Blood Rhythms – New Illusions

“A massive, oppressively brutal wall of sound.”  That was the first impression that popped into my head after listening to Arvo Zylo’s project, Blood Rhythm’s latest release, New Illusions. Think of ritualistic noise with some sense of structure, like Z’ev meeting Merzbow’s more restrained and focused works.  This is bleak, claustrophobic, Continue Reading

Antiq – Ilbeltz / Hanternoz / Anceisural Eritance – D’Anjou en Vasconie

This was a combination I didn’t expect.  It’s not uncommon for, say, black metal musicians to integrate their music into pagan folk and make a good hybrid, but this is something different.  Antiq combine soaring traditional Basque and Breton vocals with a proper metal backing, and somehow, by some strange Continue Reading

Orphan Sound System – Tantric Tantrums

Experimental music isn’t a genre that avails itself to the power trio.  In this case, however, Jeff Gburek, John El-Manahi and John Palumbo should be given such a venerable title.  The music they produce as Orphan Sound System is reminiscent of vintage progressive rock bands like Faust or Cranioclast but with Continue Reading

Msylma & Ismael – The Tenets of Forgetting (مذاهب النسيان)

Saudi singer Msylma & Egypt’s Ismael are two musicians who come from the rich Middle Eastern electronic music scene.  Msylma’s rich, mournful and introspective voice gives depth and emotion to the electro music produced underneath.  I have to admit, though this isn’t the kind of music I normally listen to, it’s Continue Reading

Adjin Asllan, Tarik Bulut, The Garabed Brothers, et al. – In An Egyptian Garden

From the legendary Canary Records Bandcamp site: From the 1910s through the 1950s, immigrants released 78rpm discs marketed to their own language / ethnic groups, and that practice survived for a century well into the era of the 33rpm, 45rpm, cassette, and CD era. But from the mid-50s though the Continue Reading