Trepaneringsritualen - "Septentrional" (2010)

"Sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki: ben zi bena, bluot zi bluoda, lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin."

 Septentrional

Three Legged Race - "Wrong Element" (2012)

A mere 20 minute release by Robert Beatty (Burning Star Core, Hair Police) that yields hours of danceable replayability, Wrong Element is stripped down, minimal techno that is as abstract and indefinite as it is psychedelic + pure.

Wrong Element

Gramm - "Personal Rock" (2007)

Personal Rock

Treetops - "North" (2008)

This tape is as hazy as an overcast summer day with allergens floating around. A certain lo-fi grittiness in the production combined with weightless synth progressions, this one's sure to induce narcolepsy. I'm seriously a lot more tired... or just more relaxed than I was fifteen minutes ago.

Power-naps here.

Calypso Borealis - "Ore Bowal" (2011)

 
I'm jealous of this dude's drones. Hailing from France, Calypso Borealis has an expansive catalog of tapes released by various prestigious labels including Cloud Valley, Existential Cloth, House of Sun, etc… Ore Bowal resonates the dapper aesthetic of its releasing label, Hooker Vision. Track titles reflect the foreign dialect of an imaginary rainforest, the listener evaporating into a humid atmosphere. Pollen-releasing swells and simmers carry with fluidity and craftsmanship. Also, the tape-bends on this are out of this ecosystem. There is enough playtime with this release to leave the listener satisfied, yet mystified enough to crave additional trips.

Ore Bowal

Pete Swanson - "Man With Potential" (2011)

Man With Potential was easily one of the most unique records to surface last year. Normally performing as the other half of the vibrant experimental/noise duo, Yellow Swans, we see Pete Swanson as a solo artist executing abstract minimal techno brilliantly. Odd, electronic sound-puzzles intertwined with looming drones and sporadic feedback, Swanson gracefully composes and arranges songs in a manner that shows balance and skill. Man With Potential teems with utterly fascinating textures fringed with colorful, brooding atmospheres that will definitely have a place in my rotation for many months to come.

Man With Potential

Pinky Lascaux - "Dear Brother" (2012)

Pittsburgh artist, Seth Ledonne, has created an endearing clamor along the lines of the self-titled split by Sports/Teeth Collection. Like a magic wand, Ledonne uses a contact mic to cast sound-spells on the listener in forms of repetitive racket and crimped feedback. From scratches, to what sounds like a battering ram being used on a washing machine, the variety of cacophony is quite quirky. Expressive lyricism tags along with wit in such lines as: "Let everybody know that you miss 'em. Let all your buddies know that you miss 'em." The passion can be heard though the Tom-and-Jerry-esque scuffles, the hootin' and hollerin', then cascades into harsh noise. This is the soundtrack of paint pails tumbling -- garage labor enamored. Indoor work being done with a twist of odd personality. As adamant as Ledonne is about community, I'm sure he'd want you to pick this one up and join in on the sentiments.

Dear Brother

Arizona Jaguar - "1993 - 2009" (2009)

Arizona Jaguar is a psychedelic ambient trio who released their only tape entitled, 1993 - 2009, in 2009. Reminiscent of an amalgamation of Enno Velthuys's ambient works in the late '80s and Prehistoric Blackout's Wake Up Dead, Arizona Jaguar showcase their talent for creating gorgeous, albeit fleeting, ambient soundscapes.

Sesquidecade.

Vatican Shadow / Contrepoison - "The Serpent Carries Him Into Paradise" (2011)

Here's an excellent split between Dominick Fernow's (Prurient, Ash Pool) synth/industrial project, Vatican Shadow, and dark electro/synthpop artist, Contrepoison (Pierre-Marc Tremblay). The A side, "Unknown To The Peacock, The Serpent And Scorpion Conspire" is very minimally done; a haunting loop is utilized with lo-fi background synths & simplistic rhythms and soon crackles and fades into side B. "A Deserted Story Adam's Endless Fidelity To The Iblis" sees Contrepoison performing a very strong track. This catchy pop song evokes a dwelling sadness thanks to Tremblay's somber vocals and depressing sound. Noisy, simple and brief, The Serpent Carries Him Into Paradise is a worthwhile release for any fan of experimental or electronic music.

The Serpent Carries Him Into Paradise

Angels In America - "Narrow Road To The Interior" (2011)

The first track begins with promises of black metal, but overall, these sounds are far from such a grating genre. Angels In America take on a whole 'nother dimension, fusing intrigue and obnoxiousness into a dualistic product. This is one of the most unique outfits I have heard recently. Genre-defying, noisy at times, no-wave tendencies of cultivating something entirely outside the box of even obscure conventionality. Moppy Pont croons lethargically but forcefully through a web of reverb while Merv Glisten makes weirdo electronic loops and sewer-dub beats. Sometimes the vibe is slightly lassoed back for more folky renditions -- "Highway E-12" proves that Moppy can harmonize quite sweetly when she wants to. I knew nothing of these guys when they came through town; upon seeing them, I was caught in the spell they cast, with additional visual antics such as Moppy's tribal-spider dance amidst a flickering strobe-light. It's evident that Angels In America just don't care what people think ... sometimes they make interesting music.

Be haunted.

Earth Station - "Control Belief" (2009)

Control Belief is the soundtrack to a scene where the last colony of humans left on Earth are boarding a spaceship, abandoning the planet in search of a more hospitable one in a far, distant galaxy. Loops of synth-based tones and humming drones are accompanied by quirky vintage electronic blips and bloops that span the vast, albeit short, soundscape that is Control Belief.

Earth Station all night.

Pregnant Spore - "Amoeba-Like Identity" (2011)

Baltimore sound artist, Justin Mark Lloyd (Dementia And Hope Trails, Dim Dusk Moving Gloom), released some of his best material last year, one of which being his split with the dreadful, Mold Omen -- an exceptional piece of noise music that did not leave my player for quite some time -- and Amoeba-Like Identity is no exception. Lloyd utilizes metal-on-metal effects, harsh fuzzy feedback, and other not-of-this-world extracts from who knows where to create his unique style of frantic noise collage. And despite the record being no easy listen (coming in at just under an hour in length), I find myself coming back to it more and more frequently.

KNOCK UP SPORES, NEVER CALL DEM BACK.

Sports / Teeth Collection - "Split" (2007)

Noise/drone artists, Sports and Teeth Collection, have come together with one offering each, and with them, created one of the eeriest albums around! Abrupt, loud thuds and mysterious vibrations make up a good portion of the album's atmosphere as it drones and lurches for just over a quarter of an hour long. Fantastic music to lay down in a graveyard to.

Split

Some Japanese Drone...

Nobuto Suda - "Modest Calm" (2011)

Nobuto Suda is a drone artist from Japan with a brilliant discography. Every song has a purpose, each swell thick with contemplation. Modest Calm is a phenomenal record.

Modest Calm

Miki Yui - "Silence Resounding" (2003)

Japanese minimal artist, Miki Yui's, Silence Resounding is an astounding release. Her musical base lies in electronic tones & field recordings making for an extremely therapeutic listen. Although any tendency toward melody is absent, Silence Resounding's ability to capture the complex, organic sounds of everyday life makes it a must-have for rainy spring days.

Silence Resounding

SOUNDS 4 WEIRDOS

Everyday Loneliness - "Appropriation" (2009)

Appropriation is an incredible release; soothing tape loops manipulated & mingling with subtle, low quality drones render this tape nearly nirvana. You will be somber after listening to this -- akin to Basinski's Disintegration Loops or Crown of Cerberus's Awakening, this is therapeutically meditative ambient bliss from Jon Borges (Black Air, Emaciator)... and that should tell you a lot.

Appropriation

Mirror To Mirror - "Rerest" (2009)


Mirror To Mirror is a pleasant ambient project from Alex Twomey (of the tiny Jugular Forest label). Rerest feels weightless in its ability to create vivid dream-like atmospheres with swells of subtle, memorable progressions -- all recorded in wonderful low realization.

Rerest

Failing Lights - "Black Swamps" (2007)


Failing Lights is the experimental/noise project of Mike Connelly from Wolf Eyes. There are plenty of harsh sounds and atypical textures on here that brush wonderfully right up against hissing and crackling sound loops. An eccentric release that will not be leaving my ears anytime soon; highly recommended.

Black Swamps

Pet Coffins - "Untitled" (2008)


Pet Coffins is a relatively unknown drone project that draws much comparison to the likes of Color Dream or Caen. It is very easy to get lost in this one -- too bad it isn't longer because I didn't want to be found.

Untitled

Impregnable - "Beauty Stone" (2006)


Impregnable is perhaps my favorite project from sound artist Jeff Witscher (also of Marble Sky, Secret Abuse, Rene Hell). Although Impregnable often sees Witscher producing clamorous, harsh records, Beauty Stone takes a look at his quieter, more focused side. A lovely piece of work.

Beauty Stone

The Dead Refrain - "The Red Remains" (2011)

Fellow Pittsburgh musician/artist, Joe Mruk, has followed up his killer EP, The Wallpaper Voyage, with another homey yet quality EP, The Red Remains. Hailing from Arizona, Mruk brings a distinct vintage western feel to the table of the saloon. Lyrics are real as whiskey on a fire: "Well she don't believe in God, but she still needs someone to answer to the folks put in their caskets, to the carnage and the cancer." Mruk has a knack for keeping songs non-trite by utilizing unexpected chord changes. From spur-stompin' rhythms to sentimental finger picking selections, the instrumentation is broad, the song-writing: personal and aspiring. Beware Bon Iver, The Dead Refrain is on his way.

The Red Remains

Craig Colorusso - "Sun Boxes" (2011)

Bliss.
The blissful sun shimmers.
Sunshine shimmers glints blissfully overhead.
All-encompassing rays of sunlight glimmer.
Shards of ice melt in a tub of warm sound.
Crickets,
Chirping in fields of cloud-parted sky.
Sweating soothing textures,
Nature hums a bright tune.
Blessing hearers,
O' blissful whistle.

I've attempted to emulate the vibe of Sun Boxes in the poem above. When sunlight reaches the receptive solar panels, it sets off a varying guitar note loop in each of twenty boxes, comprising a Bb chord. A splendid coalescing of nature and technology, Sun Boxes gives back to the inspiration of natural energy, space and time. From the beach, to the frozen pond and grassy field (the latter two of which you will hear), different terrains contribute their own personality to each recording. The boxes coincide with habitats galore -- allowing insects and vegetation (or whoever happens to pass through) to get a different sensation of the center of our solar system. Imagine the Sun strumming a guitar ever-so-gently with its heat-waves... what is more relaxing than hearing the same warmth that hugs your skin on a clear day, resonate through speakers in song? So thanks, Craig, for this breath of fresh sound. And no, Temptations, you don't have sunshine on a cloudy day... when the sun shines through, we have cleverly constructed drone.

Download, transfer to a portable player, then traverse to a distant land-form.

Koen Holtkamp - "Field Rituals" (2008)

Field Rituals is an emotion-wrenching offering from sound artist Koen Holtkamp -- mixing field recordings and divine drones to create a reflective soundtrack of everyday life. Superbly mixed, the sound quality is as fresh as the brisk dew on a blade of grass. There is quite the array of instrumentation, lulling vocals included, and the listener is teleported into a variety of aural settings. All blissfully blended to perfection.

Inquire within.

Circle Of Ouroborus / Drowning The Light - "Moonflares" (2011)

Black metal/depressive rockers, Circle Of Ouroborus, prove once again just how excellent they are. Catchy, sorrowful songs that weep and wail create an atmosphere of hopelessness. Drowning The Light's songs are great as well, adhering to formulaic raw depressive black metal. Autumn is here and it brings with it a cold wind from the North; Moonflares is a perfect choice to accompany the changing of the season.

Moonflares

Fennesz - "Endless Summer" (2006)

Noisy as it is chill, Endless Summer is the soundtrack to your far-off memories -- a cut-up version of your favorite nostalgia. Acoustic guitar melodies blow over sandy synth sounds. The digital manipulation creates a slew of ambiguous blips, yet a faint Ducktails-esque tune can be heard underlying the mess. It's like a wet day at the beach. The sunshine shares the atmosphere with rain-clouds, and somehow, it works. Electronic patterns drizzle down; sunny strokes evaporate the salty puddles. Together with the cover art and the title itself, the sound swells with humidity. Aesthetically, Endless Summer is rather homemade, but like family home videos, you will be returning to this again and again because of the past emotions it invokes.

HOT, HOT, HOT.