• Music

    Jeff Gburek – The Art of Prepared Guitar Volume One

    May 27, 2023 - By 

    Jeff Gburek’s recent instrumental guitar album is a a wonderfully disjointed trip around his sonic weapon of choice.  It’s a truly wild work, but Jeff weaves his vast musical influences together with hints of a broken kind of blues, free jazz, improvisational skronk and psychedelic rock. In Jeff’s words, which you can read in full at Ramble Records‘ Bandcamp site: “In attempting to move into the future of the guitar or the post-guitar (as in the case of Kevin Drumm or Annette Krebs where the guitar became deconstructed and/or displaced into other electro-acoustic processes, if you will), I also discovered aspects…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Meticulous Midgets 2023

    May 25, 2023 - By 

    Our beloved friends at Russia’s finest indie music magazine, Meticulous Midgets, has released their annual compilation of weird experimental, lo-fi and avant-garde music. Featured artists include Russia’s own Assembly of Honey, the Italian ambient sound sculptor Marco Lucchi and Latvia’s Ш​у​м​и​л​о​в Б​о​р (Shumilov Bor) among a host of talent worldwide.

  • Music

    JOHN 3:16 – The Pact

    May 20, 2023 - By 

    Folks, we have a very long wait for JOHN 3:16’s next opus (April of 2024), but judging based on how good the samples have been so far, this is going to be the band’s most profound release yet.  The tension on the album reminds me of early, more Industrial-era Laibach with elements of the Swans, but with a more cinematic feel to it.  Be patient, the whole thing will come to be soon enough.

  • Music

    Omar Ahmad – Inheritance

    May 15, 2023 - By 

    Judging by the sole track available from AKP Recordings artist, the Brooklyn-based Palestinian-American Omar Ahmad, this album should be considered one of those albums you listen to at 3 a.m. in order to relax and be at one with God.  The chilled out atmosphere of the track Lapses is shimmering, but not overly so.  What won me over to this release was the interesting one-sheet I received with the promo kit: “At times recalling the emotional landscape of Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Cendre, Inheritance weaves an auditory narrative that evades genre constraints. Enveloping orchestral ambience gives way to hypnotic Arab…

  • Music

    bu.re_ – dream sequence ii

    May 12, 2023 - By 

    Too dense and sumptuous to be labeled ambient music, what Los Angeles’ own bu.re_ offers is a ride on the clouds on your way to something approximating Heaven.  The drones emanating from these works are some of the warmest tones I’ve heard this year.  Bravo.

  • Music

    Mapped Out In Lights – Longform One

    May 3, 2023 - By 

    Illinois-based label Somnimage has been on quite a roll producing some of the best post-Industrial and experimental music coming out of the United States.  Today’s offering pairs Dan Burke (who won fame as the chief focal point of Illusion of Safety) and label owner Mykel Boyd (who has also performed with such luminaries as The Anti-Group and post doom romance).  There are two tracks on this album – the first being a solid sample lasting 7 minutes giving a fine taste of what is coming, and a full track clocking in at nearly an hour of shifting drones, pulses and…

  • Music

    Akshin Alizadeh – Reasons

    April 23, 2023 - By 

    We have here a slab of R&B and modern soul courtesy of Akshin Alizadeh, the wunderkind originally from Azerbaijan who records for Cold Busted Records out of Oregon.  It’s strangely radio-friendly, but the funk is pleasant on this single

  • Music

    Seah – Clouds & Spectres

    April 11, 2023 - By 

    Seah is an experimental music artist from Bradley, Illinois who produces long, sweeping ambient drone.  There is an organ-like elegance to the compositions, especially with the first track, Unfurling, which meanders in a way that would fit in an old 1920s soundtrack of walking on the tundra.  Many thanks to Somnimage for sending me this evocative gem.