Friction! - That Dusty Old Couch (2011)

Bakery Allstars Inc.

9.1

/Alt-folk, Art pop, Indie pop, Chamber folk, Electronic pop, Folk indie, Experimental indie, Indie folk, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: Seven highly artistical pop songs by Pierre Björklund, a Malmo-based resident, veering from intimate, chamber folk-ish spatial fingerpicking to sublimely droning indie pop appearances, from bouncy electro psychedelia to restraint, introspective singer-songwriter-ism and so-called cowbell indie. At times his aesthetics can be compared to Alan Driscoll`s (The Womb) craftiness. However, it was his first album on (and the starting issue at all for) Bakery Allstars Inc., one of the best indie labels worldwide. Lots of excellent songs are available around there.

Dronjo kept by 4 - Delta (2011)

MiMi

9.2

/Alternative pop/rock, Shoegaze, J-pop, Funk rock, Fuzz rock/

Comment: Hi, lads and guys! Believe me Jun Usuda`s own musical outlook rocks you out and off, pulls you in and pushes you out. Catchy, chiming guitar gears and hooks are up here to be synchronized with suggestive vocal appearances. All those 11 tracks are powerfully galvanized, more concretely, in a mix of the Western and Japanese guitar music tradition. Stove and Snow, and Sunset Children are convincing hints toward more dance-appealed (funk) rock music. In a nutshell, for fans of J-pop, Talking Heads, Flipper`s Guitar, Yo La Tengo, Cosmicdust, Isn`t Anything-era My Bloody Valentine.

Sense/Net - Rapture (2011)

Bandcamp

9.4

/Noise, Dark ambient, Avant-garde, Lo-fi, Noir, Experimentalism, Hauntology, Avant-industrial/

Comment: as dark as onyx... San Francisco, California (again!)...one-man-project...Paul Raymond Pinson...weird shit...truly off-the-wall... grit of subconsciousness... a soundtrack for the living dead. It might be it is inspired by the works of such avant-garde legends as Desmond Leslie, Hanatarashi, early Cabaret Voltaire, Merzbow, Big City Orchestra, Glenn Branca. However, having certain visions toward ghostly noise without offering stifling borders to surround it. Indeed, this set of 10 tracks is a sort of rapture.

Subterrestrial - The Cellular Cosmogony

Ceptual - Songs for the Sun (2011)

Test Tube

9.2

/Ambient, Experimental electronica, Hauntology, Organic electronica, Minimal/

Comment: Desmond Hollis aka Ceptual aka Palet aka Katrah-Quey aka A Sankip Hummad is definitely an exemplar of sort of genius. There are represented 14 tracks of ambient music which would be an affair of honour for every (experimental) musician by the past and now. More concretely, skipping snippets of guitar-based explorations are adhesively coated with haunting, ancient memories (in a physical approach!), heartbreaking melody threads, orchestrated sections and, at all, cohesive feeling of organic sense. All of that is wrapped up in dense hiss-relied mist (which is one of the most important aspects pertaining of ambient music a jot). However, this kind of accomplishment might be called as symphony either. Indeed, it is much more than our usual perception is keen to figure out for.

.crk - Informal Definition (2011)

Enough
Lastfm

9.0

/Industrial techno, Jungle, Bhangra, Crossover, Breakbeat, Neoclassical, Avant-garde/

Comment: In principle, lots of elaborated breaks (jungle, breakbeat) are relentlessly floating over you offered by a Lisbon-based one-man project - at times mixed up with rotten bhangra sounds or variegated with stammering sonic effects, hashed spoken word lines or ghastily sounding elements popped out from murky industrial landscapes. Moreover, some tracks are embellished with otherworldly ringing (neoclassical) orchestrations which used to keep their way hence getting somehow quite close to avant-prog appearances. An off-kilter shit which is not thought for dance stages for sure.

aiRless pRoject - Dopamine Entities (2010)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.8

/Downtempo, Trance rock, Experimental rock, Crossover/

Comment: This 8-track album is created by Vladimir Mitreski, a Macedonian musician. He is another example from the Balkan country following the quality of fydhws (the first and very qualitative name I could tie up with Macedonia). However, Dopamine Entities is the seventh publication of him, demonstrating a sort of sublime gliding over the downtempo-esque peaks and glowering trance rock hooks a la Spacemen 3`s Recurring. At times it is soothing, at times it is pleasantly awakening. A masterful accomplishment indeed.