electronic / ambient

There are two projects called Nevel. To avoid confusion: there is the Dutch black metal band Nevel (which released almost at the same time their one track album Leven) and we have Bart Van Meulebroeck’s Nevel. This producer and DJ has been active in the Belgian and international electronic underground scene for 20 years. The Hageland is his debut release under the name Nevel. 

The Hageland is an existing region situated between the Belgian cities of Leuven and Diest. This attractive hilly region with varied landscapes, such as plains, hills and opulent forests was the inspiration for this double CD. All 20 tracks (10 per CD) are named after streets and places in The Hageland and contain field recordings from the region.

The first CD (The Hike) contains more up tempo tracks referring to the electronic music of the nineties. Down tempo and minimal techno are mixed together into stimulating sounds. The tracks are accessible without being too commercial. Nevel uses female vocals to give the music a more mysterious vibe. The happy ambiance gives comfort and has a dreamy effect. CD 1 will be welcomed by the fans of Orbital, Boards Of Canada, The Orb and Horizon 222. This is a catchy IDM CD.

The second CD (Cooldown) is more modest with slow enigmatic ambient and noisy electronica. The tracks are provided with a dark edge and coloured with field recordings. We thought we were listening to Aphex Twin while receiving those weird electronic waves of Baybosweg. Nevel  succeeded to take the moods of his lonely misty morning walks in his music. The music on the Cooldown CD is filmic and decorated with beautiful peaceful ambient sounds.  Doodbroek and Stort show the darker side of Nevel, ending this ambient trip with a murky mood.

Nevel surprised us with a wide-ranging double CD stuffed with a diverse library of electronic music. CD2 is our favourite because of the intense floating varied ambient that took us to the green and hilly Hageland and beyond. This impressive release is limited to 300 physical pieces and is a must have for electronic music lovers.

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Patsker

synthwave

Enzo Kreft’s album Control is an attestation of what’s going on in our society. The clear view of the Belgian electronic artist was translated in twelve powerful dark tracks of electronic music. With precision this DIY artist repeats and confirms the visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, how robots and artificial intelligence are already ruling and determine our daily life.

Control is about total control and so is Enzo Kreft. The threatening sounds build a cold dystopian atmosphere without possible escape. Enzo Kreft’s harsh and cold lyrics reflect the military-like machinery domination and it’s controllers. With his dark synthwave escapades Enzo Kreft evokes images of a fearful apocalyptic society filled with paranoia and despair. 

The dramatic sounds and beats on the track Book Burnings are supported by sound excerpts from Fahrenheit 451(1966 François Truffaut) and The Burning Of The Books May 10, 1933. The used reflections of the past on this very strong song gave us a feeling of tragic asphyxiation. This bold man, dressed in black, opens a window where you can see the past, the present and the future at the same time.

Musically noting new was added with this album. The structure of the tracks is precise and very good sounding. We heard varied new wave/electro influences and inputs but they only make the concept of this release stronger. Mindshift could have been a Kraftwerk song without any doubt. Some tracks are dance-able (but who wants to dance… in dystopia).  Enzo Kreft made a clear statement with this album. Control is a mind fucker that puts a heavy warning boot on the listeners face. This awesome piece of work with intelligent content and brilliant ambiance will stay in our blood for a long time. Resistance is futile…

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Patsker

dark ambient

Dark ambient during summer? During the moment we charge the batteries in order to bridge the future winter period, we were thrown into deep dark moods by NERATERRÆ's debut album The Substance of Perception. This inner journey to future seasons (autumn and winter) was produced, mixed and mastered by the Italian Alessio Antoni (NERATERRÆ).

Alessio Antoni also received the cooperation of some of the best dark ambient artists active on this planet. The result: a bold and varied collaboration that led to one of the darkest dark ambient releases, so far (during this year). Each of the seven jet-black electronic pearls have their own style which is partly determined by the participating artists. 

The sound waves alternate with ritual and grim atmospheres, melancholic ambiance and stifling claustrophobic drones. There is not much light to be seen on this release, just a black void, like a gaping abyss, causing an inexpressible detachment from the tangible and the ruthless transformation of the self. Echoing Scars (with Flowers For Bodysnatchers) delivers with mourning whirling piano strokes a somewhat less dark atmosphere between the tracks filled with sounds of doom. 

The participating artists (in order of the tracks) are: Northaunt (Norway), Alexey Tegin from Phurpa (Russia), New Risen Throne (Italy), Flowers For Bodysnatchers (Australia), Xerxes The Dark (Iran) and Treha Sektori (France) (together on track five), Ugasanie (Belarus) and Infinexhuma (USA).

The Substance of Perception is a stunning dark ambient edition of an unbelievably high level. NERATERRÆ’s deep sounds  are the ideal companion for a long pitch black winter in hibernation. The mentioned artists are also worthwhile to give an exploratory listen (welcome to the dark ambient world). This release is also available on CD on the Bandcamp page of NERATERRÆ. The mysterious artwork was delivered by Nihil and Daria Endresen.  We were blown away by this top release!

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Patsker

heavy metal

Idylls of Woe is an album released in July 19, by old school heavy metal group Dogbane. With eight tracks — 1) The One I Was Warned Of; 2) Devil's Tramping Ground; 3) Blood in the Snow; 4) Riddle of Steel; 5) Land of Shadows; 6) Now You Know; 7) Winter of Man's Demise; 8) Sin Eater; — the album doesn't have anything that could qualify the work as superb, excellent or extraordinary, in any level whatsoever. Nevertheless, the record is relatively good, displays some intriguing, dynamic and ferocious harmonies, and definitely exhibits competently all the formidable features that were abundant in classical heavy metal, with a decent level of agility and virtuosity. 

Despite a certain lack of originality, Idylls of Woe has what it takes to be taken seriously, and the sound is efficiently diluted in a pool of dense and striking harmonies, whose diffusive savagery and proficient technique makes the group's style worthwhile listening. 
After some songs, though, the sound of the band resents itself of some terribly generic, exasperating and repetitive features; you really have to be passionate about the genre to be willing to listen to the album until the end. 

However, it is worth noting that the album has its qualities and virtues, though they may be frivolous to a limited extent. The fourth track — Riddle of Steel — is a marvelous and exceptionally good song, that not only defines perfectly the style of the band, but also showcases their most refined sonorous impetus, that on the edge of its dynamic ocean of abrasive restlessness, flirts a little with a modest degree of originality and authorial uneasiness. The sixth track, Now You Know, is also an incredibly fantastic song, whose lines closely follows the traditional path of a glorious anthem of old school classic hard rock.    

With marvelous, but sparse, guitar solos — that probably is Dogbane's most attractive quality — and a competent set of melodies, Idylls of Woe is, at best, a good, satisfactory album. Its not bad, but its not great either. With too much generic passages, and an unfortunate lack of originality, the record manages to be interesting, but in any moment achieves a remarkable or relevant degree of excellence. 


Wagner

stoner rock

State of Mind is an album released by Canadian stoner rock band Black Sheep, at the end of June. Relatively concise, the record has little more than thirty-six minutes, and has seven tracks: 1) Is It You; 2) Time Is Mine; 3) Under The Crimson Tide; 4) On The Highway; 5) Until The Shadow Come Again; 6) I'll Find You; 7) Wasted Love; with furious and expansive, but gracious musical hyperboles, and a striking resonant sound, whose profoundly dense, dynamic and diluted tonalities gradually penetrates into increasingly pragmatic, diffusive and cohesive layers of sound, the style displayed by Black Sheep on this album is a glorious and distinctive conjuncture of creative, restless and magnificent authorial compositions, that destilates with mordacity and uneasiness a singular and highly expressive work, with potential to effectively establish superior standards to the genre. 

With a cohesive and extensive musical unity, State of Mind is as gracefully concise as it is powerfully remarkable. Capturing an atmosphere of dispersive, but concomitantly explosive sonorous diligence, the band astutely conceives a style so bright, refined and elegant that — despite the fact that departs from the general commonplaces of the genre — they manage to fully develop their creative sensibilities to overcome structural limitations, sucessfully sculpting splendid harmonies in flexible, expansive, colorful and vivid tonalities.  

With an audacious and passionate sensitive disposition, that realigns the sound's most abrasive and organic elements into a more dissolute musical diagram, State of Mind manages to display highly heterogeneous melodies, while at the same time the signature style of the band can be perceived as distinctly recognizable and familiar. Exhibiting a fantastic set of qualities that undoubtedly qualifies Black Sheep as expressively singular, State of Mind reveals a band that unquestionably stands out as an amazingly peculiar act within the genre, displaying easily a degree of lucidity, sensibility and technical competence, that perfectly converges to a horizon of gracefully impeccable, original and innovative standards.   

Masterfully abrasive, dynamic and powerfully genuine, State of Mind is a highly vigorous, disruptive and delightful album, that came to introduce more proverbial and genuine elements to the genre. With a degree of sensibility that knows how to extract precisely the most gracious, unpredictable and tenacious components within a musical framework — with the aim to conceive a tempestuous palace of desolation made of hazardous symphonies, strong enough to survive a succession of collisions with the most brutal features of the human nature —, Black Sheep rises as a monumental axis of horizontal creativity and splendor, willing to show to audiences a more redemptive, consistent and veracious way to make music. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Covern Of The Snake is an album released on July 12, by Australian stoner rock band Arrowhead. Almost forty minutes long, the record has eight tracks: 1) Coven Of The Snake; 2) All Seeing Eye; 3) Ceremony Of The Skull; 4) Ghost Ship; 5) Root Of Evil; 6) Dopanaught; 7) March Of The Reptiles; 8) Golden Thunderhawk; with powerful and deeply energetic harmonies, this album displays abundantly the best qualities of the genre. With tempestuous and abrasive guitar lines, amazingly crafted melodies, playfully arid, but sober vocals and an exceedingly brutal, though lucid and perfectly distinct musical style, Arrowhead definitely gives a new, imponderable and more genuine vitality to stoner rock with this splendid work, whose strength can inspire underground acts to incorporate more authentic and original virtues into its artistic aspirations. 

Despite the fact that the band departs from the general and ordinary features of the genre, they are creative and audacious enough to reinvigorate with a very authorial sonorous disposition all the common standards of stoner rock. With a gracefully restrained — but at the same time vigorous and robust musical technique —, the band goes a long way in meticulously exploring fearless sound possibilities, though they are competent enough to design a very singular style, never misrepresenting the genre or disfiguring its harmonious layout.

With a ferocious and disturbing, but exceedingly pleasant and marvelous sound that definitely has all the necessary qualities to please stoner enthusiasts, Coven Of The Snake reveals a wonderful surprise to the audience in one track after another, displaying a sagacious degree of musical proficiency, that unquestionably makes Arrowhead the fundamental axis for a more original and innovative development of the genre. With the glorious ability to conceive highly intelligent, dynamic and vivacious atmospheres, the musical style shown by this work exhibits a profoundly skilled, mature and sensational degree of artistry, that not only deserves to be fully appreciated, but also has to be assimilated with a pattern of sensibilities that is correctly aligned with its ever expansive diagram of creative splendor. 

With a fantastic and spectacular sound, that offers to the audience the marvelous opportunity to be fully delighted with a high quality stoner rock, this sensational  album is an exceptional and majestic work of art, whose formidable level of creative originality and sound fidelity will make the band exponents of the scene, at least in their home country. An impeccable record that has what it takes to propose a serious and constructive revolution in the genre — for the sake of its refinement —,  Coven Of The Snake is not just a triumph of Arrowhead, but of all those people who are tremendously passionate about this wild and amazing genre, that is stoner rock.



Wagner

post rock / experimental

Paralax Markovian Denigrate is an album released on July 10 by a Polish musician, under the alias of DeLaa Fargis. A very concise work, the record is only thirty-five minutes long, and has seven tracks: 1) Falling of...; 2) Confusion - The Manner; 3) Singularity Quantized; 4) Outdazzled; 5) Megachile Pluto; 6) Nonenzymic Paradox; 7) Deoxidized; with exceedingly beautiful melodies, and an expressively serene and poetic musical layout, the sensibility present on this work reveals an aggrandizing and quintessential level of artistry, whose refined, dense and proverbial degree of originality could not have generated another result, other than the magnificient state of the art work that Paralax Markovian Denigrate came out to be. 

With cohesive, but incredibly dilated harmonies — that expand in the direction of its passionate, but rational sensibilities —, this album is a remarkable conjuncture of musical virtues, that perfectly align together to obtain a functional and dynamic convergence of values, able to conceive astounding, colossal and pure symphonies in the process. Invariably, its glorious qualities surpass the boundaries of its own creative and splendid authorial universes, in all possible layers of sound. 

Displaying calmer melodies that navigates in the infinite ocean of a restless and everlasting dream, the music of DeLaa Fargis rises from a graceful combination between sensibility and tenacity. With some gracious and impeccable piano passages that definitely discloses a personal universe of introspective tenderness, its overall musical possibilities expand to a vast and intricate sonorous resurgence of domineering placidity, whose deliverance projects towards the structure of the melodies a salutary symbiosis of sentiments, that progressively escalates to a monumental and splendorous creative palace of miraculous and reinvigorating glory, that exhibits on the arduous melancholy of its notes all the majesty of its renitent, but bright originality.   

With an interesting sonority that displays a formidable degree of authenticity, Paralax Markovian Denigrate — by DeLaa Fargis —, is an absolutely spectacular and genuine work of art, that deserves to be highly appreciated. With an amazingly peculiar, profound and audacious musicality, this fantastic artist has all the necessary qualities to prosper in a fabulous career, with enough talent to propitiate to the increasingly ordinary underground scene the development of more lucid, sober and innovative standards. 



Wagner

post rock / ambient

Constants is an album released on July 19, by English post rock/ambient musical project Message To Bears, artistic nom de plume of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander. Relatively concise, the record runs for little more than forty minutes, and has eleven tracks: 1) On Reflection; 2) Raining Whilst She Sleeps; 3) Pull Apart; 4) All We Said; 5) Rescue; 6) New Air; 7) Away from You; 8) Small Light; 9) Convalescence; 10) We All Were Swallowed By Sleep; 11) Nowhere; with a very smooth, tranquil and serene musical style, the harmonious layout designed for the project displays a sonorous virtuosity that is intrinsically functional, proverbial and elegant. Definitely, Constants doesn't disappoint, despite the fact that the album can be quite predictable. 

With a singular sensibility that really knows how and where to insert correctly preciously conceived melodies, the paroxysm of the harmonies is never frozen or doubtful; its colorful tonalities know precisely where they should be, sometimes going for an instinct of creative vitality, to properly fulfill its sonorous potential. The simplicity of treatment in what concerns the general evaluation and dynamics of the rhythm line is also another major point of strength and convergence for the work.  

Constants is a simple album, but its melodies were conceived with passion, enthusiasm and sincerity. Displaying a degree of commitment and seriousness that expresses all the singular virtuosities of the artist responsible for this marvelous work of art — Jerome Alexander —, its easy to understand the essence of his musical proposal, as well as the profound intensity that underlies the existential glory of his splendid creativity. 

In a general evaluation, while you can't expect too much innovative features on this album, Constants never disappoints, not even for a second. This Message To Bears release — despite its striking simplicity — or maybe, precisely because of it, is a marvelous, poetic and graciously beautiful album, that qualifies serenity as a fundamental virtuosity for the genre, absolutely essential for elegance and refinement to be achieved with renewed glory and majesty. 


Wagner

post rock / progressive rock

Transmission Zero is a Polish post rock trio, that released on June 25 their eponymous debut album. With incisive, robust and grandiloquent harmonies, the sound of the band is made primarily of beautiful compositions, that aggrandize the discreet expansions of their splendid and diffusive melodies. Departing from the most basic elements of the genre, Transmission Zero displays a modest degree of originality, that works in the flow of their elegant and dynamic, though proverbially dense musical style, while at the same time their gracious and organic compositions abundantly exposes a dilated serenity, that encourages the rhythm to function in an expressively clear and salutary essence.  

A little more than forty-two minutes long, the record is relatively concise, and has six tracks: 1) Vostok 0; 2) Lost and Found; 3) Illusion of Coincidence; 4) Closed Circuit; 5) Adrift/Alive; 6) Transgression; with a modest intensity that sometimes overemphasizes a respectable degree of minimalism, the sound of Transmission Zero is a primordially diluted, calm and transcendental journey into a deeply expansive, almost infinite everlasting realm of glorious symphonies, that conceives an atmosphere of sensible and introspective density, where life can be felt as a surrealist, but hermetic dream; one that is so strong, that the ordinary contingencies of existence will never be able to disrupt or to suppress its continuously growing strength, or to restrict the imperative nature of its vividness.

With exceedingly marvelous progressive elements intricately inserted into the musical layout, Transmission Zero elaborates on interesting and rapturous guitar lines the most sober and dynamic harmonies, though occasionally the sound resents itself of a certain level of generic and delusional grandeur. Nevertheless – despite minor deficiencies and insignificant limitations somewhat inherent to the genre – the album in general is a collection of beautiful, gracious and sensible songs, that exhibits a relevant level of professionalism and originality; if on one hand the album do not impress that much, on the other, also do not disappoint either. 

In a general evaluation, Transmission Zero – the album – is a lucid, proverbial, introspective and elegantly harmonious musical work, that deserves to be appreciated. Undoubtedly, it's a very promising beginning, for a band that has what it takes to fully succeed in the underground scene. 



Wagner

ambient / electronic

Consisting of nine tracks, this recent release by Fourth Dimension – titled Ubique – is a restless, though graceful collection of exceedingly expansive space ambient symphonies, whose fundamental elements rely on the dense and dispersive convergence of brilliantly agglutinated and eruptive harmonies, whose intrinsic musical consistencies depart from sensitive, narrow and diluted sonorous peripheries, that discreetly revolves around the eagerness of its own perfectly sculpted style.

With a sensible complexity, but displaying at the same time a subjective simplicity that honors the beauty of its elegant and proverbial atmosphere, the qualities exhibited by the artist reflects purely introspective virtues, whose formidably delineated melodies wander throughout its own volatile and gradually dehydrated peculiarities. As the sound  evolves, its graciously translucent and sober musical tonalities becomes more effusively crystalline, hermetic and discreetly delightful. 

With an amazingly pleasant sound – very easy to appreciate and to enjoy – you can deliberately lose yourself in this fantastic ambient masterpiece, whose splendorous musical narrative displays a genuine, sagacious and intrincate sense of artistic majesty, as well as a coherent and experienced degree of technical proficiency. With an intriguing sense of originality, whose lucid creativity consciously tries to conceive something entirely new, which is successfully achieved with this album, Ubique, track after track, showcases a subtle, but concomitantly spectacular level of versatile and splendid musical sensibilities, that overwhelmingly dissipates a sound that surpasses the general ordinary boundaries of the genre very easily. 

A wonderful work of art that certainly will please all enthusiasts of electronic space music, Ubique, by Fourth Dimension, is a magnificent masterpiece, where each track has its own imperative and distinct  sonorous identity, yet the work in its entirety is perfectly integrated into an elegant and vibrant atmosphere. The amazingly singular and amorphous harmonious contingencies present on this work deliver to the listener an impeccably resonant and cohesive musical universe, that definitely deserves to be qualified as a milestone of the genre. 


Wagner