progressive rock / post rock / progressive rock

One of the reasons why I started this whole Merchants Of Air thing was to push underrated albums and artists who rarely seem to be featured elsewhere. The world of music is so vast and so magnificent that many interesting acts get left behind and that's a shame. So I started seeking them and writing about them. Soon they started finding us and in only a few years time there was an overwhelming amount of albums coming in, many of which are still in my day-to-day playlist. 'All The Useless Spinning' by Polish duo Miist is one of those underrated and underappreciated albums, one which takes me back to the roots of Merchants Of Air.

Miist is Michał Koczor on guitars & synths and Robert 'Falon' Kułakowski on drums. They seem to share a mutual love for jamming, which almost continuously shines through on these tunes. They also share an admiration for psychedelic and progressive rock, plus they have at least three albums by post rock bands in their collection. In their rehearsing studio, they mix all of these elements and influences together into a neat collection of immersive and energetic compositions and luckily for us, those tunes are now available on CD.

The album opens with the long 'Philosophy of Pessimism'. This anthem immediately sets the tone: atmospheric, cinematic, immersive and quite often overwhelming. Although coined as heavy psychedelic rock, there is so much more to experience. Throughout the entire album I hear influences from bands like Monkey 3, My Sleeping Karma, Casa Sui but also Pink Floyd and even Tangerine Dream here and there. Yeah, instrumental, psychedelic and progressive but most of all immersive and captivating.

I'm not going into a song by song description on this one. The songs are quite similar in nature, driving on a mild tempo, delivering amazing guitar licks and solos, plus a high jam feel. The album feels like a concept record, with highly narrative melodies and plenty of variation to keep it interesting. So yes, this is an underrated album, one which deserves a lot more attention. Miist is a talented duo which ever progrocker needs to check out immediately.


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ambient / noise / experimental

Usually I'm not very wild on reissues but in some cases reissues are an excellent way to make sure the music does not get lost. That is almost what had happened to this one. Initially released as a handout promo tape in 1995 'Mutus Liber' is now finally available on CD, thanks to EE Tapes. According to sole member Steve Cammack, most of those tapes have been lost by now. It was a collection of live recordings, released two years before Dieter Mûh's first official album. But now, so many years later, the compilation receives a new life, and I think ambient noise fans will appreciate that.

Because yes, ambient noise, constantly balancing on the edge between both genres. With six lengthy tracks, Dieter Müh creates odd sonic trips with an industrial feel. Opener 'Empty Mirror' immediately delivers that immersive yet haunting set of drones and noises while 'Decoding The Ritual Of Frequency drives on deep droning bass lines, almost tangible. 'Ibruksin' is a minimal yet captivating piece, surprisingly somewhat of a breather after its intense predecessor.

If you want references, try acts like Zoviet France, Taphephobia, Predominance, Luasa Raelon and perhaps a milder version of Brighter Death Now. The great thing about this album is that it's actually well varied. I've heard many ambient noise albums over the years and most of them are quite similar. Here, it's different. Each track has its own set of soundscapes and drones, which clearly distinguishes them from the others. Of course, all still well within the range of the genres.

So there you have, a solid and nicely arranged ambient noise trip, almost twenty five years old but still massively relevant today. If I were you I wouldn't hesitate to get your hands on a copy of this gem.


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psychedelic / alternative rock

The Netherlands are well-known for their diverse and eclectic music scenes. From the dullest shlagers to the raunchiest grindcore, everything is being made there. That obviously includes rock music, and in this case, I'd like to call it long-distance rock.
Long-distance rock music, the kind which makes you want to step in a old Chevrolet and drive for hundreds of kilometres while cranking up the volume, that's what you get with this album by Dutch rockers No Man's Valley. Or at least, that's what I experienced, especially with the gritty, grungy and bluesy opener 'Outside The Dream'. 


The music on this album cannot be easily described, although I can throw in heaps of styles and references. While the opener was a stoner blues cracker, 'Eyeball' blends alternative rock with cabaresque experimentality. Throughout the entire thing I hear influences from bands like Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, plus, since the final track is titled 'Murder Ballad', I expect some Nick Cave references in there too. Oddly enough, that gloomy slow rock feel mostly shines through in the beautiful 'From Nowhere'.

So there is alternative rock, there is grunge, there is psychedelic desert blues but there is also a brilliant atmosphere that brings me back to underground venues and the sheer joy of discovering live music. If No Man's Valley manages to deliver the same quality on stage as on this album, I see great things coming for them. Although I doubt if any of these songs with ever make it to the charts, their solid composing skills will certainly turn some heads into their direction.

On stage, the gritty rocker 'Lies' will probably be a fan favorite. For starters, it's one of the few uptempo tunes here. It has an infectious chorus and massively enjoyable organ melodies. Many butts will be shaking, that's pretty much a guarantee. In all, I think you just can't go wrong with No Man's Valley if you're into original and authentic rock music. So yeah, I think this is a pretty damn good album, one that will quite often appear in my day-to-day playlist from now on. 


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power metal / speed metal

Witchlords, how more metal can a band with this name still sound? These two metal heads from Belgium, Kristof Dedene (vocals, guitars and bass) and Thomas Lambeir (drums) decided to bring their shared passion to life. In addition to the love for headbanging, they got their inspiration for this release from war and fantasy board games.

Demons In The Dark is their debut that is packed with solid power metal. The title track Demons In The Dark, their first single by the way, immediately rolled through the speakers like a roller-coaster. Powerful riffs and high metal vocals with flashy guitar solos are the trademark of Witchlords. The second song tempered our exuberance when this turned out to be a copy of Demons In The Dark. With frowned eyebrows, we had doubts about how this album would continue.

No worries. From the third song, The Horde, the duo do unfold their talents with an atmospheric intro in the style of Blut Aus Nord. Old school metal is served here, with all the possible tricks and ideas. The thunder of ferocious metal gods is assisted by the howling guitars and rattling double bass drums. We got some goosebumps moments with this song.

The heavy, growling, speed-metal-like tracks worked like a time machine that catapulted us back to the grim and old fantasy worlds. Kristof Dedene cries out his triple lung content with full passion on this 30 minutes blasting album. We are curious how he will ever be able to combine this on stage with his creative guitar playing.

Witchlords can be added to our list of Belgian metal acts like Evil Invaders and Lethal Injury. The duo  is strongly influenced by the 80s metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Helloween, Judas Priest and the legendary US metal band Metal Church. Demons In The Dark is a powerful enthusiastic edition topped with a speed metal sauce that made a strong impression despite all the cliches present. A nostalgic and joyful tear could not be suppressed from our old metal heart. 

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Patsker

black metal

bandcamp

There must be something special in France’s fogs, because the French are really good at spewing out hateful Black Metal. Bands like Blut aus Nord, Deathspell Omega and Novae Militiae combine technical perfection with ice cold riffing, and last month saw the arrival of another bomb cyclone from the land of wine and cheese: Drastus’ La Croix de Sang.

Drastus is a one-man army led by eponymous multi-instrumentalist Drastus, and on this record (his second one) he was assisted by Sad on drums. The promo mail mentions Thorns as a reference, and that makes sense: there’s an industrial vibe over a couple of songs. However, Sad’s live drumming helps keeping it sufficiently organic, luckily.
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In my opinion, there’s a couple of instant classics on this record. Opener Nihil sine Polum is a masterclass in writing memorable riffs, so sharp I wouldn’t let them anywhere near a balloon shop. The Crown of Death surprises with clean ritualistic chanting, and finally album closer Constrictor Torrents is built on one simple riff, on which it gradually elaborates, pulling the audience in a hypnotic aural vortex, from which there can be no escape. Impressive stuff!
Apparently this record taken a decade to finish...if that’s the case, I’m already looking forward to 2029, when Drastus’ next record comes out!


Koen

psychedelic rock / garage rock / stoner rock

experimental / jazz / drone / ambient

Ormo Records

doom / stoner rock

drone / ambient / experimental / noise

Attenuation Circuit

electronic / techno

bandcamp

drone / doom / shoegaze

ambient

equanimity. Those twenty minutes of Sublime Silence contain healing and reposeful sounds which are welcome in this over-stressed society we live in. If you are into this kind of meditative sound creations, there is a lot to discover from this artist on his Bandcamp page.

ambient / dark ambient

Dark and melancholic ​moods change into spacey ambient tonalities, sometimes kittenish, other times filled with doom. The world of Sílení is covered with alienated sounds and moods. This is an excellent piece of work. Dark ambient lovers, if you listen to Sílení’s Long Forgotten Bowers, you will get hooked. We sure did!

dark ambient

Mother Destruction above standards in this genre. The album is a varied piece of work caught in a deep haunting, emotional prison. Sacrifice and dedication are translated in penetrating sounds and choruses. The nightmare never seems over in this pungent journey of hellish fires. 
Another quote from Empty Chalice: ‘… the lost ones are retracing the path of the oldest fairy tale: coming home’. Well, we did come home and we still feel home between the moods and vibes of this wonderful dark ambient recording.

dark ambient

Winter Light

over a ten year period. Nimh is active since 2001 and has already more than twenty physical albums released. Sound chasers will be pleased and excited with the multi-layering of soundscapes, field recordings, voices and the experimental manipulations of samples this album contains. The sustained drones create darkened and emotive moods. Beyond The Crying Era is an outstanding soundtrack for a SF/horror movie that does not exist. It’s time to dig deeper in Nimh’s music history. Speaking about a discharge!

dark ambient

the world of Anantakara. We’ve noticed psychedelic influences appearing in the mysterious structures of  the tracks. The eight adventurous ambient pieces on Momentum Lapses are filled with a variety of lovely compositions and moods. Rumors told us that this album will be released on CD in the future. Anantakara stands for “ to make infinite” in Sanskrit. In some way this album does.

Serge (1-6)
​Patsker (7-11)

doom / post metal / sludge metal

Formed in Genk, Belgium, Splendidula does something bizarrely interesting with doom, sludge and post metal. In fact, what they do is so unusual that I had to listen to the whole thing a few times before it finally dawned on me. Sludge metal is slowly turning into what we used to call "gothic doom". Or in other words: "Am I listening to a long-lost The Gathering album?" Perhaps there I gave this band the biggest compliment of all, and not just because of the female vocals. Being compared to that legendary band is a heavy burden to carry but it truly feels like this band contains some extraordinary talents. But let's start with the beginning.

The intro made me giggle and search through my Misantronics collection. I'm sure it's a coincidence but opener 'Post' sounds a lot like my own ambient work from a few years back. I don't mind, it's a neat opener. Plus it's followed by the smashing 'Nami', a melodic yet heavy metal song that made me write that opening paragraph. Immediately that nineties female fronted metal sound comes pushing forward, much to my delight.

Just for the record: I refuse to call this gothic metal, but yeah, there are resemblances. 'Too Close To Me' even raises the bar, nudging back toward goth rock and pagan doom, perhaps influenced by leading ladies like Chelsea Wolfe. And, since we're going into the "why-the-hell-not" stuff, there is a cool psychedelic rock solo in this song. Yeps, they've got it all.

I can't say all of these songs are unique pieces of metal. '.38' is an excellent doom metal tune, well executed and performed. Yet, halfway through the album, the listener knows that this act is capable of so much more than excellent doom metal. Take 'Insanity' for example. Now there is a standout tune (just like 'Nami'), driving on grinding guitars and guided by Kristien's strong voice. Another one of those highlights is the strange 'Stream Of Concioussness', containing odd sounds and an infectious, rolling bass. 

In all, 'Post Mortem' is a great album and yeah, perhaps a worthy replacement for the now defunct Bathsheba. Kristien is a formidable singer/songwriter, backed by a well-adjusted band. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing them live yet, but if their stage performance is a solid as their songwriting skills, Splendidula will be ready to conquer the bigger doom metal stages. My advice? Check it out, and then check it out again, and again. This is a grower.


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ambient

The biography mentions: "Guitars, synths, samples and field recordings processed by two expats lost in Brussels." I guess there are worse places to get lost in. Brussels is a lively city with more musical entertainment than students skipping school to protest climate change. 

'Maps Of Reason' is yet another sweet gem, released by Krysalisound (their first on vinyl). With four tracks, ranging between eight and eleven minutes, Tropic Of Coldness; the the duo of Gutman and La Placa, delivers an excellent and soothing ambient album, driving on minimal soundscapes, immersive loops and a calm, serene atmosphere.


I think it's safe to say that 'Maps Of Reason' is a classic ambient album. Gentle layers of sound float in and out in perfect ambient tradition. I guess it's no surprise when I mention acts like Eluvium and Stars Of The Lid or people like Harold Budd in this review. Opener 'The Beauty And The Meaning' is a genre highlight, a perfect piece of music for people who wonder what ambient music is all about, and also a possible fan favorite for ambient aficionados. 

The rest of the album drives on similar elements: minimal, abstract and soothing. 'The Loss Of Empathy' brings me to people like Aidan Baker and Stratosphere, with their guitar based soundscapes which seem to go on forever. Still, tiny variations make this music interesting and captivating. Perhaps that is the main message in this beautiful album: create a nice sonic trip that invited the listener to be explored again and again. In that, Tropic Of Coldness definitely succeeded.


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post metal / progressive

Just a few days ago, I was talking about the importance of cover art. This noble art alone has sold millions of albums. Heck, some of my favorite albums are in my collection mainly because of the cover. That's why I bought them back in the days, to overload my poor parents with the nasty covers of Cannibal Corpse, Death, Napalm Death and Sepultura. The right cover art says a lot about the respective album. It can make or break it, or at least raise some serious questions. In this case, the question is: will this loaf of bread taste fresh and delicious or old, dry and infected with fungus? And also: what would happen if I grill this thing with cheese. But let's focus on the music.

The biography throws some big names around. "For fans of: Neurosis, Cult Of Luna and Russian Circles." In a way, that is spot-on, be it for the fact that all members in Swiss band Orso keep their mouths shut while they play, and that is a huge plus in my opinion. 'Paninoteca' is loaded with instrumental rock music, heavy, immersive and atmospheric. Intense post metal passages abbreviate with lengthy post rock pluckings. To guide all these riffs and strings-flirts, the band enlisted an energetic beast of a drummer. His contribution adds a lot of drive to the music, which is a second plus.

The references to Russian Circles are plenty but I feel that Orso is not merely copying these post-metal giants. These songs, with an early highlight in 'Jambon-Beurre', come off as a bit more progressive and experimental. You can still bang your head to this, but you can also sense that there's more going on that just a collection of riffing. The narrative songwriting is close to perfect and the band shows confidence. Take the video track 'Mitraillette' for example, a doom infused tune which main riff will rock you off your socks.

Perhaps the only exception to the blend of post-whatever, is the short and spooky drone/ambient intermezzo 'Jucy Lucy', which introduces the magnum opus of this album, the long 'Monte Cristo'. The latter somewhat reminds me of Tiny Fingers or 65DaysOfStatic but it's also a typical Orso song. This far into the album you'll recognize these tunes as typical Orso tunes. Why? Well, because Orso have found their sound in an overloaded scene: a bit like Russian Circles but grittier, more experimental and unforgiving. This is a pretty damn good post-metal album.


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electro / EBM / industrial

Dans Les Profondeurs

Nowadays it feels strange to imagine the pre-digital underground music world.  We can still remember the young tape traders spreading obscure DIY experimental try-outs like rats from cellar to cellar. After decades of dust eating, a treasure of subsurface sounds is coming back to the obscure exterior digital realms of music.

Under Starch Clouds is a compilation of a small electronic and industrial scene from the 80’s. The scene operated from an underground pub The Yellow Lemonade in Aalst. Aalst is a town in Belgium known for its rebellion priest Daens and carnival. It was during the 80’s this industrial city blew clouds of pollution that infected the minds of the local artists and music freaks.

Nearly all the material on this compilation was originally recorded on tapes.  Those demos were exchanged among friends and played on DJ Attila The Nun’s (Peter Vercauteren) radio show “The Fall Of Western Civilization” (Radio Katanga). The tracks by Killvision and Neoprene Grt come from their debut demo tapes. Under Starch Clouds stands for experimental electronica without high tech tools. The artists used their inspiration to create effects with all kinds of kitchen gear or ancient hair dryers. Samples were taken from taped radio shows and therapeutic sessions.

This compilation is filled with pure rebellion against every known mainstream soundscape from the past and the coming future.  The music styles of the selected 10 tracks are situated between dark, sharp edged, industrial electro and electronic body music.  Under Starch Clouds is a black diamond with experimental insurgent music from an underground scene hidden in the industrial dungeons of Aalst. It was too difficult to choose a favorite track between all these outstanding items of Belgian electronic music. 

Under Starch Clouds is available on LP and digital. Hurry, grab your hands on this rarity because the (white) vinyl is limited to 223 pieces. The emperor of Wool-E Discs made us clear that in the future more of these secret sounds could be released to the world. For the time being this release has already a special place in our darkened hearts.

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Patsker