French band from the "Rock in Opposition" movement, they inspired many other musicians who followed, Etron Fou Leloublanc were formed by Chris Cutler (Eulalie Ruynat) and their anarchic mix of no-wave, free-jazz, concrete muzak and experimentation will remind you of Captain Beefhear, Albert Marcoeur, ZNR, the Swiss electronic geniuses Young Gods, Kurt Weil, the god of sax John Zorn, Psychic TV, the Italian freak-experi-jazzers Bz Bz Ueu, Jacopo Andreini, Parts, Daniele Brusaschetto, Jitterbugs, the German kraut-experimentors Mr. Ebu and Krankheit Der Jugend, the American Post Prandials, and others who have either made French the language of their recited, sung and spoken lyrics or who have fooled around with acoustic instruments in a way that goes beyond jazz, scratches the surface of cacophonic dissonance, escapes conventional rock and breaks barriers and boundaries in search of a new equilibrium. "Les Poumons Gongles" is a re-edition of their 1982 fourth album of thier career.

Enfusion (Torben Schmidt and Alfred Gregl) play nice electronica with a spacy touch. Ear-friendly rhythms coupling with ethereal melodies, relaxing and unobtrusive. Kind of Boards of Canada minus all the "difficult" parts and a more retro-ambient slant. This could be a good point if you really like this style, otherwise it could become a defect. The matter is, it's very well done but it's just NICE - it works while you're at it (generally doing something else), but leaves you no scratches at the end. So you forget what it sounds like. There's a kind of extra-polished modern-design-electronica feel (something common to all Funkwelten releases) which leaves me a bit cold. Anaemic chill out.

This cd by Argentinian quartet Kutna Hora begins with militaristic pecussions, but later they seem to opt for the lighter, wave-ish side of dark folk. The press sheet quotes In My Rosary and Novalis as references, and I'd definitely add some Cure too in the vocal department (see "Hell is a place on earth"). They also take on the Irish traditional "Crazy man Michael", yeah, the one that Sol Invictus covered aeons ago. Competent musicianship, good production, and decent songs, but nothing that even remotely thrills me. I don't know, this style of dark folk just does not for me. It is the classical "acoustic ballads played by goths"-vibe, which often sadly couples the "acoustic ballads played by metalheads with runes"-vibe in the not so exciting noir folk scene of today.

"Reworked" by Polish sound experimentator Zenial is a collection of remixes (or 'reworked' tracks) by artists that are well known to the scenesters because of their long and dedicated work. People like K. Null, Andrew Lagowski, Vidna Obmana, Tetsuo Furudate and Zbigniew Karkowski (cmp review of his Electroshock records album elsewhere on these pages) are just some of the most well established names who appear and lended a hand for the creation of this project. Fourteen tracks ranging from exploding power-noise (guess who else if not K. Null!) to glitch electronics, ambient, experimental noise etc etc. Other artists include Kasper T., Maciek Szymczuk, Andrew Duke, label mate Amir Baghiri, Jason Wietlespach & Jon Mueller and of course Zenial himself. A multifolded release that contains pleasant surprises and interesting moments.

Amir Baghiri's "Yalda" is an exceptional example of world music matched with a modern approach to electronica and a persistent feel of experimentation that pervades this whole release. Mostly a percussive record, Amir Bahiri's rhythmical grooves never miss a chance to team with the beautiful environmental audio and the warm analog sonics and many times the percussions actually go in the background and let the warping pads and the sounds of nature lead the way through this fantastic journey. Recorded live, in a studio and on site (field recordings) in different places including Asia and North Africa, you'll get much of those two continents: from traditional instruments and traditional vibes to middle eastern percussive grooves that will remind of Muslimgauze's tireless drumming and programming or Gregorio Bardini's attentive experimentation and exploration. Egpytian dumbak, liquid drums, surdo, djembes, tamborin, Persian zarb, didjeridus, panjab clay flute, native iranian ney and sipsi, stone flute, tibetan gongs are just a few of the forgotten instruments that Baghiri will gladly bring back to our memories with enchanting and rapturing atmospheres of distant places and unknown cultures. An important testament of the peoples and the cultures of this planet. Simply beautiful and globally exceptional.