Category: Format

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Jon Rose & Alvin Curran | Café Grand AbyssRer Megacorp (CD/DL) Musicians operating in the realm of instant synthesis (this usually translates as “finest improvisers”) are defined by the ability to exploit the elusive qualities of information overload. What appears as a chaotic, and ultimately insufferable cacophony to idle ears and brains transmits instead a refreshing sensation […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Gareth Davis + Duane Pitre | Nótt Midira (CD/DL) Not too long ago we had sung the virtues of clarinettist Gareth Davis while talking about Elliott Sharp’s Plastový Hrad. That bass clarinet is now thrown in a totally different context, one created by a continuous electronic drone. The engenderer of the latter – Duane Pitre […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Sleepland | Out of HueSpekk (CD/DL) This is Kengo Yonemura as Sleepland who has been creating delicate ambient works infused with drone since 2013. This new release in the perfectly curated and long-running series from Spekk, is a generous addition to their balanced roster of works that soothe, and stretch the imaginative world of intersections […]

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Visions | TemplesCyclic Law (CD/DL) The latest from Frederic Arbour, here aka Visions, is his latest disc, Temples. It is an atmospheric, almost gothic drone that emits through the air like microscopic droplets. Traces, which leads the charge builds adroitly in a dappled haze. Said to be a “hymn to lost civilisations” it finds its […]

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øjeRum | Without Blood The Sun Darkens Cyclic Law (CD/DL) Paw Grabowski presents an incredible limbed (wings and arms) analog collage to contemplate over the course of Without Blood the Sun Darkens, under his moniker øjeRum.  The run time, just under an hour, provides a cryptic expanse within which to lose the outside world – […]

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Michael Donnelly | Why So Mute, Fond Lover?Front & Follow (CD/CS/DL) The opening passage sort of lurks restlessly. This is the new release from Michael Donnelly on Manchester’s innovative Front & Follow. Within Motions Are Man there are seemingly sections to this five minute track that follow only Donnelly’s unscripted rules. The listener will appreciate […]

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Golden Chorale | Midnightself-released (CS/DL) Hailing from out of Raleigh, NC is John Mitchell, here under the guise of Golden Chorale for the first time releasing the tape Midnight in a first-run edition of only fifty copies. The six tracks run at about a half-hour and consist of machines and strings melding together a droopy […]

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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 […]

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Laura Luna Castillo | FolksonomiesCudighi Records (CS, DL) Strings and no-input in unison – the first track, ‘I See But Say Nothing’ of Folksonomies by Laura Luna Castillo takes the listener somewhere between a carnival and a forest cove.  Tidal wafts of electronic sine waves and disguised dub are paired with soft strings – ticking […]

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Llyn Y Cwn | Twll DuCold Spring (CD/DL) Aside from the monolithic legends posed by the title this is a 100% pure drone record worthy of your suspended attention. Benjamin Ian Powell’s (Llyn Y Cwn) sound and imagery are impeccably desolate, with this sensibility that a raging core is central and pulsating. This black hole […]

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Lucas Norer | Dispositionself-released (BK/USB/DL) This latest recording from Austrian a/v artist Lucas Norer, Disposition, is a creative salute to the largest open-air instrument in the world: the Heroes’ organ (built in 1931) in Kufstein Fortress, Austria. Washes of hiss and synthetic ambient at the outset lead into splintered passages that are fairly chill. Orgelwind, […]

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Escape From Warsaw | MateriaSanta Maria / Karol Su/Ka | Czas SnuZoharum (2xCD/DL) Since way back in the latter 80’s Polish sound artist Karol Suka has gone by a few different monikers, two of which occupy one of two separate discs as both Escape from Warsaw as well as Karol Su/ka w/Santa Maria (Marta Olszewska) […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Luís Fernandes | DemoraRoom40 (CD/DL) This is my first exposure to the work of Portugese sound artist Luís Fernandes. His sound is a dappled, abstract-static ambient with a side of electronica that comes unexpectedly between the frazzled Rising Edge and the flighty Fractured Harmony With Pulse. It’s a fascinating twofer that couldn’t be more opposed […]

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A conversation with The Corrupting Sea (aka Jason Lamoreaux), also labelrunner for Somewherecold Records, about his new Trilogy I series. TJ Norris/Toneshift: Hey, afternoon Jason, how are you doing and what’s up with you lately? Jason Lamoreaux/The Corrupting Sea/Somewherecold Records: Well, mostly spending my days recording, working on the record label, and getting things moving […]

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Jakob Rehlinger | PowehiArachnidiscs (CD/DL) The title is derived from the Hawaiian phrase for the name given to the first black hole to be photographed, here as interpreted by Quill Hardy’s near embryonic coverart. Jakob Rehlinger‘s Powehi are a half dozen tracks with an un/familiar flash to the past and the future of a dialed-in […]

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Inner Vision Laboratory | ContinuumZoharum (CD/DL) Karol Skrzypiec‘s vision starts with a narrative about the psychological challenges in the purpose of life, but goes outside the realm with futuristic themes in A Perception Redefined. This is a synthesis of sci-fi soundtracks, a new age twist and open-ended ambient. It’s hazy in this embryonic stasis of […]

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Seth Nehil | Skew / FlumeV A N I L L A (CD/DL) This release comprises two EPs: Skew (2014) and Flume (2017) from multimedia artist Seth Nehil. Having worked with Nehil over the years (as presented, as observer, as collaborator) I’ve realized that what really makes him stand-out as a singular artist is his […]

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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 […]

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Massimo Toniutti | Cava xi.xi.86Ferns (CD/DL) These refurbished sounds originally recorded in-between 1986-87 are from Italian experimenter Massimo Toniutti (we covered his Il Museo Selvatico here last year). His use of metallic objects and everyday instruments, fused in mysterious ways, is one of multilayered distinctions. A special thanks to Ferns and to other curatorial imprints […]

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SPUN ‘ROUND LIKE A RECORD: While things are are changing in the environment, and this is likely going to be one of the hottest years on record, we pause to take in the sounds of Summer. So, yes, even though we have abandoned social media altogether – we are glad you joined us here, our […]

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Tag Cloud | Slow LightFuzzy Panda Recording Company (CS/DL) The latest from Chris Videll as Tag Cloud encapsulates four works that are at once a step out of time, and its quite peculiar to venture to guess which way they point. Slow Light verges on the psychedelic, something shadowed, something Moog. It’s a bit of […]