Victory VIII - Vermont (2011)

Holiday Records

9.0

/Poptronica, Electronic pop, Bedroom pop, DIY, Lo-fi, Glo-fi, Chillwave, Avant-pop, Experimental indie/

Comment: Victory VIII in his well-known quality. This time lo-fi-esque rhythm sources meet introspective and even melancholic layerings above it reminiscent of Morricone-esque sadness (actually I have no idea why I have met so many groups during last weeks resembling heavily the Italian film score maestro). As he said this is an attempt to make a soundtrack to a National Geographic magazine about New England. Also, he wishes he was dead.

Holytigress - Oh Joann (2011)

Holytigress
Bandcamp

8.6

/Dream folk, Alt-folk, Singer-songwriter, Demo, Covers/

Comment: Based in Paradise Hills, Holytigress is a dream pop/slowcore project headed on by the songwriter Joshua Saposnekoo, who has said he is used to create his songs in his mom’s apartment. Herein are four songs - two of them are the covers of golden classic`s tracks, - made just by the man, his guitar, colourful voice, having much of shivering, hazy space around them. Though very simple by its main line, it contains a bunch of captivating moments here. And it makes really sense.

Muhmood - Electrification Of Udmurtia

TakeMeToTheMorgue! - This Dark Virus (2011)

Torn Flesh

8.8

/Dark ambient, Neoclassical, Drone, Modern classical, Classical, Dystopbient, Freeformfreakout, Non music, Minimal, Experimentalism, Abstract, Dark wave, Illbient, Martial, Avant-garde, Synth industrial/

In the same way as Jessie Martin aka Ylnez Payne`s previous, the debut album Oblivion EP (2010) used to be, indeed, the sophomore notch is a very brooding release as well. Actually it is even more articulated and channelized into a mighty form, obviously affording for itself vanguard-ish elements of sound processing and off-kilter sonic formations. What does it mean "serious" in the context of this set of 14 (plus 4) tracks? Firstly, it is an annihilator of your highest (i.e ecstatic feelings), on the other side - in the formal sense - it is an impressive drifting between dark ambient, obscure drone, film noir, dark wave, subdued cybercore, electronically mutilated messages, martial techno and beat-based mayhems and neoclassical orchestrations. Moreover, Payne cleverly takes advantage of not using the hermetical approach of sound recording, yet having no side-effects to be sounded somehow vulnerable. By the way, about those off-kilter sonic formations though? For instance, Beauty Inspired By Darkness (ft. Ricky Revenge) which is a silent, minor key-moulded piano track having a bunch of sinister progressions in the backdrop or Eternal Nightmares For Passive Dreamers which relies on hardly minimal, darkscape-driven developments.

Pequeña Fiera! - Mountains were monsters (2010)

Error! Lo-fi

9.0

/Indie pop, Indietronica, Alternative pop, Electronic, Poptronica, New Weird Europe, Post-folk, Post-pop, Dream pop/

Comment: Thanks to such artists like Animal Collective, Atlas Sound, The Grizzly Bear, and The Dirty Projectors the kind of ecstatic pop has gained more popularity amongst ordinary music buyers and reached quite high places in pop charts. Error! Lo-fi is a Spanish-based label under which have a lot of bands found its output to the world. However, the basic core is concentrated upon mellow indie pop/ indietronic/ folktronic/ toytronic music. However, Pequeña Fiera! is one of the most profilic and eminential notches among this umbrella, anyway, deserving its position rightly. A set of 6 tracks is full of ecstatically pursuing guitar-strumming, dream-alike vocal lines (at times reminiscent of Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson from Sigur Ros) and synth- and glockenspiel-drenched indie pop. It is mesmerizing how those different layers within it will be melt into each other.

Greendjohn - Loophole (2011)

Jamendo

8.8

/Film score, Classical, Soundtrack, Orchestrated music, Conceptual/

Comment: This is the third album (or soundtrack - it would be the more proper classification for such kind of music) by a musician residing in Belgium. Indeed, this sounds like an imaginable soundtrack for a very epic film. More concretely, fast key changes, bombastic orchestrations and even progressions into choir-alike spaces and ominous, martial-hued music vary with decreasings into a near-silence introspection or gliding down into a sort of still life. As a skillful creator, he is very well aware of those emotive elements he is used to operate with - for example, Morricone-esque playings on feminine high vocal registers and flute samples. No doubt, the flowing of serotonine will be activated in your brain while listening to it.

Old Age - Lutsen (2011)

Bandcamp

8.0

/Ambient, Experimentalism, Avant-electronica, Minimal, Ambient drone, Sound-art, Microtonal, Kosmische musik/

Comment: Three tracks. The first track is a soothing, slightly pulsating flowing embellished by some metallic progressions and having nearly epic tendencies within it. The second track is a case of flickering electronica whereas there could be detected for similarities on technical approach with seminal electronic musicians a la Conrad Schnitzler. The third one creates experience through limber drifts over jagged soundscapes, over decreasing and increasing ridges respectively.