noise / dark ambient / experimental

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electronic

dSound In Silence

progressive / metal / black metal

heavy metal / thrash metal

downtempo / electronic / post rock / shoegaze

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psychedelic / doom

sludge / black metal

ambient / modern classical / experimental

bandcamp

drone / doom / noise / experimental

ambient / electronic

noise rock

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock

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​Serge

psychedelic rock / garage rock / stoner rock

experimental / jazz / drone / ambient

Ormo Records

doom / stoner rock

drone / ambient / experimental / noise

Attenuation Circuit

electronic / techno

bandcamp

drone / doom / shoegaze

ambient

equanimity. Those twenty minutes of Sublime Silence contain healing and reposeful sounds which are welcome in this over-stressed society we live in. If you are into this kind of meditative sound creations, there is a lot to discover from this artist on his Bandcamp page.

ambient / dark ambient

Dark and melancholic ​moods change into spacey ambient tonalities, sometimes kittenish, other times filled with doom. The world of Sílení is covered with alienated sounds and moods. This is an excellent piece of work. Dark ambient lovers, if you listen to Sílení’s Long Forgotten Bowers, you will get hooked. We sure did!

dark ambient

Mother Destruction above standards in this genre. The album is a varied piece of work caught in a deep haunting, emotional prison. Sacrifice and dedication are translated in penetrating sounds and choruses. The nightmare never seems over in this pungent journey of hellish fires. 
Another quote from Empty Chalice: ‘… the lost ones are retracing the path of the oldest fairy tale: coming home’. Well, we did come home and we still feel home between the moods and vibes of this wonderful dark ambient recording.

dark ambient

Winter Light

over a ten year period. Nimh is active since 2001 and has already more than twenty physical albums released. Sound chasers will be pleased and excited with the multi-layering of soundscapes, field recordings, voices and the experimental manipulations of samples this album contains. The sustained drones create darkened and emotive moods. Beyond The Crying Era is an outstanding soundtrack for a SF/horror movie that does not exist. It’s time to dig deeper in Nimh’s music history. Speaking about a discharge!

dark ambient

the world of Anantakara. We’ve noticed psychedelic influences appearing in the mysterious structures of  the tracks. The eight adventurous ambient pieces on Momentum Lapses are filled with a variety of lovely compositions and moods. Rumors told us that this album will be released on CD in the future. Anantakara stands for “ to make infinite” in Sanskrit. In some way this album does.

Serge (1-6)
​Patsker (7-11)

ambient / post rock

The high quality label Sound In Silence release the brand new album by London, UK based duo AMP. Formed in 1992 by Richard F. Walker, AMP has been cooperating with an impressive list of artists so far, including members from bands like Flying Saucer Attack, Part Chimp and Loop. You can find an extended list on the bandcamp page.

In recent years, Amp became the duo of Walker and and Karine Charff. 'Entangled Time' is their first studio record since 2011 and the first release on Sound In Silence since their collection of live recordings 'Switched On And Live', released in 2016.

The album contains five tracks and delves in the world of electronic music, shoegaze, post rock and ambient. Opener 'Drifting' is a slowly meandering ambient track with minimal shoegaze or dreampop vocals. Fennesz comes to mind here and so does Loveliescrushing. With droning bass lines and heaps of guitar effects, Amp creates and minimal but often overwhelming sound. If you add electronic beats, resembling acts like Gas (Wolfgang Voigt), you get a gloomy dancefloor filler, which is exactly what 'Will-O Dreams' is. Unexpected beats but nice.

For excellence in minimalism, you have to check out 'Opal Tears', a slowly meandering blend of drones and soundscapes. The album closes with an extended remix of 'Will-O Dreams'. Sixteen minutes long, repetitive and immersive. If any song deserves the sentence "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes", it's probably this one. The almost industrial beats beneath the wailing guitars and lingering vocals of Charff will certainly get you in a state of trance.

Neat album, and another one of those must-have gems from Sound In Silence.


​Serge

hardcore / grindcore / crust

black metal

grunge / alternative metal / progressive rock

doom

alternative rock

death metal

punk rock

bandcamp

electronic

electronic / darkwave / EBM / Industrial

shoegaze

shoegaze / alternative / electronic

Shipwreck Karpathos is one of those bands that you simply love, but you don’t know precisely why. The intrinsic and majestic poetry that seems inherent to their sound makes you float through the infinite ages of a cosmogony that is designed by their music using a highly versatile sensibility, easy to follow, but hard to passionately rationalize. And to define their splendidly peculiar style – especially this album – is no easy task, since they make use of a wide range of elements, that creates labyrinths of inextricable sensitivity on the translucent oceans of your conscience, never limiting themselves to established musical ideas, or easily predictable formulas.  

Deviations is an interesting, effective and visionary work, since it is filled by remixes of other artists; so, what we have here, basically, is the creative nucleus of Shipwreck Karpathos, adorned on the exterior sonorous features of its composite musical layout by harmonies conceived by a versatile team of artists. The final result is, indeed, intriguing, unpredictable and ostensibly amazing.  

The album has an abundant and splendid virtuosity, that reluctantly and subtlety reclaims in the diagram of its eloquent qualities the highlight of its rapturous and organic impulses: the third track – Bring Down The Sky (Metavari's Prelude Redesign) – is an intermittent, but poetic, serene, delusional and profoundly dense rhapsody, that effectively makes your sensibilities to drive high on the dispersive energy of its ambivalent, but pungent mordacity. You are simply submerged drastically into an abstract universe of sagaciously obliterated parameters, that doesn’t respond to ordinary sequences, nor feel the reality as a cohesive diagram of emotions.  

Although by the middle of the album, the sound becomes more homogeneous, the primary qualities of the work are not affected. The perfect soundtrack for an endless dream that never seeks the arbitrary paradigm of a coherent layout, Deviations is an interesting experiment in sound, that definitely stands out for its audacious, stable and pure creativity. A formidable mosaic of effectively playful and transient musical dispositions, Deviations certainly deserves to be highlighted by its lucid originality, and sensationally graceful musical style. 


Wagner

post rock / dream pop

While publishing the reviews written by Wagner and Patsker, I played this new album by Townsville, Australia based one-man post rock act Mesozoic. I remembered his sound from his 2014 album 'Welcome, Girl. Our Second Sun Shines for You', while Wagner took care of 'We Create Because All Will End'. Both of us were quite impressed by what Owen Davis had produced so both albums came highly recommended. Now Mesozoic returns with 'Earth Alone', firmly following his own path within the world of slow and atmospheric music. This new album shows a matured sound, and once again I'm hoping for a full-band performance in the near future but that probably won't happen.

The album opens with 'Synodic' which rather quickly sets the tone: strong, potent post rock, laced with ambient soundscapes. The track seems to doubt between being a full song or a mere intro but that doesn't spoil the fun. On the contrary. It promises good things to come. 'Always The Same' is one of those good things. Mostly thanks to the subdued vocals, this songs balances between post rock and dreampop. Someone is a Slowdive-fan, I guess. Yet, this first real highlight is the single 'Suns', a classic post rock anthem, honoring the blissful tradition of the genre. Someone is also a God Is An Astronaut fan, I think, but that's perfectly fine.

'The Earth Alone Will Outlast Us All' is a lengthy track with vocal samples and heaps of atmosphere. This is pretty much how blind people watch movies, and I suggest you close your eyes while playing this song. A strange and warning story will unfold while the lingering guitars guide the way. So far, this album already shows plenty of variation, and then there is 'Sidereal', a downtempo electronics tune that nudges more towards Boards Of Canada than to Explosions In The Sky. This one too seems to doubt between being a full song or a tweener but most of all it's just a nice tune to listen to.

The second part of this album continues Mesozoic's typical post rock sound. 'Wax' is another one of my favorites here, often reminding me of A Swarm Of The Sun. With the last track, that ambient tune '/Wane', Mesozoic seems to hint towards Cocteau Twins, which might explain the elements from shoegaze and dreampop in the album. Yet, for the most part, this simply is an excellent post-rock record, containing all the right elements and coming with a decent dose of variation. I can only recommend this one to all you post-rockers out there. Mesozoic is a strong force and one that deserves to be heard.


​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

progressive rock / post rock / shoegaze 

Spectra is the most recent album released by American progressive/ stoner/ shoegaze group Alone on the Moon, from Houston, Texas. Forty minutes long, the record has eleven tracks: Say Again, Scatterbrain-ed, Pool of Tears, Kings, Bishops, and Pawns, Bright Bite Wound, Some Day It'll All Go Dark, Suicitation,
Spectra, The Digger, Naked Lady Park and Small White Object. With gracious, diligent and strong guitar lines, that really incorporates the tenacity of its flexible and indulgent, but methodic and pungent musical elements, Spectra is a gracefully proverbial album, exceedingly technical to a certain degree, although without losing the quintessential volatilities of its monumental effervescent soul. 

The salutary creative provinces upon which the melodies easily flow seems to voluntarily depart from the vicinities of an infinite realm of innocent, intrinsic and spontaneous serenity, that persistently embrace the shadows of its sonorous descendant highlight. The style of the group is intelligent, vivacious and quite remarkable, for sure, and its strongest virtues are cohesively dense, expansive and abrasive guitar lines, that drags to the epicenter of its sentimental horizon the lugubrious hemisphere of a purely dimensional strategic space, that comprehends on the placid melodic reverberations of its titanic sonorous possibilities the ostensibly sensible, but lucid graciosity of an indefinite diagram of musically entangled vertical parameters, easily configured by the band.  

Unfortunately, the album presents some fragile issues, although they don’t compromise the general competence displayed in the work. The melodic variations are not strong nor distinctive enough to avoid a modest degree of monotony, and the general uniformity of the sound – added to its superb, but excessively disdainful level of musical technicalities – makes the album somewhat too predictable, sometimes resembling more a recorded guitar lesson than an actual art album. Nevertheless, I do have to say that the musical groundwork is beautiful, and Alone on the Moon has all the necessary qualities to surpass the current limitations presented by their latent, but stagnant style.  

Alone on the Moon is a band that concentrates an expressively sensible amount of talent; indeed, the group have a tremendous potential, that overlooks all of its relatively insignificant deficiencies. They just have to let their natural virtues flow out of their creative musical axis, and the magic will just naturally happen. They have to learn only not to worry so much about technical grievances. Besides that, they are very close to be qualified as the next marvelous act on the underground scene.  


Wagner 

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

krautrock / psychedelic 

psychedelic rock / krautrock / neo folk

doom / blues

techno

electronic / darkwave

shoegaze

death metal

ambient / downtempo / post rock

death metal / power metal

americana / alternative rock / indie

bandcamp

stoner metal