Absent With Concept

Music without the industry. Absent With Concept is a site featuring reviews, articles, news and interviews about artists and labels that operate outside the main music industry – mostly DIY labels and truly independent artists. AWC covers music regardless of format. A (roughly) monthly mix is provided by an array of artists and can be streamed from the site. Absent With Concept values and respects all honest, thoughtful music sites out there, with particular love for: A Closer Listen Tabs Out Sunbleach Decoder Fluid Radio Tuning Into the Obscure

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Loose Link - Neo Tropico (Illuminated Paths)

Were I the sort of reviewer to do such a thing, I could use the opportunity of writing this review to discuss the length of time between releases (this is Loose Link’s second album; his debut was in 2011) and raise a discussion about physical vs. digital releases (the artist’s past being in free netlabel releases); instead, they’ll form the basis of the review, but I’ll leave in depth analyses of the topics to those more inclined to discuss such matters.

Still, with a striking number of releases between 2010 and 2012 (nine, over his various alises), Neo Tropico has been an uncharacteristically long time in coming. In the meantime, Loose Link, aka Craig Gillman, has been busy piecing together countless DJ mixes for every conceivable online radio station and music blog out there, and even managed to snag himself a slot playing before The Orb in Brixton a couple of years ago. Studio-wise, as part of Sturmazdale he released two albums, including one on The Future Sound of London’s digital label; he also collaborated with Nmesh on his critically acclaimed Dream Sequins album. So behind the scenes, things haven’t been as quiet as the Loose Link Discogs page might suggest.

Neo Tropico itself is a strange beast. In some ways, it contains all the aspects that Gillman’s debut, Random Proportions, was built upon: uncomfortable stuttering beats, disembodied vocal samples, confusing-yet-familiar samples, an emphasis on staggered beats and textures over melody and harmony - Amon Tobin is the most obvious point of reference. In other ways, it’s very different to his debut. Where Random Proportions was texturally dense and heavy, here things are given more room to breathe and expand. Make no mistake, this is not an ambient record by any means, and things often veer into the strange and chaotic, but this time around there seems to be more thought and subtlety in the music: each sound sounds more carefully chosen and placed. Perhaps this is to be expected from an album that builds on a debut, and an album so long in the works (it was originally announced a couple of years ago under the title World Building, and has undergone much work since then.) The best example of this is the track ‘Hyperbird’ with Off Land, a six minute epic which combines experimental glitch with melodic ambient, and is heavily reminiscent of The Future Sound of London - it’s telling that the two artists met through a mutual love of the group. They plan on releasing a mini-album of versions and expansions of the track later in the year, and it promises to be a highlight of 2015.

Despite a digital release past, Neo Tropico finds itself at home on Illuminated Paths, a label which puts out limited hand-made cassettes and sends parcels packed with strange brick-a-brack like pogs and trading cards. The aesthetic of things works well with the music’s jumble sale approach: although it’s less lo-fi than Random Proportions, Neo Tropico is still confined to the fidelity constraints of heavily sampled and cut-up music. At times, Gillman’s history with the vaporwave scene - working with Nmesh and producing several DJ mixes in the genre - rears its head, and in this sense, the cassette format and, indeed, Illuminated Paths as a label makes sense. The music makes no concessions to the genre and forges its own path, but should still appeal to fans of vaporwave looking to expand out and enjoy its influence on other musical perspectives.

Overall, Neo Tropico solidifies Loose Link’s sound, existing in a netherworld between breakbeat, ambient, vaporwave and experimental sound-art. If not an easy listen, it’s certainly a rewarding one on repeat plays, boasting a broad range of sounds and samples over its lengthy run-time. As a bonus, purchases from the label include a bonus EP of six remixes. At Illuminated Paths’ ridiculously affordable price range, the album is not one to be missed.

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Oh look, it’s a tape with no cover art. It can only mean one thing: the latest release from Aught.

The US imprint has gone from strength to strength over the last year, disproving most music industry myths, from striking album covers to background information; even ignoring the batch-release rule that most tape labels go by. Instead, tape after tape of lo-fi beats gets put out with nothing but an artist name and a catalogue number. Even taking into account the potential novelty of these releases, the reason they all sell out so quickly is very obvious to those who’ve listened to any of the tapes: the music is here is always of high quality. Put simply, this is some of the finest outsider house/lo-fi techno/whatever it is people are currently naming this, outside of Opal Tapes. 

This second tape on the label from ACI_EDITS is maybe the imprint’s strongest release to date, with each track sounding completely effortless: laidback rhythms combine with aching textures to provide a mix of sounds that is always on the edge of its seat. Two clearer sounding, rhythm-heavy numbers and two murkier, more textural tracks are punctuated with a moody 48 second interlude; the only real issue here is how short the tape is: after a brief twenty-or-so minutes, one is left wanting much more.

It’s been almost a year since the first release on Aught and things show no sign of slowing down - here’s hoping the quality keeps up for a long time yet. You can pick up tapes of /\\07, and digital versions of the past six release, on the label’s Bandcamp.

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Off Land - Quinarian (Psychonavigation)

With every new album that comes out, I always feel the need to claim that this is the best Off Land record yet. Tim Dwyer's subtle redefining of the project's sound - adding new sounds, ironing out previous quirks - lends itself to regular reassessment in a way that is uncommon amongst ambient artists. Quinarian continues this development, taking the heavily melodic sound of last year's Tidewater Pulse and adding a tapestry of new textures and structures. 

With a mere five tracks adding up to an hour's runtime, the album is the most epic sounding Off Land release to date. The majestic chords of 'Soar' sweep by in broad strokes; 'Shearwater' moves from rich synth drones to field recordings and back again over its twenty minute journey; 'Veery' builds to a subtle crescendo, before dropping off into synth arpeggios. These rich, dense pieces are a world away from the sparseness of Off Land's more electro-acoustic material, but seem the logical step in Dwyer's continuing evolution. 'Turnstone' and 'Kestrel', with their reverberated tuned percussion and cyclical melodies, hark back to older releases, yet maintain the epic feel of the album. 

If the scale of the synth work suggests space music, then the embedded field recordings and spoken samples bring the music back down to Earth, tying it in with the track titles and the album's animal classification theme. These elements, whilst present in past releases, have a new purpose here: the pieces feature intros and outros of manipulated sound that recall the collage-work and track segues of '90s ambient techno artists The Future Sound of London and The Orb.

In some ways, the development of Dwyer's sound resembles those two artists. Not comfortable churning out the same album every twelve months, the artist continues to expand his sound with time. He recently wrote on his website about a desire to incorporate more genres into his music, to create a new kind of ambient music. Needless to say, the future of Off Land is an exciting prospect.

Outside of its place in the Off Land catalogue, Quinarian is an incredibly strong ambient record. Richly melodic, with impeccable production, it will appeal to fans of the artist and newcomers.

Quinarian is out on Psychonavigation on 27th October.

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An Interview With Off Land

Tim Dwyer's Off Land project has come a long way in the last ten years. Starting out as the understated ambient side-project of Dwyer's then main concern, the electronic-pop project Full-Source, Off Land has become a widely respected name in the world of independent ambient music, with his latest two full-lengths appearing on Psychonavigation Records. The self-penned mini-bio that accompanies most of Off Land's web presence makes references to Javanese gamelan music, minimal drone, electro-acoustic music, Pete Namlook, phonography and contemporary classical; this list gives an idea of the range of sounds and styles found on Dwyer's five albums and countless EPs and mini-albums. 

From the sinister lo-fi ambient techno of debut album Encounter Point and its accompanying EPs, Off Land has moved through the electro-acoustic, field recording-based drone of Blue Narration, a trilogy of pulsating electronica based around the album Eventide Passage, and last year's Tidewater Pulse on Psychonavigation, with its rich, classical-like melodies. Between these albums, a number of short releases have filled the gaps, blending styles and acting like a behind-the-scenes look at the Dwyer's artistic progression. 

Later this year, Dwyer releases his fifth Off Land LP, Quinarian. His second release on Psychonavigation, the album sees the artist going from strength to strength, providing five vast synthscapes that eclipse anything he has released previously. It's a world away from 2006's Rest EP, yet the journey from there to here has been seamless. Tim Dwyer talks to Absent With Concept about that journey, about Quinarian, and about where Off Land is headed next...

In as few or as many words as you like, explain the history of Off Land - when did you make the decision to start the project, and how did it stem from your earlier projects like Full-Source and The X:F System? I remember the point at which Off Land formed. At the start of 2004 I had just finished up everything I was doing with Full-Source and The X:F System at the time. It felt like a fresh start as I didn't have any musical vision that year. Off Land honestly came about because I didn't have a plan. My favorite ambient label Em:t reformed in 2003. I sent them a copy of my X:F System album, hoping they'd like it. Turned out they were putting together a second compilation release. They liked the X:F System album enough to inquire about new material. Em:t wanted me to submit a track for consideration on their upcoming compilation "0004". I agreed to send them something because now I had a plan and that was to make as much ambient music as a could in a week. The results were an eclectic collection of 10 ambient tracks. The track I sent Em:t was called "Dust", by Off Land. I took the moniker from the title of this track.

Ultimately, Em:t didn't like the track. I didn't mind so much because now I had the foundation for an album. That album would become Encounter Point, released four years later in 2008.

So Off Land effectively took over from where The X:F System left off? Yes, Off Land is essentially a continuation into the realm of ambient music that began with the X:F System. That's not surprising, considering that I used The X:F System album as source material for my 2011 album Microcosm. The name change was important to me though. I really wanted a moniker that encapsulated what ambient music meant to me at the time. Floating, traveling, exploration, eerie stillness, a soundtrack to an unknown place. I think the words "Off Land" still continue to fit the music I make.

Yeah, it's a very fitting name.  In the four years between those sessions and Encounter Point coming out, you managed to establish yourself on the netlabel scene with a few EPs.  How did you discover this scene and become involved in it? I was searching the internet for ambient music labels and stumbled across the Netlabel scene. Archive.org was basically a Netlabel aggregator back then. I think Kikapu was one of the first netlabels I came across. Releasing my first EP with them really helped me dive into the scene and work with additional Netlabels. 

It was actually through your early releases that I discovered netlabels.  Quite an exciting prospect back then!  There's been a definite shift in your sound over the past ten years of recording - those early EPs seem to be loosely rooted in rhythms and a darker sound.  These days Off Land seems to be moving towards a more electro-acoustic sound, even hinting at modern classical.  Was this a conscious move, or has it been because of changes of gear/circumstances? I'm glad that I was able to help you discover netlabels!

Yes, I definitely have evolved my sound in the last ten years. My setup hasn't changed much though. I've updated and added bits to it, use better software for mixing but it's very similar to the setup I had for Encounter Point. The change in sound has more to do with the continuing struggle to record music the way I intended it to sound. I'm a lot closer to achieving this now than I was ten years ago. Ten years of practice sure helps! Rhythmic ambience, cinematic sounds, electro-acoustics, modern classical are all big influences. I've been trying to bring in more of these influences as I get more comfortable composing, mixing and matching them in different ways. I keep trying to push my boundaries. Lately I've been experimenting with intro and outro ambience and synth flourishes similar to what The Future Sound of London perfected in the mid 90's. This addition is in both my 2014 releases, Quinarian & Osculation.

Something else that has changed alongside your sound is the manner in which your records have been released.  You describe Off Land as being born from 'net' culture, back when the netlabel scene was a thriving entity.  In the past few years you seem to have moved towards digital labels and physical releases instead.  What gave rise to this change? I fully embraced the netlabel scene for five years. It was an excellent platform for promoting music and getting it into the ears of people who want to listen. A lot of the power that netlabels had has shifted to the artists. It's much easier to self-promote and self-release now than it was five years ago. The way I look at it, digital labels are the successor to net labels. There's still a place for free music. There should always be a place for free music. Net labels aren't sustainable though. In the end the label fronts the website costs and the artist is scraping for funds to make more music. A successful digital label should be able to sustain itself and give back to the artist. I'm not much of a financial person and money is the last reason I make music but I do believe in artistic sustainability. Any money I get from my music goes back into equipment purchases and mastering costs. Moving from net labels to digital labels like Enpeg Digital and Stasis Recordings has allowed me to improve the technical quality of my music. Releasing physically is a recent addition, thanks to Psychonavigation Records. There's definitely still an audience out there for physical goods. I still buy CDs. As a fan of music, I like to have that option. 

Yeah, in some ways I think Bandcamp has begun to replace the need for netlabels.  Some of your own releases have been Bandcamp exclusives - what's the appeal in this to you? Everything is in the same place and I have complete control over each release. It's simpler and more robust for the listener. It's nice to be able to set a release date, allow people to download FLAC files, and even add to an album after the release date. This is the key to digital output. It can be amorphous. There was no way I'd be able to have that kind of control and statistical read-outs from net labels that I have from Bandcamp. As a listener, I find purchasing from Bandcamp to be a pretty stress-free experience. Everything I put out that isn't on a label or a compilation will be on my Bandcamp site. My move to Bandcamp was partly inspired by one of my favorite artists, Paul Frankland (aka Woob). He's exclusively doing the self-releasing thing and is getting it right. 

Location - both physical and temporal - seems to be a key feature in a lot of your music, with journeys and memories fuelling the concepts of most of your recent releases.  How important is this to you?  Is it something that fuels the creative process, or does the music come first and the place fit around it during or after the record is completed? Location is at the core of what I try to encapsulate with Off Land. Changing your physical location can have a huge effect on your mind, your thoughts, your memories. The way I go about the creative process tends to be a mix of music and concept. Usually I'll start with a vague idea or skeletal concept. After that it's music and only music. I form the final concept around the completed music. A lot of the times the initial idea and the final concept have little to nothing in common. To give you a couple of examples, my initial idea for Tidewater Pulse was about being inside, looking at the world changing around you. The final concept was about the water cycle, oceanic voyage, the memories of travel, and how they all feel connected. The initial idea for Quinarian was ambient music from the past. The final concept is about a dead mid-nineteenth century theory of animal classification that was popular with British naturalists. The final concept usually helps form the album, but does not form the music.

You're hoping to do some Off Land live shows in the near future: what do you have in store for these? Yes, I'm going to start practicing for live shows this year with the hope of playing live before the year's end but more likely in 2015. I will be mixing analogue electronics with electro-acoustics. The plan is you use the Korg Volca Series as an analogue platform. Acoustic percussion instruments, kalimba, and melodica will be improvised on top. I've been throwing around the possibility of having guest musicians on stage for acoustic improvisation and considering the idea of doing free concerts over the internet. The feasibility of this remains to be seen. There's definitely going to be a shift in sound for these live performances. I'm hoping it is a more rhythmic experience. Expect it to have an effect on some of my albums going forward. Overlook & Osculation are releases that definitely start to push in this direction. I hope to explore this further in the live space going forward.

A rhythmic approach certainly sounds different - rhythms are something you've generally used as an accompanying sound in your music to date, rather than a focus.  Do you see yourself moving towards a more acoustic percussive sound, or will this expand on the techno/IDM elements that have occasionally graced your music?  Or is it just a case of finding your way as you go along...? It's a mix of IDM elements and World music rhythms. Eventide Passage & Overlook definitely went in a more techno/IDM direction with percussion. While some of my previous tracks do include subtle acoustic rhythms, Osculation is the first release where the drums really come to the front. The first single, 'Goshawk' is almost entirely electronic, beats and all. It's probably the most IDM thing I've ever done. Many of the other tracks on the EP have completely acoustic drum tracks with some IDM undertones in the rhythmic structure and processing. This isn't where all of Off Land is heading though, just my beat-centric music. There's plenty of room for more drone!

Your forthcoming album, Quinarian, is due on Psychonavigation in October.  With tracks running up to 20 minutes, it's a considerably less 'song'-based album, more epic in scope.  Was this an intentional move; and what else is new on this album that we can expect?   The goal from the outset was to create some expansive, melodic synthscapes. Expect textural transitions and room to breath. It's sixty minutes of space-music, an organic / synthetic mesh. I recorded many of the synth parts with baked in radio chatter and static to make the album sound more like a distant transmission. There are segues between each track comprised of vocal samples, noises, and processed field recordings. 'Veery' weaves between drone and melody. 'Soar' is essentially music for planetariums. 'Turnstone' builds with sparse percussion. 'Shearwater' journeys from drone, to field recordings, and back. The last track, 'Kestrel' has slightly desynced Gamelan like bells, acting as a death rattle of sorts for the album.

The animal classification concept sounds fascinating, can you elaborate a little more on that? The entire concept fell into place both naturally and accidentally. I had been working on Quinarian and Osculation in tandem. The sound was coming together. The idea of connection and the number five were there but I was still lacking an overarching concept. I'm using bird song field recordings in parts of Quinarian. This gave me the idea of naming the tracks after birds and paring birds in corresponding subspecies between the Quinarian and Osculation sessions. I stumbled upon the Quinarian system while I was looking for a term or idea that dealt with classification, and paring. The Quinarian system is an old naturalist theory that all creatures can be divided into five subgroups. These subgroups or circles may overlap in a process called osculation. This is a fascinating theory that was vogue in the United Kingdom during the mid nineteenth century. I'm a fan of science and animals so everything clicked into place. 

The album is is your second release on Psychonavigation - what is it that's kept you working with the label for the last couple of years? Keith at Psychonavigation and I are on the same page. He gets my music right away. It's great to work with someone that is behind your music 100%. Being on the label has been extremely helpful in growing my fan base with physical discs, and global distribution. There's a lot of creative freedom with Psychonavigation. I get complete control over the album art but I have the label to fall back on if I need a help making a decision. For example, Keith helped out picking the tracks and order for Tidewater Pulse.

As has become the norm for ambient artists, you seem comfortable releasing more than one record a year.  What else is in the pipeline for Off Land in the near or far future?  And do you have any other projects on the go at the moment? This year is a busy one. Voyage/Home came out in January. I'm releasing Quinarian in October and Osculation in December. Interspersed are a couple remixes and compilation tracks. I've also got a collaborative EP with Loose Link called Hyperbird coming out. Next year I'm releasing a couple remix EPs on Stasis Recordings based around singles from Osculation. There's plenty more that I'm working on for the future. I've got a couple of album ideas in the works. Nothing too solid to talk about. I will say that I'm hoping to take Off Land in some new directions in the next couple years.

Quinarian is out on 27th October on Psychonavigation Records. Check out the Off Land website for more information and news, including more insight into the project's history and future. Thanks to Tim for taking part in this interview!

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Flaming Pines - Birds of a Feather Series

Over a period of nearly two years, Kate Carr has been curating the fabulous Birds of a Feather series on her ambient/field recording label Flaming Pines. Following the success of the previous FP series, Rivers Home, Carr chose twelve more musicians and sound artists to create this selection of 3" CDrs, each inspired by the song or behaviour of a bird.

The list of artists involved in the series is impressive: Porya Hatami, Michael Trommer, Darren McClure, The Green Kingdom, Broken Chip, Simon Whetham, Marcus Fischer, Gail Priest, Seaworthy, Radio Cegeste, Phillippe Petit, and finally Kate Carr herself. An unsurprisingly varied series, given the range of artists, Birds of a Feather is a rewarding listen as a series of individual pieces, and as a single work. 

The birds, and the artists' responses to them, are just as varied as the pieces themselves. Simon Whetham's The Phoenix portrays the fictional bird through a series of abstract field recordings; Gail Priest's Common Koel uses the awkward, grating call of its titular bird to create a disorienting experimental work. Elsewhere, more traditionally musical pieces appear. Both Marcus Fischer and Broken Chip use common, oft-ignored (or even disliked) birds as inspiration for heartbreaking, beautiful pieces - the carrion crow and wonga pigeon respectively. The Green Kingdom's usual blend of acoustics and electronics is on fine form in his depiction of the great blue heron. The finest of them all is the series opener: the black woodpecker's call and drilling drift in and out of a hypnotically beautiful soundscape - the kind we've come to expect from Porya Hatami.

There's plenty more to hear and explore in the series, all of which can be heard through the Flaming Pines bandcamp. 

The coherency of the series has not gone ignored, and a limited edition version of the entire series was made available earlier in August. While a triple-CD version of the twelve pieces would be a welcome release, Carr has gone one (very large) step further, and packaged all twelve releases together in custom-made bird boxes. These beautiful collectors items can be viewed on the Flaming Pines website and come very highly recommended if you have the money. There are only 25 in existence, so it's worth getting your skates on if you wish to get one yourself.

Needless to say, Birds of a Feather has been a success from start to finish, and the series does a true honour to both composer Jean Sibelius, and Carr's grandfather, to whom it is dedicated. The question is: is it too soon to wonder what the next series of releases on Flaming Pines will be? I can't wait, either way...

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News - 19/08/14

As the author of a small music blog focusing on small run, often DIY releases, it's probably not my place to tell you this, but Aphex Twin has announced the title and tracklist for his new album Syro (or SYRO.) This WATMM thread has all the news and banter you'll need regarding that.

Not to be outdone, The Future Sound of London chose the same day to reveal the first couple of clips from their forthcoming album Environments 5. They can be found on Brian Dougans's YouTube page.

Loose Link has finally given us a preview of his long-awaited second album, World Building, with the Adda Alures EP. Originally planned for release on AMDISCS, Craig Gillman finally decided to self-release the EP this week. The six tracks feature contributions from poet The Alternative Sapien, guitarist Adam Gillman, and fellow former Clockwork Keyboard member Noisesurfer, alongside remixes from Nmesh and Mischapex. You can grab the EP for free or a donation of your choice from Loose Link's Bandcamp.

Opal Tapes' vinyl sub-label Black Opal continue to roll out excitement with news that alongside the new Ñaka Ñaka release, the label will be repressing the two out-of-print and highly sought after LPs by Patricia and Cloudface released earlier in the year. Keep your eye on Black Opal for a pre-order sometime in the next six weeks, or follow Opal Tapes on Facebook for updates.

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Off Land - Accipiter/Coast (Self-released)

If one were to approach Off Land from the perspective of his five major albums, it would be easy to think that each is a considerable, often unsignposted, leap on from the previous. Although certain sounds cross from one record to another, Tim Dwyer's albums have focused on everything from sinister lo-fi ambient to melodic, modern-classical inspired drone and vast synthscapes.

It is releases such as Accipiter / Coast that fill out the Off Land discography and complete the story. In this case, the two main tracks come from the sessions that led to the forthcoming Quinarian, and 2014's Tidewater Pulse respectively. 'Accipiter' begins in familiar Off Land territory, building on the melodic sound of last year's album, before heading off into even richer territories: twinkling, sequenced synths take over and drive the piece forward. Although unmistakably Off Land, 'Accipiter' is the first glimpse of a new chapter in the artist's career, and points expectantly towards October's Quinarian. 

If 'Accipiter' is the most Tidewater Pulse sounding piece from the Quinarian sessions, then vice versa is true of 'Coast'. Starting with rich ambient textures, a gentle melody and rousing organ line rise from the mist. The melody inspired hope, and suggests vast landscapes. Despite a discography that contains a large number of 15 min+ pieces, this is Off Land's first truly epic track. Around the halfway point, the melody melts away, to be replaced with something much more melancholic. This is a hymn for the lost and the longing. If Tim Dwyer once based his music around texture and mood, he is now officially a composer. Heart-rending melodies are now the focus of Off Land's music, and they are beautiful. It's difficult not to gush about this piece. This blows previous career highlights like 'Records' and 'Marriage' out of the water.

The EP is complete with two "drone variations" of the tracks that, in Dwyer's words, "that take the original tracks and re-work them to create a deeper sound experience." These pieces contrast wonderfully with their original counterparts, offering very different takes on the themes, and giving us yet another new sound for Off Land, offering a richness and depth unheard on previous releases.

The best thing about this EP? It's free, although if you have the cash it's definitely worth a donation through Bandcamp's 'name your price' system. Grab it here, and look out for a feature on Off Land and the forthcoming album Quinarian on AWC soon.

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News - 14/08/14

Just in case 2014 isn't going well enough for you so far, there's lots more excitement to come in the coming few weeks. It's time for yet another roundup of wonderful new music on its way...

Ultra-minimal cassette label Aught are putting finishing touches to their third release, by De Leon. Following the label's first two stark and experimental releases, this tape, featuring five pieces of Gamalan-inspired textures and beats, is due out on 25th August. A preview clip can be heard on Soundcloud, and does a good job of highlighting this fascinating tape's sound.

This weekend, Nmesh drops his remix album on Bandcamp. Featuring radical reworkings of tracks by FSOL, Loose Link, Moloko, Frequency, and a heap of other artists, along with Nmesh productions for Bird Zoo, and a few Nmesh exclusives, the 2 hours +, 21 track collection will be available from 15th August direct from the artist, and should put the willies up vaporwave fans expecting a set of nu.wav hallucinations-style reworkings.

Kevin Greenspon's communal Bridgetown Records sets free its latest batch this week, featuring three new cassettes by Hollow Sunshine, Tanner Garza and Shivering Window, as well as a repressing of the long out-of-print single by Vehicle Blues, 'Koz Park', released many moons ago on the label. As ever, a batch deal is the way to go, available from the label.

Speaking of new batches, ((Cave)) have upped their game by announcing this year's third set of tapes, coming shortly after their second. Continuing the label's voyage into abstract psychedelics, there comes a tape from Boatmeal Reality (what a name!), as well as welcome returns to the label for RAGS and The Ether Staircase. Expect these in the autumn.

Last, and absolutely not least, comes the third release on Opal Tapes' sister label Black Opal, Mundo Harsh by Ñaka Ñaka. Recalling the sounds of early AFX, only with more tape hiss, the LP is due out in six or seven weeks, with pre-orders due before. In the meantime, you can listen to the whole thing on Soundcloud and salivate.

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cubus - Live at Servant Jazz Quarters

This is a gig I wish I'd attended. cubus's first show in, oooooh, at least six thousand years, and just after I'd moved to London. Sadly, it happened to coincide with The Damned playing a gig for Captain Sensible's 60th birthday at The Forum and I wasn't missing a chance to see a live version of Happy Talk (nor was I disappointed on that front!)

Still, Messrs Godfrey and Kellam have generously provided a soundboard recording of the show for free (or name-your-price!) from their Bandcamp, which goes some way towards making up for the disappointment. 

This is actually the first proper cubus release in over three years, since the Für Alali EP on Jerky Oats way back in February 2011, which is a pleasure, since its seamless nature makes it all that more enjoyable to listen to than the stream of (admittedly excellent) compilation tracks that have formed the cubus output since the aforementioned EP.

The pieces mentioned above have seen cubus moving towards a heavily ambient, modern classical-soaked sound. Perhaps it's having both members on stage together, as opposed to the starkness of communicating via the internet, that led to the immediate contrast found between those pieces and this set; maybe the live setting had something to do with it. Either way, the gig finds cubus at their most rhythmic, beats ranging from clicky minimal 4 to the floor house to shuffling polyrhtyhms in the first half, and moving towards more experimentation nearer the end. The opening section even features slap bass sounds!

It's not that Godfrey and Kellam shy away from melody, of course. The piano tune around 40 minutes in is particularly beautiful; elsewhere, the version of 'Au' more strongly resembles the epic post-rock tinged ambience of its EP version, rather than its more minimal incarnation on Late 5am Tired Eye. But the key thing here is rhythm, and the show feels like a return to the group's IDM roots. The new material sounds great, and live interpretations of old favourites work well. 

It looks unlikely that a new cubus full-length will be appearing any time soon (the last album, And Then the World Fell Further Down, was released almost exactly four years to the day before the gig) but this set should hopefully work as something to tide us over until we finally get a new album.

Download from Bandcamp

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News and release announcements

Hello! AWC is back from an extended break. Lots of stuff has happened in the meantime (this might be the only music blog on the internet not to cover the Caustic Window LP) but instead of looking backwards, let's look forwards, to new releases and announcements..

Whilst we wait for the fifth proper Off Land album, Quinarian, in October, Tim Dwyer has given us another tide-over release, with Accipiter/Coast. Dwyer is as generous as usual, with this "EP" clocking in at over 45 minutes. The artist explains the story behind the release:

Accipiter is a track from the sessions that produced the upcoming album Quinarian on Psychonavigation Records. Coast is a track that was originally considered for Voyage/Home. Both tracks didn't quite fit the feel or vision of their respective albums but both happen to fit together perfectly as an EP that bridges the sonic gap between Voyage/Home (Jan. 2014) and Quinarian (Oct. 2014). Both Accipiter and Coast are backed by drone variation mixes that take the original tracks and re-work them to create a deeper sound experience.

Accipiter/Coast can be picked up as a name-your-price download from the Off Land bandcamp now. Quinarian is out on Psychonavigation on 27th October. We'll have a more in-depth feature on the artist in the lead up to the album soon.

AWC favourites ((Cave)) Recordings have put out a new batch of tapes, continuing to explore the limits of abstract, lo-fi sound. The batch features three tapes, including new outings from Ala Vjiior, Charles Barabé, and a collaborative release between Brian Beaudry and Gianluca Favaron. As usual, the tapes can be bought together at a reduced price from the ((Cave)) Shoppe.

Another label unleashing a world of new textural sounds is UK-based Opal Tapes, whose latest batch is out at the end of the month, and features new tapes from Violetpoison, Mike Simonetti, Worker​/​Parasite, Red Dust, and D​.​Å​.​R​.​F​.​D​.​H​.​S.. The label's latest two 12" releases (Southgate by Siobhan, and the first HOLOVR vinyl release, Holo Earth) will be shipping around the same time, which ensures a pretty good package deal for fans of the textured, rhythmic sounds Opal specialises in. You can also pick up label boss Stephen Bishop's latest CD as Basic House, Oats, while you're there.

The Future Sound of London have begun trailing the long-awaited fifth installment to their Environments project, with a short video on YouTube. The album is expected to be released through their FSOLDigital label in late August or early September.

Finally, Loose Link is set to unleash his first release in three years, on the digital imprint AMDISCS. More news soon!

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Off Land - Voyage/Home (Self-released)

In 1994, one could pick up this European release of Underworld's Dark + Long single, which ran to 74 minutes (and yet still headed by a radio edit of the title track). Contemporaries such as FSOL and Orbital regularly put out similar releases. In experimental and electronic realms, standard album / single separation is never as simple as it is for pop / rock artists. Autechre's EP7, for example, is specifically named an EP, yet features 11 tracks and runs longer than some of their albums.

Off Land's Tim Dwyer is no stranger to such releases, and Voyage / Home follows previous efforts, including Commute and Overlook. Begun at the same time as Tidewater Pulse (Off Land's excellent album on Psychonavigation last year), the release was completed by revisiting those sessions once the album was released.  The result is what looks like a seven track album, but in reality is much closer to a collection of three long-form ambient pieces.

The opening trio of 'Estuary', 'Voyage I' and 'Voyage II' play off each other wonderfully, with complementary sounds, and an emotive piano melody recurring throughout. A title like 'Voyage Home' suggests comfort and relief, and the warmth of these pieces conjours those feelings perfectly. Following these comes the second trio of related pieces, 'Seiche', 'Home I' and 'Home II', based around a gated synth which brings dynamic movement to the music, whilst retaining its drone ambient sound. Closing the record, the 23 minute 'Current' is classic Off Land, electro-acoustic drones, synths, percussion, spoken samples and field recordings, reminiscent of previous longform releases Heliopause and Eggressives. 

While Voyage / Home offers no real surprises to the Off Land catalogue, as a companion piece to Tidewater Pulse it is incredibly successful, expanding that album's emotive, almost classical ambient sound to more epic proportions. Seen as three twenty minute tracks, it also looks forward to Dwyer's forthcoming album Quinarian, which is to be based around five longform pieces.

Voyage / Home is available at the Off Land Bandcamp page.

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New releases of note

So, April was quiet, eh?  Had one of my off months, thought about quitting the blog altogether, the usual stuff.  But I'm back once more.  In the meantime, a few interesting things have been released or announced...

Off Land's fifth long player, Quinarian, has been given a release date of 27th October 2014. Once again on Psychonavigation, who released the last full-length Off Land release, the album features five tracks, and is based around the concept of "a method of zoological classification which had a brief period of popularity in the mid 19th century". For those who don't want to wait another five months, clips of the album can be streamed from Kudos Records.

The Future Sound of London have been slowly working through a backlog of side-project releases on their FSOLDigital imprint, including EPs from Blackhill Transmitter, The Jazz Mags and Glass Girl.  Several more EPs are expected over the spring, so keep checking back on the official site for more info.

After a break of almost a year, Bridgetown Records finally returns with a generous batch of seven tapes.  With a lineup of Big Waves of Pretty, Paper Armies, Filardo, Apollo Vermouth, Autococoon, Widesky, Reighnbeau, the batch looks set to be a genre-spanning collection as has come to be expected from Bridgetown. Read more here.

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New release roundup

The latest releases and announcements from our favourite artists and labels...

Off Land has confirmed his second release of the year will be an EP on Stasis Recordings, entitled Osculation and described as "an EP of some nostalgic 90's electronic music with an Off Land edge."

You can listen to a teaser for the EP on Off Land's Soundcloud.  If the clip is anything to go by, we're in for something quite different from the artist's usual fare...

There's a new one off Glimmer Room track on Bandcamp entitled All Time is Now. This is the artist's second individual track release in the last year, and helps fill the gap while we're waiting for album number 6.  Andy is also now selling a download bundle of the entire Glimmer Room back catalogue, which is at the bargain price of £30.

New releases from David Newlyn and Hibernate are always welcome, so the pairing of the two for the abandoned-places inspired Disintegrating Suburban Dream is definitely welcome.

The Future Sound of London have been dropping hints about a myriad of new releases, including the long-awaited Environments 5, plus a bunch of side-project EPs, and new releases on FSOLDigital for Broadcast of Varients and Sturmazdale.

And some new batches from tape labels of note: Constellation Tatsu announce a spring batch with releases from Unicity, Les Halles and X.Y.R.; Rocket Machine have two new releases for pre-order, including a new Kyle Landstra tape, and a four-way 2xC60 split from Ox, LV Morris, Hobo Cubes and Herring une seine seiben Sachen, along with a discount price for both bought at once; Third Kind Records have uploaded a 33 minute mix of forthcoming releases to Soundcloud, with jams from Hassni Malik/Nicholas Langley, Cosmonauttransfer presents Crater 93, Kyle & Wilbur, HL Collins, Crushtrash, and Hz vs. The Vitamin B12.

And if that's not enough to keep you going through this spring alone, go entertain yourself with A Closer Listen's overwhelming new releases preview page...

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Faures - Contintental Drift (Home Normal) By 2014, even discussing instrumentation of ambient music with any sense of wonder seems a little irrelevant. Most instruments imaginable have been used in the creation of various drones and soundscapes. Probably the most common acoustic instruments used are guitar and piano; these two are probably my favourites, too, so it is perhaps no surprise that Continental Drift by Faures is right up my street. Still, let's talk mood. It's quite common for music to represent an artist's surroundings (Richard Skelton the hill-walker; Deaf Center and their spooky Scandinavian sound), but a project like Faures - three artists from Germany, Canada and Singapore - has no immediate geographical or social setting. It is remarkable, then, how consistent Continental Drift is in tone, with no hint that these collaborative pieces were put begun and finished by different artists, depending on the track. That is not to suggest it's a samey album (at least by ambient/drone standards), just that the coherency is that which you'd expect of a tightly planned concept record. Despite the bleak looking cover, this is an album of bright sounding music. Broad sweeps of electronic and processed sound are the canvas on which Continental Drift is painted; sweeps which suggest open vistas, vast skies and a new sense of hope. This is uplifting music, but not sentimental music. Onto this canvas we find piano and electric guitar, sometimes high in the mix, playing a beautiful melody; other times soaked in reverb and barely audible above the rich tones of the backing reverb. Things change from time to time: 'Asthenospheric Movement II' brings elements of noise into the mix; whilst Isostatic Uplift, contrary to one reading of its name, is probably the most sombre piece on the record, a moody minor key piece with a pensive sounding percussive acoustic guitar loop. Of all the things that link the three artists, it's a sense, and appreciation, of space that is the most obvious. Whilst rich in texture, the drones on display here don't fill the room; instead, they simply occupy a certain place in the sonic landscape, allowing everything to fit around them, be it other instruments, or silence. This appreciation of space is what gives the music of Continental Drift its feeling of vast proportion, and in that sense, the title is entirely fitting for this beautiful collection of ambient pieces. Grab it from the Home Normal Bandcamp.

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Absent With Concept - Mix #1: March 2014 by Ross Baker by Rossbullfinch on Mixcloud

Absent With Concept is proud to present the first in a series of monthly mixes.  This first edition is by Ross Baker, who, alongside running AWC, also makes music and puts out occasional releases on Bullfinch Art & Tapes.  This mix features a selection of highlights from recent (and not-so-recent) independent releases.  A mix of ambient / experimental / modern composition / noise / beats from some of the best cassette, vinyl, CD and digital labels working in underground and independent circles.  Also included are a couple of pieces from upcoming Bullfinch tapes, and an unreleased piece track by Ross.  Enjoy!

Tracklist:

Wolf Maps - She Goes Walking at Night (Self-released) The Original Flowering Earth - Flowering Mountain Meditation (((Cave)) Recordings) Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Drawing Down the Moon (Constellation Tatsu) Background Radiation - String Theory (Self-released) Inappropriate King Live - What is the Fucking Book of Notes (Rainbow Bridge) Merganser - Brighton (Bullfinch Art & Tapes) Amelia Cuni & Wener Durand - Already Awake in the Night (ini.itu) Valiska - A Day as a Blade of Grass (Inner Ocean Records) Off Land - Voyage I (Self-released) Sabri Meddeb - At-Tjryd - Abstraction (Self-released) Pye Corner Audio - Electronic Rhythm Number Eighteen (Type) Ross Baker - Croxton Kerrial (Unreleased) Heads of Agreement - The San Monta Tapes (FSOLDigital) Simon Bainton - Porlock (Hibernate) Reuben Sawyer - Constricting Realities IV (Constellation Tatsu) Lyndsie Alguire - Paper Life (Self-released) Wet Eyes - People in Mirrors (Bullfinch Art and Tapes) Gideon Wolf - I Am Wolf (Chemical Tapes) Pulse Emitter - Autumn Again (Constellation Tatsu) Hakobune - Bodaijyu (Constellation Tatsu)

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Loose Link interview and album preview

NZ/UK sample-muncher and experimental artist Craig Gillman has provided an hour long mix of material for his work-in-progress and long awaited follow up to 2011's Random Proportions, as well as an interview discussing his history, influences, and future plans, as part of the Ambient Online podcast series.  Check out the show on the Soundcloud link above.

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New and old tapes roundup - 25/03/14

Gideon Wolf - I Am Wolf (Chemical Tapes) Now I love a big fat modular synth as much as the next man, but on the whole I just get that bit more excited by ambient music made using unconventional sounds. If the guitar is becoming a bit of a cliché these days, the voice certainly isn't. Gideon Wolf, the musical alias of Tristan Shorr, is definitely a name to look out for in the world of vocal ambient; the artist loops and layers his voice to form dense, beautiful, hypnotic textures. Between the more obvious choices of wordless vocals and abstract, made up sounds, real words and lyrics tend to lead the songs, giving these pieces a sense of intimacy often missing in experimental music. The voice isn't the only sound on show here. 'Landfall' and 'Neon Marks' veer more towards modern classical stylings, with subdued piano and violin recalling the sound of Shorr's debut album on Fluid Audio; the second side of the tape features heavier use of electronic loops and beats. Regardless of the arrangements, however, all seven pieces displayed here are mesmerising. Grab yourself a copy at the Chemical Tapes shop. Hakobune/Sima Kim - Split (Ginjoha) Takahiro Yorifuji's Hakobune project has become synonymous with deeply emotive, heart-wrenching dronescapes created using electric guitar and what must be a large military base filled with pedals, and 'Apis Mellifera', his 12 minute piece present here, is no exception. You know, I think this might be one of the best things he's recorded to date. The chords march steadily forward, as if mourning the loss of something beautiful. This is a piece chock full of hope and sadness at the same time. There are, sadly, no words to fully describe this kind of music, but let's just say the most soulless, cynical person would need to be on a lot of medication not to feel moved by what's going on here (I'm somewhere between 'profoundly moved' and 'breaking into tears', if you're interested). If it were up to me, I'd probably have put Sima Kim's piece on side A, as anything is going to come across starkly cold in comparison to Hakobune. Kim meets the challenge admirably however, with a drone that, although still, is far from static. 'Naivete' is chilly in mood, but retains the warmth in texture that works so well on tape - a rich, breathy drone that seems to slow everything in the room to a standstill and allow you to exist entirely cut off from your surroundings. (Note: after writing this review I had a look around Sima Kim's website and found that he describes his "main interest is on the sounds, notes and silences within a state of mindfulness". I can happily say with this piece he has achieved this remarkably). Ginjoha have predictably sold out of this, but if you're very lucky, you might still be able to pick one up at Meditations. Valiska & MHVA - Music On Hold (Black Hymn) I don't know much about the personal life of Krzysztof Sujata, aka Valiska, but if I had to guess his occupation, I'd probably say architect. I'm not sure what it is about certain types of music that makes them sound like buildings captured in sound form, but Valiska's does that. I know even less about MHVA, whose music I was introduced to last year via this tape, but he matches up to Sujata very well. Nothing is stated about who did what on these pieces, but from my own knowledge, I'd suggest that maybe MHVA has smoothed out Valiska's sounds a little. Only a little, of course. What we have here is a set of deep, angular, cavernous drones that surpass 'ambient' without fully arriving at 'noise'. Whereas Sujata's solo music has an occasionally erratic sound that can take the listener by surprise, things are a tad more streamlined here. But once again, this is only relative (and largely uninformative if you're unfamiliar with Valiska). Piano, guitar and electronics meet to create intense, shifting slabs of unstoppable sound. Occasionally a stripped back melody cuts through, highlighting the beauty in these pieces, but only briefly. MHVA seems to be AWOL at the moment, Valiska is still about and releasing. This tape is out of print, but a digital copy is still available at Black Hymn Records. BABEXO - Lonely Life in Neon Lights EP (Rainbow Pyramid) If my friends knew that I was sitting here listening to what could be easily described as a cheap keyboard backing beat and some new age synth pads recorded in somebody's living room on a boombox, they'd probably feel they had the evidence that I am either weird, or will listen to any old shit. The great thing about the underground music world in the past few years is, in giving new age sounds a bit of a revival, even if occasionally laced with irony, it has allowed the style to be taken seriously, and excellent composition with it to be enjoyed. Lonely Life in Neon Lights is a perfect title for this tape by BABEXO: the melancholic loneliness of the tunes, combined with the man made cheapness of the sounds, do a fantastic job of portraying the feeling of being entirely out of place and alone amongst others. The field recordings on part two of the title track bring a welcome sense of safety amongst the rest of the music. But talk of genres and concepts is meaningless, really, with a bunch of tracks are beautiful as these. Absolutely lovely music. Unsurprisingly, at only 24 copies, this is out of print, but you can still grab the digital version (missing two tracks from the tape) here. Amalgamated - Trudge/Slap (((Cave)) Recordings) In a welcome change of pace for the AWC tapes column, Amalgamated bring forth 44 minutes of psychedelic pulses and krautrock grooves. Things start out abstract enough on 'Trudge', with deep groaning sounds coming from the guitars, bass and electronics. Halfway through the first side, the pace picks up, with an almost ethno- psychedelic beat on 'Vezar Proof'. The highlight, though, is side 2, the 20 minute 'Slap Dance for Mortals'. A drum groove pounds forward with ecstatic energy, the rest of the band jam around it with guitars and electronics, strange sounds phasing in and out. As a monotonous piano appears halfway through, the mood becomes more rational, more stable, emphasising the motorik beat. Just as things begin to pick up again, they collapse in on themselves under the weight of the brilliance of everything that's come before. Aaaaaaaaand breathe. On this side, Amalgamated do the psych jam as well as anyone, and it's bizarre to think that this material waited around nine years to be released. Here's hoping they have more material lying around to put out, as Trudge/Slap is a moreish tape indeed. Best of all, it seems Amalgamated have a few copies left of this otherwise out-of-print tape at their website.