Our Italian avant-gardist Luca Collivasone is back with his "Cacophonator," a homemade instrument Luca built himself from a sewing machine with various strange attachments. 'Screen Music' is a collection in four volumes (Vol. 1 only reviewed here) each different from the other, the sound material composed expressly made for cinema, theater and video game entertainment. This first volume is 8 tracks clocking in at about 31 minutes. Although there is a strong rhythmic component throughout, these pieces sound quite different from one another. The cacophonator is a very varied instrument producing an incredible variety of sounds. Often sounding like a synthesizer, this is no collection of random sounds and effects, but carefully constructed pieces that express certain moods, scenes, and concepts. Tracks carry abstract sonics while being grounded in a certain form. One of the more fascinating techniques is used on "Crash," with a repetitious arpeggiated sample & hold loop (likely LFO-driven) while the percussion around it does a kind of Rice Krispies snap~crackle~n' pop dance. Some of this sounds like the classical experimental electronic albums that often surfaced in the '60s (usually featuring the Buchla, or other modular synthesizer) but more playful and less serious. I would say that 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is a fairly listener-friendly album for experimental music enthusiasts, although a less outre audience might find some of this interesting and enjoyable too.

Just for the heck of it I checked out Luca's other Screen Music volumes on the Furry Heart site. There really is no similarity between them. You may enjoy one track more than another but none of these are easy to pin down. For me, I like Vol. 1 the best and Vol. 3 the least, but they're all good in their own way. (Volume 4 has some pretty interesting tracks on it though.) To my knowledge, 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is the only release in the series that comes in a physical (CD) format; the rest are digital download only at this point. If you're looking for some quality experimental electronica that isn't off-putting, 'Screen Music Vol. 1' is your ticket to aural ecstasy.

Unless you are already familiar with, and keep up with the participants of Dunn With Lords and Lady Kevin, you will likely have no idea who these folks are and what's going on. Dunn is Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Trio Convulsant, various with John Zorn), and "Lord Kevin" is Kevin Rutmanis (Tomahawk, Melvins, Cows, Hepa/Titus), with "Lady Kevin" being drummer/artist Gina Skwoz. Uniting former and current members of Tomahawk, 'Last Days At Hot Slit' marks a powerful reunion between Rutmanis and Dunn. Once again, we're steeped in the avant garde. On "Despair," Dunn's upright bass winds around a jittery laser guitar with painfully stretched vocals and Gina's scatter-drumming filling in the cracks. This is only a taste of what's to come, in blistering chaotic noise. The noise music here is obviously improvisational, and the lyrics, likewise, where there are any. Forget structure....that's out the window. Absolutely insane segments are juxtaposed with sort of calm and quiet ones, like on "Humanity One."

It seemed like something closer to a song on the medium slow title track, but sounds as if the Mothers of Invention all got drumk and were forced to play in a seamy motel room. Other tracks sound like ideas thrown against the wall with plenty of grit, grime and mud, just to see what sticks. Some of this sounds a bit like Captain Beefheart, like on "Shape" ("Oh yeah, did you ever see a one-eyed woman cry...") but not enough to maintain much interest. The last track, "Indifference" is very different than the others, being a sparkling synthy affair with the word "Indifference" repeated over and over again. Way too long at 4:38 but at this point it hardly seems to matter. This album will likely sell well to fans of the band members, but be warned: this isn't anything like Tomahawk, Melvins, Cows, Mr. Bungle, or any of the other bands these folks were involved in. If any lesser-knowns put this out, it would assuredly have been ignored. Copies of the colored spatter vinyl already sold out, but a few copies of the pink remain.

Mangene is a collaboration between the American multimedia artist Eugene S. Robinson and the Swiss multi-instrumentalist Manuel Liebeskind, and '101 Atomic Terms and What They Mean' is their debut album, albeit a very brief one at only 29:37, so let's just call this an EP. "The Amber of Heaven" is drum 'n' bass heavy with whispered vocals on Robinson's part. It evolves a bit melodically and electronically, but this is still pretty basic stuff. "Froth" begins with a stuttering rhythm (like some broken digital machine) and Robinson stretches out a bit in the vocal department with spoken word and interjected shouts, but it sounds like there's a big disconnect between what these two are trying to achieve. Definitely avant garde/abstract but to what purpose? After a while it just gets kind of annoying, especially those trilling bird whistles!

"Monkey Si! Monkey C" is the most rhythmically intense track on the album with monotone sequenced synth-bass on every 16th and full-bore drum programming. Robinson drowns in his own vocal miasma on this one. Intentionally crazed. The combination of an off-kilter sequenced bass synth and cymbals are the underlying factor of "Hey Bossa Nova" which bears little resemblance to the Brazilian music genre. Nothing Gilbetro-ish in Robinson's histrionic vocals either. It eventually coalesces into something mildly interesting. (I like the pitch-shifting on the cymbals) and Liebeskind proves himself a capable electronics programmer. The album is supposed to be accompanied by a series of videos that will successively be released over the following months, but I have not seen them. Mangene should appeal to the boldly curious as well as avant garde aficionados.

Swedish musician Ludvig Cimbrelius' fourth release under his own name, also having released music under different aliases such as Eternell, Purl, and Illuvia. 'Here' is six tracks in about 48 minutes, the opener, "Left But Never Left" is a kind of New Age piano composition I didn't much care for. "When Warm Tears Fell From The Sky" is much better in rolling clouds of ambient pads with a solid bottom and a hint of rain. "These Flames I Gently Let" is the longest piece on the album (14:15), a somewhat diffuse layered ambient composition that incorporates piano in a more integrated fashion. It's a fantasia incorporating numerous elements of ambient electronica on a broad palette of sonic colours relaxing into somnambulism. Continuing in the expansive ambient format, "Lost In The Mist At Dawn" has a nostalgic quality to it, recalling bits and pieces of compositions I've heard elsewhere by other artists. Compared to previous tracks, "Lifted Into Wonder" seems modest and laid back, giving some breathing space. It develops into something richer and more fully realized with melodic intent. The album is bookended with another New Age piano piece (also with some acoustic guitar), "Gone But Never Gone." I liked that about as much as I liked the first. Personally, I think it's a mistake to sandwich some really cool ambient electronica between two acoustic piano pieces, and I'm willing to bet many listeners will agree. The CDr is limited to 200 hand-numbered copies in cardboard folder packaging with insert sheet, label card, and download code.

A New Line (Related) is the solo project of Andrew Johnson who has previously released music, either as a member of the bands Hood, The Remote Viewer, Famous Boyfriend and On Fell or solo under his real name and the alias of Septemberist. 'A Quarterly Update On The Sadness,' his third full-length album, consists of eight new tracks with a total duration of something more than 38 minutes. Johnson balances minimal techno, dub house and ambient pop, using sounds from old analog drum machines, deep chords of eerie synths, gentle bass lines, distorted loops, shimmering drones, hypnotic effects, repetitive tribal beats and Hood-style distant vocals.

First track, "Calapsis" keeps the beat with a muted kick adding in a reverse reverb rhythm with some other ephemeral effects and filter changes for a distinctly hypnotic intro. "3am worry sessions" is techno with glitch-modified rhythm and reverbed alterations and a cool underlying subliminal sequencing. The next track, "It's five oclock somewhere in my heart (there's a star that shines for you)" begins as if it might be straight ahead, but then stutters and skitters around beats misplaced and displaced. (I really didn't grok this one at all.) "The ballad of billy kee" begins submerged, like an old cassette tape played too many times and left in the glove box too long. About 45 seconds in, a chugging rhythm emerges and this could be the soundtrack for a toy steam locomotive in a basement setup. (Perhaps Billy Kee is the little engineer?) "Only star loop" is swirling electronic ambience around a little hand drum/cymbal combo like a vintage Roland drum machine. A synth sequence emerges along with some minimal male vocals that are more like samples and it's pretty engaging, strange as it sounds. A different set of vintage drum machine samples with layered pads forms the basis of "lytham and sound," and of course, there has to be an added rhythmic sequence as well. I especially like the sound of the intermittent synth chord, employed sparsely enough (every 8 measures).

It's about time for a four-on-the-floor beat used in the title track, with a picky sequence and wash 'n' wear synth chords. Although you've heard these elements a zillion times, Johnson seems to pull off something fresh and vital on this track, still managing to recall pop flavors of the '80s and '90s. For the finale, A New Line (Related) gives us rhythmless ambience on "left tones," a track based on a manipulated semi-industrial sampled loop that stays the course throughout in gloomy spirit. Although I wouldn't call 'A Quarterly Update On The Sadness' (the title sounds more like the name of a future DOGE report) a great album, it does have its merits and I liked it more than I thought I would. Standard SIS limited edition of 200 in hand-made packaging for the pyysical release.