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.

Project Channel 2 – [2013] Infamous Trance Impressions – Chapter One

Classic trance with marvellous vocals. The German netlabel Kreislauf publishes electronic dance music. This release contains 13 tracks of dance floor filling, four-on-the-floor beats. No experiments, but the production quality speaks for itself:

Wed, 25th Sep 2013
Epic Soul Factory – [2012] Xpansion Edition

Epic soundtracks to unmade movies. Faldrians Feierabend, a weekly music podcast that I enjoy very much, uses this style of music as its intro. Richly orchestrated score music, purely instrumental, creates visions of possible movie scenes that might still be produced… in the meantime, we benefit from great production, solid song writing. It makes great…

Wed, 18th Sep 2013
Professor Kliq – [2009] Community Service

Juicy techno with attitude. Triggered by the recent release of his new Teragraph EP, I looked back to my archive and found ten years of and twelve releases by Professor Kliq. Time for another review of one of his classics, one of the releases that made me a fan. It contains his smashing hit Plastic…

Wed, 11th Sep 2013
Plaistow – [2008] Do You Feel Lucky?

Airy jazz impro-jam. Three musicians meet in Geneva to create experimental jazz soundscapes. Four of these soundscapes are bundled on Do You Feel Lucky? for us to witness. The recording is executed excellently and bring you very close to the imaginary stage, where the piano/bass/drums trio do their workmagic. Two very different songs are presented…

Wed, 4th Sep 2013
Bluebridge Quartet – [2007] Adjusted for Low Noise Tape EP

Friedemann’s Aquamarin Orchestra would be proud. I discovered this release with the morbid joy of a forensic researcher in the remainings of the discontinued Aerotone netlabel (“Ende.“). Abstract instrumental jazzy tunes are floating mid-air in front of your ears. Skillfull compositions (or improvisations?) showcase the saxophone, percussion, bass and guitar that form this marvelous quartet.…

Wed, 28th Aug 2013
The Rare Plants Garden – [2011] The Rare Plants Garden

Folkish exotica indiepop. Sort of. Meh, this release hates to be squashed into three descriptive words. Are it the skewed notes (like MGMT), the torn vocals (like indie pop sounds today) or the exotic ukulele and beach sounds, that make this task so difficult? I can’t tell. In order not to confuse you too much,…

Wed, 21st Aug 2013
The Dada Weatherman – [2008] The Green Waltz

Tender vocals, acoustic guitar. Dada is a talented musician from Paris, gifted with a great voice and sense for the right chords. Equipped with piano, acoustic guitar and occasional percussion, he sings his way through 15 tracks. It seems that he calls himself now Dada & the Weathermen, has released three more acoustic albums on…

Wed, 14th Aug 2013
Various Artists – [2013] Fusion Compilation 8

Experimental Trip hop compilation. From the Fusion netlabel comes this showcase of a sampler. A range of electronic styles are united on this buffet. Expect to get surprised by the slightly experimental tracks. The production is excellent throughout all featured artists. Two tracks that span the spectrum of this release are in the preview below:

Wed, 7th Aug 2013
Bebop – [2013] Scuola Benassi Deluxxx Edition

Crispy, kicking breakbeats is what awaits you in this single on Sostanze Records from Italy. Scuola Benassi in four versions, two of which are remixes by other artists. The song itself is a forward-thrusting floor-filling breakbeat bomb (alliteration allergy, anyone?). My two favourite versions and the obligatory download link follow below.

Wed, 31st Jul 2013
Ancient Lasers – [2013] You In The Future

This joint release from the netlabels Clinical Archives and No Source features Daniel Finfer’s (almost) solo project Ancient Lasers. “Sonically the music sits comfortably somewhere between Nine Inch Nails and the Postal Service” tells us the release notes. Where does this leave us? With shoegazing, stomping, screaming post rock worth a place in my personal…

Wed, 24th Jul 2013
XOC – [2005] Super Mario World

Analogue reinterpretation of a legendary console game soundtrack. With almost 400,000 downloads from the Internet Archive servers), this release is of the classic gems of free music. Multi-instrumentalist XOC took the effort of precisely reproducing the original score for the SNES game Super Mario World, instrument by instrument, track by track. By using real instruments…

Wed, 17th Jul 2013
Intoxicated Piano – [2013] Vice Versa

Juicy indie-pop with scratchy vocals. This album contains five melodic songs, beautifully arranged around piano and the singer Oxy. It is brought to us by the Russian netlabel Mixgalaxy. It features solid production, classy song arrangements and a wonderful singer. Read on for two preview songs and the download link.

Wed, 10th Jul 2013
Allison Crowe – [2010] Spiral (Originals)

Allison Crowe sings piano-based ballads. This 2010 release back at Jamendo sums up 10 of her songs. Most are calm, some vivid, all honest and moving. Her voice is the main asset of this album. To select my usual two songs for the preview is quite difficult this time. Hear for yourself below, before downloading…

Wed, 3rd Jul 2013
Alexandre Bateiras – [2012] Canções da Lua Nova

This is Portuguese folk. Acoustic guitars, singing of past times. Speaking of past times, the album was originally released in 2007 on the now inactive Merzbau netlabel. Fortunately for us, the Free Music Archive took over the task of archiving its releases. Only because of that, I was able to stumble upon this jewel of…

Wed, 26th Jun 2013
LASERS – [2012] LASERS EP

Slightly positive IDM with a dash of Trip Hop. Bad Panda Records released LASERS EP back in 2012. With four original songs and seven remixes, the release is almost 50 minutes long. Its sound is very relaxed and doesn’t try to impress with catchy tunes. Instead, spherical sounds are combined with straight drum patterns. (What…

Wed, 19th Jun 2013