RantZen - Inzi Ma Mul Kar b/w Oyo Vor Keskva (2006)

4-4-2 Music

9.3

/Club dance, Experimental electro, Gore-electro, Avant-electro, Experimental techno, Avant-techno, Dark electro/

Comment: actually not very much time ago I discovered a Sydney, Australia-based label, called 4-4-2 Music which used to publish an intricate rhythm-based vista of club music which apparently does have more experimental approach and angle than usually in the abovementioned field. There are up a pair of tracks which constitute intensely thudding bass-driven oscillations in the vein of murky electro and massively stomping techno music. However, Andy Rantzen`s music is witty and whimsical. The cadences are decorated with subdued, even moaning (indecipherable) vocal lines (the influences of goregrind????) and some constitutive sonic effects within it. The issue is a classic one which is directed upon the listener`s body and soul. This is our gore-electro.

[Teaser of the day] Le Futur Pompiste – The Air That Surrounds Us

Elite Gymnastics - Real Friends (2010)

Elite Gymnastics
Lastfm

9.5

/Poptronica, Experimental indie, Post-psychedelic electronica, Alternative dance, Indie dance, Electronic pop, Leftfield, Alternative pop/

Comment: Elite Gymnastics is an arty, intellectual indie combo which used to take a whack at a thread of diverse styles and getting inspiration from different slots. More concretely, it is a bass, rhythm-driven, highly dance-appealed urban indie outlet. Because of having surfaced lots of intriguing minutiae fused in the middle of bouncy cadences the album can be considered enthralling in its stylistical dirtiness reminding of such groups as MGMT, Yeasayer, Gang Gang Dance, Southern Shores. In a nutshell, they used to fly high as the title of one of the songs suggests.

Magicks - Live in a Bedroom 4-16-11 Part 1

Death By Snoo Snoo - Death By Snoo Snoo (2011)

Creative Class War
Lastfm

9.3

/Alternative rock, Punk rock, Post-punk/

Comment: let´s continue reviewing Finnish music, this time from a little bit different corner and point of view. Death By Snoo Snoo chimes and shrieks like the sort of perfect punk music because it is essentially aggressive, cynical and poignant and triumphant. The combo which is led by the frontwoman used to offer tracks like Care Bear, Cat Song, Ethanol, Solar Wind, and The Beast. The average length of tracks is just one minute - as short-running as genuine punk music should be on its own. Additionally to thudding bass lines and blatant voice parts you can detect that the notches are a titmes variegated with unexpected minutiae of other instruments (synths? melodica?) than strings only. And it makes sense!

Kuupuu - Spring High Spiritual Spree Spray Ray (2010)

FMA

9.6

/Forest Folk, Sound art, Psych-folk, Avant-garde, Krautrock, Avant-folk, New Weird Finland, New Weird Europe, Abstract electronica, Musique concrète, Acousmatics, Experimentalism, Free folk, Improvised music/

Comment: Jonna Karanka aka Kuupuu is one of those obscure Finnish artists who often is being tagged as "Forest folk", "New Weird Finland", the most powerful and radical folk movement worldwide (by the way, I think Paavoharju`s Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008, Fonal) was the most eminent release in the 00`s. Absolutely captivating, otherworldly music). More profoundly, this is a sort of folk which comes together with the definition of folk in very indirect way. With Islaja, and Lau Lau, however, Karanka represents the movement`s female point of view. There are represented 6 tracks which are made up of a minimalistic, repetition-heavy approach of improvised music fringed with tight concrete sounds. At times Karanka`s sound used to be more mathematics than music because all these patterns and progressions are subordinated to algorithms. Or it is more sound-art than general sort of song structured music reminding of the experiments by early krautrockers (Conrad Schnitzler, for instance). The release will be ended up by a lush vista of mellow running krautrock undertaking. Superb!

Nice Wings, Icarus! - Aurora (2011)

Clinical Archives
Lastfm

8.9

/Post-metal, Post-rock, Classical, Symphonic metal, Progressive rock, Crossover, Experimental rock/

Comment: while this 4-piece publication starts out with the math and progressive rock-soaked progression later it will be leaped into a more conventional chamber rock/progressive rock cubbyhole. However, the result by the Kiev, Ukraine-based trio is decent and elegant - those classical music-induced layers are profoundly laced with more murky, abrasive guitar works, which sometimes result in silentful introspections, at times get involved in very dizzy appearances (the finishing notch Haunted House, for instance). Their progressions used to originate not only from within the compartment of post-rock and classical music but also roaming on symphonic and post-metal territories thus allowing itself to be compared with the likes of Esmerine, The Butcher`s Ballroom, Our Subatomic Earth, Metsu.