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OBERMAN KNOCKS - 13th Smallest

2009-12-14T19:34:00.005-03:00

Exciting new prospects from Andrea Parker's newly minted Aperture imprint, dispensing its first CD release with Oberman Knocks '13th Smallest'. Born as a label for conceptual and experimental electronics, Aperture promises great things with this debut album of frozen soundscapes and post industrial textures from Oberman who has previously released on Static Caravan as Alkin Engineering. Moving stealthily into the kind of abstracted forms and stoic structures usually inhabited by Autechre or the Skam label, opener 'Bronic' is a creepy introduction to his world, with obtuse rhythm mechanics forming complex patterns to a backdrop of overcast drones and pressurised atmospherics. Working with a surprisingly limited setup of well chosen software, minidisc and a cheap microphone, Oberman crafts an impressively gnarled beast on 'Motor Sepple Freak' distinctly reminiscent of Ae's Chiastic Slide period, with the haunting addition of mangled vocals or on 'Indomine Rhittiger Plans By Four' an uncanny knack for lop sided rhythm construction to match his peers. 'Lackey Remind' churns up silicon with a fierce attitude, sending lumpen kicks docking with precise metallic surfaces and spacious arrangements, or slowing down to quasi industro-dubstep tempos on 'Anterbine On Hote'. For the furthest reaching dancefloors, 'Holtzen Anger Mire' could serve some purpose, finding a regular rhythm and passing it through ever encroaching walls of deconstructed digital tones for a intense floor experience. Needless to say, it's an engrossing listen from start to finish, placing the listener in an entirely artificial environment utterly devoid of any immediate emotional warmth or conventional sonic imagery. Ears attuned to Autechre, Ben Frost or the Digi-Jap sound of NHK or Atak records will probably find a new hero here. Highly Recommended! Boomkat

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OBERMAN KNOCKS - 13th Smallest

MILINAL - Honey Meridian

2009-12-14T19:06:00.006-03:00

Audiobulb continue to offer up interesting developments on the electronica scene with this unusual new long-player from Milinal. Honey Meridian asserts a sound that's all its own, slicing through filtered, ambient recordings drawn from instruments and environmental noises. 'Inside Sea Shells' offers a pop song of sorts, glitching through obliterated vocals in an oddly haunting, romanticized way, but subsequent tracks take us towards a more experimental set of sounds. The clicky guitar string dissections of 'Bur In Sky Ya' are as ear-ticklingly tuneful as they are elaborate and 'Stereo Fall Of The Leaves' is a wonderfully immersive soundscape in the Tim Hecker mold, full of dense, foggy noise formations and pensive electroacoustic treatments. Recommended. Boomkat

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MILINAL - Honey Meridian

CELER - In Escaping Lakes

2009-12-14T09:52:00.003-03:00

It's becoming increasingly difficult to write about Celer's music. The duo's output has been coming our way at a steady rate in recent months and their music seems to be converging on the extremes of ambient fragility. Far away from the more usual drone recordings that come our way, Celer's music is incredibly bold in its gentleness and the demands it makes on you as a listener. There's a lot going on over the course of this forty minutes, and to get the most out of it you'll have to tune in carefully, but even the most casual level of exposure to this music seems to slow down time. The dynamic range stretches between quietness and lulled imperceptibility, wafting in and out of earshot unless you really crank the volume and it's this coquettish, elusive quality that makes Celer so magical, and places them on a different plane to most other practitioners currently operating in a similar field. While comparisons to Stars Of The Lid and Stephan Mathieu have previously been thrown around these pages, the sheer enigmatic stillness and overwhelming ambiguity of this music makes them a whole other prospect. Highly recommended, as ever. Boomkat

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CELER - In Escaping Lakes

Ryonkt - Small Conversations

2009-12-12T09:42:00.006-03:00

Ryonkt is the nom de plume adopted by Ryo Nakata who operates the Slow Flow label based from his home base in Sapporo, Japan and who creates refined ambient music using guitar and computer. Very much a companion recording to Walder's Moments, Small Conversations wraps four long-form movements into a succinct, thirty-seven-minute package. It's next to impossible for one not to be reminded of Celer while listening to Ryonkt's material, even if his radiant, shimmering tracks are on the whole slightly more assertive and bold. Experimedia pitches the release as an example of “modern classical ambient,” a description that isn't wrong necessarily but perhaps a bit misleading. Or, to put it another way, Small Conversations is “modern classical ambient” to the same degree that a protoypical Celer recording would be. As such, even though a querulous orchestral theme does rear its head near the end of the second track, “Synphony” [sic], it would be more accurate to describe Small Conversations as ambient drones of meditative and crystalline character. It's also lovely, as shown by “Toy Camera,” which shimmers in place like a gently swinging hydro wire, and by “Aurora,” wherein a bright tinkle punctuates elongated tonal whispers. 'Small Conversations' will fit perfectly in one's collection next to albums by Celer and Phill Niblock. Textura

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Ryonkt - Small Conversations

KHATE - Pareidolia

2009-12-11T18:05:00.005-03:00

The Richmond, Virginia based SMTG Limited label pluck out a real treat for all fans of low-lit drone electronics with the debut full length release from Khate. Hailing from the same district as the label itself, Khate has attracted attention for her live performances, where she combines circuit bent toys, synths, drum machines and other sound making equipment to brew an ominous brand of ambience, at times reminding us of Mika Vainio or the ghostly vistas of Deathprod. To start the darkness 'Additives' feeds classic sci-fi atmospherics inherited from Delia Derbyshire through analog oscillator tones and creeping synth pads. 'Autumn' crafts delicate drone environments with wispily resonant distortion and waves of static, while 'Liquid' lightens the mood slightly with spherical bell tones and sea-sick rhythms oddly reminiscent of Moondog. 'The Slender Man' again sinks back into the murk, featuring silvery synth tones peering through the darkness with the feeling of Mordant Music's 'The Tower' project, leaving the closing highlight 'Comforting The Meat' to incorporate cinematic string samples of the Caretaker variety with creaking electronics rendered from some unknown source. Unlike Mika Vainio or Delia Derbyshire, Khate's sound doesn't rely on well-trained dynamics to create her sounds, it feels more of an experimental and improvised approach and works well in crafting lo-fi and slightly uncomfortable background atmospheres in the truest sense of the "ambient" term. An amazing debut - grab a copy while you can. Boomkat
"Amazing music"

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KHATE - Pareidolia

THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - Erotikon

2009-12-10T20:08:00.005-03:00

Jorge Mantas follows up his Cronica debut album Musicamorosa with this brand new selection of micro-drones and digitised textural ambience. As with the last one, Mantas' leanings toward befuddling conceptual presentation obscures his point slightly - the explanatory blurb surrounding his last album strived to link his music to Proust, while this time around the only context you get is a salacious chunk of prose about some saucy business or other whose link to the music remains abstract and intangible. Whatever the themes presiding over this record are intended to be, the music is full of mystery and wistfulness. In its early stages the album delivers piano tones glistening brightly through the filtered static on 'Aysha' and entangled signals stewing in the watery tonalities of 'Blumarine'. On 'Alba' Mantas incorporates an excerpt from the 1860 recording of 'Au Clair De Lune', thought to be the very first audio document of a human voice. Uncannily, the ruptured, hauntingly broken sound of the recording chimes with the ethereal qualities running through Mantas' music. Boomkat

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THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - Erotikon

TETUZI AKIYAMA + TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA - Semi-Impressionism

2009-12-10T12:31:00.003-03:00

A powerful three-part set of electroacoustic improvisations from two of Japan's finest experimental musicians: guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama and that famed exponent of the no-input mixing board , Toshimaru Nakamura. This latest long-player commences with the fluttering of pure, high frequency tones laced with complex, scratchy undertones. Akiyama's guitar interjections bring a real sense of warmth to this stream of soft yet austere noise, keeping a low enough profile to fit in with the micro-sonic palette yet proving lyrical enough to lend a Derek Bailey-esque quality to certain passages. During the second track the dynamics occasionally resemble the earliest output of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborations, where Akiyama's avant-garde blues phrasings substitute for Sakamoto's open-ended piano emissions. A third and final piece occupies almost twenty-five minutes, arriving with more concentrated emphasis on Akiyama's meandering articulations, and correspondingly, Nakamura's electronics toughen up, arriving in more concentrated and heavily modulated blasts. Recommended. Boomkat

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TETUZI AKIYAMA + TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA - Semi-Impressionism

ANDUIN - Abandoned In Sleep

2009-12-09T20:03:00.005-03:00

For his second album Jonathan Lee draws on two years of recording and performance - and it's not just his own material that's used for the record either. 'Abandoned In Sleep' features studio recordings, sample edits and collaborative work with artists including Xela, Jasper TX, Svarte Greiner, Stephen Vitiello and Gareth Davis among others. This album is all about dark, nocturnal ambience and combines a variety of half-dreamed soundscapes together for every track: Xela's falsetto murmurings clash with deep synth swells and scratchy, rhythmically organised field recordings on 'The Equal Of God', before distant footsteps and what sounds like a Doppler effected harmonica drape 'Contents Of A Black Box' in a kind of doomy, sub-bass buffeted blues feel. Chugging drones and low frequency bowed strings arise on 'Our Future Is A Debt', lacing the soundscape with rattling sonic detritus. Rumbling and layered bass exercises tend to be at the heart of this record, and there's none more haunting than 'Autumn Looming', an album highlight that plays to Anduin's greatest strengths - jostling rhythmic loops made from interrupted electronics and clattering incidental sounds merging into a sludgy dark ambience that punds irregularly with thunderous bass drum hits, making for one of the most sonically rich entries on the album. More haunting still is the Dag Rosenqvist-aided 'Labyrinthian Void', an all-encompassing turbine hum of low-end presence mixed in with shoots of distortion and squeaky door hinges. The CD edition comes with a further two bonus cuts: 'Filed Away' (an installation for Manchester's Startrunning) and 'Black River', a live performance with Svarte Greiner that closes the album with an immense nightmarish exchange of tones - like ships' horns sounding off through fog. A quietly epic, dense and harrowing sonic experience - do not miss. Boomkat

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ANDUIN - Abandoned In Sleep

Celer - Close Proximity And The Unhindered Care-All

2009-12-07T11:34:00.003-03:00

'Close proximity and the unhindered care-all' is the latest offering from musical duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long a.k.a Celer. I don't think Celer are capable of making a bad record with this latest offering being no exception. As is often the case with the likes of Growing and such, Celer very rarely drift from their comfort zone but they do what they do so well that I could enjoy numerous installments of what is essentially the same thing, beautifully realised and confidently delivered ambient drone. Using processed strings, pianos, regional ﬁeld recordings, and electronics: Celer compose wonderfully drifting ambience of the sort that can only be truely appreciated quietly, at home. Using the simple mechanics of ambient drone music Celer have an uncanny ability to communicate all kinds of thoughts and emotions whilst quietly send you of into a better head space. 'Close proximity and the unhindered care-all' is yet another fine example of these two love birds at play. NormanRecords

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Celer - Close Proximity And The Unhindered Care-All

The Lickets – They Turned Our Desert Into Fire

2009-12-07T10:10:00.004-03:00

They Turned Our Desert Into Fire differs from the other album in length and in at times being slightly more ponderous and restrained, as demonstrated by “Butterfly Beach,” a meditative setting of seaside drift, and the seductively-brooding medieval folk setting “Clairvoyant Perception of the Unseen Unicorn.” Like a bucolic and peaceful trek through the countryside, “Ilyushin Il-76” is downright jaunty, while “Second Sight Procession,” untethered from any earthly mooring, glides like a shuttle through the upper spheres for a trippy thirteen minutes. Creaks and flutterings resound against a backdrop of acoustic strums and finger-picking in “Festival on the River of the Frozen Moon,” a beautiful, funereal dirge for cello and flute. Mention must be made, too, of “The Heron & the Hummingbird,” whose elegant, serpentine weave of cello and acoustic guitars casts an irresistibly hypnotic spell. The second disc also boasts one of the trio's most ear-catching pieces and undoubtedly its most epic to date: the twenty-one minute “Endless Migration.” Against a shimmering sea of sitar tones and string washes, flute and cello melodies intertwine in an ecstatic daze, suspending time in the process. When the piece moves into its second half, it burrows even deeper into its oceanic mass, becoming ever more awe-inspiring as it does so. Transcendental and transporting, the material collected on these companion releases achieves a seldom-heard reconciliation between improv-inspired exploration and structural coherence that's difficult to achieve, even if The Lickets makes doing so appear rather effortless. With the material coming at the listener in wave upon remarkable wave, the discs provide an incredible two-hour listening experience, and the releases constitute a major accomplishment on the band's part. Textura

The Lickets – They Turned Our Desert Into Fire

HEATHER WOODS BRODERICK - From The Ground

2009-11-27T20:19:00.003-03:00

The sister of office favourite Peter Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick steps into the limelight with this hugely impressive solo debut. On 'From The Ground', Heather is ably assisted by her multi-talented sibling, who records, produces and contributes various instrumental elements to the songs. These two are regular collaborators, appearing together in both Efterklang's touring band and in Kill Rock Stars trio Horse Feathers, but it's here that Heather's songwriting receives the attention it deserves. Mixing beautiful post-folk ballads with moments of neo-classical ambience, From The Ground is a thing of tremendous sonic depth, but its success all boils down to the magic that happens when Heather picks up her acoustic guitar and sings: 'Cottonwood Bay' and 'Back Room' have a sublime, magical simplicity to them, and the piano-driven title track perfectly underlines the melodic astuteness of her compositional abilities. Through these pieces she sounds like a missing link between Cat Power and Hope Sandoval, but threaded in between are slightly more meandering, atmospheric outings like the dusky soundscaped epic 'For Misty' and the almost Satie-esque 'Left' - both of which are draped in Peter's always-exceptional string arrangements. From The Ground might just be one of the year's best debuts - one that establishes a considerable new talent, emerging from a family with no short supply of the stuff. Highly Recommended. Boomkat

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HEATHER WOODS BRODERICK - From The Ground

CV313 - Subtraktive

2009-11-26T19:12:00.002-03:00

*Features the original version of "subtraktive" re-mastered with 3 new mixes from Intrusion and Soultek* Previously released as a super limited CDr in 2007 and vinyl in 2008, Stephen Hitchell's slow moving dub-ambient composition 'Subtraktive' is now released for the downloaders backed with three exclusive mixes. The original is a classic of the Echospace catalogue, merging beatless misty dawn atmospheres with an aura of heavy influences, while the brand new 'Intrusion Twilight Dub' adds a KILLER throbbing 4/4 bass and reverb effects. Intrusion's 'Path To Zion Dub' eases into a bobbing steppers house pattern with currents of organic percussion flowing with an effortless late-night elegance and Soultek's 'Morning Dub' finishes the set on a craftily stepped house session, like a Rhythm & Sound tape stretched out on a Jamaican beach until the edges begin to fray and curl unpredictably. Gorgeous stuff - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Boomkat

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CV313 - Subtraktive

CALIKA - Slack Jaw

2009-11-26T19:09:00.004-03:00

Last heard via that other great avenue for new electronica, Audiobulb, Brighton's Calika returns on Highpoint Lowlife with five classy productions: 'Slack Jaw' chops craftily through splashy breakbeats and dark, chopped chord sequences - inevitably raising some of those old Four Tet comparisons, but rather than relying on sample dissection the tracks here are defined by intricate editing and tricky programming. 'Crome Yellow' is especially fluent and incisive, cutting up those drums in fine style while strange detuned melodies warp and bend around them. The EP closes strongly too, with the beautifully wrung out strings and dub-tinged guitar phrasings of 'To Hold You'. Recommended. Boomkat

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CALIKA - Slack Jaw

SIGUR ROS - Gobbledigook Remixes

2009-11-24T20:45:00.004-03:00

Making an unlikely appearance on Kompakt, Sigur Ros present remixed versions of the lead track from their most recent album. First up is the Gluteus Maximus remix, which introduces itself via a protracted flow of isolated harmonised vocals and fluid currents of ambient sound. Eventually, the inevitable 4/4 house beat shows up and the remainder of the production is a highly effective, carefully sculpted percussive affair, only letting the occasional glimmer of vocals into earshot. The other mix slows down the urgency levels but represents a more even-handed infusion of the original materials with electronic beat programming. Boomkat

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SIGUR ROS - Gobbledigook Remixes

ZELIENOPLE - Give It Up

2009-11-23T17:12:00.002-03:00

This unbelievable album from Chicago's Zelienople evokes the spirit of some of the most treasured music we've come to know over the years, fusing in elements of Talk Talk at their most washed-out, early Bark Psychosis and the narcotic sweeps of Slowdive fused in with the smoky menace of Bohren and Der Club of Gore, Angelo Badalamenti and the darkest nightscapes of David Lynch. Album opener "Aging" shrouds a veil of mystery over dusted instrumentation that's somehow both evocative of vast abandoned landscapes and the most intangible and detailed abstractions brought on by incurable insomnia. It's that 'epic' evocation of intimacy that's so distinctive about the whole album, utilising that same sumptuous, slowly-evolving methodology that defined the seminal 'Scum' EP Bark Psychosis released almost 20 years ago. 'Can't Stop' introduces skittering percussion and even hazier arrangements, building from a quietly menacing drone to an almost hallucinatory tapestry of sounds, but its "I Can Put All My Faith In Her" that crafts the formula to its most affecting, narrowing itself to a focused acoustic arrangement that's more conventionally song-like, with all those enveloping signatures cleverly and gradually submerging you deeper into its murky waters. There's something unspeakably magical about the way this band somehow alchemise familiar components into this deep, almost haunting mass of sound, making for an album that's virtually impossible to categorise but which will no doubt end up taking up one of those hallowed spots in your collection reserved for the most special, moving records you feel the rest of the world just couldn't possibly understand. Immense. Boomkat

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ZELIENOPLE - Give It Up

PETER BRODERICK & MACHINEFABRIEK - Blank Grey Canvas Sky

2009-11-17T19:42:00.006-03:00

Rotterdam's Rutger Zuydervelt has previously worked with Peter Broderick on the Machinefabriek 3"CD Huis, although for this collaboration there's a more even distribution of work. Zuydervelt's heavily processed drone-weaving is countered by luscious acoustic instrumentation, but importantly, none of it feels tacked on, and these two prolific artists make a good job of integrating their respective approaches. It's actually a very natural collaboration: while Machinefabriek often converges on the classical and cinematic, Broderick's instrumental music is rendered with a discerning producer's ear. After an introductory splash of droning atmospherics on 'Departure', the follow-up track, 'Planes' takes on a more classical sound, featuring Broderick's urgent, Philip Glass-like piano riffing and a wordless, hummed vocal that gels into the swirling Zuydervelt soundscape. Possibly the finest piece on the whole set, 'Kites' operates in a similar fashion, with loose, impressionistic key-work and distant strings melting seamlessly into an electroacoustic sonic environment. It's like a hallucinated symphony orchestra drifting across airwaves before slowly disintegrating into bad reception by the piece's oddly poignant end. Marking a slight change in direction, 'Rain' features vocals (a duet between Peter and Susanna Lundgren) and acoustic guitar while contact-miced rainfall forms the basis of a backdrop. An altogether more experimental, radio-based sound collage, 'Blank Grey' is predominantly electronic and relatively severe, using acoustic instruments as a brooding, mysterious background while cut-up speech fragments and broadcast signals populate the mix. Eventually, Broderick arrives with processed piano and layered vocal loops lead the fourteen minute composition to a close. Considerably less perplexing is the lovely closer, 'Homecoming', featuring piano recorded by Nils Frahm and grainy waves of manipulated, fuzzy sound waves. 'Blank Grey Canvas Sky' is a sonically rich album that marries the talents of its two stars without there being any indication that it occupies a compromised middle ground. Gorgeous. Boomkat

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PETER BRODERICK & MACHINEFABRIEK - Blank Grey Canvas Sky

MATIAS AGUAYO - AY AY AY

2009-11-17T11:02:00.004-03:00

Matias Aguyao is one of those rare musical characters who has set musical parameters from his own textbook. 'Ay Ay Ay' is his second album after '05's 'Are You Really Lost', following his winding path further into a dancefloor of hip-wiggling Latin-rhythmic house and hypnotic disco-pop sounding quite unlike anybody else out there. If you want to dig a little deeper into his background, we'd recommend checking the 14 tracks feature from a few weeks back, but right now it's all about this immediately seductive new album. The magic of Aguayo's sound lies in that blackest of arts with dance music; creating the catchiest few bars of melody and rhythm that can be looped to near infinity. On tracks like recent single 'Rollerskate' his vocal incantations meander over the circular bassline and simple drum shuffles in the truest sense of Cologne minimalism, but displays a grinning pop soul that separates him from much of that clique, while 'Ritmo Juarez' again shows that intuitive knack for a killer groove, crafting the sort of effortless pattern that essentially does very little but keeps listeners involved with the subtlest of tweaks. 'Koro Koro' expands on this with delicious Afro-Latin rhythm syncopations and delicately pitching timbres that really lock into the current underground fixation with all things African, while the mesmerizing 'Ay Shit - The Master' crafts a mesmerizing groove sonically situated between Chicago, Chile and Cologne. For precedents to Aguayo's sound we could pull up everyone from David Byrne to Ricardo Villalobos, but most wonderfully he's his own man and really deserves to be regarded as such, giving us a beautifully happy and rewarding music that should be at the top of your current wishlist. A hugely entertaining, totally peerless album from this singular talent in modern music - a very big recommendation. Boomkat

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MATIAS AGUAYO - AY AY AY

HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR - Iridescence

2009-11-13T17:54:00.004-03:00

An addendum to her exquisite Without Sinking album, 'Iridescence' is a wonderful eleven minute blast of Hildur Gudnadottir's uniquely emotive music for cello and electronics. The piece gradually creeps further and further into the electronic domain, beginning in a haze of minor-key, multitracked strings, only to dissolve into the air as a bitcrushing algorithm takes hold. By the piece's conclusion, the overwhelming, gushing melancholy of it all is displaced by a strangely mechanical network of overtones and harmonic spillage, making 'Iridescence' all the more elegiac. Brilliant. Boomkat

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HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR - Iridescence

MIKA VAINIO - Vandal EP

2009-11-11T19:54:00.003-03:00

We're struggling to contain our excitement over the latest in Raster Noton's Unun series, following essential excursions from Aoki Takamasa, NHK and Grischa Lichtenberger with four tracks of absolutely immense nasty beats and techno reductions from Mika Vainio! It's fully acknowledged that we have a man-crush on this producer, but it's totally justified when he gives out analog brutalism of this variety. There's a definite theme of northern-European destruction going on with this 12" with titles like 'Vandals' and 'Goths' connecting the downright rotten noise aesthetic to the notoriously fierce tribes of northern and central Europe. Three of the tracks opt for hiphop breakbeats and slower tempos similar to the NHK release, before bludgeoning the rhythms with extreme noise-force, but the standout for many will be 'Barbarians'. To our knowledge it's the first 4/4 techno track he's made for nearly 10 years, taking cues from the arrangements of tuff Chicago patterns before eroding them with a caustic noise substance to sound like a nightmarish Marcel Dettmann. F*cking A+ - DO NOT MISS!!!! Boomkat

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MIKA VAINIO - Vandal EP

Northerner - 1976

2009-11-05T19:42:00.004-03:00

"Northerner, aka Martin J Cummings, is one of a growing band of musicians operating in the UK’s blossoming electro-acoustic scene. ‘1976’ closely follows mammoth double-set ‘The Ridings’ (on Home Assembly Music), a special little release that further enhances Cummings reputation. Avoiding the familiar, Cummings sets about transporting the listener down new paths, where gossamer guitar textures mingle with shimmering, bucolic atmospherics, forgotten voices and deftly laced found sounds, suggesting a kinship with the heart-warming nostalgia of fellow countrymen Epic45. The miniature electronic pulses and glitches adroitly placed throughout add a beguiling sheen, often found lacking in the genre.

Despite its compact running time, this release is no stop-gap, with each track purposefully flowing into the next, suggesting a narrative hidden just underneath the surface. There’s a rich, emotional depth prevalent here and the countless left turns render this record as riveting, taking us from the intoxicating chill of ‘The End of December’ through to the comforting hazy warmth of ‘Red Soil’. Phantom Channel

"Thanks, Thanks!!! Patrik_D Left Out In Left Field"

Northerner - 1976

DIRAC - Emphasis

2009-11-05T17:35:00.002-03:00

Viennese trio Dirac are made up of Peter Kutin, Daniel Lercher and Florian Kindlinger, who are all active participants in Austria's more experimental musical circles, working in the fields of sound installation and live electronics. Emphasis falls into the latter category, and is a shining example of what can be achieved by electroacoustic free improvisation. The album opens in a slow and ambiguous fashion, taking on a minimal, soaring feel during 'This Is Your 4am Wake-Up Call', which ticks in an Oval-inspired, skipping-like fashion. It's a rather gentle exercise, but a cooly meditative introduction to the sort of sounds that'll be explored in greater depth during what's yet to come. 'Augarten' is a lowercase affair, creaking, crackling and occasionally emitting loose, disloated notes from guitar and piano. It's quiet and relies on your close attention, but its marriage of musicianly understatement and sheer otherness rewards your full engagement. Next, 'Bantu' offers a more confirmedly musical piece, glistening with processed tuned percussion and woozy, elongated tones that take on a curiously jazzy feel. The final entry, 'A Rest In Tension' is a more simplified composition, embracing the kind of organically derived drone sounds you'd hear on a Tape or Mountains record. Recommended. Boomkat

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DIRAC - Emphasis

LE LENDEMAIN (DANNY NORBURY & LIBRARY TAPES) - Fires

2009-11-05T10:17:00.004-03:00

David Wengrenn and Danny Norbury are no first time collaborators. The two artists have previously worked together under the banner of Wengrenn's Library Tapes, with Norbury contributing strings to a predominantly piano-driven soundworld. On this album, recorded as Le Lendemain, you might arrive at the conclusion that there's a more even distribution of creative duties on show. Much of 'Fires' substance can be thought of as an advancement of the groundwork laid down on the 'Sketches' album. Here though, from the very beginning Norbury's multitracked strings take a more prominent role, dominating 'Fiore' much as they did on his own 'Light In August' long-player, thanks to an exquisitely poised network of melancholy harmonic exchanges with Wengrenn's keywork, which all the while plots out a minimal refrain. As far as the ever-swelling ranks of modern classical recordings go, this one aligns itself more with the wild and unharnessed feel that characterises Richard Skelton's work - certainly more so than the comparatively sculpted catalogues of Max Richter and Johann Johannsson. In fact, there's a very strong case to be made for us not labelling this sort of thing as 'modern classical' at all. This is far more accessible than anything that term accurately describes. In an odd sort of way it feels like a romanticised simulation of what classical music becomes when filtered through the language of soundtracks rather than the more academic corners of composition; it's just easy shorthand to brand this as 'classical' purely based on the instrumental idiom. However you choose to approach this album, it's a gloriously beautiful and highly emotive body of work that's every bit the equal of any record in this duo's respective discographies. Sublime. Boomkat

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LE LENDEMAIN (DANNY NORBURY & LIBRARY TAPES) - Fires

ELM - Nemcatacoa

2009-11-04T17:26:00.003-03:00

Achingly beautiful album fusing elements of everything from Earth to Windy & Carl, Stephen O'Malley, My Bloody Valentine, Fennesz, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Emeralds - miss out at your peril!!!* Elm is the solo project of Jon Porras, one half of the deeply revered San Francisco drone lords, Barn Owl. Only his third release in solo mode, 'Nemcatacoa' has strong ties to his other project, but revolves around a lonelier and more personal agenda, with eight incredible tracks of widescreen Americana drone soul, stretching from the peripheries of Earth's maudlin blues-scapes to blissfully noisy and psychedelic ragas reminiscent of Pandit Pran Nath or Om. Recorded in the autumn to spring period of 2008-09, using both electric and acoustic guitar, harmonium, trumpet, recorder vocals, drum and cymbal, Porras weaves his magic with a deeply involved structure, divining that head-pressure spot between the folk drone of Windy & Carl or Six Organs of Admittance, and the overwhelming spatial dynamics of Stephen O'Malley. Tracks like 'Breath Of Midnight Still' are completely breathtaking, building a wall of sound worthy of MBV while still showing a sensitive astral awareness shared with the likes of Emeralds, or on 'Covered In Blankets And Moss' evolving his sheets of blissed guitar noise with a towering command worthy of Fennesz or Keith Fullerton Whitman. We can imagine that hearing these tracks played in the optimum acoustic setting could be a life changing experience. As a release on the sublime Digitalis Arts & Crafts label, you can expect the usual attention to detail with a matt black sleeve bearing silver etched artwork from Katie Boyle that make for an object of desire in themselves. Unlike some drone albums, the passion and arrangements here will warrant many, many repeat plays, it's just that sort of album. Incredible. Boomkat

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ELM - Nemcatacoa

SMALL COLOR - In Light

2009-11-04T10:12:00.003-03:00

A couple of months back 12k gave us a preview of this album via the single release of 'Hikari No Hana'. The version of the song that appears on this album is a different mix, side-stepping the single release's skipping electronic beats in favour of more plainly articulated acoustic material. For the most part however, this Japanese duo thrive in an electrified soundworld, concocting such fluttering J-pop delights as 'Life', which combines filtered synths with worn-out drum machines for a muted, more organic feel than the kind of material Taylor Deupree released via his old Happy sub-label, or the 12k output of fellow Japanese popsters like Moskitoo. There's an almost folksy simplicity to the arrangements and recording style here, resulting in atmospheric acoustic tracts such as the lovely 'Heaven Knows', while elsewhere, only the very lightest of electronic touches is detectable, as on tracks like the beat-puntuated, accordion-driven 'Daisy' and the Wechsel Garland-like 'Amaoto'. 'In Light' must rank as one of 12k's most resoundingly successful forays into music of this ilk, and that's largely attributable to the comparatively diminutive role played by digital production. Here the songs succeed because there's no unnecessarily flashy post-production interfering with their effective and simple construction. Another excellent transmission from 12k - highly recommended. Boomkat

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SMALL COLOR - In Light

THE SIGHT BELOW - Murmur EP

2009-11-02T19:23:00.002-03:00

Further refinements of the Chain Reaction-inspired sounds of A Sight Below's Glider arrive in the form of this new EP, featuring new tracks 'Murmur' and 'Wishing Me Asleep'. The title track in particular makes excellent use of its feathered ambient core, lightening up an uptempo dub-techno template with plumes of abstract, floating textures. 'Wishing Me Asleep' buries the driving force of its 4/4 kick drum even deeper in its billowing, Gas-liike soundscape, a formula that's not upset much on Eluvium's remix of 'No Place For Us', which multiplies the beats but retains that orchestral, droning signature. FInally, Glider's opening cut, 'At First Touch' gets an overhaul from Simon Scott, whose current rich vein of form carries over nicely into this beatless, scorching and Tim Hecker-like swirl of noise. Boomkat

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THE SIGHT BELOW - Murmur EP