KAUAN hail from Estonia and bring something extra to both progressive rock and post-rock. Long, drone-laden, repetitive music that holds one’s interest throughout. Perhaps the best way to describe this is like a very much slowed-down My Bloody Valentine with a symphonic progressive tinge to it. Unique. I quite like this.
The legendary Shenzhen-based Old Heaven Books released a powerful album from the Chinese-Kazakh band IZ Band. This is listed as folk music, yet the music is brutal, sounding like early 1980s post-punk or Industrial rock. Think of, maybe, a Kazakh Killing Joke or a Central Asian early-period Current 93.
Controlled Bleeding were one of the few bands who could glide from genre to genre easily. They were comfortable working with EBM, harsh noise and experimental music, and would even appeal to some elements in the goth-rock crowd, but this particular album stood out as their magnum opus for me. Paul Lemos, the one constant member of the band, sculpted beautifully minimalistic guitar playing which sounded almost like avant-progressive rock, while the late Joe Papa (of eternal memory) would let his vocals soar, especially on the track Red Stigmata. My favorite album by a criminally underrated band. For a more…
I had no idea what to expect with this album except that it was promoted by Carbon 7 record label impresario and former Univers Zéro bassist Guy Segers. His taste tends to be outstanding, so I gave this a shot. Quite pleasant, actually. Dominique Figaro’s voice reminds me of a lot of 80s female avant-pop which was coming out in the 1980s or 1990s, and though the sound is a bit too compressed for my liking, the music is quirky enough to hold my attention throughout. It is as if Sade fronted Tuxedomoon for a session. Yes, that quirky, and…
Will Long is Celer, an ambient music composer living in Japan and therefore, a relatively close expatriate neighbor of mine. He releases a lot of music, as is the fashion with some highly competent composers these days, but his work feels like a cut above. Though this album has 12 tracks, they are rather short compared to some of his other albums, where one track can clock in at over an hour. The material is dark, but not claustrophobic, and quite easy on the ears if you’re listening on headphones. Really, consider following his Bandcamp site. He’s constantly putting out…
Dzivia are a project out of Belarus specializing in a music that crosses ambient, Nordic folk music, symphonic progressive rock and regional music. They manage to do all this in one track. Impressive.
Thanks to my friend and Galego brother Andrés, I’ve come across a soundtrack composer and sound designer out of New York called Gil Talmi. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award (presumably in soundtrack music and apparently fond of working on socially conscious projects. I’m far from a bleeding heart, but it’s good to see someone try to change the world a bit, a project at a time. As for the music, it’s quite good, well-designed, and it holds up surprisingly well when compared to a lot of modern classical music, as well as progressive and electronic music.
Our dear friends at CPL-Music have done it again! This 60-track album by Saucejas is an ethnographer’s dream if you’re into Latvian music, and there is an organic feeling to this album. Nothing too terribly processed, nothing added that didn’t need to be there. The album is appropriately titled, as Dabā is Latvian for “in nature.” This is simply beautiful choral traditional music from one of my favorite regions of the world.
Doomed & Stoned is a series of compilations covering the best of doom metal and stoner rock all over the world. This comp covers the scene in Chile, which is surprising rich. There are 99 tracks of surprising variety, including one that left me mystified: It’s a track by Heraldica de Mandrake and perhaps the only way to describe it is Gregorian doom. It’s actually quite pleasant.
A friend of our blog, Zoltan from JuffBass, has released a rather fine bass-dominated instrumental progressive rock album worth your attention. It’s a mellow release, rather atmospheric, and would definitely appeal to those of you who like the more chilled-out end of the post-rock spectrum. Quite nice!