French label WV Sorcerer Productions 巫唱片 offers up a quiet, pulsating drone album from American-Taiwanese-Chinese composer Li Daiguo. As far as experimental music goes, this is dark and foreboding in a far more organized way that what I’m used to hearing. Quite a fine effort.
Per Najbjerg Odderskov is an artist I enjoyed featuring over at my old blog, and I’m pleased to hear he has a new release out. It is as dark, heavy and claustrophobic (and yes, that’s a good thing for this genre of music) as his best works. The gloomy feel reminds me of peak 1990s experimental cassette culture, the weirdness of Industrial music-era Cabaret Voltaire, and horror movie soundtracks. Bleak, haunting, and engaging.
Today’s choice, Cernichov, bear cover art on their album, The Mold Legacy, which would fool one into thinking that this was some sort of black-metal release. Far from it. It’s actually a very well-balance pairing of noise and ambient music. It’s as if a post-punk band were working with the noise and ambient aesthetic, so this sounds far more musical and stable than many of the amateur bands who sound like they’re simply flipping on the vacuum switch. Quite nice.
Though I am not sure exactly where Nihil Impvlse hail from in Italy, I can rest assured that Raffaele Pezzella of Eighth Tower Records and his own project Sonologyst will ensure the quality of such music. Nihil Impvlse are quite a pleasant surprise for noise or drone music. This sounds more sculpted, more relaxed and focused, in comparison to other projects of a similar bent. For an album release which is so bleak, it seems almost gentle to the ears, eminently listenable. Not quite what I was expecting, but so much the better for it.