When I saw the cover and read that is an “experimental” labeled product, I admit, I was pretty scared that I stumbled into another dark and twisted noisy “sick something”, connected to S & M, bondage and god knows what else. Well, I was absolutely misleaded, this is quite a nice, pulsing, even sunny trip into the pop flavored, electro-dance-funk area with charming trance filtered moments, groovy pop punk like turns and tempos, catchy themes and “feel good” spices. KYNAN is a young musician from San Diego, CA, and “High Heals” was digitally release on 31 March 2011 via the Absent Fever label on their Bandcamp page from where you can downloaded for the symbolic price of $1. 10 tracks, extremely pleasant listening, a nice mixture of indie pop and electro-acid, chill moments and quite danceable explosions in a fluid flow of sparking sounds. Read more KYNAN – High Heals (2011)
electro
Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
In an interview in June 99 they said: “We never say what we think, and we never believe what we say, and if we tell the truth by accident, we hide it under so many lies that it is difficult to find out”. They were talking bout them self, but it’s quite true generally speaking. From the moment when information is overflowing and filtered, truth stops existing and I believe, that was the end of democracy as once Greece defined it. “Genocide Organ have provoked reaction from listeners – be those extremists who perceive the group have certain sympathies that align with their own, or vocal detractors labeling the group as racist, fascist, or more crudely – hate mongers. likewise for those listeners intelligent enough or otherwise uninterested in making such simplistic and polarized views of Genocide Organ, merely the extremity of sound can likewise provoke reactions from revulsion through to pure pleasure, the pleasures received in pain is an amply adage here.”
Formed back in 1986, Genocide Organ explore the borders of industrial and power electronics, sometimes reminds me of the 80s militarist Laibach, the pioneering Slovenian band which majorly influenced the German electro/industrial scene and being the source of inspiration for the so-called Neue Deutsche Härte fulminating by the outbreak of bands such as Rammstain, but as well, Genocide Organ reminds me of some experimental moments of the Chicago based Martin Atkins’s Pigface. Read more Genocide Organ – Under-Kontrakt (2011)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
Marcus Miller once said: “that one of the problems with making contemporary music is that you never know how it will be judged in the futureâ€. That’s true, but still, I believe it really doesn’t matter what anybody think about it, who and how judge it. I’m conscious that I disappointed most of my fans from the 90’s, but I always felt like I have to move on and I’m kind of pathologically scared not to repeat myself. Under the moniker “Mr.Pan[k]sament” I’m exploring extremely different areas of musical expressions from electronica to metal and from punk to jazz, it might be confusing, I’m aware of it, but this is who I am. Writing recently about Queensrÿche and reading some of the fans comments about their latest release I was thinking about one more aspect: a band should play what their fans demand or what they actually feel? Some great artists such as David Bowie with each release moved on in some other direction while bands like AC/DC played the same riff for decades but both are just great exactly for what they did. So, it’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. On the other hand, thinking about music exclusively in genres, I think it’s definitively wrong and leave us with a very narrow horizon… Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
The Last Elephant
Yesterday was the last time when I released a new song, here we go again, I’ve got another one: The Last Elephant. Maybe I’m not a creative genius, but still, I’m at least productive. 😀 Written for the same album, “The Ghost of the Absent Father”, this is a more darker song with kind of aggrotech/EBM resonances, industrial textures. It has a slow-grinding passage colored nicely with a gentle piano and a string orchestra, but still, this is pretty intense I guess. Not too sophisticated, straight and pumping. Read more The Last Elephant
Father’s Day
It’s been a while since I managed to wrote something for this album. While I successfully managed to smash my photo camera, I returned to some old habits: my colors and brushes. And well, keeping this site running, eat up quite much of my time as well. On the other hand, actually I wrote a few themes and songs lately but none of them did fit right in the “concept” of this album – among others obviously – I’m working on. Well, I’m kind of busy guy, carefully I always keep my own agenda full. Being my own boss enforced full and merciless tyranny over myself. Still, no results for this ruthless exploitation, but the future – always – is wide open and really I don’t have any other choices.
Anyway, this one is quite simple, smooth – I guess -, well balanced and sort of happy, careless. I wish I could write more of this kind. Read more Father’s Day
Muslimgauze – Beirut Transister (2011)
Based in Britain, Muslimgauze present themselves as staunchly supportive of Palestinian Arabs, although their are vaguely defined politically and focusing to altering beats, pulses, and samples in every way possible, bringing to the surface hypnotizing Arab percussion and mysterious fragments of Arab chants mixed with minimalist electronica. I always loved the untainted Arab/Eastern music, I love the pulse of their rhythms and the sparking harmonies of their melodies. Muslimgauze focusing mainly on the rhythms, but they have hidden a few spicy melodies as well and this “ethnic/electronic” and “world beat” mixture they delivering sounds deeply authentic.
Having a quite impressive discography , since 1982 Muslimgauze released over 200 materials, albums and compilations included. Read more Muslimgauze – Beirut Transister (2011)
Planningtorock – W (2011)
Janine Rostron, Berlin based, London born, musician/conceptual-artist and record label owner, has been flirting with a wider audience via her LCD Soundsystem opening slot and become a frequent collaborator of The Knife. She’s back now with her second full-length album, “W” and her smooth, but gloomy explorations of tense rhythms and quite particular timbre keyboard, classic instruments and shady, electric and electrifying layers, floating vocals merged into her unique, sparkling sound.
Classically trained on the violin from the age of eight, Janine Rostron developed a passion for strings. That same passion can be heard in her infamous pizzicato bass styles with plucked string production blended perfectly with electric mix of barrelhouse boogie-woogie pianos, xylophone trills, honkytonk horn sleaze, bluesy growls and creepy coos. Read more Planningtorock – W (2011)
themuztard seedz
I try to convince others to collaborate, create together. It seems harder than I thought, people mostly are preoccupied with their own shit. I can’t blame anybody, the world today is a pretty fucked-up place, and well, the worst is still to come I guess. Last year I put together a set of recordings with the core of the band Oedip Piaf and some contribution from Mr. Winteller from London, that was “Badtime Stories” (you can grab it for free, by the way), a noisy, gloomy, kind of experimental album which shifting between different genres from punk to free jazz and back to rock through psychedelic whatever.
The experiment still running, I write themes, song structures and I send the tracks around, anybody interested to participate, are welcome. I wrote this theme called “The Mustard Seeds”, Mr. Winteller and the guys from Oedip Piaf have their fun with it and send me back their tracks and I mixed them into one. This is the result: Read more themuztard seedz
13 & God – Own Your Ghost (2011)
Result of an over-sea collision, 13 & God returning with their second studio album and their pumping, flowing, floating cocktail of sounds and genres which reminds me partly of Massive Attack, but these guys blending and mixing into it from pop to indie and from ambiental textures to folk everything they can get their hands – and imagination.
The official story is pretty hazy: “somewhere outside of Toronto in early 2004, on a stretch of uninspired highway leading to the U.S./Canadian border, a computer onboard a large tour bus spontaneously combusted. Some point the finger at the driver (an aspiring reality show auteur), others blame a faulty battery, and most hold a small stuffed fox accountable. But however it happened, themselves and The Notwist were stranded. Dates were cancelled. Meals were skipped. Shady motels were booked in below-freezing weather. The fox was dead. It was the fifth breakdown of their joint tour series of minor disasters distant somewheres, a love was born of nervous laughter, shared admiration, axle grease and roasting circuitry.
From the balloon-and-burst child psychology of Adam “doseone” Drucker, Jeffery “jel” Logan, and Dax Pierson (collectively themselves), and the pinhole-in-paper astronomy of the Acher brothers Markus and Micha, and Martin “Console” Gretschmann (the core of The Notwist), emerge 13 & God.” (MySpace Bio) Read more 13 & God – Own Your Ghost (2011)
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – From The Stairwell (2011)
I discovered them back in 2009 through the “Mutations” EP which promised to be the preamble for the new album. It’s been over a year and finally we’ve got “From the Stairwell” and eight fresh tracks. This is a Jazz experiment with gloomy electronic textures and atmospheric noise spices, it has a deep Miles Davis after-taste and abstract post-industrial flow, well, this is avant-garde in it’s deepest meaning.
TKDE started in 2000 as a project to compose new music for existing silent movies. Jason Kohnen (better known as Bong-Ra) – double bass and fretless, respectively Gideon Kiers – beats and effects, both graduates of the Utrecht School of Arts, combined their audio and visual skills to reinterpret classic movies by F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) and F. Langs (Metropolis).
While Bong-Ra is quite known having several releases through labels such as Planet Mu, Cock Rock Disco and Sublight, Gideon Kiers worked with Jochem Paap (Speedy J), on the development of the 5.1 surround sound ‘Umfeld’ project. Runs the bi-annual Sonic Acts Festival in Paradiso Amsterdam. Read more The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – From The Stairwell (2011)
