Gutta Percha - A Crawlspace Companion (2011)

Test Tube
Lastfm

9.6

/Ambient, Avant-garde, Sound art, Hauntology, Organic electronica, Dark ambient, Experimentalism, Noir, Musique concrète, Weird pop/

Comment: A Crawlspace Companion is the sophomore effort by the brothers Hibbett from Illinois, USA The 5-pieced set rings out as if an indicative approach of ambient music on getting aware of itself. However, it subsequently gets conscious of itself. It offers up warm yet haunting arcs of soundscapes being synergized with the samples from the scenes of ancient music and dark-hued orchestrated pieces. In fact, being adequately accented it evokes lots of memories with no certain addresses and hints at, however, reminding of the genuine works by James Kirby aka Caretaker. Just great.

Light In Your Life - Christian

Tunguska Electronic Music Society - Ellipsis: Tunguska​.​Shaman​.​Vimana (2010)

Tunguska Electronic Society
Jamendo
Bandcamp

9.0

/Ethnic, World music, Big beat, Downtempo, New Age, Ritualistic, Chill out, Psyambient, Chilltronica, Psytrance/

Comment: In fact, the album`s content deserves its name. Tunguska Electronic Society is an intricate conglomerate of a wide array of artists mainly from the Russian Federation who have been active in diverse territories of art and culture (by the way, having their own net of bars and coffees). The collective has completed lots of albums/compilations since 2007 and this release of 14 tracks is one of the most convincing by them so far. It veers from psytrance /ambient and ethnic downtempo to fusion-like pop guitar riffs (EXIT project - Opium) to obscure experiments in the realm of littery electronics and shattering big beat (Jung - Sunrise On Pluton) and shamanic incantations alongside with soothing chill-ish paces. However, you can find out much more else from this miscellany, of course.

Panta Rei - Panta Rei (1973/2011)

Free Music Archive

Golden Pavilion

9.2

/Avant-rock, Fusion, Progressive rock, Classic rock, Experimental rock, Psychedelic rock, Blues, Improvised music/

Comment: The eponymous album by a Swedish septet was firstly issued on the Harvest Records in 1973. Obviously influenced by then-progressive and fusion rock by the side of the Canterbury sound, on the other side, the Swedish combo used to rely on strong blues gears either (by this angle of view it can be compared to Grateful Dead, for instance). The last track The turk - as the title hints at - exploits the Orient-based influences. However, all of that is wrapped up in dynamical improvisations and effortless progressions, however, at times reaching out dizzy heights. Moreover, Panta Rei used to grow during its course and with each following listening time. In a word - classic.

The Picturesque Episodes - Cosmogenesis (2011)

Picturesque Episodes
Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.0

/Post-rock, Experimental rock, Experimental electronica, Epic, Ambient, Organic electronica, Avant-rock/

Comment: Darius Gerulis, a 23-year-old musician from Lithuania, is a truesome and yet quite undiscovered genius on the post-rock realm. If to compare his youth and productivity with his aesthetic preferences, indeed, there can be found lots of similarities to Nic Ross aka gotikplage aka Our Subatomic Earth. It seems that the creating of music is his obsession as he has released approximately a dozen of albums during the last years. Abundantly textured soundscapes - potent ambient skies, organic synthetic-ness, near-abstract introspections, epic growings, exploding guitar massives, and solemn synergy oozing from those numerous layers. However, as unusual to the (classical) post-rock sound a listener can not get tired of it. Awesome. The huge question is how does Gerulis ring out at the stages of music festivals?

Pollux - I Love My Nervous Twitch

WINSTONMCNAMARA - Amore E Iodio (2011)

42 Records/24

8.7

/Alternative pop/rock, Dance rock, Electronic, Psychedelic pop, I-pop/

Comment: Inspite of the Irish/Celtic-entitled project name you can figure out only Italian-sung songs from there. If to crack a joke about this 10-pieced album, however, it can be considered like a set of the alternative version of Eros Ramazzotti`s music produced by the members of Sonic Youth. Yet, beside those shrill guitar somersaults the concept is made up with orchestrated snippets, dance-appealed interludes and synthetically embellished undercurrents. Altogether, it is a sophisticated pop album indeed.

Brian Green - Untitled With Kayla Valerie (2010)

Luv Sound
Luv Sound

9.2

/Chamber music, Avant-garde, Dark ambient, Acousmatics, Darkwave, Noir, Crossover/

Comment: Oh, this is simply mesmerizing. Although consisting only of a short-running track, however, it carries out an impressive dash upon the centre of your cognitive mind. The sound is conjured up with a cello and elaborated-amplified via electronic devices. All in all, it rings out like an irresistible alloy of (neo)classicism and hauntingly pounding ambient.

Dntel - Clelia II (2011)

Basic_sounds

9.4

/Indietronica, Experimentalism, Ambient, Conceptual, Crossover, Avant-garde, Organic electronica, Experimental electronica/

Comment: Obviously the name of Jimmy Tamborello needs no longer introduction for our obdurate melomans. He has been one of the main stalwarts regarding the worldwide organic electronica/indietronica scene at least for the last decade. This release consists of a 30-minute track only wherein diverse layers as the summary result have epic shifts against or parallel to each other. You can detect for some long-running synth drones, organic electro-acoustic overthrows, air-filled found sound, vastly suggestive motives and much more. Indeed, he did it again.

▼□■□■□■ ( Mourning Star ) - The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Stray Dogg - Almost (2011)

Bandcamp

8.8

/Singer-songwriter, Alt-folk, Chamber folk, Baroque folk, Epic/

Comment: Yesterday I reviewed Shaita, a darkwave-ish modeled singer-songwriter from Zagreb, Croatia. Here is another set of suggestive songs from Balkan (this time from Belgrade, Serbia). These nine songs are an instance of melancholy-drenched introspection using epic transitions and lush arrange of organic/acoustic sounds. The combo consist of Dukat Stray (guitars, vocal, harp), Jelena Damjanovic (piano), Ana Jankovic (violin, backing vocals), and Marko Ignjatovic (solo guitar). Awesome.

Georg Hekt - Three Around Ten (2010)

Stigae
Lastfm

8.6

/Deep dub, Tech-dub, Club dance, Chill out/

Comment: The album starts out and continues with whimsically skipping chords of elaborated funk (rock) as if coming from some solo albums by Holger Czukay. Later the concept of this Berlin-based yet of Bulgarian heritage musician (born in Stara Zagora) will be entered into shimmering area of deep dub/tech-dub as if thought for the listeners of late hour radio shows. Such laid-back sound yet having no laziness within it - because of being genuinely profound on its progressions.

The New Mystikal Troubadours - The New Mystikal Troubadours (2009)

 Free Music Archive
Mt6

9.3

/Drone folk, Experimental folk, Trance folk, Psychedelic folk, Epic, Avant-folk, New Weird America, Raga folk/

Comment: Those mystical yet psychedelic and raga-tinged guitar strums variegated with some reversed sonic snippets and drone progressions and (semi-)orchestrated beauty by a New Weird American duo from USA, consisting of Dave Gibson (Agrarians) and Matt Perzinski (Bad Liquor Bond). The self-titled, 6-track album was their debut issue. However, lots of mystics, synergy and magical feel can be felt imbuing from every of their sophistically treated chord. Indeed, the duo have succeeded to lace the past tradition of psychedelic folk with the nowadays modern one.

Shaita - Halfasleep (2011)

Seventh Crow
Lastfm

8.7

/Darkwave, Noirwave, Lo-fi, Singer-songwriter, Experimental pop, Dark pop, Neoclassical, Synth noir/

Comment: Halfasleep is the sophomore issue by Shaita, a female singer-songwriter from Zagreb, Croatia. Despite being the singer-songwriter, she used to be very remote from the kind of folk-ish sound. In detail, her bias is turned toward the dark-shaded corners of pop music. During the run of 7 tracks, however, loads of mirrors and reflected pictures of her own will be shattered and the subsequent shards of it will be moulded below the following layers. It is mostly brooding, having even of malicious shift, yet, on the other side Shaita is not a representative of orthodox darkwave sound incorporating the elements of lo-fi sound, thus resembling of the Estonian underground star Maria Minerva, for instance.

Candy Panda – Andro & Gigolo (2009)

Creative Obsession
Lastfm

8.7

/Bubblegum techno, Tekno, Electro pop, Robo pop, Crossover/

Comment: If to summarize this album shortly, it can be considered a bubblegum-ish coverage of a barely distinguishable line between techno and tekno, which at times is hold on the course of elliptical shapes of rhythmic bows and robotic pace patterns. The outstanding tracks are respectively Live in Paris which mixes up 8-bit bleeps with the catchy, electro-fried running, and Clash with an irresistibly pulsating tekno gear. All in all, it is a convincing, 5 -pieced issue indeed.

Stray Dogg - Almost

Barbagallo - Spectacle (2009)

Grateful Dead - Live at Carousel Ballroom on 1968-03-30 (1968)

Archive.org

8.6

/Psychedelic rock, Blues, Southern rock, Soul rock, Live session, Classical rock/

Comment: This 11-track gig was performed just one year before Jerry Garcia & Co`s performing at the famous Woodstock festival in 1969. This is a dense mix of psychedelic rock, southern rock, blues-tinged jams and even got drowned in soul and gospel music at times. For instance, if to juxtapose it to the other important psychedelic rock outfit, the Doors, GD was even more influenced by the US-based roots sound which mainly bases on the black music traditions.

Keshco - Accountants By Day (2010)

23 Seconds
Lastfm

8.4

/Experimental indie, Alt-folk, Weird pop, Art-pop, Folktronica, Psychedelic pop/

Comment: This London-based trio has been active for more than a decade, having released a handful of issues during the period. The concrete album under the 23 Seconds records starts out with somewhat solemn yet very warm vocal timbres and spatial flute-relied appearances. In following tracks the whole will mainly be structured through quirky experimental pop evolvements, however, it is an intricate kind of the singer-songwriterism having no inclination to be revealed it at once. It sounds almost normal/or a little "deviating" from the usual standards of alt-folk/experimental folk. In detail, you can figure out lots of elements the issue is constituted of- haunting soundscapes, toy sounds, skipping guitar strums, tricky synth elaborations, unexpected key and mood changes.

Professor Kliq - Movement EP (2010)

Jamendo
Lastfm

8.8

/Digital funk, Breakcore, Hip-hop, Electro pop, Electronic pop, Electro-tech, Crossover, Hardstep/

Comment: This is a "hard" album in many senses. Indeed, it is not easy to categorize it and get the initial sense from it. This Chicago-based resident used to repeat in the second track All Control (Hard Version) too that they have lost all the control. (Do they have it actually?) No doubt, the album is the sort of grower, revealing its machinery - first of all, regarding those highly energized, cadence-relied skeletons - with each following listening. It seizes the machine-alike structures of brooding hardstep and rusty breakcore music, bug-filled digital funk (Work At Night - an outstanding moment on it), determined hip-hop, and sampledelic progressions.

Virgin of the Birds - Let Me Be Your Bride

Children Of The Sun - Exeter Phoenix (2004)

Archive.org

8.7

/Ethno punk, Art-punk, Psychedelia, Conceptual, Psych-rock, Live recording, Live session, Covers/

Comment: Acoustic Hawkwind covers performed by an one-time project headed by Pok Spacegoat and assisted by some members of Children Of The Drone. Because of using the non-traditional rock instruments (saz, dilruba, balalaika, mandola) they have brought forth a unique kind of sound and attitude, however, by the project`s tone colours reminiscent apparently of the Exeter-based combo`s spacious raga-tuned/drone folk-ish warbles. On the other side, depending strictly on the concept, the format of the album is different, though - it is more sheer, high-tempered, psyched-out and heavily rocking in the psychedelic ethno punk tradition. A thankworthy enterprise indeed.

Daixiaole - Beko_89 (2011)

Beko DSL
Lastfm

8.8

/Indie pop, Dream pop, Bedroom music, Singer-songwriter, DIY, Lo-fi, Shoegaze/

Comment: Daixiaole is a female bedroom pop musician from China offering a three-pieced issue on Beko DSL. Indeed, she has her own idiosyncratic approach of the songwriting exploiting the hazy soundscapes surrounding densely subtle guitar fingerpickings and dream-soaked vocal manner. It reminds a bit of those "opened" shoegaze outputs (Lavished EP; Luxate EP) in the lo-fi method by Vlor recorded in the end of 90`s.

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles – Brick City Ghosts (2011)

Bad Panda

8.9

/Minimal, Chamber rock, Post-rock, Experimental rock, Crossover, Avant-rock, Epic, Modern classical/

Comment: Minimally bleak/ or chamber-drenched/electro-acoustic/treated electronic-relied soundscapes are variegated with (or without) lone piano-driven modern classical tunes which at times are pulled off into potently brooding rock snippets. Indeed, as so plain to the kind of classically channelized post-rock, it shows up its inclination and readiness for getting drift between silentfully and powerfully chiming pieces, having some fluctuant layers into epic progressions. Thereby it makes out as a juncture area compiled of the oeuvres of Godspeed You! Black Emperor (those pitched violins at times!), and Bosques de mi Mente, for instance. The band which comes from New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, has dedicated this album to all of the ghosts they left behind. Beautiful.

Super Galactic Expansive - Broken Clocks

TYY Records - Half improvisation E​.​P (2011)

TYY Records

8.5

/Electronic pop, Glo-fi, Breakbeat, Trance, Emotive electronica, Chillout/

Comment: Three tracks. Three different artists (Karanabe; tractmx; Under construction). A kind of compilation. Just breaks and harmony-filled layers hovering above it, and that is too enough, though. The first two tracks (artists) are quite similar to each other, being the representatives of laid-back electronica with blissful synth(etic) glistening above it. Some differences can be perceived between those tracks, mainly on the basis of the different lengths of rhythm patterns - tractmx`s track is more hipping-skipping-stomping, besides it incorporating the acid-filled motive. Under construction`s notch is a brooding one being visualized through trance-tinged cadences and cutting shards of broken beats all of that covered with lots of synthetic harmony cores as if borrowed from a track of some New Wave band sometime.

alicia or simbra - lindora (2010)

Cocodriller Recordings

9.5

/Folktronica, Post-rock, Laptop folk, Epic, Crossover, Experimental rock, Organic electronica, Dream folk, Ambient/

Comment: This 5-piece album is an example of different ways of how beauty can be embodied through the music. How it could be striking in an elaborated way. Magnificient guitar washes, subtle yet pondering fingerpicking, intensely droning (and penetrating) yet wondrous organic electronica, dream-filled soundscapes are laced with each other to result in a synergic post-rock/ambient/folktronic issue. All you need is that. At least for certain life occurrences, though. It obviously rings out much better than most of the post rock projects you are honoured to know. It is essentially epic and monumental.

Pimpollo Fenicio & Pimpollo Persa - Música para Niños Leones (2011)

Bandcamp

9.3

/Noise, Drone, Sound art, Microtonal, Avant-garde, Experimentalism, Minimalism, Non music/

Comment: "Noise", however, regarding strictly the sound processing is a somehow self-indulgent definition for itself. Indeed, having a hint at the lacking of any kind of borders encircling it, thereby you can see very diverse directions and levels and quality base in this realm so all of that will subsequently be determined on your profound intuition actually (in fact, how to discern it from such styles as sound art, drone, minimal industrial?). Of course, there might be represented some qualities somewhat "intrinsic" to the noise sound, for instance, harsh and very loud sounds, chopped and pitched sonic elements, hooting skeletons and hiss-based undercurrents. All of that is represented on this album of 9 tracks, moreover showing up the inclination toward an arty concept flirting with obscure drone-relied minimalism/microtonalism, and emotive sound art. By the way, this mesmerizing concept comes from Lima, Peru.

The Picturesque Episodes - Tokyo Pulse

Dream Mechanics - Screensaver

Matthieu Choux - Deux Pièces (2011)

Petcord

8.8

/Electro-acoustic, Psycho-acoustic, Acousmatics, Sound art, Experimental electronica, Avant-garde, Minimal, Abstract/

Comment: Although this is an instance of dense electro-acoustic progression, however, it makes some difference from the most kinds of electro-acoustics thanks to its vastly evolved dramaturgical point of view. There are represented 2 long tracks which are intended to hit the listeners through the sudden dashes of tempo changes, unexpected treated vocal cuts and hauntingly dystopic milieus reminding of some kind of horror movies sometime seen. Silence is set against the noisy frames and clear-cut half tones-dark drones inbetween it are those essential algorithms searching for new intentions and purposes to be set up.

Jani Hirvonen: Field Recordings From India & Nepal (2007/2010)

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

7.5

/Field recording, Found sound, Audio documentary, Musique concrete, Non music/

Comment: This is an audio documentary based on one man`s wandering and recording in the Hindustan Peninsula and Nepal. Although not always used to be the best in the quality of sound, however, during those 103 minutes you can be a witness to the street sounds, temple incantations, wedding outtakes and nature sounds (birds and camels) surrounding you tightly right and left. Juxtapose it with an analogous yet more elaborated and purposed output by Oscar Coen Polack, titled as The Skipping Monk (Recordings Of Nature And Culture In India) (2009, Narrominded). Deserving thanks in any cases.

Bombay Laughing Club - The Golden Years (2007)

Peppermill
Lastfm

8.8

/Avant-blues, Improvised music, Avant-garde, Experimental indie, Psychedelic, Crossover, Experimental pop/

Comment: This is a off-kilter blues-based album by a loosely related Canadian treeplanters combo filling their resting time between the job. Most of the songs seem to run in the vein of improvised jams reminding of the Captain Beefheart and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or The Doors`s La Woman at its more ordinary moments. Sometimes the combo`s experiments used to crisscross the borders of the blues music, reaching out the realms of krautrock, raga music, just a case of proper indie rock (You Want It All) and even the cases of humour (for instance, Blue Berry which sounds like a mocking version of the kind of Rednex`s eurobeat disco). Or Slippery Sleep which is an immense run on the Stereolab-alike art pop/experimental indie in the first part.

Winstonmcnamara - As the Majic Brain

John Praw - John Praw (2011)

Archive.org
Mine All Mine
Bandcamp
Lastfm

9.2

/Ambient, Post-rock, Soundscape, Minimal, Modern classical, Experimental electronica, Crosover, Dark ambient/

Comment: This is the debut album by a musician previously known as [praw] and who founded the Mine All Mine Records. However, his concept is revealed through 10 tracks recorded in 2006-2011 in Wisconsin and in Norway. The basis of the album relies on a kind of refined atmosphericness running mainly on the ambient mode, beyond it recruiting the elements from the realm of post-rock and modern classical as well. Praw is skillful enough for playing up the counterparts of diverse sonic elements against each other - all those blissfully light-hearted sounds are filtrated through the dark-hued zones. However, there can admit some exceptions either - for instance, the starting track Vokaler watches for such progressions as similar to Sigur Ròs or På Jakttur is a sort of the Kraftwerkian dream set up on the rule of ambient music. In most cases, Praw`s result can be compared to the ones by Mark Nelson aka Pan American.

Choking on Entrails - Black Mass (2011)

Torn Flesh

8.0

/Grindcore, Black metal, Goregrind, Experimental metal/

Comment: Actually it is quite hard to say something extraordinary while reviewing a sequent goregrind/grindcore album (in true, the recent album is compiled of the details of the both aforementioned genres). It might be just to hint at one issued next in order. Business as usual - very short-running tracks are filled in with this ultra low and indistinguishable moaning and guitar noodling and heavily pondering drums. Black Mass is an one-man result by Andrew Shore At least by listening to it in the early morning it makes much impression. Not thought to be listened by everyone but thrown in the air for the fans of extreme metal for sure.

The Widowers - Central Discount (2010)

Bandcamp

8.7

/Alternative rock, Blues rock, Art-rock/

Comment: This is the sophomore issue by the Widowers, an US-based group. Except the introducing track Roger Explains Death (which rings out as if Richard Hawley`s subtle crooning meets Radiohead`s Creep), the other 6 notches on it are just the instances of dynamical guitar workouts with the strong influences of blues rock, more concretely reflecting through it upon the connections with grunge rock at times. Indeed, lots of catchy hooks with chiming yet dense progressions can be met within it. However, if to see similar bands as the White Stripes and the Racounters they have paid tribute to the black music tradition either. A pleasant and useful listening indeed.

The Pax Cecilia - The Progress

Opa! - Nakurlah (2011)

Clinical Archives

8.9

/Brass pop, Avant-pop, Reggae, Soviet pop, Experimental pop, Kitsch pop, Crossover, Klezmer/

Comment: Although it might be the most pop-appealed notch in the discography of the Clinical Archives so far, however, it is enough experimental to have either a few common points with the chart-based acts or on the other side just shamelessly shuffling it with vanguard-ish influences. For instance, the kick-off track Ring Tone starts out as a indirect hint at an announce of the harmfulness of mobile phones (the direct admission of causing the various types of brain tumours by the WHO approximately 3 weeks ago) which later will acquire the early pop pattern of the krautrock legend Faust with the addition of a loads of lush brass developments. Moreover, it is also classified as klezmer pop mixed up with soviet and kitsch pop. All is correct if to add to it the exploitations of reggae music either. Zenit is a fan song intended for supporting of the famous Sankt Peterburg`s football club Zenit (the best soccer song after the Lightning Seeds` Three Lions). Indeed, as the whole, it is a enormously catchy and glistening pop music. And nostalgic in some sense as well.

Non Descript - Vacu Sessions 11 (2010)

Vacu Sessions

9.1

/Conceptual, Noise, Abstract electronica, Experimentalism, Avant-garde, Electro-acoustic, Acousmatics, Pyscho-acoustic,

Comment: As so ordinary to the issues of Vacu Sessions, a Portugal-based sound art/experimental electronic music umbrella, this publication consists only of one long-running track which is channelized into a dramaturgical/spectacular build-up. The one starts out with the elemental washes of hiss-relied progressions and the swaying of minimal rhythms from one channel to another which later will be developed into a kind of electro-acoustic rumble embellished with the deep progressions of electronics and threatening washes of minimally running and finally unleashed noise. Impressive.

Infirm Individual & AMZ (Split) - The Glorious Triforce (2011)

Infirm Individual

8.8

/Drum and bass, Jungle, IDM, Experimental electronica, 8-bit, Tracker music, Crossover, Techno/

Comment: This 13-track album is a split issue of the two artists who used to share their off-kilter but quite unique soundscape with the rest of the world. Indeed, they have a journey through the various landscapes of rhythm-based explorations. For instance, the opening track is an awesome bastard drifting between the Orb-esque ambient techno/dub and Panacea-like tough poundering of drum and bass/jungle. However, later the concept will have completed through the chiming IDM-hued techno, sharp and naive cuts of bitpop/tracker music, psychedelic soaring of electronica, and mainly through the troubled yet charming appeal of drum and bass/jungle sound. And as you have figured out it yet, there can be met a loads of shifts inbetween those aforementioned styles as well. A masterful accomplishment indeed.

Tatuki Seksu - Hanazawa EP (2011)

Takashi-kun

8.6

/Shoegaze, J-pop, Alternative pop, Indie pop, Crossover, Electronic/

Comment: This is a Japanese version of shoegaze music. In fact, it seems to have even some advantages in comparison with the Western contemporaries. In detail, it reveals itself through a more higher frequency in changing of chords and moods, offering a more vivid approach in vocal structures. By the way, the closure track incorporates the elements of hip-hop and dance (rock), ending up as a cover version of My Bloody Valentine`s Soon.

Anna Bradley - Single (2010)

Bandcamp

8.5

/Alternative pop, Jangle pop, Indie rock, Art-rock/

Comment: This is not an issue by someone female singer-songwriter. This is a masculine trio coming from NY and offering a two-headed single harking back to the 80`s , to the golden era of jangle pop. Indeed, the first track is a vivid example of it, the second one can be considered a funky version of it, first of all, having got the impression through the very catchy hooks in the centre of it.

Clark Nova Portable - No Wait Okay Now (2010)

Luxus-Arctica

9.8

/Folktronica, Organic electronica, Laptop folk, Experimental folk, Crossover, Dream folk, Ambient folk/

Comment: Such otherworldly beautiful, fairy-like folk tales crossed with subtle touch of electronics comes from Oslo, Norway and is created by Rene Simmons. All those silentfully evoking and running progressions have acquired potent power for conquering a place in your intimate corner of soul and heart. By its power of conviction and the kind of aesthetics it reminds of the Icelandic mùm or the Swedish sonic alchemist Oskar Hallbert. It chimes more than the music used to do. It cradles either temptation and redemption.

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?