When my cousin played me Aphex Twin's newest double CD I was amazed... I didn't even know he had this new one out, I was still blasting "Come to Daddy" and yet I was so much into this already... It's been 5 years since his last album "Windowclicker" and here is a 2CD set with more than a 100 minutes of music. Maybe a step back in terms of "violence" but a step forward in terms of his musical evolution that has reached a new hi. Sound got more intricated, frantic, convulsed and amazing... One of the key elements here is the piano, from melodic to fonky, an instrument which takes an important role, played both in a very standard almost ballad-like fashion, as well as hammered (probably with something else that the piano's hammers) on its very strings to produce a quite disturbing and awfully cool fucked up honky tonky kinda sound. I loved it! This piano-concept is further stressed on the front cover as well as on the new amazing flash website (where piano hammers and string pictures make you feel inside a piano). The other tracks reminded me of his previous material as well as of Italian ambient musician Rodion, but we don't need no damn comparisons here, we are talking about the master himself! If there is a new school of ambient music, we owe it to Richard James, the man who, as far as my knowledge goes, has no rivals yet! Nobody beats him, nobody touches him, nobody equals him! He is just plain unique! On a bad note I have to warn you that unfortunately this CD is one of those stupid new copy-protected CDs which will prevent you from playing it on a computer's CD ROM drive: so if your music system is based around your computer, sorry, forget it!; or if you were ready to rip it to mp3 to cruise town on a sunny day with your bike and your Rio mp3 player (which by the way is perfectly LEGAL and sold by the same music industry that now came up with this stupid bullshit!) you are in bad luck too! So, it's your call, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to let Warp know that you did not appreciate, especially because the new copy-protection standard actually makes the sound of the CD worse!!!
PS: More info at the two websites above as well as at www.theaphextwin.com and www.drukqs.net

An excellent debut for this London-based label, run by people behind Knifeladder and Shining Vril. The cd is quite varied, but with a constant high quality throughout and a kind of underlying cohesion – which is rare in a compilation. Antichild League (featuring Gaya Donadio of London's premiere industrial venue Hinoeuma) and Antivalium respectively open and close the cd with their abrasive power electronics/industrial. Along with Muffpunch (ear-crushing harsh electronics) they're the noisiest projects here. Leisurehive offer an ok dark-wave track, while Naevus are a noir-folk duo in the vein of Death In June and Sawns; nothing new from both bands, but they're good at what they're doing. Knifeladder impressed me with a menacing mix of tribal drumming, free-jazz sax and bleak vocals/noises disturbances. John Murphy (SPK, Death In June etc.) at drums is a warranty of good quality. Knives present an interesting improvised instrumental, leading to the core of the cd, which is more or less isolationist ambient with remarkable soundscapes by Ruse, Shining Vril (Murphy's solo project) and Andrew Liles. Emblem's "Azazel", instead, is recited lyrics over a tranquil electronic background leading to an orchestral crescendo, which reminded me of some Current 93 or Coil moments. All in all, a very pleasant selection – I'm now curious of listening to some full-length releases by these acts...

Well, it's difficult to put these two CDs under a category, because I really should put them under ambient experimental and under industrial metal because of the kinda metal songs like "Freedom To Fly" (which remember some solutions used by our old friend Paul Chain) or "Timeless". Fortunately the work of the one man band that hides behid the name of VLE is more multifaceted that a mere classification. Tracks like "3 in 5" or "Stark" of the first Chapter of the BOOK OF ILLUSIONS and the other nine new tracks of the second Chapter (nine because the first one is, as on the first part, "Kano") are intimate composition with classical instrument sounds along with synth pads. The atmospheres create on both the kind of tracks (metal and dark ambient) is intriguing and even if sometimes the drum seems to miss a beat VLE is capable of catch the attention with a good work permeated of mistery and mysticism. At his mp3.com website you can listen to his work: try it!

Two projects (if I'm not wrong, from the same person) splitting this cd on the French label Divine Comedy (which has also issued H.I.V.+, A Challenge of Honour and Othil – see archive for past reviews). S.A.T.K.A start off with a dark ambient noise track, then switch to rhythmic industrial electronics - really repetitive beats, which reminded me of Esplendor Geométrico or their label-mates H.I.V.+ - then back to a gloomy, chilling ambient track, very horror movie like. Then back to the heavy beats, and so on. I'm glad there are practically no techno or electro hints, but I wish the programmings were a bit more articulate; the ambient tracks are quite good, instead. Sedarka start with a mix of dark ambient and ear-piercing high frequencies (à la Ikeda), then switch to rhythms like their counterpart, but the beats are definitely more interesting and various, with lots of samples (from classical music to massacred d'n'bass to full-on noise) and glitches/click'n'cuts shit going on, and I feel they're actually closer to this experimental current than to boring club rhythms. Good.