Category: Review
Recommendations to music releases I like. Each review features track descriptions of my favourite tracks. A download link can be found at the bottom of each posting.
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Antethic – [2017] Ghost Shirt Society
Electronic post rock greatness. We probably all have heard those drawn-out, long, boring post rock extravaganzas with minutes of continuous distorted guitar sound carpets without sense or measure. This not one of those… Instead, the genre is enriched by upbeat tracks, careful addition of electronic effects and ornamentation. In short: it sounds pretty fresh! Read…
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Triplexity – [2008] Between Light and Shadow
Diverse trip hop lounge world jazz… did I say diverse? Oh my gosh is this album diverse. The common theme is laid-back background music, but otherwise all bets are off. Just listen to the three picks I have selected this week and decide for yourself…
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M-PeX – [2017] Carianae
Portuguese electro ambient guitar. Excellent mostly instrumental guitar and contrabass, just with a tiny bit of electronic ambience in the background. The release for me has an incredibly intense cinematic touch. Highly recommended for headphones to capture the subtle effects. Already a modern classic, I would say.
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Mr. Bitterness And The Guilty Pleasures – [2017] Songs From The Surveillance Age
Coming to save alternative rock. Wow, what an excellent production. It’s rare to be blown away by so “little” happening on the surface, while so much falls all into the right place in the background. Electronic effects left and right, used in subtle ways for great effect make this a well crafted release.
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Bralitz – [2017] Bralitz
Beach folk grandeur. Sounds a bit like Newton Faulkner. Vocal guitar folky pop, with violin strings for effect. If you are more into “self-made” sounding music rather than overproduced electro-pop, you’ll very much like this small EP, published at blocSonic in their maxBlocs release cycle.
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Esgi – [2008] Echoes in Time
Soundtrack-style ambient music. This album developed out of writing a score to an unnamed project. To me, the result would make the perfect fit with one of the older Civilization or Age of Empires titles.
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Eva & Manu – [2011] Still Traveling EP
Acoustic vocal indie pop. This gem from French-Finish duo Eva & Manu has unfortunately been de-published by the creators from the original sources, but the archive.org mirror is still up. And thanks to the nature of Creative Commons license, I can be sure that it remains legal to download the original EP. Four songs long,…
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Dream Generator – [2007] Glazed
Old-school techno meets IDM. This gem from long-standing (active since 2001 and running) netlabel Kahvi offers an interesting blend of 90’s techno sounds and 00’s more refined approach to Electro. While the beats and bass synth lines sound almost retro to my 2017 ears, melody and harmonies sound fresher.
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Dream Mechanics – [2009] Screensaver
Casual ambient soft rock. This oldie (i.e. published last decade) is a perfect mental “screen saver”. According to the release notes on Bandcamp, the artists were called a “Russian Massive Attack” for their psychedelic, trance-inducing sound. Judge for yourself what you make of it..
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Candlegravity – [2013] Junpei
Trippy glitch electronica. This album leans more towards the experimental side. It might need some time to be heard in total. But it might yield some exceptional moments in return. I better let the artist explain: All of the other songs are from personal experiences both good and bad and the making of this album…
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Frenic – [2011] Lessons From The Past
Melodic instrumental hip hop. Soft beats and beautifully aranged samples make this album a very special and very seductive entry into the instrumental hip hop genre. The tracks are not completely free of repetitive arrangements, but they have less repetetive arrangements than this sentence contains repetitive arrangements… 😉
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Hermelin – [2008] Hermelin
Straightforward post rock. Hermelin is 4 guys from Hanover in Northern Germany, performing at least since 2008. On April 1 this year they have released their newest album called Tüdeltüt. While their newest work certainly has increased in terms of production (sound quality, mixing), their first full-length release has its charm, too.
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Gorje Hewek – [2007] Sur-Dramatic Nature
Silently impressive. Gorje Hewek is a master of deep house and similar styles. He has performed at Burning Man 2016. In this old release back at trusty netlabel Fuselab, he shows a more silent side of his craft.
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Mikael Fyrek – [2011] I Step Into the Advent
Calm and clean, cinematic IDM. What would relaxing lounge music sound in the Tron universe? Pretty much like this. All-electronica sounds, straight from digital synthesizers, soothe your ears. Four tracks in total span about 30 minutes. Two picked tracks and the download link follow below.
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Smooth – [2015] Vintage 02
Elegant monotony. Six tracks, spanning almost one hour, produced using vintage equipment, elegantly fill the air with damp synth sounds and calm beats. Be prepared for Deep House for dark moments.