Two tracks with a total playing time from over 50 minutes. Two intriguing soundscapes simply titled “How This Ends”, part one and two. Two great artists to whom this album is dedicated: David Tibet and Gordon Sharp.
Category: Featured Reviews
nonnon – The Entitlement Generation
“The Entitlement Generation” is labelled as experimental hip-hop influenced IDM, and even though they are right about the different ingredients, the IDM shouldn’t be mentioned as main ingredient. It’s more dubby, hip-hoppy experiments with beats, where you can clearly hear IDM influences at certain moments, but it’s kept within the experimental stage.
Flutwacht – …mit nichts…
Sometimes you have to be very patient when listening to experimental music. Sometimes it takes quite a long time for anything of interest to happen. But often, when you’re patient and stop demanding instant gratification, you will hear something really powerful.
Kraken – Strop
I believe one clear indication of the quality of a piece of dark ambient is how detailed and bizarre the scenes the music can paint in your mind… I can only conclude that “Strops” really is one of those albums.
Phaenon – His Master’s Voice
Sadly, “His Master’s Voice” doesn’t quite bring anything new to the table in terms of genre advancement. It’s just more of the same ambient that 50 other producers are generating. So there’s no denying that it’s clever stuff, but that’s about its greatest drawcard.
Mikroben Krieg – Final Cut
Mikroben Krieg fills the gap between the drum’n’bass-styled IDM of the likes of Squarepusher and that of the more dance-oriented IDM of Haujobb, even going so far as to border on EBM.
Danielle de Picciotto & Alexander Hacke – Hitman’s Heel
A significant break from both Neubauten and their Lovecraftian ambient soundscape work, “Hitman’s Heel” is an excursion into unhealthy Americana, troubling blues and haunted fairytales, drawing on Tom Waits and Nick Cave as obvious points of reference but creeping off from there deep into the woods.
Mathieu Ruhlmann – As a Leaf or a Stone
On “As A Leaf Or A Stone” Mathieu Ruhlmann shows us how hard it is to put a label on art. The six tracks are a perfect example of sound art in its purest form.
tokee – Quintuplet
With “Quintuplet” tokee not only delivers five fresh tracks, but also a sizeable selection of top-notch remixes; a limited release that, thankfully, plays like a brand new full-length. From 4/4 thumpers splattered with breaks and glitch to coasting and fluid downtempo groovers, tokee’s flawless production and innate sense of tempo render “Quintuplet” a powerhouse of swirling layers and solid beats.
False Mirror – Derelict World
“Derelict World” is the newest album from dark ambient artist False Mirror, released via stalwart label Malignant. Firstly, I must ask your forgiveness for me for being a bit long winded here, but there is much to say about this release. The major thing I want to emphasize is that it is truly an album, a coherent and calculated whole.