Admitedly, retro-flavoured electro/synthpop may be an acquired taste but, even taking that into consideration, “42 Times Around the Sun” is a solid release worthy of discovering, which can even be quite fascinating given enough chance and approached with an open mind.
Category: Featured Reviews
Flint Glass – Nyarlathotep + From Beyond EP
Like the new artwork, the music is multi-layered and complex. Skilfully woven layers of dark electronics and samples evoke a quiet, eerie atmosphere, haunted with menacing tension.
Mono-Amine – Do Not Bend
Mono-Amine’s latest offering, “Do Not Bend”, is an endless barrage of complex rhythms twisted madly by distortion and triggered with breakneck speeds. Overall, this album is incredible but not an everyday listen. Recommended for serious fans of distortion and all things fast and aggressive.
Kommando – Crimefactory
Kommando is the first project of Daniel Hofmann, a.k.a. Anton Knilpert/Dan Courtman, who has a hand in the work of virtually all the artists on the UMB label, Dogpop, Jägerblut, Kommando, The Musick Wreckers, Thorofon, UMB-Kollektif and more. The material gathered here is from 1993-98, and was ‘re-constructed’ (or re-animated?) in 2008.
Zeller – Turbulences
“Turbulences”, the latest from French industrial adept Zeller, could not be more aptly titled. The concise yet gut-shaking panorama of digital emissions and fractured beats found here challenges orientations in both genre and scale, seating Zeller firmly in the realm of seething, hard sci-fi soundtracks for the post-planetary age.
Aun – Black Pyramid
“Black Pyramid” is the latest release on dark ambient/drone label Cyclic Law. Typically, Cyclic Law releases are built from a standard mold: calm, droning, dark ambient. Aun is one of the few to break out of this pattern, if only somewhat.
Mystified – Passing Through The Outer Gates
On first listen, this isn’t as boring as I expected from someone who has the tendency to release over twenty albums a year. There are some genuinely interesting elements at play here: calm, dark, minimal drones, various melodic elements, and even some well-crafted tribal-esque percussion.
Enrico Coniglio feat. Manuel P. Cecchinato and Massimo Liverani – Sea Cathedrals
The name Enrico Coniglio is neither new to this scene nor to me. In the past I had the pleasure of reviewing another CD where he was one of the collaborators. The album “dyanMU” was released on the Irish label Psychonavigation Records, but for “Sea Cathedrals” Enrico chose to stay closer to home, as it was released by fellow countrymen Silentes.
Metaform – The Electric Mist
Two years after a critically acclaimed instrumental debut – the sample-based “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” (2008) – the reclusive, American-born musician and producer Metaform (Justice Aaron) returns to deliver an intriguing, if not stunning, sophomore album.
Nadja/Troum – Dominium Visurgis
In a beautifully designed eight-page digipack – greytones with copper – hides a CD made by two of the worldwide top 10 artists (or should it say top three) in the genre of guitar drones. Conceived, recorded and finished in April 2008, it is now released on Troum’s own label Transgredient Records.