Reviews: electronica

The releases on Hive Records are usually interesting, though not always very easy to digest. Musicwise they can be situated somewhere between IDM, industrial and electro(nica). The same can be said of this album by Photophob from Austria, which really impresses me. There are broken and glitchy sounds and complex beats, but also moody and melodic ambient synth layers…

For a Space, an electronic project of Sebastian Ullmann, really impressed me with the album “Secrets behind”, an album full of elegant moody electronica. These tracks were already recorded in 1998. Meanwhile Ullmann was also active as Polyspace, a collaboration with Polygon. It was time for a new For a Space album though…

A few years ago I encountered Red Reflection on the Words, Becoming compilation (Fleshmadeword, now called Immanence Records). Amidst all the industrial violence, their atmospheric, neo-classical track ‘Flood’ really stood out. When I recently encountered their (second) album “Prelude to annihilation”, I was curious if their other material had the same high quality…

Where to start a review of an album that describes a genre of its own? That gives a new experimental impulse to electro as well as progressive rock? Well, let me start with saying that I might not be the right person to review this album, as progrock is not my field. But then again, that does not tell you a lot about this album, so let’s just start by describing the man behind the project…

PuZZLing Rec. is building up a good reputation by releasing new records on a steady basis. This compilation album is the first part in a series of three. You will find ten tracks with experimental and often hectic breakcore beats.

Over 70 minutes of interesting electronic music is offered by Duuster, a project of Dutch origin but currently based in France. Earlier Duuster already created a split cd with Ch. District for M-Tronic. On ‘Habitat’ Duuster creates some fine work in the idm-electronica field. Overall the music is rather laidback, though less tranquil than for instance the latest Displacer album…

M-Tronic from France is one of my favourite label when it comes to demanding electronic music, and this second cd by Displacer from Canada is one of their finest releases. This act already convinced me with the debut album Moon-phase, and on Arroyo the project of Michael Morton has evolved further. The basis ingredients have not changed much…

One of the first musicians that fused ethnic elements with dancemusic was Banco de Gaia. He created music that might be called ethno-techno and ethno-ambient. Earlier releases as the impressive Maya and Last Train to Lhasa records are classics. After not keeping track of this artist for a few years I was happy to read about a new album…

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…

Already out for quite some months, but this new addition to the meanwhile extensive Kirlian Camera discography deserves to be mentioned here. Invisible Front is one of KC’s strongest albums to date, and includes one of their best songs ever. Invisible Front 2005 contains over an hour of music…

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 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 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…

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…

Everybody that is interested in industrial and idm knows that if you are looking for high quality innovating electronic music you have to keep an eye out for the releases on Hymen. Hecq is their new discovery. Scatterheart is actually the second Hecq release, but this is the first one on Hymen. The listener is taken into a varied world of sounds and forms when playing this record…

I was very impressed by the debut album by The Alpha Conspiracy, entitled Cipher. The original mix of idm, electro and electronica on that album, with a nice mood and a clear production, really caught my attention. Aura is the follow up. From track one the album is recognizable as being such…

This new release by Third Eye Foundation is part of the Oumopo project as started on the French label 0101, a side label of Ici d’ailleurs. The idea is to take samples from the catalogue of the label and rework them following some strict rules. Besides getting a cd, you also get a 16 page comic book by Jochen Gerner…

This is the second release in the Oumupo series on the French label 0101/Ici d’ailleurs. Everything follows the same concept as the first release in this series. Except for now the musical artist is turntablist Rob Swift, and graphic artist is Etienne Lecroart. I must first state I am not the biggest fan of turntablism…

From the ashes of Arsenal comes Artridge. After quite some trouble with Arsenal, Robin Pleil and Christoph Mainz decided to continue their own way and start Artridge. Artridge creates a world where electronic processing goes side by side with orchestral instrumentation, where soundscapes are just as normal as technoid beats…

With this new ?monster? release, a 4 CD box called ?Kesto?, Pan Sonic shows their diverse sides in one release. The box contains four CD?s, individually packed in a cardboard slipcase with track information. These CD?s come inside a simple square box. The music on the CD?s is incredibly varied…