Joe Colley | Psychic Stress SoundtracksMisanthropic Agenda (LP/DL) Joe Colley is a superlative composer, yet few refer to his output often enough. One of his “faults” is the use of untrendy instrumentation to delineate the themes of interest: essentially, “activate a consciousness set apart from a rational understanding in a different way from visual or verbal means” as […]
Laurisilva by Laura Agnusdei and Mare di Dirac’s Ophite Diagram were both recently released. This pair of Italo acoustic-electronic releases offer strategic sound art which incorporates wind instruments, mixed with electronic processing. Agnusdei collaborates with several contributing artists who play traditional instruments. Mare di Dirac employs the use of handmade instruments. While the theme of […]
Still und Dunkel | AbandonedHallow Ground (LP/CD/DL) From the opening seconds of searing harsh noise rasp like a contact mic applied to a sheet of metal unto cat-claw-on-a-chalkboard effect, through electronic swells and resting in a spell of quick-clicking, Abandoned (English, ‘quiet and dark’) by Still und Dunkel rips through dynamic (d)evolutionary spaces. I should […]
Funeral Souvenir | La Noche del AnhídridoVerlag System (LP/DL) This re-issue of an original 1987 six track quintessential Spanish industrial noise tape is further fueled with a peppering of other re-issues. Totaling ten tracks, the additional tracks are taken from compilation releases from 2009-2011. With cover art re-contextualizing Ed Clark’s original photo of Graham W. Jackson […]
A duo of November releases show the strong and distinct presence by two interesting women who bring something new to the international experimental music circuit. The contributions herein addressed a diverse range from white-noise to trance-ambient and favor longer form tracks. Their spectrum runs from linear to repetitious in noteworthy serenity; electronic and highly processed […]
Jen Kutler Disembodied Eyevee (LP/DL) Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist and performer from upstate New York. She uses sounds and objects that are sexual or feminine in nature for sound sources and then modifies and transforms these sounds using outside means of electronics. For her past works she has used a modified dildo fashioned […]
Thomas Brinkman | RaupenbahnEditions Mego (LP/DL) Somewhere between music ethnomusicology and sociological study are Thomas Brinkman’s field recordings of 1700’s looms. Entitled, Raupenbahn and recorded in hi definition in 2017 and 2014 (from the Central Museum of Textiles, Poland), these rhythmic noise tracks resonate profoundly in an organic ‘pre-industrial’ context. Not only in their rhetorical […]
Swans Leaving Meaning Young God Records (LP/CD/DL) Few bands have successfully navigated through such a long history of stylistic changes, personnel upheavals and emotional shifts as Swans. It helps that now after so many eras and bands and genres head Swan boss Michael Gira is officially christening what we have known for decades. That Swans […]
Just as the temperatures begin to cool some, the ears begin to warm to what’s coming next. Four phenomenal experimental electronic albums from around the globe all release on Friday October 25th, 2019, oh – that’s today! Giulio Aldinucci | No Eye Has an Equal99 Chants (CS/DL) No Eye Has an Equal by Giolio […]
Dans les arbres | VolatilSOFA (CD/DL) Volatile may refer to this single track album’s recording situation – live, a first for Dans les arbres. The prolifically touring quartet offers a recording set of fifty three minutes and change. Though the structured improv is airy, spacious and largely sparse, there isn’t a dull moment. Right away […]
Ruins | Madea/Tide: Sound And Image Research Volume OneMusic From Memory (LP/DL) Italian new wave/avant synth duo Ruins (not to be confused with Japanese avant prog duo Ruins) 1984 album Marea / Tide: Sound And Image Research Volume 1 is one of those albums that has lingered on the shelves of certain elitist audiophiles, […]
Aki Onda & Paul Clipson | Make Visible The Ghosts audioMER. (LP) *TAKATAKATAKAKTAKATAKA* Shadow rakes across the pavement starts in medias res, unexpectedly, without any introduction and we are violently thrown into a hectic sonic situation where pulsing sounds, and deep dark drones manifest their presence in a sinister way. We are immediately acquainted with […]
ESSi | Vital CreaturesRamp Local (LP/CD/DL) Brooklyn duo Essi’s debut album Vital Creatures is an impressive first offering. The duo consisting of virtuoso guitarist and vocalist Jessica Ackerley and drummer Rick Daniel escorts the listener through 14 tracks that confound genres. I am hard-pressed to categorize the music contained here, moods shift, tones weave in […]
Telefon Tel Aviv | Dreams Are Not EnoughGhostly International (DL/LP/CD) ‘Defiantly spaced-out post-wave…’ ‘Gravelly loops/samples.’ ‘Hydra; downtempo aesthetic.’ ‘Velvety and ghastly vox…’ etc. are some of my notes in reflection from listening to Dreams Are Not Enough. Even prior to the full-length release, the leader single track a younger version of myself has 22K+ streams […]
Ghost in the Clocks | AnoiceRicco (LP, CD, DL) From Anoice (care of Ricco Records – Tokyo) comes the 5th installment of a cinematic instrumental post-rock saga of their own creation. Members of this super-group have since made worlds of their own as solo artists but ‘Ghost in the Clocks’ is announced as a follow-up […]
Fahmi Mursyid | One Instrument SessionsOne Instrument (LP/DL) From Java, via the One Instrument record label, heralds the deep sensual organic compositions of the Fahmi Mursyid sessions. Save for the press release, a listener may not comprehend that each of these six arrangements consist of one instrument each (all traditional Sundanese) – a strict guideline […]
François J. Bonnet + Stephen O’Malley | CyleneEditions Mego (2xLP) Shadow and twang gently emanate, wafting in soft atmospheric drones as Première Noire starts its ghostly cycle. The placid howl as shaded cadences swirl, and the album starts to set sail, taking hold of the inner ear on Erosion Always Wins. French author/composer François J. […]
Nathaniel Young | Accosting Form, Pure IntentMysteries of the Deep (LP/CD/DL) We are always excited to hear someone’s public debut, and this is the first-ever I’ve also been exposed to from Mysteries of the Deep. Nathaniel Young‘s Accosting Form, Pure Intent at first reminds me of the first time I heard either Jan Jelinek or […]
Todd Anderson-Kunert | ConjecturesRoom40 (LP/DL) Starting from its very title, the previous album by Todd Anderson-Kunert I had a chance to scrutinize – 2017’s When There Is Nothing Left To Say (Nonlinear) – already expressed the Australian’s prompt perception of what should be obvious to any authentically conscious being: the human language is a frustratingly […]
Silva Datum Musica | Plein AirGruen (LP/DL) With each names for trees, this latest collaboration between Tim Collins, Reiko Goto, Chris Malcolm (here as Silva Datum Musica) is a unique journey into the great outdoors via a custom-built plant-driven synthesizer – you heard that right. An instrument that “uses scientific sensors and software programming to […]
loscil | EquivalentsKranky (2xLP/CD/DL) One of my most important role models growing up was none other than Alfred Stieglitz. Not only was he an incredible photographer, but also a curator, and for many years I too, as a photographic artist dabbled in the medium (of curation). The man laid so much groundwork for conceptual photography […]
Hüma Utku | GnosisKarlrecords (LP/DL) “Pilgrimage chronicles, transmuted into mesmerizing sounds” Hüma Utku is an electronic composer hailing from Istanbul, Turkey and currently based in Berlin, Germany. Her work involves exploring the possibilities of how sound textures and rhythm can be used to evoke a sense of ancient within abstract electronics. Having released material under […]
Catherine Christer HennixThe Deontic Miracle – Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan RokuBlank Forms (2xLP/DL) This latest release is the first-ever surfacing of a work by Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix recorded in 1976 (at Moderna Museet), continuing a series that kickstarted last year by Blank Forms (Brooklyn, NY) with Selected Early Keyboard Works which […]
Adrian Corker | Music for Lock GroovesSN Variations (LP/DL) Mechanical arrangement met with organic live instrumentation casts a hazy blur of cognitive dissonance about Adrian Corker’s latest, ‘Music for Lock Grooves.’ There is, in the perfectly crafted mix, a presence of both human chaotic as well as machine chaotic. What the under-spelled atmospheres grant as […]
Monocube & Troum | Contemplator CaeliTransgredient Records (LP/DL) A first time collaboration between Andrzej Gladuszewski (Monocube) and duo Martin Gitschel and Stefan Knappe (Troum) that at first sounds like a space shuttle landing in a Bavarian village where the essence of folk music effervesces as ginormous engine thrusters enter new territory. There’s a disturbance in […]
Oren Ambarchi | Simian AngelEditions Mego (LP/DL) Two nice and lengthy leftfield tracks from Oren Ambarchi with the assistance of Cyro Baptista (percussion/voice). Palm Sugar Candy is a rather slow and meandering inner-thought charged piece with an curling synth drone and an open village folk tom tom. In its muted wash of faded neural vitality […]
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma | Tracing Back The RadianceMexican Summer (LP/DL) For over a decade Brooklyn musician and ceramicist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has brought us all sorts of aural goodies, collaborations and experimental ventures. Tracing Back The Radiance (his third full-length on NY’s Mexican Summer imprint) is his latest trio of pieces that instead of falling between the […]
Alessandro Adriani | Morphic Dreams Stroboscopic Artefacts (LP/CD/DL) Returning to the Stroboscopic Artefacts label with his sophomore LP, Alessandro Adriani offers a thoroughly enjoyable mix of mid-paced techno, EBM and beat-less excursions into ambient territory. It’s an album that is full of analogue warmth and catchy arpeggios, borrowing from dance music’s history but served up […]
Leif Elggren | Motor For An Unknown Vehicle (Opening Of The Grave) Fragment Factory (LP/DL) “Sound sculpturing” Motor For An Unknown Vehicle (Opening Of The Grave), is a title that gives a hint about the heart (aka the motor) of a vehicle, unknown – so far – to us. Just from that, I had a […]
Dots | Dots Astral Industries (2xLP/DL) It’s been twenty-two years since its initial release (on Rather Interesting), but this ’94 classic self-titled work by Dots (Noel Summerville, Uwe Schmidt) gets a classy remastered double vinyl treatment by Astral Industries, and this is the first time this appears on wax (due July 15). This is as […]
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