rec.

• Minimalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Microtonal 
• Abstract 
• Drone 
• Ambient 
• Experimentalism 
• Ambient drone 
• Dark ambient

Comment: this issue consists of a couple of temporally uneven compositions being released on Raw Coffin Rec.. The opening track is about a 5 minute and the subsequent of it is about a 21 minute. More profoundly, one can hear muddy, and lifeless waves rolling from one point to... nowhere. Maybe lifeless is a bit wrong adjective because these abstract drones enthral me, it is enchanting and anemic at the same time. It is all about microscopic changes in tonality and pulsations and greyish landscapes to hold up an ennobling background for the whole. These 26 minutes are thoroughly abstract because they cannot be related to any temporal and spatial entities. Ultimately it can be corrected – anemic yet thoroughly alive. May it be about (starving) vampires? Such a sort of restrained format can be very vigorous like trying to expulse a black flame with white flames. Or vice versa. There is inside a ghastly power.

Nodding By The Fire – The Forest Knows (2015)

Bandcamp

• Indie folk 
• Avant-folk 
• Alt-folk 
• New Weird Spain 
• Folk indie 
• Art folk 
• Experimental folk

Comment: some examples of Spanish folk music are quite interesting because of adding something refreshing to the worldwide body of folk music (Ataque Escampe, Bacanal Intruder, XO, árbore & apenino). One of such instances is also Nodding By The Fire who have issued three releases so far. Their music is instrumental and it is a dynamic staples as if moving from one slope down to another or wandering across an immense prairie surrounded by a majestic, a bit mystical forest on one side. As if the forest could know and feel more than it seems to a walker. Such acoustic instruments as acoustic guitars, the percussion, a harmonica, a banjo, a flute, an oboe make up cinematic, spaghetti western-alike drifts over there at times. Especially the harmonica gets justified again as an arousing instrument (as Bob Dylan, and Spiritualized have already proven). A bit extrinsic (in a more experimental sense) elements to the 9-track mix are some gentle drones, found sounds and ambient experiments, however, they resonate well the rest. Similarly to their earlier issues The Forest Knows is issued by the group on Bandcamp.

Vincent DeVine – Wer von fernen Menschen träumt (2012)

Sirona-Records

• Digital hardcore 
• Cybergrind 
• Electronic music 
• Spoken word 
• Cover

Comment: this batch of 13 tracks (clocking in at a 24 minute) can be interpreted differently. Given that the lyrics are in German and the music is highly intense and energetic this can be interpreted as the world view of an average German who is born after the WW II being imbued with shame and angriness and anxiety. However, for German culture and for all of us in general it would turn out as a positive consequence thanks to the appearance of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and krautrock. The first of them showed how the recording and studio technique must be employed for future poppy and artsy juggernauts like The Beatles, Pink Floyd and the latter as a liberatory artsy sonic movement to have influenced post-punk, ambient, electronic music, hip-hop and indie music. For instance, the alien-alike aesthetic of Kraftwerk did provide an outlet for oppressed afro-Americans to take a next step forward. However, it seems to me Vincent DeVine has produced the album with tongue-in-cheek attitude as well because it is exaggerated in lyrics and sound and shouting singing through unexpected yet funny samples. In a word, the intention of an artist can not be underestimated. At times it is deliberately kitschy and campy, but it can be taken seriously only with humour and fun. Otherwise it may be as bad as shit. Moreover, some clichés are fixed to blow them to a ridiculous extent. It may be as punk as your granny behind the bongos. This wild ride is a part of the French imprint Sirona-Records.

[Teaser of the day] Nodding By The Fire - Sea Of Trees

• Art folk
• Folk indie
• Weird folk
• Free folk
• New Weird Spain
• Indie folk

Artist: Nodding By The Fire

Release: The Forest Knows

Label: Self-released/Bandcamp

Year: 2015