Recent Music Heroes

Comment: this handful of tracks is dedicated to one of the greatest, Alexander the Great who similarly to other outstanding rulers and generals spilled blood to fasten his name in the annals of the history. In fact, as a person he was driven by inferior characteristics like low self-esteem and later megalomania, he probably hated everyone and everything, obviously the teachings and ethics by the greatest one Aristotle didn't reach him. The people around him were just pawns to fulfil his own ambitions. Conceptually the purpose of the Swedish musician Henri Summanen's purpose is to fantasise about the feelings Alexander felt in these crucial moments while occupying new countries, territories and civilizations. Musically it is an epic expression through the mix of ennobling droning and shimmery stringed instruments and reverberant applications behind the sound. One can hear extended chords being stretched over the drones thereby building up an impressive mystical milieu. Furthermore, variegated sunshiny and shadowy elements allow a propulsive, dynamical sensation which overwhelms the course. Inevitably it goes beyond the borders of the aforementioned styles by straddling on more technical (and less emotive) approaches like sound art and electro-acoustic music. The enchanting outing is a part of the discography of a Russian, Svetlogorsk-based imprint, Østpreussen.

May HD – Sonho Dobrado (2019)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Experimentalism
Avant-garde
Electro-acoustic
Electronic music
Improvised noise
Turntablism

Comment: I definitely like this handful of tracks being released on a Chicago-based avant-garde/experimental music imprint, Pan Y Rosas Discos. An artist called May HD who exploits turntables and a microkorg synth builds up a whole imbued with some kind of dark matter, debris, crackles, sonic effects, haphazard samples and faint sounds. At times it is about abysmal ambient undercurrents, at times about black-hued yet quite light noisy incantations, at times about convulsive electronic and vowel-based iterations, at times about electro-acoustic music with obvious live touch (in fact, all the whole is improvised at a live session in Brazil). There is even up something which can be considered an off-kilter sort of hard/psych-rock. For Zappa or Captain Beefheart it would have been the case. As we have already experienced beyond the club culture turntablism as a sort of experimental genre is gloriously introduced by such agitated artists as Philip Jeck, Otomo Yoshihide, Janek Schaefer, Martin Tetreault, and Christian Marclay but May HD now with this outing could certainly be added to the noble list.

Alvin Curran – Reinier van Houdt – Dead Beats (2019)

Moving Furniture

Bandcamp

Modern classical
Contemporary classical
Piano music
Art music
Avant-garde
Improvised music
Experimentalism

Comment: piano music can be represented in quite disparate ways, one could find out different aspects and facets from within it. Given that a listener knows what he/she could expect from it the focus would be set up in a more straight way because the formal tissue of piano sounds is austere and may be even irritating (I have seen a research with the result the piano has the most irritating sound among the instruments). Because of that the role of represented patterns and imaginations of the listener do have a huge impact. Alvin Curran is an acknowledged avant-garde composer from USA by having been experimenting with different instruments and concepts for decades. Piano as his very first instrument to be acquainted with Alvin Curran's relation is something between love and hate, between fondness and repulsion. As a premise before the album to be listened it is intriguing and thereby positive. A listener can perceive lots of slamming series of high, even cutting notes and key changes and superimposed chords which are then traded for almost gravity-free hypnotic explorations throughout long minutes. For a younger generation, or for the audience who like shorter formats like EPs the release may be a challenge due to compositions extending up to a 13 minute or longer. However, those more calm compositions provide something we are done out of – it is silence, it is internal incantation, it is something truly halcyon and pristine. As we see it is possible to create silence artificially. Artistically. Etymologically the words seem to be related on the word "art". And that's it. Furthermore, in the recent everyday situation a well-composed suite can be considered an example of silence. Furthermore, art is silence even if its format may be something noisy – paradoxically it comes out that a noise is not the noise (anymore). Give me (more) choice to get drowned in (more) noise! The 5-notch issue is a part of the discography of Moving Furniture Records (also providing home place for such luminaries as Merzbow, and Machinefabriek).

7/06/2019

[Teaser of the day] Rene Kita - Ouija Wart

Archive.org

Freeformfreakout
Dada music
Sound collage
Avant-garde
Non-music
Chamber music
Electronic music
Sampledelic

Artist: Rene Kita

Release: Freakland Gazette

Label: Archive.org

Year: 2019

[Teaser of the day] Discontinuation Of Treatment - Avoid And Retreat

Indie rock
Coldwave
Alternative rock
Darkgaze
Spoken word
Post-punk

Artist: Discontinuation Of Treatment

Release: A Deep Remorse

Label: In Your Ears/Bandcamp

Year: 2019

[Teaser of the day] Won - Emptily

Nowaki Music

Acoustic pop
Art music
Improvised music

Artist: Won

Release: Emptiness

Label: Nowaki Music

Year: 2008

[Teaser of the day] Skala - Sea

Jamendo

Post-rock
Improvised music
Art rock
Fusion
Crossover
Free jazz
Avant-rock
Experimental rock

Artist: Skala

Release: Skalkulator

Label: Jamendo

Year: 2005

Takahiro Mukai – Gently Close The Mouth (2019)

Mahorka

Bandcamp

Experimental electronica
Experimental techno
Glitchtronica
Abstract electronica
Kraut-techno
Minimalism

Comment: there has been around one proverb by a nation: speaking can be considered as silver but muteness is gold. Indeed, if you have nothing reasonable to say then gently shut up your mouth and produce something even more beautiful – music. The Japanese artist's 6-notch release is a blissful touch of refined techno rhythms and more abstract pulsations and general electronic explorations. Indeed, minimalism as an approach and methodology is predominant over there. Takahiro Mukai takes enough time within the tracks for himself to fulfil his introverted ideas – indeed, it seems to me that his ideas are directed inside, it is rather contemplative than manipulating overtly with listeners' emotions. On the other side, one cannot exclude different sort of impressions either. He exploits custom-built circuit-bent devices to build up at times abrasive, at times more hushed compositions. There can be drawn parallels upon more abstract and cerebral (meta)-krautrockers like Konrad Schnitzler, and Asmus Tietchens. For instance, #412, and #413 are krautrock-driven though in an indirect sense. Indeed, it is a best part of music if the forms and formats are not taken up directly but using secondary variables and different sorts of extractions. The outing is a bit in the discography of Mahorka.

Recent Music Heroes

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7/07/2019

[Teaser of the day] Uton - Space For Kalki

[Teaser of the day] Talulah Lotus - The Robots

Anabasis – Alexander (2016)