Jetman Jet Team - Unfinished Album (2011)

Bandcamp

8.8

/Shoegaze, Fuzz pop, Dream pop, Psych-rock, Alternative pop, Trance rock/

Comment: After a two year hiatus, the former members of The Pop Eccentric Brenan Chambers, Miguel Diaz, Tyler James, and Quin Dickinson have returned, added singer Alisa Dickinson to the line-up, and become Jetman Jet Team. However, this is the debut issue by the Seattle-based group delivering a solid set of shoegaze/newgaze strivings. It might be the strongest notch from this 3-track release is Albatross which is filled in with blissed-out harmonies, up-and-down gears, reminding strongly of Pia Fraus. On the other side, the last track Corrosive merits its name blending Kevin Shields-alike mumbling lullabies with metallic reverbs and trance rock-relied ambience.

Elisa Luu - Ebbrezza (2011)

Laverna

8.5

/Experimental electronica, Art-pop, Indietronica, Ambient, Electronic pop/

Comment: This is Elisabetta Luciani aka Elisa Luu`s follow-up to her masterpiece The time of waiting (2010, La bèl), though, at the time her ambitions are more lopsided toward fluttering electronic-based approach, deliberately convulsive ambient experiments or slightly subdued or introspective feelings brought forth through dreamy electric pianos, rather than exultant indietronica and experimental fusion, respectively. Only the kick-off H1 (feat. Giulio Maresca) hints at her previous habits regarding indie(tronic) sound more detailly. In any cases, those 4 tracks do make out a fine synergy.

Catherine Corelli - Through The Gehenna (2010)

Jamendo

8.5

/Rap, Symphonic metal, Classical music, Metal rap, Power metal, Goth, Glam rock, Ethnic, Crossover/

Comment: An obsessive rap style meets symphonic metal`s riffs and operatic singing meet bombastic glam appearances. Yet, it might be the main line of the album only. Indeed, herein can be detected for some oriental-infused psychedelic lines and piano-driven broken beats and electronic shufflings too. My favorite track is Snow where Corelli`s manner is used to be more restrainted than usual and her voice is induced to drown into dream-alike introspection (retrospection?). A solidly accomplished workout by the artist who has released more than 10 issues during last years.

Clinker - Candy Says (Velvet Underground)

Plusplus - Evils (2011)

La bèl
Lastfm

9.2

/Alt-folk, Folktronica, Baroque folk, Chamber folk, Psychedelic, Dark folk, Neofolk, Post-folk, Avant-folk, Art-folk, New Weird Europe/

Comment: In fact, every new issue under the La bèl label is being a big event to date, though this time the label has "failed" in its attempts to stay for a kind of label concerning only on hallmarks from Italy. Of course, this restriction would be ridiculous on its own, especially if to regard a long-time lapse henceforward. However, Plusplus is Adam Radmall coming from the Foggy Albion and shuffling diverse chords, harmonies and moods into a burgeoning output conventionally considered as a sort of (instrumental) folk sound. Yet, there can be heard lots of intrepid dodges toward electronic patterns, ambient-based textures, apocalyptic (folk) tendencies, baroque-esque progressions, darkwave-ish reflexions, bucolic psychedelic tissues and concrete sound snippets sorrounding all of it. By the speculative side, however, you can imagine the possible ideological platform at Evils in a way as if the 60`s folk psychedelia meets Darkwood meets Daniel Figgis meets Penguin Cafe Orchestra. All in all, this album (of 11 tracks) shall have to be listened to lots of time while being the grower by its nature. It is a highly mesmerizing issue indeed.

Talbot - EOS

Rùnar Magnusson - Vacu Sessions 13 (2011)

Vacu Sessions

8.7

/Abstract, Avant-electronica, Glitch-tronica, Experimental electronica, Conceptual,Post-Psychedelic electronica, Experimentalism/

Comment: This is a track of 26 minutes divided into 6 parts by the Icelandic electronic music legend Rùnar Magnusson. Initially those tracks were arranged for the theater piece The Saviour (2007). This set veers from "fault-induced", permanently repeated electronic patterns to subtly droning organ sessions which particularly makes up a near-psychedelic sense. Besides those slightly pop-alike approaches, however, there are rigidly experimentalism-centered pieces and abstract glitch crackles as well.