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.

​
Patsker

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

progressive trance / electronic / ambient

With a virtuous, elegant and very expressive sound, the delightful atmosphere conceived on Gaia is definitely a gentle invitation to travel beyond the imaginary horizons of the psytrance subgenre of electronic music. With a consistent and expansive, though pragmatic and dynamic sonorous layout, this album presents itself as a very diligent and creative work of art. Departing from general ordinary harmonies, gradually, the neutral, but abundant horizontal melodic components that constitutes the bulk of this work becomes involved in a vivacious, but discreet musical configuration, whose vitality revolves around all the majestic elements that are present throughout the whole album. 

Sixty-nine minutes long, the album has eleven tracks: 1) Endless Road; 2) Dreamland; 3) Earthbound; 4) Ring of Clouds; 5) Magic; 6) Breathe; 7) Light; 8) Frozen (a song by the Driftsetters, with an Unknown Reality Remix); 9) Simple Things; 10) Oneness; 11) Soft Transition; with a somewhat lethargic, though gracefully cosmic musical style, the artist delivers to the audience a symphony of unlimited pleasure, whose formidable degree of artistry subtly surpasses the ordinary boundaries of the genre, and astutely explores a more transcendent and splendorous creative paradigm, that effectively dilutes melodies within a colorful timeframe, without interrupting the ventures of its placid cosmogony. Though the artist, Ralph Freund, basically explores the general common ground virtues of psychedelic electronic music, the overall qualities present on this album certainly exposes its primordial grace to more intrinsically somber patterns of introspection. 

Evidently — to enjoy this album —, you must really appreciate this type of music; otherwise, you may become somewhat bored. With this written warning in mind, its primary concern is to emphasize the prominent qualities of this album, whose elemental uneasiness rely on its crystalline surface, that slowly dilates to become progressively more synthetic and flexible. As the sound evolves and reaches the center of the digression of its tempestuous sonorous axis, the melodies ostensibly become more vivacious and perennial, though the calmer atmosphere that fluctuates over the general balance of the style dissipates gradually, in the same way its quintessential harmonies are conceived.   

While this album is not that original, its definitely marvelously conceived, and exposes with a modest degree of sensibility a genuine sense of originality, which hangs gently in the breeze of its formidable and overtly consistent calmness. An interesting work of art that deserves to be appreciated, Gaia, by Unknown Reality, is undoubtedly a very gracious and sensitive work of art, that aggregates a beautiful coalition of sounds directly into the anatomy of the genre. 



Wagner

ambient / electronic

Owann is worried. State of Mind is the third release of Owann (Johan De Paepe), expressing his vexations about the visible climate changes the Earth already faces today. As a mountaineer and photographer for several decades he was able to witness the shrinking of the Alps glaciers with his own eyes. These observations and other issues (caused by humanity) resulting this fickle climate, became the inspiration for this album. 

On his previous CD, Eternal Return, this Belgian electronic artist made a very philosophical inspired  recording. Eternal Return was to our opinion one of the best Belgian releases of electronic ambient music in 2016. We were at first a little skeptical about State of Mind, because of the sensitive topic and the high quality of his previous production. 

But no the less, State of Mind is a journey in thought and humility to honor our planet, holding eight pieces with affections that need to be heard.  The ambient waves are expressively loaded with deep emotional sound effects. Owann starts with sad vibes on the first track The Time Is Now. The listener is instantly aware about the state of Owann’s mind. The tangible tensions of awareness emerge like dark clouds suffocating our only home in this vast universe.  A slow piano guide us through the colorful soundscapes of A Sacred Place carrying deep melancholic tunes. The music speaks to the mind with drifting sounds of despair and hope. 

Varanasi is filled with mixed emotions and voices producing an ethnic atmosphere. This track was composed and performed together with the British ambient guitar player Cousin Silas. Varanasi represents human life and a call for action to make sure these mumbling voices of humanity won’t fade away in a possible critical future. The album ends with The Blue Planet, a stunning ambient ode to Earth, floating on bewitching soundscapes and Berlin School sequences. State of Mind is an overwhelming emotional and philosophical release that grows with every listening trip. Our state of mind after this journey: silently thinking.


​Patsker

electronic

bandcamp

We remain in France, where we're still being treated to instrumental music with a story to tell. This time however, we focus our attention to the stubborn electronics of Kai Reznik. His new album, 'Dead Space Between Stars' is something you won't hear often, although you really should.

Throughout the first few songs on this album, the phrases 'downtempo synthpop', 'hacker music', 'eighties movies' and 'a very happy Fad Gadget' appeared in my mind. It's still not easy to categorize the music on 'Dead Space Between Stars', and that makes it an interesting piece of work in my opinion.


The album opens carefully with 'Albatros'. First a little intro before the beats and synths kick off. From the on, Kai Reznik takes the listener on a futuristic eighties trip. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but in no time you'll be driving through Back To The Future. 'Chapter Eleven' is one of my favorites. Here, Reznik adds something impending, dark basslines and pummeling electronic drums. This one comes quite close to an all-electronic version of post rock. Title track 'Dead Space Between Stars' does something similar. It turns an electronic lullaby into a vintage game music.

But it's on 'Turning To Ghost ( feat. M.A.D )' when I suddenly realize that there is a certain hip hop element in here. These tracks are quite solid foundations for rap tunes. Now I know why Reznik describes his own music as "alternative". It's one of those sounds that simultaneously do and do not fit it with a number of genres, even though it has its own, distinctive character. I'll end this review with another favorite of mine, 'Night Pink Drops', a tune that will make you want to drive Kit through an episode of 'Knight Rider'. So if you are into good old fashioned synth music, this one deserves a spot on your shelves.


​Serge 

experimental / electronic

Zona Watusa

The Bristol based and creative mind Nick Edwards, has been in public view since 2010. He already released a huge amount of music on Punch Drunk, Further Records and on the legendary British electronica label Planet Mu. Ekoplekz never plans albums from the start. He creates, records, lives  with it for a while and later on selects the best tracks to become a release.

Metabolizm is his first production for the Barcelona based Zona Watusa label. Seven tracks of lo-fi and experimental electronic pulses create a bleeping science fiction world. The compositions are filled with many layers of sonic escapades which create a numb and dreamy feeling. A wide pallet of organic pulses takes the listener to a world with no stories. The sounds are so profound, assembling a impenetrable dome in the brain. Ekoplekz  does not allow room for thoughts in his complex sonic world.

The variety in sequences of steps with contradictory rhythms and dub beats gives this music a very interesting and unique underground range. We could hear slices of the Higher Intelligence Agency influences on this recording. Ekopleks seven musical concepts on Metabolizm travel from ambient to dub, minimal techno to downbeat electronica. The sonic structures are coloured with beautiful and experimental sound arrangements.

The limited tape edition was quickly sold out but this wonderful  and fascinating recording is available for download at  a very fair price. Ekopleks shows that his adventures in sound can lift the senses and conceive new worlds with a swaying retro style.

​
Patsker

noise / dark ambient / experimental

bandcamp

electronic

dSound In Silence

progressive / metal / black metal

heavy metal / thrash metal

downtempo / electronic / post rock / shoegaze

facebook

psychedelic / doom

sludge / black metal

ambient / modern classical / experimental

bandcamp

drone / doom / noise / experimental

ambient / electronic

noise rock

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock

facebook

​Serge

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

experimental / electronic

Zona Watusa

A slice of the Barcelona underground starts with a berating outburst intro. The cursing, yelling woman (Alozeau) makes you want to skip the track but if you are patient enough you will notice that the expletive voice gets tangled in noisy electronica. The track becomes more interesting and sets the beginning of a wild variety of DIY sound explorations.

Barcelona, town of Gaudi, capital of the Catalan rebellion against the Spanish government is  a vivid source of underground music and ready to burst like a ripe pimple. Zona Watusa is a label that is fed up with harmful negativism. Barcelona’s underground had to morph into ‘zona confusa’. A space where anything goes and impossible mixtures become realities. This compilation contains twelve very different tracks in style, genre and structure.

The road is full with confusion on this release. From jazzy tunes to noise, from vocal supported electronica to weird experimental mixes of deep emotional explorations. Zona Confusa shows the reality of a secret underground movement. Forget the beautiful Spanish sky, follow the weird and hidden world of the invisible talents of Barcelona who are creative enough to explore and conceive new dimensions in DIY compositions. 

The bands Blood Quartet and Turing Tarpet use jazz based sounds and dwell in psychedelic realms. These are (to us) the best and diverse tracks on this tape release. The avant-garde touch is present in each track on A Slice Of The Barcelona Underground. The unfathomable sound art of Zona Confusa is a must have for sound diggers. This very interesting release is available on a limited number of 40 tapes on the Zona Watusa Bandcamp page.

​
Patsker

post rock / post metal

noise rock / jazz / experimental

doom / sludge

psychedelic / doom / stoner rock

ambient

house / techno / electronic

dark ambient

ambient / experimental

electronic / downtempo

bandcamp

heavy metal

black metal / death metal

ambient

Audiobulb

​Serge