• Music

    FRKTL – Prose Edda

    February 15, 2022 - By 

    FRKTL is the nom de plume of British-Egyptian composer Sarah Badr, and her work straddles so many genres that it’s quite hard to describe accurately (a wonderful thing, as it means her work is incredibly fresh-sounding). There are, of course, long, drone-y elements to the music, but once you go into tracks 3 and 4 (Hverfa af himni heiðar stjörnur and Hart er með hölðum, respectively, you start hearing elements of techno (!), bleak synthetic choruses sounding like the angels reciting the liturgy over the bowels of Hades (or, in this case, Hel, in order to maintain a proper cosmology). …

  • Music

    Assembly Of Honey – Морозные Узоры (Frost Patterns)

    February 14, 2022 - By 

    Assembly Of Honey are a magnificent Russian ambient drone project related to the magazine Meticulous Midgets, friends of our blog.  Their latest album has several tracks which would appeal to meditative musicians like Steve Roach, but also to New Age artists like Kitaro and even experimental bands like Britain’s O Yuki Conjugate.  There is a calming aspect to the music that, frankly, I needed to hear after a stressful Valentine’s Day.  Well done, as always.

  • Music

    Mong Tong 夢東 – Mystery 秘神

    January 31, 2022 - By 

    We had the pleasure of reviewing Mong Tong last year.  They have produced yet another surreal post-progressive electronic gem.  On this album, there are elements of post-rock, modified traditional Taiwanese music, but also the eerie grooves which would do bands like Goblin proud, as the creepiness is quite subtle.  Read their Bandcamp site for a more in-depth account of this latest album.

  • Music

    Cergy-Pontoise – CP01

    January 17, 2022 - By 

    This is a curious release.  Cergy-Pontoise are an Italian duo, and their albim starts out with drone-y ambient sounds but then falls into atmospheric progressive-folk at times, sounding like a better recorded lo-fi artist out of New Zealand, perhaps.  There are also elements of space rock, prog and psychedelic music in this.  It’s a mixed bag in the positive sense of the word.

  • Music

    Esmez – Drifting

    January 16, 2022 - By 

    From July of 2021 we have a release from the French ambient project Esmez.  The gentle, dulcet sounds of each of these four tracks have made for very pleasant Sunday listening, and would really appeal to fans of Brian Eno’s earlier ambient works. For Esmez’s motivations on making the album, consider visiting their Bandcamp site.

  • Music

    Bérangère Maximin – Land Of Waves

    December 12, 2021 - By 

    Land Of Waves, the 6th album by French electroacoustic composer Bérangère Maximin, came out in June of 2020, and when I first heard it, was was left utterly impressed, but I have not had a chance to review it until today.  Maximin has an incredible talent to blend together nature, minerals, plant life, animal life, city life, and make it speak in one warmly organized opus.  I will have to check if she has released something since then, but, as this is the latest work I can find from her, I can say with some measure of confidence that she’s…

  • Music

    Scott Lawlor – The Mountains Cast Long Shadows

    November 23, 2021 - By 

    Scott Lawlor is an incredibly prolific composer out of Corinth, Texas.  He’s collaborated with scores of musicians and has many fine albums under his belt, but this is a one-track piece clocking in at a bit over 1 hour and 14 minutes.  It’s drone laden, cavernous in sound, and surprisingly warm, a bit like going for a walk under a volcano and feeling the magma and steamy water while you journey ever deeper into the bowels of the earth.  Well done.

  • Music

    miserable.noise.club – Frost Confinement

    November 15, 2021 - By 

    miserable.noise.club is a collective of incredibly talented musicians based in Jordan, China and the US + other collaborators in East Asia and the Middle East.  The music they make is, by some miracle, a solid blend of experimental music, a paean to post-punk and lo-fi psychedelic rock.  It’s hazy enough to remind me of some of the great music coming out of New Zealand in the late 1990s revolving around luminaries such as Roy Montgomery or The Dead C. Once the radio podcast begins, I have a feeling these folks will be featured heavily.  Very impressive.  Much respect to Abood…

  • Music

    Mong Tong 夢東 – 台灣謎景 Music from Taiwan Mystery

    November 14, 2021 - By 

    Mong Tong are one of the most profoundly interesting bands operating out of Taiwan these days, and their work would compare favorably to psychedelic giants like Ghost or even quieter aspects of Acid Mothers Temple. From WV Sorcerer Productions’ Bandcamp site: Mong Tong is brothers Hom Yu, Jiun Chi (they also play in ​Prairie WWWW​ 落差草原 WWWW & Dope Purple) and 仝. They listened to what they describe as “Dianziqin music 電子琴音樂” along with video game soundtracks, vintage Asian movie samples and psychedelic music. These inspirations combine with Taiwanese folklore and a love of conspiracy theories to form what they…

  • Music

    D^mselfly – DF​/​C30​-​RW

    November 4, 2021 - By 

    From Hreám Recordings‘ website: Originally released as a double-header with St James Infirmary’s ‘Apport’, here now on it’s own and sporting a batch of new jelly-green shelled and cased cassettes…. DF/C30-RW features six re-imagined and re-worked tracks from the first three Damselfly albums. Focussing on some of his more delicate arrangements, Damselfly’s 2020 versions breathe new life into the original soundscapes, where neoclassical meets ambient drone to serve you up an alternative sonic taste of his beloved home county of Sussex. I have to say that this release by D^mselfly is one of the most pleasant ambient discoveries I’ve come…