drone
All posts tagged drone
Since launching in 2011, James Healy’s Air Texture label and compilation series has become something of an institution within the ambient scene. As with its predecessors, the seventh volume in the series has been jointly compiled by two artists with an existing musical relationship, in this case Rrose and Silent Servant. Their selections are on point, drowsily drifting between academic ambient compositions (see Rrose and James Fei’s “For Bass Clarinet 8.97 (Rrose Version)”, uncomfortable electronic explorations (Ron Morelli, Anthony Child), modular movements (Not Waving), jazz-flecked deep space soundscapes (Luke Slater), horror-influenced throb-jobs (Phase Fatale, June & An-i) and 1990s style ambient electronica (Octa Octa, Function).
Multicast Dynamics returns with a sixth studio album that marks something of a new chapter. Ancient Circuits is an advancement from previous works on Denovali and one that stands the project aside as a powerful electronic act that tells stories while also serving up heavy hitting soundscapes that are persuasive, unexpected and disturbing. Each of the four 25-minute pieces of Ancient Circuits are clearly demarcated yet sequential sci-fi stories that introduce new characters and are drawn out of long and complex studio experiments. They are collages of sound that glimmer, disturb, shine, dive deep and explore new realms and make for ambient so arresting that it pulls you deep inside. Once again here, Multicast Dynamics draws together cinematic sound design and conceptual intergalactic fiction to come up with a work that is a multi-sensory exploration that puts you as the central character in an expressive musical world.
Touchin Bass is backfilling missing catalog number TB036 with the multitalented guitarist and drummer, mathematician and multidisciplinary improviser Maria Gamboa Perez. Under the NonZero! moniker, Perez brings ‘Matrix Equation’ to the fore; a heavy 8 track EP with electro aesthetics from none other than Carl Finlow. Perez combines elements of rage, chaos, tension and anguish to form a visceral style. Her musical terrain and talent is shaped by dissonance and NO art. Splintered beats and a foreboding sense of tension give way to a more DJ friendly logic of instinctive introductions and codas of gradual builds and breakdowns as Finlow further reworks the results to great effect.
‘The Last Day Of Pompeii’ is a compilation of hidden gems by Retina.it -most of them released via Chicago’s Hefty Records in early 2000- and few unreleased coming as a double EP. The records will have inserts presenting 2 halves of Karl Brullov painting from 1830 (that gives the name to the project). On the backside of the insert there will be anecdotes and pictures from the archives. Midgar want to pay tribute to the Pompeian duo, whose life has been entirely dedicated to music. The project ‘The Last Day Of Pompeii’ talks about their origins, early history and relationship with Hefty Records.
R&S present the eponymous, debut, full length album transmission from Lost Souls Of Saturn, an epic in scope, time and space, multidimensional mind trip. This ambient house masterpiece combines flavours gathered from across the galaxy, stewing them up into a delicious primordial soup. Old sci-fi soundtracks, acid, free jazz, avant garde, musique concrete, world music and more all whirl around an underground-dance-music axis. Primarily Lost Souls Of Saturn are Seth Troxler and Phil Moffa, plus further opaque participants congregating to combine music, imagery, and storytelling into an inextricably linked whole, all wrapped-up in a philosophy of their own making.
Experimental Italian techno duo Crossing Avenue return to Spazio Disponibile for their third EP on the label. Once again their four track effort explores new tempos, rhythms and moods in stylish fashion. The Carmaleonte EP counts four multi layered trips into mind melting half time jams that pairs rubbery, rolling drums with hypnotic lead synths. After the gurlgin deepness and sparsity of ‘Monoica’, ‘Carmaleonte’ is high pressure and unrelenting, ‘Santica’ got the razor sharp and unresolved rhythms where ‘Decimo Piano’ is a flurry of high speed drums and sci fi signifiers that plays out like an intergalactic space war. Techno never sounded as adventurous as this.
