Ilios – Vento Elektra

This is already the 10th release by Ilios, but it is the first I heard of this project so far. Apparently Ilios is closely connected to the Antifrost label (who also released works by Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez, and others) for most of his works seem to be released on this label. Vento Elektra was entirely created using electricity and electric signals as a sound source…

Mattin / Dion Workman – Via Vespucci

Via Vespucci is a 19 minute live recording by the artists Dion Workman and Mattin. This work consists of very minimal, static noises (hiss and crackling) that are of a very high pitch, near the inaudible. Somewhere in the background there is some lower rumbling. Suddenly there is a low buzzing sound with occasional interruptions…

Pan/Tone – Newfound urban calm

After a number of vinyl releases on labels such as Background and Sub-static and Revolver, American minimal techno project Pan/Tone prove that they have far from expired their tracks by releasing a double CD on the French label Bip-Hop. The first CD contains studio material by Pan/tone, while the second disc contains remixes of Pan/tone material…

Tilia – Vous revez/vous ne revez pas

Tilia is Alexander Peterhaensel, a composer from Munich who has released his music under various names for several years. ?Vous revez?? is Peterhaensel?s debut album under the name ?Tilia?. The music on this album can be best described as ?filmic?. Beautiful and melancholic piano loops are interluded with subtle effects, clicks, guitars and distant voices…

Autodigest – A compressed history of everything ever recorded vol.2

After a highly interesting and surprising debut (see review on this website), Autodigest presents their second work. This time it is released on both Cronica and Ash International. While the first work focussed on highly processed and very abstract digital sounds, this work is a bit less intense…

Schloss Tegal – Neoterrik Research: The Hidden History Of Schloss Tegal

Schloss Tegal has been active for a very long time. After four full length albums, and lots of contributions to compilations, Cold Spring (who also released their previous album) has now released an overview of Schloss Tegal?s history. ?Neoterrik Research? contains 11 tracks, most of which are compilation tracks, as well as a few remixes…

Merzbow – Sha Mo 3000

After hundreds of releases on cassette, vinyl and CD, Masami Akita aka Merzbow releases his first CD in South America on the Essence Music record label. Essence Music previously released the wonderful double-CD by Atomine Elektrine, and again provides a strong disc in a beautiful packaging…

Citadel – Granite Sky

This release was announced as Triumvirate?s last release. Triumvirate, the label of Mitchell Altum (better known as LAW), existed only for a few years and released twelve albums by artists who dwell in between dark ambient and power electronics. Citadel is a project by Mitchell Altum himself, and is musically not very distinct from his LAW material…

Kiritchenko, Andrey – Interplays, in between

This is the second CD by Andrey Kiritchenko on Ad Noiseam. Kiritchenko is an artist from the Ukraine, who collaborated with the likes of Scanner and Kim Cascone and played on various festivals around the world. The music of Andrey Kiritchenko is hard to classify, it is certainly electronic, but does not fall in any genre I can think of…

Cdatakill – The cursed species

Cdatakill hails from the breakcore scene and released some vinyls on various labels as well as a double CD on Ad Noiseam. Although one would be tempted to think of unsubtle and over-the-top headbanging breakbeat music when the term ?breakcore? is used, Cdatakill?s music is surprisingly subtle and controlled. On this CD we find ten tracks of post-breakcore electronic dance tracks…

Mothboy – The fears

Mothboy is Simon Smerdon, a guy from London who has been very active in the underground music scene for many years. Smerdon used to be part of the dark-hop outfit Ocosi, and released several CD?s and Cdr?s as Ocosi, Mothboy and Dicelab before this solo album called ?the fears? was released. ?The fears? contains various elements that clearly have different influences…

Halo Manash – Par-Antra I: Vir

The first release on Finland?s latest label ?Aural Hypnox? is by an act called ?Halo Manash?. Judging from the packaging, which contains all sorts of occult imagery, I expected this to be another dark-ambient release, one of many. In a way this is certainly true, the music is very dark, and dense…

Baghiri, Amir – Ghazal

This new CD by Amir Baghiri, called ?Ghazal?, came to me as quite a surprise. I expected to hear more of the ethnic ambient that I associated with Baghiri (like the amplexus stuff). On this CD, however, Baghiri presents some very rhythmic and danceable tracks. The tracks sound like some sort of ?pop? music from Iran, Irak, or perhaps Syria…

Aural Planet – Reworked

Apparently this Polish dance act did another release which was used to re-work and remix on this CD. The album contains remixes by bands I have never heard of (by a totally undiscovered Polish scene). The music of Aural Planet can be classified as ?dance? with influences by the idm, glitch and breakbeat genres…

Menche, Daniel – Ram Horns

This is an intriguing little release. It is a four minute track by Daniel Menche on a business card CDR, which is a CDR in the shape of a business card that simply cannot contain more music…

Tribes of Neurot – Adaptation and Survival

Tribes of Neurot is a side-project for the well-known metal band Neurosis. Under the name ?Tribes of Neurot?, the Neurosis members release their more ambient/drone and experimental music. On their previous releases ToN played an experimental sort of guitar-ambient, with lots of effects and noises. This release is different…

Dual – Fall

Dual is the project of Colin Bradley, an English musician who lives in London and who has been active in the ?drone? scene for more than half a decade. Dual released 7? ep?s and CD?s on Drone Records, Dirter Promotions, Cee and Coombe, as well as some compilation tracks on various labels. ?Fall? is a double 3? CDR set that comes in a very nice box, and was released in a very limited edition…

Alio Die / Ora – The door of possibilities

On this album we can find 4 tracks by Alio Die, 2 tracks by Ora, and one collaboration track between the two projects. Alio Die is the project of Stefano Musso, an Italian musician who composes soft and meditative drones with a very organic character. Musso uses various instruments as well as a lot of nature recordings to create loops and drones…

Huren – Ordet

While Huren?s earlier releases on Zhark seemed to consist of quite straightforward, and incredibly heavy techno-industrial, Huren seems to have edged away from the straightforward approach with this release (something which was already apparent with his CD album ?pub(l)ic meat?). Although the pounding 4/4 techno element is still present, Huren presents something that is a lot more complex…

Menche, Daniel – Heavy

I’m pretty sure this is one of my favourite Daniel Menche releases ever. It is a 3″ CDR that was released by Banned productions, and comes in a very beautiful handmade packaging.