Nuit is the first solo release by Villemin, a classical trained Violinist from France, here solely using Keyboards and Piano. Her experience in providing music also for theatre and dance productions shows in the soundtrack like neo-classical melancholy drowned tracks, perfectly fitting the season of Autumn and it's accompanying introvertedness. A fragile and etheral beauty can be found in these 5 compositions which develope fluently and supplement each other. The analogue synthesizers remain mostly somewhere in the background, the grand piano has the central role of transporting the emotions and melodies and is mixed to the fore as to soothe the listener late at night.
Villemin is a talent to watch, but I'd love to hear a little more of the work which went into the electronic side of the tracks in the mix if she intends to follow this path.
The EP is scheduled for release on October, 8th.

This 2CD collection of the Sheffield based Post-Punk, Post-Industrial group does a fine job giving an overview from their recorded output starting in 1990 up to 2019, which is actually quite sparse - one live tape, two albums a single and an EP as far as known. Obviously studio recordings where not the main focus of founding brothers Andrew & Tim Brown but performing live with the use of self-made films and also live cinema scoring events where where the real interest of this ensemble lies.
Their last main release, In Mufti on Musica Maxima Magnetica dates back to 1995 and is the only one featuring the current line-up featuring Charlie Collins (former Clock DVA, The Box Percussionist and Saxophonist/Flutist) and Karl Blake (Lemon Kittens, Shockheaded Peters, Sol Invictus, ..) adding Bass and Guitars as full members. Drummer Q. of In The Nursery fame is also involved as guest musician besides various singers as Sally Doherty (Sieben, The Sumacs) or Lol Coxhill on some of the earlier tracks.
Founding member Paul Ackerley of Zahgurim had left in 1993 and the sound turned more freestyle and less grim and desperate which can be traced easily through the chronological structure of this set.
An interesting mixture of experimental post industrial with jazz influences is of course not everyone's favourite style and hard to capture in a few words. But fear not - besides a steady rhythm there is also a wild playfulness coming through especially on the last 10 before unreleased takes recorded from 1997 up to 2019 which makes this even better.
The mastering of Hidden Hands is very decent so you really need to turn the volume up to catch it's details in full.

Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) contributed expressive liner notes and I'd like to add a short quoute from his essay:
"LHRH are like a snow globe 20th Century subcultural sounds shaking atoms of blues and freeform, tribal rhythms and fractured funk, esoteric electronic and shortwave radio: signals from a distant planet partying as it collapses."

Packed in a lavish but oversized special screen printed cardboard folder in two color versions (numbered and limited) this is a great release for anyone wanting an introduction to the later sound of Sheffield and it's extended musical family.

This is the third full length release from Michael Cohen's solo project and the first on Vinyl. He is also active with Electric Muezzin and the psychedelic rock group The John Mavericks as well as Label Manager of PMR (Strasbourg) since the later 1990's.

As a whole this album sounds indecisive and distracted to me, he dips in a lot of styles from space rock, krautrock, kosmische musik and overall anything psychedelic but hardly leaves the tracks space to breathe. Instruments used are whatever is seen fit be it electronic or electric.
Some of the tracks are lacking any direction and leave one dazed and confused, some are more space ambient like; 'Acces aux plans subtils de l'Êtrethe" or the title track "Connaissance des Lois Cosmiques" which relates them to the more leftfield Psyclones. With "7 fractions colorées" he takes the listener on an unhappy desert trip, prolonged with "À l'aube d'une ère nouvelle" reflecting even more of the human misery.
"108 Circuits Oscillants Actives" then has a merciless drift like Helios Creed, here's an interchange between guitar and rhythmic percussive sounds I could've listened to 10 minutes longer without getting bored. This shows the true potential here, even if it's obviously not the main interest of ASSID. The final tracks then get back to tenacious developments and are sadly instantly forgettable.

This is a co-release of two small french independents; Notte Brigante and P.M.R. Label and available via both. The limited LP has a hand screen printed cover realized in two different colours, the digital version is very friendly priced.

An edition of 200 copies only in silk-screened hand numbered poster-cover sounds nice and lovely but is in fact a bit unhandy, the poster folds out to more of the organic structure in bronze / brown / black. Thankfully a regular booklet is included here so at least some basic infos can be gained from the artwork.
Tarkatak is actually no new name to me, it's a project by Lutz Prueditsch (who was active as Der Pilz, run his experimental tape label Trümmer Cassetten and later Dachstuhl a.o. activities) I've listened to in awe years ago already when his album 'Mormor' appeared on the much missed Genesungswerk label, in a cardboard box with a CD on felt. Ambient drones for the thinking man or something like that I wrote back then. At least back then he gave the tracks some titles but for this collection, recorded between 2011 and 2021 and finally mastered in 2021 even those have left and the tracks are titled as the release, just four numbered sections. Well, freedom of speech, association or of thought or both this is.
The most recognizable instrument used here in small doses is a piano, spreading a few melodic highlights throughout these organic drones, built from field recordings and found but altered sounds and voices. Reworked over and over again the continuos movement and the flow hardly ever stops until everything is dissolving.

The mood is shifting from brooding to wallowing in various stages of post-romantisicm not completely unlike contemporaries Troum (f.e. with 'Mare Morphosis'). Maybe also reflection of a period of travels and changes in the artists life. A pleasure to listen to. Dreamy Movements in a deep wakefulness sleep.

Welsh man Sion Orgon was always somewhere on the wider boarder of my radar due his regular involvement with Thighpaulsandra and also occasionality with Peter Christopherson of Coil. Supporting his artist career as Sound Designer, Studio Technician and Music Producer for Film, Theatre and Animation this is actually his 5th solo album.
"Dust" was first published as limited Vinyl LP (300 copies only) via Lumberton Trading Co. last Autumn and is now also available as CD with identical tracklisting.
Honestly I didn't expect him to be such an stylistic versatile musician - within these 6 tracks he moves seamlessly from noisy indie rock, abstract ambient to and back, with a grand finale of heartfelt and moving psychedelic rock.
Starting with "Spat Out Of Dust", co-written and featuring Richard Johnson of Splintered he immediately catches your attention with a relentless beat and guitar pushing forward the cynic vocals until it fades organically into an open structure. After this track which reminds me positively of current Ministry "Ornament Centipode" is a dramatic soundtrack-ish piece, musique concrete with an experimental and psychedelic edge. Besides it's also one of the three tracks featuring Thighpaulsandra on modular synthesizers.
Followed by "Head Bomb" the setted mood continues at first but steadily gains intensity until a psychotic rage can be imagined which is lived out to the fullest. Supported only by Claudio Gian on Bass and Chey Davis on Percussion & field recordings Sion Orgon leaves no nerves untouched here.
'Who Do You Think You Are?' (co-written by Thighpaulsandra) gets back into indie-rock post punk mood with dramatic interferences, a switch suddenly into melodic progressive metal excursions and backwards into field recordings filled post punk deserts.
"Disintegration" is the straightest alternative rock song imaginable here, paired with a hip-hop beat and surprising merciless vocals. This one leaves me puzzled, an outburst of energy to be resolved only through the final epic "The Mouth That Has No Face" which is an astonishing homage to early psychedelic rock, light-hearted, playful and even with a catchy melodic refrain before it slowly fades into field recordings which leave you at peace with the world.

While this release basically lasts only 6 tracks in barely 40 Minutes it really kicks ass, ashes and dust at once.