The guitar, all by itself, can serve as tool for making a haunting orchestra’s worth of sounds. My good friend Santiago Fradejas, now resident in Kent, of all places (!) presents a mini-LP’s worth of brooding, swelling, lilting soundscapes. There is a menacing element tying the album together, as though Continue Reading
Experimental
JOHN 3:16 – Yoldath Aloho
I have to catch up and see what has been going on with our friends at Alrealon Music. This release is two tracks of a horrifying soundscape that conjures up images of characters like Pinhead from the classic horror movie Hellraiser. Though the movie had no effect on me (I Continue Reading
The Hauchzart Ensemble – Hauchzart Momentum Vol. I
What a remarkable work this is. The Hauchzart Ensemble includes our dear colleague Wilfried Hanrath, who plays guitar, bass, drums, beats, synth and electronics on this album, along with Matt Getchell, who also provides electronics, synthesizer and beats. This album takes quite a journey, starting off with a track that, Continue Reading
Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear
Today is a terrible day, as we’re reeling over the loss of Cabaret Voltaire multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Richard H. Kirk. He was 65 years old. The Cabs were one of the most influential bands of their era, whose work would have serve as inspiration to genres such as Industrial, post-punk, EBM, avant-funk, electro, acid Continue Reading
F.P. & The Doubling Riders – Doublings & Silences Vol. I
The Doubling Riders were one of those bands that came out of 1980s Italy who were criminally neglected. It’s great to see this published digitally. This reissue came out today, and it was considered a big score in my collection when I had the vinyl version. From the Bandcamp site: Continue Reading
Maryam Sirvan – Feast On My Body
We have to wait eight more days to hear the complete work, but given the two tracks Maryam Sirvan has made available, this will be worth the wait. There were two artists which came to mind while listening to the tracks over and over – Tim Buckley at his most Continue Reading
Li Yilei – 之 (Of)
Li Yilei is a London-based sound artist based whose roots are Chinese. Li’s latest album, Of (Chinese: 之) reminds me of some of the amazingly good Japanese new age ambient releases of the 1980s which seem to be gaining a lot of attention like Hiroshi Yoshimura and some of Haruomi Continue Reading
Various Artists – Anthology Of Exploratory Music From India
India is a country with such an embarrassingly rich musical history that it boggles the mind as to how good it is, and it’s not merely their traditional music. Jazz, pop, progressive rock, metal and everything else you can imagine seems to flourish there, yet there is only one problem. Continue Reading
Yoyogi Koen 代々木公園 – Hyakki Yako 百鬼夜行 ひゃっきやぎょう
Hong Kong’s 4’33” Records (named, of course, for American avant-garde composer John Cage’s most notorious composition) specialize in experimental music which crosses into drone and ambient fluidly. This release is by Yoyogi Koen (Yoyogi Park) and though reference information isn’t listen anywhere, I would assume them to be also out Continue Reading
IZ Band – 廻声Jangqerek
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.