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).