Recent Music Heroes

10/15/2017

The Bordellos – The Bordellos Underground Tape Vol 7 (2017)

Bandcamp

Indie rock
Lo-fi
DIY
Alternative rock
Outsider pop
Indie folk

Comment: since the end of the 00s I have had two great lo-fi and DIY acts from the very underground of the United Kingdom, more profoundly, The Hirundu, and Clinker. Since 2014 or 2015 I can consider The Bordellos as a third act in the list. Why I like the mentioned acts? It might be because of their cynicism in lyrics and in their music which in turn harks back to my personal experiences while listening to an early MES and The Fall, especially Perverted By Language (1983). Of course, I like the music of the recent ones because these influences cannot be heard as a copy paste version but one can hear unexpected dodges and tradition ruined appearances in music. The Bordellos is not a unit who somehow likes to be aesthetically repressed. They have been doing what they like to do. They have released a bunch of EPs and some albums so far. This 4-notch one is based on quiet and even buried incantations based on primitive chords and visions. Let's call it lo-fi jangle pop, primitive Americana, outsider folk music, tea cup sadcore. I have nothing left to do as they sing. Like The Fall has always loved rockabilly as an American influence The Bordellos has added Americana as an American influence to the latest releases. I have no regret while spending time with it though I would prefer the combo's previous ones because at times it is way too buried. But I understood their musical path to move on from one point to the next one. That's the logic, that's the dynamics.

Megahast3r – Low Level Security (2017)

Soisloscerdos

Bandcamp

Free Music Archive

Acid techno
Tekno
Electronic music
Acid house
Rave music
Alternative dance
Minimal techno

Comment: this bunch of 4 compositions is a bipolar outing with regard to involving restrained yet somehow neurotically loaded electronic progressions and an elegant minimal techno and then trading it for shamelessly stomping electronic dance beats getting obviously inspiration from warehouse parties from the end 80s and the beginning 90s. It is sparse and straightforward yet providing a huge impact on a listener. Indeed, it is truly rave-up. Paradoxically it does have an emotional impact upon me because the emotions are burned off over there a priori. That's the way I like it. The issue is a part of the discography of Soisloscerdos Records.

wk [es] – EXT-ME (2010)

Hz-Records

Abstract techno
Glitchtronica
Electronic music
Leftfield
Experimental techno
Minimal techno
Avant-techno
Experimental electronica

Comment: EXT-ME was the first issue being released in the discography of Hz-Records. It was also a predecessor of an issue called Deus ex machina. In comparison to the last mentioned issue it is more restrained and sparse because of circling around dry glitched-out techno patterns at times being variegated with faint melodic progressions and stoned noise explosions. However, the aforementioned elements are seamlessly integrated into the whole. That's the strength of this 5-notch outing. These errors are very fine ones for your bloody robotic brain. And for my fking brain even more. Debris is to be resurrected like Jesus Christ is to be recycled.

wk[es] - Deus ex machina (2011)

Hz-Records

Avant-techno
Experimental electronica
Experimental techno
IDM
Abstract techno

Comment: if to compare it to a nearby album review Parametic Delay's Love Song Before Sleeping (2011, No-Source) you can draw parallels on glitched-out sounds and IDM-esque cadences yet on the other side it is a disparate case for sure. It is not inflected by indie pop at all these five tracks get their power from outer space to bring it forth through mundane technical support and electronics. That's cool, that's intriguing. Deus ex machina. Although the first two tracks (Dialogue, Phantasm) are quite gentle by its nature the rest of the whole is remarkably more spaced-out and murky in its deliberatedly haphazard playfulness. It reminds me a bit of Autechre, the duo's abstract, mathematical techno. Debris and waste will be employed to the maximal extent. It sounds like a Poltergeist would play somewhere in the middle of a wasteland. This mind-provoking outing is a bit of the discography Hz-Records.

Parametic Delay – Love Song Before Sleeping (2011)

No-Source

Indietronica
Post-pop
Electronic pop
IDM
Plinkerpop
Glitch pop
Bitpop
Synth-pop

Comment: I can remember for the first half of the 00s while one of the most interesting sounds was related to the so-called duyster (from Belgium) and such labels as Morr Music, and Monika Enterprise. Such peripheral sounds and bits as glitches, noises, 8 bits and other wonky sounds were scraped to subjugate them to sub pop/gentle indie pop inflected harmonies and melodies. Within the netlabel world there have also been such kind of juggernauts who provided a platform to an immense number of artists. Error Lo-Fi, Aerotone, 12rec. and of course, No-Source imprint (unfortunately all these records are defunct now). All the aforementioned elements are apparently represented on this 5-notch issue coming out from Indonesia (the duo of Benk Robo, and Dittea). It is witty, it is poignant, it is charming, it is cerebral with regard to the choice of sounds and accomplished compositions. At the same time it is intact and not smeared with the burden of everyday life. We cannot be without adjectives while describing an astounding release. This issue makes that sense.

Random Forest – Panoramic (2016)

Bandcamp

Post-rock
Epic
Art rock
Experimental rock
Ambient rock

Comment: post-rock is a style which cannot be understood in one certain way. First, post used to refer to something which comes after rock music yet still having something common with the previous phenomenon. It is the kind of ontological explanation. However, such combos as Stereolab, Broadcast, Slowdive's Pygmalion can be considered post-rock in that transgressive sense. Mostly post-rock is understood as guitar-based music which used to meander on symphonic guitar progressions frequently from the silent starting point to reach loud and majestic crescendos. Like a powerful male to provide multiple orgasms to a female. Indeed, post-rock as a style is a drift between divine and mundane. Furthermore, the categorisations cannot be presumed as clear-cut ones between the ones there supposed to fifty one grey shades of...whatever. Behind the London, UK-based combo Random Forest is the duo of Aaron Gilbert and David Walters (The Echelon Effect). David Walters aka The Echelon Effect has grown an impressive following to his project through the social media and first of all thanks to his wondrous music. In fact, Random Forest as a minor brother of it continues to trudge the same path of atmospheric and dreamy guitars, and electronic beats and suggestive effects. Indeed, these guitars clearly imply their power to dominate and emit beauty simultaneously while the electronics used to support it in an almost invisible way. It can even be compared to The Smiths at The Queen Is Dead (1986) when Johnny Marr added a sampler/synthesiser (denoted as The Hated Salford Ensemble and Orchestrazia Ardwick at Strangeways, Here We Come) to complement guitars with more orchestrated sounds. Or My Bloody Valentine would have been doing since the Glider EP (1990) to give MBV's sound the panoramic touch. In a word, the result is astounding which should be employed as a remedy for patients with low a serotonin level.