Ryan Smith is a Brooklyn-based (hey neighboor!) laptop artist who has lent his skills to the like of The Silent League, Mogami, Stars Like Fleas, Public Enemy among others, before deciding to invest his time into a solo project that he called A Million Billion. His debut record, "Today We Love You", which follows his completely different sounding mostly acoustic EP "The Filthy Schoolgirls" (feat. Joan Wasser of Rufus Wainwright band and Kevin Thaxton of The Silent League), is a freaky orgy of sounds and beats that comprises crazed arcade videogame-like sounds and saturated zapping synth lines, merging in and out of each other at the speed of merciless and continuously interrupted cut & pasted rhythmical structures that add a dense sense of frenziness to the entirely frantic atmosphere... At times in the record, the whole thing lays back for a minute and takes a breather by utilizing some less schizophrenic compositions and even occasionally introducing vocals and guest musicians Shannon Fields (Stars Like Fleas, The Silent League), Jeff Snyder (Scattershot), David Nemerson and Megan McCoy. If you are familiar with artists such as 1L (on RES FREq recordings), Next Life (Cock Rock Disco), A Bit Crusher (Unschool records), Satanicpornocultshop (Sonore rec) or if you like the most brutal and least refined of Richard James' creations or, even better, if enjoy Squarepusher, Puzahki, Xiu Xiu, and stuff like that, you might find that A Million Billion is tailored to your CD collection!

"Starless and the Bible Black Sabbath" is Alien8’s third release with the Japanese psychedelic ensemble Acid Mothers Temple. They have recently changed the "Melting Paraiso UFO" in the heavier sounding "Cosmic Inferno". With that title, which refers both to King Crimson and Black Sabbath and the album cover, which sees AMT leader Kawabata Makoto standing in for the mysterious woman on the front of the first Black Sabbath album, they're paying a tribute to two bands they love. While this album is certainly a tribute record it doesn’t consist of covers. The band sound like if they are simultaneously paying respect to other Sabbath influenced projects such as Melvins. Having a lenght of about 40 minutes, this work might technically seem like a short album, but the majestic, mind-bending soundscapes you can find in it, are virtually infinite. It’s a monster jam of epic, amped-up proportions that seems more like a tribute to heavy Hawkwind or maybe Monster Magnet. "Starless and Bible Black Sabbath" consists of two tracks, the first is a mammoth, mostly instrumental 34 and a half minute workout full of plodding, heavy riffage and gibbering gobs which are then offset by the swirling, often beautiful atmospherics of the rest of the ensemble. Also notable is the use of two drummers playing virtually the same thing all along the lenght of the track, but with slightly different timing, once again adding a feeling of massive depth and space to the track. The second cut, "Woman from a Hell", is a mere 6:14, but it sounds like an outtake from the Nuggets box set with its jackhammer guitars, phased vocals and acid-rock accents. This piece has more in common with the gentler sound found on the "Mantra of Love" release or the recent "IAO Chant" release, a tribute to Gong. As usual, The Temple blend heavy-metal madness, krautrock pulses, free jamming and outer space sonics resulting into a thrilling, freaky effect. A must!

As one of the most influential bands in the history of krautrock, Can, have contributed to changing the rules of the game and keep contributing with their many side and solo projects even today. This jam packed double DVD release is a re-release and comes without the third audio disc contained in its original form, but is still a very good testimony of all of that. Among other things, you'll be able to enjoy a documentary (compiled by Rudi Dolezal & Hannes Rossacher), a short tribute film by Brian Eno, footage from the Echo Awards, the "Can-Free-Concert" (shot by Robbie Mueller and directed by Peter Przygodda, who edited most of Wim Wenders films) filmed live at the Cologne Sporthalle in 1972, "Can Notes" (filmed by Hildegard Schmidt and compiled by Przygodda), classic and rare TV performances, studio footage, 4 new 5.1 mixes and the making of them in studio, interviews, photo gallery, biographies of all band members and collaborators, discography, history and more... Most content is in german but has english subtitles. Basically the content will just keep rolling out of of your media player, so if you like Can, it is pretty obvious what you outta do.

The joyful wedding between Yoshihiro Hanno's musical gift and the enchanting images of Yuki Kawamura gave us a pure piece of art, I still can’t say if this a must have but it’s top class for real. As many of you can probably deduce a series of clips appropriate for Hanno's melodies necessitates a couple of important characteristis: the first one is an strong lyrical power, the second one is an (apparent) simplicity with which the afore mentioned power is articulated. Different videos for different atmospheres, but there's a "file rouge" that links the nine videos (ten including the bonus one) of this dvd, here your eyes are gonna meet sliding doors, the womb of a void warehouse, breaking pieces of glass, leaves...beautiful leaves, clouds and an ocean of colours. If you think (like I do) some contemporary japanese electronic music is strongly emotionally charged but also gentle and shy (think of Sawako or Minamo for example): the images featuring Kawamura's clips are made out of the same fabric and embody the same spirit. It's hard to choose between the different clips but it's also so easy to fall in love with episode like "Slide" or "Jour de reve" or "Play at dusk"?!...above all in the last case how can you resist to dive plunge your thought s into such a good-looking cumulus of clouds?. When the images aren’t rendering beautifully the unseen passing of time they will guide you into the secret life of elements (take "Ve" for example). In the last case the view I probably really close to that of a an insect or a rock thus we can say the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Hanno's music keeps its enchanting effect intact but with the aid of Kawamura the inward eye experience brings into another dimension.

I was not familiar with Italian duo Ent's previous self-released production, and I don't know why I expected a rather typical glitch electronica. This is only true for the fourth track of this work, "Milk Oblò", which is not bad in itself, but is by far the least daring and engaging of this wildly psychedelic album, wrapped in a lush and nauseously coloured digipack (with a sort of giant whale formed by assorted sweets and flowers... ugh!). Using vinyl loops, guitars, keyboards, drums, electronic programmings and whatnot, Ent betray a clear musical bulimia, mixing turntablism, electronica, blues, kraut and psychedelic rock; the results are not always as focused as one would wish, but surely make for one of the most curious and varied discs I listened to in the last few months. All tracks are quite long and composite, with often unexpected and apparently contradictory developments. Take the opening "Beating Cherry Nipples", for example, where plucked string loops match with suspended notes, to be later replaced by tacky space keyboards, until a sparse acoustic guitar picking (somehow reminiscent of their friend Giuseppe Ielasi's recent excursions in "Gesine") closes the piece. Something similar happens with the following tracks, i.e. "All Night Long" (more vinyl loops and crackles, then a slow motion psychedelic blues) and "Eternal Plans" (arguably the best one, with rarefied sounds, micro loops and a dreamy finale, with a round dance of dazed sounds). The last track, "Nothing for Money", begins with droning patterns, then, after some uninteresting digital beats (a bit like the above mentioned "Milk Oblò"), there's a great crescendo with ecstatic drum patterns which definitely reminded me of good old kraut rockers. Though not everything works fine in Ent's poppy cut'n'paste, Scariot and Bortoluzzi surely know how to prevent boredom, with a taste for plagiarism and bizarre collages which could even remind of Nurse With Wound's least solipsistic experiments.