SistaSara - DubRiddims (2012)

Advaita Oneness

8.2

/Dub, Dubtronica/

Comment: DubRiddims is the first issue for a label, called Advaita Oneness Dub. Indeed, all those 7 pieces composed by SistaSara aka Sara Fuga are dub-soaked, full of gross beats, and thick vibes which in turn are subjected to delay-induced algorithms. More profoundly, of course, SistaSara`s soundscape can be considered "dubtronica", a subspecies of dub, because being an instance of (anonymous) modern dub, where acoustic and electric instruments are traded to electronic music devices and machines and where the listener can perceive linear progressions being mostly without vertical-transcendental scopes.

Sailor Jupiter - Sailor Jupiter (2005)

Planear

8.8

/Jungle, Techno, Trance, House, Club dance/

Comment: this batch of 9 tracks consists of an array of club-oriented beats veering away from rude jungle rhythms and less rough techno steps to brooding trance and progressive house mixed sequences.

[Teaser of the day] The Quinsy - Dissolved

afmusic

[Teaser of the day] Vinyl Williams - Psychic Shrine

Julio Agosto - Julio & Agosto (2011)

Bandcamp

9.3

/Brass indie, Indie folk, Alt-folk, Psychedelic rock, Tropicalia pop, Folk indie, Baroque pop, Experimental indie, Chamber pop, Latin music, Alternative, Indie pop/

Comment: Julio y Agosto is a septet from Buenos Aires, Argentina who do provide a multi-faceted issue all what regards stylistic approach and sensual environment around the centre of this 12-track release. The combo uses acoustic instruments only - velevety vocal lines, strumming guitars, violins, exulting brass and woodwind instruments, and metallophones are seamlessly mixed up with each other or growing out from each other therefore resulting in captivating harmonies and dizzy crescendos. Now and then the issue reminds of Beirut, and The Retuses for instance, though, they used to add more exuberant Latin elements and therefore leading up to more key changes and detours regarding their Music Hall/carnival-alike soundscape. On the other side, provided that it is a slightly psychedelic album there cannot simply be bypassed not to be denoted Os Mutantes, the legendary Brazilian Tropicalia ensemble. In a nutshell, it is a superb result ready to perform both at the stages of WOMAD, and alternative rock festivals somewhere in nature in the summertime.

Esa Ruoho - On The Hangar of Spaceship Earth (2012)

Mahorka

8.9

/Noise, Psycho-acoustic, Abstract, Soundscapes, Acousmatics, Avant-garde, Experimentalism, Ambient drone, Microtonal, Dystopbient, Illbient/  

Comment: Finnish musician Esa Ruoho is known as Lackluster in the first place. However, this time he has replaced flourishing IDM-esque propulsions mostly with pessimistic, white and grey coloured industrial soundscapes which in turn are composed of corroded and steel-coated particles. At times it sounds like a tribute to Luigi Russolo (whose rigid music already depicted possible shortages and deficits approximately 100 years ago) due to its incisive noise walls and reverberations. Indeed, these 9 long-running compositions used to slightly throb and change their pitch and shape therefore resulting in an alienated moloch and sinister signs reserved for all of us. More profoundly, by its hints and allusions toward the appearances of industrialization it chimes like a gigantic machine initiated by the human being built to maximize the pleasure of the human kind but unfortunately having no breaks to stop at a time and stay under our control. There is no hope and future. Only the last track Terra drones in a more poppy, psychedelic way like an abstract variant of Spacemen 3/Sonic Boom/Spiritualized. In a nutshell, let`s exploit our free will in relation with a particular moral coercion to change this miserable situation and madness.              

[Teaser of the day] Plusplus - Song for Sonny