Fixture Records Compilation No.2 (2011)

Fixture Records

8.8

/Experimental indie, Alternative, DIY, Psychedelic, Space pop, Post-pop, Avant-pop, Dreamwave, Nugaze/

Comment: Similarly to the compilations of Hobo Cult, Eardrum Pop, Beko DSL, Holiday Records and many other similar kind of labels, this miscellany of 21 tracks on Fixture Records reflects upon the situation of nowadays innovative indie music. It is mostly made in the vein of DIY aesthetics, dreamwave, nugaze, and psychedelia. Here are represented Dirty Beaches, Lantern, Sequin Kit, Jef Barbara, Cresting, Chevalier Avant Garde, Mavo, Silver Dapple, Brave Radar, Freelove Fenner, Sheer Agony, Omma Cobba, and Telephone Callers. My favorite track is Sheer Agony`s Caitlin And Peter And George Harrison, a kind of doo wop-drenched easy listening.

Clinker - So We Say

Cygnet Wings - Cygnet Wings EP (2011)

Bandcamp

8.9

/Baroque pop, Chamber music, Avant-folk, Dream folk, Vaudeville folk, Singer-songwriter, Alt-folk, Americana/

Comment: Dan Hall`s sonic templates are as blissful as the same used to be essentially melancholic at times. I just mean full of beauty with some infiltrated sense of bitterness. Moreover, the steps of progressions on it do hit into your feeling centre, especially if to regard those epic growings getting out of restraint chamber-drenched sequences into a sort of breathtaking Americana pop.

Doctrine - Beko Digital Single # 90 (2011)

Beko DSL
Bandcamp

9.0

/Hypnagogic pop, Post-pop, Glo-fi, Synth pop, Chillwave, Electronic pop, Poptronica/

Comment: Doctrine is a combo from France (Douglas Donovan & Holden Brahms) offering a single consisting of two tracks. The first of them is English-sung, the other is just instrumental. The first rings out like a mesmerizing sign of already starting summer time (using cloudless synths an a drum machine), the other laces some brooding synth chords with the progressions into dream-coated electronica/hypnagogic pop. In any cases, all is pleasant.

Nocturn Deambulation - The Grand Opening (2011)

Wildness

Wildness

8.7

/Black metal, Progressive rock, Death metal, Brutal metal, Epic, Crossover, Art-metal/

Comment: I am listening and listening to... this is a permanently changing mix of progressive rock guitar riffs and electronic keyboards, brutal noodling on guitars, black metal influenced vocal threatening, hammering machine-alike drums do make up lots of impression. The introducing track Waltz of men in white is a dizzy yet epic entrance on the basis of whimsically played synths. Indeed, Frèdèric Modine aka Nocturn Deambulation from France has done it offering to the world a murky yet convincing manifesto of him.

Baristik Mi Gostembil Project - Gostembil Sessions (2011)

Clinical Archives

9.2

/Art-pop, Experimental pop, Crossover, Improvised music, Chamber pop, Avant-garde, Jazz, Oriental, Trip-hop, Toytronica/

Comment: The Uskudar/Istanbul-based trio headed by Baris Demirel does bridge the Western musical experience with the Oriental-relied ones. Indeed, it is a subtle patchwork/crossover publication of a vast range of sounds and appearances - from Gainsbourg-esque sensual pop to the most intimate moments on trumpets regarding the music by Miles Davis. Furthermore, threatening programmed beats accomplished with a suggestive lead motive seems to fluttering toward Bristol and thereafter moving on to create a mix based on the sounding of toys, the chords of melodica and street sounds. The first track Sessiz Cumbus sounds as if a Turkish version of chamber pop music (or an equivalent for Penguin Cafe Orchestra). Indeed, Gostembil Sessions is a wondrous set of 7 tracks.

Henrik José – Photo Album (2011)

Jammerdosa

9.6

/Dream pop, Electronic pop, Art-pop, Ethereal pop, Experimental indie, Alternative/

Comment: Henrik Josè from Sweden started out his musical actions very early, at the age of 15, in the mid of 90`s. As known under the pseudonym Bliss he was then known as part of the 8-bit/bitpop/tracker music/chiptune scene, blending those genres with shimmering soulful tunes. If to juxtapose his then-experience with the nowadays one, however, you can see some huge differences for sure. Though, Josè`s experiences are still bridgeable with each other. If the first track used to go far away, quite close to the glacial yet dream-filled soundscape of Sigur Ròs (on the other side, at times it resembles of the superb album Cafè de Flor by the Estonian group Bizarre), the second track is wrapped up with glossy electronics whose starting part resembles (more or less) paradoxically of Steve Reich`s Drumming. One of the best successes from the recent year.