15 Degrees Below’s recent release "New Travel" is an attempt at a neo-musique concrete sound that is built upon sampled sounds and melodies that are chopped up and reconfigured into a collection of cinematic soundscapes. While the album is very well produced and has an exceptionally good sound quality, it doesn’t really grab or excite you in any way. The problem with this record is that it is simply "typical experimental music." While this phrase may sound like somewhat of an oxymoron in that the goal of experimental music is to be untypical, what I mean here is that in the thirty years that have passed since artists started producing this type of cut and paste music a number of trademark elements have developed that are frequently used and have become synonymous with the genre such as chopped up improve guitar patterns, the random placement of electronic sounds and feedback, and distorted free jazz and lounge samples, all of which this album has. For example, the tracks "Circumference" and "Sunday Drive" for most part sounds like every song that Fred Frith has ever recorded. Though to give credit where it is due there are a few promising tracks on the album such as "Westward," which blends country western style guitar playing with a simplisitc ambient background and "Untitled Tube" which uses distorted guitar sounding samples and subdued ambient synths to a create a mood of hopelessness. These two tracks are the shining stars of "New Travel" in that they achieve something that many experimental artists can not, which is using unconventional methods to create music that stirs the emotions. If the whole album went in this direction it would have been something special, but unfortunately it did not and was thus dull and does not really offer much that has not already been done before and beaten to death by most experimental artists, which is a shame given that there is definitely the potential to do so.

Upon first listening to Marc Manning and Yann Novak’s collaborative endeavor cleverly titled "Pairings," I thought to myself, "this is the soundtrack to some futuristic themed ride at Disney’s EPOCT center." And you know the rides I’m talking about, the one’s that depict some utopian and unrealistically peaceful Buck Rogers-esue future with pod shaped spaceship cars, robot housekeepers, television phones, but I digress. The point is that the first two tracks were generic, uninspired, and vapid. However, things take a significant turn for the better starting with track 3 and exponentially improve thereafter. "Pairing 2 pt. 2" is a brilliant matching of droning electronic noise and subtle, yet strategically placed acoustic guitar patterns and ethereal string orchestrations. This general pattern continues on "Pairing 3 pt. 1 which gets slightly more complex with manipulated flamenco guitar samples and richer sound textures that seamlessly culminates with the album’s closing track "Paring 3 pt. 2 which is a 10 minute piece that crescendos between lush and layered ambient textures and unsettling silence. They key element of these three tracks is that they are thoughtfully and tastefully composed to the extent that it manages to sound simplistic and spacious when there is in fact quite a lot going on musically. With the exception of the two opening tracks, which I already discussed ad nauseum, "Pairings," (which I don’t think is cleverly titled in case you didn’t pick up the sarcasm) is a very interesting album that works and transcends beyond your run of the mill drone music which I’m sure was developed by the CIA for the sake of getting information from terrorists until they realized that Metallica works much better.

Rent Romus’s Lords of Outland’s latest release "You Can Sleep When You’re Dead" is definitely an album that will keep you awake and on your toes with its in your face blend of free-jazz, hardcore, and experimental electronica. The album offers an abrasive collection of tracks that sounds like James and Chance and the Contortions on some dangerous mixture of meth and speedballs. The songs are mostly comprised of noise jazz played on the saxophone, drums, and bass, with electronics being used minimally for added effect. However, as abrasive as the music is, it is much easier on the ears than John Zorn’s hardcore jazz works. And for you Zorn fans out there, this album doesn’t have any Japanese guys screaming gibberish. Additionally, the album also has some more relaxed moments, in that the pace is slower such as tracks like "The Demonic Circus of Certified Insular Asshogs" and "Disturbing Emergence" (FYI, I hear that the process for obtaining Insular Asshog Certification is rigorous). Though, even with these mellower tracks the album as a whole has an intensity to it that makes me fidgety and unsettled, especially with its off-time tempos and cluttered percussion. And this is coming from some one that listens to Merzbow while he studies. So, if you enjoy out there free jazz and noise music, then I would recommend this album. If you are looking for something more electronic, than Lords of the Outland would probably not be your cup of tea.

The brainchild of DJ Korpserape, Wasted Consumption Patterns’ (WCP) latest release "Solder" offers a mixture of industrial and jungle. The album can be best described as a mixture between Cubanate’s "Interference" and Haujobb’s "Solutions for a Small Planet," only not as good as either of those albums. Most of the tracks on "Solder" are comprised of fast paced generic jungle rhythms (which sound like they were pulled from a Zero G sample CD) and highly distorted vocals and synthesizer effects. All of these elements work together towards a very outdated and uninspired sound that prompted me to check my calendar just to make sure that it still wasn’t 1996. The few lines that one can discern from the distorted lyrics demonstrates that the WCP’s lyrical content is at best banal with lines like "take this soul it’s all I got." The two weakest tracks on the CD are "Sheep" and "Discord," which deviate from the industrial jungle sound to a slower groove that is at best a weak attempt to sound like PIG that completely lacks the tongue in cheek lyrical stylings and competent musical arrangements of Raymond Watts. The press kit that accompanied the CD explains a lot, discussing how Korpserape completed the album in 2000 but put off its release until now because his drug use led to his institutionalization in a mental hospital, which provides a reasonable explanation as to why this record is so weak and outdated sounding. If this story is in fact true, then it’s quite sad that a record label would use it to try to market an album that is so poorly put together.

Tympanik Audio’s "Emerging Organisms: Hidden Forms Compilation Series Volume One" is a very interesting two disc compilation that beats Nine Inch Nails’s "Ghosts" to the punch with its brand of ambient/industrial soundscapes from artists such as Rekt, Flint Glass, Lucidstatic, and Nebulo. The compilation offers a mixture of traditional ambient compositions, clanking industrialized rhythmic tracks, and instrumental EBM and IDM pieces. The nice thing about this compilation is that while it is comprised of contributions from different artists, the collection as a whole has the cohesiveness and flow of an album put together by a single artist. What is most impressive about this compilation, aside from its nice packaging, is the fact that it sounds surprisingly fresh and new, which is a major accomplishment given that so much of the "new" EBM and IDM being put out are bland and uninspired throwbacks to :Wumpscut: and Leaether Strip circa 1998. Instead, the contributions on this compilation infuse these two dying genres with hints of classical, musique concrete, and electro jazz, which is why the young Tympanik Audio has been able to build a reputation as a leader of innovative electronic music. In sum, if you are looking for some good instrumental EBM and IDM that thinks outside of the box, then Tympanik Audio’s "Emerging Organisms" compilation is the record for you.