Kammarheit is an ambient music project by Swedish sound artist Pär Boström, active for almost twenty years now, since the year 2000. A superb master in profoundly sculpting tense and dreadful, but very discreet and subtle afflictive dark sounds, his music is simple, but is able to conceive the most fearful, macabre and sinister atmospheres, that keeps the sense of an everlasting darkness lurking over you indefinitely, as if an impeding fatalist doom will inevitably take you over with sardonic horror. 

This amazing artist gracefully conceives sonorous labyrinths of impious malevolence, that feels reminiscent of a hostile and unknown force, as you feel yourself trapped in an endless place where everything that is evil and potentially harmful is waiting for you somewhere, and you feel you will be taken by this impious force when you least expect – a terrible and sadistic dark force from the underworld, disposed to inflict such a tremendous amount of atrocities over you that you will wish you had never been born. So, in other words, Kammarheit is the perfect soundtrack for reading authors like H.P. Lovecraft, or for playing macabre games like Quake. 

The first of his albums that I want to highlight is The Northern Hymn, released in 2002; an apparently unofficial record, that doesn’t feature on his discography. Forty-four minutes long, here you have the following tracks: Absconding the Physical (The Inner Hymn), Crystalline, Dreaming of the Forgotten Land, Semblance, Overview and Presence Within the Park. 

On this album, you will notice the formidable layouts that punctuate his music: a very tense paradigm of monumental afflictions, that gets over its superficial graveyard of emotions, doesn’t matter how or where you feel the corrosion invading the autonomy of your struggling imperative senses. You feel yourself being slowly dragged to a parallel dimension of ambiguous vertigos, as a latent and virulent sinister melody imprisons the conscience of your soul inside a lugubrious journey of fading realities, beyond an infinite realm of darkness that will sadistically arrest the universe in a somnolent and sensitive lethargic existence. 

As you sink in the nightmare, the delusions dispersed throughout the everlasting disparities of your weak sensibilities gets heavier and heavier, and you eventually fall desperately apathetic into a perpetual dark abyss, to a tragically unknown fate.  

Another album that deserves to be highlighted is the beautiful and equally sinister Somewhere Concealed. Apparently, this almost one hour long record was also released in 2002, like The Northern Hymn, and it’s also an unofficial album. Somewhere Concealed has the following tracks: Arriving, Making The First Flower, Underneath The Ravine, Frigid, The Fossilised Structures, Back To Where The Trees Spoke, In Silence Of The Plague and The Renewal. Like the previous album, this record also features afflictive, dense and heavy atmospheres, that make you feel yourself suffocated, imprisoned, lost in a very dreadful, large and empty dark house, all alone by yourself, without being able to find an exit.  

The claustrophobic feeling here is very latent. You feel yourself trapped – somewhere in the vastness of a darkness that never ends –, without being able to find a decent closure to a desperate situation. The tension, despite the fact that it is softer to a degree, is also afflictive and permanent. You feel a grizzly darkness consuming your soul slowly, cynically; as you drown in desperation completely surrounded by a devouring emptiness, your life easily disappears, as a brutal nothingness surrounds you, and you eventually feel entirely dematerialized, forever lost in a vacuum continuum, that will extend itself infinitely, over a lugubrious perpetual darkness, destined to never fade, but to seek new victims. 

As the album approaches the end, you can hear the sound of crows croaking – which is a remote fear grounded in the lore of human folklore and superstition –, and adds to the sinister element of a hostile and unknown place, that is inherently aggressive to the human presence. 

The third album that I want to comment here is the fantastic and splendorous The Starwheel, released in 2005. With a more calm and serene atmosphere – a little less deprived of elements of anguish and sardonic doom –, though featuring invasive ecstatic components of nefarious apathy more prominently, that inserts its sinister qualities very subtlety, this album is also a major starlight for the genre of dark ambient. An eminently ardent and spectral world that is subdued by a sensitive, but tense serenity, this formidable masterpiece is abundant in peripheral and abstract densities, that discreetly and vaguely corrode your sense of reality, to allow you to enter into a depressive dimension of lunar gravity, as the floatingly favorable ascendant harmonies present on this album make you feel a little more confident, knowing that you have to expect the unexpected on this journey of pervasively unprecedented darkness.  

The Starwheel definitely make you undergo a nefarious journey, though with a more cautious and clear conscience, despite the fact that, after some time, it’s impossible not to fall in the elusive dark precipice, upon which you have been inadvertently walking. Not as frightening as The Northern Hymn – at least in my opinion –, nevertheless, on this album, the image that comes to my mind is a man walking in an endless journey throughout a snowy landscape. The sky is gray, there is no clouds, and nobody can be seen nearby. Your solitude is absolute, and you feel yourself compelled to keep walking towards the horizon, never to finally arrive anywhere. And you walk endlessly, but the journey never ends. The landscape is always the same, the wind is hostile and whistles a mysterious horrendous sound, that will eventually resort to a perpetual darkness, falling over the superficial placidity of your delusional dreams.  

On this album, we can hear the characteristic style of the artist. The atmosphere resonates a fatalist doom that will eventually come, but it’s impossible to know precisely when. As this sensation of imminent demise gets near, but never comes – although you know it’s just a matter of time – you become more and more tense, anxious and afflicted. The landscape seems frozen, you are lost in the middle of a white desert, with some dry dead trees around you. You feel death is near, but there is nothing you can do to stop this horrendous sensation of misery, despair insecurity and nervousness. So you just sit and wait for the fatalist doom to befall over you, as you can’t do anything to avoid it, anyway. 

Of course, I don’t want you to think that the music of Kammarheit is destitute of calmer or serene qualities, that would be positively untrue. On the contrary, some tracks are full of those, and it’s impossible not to feel marvelously ecstatic and relaxed while listening to it, at least in certain passages. There are different graduations and textures in his music that definitely allows a varied scale of suggestive perceptions to be felt throughout its infinite expansion of sonorous horizons. The music of Kammarheit has definitely a vivacious and distinctive versatility, that is mostly varnished by discreet and somber tonalities, which makes the music in a general basis intrinsically able to explore in each layer of sound a movable variation of possibilities, that reaches high standards on the human sensibility. 

The final album that I want to comment here is a more recent one. Kollektionen was released in 2016. Seventy-seven minutes long, this record is a selection of Kammarheit tracks, featured in other albums and compilations. They are the following:  The Hierophant, Tundra, Kosmos, The Excavation Site, I Found It Weeping In The Field, Landfall, Dreams And Seracs, Adrift, Ruina, Provenience and Arch. 

Featuring prominently all the qualities described above, although with a more dreadful virulence, the sound on this album is undoubtedly more homogeneous, but also appears to be more clean and sober, which makes me think that it was better produced. With nefarious sounds, a dispersive tension and a lugubrious layout – graciously defined by a cohesive sense of abrasive, drastic and pungent continuity, more prominent than his other albums – that genuinely inspires fear and despair, the unknown element is very latent here. You definitely feel yourself trapped in a world of permanent darkness; severely impotent, you feel there is nothing you can do to escape the terrible and drastic fate that will eventually befall over you.

Last, but not least, I should point it out the marvelous video of a live performance by Kammarheit, recorded in 2015. Concealed in the darkness with amazingly suggestive images in the background, on this performance, you can see with a more surreal prominence the strongest aspects of Pär Boström’s musicianship. He is very technical and methodical – a skilled engineer of sound –, that knows exactly how silence, quietness and calmness can work beautifully as marvelous extensions of sound. He definitely has conscience about where and when to integrate the most precise elements and the most fundamental vitalities of his creative intuition, to perfectly work altogether, to create the sinister soundscapes he masterfully exposes on this ecstatic performance.    

 While there isn’t any movements – and he is tiny at the center of the stage – you can definitely perceive the cinematic and sensitive elements of the genre, as dark ambient really is about suggestive sounds and atmospheric perceptions. You can listen to his dense and somber tunes while accompanying the slow, but ever changing images, that definitely captures marvelously all the fantastic and ominous sensibilities driven by the sound.    

Kammarheit is simply one of the most fantastic, splendorous and formidable dark ambient acts ever conceived. Exploring wisely the possibilities, working altogether marvelously all the fundamental qualities of the genre – a sinister musical layout, anxious and afflictive harmonies, agonizing fearful undulations, lugubrious atmospheres, horrendous suggestive tonalities, gradual fatalist uprisings, dark discreet melodies, indefinite macabre resonances, nefarious unexpected disturbances – the artist definitely has proved himself quintessential to the development of the genre. With a sensible discretion and a proverbially dense subtlety that aggregates tension and fear to fatalist sonorous dissonances that evolve gradually, the atmosphere of his songs are pervasively sinister and morbidly tense. Certainly, your nightmares will be suggestively fuelled by these gruesome sounds, that concomitantly serves as the best soundtracks ever created to nightmarish sensations. 

As the eternal night advances, you can be certain that Kammarheit will continue to create and to produce the best frightening sounds and the most sinister albums ever created in the history of dark ambient music. This is a splendid, creative and very lucid artist, certainly one of the greatest in the annals of the genre. 



​Wagner

A selection by Wagner Hertzog 

There are a lot of albums, in several distinct genres, from several different categories, periods and places, that are enormously underrated and overtly unappreciated, never achieving the level of recognition and fame they certainly deserve. This mainly occurs for one reason: most of them come from underground bands and artists, that are – in the vast majority of the cases –, virtually unknown, being appreciated only by a handful of enthusiasts or by a loyal cult following. Other artists, like some Japanese musicians that integrate this list, are relatively well-known, but only in their country of origin, being strange to audiences abroad. 

Regardless of the motives about why these albums haven’t achieved the degree of notoriety they deserve, I’ve selected here twelve records in no particular order or genre whatsoever – on the contrary, here you will find a good diversity, from atmospheric black metal and dark ambient, to neo-folk and new age symbolic symphonies, to minimalist piano pieces and post-classic Japanese music – that, at least in my opinion, deserves a higher level of evaluation and appreciation from the critical musical establishment, and mostly, from the general public; at least, a lot more appreciation of what they initially had amassed, giving them the opportunity to reach audiences that aren’t familiar or haven’t being introduced to their respective works. I hope you enjoy at least some of them, and spread the ones you like the most to your musical friends. Let’s make music – these albums included – to be dispersed, publicized and heard everywhere!

Forty minutes long, with seven tracks – Ecstasy, Calmness At Stress, Confounded,Pt.1, Confounded,Pt.2, Prowl In Reverie, Life Era and Regret –, this acoustic neo-folk ambient work is strongly suggestive of calmer abysses, low temperatures and digressive disdains over the painful, but sincere vicissitudes of life. It’s easy to imagine a reflexive and distant existence terraforming over the planetary solitude of infinite eras, while you dream peacefully over the sonorous contemplative ordeal that will come to your mind. A salutary nostalgia flirts with the end of a melancholic afternoon, that anticipates in a soft rain all the inspiring timeless sagacity of an energy that slowly dissipates itself from within. Certainly, you will find this album relaxing, tranquil and overtly peaceful. Impossible not to like it!  

A curiously efficient and dense black metal work – with predominantly slow harmonies – that instills in the listener an efficiently intrusive, but patient emotional exhilaration, this group from Sweden to this day is vastly unknown. This album is apparently from 2009, and I sincerely don’t know if the band is still in activity. Nevertheless, their music is amazingly skilled, their exceedingly powerful creativity ostensibly breaks the ordinary standards of the genre, and their harmonies are well-crafted and original, but at the same time loyal to the most profound references of underground black metal. With vastly lugubrious intonations and a sinister sonority that drives the melodies to a dark horizon of distinctive frivolities, I think you can say Into the Darkness of My Soul is an excellent contemporary exemplar of true-to-the-roots black metal, with no imperfections at all to be highlighted.  

Melodic black metal that seems to flirt with the epic and atmospheric subgenres at some extent. Vibrant, dense and conspicuously sinister – although at the same time kind, familiar and gentle –, the sound of Dying Stars’ Walking Across The World is a superb, indefinite and infinite stream of ghostly demise, spreading its monumental, serene, minimalized and diverse artistry throughout a panorama of primordial lancinating beauty. Forty four minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Madness Of Nuclear World, Where Eternal Silence, Dying Star, In Captive Oblivion, Ghost Of Karpaty, From Endless Space, Downpour and The Mist. Its fantastic harmonies flows directly into the eventful kingdoms of an imaginary existence, where eternity waits for the shadows of your soul to merge into the twilights of a magnificent horizon, that has on the conscience of an everlasting splendor the fatalist answer for all enigmas of life. Its poetic and reflexive undertones gives a glorious philosophic color to this beautiful record.  

Amazingly sinister, unexpected and anxiously dark ambient from Norway, Svartsinn – a relatively well-known name in this vastly infamous underground genre, with several albums released – is the creative vehicle for Jan Roger Pettersen. Fifty-one minutes long, Traces of Nothingness has eight tracks: Traces Of Nothingness, No Passage to the Innermost..., Lost in Reveries, Misanthropic Odyssey, Through Apathetic Eyes, All The Colours Are Fading, ...But The Fire Burns No More and Emptiness Is Form. Empirically dwelling throughout the dark vastness of a very personal universe of agonizing emptiness, this album, despite having the sonority somewhat typical for the genre, has a lucid degree of creativity, that displays an excellent degree of originality. With an exceedingly somber atmosphere, and a nervous placidity that anticipates the everlasting shadows of something unknown lurking in the density of lugubrious immortal fears, Traces of Nothingness is a delightful, but dreadful work of art, that masterly exhibits in impeccable form the most fundamental and extraordinary qualities of the genre, elevated in an exponential scale. 

Effervescent, delirious, glamorous, poetically rapturous and violently conspicuous black metal with exceedingly perfect harmonies, Dråpsnatt is a group from Sweden that it’s difficult to know if it’s still active or not. Hymner till undergången was apparently released in 2014, and has nine tracks: En Ensam Sol Går ner, Arvssynd, Dråpsnatt, Mannen I Min Spegel, Somna In, Ve Er, Tonerna De Klinga, En Besvuren Plats and Gästen. With a sinister, but splendorous sound that comes from the shadows, spectral guitar lines resounds the fury of an eternity of tormented wrath and suffering. The virulent creative and energetic sagacity of this marvelous BM act certainly eviscerates a sonorous compendium of miraculous artistry, whose sensitive level of originality deserves to be highlighted as a fundamental cornerstone of the genre. Undoubtedly, this will be one of the best BM albums that you will ever have the pleasure to hear in your life. 

Drinking Songs, by Matt Elliot, is a simple, but beautiful album. Calm, serene, relaxing, circumspect – eager to understand the introspective subtleties upon which its harmonies devour the plenitude of an intrusive conscience – with melodies that drives the sentimental gravities of the abundant frivolities of the heart to a distant, but definite melancholic paradise, this graceful album reiterates its deceptive quest for a silent anxiety, reverberating the latitudes of its own quietness. While a little slow, the album definitely has a charming, dense and proverbial quintessential mood, that invites the listener to dive deep into the creative elements of its own sorrow; with a finishing hour cabaret vibe that converges to a distinctive nostalgia, where you remember everything you want to forget, Drinking Songs is an album that has an atmosphere of its own, comparable to the fragrant alcoholic vapors of an early Sunday morning, that will never end until someone bargains his own soul to be able to buy more drinks. 

With all its versatile virtuosity, but deeply concentrated style, Scenery is an album of lucid piano sonatas and quasi-ballads, strongly conceived with solid improvisations and magical short notes, designed to inspire happiness. With six tracks – It Could Happen To You, I Want To Talk About You, Early Summer, Willow Weep For Me, Autumn Leaves and Scenery – the album is reminiscent of piano bars with a lot of cigarette smoke, fulfilled from top to bottom by an atmosphere immersed in sweet nostalgia, and ingratiates itself in the jazz and blues aura upon which its music was seemingly influenced.

A very melodic, delicate and serene album, Mist, by Thom Brennan, is a very dispersive atmospheric piece, whose sound seems shrouded in mist and secrecy: an imponderable and enigmatic sonorous journey towards the graveyard of a restless conscience, this record is an elegant and dense ambient accomplishment, that delivers an enthusiastic, but smoothly diluted calmness to the embrace of existence. A very consistent and dramatic album, with long interludes and vast dynamic sequences whose discreet expansion resonates over the cosmic infinity of its gracious and lucid, but somewhat solitary sensibilities, Mist, by Thom Brennan, is a deep dive into the horizon of an everlasting wakefulness, whose proverbial grace elaborates in the density of its sensational premises the resolution for a symphony that contains a majestic element of eternity at the core of its notes.  

Another album that envisions and delivers a formidable sense of splendorous calmness, Sunday Morning Peace, by Jonn Serrie, is a virtuous and systematic dive into the infinity of a glorious and affable eternity, involved by a dense and sober sonorous tenacity. With a serenity that seems spectacularly vivid, but at the same time crystallized by the sensibilities of its flexible atmosphere of melodic profoundness, this almost one hour long album has only five very extensive tracks: the title track Sunday Morning Peace, Maiden Voyage, The Enlightened Path,
Breath of the Valley and Sea Mist. While its laborious virtuosity really encapsulates the surreal world that ingratiates itself in the vicinities of an harmonious realm of marvelous relaxation, the expansive dimensional tones that disperse its atoms through the vastness of its musical cadences are astonishingly effective. With a gracious mobility that enables its gradual rhythmic flow to surpass its own extemporal fluidity, Sunday Morning Peace, by Jonn Serrie, is definitely a wonderful artistic ordeal, that anticipates in the genuine possibilities of its own intrinsic elements the glorious musical narrative of the conception of a personal, but familiar universe.    

A discreet, minimalist and very organic new age album, whose main vitality relies on the happier, fluid and vivid tonalities of its sensible and gracious sonorous anatomy, the simple, yet reverberating sense of continuity present on this record – filled with nature-inspired sounds and overflowing colorful melodies delivered in waves of subtle harmonious fragrances, Green is one of those very distinct and peculiar authorial works, whose creative audacities really conceive a somewhat experimental, eccentric and original set of standards. At the highlight of its imperative synergy, Green certainly can be considered a proverbial piece of lucid and insightful grace, whose slow, but symmetric balance definitely conceives a dense, introspective and carefully elaborated universe of its own.   

A more proverbial and melancholic sinister piece, Piano Nights, by Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, is a delightful minimalist experience, that recognizes in the lugubrious atmosphere of its slow monumental cadences the lucid and dramatic possibilities of its somber serenades. With the insightful cholera of despondency, the music seems to departure from a world of infinite midnight, eager to extend the agony of its melodies over all dimensional waves of existence. With a cohesive use of silence and space between notes, the style of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore reflects a solitary, erudite and sensible musical arrangement, that also impresses by the virtue of its simplicity. With the silent grace of its lurid, but somewhat hyperbolic notes, this album reinstates over the sagacity of its latent premise the slow acerbic rhythm of life, as the rain falls somewhere, inside the scenery of a conformist doom.  

With beautiful harmonies, restrained to a modest, but elegant layer of space and time, In the Mood for love already explains in the title the grandiosity of its purpose. This formidable, eloquent, suggestive and delicate masterpiece is a sentimental symphony that reads in the cosmogony of its own discreet expansive omniscience the iridescent structure of its ascendant patterns. A melancholic serenade that evades the request for a modest ocean of incisively tempestuous calmness, this album has a sophisticated and expressively dense musical ambition, whose strength lies objectively in the dense diagram of its passionately intricate serenity, projecting the anatomic balance of the sound towards a sensitive spectacle of marvelous infinity. 

Believe it or not, most of the songs on those Spotify playlists weren't even Belgian, and the ones that were, weren't very victorious. Besides, the songs some artists are presenting as their 'World Championship Anthem' sound like farts in a bottle. So, as happens quite often, I think I can do better than just throwing some Stromae, Blur and Psy into a list and name it "Belgian Red Devils Playlist". This list is 100% Belgian and 100% awesome. Go Devils!

Born in 1910, Django Reinhardt grew to become one of the most significant jazz guitarists in Europe. During his short but impressive career Django (born Jean) brought his gypsy jazz to all corners of the world and even today whole festivals are dedicated to him. Out of his huge catalogue I selected the uplifting song 'Shine' because that's what we all want the Red Devils to do in Russia, right?

Here in Belgium we have a rich tradition of folk music, named either 'Kleinkunst' of 'Levensliederen'. Zjef Vanuytsel is one of the most influential artists in Flemish folk history. His songs 'Het Dorp' or 'De Zotte Morgen' are (or should be) known by everyone who has ever attended a campfire. I selected his ode to this little weird country, in which he tells us it's better to live here than in some of our possible opponents' countries. 

The Belgian new beat scene has turned this country into a frenzy of beats and basslines. In the late eighties, new beat acts grew like mushrooms, only to soon fade away again. I selected a song by BX-8017 (Jack Mauer & Marc Neuttiens) because a. new beat rules and b. it's Russia related. Now dance!!!

Although very much alive in some local scenes, Belgian hip hop usually isn't very top of the bill. However, this French rapping act managed to score bigtime in Belgium and in France. With this track I'd like to raise the pressure on our Devils a bit, and perhaps publish something at least one of those Red Devils will actually like.

With Luc De Vos, kleinkunst gained a massive level of rock 'n roll. This tune represent Luc's love for the ball game. Heaps of football fans on this side of the language border know this song and let's face it, every time Gorki can appear on one of our lists, he should. This one goes out to the fans, sing it loud there in Russia. 

Look, we all know that chances of Belgium becoming world champion are rather slim but we can all dream, right? So for the next few weeks, this legendary song by The Wallace Collection will be about football, deal?

Ok, enough with the goodie goodie stuff, time to get serious and dominating. And what better way to be all powerful and scary than by throwing our extremists into the scene. This is what we want on the football field, fighting hordes, breaking limbs, tearing flesh. Let's fill that champions cup with the blood of our opponents...

The will, or desire, to win must obviously be present in our football gods, otherwise they will get absolutely nowhere. So this track by Marc Verhaeghen' industrial EBM act The Klinik fit quite well in this list. 

But then again, you can have all the will and desire in the world, you still need to get out there and kick that leather ball. So here is Antwerp breakcore legend Sickboy and his forward pushing track 'Time To Play'.

Natacha Atlas was born in Schaerbeek and is as multicultural as this country itself. That  ethnic versatility also appears in our national football team, which, as Natacha claims so beautifully in this cover, is also a man's world. 

Post rock also seems to thrive here in Belgium. I selected this piece by Motek because after all, those 23 dudes over in Russia are mostly just trying to get their hands on the cup. They are all tryers, just like all of us, I guess.

Indie rockers School Is Cool have a pretty neat idea. Let's finally put something in our national trophy wall. Fun thing is, these guys have some other nice tips too, like 'Run Run Run' and their Radja-inspired 'Bad Behaviour'. Well, I don't think that's really about Nainggolan but you know, I have to mention him at least once. 

Stoner rockers Hypnos 69 has been clearing the path since 1994. With piercing, fuzz-loaded riffs this tune will undoubtedly push the Red Devils forward. I mean, look at the press. Even the BBC is claiming that Belgium will become world champions. Talking about a burning ambition...

Also coming from the glorious nineties, Wizards Of Ooze delivered some butt shaking jazz funk. Now let's just hope that our millionaires in shorts bring back that championship cup, preferably in a big red balloon. That would be pretty cool, no?

And we finish this list with some booms, courtesy of trance pioneer Marco Bailey. It took me a while to find something football related but in the end my fantasy told me that the moment we win that world championship would certainly be a dreamday. So there you have it...

This holiday was started in 1972 by sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave. According to Rave the purpose of National Pig Day is "to accord the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized, place as one of man's most intellectual and domesticated animals."

Funny side note: It is an open question whether the holiday is a time to honor pigs by "giving them a break" or to appreciate their offerings (spare ribs, bacon and ham).

And of course we kick of with this hard rocking classic by comedy band Green Jelly. I actually wanted to start with a song by Mucky Pup which sounds very, very, very, very alike. Mucky Pup was a lot earlier with it than Green Jelly so the credit is theirs but still, this is a fun tune, right?

1970, most of our readers' parents still had to meet each other. But Ozzy and his band of jolly blues rockers was already creating thousands, if not millions, of metalheads. 'War Pigs' is undoubtedly one of their most famous songs. I know it's not actually about pigs but you know, it's Black Sabbath. 

Speaking about legendary musicians, here is Trent Reznor and his industrial project Nine Inch Nails. I suspect that Trent is talking about the same sort of pigs that Ozzy was in the previous video. Come to think of it, this entire list is getting quite political all of a sudden.

I mean, fellow industrial masterminds Ministry also deliver a guitars and electronics driven stomper to make your ears bleed. Al Jourgensen is well known for his outspoken political views. Some people even claim that Ministry made their best records when a Bush was president. Perhaps...

Well well, what do I find here in my ridiculously varied music collection? A track by illustrious noise act Nicole 12. Formed by Mikko Aspa, also known from harsh noise act Grunt, Nicole 12 delivers a controversial and somewhat shocking theme. Perhaps this track is not really suited for the sensitive ones among our readers. I promise, I'll select a fun tune next...

See, something more fun. This comes from The Simpsons Movie and was composed by Hans Zimmer. I wonder how he felt while writing this, certainly considering other musical masterpieces from this man. It must have been a lot of fun, that's for sure...

Time for drugged-out rappers Cypress Hill to be added to one of our weird lists. Blasted into superstardom with their 'Insane In the Brain' smash hit, this act is said to be one of hip hop last raw talents. Once again, I don't think they're rapping about the dirt crawling mammals in this song. I'm also not sure if the police appreciates this one.

This uplifted tune by the Beatles actually contains real pig sounds. The Fab Four used heaps of animal sounds throughout their career, sometimes real, sometimes imitated by one of the band members. 

Equally legendary and equally talented in creating innovative musical ideas, Pink Floyd also liked to work with or around animals.  This track comes from the album 'Animals', released in 1977. 

And in the category "what if we check the psytrance scene?", we selected this groovy tune by Nemrac. It's a psytrance tune and it's got the word "pig" in the title, so shut up and dance.

Ooh, I found some jazz, and what kind of jazz!!! Please sit down, relax and enjoy almost ten minutes of pure jazz bliss while we browse some other genres... 

Unexpectedly, we couldn't find any Rammstein song with "schwein" in the title. You would have expected these industrial metalers to use that awesome sounding word at least once, no? Oh well, on to the next best thing: German EBM. Here is Angstfabrikk and their mouthwatering industrial stomper.

I couldn't find this one on YouTube so for once we'll share a tune from bandcamp. This is one of the many brilliant tracks from ambient English duo O Yuki Conjugate. They recently started touring again after almost twenty years and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could but that would involve things outside of O Yuki Conjugate's control. Nevermind that. Enjoy....

This is probably one of Cocteau Twins' biggest hits. However, the band was dissatisfied with the results. Robin Guthrie described the EP as "shit" in a 1983 interview, claiming it was "a bad mixture—bad song, bad producer, bad band". Elizabeth Fraser simply described the material as "all we had at the time".

And we end with Belgian metal combo Fleddy Melculy. "Varken" means "pig", but after reading this list you should have already figured that out. This is a song about Belgian weekends, and the sweet and fun things we Belgians do during that short period of time: get pissed on booze. 

Today is Anosmia Awareness Day and I bet you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. Anosmia is the loss of sense of smell. People with this condition will never "smell what the Rock is cooking", or anything else for that matter. 

Although it sounds rather funny, and certainly less inconvenient than being blind or deaf, people with Anosmia have no way to tell if their food is still fresh. They can't detect a gas leak or smoke. They have no idea about their own body odor, making them insecure and anti-social. 


And for us, it's a perfect opportunity to dig into our musical knowledge and pick out a few tunes about smelling. Enjoy.

Found out more about Anosmia on Wikipedia

American comedy-core band Mucky Pup delivered this tune as opener for their 'A Boy In A Man's World' album back in 1989. The album also contained some other brilliant tracks, such as the original version of 'Little Pigs'.

Back then, it was almost as if you could actually smell the sweat, smoke, beer and piss coming off this video. Popular music had never been this raunchy, gritty and vile before. Today, Nirvana is still the favorite band for girls who only care about the bandshirts...

The world of extreme metal is a festering cesspool of unholy smells and there is plenty of stink to choose from. Here is a band named Stech, doing something blackened with metal. I think this song is about morning breath or something...

English grind gods Carcass definitely know a thing or two about unpleasant odors. You could almost smell the vile stench of rotting meat coming off their album 'Reek Of Putrefaction'. They also showed that banning certain cover art really helps selling an album. Hah.

Hardcore legends Pro-Pain also know a thing or two about raunchy fluids and backdoor alleys where men pee freely after a few too many beers. 

Probably the most famous song ever coming from the sitcom Friends. This thing reeks of the nineties, not necessarily the good parts...

Industrial masterminds Die Krupps delivered this smelly tune in 1995. For me, that's reason enough to add these Germans to another fifteen songs playlist.

Time for some good old fashioned blues rock with Lynyrd Skynyrd and their songs about substance abuse. 

Hey look, it's goth's favorite troll, delivering an industrial stomper about witches. What is not to like about Mortiis? The ex-Emperor member has been creating illustrious sounds over the years, from dark ambient to industrial metal. This is probably one of his best known tracks.

Well, ok. I just wanted something non-metal but this is just too fucked up for words. Oh well, it got the word "smell" and it might be defined as music I guess. Anyway, Riskay released this in 2009 which probably makes this better than any hip hop track today, right?

Nah, then I'd prefer this dubby track from "mysteronics" act Enigma. Released in 2004, this track seems to build further one the well known sounds of "Mea Culpa" and "Sadness".

For most men, there will probably no better smell than the scent of a woman. Jim Morrison knew that and wrote this uplifting tune about one of the most pleasurable odors ever. 

Then I looked up the word "Aroma" and found this warm, sunlit tune by reggae kings Tribal Seeds. If you ever need some beautiful "island music", give these guys a go. 

It took us a while to find an electronic dance tune that had anything to do with smell. Eventually we found this punding tune by Marco Bailey. To be honest, "sniff" can also have something to do with cocaine but I have no idea. I just found this gem and gave up looking in that scene.

And our city-mates from Katastroof once again finish off a fifteen songs list. The entire world stinks, but people with Anosmia will never be affected by that, unless they suddenly die in a gas explosion or eat rotten meat. Oh well, smell you later...

We kick off with a track from from that 'No Comment' EP by genre pioneers Front 242. Their main influences were Throbbing Gristle and Kraftwerk, hence the heavy electronic sound. In 1984 'No Comment' was released. Since then, dark dancefloors all over the world embraced the pounding industrial sound of Front 242. International EBM Day is a tribute to this band, inspired by the 242 is their name. The front part of the name comes from the idea of an organized popular uprising; the number "242" was chosen because it's "just sort of a design work", like Therapy?'s question mark. 

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, Kraftwerk coined the term when they released 'The Man Machine'. This album, with megahits like 'Die Roboter' and 'Das Model' (or their English counterparts) is a classic and an absolute must-have in every EBM fan's collection. Although Kraftwerk invented the term, the genre quickly evolved into something harsh and intense, far away from the calm sound of these Germans. Yet, we have to respect the classics...

DAF, or Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, is a German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf. They formed in 1978 and became one of the main influences for later synthpop duos like Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell. DAF's sound was meant to be as non-American as possible, far away from rock 'n roll which was popular in those days. They used the word 'Körpermusik" to describe their style.

Another easily recognizable sound comes from Die Krupps, who started out as an EBM act before adopting distorted guitars and joining the harsh word of industrial metal. Their name comes from the Krupp dynasty, one of Germany's main industrial families before and during World War II. Along with Einsturzende Neubauten, Die Krupps inspired heaps of acts that would eventually create this vast EBM scene. 

Quickly EBM began spreading over the rest of the world. In 1982, somewhere in Essex, England, Nitzer Ebb was born. Influenced by that early EBM sound, they released a heap of singles which seem to spark other genres. This one, 'Join In The Chant' ​became part of the Balearic scene that influenced the UK acid house scene. In recent years vocalist Douglas John McCarthy has released material in collaboration with DJ Terence Fixmer as Fixmer/McCarthy.

Of course, EBM also reached other continents. In Canada, also in 1982, Skinny Puppy formed, a band that immediately set the tone for a whole new range of EBM inspired music. With their theatrical, horror themed live shows and their energetic live performances, Skinny Puppy inspired everything from Ministry to Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson to Linkin Park. Suddenly, EBM rocked again.

In 1986, Belgian duo A Split Second arrived on the scene. Their music was heavily influenced by Front 242 and colleagues but a typical Belgian mistake suddenly catapulted A Split Second into superstardom. DJ Marc Grouls played the single on 33 rpm instead of the usual 45 rpm, perhaps inspired by DJ Freddy Cousaer who years earlier had played soul and ska singles on 33 rpm, thus inventing the popcorn style. Grouls and legendary DJ Fat Ronnie invented the new beat style, which in its turn lead to countless of variations of electronic dance music.

Formed by Skinny Puppy's Bill Leeb Canadian act Front Line Assembly came to live in 1986. They quickly established themselves as one of the headliners in the scene. Their influences are as varied as the sea is deep, which sparked plenty of side projects too. Some of them include Conjure One (ambient), Decree (noise ambient) and Delirium (dance, techno, known best from their smash hit 'Silence').

German act Liaisons Dangereuses was founded by Beate Bartel and Chrislo Haas together with vocalist Krishna Goineau in 1981. They actually released only one album but that one has been immensely influential in the electronic dance music scene. According to many of the early Chicago and Detroit techno DJs, this single has been the number one reference to their entire scene.

Together with Front 242, Belgian innovators Neon Judgement have been seen as the inventors of EBM. Formed in Leuven in 1981, this duo has been incredibly popular with new wavers and goths all over the globe. They had numerous hit singles, including this classic 'TV Treated'.

Somewhere in the early to mid-eighties, Marc Verhaeghen formed The Klinik, inspired by the many EBM acts. Soon after, he started cooperating with Dirk Ivens and Eric Van Wonterghem (Absolute Body Control, Dive, Sonar, Insekt, Monolith) and Sandy Nys (The Maniacs). With EBM as their foundation, Verhaeghen and Ivens soon started expanding their sound, evolving into the dark industrial act which in its turn kickstarted a whole new underground scene. 

EBM quickly sparked spin-offs, like dark industrial, hellectro or aggrotech. In 1986, Johan Van Roy recorded a first cassette under the moniker Suicide Commando. With his heavy, pummeling EBM style, he in his turn influenced a whole generation of aggrotech acts. Suicide Commando is still going strong today, regularly being one of the headliners at so-called gothic festivals.

In the nineties EBM started to influence acts in every corner of the world. In 1993 Erk Aicrag (Erik Garcia - Vocals) and Racso Agroyam (Oscar Mayorga - programming) formed Hocico. The cousins had been experimenting with electronic music since they were fifteen years old but with Hocico their preferences towards heavy EBM and industrial became clear. 

American aggrotech band Combichrist formed in 2003 but as a relatively young band EBM and industrial fans immediately embraced them. The band was formed by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, who also founded the bands Icon of Coil, Panzer AG, Scandinavian Cock and Scandy. Perhaps most remarkable, Combichrist is one of the first electronic acts that managed to play on metal festivals like Wacken Open Air. 

Whaaat? LA Style? Well, yeah. In the nineties, new beat literally became the precursor for hardcore techno. Since new beat is a direct derivative of EBM, hardcore, darkcore, gabbercore and breakcore have become its descendants. What started with Front 242, Neon Judgement and Kraftwerk gradually exploded into a massive range of dance music. The Prodigy claim to have been influenced by EBM. Human Resource have been influenced by EBM. Die Antwoord have been influenced by EBM. There is absolutely no denying that Electronic Body Music is directly responsible for many of your favorite dance songs...

But of course, this is just a short list and there is many more EBM related goodness  to enjoy. Now it's time for you to abuse our comment section and tell us your favorite EBM related tunes. 

I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but here in Belgium Tournée Minérale kicked off yesterday. Tournée Minérale is one of those awareness-months initiatives, such as 30 Days Without Meat, Music For Life and many more. It's organised by the foundation against cancer and challenges people to not drink alcohol for a whole month.

Many people join in on the fun so I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to abuse the system and promote ourselves with another selection of applicable tunes. After all, that is what we do best. So go grab a glass of water, snort some cocaine or eat a handful of mushrooms, as long as you do not drink alcohol this month. Or better, get yourself a nice cup of coffee and chew some celery. 

I'm kidding, do whatever you want but always ensure safety for you and those around you. I just wanted to make a list with Tool's 'Sober' in it, that's all. 

There we go. Admit it, this is a brilliant piece of music by a tremendously talented band. This was the first song that came to mind when I heard about Tournée Minérale. The stop-motion animation still gives me the chills. 

Originally recorded in 1999 and re-recorded to close his latest album 'Alcohology', 'Erosion' handles "The thoughtful statements of the gain and dangers of the consumption of alcohol (),  the impact fluids have, not only on the human body but also on Mother Earth itself." 

Today, he's probably best known for his long-living stint as Clement Peerens Explosition but Hugo Matthysen has been playing sweet and funny rock tunes since the late seventies. On 'Alcohol' he gives a few examples about people's behaviour while drunk.

If there is any good reason not to get too drunk, it's this one. I mean, imagine: somehow after a wild party you end up in bed with a beautiful young blonde, willing to satisfy your every need. You get naked and you look down. There you see that your little friend is not cooperating. Your willie is already passed out cold. Not a fun evening if you ask me.

This song appeared on Lamb Of God's album 'As The Palaces Burn'. It is about the struggle of vocalist Randy Blythe with alcohol addiction. ​"Sweetly she draws me into her arms, a liquid embrace to chase the day away. Sedate numb deaf and dumb, stumbling into solitude".

During Underworld gigs, many fans would raise their beer while Karl Hyde sang the words 'Lager Lager Lager Lager'. Actually, this horrified him because this song is a cry for help. He wrote it after a night of heavy drinking in a Soho club during his battle with alcoholism.

Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy wrote his "Twelve-step Suite", a set of songs which represent the Twelve Step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous. The songs were spread across five albums and dedicated to Bill Wilson, the founder of AA.

One day while recording 'Born Again', then Black Sabbath vocalist Ian Gillan got wasted and decided to race a few laps on a nearby race track. Their management had bought them these cars to have a little fun in between recording sessions but Gillan's took the wrong one (Bill Ward's) and eventually flipped it over, totally thrashing the vehicle. 

Many people might see Blink 182 as a fun punk rock band but they do have some messages to spread. This song for example is about finally giving up on a friend with a severe alcohol problem. 

Metal has always been associated with alcohol abuse with many songs about the substance. This one by proto-doomers Saint Vitus describes the vicious cycle of heavy drinking, feeling horrible and getting drunk to ease the pain.

I wonder if that friend Blink 182 was talking about also strongly denied his alcohol addiction. Amy Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning in 2011. 'Rehab' is possible her greatest hit, dealing with denial. Apparently, she went into rehab for 15 minutes just to be able to tell her label that she went to rehab. Perhaps Amy Winehouse is today's perfect example about how not to deal with addiction.

Blues legend Muddy Waters was no stranger to the bottle. Then again, blues is usually rather whiskey soaked. "Whiskey you ain't no good I declare I'm thru with you. Whiskey you ain't no good I declare I'm thru with you. You have taken all my money. You have taken my baby too".

Dave Gahan has been battling alcoholism for years. This song deals with the idea one of "just one glass" before everything goes wrong again. 

In this skit from 1977, Waits imitates a drunkard, spouting nonsense phrases. ​The song was performed on the short-lived US television show, Fernwood 2 Night in 1977.

And we finish this list with a Nederhop tune by legendary rappers Osdorp Posse. This song handles the ups and down of alcohol consumption and addiction.

There you go, fifteen songs that should help you through this Tournée Minérale month. On March first, we might publish a list of drinking songs to help you celebrate a month of not-drinking but maybe by then I'd find that a little hypocritical. Anyway, whatever you do, take good care of yourself and remember to enjoy in moderation...


​Serge

Let's begin with the original. Ralph, Dag & Sebastien bring their version of the immensely popular 'Driekoningen' song.

In 2013 Mediaeval Baebes released an album of Christmas songs adaptations. This video was filmed with an octocopter with Roger Warman being the pilot. I don't know why I mention this. Just enjoy.

Power metal legends Kamelot also seem to know that song and obviously they turned it into an over-the-top power metal tune. No pilot was used in the making of this video.

And look who also made a version, nobody else than the heavy metal god himself, Rob Halford. That face singing that song seems like a weird combination but somehow he pulled if off.

Here are some people who know how to work with autotune and make typical modern day stuff with it. I don't care, let's talk about pilots a little more...

Or better, let's throw some ferocious death/black metal into the mix. I don't know the band but they made a song called 'Three Kings'. Tsss, the things people do to end up on Merchants Of Air.

Obviously, there are probably a bunch of 'Three Kings' tunes in the hip hop scene as well. We found a pretty neat one by someone named Ratatat. Isn't that a Pokémon?

But let's go way back to the seventies where we find this bass heavy dub version by Clive Hunt, Joe Aksumite & Mikey Lang. Their version was released in 1977.

Ok, we're tired of that song now so before we finish this list, let's hear one more version, simply because Ella Fitzgerald is a queen.

And of course, we all know that there is only one King Of Kings. Some people might know this one from being one of the entrance songs for WWE Superstar Triple H. Lemmy, we miss you!!!

But I've been doing some listening to music that has been released before 2017. For the first time in my life, for example, I listened to Pink Floyd's 'Dark side of the moon' while doing nothing else but reading the lyrics in a karaoke way or sitting with my eyes closed. Of course I had heard tons of songs by Pink Floyd before, mostly in our day-to-day playlist, and when I was a teenager I only knew their 'Wish you were here', which I must have played about a thousand times. I also listened to CHVE's 'Rhasa' in 2017, Mike Oldfield's 'Ommadawn' and one of my all-time favourites, 'Discovery'. Bonobo's 'Black Sands' and Tangerine Dream's Stratosfear'. And to the few albums that I reviewed. And there this tiny list already stops.

Maybe that is the reason why I haven't written write many reviews yet: I think it's your duty as a reviewer to focus all of your attention only on what comes out of your speakers or headphones. No checking out info on the band or trying to find an intro, no conversations or social media or reading or walking in and out of the room while doing chores, no daydreaming or worrying or contemplating, nothing: just stay where you are and consume the music. It is as simple as it is almost impossible. Yes, I can listen to albums in public transport or while walking, but even though I have very good headphones, I still partially focus on the road, the landscapes that pass by, the book I'm reading, what the other people are up to or what my mind is yapping about. That is not 100% attention, that is not listening in the right sense of the word. It took me more than two years of mindfulness practice to be able to listen to music.

And it pays off. I hear new aspects in songs that I already knew by heart. I transform into the feeling that the artist has put in there. I truly appreciate their hard work. I am in the moment. Maybe that's why I'll focus on concerts that I've seen in 2017 for the rest of this article, because at a concert it is much easier to focus on the music alone - if the audience would read and apply
Serge's guidelines for concerts, that is.

And do you know who is responsible for my new ears? Cecilia, the old soul in the body of a young lady, protagonist of Serge's debut 'Cecilia's World'. I'll insert a small break while you go and buy that book: 


​
There you go. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did editing it and re-reading it. Because I don't want to favour one of the headlights of 2017 above the others, I'll go through some mind-blowing concerts I went to in order of appearance. There have been concerts too with me in the audience but me not being there. I had a shitload of shit going on in my head and I had to invent a plunger. And I missed 2/3 of Dunk! festival due to illness, unfortunately.

In January we went to Mol. Opener of the evening was Sitka, and in October we saw Ben perform live again. Sitka brings us lovely drone ambient and we heard him evolve this year. Then came Stratosphere and the same goes for Ronald: we saw him multiple times and we were pleasantly surprised by the evolution his excellent ambient tunes have gone through. After Stratosphere the two metal bands just didn't do the trick for me and then came Ashtoreth. We saw Peter perform too in April, two times, and not two of his concerts are the same. Ashtoreth is the master of meditative drones for me. January also brought Primordial to Antwerp, together with some other bands I can't remember. Primordial, heroes of my confused adolescence, bringing pure pagan black power, what an awesome gig. And they brought a lot of early work too, a very pleasant surprise.

In April we saw a lot of Ashtoreth and Stratosphere, one time they did an improvisation session together which also was memorable. This was the first time we went to living room gigs and we enjoyed that concept very much. And there was Kuro. Kuro! They brought top shelf drone jazz and I liked it from the very first notes.

May is Dunk!Fest month. Due to circumstances mentioned above, Mooncake, CHVE and Barst are the concerts I remember best. Dunk!Fest is awesome. And so are these three bands. In June we saw Chelsea Wolfe and Moon Duo in Antwerp. Moon Duo kicks ass. Go see them when you can. July brought us a day of Gent Jazz festival with two top acts: Archive and Einstürzende Neubauten. Man, those were awesome concerts. Thanks to Belgian railways we had to leave after only a few songs by Einstürzende Neubauten but it was totally worth the trip.

In September we went to see Bohren & Der Club Of Gore in Antwerp. This was the most emotional musical evening for me, a bit of a catharsis. And were they good! A German father and his two sons (or so they claim), all multi-instrumentists, bringing the best dark jazz there is. 

And in October it was time for the first musical evening Serge had organized in years. Sitka, Stratosphere and Lord Kesseli and the Drums performed in Antwerp. It was a magical night, one to never forget. Check out Lord Kesseli and the Drums.

In November we went to Brussels for Bonobo. Awesome sound, awesome performance, awesome atmosphere. I loved every minute of it. A few days later there was another living room concert where debuting drone artist Urall convinced me of his capabilities, Stratosphere did the best gig of the year and Thisquietarmy did awesome things as we are used from him.

Closer of the year were Angels Die Hard, highly energetic psychedelic rock with synths, and O Yuki Conjugate who toured for the first time in a very long while. I was baffled by their set. Also extremely memorable. 

Thank you to all of these artists, all of the organizers and helpers, all of the Merchants Of Air readers. And all the best for 2018.



Eline

#1 Primitive Man - Caustic (Relapse)

Ok Heaviest, sickest, most ear destroying release of the last few years, so obviously it is the 2017 Champ!

#2 Obituary - Obituary (Relapse)

and yes it’s heavy as fuck. Best since “Cause Of Death”, saw them on the Decibel tour this year, still best sounding death metal band live ever…. Not open for debate…





#3 Iron Monkey - 9-13 (Relapse)

Man I needed this comeback…… It was more then I expected, my smile could destroy you.

#4 Godflesh - Post Self (Avalanche)

It’s exactly what I want from my Godflesh, The mood is sick, turn on, turn out the lights and go insane… been listening to it daily….

#5 Phobia – Lifeless God (WillowTip)

They matter! Should be on everyone’s top 10, it’s almost perfect, best Grindcore hooks you’ll hear, ever.  Buy it!

#6 Midnight - Sweet Death And Ecstasy (Hells Headbangers)

Ok so the production isn’t typical midnight, but I like it! Sleaziest metal band alive, so black and reminds me of the early evolution of metal… Dude it’s a classic!  

#7 Unsane - Sterilize (Southern Lord)

Prob best written album on the list, sonic pleasure… I continuously hit repeat on "We're Fucked”

#8 Municipal Waste - Slime And Punishment (Nuclear Blast)

Take it easy there, it’s a fountain of riffs, it’s fun, made me feel like the first time I heard Nuclear Assault’s “Survive”… Rise from the ashtray and rejoice….

#9 Full Of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy (Profound Lore)

The soundtrack of the end of the earth, it’s a masterpiece, 20 some minutes of destructive beauty. No filler!

#10 Lock Up – Demonization (Listenable).

All star band, pfffttt whatever…. I hate that title labeled on bands. Anyway it’s been out for months and months and I’m still jamming it, Grindy, catchy, brutal, entertainment value never ends…. It’s filled with beat downs and blasts….

11 through 20  can be in any order – love them all, so I labeled them all 11!

# 11 Necrot – Blood Offerings (Tankcrimes),

#11 Incantation -Profane Nexus (relapse),

#11 Dying Fetus - Wrong One To Fuck With (Relapse),

#11 Blood Feast – The Future State Of Wicked (Hells Headbangers),

#11 Body Count – Bloodlust  (Century Media),

#11 The Black Dalia Murder – Nightbringers (Metal Blade),

#11 KREATOR – Gods Of Violence (Nuclear Blast)  

#11 Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore),

#11 Converge – The Dusk In Us (Epitaph),

#11 Pink Mass – Necrosexual (self Released)

​
Paul