shoegaze / drone pop

Sens Dep (short for ‘Sensory Deprivation’) was founded as a side project of Australian band Laura already more than ten years ago but never released a debut album up to now. They will change that at the end of November with the release of “Lush Desolation”, an eleven track record bathing in both ugly and beautiful sounds.
This stark contrast is what makes the band really interesting and their sound often reminds us of a noisy and droney version of triphop; or a beautifully meandering version of drone and thus like a crossover between Slowdive, Jesu and Archive. What they share with each of these? Well, let’s see.

With Justin K. Broadrick’s famous post-Godflesh – band the band from Melbourne share the love for drones that build and edge out noisily but that never seek harshness as a primary motif. They rather incorporate their drones and synth spaces onto each other in order to construct some beautiful soundscapes, their “Lushness” is not in pain but in beauty. They construct sheer mountains with their drones. Take the final track “Luckless Hunter” as an example – here the band places layer upon layer and the whole construction is like a beautiful (yet also scary) sunrise above the Alps.

They also feature some really enchanting vocals in their songs, not on all but on some of them. And the thing about these vocals is their chanting pop-appeal, thus the connection to Slowdive and their very mesmerizing use of vocals in order to enhance the overall impression of a very plush and very admirable new way of creating shoegaze with a twist. This one is not based on indie rock but on drone music and this combination which is also a bit like Wreckmeister Harmonies or Jarboe is very nice and easy to follow because of the vocals. 

The triphop bits can be heard when listening to “New Dawn”, the first track of the record – those dragging beats (though pretty quick-paced), which only kick in after two minutes, could also be straight out of a long-forgotten Archive track at the time of their first, still noisier albums. Or straight from Tricky’s earlier record, where he also uses some industrial beats and distorts them even further. 

The band has obviously taken its time – in between they created lots of sounds to accompany visual media or installations. While doing this the project grew into a live band and playing some specially curated live shows they did not concentrate on releasing music that could stand on its own without any accompaniment. But now they did and they also came back to being a trio, one that has something to say with the help of dark, yet beautiful music. Music that will reward you for peeling back layer after layer so that you can discover some minute details like the cello parts which do not automatically reveal themselves. Or the small, Sigur Ros-like, vocals that are sometimes used in the background as another instrument in order to give the tracks some more human sound.

All of this and much more can be heard when taking your time to sit back and dive headfirst into this landscape rich of sounds that is “Lush Desolation”. The only thing lacking is “Desolation”, because the record is too warm and too rewarding for one to feel despair or desolation. 


​Thorsten

experimental

The German Marc Richter has been enchanting us for years with his detailed ambient and drone fabrics under the name Black to Comm. Richter also works under other aliases such as Mouchoir Étanche and Jemh Circs. On his previous album Seven Horses for Seven Kings, Richter focused more on dark places where fragments of deafening noise and sinister drones squeeze between the soaring ambient. On Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens the demons seem to be dissolved. 

The title track, which lasts more than seventeen minutes, contains deep emotional fragments of melancholy that are amplified with acoustic-sounding effects and thin piano touches. The experimental interweaving of samples in the layered ambient structures is (back) performed with German thoroughness.

Richter uses vocal fragments, complex percussion, loops and rustles, resulting in mystical and challenging tunes. Every sound structure and added connotations have been put together with a high level of finesse on this edition. On his sound carpets, Richter does not just flirt with minimalism, he is always looking for innovation with experimental manipulations that blossom out of his transpiring creativity.

Oocyte Oil & Stolen Androgens produces a captivating and deep listening journey with dreamlike sound tissues that have a hypnotic effect. With this subtle release, Richter once again proves that he is a permanent fixture as a unique voice of innovative music with a relatively low accessibility limit.
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Patsker

indie / experimental / doom

Have a Nice Life. Only seldom has this comparison a) sprung up so quickly and b) held up so well. The American institution for music between the corners is certainly a good comparison for Australian-Japanese trio Slowly Building Weapons. Why? Well, because they also like to experiment so much with styles and genres that it can be hard to tell where this little snippet or that small structure now “comes” from and in the end everything makes sense for this record. One can hear doom, post-hardcore, lots of post-punk, some avant-garde BUT in the end it all amounts to only one thing: Beautiful, open experimental indie. 

Were there first two records “Nausicaa” and “Sunbirds” still easily genre-recognizable, this record is not. ECHOS is a huge step for the trio as they seemingly have found their own sound, their own musical identity. And all of it can also be related to the artwork of the record which shows a group of four nuns (maybe Dominicans?) standing with their back to the photographer on an observation platform looking out into the distance and likely into a valley as in the far-distant background you can see some other hills/mountains. The photo is very sharp and offers a good look upon the nuns, there is nothing old-fashioned here. Now this artwork (as reminiscent of another HANL record is) serves well as our starting point. 

With ECHOS Slowly Building Weapons do not stand still, do not keep their point of view, no they have lifted themselves above their former work and now reach into the distance to come to new peaks and new observations about what they want to achieve. They do not care if we can follow their idea, they only take it all in for themselves. The somewhat threatening grey clouds above show that we are still not talking about happy golightly music but about music that has a meaning, that wants to tell us something. 

The trio has let go of all their former anchors and is ready to get to a new point, that is for sure. They recorded the whole record in one room together – apart from Nick vocals which had been pre-recorded in Japan before they came together. 

Every track on ECHOS could be taken as an example here, but I want to use “Disc of Shadows” for this review. It starts with a beautiful semi-acoustic bit of picking and then all of a sudden all the other elements kick in. Fast-paced blastbeats and stumbling drums accompany simple riffs and the vocals are the one element that takes you by the hand until the moment when this storm is slowing down – literally slowing down. The riff remains as strong but the drums step back and then the same picking sets in again to finish the song and to lead into the next track “Echo From Hill” which is much lighter and much simpler. What is really mesmerizing about this record is its flow, you never have the feeling as if there is anything here that is too much. All single parts flow into each other. The listener never asks himself where all of this comes from, or where all of this is headed. Here the passage and its emotional experience is the most important thing. 

And that is maybe the best thing ever to say about any record – it is able to shut off your thinking. To bypass it and to allow you to wander along with all of this melodious, contemplative outlook. There will hardly be any record this year that can do so more easily (on the surface level easily) than ECHOS. Slowly Building Weapons have come to new heights with this record and just like the four nuns are experiencing a (probably) breathtaking view, the listener here is experiencing a “thought-taking” record that will speak to your heart and soul directly. Just like HANL. Are SBW their new equals? I think everything is possible for this trio.


Thorsten

ambient

ZeroK is a sub label of the Italian Unexplained Sounds Group. Label owner and sound mapper Raffaele Pezzella (Ra Sonologyst) has an unlikely nose for discovering exciting and challenging music. The ZeroK label is focused on experimental ambient, with a nod to scientific experimentation, expressing moods and feelings evoked by the ornateness of science-fiction.

Joel Gilardini is a Zurich (Switzerland) based experimental guitarist and sound designer.  The Age Of Space is a progressive ambient release based on experimental guitar loops. Gilardini, a self-taught  guitar player, was already involved in several interesting and diverse projects like  Aborym, Mingle, Eraldo Bernocchi,  Jacopo Pierazzuoli, Ballett Zurich, dancer Benoît Favre, and the collective House Of Pain. He is also the mastermind behind the experimental-doom-metal act The Land Of The Snow.

The album starts with floating ambient tunes drenched in scratchy waves of distortion. You immediately feel a beautiful cosmic tension in the immersive soundscapes. Gilardini explores new avenues in manipulating his instruments and tools. His textures create a hazy and mysterious atmosphere that makes the adventure of his compositions extremely fascinating. By using live‐looping and improvisation techniques, Gilardini blends unique elements together. He shapes a hybrid wave of soundscapes sublimating into powerful resonances. 

The Age Of Space comes to you in healing waves of cosmic pulses that navigates the auditor through alien cinematographic worlds. This album has dreamy sounds with darkened moods. Gilardini introduces an experimental space ambient journey with a surprising outcome. This is just blistering splendid experimental ambient music!

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Patsker

experimental

The Belgian artist Marleen Van Ende (also named Marluna Delfin)started to make video clips called The Snake Moans. She used existing music for her videos but got banned on social media for copyright infringement. So she created her own soundscapes using guitar, piano, Korg and all kinds of toys. Marleen Van Ende is nowadays based in Spain where she, besides her musical and visual activities, also makes artwork from litter.

The Hissing Link has mostly instrumental soundscapes with strange twists and psychedelic influences. The music comes in sonic waves of guitar and electronic sounds with hypnotizing rhythms and percussion.  Angels And The Shedevil, starts the album with a guitar sample from Kloot Per W and exceeds with a catchy baseline into Tarantino like movie sound track. Marleen Van Ende already collaborated with Kloot Per W under name The Claudio Serpentino. They released in 2015 a strange and cocky album with covers of the Beatles, The Wide Album.

Meanwhile, making music is now just as important as the images to the visual artist behind The Snake Moans. We feel the compositions have more to express then a gamut of sounds. The structures of the tracks are experimental but still recognizable enough to produce liquid day dreams with a slight darker and tense atmosphere. Floating voices and spoken word samples push the listener into the strange filmic surroundings of The Snake Moans. Moods switch from psychedelic, playful, experimental and eerie. The mysterious musical landscapes on this album have many forms and influences merging together into a fascinating piece of (art)work.

The Hissing Link comes only on (blue) vinyl. You have to take our word in an old fashioned way because there is at the current moment no streaming possibility to listen to this very good and interesting album. If you are in for some experimental escapism you can buy this vinyl blind. 

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Patsker

electronic / experimental / jazz

Boring Machines

I guess I'm really into the somewhat stranger side of the musical spectrum today, which is a perfect opportunity to plug this odd little gem. As some of you will know, Boring Machines is known to release somewhat unusual records and this one is definitively no exception.
Divus is a duo from Rome, comprised of electronic musician and techno producer Luciano Lamanna and saxophone player Luca T. Mai, of world-renowned band ZU. In 2018 they released their debut, now followed by this vinyl in which they expand their experimental spectrum. The result is an awe-inspiring brood of electronics, free-jazz saxophones and grainy dance tunes.

It took me the whole four and a half minutes of opener 'C1' to get into the music Divus creates. There was ambient, but also saxophone sounds, so it had to be moving into the dark jazz direction, no? At one moment I thought, "Bohren und der Club of LSD". I'm still not sure if that is a compliment. 'C2' quickly made me forget about the confusion caused 'C1' and 'C3' completely blew my socks of. Remember Speedy J's 'A Shocking Hobby' album? Well, combine that with dark jazz saxophone sounds and you'll have Divus. Besides, 'C4' is a neat ambient jazz tune, much more minimal than its colleagues. 

Now, before you go thinking that this is another nice dark jazz album, remember the beats and breaks. From lazy dance inspired percussion to breakcore-vibes, Lamanna throws it all into the mix. It's not all easy digestible, or danceable, or understandable but it's unique and impressive. 'D2', for instance, is something from a dystopian movie soundtrack, driving on heavy beats and dreamy sax. This is my personal favorite. The trouble is, who to recommend this thing to? Jazz freaks? Not really. Dance fans? Oh no, certainly not. People who enjoy the weirder side of life and thus their music collection? Probably. Just check it out. You won't believe your ears...


Serge 

electronic / experimental

At the end of 2018, the five CD box of Onsturicheit entitled Wanneer De Herder Doolt, Zo Dolen De Schapen was released on the Wool-E label. Since that release, Peter Moorkens has been a regularly requested artist at electronic music festivals in Belgium. This also gave him the opportunity to provide the old (Post X) post building with a dashing set of electronic excesses. This captivating performance is the second official live release from the Littl 'Antenna Records label.

Neurotisch Verslapte Aandacht slowly starts with an experimental ambient piece made up of samples and modular synth structures. Moorkens likes to mislead his audience by incorporating all kinds of crazy improvisation pieces into his compositions. A bouquet of undulating soundscapes is squeezed out of the modular modules with guitar and voice, before being kneaded into new sonic confirmation with otherworldly sound transitions. Psychedelics and mysticism are electronically amplified with floating waves that bubble up transcendental feelings. 

Hearing and seeing Onsturicheit  is like entering a sonic spaceship that converts unknown signals into our Earth's sound dimensions. With elaborate electronics, once hovering than pulsating, Moorkens' hallucinatory sound world is presented layer by layer to unexpectedly take new electronically controlled roads. Humour is also injected into the sound waves with funny samples and field recordings that linger paradoxically as recognizable islands in the Onsturicheit dimension.

Neurotisch Verslapte Aandacht  is a neurotic electronic masterpiece in which the attention never weakens. The Adventure Paths of Onsturicheit have addictive and hallucinatory side effects which we welcome of course. We are devoted to this stunning (live) release. 

This Littl 'Antenna Records release is distributed under the wings of Wool-E Discs.

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Patsker
 

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

post metal / death metal /experimental

I've often thought about what goes into making an album. How the push and pull of various influences plays out in creating a work of musical art. Does anyone have overall control of the project or do each member have an equal say in what is produced? Having only a tiny fraction of musical talent myself I am fascinated as to how great albums come to be in existence. I would love to know the answers to a few of my previous questions when it comes to the latest album by Italian band Nero Di Marte called Immoto.

Lead by the very distinctive vocals of singer Sean Worrel who sings somewhere between a controlled growl and a clean style, not a million miles away from Joe Duplantier. This lengthy album (it clocks in at over 67 minutes long) runs the gamut of several musical styles and does so exceedingly well. The first song Sisyphos is a great introduction to the rest of the album. It starts with gentle guitar strums before Sean's impassioned vocals come in over the top before exploding in a frenzy of blast beats and a wall of noise which ebbs back into calmer waters after a few minutes. This dynamic between the light ambient slower side and the cacophonous frenetic darker side are at the beating heart of this album. A lot of bands I've listened to have a great grasp of these dynamics, Nero Di Marte skate this line and come perilously close to falling off it at times, but most of the time they seem to correct the course and balance out the equation. I say most of the time as there are occasions when they fall prey to over indulgence and I can't help but feel with a bit of trimming some of the more indulgent passages, this album could have been stupefyingly good, rather than just great. Album highlight L'Arca is a maelstrom of heady extreme music and really showcases the best the band has to offer. Every member gets a chance to shine and the rhythm section in particular sound like they are having a blast, literally at times. 

Overall, this album is an outrageously good listen, the web-like strands weaved by the band create occasional magic. If you like your extreme music with a healthy dose of calmer sections then do not miss this album, it is wonderful. 


Simon

ambient / experimental / avantgarde

Unexplained Sounds Group

There are people on this planet, with a devotion for music, who are willing to dig as deeply as possible into the underground scene. The result of  Rafaelle Pezzalla (also active as Sonologyst)digging is almost unlikely. The sympathetic Italian is the driving force and seeker of the Unexplained Sounds Group label, which focuses entirely on the contemporary experimental and alternative electronic music of our overpopulated planet.

With the new Unexplained Sounds Group release 'Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East' he presents a new chapter of the Sound Mapping project with special attention to non-Western countries, following the selection of contemporary electronic music from the African continent.

This compilation focuses on experimental and alternative music from the Middle East and includes artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Afghanistan and Cyprus. This anthology shows a very interesting look at the productions sounds of artists rooted in their traditions with a progressive look at the new limits of their music.

These (as yet unknown) sound paths explore both experimental and radical improvisation, disturbed electronic tribal sonic structures, and psychedelic noise-drone escapades that sublimate the grains of sand in steaming ground breaking soundscapes. Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East reveals here an incredible sound puzzle in which the listener will find his favorite way to new places of architectural music constructions.

Speaking of a musical mind fuck, this compilation is a must for fans of experimental and cross-border electronic music. We have been stunned by this collection in a supernatural way. Top!

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Patsker