Il Kobra - Sturm Und Drang (2011)

Sostanze

8.4

/Drum and bass, Classical music, Crossover, Experimental electronica/

Comment: Edoardo Taori is a classically trained musician from Italy who had played in metal- and hardcore bands. However, his album from the previous year, All`epeca, was an essential killer, being mixed up through drum and bass/and jungle with the world music, rave, and turntablism - being one of the best albums in 2010. In principle, he continues to have a surf trip on the same wave, being highly filled with energy and impetus, crossing this time drum and bass/jungle mainly with classical music. Although he has lost some rates in synergy and catchiness, it is an intricate issue yet.

Noisesurfer - Ambient Drone Focus EP (2011)

Noisesurfer
Bandcamp

9.2

/Ambient noise, Psyambient, Ritualistic, Downtempo, New Age, Dub-tech, Experimental electronica, Crossover/

Comment: This is a 5-track EP by Noisesurfer (Joachim Rontexlius and Rachel Moraledius), a Spanish-based duo who has been very profilic during the last years. All the sound represented on it is vastly convincing indeed. More detailly, it is noisy and used to exploit the templates for getting highly infiltrated and mixed-up soundscapes. Indeed, it is far from being just an instance of orthodox-like noise exploration. It has managed to incorporate a loads of stylistic elements inside it from right and left - powerfully thudding ritualistic techno beats, psyambient-soaked and downtempo-esque environments, dub echo experiments. From there can be found out some minutiae harking back to the soothing feeling of New Age-y explorations, however, letting no paralyzing impressions of the whole as a bleak, digital-dominated sonic pile. All is refreshing and suggestive.

Pasqualino Ubaldini - Viaggio Primo

Words After - The Armada of Lights (2010)

Bandcamp

8.3

/Alternative pop/rock, Soft rock/

Comment: This quartet comes from Dundee, Michigan, USA offering an album with 6 tracks which habits are domesticated on a scale relied on alternative pop and soft rock, respectively. On its dominating scale, those melancholically whining vocal lines are supplemented by moderately tumbling guitar gears and consistent running.

Sacred Animals - Welcome Home EP (2010)

Bandcamp
Delphi
Lastfm

9.0

/Folktronica, Baroque folk, Alt-folk, Epic, Chamber folk, Indie folk, Singer-songwriter, Experimental indie, Post-folk/

Comment: We like Radiohead, Britpop, and modern Welsh/Celtic indie folk either, isn´t? Sacred Animals is a singer-songwriter, who comes from Ireland, who sounds like an example of Britpop made out in a mold of the folk music which is at times embellished with epic baroque-like characteristics, at times with subtle electronics/glockenspiel clicking sound. Indeed, you can figure out some similarities with Radiohead, Gorky`s Zygotic Mynci, Super Furry Animals. Yet, it intends to go away from the harrowing urban environment, instead having left off into bucolic introspections of the countryside.

Hlo - Dont Pray For Me (2011)

Sirona-Records
Archive.org

7.5

/Glitch, Glitch-hop, Sampledelica, Bitpop, Noise, Experimentalism, Chiptune, Lobit, Primitivistic music, DIY, Electro-acoustics, Rhythmic noise/

Comment: 7 tracks within16 minutes only. It is essentially as primitivistic music as a sort of anti-pop used to be (I do not think of it in a bad sense, though). However, 8 bit/tracker sound is crossed with low-bit noise which at times gets evolved into rhythmic one or even having acquired the clothes of a kind of club dance sound, on the other side can be perceived for chopped-up vowel experiments and the littered ambience around it.

Narcoleptica - Never Happy