Talibam! - “The Excusable Earthling LP” [Pendu Sound; 2007]
Tracklist:
A: Explosive Soul (17:36)
B: One Way Foot (17:30)
regreased unripe salugi motion.
underground mythopoetized nonpurposiveness.
sublime dissonance.
...music to antagonize and soothe
Sep 22
Giant Claw - “Tunnel Mind” [digitalis industries]
Playful yet epic synthesizer porn. Reminds me of the best parts of a soundtrack to a sci-fi PC game I played in the 90’s.
Grab this gem (name your own price, no minimum!) at Giant Claw’s bandcamp.
May 01
Oneohtrix Point Never/Caboladies - “Split c30” [NNA tapes, 2009]
“This split unfolds as a singular and flowing journey. Caboladies reaches out to solar gods above while Oneohtrix Point Never wanders through the arid deserts of the mind and heart.” -nu new age
“caboladies’ transformation from zenith-aspiring droners to nuno canvarro acolytes has certainly won them a place close to my heart. their side here intermingles some rather lovely auto-filter stratagem with some post-skaters metallo-flanger moves that are just right. On the flip, dan lopatin delivers the goods right off the bat with some sparkling poly-arpeggiator business that segues into a kind of blobby radiophonic workshopburner into a blistering sawtooth phase study, some floating drone-shapes, then the return of the son of the blob” -Mimaroglu Music
Tracklist:
Side A: Caboladies
-Reweaving The Charity Basket
Side B: Oneohtrix Point Never
-Samovars In Tula
-Identity
-Memory Vague
-Sand Partina
-Identity (Reprise)
Mist - “Glowing Net” [Pizza Night, 2010]
“the newest sounds from the duo of sam goldberg and john elliott. recorded between late summer and mid-fall of 2009. shows the zone where mist is heading, focusing intensely on composition as well as furthering the sonic spectrum of clouded out drones and sparkling sequences that made their self-titled lp so hallucinogenic.” -meditations
Highly recommended! More New-New-Age synth gurgling and reverb worship for generation zone.
Mar 29
Mark McGuire - “A Pocket Full Of Rain” [Pizza Night, 2009]
Tracklisting:
A: ”Forecast”
B: ”The Marfalights”
C1: “A Pocket Full of Rain”
C2: “Radioflyer”
C3: “The Lonesome Fog Horn Blows”
D1: “Aquaduct”
D2: “Sick Chemistry”
Many of you are probably already very familiar with Mr. McGuire’s output in groups such as Skyramps, Emeralds, and Sun Watcher. To these people, you need no introduction to the mesmerizing worlds he conjures with each cascading waterfall of delay loops and plucked strings.
For those of you who have never heard of him, McGuire creates ambient music that effortlessly achieves that which 99% of ambient musicians never come close to. His music draws you in, instead of simply giving you an excuse to zone out.
“A Pocket Full of Rain,” a double cassette limited to 130 copies, is a great starting point for those interested in becoming familiar with his works. In my opinion, it’s the most seamless of his efforts to date. Using nothing more than a guitar and a stack of effects pedals, McGuire wades through shimmering walls of arpeggios with obvious thought and precision. This music has nearly nothing in common with the scene’s more ‘fluid’ movement, and yet doesn’t fall into the trap of aimless repetition as many do. Mark is a guitar virtuoso, but he holds back. Not a note is ever wasted, and upon each new listen I grow more amazed at how much forethought must have gone into each added layer of complexity.
Oct 07
Earthen Sea - “Seeking Enlightenment 12oz at a Time” [Twonicorn, 2006]
So I started to write a review of this incredible tape, and then I saw Aquarius Records’ review, and felt ashamed. Nothing could describe this in a more perfect way. Why try?
“Earthen Sea, what a killer name, however, the tape’s title, Seeking Enlightenment 12 Oz. At A Time, had us expecting some sort of lo-fi, damaged and drunken sludgerock slugfest, but nothing could be further from the truth. Earthen Sea craft delicately developing drones, that begin life as a droney ultra minimal krautrock / postrock hybrid, with lots of swirling low end, pulsing melodies, propulsive barely there rhythms, a murky kraut jam like listening to Neu! practice six floors below you in an -almost- soundproof rehearsal room. Those various elements eventually begin to come apart, and blur together, becoming a thick tangled swirl of low end grind and throbbing, rumbling thrum, shot through with subtle sonic colors and glistening melodic sparkles. Nice.” Aquarius Records
Sep 28
Bones of Seabirds - “Sacrament” [Small Doses, 2008]
Tracklisting
1: Belial (5:34)
2: Serpent (6:05)
3: Earthborn (Forging of the Chalice) (6:00)
4: Sine Fine (Altar of Manik) (3:50)
5: Noosphere (8:31)
6: A Mere Offering (Octahedral Visions) (6:18)
7: The Great Attractor (7:02)
8: Gaijin (Falling Through Mercury) (5:32)
My apologies for the lengthy break in posting. I’m back in action now and have some insane stuff to post.
Bones of Seabirds create that dense, heavy, “wall of distortion” type of drone that we all know and love. Reminds me of when I first discovered Sunn O))). Kick back and enjoy the nuclear sunset in an industrial, dystopian future to this one.
Requests/Comments? Email me
Jul 18
Oneohtrix Point Never - “Betrayed in the Octagon” [Deception Island, 2007]
Tracklisting:
1: Woe Is The Transgression
2: Behind The Bank
3: Eyeballs
4: Betrayed In The Octagon
5: Woe Is The Transgression II
6: Parallel Mind Over
8: Weird Times Docking This Orb
Analog sunshine breaking through a murky tape-warble cloud cover. This is synthesizer manna for the post-Boards of Canada generation lost in the desert. The poor man’s Vangelis.
Highly recommended
Apr 05
Wicked Messenger - “A Three-Eyed Fox Lurking In The Serpent’s Throat” [No Label 2007]
1: Zuben Elschemali (5:14)
2: The Three-Eyed Fox (5:50)
3: The Rings Of Saturn (5:36)
4: Many Are The Dead, Few The Living (6:10)
5: A Little Sick Boy Tending The Corpse-Eating Sheep (While His Sister Rides The Horse Of Death) (5:49)
6: Jupiter (And Beyond) (8:02)
7: Wisdom Of The Sea (4:59)
8: The Serpent’s Throat (8:13)
9: Zuben Elgenubi (6:02)
As Plague Haus aptly put it: “This is the soundtrack of Cthulu approaching through the void. Take heed.”
This dark-ambient masterpiece is a nightmarish labyrinth of tension and dread. The vast space that it radiates is cold and dark, and full of innumerable unpleasant skittering things. In the midst of interweaving and growing drones, there emerge slithering, raspy whispers, more than likely incantations of the underworld. This is the sound of the Necronomicon book-on-tape.
***LINK FIXED***
Mar 21
Super Minerals - “The Piss” [DNT Records, 2008]
Super Minerals = Phil and William from Magic Lanterns, but this project is definitely not overshadowed by their main gig. This release kicks off with that especially murky drone that I’m so fond of, deep and echoey. Throw in a few distorted screams looped to infinity and distorted beyond recognition, and a harmonica somewhere in the mix, and you have a pretty brain-melting slab of drone. Like Sunburned Hand of the Man on a handful of qualudes.
