iqcm para - Días Sonoros (2011)

Thrmnphone

8.8

/Noise, Harsh noise, Experimentalism, Avant-garde, Ritualistic/

Comment: On the macroscopic level, it is noise music. On the microscopic level, however, it used to be still noise music. Thudding, even threatening bass lines, looping snippets, warped sonic effects (which sometimes will resonate with surrounding street sounds), at times harsh white noise, and the pounding of martial drums all of that wrapped up in intensely fluttering sonic monoliths. All in all, as the whole and as the particles of it, all is impressively composed and channelized, resembling of a kind of the ritual music.

Il Kobra - Sturm Und Drang (2011)

Sostanze

8.4

/Drum and bass, Classical music, Crossover, Experimental electronica/

Comment: Edoardo Taori is a classically trained musician from Italy who had played in metal- and hardcore bands. However, his album from the previous year, All`epeca, was an essential killer, being mixed up through drum and bass/and jungle with the world music, rave, and turntablism - being one of the best albums in 2010. In principle, he continues to have a surf trip on the same wave, being highly filled with energy and impetus, crossing this time drum and bass/jungle mainly with classical music. Although he has lost some rates in synergy and catchiness, it is an intricate issue yet.

Noisesurfer - Ambient Drone Focus EP (2011)

Noisesurfer
Bandcamp

9.2

/Ambient noise, Psyambient, Ritualistic, Downtempo, New Age, Dub-tech, Experimental electronica, Crossover/

Comment: This is a 5-track EP by Noisesurfer (Joachim Rontexlius and Rachel Moraledius), a Spanish-based duo who has been very profilic during the last years. All the sound represented on it is vastly convincing indeed. More detailly, it is noisy and used to exploit the templates for getting highly infiltrated and mixed-up soundscapes. Indeed, it is far from being just an instance of orthodox-like noise exploration. It has managed to incorporate a loads of stylistic elements inside it from right and left - powerfully thudding ritualistic techno beats, psyambient-soaked and downtempo-esque environments, dub echo experiments. From there can be found out some minutiae harking back to the soothing feeling of New Age-y explorations, however, letting no paralyzing impressions of the whole as a bleak, digital-dominated sonic pile. All is refreshing and suggestive.

Pasqualino Ubaldini - Viaggio Primo

Words After - The Armada of Lights (2010)

Bandcamp

8.3

/Alternative pop/rock, Soft rock/

Comment: This quartet comes from Dundee, Michigan, USA offering an album with 6 tracks which habits are domesticated on a scale relied on alternative pop and soft rock, respectively. On its dominating scale, those melancholically whining vocal lines are supplemented by moderately tumbling guitar gears and consistent running.

Sacred Animals - Welcome Home EP (2010)

Bandcamp
Delphi
Lastfm

9.0

/Folktronica, Baroque folk, Alt-folk, Epic, Chamber folk, Indie folk, Singer-songwriter, Experimental indie, Post-folk/

Comment: We like Radiohead, Britpop, and modern Welsh/Celtic indie folk either, isn´t? Sacred Animals is a singer-songwriter, who comes from Ireland, who sounds like an example of Britpop made out in a mold of the folk music which is at times embellished with epic baroque-like characteristics, at times with subtle electronics/glockenspiel clicking sound. Indeed, you can figure out some similarities with Radiohead, Gorky`s Zygotic Mynci, Super Furry Animals. Yet, it intends to go away from the harrowing urban environment, instead having left off into bucolic introspections of the countryside.

Hlo - Dont Pray For Me (2011)

Sirona-Records
Archive.org

7.5

/Glitch, Glitch-hop, Sampledelica, Bitpop, Noise, Experimentalism, Chiptune, Lobit, Primitivistic music, DIY, Electro-acoustics, Rhythmic noise/

Comment: 7 tracks within16 minutes only. It is essentially as primitivistic music as a sort of anti-pop used to be (I do not think of it in a bad sense, though). However, 8 bit/tracker sound is crossed with low-bit noise which at times gets evolved into rhythmic one or even having acquired the clothes of a kind of club dance sound, on the other side can be perceived for chopped-up vowel experiments and the littered ambience around it.

Narcoleptica - Never Happy

Josh Woodward - Not Quite Connected (2007)

Jamendo
Lastfm

8.6

/Singer-songwriter, Pop, Alt-folk, Country, Pomp pop/

Comment: Josh Woodward has been one of the most loved artists in netaudio so far. This album of 11 tracks is a sincere set of loveable listening, based on guitar- and banjo-based singer-songwriter-ism. Mostly introspective or even melancholic (love-soaked notches), those songs will be at times embellished with orchestrated and brass-filled progressions, country-tinged aesthetics. Being characterized mostly via light-structured notches running on restraint fingerpicked strings, at times Woodward`s music intended to evolve into the kinds of bombastic structures.

Damo Suzuki & Magical Unicellular Music: WHNZ:17:SUM (2011)

Free Music Archive

9.0

/Improvised music, Jam session, Avant-rock, Krautrock, Experimental rock, Live session, Psychedelic, Psych-rock/

Comment: CAN`s Tago Mago (1971) has been one of the strangest albums I have ever heard, an album which extended the borders of my consciousness. Moreover, it was the first album of CAN where was made appearance by Kenji "Damo" Suzuki who used to sing in a hell-ish mix of psychedelia, articulated/unarticulated incantations, fixing up recognized and fictive, self-contrived languages. Approximately 10 years after his leaving from the Cologne-based quartet he started off his solo project as Damo Suzuki`s Network, rambling around the world and perfoming with a wide array of local artists (so-called Sound Carriers). However, this time the Japanese legend is assisted by the magnificient Russian/Belorussian combo Magical Unicellular Music (for instance, listen to their albums at the Clinical Archives). Their set lasts up to a bit more than one hour, all the sound is wrapped up in a highly mantric section of the trialogue of bass-drums-guitar. Actually it is penetrated with psychedelic synths at times. A charming improvised psych-jam session indeed. This man can previously punch and groove.

Björn Ganzer - Love is the Rebel (2011)

Bakery Allstars inc
Lastfm

9.1

/Art-pop, Experimental indie, Electro-pop, Crossover, Electronic pop, Power pop, Synth pop, Experimental rock, New Wave, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: Obviously one of the most unique issues of 2011 so far. Stylistically, it is neither pure representation of synthetic pop and art-pop nor clear-cut occurrence of psychedelic pop and indie rock, yet on the other side having lots of juncture points regarding the sound of the Doors and early shoegaze-influenced Stereolab and such off-kilter solo musicians as David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Thomas Dolby. Indeed, he is harnessing the potence of lustrous synthesizers with subtle singer-songwriter-ism, drifting between solemn and worldly, between a kind of glossy insight and abrasive patterns and powerful explorations. Indeed, it is a mesmerizing path to go alongside. Love is the Rebel is released on Bakery Allstars inc, an intriguing Swedish label.

Suhov - Naha

Alexandre Bilodeau - Veins-tu (2006)

Epsilonlab

9.3

/Deep house, Dub house, Tech-house, Club dance, Electro/

Comment: This release is a truly classic one even if it is not unsung to it yet. Coming out from Montrèal, Quebec, Canada, it shows up the chunky beats and drilling-ness of electro, bubblegum-ism, hypnotic repetition-relied house rhythm patterns - veering from dubbed house to deep house, and over to tech-house. The value of the issue is universal, i.e being hidden in its ambivalence - it is thought for the stages of the music clubs and for listening in the cozy ambience in the late night hour somewhere. In any cases, it coils your very mood up.

Thomas Truax - Lost On The Moon In June (2011)

Bandcamp

9.0

/Synth pop, Experimental indie, Baroque pop, Chamber pop, Electronic pop, Alternative, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: This is another notch of the annual array of 2011 by this US-based singer-songwriter who used to be armed with a loads of weird custom-mastered instruments. In comparison with his previous single Free As Fireflies In May, this time guitars (or at least similarly chiming instruments) are replaced with the electronic approach. More concretely, it is a very nice song orchestrated and embellished with breaking sounds and crooning vocal lines.

Keroøàcidu Suäväk - Keroøàcidu Suäväk (2010)

Bandcamp

7.6

/New Weird Brazil, Free folk, Improvised music, Weird folk, Freeformfreakout, Experimental folk, Primitive music/

Comment: Those five long-running improvisations come from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Primitivistically freaked out, at times giddy, at times high-tempered folk-based experiments do chart the extremities of pop music, reminiscent of such artists as Hipsu Jänis, Vierivä Viiksiportieeri, and Xarhope. "Lyrics" consists of unusual symbols, some of them having nothing to do with the phonetic syllabies.

Dirtblonde - The Hangmen

Northcape - Alluvial EP (2011)

Elpa
Lastfm

9.2

/IDM, Electronic pop, Ambient, Experimental indie, Shoegazetronica, Soundscape, Crossover, Dream pop/

Comment: Arghh, it is simply filled in with beauty. Indeed, it is highly intricate by its concept and ouput. It starts out as a buffer zone between soothing electronic pop and IDM-esque shadows, which soon will be evolving into another zone, getting running on dream-alike soundscapes and electronic-drenched shoegaze music similar to Bing Satellites, Northern Picture Library or M83 having its run on restraint mode. The EP consisting of 4 tracks and issued on the Latvian label Elpa can be considered a classical one. First of all, it is recommended for all those old indie guys and gals having acquired their favorite music experiences during the 80s and 90s, and for those people as well who just used to love beautiful music on its own.

Dublin Duck Dispensary - Be Happy

kirameki - exercises in style (2009)

Rack & Ruin

8.6

/Sampledelica, Sound collage, Experimentalism, Samplecore, Weird pop, Avant-garde/

Comment: Rack And Ruin was a shrewd label enriching the DIY-based musical scene from 2008 to 2010. By headed up by Dean Birkett, the label issued the kinds of idiosyncratic sound veering from anti-folk and the New Weird America to lo-fi indie and sampledelica, from primitive electronica and sound-art conceptions to dizzy conceptions of psych-rock and of-kilter psychedelia and much more else. Dylan Ettinger, starstarstar, Hungry Owl, Dublin Duck Dispensary, Testicular Manslaughter and many others were parts of the R & R`s roster. However, this album is a confronting act between the domestic Japanese artist _ and The British artist *. As the album title suggests, this case is compiled of sampling parts just following to each other. The most important characteristic is that between a loads of aspects can be perceived for refreshing synergy played astutely out, obviously thanks to different kind of elements snatched from metal music, chamber music, film scores, urban futurism. Heavily pounding rhythmic vistas are variegated with more subtle downbeat paces, industrial and electro-based motorik electronics, ordinary classical music snippets, suggestively vibrating harmonies and all of that mostly wrapped up in the sort of stealthy ambience.

Tracing Arcs - Eye See You (2010)

ID.Eology

9.5

/Trip-hop, Electronic pop, Film noir, Cinematic pop, Nu jazz, Chamber music, Urban music/

Comment: It was not much time ago when this album of 7 tracks was remixed by a bunch of various artists under the title Eye See You Too (issued on the 23 Seconds records). Tracing Arcs is a British duo consisting of Fran Kapelle (vocal/lyrics) and Paul H. Addie (synths/programming) who started out the project in the mid of 90`s. In fact, their musical characteristics revealing itself as coming forth from this time either. Their soundscape used to be profoundly smoky, more detailly Bristolian trip-hop beats-backed, their purple-hued chamber music backdrops are mixed up with Kapelle`s highly sensual, seductive vocal ramblings. At times Addie does add cinematic orchestrations and nu jazz-y parcels and spacious noir minutiae. By listening to the album you will get evidenced that the duo`s ideological elements descend somehow from indie music (having similarities with Pulp, and Ian Brown) and more straightforwardly from 4 Heroes seminal album Two Pages as well. All you can do is just to soak it up. It is really worth to do it. Unfortunately for the band, first of all, this album should have been recorded approximately 15 years ago.

Children of the Drone - St. Mary Arches, 04/05/11 (2011)

Children Of The Drone
Children Of The Drone

9.4

/Psych-folk, Avant-folk, Improvised music, Chamber folk, Ambient, Experimental folk, Downbeat, Drone folk, New Weird England, Dream folk/

Comment: Every new (and voluminous) appearance of this Foggy Albion-based combo (with some core members and loads of occasional members for every session) does have worth enough to pay huge attention to it. However, throughout the appearances on the two last albums/sessions (including the recent one which is recorded in a church) COTD has somewhat completed their obvious raga/ drone folk-based concept with some new sonic additions. For instance, the Exeterians` soundscape is evolved into more synthetic, exploiting more electronic devices (sampling units and low-end synths) for it and on the other side playing up jazz-hued (those saxophone-relied cool passages) and downbeat improvisations. The change is welcomed in any cases, moreover, as the combo have previously managed to maintain their profound approach for the progressions into the kinds of transcendental state of minds.

Ocaixi - Niku

Yellobelly - GM01 (2004)

Giant Manilow
Mediafire
Lastfm

8.6

/Instrumental rock, Post-rock, Experimental rock, Epic, Alternative rock/

Comment: The friend of mine told me once that all he used to need from pop music is just a good rhythm and melody. This 4-track single/EP by a Birmingham quartet (at the moment they are re-formed being known as Echo Lake and residing in London) was the first release of the Giant Manilow imprint and still being my favorite one under it so far. It is instrumental-only post-rock characterized by the epic ridges of guitar and repeated gears of this style, on the other side by the catchy harmonies and impetus of indie rock. Is there represented all of that do you need for yourself from pop music actually?

ただ何となく我々は放置されている - NOISEorDIE (2011)

Toyoneu

9.2

/Punk rock, Hardcore, Noise rock, Crustcore, Art-rock, Psychobilly, Experimental punk/

Comment: This miscellany of 7 tracks plays up a screwing course of essentially frenzied punk rock (coming from Japan, of course). In fact, it can be considered as punk on the macroscopic level, on the other side it forges the elements of psychobilly, noise, crustcore, hardcore and some minutiae of experimental electronica (by mixing it up with the punk-ish main line, however it resembles of the aesthetics of such legends as the Screamers, for instance). A manifesto of pure energy/close to the best punk rock appearances.

Plaens - Cabin (2011)

Bandcamp
Soundcloud

8.8

/Post-psychedelic, Chillwave, Krautrock, Dreamwave, Tape music, Glo-fi, Avant-pop, Post-pop, Dream synth, Experimental pop/

Comment: This publication (rooted in Atlanta, USA) consists of one notch only. On the other side, you have possibility to think out your thoughts profoundly because of the longitude of the track reaching the 40 minutes, though. However, the issue confronts (post-)psychedelic/krautrock-ish repetitiveness and glo-fi/dreamwave-ish/chillwave-ish beatificness. All the whole rings out really organic as if were made out in the midst of nature. However, it is an example of how cutting edge-y yet highly enjoyable (pop) music has surpassed the aesthetical and stylistical borders for its own sake.

The Ghost Dance Project - The Ghost Dance Project (2007/2011)

OM HA SVA HA KSHA MA LA VA RA YAM
Free Music Archive

8.6

/Improvised music, Jam sessions, Experimental folk, Psychedelic, Drone folk, Live session, Avant-folk/

Comment: Such sound used to be called "deep" indeed. The Finnish forest folk/drone ambient stalwart Uton is jamming with a German-based hippie couple and an Australian guitarist in an island of Diu, Gujarat, India. The dropping rhythms of tablas and frame drums, sensible guitar fingerpickings and shamanic vowel experiments (just throat vocalisation) are the basic instruments for conjuring up a magical soundscape consisting of silentfully fluttering drone-ish key changes searching relentlessly for an optimal state of mind. During those 34 minutes, however, it has been found many of times either.

Arnoldrecords - Echo Mike crashed and died burnt in horrible sufferings (2011)

Jamendo

8.0

/Chillout, Modern classical, Crossover, Soundtrack, Easy listening, Electronic pop/

Comment: Arnoldrecords is not a record company but an artist from France, offering laid-back electronica mixed up with angular piano chords, guitar snippets, and programmed beats on this issue. At times it gets evolved into the soundtrack-esque milieu, at times incorporating some elements from the spaghetti westerns and offering noir-drenched overthrows. This is an album which builds up the kind of safe continuation on sound and style, having succeeded to avoid any interruption throughout it.

Thousand Needles – Thousand Needles (2011)

Lepork

8.1

/Happy punk, Melodic punk, Easycore, Pop punk/

Comment: Four melodic punksters from Jakarta, Indonesia playing up the dynamical chords of guitar-based music sung in English and Indonesian (adding lots of excitement and exoticness to the whole). Though the 7-track release seems artistically to be unpretentious, the most important aspect is that their sound is organized in a high-energized, catchy way. The last track on it offers a surprising glimpse through the recruitment of march rhythms. Compare this band`s oeuvre to Shortcut To Last`s one, a Canadian band recently reviewed on this blog either.

Subterrestrial - The Goddess of Atvatabar (2011)

Subterrestrial
Lastfm

8.6

/Avant-industrial, Experimentalism, Ritualistic industrial, Sound-art, Minimalism, Experimental electronica, Avant-garde, Acousmatics, Electro-acoustic/

Comment: Call it either ritualistic drum music, grey-ish electro-acoustic/acousmatic workout, sonically diminished sound-art attempt, or creeping industrial elaboration respectively. More concretely, there can be detected for elliptically looping samples accomplished with the profound pulsating progressions of algorithms, abstract-stretched weird soundscapes, and heavily pounding drums in the backdrop of moaning shamanistic vowel experiments. Indeed, the album showcases different faces on its own. The set of 7 tracks comes nearby San Francisco, USA being primarily inspired by a novel by William R. Bradshaw.

Sobria Ebrietas - The Secret Chord (2009)

Abyssa
Abyssa
Myspace

8.8

/Dark ambient, Martial music, Ambient noise, Experimentalism, Soundscape, Dystopbient, Avant-garde, Minimalism/

Comment: Sobria Ebrietas was born around 1995-96 in France as a side-project to such band as Absolutely Curtains. Since then SE has been a profilic plodder, developing his vista about murky and noiseful soundscapes. Here is one album being released under the cult label Abyssa (now being defunct one already). Indeed, The Secret Chord used to "talk" about an almostly omnipotent merge of lush noise, epic dark ambient/dystopbient, "shouting" lopsided soundscapes, exorcized minimal and microtonal music, threatening echoes of martial fields, and reverberating spoken word ghosts. A profound set indeed.

Fake Plastic Heads - keeping an eye on the ones who deserve it (2011)

Clinical Archives
Fake Plastic Heads

9.3

/Avant-industrial, Experimentalism, Avant-garde, Power electronica, Psych-acoustics, Spoken word, Noise, Non-music, Avant-electronica/

Comment: 37-years-old Charles S. Kozmanovic aka the c aka lee01 can be considered a singer-songwriter, yet he is a very peculiar kind of singer-songwriter from Germany. Those 15 notches which are dominantly wraith-embraced ones showing up the darkest corners of the consciousness of a human being. All is wrapped up in a high-resoluting yet "soothing" forge of noise and industrial sound, it is like Freddy Krueger who used to told his "subtle" lullabies to the rest of the world. By a more historical side, falling into an array of the predecessors, it can be compared to Coil and the madness of Einstürzende Neubauten drifting between the destructivism and constructivism. Yet, keeping an eye on the ones who deserve it is an original one demonstrating a potent merge of spoken word and sonic palette - it is the kind of grower. For all the noise music lovers, power electronica and avant-industrial adorers, however, this issue is an obligatory one. And search for the man`s previous albums drone_iv, and ldf1st (at Jamendo) either.

OS TRASNOS DE MOSCOSO - Casa da Joaquina (2011)

Aregueifa

8.0

/Trip-hop, Hip-hop, Experimental electronica, Rap,Urban music/

Comment: This set of 2 short-running tracks starts out from the jungle of an electronic mess, evolving further into the trip-hop-relied rhythm structure. The second track is an example of whimsical hip-hop with a vast amount of energy rapped in Galegian/Spanish language.

Noosfera - IX (2011)

Jamendo
Noosfera

7.8

/Blues rock, Hard rock, Improvised music, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: Noosfera is Gildardo Ràbago, a musician from Mexico, who has issued a solid load of releases at Jamendo. However, his methodology seems to have respect toward old and new - toward the vintage era blues music-based roughness/dryness and linearity/monophonic-ness which is saturated with hard rock riff-drenched jammingness and embellished with psychedelic keyboard interludes and at times even groove-appealed rhythms.

Fixture Records Compilation No.2 (2011)

Fixture Records

8.8

/Experimental indie, Alternative, DIY, Psychedelic, Space pop, Post-pop, Avant-pop, Dreamwave, Nugaze/

Comment: Similarly to the compilations of Hobo Cult, Eardrum Pop, Beko DSL, Holiday Records and many other similar kind of labels, this miscellany of 21 tracks on Fixture Records reflects upon the situation of nowadays innovative indie music. It is mostly made in the vein of DIY aesthetics, dreamwave, nugaze, and psychedelia. Here are represented Dirty Beaches, Lantern, Sequin Kit, Jef Barbara, Cresting, Chevalier Avant Garde, Mavo, Silver Dapple, Brave Radar, Freelove Fenner, Sheer Agony, Omma Cobba, and Telephone Callers. My favorite track is Sheer Agony`s Caitlin And Peter And George Harrison, a kind of doo wop-drenched easy listening.

Clinker - So We Say

Cygnet Wings - Cygnet Wings EP (2011)

Bandcamp

8.9

/Baroque pop, Chamber music, Avant-folk, Dream folk, Vaudeville folk, Singer-songwriter, Alt-folk, Americana/

Comment: Dan Hall`s sonic templates are as blissful as the same used to be essentially melancholic at times. I just mean full of beauty with some infiltrated sense of bitterness. Moreover, the steps of progressions on it do hit into your feeling centre, especially if to regard those epic growings getting out of restraint chamber-drenched sequences into a sort of breathtaking Americana pop.

Doctrine - Beko Digital Single # 90 (2011)

Beko DSL
Bandcamp

9.0

/Hypnagogic pop, Post-pop, Glo-fi, Synth pop, Chillwave, Electronic pop, Poptronica/

Comment: Doctrine is a combo from France (Douglas Donovan & Holden Brahms) offering a single consisting of two tracks. The first of them is English-sung, the other is just instrumental. The first rings out like a mesmerizing sign of already starting summer time (using cloudless synths an a drum machine), the other laces some brooding synth chords with the progressions into dream-coated electronica/hypnagogic pop. In any cases, all is pleasant.

Nocturn Deambulation - The Grand Opening (2011)

Wildness

Wildness

8.7

/Black metal, Progressive rock, Death metal, Brutal metal, Epic, Crossover, Art-metal/

Comment: I am listening and listening to... this is a permanently changing mix of progressive rock guitar riffs and electronic keyboards, brutal noodling on guitars, black metal influenced vocal threatening, hammering machine-alike drums do make up lots of impression. The introducing track Waltz of men in white is a dizzy yet epic entrance on the basis of whimsically played synths. Indeed, Frèdèric Modine aka Nocturn Deambulation from France has done it offering to the world a murky yet convincing manifesto of him.

Baristik Mi Gostembil Project - Gostembil Sessions (2011)

Clinical Archives

9.2

/Art-pop, Experimental pop, Crossover, Improvised music, Chamber pop, Avant-garde, Jazz, Oriental, Trip-hop, Toytronica/

Comment: The Uskudar/Istanbul-based trio headed by Baris Demirel does bridge the Western musical experience with the Oriental-relied ones. Indeed, it is a subtle patchwork/crossover publication of a vast range of sounds and appearances - from Gainsbourg-esque sensual pop to the most intimate moments on trumpets regarding the music by Miles Davis. Furthermore, threatening programmed beats accomplished with a suggestive lead motive seems to fluttering toward Bristol and thereafter moving on to create a mix based on the sounding of toys, the chords of melodica and street sounds. The first track Sessiz Cumbus sounds as if a Turkish version of chamber pop music (or an equivalent for Penguin Cafe Orchestra). Indeed, Gostembil Sessions is a wondrous set of 7 tracks.

Henrik José – Photo Album (2011)

Jammerdosa

9.6

/Dream pop, Electronic pop, Art-pop, Ethereal pop, Experimental indie, Alternative/

Comment: Henrik Josè from Sweden started out his musical actions very early, at the age of 15, in the mid of 90`s. As known under the pseudonym Bliss he was then known as part of the 8-bit/bitpop/tracker music/chiptune scene, blending those genres with shimmering soulful tunes. If to juxtapose his then-experience with the nowadays one, however, you can see some huge differences for sure. Though, Josè`s experiences are still bridgeable with each other. If the first track used to go far away, quite close to the glacial yet dream-filled soundscape of Sigur Ròs (on the other side, at times it resembles of the superb album Cafè de Flor by the Estonian group Bizarre), the second track is wrapped up with glossy electronics whose starting part resembles (more or less) paradoxically of Steve Reich`s Drumming. One of the best successes from the recent year.

Kristin Hersh - Speedbath (working) (2009/2011)

CASH Music
Free Music Archive

9.3

/Alternative pop, Indie rock, Singer-songwriter, Chamber rock, Epic, Dream pop, Art-rock, Power rock, Alt-folk/

Comment: Despite the years already passed since the creating act of Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh does lack no power hinting at how to conjure up great rock songs nowadays. As one of the biggest (female) indie stars throughout the 80`s and 90`s, she used to sound previously excellent to date. All those 12 songs represented here are solid ones enough - stylistically veering from folk-ish interpretation to dream pop-like introspections, from subtle infiltrated guitar layers and angry guitar strums to progressive orchestrated guitar pop and powerful but majestic grazing. Thank You, Kristin.

Josh Woodward - Flypaper

LFC & FCao - Mesinha (2011)

pCloud

8.7

/Psychedelia, Avant-rock, Improvised music, Doom rock, Black metal, Experimental rock, Space rock/

Comment: This is an almost omnipotent striving toward different sort of psychedelic heaven - massive abrasive guitars pannels (at times with strong doom-ish angles or mid-points), relaxing reed organ lines, or some solemn seepings on church organ, heavily moaning vocals will be merged into peculiar and dizzy evolvements pretending to be quite genuine on its own. No doubt, the closure track Symphonic Vagina is an instance of the apoteosic revelation of psychedelia.

The Post Riot Era - It`s Already Tomorrow in China

Decktonic - Dance Machine (2011)

Decktonic
Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.8

/Electro pop, House, Electro-house, Club dance, Rave music, Bubblegum techno, Tekno, 8-bit, Bitpop, Chiptune/

Comment: A set of 11 tracks by Christian Montoya, a DJ and electronic musician from the Big
Apple, did start off to sympathize from the very first second, pointing it out through the filter-subordinated neon-lighted house music, serotonine-releasing electro-house sequences which are at times replaced with bubblegum techno/tekno beats, buzzing and drilling electro drones and even the "corroded" break echoes of 8-bit/chiptune/tracker music. Sometimes the frequency of beats will be thickening upon the level of rave-shaped twists. By the way, Dance Machine is a Korg DS10-determined issue (with some exceptions, though). Indeed, it rocks your electro-socks off.

Astrowind - Zhitkur

Kreatiivmootor - Claudia

Crook'd Finger vs. Harlan vs. D.Rhythm:O (2011)

Vuzh Music

8.5/9.6

/Dystopic techno, Neoclassical, Dub, Avant-techno, Industrial techno, Remixes, Experimental techno/

Comment: C. Reider is a unsung hero of darkly brooding electronic music who has been involved in music for about two decades, being very profilic as solo artist (under his own name; Luster; Crook`d Finger), having loads of collaborations and split albums, and having participated in such collective as Drone Forest. He has worked as musical reviewer and headed up a label titled as Vuzh Music. However, the initial release of this remastered version was issued 11 years ago. Someone called as Finger (ha-ha) has re-worked the versions of such artists as Harlan and D. Rhythm:O, respectively. The first side of the album (or the first side of the cassette release initially) is a bit more joyous industrial-based appearance mixing it up with latin breaks and heavily stomping cadences and riffs. The flip side of it, however, it will be revolving around the axis of ominously sounding industrial techno, profound dystopic reverberations and murky dub progressions. For instance, if you are deeply get involved in music of Justin Broadrick`s projects or the similar kind, this album must be heard at least as well.

Nikea Bustla vs Good Natured Threat – Ma Vie Tragique (2011)

Kosmo

9.2

/Soul, House, Club dance/

Comment: The Canadian duo Lara & Mark Hjorthoy`s debut issue Short Stories (2011, Melodica) did generate a lot of vast suggestion via catchy beats searching for balance between club dance and brain-relied satisfaction. In liaison with the German artist Nikea Bustla, they are back now with a single, called as Ma Vie Tragique. By its stylistical characteristics, however, it can be considered a fluttering soul-hued house music output elegantly veiled with purple tones and some acid-fried synth appearances. Indeed, through these aspects and highly sensual female singing and catchy repetitive loops it is the sort of pychedelic music, indeed. All in all, it is a beautiful single for sure.

Shortcut To Last - Two Minutes in Heaven (2011)

SmileCore Nation
Lastfm

7.8

/Happy punk, Pop punk, Pop rock, Pomp rock, Easycore/

Comment: It was in the early or in the mid of 90`s when Green Day was blamed in attemptions of the commercializing of punk music. Of course, the indictment was but ridiculous if to regard the bleak fact that the kick-off point of this style related to the Sex Pistols was just one of the business projects by deceased Malcolm McLaren. So nothing in their face, though. The Canadian quartet Shortcut To Last from Windsor continues to plod in the vein of happy punk/pop punk/easycore, resembling of such bands as Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, Simple Plan and many others. In a more concrete language, those bombastic high-energized guitar riffs, massive singalong choruses, variegated with interesting backing in drumming are the main ingredients of the album. All is properly produced and thereby possibly ready to conquer the higher levels of the Billboard.

Williamson - A-

Vassily K. & Girilal Baars live at GES 21

Ave Eva - Self Titled EP (2011)

Dracula Horse
Soundcloud

9.5

/Dream folk, Repetitronica, Psychedelia, Exprimental folk, Post-psychedelic, Toytronica, Sound art, Microtonal, Freak folk, Abstract electronica, Soundscape, Ambient/

Comment: The result is vastly bigger than the total sum of the issue`s particles would afford to expect it for, though. Indeed, it is essentially sparse by its formative angle - only some tickling drum loops, separated string chords and metallophone-backed minutiae, ghostly spreading miraculous atmospheric texture can be met left and right. The main point is that the soundscape does change its colour/tonality and intention through a relentless array of modified sonic (pitch) effects. As the final effort, it stretches itself out from dream-alike repetitronica and subtle microtonal-relied sound-art to astonishing dream-folk and toytronica notches. The more you listen to it the more you getting fall into the sort of post-psychedelic depth (which is psychedelic on its own, though). The parallels can be drawn upon the workouts by Oskar Hallbert, and Thuoom/Thuuooom, both of them coming from the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Jonas Kocher - solo (2011)

Insubordinations

8.8

/Improvised music, Microtonal, Minimal, Avant-garde, Electro-acoustic, Experimentalism, Live session, Live recording, Conceptual/

Comment: Insubordinations is a label known as a platform for improvised music based mainly on jazz music and electro-acoustic ambiences. Jonas Kocher is an accordionist who had performed this set of 36 minutes at the zoom festival in Bern. Using only his main musical instrument (and objects in addition to it), however, his sound is actually much more than just an instance of the squiffer-based sound as general. By its main characteristics it is rather an electro-acoustic outtake where silence is hybridized or variegated with loader (drone) tones and brooding sometimes even threatening progressions coming from one phase to over another one. Indeed, it is not an accidental arty-farty spasmic set instead offering carefully treated phenomena which makes much impression and sense.

Sight Follows Sound - Supply Lines (2009)

Dog Eared

8.9

/Experimentalism, Trance-music, World music, Noise, Crossover, Space rock, Dark ambient, Synth music, Musique concrète, Electro-acoustic, Avant-garde, Sound-art, Acousmatics/

Comment: Dog-Eared is a solid experimental music label from Mexico which has been on hiatus for the last two years, though. More concretely, it has been an umbrella label for sound-art, dark ambient, art rock, and much more else. The concrete album of 3 long-spanning tracks comes from Birmingham, Alabama, USA which used to be not a easy case to be categorized for, for instance. It veers from sound-art-y minimal yet sheer soundscapes to dark ambient, from live recorded (ethnic) drumming to improvised noise jams, from sampling of found sounds to synth pop-like interventions , from space rock/space noir snippets to a kind of exorcized ambient vision. Indeed, it is a potent ghost from the near-past.

ne:o - direkt (2011)

Aaahh

9.0

/Post-rock, Fusion, Psychedelic, Improvised music, Progressive rock, Kosmische Musik, Art-rock, Live session/

Comment: A gig by this quintet from Dresden was recorded in 2009 in theatre somewhere and thereafter formed into the fourth album. More concretely, it is an artful attempt to cross shitloads of genres - vital post-rock, jazzy electronics, dance-appealed Kosmische Musik, cinematic fusion, prog-rock, purple-hued vibes and effortless dynamic impetus into the awesome whole. The result is masterfully realized and thereby highly recommended. More detailly, it might be described as an instance of ringing out somewhat in-between Tortoise, King Crimson, danceable krautrock and funk-y no wave bands.

Fig Mints (of Your Imagination) - We Love You EP (2010)

CLLCT
The Fig Mints
Quixodelic

8.8

/Singer-songwriter, Anti-folk, DIY, Art-rock, Noise rock, Post-punk, Alternative rock, Experimental indie/

Comment: Here are represented 4 tracks which used to sway between tough and mellow, between dynamics and introspectiveness. It does start out with heavily stomping-abrasive post-punk-ish drums and feedback-based chaos reminiscent of JAMC and Primal Scream and Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Later it gets slowed down thereby getting closer to mellow and catchy indie pop tunes which are embellished with glockenspiel-relied snippets. This issue is an example of how the kind of great music can be created with a sparse array of elements.

Tracing Arcs - Eye See You Too (Remixes & Forbidden Fruit) (2011)

23 Seconds

9.2

/Trip-hop, Electronic pop, Remixes, Nu jazz, Down-tempo, Chillout, Big beat, Drum and bass/

Comment: This is a remix album of the issue Eye See You by the English duo Fran Kapelle & Paul H. Addie released on iD.EOLOGY in 2010. Indeed, you can discover yourself through 9 mostly mesmerizing remixes from here, veering from blissful slow-tempo (at times laid-back) electronica and nu jazz ripples to majestic big beat and other solid breaks-backed developments, from soothing ones to whimsical bounces. Those velvet-like and sometimes even seductive milieus around the rhythm sequences do have the value on its own for sure.

GNs Compilation - Break Asymmetry

pous - case study of a drone (2011)

NoEcho

9.3

/Hip-hop, Leftfield, Avant-garde, Experimentalism, No-hop, Noise-hop/

Comment: Welcome to the future, motherfuckers... . It is a frenzied instance of leftfield/avant-garde hip-hop which is crumpled with noise-filled undercurrents or ripping explosions, off-kilter electronics/cacophonic/near-glitch minimalism, in any cases, with seemingly all of that which seems to be out of the slippery middle points and central focuses. Omnipotently destructive madman alongside with re-constructive impression - this would be a slogan for that issue. Altogether, this is a genuine example of radical hip-hop (if something would sound really radical in this post shit era of the post-modernism).

Sofa Club - Ruby Red (2011)

Bandcamp

9.6

/Synth pop, Alternative pop, New Wave, Electronic pop, Alternative dance/

Comment: A fantastic mix of New Romanticism and New Wave, which more concretely does hint at lacing of catchy synth harmonics with uplifting dance-appealed cadences and all-round colourful luster. Yet, it might hide more than you are able to figure out at the first sight. There can be detected for some similarities with the timeless aestethics of Ariel Pink, for instance. All in all, it is one of the best keyboard-based albums during the last years. Indeed, it pretends to sound like dance music in the discotheque of a flying spaceship in the future sometime. Really retrofuturistic - the future is actually now.

The Sunshine Factory - Sugar (2011)

BFW Recordings

8.7

/Shoegaze, Alternative rock, Noise rock, Fuzz pop, Psychedelia, Dream pop/

Comment: Honestly, after the first listening time this publication of 10 tracks did not satisfy me - it seemed to be way too superficial and easy and at times incomprehensibly strange with those unexpectedly cutted off songs showcasing itself like a sort of demo-like songs. However, I decided to listen to it further and general perspective of the album started to better with each time. Beyond the incorporating of dizzy guitar noise impetuses similar to Isn`t Anything and Loveless respectively, the album starts out to fall into convincing psychedelia via noiseful walls spiced up with a handful of electronic sentiments and danceable rhythms. Indeed, it is a strong output from Alabama, USA.

Sturqen - Episode 07 (2011)

Radius

9.0

/Noise, Minimal, Experimental electronica, Drone noise, Abstract electronica, Microtonal, Avant-garde, Conceptual, Sound-art/

Comment: Cèsar Rodrigues and David Arantes do conjure up machine-determined sonic shamanism where abstract droning/drilling noise meets somewhat monotonically stomping cadences at times. Lots of shards of noise, hisses and shades can be met around there. By a more conceptual aspect, Portugese radio transmissions were exploited as initial source material for the track which was created separately of each other. Those 18 minutes can be compared either to Pan Sonic or Autechre, or both of the legends of electronic music.

Rodzmatos – Untimely Music (2011)

PandaFuzz

7.4

/Improvised music, Jazz, Cool jazz/

Comment: This silentfully rolling set of 5 long-running (or very long-running) tracks resembles of the workouts by Miles Davis from the ending part of 60`s (his collaboration with Gil Evans) except as if the trumpets were replaced with string instruments and cool jams. At times beautiful, at times a little bit boring and predictable, during most of its course it is consistent yet - such kind of salon music.