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.