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AMN Picks General

AMN Picks of the Week

Here is where I post, at a frequency of about once a week, a list of the new music that has caught my attention that week. All of the releases listed below I’ve heard for the first time this week and come recommended. Don’t take the categories too seriously.

Knifeladder – Music/Concrete (2009, dark ambient)
Yitzhak Yedid – Since My Soul Loved (2009, composed jazz)
Pseudo – Gnostic Guitar I (2007, solo guitar and electronics)
Pseudo – Gnostic Guitar II (2008, solo guitar and electronics)
Fred Frith – Still Urban (2009, classical / improv)
TD Black Sun – Bad Dreams of The Gloomy Girl (2007, dark ambient)
simakDialog – Demi Masa (2009, world / jazz / improv)

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Reviews

Sonomu Reviews

From Sonomu:

Mikkel Metal, Peaks and Troughs (Echocord)
Since bursting into notice as the showcase singer Tikiman of Rhythm & Sound´s genre-creating album of the same name, Paul St. Hilaire has guested albums by Pre Fade Listening, The Bug, Mind over MIDI, Radiq, Markus Kienzl, Sub Version, Deadbeat and Sideshow. And those are only the ones I happen to… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:54, 16 Apr 2009

Freiband & Machinefabriek, Oahu (Low Point)
Frans de Waard, critic, label founder and multi-aliased sound artist (Beequeen, Kapotte Muziek, Goem and here, Freiband) and his younger colleague Rutger Zuydervelt, otherwise only known as Machinefabriek, both reside in the Netherlands but choose to imagine their first on-record encounter in the… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:41, 16 Apr 2009

Rapoon, The Library of the Dead (Ewers Tonkunst/Indiestate)
Since the beginning of the current millenium, Indiestate Distribution has been making available a small but quality selection of industrial and dark ambient. It is in fact the label where Cisfinitum and Rapoon famously collaborated as “Mental Travellers”. Ewers Tonkunst is one of its specialist… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:26, 16 Apr 2009

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Reviews

Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

The Idealist – I Am the Fire

The Idealist is Joachim Nordwall, known as a member of the Skull Defekts. This solo excursion may surprise people acquainted with the usually more extroverted, guitar oriented music that the latter band puts forth. I am the Fire consists of what might be termed industrial drone music, but beyond that, it defies description. It’s not clanking industrial noise, nor is it of the ear-piercing feedback variety. It’s quiet, almost silent at times. But underneath it all, there’s a pall which hangs over this music which is hard to shake.

Cisfinitum – Nevmenosis
Cisfinitum sound sits in a wonderful place between chorale and classical based ambience, subtle industrial and electronica elements to make music that’s both haunting & beautiful yet at times edgy and head swimming- but it’s always captivating and deeply atmospheric.

Human Larvae – Home Is Where The Hurt Is
“Thanks to: family and friends for inspiration”, it makes you wonder what inspiration this could be, as Home Is Where The Hurt Is drags you in into a pitchblack pool of noise, dark ambient and power electronics that seems to be an adequate depiction of nothing less than hell.

Jarrod Fowler – Percussion’ as percussion
‘Percussion’ as percussion presents it self as a fairly high brow and scholarly project and is supposable a reading/ performance of John Mowitt’s book Percussion: Drumming, Beating, striking; but in reality it’s an attack on the sonic sensors using wall noise, deeply layered and bewildering spoken word elements and overload sonic collages that take in TV chatter, crowd sounds, all manner of music and other sonic matter.

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Categories
Reviews

Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

The Mass – Holocene #6

This is my first exposure to the Mass, and I must say, this EP was not what I expected. The cover art, and the fact that their last album was on Crucial Blast gives you some hints that you might be in store for some thrashy metal. And that is the case, sort of. The fact is, the four tracks presented here include some old school thrash elements, but they re also somewhat hardcore punk, and most oddly, jazzy. There s some free-form sax blowin here, which you might think would sound out of place in this context. But it works so well, you be left wondering why Slayer never tried it. The jazz element makes them original, but the fact of the matter is, pretty much every base covered here is done well.

uw Hypotheekadvies – Nature or Nurture
Uw Hypotheekadvies are a Dutch threesome, whose NAME translates to your mortgage advice , consisting of a drummer, bass player and a guitar player. They all have the last NAME Deckerman, so either two or more are related, or it s just a Ramones ploy. Their music is a weird combo of experimental improv and spiky post-rock. A few of these songs sound like they are improvs wrapped around pre-figured riffs, but most of the album sounds off-the cuff. With a few exceptions, this is noisy, trebly music, and it s plenty tough on the eardrums.

Yoshio Machida – Hypernatural #3
Yoshio Machida s Hypernatural series is, in his own words, a sound collage of sound parts used as meanings and symbols, and an endeavor to express the whole theme of nature through correlations between image and title, between pieces. The self-released first volume in the series had to do with memory in Eastern Asia , while the second volume was meant to relate to transparent existence . This third volume in the series is about oblivian . Machida believes that oblivion has a postive aspect in nature. This is because it is a part of the natural world, which over time creates changes in the world. Having said all of that, the artist certainly must feel a deep spiritual connection to the pieces archived on Hypernatural #3. Yet without the liner notes to guide one down the path, it would be in the least very difficult for one to surmise the theme. These pieces include multiltudes of interesting sounds, and on their own are entertaining, lively, and seamlessly assembled. Yet it s not always easy to detect the naturalist aspect.

Dub Gabriel – Anarchy & Alchemy
Anarchy & Alchemy is the new album from well respected Dub reggae/ electroncia producer and musician Dub Gabriel, Which features an impressive list of guest including Michael Stipe, Yo Majesty, Dr Israel , Juakall, & Jah Dan.

Funeralium – Self Titled
Funeralium are a French four piece who speclizers in rather heady, atmospheric and quite original sounding doom that mixers in elements of darkened rock, and even traces of dark blues and surf elements too.

Aughra – Proof of Dark Matter I Light the Lights
Aughra is the solo dark electrionca/ sound tracking project of Brent Eyestone Big China & Little Trouble, Magic bullet label owner & member of Forensics, Corn on Macabre . With sonic references points been Coil; at their more beat bound and vocal less, Ulver around Perdition city era, Darker Boards of Canada and dark ambient simmers.

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