Hot off the press - released today on vinyl by Washington DC-based label Translation Recordings -, this awesome tidbit by Brussels-based The Untouchables, the bicephalous project by Kate Mcgill aka Kay and Ajit Steyns aka Nitrox, who moved towards a catchy interbreeding of jungle sonorities, ragga movements and heavyweight dub, got ignited by a couple of great collaborative tracks, they made side by side another skilled producer orbiting around the label, the Finnish producer Ilpo Kärkkäinen aka Resound: a slideshow of chirping birds and other voices from a proper jungle got grasped both in the catchy "Separate Reality" and the following "Mystic Arts", even if they sound more heavily morphed into the latter track as if the second track is the revealing of the hidden side of those entities as a consequence of an augmented perception of surrounding reality. The wildly animalist/animistic script got likewise followed on "Devourer of World", the first tune by The Untouchables on the flipside, whee they inserted a sort of distorted barking on the carnival of sub-bass-driven electrically shocked dub movement, but there's a similar spiritual voltage in the following "The Beast" - very nice work over a set of tribal drums and woodstick-like hits - as well as in "City Of Thieves", coming as a bonus track for all those listeners who are going to grab the digital version on Translation's Bandcamp.

I already spoke of Kiev-born producer Eugene Galushchenko, better known as Fade, as he is one the most interesting drum N bass maker at the moment. The Ukrainian mastermind recently re-appeared on German label Boundless Beatz by means of a couple of amazing tunes: an obscure electronic sparkling, which gradually fades into a sneaky low-frequency, hiccuping vocals and a minal quasi-melody over a lush arabesque of tribal drumming, features "Lo-Fi", the tune where Fade's blend of deeply darker sonorities and structured percussions is more recognisable, while "Taino" got inspired by ritual music and dances of Taino, the indigenous people who inhabited the Caribbean, and somehow mirrors their culture by a sneaky melody (according to Taino's religion - not so different from Maya's one -, the Sun was born from the union of two reptile divinities) and bouncy beats...you should know they used to play a sort of soccer for ceremonial purposes (called batey) by kicking a bouncy ball (supposedly made from a mixture of rubber and resins) in a rectangular field before bouncy balls begun to be used in European people, who credit themselves for inventing football! Check it out!

As this album is presented as "harsher and more Industrial" than previous release by this project, there's a concern about this word means for this release. In fact, there's nothing truly noisy, a term closely related to the mentioned genres, but there's an attention to the details, and a deviation to the usual scheme of dark ambient based on a drone spanning the whole track, which places this release above other releases in this field. Noise is derived from field recordings so it's used as cinematography i.e., a way to set a context for sound.
The first minutes of "Aliens Laughing About Us" sets a form that is based on drone which are fastly developing above a background of small noises giving to the whole structure a sense of cinematic movement toward something represented by the final crescendo. The low frequency background of "Acouasme" are a canvas for the high pitch tones moving in the aural spectrum and the bass tones of the second part of the track. "Omega Melancholicum" juxtaposes layers of drones until, at half his length, the focus is on a drone slowly increasing his volume to mask the underlying soundscape while "Outer Brain Outsourcing" renounces partly to this structure as it juxtaposes drones until it fulfills all the spectrum maximizing his impact. "Somnolenz" is a track whose tones ebb and flow as the title suggests. "Signe Du Miroir" closes this release with even a drum part that creates a frame for all elements of the other tracks which evoke a sense of loss created by a drone progressively masking the beat and closing the release with a reverberated noise.
Using noise as coloring element rather than for his musical impact, this is a release that need headphone to fully appreciate the craft of the sound production which escape boredom and triviality whenever possible. Truly recommended.

This new release from Cryo Chamber is presented in their usual austere way as "an emotional roller coaster" with "a strong narrative of storytelling" and this way of describe the records lets the listener free to hear the album with a clear mind. "Dredge Portals" sounds as a concept album centered on a lonely man which is the narrator of his thought about living in a world where there's, apparently, no one else and this story is described with field recording and foley sounds rather than drones that act as mere support of the landscape evoked by the sounds.
The narrator of "Rise of the Dormant Host" opens this release with a pistol shot and introduces the listener into a story of, perhaps, zombie and it starts on almost canonical track of evocative drone but resolved with a synth melody. The sound of rain opens "The Reflection Tower" whose drone crescendo is juxtaposed to traffic sound to enhance his emotive character. "Descend with Demons" uses drones to create a sense of tension exalted by the use of sudden noises. This sense of danger is partly resolved by the crescendo of "Heart of the Mirror's Abyss" and its samples of a running man. The return of the narrator in "Lost in the Astral World" starts the second half of this release and it's another ambient track focused on crescendo while "Perpetually Devoured" is closer to the canonical dark ambient format. "Dreaming of Glaciers" closes this release with a dreamy drone and some gentle piano notes that introduces the return of the narrator.
While the second part is more orthodox in his declination of the genre, in the first part it's evident the search for storytelling in this release which is obtained mostly with the use of field recording closer to musique concrète rather than dark ambient and result the real focus of the musical writing. It's true cinema for the ears.

This new release from Glacial Movements features one of the historical names in ambient music as Dirk Serries, a.k.a. Vidna Obmana, has released some of the key album in this field and one of the names, Chihei Hatakeyama, less known mainly for the increasingly descending longing to known new names and music rather to hear a bunch of classic seen as the cornerstone of music. This release is presented as based on the moment in winter "when nature becomes almost super linear, less expressive in color but with equal strength and severity" which is one of the key concept of ambient music: let tones resonate until they achieve a sort of independent nature as timbre.
The quiet drone of "Kulde" opens this release and introduces the listener into a landscape made out of open spaces and absent clouds. "Uvaer" is based on a drone that acts a canvas for other drones and sounds until all element gently fades into the final silence. "Fryst" seems based on the same format, however the foreground drone slowly evolves generating the evocative cover with his immersive blue. "Hvit" closes this release depicting the sense of a music working with detail instead of a form.
This is a release based on a well known form, whose however Dirk Serries is one of his builders, but reminds of how this music is based on subtle nuances rather on sonic impact and reveals how the careful choice of tones is fundamental so it has to heard with a proper equipment instead of pc speakers. It's worth a listen perhaps for everyone.