The Australian super-group by Chris Abrahams (piano, keyboards), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Tony Buck (drums, percussions, guitar) left aside the groove that features some past entries and live performances of The Necks in order to dive into something remarkably different on their elegant declension of "Vertigo", whose main similarity to past workouts is the unpredictability of their sonic journey, where listeners clearly recognizes the starting point but can't really say where they will land. An intentional and extremely lucid process in spite of their seemingly abstract melting of different sonic strategies, as you can guess from Lloyd's words about "Vertigo": "The discussion this time really begun in earnest in the session itself, where we started to pursue the idea of having a drone running from start to finish, off which we could hang ideas...but like all Necks album we ended up in a very different place from whatever our initial notion of it had been". I don't want to spoil it in details in order to ruin the joy of surprise, but that sort of low-key driven drone, around which more or less oblique piano and keyboard sequences by Chris Abrahams that seem to permeate and evoke different emotional states in between confusion, suspension, paralyzing relativism, hesitancy and sudden spurs and unpredictable percussive strokes by Tony Buck, is going to carry listeners over subtle changes of colour, mood swings, air-tight narrow corrider that little by little lead to airy sonic landscapes, where the alternance of dark and light doesn't touch upon the sense of freedom, which got rendered by their surfing over stylistical forms.

This new Audiobulb's release is from Daniel Blinkhorn, an Australian sound artist whose creative works seems unnoticed even if he has received various recognitions. As the title suggests, it's inspired by the cold temperatures in the night and it's an except from the 'frostbYte cycle', a collection of tracks based location-based field recordings in the Arctic region of Svalbard. The result is an astonishing sound quality whose clearness let every resonance appears in a precise place in the aural field so it's one of the best release in this field that I've heard.
"Red sound" opens this release with a mise en scène of a bunch of small sounds whose dynamics create a sense of tension while the movement is space is best observed with headphones; during the development of the track there's a constant progression to sparse sounds to a filled space with their juxtaposition. "cHatTer" is focused instead on the exploration of the details of the source samples so the result seems a quiet track but the noises of object under the effect of low temperature is frightening. "Wildflower" is sequence of bright sounds moved in space to generate a sense of immersion in a wide space. "Anthozoa" closes this release using a wide dynamics obtained with elements at the threshold of audibility to evoke that sense, at night, that everything ruins that thing called silence.
This is an aurally extreme release that is fully enjoyed with headphones or in a surround hi-fi environment so it's mainly a release for fans of sound art and for them is a truly recommended release. I wonder how the casual listener could rate this release as it lacks a proper narrative element but who cares? This release is a reminder about why there's the concept of hi-fi.

This new release from Michael Arthur Holloway's project is at the threshold between industrial, in his most EBM oriented variant, and pop so it's presented in the liner notes as "a meditation on your deepest fears and most private, desperate moments". Even if this could sound scary, it should be noted as this genre has a reputation to depict dark moment for cathartic ends.
"Expiring Time" opens this release with a mid-tempo track that situate the title in a territory between synth-pop and EBM evading the traps of both genre. The structure is a song with synth and drum machine as almost only instruments, the overall result is based on the careful layering of all elements. "The Unclean" is an interlude based on sample dialectic. "Threadbare" is a track which reveals how the ear pleasantry is important in this field as it triggers emotions. "Gathering Fear" is instead closer to some industrial oriented form as it's focused on the rhythmic impact. While "Downpour" is more oriented towards the dance floor, "Misericordia" and "Blood Lesson" are more focused in the development of a pop form with a certain sound impact. "Seeing Red" is perhaps the more impressive track of this release as it layers samples and synth lines to create a cinematic sound field using vocal samples from films rather than a proper vocal line. So, even a brilliant track as "The Noise Above Us" sounds as a filler to close this release with "At Rest" and his pop allure.
The bonus edition of this release features a bonus cd, "the bottom, which explore the most EBM and industrial oriented side of this project, so with tracks like "New Drugs", the title-track and "You Know Who You Are", a Ministry cover, it will be enjoyed by the fans of this genre.
At an aesthetical level, this is one of the most important release of the year as, because it's not ground-breaking, it takes a codified form to an astonishing technical level. Truly recommended.

Once upon time brotherhood in music was mainly associated to blues, rock and pop. This reunion between Norwegian sonic siblings Fredrik Wallumrod, who mainly borrowed his skills on drums and electronics to rock and metal bands such as Dog Almighty, Span and El Caco, and Christian Wallumrod, who became one of the most appreciated musician of the Nordic improv scene - I recently introduced the amazing output "Pianokammer" by this musician, whose name got mainly matched to his own acoustic ensemble and the quartet Dans Les Arbres - extends the concept to the more experimental side of improv music. Forget the piano tones, harmonic moulding and melodic mutations you met on the above-mentioned "Pianokammer", as Christian mainly works on likewise freaky sonic palettes over the three tracks of "Brutter" by a pile of percussive plugs, hits and filters according to evasive logical paths, where Frederik adds some electronic foil, whose amalgamation can't really provide a semblance of order to the resounding elements. The initial "Geigered" sounds like a set of false starts, where any "regular" rhythmical pattern got immediately disbanded within hiccuping and sometimes chaotic surges, which are the dominant aspect of Brutter's sound on the interplay "Radiopuls", an intentionally impossible attempt of matching between drum machines and live drums, which seem to be part of an impossible interlocking puzzle. Any possible synchronization between the two halves of the drumming got broken in the asynchronous slow syncopations of the final "Badminton Break", where you could imagine Wallumrod Bros dragging rhythm like the body of a drunken fool into a temporary shelter.

[ówt krì] is the project name of Kenneth K. from Helsinki, Finland, and 'Pilgrimage' is the followup release to his 2013 debut, 'The New Seed'. 'Pilgrimage' continues the journey spawned by the prior release, a trip into humanity's inner world [ówt krì], that deep part of the psyche where spirituality dwells in the non-physical darkness. It's almost impossible to separate the esoteric from the mundane in the music of [ówt krì], as it is intertwined by virtue of having to actually "make" music than just imagine it. How well that translates we shall soon see. 'Pilgrimage' is comprised of eight tracks, beginning with "Static Continuum", not only the name of the track, but also a Finnish experimental ambient project that includes [ówt krì] - Keyboards, Synths and various oddities /Sounds From The Marshes - Guitar, Effects / and Quantum Prana - 7 string Guitar. It's the perfect opening to this strange journey, with free form electric guitar riffing over ambient pads and drones. No drums or percussion, just waves of rumbling sonics heralding what's to come; a chaotic (yet controlled in a way) fountain of effervescent sonics billowing forth. "From Shadows" somehow reminded me of the intro to the Stones' "2000 Light Years from Home," yet more abrasive with drone sounds filling in all the gaps. A tolling bell begins "Messe De Requiem", an eerie two-chord organ dirge backed with low orchestral drone and deep bass rumbling. It's vaguely reminiscent of Dead Can Dance, akin to their earlier instrumental works. Mournful, yet majestic. "Pilgramage 1" is the first piece that alludes to some conventional musical structure. When I first heard this, I got the impression of a band jam session in a basement, heavily influenced by krautrock and shoegaze. I'm still not sure about this one- it starts out fine with synth choral voices, but then sludgey bass, gauzy guitar, clattering drums all building on a simple theme never rise above the murk. Perhaps I'm missing something but repeated listenings did nothing to enlighten me further.

"Flight to Kailash" is essentially a drone piece utilizing a variety of instruments and sonics, and the chilling wail in the background adds a sense of anguish to the mix. "Pilgrimage 2" is quite different than "Pilgramage 1" with a lone voice singing over choral synth voices, which turns to drones, then simple chordal structure as the piece moves forward. The vocal (by Pod_9) is done almost murder ballad style, but it's difficult to discern the theme as the words aren't always clear. I'm reminded of Iggy Pop on "We Will Fall", the lengthy atmospheric track on the Stooges' first album. I'm also reminded of something on Tobias Lilja's 'Medicine Sings Triptych'. "Absurd" seems to be the most enigmatic and arcane track on 'Pilgrimage,' a gloomy dark ambient improvisation with a vocal recitation that seemed to recall early Mortiis. Ultimately atmospheric, this is certainly one of the highlights of the album. The finale, "Integrity/I Believe" is based on a slow, stately piano progression backed by drums (again played by MathGen) with a vocal recitation and drones. Although other words are spoken, the ones that will stick with you are "My Lord" echoed over and over again. The pseudo-orchestral ending has shades of King Crimson to it. A strange ending to a very strange album.

Some very interesting terrain explored on 'Pilgrimage', but I was a bit put off by "Pilgramage 1", and I still don't feel that it worked that well within the context of the whole. I might have dumped the drums entirely as I felt they significantly detracted from the piece. Be that as it may, [ówt krì] has produced something quite different in the improvisational dark ambient genre, and it sounds like a leap forward from 'The New Seed'. The label, Erototox Decodings, run by Jason Scott Furr and Chandra Shukla out of Asheville, North Carolina, has released music by a number of ecletic artists including White Stains, Andrew Liles, Steven Severin, and Xambuca, among others. You can check out all tracks on 'Pilgrimage' on the [ówt krì] Bandcamp page, then buy the CD from Erototox Decodings.