Darkhorse - Mannequin (2009)

Bandcamp

9.2

/Fusion, Dark folk, Neofolk, Art rock, Improvised music, Dub rock, Psychedelic rock, Post-rock, Alternative rock/

Comment: it is an intriguing and compelling album by Darkhorse, a musician out of Boston, Massachussets, USA. He uses (supposedly) a huge melting pot to to put into it murky dark folk/neofolk-tinged guitar strums, fusion/jazz guitar-based riffs and improvised streaming, some post-rock-alike glimpses, and slight psychedelic revs tightly surrounding all of that compound. The ending notch Paradigm Shifts functions as a progression on thrilling trip-hop beats. However, the favorite of mine is an enthralling blending of dub-inflected bass handling and psychedelia-soaked fusion guitars at Persephone reminding a little of Vanishing Point (1997, Creation) by Primal Scream. If you are searching for kindred souls you can draw parallels upon such artists as Darkwood, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Moses Luster, and Jeff Beck.

Fuck Yuo I Am a Robot - Unleashed (2011)

Mutasone
Lastfm

9.1

/Electro, Club dance, Experimental electronica, Hardcore electro, Kraut-electro, Industrial electro/

Comment: FYIAR is an Estonian electronic music/club dance duo who started off in the mid of 00`s. They have released 2 albums on their own Mutasone label. This is their sophomore issue, a follow-up to Compensator for the Accelerator (2007). Though these 11 tracks do have entered into the realm of vibe/groove units and bits, however, first of all their main characteristics are describable in terms of rigid yet complex, machine-alike electro cadences, harking even back to the tradition of krautrock and industrial music. More concretely, it sounds like a bastard of the elements of Dopplereffekt, Techno Animal, and Autechre. Indeed, it is thought for your soul and for your body and for your mind.

Music For Your Plants – Enchanted Sister

AFFEN - Like Life Easily Ended (2011)

BFW Recordings
Lastfm

9.2

/Alternative pop/rock, Soft rock, Pomp rock/

Comment: AFFEN does mean Anatomy For Fabulous Emergency Noise and is a quintet from Bandung, Indonesia, an Asian country so well-known due to its outstanding indie scene. Their 4-minute single can only be described in positive way. Indeed, they deserve their name partly - Next to embraced Coldplay aesthetics (mellow, dreamy singing manner, shadowed guitar chords) there you can enjoy massive, even punching guitar washes in the part of refrain. In a nutshell, this single can be compared with an intense sort of firework where you can experience different kinds of shapes and patterns, making people somehow happy and jubilant.

bryyn - Les Alpettes (2011)

Jamendo
bryyn
Lastfm

8.9

/Alternative pop/rock, Alt-folk, Electronic pop, Dream pop, Singer-songwriter/

Comment: here are up 41 minutes of convincing sort of pop music spreaded out over 13 tracks. Similarly to his previous issues Bryn Martin aka bryyn aka pinkle takes on electronic-drenched alt-folk approach, though, you can hear more mainstream-appealed turns and bows in his soundscape. At times it resembles such groups as The Killers, and Coldplay (About Anything), at times it used to be more buried into reveries (Let It Go). However, the favorites of mine are Suzanna, and Quiet. The latter is a suggestive example of electronic pop (those glacial glow-alike synth gears are truly outasight).

Invisible Elephant - The Lights Go Out (2010)

Bandcamp
Lastfm

8.7

/Post-rock, Singer-songwriter, Alt-folk, Shoegaze, Crossover, Dream folk/

Comment: Invisible Elephant is a singer-songwriter from UK, who used to record home exploiting guitars, electronics, samples, concrete sounds, vocals, and percussion. The Lights Go Out was his debut album providing an example of how shoegaze, dream pop, singer-songwriter-ism/folk, post-rock meet one another in a decent way. This issue of 7 notches has managed to got quite restraint in its dreaminess throughout the course, however, enabling to enter into a kind of no-man`s land filled in with majestic noise foray sometimess. The most exclusive moment is decidedly related to Wind-Up Bird which offers the ethnic-tinged singing in chorus.

Diaenoxe & Uberlulu - Satanique et hérétique divers