Mythomaniacs Are Right - There Is No Such Thing As Death, Life Is Only A Dream And We Are The Imagination Of Ourselves (2011)

Bandcamp

8.5

/Noise, Avant-garde, Spoken word, Experimentalism, Sound collage, Cut and paste/

Comment: Mythomaniacs Are Right is a musical project from Chile making an apparent attempt for a very sort of cutting edge music. Massive digital noise plateaus, through the backbone drilling cacophony, divergent strums, ticking (quasi-)beats, loosely running-dropping bleak bleeps (regarding this aspect, it does sound quite similar to Mùm, an Icelandic post-rock/electronica group), weird-contexted outtakes (sampling the Voice, for instance), spoken word snippets, and at times absurd-like/very funny song titles. And the album title says much about us. This is not pop music during most of its course at all - rather it is a try to re-create a kind of new metaphysics (sound can be considered much stronger argument than any combination of words).

Beyond The Dune Sea - The Dune Sea

Clark Nova Portable - Birds fly out of the trees like dust beaten from an old sofa (2010)

Luvsound
Bandcamp

8.8

/Experimental electronica, Minimal, Sound-art, Ambient, Chamber music, Microtonal, Soundscape/

Comment: This is a single by the Oslo resident Rudi Simmons. It rings out vastly foggy, restrainted and wraith-like. Moreover, it is hardly audible. This is like a lone stake standing on the crossroad of ambient, chamber music, experimental electronica, and sound-art. It must be listened to loads of times to get a intuition and possible intention below it.

Quadrilles - {​[​(​Q​)​]​} (2010)

Bandcamp

7.8

/Indie rock, Alternative pop, Post-punk, Math rock, Dance rock, Crossover/

Comment: Quadrilles is a trio from the Foggy Albion mixing up indie rock with the elements of danceable post-punk ( a la Gang Of Four; or somewhat restrainted The Pop Group) and math-rock. Indeed, just a guitar, bass and drums (played by a gal, by the way). The Turks Are Restless is the most outstanding one on it.

Dinosaur Youth - Stone Ages (2011)

Ethno Indigo

8.4

/Ambient noise, Ambient drone, IDM, Post-rock, Noise, Experimental electronica, Crossover/

Comment: By reading firstly the description of this album at Archive.org and while listening to it this makes out somewhat an interesting gap. Indeed, it might be and at times it is about noisy postrock songs. On the other side, it seems to be a re-definition of the abovementioned style as well. First of all, through those 8 tracks are represented noisy ambient, skipping ambient drone, murky atmospheric sound, unconventional blurred/hurted/noisy IDM-esque overthrows, and masterfully subdued guitar noise levels. You can find out even some parallels with Sonic Youth`s most conceptual and experimental workouts herein. An intricate outset for sure.

Muhr - Everything Is Ok, We're Still Standing (2011)

Camomille

8.8

/Post-rock, Modern classical, Ambient, Drone, Chamber music, Avant-garde/

Comment: Two tracks by the Montrèal-based legend Vincent Fugère for whom Muhr used to be just one of his many musical practices. Yet, the abovementioned nom du plume used to be the most well-known of them so far. Threatening drones, epic alternations in tones, shimmering string-relied magic, soundtrack-alike orchestrations, slowly evoking and progressing soundscapes in light and dark. All in all, a sequent masterpiece by Muhr.

Keijo & Uton - Alun Ääniä (2009/2011)

Om Ha Sva Ha Ksha Ma La Va Ra Yam
Free Music Archive

8.5

/Forest folk, Free folk, Psych-folk, Avant-folk, Experimental folk, Drone folk, Improvised music, Psychedelia, Krautrock, New Weird Finland, New Weird Europe/

Comment: The Finnish underground folk does have much to say for all of us. For instance, Laulu Laakson Kukista (2008, Fonal) was the best album of 00`s or Kemialliset Ystävät`s album Ullakkopalo (Fonal) was one of the best album of 2010. However, Keijo Virtanen and Jani Hirvonen, two legends from the Finnish psych-folk/forest folk scene representing their stream of sub-consciousness, i.e potent vision via shamanic rhythm sections, off-kilter blues chords, psychedelic bottomlessness and shivering krautrock-esque mysticism. Improvised jam sessions which are built on repetitive loops, quasi-ethnic drumming, at times reverb-loaded singing, restrainted yet electrified strings and droning hiss. And as customary to the forest folk scene the reflections through silence are proudly represented here. A great event indeed.