ambient / experimental

Alting Falder I Samme Rum is an album released on May 31, by Danish ambient musical project øjeRum. Almost forty-five minutes long, the record has six tracks, all named after the album title, numbered from one to six. With a prominent experimental layout, and a dynamic degree of minimalism, the album definitely displays a monumental tenacity, that overtly dilates its expansive sonorous features. With calm harmonies that delegates to its dispersive majesty the eternal shadows of otherworldly dimensions – for the soul to rest in a realm where all hearts perish within the melancholic charisma of absurd lethargy –, the sound present on this album will definitely take you somewhere, possibly to a place where horizons can be touched, and even created according to personal wishes.

With a majestic style that definitely presents itself as a gracious agent of everlasting and genuinely resourceful serenity, Alting Falder I Samme Rum is an almost surreal masterpiece, with a relaxing diagram of captivating proclivities, whose perfectly crafted harmonious alignment defines the grace of its warm, cautious and obliquely discreet melodies. Displaying a sensational musical veracity – whose rhythm drives the listener to a colossal and reverberant state of grace –, this work has a proverbial and eloquent artistic density, constantly revitalized by the pungent mordacity of its own placidity.  

Despite its homogeneous musical layer, there is a certain degree of dynamism into this artist’s music, that elevates its sonorous configuration to a distinct pattern of creative sensibility. Standardizing the cosmogonies of its imprudent virtues, its laborious musical atmosphere is shaped over a candid and volatile intensity, that perfectly understands the reason behind its voluble and arduous sonorous splendor.

With a graceful sensibility that is overwhelmingly cohesive and decently structured, Alting Falder I Samme Rum reveals itself to be a highly spectacular and formidable album, whose marvelous sonority undertakes the pleasure of alternative ambient music to a whole new glorifying level, full of ubiquity and ambiguity. Despite showcasing creative abilities that could be perceived as somewhat limited and restrictive at times, øjeRum nevertheless conceived this record as a singular and fantastic masterpiece, that aggregates subversive, refined and original principles into the genre, inserting a discreet level of experimentalism in the lurid cataclysm of the sound’s musical anatomy, effectively propitiating to the listener the ability to dive into a completely different world. One that can be felt as more affable, loving and tender than this one, even though is also inadvertently ephemeral, translucent and transient.  


Wagner

post rock 

Scintilla is an album released on June 7, by Portuguese post rock band Catacombe. With a remarkable style, and a groundbreaking sonorous cohesion, the group manages to conceive amazingly beautiful, resourceful and melancholic melodies, whose gracefully dynamic and dense, but mordaciously diluted atmospheres resonates over the imponderable surface of diligent harmonies, whose tenacious, but sober musical alignment rises beyond the elegant vivacity of its punctually flexible creative diagram. 

Forty-five minutes long, Scintilla has eight tracks: 1) Carrossel; 2) Esquizo; 3) Sparkles; 4) Reverie; 5) Alvor; 6) Balada; 7) Arruda; 8)Faux Pas; with a beautiful and delicate, though veraciously abrasive musical layout, Catacombe’s digressive and impenitent, but sensible style circulates within the framework of its own everlasting fugacity, displaying a serenity that navigates in the introspective gracefulness of a more dilated rereading of reality. With a robust artistic cosmogony that not only defines the density and the virtuosity of its style, but comprehends the essence of its technical extension, Catacombe presents itself as a very confident and experienced band, that really knows for sure what they have to do, to achieve what they are searching in artistic elements. 

Despite the fact that the band, mostly, stays in the conventional territories of the genre, they are exceptionally talented. The group’s musicality displays an abrasive heaviness and a moderate, though genuine savagery, that not only enlarges their creative possibilities, but also dissipates its disillusioned melancholy beyond the diffusive peripheries of a very organic, clean and salutary sound, whose disruptive dynamism definitely extends over the oblique ocean of artistic pragmatic tendencies the frozen acquiescence that revolves around the original strength of such beautiful and mordacious poetic tonalities. 

With decisively gentle guitar lines – that incorporates brutal and hazardous elements in the most belligerent passages – circulating under the vicinities of gracefully distinct and somber harmonies, Scintilla gradually reveals itself as a marvelous conception of tempestuous, but exceptionally cozy atmospheres, that elegantly defines in the boundaries of its impeccable style an interesting and splendidly captivating musical tenderness, whose practical sensibility fluctuates freely, and spontaneously gravitates towards the heart of the listener. Definitely, this is a fantastic album, that displays an extraordinarily sensitive creative abundance, that aggregates a more pungent, vital and organic musical ordeal into the genre. 


Wagner

post rock

Arda is an album released on June 7, by American post rock group Driving Slow Motion, from Forth Worth, Texas. With slow, but exceedingly intense melodies, the work is somewhat restricted to the basic elements of the genre; nevertheless, the style is ostensibly resolute and expansive, and the melodies are overwhelmingly impressive. With vague, but dilated harmonies that subdue the peripheries of its intricate and highly concentrated atmosphere, the overall musicality of the sound is felt as superbly simple, but sublime, and its graciously poetic density definitely delivers a creative sensibility that knows how to properly conceive a correct degree of minimalism. 

Almost forty-three minutes long, the record has ten tracks: 1) Far From Home; 2) The Way the World Was; 3) In Exchange For a Memory; 4) Windows In a Stone Wall; 5) Of the Sea; 6) Laurelin; 7) All I See Are Stars; 8) Shadow & Flame (The Deep); 9) Hallowed Hills; 10) The Dawn Voyage; with a slow and patient degree of creative passion, the group certainly displays a formidable and highly original degree of musical authenticity, that rests in very sober, but deeply graceful and resonant harmonies. With a salutary, but mostly diluted sonorous diagram, Arda reveals itself to be an effectively audacious and virtues collection of vivacious, though melancholic symphonies, whose imperatively genuine and sagacious ambitions conceives a mordaciously superior standard for the genre, carrying out a sincere and voracious creative resolution, that really seems capable of suppressing stylistic limitations and technical or rhythmic utilitarianism.   

Like an ocean of serenity that reflects the tenacity of a personal universe of tender and everlasting tranquility, the music of Driving Slow Motion is literally a sonorous version of paradise. With elegant, though sophisticated harmonies – and a complex sensibility that really understands the organic commotion of its creative and discreet synergy – whose impulses drive the melodies to an infinite horizon of colorless resignation, Arda certainly can be considered a majestic masterpiece, that not only rejuvenates the genre in its musical anatomy, but stylistically, designs a convoluted atmosphere of sound, that renovates its own hyperboles of introspective inventiveness. 

A great album by all means, Driving Slow Motion is a band whose immensurable and extraordinary musical disposition can give to the genre a more refined, positive and original sonorous outlook. With a highly graceful and vivid style – that leaves no place for generic creative commonalities, nor monotony or predictabilities –, Arda deserves to be qualified as not just one of the best albums of the current year, but as one of the best ever recorded in the recent history of post rock.  
 

Wagner

space rock / alternative/ electronic music

Monitor is an album released by Australian alternative / space electronic music act Laedj, from Melbourne. released on June 15. With an interesting, original, exceedingly vibrating musical style – deeply rooted in the preeminent density of expansive harmonies deliberately conceived as a tenacious space-oriented creative dissolution – Monitor reveals itself from the beginning as a marvelous, splendid and highly genuine work of art, whose authenticity defies ordinary genre boundaries, and deals profusely with an audacious and sovereign degree of introspective artistry, that not only aspires to be something inadvertently genuine, but expressively singular, unforgettable and most of all, ostensibly inimitable.  

The only terrible fault of this album is the length: at only thirty-three minutes long, Monitor is too concise. Nevertheless, when the album is over, you can appreciate it again, as I did the first time I’ve listened to this majestic and formidable masterpiece (I’ve heard two times in direct sequence). With only four tracks – Monitor, Kwingy, Heard From Space and Bad Buzz – the first and the last songs are the longer ones, having both little more than ten minutes each. With a very expressive, consistent and diluted sound, whose impressive originality designs impeccable and profoundly graceful creative harmonies in a very abrasive and elegant surface of organic elements, the marvelous and astoundingly extraordinary capabilities projected by this album is easy to assimilate, but concomitantly hard to embrace, given the fact that its overwhelmingly fulfilling, passionate, beautiful, dynamic and furiously elegant qualities surpasses with an absolute disposition the general standards currently seen in the underground scene.  

One of the most marvelous albums that I ever had the pleasure of listening, Monitor is a fascinating sonorous synergy driven by a colorful festival of original, unrestrictive and extraordinary creative audacity. With gracefully cohesive and pristine harmonies, that perpetuates the diagram of its diffusive density over the majesty of its own creative lucidity, this sensational album is a sonorous spectacle full of highly sober and vivid colliding atmospheres, that dance over the shadows of a fading horizon, in the somnolent placidity of an everlasting, but sincerely captivating personal disturbance. Although the entire album is absolutely incredible – literally out of this world –, if I have to highlight two tracks, they would be Kwingy and Heard From Space, (which, surprisingly, have vocals); the second and the third, respectively. This are two amazingly marvelous, beautiful and effectively rapturous songs, that strikes with deranged virtuosity the soul of the listener. 

Full of qualities, and with an exceptional degree of originality – never seen in the genre before – Monitor is an unforgiving, fantastic and splendorous masterpiece, whose fabulous degree of artistry deserves to be massively highlighted. With a huge potential to make history, Laedj. is a groundbreaking musical act, whose formidable level of authenticity can make them the next starlight of the alternative rock scene. 


Wagner

electronic / idm / ambient

Welcome to the strange and otherworldly universe of Von Tesla, a place where music seems random and futuristic. This 133 minutes lasting double album is like nothing you have ever heard before, unless - of course - if you are a huge Autechre and Aphex Twin fan. In that case, 'Ganzfeld' might not sound renewing or refreshing, but it's still an excellent addition to your weird collection. The album is inspired by the Ganzfeld effect, a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field which can cause hallucinations. (read all about that on Wikipedia). And yes, perhaps this music can indeed cause a few hallucinations along the way.

The album opens abruptly, with the beats and noises of 'Aftermath'. It quickly becomes clear that we are not dealing with a normal ambient/downtempo album. I mentioned the name Aphex Twin before and I think the godfather of intelligent dance music will rather often appear in your mind while listening to this stuff. Complex beats, noises from highly advanced planets and eerie field recordings create unique pieces of music. Sometimes harsh and unforgiving, sometimes dreamy and gently, like in the sweet ambient tune 'Lighted Room'.

'Out Of The Surface' feels like Plaid doing something with breakcore, which is bizarre, thus quite interesting. Although my personal preferences go out to less nervous tunes like the beautiful closing track 'In The Red'. Yet, before we can fully enjoy that, we have to undergo a whole lot of seemingly unstable rhythms. 'Caustic Network', the opener on CD2 threw the Autechre reference into the mix. 'Dream Part' flirts with harsh noise and 'Feedforward' seems to experiment with Speedy J's 'A Shocking Hobby'.

So there you have it, a weird electronic album for weird people but one that will quite often surprise and dazzle you. If you're into any of the aforementioned acts, you definitely need to get your hands on a copy of these two shiny CDs. There is no artwork so there is nothing to distract you from the sonic trip you're about to make, courtesy of Von Tesla. On the other hand, if you want music to be easy digestible and ear-friendly, perhaps you shouldn't be here...


​Serge

sludge / doom

Aaron Turner of Isis was once asked to describe his band's genre of music, he didn't want to be pigeon holed so he replied “we play thinking mans metal”. Even though his band helped define a new genre of metal in Post-Metal, he did not want to be boxed into one style of music.

So, that laborious intro is my way of saying that new album 'Failure to Thrive' by Massachusetts band 'Cazador' could, on one hand be labelled 'post-metal' but on the other hand, this only serves as a touchstone, a launchpad if you will, into this rather exciting album.


Things start off as they normally do nowadays on any album with am intro of feedback noise, so far so good. Second song 'Skeleton Crew' is a different beast altogether. It's a slippery eel of a song, whenever you think you have a grasp of it, it slips and turns out of your grasp into different sonic directions. There are contemplative sections, punk sections, sludge metal twists and to complete this heady brew, a dash of hardcore. It's great. Really great.

The next song 'Children of Man' is a delicate sonic shower of noise which flows nicely into next track 'Kingdom' which starts of with the same delicate musings before exploding with sludgy murkiness, it's really rather good, in a mucky way (just how I like it!)

 Title track 'Failure to Thrive' flips the previous song on it;'s head and begins with some straight forward metal before flowing into a gorgeous post-rock-esque serene passage of clean guitars before slowly building up (or should that be down) into the gloom. The following 2 tracks again feel like one long song switching between the meditative styling of 'Edema' into the fierce hardcore leanings of 'Comey' The album ends with 'Sassafras' which encapsulates all which has gone before. 

I very much like this album and would recommend anyone in an interest in intelligent metal to check this out, there is enough here to pique anyone’s interest. Although if I do have one gripe with this album, it's that the vocals don't quite seem to have the weight that the music so richly deserves. They are not bad, far from it, they are very good, it's just that to my ears, they don't match the soaring heights reached by the rest of the band. Overall, this is an excellent album.


Simon

free-jazz / improv / experimental

In their brand new release “Lamentations”, RAIC used the concept “An exploration of the American South in sound, vision and text” to make an album that differs a lot from their previous release. Musicians Samuel Goff, Erik Schroeder, Zoe Olivia Kinney, Laura Marina, Jacob Courington, Robert Andrew Scott, Brandon Simmons, John Saint Pelvyn, Paul Metzger; writters Samuel Goff, Abby Cabuno, Lucas Brode, Dylan Fisher, Zach Wilson, Saint Abdullah, Dana Forehand, Dee Martin, Steven Sherrill, Kristin Salsano, John Priestley, Edward Breitner, Charlanne McCarthy, Daynee Rosales, Al Lattin and designer Jakob Rehlinger did an awesome and really impressive job!

‘Lamentations’ is raw from beginning to end, a kind of homage to the great names of experimental music. It has all elements that we can find on it, such as noises, guttural voices, free rhythms, drone music, extended technics, electronic effects and many others working for the music and mixed together in a really particular way. Besides that, there are also fourteen texts and images - one per track - about their homeland, all working 100% for the concept. The deluxe box also shows that their experimentation goes beyond music and prove that they care a lot about their work and their public.

People that loves different sounds, free jazz and non-standard use of musical instruments need to check this out (specially the deluxe box) and follow RAIC at their social networks. ‘Lamentations’ was produced by Samuel Goff, mixed/mastered by Richard Schellenberg and released by the label Arachnidiscs.  This album shows up an awesome music, an awesome box and an awesome concept from an awesome group! I used the word 'awesome' a lot to describe this work, and it really isn’t an exaggeration from my part... RAIC’s art really worth it!

​
Glauber

experimental / musique concrète

Raffaele Pezzella is a busy-bee. On his Unexplained Sounds group, and its weekly radio transmission, he showcases some of the most unique sounds from all over the world. From his home town of Napoli to the deep underground of the African continent, Raffaele Pezzella has a talent to find mesmerizing music everywhere. And when he is not selflessly promoting other artists, he does some musical experimentation of his own. Those experiments have lead to releases on Cold Spring and Gravitysrainobowtapes and now leads to an album on his own Unexplained Sounds Group. 'Phantoms' is an adventurous work which every fan of musique concrete should check out.

Opener 'Phantoms' breathes that old, sixties, experimental music air. It's composed from strange noises and soundscapes, immediately setting the right atmosphere. So does the bizarre track 'Shamanic Rite Passing On A Surgery Table Equipped With Azzax and Trumpet'. This feels more like one of those albums with all different kinds of field-recordings to add to your videos. 'Memorex' somewhat follows that example and 'Dahomy Kingdom' turns that into a scary adventure with bird songs, electronic noises and samples.

By now, I realize that we're not really dealing with a soothing ambient album. We're dealing with intense experimental sounds. These are near-psychotic stories, narrated by an array of samples, noises and sounds. But then there is also the brilliant 'Three Options Collided', my personal favorite on this album. This track seems to balance between the first era of electronic avant garde music and the stuff you could find on many Cold Meat Industry releases. Closer 'Orient Out Of Tune' is another one of my favorites, a deep droning dark ambient track.

In all, this is definitely something for fans of noise and weird music. But then again, I think those people already know and follow Sonologyst. Raffaele Pezzella is a highly creative human being with a massive array of influences in his brain, so I guess it's no wonder he creates such varied music. So check out this gem and join us on the next edition of The Recognition Test, the weekly showcase.


Serge

wave / rock

The Riddle is an odd man out. At first we had doubts to review this release but as open minded as we are, we gave this one a shot.

Fans of The Cure could be astonished with the first guitar chords of this album. On the first track (Waving Leaves) of The Tree Deep In The Forest, you can hear immediately what this is all about. The Riddle (Kennet De Bondt) must be a die hard fan of The Cure.

This Belgian DIY artist created a weird combination of a melancholic guitar sound with an indie pop like voice. The vocals sound at first conflicting with the music. Dark and sad strings guiding sunshine vocals are producing a blasphemous wedding. If you ever wondered what would happen if you mix Charlotte Sometimes with The Boys Of Summer of Don Henley (The Eagles)? Well…

The Riddle sounds like music from a parallel world, everything on The Tree Deep In The Forest is recognizable but unearthly. This time machine to the eighties had some bugs and wrong calculations creating twelve songs filled with contradiction. Kennet De Bondt vocals are soft and contain a small amount of sad vibes. The tone of his voice is rather apathetic and flat. On the pop song Happy he sings with a very joyous voice showing what he really could do.

There is a lack of tension in song structure and the music on this release, sometimes we had the feeling that doubts of choice limited the exploration of more adventures musical directions. This nut was easily busted holding an original and daring content. Honestly, this is not our cup of tea. For those who favorite and ready for dreamy pop wave music inspired by the eighties, then this could be an interesting and outlandish journey. 
​

Patsker

post hardcore / noise / sludge

The beautiful and so-called romantic country of France has given us a lot of surprising musical acts in the past several years. There seems to be a massive underground scene that is both loyal to their influences and innovative. As a result, heaps of bands appear and disappear, all with this odd atmosphere. In today's post-metal scene, this country has been throwing band after band into our mailbox. Not all of them are amazing, but once in a while something really interesting jumps up, something that takes the listener by the throat and brutally slashes them into tiny pieces. Or at least, that's what I expect this post hardcore monster to do a few times a week.

Let me start with a little confession: I'm not very wild about this album. However, I do know that a lot of readers here at Merchants Of Air will be, and for them, this is an absolute must-have. This quintet delivers massively intense post hardcore, laced with noise, post rock and sludge doom. The music is mainly slow, harsh and relentless and the vocals are usually fierce, except for the occasional clean ones. Personally, I'm not a fan of hardcore vocals, even though on this album they are truly gut piercing, but if you are into that kind of stuff, you will absolutely adore 'Espérer Sombrer'.

From the very beginning, Vesperine showcases a violent and unforgiving sound, one which fans of everything between Neurosis and Amenra will undoubtedly appreciate. Opener 'Clair-Obscur' is murderous, and it only lasts for a bit over a minute. After that, six more vicious tunes will put you on the brink of insanity, crawling over the floor in fetal position while wave after wave of sonic despair mercilessly rolls over your shivering corpse. 'Mille Couleurs' contains some awesome riffs, which probably makes this my favorite track. In fact, be careful with this one, it might damage your speakers.

Espérer Sombrer contains some cruel and tormenting tracks. In a way, it continues the path of the aforementioned bands, along with acts like Cult Of Luna, but perhaps Vesperine attempts to drag the violent nature of their music a bit further. There is very little time to breathe. Even the post-rockish passages are heavy and burdensome. The lengthy closer 'Celui Que L'Ombre Pénètre' is a perfect example of that little push forward into brutality and darkness. So no, this is nothing for me but it is definitely an album to be cherished by the seasoned post hardcore fan. If that's you, do not doubt, buy this slab of noise now!!!


​Serge