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Diamondstein - ‘Dead City 1.1’ Album Review

Dream Catalogue, one of the most prominent labels defining and redefining vaporwave and electronic music as a whole in the internet age has been putting out work from some of the most creative artists that I’ve heard in recent memory. As the name might suggest, the content of what the label releases usually sticks to dreamy, cinematic ambient and electronic music. It wasn’t until Diamondsein’s 2016 album ‘The Ridges’ that things got a little darker. The Dream Catalogue debut still followed the aesthetic of what the label had been putting out previously, albeit focusing on a more melancholic tone.

This time around, ‘Dead City 1​.​1′, the latest from Diamondstein is being released on BLCR Laboratories, a label that shares some artists with Dream Catalogue. The approach on this new tape takes the darker aspects heard on ‘The Ridges’ and condenses it into just four tracks, the first and last of which are of a lengthier run time focusing more on creating droning atmospheres that cater to the more experimental side of electronic music.

The album starts off bold, with a pulsating drone accompanied by blasts of grimy, osculating synth. ‘Alive With Rust’, the 20 minute first track off of Diamondstein is definitely going to test the patience of its listeners, filtering out those who really want to listen from those who are just giving the album a quick listen. It isn’t so much that this track is even abrasive - what is going to be challenging for listeners is deciding if they really want to hear a meandering 20 minutes of synth flexing without wondering why it couldn’t be cut down to 10 minutes and still have the same effect.

However, for those who stick around, they will be treated to some gorgeous building ambient music. ‘Baths’ is pretty much the antithesis to its predecessor - much shorter and more structured - as structured as ambient music gets; the track builds on a single drone, adding tasteful amounts of static noise throughout that gives these otherwise clean synths some texture. What Diamondstein accomplishes on this record is their ability to have plenty of variation while still remaining true to their sound. This is apparent on the third track, ‘The Last Box’, which features what sounds like a xylophone as the main element throughout the track lending the track a prog-rock vibe that reminds me of a film score for an 80′s horror film.

There are plenty of elements of ‘Dead City 1.1′ that I enjoyed, however, with just four tracks, what is great here feels unbalanced, weighed down by the extended length of ‘Alive With Rust’ and ‘MSK’, the latter of which has a beautiful ending, featuring haunting piano and backing electronics but is also thrown off dynamically by the meandering build of the first half of the track.

Grab the cassette here.

Diamondstein | BLCR Laboratories

Favorite Tracks: ‘Baths’

Least Favorite Tracks: ‘Alive With Rust’

For Fans of: Artists on Dream Catalogue

Misery Ritual / Christian Lover - ‘Self-Titled’ Split Review

Misery Ritual

I’ve always had a soft spot for harsh noise, despite generally leaning toward more melodic, ambient works within the genre. While pummeling the listener into submission seems to be a goal for most musicians dabbling in harsh noise, particularly in subsets of the genre such as HNW and power electronics, there is nothing quite as liberating as screaming as loud as you possibly can into a distortion laden microphone - both in concept and execution. Misery Ritual, the one man project of Kyle Ferguson does this and does it well.

On the 14 minute long, ‘Self Punishment and Shame’ we find the first half of the track comprised of screamed, unintelligible vocals and into the second half we get more improvised noise that ends with some of the tortured vocal accompaniments that we heard at the beginning of the track. While everything on this recording appears to be front and center, the track is mixed well as the vocals are never completely compromised, even with the overwhelming washes of noise. The track does well in being heavy, exactly what one might come to expect from the title of the track, although I was hoping for a little more, given the run time of the recording but as far as harsh noise goes, it is what it is. 

Misery Ritual | Soundcloud | Facebook | Instagram 

Favorite Track: - 

Least Favorite Track: -

For Fans of: Prurient, Damien Dubrovnik

Genre: Noise, Harsh Noise, HNW

Christian Lovers

One of the best things about noise and what initially drew me to noise, other than the obvious morbid curiosity, is the encouragement of experimentation within the genre. While there certainly are artists creating within the genre of noise who hide behind the idea of experimentation as a guise for releasing unfinished work, I do feel that when done right (or very very wrong) you get something completely unexpected and refreshing. That is exactly the case with Christian Lovers side of the split.

On the three tracks that make up Christian Lovers half of the tape, we get something that is maybe more akin to punk than it is noise. Collaged together elements of jazz drumming that turns to grindcore inspired blast beats on a dime, torturous, black metal-esque vocals, all of it fighting for a place among warped electronics. One thing that really stood out was, even with all of these eclectic, separate elements; thanks to the excellent mixing, each element stands apart from the other. What could have very easily been a sludgy mess, is a crisp recording that allows each fucked up element to be heard on its own.

Christian Lovers | Facebook

Favorite Track: ‘Standing on the Threshold of Darkness Where Pain is God’

Least Favorite Track: -

For Fans of: I Am A Lake of Burning Orchids, White Suns, John Weise

Future City Love Stories - ‘Self-Titled’ Album Review

If you enjoyed HKE’s 2015 classic, ‘HK’ or last year’s ‘Rain Temple’, the second collaborative album from HKE and t e l e p a t h as the 2814 project, then Future City Love Stories may be the next step. This new self-titled album is comprised of two parts, ‘Panthum Wan’ and ‘Yau Tsim Mong’, both of which clock in at over 20 minutes each.

What makes Future City Love Stories different from HKE’s other material, so much so that it warranted the project an entirely new name is unknown to me. The sounds, ambient, contemplative, and as cinematic as ever are pretty similar to what has been heard under HKE’s own name and the collaborative 2814 project. These two tracks are as dreamy and cinematic as what you might come to expect from the producer or anything out on the Dream Catalogue label. If there is anything to be said that is somewhat different about the project is its explicit soundscape-like composition, in which the movements on each of these tracks seamlessly transition into the next.

According to discogs, the second track, ‘Yau Tsim Mong’ is actually a restructured version of ‘油尖旺 District’, a 2014 release that was the first for HKE under the new alias. If you are a fan of HKE’s work under their own name or that of affiliated projects and musicians, then you may enjoy this. Folks new to this musician’s work may want to check out ‘HK’ before listening here.

HKE announced they were starting a new project entitled ‘Project 777′, which you can read about in more detail here. 

Check out my review for ‘God Form’, a track from the first record in the series ‘No Man Is God’, due out on BLCR Laboratories 

Future City Love Stories | HKE | BLCR Laboratories

Favorite Track: ‘Yau Tsim Mong’

Least Favorite Track: - 

For Fans of: 2814, HKE, Dream Catalogue

Burial - ‘Subtemple’ EP Review

Last year, Burial dropped his surprise EP, ‘Young Death / Nightmarket’ which consisted of two tracks that were noticeably less beat-oriented than what we have come to expect from the highly regarded UK dubstep producer. What we got with those two tracks shared more in common with the rich ambient interludes from his two full length releases; tracks such as ‘Nightbus’, ‘Forgive’, ‘Endorphin’, ‘In McDonalds’, and ‘Dog Shelter’. At the time, in anticipation of the cathartic, long-form dubstep that Burial had been producing prior to the release of ‘Young Death / Nightmarket’, these more ambient tracks seemed like an unexpected change of pace.

Now, having listened to that record many times over, it actually seems like a logical step in progression for Burial. In reflecting on Burial’s progression away from the dubstep he became known for, I recalled Huerco S.’ 2016 ambient masterpiece, ‘For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those of You Who Have)’. On that LP, Huerco S. put aside the hazy, lo-fi, techno of his first full length, ‘Colonial Patterns’, instead shifting the focus on creating the ambient textures that could be heard looming beneath the percussive elements of his earlier works.

With Burials last EP in mind, one that was, to some, shockingly low key, we got what sounded like a compilation of intros / outros, interludes, and snippets rolled into two long tracks. While we thought ‘Young Death / Nightmarket’ was low-key, on these two tracks from ‘Subtemple’, we get Burial at his most sparse. The title track consists of what sounds like someone winding a music box paired with Burial’s knack for obscure vocal samples and the gauzy crackle, pop, and hiss of surface noise. ‘Beachfires’, the flip side to this EP is the more “traditional” ambient track. Muffled atmospheric synths start the track out like a reference to the sound of a club from the outside. There is a beat of sorts on this track, only in the sense of it being the sound of a needle skipping over the surface of a record repeatedly. If these last two EPs are an indication of what’s to come with further releases, I’m anticipating an entirely ambient full length record and I’m thinking it is going to be incredible.

Hear Burial’s Record Store Day remix of Goldie’s ‘Inner City Life’ here.

Burial | Hyperdub

Favorite Track: ‘Beachfires’

Least Favorite Track: -

For Fans of: Huerco S.

Kowareta - ‘Strife to Error’ Album Review

I’ve always been a huge fan of early harsh noise. The intense, yet overly simplistic sound of the likes of Masonna, Merzbow, and The Gerogerigegege were my introduction to noise music. 

‘Strife to Error’, while intentionally or by chance, read like a tribute to early Japanese noise music, the traits of which are all here. One could find the brash noise punk of The Gerogerigegege (there is actually a tribute album on the label’s site) or the shrill straightforward sounds of Masonna in these 60 short, to the point tracks, that of which each end the same as they began: in an eruption of immediate dissonance and quick jump cuts to even harsher sounds than the last. When ‘Strife to Error’ gets as loud as you think it can and there seems to be no place left to go it in fact only gets louder.

If you are familiar with early harsh noise, ‘Strife to Error’ certainly won’t be anything new. I do appreciate the very quick, bite sized bursts of noise and the quick jump cuts that come between them. These 60 tracks are a nice exercise, both for the artist and the listener’s patience which always seems to be of importance when creating noise. On the Bandcamp page, the notes at the bottom suggest listening to the album on shuffle to get a different composition each time. Much like the other acts that I’ve listened to on Ontregeld Geluid Records, Kowareta seems to be interested in making engaging, yet challenging sounds that push their own creative abilities and challenge the listener a little bit as well.

Kowareta | Ontregeld Geluid Records

Favorite Tracks: -

Least Favorite Tracks: -

For Fans of: The Gerogerigegege, Masonna, early Japanoise and noisecore.

Rhucle - ‘Wonderland’ Album Review

If you are looking for the sonic equivalent to therapy, look no further than ‘Wonderland’, the Beer On The Rug debut from Rhucle. The music on this tape is fairly simple, there isn’t really a lot going on here but that is the beauty of it. The ambient swells and field recordings found throughout ‘Wonderland’, while straightforward just makes sense together and I have always been a fan of the idea that, if it sounds good, it probably is good.

On ‘Wonderland’ these ambient and drone textures serve a sort of practical purpose. The music throughout the album do little in how they change from track-to-track but act as places to engage in the meditative deep-listening that so many of us have forgotten about since the advent of streaming.

The music heard on this release has a new age vibe; a lot of the synth pads which sound, well... synthetic - like the default synth presets you’d get with a fresh out-of-the box synthesizer. This sound works both for and against “Wonderland’. On one hand this generic sound is welcomed in that it lends itself to this new age, retro aesthetic. On the other hand, the synths do get old about halfway through.

When introducing people who are not yet familiar with left-field music to ambient / drone works one of the most common and also most boring responses to what they are hearing is comparing it to music they might do some idle task to. I assume this is because most folks don’t consider that people would want to listen to long form, mostly unchanging sound for the purpose of enjoying it for what it is. To them, to listen to ambient music is to soundtrack the mundane - to do your laundry, sleep to, study to, etc. Normally I would disagree with that statement; given time and patience of course, ambient and drone music do offer much more than being music for listening to while doing something else but in the case of ‘Wonderland’ I feel that is where this album shines, in its practicality. Track to track, the music is pretty faceless - it is difficult to pick out a track that stands out from the rest. Naturally, this lack of variation would be a negative for me but in the case of the simplistic beauty that is ‘Wonderland’, it just makes sense.

Rhucle | Soundcloud | Facebook | Instagram | Beer On The Rug

Favorite Tracks: ‘Lemon Soda’, ’Sillimanite’

Least Favorite Tracks: -

For Fans of: Gas, Celer

Apartment Mouth - ‘Nystagmus’ Album Review

Apartment Mouth is an ongoing collaborative recording project between two members of Live God Records, with the project changing members with every new release. On this 9 track recording of psychedelic noise, Apartment Mouth is, Keiki and Salad.

Being familiar with both musicians, I went into this knowing, at least a little bit, what to expect. Salad’s work has covered quiet a bit of ground, anywhere between the singer-songwriter influenced ambient compositions of (my personal favorite), ‘Hurry Up & Wait’ to recent works, such as ‘Wind In My Heart’, which features recordings more focused on beat-oriented compositions paired up with the sonically damaged aspects of arranged sound. Keiki’s work, the most notable of which being his 2015 tape, ‘Control Error’ a collection of 10 improvised tracks focused on putting the spotlight on error within music; rather than rejecting it, Keiki’s work tends to embrace it. Considering both of their backgrounds I went into ‘Nystagmus’ fully expecting some damaged, but beautiful listening.

'Never’, the opening track off of ‘Nystagmus’ is pretty enough with some synth harmonies in the background, beneath a bed of soft static and even some more abrasive noise elements - altogether the track has a very psychedelic vibe in an unconventional sense of the word. The transition from the first track on to ‘Only’ is certainly jarring, given the restrained beauty that the album begins with. On ‘Only’, the listener is thrusted into a mess of various noises and synths that clash with one another, all the while a repetitious low-end pulse adds tension and movement which seems to be a reoccurring theme in sound on this release.

This movement happens in steady helpings; tracks like ‘Always’ and ‘Moving’ feature some light percussive elements, sometimes in the form of pulsating synths and other times more conventional drum sounds. Whatever the case, the duo incorporates these percussive elements in a discreet way; these percussive elements don’t drive the track so much as they act as textural element. While there are tracks that feature rhythmic elements, the way I see it is that Apartment Mouth isn’t making percussive noise music, they’re making noise music with percussion.

For new listeners, ‘Nystagmus’ may be a noisy affair as a whole but in contrast to the harshest works the genre has to offer, the record is fairly restrained with ‘Only’ being as noisy as it gets on this release. Still the album has a live sound to it. At times this works in the duo’s favor, adding depth, and at other times it can give off an unfinished vibe, having a sketch like quality.

While noisy by most conventional standards, Apartment Mouth’s focus has never been on pummeling the listener, so much as it has been inviting them to experience noise as a form of enlightenment through sound rather than flat-out musical rejection.

Apartment Mouth | Keiki | Salad | Live God Records

Favorite Tracks: ‘Never’, ‘Moving’, ‘Another’

Least Favorite Tracks: ‘Place’

For Fans of: Yellow Swans, Aaron Dilloway

Ian William Craig - ‘Slow Vessels’ EP Review

Ian William Craig’s 2016 album, ‘Centres’ was one of my favorite releases of that year and upon release, received widespread acclaim for it’s emotive, singer-songwriter take on ambient-noise, giving structure where tracks would typically go without. The album featured distorted textural compositions, that, in conjunction with Craig’s soft falsetto vocal’s and impressive range, made for a perfect juxtaposition. Still, with all of the noise on ‘Centres’, there was still the beautiful, stripped back, and entirely acoustic ‘Contain (Cedar Version)’, which closed the album.

On ‘Slow Vessels’, we are given what ‘Centres’ left off with; a collection of, not entirely acoustic tracks, but nonetheless stripped back pieces that carry Craig’s operatic voice placing emphasis on it throughout the album’s whole. While it might not be the cathartic piece one might want or come to expect after hearing his last release, it is always nice to hear additional takes, especially if it showcases the existing but lesser touched on aspects of an artist’s works - in this case, being Craig’s ear for subtlety in creating delicate folk music.

If you aren’t familiar with noise, ambient, drone, left-field music, whatever, then this might be a great entry point for those with a burgeoning ear for the otherworldly while still looking for something very accessible.

Ian William Craig | Fatcat Records

Favorite Tracks: ‘The Nearmess’

Least Favorite Tracks: -

For Fans of: Grouper, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma, Belong

Loure - ‘Vue’ Track Review

‘Vue’, one of the standout cuts off of Loure’s excellent debut, ‘Westside Movements’, is nearly 6 minutes of dreamy deep house. I first heard ‘Vue’ on the popular Slav youtube channel back in December of 2016 and still haven’t been able to get enough of it since.

Much like the rest of the tracks on ‘Westside Movements’, ‘Vue’ is a smooth flowing piece of deep house. Soft piano chords make their way through repetitious percussion and are accompanied by a jazzy trumpet solo, performed by Reuben Lewis. The snippets of pitch shifted vocal samples and deep ambient synth pads make this already cool track a few degrees cooler and perfect for dancing and kicking it to just the same.

The track is pretty standard as far as any piece of deep house goes, it has all of the necessary elements that are trademarks of the genre and doesn’t really do a whole lot to push the boundaries, given what is expected. That said, its Loure’s ear for putting together the smoothest, sexiest sounds and using a session musician for the horn arrangements as oppose to just sampling them from some jazz record that make ‘Vue’ so damn good and a standout among the slew of other jazzy house tracks. This track has stuck with me since December and its great to finally see it coming out in a physical format.

Grab a copy of the ‘Westside Movements’ 12″ from Noire & Blanche.

Also check out the accompanying visuals for the track from Délicieuse Musique and director Millhaus below.

HKE - ‘God Form’ Track Review

Dream Catalogue founder and musician HKE, has an ambitious new project called ‘Sequence 777′. The project’s focus is to release 7 different albums, each with 7 tracks, on 7 separate labels.

According to an excerpt from MMJ, when creating the content of these new albums, HKE would render the file once the track felt complete and then he would close the file without saving to ensure that he could not further edit the tracks in the future.

While HKE seems to have employed a gut approach to how he is producing and editing these tracks it certainly doesn’t sound underproduced. On ‘God Form’ we get four minutes of simplistic house. There is a contemplative vibe to the whole track, from the stripped back beginning to the piano chords that finish the track off. It is definitely a more club friendly HKE track, with the warped vocal samples giving a nod to early UK garage and dubstep. If this new track is any indication of what we can expect from this new series of albums we are going to get some of the most enjoyable and perhaps club friendly HKE tracks to date.

‘God Form’ is taken from the first album in the ‘Sequence 777′ series entitled ‘No Man Is God’ due out on BLCR Laboratories July 7th.

N - ‘GHOSTNNN’ Track Review

On ‘GHOSTNNN’, Oakland, CA musician, N, creates an eclectic, frankensteined mix of industrial hip-hop, with pitched down, warped vocals and chopped up production. Like much of what Clan Destine Records puts out, this particular track falls into their taste for occult-tinged, noisy, electronic music.

While I will say, the lyricism and dark atmosphere definitely feels forced, reading a bit like a high-school shooter’s diary (maybe a complement?), the production is fresh and there is enough seemingly intentional camp here to make listening to this more than just a guilty pleasure.

Grab the tape from Clan Destine Records here.

åmfx - ‘In The Cafe’ Track Review

With ‘In The Cafe’, åmnfx, the recording alias of Russian producer Vasily Skobeev, goes for a moody, reserved tone. The production is chilly, with field recordings and subtle static coming up through the spaces between looping piano phrases and muffled percussion.

‘In The Cafe’ is certainly chilly sounding, but theres a warmth here as well. As the name might suggest, it evokes a cozy feeling - a coffee in the cafe on a cool spring morning, just before work, reading a book and thinking about skipping, taking the day for yourself. It is a feeling that contradicts the urge to dance, despite the repetitious nature of the beat; you have permission to dance but why dance when you can just listen and enjoy.

You can hear ‘In The Cafe’ on åmnfx’s new tape, ‘Moscow Beat’, his debut on 100% Silk.

GFOTY - ‘The Argument’ Track Review

Out of all of the musicians affiliated with PC Music, GFOTY is easily one of the more difficult acts from the enigmatic collective. While PC Music, since its inception, has always done well to distort our current idea of what pop music is and can be, with this track, GFOTY has taken that concept and sped it up, probably far ahead of its time.

On ‘The Argument’, GFOTY starts the track out with a mix of nonsense words and real words, half-rhyming over a sharp keys and bright piano chords. What is interesting here is, when looking over the lyrics (yes, there are actual written lyrics), these words, as nonsensical and random as they might seem, appear to be sung in alphabetical order. At the halfway point of the song a male voice, credited only as “Johnny”, ends the song with a verse using a mix of random English words and references to obscure types of birds.

Yeah...

One thing seems to be certain; while this isn’t a pop banger by standard conventions, the track acts more like a statement on the shallow lyricism sometimes found in pop music. With that said, this track could be the most PC Music thing to come out of the collective and for some reason I cant stop listening to it.

“Emsum, sum blum brum, brum brum carum come, crum cum Cum cum, cum cum crumb, cum crum dum drum drum, frum frum Feat frum, garum glum, glum genum tuh grum, gum gum”

Just watch the video.

Terence Hannum - ‘The Final Myth’ Track Review

On ‘The Final Myth’, a cut off of Terence Hannum’s latest tape, ‘Impiety’, he focuses on the overlapping and coming together of voice and machine. Throughout the entirety of this 7 minute long track, Hannum’s voice floats above a bed of deep synth textures and a subtle, pulsating rhythmic element that keeps a tempo like a pulse. The combination of these sounds works together as oppose to fighting with one another, resulting in an experience comparable to choral music which among themes of embracing / rejecting spirituality, seems to be a reoccurring message throughout the rest of the record.

Hannum is also one half of the well-received experimental black metal project, Locrain, alongside André Foisy and Steven Hess. Unlike Hannum’s work in Locrain, his solo effort under his own name is clearly a much more subdued, contemplative work, yet it never feels as though it is meandering.

The cassette tape is sold out via Umor Rex’s website, however, you can still stream and purchase the album for digital download here.

Danny L Harle - ‘Me4U (A.G. Cook Remix)’ Track Review

On this remix, in typical A.G. Cook fashion, he takes what was a ballad of sorts and flips it on its head, transforming it into a twisted, disorienting club banger. 

The track starts out deceptively simple; much like the material Cook became known for, the track builds, with huge chords and chopped up vocal melodies layered on top one another. Cook builds to the inevitable drop which, in a way, deconstructs itself in a mess of fucked up synths and punchy beats. At the end of the track, Cook pays homage to the original’s ballad-esque sound.

I’ve always been a huge fan of A.G. Cook’s style. On this remix of ‘Me4U’, much like his own track, ‘Superstar’, he draws heavily from the building elements of rave music and sugary pop, perfectly merging club and ballad. I think I actually prefer Cooks version to the original.

Listen to the original track and read my review of it here.

Stay updated with PC Music’s Month of Mayhem for new material all throughout the month of May.

thedarkmarch - ‘midway’ Track Review

Cliff Fields has been putting up tracks on soundcloud for the past few years despite having only released one official tape, ‘Offshore’, back in January of 2015. I remember sitting down with him and jamming when he divulged that he has plenty of unreleased recordings sitting on his computer - all of them home produced. If you know Cliff, this isn’t surprising; the guy’s nose is usually buried in his sketchbook and when he isn’t working on illustrations, he is producing music in his free time.

As thedarkmarch, the instrumental aspects of his work is comprised of murky, densely layered field recordings, obscure samples, and chilly synths, that of which often provide a bed for which Cliff sings, raps, or does a combination of the two over. While tracks consists of layering, Field’s fondness for restraint, his subtlety, comes through in the minimalist production. His delivery, the vocals and lyrics are as honest as the production style; Field’s voice is to the front of the mix, as confrontational as it is vulnerable but it is this vulnerability that makes Field’s music so accessible, even at its most abrasive.

Midway is off of his demo tape ‘the lower case: a’.

Read my interview with thedarkmarch here.

Danny L Harle - ‘Me4U’ Track Review

Danny L Harle has always been a standout among his fellow PC Music affiliates. While still largely unorthodox in comparison to other pop music producers, I’ve always thought of his work as being the most chart friendly and accessible in contrast to the collective’s penchant for obfuscating current pop trends and marrying them with abrasive elements - which Harle still does, just in more a more subtle fashion.

Harle continues his love for layering harmonies on ‘Me4U’. What sounds like a kalimba starts the track out and is carried on throughout the song as layers of synths and drums are added - its a recipe that is distinctly PC Music. One thing I’ve always appreciated about PC Music, namely Harle’s brand of pop, is the use of the voice as an additional layer, following a beat or synth progression. In the case of ‘Me4U’, Harle uses Morrie’s vocal contributions in this manner, in some places chopping them up and repeating them, giving the vocals a very processed, synthetic vibe, one that has become a staple in defining Harle’s sound.

On 'Me4U', much like last years ‘Super Natural’, a collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen, Harle continues to push for accessibility, utilizing mainstream pop conventions and flipping them on their head without alienating his audience.

Hear A.G. Cook’s remix of ‘ Me4U’ here.

More from PC Music’s ‘Month of Mayhem’.