Foreign Fields - anywhere but where i am (2012)

If you miss the disappearance or the lack of new records by The Middle East, Art of Fighting, Firekites or The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digsby Sellers, you may decide to move your eyes towards Nashville, TN, where two transplanted musicians from Wisconsin, Eric Hillman and Brian Holl, record, write and perform the same type of exquisite songs under the alias of Foreign Fields. 

Ben Barrett - sleep might make waiting horses (Absence of Wax, 2012)

Ben Barrett is a London based guitarist from New Zealand, “Sleep Might Make Waiting Horses” is a 14 minutes long ambient drone composition released on the Absent of Wax netlabel.

Wastelanders - cosmic despair (Basses Frequences / Calls and Correspondance / He Who Corrupts, 2012))

"Cosmic Despair" is the second release of Wastelanders, a project of Dean Costello who, apparently is also active as Harpoon or  Diatribes.

We are inside the ambient / drone world, and as the artwork suggests it, with a cosmic atmosphere but luckily not too psychedelic or instrumental, much more abstract, contemplative and introspective.

Old Pine - reservoir (2011) / Justin Brown - soon enough (2001)

Old Pine is formed by Justin Brown (guitar / vocals) and Tony Kissell (drums). For his solo project, under his own name, Justin Brown replaces Tony by a drum machine.

Old Pine is part of this twinkle emo resurgence scene, along Algernon Cadwallader, Dads or Brave Bird, among many others.

Alone, Justin Brown, if he keeps the emotional aspects navigates towards totally different directions, using 80's beats which make him closer to the chillwave scene.

These 3 +1 songs sound a lot like demo's, approximate at times,  energetic, full or urgency and rough, and in many ways, these are just more or less very much like these hundreds of anonymous projects which you can cross browsing through blogs.

But two songs, "Soon enough" by Justin Brown and "Dutch Apple Pie" by Old Pine are giving a lasting, arresting, uncommon and special impression.

Daw Nusk - hunter gatherer (2012, Panda Fuzz)

Daw Nusk is the solo project of Todd Klempner, he mixes field recordings with ambient drone layers, achieving interesting aural perspectives. 

There are no melodies, nor the will to please or to sound "beautiful", much more the desire to translate the depth and variations of colors from different but not to dissimilar atmospheres, experienced by patient observers.

Woodworkings - goodbye homes (Futurerecordings, 2011)

I am dissolving myself into ambient drone music mixing digital processing and real string instruments, and "goodbye homes" is propitious to such intoxication.

Scaresthedaylights - burn the bed (2009, White Shoe)

Scaresthedaylights is the solo project of Neil Lipuma and a really strange indie object both exploring common grounds but with an outsider approach.


Recorded in 2009, it really could have been composed in 1989 as it mostly belong to the esthetic era which offered artists such as The Go-Betweens or Speed The Plough, with their warm slow bucolic melodies. The only recent reference I could think of would be
Oddfellows Casino.

Dean McPhee - son of the black peace (Blast First Petite, 2011)

It's a dark record, but not as dark as it seems, because it is also vivid and vibrant. It features four instrumentals played at the electric guitar, with a few minimal effects, for a total length of 36 minutes.

There is something from Loren Connors, but without the bluesy parts, and something from Durutti Column but not as melodic or intilmate. It is mostly contemplative but never too abstract or, obsessive, just filling the space, more descriptive and atmospheric than purely personal and melancholic.