Frank Bretschneider – Komet

Label: Shitkatapult
Released: 2011
Style: Techno, Downtempo, Experimental

"His new album for Shitkatapult is completely dedicated to the flow. Seven tracks, which have been recorded and arranged live at the studio. Seven tracks with an enormous depth and passion and love for detail on a straight beat, manifesting their own version of club music. Basically, Komet is a techno record, but it has been transported into Bretschneider’s cosmos. Komet exudes a light and feathery flow, neither pushy nor notchy. It wins you over with its groove, while cheeping, fluttering and whooshing at the same time. An album of action, worlds apart from all the painful worries about referencing and zeitgeist. Free music. Shitkatapult manages to show how passionate a label can treat electronic music. Komet is another one of these albums, fitting into the circle of favourite producers like Soul Center, Fenin, Tom Thiel and into the label’s history of uncompromising records by Sun Electric, Apparat, T.Raumschmiere and many more." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Subharchorded Waves (4:14)
2 Like A Little Lizard In The Sun (5:10)
3 Echotron (5:44)
4 Urania (5:32)
5 Flight 09 (5:46)
6 Flutter Flitter (6:55)
7 Twisted In The Wind (5:34)

Link

FNS - FNS

Label: Miasmah

Released: 2010

Style: Experimental, Neofolk

"For his Miasmah debut, FNS treats us to a spectacular excursion into the world of psych-folk instrumentals, with a collection of semi-improvised multi-layered pieces, primarily for acoustic and electric guitar and voice. These lo-fi home recordings capture a sense of astral travel, though explorations into drone, raga-styled melodies and layers of guitar feedback. The immediate allure of FNS’s spectral sound is in the understated nature of the performances – it recalls the magnetic interplay between Tom & Christina Carter’s work in Charalambides, the playful free noise of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, the ethereal blues of Loren Connors, and a variety of subtle but undeniable influences from the 70’s progressive UK folk scene.

FNS’s sound is a sorrowful sound – a death-fuzz, a hazy wailing wall of cavernous guitars, doom-freakout and swirling psychedelia, melded into one then drowned in echo and haze. FNS fires forth cosmic transmissions for the mind and spirit…the result, is nothing short of an aural treat. " - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Silence To Say Hello (9:51)

2 Sappélur (4:06)

3 Wooden Leg (9:01)

4 I Think She's Asleep (5:03)

5 Dream (5:37)

6 Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet (11:50)

Link

Asher - Landscape Studies

Label: Room40

Released: 2009

Style: Experimental, Ambient

"A stunning set of micro-acoustic experiments from Asher Thal-Nir, an artist perhaps most notable for his recent release on the and/OAR label and a 2005 release for the 12k offshoot, term. This album sets out to capture the particular characteristics of rooms and spaces - something prompted by Asher's attempt to capture the kind of subtle, incidental noises that would invade the quiet of his home studio. This embracing of minor, ephemeral acoustic events is nothing new in experimental music, but when the end product is as understatedly evocative and as exquisitely poised as the music on this release, it all seems very much worthwhile. The album is underscored by a gauzy, wave-like motion, barely suggestive of chord sequences, but the real focus here is on the more fundamental timbral qualities of Asher's abstract and suggestive sound designs. Superb." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 1 (6:34)

2 1.1 (6:14)

3 11 (6:53)

4 1.2 (6:44)

5 13 (6:17)

6 14 (6:49)

Link

The Advisory Circle - Other Channels

Label: Ghost Box

Released: 2008

Style: Experimental, Electronic, Library Music

"The Advisory Circle bring us more timely advice on issues such as domestic isolation, tranquilliser addiction and the nuclear threat. Sumptuous booklet art by Julian House and beautifully evocative liner notes by Ken Hollings complement what we feel to be the strongest Ghost Box release so far.

Light synthesizer melodies and moments of surreal humour float in a drift of pastoral melancholia and fuzzy music concrete. Fragments of public information broadcasting are filtered through the distorting lens of prescription tranquillisers. Malicious gossip becomes jumbled and confused with continuity announcements." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Callsign 'A' - The TV Trap (0:18)

2 Civil Defence Is Common Sense (2:53)

3 Mogadon Coffee Morning (2:57)

4 Sundial (3:28)

5 Swinscoe Episode 1 - 'Enter Swinscoe' (1:58)

6 Celebrate Michaelmas NOW! (2:41)

7 Fire, Damp & Air (3:45)

8 Frozen Ponds PIF (0:52)

9 Erosion Of Time (3:32)

10 A Clear Yarn Warning (1:14)

11 Keep Warm, Keep Well (2:48)

12 Eyes Which Are Swelling (2:18)

13 Hocusing For Beginners (3:50)

14 The Coastguard (2:43)

15 Swinscoe Episode 2 - 'Release The Birds' (1:45)

16 Farmland, Freeland (3:40)

17 Everyday Electronics (3:20)

18 The Old Schoolhouse (2:37)

19 Callsign 'B' - Freeland Logotone (0:08)

Link

Senking - List

Label: Raster-Noton

Released: 2007

Style: Abstract, Electronic

"is there beauty in the threatening? with list senking introduces 40 minutes of the darkest matter and reckons: yes.

on list he varies and experiments with a - for raster-noton - frightening diversity of sounds. he reveals the pieces as sound-collages, as quotes, which seem to refer to splatter movie and film noir. following the tremendous plot of his endtime-sujet, he persistently welds together sound spaces in order to compress them later into overwhelming drone-sounds. these as such, then go to serve a fundamental purpose, as an environment for minimalistic themes and melodies, always to be driven by the ever present slow-beat of the pieces. nonetheless the syntax, the destiny of each single piece is highly varied and has the appearance of a much more mature composition, compared to his earlier works."

Tracklisting:

1 Common Business (4:00)

2 Pathogenic Agent (4:26)

3 Come In (4:36)

4 Bohrer (5:35)

5 Great Day (4:41)

6 Gestalt (0:36)

7 Graue Musik (4:24)

8 Mist (4:47)

9 Crevasse (5:04)

Link

Puma - Half Nelson Courtship

Label: Rune Grammofon

Released: 2010

Style: Post Rock, Free Improvisation

'”Half Nelson Courtship” is the third album and the first on Rune Grammofon from this young trio who musically started out as the younger cousins of Supersilent. The new album shows a group with a stronger identity, clearer focus, more mature and fully developed musical ideas and directions. It´s actually not so easy to compare them to anyone, but certain aspects of the 1973 period King Crimson concert improvisations wouldn´t be too far off the mark. But Puma is first and formeost a contemporary and progressive unit making their own path on the ever growing Norwegian experimental scene mixing improvistaion, jazz, electronics and free rock.

Puma is Øystein Moen (synthesizers and electronics), Stian Westerhus (guitar and electronics) and Gard Nilssen (drums). Recorded and mixed by Jørgen Træen." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Bison Woven (4:02)

2 Half Nelson Courtship (10:09)

3 Last Waltz (6:21)

4 M.E.O.W. (4:14)

5 Gaberdine Lingerie (0:57)

6 Innamorati Osculati (6:14)

7 Knitstep (3:25)

8 East West Horizontal March (3:00)

9 Hachioji Silk Blues (4:07)

Link

Sunroof! - Cloudz

Label: VHF Records

Released: 2003

Style: Abstract, Experimental, Psychedelic

"Bi-annual collection of pillow sound from Bower & Co. Fairly mellow and spacey, ala the "Embroidered Birdsong Nearly Meadows" disc from 2001's Bliss dbl CD. Layers of twinkling keyboard, guitar, unidentified fuzz, short wave, etc. Very much in the style of Harmonia/Cluster in spots. There's a couple of amped-up moments here, including surprise lead guitar action on "tornado rose canoe," and the excellent fuzzgrilled rock of "Primavera." "Best Sunroof Ever" - Neil Campbell" - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Machine (9:33)

2 Grasshopper (3:27)

3 Viva (5:42)

4 Zero (7:58)

5 Universal Acceleration (7:42)

6 Tornado Rose Canoe (7:39)

7 Silver Nazi Suicide (12:23)

8 Primavera (7:59)

9 Silver Zero (7:55)

Link

Alessandro Stefana - Poste E Telegrafi

Label: Important Records

Released: 2007

Style: Experimental

"Poste E Telegrafi is the debut solo album from Italian guitarist Allesandro Stefana. Featuring an allstar cast including Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams, Stefana creates a dreamy world of instrumental perfection and beauty.

Inspired by the work of Ennio Morricone, Ry Cooder, Simon Jeffes, Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he has created a thoroughly modern Western world within his compositions and arrangements. With constant references to traditional music and rural blues he utilizes electric and acoustic instrumentation with tremendously compelling results. Acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitars along with banjo, kalimba, baliphones and found objects were all carefully combined with some primitive electronic instruments such as an arpeggiator, omnichord and home made vinyl loops. His sound is entirely original yet clearly rooted in traditions such as Film Music, Blues, Experimental, Ambient and Avante Garde musics.

Stefana manages his cast of collaborators very well. Most tracks on Poste E Telegrafi are duets with these musicians keeping the sound and arrangement simple and pure. Instruments breathe and pulse with life and excitement in this highly original album. To call this a “promising debut” would be to dismiss the tremendous success delivered by Poste E Telegrafi." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Western Soda (2:50)

2 Semi Tostati Di Cielo (9:16)

3 Motel (3:02)

4 Poste E Telegrafi Blues (4:56)

5 Fiori Campionati (6:16)

6 Whales Cemetery (5:06)

7 Titoli Di Coda (2:58)

Link

Alexander Turnquist - Faint At The Loudest Hour

Label: VHF Records

Released: 2008

Style: Folk Rock, Drone, Experimental

"Faint at the Loudest Hour is the astonishing solo debut by guitarist Alexander Turnquist, part of a young generation of guitar players who have taken their incredible virtuosity and turned it into something actually worth listening to. Like James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, etc, this could roughly be described as "raga" guitar, with its long, modal compositions and hypnotic overtone play. Unlike most of his peers, Alex employs a variety of extended techniques ala Hans Reichel, grappling the strings with both hands and using a variety of approaches and attacks on both the steel and wood. There's also a distinct lack of audible "roots" influence here, with Alex sidestepping the Fahey-isms that dominate so much current acoustic guitar music. Along with the 6 & 12 string acoustics, Alex makes subtle use of electronic textures, such as the surprising Fennesz-like dissolve that occurs midway through "amongst a swarm of hummingbirds."' - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Amongst A Swarm Of Hummingbirds (13:29)

2 In The Vein Of Bedlam (11:05)

3 Water Spots Upon My Mind (13:48)

4 White Out (5:02)

5 Mime Fight (10:43)

6 As The Sun Sets, We Think Of Days To Come (3:13)

Link

Dan Abrams - Stream

Label: Mille Plateaux

Released: 2001

Style: Experimental, Minimal

"Dan Abrams is probably better known to most of us as Shuttle 358 or more recently Fenton. This album was his first and only record under his own name and his first for the Mille Plateaux label. Although not hugely different from his work under the Shuttle 358 moniker, it certainly has enough to separate the projects like this. ‘Stream’ is darker and more sparse than Abrams other work, and lacks the deep melodic hit of works such as ‘Frame’ and followup ‘Understanding Wildlife’. However, what we lack in melodic sweetness, we gain in bottom end and this album has a bass growl to it unseen in the rest of his catalogue. Great stuff and another re-surfaced Mille Plateaux gem worth grabbing before it disappears for good." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Hello (0:11)

2 A Shell (5:44)

3 Academic (6:11)

4 Monsters (4:22)

5 The Theory (4:12)

6 Sim Sun (5:31)

7 Bendy (5:22)

8 Duck Beam (5:35)

9 Freezng (5:12)

10 Stream (4:48)

11 Grammar (4:54)

12 Mr Fish (6:19)

Link

Rafael Toral - Violence Of Discovery And Calm Of Acceptance

Label: Touch

Released: 2001

Style: Abstract, Experimental, Drone

"More oceanic 'calm of acceptance' than 'violence of discovery', these ten Ambient meditations on treated electric guitar, gathered from the last seven years, are like a series of exquisitely poised and iridescent ragas. Hailing from Portugal, Toral's work has been compared to that of Robert Fripp in its exploration of the melodic colour of drones, loops and overtones, using only guitar and analogue equipment. Slow, broadly arcing and snaking coils of sound unfold like a gargantuan reverberating wind chime, or a labyrinth of vast organ pipes. Two or three drones will twist alongside each other, causing harmonic clouds that tremble and melt without setting up much rhythmic interference. The effect is deeply colourist. Whether it climbs its way out of the growling depths, or shimmers into appearance like a scraped gong, each track moves into the same kind of pitch range and lets the Aurora Borealis work its sonic wonders. 'Maersk Line' is more quavering , seesawing and abrasive, and this well judged introduction of movement helps to animate the second half of the album. 'Optical Flow' unexpectedly foregrounds more plucked chimes, falling upon each other like a music box. Other later tracks give a fuzzier feedback edge to the iridescent prowling of the drones, or use the puckered croak of slowly scraped guitar strings to provide stronger textures. The final track steps off into post-rock territory, with, for the first time, a downbeat strumming of plangent chords and a fuzzy background drone (provide, believe it or not, by a recording of 'silence' from a space shuttle mission, broadcast on the Web), which raises the spectre of My Bloody Valentine. Bliss with ballast. " - The Wire

Tracklisting:

1 Desirée (3:58)

2 Measurement Of Noise (6:27)

3 Quiet Mind (4:00)

4 Maersk Line (3:15)

5 Liberté (5:35)

6 Optical Flow (3:51)

7 Energy Nourish (5:15)

8 Hay Que Trabajo Me Cuesta Quererte Como Te Quiero (8:56)

9 We Are Getting Closer (3:57)

10 Mixed States Uncoded (5:00)

Link

Pan Sonic - Aaltopiiri

Label: Blast First

Released: 2001

Style: Abstract, Minimal, Ambient

"Probably my favourite of all the Pan Sonic albums, this showed a slight departure from their previous efforts. Instead of focussing mainly on distorted technoid beats and extreme sounds, Altopiiri interspersed the hypnotic analogue techno mainstays with gorgeous atmospheric compositions reflecting influences from early electronic composers such as Pierre Schaeffer and Todd Dockstader. These tracks were all made without overdubs - live recordings pitched by Vaino and Väisänen in the studio and improvised as they went on. Listening through the tracks it is hard to hear how they managed such an accomplished finish by working in this way. Many artists never reach the heady peaks of tracks like 'Ensi' or 'Toisaalta' in a lifetime of output, and Pan Sonic manage it in one take. An incredible achievement in electronic music and an essential slice of history, this is an album you need in your collection, minimal or otherwise." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Ensi (0:38)

2 Vaihtovirta (6:38)

3 Toisaalta (0:31)

4 Johdin (5:46)

5 Kuu (1:26)

6 Ããnipãã (3:49)

7 Arvio (1:24)

8 Liuos (6:16)

9 Ulottuvuus (5:58)

10 Hallapyydys (4:42)

11 Reuna-alue (9:30)

12 Valli (6:19)

13 Kone (4:20)

14 Johto 3 (3:48)

15 Murskaus (1:37)

16 Rasite (0:51)

17 Kierto (6:11)

Link

Svalastog - Woodwork

Label: Rune Grammofon

Released: 2006

Style: Abstract, Experimental, Ambient

"True story, as told by Per Henrik Svalastog himself: “I found an old Norwegian zither laying around my grandfather´s barn in the mountains. It appeared that he had been a fiddler before he lost all his fingers at the sawmill and convertet to become a hardcore pietist setting down a prohibition against music, dancing, card-playing and television. That made me want to convert as well, from digital medias to real playing. From electronica to folk music. Back to the sources. Heritage and environment.” So it goes that Per Henrik is playing and improvising on archaic folk instruments like the ram's horn and harpeleik, which is a Norwegian zither. He is then processing it all in the computer, resulting in a detailed and accomplished but soothing and quite hypnotic music. Taking the music out of the city and into the Norwegian woods, and not the arctic regions, as is the popular image if you come from Tromsø and is associated with electronic music. Per Henrik Svalastog is also a member of Information who released the excellent “Biomekano” (RCD2024) on Rune Grammofon in 2002. The previous year he did a stunning SPUNK remix for their “Filtered Through Friends” collection (RCD2022), a track that is also available on the “Until Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown” vinyl box set." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 The Wood Metal Friction (5:13)

2 Snow Tracer (6:24)

3 Reconnecting Joints (4:52)

4 Mouse Tracking (5:58)

5 Centerline Reminder (4:18)

6 Reforestation (4:27)

7 Cow Goat Goat (3:17)

8 Slow Blowing Wireless (3:59)

9 White Oak White Pine (3:47)

10 Rework And Out (3:10)

Link

Phonophani - Phonophani

Label: Rune Grammofon

Released: 2006

Style: Experimental, Ambient

"This is a rather beautifully packaged re-issue of Espen Sommer Eide's debut album, originally released in a limited run on Biosphere's 'Biophon' imprint in 1998. I must say although I am familiar with most of the Norwegian artist's output I have never come across this album before, and it is a pleasure to explore the murky depths now, 8 years after it originally landed. Unsurprisingly many tracks here bear relation to the early work of Alog (which recently featured on the killer 'Hold That Totem' collection), but they also manage to retain a life and soul of their own. Deep disorientating basslines punctuating filtered off-world instrumentation to create some kind of ambience, just not the kind of ambience we're accustomed to. I can see why Biosphere issued the record, while not obviously comparable to Biosphere's own output, this music could reside in the same overall ballpark, the same glacial beauty is trapped within Sommer Eide's work as within the work of Geir Jenssen. I think the most successful elements of the album come when Sommer Eide stops relying on electronic pulses and drones and brings in the distant sound of a guitar or another acoustic instrument - the merging of these two worlds becomes utterly involving and occasionally deeply moving. Another fantastic release on the Rune Grammofon imprint, I do wonder occasionally when these guys are going to slip up?? Highly recommended." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 I.F.A. (4:20)

2 Ring (8:54)

3 Zurnas (6:08)

4 No Strangeclock (5:35)

5 Duration-Happiness (4:43)

6 Kaliphoni (3:54)

7 C (4:49)

8 Order Of Disappearance (5:08)

9 Sol (5:45)

10 Minne & Materie (5:36)

11 The Boy In His Bathtub (6:15)

12 Farger Rundt Hvitt (4:18)

13 Kreta (9:36)

Link

Mark Van Hoen - Playing With Time

Label: Apollo

Released: 1998

Style: Abstract, Downtempo, Experimental, Ambient

"Fifth and best album of elegant electronica from the ex-Seefeel man.

From the breathy and mysterious opener Real Love to the marathon finale Love Is All, Playing With Time displays an impressive range of instrumentation and clever application of technology. Its 10 tracks draw on techno, trance and ambient influences without ever making you reach for the fast-forward button. There's even an extended Bobby Konders-style funky organ workout on Once When I Was Fourteen to stop the whole caboodle getting too airy and rootless. OK, Van Hoen occasionally gets a bit literal with the temporal allusions - music-box noises on Surrounder, clockwork cogs grinding away on Gifts And Prizes - but the results are so damn beautiful they take your breath away. Nine pieces of exquisitely crafted electronica set the scene and then Love Is All glides gracefully by and keeps the old-school ambient heads happy for 36 minutes. There's life in the old circuitry yet. Rob Chapman" - Mojo

Tracklisting:

1 Real Love (7:57)

2 Surrounder (3:15)

3 First Steps (4:18)

4 Closer Than We All Thought (3:42)

5 A More Light Past (2:58)

6 Once When I Was Fourteen (4:36)

7 Gifts And Prizes (4:13)

8 You And Me Inside (4:30)

9 When Tomorrow Comes (5:54)

10 Love Is All (4:45)

Link

Arve Henriksen - Chiaroscuro

Label: Rune Grammofon

Released: 2004

Style: Future Jazz, Experimental, Ambient

"To get straight to the point, "Chiarsocuro" is probably the most startling and moving album I've heard this year. Arve Henriksen is a founding member of freestyle jazz experimentalists Supersilent, his inimitable trumpet playing and indescribable wordless vocalising has gained him a feverishly dedicated following, sparked off by the release of his debut album "Sakuteiki" back in 2001 and by several live performances that have left his captive audience gasping for breath. "Chiaroscuro" (taken from the Italian for "light and shade") is quite an unbeleiveable listen - cinematic in a way that words cannot describe, a vast panoramic ocean of sound reduced to the most silent, heart-wrenching string arrangements, delicate live sampling (courtesy of Jan Bang) and a whispered sweep of barely audible percussion (from Audun Kleive), hovering around Henriksen unique, mesmerising trumpet playing and broken voice. This is by far and away the most inspiring album I've heard this year, a completely wondrous listen that seems to defy categorisation or description. Sometimes you happen across a record by chance and it ends up changing your musical vocabularly forever - "Chiaroscuro" is one of those rare records. We implore all music lovers to check it out without delay. Incredible." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Opening Image (4:16)

2 Bird's-Eye-Vie (4:07)

3 Chiaro (3:28)

4 Holography (3:02)

5 Blue Silk (6:30)

6 Parallel Actio (4:38)

7 Circled Take (3:25)

8 Scuro (5:08)

9 Time Lapse (5:07)

10 Ending Image (2:27)

Link

Cave - Psychic Psummer

Label: Important Records

Released: 2009

Style: Psychedelic Rock

"Mixing equal parts Can and Stereolab (who, of course, took more than a bit from Can themselves) with a grooving and cruise-worthy psychedelicism propagated by the likes of Funkadelic, Cave manage to sound at once immediately familiar and entirely original, a trait uncommon in today's increasingly oversaturated music landscape. Where many bands seem to be loosening their belt of late however, Cave is continually tightening, forging their jams into focused demonstrations of their collective potential.

Where Cave stand out is in the band's ability to do this without ever losing the intricacies and feeling afforded to in-the-moment creation. Rather than sterilizing their sound into a palatable and time-wary take on the extended, horizon-minded style they practice, the group takes full advantage of both studio and approach to craft each piece into a work the form of which only elevates the group's output.

Such is clear from the very opening, when the rich guitar line of "Gamm" is built from the ground up into a thudding instrumental. After a patient intro, the unit explodes into pure energy, each instrument contributing to the throb and shape of the whole. No note is superfluous here, and the focus gives the piece an even clearer trajectory. The following "Made in Malaysia," with its hyper synth lines and clacking drum work, fuses a nearly punk chant with an absolutely undeniable and deranged riff whose effect is garnered from the construction of the lines themselves rather than the overall effect. This is an immensely precise spaciness being conjured.

Elsewhere, the group displays the subtle mastery of form they have. The dancey funk of "Encino Men" emanates outward while the brooding post-punkisms of "Requiem for John Sex" built towards a kind of post-rock vocabulary that eschews any sense of wanky self-indulgence in favor of pure group energy wielding. The result is a special disc that easily represents the strongest statement from this group yet. Great material and great production rarely coalesce in such a clear and fertile vision as this." - Brainwashed

Tracklisting:

Gamm (6:23)

Made In Malaysia (3:38)

Encino Men (3:12)

High, I Am (4:36)

Requiem For John Sex (6:36)

Machines & Muscles (3:57)

Link

Steve Gunn - Sundowner

Label: Digitalis Recordings

Released: 2008

Style: Folk Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental

"Steve Gunn is probably best known as a key component to the mighty GHQ with Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards) and Pete Nolan (Magik Markers), but his solo efforts have been even more impressive. With a couple limited & hard-to-find CDRs under his belt and a few offerings under the moniker Moongang, Gunn is ready to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight with his first proper CD. This music is finely tuned and expertly crafted by Gunn's capable hands, showing his skill not only as a guitarist, but as a songwriter as well.

"Sundowner" may short & sweet, but it has an epic feeling. Gunn reaches deep into the vaults to line the walls with hypnotic acoustic guitar dirges, organic drones, and banjo ditties. And unlike any of his previous work, he also unleashes his voice on three songs, showing that not only can he play with the best of them, he can sing too. When he's not wowing the listener racing around the fretboard, his simple but effective vocal hooks are sinking themselves deep into the confines of your memory." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Concrete Beach (3:42)

2 For The Horse, Etc. (4:07)

3 Imi The King (6:14)

4 Money Train Blues (3:56)

5 No Atlas (6:33)

6 Over The Hill (4:13)

Link

Concern - Truth & Distance

Label: Digitalis Recordings

Released: 2009

Style: Drone, Experimental, Ambient

"Gordon Ashworth is Concern and this is his manifesto. "Truth & Distance" is a mini-epic, a minor masterpiece. Within these sonic walls lies a stunning landscape, adrift in golden tones and silver siren songs. Ashworth creates beautiful, shimmering music that defies categorization. It stands on its own, droning away into the furthest reaches of the night. Using only acoustic instrumentation, Ashworth conceives pieces of music in which resonance and timbre mutate and in the air and unfold naturally, organically.

Hints of piano glisten like night shadows whispering through the leaves. Strings are bowed and plucked into oblivion. Everything is turned into a pile of reverb. Everyone is a ghost. Concern will shine a light on it all. "Truth & Distance" indeed." - Label

Tracklisting:

1 Truth And Distance (16:51)

2 Young Birth (4:17)

3 Heartsink (8:45)

Link

Demdike Stare - Symbiosis

Label: Modern Love

Released: 2009

Style: Dub, Experimental, Minimal, Ambient

"Demdike Stare is a long-in-the-making hookup between two shady characters operating at the fringes of Manchester’s fragmented music scene: Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty. Miles has been a longtime affiliate of Modern Love as one half of Pendle Coven and under his own MLZ alias, while Canty is one of the city’s most recognisable vinyl collectors, carrying an obsession with everything from obscure Nordic Doom records to Anatolyan funk albums, fuelled by his dayjob helping out at the Finders Keepers label. The project is named after Pendle’s most famous witch: Elizabeth Southerns, aka Demdike. The tracks on ‘Symbiosis’ are drawn from elements of Turkish, Indian, Iranian, African and West Indian film soundtracks alongside Norwegian drone records, classic House templates, punctured dub, modified techno and the arctic noise perfected by Mika Vainio. Original sources and dense analogue experiments weave around eachother with little care for convention or stylistic expectation, instead throwing the pair’s extensive musical knowledge into a set of tracks that, quite brilliantly, defy categorisation. The album opens with ‘Suspicious Drone’, a dense 6 minute opening that chugs along like a malfunctioning mechanical beast, honing in on Lancashire’s dark industrial landscapes before moving onto more exotic, balmy territory. ‘Haxan Dub’ (named after the film narrated by william burroughs about witchcraft) deploys fragmented dub echoes infused with displaced horns and African signatures, taking its time with one of the jerkiest rhythms you’ll have the pleasure of hearing, before ‘Jannisary’ tangles in and out of an Iranian hook and a squashed Congolese rhythm that creates an asymmetric, geniusly constructed dancefloor killer. By the time the album comes to a close with ‘Ghostly Hardware’ an hour later, the cycle is complete with a return to icy tundras and chugging machinations steeped in the traditions of Scandinavian machine music and pure analogue frequencies, expertly handled by those masterful technicians over at Berlin’s Dubplates & Mastering." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 Suspicious Drone (6:34)

2 Haxan Dub (5:14)

3 Regressor (5:04)

4 All Hallows Eve (3:54)

5 Jannisary (6:09)

6 Haxan (6:18)

7 Extwistle Hall (3:25)

8 Trapped Dervish (1:12)

9 Nothing But The Night (6:10)

10 Conjoined (4:07)

11 Ghostly Hardware (6:35)

Link