progressive rock / post rock / experimental / alternative

Naegleria is an album released on October 12, by Greek instrumental progressive/post rock band Movement Of Static. Almost forty seven minutes long, the record has ten tracks: Slowlly We Are..., 57 084 INICIAL' 76 16 56 79, The Passage, 77 56 01 51 AGGRADACIYA 05 51 55 97, Mountain Of Life, 6EQUJ5, 80 516 GANOMATIT 21 23 86 25, Diaspasis, 93-882-NAIMINA-74-14-35-74 and ...Fading From Our Existence. An exceedingly authentic, sensational and creative post rock act, whose organic sound deeply penetrates and collides with the omniscient harmonies of its virulent, but consistent splendor, the melodies on this album seems to deliberately fluctuate between a groundbreaking serenity and a solitary aggressiveness, that anticipates the energy of a ferocious, but rational agony, with a formidable level of vitality, that completely dilacerates all the reticent labyrinths of its enigmatic and profuse restlessness. 

With a proficient elusiveness that concurs with the gentle, but somewhat abrasive spontaneity of its expansive sonorous nature, the music delivered in Naegleria is a virtuous and unexpected journey throughout the abysses of a diluted, but circumspect mordacity, that gradually reinvents in a liquid ocean of abstract sagacity the glorious elements of a dilated sentimental grace. At the innermost gravity of its surreal kingdoms of timeless rapture, some fabulous passages are almost meticulous studies on the flexible art of space, and its correlation within discreet undertones of placid tenacity and peripheral melodies of lugubrious elasticity; everything sidelined with ardent, but brightly philosophic guitar lines, that decipher in the nucleus of its impeccabilities a complex diagram of sensibilities, that aspire to be a wandering soul completely submerged in the vicinities of a long lost everlasting sadness. 

With a poetic and melancholic nature, that doesn’t surpass its vibrant and transcendental qualities, I should point it out that the name of the group – Movement of Static – basically describes their style: the music will make you feel stagnated in some distant horizon of the universe, but at the same time, the relentless motion that keeps the mind moving makes the listener to be aware of the life around him, as well as the life inside him. The lucidity suggested by their organic, but marvelously pretentious style makes you collide towards a universe stagnated, but euphorically in constant movement. The pungent lucidity of consciousness redirects the entire existential grace of an infinite dimension of majestic dormancy, that anxiously surpasses the pain of reality, marvelously engraved in the arid territory of dreams that recognizes the fragile grace of life as its main fuel.  

Although I wouldn’t qualify Naegleria as a masterful nor fantastic album, because some passages are – to a certain extent –, predictable and monotonous, the album gets very close of being classified as a masterpiece of the genre. With a natural fury, an organic atmosphere, a latent execration of ordinary musical parameters and a surreal level of originality, this album certainly deserves to be regarded as an exceptional work, abundant in systematic artistic virtuosity, and genuine musical development. 


​Wagner

progressive rock / post rock / experimental

Four Light Years from Home is an album released on October 1, by instrumental progressive rock group Across Seconds, from Mumbai, India. A very concise album, only thirty two minutes long, the record has seven tracks: Flow, T Minus 10, Astral Drift, Mayday, A Perfect World, Four Light Years from Home and Ebb. A very good, incisive album – despite the fact that, at least at first, there’s nothing too exceptional nor superb about it –, the group has an interesting sonorous dynamic. The songs are well created, and their general melodies are indeed very beautiful and pleasant to hear. You can appreciate this album without any fear. Despite some rude limitations, there is a sincere and organic plasma of genuine creativity here, that it’s definitely enjoyable and lucid.  

With generally slower and calmer harmonies, Four Light Years from Home has virtuous and solid melodies, that dance over the sonorous frontiers of its own cadences. With bold guitar lines – that, paradoxically, feels a little generic, following a pattern that definitely seems exhausted by the genre – the rhythms exhibit a general layout of passionate serenity, whose uncompromised sensibility virtually delivers innocently the proverbial tenacity of its ardent musical rules.     

With an intelligent sonorous mordacity that comprehends its own creative limitations, the expansive musical universe upon which the melodies display its vigorous potential for artistic dilution is exceedingly satisfactory, despite the fact that – on the rapturous density of its solitary continental calmness –, the group could have pushed their instinctive boundaries a little further beyond the line. Nevertheless, the constrained modest greatness of their creative ambitions definitely fit into their sensational colorful horizon of sweet melancholy, that waits for the sunset to arrive, before the departure of all the souls in the abyss. 

With interesting poetic elements that gracefully emphasize the generous kindness and delicacy of their music, Across Seconds definitely conceived Four Light Years from Home as a beautiful and touching work of art. One that you definitely will feel compelled to hear, several times. 


Wagner

drone / experimental / noise / bues

One of the artists who regularly appear on Merchants Of Air is Finnish experimentalist Junkyard Shaman, although I have to say that it has been a while now. Since the last time he was featured here, several new released have been published on bandcamp, all interesting examples of experimental music.

I picked out the blues experimentation of 'Noise Eater' for this review, since it is more than just some jamming and looping. This is a guitar based meditation, minimal but immersive. It's also best to be enjoyed with your eyes closed and your mind open.

The three track album opens with the elaborate 'The Space Between The Walls', a tune with an aptly chosen title. Slowly meandering blues guitars and repetitive loops really manage to fill a room with blissful sounds. Although I wrote 'blues', this music doesn't contain drums, vocals or anything else that might ruin the overall atmosphere. Instead, this track explores the slow, minimal regions, those where acts like Expo70 and people like Aidan Baker often stroll.

'Allegory of an Empty Room' does contain percussion but also not in a conventional manner. Here the main instrument is the sax, and an almost empty room with only some pots and pans, so to speak. The result is a strange free jazz tune that lasts for fourteen minutes. It's not my favorite but the experimental souls among us will surely enjoy this. The album ends with another nice drone ambient exploration in title track 'Noise Eater'.

In all, this is a splendid and enjoyable album and Junkyard Shaman still has a lot more up his sleeve. Take this other album, 'Dokkōdō' for example. If you want to experience sonic solitude, you might prefer this one over 'Noise Eater'. The tracks are shorter, but contain heaps of emotion. 'Syyt' is one for noise fans, a more abrasive and aggressive side of Junkyard Shaman while 'Flesh Consciousness' seems to aim at the avant garde specialists.

In any way, if you're into non-conventional music, this artist has a neat discography to explore. There is something for everyone, except maybe mumble rap and disco funk fans. My advice? Check it out, you'd be pleasantly surprised.


Serge

drone / ambient / folk

electronic / ambient/ synthwave

bandcamp

bandcamp

acoustic / folk

post punk

post punk

funeral doom

shoegaze / dreampop

electronic / house / synth

hard rock

math rock / alternative rock / experimental / noise rock / punk

​Serge

doom / sludge metal / drone / dark ambient

This EP, or single, is long, seventy minutes but in that timespan Boobs Of Doom takes you on a trip through your own darkest imagination. Just download the album, because this is a full length, turn the volume knob to neighbour levels and drift away. Carrie will appreciate it, Boobs Of Doom will appreciate it.

drone / ambient

death metal

gothic rock

bandcamp

drone / dark ambient

Sombre Soniks

drone / dark ambient

dark ambient / ritual / drone

death metal / black metal

drone / dark ambient

ambient / experimental / downtempo

dark rock / art rock / blackgaze

traditional / folk 

ambient / experimental

I'm not sure if Troum really needs an introduction. Formed in 1997, these Germans have been paving the path for ambient, dark ambient and experimental drone acts for twenty years. Armed with a wide array of instrumentation, Troum inspired thousands of people to explore the world of drones and soundscapes. 

So it's no wonder that, for Troum's twentieth birthday, an international bunch of likeminded people have decided to remix, rework and transform the band's sounds. Nineteen acts appear on this compilation, each one of them honoring Troum in their own way.

The whole thing opens with a gloomy, minimal and droning remix of 'Times' by Allseits. This track plunges the compilation right into the darkest regions of the ambient scene. 'The Silent Fish' by Contrastate adds heavy percussion and an almost violent atmosphere. Inade answer with another cinematic ambient piece, one quite typical for both Inade and Troum, which obviously is a good thing. So three tracks into this tribute compilation and I'm already sold. There are sixteen more to go, with well known names like Nadja, Raison D'Etre, Cisfinitum and Reutoff patiently awaiting their turn.

One of the longest tracks is 'Giascei' by Vance Orchestra (the longest one being the vast droning experience of Mutler). This one is a pitch black river of meandering drones, haunting soundscapes and intense noises. Halfway through it becomes rhythmic and repetitive while maintaining that angsty atmosphere. That being said, it will probably be quite clear that there is few percussion and even fewer beats to be expected on this compilation. Tarkatak's rendering of '_vs_brinnan' has percussion but not in a danceable kind of manner. This nudges more towards the ritualistic side of the soundscapes spectrum.

Looking for highlights on this album is not an easy task. Every track has its own identity, depending on the character of the respective artists. Yet, what Raison D'Etre did with 'Ananke' is brilliant. He turned the track into a classic dark ambient piece, perfectly capable of standing next to many Cold Meat and Cold Spring releases from back in the day. Also bringing out their classic sound is Nadja, who calmly sail on the everlasting drones of 'Mirrored in You'. The masters themselves appear too, along with Martyn Bates. Together they bring the song 'An Untitled Protest', a blend of neo folk and ambient soundscapes.

Disc two opens with 'Kapotte Muziek by Troum', remixed by QST. At first there is noise. Then glitchy beats appear, turning the track into the most danceable yet. This is one of my favorites, perhaps because it adds the necessary amount of variation to this compilation. I mean, most of this album can be categorized as dark ambient. Acts like Ure Thrall, V.O.S., Dual and Bad Sector have delivered splendid version of Troum classics. Supplementing that, the earlier mentioned QST and Θ16 vs. Myrrman add electronic beats. In the end, Markow C., Cisfinitum, Reutoff and Moljebka Pvlse deliver some more beautiful ambient pieces. More of the same? Yes, but also more of the same high quality.

So, what to think about this album? I guess it's quite clear. 'Troums Transformation Tapes' is an excellent tribute to a groundbreaking band. Most of the contributing projects stayed quite loyal to the original sound and to their own. Some stepped outside of the genre's boundaries, with nice results too. For Troum fans, this is an absolute must-have and for aspiring dark ambient aficionados, this is a fantastic introduction into the genre. I can only recommend this album to all fans of dark, lingering and hypnotic music, that's for sure.


​Serge

musique concréte

Musique concrète, two words that refer us directly to the 50s, 60s and to composers like Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. This music unfortunately ended up entering a kind of sci-fi cryogenic freeze and was in a thawed process by musicians like Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, The Beatles and even by current musicians in a rather diluted form. However, in the year 2018 it was completely unfrozen, returning with all its characteristics, peculiarities of composition/form and recording equipment by the musician Stephono - ZIP! In his EP 'Royal Echo Tape' the musician used two tape recorder (Uher Royal Deluxe and a Teac A-3440), one UHER microphone, one UHER echo tape, one AM radio, three synths (Roland Juno-60, Yahama CS 15, Korg mini Kaoss pad) and old tape reels/vinyls.

This EP have three tracks. ‘#Voice’ reminds us of 60s science fiction movie soundtracks. It features vocal sounds manipulations, synthesized sounds with characteristic melodic patterns from 70s electronic music and sound effects that could been in the same sci-fi movies! ‘#Old Tapes’ differs from the first one by the presentation of a vocal narrative, such as a spoken word, accompanied by a glockenspiel and samples of old music with altered speed. ‘#Radio’, brings all the sound manipulation featured in the 60s concrete music - as well as all other EP tracks - but its great differential is the sound of a sitar and some synthesizer(s) that can be heard throughout its duration.

In this EP we can experience an extremely curious and interesting work: concrete music that was very influenced by the sound manipulation techniques from Pierre Schaeffer and aesthetics from Pierre Henry, but totally performed in nostalgic equipment by a musician whose life extends to the 21st century! These characteristics gain even more evidence through the great idea of ​​making the EP available on cassete and reel tape within unique packaging with collages (and a bonus track named ‘Circle, Circle’). 'Royal Echo Tape' is undoubtedly a great tribute to concrete music, a beautiful visit to the past performed by a time traveler of the new millennium!



Glauber

post punk / new wave / goth rock

Heading from Bristol, Naut decided to ignore all current trends and to look back to the dark eighties. Now, this five-piece comes with a baffling debut EP, containing five pitch black goth rock tunes. Influences from bands like Sisters Of Mercy and Killing Joke run rampant and come with the overwhelming energy of post punk acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain. Song like opener 'Disintegration' and 'I'm Here' are destined to fill dark dancefloors everywhere. My personal favorite here is closer 'XVI'. It makes me curious and hungry for more, but for now I'm sure that this EP will be an excellent addition to every post punk / goth rock collection. 

doom / sludge

Sheffield doom mongers Kurokuma return with a two track EP, based on the Dope Rider strip from High Times in the 70s. The artwork comes from Paul Kirchner, the creator of the strip. The music is another slab of severe psychotic sludge doom, five and eight minutes long. Part 1 also showcases something industrial, reflected by repetitive, almost methodical drums. Part 2 simply continues to slow but brutal pummeling. Fans of bands like Conan, Dopethrone and Yob can easily trust Kurokuma to deliver the monolithic riffs and fierce vocals they crave so much. So if you want your sludge metal as destructive as a wrecking ball, this EP should do.

post-metal / doom / alternative rock

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Several months after the release of 'Serrated', Dutch heavy rockers An Evening With Knives unleash three songs that did not make the album because of the limited space on the vinyl. Yet, these songs were to important for the band to be ignored. Opener and title track 'Fade Out' deals with the death of Marco’s father due to Alzheimer disease. It's a long, heavy and cathartic lamentation, showcasing the darkest side of this band. The other two songs follow that example, be it a bit shorter. They all walk a similar path as the songs on 'Serrated', and thus would also fit perfectly into every sludge, doom and grunge collection. These guys are growing steadily, that's for sure.

electronic / ambient / experimental

An alienating two track EP that will leave you confused and entangled, that is what Soho Rezanejad delivers. Subtle electronics, minimalist drones, gloomy soundscapes and her vocals come together in two lengthy modern day folk songs. I can't help but think about a mix between Zola Jesus and Diamanda Galas, be it a bit less creepy than the latter. Yet, there is emotion, there is fear, mourning, wonder and hope in these two tracks. There is a mystifying atmosphere, one that borrows elements from dark ambient. Yet, above all perhaps, this is a unique piece of work, reminding me of an act like Dark Ensemble. Recommended only for eternally wandering souls.

post rock / post metal / stoner / sludge

In today's post rock scene, new bands pop up like mushrooms. Würzburg residents The Man Within are one of those newcomers. Mostly, that first effort comes with a low production and a careful introduction in what the band really is capable of. Yet, here that results in a full-blown post metal album with seven outstanding tracks. Most of them, including 'Mount Santo', my favorite 'Institution' (that rolling bass is hot!!!) and the massive 'Limitless' can easily entertain audiences far and wide. Although firmly rooted in the post-scene, elements from sludge metal, psychedelic rock and stoner rock are never far away. A great introduction, now let's hope they can confirm this in the near future.

dark ambient

The new brainchild of Nachtzeit, the man behind ambient dark metal project Lustre, comes up with an interesting dark ambient album. Although playful at time, this album takes us back to the mysterious  and dark age of the Norse gods. Early in 'Drömmarna' acts like Mortiis (on Cold Meat Industry) and Wongraven come to mind. Synths, soundscapes and dreamy melodies guide the listening on a musical tour of medieval Europe, so it seems, highlighting in 'Löftet' and 'Tårarn'. Strangely, the title track 'Hädanfärden' has an X-Files OST feeling about it, which isn't bad, on the contrary. Fans of old school medieval dark ambient can easily appreciate this album.

alternative rock / hard rock / grunge

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Belgian hard rock duo Breakfast At Midnight proves that two is enough to create heaps of noise. On this debut EP they blast seven tracks through our speakers, beginning with the heavy rocking 'Kidi Coke'. From then on, the rock doesn't seem to stop. Inspired by anything between Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age and Stone Temple Pilots, these two feed an everlasting fire. Most tracks drive on sheer energy but in 'What I'm To Say' and in '1813', the band delves deeply into the Pearl Jam version of grunge rock. Here, the vocals are excellent and clean while the other tunes contain heaps of aggressive screams. Not that I mind, this is pure rock 'n roll: raw, rough and heavy.

black metal / death metal

Grab onto something now because Ukrainian trio Goatsperm is about to unload a hellish, chaotic and vulgar EP, loaded with orthodox black/death metal. 'Voice In The Womb' contains three tracks, each one being a pummeling piece of extreme metal, as dark as Satan's butthole but with an ambient breather here and there. Somehow, this trio manages to combine atmospheric passages with sheer metallic terror, something that might indeed make a lot of banging heads turn their way in the near future.  Besides, 'Into The Deep Waters Of Catacombs' is one of the fiercest black metal tunes I've heard this year. If you're a self-respecting extremist, you need this.

krautrock / shoegaze / punk

What would have happened if Ramones used My Bloody Valentine's guitar effects? What would a punk rock cover album of Neu! songs sound like? Well, Finnish six piece Teksti-TV 666 might have a decent answer for you. 'Aidattu Tulevaisuus' delivers six high-octane krautrock tunes with the raw energy of punk and the immersive nature of shoegaze. I admit, it is something different from the usual slabs of rock 'n roll that appear here but 'Turbo-Mondeo' and 'Aidattu tulevaisuus' can easily get your behind shaking. My favorite here is the somewhat slower 'Rauhankone', which might be described as a down-to-earth space rock track. Recommended? Hell yeah!

ambient / electronic / experimental

Hailing from Porto, Vitor Joaquim is a sound sculptor and visual artist, active around the strange borders between soothing ambient and otherworldly noise. This new album, 'Impermanence' contains seven tracks, revolving around repetitive soundscapes, almost subconscious loops and immersive musical textures. Here and there vocals samples have been added to increase the narrative nature of the music. That, along with the minimal soundscapes, makes the title track my favorite here but I'm sure that every fan of decent ambient music can appreciate these sounds. Obviously, this comes highly recommended.

ambient / drone / experimental / noise

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An even more noisy and experimental variation on ambient sounds comes from Han, a project by Vitor Joaquim and Emidio Buchinho. This album revolves around live improvisation and real time processing, which results in something severely unusual and highly experimental. Yet, behind the gritty freestyle on the guitar, beautiful ambient loops lurk. These seven tracks are weird, immersive in one way, yet restrained and peculiar. Somehow this album feels like the early days of drone experimentation, when artists were exploring the other possibilities of their instruments. In all, this is an interesting release to dive into, but only for experienced avant gardists...

Serge

drone / ambient / score

I start this review looking to the past, at a time when ballets and operas were extremely famous and had a fantastic acceptance by the general audience. Today, these two words seem to create a kind of instantaneous "move away", mainly from the youth and most needy people.

​To be honest, I didn't look for ballets and operas until I had contact with "The Rite of Spring", "Parade" and "La Serva Padrona" (the last one was in a super cool and funny version that was played in all the state where I live). It's too bad that many years of non necessary elitism have gentrified this places where the union of theater, dance and music serve performances that don't fit the pop standards. In a kind of gradual substitution, they have moved to a central role in global scale pop concerts to catch people's attention.

However, the not-only-profit art is gradually approaching a larger and more comprehensive audience! And the coolest thing about this: it's happening in a very natural way (at least in most of them). This is the case of "Seeker," an album that was made from a score commissioned by Iván Pérez to Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Aaron Martin for his dance piece called 'Hide And Seek' (we can see an excerpt in the video below). Aaron recorded instrumental sounds and Machinefabriek worked on these recordings by processing, editing and adding new sounds to them. A very cozy musical aesthetic! No maximalist music, no Bartók pizzicato and no extreme techniques to frighten the new listener. Here we have music serving the choreography and vice versa, a communion of artists who know how to make art and not only feed their egos.

In the end, we have a fantastic composition for a dance show! From the big original score (included as a bonus track in the digital version), the rework in separate tracks created this great album! Another initiative by a group of artists that has generated another excellent work, distilled over time until the version that appears in 'Seeker'. Listen to the music, watch the video and, if you can, go to shows like this one in your city. After all, there is no art and there is no music without you, the audience!


Glauber

avant-garde / jazz / metal / experimental

Self-Extinction is an eccentric, but extraordinarily fantastic album by experimental jazz metal group Inhumankind, released by I, Voidhanger Records, from Italy. With nine relatively small, concise experimental tracks – Double-Headed King, Annihilation Of All Inferior Thought-Forms, Against All Odds, Citizen Qayin, Land Of The Shells, Blue Skin, Antinomic Self-Cosmogony, Self-Extinction and Eternal Sleep – this album is a great example of a genre rarely practiced or exposed nowadays, which is, more or less, conventionally described as jazz metal. Doing a fusion of several different, apparently disparate styles of music, and incorporating elements from jazz, contemporary and classical music in a very peculiar and evocative, but at the same time increasingly discreet disposition, the general artistry of Inhumankind is difficult to conceive or understand, but it’s delightful to hear and to experience. Ingratiating a colorful infusion of melodies into a gracefully splendid mosaic of textures and intonations, Self-Extinction is a horizon of opium barbiturates fully immersed in a solution of compulsory and hallucinatory caffeine, upon which a sonorous wave of curious serenity integrates your soul, to test your willingness to dive into the universe of a surprising and exponentially fascinating category of sound.

While the overall disposition of the music is simple – even ordinary by more inflictive and postmodern standards –, its somewhat fragmented nature makes each and every one of its artistic components and cells seems awkwardly impregnated with light cavities and low densities, that craves beyond the unitary dispositional structure of the music. While its curious anatomy, exceedingly impressionistic in form, saturates the epicenter of its own sonorous perimeters with the dead anxiety of its technical precision, there is a curious, but salutary consistence in between the musical notes, that makes everything quite majestic, despite the apparent simplicity that is obviously denoted throughout its notoriously subtle context. 

The quietness between the notes, and the intelligent use of silence as a musical component is quite a remarkable feature within the framework of its expansive sonorous embodiment, that amplifies the impressionistic nature of the tunes. And while there are not too much melodic variations throughout the album, it’s distinctive and deliberate harmonious predispositions are sagacious singularities, that works intelligently within the artistic concept that is generated by its inherent effect. 

While I haven’t particularly loved this album – mainly because of the genre, which failed to captivate me –, I certainly give credibility to its originality, audacity and creativity, that deserves to be highlighted and properly complimented. If you look for something very unusual to hear, and want to be surprised in a very unexpected way, you have to listen to Self-Extinction, by Inhumankind. Undoubtedly, it will be one of the most unique musical experiences you will ever have in your life.  


Wagner