'iota' is the second release on the Spotted Peccary label for Bellingham, Washington-based Bryan Hughes' AeTopus project, after 'Cup' in 2023. The album is 12 tracks of thoughtful ambient electronica clocking in at about 62 minutes. This album is a journey of sorts, beginning low-key with gentle rhythms and sequences filled with melodic possibilities. Some of the techniques used on this album are especially noteworthy, such as the the echo interplay on "Finespun"; some intense Berlin School style sequencing on "Level"; and the vastness of space as seen through the lens of the primitive on "Tell Us". Over all, this is a fairly mellow, pleasant sonic excursion into regions both familiar and unknown handled adeptly by AeTopus. It would be difficult not to like this one iota.

Here is an interesting collaboration between guitarist Knox Chandler and drummer Bobby Previte., a conversation between two opposing approaches toward the same goal: reaching a natural autonomy. Previte employs an expanded conception of the modern drum set, a circularity that suggests rather than shows, using the powerful orchestrational might of the drum set to create form and meaning. Chandler uses his guitar as a tone generator (there are no synthesizers) to create “Sound Ribbons” - sonic fabrics made in real time that create a way of deconstructing and then enveloping and weaving together any series of individual pieces of music or film.

Previte is one of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York ‘Downtown’ scene, collaborating with an array of leading lights in and beyond the music world, including master composer John Adams, pianist Terry Adams of NRBQ, pantheon filmmaker Robert Altman, fellow Doom Jazzer Jamie Saft, country music star Jessi Colter, blues great Johnny Copeland, composer and visionary Lukas Foss, computer music pioneer Lejaren Hiller, seven-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, Julius Eastman, Lenny Kaye, Lounge Lizards leader John Lurie, Sonny Sharrock, folksinger Victoria Williams, maestro Michael Tilson-Thomas, Tom Waits, and, most recently, Iggy Pop. Knox Chandler’s career has spanned for over four decades, including performing, recording, arranging and producing, with such acts as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos etc. His long stints as a member of The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Cyndi Lauper’s band. For the past ten years Knox was residing in Berlin Germany, deepening his exploration of sonic soundscapes (Sound Ribbons), and applying it to different genres and mediums.

Now with the bios and credentials out of the way, let's get to the music on the album of nine tracks in under forty minutes. "White Horse" opens with big, heavily reverberated drums with guitar-generated sonics that flow like an electronic waterfall. When it gets up to speed for the rhythm of a song, it sounds like the abstract instrumental passage of some progressive rock band with plenty of echo and other effects. Experimental improv is the focus of "Moonburn" by both player-composers with the occasional concession to melody that Chandler's guitar makes. The track provides an interesting array of sounds and techniques from both parties but seems a bit directionless. "Hallow" grinds, snorts and wheezes before heading first into dronesville, and then something absolutely woozily psychedelic with a free jazz feel. Getting quiet and minimal on "Streamtide," it is mostly Knox who provides the droney sounds while Bobby adds percussive touches here and there. The piece is more elaborate than I can describe and bears revisiting at a later time. "Lost Moon" is noirish atmospheric cinematic music at its best, with Previte jazzing it up on hats and cymbals, with Chandler's moving bass undertow and abstract ambient guitars. "Bottom Fader" is a cacophonic improvisation with squalls, squelches and breaks that breaks all the rules of composition as if there needed to be any in the first place. The use of reverb and echo on this album is intense with very little not sounding 'in chamber.'

I was kind of disappointed with 'Tick" which begins with an interesting opening, but once Previte begins his drum rolls, it fails to achieve anything meaningful, and the tambourine didn’t add much either. How did we get here after so many cool previous tracks? "National Tan," the longest track on the album begins with shaker and double bass amidst the electronics, but the shaker as the only rhythmic percussive element can't hold up though the duration, so Bobby moves to cymbals then snare to fill in the gaps. There's a sort of abstract melodic theme on this one but I bet you will be hard-pressed to get it the first time. It ends with the briefest track on the album, "Pan" (2:40) and this is largely comprised of Previte's percussive elements with some drone guitar ambience from Chandler.

What began with incredible possibilities lost its mojo ¾ of the way through the album, not the first time I’ve experienced this in reviewland, especially since the collaboration was virtual, which can be tricky. Still there a good deal of value to be heard on this album. Available in limited quantities and varying prices on vinyl (either black or red), CD and digital.

Dark Sky Burial is Shane Embury of Napalm Death who has had several releases since 2020, but 'V.I.T.R.I.O.L' is the first I've heard of any of them. The album is a compilation of previous work, so I'm expecting sort of a 'Best Of' DSB. Opening with "Decay Is the Matrix of Fertility," slow and heavy war drums and grinding drones push across the soundscape with minimal melodicism, but is that a mournful saxophone I hear rising over the firmament? It is! Wow! That's interesting, and definitely different. "Excarnation" is based on an ostinado guitar (sounding) riff which develops into a full rhythmic production in a kind of cinematic/industrial vein. "Beware Your Subconscious Destroyer" begins with a similar arrangement to the previous (riff first, expansion follows) but with hammer-strummed notes soloed, then the heavy industrial rhythm kicks in. Vocal sample interludes are injected to break up the flow, then back again to heavy rhythm. Where have I heard this technique used before? Oh, that's right! SCORN. And what band was Scorn formed from? Napalm Death! You know what they say about "birds of a feather"....

"Flesh Altar" begins with some fancy rhythmic sequencing that strings along a lot of sonic effluvia on its maddening drive down the highway to hell. Before long it turns into a full blown industrial pounder. I think you might even be able to dance to it. Hey, let's pay tribute to the glory of Rome with "Vincit Qui Se Vincit" ("He conquers who conquers himself"). Anybody remember Ulf Söderberg's Sepiroth project on the CMI label? Sounds a bit like that. After such sturm und drang, “Constellation of Archetypes" comes off as an odd change of pace with a sort of quick sample-and-hold arpeggiated harp melody. At first surrounded by ominous stabs, it gets flung into the cosmos and comes back as a fully-formed industrial oddity. There's a lot more to the arrangement but you'll just have to hear it for yourself. "Embrace The Shadow" has a certain gothy darkness to it, enhanced by the theremin-sounding oscillator. This track might be great theme music for a horror series. Although "Mind Rat" uses a not often heard synth sound for its sequencing, it comes off as perhaps the least interesting and most scattered track on the album.

"De Omnibus Dubitandum Est" ("everything must be doubted," or so says Kierkegaard) mixes a vintage arcade-style synth line with a muscular industrial rhythm, which doesn't seem to work at first, until it does. Finally we enter "The Vertical Labyrinth," marching into oblivion. 'V.I.T.R.I.O.L.' is a great introduction to the murky world of Dark Sky Burial and should appeal to those who dig dark ambient, instrumental industrial and modern noirish cinematic music. Yellow vinyl LP and CD available at Consouling Sounds out of Ghent, Belgium. Digital download from DSB's Bandcamp site. Worthy album

CENOBIUM is a Latin word that refers to the place, the cenobium, where monks live a communal life under the same rule. The origin of the word is Greek, combining the meanings of koinos (common) and bios (life). This project originates from musical practice sessions dedicated to that "rule" which is Afro-American music, involving bassist Andrea Lombardini and some extraordinary young musicians from northeastern Italy. Lombardini’s leadership paves the way, with maturity and experience, for the innovative ideas of Edoardo Cian on guitar and vocals, Giulio Jesi on saxophone, and Francesco De Tuoni on drums, engaged in a repertoire of original pieces and reinterpretations of music from various genres, even if they may appear to be disparate. In the collective’s music, instrumental and vocal elements coexist, intertwining acoustic, electric, and electronic sounds, alongside Afro-American and European traditions, as well as post-rock influences, in an extraordinarily coherent narrative.

No easy album to classify, 'MMXXIV' is an album of contrasts. Six tracks totally a scant 32 minutes, it covers a lot of ground. The opener, "Afro-Centric" sets the tone with jazz improv with a sort of '70s vibe to it. "Grains of Sand," which follows, is a colorful ballad with jazz touches but more like an indie singer-songwriter sort of tune. While he's got a good voice, I'm not really knocked out by Eduardo's vocal style on thus one; too commercial for my taste. "Curly" features some excellent sax work by Giulio, but fails to develop anything thematic to hold onto, skittering around randomly, like that electronic mouse toy I bought my cat for Christmas.

"Missed" is surely a better song than the last one with vocals, likely because it was written by PJ Harvey. I never considered this one of Polly Jean's better songs, but Cenobium finds a way to make it amazing, with a lot more drama and a way better arrangement. Impressive! Finally, on "Shifting Smiles" Giulio delivers the kind of vocal treatment I'd expect from a project like this; jazzy and progressive. Everything works well here, but this is more fusion than avant-garde. Final track, "Eggplant" starts out smooth and mellow with instrumental improvisational solos beginning with Jesi's sax, then Cian's guitar, cranking it up a bit in the distorting department. Not a bad track, but I was expecting maybe a bit more. These are extraordinary players, but the compositions aren't quite there yet, something that may be overcome in time. After all, this is a debut album.

I really dropped the ball on this one. This album was released April 22, 2024 and totally slipped through the cracks on my messy desk, so my deepest apologies to the label and the artist. JARR is a collaborative project between British ambient guitarists Yellow6 (Jon Attwood) and Wodwo (Ray Robinson). 'All These Past Lives' is JARR's fourth album, and their third on the Sound In Silence label. If you're familiar with JARR, then the music is within the realm of what you'd expect- abstract compositions using guitar and electronics in a simulated ambient environment. It isn't so much ambient though, as it is experimental compositions built around slow and contemplative reverbed guitar loops, walls of ambient texture, delayed guitar melodies, minimal post-rock ambience and washes of distorted shoegazing drones. That just about sums it up, eh?

Well there is a good deal more to it than that. Often sounds/instruments come out of nowhere (like the organ on "Cartographer Maps a Way"), minimal butts up against maximal, lethargic acoustic guitar chords give way to corkscrewing distortion, and nostalgic phrases are revived anew. Musicians should appreciate the sonic variety Jon and Ray put into their music, and listeners should be constantly enthralled by the unexpected changes (as in the 6th track, "Fever") and shifts compositions take. The artists' emotional feelings are conveyed through the music of 'All These Past Lives' in a way that cannot be expressed in words and defies structure. The album is an ethereal trip to the world of dreams, where ideas are spawned and thoughts are shaped to later become reality. Past lives mix with present ambitions for future revelations. The last track, "There's a Girl Who Lives in the Woods" is the closest thing structurally to a song, and a wordless one at that. (Feel free to add your own lyrics.) This is certainly an album you won't be easily bored by. This is a limited edition of 200 handmade and hand-numbered collectible copies, or digital, if you prefer.