Recent Music Heroes

3/04/2011

Espejos Muertos - Espejos Muertos EP (2010)

/Art-punk, Blues, Art-rock, Power pop, Post-punk, Goth punk, Psychedelic/

Comment: This is a silly goth-punk/rock attack in the best sense of the word. More concretely, this spanish-spoken combo comes from Chile and is influenced by the texts of altered states so finely written by Edgar Allan Poe and is keen for launching of the torrents of blues-inflected power pop with lots of astonishing, near-epic guitar overdrives, drum blasts, and obsessively repeated lyric phrases. Might it be described as Manjana-punk or Mariachi-punk for?

The Late Virginia Summers - TLVS EP (2006)

Redstarcommunity
Lastfm

8.4

/Post-rock, Experimental rock, Cowbell indie, Lo-fi, Epic, Live recording, Ambient rock/

Comment: Indeed, TLVS is a duo from Lynchburg, Virginia, USA playing up an experimental mix of ambient (rock), lo-fi, and indie. The best moment at those 6 tracks is related to that Joe Morgan and Nathan McGlothlin are inclined to exploit un-plugged musical instruments or record their concept in the live recording mode respectively. Thereby their aspiration to avoid hermetical soundscapes so usual to the most of ambient music will be resulted in natural results and strong confidence.

The Shalfonts - Sturt Logic (2009)

Giant Manilow

7.3

/Alternative pop/rock, Lad rock, DIY/

Comment: This was the first record by a sort of all-star band closely related to the Giant Manilow Records, though, most of the songs was written by Ralph Morton and Bryn Bowen. The soundscape of the album is filled in with rough guitar strummings, electrified feedbacks and drum blasts, sounding even a bit amateurish, however, ready to move on to reach new heights in the future ( for instance, at Mjuk Nation).

Rare Plants Garden - Rare Plants Garden (2011)

Archive.org

Bandcamp

9.0

/Psychedelic pop, Poptronica, Leftfield, Crossover, Chilltronica, Folktronica, Soul, Funk/

Comment: No doubt, RPR is a fine zeitgeist combo from Russia incorporating the elements of modern black music (unconventional soul and funk vibes), shiny laidback-psychedelia/poptronica, lazily shuffling free folk, subtle nu jazz-hued ticking, over-your-head-gliding cosmic/ambient/deep dub and even recorded sounds from the nature. If you like the oeuvres by Panda Bear, Washed Out, Stereolab and other such artists you might find out something joyous for you as well. For instance, Zuko People is a killer track.

Cagey House - Calico Pastry Sunshine (2011)

Bypass
Archive.org

9.1

/Psychedelic, Art-pop, Plunderphonics, Film noir, Cut and paste, Avant-garde, Experimental electronica, Space age pop, Hauntology/

Firstly, Dave Keifer aka Cagey House hides behind himself a peculiar phenomenon where the music of him seems to be sounded outside of the recent era, mostly back to the 60`s and 70`s, yet, it is strictly future music on its own. Secondly, as he is used to manipulate with samples and sounds, he is able to evoke lots of good memories and direct it upon the listeners as well. In the recent case, however, psychedelic electronica meets space age pop meets hauntology, all of which is wrapped up in the concept of plunderphonic/sampledelic music as Keifer has practised during more than 10 albums so far. Still, it is greatly funny and even some art-rock-ish tunes can be heardable over a long stretch of time. By the way, the coverprints of Keifer`s albums are still used to be great ones.

NO ZU - New Age EP (2011)

New Weird Australia
Bandcamp

9.2

/New Weird Australia, Avant-rock, No wave, Dance rock, Electro-rock, Psychedelic, Experimental indie, Avant-dance, Modern tribal, Krautrock/

Comment: Oh yeah...New Age EP can be classified as an example of the New Weird Australia, yet, which does mean it has a few to do with folk-based music as it is usually ordinary regarding the New Weird America movement. However, the issue has excellent drifts between Talking Heads-alike funk rock grooves and modern tribal music a la Gang Gang Dance and full-electronic krautrock. Lots of whimsical yet meticulous rhythms and drums, dynamical bass undercurrents and stirring synth overthrows.

3/03/2011

The Munitionettes – Fast Jurassic (2011)

Mine All Mine
Bandcamp

8.7

/Electro-punk, Post-punk, Crossover, Chiptune, 8-bit, Tracker music, Psychedelic, Dance rock/

Comment: I guess it is not an ordinary example of that danceable punk rock with strong post-punk influences will be set out in the combination with chiptune/8-bit/tracker music blasts. In any cases, it sounds more convincing than most of nowadays dance rock groups.

Kirill Platonkin - Repose (2011)

Darkwinter

8.8

/Dark ambient, Illbient, Dystopbient, Musique concrete, Minimal, Drone, Ambient drone/

Comment: Brooding, howling, void, bleak, elemental, permanent growings into somewhere. An intense composition by a Russian dark ambient-nik.

Moon & Sun - The Wild Things (2010)

Beep! Beep! Back Up The Truck
Jamendo
Bandcamp

8.6

/Lo-fi, Slowcore, Dark pop, Indie pop, Singer-songwriter, Psychedelic pop, Experimental/ indie/

The Swedish singer-songwriter Monica Tormell issued an interesting, 6-tracks album recorded on Curacao, in Amsterdam and far out of urban noise in the countryside of Sweden somewhere. She was using instruments like the tambu drum, steeldrums, clavé sticks and the Swedish zither, balancing mainly between slowcore tunes and dark-hued pop.

3/02/2011

Zoom-On-A-Kill - Couleurs Sans Danger (2010)

Bandcamp

6.4

/Lo-fi, DIY, Drag, Haunted house, 8-bit, Cut and paste, Digital hardcore, Samplecore/

Comment: This is a bulimic formation of 8 tracks obviously having no basic stylistic stream for the concept. The issue is mainly constructed as a murky lo-fi/primitive progression without a clear intention, however, having incorporated the minutiae of witch house, 8 bit, harsh digital sound processing, tekno and sound collage.

Dimaension X - Loco-Motives (2003)

Archive.org
Dimaension X

8.2

/Metal, Progressive rock, Fusion, Crossover, Crust-punk/

Behind this project and issue is David Lanciani, a profilic musician from the USA who is used to combine diverse sound elements with each other - for instance, inserting the samples from video games into metal music, lo-fi-esque synth sections are set over billowy gears of progressive rock, and even for contrast moreover, some soft rock minutiae and fondness for flaky progressions are showcased here. Yet, the album is just one station for to be moved further to another station.

Noosfera - Factor

Noosfera

Project Divinity - Hollow City (2009)

Jamendo

8.4

/Chillout, Downtempo, Electronic pop/

Comment: How I was listening to this album? Firstly, because of having only 5 tracks in 17 minutes, I set the mp3 player on repeat mode. At the moment I have no idea how much I have enjoyed it in a row. It seems to sound as if a whole track now. If you are intended to avoid the word "blissful", then subtle, soothing synth sounds will be revolving around your hear. The kind of film music as if made by the Estonian famous film composer Sven Grünberg who has scored for so many sci-fi films among others. By the way, PD is a Finnish project.

Cootie Shot - OO.. (Circle Circle Dot Dot) EP (2009)

CLLCT

9.0

/Alt-folk, DIY, Lo-fi, Americana/

This is a fine ukulele-based strumming pop from Gainesville accomplished by baby glockenspiel touch. Kia and Spence. All the stuff is minimally but in an astonishing way designed into irresistible dynamics where lush, deep-timbred female singing is dominating or at times unisoned with man`s voice. The lyrics goes about love, fairy tales, and bluetooth headsets.

3/01/2011

Pfranco - Lucky Seven EP (2010)

Pfranco
Bandcamp

7.8

/Hip-hop, Rap, Urban sound/

Comment: Not bad, not bad...the album of a Melbourne-based rapper contains an intense rhyme-punching during 7 tracks. There are some good moments, for example at Love, It`s Just You and Sour Grapes where finely exorcised MC-ing gets backed by infiltrated brass and orchestrated sounds. Acctually those tracks are getting grow with each new listening time. Yet some other tracks Someday Maybe; Debt and Education) are used to be a bit too generical having no signs of alarms and surprises and thereby fooding my sometimes suspicious stereotypes regarding all the rap stuff.

2/28/2011

ZMG - The Sect (2011)

Black Square

8.5

/Dark ambient, Illbient, Sound-art, Minimal, Dysopbient, Microtonal, Neoclassical/

Comment: The dark is rising and atmosphere is filled in with black-and-grey dust before the impending apocalypse through the continuing and approaching collapse of a dying star. In principle, in its restrained yet grave havoc it would be a decent candidate as film score for a horror movie.

Richard Rich & Max Tannone - Selene (2011)

Selene
Max Tannone
Lastfm

8.6

/Hip-hop, Alternative hip-hop, Sci-fi, Conceptual/

Comment: The nowadays mash-up king Max Tannone (Jaydiohead, Mos Dub, Dub Kweli, and the re-conceptualizing of Beastie Boys` album Check Your Head) is back with his new release and fresh "victims". Being inspired by the film Moon by Duncan Jones and its original score by Clint Mansell, however, it is a collaboration act with MC Richard Rich, thereby not considered a mash-up enterprise. Indeed, it sounds as an original hip-hop-moulded workout (hip-hop/rap music, however, bases mainly on samples and loans). More detailly, those sampled sci-fi-hued minutiae make up a solid impression on offset face to face with Rich`s convincing manifestation.

Lockerbie – Laut / Snjóljón (2011)

Bad Panda
Lastfm

8.9

/Post-rock, Epic, Soft rock, Chamber pop, Baroque pop, Ambient rock, Alternative pop, Pomp pop, Experimental indie, Ambient rock/

Comment: Following the appreciated traditions of icelandic songwriting and innovative section of the Scandinavian pop manners (Under Byen, Sondre Lerche, Jens Lekman), this 4-track mini album is a successful effort of grandeur pop hooks and epic sensibility, as a final result having found out a balanced stand of pomp postures and whimsical pop moments. No doubt, the shadow of Sigur Ros is used to strongly hover over it. Yet, I feel I am able to love Lockerbie much more.

Mequetrefe - Play off (2010)

Mequetrefe
Mequetrefe/Bandcamp

9.4

/Alternative rock, Shoegaze, Post-rock, Psychedelic, Space rock, Experimental rock/

Comment: I am not used to think that post-rock in traditional manner (instrumental crescendo-biased rock/up`n`down guitar-based moving) could save somebody`s life. However, quite rare some groups are able to offer a high-stake for the certain genre, i.e coming across the borders of expectations. Mequetrefe is such a quintet coming from Spain, coalescing post-rock with psychedelia, towering exultations of shoegaze, and lush electronic undercurrents. Some post-metal elements are visible here, though, being expressed a bit weaker than the abovementioned influence realms. And even John Barry-esque airy and blissful harmonica snippets are on the screen. This is a potent accomplishment which contains lots of gems indeed. Imagine as if My Bloody Valentine (or Mercromina - the another and actually more famous indie band from the Iberian Peninsula) meets God Is An Astronaut.

Alexei Rafiev, Alexei Borisov, Olga Nosova - Demon Onegin (2010)

Clinical Archives
Archive.org

8.6

/Spoken word, Conceptual, Avant-garde, Minimal electronica, Mystical, Microtonal, Avant-electronica, Experimental electronica, Downbeat, Noir, Freeformfreakout, Minimal techno, Dark ambient, Illbient, Electro-acoustic/

Comment: Duo Rafiev-Borisov continues their way offering a blend of spoken word and digitally processed austere sounds. This time the duo is complemented by Olga Nosova who operates with electronics and sonic effects and plays bass and drums. More concretely, the album is revolving around the texts of great Russian poets Pushkin and Lermontov, which is wrapped up by bent human voices, exalted and resigned declamation, dense drill-alike snippets and its hisses, and of course, "faulty", constantly interrupting electronic soundscapes. It is a spasm-filled oeuvre, moving inbetween acoustic shades and electronic luridness. All in all, at times rigid, sometimes playful.

2/27/2011

pous - VPLE (2011)

Noecho

8.7

/Hip-hop, Noise, Crossover, Avant-garde, Psychedelic, Experimental, Avant-hop, Noise-hop/

Comment: This is a crossover issue of psych-out hip-hop, digitally crackling and droning-beaming noise, though, lots of other sounds are adhered with them here as well (cut and paste aesthetics, warped ambient, off-kilter psychedelia). Indeed, all the stuff is built upon rough and bleak sonic skeletons. It is the other sort of hip-hop having no similar intentions with mainstream/gangsta music/rap. It is guite similar to such acts as Dälek, Techno Animal, and Kid 606.

SineRider - Ambivert (2011)

BFW Recordings

8.5

/Ambient, Subtle soundfields, Soundscape, Post-rock, Ambient rock/

Comment: At first, all the kick proceeds off with evolving into soothing and wide-scale yet austere soundscapes, which in the middle of the issue tends to grow upon more post-rock-ish realms, wherein guitar chords are drenched into a dream-filled fog. Yet, the best moment is a track called Dream Sequence which is static and dynamic simultaneously on its own, fluttering in effect-based escapism. The album - which can be called an instance of classical ambient sound - finds its closure in the similar way as it embarked on.

Enko - Dush (2010)

Bypass

8.7

/Experimental techno, Avant-techno, Breakbeat, Abstract techno, Dub-tech, Lo-fi/

Comment: An Ukrainian techno-biased gearhead and rhythmic alchemist goes on his way, in this case exploring the fringes of breakbeat space infected with a strong hit of experimentalism, including lots of pitch effect-aesthetics, elemental layerings, strongly rumbling side channels and cosmic loops. However, it is an example of progressive music of the 21th century. By the way, at times the samples of real bass guitar are exploited for and dub undercurrents and lo-fi-backed pace combinations will be showcased.

2/26/2011

Bendle - Tattered Tongues (2008)

Bandcamp

9.0

/Eccentric pop, Avant-garde, Doo wop, Dark folk, Avant-pop, Non music, Experimentalism, Musique concrete, Weird pop, Darkwave, Noir/

Comment: Bendle's effort is a kind of invisible, wraith-alike monster in nowhere man`s land somewhere filled in with vanguard-ish sonic ruins and having impressive while seamless drifts inbetween experimental pop music and just experimental music (experimentalism). By the way, are you loving the sound of Robert Wyatt for instance? Well, in this case you apparently will love this 15-track issue as well. The year was then 2008 and while listening to some murky moments and watching the symbols (triangles, unusual serif typefaces) at the coverprint, might it be the album was a case about witch house/drag music already?

Birds Build Nests Underground - Cold Dreams (2009)

KLaNGundKRaCH
Mediafire

8.7

/Dystopbient, Illbient, Sound collage, Plunderphonics, Avant-garde, Lobit, Film noir, Repetitronica, Hauntology, Acousmatic, Experimentalism, Musique concrete, Microsound, Sampledelic/

Comment: Eeehh...it is an idiosyncratically off-kilter set of two tracks by its formal stand, the last of them running over 33 minutes. The album is "just" about malignant ambient music, near-experimental jazz snippets and a lush repeating film score sample gear, having lots of phase changes over its course. All the sound of a duo is wrapped up by a mighty, hiss-backed mist.

Rebery - Rebery (2010)

Bandcamp

8.4

/Shoegaze, Goth rock, Darkwave, Crossover, Experimental rock, Alternative, Dream pop, Electronic/

Comment: Imagine a strong bound between shoegaze, post-punk, and darkwave, more concretely, a sheer connection between the likes of Slowdive, Lycia, and the Siouxsie and the Banshees. Yet, it is a brainchild of a duo from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

✝ DE△D VIRGIN ✝ - R△▲ (2010)

Bandcamp
Mediafire

8.8

/Witch house, Haunted house, Drag, Darkwave, Noir, Neoclassical/

BOY MTN - Purgatorio (2011)

Bandcamp

8.8

/Lo-fi, DIY, Avant-garde, Post-psychedelic electronica, Primitronica, Experimental electronica, Improvised music, Dada music, Weird pop, Experimentalism, Tape music/

Fine China Superbone - Make-Machine (2010)

Narrominded

Bandcamp

8.7

/Math rock, Math metal, Fusion, Hardcore, Progressive rock, Experimental rock/

ePop014 – Early To Bed (2011)

Eardrumspop

8.7

/Poptronica, Indie pop, Dream pop, Electronic pop/

2/25/2011

El Almut - Millan y los Monobestias (2011)

El Almut
El Almut

9.3

/Improvised music, Avant-garde, Drone, Experimentalism, Minimal, Experimental electronica, Neokrautrock, Post-psychedelic electronica, Dada music, Freeformfreakout, Psychedelic/

El Almut (la colita del electrón)

Laura Jorgensen - Feathered Arms (2010)

Laura Jorgensen/Bandcamp

8.8

/New Weird America, Free folk, Singer-songwriter, Weird folk, Experimental folk, Musique concrete, Chamber folk, Baroque folk, Vaudeville folk, Avant-folk, Sailor folk, Electro-acoustic/

Jlnetes Fantasmas - Psychobilly Underground (2010)

Lepork Records
Archive.org

8.4

/Psychobilly, Blues, Rockabilly, Rock`n`roll/

Karnivorous Vulgaris - Karnivora Birahi (2011)

StoneAge

Archive.org

6.5

/Lo-fi, DIY, Alt-folk, Singer-songwriter/

Black Math - Black Math (2008)

Pan y Rosas Discos
Free Music Archive
Black Math
Plustapes

9.3

/Post-punk, Gothic rock, Electro-punk, Batcave, Psychedelia, Art-punk, Shoegaze, Surf/

Juanjo Palacios - Borde Litoral (2010)

Green Field Recordings
Juanjo Palacios
Archive.org
Bandcamp

8.8

/Field recording, Musique concrete, Found sound, Electro-acoustic, Microsound, Sound-art, Phonography, Non music/

Mister Vapor - Warped Essence (2010)

Treetrunk

8.6

/Ambient techno, Experimental electronica, Downtempo, Dystopbient/

2/24/2011

Interlard - Tyrol (2010)

9.2

Interlard/Bandcamp
Lastfm

/Brutal metal, Sludge metal, Harsh noise, Noise rock, Rhythmic noise, Motorik, Psych-out, Industrial, Doom metal, Experimental rock/metal, Avant-garde, Non music/