Recent Music Heroes

8/05/2018

Ana Bogner – Multiple Proportions (2015)

Headphonica

Bandcamp

Singer-songwriter
Art pop
Drone pop
No Wave
Avant-garde
Experimental pop
Minimalism

Comment: Ana Bogner is an artist from Berlin, Germany whose 4-notch outing had been released on Headphonica. By listening to it I can imagine she is a previous punk who has made many further steps on to land in that uncanny, deeply inside twisted whole. She used to sing in a decelerated mode about her demons, blurred surrealistic dreams, internal battles regarding life and love being backed up by sparse throbbing drones, lone guitar chords and sporadic field recording snippets. Musically it is all but multiple in its general variation and proportion. By kindred souls there can be drawn parallels upon such names as Lydia Lunch, Jarboe, H Stewart, Ludus.

The Organdicks – Music for Drooling Idiots with Trendy Beards (2003)

Silo

Electronic music
Alternative
Experimental pop
Primitronica
Minimal synth
Dada music
Breakcore
Electro

Comment: if you hear the artist name Organdicks for the first time I guess you may think of it either as a stupid one or an act with intention to provoke. Provoking whatever, provoking whoever. Lots of frantic beats with acidic fringes and internal drones, loose thematic developments being strengthened by some iterative motives chiming like an old school game (Salivating Acid, Chin Melting sounds like playing a lighter version of Bomberman). Although this 14-notch release was issued 15 years ago on Silo the stylistic meaning of it may have been changed into a poppy one. Into an artsy poppy one adhered to conventional sonic patterns while undermining it at the same time. So it is a love-hate case, the course of living one's life. In a softer version, it is just a case of reflecting pop music tendencies through a refined tongue-in-cheek attitude. Give me some dada! Give me some gaga! And the year of 2003 had been a happy span to me. The life was more wild and spontaneous with fewer regulations. The world was not so polarised and un-natural, there was much hope in the air. I have had no problem to put it into my personal context.

Demons That Drove – Bakteria Type 6 (2007)

Noise-Joy

Noise
Avant-garde
Experimentalism
Post-industrial
Abstract
Non-music
Drone

Comment: this 7-track outing is something reflecting upon something being truly unique and primal and dangerous – the bacteria. Krister Bergman aka Demons That Drove has paid tributes for them. You can hear whistling drones and cicada-alike chiming and sporadic noisy outbursts like sonic filament of the bacterial nucleus code of Type 6. Of course, it is interesting to know what does mean every sound you can hear from it. Is it a certain characteristic of the bacteria or does it hint at a specific activity? These microscopic beings with puzzling taxonomy have been and probably still are the biggest threat to the race of human being. The antibiotics do lose effectiveness due to an over-consuming. However, the pattern of many bacterial and viral entities is visually stunning. Noise-Joy has been the domestic imprint for those depictions for years.

Shokushu – Reverberations Of The World (2012)

Sirona-Records

Bandcamp

Electronic music
Alternative
Chilltronica
Mood music
Kosmische Musik
New Wave
Ambient
Krautrock
Musique concrète
Organic electronica

Comment: these 26 minutes to be embedded in eight tracks create different moods through bubbling electronic explorations and serene chill explorations. But not only – you can hear an even more technical approach to it – a track called Brainforest chimes like being created by someone from the so-called German Kling-Klang mindset. At the same time it is wrapped up by organic, true sounds yet as the result it is as if coming from an insular, paradisiacal area inhabited by beautiful and sensual people having no idea about self-destructive shit and stupidity of the rest of the world. And the course goes on and on except the sounds of the Kosmische Musik to be added to the mix, especially sultry and spaced-out imbued parallel universes reminding of Tangerine Dream. At times those halcyon ambiances are interfered with (un)expected incisive, acid throwing synthesisers. The enchanting release is a part of a prolific French imprint, Sirona-Records led by Arnaud Barbe aka Pollux.

8/02/2018

Non Dolet – Dreamlover EP (2018)

Dusted Wax Kingdom

Electronic music
Alternative
Darkwave
Neoclassical
Art pop
Trip-hop

Comment: Non Dolet is an artist from Russia who did contact with me for approximately 5 years ago. Now she has released a 4-track issue under the high-praised Bulgarian imprint Dusted Wax Kingdom. I shall have to mention her sound has been progressed over the years and it is a decent listening experience. By its mood, it is a bit darkened and murky though giving no whole hand to it. The listener can see saturated violet-tinged scenes behind the curtains where melancholy and sadness are formed into the state of art. Those majestic orchestrations (you can hear intriguing diffused melodica drones and faint whistles within it) and slowly evolving rhythmic patterns (a decelerated rock and roll beat which is called trip-hop is clearly drawn out) will result in stretched yet a bit obsessive compositions which look at you as if being a human being once having been existed. And hint at you you're lost, you're a ghost, you have no way to return. You will not bum out and get bummed out. The music as a state of art may be exceedingly delightful but undoubtedly this sort of music arouses one's sensations even more. A great listening.

Multi-Panel – Rekordgate II (2018)

Bandcamp

Indietronica
Electronic
Alternative pop
Indie pop
Art pop
IDM
DIY
Ambient pop
Plinkerpop

Comment: indeed, it is time to give a comment on Ludo Maas' sequel to an album, Rekordgate I which had been released in March 2018. Similarly to it one can hear nylon-tinged acoustic guitars and bubbling electronic beats and wobbly synthesised sounds popping out for a while. In fact, Ludo Maas sings here as well though it is shardly decipherable because of being catatonic and pushed to the background. On the other side, it is not an example of shoegaze at least (or at least, it is the one and only common thread). However, in comparison to the previous notch it seems to be more restrained and phlegmatic as if coming through the mindset of a person of having suffered depression before it, he or she is yet fragile enough to trudge forward with more steady steps; for sure, it is the artist's choice as a step to go on and release brand new ones. Later on, listeners would give a retrospective estimation about each release within the series. Let's wait for the third one.