For The Ambient Lovers...review and mixtape archive 001

Hi folks

As far as perceived, there hasn't been a thread on SC devoted to Ambient in concentration, that gives reviews, mixes and purchase/download links all in one. So I thought I'd start one. If you don't know me: I maintain the SC weblog with several Ambient reviews in content, and I originally set up DE, an agency hybrid with a webzine dedicated to Subvert Central support. The zine had thousands of readers, the mix series' many thousands more. Any recommendations for past and future material you want, holler at me via muttley_subversion at hotmail dot co dot uk or by PM here.

This thread will be updated periodically personally, but any further natter and recommendations from readers would be awesome. I'll start as meaning to go on...

Grouper - A.I.A - Alien Observer / Dream Loss
Yellow Electric 12' / download

Proceeding a headline tour: a sold out, spellbinding Cafe Oto gig last November, Liz Harris returned to her Portland home. Noteworthily reclusive, a partial "homebody" as she once described herself in one of several online interviews, "A.I.A" is a double volume of recordings partly showcased at All Tomorrow's Parties, and unheard material from those veiled archives. Criticism Grouper's lyrics are too muffled preceded the "Way Their Crept" period, her seminal debut for lauded Type Records, and climaxed in boos during Animal Collective support across the states. Well fuck the hipsters - she's gone and proved the elitism unworthy by bleaching her vocal delivery, but maintaining echo and reverb chalice followers had grown to adore. "Gonna take a spaceship, right back to the stars" - chin high Liz.

Grouper website:

http://www.yellowelectric.com

Grouper eMusic:

http://www.emusic.com/search.html?mode=x&QT=grouper

Grouper Tinymixtapes interview:

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/grouper

Jacob Newman & Devin Harris - The Vivid Unmapped
Data Obscura CD / download

A bird sings from rooftop field recording; not as a rooster, but a light coo - starts the landmark 50th instalment of Data Obscura, CD/digital stalwarts for the refined beatless exploratory. Jacob Newman and Devin Harris pull you into a vortex where you can foresee future dreams; full of vim and with the space to shape your own destiny. Its very pure ambient techno synths evoke rights of passage: don't pussyfoot to pussyfooting generation sources - let the algorythms lead you where you're thinking, and the patches for which you assemble will listen to you. Jacob and Devin are masters in this regard; they subvert Orbital breakdown orgy throughout - Oliver Lieb's more soothing work close comparative. In "Tracing Memory", you're left with nothing; it's music for future fractal. Embrace the tracks, and jacuzzi yourself.

Listen and order:

http://www.dataobscura.com/proddetail.php?prod=DO-050

Jacob Newman website:

http://capturedspace.org/

Devin Underwood & Marcus Fischer collaboration:

http://disquiet.com/2011/02/16/devin-und...s-fischer/

ASC & bvdub - Symbol 1.2
Auxilliary 002 12' vinyl / download

bvdub (Brock Van Wey) and ASC (James Clements) are two hugely prolific enforcers of depth in their respective fields; Brock is ambient dub maestro; Clements Ambient Drum & Bass exponent. However their dual strength is they produce so analytically and deeply, that their style base ranges a broadminded goldmine of ressurected renaissance archaeology. The second Symbol vinyl collects four genre-transgressive fusions of ambient dub, apple/beer barrel haze, pumped drums & bass, moving ambient/female vocal stormscapes. What raises them in particular from clonal Eluvium and Burial crossover, is mystic freedom aesthetic that triggers elation sensations mentally, and I'm certain, like bvdub and ASC's back catalogue, that they'll be worth revisiting. Acoustic other: "The Truth Hurts" by bvdub and Ian Hawgood.

Listen and order at ASC's blog:

http://www.theasc.blogspot.com

Check bvdub & Ian Hawgood's collab at Home Normal:

http://www.homenormal.co.uk

bvdub's 2010 'Waiting For The World...' Mixtape:

http://soundcloud.com/freshgoodminimal02...d-to-go-by

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PvC - Discouraging Intruders

The main theme for this mix (as well as the title "Discouraging Intruders" ) came from the spoken word track by the Dwindlers: "What the Wolves Said":

No two of us on the same note, we sound bigger...our harmony discouraging intruders..."

Although generally not sounding like a pack of howling wolves, sometimes the purpose of 'ambient' music also is also is to 'discourage intruders' (such as unwanted sounds) to invade your environment..

From the opening, this mix slowly dwells into long drone soundscapes - some discouraging, others comforting - only to be interrupted by a climactic eruption from Siddhartha Barnhoorn's cinematic 'Artifacts' directly following the enchanting vocals of Fovea Hex, a choir arrangement that seems to be coming directly from heaven by Franz Liszt (from 'Via Crucis', 1879!), followed by a Sibil'La Catalana string theme from the 15th century - and finally to be concluded by the acquiescent vocals from the Terje Isungset track.

Whether you prefer to be on the inside or the outside is up to your imagination...

http://www.vancooten.com/blog/?e=395#body-anchor

Foci's Left - Clearing The Air, Or Writing Letters To Ourselves



Keep calling vultures, and we conspire to drag dead corpses up hills. Or we could be alien observers, in worlds that aren't ours. A mix of two halves: one built on rustling music communications; the other poignancy fractures at the blend. All tracks were chosen by title, and soundtrack a personal survey. Is collated mood too obtuse, in comparison to what runs oblique?

01 - 00:00 The Winterhouse - Clearing
02 - 01:34 Shivering In Static - Yearnings
03 - 04:28 Belong - Late Night
04 - 04:42 Michael Trommer - Pushing Through Gray
05 - 06:03 Sawako - It's Not On Purpose
06 - 06:54 Olaf Tonstein - Snow
07 - 07:20 Jasper TX - Stillness
08 - 07:55 Danny Saul - (harsh)
09 - 09:09 Rhys Chatham - My Lady Of The Loire
10 - 09:46 EUS - Transparencia
11 - 11:35 Clem Leek - Light Passage II [Grief]
12 - 13:08 Antonymes - A Light From The Heavens
13 - 13:09 Quosp - Blue
14 - 14:06 Foci's Left - Cradling [excerpt]
15 - 14:34 New York Philharmonic - Requiem For String Orchestra
16 - 15:02 Mono - Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
17 - 16:19 Beth Nielsen Chapman - Panis Angelicus [stretched reverb edit]
18 - 17:35 Grouper - Alien Observer [down-pitched loop edit]
19 - 17:40 ASC & bvdub - Symbol 02 #4
20 - 18:05 Arkhonia - GDLadyburn
21 - 21:21 Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Turn On The Moon
22 - 24:20 Claro De Luna - Quedarse
23 - 26:22 Christopher Willits - Colours Shifting
24 - 27:07 Bark Psychosis - Rose

http://www.mixcloud.com/futuresequence/f...e-air-mix/

Any feedback much appreciated.
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Low Light - The Stars Above Us

"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another."
-- Plato (427-347 B.C.)

I realized that I hadn't done a stargazing mix in quite awhile and with the weather getting warmer & spending more time outside, I figured a new star mix was in order.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Sonmi451 - Cumulonimbus
05:30 Manual - As the moon Spins Around
09:35 Cyber Zen Sound Engine & Matt Borghi - Mars Infers
15:40 Robert Davies - Beneath Strange Stars
24:55 sgnl fltr - kwon
25:30 Frederico Durand - Mi Pequeno Mundo De Papel
26:25 Frederico Durand - El Mundo Secreto De La Montana
29:30 Staffan Wessman - Unison
34:50 The Winterhouse - Lost
42:50 Jonathan Hughes - Monoline
45:15 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Statuit
50:05 Loscil - Cheekye
55:50 Matt Thomas Wilson - Aviation Jargon
58:00 Jonn Serrie - Continuum
63:15 end

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2011/0...ve-us.html

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Futuresequence's last SC related contributor was Zvuku (Slug of http://www.weareie.com), who I am discussing collaboration with for the debut Foci's Left album.

Ta all, and looking forward to getting this stone rolling.

Mick

How would you define ambient?

How would you define ambient?

My own definition of it develops like the weather, but of certainty:

Sound that fills the gaps between somatic timbre.

There's all kinds of genres where the word Ambient, in higher or lower case is used. Ambient to me is as much a germ as a permeation of a tracks' body. It's a sonic reflection of mind and heart as to what it touches, and in question of the first post, explains the selection's transitional nature as such.

Lovely...will have to go through this thread when I'm in a more focused frame of mind

Duly bookmarked

This is definitely something that has really done it for me; But anything with Rachels song makes me partial to it in of that itself.

No this mix is really something special. <3
http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2011/05/robag-wruhme

Thanks for the info! Loads to check out!

Wil Bolton - Chimes For A Wall Drawing

'Chimes for a Wall Drawing' is a live recording of a performance at Tate Liverpool in August 2009, inspired by the gallery's display of Sol LeWitt's 'Wall Drawing #1136'.

In the spirit of Sol LeWitt's use of seriality and arbitrary systems, this electro-acoustic composition used the artwork as an inspiration and graphic score, mapping its seven spectrum colours onto the corresponding notes on coloured chime bars.

Chimes, handbell and electric guitar were processed live into elongated tones and drones, layered with electronics and field recordings made within the gallery and surrounding area.

Just 50 copies available, order here > http://www.cathedraltransmissions.com/page4.htm

Mix is very good, and ordering Wil Bolton when I know I've the wonga. Cheers all.

FTAL Reviewed 002 - April - June 2011

Jon Porras - Undercurrent
Root Strata CD / vinyl



Like a pumpkin, you have to look from the outside in with Jon Porras' production. On the surface a Robin Guthrie with thick, oily flesh. Then as you sink into it, greater affinity with instrumental shoegaze droning guitars. The feedback is really laid on but it's never overwhelming, even on my HD25's intense wear. "Shore" supplements phaser differentials to a darker electric crunch - this is music for low points, as fits Root Strata's uplifting dirginess. Along with Christopher Willits & Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Ocean Fire", "Undercurrent" defines itself from a million Fennesz imitations, by great layers of characteristic smudge on part of each ambience pocket, as well as the fog thematic that indirectly inspired Porras, from San Fransisco, to record it. If you're after guitar drone pottery that takes no prisoners, fire up.

http://rootstrata.com/

offthesky & Pillowgarden - A Dream In A Dream
Audio Gourmet Netlabel download



Mapping dreams within dreams, eh? That's the concept for offthesky & Pillowgarden, the former a major favourite of the Ambient netlabel scene (just check his Resting Bell inclusion, it's fab) and Pillowgarden, female sound recordist Sarah Chung. Who here utilises unknown sources - the collaboration combines their collective instrumentation and sampling - to Audio Gourmet's first year birthday celebration EP. It's definitely a high marker of the label's quality, and for such a seemingly pretentious foreword, actually manages to provoke thought as regards sound art. "Feather Anchor For A Tidal Yawn" is the pick: a serene drone/choral clipping, constantly looping in Magic Eye, akin to Slowdive's Rachel Goswell caught in static between Piano Magic's melody maker, and the suppleness of her own enchantress wail.

http://audiogourmet.bandcamp.com/album/a...in-a-dream

Seconds Before Awakening - Seven
Vacant Twelve Recordings download



There's probably something in the netlabel water this Spring as another dreamy release worth investigation arises. Clocking in at 76 minutes, Seconds Before Awakening's eighth album is four long-form drones with deepness wells. Unlike the relationship between extraction and refill, I'm always satisfied with the amount. Stylistically resembling Solar Fields post-ambient trance, the artist is contrariwise best maintaining repetitious structure. And of course a few new elements every now and then aren't disapproved. What's striking additionally is the richness, yet liquidity of the soundscapes, and how the synths merge together and create a composite free of burnt toxicology. This is important to the drone scene as it's all too easy to find a few presets and twiddle endlessly, denying substance.

http://www.archive.org/details/SecondsBe...ning_Seven

Fluid Radio's Alex Gibson has conducted a great interview with bvdub & Ian Hawgood for "The Truth Hurts":

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/06/the...k-van-wey/

It’s easy to say you love something, but a world apart to really lay it all on the line – emotionally, physically, monetarily, and everything in-between. Yeah electronic music is generally a quite singular event, in that it is usually made by one person and centered around their personal feelings or viewpoint – which is why it makes it all the more beautiful when others can feel where a piece of music is coming from. But the lineage of electronic music from its foundations to its ‘progress’ over the years always depended on a community of people and the symbiotic relationship music and that community had. Now it’s so fragmented and insular and fuelled by egomania, it’s gone from being a uniquely individual art form that somehow lent itself to being shared by others, to just being selfish, and full of selfish pricks. And when people are selfish, they don’t care who they hurt to get what they want."

FTAL Reviewed 003 - April - June 2011

Igor Karaca - Rituelle

Darkwinter download



"Rituelle" scopes Mick Harris' Lull project, though pregnant harmonic layers kick out sluggish underbelly. Its water/synth samples and permutations give you a feeling of being trapped in an overflowing bath, necessarily planning escape route, but rooted to spot by the meditative lower chord. As the title track re-folds, a lingering effervescence spits at the curtain glass, suggesting not all is well. Stargazing camels' walk via "Deserts", loading up their hump-ish mood - before long "Reflection" hits you naked like a plunging neckline. Shining on drab undercurrents of Darkwinter anonymity? It's open house label-wise and looks aren't a prerequisite to internal beauty - that which Igor sprinkles on the fire, and what is left remains ember: atonality in awkward composite spillages; astringent tone as lynchpin.

http://www.darkwinter.com/dw079.html

Robert Carty - "Shimmering"
Earth Mantra download



Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, caught between a rock and a soft place - his personality rippling across the nu-gaze of space music - feels the centrepoint for Robert Carty's "Photonic Movements", Earth Mantra's whopping 181st instalment, at equally huge 530MB. EM's laboriously large release descriptions, paradoxically undermine top drawer work from Modulator ESP, Darren Harper - whereby the old music/talking catchphrase wouldn't wear Carty's "Shimmering" too thin. A 32 minute shape-shifter with a transcendent electromagnetic structure, placing you hither the context, but neither the other side. Sadly that characteristic is dually counter-productive when placed with "Particle" or "Waves"; as intro/outro wouldn't lend themselves as tacked-on filler - just one work ta.

http://earthmantra.com/release-detail.php?id=181

Noveller - Glacial Glow
Saffron CD / download



Tapered musical dialogue gradually disintegrating; rustic warmth versus digitized patchbay - it's all firing for the US' Sarah Lipstate. Noveller, her outlet for sound and film, sprung real attention with "Desert Fires", a heavier guitar opus, half the size of "Glacial Glow"'s 8 instrumentals. She's shaken off drone moss so the spectrometer pitches closer to avant rocker Tom Carter. On "Blue", sharp bass guitar rasps over airy, atmospheric stepping stones. All background/foreground proposes tense properties of ambience don't always exist binary with triggers. There are other, more potent factors to consider, such as: density of notes; non-automation; rigidity in waveform range; intentional polarity. Noveller isn't about singular steps however; and we should hear more in time with her EU dates.

http://www.noveller.bandcamp.com

That Noveller sounds great, one for my wants list that as well as this beauty http://gizehrecords.bandcamp.com/album/h...-to-ignite

Jannick Schou - Act of Shimmering (Experimedia)

New vinyl only album from Denmark's Jannick Schou on Experimedia. Limited pressing of only 300 copies. First 100 copies on transparent blue vinyl exclusive to orders made direct from Experimedia.net.

http://label.experimedia.net/018/

FareWell Poetry's 2011 UK tour will be good, and wish I still maintained vinyl re: the Experimedia release.

Muttley & Low Light - Multiples



The first collaborative mix between Dave (http://www.lowlightmixes.blogspot.com) and Mick from SubVersion (http://www.subvertcentral.blogspot.com).

Both contributors start with a 9 minute section, multiplied to 18 minutes apiece. Mick concludes this 54 with a 13 minute mood-based response, including stems surrounding his "Spillage" EP on Audio Gourmet.

While you're out in the world looking for some of this music, head over to Entropy Records. The Buddha Machine Music cut used in section 5 is available there, as well as Beatsystem's "The Sound Of Two Eskimos Kissing".

http://www.entropy-records.com/

Section 1 - Muttley
01. Stars Of The Lid - Broken Harbours Pt.1 (from "The Quiet Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid", Kranky, 2007)
02. Steinbruchel - Home (from "Home", Slaapwel, 2008]
03. Richard Devine - Murman (from "Idol Tryouts", Ghostly International, 2003)
04. Grouper - Disengaged (from "Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill", Type, 2008]

Section 2 - Low Light @ 8:50
05. Strom Noir - Rusty Nails (from "Sen Zimnej Noci", Hibernate, 2009)
06. Fieldhead - I'm Fond Of Maps (from "They Shook Hands For Hours", Home Assembly Music, 2009)
07. Rhythm & Sound - Imprint (from "Rhythm & Sound", Efa Imports, 2001)

Section 3 - Muttley @ 18:00
08. Ateleia - Salt Horse Sculpture (from "Formal Sleep", Xeric, 2007)
09. Foci's Left - Regurgitated Impulses (Spheruleus remix) (from Spillage, Audio Gourmet, 2010)
10. James Toth, Kerry Kennedy & Jason Meagher - The Time Machine (from "Honest Strings", Jack Rose, 2010)
11. David Tagg - Pentecost 1 (from "Pentecost", Install, 2010)
12. The Sight Below - Shimmer (from "It All Falls Apart", Ghostly Int., 2010)
13. Lawrence English - Droplet (from "A Colour For Autumn", 12K, 2009)
14. Quosp - Deep Space (from "Soundscapes I", U-Cover, 2007)
15. Eluvium - As I Drift Off (from "When I Live By The Garden And The Sea", Temporary Residence, 2006)

Section 4 - Low Light @ 35:00
16. Loscil - Cello Drone
17. Listening Mirror - Not Yet Ready For The Day
18. Marc Codsi - A White Rabbit In A Hole
19. Mantsevich Dzenis - November
20. Taylor Deupree (I think) - rough

Section 5 - Muttley @ 52:30
21. Heidi Harris - Stolen Child (Sand In The Line LP)
22. Helios - First Dream Called Ocean (Eingya, Type)
23. Enuui - Morality (Mindstate Disposition LP, self-released)
24. Beatsystem - The Sound Of Two Eskimos Kissing (The Sound Of Two Eskimos Kissing LP, Entropy)
25. Fursaxa - Birds Inspire Epic Bards (Strange Angels, http://www.boomkat.com 14 Tracks bundle)
26. Foci's Left - Ear Nest (A Breath Of Peace LP, Unreleased)
27. Foci's Left - Stable Ghosts (A Breath Of Peace LP, Unreleased)
28. Jan Linton remixes Fm3 - Zhongruan Ceng Yu (Buddha Machine Music CD, Entropy)
29. Danny Saul - My Escape (Harsh, Final. LP)
30. Implodes - Wendy (Black Earth LP)

end @ 1:08:00

Just discovered this really nice album by Letna - Adria, especially liking track 4 right now

http://shop.semlabel.com/

Also another release im really liking at the moment http://heatdeath.limitedpressing.com/products/11037

http://soundcloud.com/el-cubist/nagini

A freshly made fluted up Tibetan piece of ambient I did last night and today.

Bought the Letna, looking forward to listening, and really liked your new track cube.

FTAL Reviewed 004 - April - June 2011

VA - Only Light To Clear Away
Distance Recordings download



Commodites: at large, in bulk, are impersonal. Checking twice shows essentials beyond superficiality. "Only Light To Clear Away" is time-transcendent too. Out the wrapper a fairly disjointed Ambient collation; second having some great segues; thirdly compiling promising, delivering artists of the sound-design scenes. Altogether with track entry/track signing systematic lesser than enjoyment quota. This is due to shared artistic depth, melting your and the record companies' attenutation - across the personalised lifespan of the purchasee, akin to Vador's "Helium Whistle". While there's little in the "Ambient hit" category here - unassuming drones, shower blast white noise, uncandid nature of the beast pushes perceptual boundaries by having recognisable names, submitting wholly vaporous work.

http://distancerecordings.bandcamp.com/

Nawang Khechog - Tibetan Dream Journey
Sounds True CD / download



Nawang's Tibetan Dream Yoga inspiration, for his first album in four annums, an hour's breadth, enacts each piece morphing the six-step versionism like gellatine, working off a central flute motif. Guest musicians never pip this slow race to the post, whereas Evansz-Wentz, in his 1935 book "Tibetan Dream Yoga And Secret Doctrines", reasoned constant change exists, as anchor, in both meditation brought by exercise-based healing, and the dream enacted by sleep as comparatively illusory. How Nawang has translated this to his latest LP is prospect for contemplation itself: violin and piano speckle odd segments, nothing feels rushed, and the ascertained mood is that of mature calm, albeit a tad reliant on flagrant instrumental noodling for my tastes. Caution to wind if contrivance ain't a friend.

http://www.soundstrue.com/authors/Nawang_Khechog

Nick Hudson - Tadzio Vol.1: The End Of The Earth...A Flower With No Scent
Blindsight Recordings CD / download



Terry Riley aficiocondos and Elbow pseud-post-rock despisers, this 23 minute mini-epic hits hard. Brighton's loutish sleaze is no benchmark for Tadzio's Rock-turned-Ambient excursion. Beginning as a raga-ish speechless malaise, transforming to brighter territory with pin-pricks of percussion. Rounded off with flavoursome, vocalised structure that texturally counter-produces the former self. Imagine a friend who you tried painfully to keep hold of, quietly severing into the wild, where you can neither reach them, nor where you are attempting to track down any way possible. You're going to feel torn, but alleviated as a result of this, rightly or wrongly, being the best move. Tadzio's progress bolsters the effects of disconnection, pulling anticipation apart, but you're thankful for each sections' quick diffuse.

http://blindsightrecords.co.uk/tadzio_vol1.htm

Just copped this LP from Fluid to review; something different from my previous selection.

Diamond Catalog - Magnified Palette



http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/06/dia...d-palette/

Minimal and Industrial Techno developing a skin allergy with Ambient drone; perplexing the root hairs’ braindance operatics; structural cutting technology taken to extremes, whistling in the wind of comedown rave and full-on bass weight mind-bender – on Pat Maherr and Lala Conchita’s debut LP, it’s insofar a query of source: diamond released from the dirt, cracked into a hundred shimmering pieces and fed into the pair’s sequencers – a distillation of former avant essence working wonders perhaps?

Check this out http://boomkat.com/cds/422019-various-unseen-for-nihon

Loads of Richard Skelton stuff available digitally here http://aeolian.bandcamp.com/

currently listening to the original Ambient series:

Harold Budd - The Plateaux of Mirrors
Laraaji - Day of Radiance
Brian Eno - On Land

This thread is beautiful

Elm - Nemcatacoa LP (Sweat Lodge Guru)

Limited to 400 copies total. 150 were pressed on clear vinyl, exclusively sold here. If you’d rather have a black copy, please note it in your payment.


Originally presented as a small-run CD in 2009, Elm’s “Nemcatacoa” instantly cemented itself as the quintessential solo outing from Jon Porras (one half of the duo Barn Owl). Its dark, scorching passages left listeners in awe, helping to pave the way for the band’s oncoming meteoric rise. Here we’ve presented this masterwork on vinyl for the first time ever. Pressed in a one-time edition of 400 copies, complete with brand new artwork by Mr. Jon Porras. Remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin.

http://sweatlodgeguru.com/about/

Offthesky - Endless Yonder (SEM label)

Ref. SEM 010 / CDr 100 copies - 2011

Offthesky (Jason Corder) has been making strange and exciting electronic music sometime's considered "ambient" for a while now. Born in 1977, he remembers experimenting on the piano at a very early age - to the chagrin of his parents. His dive into the world of electronic music occurred when he began recording music for videogames and the local radio show that played a plethora of new music in the early 90s. He then began hacking away on multitrack recorders and later upgraded to using more advanced techniques. His passion for acoustic instruments of all kinds has naturally led him to integrate them into his own compositions. 10-year career, Offthesky released his music on many labels such as Home Normal, Hibernate, 12k.term, Zymogen, IOD ...

http://semlabel.com/endless-yonder/

Fluid Radio's Alex Gibson has conducted a great interview with bvdub & Ian Hawgood for "The Truth Hurts":

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/06/the...k-van-wey/

It’s easy to say you love something, but a world apart to really lay it all on the line – emotionally, physically, monetarily, and everything in-between. Yeah electronic music is generally a quite singular event, in that it is usually made by one person and centered around their personal feelings or viewpoint – which is why it makes it all the more beautiful when others can feel where a piece of music is coming from. But the lineage of electronic music from its foundations to its ‘progress’ over the years always depended on a community of people and the symbiotic relationship music and that community had. Now it’s so fragmented and insular and fuelled by egomania, it’s gone from being a uniquely individual art form that somehow lent itself to being shared by others, to just being selfish, and full of selfish pricks. And when people are selfish, they don’t care who they hurt to get what they want."

nice. and excellent mix to sink into the abyss, rise up into the sky, and gently land back in reality.

a lot to check out here

Check this out http://boomkat.com/cds/422019-various-unseen-for-nihon

FTAL Reviewed 005 - June - July 2011

Various Artists - For Nihon
Unseen CD / Download



Strawberry sweet 38-tracker from Keith Kenniff's Helios-famed label, with all benefits, like Fluid Radio's "Kanshin" and Antiopic's "Benefit" compilations, for Japan recovery. Keith's taste always shines through as endearing, multifaceted and further exploring electronics than the aforementioned predecessor compilations. Last Days and Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd's contributions are life-affirming rarities, edging crumbling technicolour guitar against 'verb-heavy soundscape crush. Cohesion is of equal discordance contemporaneously, but given that quick-fire assembly obviously contrasts Keniff's long-realised albums, that can be excused in this case. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for piano that this album brightened the mind so highly. Or it's simply since the music's friendlier than namaste to good samaritans.

http://www.unseen.bigcartel.com/product/...on-various

Donato Wharton - A White Rainbow Spanning The Dark
Serein CD / Vinyl / Download



From getting besotted with Nest's "Retold" in 2010, Donato Wharton's "Seasons" opener initially left me disappointed. Gone are dreamboat tapestries; in its place fragmented aural-documentary; guitar and booth door opening, closing; being kept ajar by wind, field recs and hiss spliced with silence. Continuity lacking, the hollowness did reinforce a buyers' adage as I bagged it one-click: don't underestimate the power of stock phraseology in any rehashed-press-release-psyche - trust in the source provider and the rewards will be longer. As I stuck with it, it became apparent that Wharton's music is uniquely stylised, Oren Ambarchi-like in its timbre-tatter - and "Breath Held" is definitely worth a fiver for the small Mp3 package. Sometimes the small things are the big things, however expect an intermittent depression.

http://www.serein.co.uk/releases/sere11-...nning-dark

Mystified - Bone Drones 3
Webbed Hand 200 download



Re-processing instruments has less uniqueness in experimental scenes, but don't downcast Mystified's stretched trombone-drones for knockin' on solemnities door. It's two-EP dark/abrade evolutions here work three notes of muted trombone; processed, mixed, with a previous dedication dark ambience for Philip K Dick; reminder to not monopolise or agitprop drones' suspension module. Indeed there's a sciencey pretence about "Bone Drones 3": the sense of weight bearing down from the bass and layer interdependence. It presents minimalism, as calibrated by tension/conundrum, sidechained- always attempting non-stalemate - and in another the sheer bullheadedness of non-conformism rhythmically, a reciprocal void where you fall deep into thistle-like stimulus; gladly with soreness removed.

http://webbedhandrecords.com/wh200-mysti.../#more-620