derives - slowcore, ambient, melancholic,... indie music reviews & interviews

Shores - to volstead (2011, No Idea)

2012-02-14T20:06:00.001+01:00

Second album for Shores, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and yes, so far, they didn't get the attention or recognition they deserve, and they are back, plowing the same slowcore ground as ever.

I mentioned them for "Coup de Grace" and I'll do it again for their follower, it's obvious, their sound owes some absolute debt to bands such as Codeine, Seam, The New Year/Bedhead, C-Clamp or Low. But well it is such a depopulated style of music with like, at best, only one new band embracing decently the genre every leap year, that getting your hands on such a record is like finding a new biotope for black truffles.

They could almost add the mention "bottled during the 90’s", as their sound totally perspires this indie era, with even a light touch of slacker attitude similar to Bedhead, counterbalanced by the right level of tension and a right dose of minimalism giving the necessary space to distortion.

Eleven songs and I could be almost each time the same song for the neophyte as they really belong to their own niche and never go outside this paced slowness, and if the mood is reflexive and mostly melancholic, they avoid depressive pitfalls and just stay on the verge of what could have been theatrically dramatic, delivering finally just a picture of everyday ennui and little joys.

“To Volstead” starts quite well with “ Pulitzer”, “All the Allotropies”, “Faith Hill”, “To Volstead” and “Humoring”. There are no hesitations or approximations in their sound, but slowly through the tracks you get the feeling they encapsulated themselves in a kind of formulaic approach as the second part of the album is mostly redundant with the first part but clearly lacks of surprise.

The A-side is a real success but the B-side is just full of b-sides and they could have opened such tracks with more degrees of freedom, opening new doors and directions, giving even more contrast to their successful tracks.

http://shoressite.tumblr.com/
http://shores.bandcamp.com/
http://www.noidearecords.com

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://shores.bandcamp.com/album/to-volstead-lp"&amp;gt;to volstead lp by shores&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Smyth - sanibel (2012, Analog Path)

2012-02-12T21:04:00.000+01:00

Analog Path is a Japanese ambient label which focus on the analog sound with so far, among a few others releases by Celer or Brian Gainger.

Jared Smyth is a musician and designer from Tallahassee. Last summer, he spent some time on Sanibel Island, Florida, recording field recordings and manipulating sounds, achieving the present album, trying to capture the aural atmosphere of the settings.

"Sanibel" is a relatively standard ambient album, contemplative and belonging to an almost physical reality.

It starts with the lonely atmosphere of "Blossoms", walking along clamps of flowers, near the beach side, under a cloudy sky, one morning summer along empty paths. With "Buzzing heat" I imagine the invasive and overcoming scorching heat of certain afternoons where hiding in the darkness of (air-conditioned) rooms was the only issue.

I prefer "Waves Crest", using in background the sound of waves and seabirds with a reflexive and nocturnal reverberated electric guitar (and bass) in the forefront with notes falling one by one, it creates a really arresting space where you're free to breath slowly and gain some respite.

Something like a contact microphone under water on "Surface" and the guitar melancholy just become deeper and strangely moving.

I feel the need to put the volume to a higher level with "Departure"just as if I was watching the sea from a cliff or trying to see people on a boat a few miles away. There is a feeling of vertigo too, and apprehension, as if the composition was too destructured, pushing you at risk.

I feel much better through the weightlessness of "Arrival", as if I was a sea bird or a fisher, back from a long journey at sea, seeing the coasts of Sanibel slowly drawn by the sunset.

http://analogpath.com/main/sanibel/

Megan & Amelia - demo ii & iii (2011)

2012-02-11T13:06:00.001+01:00

There is no Megan and there is no Amelia behind these two demos, but the solo project of Ryan Fleischer, bassist of Matsuri and DEERS!, two screamo/hardcore bands.

But what he records and writes solo is centuries away, much more akin to the works of artists such as The Secret Stars, Owen, Talons', Havergal, S, Low or Vio/Miré.

Among the six songs of these two demos, three of them clearly stand apart as much more refined, introverted, atmospheric, intimate and subtle, avoiding the lo-fi cliches used on the three other ones.

The voice Ryan is mostly convincing when he whispers and that way he really transmits really nice melancholic feelings and emotions. These three songs are slow and monotonous, and deserve the sadcore tag, they are slow progressions both open and under control, delivery a nice continuous tension and sensation of release like the vision of a quiet open landscape.

He is not writing typical classic songs and I would not be surprised that he enjoyed some shoegazing music as parallels could almost be done with Chuzzlewit, Carissa's Wierd or some intimate Hood songs.

Each of these three songs, "Kids", "Vai Vai" and "I'll see you later, Scabies. I'll see you later, forever.' is simply out of the ordinary and immediate true classics for me. If he goes on in such direction, he'll soon become one of my very few favorite artists ever.

I just guess that the only factor of comparison I can use on these three songs is their length as the longer he takes to install an atmosphere, using repetitions and ambient layers, the stronger and more intense it becomes.

I rarely feel so spaced out and in such a state of melancholic bliss while listening to songs. Truly mind-blowing.

http://meganandamelia.bandcamp.com/

Kids by Megan & Amelia

"VAI VAI" by Megan & Amelia

I'll see you later, Scabies. I'll see you later, forever. by Megan & Amelia

David Andree - in streams (2011, Sunshine Ltd)

2012-02-10T17:52:00.001+01:00

I find it difficult to imagine that this album was only released as a tape on Sunshine Ltd, as it is an obvious and intense masterpiece which I found as essential as "Composite" by Pasture, another glorious unknown but essential album.

Already for the eleven minutes of "It comes in waves (and settled in my chest)", "In streams" is worth recognition and praise. It's difficult to imagine a more beautiful track, of course it reminds me of the Stars of the Lid and William Basinski, but there is an emotional intensity and a warm intimacy which they've never been able to translate with such a joyful immersive limpidity. It slowly fills you with ecstatic melancholy, using just drones and waves of sound, coming to die on the beach where you are lying, slowly overwhelming you with transcendental emotions and an incomparable state of well-being.

Two tracks are leading to this central piece. "A Front" opens the record like dispersed layers of smog floating on a valley just before a red powerful sunrise translated by "Breach (surrounded)".

Opening the second part of the album, "Gradually Drifting Along" is an afternoon lazy walk in a park or a refreshing walk on a forest path one hot summer day.

Again, on "Eventually Lifting", David Andree slowly lets emotions arise and invade you and it sounds like enjoying blue sky and summer light, or like watching the milky way at the countryside, feeling both lonely and tiny in front of the immensity.

The last track "Only to Disappear in the Distance" is exactly about this record going to an end very progressively like a slow return to reality, emerging to the light of a day through detachment and growing distance.

The analog sound, the choice of minimalism and a precise and sensitive use of subtlety and warmth make of this record and essential release.

http://eatguide.tumblr.com/Sunshine-Ltd

http://www.davidandree.com/index.htm

Black Sea Storm - 2006

2012-02-04T11:17:00.001+01:00

Second part of the triptych made by "2005", "2006" and "2009", featuring the solo production of Ali Ozkan during a first period of composition in which he favored the use of English language for his vocals, before moving to Turkish afterwards.

If I wasn't so convinced by "2005", here I am much more pleased and I discover most of the elements that made me enjoy his records with Channing Cope ("Sugar in our Blood" - 2005; and "Plunge into concept" - 2008) and Shere ("Not Los Angeles" - 2003).

There are still hesitations and it is in a certain way both a record and a research. You'll find a personal expression but also a work of exploration about the idea of writing alone the kind of quiet music a band could play, confronted with the then necessary expansion of his playing skills.

The dryness could make me think of Swell circa "41" and of a quieter, slowcore version of Helms, but the solo approach make it mostly intimate even if melodic references are found around math-rock elements.

Strangely, but it was the case for the Channing Cope and Shere records, the more time you spend listening to these songs, the more they seem to get a value. At first it seems neutral but slowly you'll start to comprehend the inherent subtleties of his songwriting and the intricacies of this collection, until crystallization.

I particularly enjoy the unconventional use of banjo on "miles and kilometers" played just like if it was an electric guitar, or the melody of "one and all" and "eternal accomplices", mixing tension and slowness around similar musical themes, and "trees stroke sky" appears like the stand-out track.

Mostly "2006" sounds like a draft which could have been reworked completely and developed as a debut album.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/blackseastorm4

http://www.blackseastorm.com/

AMNPTN - seasons (winter ep) (2012, Dancing on Sharks)

2012-01-31T21:56:00.001+01:00

AMNPTN, acronym for Amineptine, an antidepressant, but also a choice easy to relate to ASMZ (A Silver Mt. Zion) as it is an obvious and claimed influence.

It is a cold and dark release but also introspective an in a certain way both intimate and depressed, mostly mournful.

There has been a lot of work on the texture for a quite accomplished result, but besides this point the melodic and emotional content seems to have been patiently understated until reaching an almost absence.

It is an EP about grey winter landscapes, vast dreary skies, drizzle or icy winds and mostly about loneliness and the lack of light and warmth.

If you focus on the tracks, they are clearly beautiful but at the same time, they are never particularly appealing as the laziness is never compensated by tension, urgency or a striking upswing.

http://www.amnptn.com/
http://dancingonsharks.blogspot.com

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://amnptn.bandcamp.com/album/seasons-winter-ep"&amp;gt;Seasons (Winter EP) by AMNPTN&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Halls - fragile ep (2012, The Sounds of Sweet Nothing)

2012-01-30T21:16:00.000+01:00

I've been experienced some urgency to listen to this EP after having discovered the song "I am not who you want", mixing melancholic vocals, somewhere between the cold ethereal wave of 4AD, the reverberation of Songs of Green Pheasant, and a new wave melancholy which you could get if you were throwing Rivulets in an ocean of shoegazing or just in the middle of a Labradford record.

The song is purely electronic but with so nicely processed that the density is both comfortable and refreshing. But mostly it sounds like a promising matrix of songwriting he could explore, expands and investigate. It sounds both easy and subtle, both fluid and restrained.

South-London based, Halls is the solo project of Samuel Howard and "Fragile" is his third short release. It is clearly an intimate bedroom project but with enough distance between the creator and the creation, giving room for open directions and engaging developments.

If this song is the heart of the EP, the three other tracks are forming a spiral around it. The most interesting volute is "Lifeblood", which floats as a piano exploration of a similar but more atmospheric theme, but with a less achieved balance as the electronic rhythms are finally too invasive during the second part, and it doesn't confirm the melancholic promise of the start.

Around these two songs, two instrumentals are opening and closing the EP with a more generic impact. "Fragile" is an interesting but uneven EP, but considering "I am not who you want", we can build hopes for progress in this direction.

http://hallsmusic.net/

Halls - I Am Not Who You Want from The Sounds Of Sweet Nothing on Vimeo.

Fragile EP by Halls

Shores & Charles The Osprey - ritual (2011,  No Idea)

2012-01-29T19:34:00.001+01:00

This is a collaborative split EP between two bands, which were rehearsing and writing music in the same household, and progressively from meeting each other regularly came this idea of recording something together.

Charles the Osprey is Rafael Ohli (guitar) and Derek Lancioni (drums), they play loud instrumental math-rock. Shores is Brian Przybylski (guitar, vocals, bass) and John Massel (drums), they play slowcore music under obvious Codeine / Bedhead influences.

Shores is taking the lid on this EP opening with two nice and tense slowcore track, "Tipper" and "Scimitar Kids" which is an adaptation of a Charles The Osprey track. "Tipper" sounds like a lost b-side of Codeine, but "Scimitar Kids" is a much more interesting track floating somewhere between Bedhead and C-Clamp. It's climatic and you feel that stormy weather is slowly arriving with the accumulation of clouds. The tension grows until the point of fluid rupture and torrents of rain are then falling from the sky. Superb.

Next there is "Per Se", under the name Beaches (= Brian Przybylski + Derek Lancioni) and it sounds like a nice laid back Bedhead song. The Charles The Osprey track which follows is not really my cup of tea, more intriguing, but mostly anecdotal, is the next one, a cover of "Roux", from the debut album of Shores. The next track is under the name Howard the Duck (=Rafael Ohli + John Massel) and sounds like a barely quieter Charles the Osprey.

For fans of Shores and slowcore addicts.

http://www.noidearecords.com
http://www.charlestheosprey.com/
http://shoressite.tumblr.com/

ritual [split 12"] by shores

Sinai Vessel - portion of the whole (demo) (2011)

2012-01-28T09:40:00.000+01:00

I discovered Sinai Vessel through a recommendation on the Epithets fb page and to be honest their debut album "Labor Pains" released on October 2011 didn't convince me at all.

Just one month after they published a new demo song called "Portion of the whole" and if you recognize the voice and a certain melodic approach, the final result is a few heads above their previous recordings, definitely belonging to another category.

It reminds me of Pedro The Lion and Jim Yoshii Pile-Up with vocals somewhere between early Bright Eyes and Mineral. There is also a nice balance between restraint and intensity, between the emotional vocals and a slow tension of piano, drums, with repetitions and dynamic evolutions which are always under control, and perfectly placed guitar accents, which fill you with melancholic feelings and oxygen.

It's just, "wow", the exact moment when a songwriter, Caleb Cordes, finds his voice, and a truly real great song.

An it's really not a surprise he is friend with Epithets, as indeed he has got a lot in common with Nick Smethurst too.

portion of the whole (demo) by sinai vessel

Azure Blue - rule of thirds (2011, Matinée / Hybrism)

2012-01-27T22:29:00.000+01:00

Vitesse, the early Magnetic Fields recordings, and all things related to 80's tinted synth (twee / indie) pop, once popularized by New Order, all names that come to mind when Azure Blue, alias Tobias Isaksson explores his own emotions through a well defined setup, but at times partially succeeds in breaking the lines with sentimental melancholic and ecstatic melodies.

Such obsessions remind me at times of another Swedish songwriter, Karl Larsson, aka Last Days of April, or of Sambassadeur, though the final style is quite different.

Next the soft folk country pop of Laurel Music and the uptempo retro indie pop of Irene, Azure Blue is a total reversal of Tobias Isaksson towards something more intimate and sensitive; still highly melodic but in a more personal and fragile way, exploring romantic disappointments and deceived, now bitter hopes.

Starting with a cover of "Fingers", a song written by Grand McLennan on his album "Fireboy" is a true and powerful declaration of intent. It is one of the most devastating and heart on sleeve love song of the decesased Go-Betweens songwriter. Not easy to cover with the emotional charge of the original, but his own translation, quieter, more fluid and for rainy days is surprisingly efficient.

And you already know that the purpose will be intimate and warm behind these cold and humid synthpop melodies. “Catcher in the Rye” starts a playful exploration, now on his own ground. "Seasons" confirms the standard, with this twee innocence you find too on most Brighter songs.

Of course there is often a high sugar degree behind those Factory Records pop accents, like with "Little Confusions" but it feels good listening to it while moving to the city, by car or on bike, enjoying such welcome euphoria.

"Long Way Down"is less convincing, but as follows directly the more immediate and catchiest song of the album, "Dreamy Eyes", I can't really complain too much. But the next two tracks, "The Shore" and "Two hearts" are minor too before an end saved by a more palatable "Chesil Beach".

"Rule of thirds" doesn't fulfill all expected promises, a few great song but not enough to constitute a totally remarkable album.

http://azureblue.se/
http://www.hybrism.com/
http://matineerecordings.com/

Sonmi451 - a new popular star atlas (2011, Time Released Sound)

2012-01-26T20:47:00.001+01:00

I discovered the music of Bernard Zwijgen with his charming EP, "Ruis", on Slaapwel records. But I was curious to discover what the Belgian ambient musician would realize outside of narcotic contraints.

In fact, there is no drastic change of direction, the textures are less minimal, and the repetitions less stretched, the whole mood is less hypnotic and immobile but the nocturnal dimension and quietness are still in charge.

"A new popular star atlas" is mostly dreamier, cinematic, warm and fleecy, mixing both these feelings of strangeness and intimacy you can have while admiring the stars at night.

The closest reference I could think of in terms of ambiance is The Green Kingdom, as both of them favor the sensitive slope at times defended by 12k, but the attention and the sonic palette on 'A new popular star atlas" is is more focused and reduced, and there is like a layer of blur, probably of vapor between you and the stars.

The result is that such compositions tend to stay in the background like a beautiful and refined wallpaper but at the same time, there are elements which spark off your attention and invite you inside their fogged areas, envelopping you.

The more you listen to this record the more its richness and depth will become apparent. "Alpha Centauri", the introducing track is like being on a train at night, between two cities, admiring the Milky Way.

"Beta Crucis" is like leaving the city lights and realizing slowly how many countless stars are above us, seeing more and more appearing clearly in a multitude of constellation with a feeling of awe.

"Betelgeuse" is of pure beauty and weightlessness, floating into space, recalling me the Budd/Eno as if translated by Sawako. I'm less under the charm of the darker and monotonous "Delta Ursae Majoris" or of the slow-wave sleep inspired "Omicon Ceti". T

The peacefulness of sleep in the streams of "Rigel" is irradiant of well-being and "Zeta Orionis" is like crawling into a sleeping bag, under the stars, one clear day of July, on a trip with friends. There is so much to explore inside this record.

http://www.sonmi451.be/

http://timereleasedsound.com/

Sonmi451 - Alpha Centauri by Time Released Sound

Lexithimie - no matter how many times repeat (2009, Hibernate)

2012-01-25T16:55:00.004+01:00

Four compositions, "Scale 1" to "Scale 4", a total length of 22 minutes, full of minimal, warm and blurry drones.

Listening to "No matter how many times repeat" is like experiencing the morning light with eyes still closed or watching a glass of water in front of a blank wall. Nothing really happens but the impression is both comfortable and appeasing. It's a time for rest, a time for settle down.

Honestly it's not really original considering the ambient textures or layering, but surprisingly it works. I like the sense of depth of Alexis Béchu, London-based but French expat and they way he avoids extremes while still keeping a controlled intensity, offering a sense of space and nuances of light.

While extremely calm and quiet, it's not the kind of music which will put you to sleep because it is also stimulatory. I would rather listen to this while taking a bath, sitting on the grass, harvesting berries, opening curtains or preparing breakfast, small task which can be both reassuring and fulfilling at their own scale.

http://hibernate-recs.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/thimie

No matter how many time, repeat by lexithimie

Navel - ambient 4 : luneburg heath (Koppklys, 2011)

2012-01-21T08:21:00.000+01:00

First it's the nice picture on the cover

which through rainy and gloomy winter weather looks particularly attractive, then there is the obvious Brian Eno reference with the title track, and finally it's this limited cassette release (50 copies) graciously offered on a blog.

It has never been so easy to be curious about music so "Ambient 4: Luneburg Heath" found easily the direction of my speakers.

Navel is a band from Stuttgart, Germany, four musicians playing instrumental ambient drone compositions. This release has been recorded in two days in August 2005. It reminds me mostly of Roy Montgomery, Labradford or the Stars of The Lid, but without being derivative, exploring in fact slightly different directions, translating the atmosphere of the picture, the dawn before sunrise during summer, in an evocative scenery. Recommended.

http://koppklys.blogspot.com/
http://navel-music.de

Navel - Lost On Luneburg Heath [excerpt] by Koppklys Records

Marcus Fischer - collected dust (Tench, 2012)

2012-01-19T22:05:00.001+01:00

New album by Marcurs Fischer, recorded in Portland, OR.

It is an excessively quiet one, like those moments in the middle of the night when everyone seems into deep sleep and when the streetlights reflecting on the pavement seem to belong to another reality. These are these moments, just before dawn, when the sun is still invisible but when indirect glowing light show the apparition of dew and solitary fog clouds drifting on meadows, slopes and hedges.

You're in total atony, almost paralyzed, like sleeping but with eyes open and alert, as if your mind was expanding, absorbing the whole scenery, dissolving into it. Strangely with its abstraction, "Collected Dust" reminds me of those instrumental atmopsheric records the UK band Rothko released a few years ago, but Marcus Fischer's explorations are even more minimal, slowly covering the surfaces like dust deposit.

The only problem is that the process of listening is not very rewarding. It is soothing, it fills the space, draws surfaces, angles and color shifts but show no global or emotional directions, translating only technical impressions, without a total immersion or a cinematic dimension.

So it's better to listen to this music in a quiet and comfortable environment, and it fits perfectly for working at a desk like I'm doing now. In such conditions, the intimate dimension of his compositions finally make sense, it's like breathing at the top of mountains with low oxygen concentration, so it needs an ability to focus and let you thought expand, like fragile volutes of smoke which would be dissipated by too much agitation.

MARCUS FISCHER - Collected Dust by Words On Music

http://www.tenchrec.com

Epithets - year of glad (2011)

2012-01-18T17:42:00.000+01:00

Debut album for this Brisbane 5 piece Epithets led by Nick Smethurst, following a first collection of demos. It reminds me of The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digsby Sellers, Purplene and the two first two albums by Death Cab For Cutie.

In a certain way we are not so far from other bands like Arrows, Mineral, Lewis or Our Anatomy. They have this balance between slowed emo(tional) vocals and melodies using tension and release, quietness and intensity, full of oxygen and open views. Nick Smethurst is citing slowcore bands as influences, such as Codeine, Bark Psychosis, Red House Painters but never totally adopts such approach, he prefers running through meadows with the clouds than stop and look at his reflection on water.

"Year of Glad" is a record full of personal ruminations, of hopes and lucid considerations. If melancholy is a fuel, it is never really a source of self-pitying as he is always clearing a path through a symbolic open window with bright melodic evolutions.

What makes you keep listening to this record is the impression of content and its richness, something like a purebred to break in. The whole process of this album seems to have been to capture the essence of their songwriting and "Year of Glad" looks at times like a draft for future explorations. You can feel they have a lot of room to explore in front of them and a real potential for maturity.

If the central place is given to the voice & guitar, quite soon, drums, bass, violin, second vocals or glockenspiel propel the songs to dynamic and blooming heights. None of these songs go downward even if you can almost touch the sadness behind the vocals, so the whole record is finally easy to listen to, easy to enjoy but never really makes you stop for long, because, at the next corner another run is ready to be launched. Recommended.

Year Of Glad by Epithets

http://epithets.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/epithetsband
http://epithets.net/
http://www.myspace.com/letsnotbutsaywedid

Black Sea Storm - 2005 (2005)

2012-01-15T21:11:00.002+01:00

This EP is the first collection of songs recorded by Ali Ozkan in 2005 for his solo project Black Sea Storm and it sounds like a minimal version of the tense slowcore / posthardcore of Channing Cope.

We are in the middle of a no man's land and as Channing Cope unfortunately never even appeared on most indie radars, this more minimal version of the band was definitely stuck in limbo.

During these six songs, he is still searching himself, slowly adopting his own use of drums. I find it less convincing than his records with Channing Cope and Shere, even relatively abstract.

None of these tracks is really striking but a few ones are flirting with this limit and keep myself wondering, while alleviating my walking. "Rolling flags", "Inside Places", or "By the sea" are such budding embryos making the discovery valuable if you already know his other stuff.

Even in 2012, Black Sea Storm is still a work in progress and development.

http://www.blackseastorm.com/

Small Knives - rain on tin (Candle , 2003)

2012-01-09T21:44:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time there was 2 Litre Dolby, a post-rock / post-hardcore Australian band, created in 1996, which released a 7", a few compilation tracks and an album, "El Caballo Rojo", and disbanded in 2001.

Not a band that can't be ignored but which offered at least a few (still) convincing tracks, like "Frida Kahlo".

History stutters. Two members from 2 Litre Dolby, Leo Mullins and Philip Romeril started a new project called Small Knives, and they released two albums so far. "Rain on tin" (2003) is their debut.

Not a classic album that shouldn't be missed, but a decent achievement presenting a few melancholic gems.

There is complete change of style, with country tinged melancholic slow songs. At times it is not unlike records by Lullaby for the Working Class, Scud Mountain Boys, American Music Club or Radar Bros, but just more minimal and intimate downscaled to a two people band with a limited budget.

Nothing extraordinary or particularly original, but there are interesting melancholic lo-fi songs, with the slowness of confessions, close to bedroom folk: "Bob's Blues", "Damaged", and "Split".

On the other hand, there is a temptation for more pleasant to the ears, more melodic indie/ country songs, with a suspected Lemonheads influence: "The Line", "Hardin Your Heart" or "Flashlight". I find such songs less convincing, except "Paper Wings".

Finally it's when they join confession and a patient elaboration of atmosphere through some more sophistication, that something really remarkable is reached, both humble, patient and subtle, offering then a few slowcore gems : "Dreaming - The Sorrow Away", "Little Bit" and "Internal Fireworks".

Simply for these three orphaned songs, this record is worth discovering.

I am a vowel - body curves (2011, Fang Bomb)

2012-01-08T16:36:00.001+01:00

An album in 2008, "Et Op La Bang" on Fang Bomb and three years later a 7" on the same Swedish label, with an edition of 200 copies, I am a vowel is the perfect example of an artist both rare and under the radar.

I Am a Vowel is the solo project of Nelly Larguier, originally from Paris, France is now based in London, England. It's not a record easy to describe. The two sides start with different versions of the same track, "Scarlette", one with a guitar and percussion, mostly analog, and the other one more digital, and much more processed, with the vocals sounding closer and more intimate on one side, and more deep and ethereal on the other. Besides that there is no real opposition between the two versions as it is more like two parts of the same song, two explorations of a single theme, forming an entity. She is mixing french and English vocals, but without really singing, and for me it sounds like a mix between Stina Nordenstam and Thomas Mery. It's a really beautiful, subtle and sensitive track.

On both sides and instrumental is following, acting like a ghost trail of "Scarlette", with a nocturnal and relatively dark atmosphere, but strangely intimate and played with restraint. The title track is a kind of ambient drone translation of This Mortal Coil around "Filigree and Shadow", with vaporous whispered vocals in the background, or an hypothetical mix between Labradford and Grouper with Adam Wiltzie as pilot. "Take it easy" is similar but like in deep sleep state, with muffled heartbeats.

It is an impressive 7inch, from the first sound to the last one, and it leaves you wishing she will pursue such explorations on a full length, as it mostly opens windows and perspective, on different parts of the songs she also includes field recordings and it gives a soul to her music. Highly recommended.

http://www.fangbomb.com
http://iamavowel.com/

B1_Scarlette_V1 by I Am A Vowel

Happy New Year / Nite Fields - split 7" (2012, Lost Race)

2012-01-05T16:58:00.000+01:00

Split 7inch between two bands related to Brisbane, one directly from there, Nite Fields, and the other one, the project of Brisbane-born but now Brooklyn-based Eleanor Logan.

Two bands with the eyes in the rear-view mirror, with a new wave and shoegaze ethereal and almost cold wave approach in direct line with the Factory Records / 4AD aesthetics. This vinyl, limited to 150 copies, is the first release by the new label Lost Race Records.

"High Sea" by Happy New Years sounds like if Slowdive would have been produced by Dead Can Dance. It's ethereal, but cold, full of bright winter light, with shoegaze guitars and reverberated icy tribal drums.

"Come Down" by Nite Fields is even colder, reminding me of Joy Division and early records by New Order or Disco Inferno, in a lightly updated, reverberated form and vocals buried inside the music and processed with some delay.

Both songs are nice but without being exceptional and particularly original. It's a nice an pleasant introduction to the bands but without strong and remaining impression because the musical perspective seems mostly nostalgic and the vocal performance and lyrics are never giving the impulsion on the forefront.

http://www.eleanorlogan.com
http://happynewyear.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HAPPYNEWYEARmusic
http://soundcloud.com/nitefields
https://www.facebook.com/nitefields
http://soundcloud.com/lostracerecords

Happy New Year - High Sea by lostracerecords

Nite Fields - Come Down by lostracerecords

Oscar + Martin - for you (Two Bright Lakes, 2011)

2012-01-03T21:00:00.001+01:00

There are some albums you are not ready to enjoy at first, and you are not really sure you totally recognize as truly convincing.

I discovered Oscar + Martin, a duo from Melbourne with "What I know", I listened to the full song on Soundcloud, at first because of their use of reverse loops in the intro, and then I was surprised by the vocal melody, which is truly indie but has some obvious debt towards hip hop & R'n'B. I listened to it several times, finally surprised to find it quite addictive and subtle.

Next I moved to Youtube and checked their video for the single "Recognise", and the experience confirmed instantly that the first good surprise wasn't an exception and discovering the album was obviously the only possible issue.

Thinking back, I believe that the principal reason to explore their album was the similitude between the vocals of Oscar Slorach-Thorn and the ones of Jacob Wilson of Kickball. Even if both band play different types of music, the vocal approach is sometimes strikingly close, a good example would be to compare "Sauvie Island" by Kickball and "Recognise" by Oscar + Martin.

Previously, Oscar Slorach-Thorn and Martin King were members of Psuche, and they released an album in 2009 for the same label. So Oscar + Martin is apparently just a reduced version of Psuche, with more degrees of freedom, and more room for experimentation. Using less elements is also a way to offer a better service to the melodies, with more opportunities to create a saving tension making the tracks worthwhile.

It is an appeasing and positive album, built mostly on keyboards, tape loops, guitar, toy instruments and beats with the (layers of) vocals always playing the first role. There is much restraint, twists, moderation in their songs and that's why often they can incorporate unusual elements and make them sound good.

‘My Blood’ sounds a little bit like lo-fi casio pop but then the R'n'B influenced vocals are in a certain way also closer to the Beach Boys than to the usual bedroom pop record, and then the lively beats bring even more confusion. It is definitely a strange object.

The vocal experimentation on ‘Chain Maile’ seems to come in direct line from old Laurie Anderson albums - yes "Oh superman", I think about you -, but they manage to push it in a different direction with a successful turning point in the middle of the song, which gives an impression of both brightness and welcome exhaustion, the sensation you can get as you are both mentally and physically tired and you know you'll just start to enjoy a peaceful night.

I have difficulties to enjoy the afro-rhythmic, orchestral and more artificial style of ‘Oyster’. The feelings of frustration, hesitation and disappointment of ‘Lion’s Heart’ are really nice and mostly how they managed to turn this into melancholy.

"What I Know" is one of the two 'hits" of "For you". It is immediate, sensitive, playful and subtle and the male/female vocal harmonies - Bed Rigby of The Harpoons is joining (Martin King is also playing inside this band) - add both richness, stimulation and balance. Something like an unexpected mix between Ida and Havergal under hip hop influence.

"All I think about" is maybe the most interesting, deep, fragile and personal song of the album, with Oscar letting his vocals wandering around like a free flow. I'm also fond of the imprecise structure of "Milk", from which slowly emerges a nice and sweet melody. Same fragility and sense of fracture inside ‘Party Time Is Scary’ and this aspect of their songwriting is probably what makes of Oscar + Martin a really interesting and important band. They have this capacity to bloom with innocence outside the usual ground, bringing something new which can't be find elsewhere by the listener and for this they remind me of Talons' too at times.

"Recognise" is the second hit of the album and simply their most extraordinary track of the album both musically and lyrically, a funeral song about reincarnation, with a really nice rhythmic backbone. Next to that, the last track, with soul influenced falsetto vocals, seems a little bit superficial with its romantic split-up subject .

"For You" is a really nice album with many really good tracks but I'm curious to discover in which direction they will evolve from now.

http://www.twobrightlakes.com/oscar_and_martin.html

Seapony - go with me (Hardly Art, 2011)

2012-01-02T20:59:00.004+01:00

35 minutes, 12 songs following the same indie twee pop format, Seapony offers a debut album whose efficiency just balances the lack of surprise.

I feel like having experienced a time machine and found myself in 1992 with their pure twee indiepop, simple, bright and melodic.

The band is from Seattle, with the usual setup guitar / bass / drums (machine) & vocals, but they could have been from Indonesia like Sunny Summer Day or from The Philippines like Moscow Olympics, from France like The Sunny Street or from Sweden like Sambassadeur.

Seapony is the project of Danny Rowland (who writes the songs), Jen Weidl (who sings), and Ian Brewer (who plays bass). They are now joined by Johnny Bryan who plays drums for their live shows.

I think the main problem of this record is the prevalence of efficiency over particularity. Seapony totally embraces the twee indie pop scene and fits (too) perfectly in the crowd of their genre.

I would have a hard time to find something which is specific to them and out of ordinary. If this style of music is your cup of tea, this is delicious, but if you are more partial they may lack of some subtance and a part of this record is formulaic, like "Dreaming", "Into the sea", "Go Away", "Always" or "With you".

I prefer when they slow things down like on "I never would", throw some shoegaze reverb in the mix on "Blue Star", combine innocence with melancholy on " I really do", explore the Human Television laid-back style on "So Low", or the late autumn Sarah records attitude of "Where we go". The highlight of the album is for me "What you see" which sounds like a strange meeting between The Softies and Galaxie 500.

http://hardlyart.com/seapony.html

Swimming - ellipses (Audiobulb, 2011)

2011-12-31T21:15:00.000+01:00

"Ellipses" is the debut album for Swimming, aka Devon Ferrucci, from Arcata, CA. His music seems to go through a lot of processing and reworking, with fragments and layers of guitars, keyboards, occasional whispers and hums, lots of beats and percussion instruments, denoting a true sense of imagination, a natural inclination for complexity and an idea of perfectionism mixed with sincerity.

While listening, I sometimes have to impression to be confronted with several records playing at the same times, sometimes mixed or just superimposed. Devon Ferrucci doesn't seem to be a defender and fan of minimalism, stacking his ideas of structure and textures instead of synthesizing their essence.

I think, there is enough matter inside "Ellipses" to compose two good albums and a bad one and instead he is offering the whole in 45 minutes and 13 tracks.

It is for him the result of two years of improvisation and intensive composition, with a patient work on textures and structures. If it often looks like a crowded catalog of ideas and feelings, it is mostly consistent and he avoids saturation while keeps an obvious fluidity, though at times we are closer to viscosity.

I feel like descending metro escalators on "(aspirated) plosives", a slow move and transfer between two destinations, crossing people following the opposite direction, like floating under fluorescent lights, in an enclosed public area.

"We fill the gaps" is much more interesting, built around a slow melancholic guitar theme, completed with beats as wavelets at sea. There is an interesting balance between the pensive pastoral slowness of the strings and the gentle playfulness of the rhythms.

A similar compositions follows with "Anyhow" but with a sunnier acoustic guitar and processed spoken word. It is maybe not as striking but relatively similar to what Apeiron did on their "Todo sigue intacto" album and it is certainly a direction to explore further.

Drum's bass rhythms on "what duties (1...2...3) !" which I find hard to digest but the second part is just sublime, when they recede, letting the forefront to a nice reverberated and processed arpeggiated electric guitar.

"Hourglass with snow" is conceived with a layer of processed harp sounds in the background and flows naturally as walking down a treeline pavement, on your way home, under pleasant weather.

“Ellipsis Pt. 1” is an ambient folk song full of whispers, and you just wish he would have turned his humming into real lyrics and vocals, because you have this "nice but could have been better" impression on the tip of your tongue all along. The frustration only grows bigger with the “Ellipsis Pt. 2” which sounds like a perfect rythmic backbone for this same song, with even a second guitar. Part 1 + Part 2 + expected vocals would have achieved potentially a beautiful song in the neighborhood of the best sides of Songs of Green Pheasant, Epic45 or Hood.

There are a few tracks which explore a more experimental, abstract, post-rock or jazzy form I can't relate to, like "Body without organs", "Imagined openings" or "Ale study"

After a few spins it becomes clear that the closest Devon Ferrucci comes to use a melody, the more beautiful his music becomes. Then, you can start to elaborate shifting emotions and an emotional progression. On "Pretending to have a heart attack" I can fill the dots and appropriate myself a personal interpretation but it is a frustrating position as this record seems to hesitate between an ambient form and a more written, shaped and personal expression without never making the choice. Another example is the deep feeling of nostalgia which invades "Serious cycling (a new yorker in winter)". I think using ellipses in such a way, not telling everything but instead suggesting is his most precious talent, a track like "Ticky-tacky" looks like an interlude at first but I you give it the attention requested you realize how much it is moving and how it can even bring you close to tears.

http://www.audiobulb.com
http://www.swimmingaway.net

Au Palais - tender mercy ep (The Sounds of Sweet Nothing, 2011)

2011-12-29T21:46:00.001+01:00

"Tender Mercy" by Au Palais is a very addictive song and I was indeed unable to resist and directly I connected it to another similar experience I had with "Lately" by Memoryhouse.

Both bands are duos, except Tender Mercy is a sibling duo, brother and sister, David and Elise Commathe are behind it, both are also coming from Toronton, Canada, and enjoy ethereal - 4AD tagged (This Mortal Coil / Cocteau Twins) - dreampop, thought Au Palais like it colder, darker and with more propulsive beats.

There are four tracks on this EP, besides the hit, "Pathos" stands the comparison, "Because The Night" fails to convince and "Holland" is a nice instrumental.

Elise is singing writing the lyrics and David - who was previously working as a minimal techno DJ - is providing the electronic music and the melodies.

At first I was fearing to grow tired of their songs but they seem to mostly grow on me, and it sounds strangely like an upbeat and more melodic This Mortal Coil, which isn't a bad thing, with a welcome "Lynchian" Julee Cruise touch.

http://aupalais.bandcamp.com/
http://thesoundsofsweetnothing.tumblr.com/

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://thesoundsofsweetnothing.bandcamp.com/album/tender-mercy-ep"&amp;gt;Tender Mercy EP by Au Palais&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Squanto - on being lumpy (2011)

2011-12-28T21:19:00.001+01:00

2011 hasn't been a bad year for slow melancholic slowcore albums, with Talons', Owen, Rivulets, Saso, Idaho or Deep Waters and I'm lucky enough to close the year with one promising discovery, "On Being Lumpy" from the until now totally unknown to me songwriter Ben Lovell who releases his music under the name Squanto.

He is, if I'm not wrong, 20 years old and "On Being Lumpy" can be considered as his first seriously achieved, and patiently conceived album - but apparently there is another one "Go Go Gadget Grass Stains" released in 2009. The result is quite good and reminds me of Talons' or Vio/Miré, with a personal perspective.

Ben Lovell is Rochester/Long Island, NY-based musician and recorded "On Being Lumpy" between October 2010 and June 2011 in his dorm room at school in Rochester and in his parents' house on Long Island.

I just need the two minutes instrumental introduction "Snow Falls On One Side of a Window" to start a crush for this record. It is slow, pensive, melancholic, warm, intimate and highly sensitive.

It is everything but not a surprise to find in his last.fm playlist many artists which I enjoy too and who are exploring relatively similar atmospheres, from Talons' to Early Day Miners, from Idaho to Smog, from Thanksgiving to Talk Talk, from The Books to Zelienople.

The nicest part is that he is sitting on the more fragile and subtle side of his influences, keeping things quiet and minimal, just enough to strike the right vibe and most of the time, capture the right moment and the most volatile melancholic feelings.

And when he sings, yes it is killing me too, like with Wio, Chauchat, Vio/Miré or Snowstorm, for nothing in the world I would want to be elsewhere than here, being in total emotional communion with "Field of gas".

There are a few imperfections, like with "Behind" where the balance of the track could have been better in the second part, but the mix of acoustic guitar with background keyboard sounds creates nice textures and you feel there is room for progress both technically, aesthetically and even on nuances of depth.

On"After everyone else left", which is the longest track with 10 minutes, he is using reverberated piano as main instrument. It is an overexposed format and he is playing it using both minimalism and repetition with a very humble approach. The result is quite nice. I don't think I would follow him for a full instrumental album of such reverberated piano but on the length on this track I am satisfied.

Back to basics with the lo-fi song "For a While", slow acoustic guitar and whispered vocals, but while he could have disposed of it after the two and half minutes statutory minutes, he instead expands it past six, almost seven minutes long, using organ-like sounds with a dreamy reverb as accompaniment of his guitar playing. Later, after five minutes, the vocals are coming back but dubbed with drums and it turns into an hymn. Beautiful.

Next track, "The View From There", is more conventional, the usual indie folk pop lo-fi song. "Like Chlorine" tends toward the psychedelic spectrum, before a the end of the album with an instrumental interlude "The view from here".

I'm already longing for his next full length.

http://squanto.bandcamp.com/
http://soundcloud.com/squanto/
http://squanto.tumblr.com/

On Being Lumpy by Squanto

Rivulets - yearlings (2011)

2011-12-27T20:44:00.004+01:00

There are five years between "You are my home" (2006) and "We"re fucked" (2011) so it doesn't come as a surprise that a few songs were written and then lost inbetween.

But not irremediably and at the occasion of a tour, six of these songs see the light of the day as a tour CD.

They were recorded live to four-track cassette in Bloomington, Indiana. These are intimate lo-fi bedroom songs and not much more, just Nathan Amundson on his own, alone with his guitar, with the record button on.

Like "Demos" (2010) or "Stray Songs: 2000-2010", it is mostly a record for fans and a required listening for them, proving if necessary that finally, nothing never really changed if you consider the very core of Rivulets.

Six songs are offered into their primitive format and you feel they could have evolved in a produced form like on these two albums they follow or precede. Maybe it is just the embryo of another album which never saw the light of the day.

I can't pretend that I have been surprised by this EP. It starts with the a capella and unspecific "No rest". But already the second track, "Stars In Aspic" sounds like it could have been a nice desperate and romantic slowcore song. "Into the woods" is dark, still and pensive, "Taste" is minimal and feverish.

The last to songs are (potential) Rivulets classics, "Bordeaux", and "Destroy my life" are haunting and you just really wish they could have been developed musically, with orchestration, like on "We're fucked". Maybe someday he will revisit these songs. Until then we can put our hands and ears on it.

http://www.rivulets.net

Ferran Fages - lullaby for lali (Etude, 2010)

2011-12-26T20:12:00.001+01:00

I'm a total new to Etude Records and to the discography of Ferran Fages but sound samples from his record I came across by pure luck made me want to experience it completely. I'm not regretting it.

The atmospheres, textures and compositions along his guitar playing remind me of 90's records by Gastr Del Sol and Dirty Three, but with a more lo-fi, intimate and personal approach.

Ferran Fages is a musician from Barcelona, known for his improvisations with guitars and electronics. "Lullaby for Lali" is apparently much more conceived and patiently composed than his previous releases. There is a free flowing nature but more like the course of a river, from the hills towards the valley, through minimalism and repetition, in direction of the sea where everything is dissolved, from the particular to the general.

It is in fact a collaboration with Lali Barrière, who is adding metallophone, guitaret (which is an an electric lamellophone) and electronics. He builds context, ambiance, aura and environment around the guitar explorations of Ferran Fages who is then inclined to take the time to express quietly and limpidly his emotions. If you look at the sepia cover you could suspect nostalgia and melancholic reverie as potential themes and you're wouldn't wrong about it.

Two sides for two tracks with the same starting point. One is more melodic and sunny, "Lullaby acoustic" and the other one is more abstract and nocturnal, "Lullaby electric", both are polar opposites completing each other.

The first part of the song is mildly chaotic and it's only after 2:30 that the acoustic guitar finally emerges like the first rays of sun after a last nightmare, offering a progressive and comforting relief. It's like feeling the rays of the sun on your face with the eyes closed after having missing those one full winter long. Then the metallophone starts and we are bathing in pure summer sunlight, walking on the sand with sunglasses until the evening twilight.

"Lullaby electric" is like strolling after midnight after a hot summer day in the countryside, watching the stars and the glowing half moon. His melancholic solemn guitar playing reminds me of Low or Labradford with the slowness and contemplation, while organ-like drones in the background are painting the immensity of the sky.

A beautiful record which makes me want to discover more about his music.

http://www.ferranfages.net/

http://www.etuderecords.com

Black Sea Storm - kayip bir ask (2011)

2011-12-25T18:40:00.002+01:00

Black Sea Storm is the solo project of Ali Ozkan who was previously active in the projects Channing Cope and Shere.

It's the second EP from Black Sea Storm that I am reviewing and similarly if the music and melodies are close and similar to what he did with Channing Cope and Shere, the use of Turkish language instead of English for the vocals is creating difficulties for me.

Not that it is specific to Turkish language because I find myself unable to listen similarly to indie records in French, Japanese or Lituanian.

I enjoy the three songs of this EP but I feel they are like on the other side of a frontier I can't cross.

http://www.blackseastorm.com/

Grand Hallway - winter creatures (2011)

2011-12-24T22:21:00.000+01:00

I am a fan of Asahi's album "Head above water" (2002) but next I never really enjoyed what Tomo Nakayama did after with his project Grand Hallway: too orchestral, too sirupy, too melodic for me.

But the third album of this Seattle band, "Winter Creatures" is an intrinsically different affair.

It's the kind of redemption you rarely meet, it happened for my case for Saso with "Exitudes" or for A Weather with "Everyday balloons", this is the story of songwriters who through new experiences and explorations return to their own corpus of emotions and renew their depth and come to term with their own intimate melancholic sensitivity.

"Winter creatures" isn't a return to the Asahi days, nor it is the true continuation of Grand Hallway.

It is more of the same but in a different manner. After an gap of almost ten years, I find myself totally enjoying Tomo Nakayama's songwriting once again just as if nothing happened inbetween.

More than on the previous Grand Hallway records there is a lot of place dedicated to melancholy, slowness and intimacy on this one, and the orchestral parts which are more sparse add often just the necessary enchantment.

You only need the first track to discover that something is indeed happening, "Winter Creatures", is a short (2:46) but extremely superb song built in two parts, one of lament and longing and a second of full exploding joy, both slow with a perfect balance between tension and release and a wonderful vocal melody.

Certain songs are more classic but are still pleasant, like a comforting presence in the background, "Apple Tree","Oh Yes (Stay Alive, My Dear)", "Fourths",

I much more prefer when they are attacking, giving more emotion and fever like on "Wildfire" where he ends up singing "Oh well, I don't want don't die", mixing energy and despair.

Another success is "North Cascades" which stars in a very minor way, slow acoustic guitar with sparse folk vocals, then it turns into an orchestral demonstrative melody, which is difficult to bear, but suddenly everything stops and just in the middle of the song, after three minutes of bore, a miracle happens and an impressive and remarkable song unfolds for the last three minutes. Well done.

One immediate pleasure is "Little sister", a song in weightlessness, moving through clouds, passing through the sky. Later there is the opulent "Father's Clothes" which strangely reminds me of Jane Siberry. The last track closes the album on a lighter note, "Roscoe (What A Gift)", a delicate and soothing lullaby about hearing music coming from the next room.

It is not a perfect album but most of these songs are strong and the whole record is addictive and a perfect companion for going through winter.

A few ones, "Winter creatures", "Wildfire", and "North Cascades", will deserve entering your playlist of long-term keepers.

http://grandhallway.com/

Winter Creatures by Grand Hallway

David Sylvian & Holger Czukai - flux & mutability (1989, Virgin)

2011-12-23T21:07:00.000+01:00

This is the second collaboration between David Sylvian (ex-Japan) and Holger Czukay (member of Can) and through the years I've stayed quite fond of this release.

There are two tracks, "Flux (A Big, Bright, Colourful World)" and "Mutability ("A New Beginning Is In The Offing")", which are close to the Brian Eno ambient works, but developing their own aesthetics.

I find it quite much more accomplished than their first collaboration, "Plight & Premonition" (1988), and consider this as a brilliant classic ambient work.

The first track (17 minutes long) is richer and more developed, using percussion and sampled sounds, some radio recordings for a result both cinematic and full of suggested visions - keep your eyes closed and let your imagination work -, like a perpetual walk into unknown and beautiful territories. You feel like at the end of a warm sunny day, under diminishing lights, welcoming a peaceful evening.

"Mutability" with it 21 minutes, is more minimal, atmospheric and contemplative and strangely echoes in my mind some recent ambient works. It wouldn't be out of place today on a label like 12k.

I'm quite surprised about how this records hasn't lost his pertinence today. I consider it as an essential masterpiece.

Astatine - warm machine ep (2011, Orgasm)

2011-12-22T19:58:00.000+01:00

Second solo EP for Stéphane Recrosio, one of the members of Acetate Zero. If he was exploring indie lo-fi landscapes on "Free Jazz Valentine EP", here he is exploring a more experimental side for a release limited to 36 copies.

With "Words in decay", we start in the Acetate Zero courtyard but transplanted in the New Zealand landscape as the Jefferies brothers influence could not be denied, a delicate lo-fi song at the acoustic guitar, intimate and desperate.

Then an untitled post-My Bloody Valentine / Windy & Carl type of instrumental, full of distortion and reverberation, followed by the abstract and chaotic "jun jin hyun fugu time".

A second extremely short (46 seconds) song with vocals, "Master Plan" which could have been on a lost old Hood release follows before the longest track, the instrumental "Titarenko", which is noisy, full of layers of processes guitars recovering themselves for a quite dark and cold result. For fans & addicts only.

http://www.astatine.fr/

Minamo - documental (2011, Room40)

2011-12-22T17:04:00.000+01:00

If I'm counting right, this is the eleventh release by this Japanese quatuor and if I haven't listened to their whole discography, I have a lot of respect and consideration for their music and "Documental" won't change my opinion.

The opening track "Draw the line" is simply superb and is the highlight of "Documental". Digital waves of sound mixed with intimate guitar playing and reverberated sparse piano sounds, for a contemplative and melancholic effect. Eleven minutes of relief.

Starting with bells sounds, "Bound Letters" is more diffuse, like dotted lines with disconnected elements which are partially joined by the addition of other elements and you are free as a listener to imagine the whole picture.

The structure of "Dusted Shelf" is much more precise, linear and definite and is for such reasons less convincing, offering less space for interpretation and meanderings of thought. With "Handbook" they adopt a light jazz influence with the use of saxophone, and it's a too demonstrative for me.

Luckily the last track, "Paperweight" shows them returning to a suggesting approach and make you feel like floating. Recommended.

http://room40.org

http://room40.org/store/MINAMO_DOCUMENTAL_D

Herzfeld – The Sack (Duophonic, 1994 / Disques Persévérance, 2011)

2011-12-20T13:34:00.001+01:00

Malcolm Eden was the singing and playing guitar in McCarthy, between 1985 and 1990, writing political lyrics under communist and far left influence.

After the end of McCarthy, he formed Herzfeld, who released an EP and a 10-inch album on the Duophonic label, while other members formed Stereolab.

Strangely, this EP is released this year by a new French label, Disques Persévérance

I listened to the McCarthy albums but I only discover Herzfeld now and it's not so different, maybe less produced, more lo-fi, less indie and more twee, even if the political content is still present. The opening track is really delicious and is not so different stylistically of songs by Field Mice or Brighter.

The three other songs on side A are not bad but really sound like belonging to the past and it's difficult to focus on it. The first song of side B, "Hang 'em High" has its moments but fail to convince as a whole and the two other songs follow the same fall.

The main interest of this PE is finally the first track.

Herzfeld - Do you want this job or not ? by disques-perseverance

Devil on the Beach - ep (2011)

2011-12-19T20:37:00.003+01:00

This is the solo project by Neil Weir, from Minneapolis. You don’t have to be a devil to know he is a fan of all works by Robin Guthrie and has probably exhausted the shoegaze catalogue - with a My Bloody Valentine option on the sounds of some guitars.

For more recent reference, there is probably some love too for Epic45 or July Skies, and a knowledge of the Landing or Windy & Carl discography. Also there is a temptation for keeping things quiet and not only atmospheric which is not unlike The Album Leaf.

As a result you have distorted, reverberated guitars, with some occasional beats. It’s instrumental and relatively monotonous, the whole EP looks like explorations and experiences, with the artist discovering himself through the process. The guitar is more burgeoning than leading the song. A pleasant discovery and a promising debut.

www.facebook.com/DevilontheBeach

Devil on the Beach by Devil on the Beach

Johannes Heldén – Title Sequence (Ideal, 2010)

2011-12-18T22:05:00.000+01:00

Second album for Swedish ambient musician Johannes Helden, eight years after his first one, 'Sketchbook" on Trente Oiseaux.

Nothing really new under the sun as it resumes and uses many conventions of the style. Luckily, he has got a clear vision of his style of music so it doesn't sound like belonging to the 90's blooming ambient scene but much more like an updated version, with an obvious knowledge of works by Gas or William Basinski.

What really makes the difference is his use of guitar and piano sounds processed and introduced as elements of accentuation.

The best example is the highlight "Vortex Count", which sounds like Gas but in a more melodic and epic format, with a slow melancholic evolution and the progressive incorporation of processed guitar sounds, a bit like Michael Brooks's infinite guitar, which are adding subtlety and are making the whole composition entrancing. This is the only track with straightforward beats.

The global mood is shady and quiet, gloomy weather of late autumn, clouds crossing the sky in long processions, with temporary sunny spells. It's the sparse use of reverberated piano over the ambient layers and its anticipation on the opening track "Cold Open" which makes the track successful.

Certain tracks are purely dark and ambient and so are not really interesting : "And they multiply" and "Corporations. Later there is the intense and feverish "Soft News" and the sunny and lightly euphoric "Future light and darkness". The last track, "Tree sequence" is particularly minimal and dark.

Finally, two tracks stand above the rest, "Vortex Count" and "Cold Open" and both connect his ambient atmosphere with clearer, more precise sound you can relate to instruments, guitar or piano, and their precise brings a balance , rays or sun crossing the heavy smog of his ambient layers. Obviously, it's the way to go.

www.johanneshelden.com
www.idealrecordings.com

Daisuke Miyatani - kioque (2011)

2011-12-12T17:21:00.002+01:00

Four years afer his debut album "Diario", on Ahornfelder, Daisuke Miyatani is back with a second, self-released album, "Kioque", which is a 53 minutes collection of 23 tracks, from 11 seconds to 6 minutes long.

It's like a collection of tiny fragments, loosely connected, potentially revealed by light breeze and sunlight.

At only 43 seconds, the opening track "wake up with the ice cocoa" is already a superb introduction. But it's with "Anohi" that things are really started, three minutes of quiet melancholy, between a xylophone and an acoustic guitar, laying under trees one summer day, with lo-fi field recordings in the background, probably taken during a walk in a park.

Most of the compositions are successful. There are among others this fragile and evanescent "Urayama", like a sunny day stroll, the atmospheric and dreamy, "Drew with paints", or the more pensive and motionless, "It passes slowly".

Along the way, a few interlude tracks could have been forgotten, but there are enough instants of exception, like "Blanco", "long autumnal night", or "untitled", to name a few, which make the trip valuable.

The content of "Kioque" always turn around such feelings, peaceful, sensitive, lightly melancholic and careful. It is surprisingly precise and accurate, and it avoids being childlike or unoffensive. Melodies are never fully developed or exploited, but always present underneath as a guideline, as with "Walks with HOLGA".

"Kioque" is more diffuse than "Diario", but is logically the follow-up, giving less emphasis on the field recordings, and trying to expand the minimalist approach. It sounds less like intimate bedroom recordings with sounds coming from outside the window, and much more like a collection of selected instants, sharing emotions and feelings experienced outside, in the city or in parks and semi-natural places, with a certain loneliness, but without too nostalgia, only the melancholy of the ephemeral bright days, translating nicely the everyday life.

kioque by daisuke miyatani

Cold Mountain Child - high peak hearth songs (2011, Diamond Wave Press)

2011-12-11T10:05:00.001+01:00

"High peak hearth songs" could be stashed in a stack of records from Lullaby for the Working Class, Scud Mountain Boys, Lambchop, American Music Club or Hotel Alexis and you wouldn't noticed a difference.

It follows a two years hiatus, were David and Tyler were living in different towns, different countries, until they both return to live in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

More sparse than their debut album "Stillness Singing", this EP is also more uniform and more comfortable, but less surprising and particular, more purring, less arresting, in a word: too cozy. I can't stay alert and attentive all through it and I always find myself doodling around while listening to it.

If you're a fan of the aforementioned bands, this EP is the place to go, but still, I would advise to start with their debut album and also with the solo project of David, Deep Waters. Once that done, this EP will be what it is, with the lack of risk, more another piece to the puzzle, than another (expected) chapter.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cold-Mountain-Child/60990217818

Astatine - free jazz valentine (2011, Orgasm)

2011-12-10T15:21:00.001+01:00

The only thing which competes with the quality of the Acetate Zero discography is their lack of recognition mainly due to an absence of self-promotion. Their last album as example has been only released on vinyl.

At least they achieved a certain form of underground recognition and most diehard fans of 90 indie styles of music such as slowcore, lo-fi or shoegazing know them.

Entering the world of their solo extension is another story, as we reach another sub-level of discretion. It makes me feel bizarre to discover that on last.fm I am still the only listener of the "Deception Island" ep of Monovalley, solo project of Elsa, even more considering it is one of my favorite records ever.

Astatine is the solo project of Stéphane from Acetate Zero and once again the aesthetic relation is obvious but if Elsa's approach was more minimalist, here it turns into pure lo-fi bedroom shoegazing, with distorted guitars and heart on sleeve processed vocals, and the old Hood records as obvious reference, but with a melodic approach which reminds me of Eric's Trip and mostly Sebadoh.

It is released as a 7" and limited to 45 copies. Six tracks for a little more than twelve minutes, I enjoy it for nostalgic reasons, also because the standard of quality is quite high, I just regret the heavily processed nature of the vocals which make it difficult to connect totally.

http://www.astatine.fr/

Narrative - sleeping pavements ep (2011)

2011-12-10T07:00:00.001+01:00

Second EP for Lewis Gorham, in the continuity of his first one, simply intensifying the quality of his first opus.

Even if this territory of ambient / atmospheric style of music, mixing and processing field recordings layers of digital sounds with instruments, is well populated by other artists, Lewis Gorham's approach surprises by the warmth, a feeling of shoegazing intimacy and a lasting impression of deep personal melancholy.

At first, "Through the campus alone" seems elegiac and desperate but after a few spins, the feeling of loneliness appears to be strangely relieving and comforting.

"The treble of blossoms" is the standout track of the ep, with it's drones layers recovering each others like oceanic waves dying consecutively on a large sandy beach, with spindrift turning progressively into tears. On "Dream reunion", he adopts a more classical format, à la Stars of the Lid.

This new EP confirms the good impressions of his first one. Highly recommended (and free).

sleeping pavements by narrative

Illuha - shizuku (12k, 2011)

2011-12-04T15:33:00.001+01:00

Illuha is a project of Tomoyoshi Date and Corey Fuller, both residing in Tokyo. They met through a common friend, Chihei Hatakeyama, and began collaborating in 2008.

Their debut album, "Shizuku", has been recorded in a church, at Bellingham, WA. While I know their solo releases, "Otoha" for Tomoyoshi and "Seas Between" for Corey Fuller, I'm positively surprised by their artistic organic collaboration. "Shizuku" shows a deep mutual understanding through the exploration of subtle moods.

I find it tempting to compare "Shizuki" with the two albums Harold Budd and Brian Eno conceived together, but for Illuha, if it's an influence, it's more as a template in which they found their own selves, more as a method than as a real reference, it is about how they mixed ambient techniques, the atmosphere of the place, the natural reverb and meditative space, field recordings (even a spoken word), with real instruments, guitars, pipe organ, vibraphone, dulcimer, accordion, rhodes, piano, or analog synthesizer.

Sometimes I have the feeling they are closer to the most contemplative side of ECM than to the usual 12k catalog, but it is also the kind of evolution and change of direction that Taylor Deupree is happy to promote for his label.

The opening track, "Rokuu", is particularly sensitive, melancholic and entrancing, mostly with the interplay between cello and guitar which give the emotional backbone among field recordings and digital sources. With the next one, "Aikou", it turns into something more introspective and even oriental with the cello of John Friesen.

"Seiya" is somewhat disconnected and floating with no apparent direction until the apparition of a spoken word by Japanese poet Tadahito Ichinoseki. At first it sounds relatively exotic but after getting used to it, it turns into an appeasing composition.

While there is an obvious richness with "Saika", after a promising first part, the lack of limpidity leaves me with a feeling of confusion, as if fog layers were hiding an expected sunrise. The two last tracks share this impression of disconnection and disaggregation, with each second flowing into the next one without an obvious riverbed or direction. Beautiful but (too) vaporous, an interesting debut album.

http://illuha.com/

Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer – in a place of such graceful shapes (12k, 2011)

2011-11-27T13:33:00.001+01:00

During the last days of autumn in 2010, Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer started a long distance collaboration project, exchanging sound files,but after a few rough sketches, limitations and frustrations occurred and a plane ticket from Portland to New York for Marcus solved the problem.

During four intensive days in February 2001, while winter was in full force, they conceived most of the guidelines of this project, from music to pictures.

There is a CD with a fifty minutes long composition, with a 7 inch featuring two shorter compositions between 5 and 6 minutes and a booklet of photographs. They use guitar pedals, looping boxes, analog synths, tape recorders, found objects and percussion instruments, a series of sound sources for a scheduled meeting between Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer, and as a result, the strong emulation of a silent conversation, white and grey.

There is some urgency inside the record, but the urgency to finish and the impression of a semi-improvised result with a succession of long p assages finding a resonance with the icy austere surroundings around the studio settled in the countryside.

Fifty minutes for a single track is quite long and the result is very monotonous and relatively unspectacular at the beginning, but slowly it become pleasant and comfortable, really translating the vision of winter landscapes, and the last 18 minutes, when the guitar finally emerges, turn into something finally sublime and deliciously minimal.

They should have cut it in two parts.The first part is disordered as elements slowly adjust to each other and you wish you could skip it. Around five minutes, scattered sounds of guitar bring punctually some sunlight through the clouds. Later, around 9 minutes it turns into a pleasant walk outside, with the cold air, the vast, pale and bleak sky and the snowy, icy paths. Later the atmosphere becomes blurry again and I lose my track, falling into limbo.

Only later, just before the 33 minutes mark, the guitar comes back again, like a sunny spell, opening a vast mineral blue sky, with a few scintillating stars dancing above, but then it won't stop until the end, simply captivating with its vibrant melancholy.

I wish they had cut this 50 minutes composition into parts because it's mostly the last 15 minutes which are really interesting.

http://www.12k.com

http://www.unrecnow.com/dust/

aaa
IN A PLACE OF SUCH GRACEFUL SHAPES from m~fischer on Vimeo.

Loom - epyllion (2011)

2011-11-13T21:17:00.001+01:00

There are, songwriters which never confirm their first promising steps and just run onto a sandbank, and are, finally, more or less, quickly forgotten as false alarms.

But usually, many of them exchange, at least, a part of their charm and innocence for a more produced, more traditionally composed full length. While the initial effect might be diluted, it's still easy to go on as a listener.

A few ones are following different pathways, and expand their journey following their own underground streams, while in parallel, they start the process of refining their expression, revealing and unfolding, becoming more confident about their sensitivity, discovering themselves, taking real risks, and in fact, making errors on certain aspects, while confirming their talent on a few others.

Brooke Manning belongs to this last category. Her first EP from 2009 has been a huge revelation for me.

When I become informed of the track-list of her debut album a few weeks ago, I was doubtful, noticing she had reworked three songs from her EP. Mainly, the perspective of a new version of "Between Fires" was worrying me as the demo version was so powerfully sensitive and fragile that it seemed an impossible task to keep this intact.

But only thirty seconds through the new rendition of "Between Fires" and I was already propelled in another dimension. This newly irrigated new version is simply blooming. Like spring, like snowdrops at the end of winter. Even more emotional and vibrant, showing melancholic cracks with an unexpected precision and clarity. And with her own special shivering warmth. It's a major pole of attraction of "Epyllion"; 4 min 41 seconds of slowcore bliss. A song you'll keep through years as an oasis where you'll return periodically. The melancholic and poetic dimension creates a high standard for the rest of the album.

But there is something even stronger and unexpected, a new song where she manages to surpass herself: "Wholesome". It's a really strange object, sounding like an hypothetical early song by Low with Lisa Germano assuring the vocals, or something like the meeting between Julie Doiron and Codeine. It is like walking during a snowstorm with icy needles slapping your face. Deeply dark and desperate, slow and contemplative, desperate and glowing, "Wholesome" is a gem, and you feel like standing in front of an abyss, strangely relieved, the balance between the slow and monotonous music and her front line lyrics is strangely efficient.

These two strong compositions set a very high standard which creates obvious difficulties for the rest of the album.

After a few spins, a third song finally emerges and joins the two others for a successful triumvirate: "It's love", somewhere between Jane Siberry and Sun Kil Moon. Another very strange and disturbing object, able to bring you close to tears, capturing the ambiance of the first rays of sun during the best summer days, between dew, greenery and the purest, most beautiful melancholy.

In each of these three songs the atmosphere created by the instruments interacts slowly with the vocal presence of Brooke Manning, accentuating the melancholic dimension as a nicely warm and depressive aura blanket covering your hair and shoulders. These are tiny huge miracles.

Three songs on eight, and with their total length, 40% of "Epyllion", I just wish all of the album was reachibg this level. But three intimate slowcore gems on a debut album, it's enough to open a road for many more to come.

EPYLLION (LP) by LOOM

He died while hunting - we used to dream awake (2011, Tipostal / Totokoko)

2011-11-05T13:38:00.000+01:00

There are some bands you are condemned to enjoy, condemned to like, because they come from your area, because the musicians are nice guys, but mostly because, two thirds of their artistic references are also yours (Carissa's Wierd, Low, Pedro the Lion, Idaho, ...) and more importantly because they manage to sound good and adopt an approach you can compare esthetically to other European (very rare and precious) indie bands (like Anois, Komeït, Apeiron, My Autumn Empire, Acetate Zero, ...).

"We used to dream awake" is their first release, a mini-album of 22 minutes and 5 songs, and to be honest is is imperfect but without major weakness or unmendable flaw. It is just a record who makes you want to discover as soon as possible what they will record next, how will sound their first album.

They are playing bedroom pop in a melancholic and sensitive way. It is slow but always melodic, more laid-back than tense and the balance between music and vocals is nice. If there is something to criticize, it's their temptation to smooth everything. It is true that it works well with their monotony but more untied structures (developing atmospheres), and sparser vocals (the way they use repetitions creates a dilution effect) could give more drive to their songs. But speaking of textures and attitudes, there is nothing to change, they made the right choices and i simply hope it is just the first stop of a journey. Definitely recommended.

http://www.myspace.com/hediedwhilehunting
http://hediedwhilehunting.tumblr.com/
http://hediedwhilehunting.bandcamp.com/`
http://www.facebook.com/pages/he-died-while-hunting/144844035573588

he died while hunting - we used to dream awake - teaser #1 from hediedwhilehunting on Vimeo.

Craig Colorusso - sun boxes 7inch (2011)

2011-11-03T19:40:00.000+01:00

Sun Boxes in an installation, created by Craig Colorusso, of twenty speakers operating independently, each powered by the sun via solar panels, each one plays repeatedly a different guitar note loop of a definite length. These guitar notes collectively make a Bb chord.

The result is particularly appeasing, warm and soothing, bringing to mind some works by William Basinski or The Stars of the Lid, but in an even more minimalist form. Another point of comparison would be the installation of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot with birds on electric guitar but the final realization of Sun Boxes is much more "musical", fulfilling and inspiring.

There are two tracks on this 7inch. “Grassy Field” has been recorded at Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, MA in September 2010 and “Frozen Pond” at Long Pond, Plymouth MA in 2011. Both have been recorded by Kevin Belli,

I presume it is certainly better to enjoy the installation in real conditions, moving through speakers under sunlight, following the changes on a three dimensional personal path and breathing in the real atmosphere of the setting. Here the content is mostly a selection choice mixed with field recordings of the moments, not much external sounds on the slower "Frozen Pond" - distant birds and low-pitched cracklings of the ice -, but cicadas, birds and the sound of wind on the more vibrant "Grassy Field".

http://www.muudmusic.blogspot.com/

http://www.sun-boxes.com/

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://sunboxes.bandcamp.com/album/sun-boxes-seven-inch"&amp;gt;Sun Boxes Seven Inch by Craig Colorusso&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Nobuto Suda - day when spirits of the dead's wraps you and me (2011, Absence of Wax)

2011-11-02T17:17:00.003+01:00

New release by Nobuto Suda and the second one I discover (having started with "The locus of the life".

Released on the netlabel Absence of Wax, "Day when spirits of the dead's wraps you and me" is an instrumental dronelike track of 14 minutes.

It's an atmosphere of frost and mist, quite minimal and monotonous, under low light and with a certain sens of despair.

It is an interesting ambient/drone release butt he overall blur contained avoid to truly mark the listening experience.

http://devinsarno.com/absenceofwax/?p=650

Chris Watson - el tren fantasma (2011, Touch)

2011-11-01T22:06:00.002+01:00

Each Chris Watson release is a mystery, through which finally you realize you are using just a small part of your hearing, and so it is stimulating as you're taken as passenger and listener of his own quests and explorations.

He is not someone pretending to a career or to a reputation through his record, and his record are always a conjunction of both attraction and elaboration of soundscapes through the use of field recordings.

On "El Tren Fantasma", he reinvents a train travel from West coast to East coast, from Los Mochis to Veracruz, all through Mexico, a rail passenger service which no longer exists since more than a decade.

Chris Watson was lucky to spend a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route before it stopped. Using these archive recording he recreated here, ten years after, a "ghost train" including the whole atmosphere of the area, through wildlife and human life, with the sound of rails and sometimes fragments of piano melody as interludes.

It starts with "La Anunciante" and the pure sounds of trains crossing a station, with announcements and a deep reverb typical to such vast places, with an oneiric dimension as the whole trip is finally just a fantasy. Roosters singing, the sound of birds, temporary distorted distant sounds of a radio, a dog barks, the rising sound of motors, of machines and finally the deafening locomotive who enters the station, the unloading and loading and then we starts the trip, slowly entering its monotony until the dying notes of a vinyl playing a piano song.

Next we're crossing the rocky mountains area of the "Sierra Tarahumara" and Chris Watson just keeps the train as a distant presence, focusing mainly on the environment wildlife and sounds of wind, which are finally his trademarks. At "El Divisadero", the sound of trains are like a water stream, through a succession of small, more and more echoing waterfalls, with above in the sky, the menacing figure of a bird of prey

Irritating flies, and a powerful sun, around noon, on "Crucero La Joya", all you wish is a shelter, no sounds from the train, and suddenly and comforting short piano melody.

A railroad through tunnels and bridge, "Chihuahua", mechanic sounds from above the train, between two wagons. With "Aguascalientes", it's on the contrary like listening to a distant train coming closer and closer and finally riding at full speed just in front of you with a deafening and shocking effect.

On "Mexico D.F.", it's like he recorded trains inside of their network of tunnels. Cicadas and the quietness of rainforest on "El Tajin", a stroll around the archeological site, with later the sound of a distant train as a temporary background drone. Finally the scenic, almost orchestral arrival in "Veracruz" ends the journey.

http://www.chriswatson.net/

Tomoyoshi Date - otoha (2011, Own Records)

2011-10-31T18:18:00.000+01:00

Second solo album for Tomoyoshi Date, after "Human Being" on Flyrec, without forgetting two albums with the project Opitope he shares with Chihei Hatakeyama and one with Corey Fuller under the Illuha name.

Born in San Paulo, Brazil, having lived in the USA and now residing in Tokyo, Tomoyoshi Date writes soft and delicate instrumental music documenting peacefulness, quietness, deep emotions and introspective states of mind.

I doubt he could go deeper into this direction of self wellbeing as "Otoha" was composed on piano, played at night between the period when Date was informed his daughter was expected and the day before her birth. Processed on a laptop and completed with cello and field recordings recorded in Greece, "Otoha" has got a symbiotic quality as a kindly and benevolent communication towards his expected daughter.

"A street corner of Oia" features field recording from the Greek island, with just piano notes floating around in a state of weightlessness, and vaporous digital sounds, nine minutes of reverie, flooded with sun and marine breeze.

With sounds of bells and light wind drones, "A spring on the hill", is just about green slopes, streaming water, irrigated life, the emergence of sensitive and poetic inspired instants like ephemeral sunny spells. The shorter "Unfurling of young leaves" is also the most intimate track of "Otoha", delicate, surprisingly fragile and disarming.

With "Emergence of the forest" the mood becomes more melancholic and pensive, and the atmosphere more vast and almost blurry with mist, invinting for a walk.

The predominance of a lamenting cello over piano during the second part of "Floating light on the waves" gives a surprising autumnal vibe, so I'm much more fond of the oversensitive first part with its wonderful reverberated piano.

The closing track, "The sound of the moon", is also my favorite one, as the dimension of the world if finally included, with the feeling of just being tiny and temporary, in front of the infinite. An impression of shared loneliness fills the room through the speakers.

http://ownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/otoha

Bob Holroyd - afterglow (2011)

2011-10-29T23:19:00.002+02:00

I have no other example in mind about such a drastic change of style for a musician. If the process was opened on his previous album, "Beachcombing", mostly with the opening track "Glow", on "Afterglow" we are decades, light-years away, with a radically different scenario.

"Afterglow" mixes ambient, minimalism and (neo-)classicism, with both mastership and humility. It's a very delicate, subtle, balanced and refined record, which, even if offering no revolution or unexpected surprises, fulfills everything you could expect from such record. It is introspective, inviting and contemplative but fluid with nice structure and textures.

What makes the differences is the absence of vocal samples and of drums and beats, two elements who had an unfocussing effect on me on his previous album. There are musicians playing cello, horns and acoustic guitars, but has been processed next, composed and constructed, in order to reach a very synthetic and personal, layered, perspective.

These 45 minutes nicely depicts the atmosphere of an afterglow during the first part of autumn, when the diminishing influence of summer is still like a comforting background ghost, masking the reddening colors of leaves and the expectation of no so distant frosted mornings.

I am so critical about the previous discography of Bob Holroyd that I'm utterly flabbergasted by the perfection of "Afterglow", not a weak track, not an hesitation, not a shortcut, no inconsiderate pretension. From the first note to the last hum, he is adopting a low and modest profile, and "Afterglow" is a successful proof of concept about his capacity to achieve a much more reflexive and ambitious form of expression.

http://www.bobholroyd.com/

Bob Holroyd - beachcombing (2011)

2011-10-28T22:10:00.000+02:00

Up to now, to be honest, I had strictly no interest for the music of Bob Holroyd, mixing ambient, electronica, new age, fusion, chillout, world music and trip-hop elements into his music. But apparently 2011 is a year of change for him. A change in two steps, with "Beachcombing" opening the year and "Afterglow" closing it.

If one track has got to be reminded on "Beachcombing", it's the opening one, "Glow" which explore in a similar vein the works of artists such as Hammock, Amman/Josh and Josh Varnedore.

The structure and progression is both epic and melancholic, joyful and sunny, sensitive enough to avoid being rejected. It is mostly built around a simple piano line which echoes the Budd/Eno works, completed by waves of sound, drums and other sounds and processing. And it sounds quite fresh and refreshing, unexhausted. On the title track, the acoustic guitar becomes the lead instrument with a nice development of drones, strings and loops for a dreamy and intimate, faultless result. Bob Holroyd quietens the tempo and exuberance on "A Weak Winter Sun" which maybe lacks of some textural depth.

Sadly next he is returning to his old tricks and "Sacred Light", "Collectors of souls", "Mill Pond", "Renewal", "A Stone Left Unturned", "Beautiful Domination", "Samsara" and "Hope" are just old school, outdated and disconnected, ambient digital tracks. The only exception is the introspective "Parallels".

Glow -Music video- from Miki Yamaguchi on Vimeo.

http://www.bobholroyd.com

Travels - the sun shines down on me EP (2011)

2011-10-25T17:26:00.002+02:00

Three albums, now they are back with a five songs EP. Mona Elliott and Anar Badalov are back.

One cover of Daniel Johnston, "The Sun Shines Down on Me" and four originals of Travels doing their core business. The cover is relatively straightforward and not so interesting.

I prefer much more when they slow down the tempo and quieten the atmosphere, like on "Stencils" and "Veil of Stars". The two other songs, "Belly" and "The Runner" are more generic among their discography.

This new, short, collection of songs brings no evolution or surprise to the discography of Travels and will be probably reserved to fans.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://travels.bandcamp.com/album/7-record-digital-ep"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;7&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Record/Digital EP by Travels&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;http://www.facebook.com/pages/Travels/53685595041?v=info

Lexithimie - stroll into the shade for a moment (2010, Sentient Recognition Archive)

2011-10-23T14:05:00.001+02:00

Lexithimie is the solo project of Alexis Béchu, with releases on Hibernate, Audio Gourmet or Resting Bell. He produces ambient drone music, processing piano, cello, chord organ, digital-recorder, and sine waves sounds.

This release has been conceived around the idea of a "shaded place surrounded by light", with the title borrowed from the book “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad.

Even if we are in well known territory, with no strong emotions, this record still surprises with the feeling of comfort diffused. I particularly like the use of field recordings during the intro of the first track, with sounds from a foot walk along a school next to a park, creating a nice takeoff effect for the warm and sunny evolution of "In Despite of Horizon", as comforting as a warm blanket during cold winter times, when outside the sun sparkles on snowy landscapes.

Next in line, "A Silent Chamber Below" is so relaxing and makes you feel so well, stretching like a cat, that the induced effect is almost narcoleptic.

"Waiting Somewhere" is the sound of sleep, fluffy like the atmosphere of a bedroom where someone is in deep sleep.

The last track "Another Minute for a Never Ending" indeed sounds like suspended time about, how while sleeping we can feel like floating just like if The Stars of The Lid typical music was downgraded to the size of the place dedicated to lay under a blanket.

A nice and comfortable record.

http://audio.srasounds.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thimie

Thomas Mery - les couleurs, les ombres (2011, Own Records)

2011-10-22T11:26:00.000+02:00

It is a long fight. It's a long trail and the end is nowhere near.

Second solo album for Thomas Méry, but as with his previous EP, "Des Larmes Mélangées De Poussière", singing and playing guitar, he is backed up again by Stéphane Bouvier (bass and clarinet) and Jérôme Lorichon (drums trumpet, waves and piano parts), which were his bandmates on the two Purr albums.

Five new long songs between five and eight minutes, with the addition of the twelve minutes of "Aux Fenêtres Immenses" already present on the EP. My main obstacle at first with this album was the use of French lyrics, with a disturbing effect on me as the emotional flow is automatically different. With a different perspective it can be seen as an asset too as it makes the album more particular and unique.

The folk elements of his first album are replaced by a new format mixing elements of songwriting devoid of formal structures with soft post-rock and non intrusive jazz elements. The global atmosphere is both autumnal and melancholic, but always keeping a personal distance, and if there are confessions, it is only their poetic sublimated version, as there is tension but without rupture.

It took him five years to write this album and it's probably the reason one there is no strong urgency, but mostly the result of a very uncluttered approach which made him able to avoid both the effects of dilution and sophistication and to create a collection of song which is very long in the mouth.

I've been listening to this album more than twenty times now and it's still mysterious, I find it difficult to pinpoint or focus on one song in particular because it is intrinsically an entity.

http://www.thomas-mery.net/

http://www.ownrecords.com/

Fennesz - seven stars (2011, Touch)

2011-10-09T21:53:00.003+02:00

Four tracks, eighteen minutes, a new EP by Fennesz, nice, pleasant, but not considerable, it is suble but in the comet tail of his previous works, without unsettling sparkles or breathtaking instants.

More of the same but as the same means a global high quality, there is no reason to dismiss and there is also no reason to show excessive praise. The opening track, "Liminal" makes the trip worthwhile, slightly melancholic and even romantic but nicely decayed which infuses a welcome feeling of fragility.

For the anecdote, Steven Hess (from Labradford) is adding beats on the title track, "Seven Stars" without making it memorable. "July" is harsher and leaves me hesitant. So besides the strength "Liminal", it's the third track, "Shift" which also achieves a relatively pleasant and appeasing impact.

Mark McGuire - get lost (2011, Mego)

2011-10-08T18:21:00.003+02:00

For someone born at the eve of 1987, Mark McGuire has got already a plethoric discography behind him, solo, as member of Emeralds or through other ephemeral alternate projects.

"Get Lost" is his third album on Mego. I tried to listen to some of his records previously but never was convinced to explore these completely.

Things changed with the nice collaboration album her recorded with Trouble Books and their interaction made we want to know better his style and approach.

In my mind, Mark McGuire was reduced to ideas of improvisation and dilution around ambient / psychedelic / post-rock directions. On "Get lost", the language seems more personal and refined with emotional, melancholic and blurry shoegaze accents.

It starts with a playful introduction, the title track, followed by the atmospheric shoegaze melancholy of "When you're somewhere" and culminating with the vaporous and sensitive "Alma" which is thz highlight of the album and the closest to the structure of a song, featuring even vocals.

Then we follow the psychedelic instrumental "Another dead end", "Alma (Reprise) / Chances Are" is just a new remixed and extended version of the previous song which only gives a feeling of unnecessary dilution.

The last track, "Firefly Constellations", with its 20 minutes represent half of the album and looks more like a collection of passages and variations, explorations of textures and melodic waves which fail to really inspire.

"Get Lost" is an interesting album but finally it fails to really impress as it is just floating around without strategy, except filling the space.

http://editionsmego.com/artist/mark_mcguire

Lawrence English - the peregrine (2011, Experimedia)

2011-10-02T20:37:00.002+02:00

Two long drones, each one in three parts, for a total length of 34 minutes, "The Peregrine", new album by Lawrence English, is based on a book written by J.A. Baker about this bird of prey.

What seduced him in this book was the focus of the writer on landscape and environment, and indeed as a result, it is also what he explores here, conceiving it as an homage to the book which as his primary influence, profoundly nourished his sensitivity in the process.

Musically, it reminds me of the emotions I had for records such as "Sound Mind Sound Body" by Rafael Toral or "The Ballasted Orchestra" by The Stars of the Lid, but offered into a smoothed, more hypnotized, conceptual and linear version.

The first part of Side A, called "October 1 – The Hunting Life" could almost be used as the common definition of what a typical drone can be, with bass sounds of Tibetan accent also recalling didgeridoo during the beginning, completed slowly and finally falling behind more acute and bright waves of sound. Globally, I'm left unimpressed by these generic choices.

More emotions arise with the next part, "November 16 – Dead Oak" and I can manage to imagine one peregrine falcon atop such a tree, observing with its piercing eyes the landscape all around, in search of a potential prey. Next, slowly through the days, winter settles, with its firm, inhospitable grip, with the last part "December 24 – Frost’s Bitter Grip"

Surprisingly, the Side B turns into a perfect countercharge against my previous accusations. Starting with the mineral crystallinity of "January 30 –Grey Lunar Sea", just as the falcon flies over snowy landscapes, icy ponds, river or lakes, searching for the warm blood of his careless preys, I just take off and become part of the movement, engulfed by the beauty of the next track, "February 10 – The Roar Ceasing", which, even if adopting a low profile, opens wide landscapes to fragile rays of sun, offering a melancholic hope which somewhat announce the euphory of "March 16 – Heavy Breath Of Silence" with its first signs of a new spring.

I finish this record half convinced and half satisfied.

http://lawrenceenglish.com/

Tenniscoats - toki no uta (2011, Majikick)

2011-09-27T21:58:00.000+02:00

A minimalist record, which seems to have been recorded live, on the flow, the acoustic guitar of Takashi, the vocals of Saya and a few other instruments which could be toys.

Simplicity and childlike features can turn songs into gems sometimes and there is a handful of such ones, springlike, bright, fresh and delicate lullabies : "Ento", "Amperara", "Oide no umi", "SvS", with two obvious highlights "Temporacha" and "Doun doun doun" - both echoing the previous Tenniscoats success which was "Baibaba Bimba.

Besides, there is an second handful of these acoustic songs with apparent too typical melodic lines and the incapacity for me to relate to Japanese lyrics : "Ento 2", "Kazan", "Sabaku", "Kuki No Soko" . But the line is fine between the two types.

It could fill the whole album, but we know it cannot be that simple and then an accident happens, breaks the routine. And we find the true sense of following this band : it's the longest track, 8 minutes, something like a lifetime, "Hikoki", lost after two thirds of the album. Slow, sad, even more minimal, monotonous, rapidly striking you down with its haunting and poignant sense of melancholy, it's just a sublime sadcore song. As a minor addendum "Sappolondon" follows.

Without reaching the same heights, two other track also, are worth noticing, the quietness of "Mori wo Nukeru Mori no Umi ga" just leaves you watching morning frost on the green grass, and the urgent sadness of "Tamashi" invades you like pouring rain finds its way under your clothes.

Talons' - kamakura ep (2011, Functional Objects)

2011-09-25T21:04:00.001+02:00

An instrumental EP of songs inspired by a Japanese seaside town. 4 songs based around 2 acoustic guitar lines. Recorded at home in Chicago, March-May 2011.

I'm just surprised Mike Tolan didn't release this EP under his Moustache Mountain alias but probably it can be seen as a reference about his "Lost time" release on Powershovel Audio, one of the tracks is dedicated to Yuichiro (Fujimoto) who is the headmaster of the label and certainly an influence too down here with his precious solo albums.

Also we are very near the intimacy and warmth of Talons', just more quiet with the absence of vocals and prominent melodies. But yes, once that said, it's an other ultra emotive release by Mike and knowing that he explores in his very own minimal style similar territories to the ones developed by Yuichiro Fujimoto or Daisuke Miyatani, even if he doesn't include field recording, pleases me to the highest level, and such breathing after his splendid songwriting album "Song for Boats" and before another more consequent release is more than welcome, like reading a poetic descriptive short story with no particular aim, by your favorite writer, between two more consequent novels.

"Kamakura EP" won't change nothing but will you let staring at least for a few hours, through the window, enjoying the few last warm sunny hours of a Sunday autumn afternoon, before returning to the rush of the week.

Thank you for this appeasement.

http://www.barkandhiss.com/talons/functionalobjects/

Kamakura EP by talons'

Carissa's Wierd - tucson / meredith & iris (2011, Hardly Art)

2011-09-25T11:22:00.001+02:00

7 years after "Songs about leaving", after their split, solo careers and new bands, they are back with their original lineup. A few reunion shows have lead to the recording of two new songs finally released as a 7inch on Hardly Art, a Subpop sublabel.

Are they really back together or is it just a nostalgic pause before new solo works by Jenn Ghetto and Matt Brooke, we can't tell but seeing the intactness of this 7inch, there is still a wide open road in front of them and the place for several more masterpiece and a larger recognition which their past lack of promotion and public presence failed to achieve. And they are now on Subpop.

7 years, that's a lot, and it changes your lecture of a band you've been a deep fan of, and their subsequent adventures have shown me, that I much more belong to the Jenn Ghetto perspective as I've never been able to come to terms with even a single song of their other projects, would it be Band of Horses or Grand Archives.

Also, I deeply enjoy how Carissa's Wierd polarize her expression, how different it can be from her solo works I cherish as more fundamental.

While "Tucson" is an immediate dazzling melancholic jewel, "Meredith & Iris" is longer in the mouth, plays nicely the b-side role and eventually turns into a valuable one a few spins later.

This release if new land reclaimed from the sea and attached to their discography, precious, fertile and meaningful. Carissa's Wierd shines on it as always, as another proof about how slowcore music ages so well.

"Tucson" is the typical Carissa's Wierd swirling melancholic hymn, with bare minimal lyrics, "You've been gone so long. You can never go home again. Somehow it's only hours. (So long. So long. So long.)" we could be used for every love relationship with hiatus, break-up and trials of reconcialiation but can also document the reunion of the band. The violin is in full force, the guitars, and shared vocals with Jenn playing the role of the desperate siren while boats are crashed against reef, the song work.

If I admit I disregarded "Meredith & Iris" at first, I finally belief there is more flesh inside this song for a potential follow-up, the band is looking forward, starting to move and make some steps together, reactivating their songwriting gear. The good thing is that I feel depressed and melancholic after listening to this two songs a handful of time, more appeased too, seeing too "a light on the back roads
haunting our way".

Welcome back.

http://www.bestcareanywhere.net/CarissasWierd/index.aspx Carissa's Wierd - Meredith & Iris by hardlyartrecords

Charge Group - escaping mankind (2009, Own)

2011-09-24T08:42:00.001+02:00

This album shouldn't be downscaled to what it's not but instead should be upgraded to its real dimension, with Matt Blackman designing his sceneries after the endpoint of Purplene, and in certain ways we are in a similar scenario than the one chosen by Jeff Martin with Idaho.

You enter "Escape Manking" like reaching an unusually quiet area in the middle of an area currently affected by stormy weather. There are lightning flashes and pouring rain all around the country at the distance, but you are and feel totally safe in a strangely preserved place. "Lunar Module" is such a powerful song, strong and tempestuous but under an impressive control, slow and quiet, and it strikes even more when you discover that Matt Blackman is almost the only pilot on board, singing, playing the guitars, drums and synthetizer, only helped for the bass, the strings and some sparse second vocals. It is a takeoff song and also a declaration of intent, presenting Charge Group as an expanded and more mature, less adolescently emotive than what he explored with Purplene. The environmental aura typical of the Australian slowcore scene is a distinctive and strong part of the whole and comparisons with Dirty Three, Bluetile Lounge or This Is Your Captain Speaking give sense. Also there is a nuanced depth and width which recalls me of Art of Fighting.

Greenery and freshness are already back on the climatic instrumental "Partial Glowing", descending rock and wooden stairs downward a valley, and you realize Charge Group still contains the poetic and sensitive side of Purplene, offering just an expanded version, which exists as a quartet too, between guitar, bass, drums and violin.

Each song is almost an hymn, unfolding slowly and brilliantly structured, as on "Redcoats & Convicts", each new spin just reveal how flawless their compositions are, revolving around Matt's vocals, creating landscape in which his metaphorical and poetic storytelling can expand.

The most precious and intimate song is "Vice'd", soft and delicate and desperate love songs which a slowed tension buried underneath, which makes you realize how much Matt Blackman can be seen as a peer of songwriters like Mike Kinsella (Owen) or Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon).

The success of the album is also created with the balance between instrumentals and songs, as "Speakeasy Death Song" offers a perfect breathing before returning to a vivid and vibrant "The Contest", and the figurehead of the album that is the, maybe a little too - because using post-rock artifacts -, demonstrative, but still enjoyable, "Lullaby for the Apocalypse". Next to the nocturnal and ambient interlude "Pax 2", it ends on a low note with the choral voices of "Morning of superheroes".

A very good first album for Charge Group with a first half which, through his impressive achievement gives some shade to the last and more predictable conclusion. Whatever, a must listen.

http://www.charge-group.com/
http://www.ownrecords.com/

Coate - spring ep (2011)

2011-09-21T21:38:00.001+02:00

Coate is back, with this spring EP, announcing the coming back of this season in New Zealand, while it's now autumn here, on the northern hemisphere. Spring resumes perfectly the burst of energy and urgency contained into these two songs relatively more uptempo and closer to the twinkle emo melodic scene than their first album.

My first opinion was not so good as the first track, "Climbing Playgrounds with Paul Brown" could be considered of an emulation of Algernon Cadwallader with both their good and bad aspects. It is relatively unoriginal, but totally efficient and musically impressive. While I'm not so much fond of the melody, a few passages and elements and mostly the guitars are quite nice and shows the value of the band.

As soon as starts, "TNG Marathon", the opening track becomes anecdotal. The real impact is the b-side, and while you can decode their genes, the full genome of this song is only theirs. It is intense, full of rage but tense and totally sensitive, all that comes to my mind is an improbable mix between the stylish indie rock of Superchunk circa "Throwing Things" and the tension and emotional density of Mineral on their debut album, but all you feel while listening is that they are totally themselves, belonging to their times, and after a few spins you will feel in total communion with this song, only tempted to put the volume higher and higher. And you already know you'll be able to listen to this song in 2021 with both nostalgia and intact joy.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://coate.bandcamp.com/album/spring-ep"&amp;gt;Spring EP by Coate&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Saso - exitudes (2011, Melted Snow)

2011-09-18T21:14:00.001+02:00

With "Big Group Hug" (2001), "I can do nice" (2004) and "The Middle Ages" (2006), after a five years hiatus, they are now releasing a fourth album.

But in a really strange way, "Exitudes" is much more the follow-up to "I can do nice" than the continuity of "The Middle Ages". Their two first albums have had a strong impact on me but the first one disappointed me totally as they were moving towards a definitely mainstream approach. Here they are one hundred percent back to their old ethics and I'm back too as a fan.

An it is indeed a rebirth as it seems the process of recording "Exitudes" hasn't be a easy one. But the result is pure and implacable, definitely their most melancholic release so far, with depth, nuances, vivacity and slowness. It's a dream coming true, a band I enjoyed but finally discarded back at his best with a faultless amazing album which confirms them as heirs of artists like Bark Psychosis, Hood, Idaho or Talk Talk.

Dense, minimal, monochromatic, "Exitudes" request a certain focus and sounds like a last chance, but at the same time, if there is doubts behind the process, it looks like they never have been so close of their identity and never as necessary as here.

As a paradox, "Exitudes" has been created as a reaction towards the failure to realize it's polar opposite, as at first, next to a TV ad using one of their songs, Jim Lawler and Ben Rawlins decided to try to develop a more commercial sound in the continuity of "The Middle Ages", spending a lot of time in studio. Having to deal with a growing feeling of disillusion towards this approach, echoed with the start of an economic crisis in Ireland, the appearing urge for sense and essential, make them drop one year of recorded material and they restarted from scratch what is now "Exitudes",

The birds skull gives an idea of the mourning atmosphere of "Exitudes", but far from falling into a self-pitying attitude, this album is driven by strong undercurrents expressed by a constant balance between slowness and tension, creating a reflexive and haunting climate, achieved to a higher degree than on their previous albums. Though the styles diverge, it reminds me of the kind of global impression I had about the album "41" by Swell.

Even more, most of these tracks have an inexhaustible depth and quality, which will make every return to this album valuable, turning it into a classic slowcore album.

It opens with the wind propelled and tormented "Billion Hands" and its urgent underneath rhythmic piano punctuations, before falling into the lamentations hymn which is "Carousel" reminding me of some Blackheart Procession songs.

The old trademark of Saso, circa "I can do nice" / "Big Group Hug"is intact on the clever and aerial "From Limbo", one of the strong highlights of this album, which brings you deeper and deeper into crystalline waters. If there is a potential single on this album, it's "Secret Ministry", wide and vibrant, delightful.

The atmospheric and very quiet instrumental "Silent Earth" marks a welcome pause before a return to fever and rebirth with an ode to spring which marks the decline of winter signs. You could have expected some return to their past bucolic & pastoral intonation - remember their utterly sublime "Turn Your Back" on "My Brain Hurts" EP, but it's (still) not for this track.

On "Man Overboard" emotions arise again bringing some warmth through the night, creating poignancy. Finally we are there, barefoot on the the ground for the sublimated pastoralism of "Facts", the ride, the acoustic guitar lines and the swirls of melancholy. Saso is 100% there on "Exitudes" and "Facts" is a feat.

It is followed by the darkest and most disturbing composition of the album, "Cardboard Cutout", followed by a more appeased, very quiet and monotonous "Soon or later", before the instrumental epilogue "Pull the plug", a trio of tracks as a landing.

http://saso.ie/Exitudes by saso band

Owen - ghost town (2011, Polyvinyl)

2011-09-14T20:55:00.003+02:00

Mike Kinsella still has got to record a bad album, and maybe even a bad song, and this sixth album is another confirmation where he even surprises long time fans by the high level of quality. "Ghost Town" is for a part known territory and for another part new light and the next chapter of his life as a man.

Instead of listening to the album with the normal order, I decided to go backwards, starting with the end.

There is this songs, "Everyone's Asleep in the House but Me", and I bet as long as he goes on as a songwriter, there will be such self-reflection about, how personal, or simply human weaknesses are coming back and back again. This one is not particularly groundbreaking or original, knowing by heart already what's contained, the subject, the emotion, the melancholy, but there is just the presence of a a female second voice on the second part which really brings some interest and makes the song successful. It reminds me of Ida, Idaho or A Weather, which is a good thing.

If "Mother's Milk Breath" falls inside the same category, the purpose is different, with Mike Kinsella documenting a new chapter of his life as a father. Pleasant, humble, documenting and sincere, at least, and yes, terribly human. The song ends abruptly and there is an extraordinary instrumental part at the end which reminds me of The Red House Painters circa "Shock me EP" and "Ocean Beach".

The reason to come down and believe here is surely to be found on "No language". With tension and urgency, and a less obvious context, with feelings sometimes beyond control, and an obvious Red House Painters similarity with this capacity to balance complexity of textures and an immediacy of feelings and emotions, it is intricate, it is a labyrinth, it makes your heartbeat stutter. With his use of brilliant and strangely meaningful, refreshing lyrics such as "Ignoring bruises like children. Jumping out of every window left open and catching every branch on my way down", I once again realize how much and why Mike Kinsella is such an important songwriter for me, since 1998, with the first American Football EP.

Owen's songwriting is somewhat so standardized that it may be difficult to try something else without breaking it and "An animal" pays for such difficulties. The addition of cello sounds unnatural due to the speed of the song, Mike Kinsella is not taking the time and enough slowness to unfold his musical scenario, it's like a melancholic chamber pop song inside a bedroom folk song, and symptomatically only the second part is really convincing, when windows are opened, welcoming a refreshing breeze and enough space to breathe.

"The Armoire" is an instantaneous "all time classics" : "The armoire that you found by the dumpster

while visiting your sister's house. It looks fine in the living room where the others you've rescued go to die". Priceless and painful as nostalgia hits the wall of passing time.

Like "The Only Child of Aergia" or "Dead Men Don't Lie" and a few others, "I believe" is the kind of song where you're totally taken by surprise and projected up, high in the air, discovering and feeling alleviated that there are still good reasons to listen and look forward for new music which can shake up your world. Maybe there is no subject will less irony, but there is no irony in this song, just a good reason to feel upset inside and privately, deeply moved. Again and again. And musically, this is mind-blowing, like the best Idaho songs. Best song.

Like the "The Sad Waltzes Of Pietro Crespi", "O, Evelyn..." is a song I'll first dislike but finally singalong with, Mike Kinsella on his most sentimental and personal side.

On the shoulders of "No Place Like Home" alone, this is already a successful album where he tries something new. The instrumentation, the lyrics, the textures, the structures are just so brilliant from the first to the last second. If there is one song to listen to and to keep on this album, it's here. Yes, you may recognize instants, intonations, but there is a strength in this new song, which will make your appreciation for his talent just grow bigger. Best song, again.

With the 15 first seconds of the opening track, "Too Many Moons", you're already convinced it will be another good album from someone with a faultless discography. The rest of the song won't disappoint, with a false freewheeling, the exotic use of french words, strangely adds to the melancholy, creating a disprepancy, a tension which Julie Doiron often explored, offering an unexpected place for breathing and the strings are splendid.

A great album, an important one.

Ghost Town by Owen

Darling - keep out 7inch (2011, Cardboard Sangria)

2011-09-11T20:20:00.001+02:00

Their debut EP from a 2007, was truly a gem and still is, "Ground is sound". But since then, I've never been really charmed by their second EP or by their first album, as they were moving backwards, much more in the middle of the indie rock genre, giving more importance on melodies and less on a lo-fi melancholic approach.

I could have closed the story, with an hopeless verdict and stop to follow them, but an email appeared in my mailbox with the promise of "a return to their acoustic ambient upbringing".

So yes, something may look different on "White is night"/ "Mako Sica", but it's not really a coming back to the past. It's just that their music is no more as optimistic as on their debut album, and yes a part of their earlier melancholy is probably back and there is more depth.

The closest reference I could think about would be the early records by Luna, with this prevalence of songwriting and music playing over impulses, intuitions and inspiration, without erasing their presence.

There are interesting parts in both songs but nothing you haven't experienced before on other records so I can't get rid of a feeling of redundancy while listening to these two pleasant songs. My preference goes to the intro of "Mako Sica" which reminds me of Human Television and to the last parts of both songs which are echoing for me me of some of the best instrumental parts of Luna.

Keep Out 7" by Darling

Hilo - this is destroyer (Cambodia, 1999)

2011-09-08T21:38:00.000+02:00

I rediscovered accidentally Hilo, a band I first listened to around 2001 an which surprised me through their similarities with the Rodan / Sonora Pine / Shipping News / June of 44 family and indirectly with Slint too.

Jonathen Swafford, Brian Ulrich, Jenifer Bair and Patrick Ginley were releasing their first album "This is the destroyer", from their home base of Akron, Ohio, which since then gave us Trouble Books or 'Talons too.

If you know their references, there is nothing strongly surprising or innovative down here, maybe just a couple of gems, and from this particular dried-up style, you cannot really disregard because only a handful of such nuggets were recorded.

Mostly the two first tracks, "Mouse Gets It's Cheese" and "Road" are utterly precious with their perfect emulation of Rodan and Slint but turned down, moved closer to slowcore. but definitely post-hardcore in the Chicago 90's meaning of the word. Without being unpleasant, the rest of the record mostly apply the rules of the genre. An historical document and 14 minutes worth of keeping in this new century at least.

http://www.thetinydestroyers.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thisisthedestroyer

Rivulets - we're fucked (Important, 2011)

2011-09-06T21:54:00.000+02:00

Five years after "You are my home" (2006), now there is "We're Fucked", new album by Nathan Amundson.

I've been critical to the previous album but without condemning it. "We're fucked" is the polar opposite. And yes, as someone (TheBlueRogue) posted on my last.fm page, anticipating my review "We're Fucked is pretty great, isn't it? It's definitely become my favorite Rivulets album".

It is something like a rebirth and there are inflections and falsely minor changes intonations he never explored so far.

I admit, I know his discography on the tip of my fingers, having listened to almost everything with a deep attention and on "We're fucked" I'm surprised by arrowheads I didn't expect. The changes are tiny, they are huge. The icing on the cake is that Bob Weston is mastering the record.

This is Rivulets how I wished it would be since the beginning, Nathan Amundson backed by a bassist and a drummer who both understand him truly, and never cross limits. It is epiphanic.

It sounds like "Sadstyle" (S), like "Down Colourful Hill" (Red House Painters), like "I could live in hope" (Low) but it sounds truly authentic and beautifully imperfect.

There are a few songs I may would discard but not condemn and may possibly finally accept, I'm just surprised how he drinks water from the his original inspiration source with such an innocence, but isn't it what slowcore is? Indeed, definitely, this is a slowcore masterpiece, a myth and strangely it makes me want to listen again to some songs by Bluetile Lounge or Codeine.

But well, how to pass "Interstate", how to cross by foot a highway, a stream as powerful as the opening song. Two minutes and one second, which make me feel I'm living again, and those lyrics, those thoughts which are so mine too, which I can identify with a song now, haunting.

The electric guitar on "No Talking", the reverb on vocals which adds a live impression, and the slow rise of intensity, I'm not asking for more.

Rivulets as we know it on "The Road", freewheeling until the electric guitar and drums join the game for stormy choruses. Intense.

Even short breathings got their place, "I am", vibrating like a lighter through the night, then disappearing again, unnoticed or almost, but a precious instant.

Of course I may not adhere to all the tracks but that's the price to pay for such drastic change and I don't even criticize "Gentile Boyfriend" which I would probably like much better live, and I'm much more enjoying the walk on frozen lakes offered by "Everybody's on the run".

And with the instrumental "Dewayne" you realize it's the first album as legendary, as troubling as the author himself, 1 min 43 seconds of reverberated electric guitar drifting, priceless and intangible. "Come see me" is his turn to emulate Neil Young's "Harvest" era.

Is “Sheep Among Wolves” his best song ever or am I just in a state of shock listening to it? For sure it hurts.

Yes, I don't get the rage of "Souls" but still respect it, as it serves as an antidote, making the beauty of a track like "Change in your heart" just more meaningful, and a secondary track like "I Don't Want To Be Found"doesn't turn the intensity down before a last killer track, "This stays true".

I see this album as a big step forward, I never felt myself so in adequacy with one of his albums, yet admitting I sill think it's an imperfect one. I hope he will goes on working with Francesco Candura (bass) and Nathan Vollmar (drums).We're Fucked by Rivulets

Pascal Savy - liminal (2011, Feedback Loop)

2011-09-04T21:27:00.002+02:00

Last year I tried to listen to Pascal Savy's album "The Silent Watcher" on Audiomoves, but felt rapidly disconnected and didn't insist much more. I was uncertain about this new ep, the nice artwork invited me to try and this time I can find my marks as a listener and let the music flow.

I'm not sure I totally enjoy this record, as it is not really emotional, but there is an obvious appeasing dimension. It's clinical, just like watching a blurry late autumn landscape behind curtains. But where I am, is it an hospital, some dentist's waiting room, a light smell of ether floats in a room of blank walls, some magazines on the table but all attention is caught by the window.

Four minimal ambient drone instrumentals but with a relatively large panel of variable textures, at times almost mimicking and suggesting field recordings, when in reality these are real ones just processed. It is really strange how he transforms such sounds, like those of piano and oboe into something almost synthetic, because the effect is of dilution.

I've listened a whole day to this EP while working on various documents and it helped me to concentrate on what I was doing, never distracting me. I don't think I'll listen again to this release but considering my lack of interest for his previous album, it's a big step forward and I'm curious to discover what will follow.

http://feedbacklooplabel.blogspot.com/

Penpal - postscript ep (2011)

2011-09-03T08:18:00.001+02:00

American trio, started in 2008 as a duo by two guitarists, Steve and Brett, former members of Marquette, now joined by Josiah.

Their first album has been highly noticed among other midwest emo revivalists, as they were doing already much more than simply emulate American Football and consorts. They are back with a new EP, featuring three sophisticated math-emo-pop songs.

The result is impressive but sometimes lacks of clarity, like the American Football meets Aloha intro of Octopus. Each song is efficient, but the second half of the third one from 1:44 to 4:33, "Bed Bugs" really makes a distance and propel them somewhere else.

The two of them are singing in a relatively similar way generally, but there, suddenly an inflection appears which literally transcends their songwriting and pushes them in a new direction more quiet, introvert, subtle and highly sensitive and refined. It simply makes the other songs secondary.

"As this morning turns into a day, that I waste again, you're growing up, and growing away, from me" repeated three times and followed by a magnificent crescendo of guitars as a conclusion.

Suddenly, not only you think of an improved American Football, but also of the most graceful side of Idaho..

Lyrics and vocals are pure and simple, music is limpid and moving, and really there you're somewhere else, in both familiar and unknown territory, facing the sky and the sea. It's a subtle drift in the vocals but the effect is prodigious, making the rest of the EP just technically efficient.

Not only they are talented, but now Penpal is ready to write a few new pages in a recent musical history whose they acquired a mastership. I hope they will choose the direction of epure. "Postscript EP" is a nice twinkle emo record and on the second part of their last song, they find their perfect harmony and become a reference themselves.

http://penpalmusic.com/

Postscript EP by Penpal

If This Is A Man - random acts of kindness have saved lives (Raamb, 2011)

2011-08-31T10:13:00.000+02:00

Not much info about If This Is A Man, solo project of Jon White, recording songs in his bedroom, in the middle of England, Staffordshire, who at first is a fan of Radiohead, The Beatles, DJ Shadow, slowly contaminated by more underground stuff, would it be shoegaze (My Bloody Valentine), slowcore (The Red House Painters) or lo-fi (Daniel Johnston).

In reality he is probably in fact much more similarly-minded introvert / emotional artists from an aesthetic world he seems to be unaware of such as Debutant, Mars To Stay, Songs for Green Pheasant, Khale, Empire empire I was a lonely estate, 1986 or even Chuzzlewit. So there is a disprepancy between his lo-fi / intimate / melancholic / atmospheric impulses and more mainstream conventions (in terms of structure, textures and mastering) which is sometimes unpleasant.

Once that said, there are a few pearls on this album. Opening track, "Indelible" sees Jon White totally in terms with himself, for something both emotional, vaporous and enthralling. Definitely the way to go as you can feel other songs to unfold and deploy potentially into this one, defining a style.

On "Rabbit holes", the vocals seem disconnected from the guitar and it ruins the global effect as the intimacy effect is absent, same effect for "Shepard". But a strong return to success with the piano based track "Your Old Room" which has got something from the Blue Nile in its genome, while not denying its bedroom pop origin and exploring the melancholy of short days and cold early mornings. "Nostalgic" is pleasant you and it's when Jon White incorporates his dreamier dimensions that his songwriting makes sense and such songs on this album are premises of possible new authentic developments.

Next to the pleasant interlude "As Above As Below", a song like "Little things" lacks of depth about its textures, blurriness and mystery, in order to reach the target. Last good surprise with "Starlings' where he lets the song wanders naturally and the, impact is positive.

The songwriting of Jon White is still a work in progress, but a promising one.

http://ifthisisaman.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/IfThisIsAMan
http://www.raambmusicgroup.co.uk

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://ifthisisaman.bandcamp.com/album/random-acts-of-kindness-have-saved-lives"&amp;gt;Random Acts Of Kindness Have Saved Lives by If This Is A Man [www.facebook.com/IfThisIsAMan]&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Algernon Cadwallader - demo (Be Happy, 2006)

2011-08-25T21:42:00.000+02:00

Of course it sounds a lot like Joan of Arc, American Football or Cap’n Jazz. More dynamic and rapid than American Football – but definitely similar -, more melodic and joyful than (early) Joan of Arc and more refined than Cap’n Jazz. If fact, Algernon Cadwallader sounds like Algernon Cadwallader and never try to go out of this triangle.

There are two guitarists, a bassist, who’s also the singer – very Kinsella-esque -, and a drummer. They are from Philadelphia and their songs are terribly exciting, amazing, energetic, emotional and intricate.

They are not followers; they sound as good as the originals with a personal touch. In 2007, no one anywhere can compete with them in that style of music.

Surprisingly in 2011, these demo tracks released as a 7inch haven’t lost their efficiency and au contraire their “indie” value is just more palpable and they never were a flash in the pan. And like Empire, Empire, they have more depth and legitimacy than you could think at first. These four songs are simply delicious, maybe unimportant but such pleasures are essential for a happy life.

http://algernoncadwallader.blogspot.com/

Brave Bird - ready or not ep (2010) & it's my pride that i swallow (2011)

2011-08-24T21:51:00.000+02:00

From Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, supposed to be one more of these local emo/punk/twinkle bands, but this EP proves they are so much more than that.

At first approach they doesn't sound so different from resurgence emo bands, such as Algernon Cadwallader or Dads, but as soon as you start to dig below you realize they much more belong the category of Penpal, Coate or Mountains for Clouds.

Through this ep I think about American Football, Dinosaur Jr, Van Pelt, (early) Bright Eyes and even Seam. One of their songs is just beyond category, "Healthy", fucking brilliant and groundbreaking, most of the other ones are just a step behind.

But it's imperfect, the mastering of levels could have give them a more perfect balance, it's mostly the voice of the screamer which is saturating at times, overlooking the finesse of the songs even if it is a strong source or fever and intensity.

First thing to notice, the guitarist is an erudite, pinpointing most of what I admir(ed) in the emo/indie scene about this instrument, his versatility linked to a coherent hypersensitivity is a fulfilling pleasure from first note to the last one, no matter which indie style he is playing.

Secondly, the vocalist which is not screaming but singing, often hits the right vibe even if imperfect and somewhat adolescent sounding. The icing on the cake is when the guitar and these vocals have some room together.

So Brave Bird is generating a mix of strong enthusiasm and recurring frustration for me and only "Healthy" and "It's my pride that I swallow" have enough strength to reach a balance which turns the screamo part into something bearable. But there are really good parts in other songs such as "Tired Enough", "See you next year" or "Scared Enough"but it is followed or preceded by ruining parts with screamo whiny vocals too much in the forefront. When they are just used as accents in the background or at a more convenient level in the mix they even have an important role, but too much and too much and I feel close to allergy.

Hopes are high and anyways I'm already addicted, even if I complain.

Ready or Not EP by Brave Bird

It's My Pride That I Swallow by Brave Bird

Dads - brush your teeth, again ;) (Get Into It, 2011)

2011-08-22T14:48:00.000+02:00

Their music is identified as twinkle (emo).

With screamo, emo.... so nineties and progressively devoid of their initial meanings and with the passing of time changing perceptions, it is often safer to invent and adopts other tags, in order to revive a certain innocence and authenticity, a right balance between spontaneity and elitism.

Scott Scharinger (Guitar/Vocals) and John Bradley (Drums/Bass/Vocals) know where they are coming from, their references, the past and present of their style of music, and are able to make it sound true, brilliant and powerful.

"Emo/post-/screamo/math/indie" - "pop/core/rock", "Brush your teeth, again :)" is much more serious and demanding than what it looks a first, and their humor is just the transcription of how playful and fluid their music is, somewhere on this long road between Joan of Arc/Cap'n Jazz and Dinosaur Jr/Built To Spill , but dealing with an up to date grammar and style, a freshness and a sense of texture which may recall Van Pelt or Boy's Life while the melodies are a kind of just more intellect version of Algernon Cadwallader.

If not truly inventing something new, Dads are still good runners and "brush your teeth, again ;)" is a quite pleasing and entertaining release.

The most interesting parts is when they slow things down and start to play around tension and release, like with "Pass me the ball", or inject some melancholy like on the second part of "I didn't say pass me the ball". My favorite track is "Dan's D'Angelo Impersonation" where they embrace some quietness and put in hyphens the screamo part.

Probably they will finally become too old for screaming and explore this direction more largely.

http://dads.bigcartel.com/

http://getintoitrecords.tumblr.com/

Dads - "Dan's Christopher Walken Impersonation" from Village Basement Sessions on Vimeo.

Brush Your Teeth, Again ;) by Dads

Deep Waters - self titled (2011, Diamond Wave Press)

2011-08-21T07:32:00.001+02:00

Deep Waters, solo project of David Spalvieri-Kruse, was for me, a huge discovery of last year, with his "Never Really Alone / The Stillness" two songs release.

He is back now for a eight track debut album including the two previous songs in very close, maybe just remastered, versions.

No big change of scenario and if you draw a square with Bill Callahan (Smog), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), Liz Harris (Grouper) and Duncan Sumpner (Songs of Green Pheasant) at each corner, he is moving around, not at the center but somewhere in the periphery, slowly and progressively pushing the limits.

The album opens an starts with the best track, "Season's fade" where he is exploring new territory. There is as always a strong melancholic melody with vocals at the forefront, the vintage synth is back, but all around he is using beats, reverberated electric piano, a processed electric guitar and different elements of production, giving space and a nice quiet opulence. It is really the best direction for him to explore.

Even if miles away from anything alt-country, there is something in "Dreamin'" which makes me nostalgic of the Scud Mountains Boys album "Massachusetts", a similar softness and smoothness which strangely makes you shiver when at night, a fresh breeze washes the warm summer air away, culminating with the graceful ageless crystalline synth part.

I'm less directly convinced by "In the lake" or "Pine Swayed Stories" because they tip the scales in favor of the vocals which are too prominent there for me and not enough understated.

Nothing to add on the magical pair "Never Really Alone / The Stillness". Next in line, "Sun sets low" displays a sweet laziness, welcome rest at the end of the day, the interaction between the guitar and the electric piano is particularly nice and sustains the whole song. Last track of the album, "Some snowy dream" is also the most vaporous and floating albeit maybe too short to circumvolve a promising glimpse, but such more open structures are an obvious direction to explore for Deep Waters.

This debut album is a good starting point from which to start for David Spalvieri-Kruse and considering his references there is no doubts that he will be pushing the walls instead of adopting formal or conventional songwriting, while always keeping this quietness and feeling of reverence which belongs to the very core of his expression.

http://diamondwavepress.com/

http://deepwaters.bandcamp.com/

http://deepwaters.weebly.com

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://deepwaters.bandcamp.com/album/deep-waters"&amp;gt;Deep Waters by Deep Waters&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Bart & Friends - stories with the endings changed (2011, Lost and lonesome)

2011-08-16T13:29:00.000+02:00

New Bart & Friends album, one year after the coming-back ep "make you blush" of this Australian band, which was a good surprise after a long break, and I'm even more pleased now to see Bart Cummings back in full action on a more developed release.

If "Make you blush" was based on short twee indie pop songs, he is instead writing here longer indie pop songs - in an almost classical Go-Betweens way - with a full band behind him.

His "friends" here are Louis Richter and Mark Monnone (who is also behind the label), on guitar and bass (The Lucksmiths, Mid-State Orange), Jeremy Cole (The Zebras) on drums, Scott Stevens (Summer Cats, Earthmen) doing vocals on five tracks, and Irene Drossinos (Summer Cats) on organ and backing vocals.

I probably regret the absence of Kerrie Bolton (now a professional opera singer) or of Pam Berry (living in England), because there is nothing better than the right female vocals to make his songs sparkle but Scott Stevens isn't doing a bad job.

The opening song "Who Am I to Say No" is efficient even if somewhat average, it just makes me feel nostalgic of the whole indie pop era without really concerning me presently. But on the next track, the vocals of Scott Stevens are directly more sensitive, "When I've Got No Choice" is like a more upbeat Soadstream in full pop mode.

It's with "There's No Place I'd Rather Be" that the record starts to slip off the road and explores less obvious territory, the realm of Australian indie pop, a playful and stirring melody with as counterpoint desperate vocals. The bittersweet "Rule the day" is an highlight, hesitating between the last days of summer and the first signs of autumn. "Now I Think There's Something You Can Do For Me" reminds me of the upbeat poignancy of certain songs written by Grant McLennan (Go-Betweens) or Randall Lee (Nice, Ashtray Boy).

As if we were opening the second side of the record, Bart Cummings is back at the microphone singing on the last four tracks and we are directly back in the old Bart & Friends / Cat's Miaow days with their typical lo-fi type of songs: pleasant but not spectacular with "Calling Out My Name", "Cast of Half Forgotten Names" and "Tomorrow Will Be Better Than Today " are more intriguing with some Cat's Miaow accents, and "Sound of the bells" even got a Go-Betweens touch.

"Stories with the endings changed" is not an extraordinary record, but fulfills nicely all minimal expectations and for the nostalgic ones it is a wonderful madeleine de Proust, to savor again and again.

http://www.lostandlonesome.com.au/

Bart & Friends - Now I Think There's Something You Can Do For Me by Lost And Lonesome

The OO-Ray - astoria (2011, Audiomoves)

2011-08-15T08:20:00.000+02:00

The OO-Ray is the solo project of Ted Laderas, from Portland, OR, who defines himself as a scientist, amateur cellist, and electroacoustic composer.

Released on Audiomoves, "Astoria" is a selection from tracks written in 2009 and 2010. The project was to improvise a track a week, reflecting the mood and the atmosphere of short periods.

So it's not a "true" album, much more a collection of moments, of pictures not conceived initially as a part of this album but more as occasion to get to the point, to fix things, to smooth away remaining stress, events and tiredness.

It is quieter, less shoegaze, colder, less on the verge of emotional collapsing work than his "Winterborne EP" which I quite enjoyed. He seems to have wanted to reach a more conventional form of expression, and such direction is not so different from what Antonymes did on his album "The licence to interpret dreams". It is something like a more "adult" release, taking height naturally, but not as the result of a long work of composition, going back and forth, mainly as a change of scale and perspective.

David Darling, Brahms and My Bloody Valentine were his sources of inspirations for this album. Apparently the latter one lost some influence compared with the previous EP, and it pushes his music towards a more formal style, dilapidating a part of his charm.

We are closer to the real Ted Laderas, distanced from a sublimated version. I see no crossing point between warm intimate emotional melancholy of his shoegazing accents, and a still not deeply mastered ECM new series abstract spiritual melancholic perspective he often explores here without giving himself the right compositional tools.

I start my voyage through "Astoria" is with the objective to find back the follow-up of what I enjoyed on his "Winterborne EP", discarding what I can only translate as false starts or dead eands.

First stop with the slow swirls of "Marzo" where he is strumming his cello strangely in order to get a rhythmical pattern, which strangely reminds me of marimbas, over which he adds several layers of processed cello, and a few background percussion. You're not supposed to play shoegaze music and it is even shaky at times, but emerges from the condition an undeniable charm.

Slowly piercing through the collected tracks is a third vein he is opening with ambient hazy pieces reflecting the artwork. "Autumn" is a perfect translation of the cover image, aerial tramway pole leading god knows where through the fog. "Astoria" is a short atmospheric drone interlude, a temporary sunny spell with a pale sun in a middle position. Later, once the mist is dissipated, a glowing sun rises in a soft blue sky, with "Sleep" a warm and fulfilling ambient track.

It is followed by the feverish "Waveguide", where you almost imagine a distorted guitar playing with a cello, but it's just two layers or cello with some interplay, beautiful and intense like slow motion sea waves.

Later the delicate "Gwageus" is like a peaceful nocturnal refuge, suspended in time, like a long loop finisheing just where he started, until the "Chimes at Midnight" wakes us up, for a moment, before falling into deep sleep with "Palimpsests", meeting some ghosts.

Finally what lacks in this collection of tracks is more balance and structure, a master plan.

http://15people.net

http://audiomoves.com

Astoria Sampler by ooray

Narrative - ep (2010)

2011-08-11T21:47:00.000+02:00

Narrative is the solo project of Lewis Gorham, a musician from Melbourne, Australia, apparently 23 years old and that's all, no more info.

I'm not sure this EP has been properly released and I have no idea how I came across his Soundcloud page, but coming back to this bookmark as few days ago, I decided I wanted to know more about Narrative.

Three tracks for a total length of 29 minutes, which could have been released on Hibernate, Audio Gourmet or Under The Spire, indifferently, as it totally embraces the neo-classical / ambient / drone / field recordings features of this scene and fans of Antonymes or Hummingbird won't be disoriented.

Melancholic piano with keyboards, drone, electronics and field recordings, three slow and monotonous compositions, full of moist despair, of warm loneliness, of bleak vague and vacant landscapes.

I particularly enjoy the third track, "Night of the violins", with its exquisite feelings of disgrace and fever, where in 14 minutes, Lewis Gorham overpowers the rest of his EP and really puts you down, gasping for air.

It is a track installed slowly with no obvious epicness but which progresses inadvertently with the flow of emotions and surprises you with its acuity, making your heart stutter.

The second track suffers from the comparison, delayed drifting piano lines under rainy field recordings, which are floating without true direction, generating some frustration.

The opening track, "I dropped it in the lake" stands between the two, establishing a beautiful climate which reminds me of 1 Mile North but forgets to let it evolve.

Then, this EP could be resumed to the last track which is also half the length of the release. There Lewis Gorham definitely reaches another category and leaves a mark, humble and majestic.

http://soundcloud.com/narrative

night of violins by narrative

Yamamoto - summer songs for winter people (2010, Poni Republic)

2011-08-10T14:54:00.000+02:00

Inconsolable we are, of the disappearance of Komeït, and very rare are those likely to take up the torch. We had Anois, now we have Yamamoto too, and both are rare, discreet and infinitely precious.

The duo comes from Tijuana, Mexico, yes, not the place where you would expect such oversensitive and subtle bedroom pop, mixing perfectly electronics, male/female vocals and guitars.

Well, Komeït is not enough as reference and I would gladly evoke others tutelary figures too such as The Softies, Empress or Aden to draw a circle around the happiness down below.

Yamamoto are Mario Supereit (vocals, guitars, programming, bass, moog & casiotones) and Brenda J. (vocals, melodica, glockenspiel, harmonica & shakers), they co-wrote the seven songs between 2006-2009, and this EP, their second in fact has been released on the netlabel Poni Republic.

"Summer songs for winter people" is just deliciously unimportant, beautifully imperfect, the kind of record you could disregard easily but also cherish intently, successful because falsely trivial.

Past the instrumental intro, you're directly in the heart of their expression with "Sound Asleep", an afternoon lullaby for drinking tea and eating biscuits while half napping. But soon enough melancholy is knocking on the door. The guitar and whispers of "Slide", and Brenda sings just like I wish Jodi would have sung on her Secret Stars songs. She goes on with the mechanic beats of "Race Car", acidulated indie pop song, vaguely echoing the first steps of The Magnetic Fields.

Right time for the highlight, "Since you went away", sunlight for winter times, delicate and soothing while deeply sad and nostalgic. And I still wonder how they are able to capture this northern autumnal melancholy so perfectly. It goes on with the vaporous dreampop of "Life like Math" before reaching an end with the melancholic instrumental "Rolling down the hill" scented with an atmosphere of summer end.

A recommended (and free) release.

http://www.myspace.com/yamamoto
http://ponirepublic.blogspot.com/

Nobuto Suda - the locus of life (2011)

2011-08-08T21:38:00.000+02:00

Nobuto Suda hails from Hushimi in Kyoto, uses an electric guitar and marries it with various field recordings to create ambient drone.

All the money from this album is donated to the tsunami and earthquake relief via the Japanese Red Cross.

"The locus of life" is an austere and powerful work, which is better played at high volume. It is emblematic of the genre and you could call all masters as references (starting with Basinski, Stars of the Lid, Budd//Eno and so on) but you would fail at resume it as it is so vast and this present record is so massive. Probably citing the photographer Elger Esser as an influence would be closer to achieving the circle.

Four tracks, simply named "Variation 1" to "Variation 4", and circulating around a single atmosphere for an highly meditative work. You are moving around in a bubble, yellow sunset in full bloom, like a forever postponed dark night. I'm just surprised of not hearing field recordings behind the guitar drones and layers.

It's a pleasant and relatively impressive work but the effect is mostly anesthetizing, more narcoleptic than dream inducing, so serious and formal, than Nobuto Suda forgot to add a personal touch.

http://signsofmirage.blogspot.com

The Locus of The Life by Nobuto Suda

Sima Kim - texture (2011, Twisted Tree Line)

2011-08-05T21:02:00.000+02:00

Three tracks, named Texture 3, 4 and 5, a debut EP for Sima Kim on the UK label Twisted Tree Line, so yes, the idea of texture is central, and the three tracks have different colors.

Sima studied music and explored personally different directions and techniques, citing references such as Arvo Part, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Sergei Profokiev or Karlheinz Stockhausen, with a focus on minimalist, combining silence and notes, elaborating layers to finally achieve textures.

Tracks one and three are indeed pure textures, nicely and intelligently conceived, with very subtle and precise atmospheres, which escape criticism. Their only problem is that there is no melody, no true narrative context or cathartic emotional content, it's just beautiful glass sculptures with no meaning, freewheel concepts.

Then you have the second track, mixing piano and electronics. Warm, refreshing, melancholic, rainy, intimate and highly personal, autumnal, mind blowing. Same perfection of textures but now with a goal, with a destination, five moving minutes of intense beauty where he finds a voice and avoid all cliches of an almost exhausted genre.

In fact on this track, "Texture 4", Sima Kim is doing exactly what Samn Johnson did on his debut album "Shades" with the track "Hyacinths", finding grace. There is a strange symbolic twinship between the two young composers that way.

I wish he can repeat such miracle over and over again.

http://www.twistedtreeline.co.uk

http://simakim.bandcamp.com/album/texture

texture 4 by Sima

interview: Apollo

2011-08-04T16:02:00.002+02:00

An unexpected EP, a meteor in the Australian sky, four melodic sounds, with a warm maritime spacious sound, of dream and vaporous slowcore, Apollo is a nice discovery of 2011 on which big hopes can be built - listening to their song "Balancing" is like diving to the bottom of the swimming pool and resurfacing again more alive :

(an interview with Alex Hill)

How was Apollo created, were you playing in other bands before?

Dave and I had played in a few different bands growing up but it wasn’t until after university that we played together (in a band called ‘Hope Springs’). That project was interrupted by work/career priorities after about a year when Dave moved to Canberra. Jai was a long time school friend of mine and had not been playing guitar for long, but he advanced really quickly so I invited him to work together. Andy was also a really good friend and keen to be part of something - so, Apollo is a first time band for both of them. Eventually, Dave moved back up to Queensland and we started rehearsing, refining, playing shows, etc.

Many Australian bands are using band names related to the environment and wide spaces, like Sea Life Park, Braving The Seabed, Rebels Astronauts, Seascapes of the Interior, Seaworthy, Tides, Broken Flight, Sunny Disposition, Aviator Lane... why choose Apollo as a band name and how do you relate to the Australian environment, which part does it play in your life and how does it influence your music?

There’s really no deep, profound meaning behind the band name & I wouldn’t say the environment has a huge influence on the lyrical content or sound.

You have just recorded and published an EP, how do you plan to broadcast it? How do you see it?

Lately, our focus has been more on getting the EP completed rather than how we would publicise it. We were fortunate enough to be invited down to SAE Byron Bay to record and had some really talented people working on the project with us. We’re all really happy with the end result. The EP is available at shows and online but I think we’ll wait until we have a full length before we really make a deliberate marketing effort.

As seen from here, the Australian indie scene looks like a parallel universe but split between highly distant cities. Are you part of a local “indie” scene in Brisbane, what’s the importance of the whole Australian indie scene, for your band, which relations have you developed?

Australia is really spread out geographically. You would expect everything to be localised but it seems like most of the east coast bands are fairly well connected and often touring together, etc. All of us are based in Queensland so inevitably we play in Brisbane more than anywhere else. Last week we were fortunate to play our launch show with Castles Sunk Below the Sea and Inside the Whale, two really great Brisbane-based bands.

How do you write songs?

Honestly, it’s different for each song and I prefer it that way. But, for the most part, I start with a concept on guitar/keyboard and take it to Jai, we build it up and take it into a full band situation where we will come up with a loose song structure. Then the vocals are shaped around that & the whole thing is progressively refined.

Do you consider Apollo as a live band mostly? Your songs seem to have a pretty efficient machinery, with each detail having its legitimacy contributing to the final result.

That’s a fair comment. For me, there is a big emphasis on the way the different instrumental parts work together at any given moment - sometimes to the point where the overall impact of the song and its structure is neglected. That’s something I want to change in the future.

Which bands made you want to have a band and write music? I guess Death Cab For Cutie is among them as it is mentioned on your pages.

Each of us have different taste. Dave and I are big Elbow fans, Jai listens to a mix of styles and Andy is into post-rock style bands. Akshay Kalawar (who recorded The Small Step) compared our sound to The Album Leaf.

Lyrics and vocals seem to have a central importance in your songs, a cathartic and very personal dimension which adds depth and to which music contributes, creating the emotional background and atmosphere, defining the climate of the band. Is it the direction which appeared directly, a kind of meeting place where you reach a state of musical connection or communion and are able to push your songwriting forward? How do you experience this, how does it affect your live shows?

Apollo is the first project where I have been solely responsible as the vocalist (lyrics & melodies), so it's fairly new to me. At times, I do wish the content wasn't so self-involved but what I write always seems to be of a personal nature and I guess you just put down what you're feeling at the time.

How has been the reception of the EP so far?

Really good. I mean, it’s early days, but we like the feedback so far. I think part of it is the amazing studio we got to record in and the professionals we were lucky enough to work with. Particularly with our music, I think it helps when every individual note and sound is evident.

Speaking of my review, it shows how I developed a dual appreciation of the EP, having tried to go through it and to experience it as a whole, which finally made me cut it into two halves, for what could be seen as minor elements, what’s your lecture of it as the main actor?

I think you make some really valid points. Sometimes it takes that outside critical eye to get some perspective on what we have written. In a live situation, Evading (the opening track), is the most satisfying for me, but I think the latter two on the record have a bit more to offer as complete songs.

What’s the future and projects of Apollo now?

Write enough material for a full length, keep meeting bands & possibly tour down to Sydney & Melbourne at some point.

Empire! Empire (I Was a Lonely Estate) - home after three months away (2011, Stiff Slack)

2011-08-04T14:21:00.000+02:00

I've been reluctant to write about Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) so far, because I cherish as icons some of their very very close references & influences : Mineral and American Football. even more, I admit their debut 7inch was, is and will stay a secret pleasure as it brings back each time a flood of (good) memories, but yes they were not bringing something new to the style ans the tag "resurgence band" of the emo scene is difficult to bear.

So, with my focus on letting my ears drifting in potentially new directions, I never seriously tried to listen to their subsequent discography. But, and that's my squirrel side, I kept a precise but discreet attention on them, maybe waiting for a harsh and strong winter and keeping them as a hidden supply for hypothetical shortage times.

Everything went on and could have stayed like that forever, until a few days ago. I received an email from Keith Latinen, leader & main composer of the band, proposing promo reviews of new records on his own label Count Your Lucky Stars. As a side-note, he added a link towards the last release of his band, en EP, with these words : "Since the label is from Japan, I thought I would help them out a little with PR!".

Well I was done and forced to listen finally with the necessary attention to this new release, somewhat scared of not liking it and then unsure about how to formulate arguments and opinions, reasons of denial.

So I listened sceptically to the first track, to the second track, to the third track, with not obvious decisions and then came the fourth track, which totally reversed my opinion. But not directly, only after a few spins of the whole ep, it was like, "wait, what does he says, why does it sound like that, so strange", arising such intimate and deep emotions.

"I swim like a minnow" is a quiet and tense song, obviously related to a slowcore approach, following directions previously explored by Mineral or Seam, but with a personal, "new", touch and in fact generating different feelings, a strong wave of melancholic nostalgia, sensations of emptiness and disappointment, the slow agony of summer into autumn, with beautiful humble lyrics relating events and how something unexpected emerged through events.

It's a fascinating song, emphasizing somehow how a few drops of bitterness finally make us keep the feet on the ground.

Once been through this ending song, the rest of the EP takes another color. Starting with "The Loneliness Inside Me Is a Place", a self- reflexive song perfumed as those of Owen, with almost hidden lyrics half-sung and central, "but the truth is much more complicated than that", unnoticed at first but which finally are the inundating apex with their hidden sense.

The second track, "Water", is pleasant, soothing, reassuring, narrative and sweet like a lullaby but more distracting than arresting.

Luckily, "Everything Rests on Your Small Shoulders" is an immediate antidote, lightheaded and pounded, stormy and lazy. "The irony was not lost on me" sings Keith Latinen and yes, if he's able to mix heart on sleeve with self-reflexive lucidity and irony, one can only recognizes him as credible.

With three songs on four which won't leave you totally intact and impact durably your mood, making you more or less addicted, "Home After Three Months Away" is obviously a recommended record, which makes me want to look backwards and forward.

http://www.empireempireband.com&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://empireempire.bandcamp.com/album/home-after-three-months-away"&amp;gt;Home After Three Months Away by Empire! Empire (I Was a Lonely Estate)&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Gurun Gurun - gurun gurun (Home Normal, 2010)

2011-08-03T08:46:00.001+02:00

First album for this Czech trio, which strangely features three Japanese female singers as guest contributors: Sawako, Moskitoo and Rurarakiss, each one singing on two different tracks. They also use a sample of Daisuke Miyatani on another track and a few other musicians are adding clarinet, trumpet, violin, koto or viola da gamba.

For the absent-minded "Gurun Gurun" could be easily considered with their style as a Japanese formation, (the artwork is close to what the assimilated Singaporean band Aspidistrafly used on their album "I Hold a Wish for You"). Once you go through, you notice another twist as they are trying to emulate Múm. A few years ago they might as well have released this record on Morr.

This debut album can be like a wedding cake at times, an accumulation of elements which by their multiplicity, tone down the whole impression. There are potential confusion and saturation for the (too) attentive listener, too much seat-belts, parachutes and lifebelts are there to prevent you from disliking the album. I feel like going through a tropical forest, enjoying moments of pure beauty among a luxuriance of other convenient and often superfluous elements.

The risk of invited voices is their lack of personal implication, guests are guests, so if pleasant and of good will, it is also very often formal and normative. I don't enjoy some of these tracks : the too melodic, "fu", the confused and disconnected "yume no mori" and the childlike "kúkó". Sometimes they are also tempted by freewheel improvisations leading nowhere, like with "io" or "ato toa ota tao". A last bad idea is to end the album with two passable and insignificant remixes.

Once the bad things expressed, it's time to concentrate on the successful parts :

I clearly enjoy two instrumental tracks, were you can feel a subtle interaction between the players, creating a meandering stream which is refreshing and appeasing like on "karumi", or nocturnal and sleepwalking with "emoto".

When the vocals are subdued enough and don't swamp the track, it turns into something really seductive. The beautiful "komodo" (Rurarakiss), full of whispers, mixing nicely electronics and brass instruments, find the right but pleasant uncertain balance, brightly complementary. They are sharing a mutual communion on the bucolic and intimate "Ano Uta" with Moskitoo. Faithful to herself, Sawako is so invested into "yuki ~ hawaiian snowflake" that it could be a song of one of her own albums, inducing moving feelings of trouble and hesitation.

http://www.myspace.com/gurunas

http://gurunas.net/

http://www.homenormal.com/

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - love is a stream (2010, Type)

2011-07-30T09:03:00.000+02:00

A strong monolithic impression, "Love is a Stream", a huge iceberg, the size of an island, is drifting slowly on a quiet sea, towards warmer climates, with all nuances of white and blue, its cliffs reflecting on the dark ocean water and contrasting with the deep foggy sky.

At equal symmetrical distance between "Music For Nitrous Oxide" by The Stars of the Lid and Belong's "October Language", My Bloody Valentine-esque to the core, but devoid of shoegazing archetypes, reinventing what was considered as marked out by Windy & Carl and peers, here we are.

For Jefre Cantu-Ledesma it is also a symbolic continuation of what he did with "Love loops" as both albums are quite introvert, quiet and intimate, and if love is again the subject, indeed the loops have been replaced by streamed sounds, would it be processed guitar sounds, synthesizer drones or blurred vocals.

I feel like swimming through ecstatic melancholy, following an invitation to hypnosis and there is no decompression chamber, you start to dive directly with "Stained Glass Body", swept away by powerful streams of processed ethereal guitar sounds, breathing inside a waterfall, dazzled by bright lights, until the abstraction of swirl tension with "Start Garden', reemerging finally at a quiet and silent surface of water.

Walking towards the powerful wind with a Labradford-esque "Loving Love", full of warmth, wet eyes, twirling hair and a feeling of weightlessness, high speed flying and landing. Waking up and regaining slowly consciousness on "Where I end & you begin" before surfing on top of a crystalline rogue wave.

Soothing on "Body within body", before returning to full propulsion with the harsher "Where you end & I begin", reaching stratosphere on "Orbiting Love" and progressively suffering from the lack of air, before the long free-fall hallucinatory parachuting of "White Dwarf Butterfly', pursued by an instant of self-reflection full of loneliness and melancholy, "Womb night".

Then the atmospheric "River Like Spine" unfolds like the opening of a view on plains landscape late autumn during a hike, even more atmospheric and reminiscent of Robin Guthrie works, "Wild Moon & Sea" is both ethereal and icy, before a darker and nocturnal "Mirrors Death".

A surprisingly good album which surrounds and wraps you with a special aura.

http://typerecords.com/releases/love-is-a-stream-2-2

Colophon - love loops (Flau, 2010 - Temporary Residence, 2003)

2011-07-26T20:24:00.001+02:00

I missed the original release of "Love Loops" in 2003 on Temporary Residence, even if I previously enjoyed his "Spring" EP on Dream By Degrees in 2002.

Now listening to this new edition on the Japanese label Flau, with three bonus tracks, I strongly regret my lack of attention and feel grateful for this second chance.

"Love Loops" is a minimalist ambient record, very soothing with its warmth, its quietness and melancholic atmospheres. There are 15 songs based on loops for a total length 45 minutes. Tracks oscillate between one and twelve minutes and you never have the impression it is too short or too long, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is capturing moments, each time weighing up emotions and climates with sensitivity, developing a welcome and comforting hushed delicacy.

He starts playing acoustic guitar on "This Is How You Spell Almanac", quiet, soft and pensive. "Reykjavik" is an orchestral vinyl loop which stands perfectly just below the one minute mark like a sunrise through winter. A solitary walk with "Prospect Park", before the gorgeous and intimate "Mangoes And Sticky Rice" which reminds me of Empress, leading to a city view from the top of an hill, birds singing all around and distant traffic noise muffled in the background, "Your Body Was Like A Jungle Aflame", followed by an instant of introspective joy, "Kona", a sudden sunny spell revealing beauty in the landscape.

There is something icy with "First Day Back From Brooklyn/Fingers Through Your Hair", breathing cold hair under a foggy sky, full of melancholic perfume, before a darker "Amsterdam". Delicate and nostalgic, "Sunset In Your Mother's Garden" perfectly pictures autumnal drizzle in a garden, or later at sea with "Ikebana".

A single loop played during 1:48, "Love loop", a trumpet fragment with high-pitched sounds, for something Lynchian, before an aerial "Eat the moon", seven minutes of lost reverberated piano notes à la Stars of the Lid, shivering and entrancing, which is in fact, under another name, the track "Vicodin Dream / Josi's Last Stand" from the "Conduction Convection Radiation" split album with 1 Mile North and The Wind-Up Bird. The two other tracks from there, "Watching Josi Die" and "Texas Heat" end this album.

As a whole, "Love Loops" is a quite impressive and convincing album, and seven years after its first release we can now presume it is something like a classic to keep preciously.

http://www.flau.jp/releases/15_jp.html

http:// www.myspace.com/jcledesma 

Talk - waltz for feebee (2010, Dead Funny / YCT)

2011-07-24T09:00:00.000+02:00

Started as a trio in March 2009 and expanded six months later to a five piece, Talk is a band from the south part of Japan, from Kumamoto.

"Waltz for Feebee" is their first release, six songs between dreampop and post-rock, with often more emotional shoegaze accents.

They might not be the most original formation of the genre but their music owns a strange easiness which tend to put a smile on your face while listening, and each of their songs has a got a kind of sparkle.

It' not really easy to categorize them, maybe because of the Japanese vocals but they are somewhere between Pia Fraus and Mineral, developing obvious melancholic instrumental atmospheres which may recall L'Altra, Early Day Miners, American Football or early Gregor Samsa, but mixing these also with a more melodic tempo. Their sound is warm, often with the heart on sleeve, adolescent and green too, very spontaneous and without a trace of irony.

The best way to enter this EP is with the last and sixth track: "Pass", a magnificent melancholic and emotional instrumental track following both slowcore and post-rock archetypes but with an unusual strong freshness, an a final result more akin to Carissa's Wierd typical swirls or to Mineral's EndSerenading stormy climates than to your usual post-rock band. A recent point of comparison would be also Mountains For Clouds, as both bands have this inspiring and breathy quality and seem to enjoy every second of their compositions, making these blooming, achieving something greater than them, overpassing their own ingredients. Somewhat tt is not supposed to be as good, but it is so overwhelmingly positive, sensitive that you surrender yourself. A live rendition of the song on youtube only make it more convincing and impressive.

The fifth track, "Nowhere" reproduces the miracle of "Pass" and make you realize that one of the assets of Talk is their slowness, as each piano or guitar note can have it's greatest impact here and slowly dies before the next one appears.

"Glide" is a dreampop song with vaporous vocals showing a softer and more sentimental side of Talk, highly pleasant but relatively soft and unoffensive. It's when they play around slowness and tension that their gentle side is transformed into something more valuable, like on the melancholic instrumental "Farewell".

"Sundae Flip" follows different patterns, much more melodic and built around vocals, definitely indiepop and sugary during the first part, and deliciously windy and dynamic next, heading towards a Pia Fraus type of scenario, for the best.

It's not surprising that "Waltz for Feebee" is the title track of this debut EP as it it where they mix their melodic and band dynamic sides, for an emotional and energetic result which tends to have a not so pleasant saturating effect.

I prefer their instrumental compositions because they are more tense and minimalist, better balanced and also because, when they use vocals they tend to give it too much space to their own detriment. But I do think vocals are important for them but just with more restraint, more sparse and introspective. Once that said, it's a pretty nice, convincing and promising debut EP.

http://ytcrecords.cart.fc2.com/

http://talk.bandcamp.com/

http://02.mbsp.jp/talk/

http://www.myspace.com/talkband

Tara Jane O'Neil & Nikaido Kazumi - tara jane o'neil & nikaido kazumi (2011, Sweet Dream Press / K Records)

2011-07-21T21:38:00.000+02:00

Tara Jane O'Neil toured Japan five times with Nikaido Kazumi, and in the process, they built mutual friendship and musical appreciation, so appeared the envy of a collaboration.

It is an album built in two phases: at first, four hours of improvisation recorded during one single day in 2008, basis for a reworking, turning elements into songs, in 2010. They use a very minimal setup, guitar, voices and various percussion instruments. Much more strange is the fact that this record has been realized without a common language, using alternative methods of communication most of the time, like drawings, pantomime, and clapping.

Then it's not a new album for Tara Jane O'Neil or Nikaido Kazumi, nor the result of a true collaboration like in a band, but instead a sort of improvised sidestep, a kind of meeting point between their two universes, a long (half broken) communication through music were the two of them meet and share music.

You can feel the communication process directly with the first track, a live improvisation of Nikaido Kazumi backed by the guitar of Tara Jane O'Neil, it's not a spectacular or great track but just an exchange of emotions, each of the two contributors getting slowly adjusted to each other and there is something moving when you feel the presence of these sparkles.

On the next track, "Bell and Pop", roles are exchanged, with Tara Jane O'Neil whispering over percussion instruments, but the connection between the two seems mechanic. This album is experimental because there is only a small window for listening to it, and sometimes it is not even opened and the result turns into trancelike music, something more primordial, childlike or "primitive", like on "Ruh Roh", "Thumb Drum", "Say yah", or "Nursery", or into something more cacophonic or repetitive, "Naturally", or "4 trains", where there is no realcommunication, just a conjunction of sounds.

Except the first track, something special happens too on "Riceball", and with the field recordings you can imagine the two preparing literally riceballs inside a kitchen, or on "Kaheeloud" which looks like a solo track by Tara Jane O'Neil emulating the very spontaneous form of expression used by Nikaido Kazumi, or with "Nikapella were instead Kazumi Nikaido sings almost like Tara Jane, or with "Melodica Hall" which out of a totally detuned beginning finally emerges a strange melancholic beauty, or with the last track which once again looks like a Tara Jane O'Neil track.

It is definitely an album to reserve to the real fans of these artists, because the improvisations even if reworked never totally reach the song level but instead at best float around and can be interpreted if you're fully attentive and in the right state of mind.

http://www.tarajaneoneil.com/
http://www.nikaidokazumi.net/

Good Weather For An Airstrike - a summer (Sonic Reverie, 2011)

2011-07-17T22:10:00.000+02:00

After several short releases, Tom Honey, Winchester, UK, makes the big step with a first album. A project at first conceived as a way to alleviate the effects and symptoms of tinnitus, by creating collection of calming and sleep inducing composition.

It is this filter which makes this debut album interesting, because it eliminates some of the disturbing metal influences Tom Honey cites on his myspace, Mike Patton, Cult Of Luna or Agalloch, and the noisy side of post-rock, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Moving Mountains or Aidan Baker.

Once this sorting has been done, we are left with more accurate influences considering this project : Sigur Rós, Eluvium, The Album Leaf, The Appleseed Cast, Hammock, Stars Of The Lid or Chihei Hatakeyama. Tom Honey plays quiet ambient / post-rock music at a crossroads between these artists, so "A summer" is a familiar record, nothing you haven't already experienced, nothing strongly original but nothing irremediably weak too.

Maybe it's better to listen to this without high expectation, and after all there is no excessive pretension, no abstruse experimentation, just an honest record. Opening with "Solid Surroundings Feel Empty" it slowly develops a strange ambiance, which something becomes interesting but ends before reaching an expected target. The whole album is like that, on every track there are interesting elements, but not the expected emotional climax. It constantly slips through the sieve without gold nuggets, leaving no durable trace in memory, no deep emotional feelings.

http://www.sonicreverie.co.uk/

&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://sonicreverie.bandcamp.com/album/a-summer"&amp;gt;A Summer by Sonic Reverie Records&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;