• Music

    Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang – Azure

    December 19, 2023 - By 

    Two masters of drone at their peak after two decades of collaboration.  From the duo’s Bandcamp site: “Since beginning to work together as a duo in the early 2000s, Kang and Kenney have collaborated on sound installations, music for orchestra, choir, and mixed ensembles in addition to releasing numerous widely acclaimed full-lengths: Aestuarium (2005), The Face Of The Earth (2012), Live In Iceland (2013), At Temple Gate (2014), Reverse Tree (2016), Seva (2017), The Cypress Dance (2020). A hypnotic return to the duo’s unique expression of “unison music”, Azure is among Kenney and Kang’s most pared-down efforts in more than…

  • Music

    Earthtones & Etsegenet Mekonnen – Selam

    November 20, 2023 - By 

    This is a rather glorious single pairing American DJ Earthtones with Ethiopian singer Etsegenet Mekonnen.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Selam is a vision of peace. This collaboration between producer/DJ Earthtones and Ethiopian musician/vocalist Etsegenet Mekonnen features haunting vocals sung in Amharic. Analog & semi-modular synths combine with 909 drums and afrobeats percussion by Earthtones, to weave grooves for Etsegenet’s depth in songwriting, voice and soul. The main version has a dancehall bassline that calls one to movement, while the dub versions evoke mystery amidst long modulated leads + filtered pads.”

  • Music

    László Hortobágyi – Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī 1994​-​2023 [Re​​​-​​​Mix Mastered Version Series Vol. 3]

    November 15, 2023 - By 

    László Hortobágyi is perhaps the best known electronic/experimental music composer to ever come out of Hungary.  Our dear brothers at áMARXE Records have released Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī, a 1991 release, as a remastered edition. From the áMARXE Bandcamp site: “Fomal-hoot al-Ganoubī is a mythological Arabic constellation. It is the planet whose warm milky-mist landscapes are home to the ethereal body-incarnations of deceased Muslim saints and dervishes. When in the XXII century the white man reached the moons of Jupiter and there transformed himself into a floating changeling to populate the stratosphere of Jupiter, in the same way the souls…

  • Music

    Drawing Virtual Gardens – 22:22

    August 8, 2023 - By 

    Our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound have on offer an ambient album perfectly designed for headphone listening by a project new to me called Drawing Virtual Gardens, a Belgium-based artist called David Gutman.  From the promo material, which does a wonderful service introducing David’s work: “At the core of Drawing Virtual Gardens ’22:22,’ there is a keen sense of the nocturnal, and a blurring of lines between the waking and the dream state. Focusing on small synchronous events within these hypnagogic periods, Gutman takes inspiration and translates them into musical cadence. Blankets of dense sub-bass coat minimal dub-like rhythmic…

  • Music

    Meitei (冥丁) – Kwaidan (怪談) (5th Anniversary Edition)

    July 21, 2023 - By 

    Meitei made its debut in 2018 with this freakishly disturbing, yet beautiful, experimental album.  It was a revelation for a lot of music critics, and each listen makes you feel like you’re locked in some disjointed Kurosawa film. Kitchen Music and Evening Chants have combined to reissue this seminal album on its 5-year anniversary, and they have included LP and CD reissues.  From Evening Chants’ Bandcamp site: “In 2018, Meitei shook the ambient world with the release of his debut album “Kwaidan”, a transposition of Japanese folklore into intricate compositions, capturing what he would coin as the “lost Japanese mood”.…

  • Music

    Vidna Obmana – Dante Trilogy: Tremor . Spore . Legacy

    March 30, 2023 - By 

    Dirk Serries has kept his Industrial/Fourth World project Vidna Obmana alive since 1984, but this release for metal label Relapse Records will be his coup de grace.  Loosely based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, this 3-CD set covers all the music genres Serries has worked in over the past four decades.  From his Bandcamp site: “An almost his 25 year existency as VIDNA OBMANA Dirk Serries never shied away from challenges, sometimes to the regret of many of his fans, but it’s when he was offered a record deal with the renowned metal label RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT Vidna Obmana took…

  • Music

    O Yuki Conjugate – A Tension of Opposites Vols 3 & 4

    March 13, 2023 - By 

    O Yuki Conjugate are among the top-tier post-Industrial/experimental projects of the past 40 years, and it’s been an amazing experience going over their catalog over the past few weeks in my personal collection.  This is archival material and a complement to A Tension of Opposites Vols 1 & 2.  From the band’s Bandcamp site: “Two years after the first two volumes of A Tension of Opposites (ATOO) were issued OYC return to the form they created to house their looser more exploratory works. ATOO allows them to expand their musical horizons and release their music more expediently. The original ATOO…

  • Music

    Max Brody – MAXBRODYWORLD TV 2006​-​2007: THE SOUNDTRACK

    June 28, 2021 - By 

    If you haven’t heard the name Max Brody before, you probably know a lot of the bands he’s worked with: Ministry, the Test Apes, the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Big Boys, Lubricated Goat and so many others.  He was a powerhouse drummer in the Austin Industrial music scene, but has since moved to the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, where he has been working on projects such as a rock documentary/travel blog which is, sadly, no more. Of particular interest is the project Fried Smiling which includes my old friend, business partner and a fine video director,…