dark ambient / noise / drone / experimental

Cold Spring

The Cold Spring label celebrates their 250th release with a 29 track double CD. This UK label is specialized in all kinds of extreme music. This compilation contains a broad view of artists who create uncompromising underground music. All the tracks were already previously released. The only exclusive and unheard song is from Coil with Spastiche (Trumpo).

The songs are drowned in the darkest  and coldest atmospheres you can imagine. From the harsh noise of Merzbow to the addictive dark ambient sounds of Sonologyst, or from the doom punk escapades of Zeni Geva & Steve Albini to the creepy sounds of MZ.412. There is enough to discover on this sampler.

​The most curious artist on this release is Barry Adamson, former bass player of The Bad Seeds (Nick Cave). In collaboration with Pan Sonic, Barry Adamson composed this ice cold vocal song, The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion, that ends this compilation in beautiful darkness. The sampler is a true guide in dark music for beginners and for experienced listeners. This double CD,  limited to 4000 copies in a gate fold Eco-pack is more than worth its money!

black metal / industrial metal

Debemur Morti Productions

During the darkest days of the year a flock of blood sucking bats were released with the compilation of Servants Of Chaos II. The French label Debemur Morti Productions indicates fifteen years of dedication to dark metal music. In fact, this is a very original release that contains fifteen exclusive tracks of fourteen bands. Au Champ Des Mort has the honor of having two hunting and atmospheric black metal tracks on the album. The variety of this extreme metal compilation is high. The psychoactive guitar riffs of Blut Aus Nord and Throane next to the more experimental and industrial approach of Terra Tennebrosa and Manes and the old school attitude of Behexen and Wallachia, show us the broad spectrum of the label in extreme metal. With no doubt Servants Of Chaos II leads the black metal fans to a dark and scorched heaven.

folk / celtic

With a fiddle and Hardanger fiddle as the only instruments used on Solo, Sara-Jane Summers shows her diverse talents on these folk instruments. She has already made several  live performances at rock, jazz, folk, country, and noise festivals worldwide. Sarah-Jane Summers  is releasing music as a duo with her husband Juhani Silvola and solo since 2008. She has made already many recording contributions in the folk-scene. Her playing  embraces the historical Celtic melancholic mood.  This release of old folk covers received an intelligent input. From happy dancing tunes to the sad sounding fiddle vibes, Solo, has the wisdom not to be boring or sleepy. Sarah-Jane Summers  managed to revive Celtic music from a different perspective. 

folk / acoustic

Stvannyr is a project of the Hungarian guitar player István ‘Musicformessier’ Csarnogursky. This artist from the Carpathian basin is a multi active guitar player involved in several projects. From guitar ambient (Musicformessier) to black metal (Realm Of Wolves) and much more (Silent Island, Black Hill). István Csarnogursky has the talent to create special floating guitar sounds that make you drift away.  With Secrets Of Black Ruins he brings a more  folk touch to the ambient guitar licks known from his other project Musicformessier. Six beautiful atmospheric folk instrumentals overwhelmed us with day-dreaming peace. Only available as digital download. Do not hesitate to have a listen to this artist’s other projects.

ambient / electronic

bandcamp

Evan Bartholomew has been performing electronic music for nearly 20 years as Bluetech. He has also credits in composing music for video games and TV/movie scores. With Liquid Geometries this American electronica artist from Portland joined the DiN label of Ian Boddy. Evan Bartholomew explores the electronic sounds  like the old masters of the Berlin School did. A lot of sequenced vibes  are put together into an interesting trip of soundscapes. Nothing new on the horizon but the recording has a high quality production and sounds refreshing. Bluetech  provided nicely constructed and moody tracks on this release. This is a grower. 

heavy metal

Athrox plays a groovy kind of old school metal, a mixture between Armored Saint and Anthrax. This hardworking band from Italy released with Through the Mirror their second album. The songs have lots of variety in style and tempo. When they speed up  you can feel and hear fragments of Metal Church. Athrox perform their music with finesse and deliver good melodic tracks. The down tempo songs don’t lose strength and have no disturbing effect on the album. Some compositions contain a welcome input of thrash metal. Athrox released with Through the Mirror an old school metal album carrying a wide range how heavy metal should sound. Nice work.

​Patsker

dark ambient / noise

GH Records

What is this? A question my son asked when I started to listen to Abattior & Satori’s  Megaloschemos  for this review. Well, we can insure you that the transubstantiation  wasn’t a light one. The second partnership between Italy’s Lorenzo Abattoir and legendary UK project Satori is not an easily digestible piece of work. Lorenzo Abattoir is an underground harsh noise artist and sound engineer. His work is connected with contemporary art. The previous project of Abattoir (Psicopompo) was a collaboration with German composer Hermann Kopp. An experimental occult death opera was the result. Dave Kirby is the only original member of the power electronics-dark ambient project Satori which has already released more than a dozen stunning recordings. 

Megaloschemos starts with a dark ambient intro. The whirring and echoing machinery teeth on The Great Vow give the track a scary depth. The hunting electronic choruses are inserted many times more than in their previous work (Aether) and create an obscure atmosphere. There is a little more mercy on this album. Second hell: Hesychasm, starts with noise but instantly changes into Gothic movements sending us to immense deep loneliness. This is no music for untrained ears.

Sabasius (God on horseback) and Adrastus (King of Argus) refer to the Greek Mythology. The deep distortion and religious chants take us back to the days without light on this planet. The nightmare continues with Eschatology and Hermetism. 

Octoechoes took us back to their first album Aether, noise brutality with pauses filled with deep pitch black chants. Abattoir & Satori serves us tracks filled with dark obscurity, glitchy noise and Gothic breading engines colored with jabbering soundscapes. 

Megaloschemos is an experimental search of sound boundaries and emotions without a knowing end. This is a grotesque, brain boiling work with very doom and frightening sound architecture. Dark ambient lovers will be very keen with this profound album. CD limited to 300 copies.


​Patsker

dark ambient

Quote from Antonius Stark aka Ravin:  “There are no limits to how art is created!”

Blind your windows, move to your cellar or dig a dark hole somewhere near a graveyard. Don’t forget to take your headphones with you. Ravin creates dark ambient and drone music. He released his debut album Daemonography on Darkon Records. This Canadian artist gets his inspiration from the dark and humming nature where he lives. Eight frightening dark ambient tracks where born during long insomniac nights he was suffering from.


Unhuman Presence In The Flesh starts with an evil hart beat surrounded in drones that will cave you in. Daemonography takes you even deeper to that dark dungeon, doubting that you probably will never get out. The drones are boosted with strange noisy sounds just like cold winds freezing the door of your prison cell. The tension is build up and vanishes slowly while you lose starting the grip on your senses. The compositions contain enough changes to keep on the undergoing journey in this cinematic world. The Circle Downstairs and Desolation guided us in an Archeronian SF mood. 

The next trip Sofia Is Not Alone felt like we wanted to quit listening. The droning stays too long on the same level. It takes a long while when something happens. Something Is Here Within has more variability but has the same problem like the previous track. Turmoil wants to give some turmoil with beats but gets stuck in the noisy drones.

Unmarked takes us back into the grim atmosphere like the first part of the album. Dark sounds coloured with choirs confirming your hell. Unmarked  and  Daemonography are the best creations on this album by far.

Conclusion: Ravin composes interesting dark ambient sounds with a noisy touch. The first part of the soundtrack is very good but loses after track four in strength, due to lack of variation. The ending gives us back the thoughts of buried evilness. I need a drink.


​Patsker

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

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

bandcamp

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 / sludge / doom / noise

Outside of your musical comfort zone there is so much awe inspiring music to be found. When you leave the easy-listening surface behind you, you can discover sounds unheard and unimagined. Few people seem to realize that but then again, few people are open to new musical experiences.

Those people usually say "that is just noise" and they're absolutely right. It's delightful noise, piercing your consciousness and ripping your self esteem apart. I do think some people need to be forced to listen to a decent dose of noise music and I got just the album for that.

UK based trio Bodies On Everest does some good noise. Initially coined a sludge/doom act, these guys go way further than that. The album contains six tracks with opener 'unreleaseddeathvideo.flac' being a massive noise tune, nudging towards the Harsh Noise Wall scene. With eerie samples and gritty soundscapes, this track sets the tone for unholy and blatantly dissonant things to come.

'Tally Of Sevens' then comes up with the elements that usually result in sludge metal: intense riffs, pounding drums and screams. However, this is not sludge metal, this is repetitive noise rock that will slowly gnaw on your feeling of wellbeing. There is a tremendous lo-fi atmosphere, resulting in something very uneasy-listening. By now, not even halfway through the album it becomes clear that this is definitely not something for the average (doom) metal fan.

The band members themselves call their sound "dungeon wave" and yeah, if you imagine the  cries and supplications of countless of forlorn prisoners in ancient dungeon, that term is quite correct. Besides, the eerie 'Gold Fangs In Enemy Territory' contains elements from the genre I refer to as "dungeon synth". This is haunting music, barely melodic and with an overwhelming feeling of despair and solitude.

I have absolutely no band to compare this stuff with, apart from the many underground noise acts that often intrude my facebook profile. I mean, this is more Prurient than Sunn O))), more Genocidal Organ than Swans. 'Shotgun Or Sidearm' for instance has absolutely nothing to do with metal anymore. Not that this is a bad thing, on the contrary. It's interesting to hear this slab of sheer noise aggression. 

'Suspicious Canoe' brings back the basic elements and even raises the tempo but do not expect anything less destructive as the previous tracks. I think I can describe this best as something that resembles and old basement tape from Winter. Suffocating noise punk, so to speak. It just adds to the uncompromising nature of this whole album. This thing must be bad for your health, undoubtedly, but then again, what isn't these days. So check it out, you might find some new favorite noises in here.


​Serge

electronic / experimental / rhythmic noise

The more I work for this webzine, the more I'm convinced that music has the ability to create parallel universes. Some create beautiful landscapes, some create ancient worlds, some create otherworldly environments. This album surely belongs to the latter.

It's a futuristic, dystopian universe, covered in snow and ash. It's cold, eerie and forlorn. Yet, it is also a habitat, one for people who seem to be on their dead-end. No, there is nothing jolly about this album but that doesn't make it any less interesting, on the very contrary.

Hailing from Taipei, Taiwan,  Meuko! Meuko! delivers a harsh, cold reality, aided by icy electronics, broken beats and haunting soundscapes. The album contains seven tracks, five plus two remixes to be exact. '都市念佛法會 Metropolitan Sutra Gathering' mostly serves as an intro, gently offering you a glimpse into what is about to come. Then, '眾神廟 The Temple' kicks of with the repetitive Arabian sounding sounds and the impending beats. Before you realize it, you're caught up in this bizarre world.

'鬼島 Ghost Island' at first seems to follow the current bass-loaded electronic trends but quickly turns into something even Autechre would be surprised about. This harsh IDM track is loaded with elements from breakcore, hard techno and noise. Well, most of this album is. Besides Autechre and 'A Shocking Hobby' era Speedy J, I hear influences from Imminent, Sonar and Iszoloscope, to name a few. 'Dog War' is my personal favorite, a slow but repetitive piece of rhythmic noise to haunt my very dreams.

'希卡公主 Princess Sika' is another brilliant piece of technoir, this time with spooky vocals and soundscapes. This is the soundtrack for a post apocalyptic prison movie. The remix is even less danceable than the original but nonetheless an in-your-face electronic music track. We end with 眾神廟 The Temple (Dutch E Germ Remix), another favorite of mine. So if you like your electronic music to gnaw on your soul, you definitely have to check this thing out. This is a little container of utter insanity and I like it.


​Serge

ambient / experimental / noise

Krysalisound

doom / sludge metal

experimental / avant garde

drone / electronic / ambient

hardcore / crust / black metal

psychedelic rock / stoner rock

indie / alternative rock / psychedelic rock

dream pop / trip hop

dark ambient / neoclassical / dark jazz

krautrock / psychedelic rock

death metal / deathcore

rock

groove metal

Serge

various

One swallow doesn’t make a summer. These words remind us of the sad reality that it is to try to change the world without any support... However, if you are the owner of an independent musical label that made a beautiful charity proposal and dozens of talented artists gave support to your idea, a beautiful sunny week will happen! This is the case of the 'Exhibition' compilation, conceived and released by Submarine Broadcasting Company label (UK), where the profits from the sale of all seven volumes (I said that many artists supported the project) will be donated to The Shaw Mind Foundation, an institution focused on mental health. The compilation's theme is folklore, going from local legends to famous Chupacabras. In addition, three colors separate the seven volumes accordingly to their aesthetics!

Red color indicates that the tracks are the most experimental, so be prepared for any kind of music/sounds that artists had imagined in their minds!

Green color is used for sonorities between experimental and radio-friendly, like ambient music and instrumental music with melodic features!

Blue color is for radio-friendly songs, going from rock to pop and electro!

This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to listen to musicians from different styles/locations around the world, because there are MANY hours of music with a name-your-price payment. When it comes to charity, any money is very welcome, as long as it fits in your budget and be donated with love, like the music made by each of the more than fifty artists who participated in this project! As powerful as immaterial, music in the right hands can make the difference with compassion and brotherly love. This definitely makes me very happy and hopeful with art! I sincerely hope that you feel the same when participating of this beautiful action, whether listening to the compilation or making a donation of any value!


Glauber

post-metal / doom / alternative rock

dark jazz / ambient / experimental / trip hop

hardcore

acoustic blues

dark ambient / noise

doom / occult metal

death metal

black metal / doom / death metal

post punk / synth pop

breakcore / industrial

alternative rock / blues

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style of Tool and quite a bit of grunge - vocals that remind of Cobain included. So go buy this one if you appreciate something that refuses to fit into one box.

ambient / experimental

Pany Rosas Discos