Recent Music Heroes

1/28/2018

TT-ram & Lutz Thuns – Hypnosis (2017)

Hortus Conclusus

Bandcamp

Ambient
Ambient drone
Microtonal
Dark ambient
Neoclassical
Electronic music
Avant-garde
Experimentalism
Minimalism
Epic
Soundscape

Comment: this set of 6 compositions used to drift somewhere between spirituality and ambient music imbued with flickering ghosts, and shadows reflecting walls and murky memories from the past of having a weaker impact due to passing the time. As if one walked in a surreal grayish world surrounded by gigantic trees and silence. And one would meet no living substance while walking on. Yet one is filled with the expectation of something is going to happen soon or you are waiting for someone. In fact, I have experienced such a sort of dream and by my opinion it would be the description of afterlife. Musically it is a perfect accompaniment and stimulus of your thoughts and desires reflecting upon divine world. Majestic, cathedral/catacombs/monastery drenched ambiances used to develop slowly being backed up by minimal rhythms, and coagulated sonic effects hanging either atop or in front of. It may be only the track called Brainstorming gives you a "false" impression about the direction of the whole outing because there is up the strong shuffle of galvanized rhythms. In overall, it is a blissful and frightening world simultaneously. It is also an excellent example of how minimally managed music can be emotionally highly overwhelming. By kindred souls I recommend listen to the aesthetic of such an Italian ambient juggernaut as Alie Die, and also the music of Globobscuro. Simply the greatest in its minimal magic realism. The collaborative issue (between German Lutz Thuns, and French artist TT-ram) is a part of the discography of Hortus Conclusus.

Walt Thisney – Spiryto (2017)

Bandcamp

Art music
Jazz noir
Alternative
Modern classical
Post-classical
Ambient
Downbeat
Crossover
Epic

Comment: yeah, this bunch of 6 tracks is truly suggestive due to its atmospheric threads and majestic, ornamental orchestrations based solely on the chords of an airy piano, muffled double bass, and octopus-shaped violins. It conquers both the realms of artsy slowed down jazzy glimpses and spellbinding modern classical progressions. Truly moody and time stopping as if the time got coagulated and then dropping down from the ceiling in an unhurried tempo. Indeed, it conjures up such monumental, thoroughly dreamy flickers within the listener in the way one used to experience such kind of wondrous beauty rarely. The result is a perfectly balanced remedy to arousing one's emotions and fantasies. That's the graceful simplicity that amplifies wonders. By contemporaneous artists the Portuguese artist's music who has released music under a bunch of well-known web-labels so far can be compared with some compositions by an Israeli artist, Wings Of An Angel. One of the best sonic fares from the previous year.

Roswell Conspiracy – Les Fragments Anodins (2007)

Abyssa

Ambient pop
Space pop
Electro-acoustic
Electronic music
Alternative
IDM
Sampledelic
Drone
Kraut-electro
Indietronica
Ambient drone
Post-rock

Comment: if to compare TT-ram and Lutz Thuns´ collaborative release Hypnosis (2017) to Roswell Conspiracy`s 8-notch outing Les Fragments Anodins I can assume both of them are suggestive enough ambient inflected releases though pushed in different directions and showcased with different accents. The recent one is clearly more pop oriented and do away with morbid dark ambient infections in overall. Yet the term “pop” within the last sentence does not suggest something decayed and inferior at all. More profoundly, it does mean melodic and harmonic and intriguing at the same time while moving on through its multi-layered path. Partly it can be compared to the artist`s compatriots The Air`s more experimental doings. However, Roswell Conspiracy goes certainly beyond the above described adjectives because of employing tight and sticky droning at Rien, for instance. At Non the artist goes into a spacey post-rock/indie electronic quest. Here and there the listener can partake in cool electro-acoustic embellishments, some shreds of samples, hypnotic muffled signals and arousing electronic effects which used to stir the rest of the structure of a composition in a dizzy way. Many compositions are wrapped up in enchanting hisses and microscopic noises. The pre-eminent outing is a part of the discography of Abyssa.

1/27/2018

The Hirundu – Pain Levels Of The Rich And Famous (2017)

Pitch And Putt

Dada music
Experimentalism
Avant-garde
Leftfield
Electronic music
Alternative
Singer-songwriter
Indie folk

Comment: recently we all got the sad announce that Mark E. Smith passed away. The true old-school (post-)punk leviathan who had been the synonym of stubbornness in music for the four decades. MES and The Fall had influenced an innumerable amount of artists including The Hirundu, and Johnny Crewdson behind it. I could say The Hirundu shows up the quality by blending together old and new tendencies and similarly to MES Johnny Crewdson fights against the stupidity and evil threads of the human race by employing incisive irony. What else could be the best weapon but irony and sarcastic approach? Similarly to The Fall it could be admitted about the music of The Hirundu it's always different, it's always the same. It does mean the scope of the sonic phenomena must be stylistically wide enough to drift freely within the borders. From uncanny piano music and energetic electro pop to guitar twangs filled with slight instability to more or less heavily twisted electronic music to mutant world music, and frequently pulling some elements out from one track to transfer them to another. However, I have never heard Crewdson of singing folk songs (it happens in one song though). He seems to reinvent himself with any brand new one. At Neeto The Wonder Wig Part II you can hear a zombie singing a lullaby to you. It's so cute, isn't it? In a word, Johnny did it again. Thereafter I recommend listen to The Fall's Perverted By Language (1983).