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"Skifer" // Pjusk // Tele
On a bit of a Pjusk wave at the moment; couldn't tell you why I hadn't paid enough attention to his work previously, there's some incredible Ambient/Ambient Techno workings within his catalogue and this track is no exception. Chilly, Arctic minimalism contained in a more jovial shell; sounds a bit like Kiln just without the sun-drenched blissout.
"Night One" // Lusine ICL // Coalition 2000
I am readying myself for the new Lusine album this coming February by re-exploring his extensive back-catalogue; there are some real gems within it, I must say.
"Medea" // Arcana // As Bright As A Thousand Suns
Well Dead Can Dance went down a storm, so here's some more Neoclassical Darkwave for ya'll with Arcana.
"Fallen For Nevers Pt. 2" // Ginormous // The Sound Of Love Impermanent
Slowcore, Post-Rock, Ambient, pick any or all of the above. I'm way too tired to go into genre classification, and at this point I don't care too much. It fits in with the theme of the blog, that's all that counts :)
"Anabasis" // Dead Can Dance // Anastasis
I guess I should probably upload something then; this is from the new Dead Can Dance album, their first release in about 16 years. One of my favourite albums of the year, no joke; stunning darkwave
"Turns 1" // Jahktute // Turns
Help your indie cred by listening to this small-time Bandcamp artist, Jahktute. Brilliant little Drone album by an unknown.
Misc. Review #2; Going Places
Releasing a final album before a band breaks up is a tricky business; releasing an album 2 years after breaking up is even more difficult. In some cases it is curious to wonder whether they knew it would be their last, trying to use hindsight to detect some sense of melancholy in the work. Yellow Swans don't even need to pretend, since this album is everything to do with their breakup; they even left the clue in the title. Drone and Noise are difficult genres of music sometimes; conveying emotion is a delicate matter of building up textures and manipulating raw sound, it is very easy to produce something uninteresting and lifeless or go overboard and drown out the original message. Here though, Yellow Swans make it more than clear what they are trying to express. The track names ("Going Places", "New Life", "Opt Out") start the story, informing the listener that the end is nothing more than a new beginning, but that is where the music picks up the mantle and gives us the real story. Tracks are loosely structured amalgamations of brown noise, occasional bass beats and burbling water samples, like jacuzzis filled with mud. But each track is progressive, each track has a purpose and a direction, and that is the end. While tracks like "Foiled" have crescendos and build ups of their own forged from slowly rising pulses in the noise, these are merely premature unbottlings of energy before it culminates in the chilling epic finale of the title track "Going Places". Here, the true torment of the breakup is revealed with enormous walls of wailing, screaming sound, rising rapidly to a hair rising, spine tingling climax of raw power before subsiding away quickly, its energy spent to be seen no more. Yellow Swans really pulled out all the stops for that last track and by God is it a good 'un. Despite the wistfulness, the melancholy, the catharsis, there is a definitive sense of finality, that Yellow Swans are "Going Places" and that there can be no return. There is a sense of relief that they have expressed it and laid it to rest, no matter how hard it is or how bad it hurts. What this album has to offer is more felt than heard; it may not be music to everyone's taste but you cannot deny the emotional power contained within. Turn up the volume, turn off the lights and close your eyes. Immerse yourself in the noise, the rawest sound of emotion.
Misc. Review #1: Until Tomorrow
Wow, things got quiet here real quick; I do apologise, my workload increased as I approached the holidays and I didn't realise how much these reviews actually kept me posting. Regardless, here is a review of Manual's Until Tomorrow.
I'm not going to mince my words here, this is probably my favourite album of all time. Holy crap, that's a pretty tall order, and you're probably wondering what makes this so special. In truth, to many people at least, not a great deal. Most will find this to be nothing mindblowing or especially beautiful, just another somewhat forgettable ambient/IDM release by a small-time artist. To me, this is an album saturated with emotion, mingling more bucolic acoustic guitar with electronic, glitch based elements.
I'm trying really hard not to wreck this review like I do with every album that I really enjoy. I'm not even sure who to compare this against to give you some idea of the sound. I suppose Fennesz is not far removed, just without a lot of the drone elements.
The album is a huge refinement over his previous, self-titled debut EP where the glitch element was extremely dominant; here the glitch has been heavily sidelined and fuzzy synth and acoustic guitar take up the mantle, which is a huge relief. The album as a whole does feel heavily electronic though (which is odd since all of it is analogue), even though it's obvious Manual has taken pains to avoid this. The glitch, while it does feel very organic and an intrinsic part of many of the pieces, almost feels too precise and perfect in its attempt to achieve a kind of integration with the music. I also kind of wish the guitar was brought to the forefront a little more, but that's just me being picky.
These things aside, the album is incredibly fuzzy and warm, it has a real sense of anticipation and hopefulness to it, echoed in the track names as well as the music itself. It sounds quite simplistic, and it is in a sense, but the production is extremely careful and very well thought out; one might criticise it for being "cluttered" but in my mind it is perfect. Again, being an ambient spinoff I'm not concerned about it keeping a beat or rhythm, I'm more concerned about how it makes me feel, and it makes me feel very good indeed. It only has three major components - glitch, synth and guitar - but the marriage and balance of the three has been absolutely nailed. In fact, the fact that it is minimal and lacks lots of textural components is probably a good thing and helps us to concentrate more on the best bits.
This album is not quite like anything else out there. Yes, it has all the typical components of an IDM release with its breakbeats and so on but it combines them masterfully; in the hands of many others it would lack the cohesion and structure that Manual somehow imbibes into his work. This isn't going to be for everyone, but just for me give this a listen and try and appreciate how gorgeous this release truly is.
Damn, have I gone and balls'd up another review? Maybe. I hope not. I just don't think I can convey how much I enjoy this album.
I'm feeling some Boards of Canada for the next review.
