drone / ambient / experimental

With a release title that makes you open your mind during the 'stay at your place' period in Europe and further, Music For Installations still sprinkles some tantalizing pepper in our electronic noses. Pieter Gyselinck is not only the man behind the ambient project Lounasan and the second half of the electronic duo Cycles Of Moebius, he also shows a lurid and experimental side of himself with Music For Installations.

Fractions Of Unity consists of ten sonic fractals that open up as infinite sound compositions filled with the reflection of a split personality. We already noticed the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde feeling in the various other projects of Gyselinck, which are further explored in Fractions Of Unity. The undulating soundscapes alternate with dark drones that produce an eerie atmosphere of madness. By means of mysterious signals, samples and percussion, Gyselinck's sound constructions scratched permanent scars in various places on our hard disk.

No lack of experiment, we were glued to the synthetic and threatening sound pulses that slowly brought all kinds of dust particles to the surface containing disturbed alien sounds. The unearthly rumble buzzed like mechanical bees back and forth between the eardrums. The dark and machine-like constructions of the tracks was encapsulated with bizarre signals that generated a strong sense of panic choking.

Fractions Of Unity listens as an experimental ambient drone trip that was rolled into an exciting and threatening electronic block full of stimuli. Music For Installations is unfortunately, still in the box unknown is unloved. With Fractions Of Unity there may certainly be some change. A Belgian quality release in the genre.  

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Patsker

death metal

In the abundance of releases during the last year we rediscovered an album that, honestly, deserves more attention with a review. Since a lot of bands and artists put the releasing of their new work on hold (Corona lockdowns)we took the time to dig up some forgotten pearls to the surface.

​Blood Oath latest production, Infernum Rex Diabolus, saw officially the light at the end of December 2019. The band from Leicester United Kingdom was formed in 2015 from the remains of the death metal band Black River Project which was already disbanded in 2007.


Blood Oath plays catchy old school death metal drenched in venomous guitar riffs. Guitar players Frazer Hart and Mike Freeman construct a waving pattern in speed, technical input and melodic approach creating nine interesting tracks on the album. Rhythm section Bill Fordham (bass) and Adrian McGlennon (drums) make the furious sound of the band greasier with controlled blast beats and rolling bass guitar work. The vocal excretions of bulldozer Mark ‘Trax’ Johnson roar like a wounded grizzly while in the main time the grim lyrics are still understandable.

Infernum Rex Diabolus is the band’s second album and melts the Swedish,  American and British death metal styles in to a solid and powerful crushing roller. Blood Oath provides melodic guitar solos, blasting dubble bass drums and a threatening atmosphere in their skull crushing music. This is mandated death metal food for the fans of Carcass, Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower and Venenum. Blood Oath delivers a very good and addictive album that feeds our ardent love for extreme music even more.  Top release.

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Patsker

ambient

The Dutch Databloem label marked its birth in 2002 and is specialized in high quality ambient and electronica releases. Nowadays the label is still active in releasing beautiful pieces of electronic music on CD(r) with stunning artwork covers. The most known electronic music artists who released work on Databloem are Oophoi, Mathias Grassow, Yamaoka and Nacht Plank.

To us the less known creators of electronic productions could be the most interesting. Petter Friberg is Motionfield and a well-known musician of the Swedish ambient scene with already several releases since 2006. He is also active with the IDM project Arctic Surfers. Like a lot of Scandinavian artists, Friberg is inspired by the vast Nordic landscapes and its nature which give the music on Always There a touch of bearable emptiness. The slow but impressive soundscapes have detailed injections of field recordings and squeaky vibrations. 

Always There has ten parts with floating ambient structures translating the extreme contrasts of the Scandinavian seasons into dreamy sound landscapes using modular synthesizers and samples. Petter Friberg takes us to a filmic trip with healing sounds, emotional vibes and dreamy deep listening parts. The sonic scenery of Motionfield guides the listeners into an extraordinary world of rippling and peaceful sound structures. In any case, this album has a mind digging effect and sounds like ear candy during the quarantine days. We very much advice you to check out more of the unknown pearls on the Databloem label’s Bandcamp page. A new interesting ambient world is what Motionfield presents. This lovely ambient work was (only) on digital format released on October 17, 2019. 

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Patsker

pop / ambient / shoegaze

Midwives are able to help giving birth to new life and enduring all the pain one (woman) can bear. They transform all the pain into the most joyous of moments. Madeline Johnston chose that name as her stage moniker several years ago and has since released two full-lengths and a b-side collection as Midwife after using Sister Grotto for several years.

Midwife’s music is different in a way, and that becomes clear from the very beginning of “Forever”: “2018” starts with a piano melody in minor keys before the ambient spheres starts in the background and Madeline sings “This is really happening… to me” as if she wants reality to fall apart and away under her vocals. You can already hear her despair under all the distorted singing, she is not going to sing about the beautiful sides of life. She is moaning, accusing life of all the negative things she is going through, like the loss of the beloved creative working/living space Rhinoceropolis in Denver in 2016 and, even harder for her, the suicide of her friend Colin Ward, who she shared an apartment at Rhinoceropolis with, in 2018. Ward can be heard reading out a poem on “C.R.F.W.” (his initials) for about four minutes until a simple drone sets in spiraling upwards accompanied by simple guitar lines and no additional words – a kind of wordless mourning. 

Pain and beauty – the two sides to Midwife. The drones have slightly harsh endings just before they ebb away beautifully. The guitar lines are steady but never boring as the are often supported by a delicate echo that makes them reverb into open space. Johnston’s compositions float through the air not being tied to any earthly weight so that you watch them for hours on end without being bored at all. On the other side, the lyrics can have a very different effect because they are among the saddest in a long time. Forget all those black metal bands who are trying to tell you how dark their lives are – Midwife’s songs are real because they are honest and one truly feels afraid for what is going to happen to her next. 

This might be the catharsis of the year, the one record which tells you how shitty life is and how you are not able to run away from it. But talking about it at least opens your chest for a breath of fresh air while looking up at the beautiful blue sky outside. Beautiful moments in painful phases of life – Midwife. 


Thorsten

ambient / soundtrack

Perhaps some artists don't like to read this, but over the years I found some of my favorite albums in the sales-bin at record shops. Quite often, those albums are slightly different than most releases, a bit off-beat and experimental. That is also where I discovered Polish composer Jacaszek. His 2012 album 'Glimmer' was on sale, along with several other ambient and downtempo electronic releases. I spent quite some money that day and I went home with a backpack filled with CDs. From that batch, 'Glimmer' has become one of my favorites and  since then several other Jacaszek releases have been added to my collection. Now, 'Music For Film' will join them.

So, Michal Jacaszek is no stranger in this household. His approach here, a mix of gloomy electronics, ambient, classical music and often glitchy soundscapes feels otherworldly yet soothing. On 'Music For Film', a collection of soundtrack compositions, that trademark is still present, although sometimes it does feel like Jacaszek had a slightly different audience in mind while working on these pieces of music: the movie critics. Most tracks on 'Music For Film' are listener friendly, pushing the strangeness of some earlier releases somewhat to the back.

​Which does not mean that this is a sweet, easy listening album. Opener '49' explores the piano in a melancholic and nostalgic way, aided by mild strings. 'The Iron Bridge', second in line, is one of the weirder tunes. Although it contains a certain rhythm it might be best to categorize these sounds as "musique concrete". 'November Early' feels like a piece of classical music written for dark jazz fans. That being said, I'm one of those dark jazz fans and I absolutely adore this track. 'Twelve Years' is a slow and gloomy piece of work, driving on a sluggish beat and lingering strings.

'Dance' combines mild noise with a chamber orchestra, so it seems, and 'Christ Blood Theme' takes us to dark monasteries. 'Liina' excels in minimalism while, another one of my favorites here, 'Encounter Me in The Orchard' visits mystical lands and biospheres. For the last two tracks, I'll have to repeat the words dark jazz and classical music. Yet, don't worry, they're equally enchanting and interesting as the rest if this album.

So, this is 'Music For Film', not only an excellent album but also a great argument when stating that Michal Jacaszek can easily compete with the Zimmers and Elfmans of this world. He can, believe me. 'Music For Film' contains pieces from Rainer Sarnet’s 2017 black-and-white fantasy drama November and the 2019 documentary He Dreams of Giants, among others. If you're a fan of either ambient, dark jazz, gloomy electronics or classical music, you need to check this out.


​Serge

black metal

History in music, an always difficult topic unlike politics in music, because music has one major idea and that is entertainment, which again can go hand in hand with political education, but historical education, that is quite a different topic. History is usually connected with facts and that is not very entertaining for a lot of people. However, sometimes there is a band that is able to talk about politics in a very different way, without lecturing or falling back into ancient instrumentation.  Pure Wrath from Indonesia is one of those examples.

Januaryo Hardy, the mastermind behind Pure Wrath and its only real member, wrote an album about a brutal attack during the totalitarian takeover in Indonesia of the mid-1960’s. Historians often put these massacres in a list with the Nazi genocidal crimes, the Soviet cleansing under Stalin, the Chinese massacres under Mao and others. Estimations say that around one million people died between 1965 and 1968 when the regime under Suharto started its 30 year reign. Hardy uses this genocide as a backdrop to talk about a brutal incident during said genocide where male members of a family were kidnapped and killed in the name of “so-called nationalism”. 

One thing that is really striking about “The Forlorn Soldier” is that it never over-emphasizes the historical aspects and thus never falls into lecturing, but rather remains very emotive all the time which can also be attributed to the musical components of the record. Hardy does nearly everything himself, but he also had some help in bringing the pieces of his musical vision together; Yurii Kononov (formerly of White Ward) helped with the drumming and Dice Midyanti provided the piano parts. All elements together form a brilliant atmospheric black metal album that does not have to hide behind masterpieces by Panopticon or Skyforest or others. The potion of heavy powerful riffs, the slow devolution of speed towards doomy elements and (partially) chants results in a real black unicorn of coal that listening over and over again will turn into the shining diamond it is supposed to be. 

This is one of those history classes which will keep the listener spellbound in front of the stereo, asking for more – facts, thoughts and feelings! 


Thorsten

black metal / noise

Dillinger Escape Plan meets Bathory. Orchid meets Celtic Frost. Some Girls meets Mayhem. Whenever aggressive extremes meet a moment of chaos will be piled up at the exact spot where their forces clashed and the first mercenaries fell. Ulveblod is that exact spot in the middle of two unforgiving enemies. The product of a struggle that spit out Vitriol, the main songwriter, guitarist and founder of Ulveblod, without any kind of orientation, after his partner in music, M. died right before Roadburn last year. Together they were Nihill, one of the most prolific black metal bands to ever come out of the Netherlands and maybe the most-prominent pillar of the now dominant force that Dutch black metal has become with its flourishing scene and amazing bands.

Vitriol has founded Ulveblod as his new outlet for his vision of black metal which many people will neither understand nor share. This is chaos, manic compression, no compromise wanted, pure get it or die – shit. You don’t like it? No one gives a fuck and neither should you.

The guitars follow no clear line, they scream your brains to death, throwing your heads not only from side to side but also jumpkicking it over your neck and then tearing at your scalp to throw it towards your risen knees. No breath of fresh air, no stopping or pausing needed.
The drums are designed to entrance you with their nonstop pounding, which makes heavy use of the cymbals and toms, but is defined by an ongoing hurricane-blastbeat-apocalypse. 
The vocals are quivering and shivering but not voiceless, not without strength but powerful and demanding, catching all your attention and giving you a pulse to make your veins explode.

This music is pure chaos and has no sense for beauty because all beauty dies. Everything must die, that’s a fact. And death equals all – Omnia mors aequat. Death is pain and pain distributes itself equally, everyone is the same in death and we all die – alone. Nihill died with M. and one day Ulveblod will also die. However – at this moment, it screams in your face, sends shivers down every nerve and artery you got. It is here, it is now, it is Ulveblod, and it’s going to equal you out.


Thorsten

progressive / alternative / metal

There are bands who like singing about literature – Maximo Park; there are bands who like storytelling – Mastodon; and there are bands who create complete worlds and setting for their stories which then again is the basis for their music – Coheed and Cambria; or Huntsmen from Chicago. The difference between the latter two categories is simple: Storytelling often goes for one record only – you may also compare Bowie’s different records each based on one individual plotline – be it Ziggy or be it Nathan. Creating whole settings, characters, plot lines and everything that transcend one record and encompass all that the band tries to release is a very difficult task (especially if you are developing the story yourself and not using a story out there). Nevertheless, Huntsmen seem to stand the test of musical relevance and literary conciseness and inner-plot-logic. 

The story they set out to bring to the world is about a post-apocalyptic, post-war wasteland (whose precise location is yet not given) where the audience follows the former soldier who must find her way through barren landscape after a failed mission and who is joined on that odyssey by a man who first (among others) rescued her from a bunch of “pirates”. On that journey they find not only some obstacles and solutions but also….. 

Oh this already got you? Then go on and listen to the album which musically is as diverse as one could imagine a progressive alternative metal to be. Progressive because the now-quintet (after former help Aimee Bueno is now a full-time member providing the voice for the soldier. Alternative because the band definitely has a knack for writing very well-tuned melodies, but never frightening with proggish scales and interludes, licks or solos. They deliver 13 songs in 78 minutes (spread out across two records) and very often the basis of that is a good balance between 90s-style, grunge-influenced alternative metal (a bit similar to Intronaut but without the jazz elements) and well-interwoven metal riffs that give the sound enough depth with their small details (a short drum blast, a swirling synth in the background, an upscaling guitar element). The most remarkable thing are the vocals, shared by Bueno and Chris Kang, which turn these duets into real conversations that can leave you spellbound. 


Thorsten

black metal

Decades ago it was normal for bands to release at least one record a year. Nowadays that is rather unusual so that if a band comes along and is able to publish two good records within one year’s time this should be noted as is the case with Switzerland’s black metal hopefuls Aara. In 2019 they published their acclaimed debut full-length “So Fallen alle Tempel” and now they are back with “En Ergo Einai” – and in between these two full-lengths they were even able to release a one-track single called “Anthropozän” (also one Debemur Morti)! 

But not only Aara’s output rate is impressive but also its quality, “En Ergo Einai” is another good example of modern atmospheric black metal. If anybody asks you in twenty years “what was the state of the art in black metal back in 2020?” - you can just simply use Aara’s second full-length to exemplify your answer. Melodic vocals, often using ethereal backing chants in order to purvey some kind of community event also called ritual. The guitar work is on point as the riffs are heavy but clear, the tornado is still a tornado but now you can see the whirling circles of the houses uprooted and pulled towards the deathly heavens. The drumming is able to hunt down each soul in its proximity and then give it a rest by gently padding it on the shoulder as if to say “don’t worry, all will be well, soon. (when this is over.)” And in the middle of all of this there is even a bigger idea behind it all: 

The duo consisting of the anonymous members vocalist Fluss (“River”) and the instrumentalist Berg (“Mountain”) was inspired by the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century and the idea of mankind stepping out of its not-knowing, refraining from its omnipresent. Alas, Aara’s notion of the Enlightenment is not a merely positive one because to them, mankind’s strife for a better world is a lost cause as perfection cannot be found and thus this search is a futile one. 

Thus, we see – modern black metal fans must not fear (for fear is futile), Aara will keep your ears busy and your minds open for new thoughts and perspectives. Hopefully, with another good release next year!


Thorsten

sludge / doom

What would The Doors be without Ray Manzarek on the keys? A good band, maybe even very good, but who can imagine “Light my Fire” without Manzarek’s amazing intro? No one, right? Now, not to compare Walk Through Fire to The Doors – wouldn’t do either band justice – but their sound is heavily characterized by the use of keys, in this case, the use of an organ.

Walk Through Fire have just released their third full-length “Var Avrgund” (“Before the Abyss”), the first in their mother tongue Swedish, which is a change that might not be audible because of the deep growls and bellows. The vocals are merely a strong element within the whole soundscape of the quintet from Gotenburg. The unique-selling-point, that marketing strategists would be searching for, is the band’s sound. It is rough and, unlike many other Scandinavian doom-inspired bands, not really polished but gritty and always a little dirty. However, their sound is really outstandingly singular and is accompanied by a near-perfection feeling for songwriting.

If we take off the intro (“Avgrund”) and it near 150 seconds, then we have six songs in over 73 minutes – an average of more than 12 minutes per song! However, the song lengths should not wrongfully lead to the conclusion that WTF (if the acronym is an accident? Who knows!) are a funeral doom band is wrong. Even though they share a similar liking for songs over ten minutes – the longest one is nearly 20 minutes long – there is one major difference to the usual funeral doom bands: Walk Through Fire are more drone-inspired than bands like Bell Witch. In that sense they are similar to Mizmor, although they don’t use blastbeats and black metal screams. The use of hard-hit cymbals and droney, gritty guitar motifs are able to prolong the final track “Tragedin” to its final maximum length, and yet they are only a part of this opus magnum, for sometimes you will not hear anything really on the track as the band is able to hold pauses and to give even the pauses enough space to breathe, so that here one might come back to what makes a lot of modern metal so interesting: It’s not the riffs or the speedy notes and chords, it’s rather those moments when nothing is happening – either because of a drone or because of silence.  And admittedly Walk Through Fire are masters at keeping the silences meaningful. 

The Doors had a master craftsman behind the keys creating the psychedelic moments that make them stand out, Walk Through Fire have a master using the keys to keep the soundscape singular and breathing.


Thorsten