Unforgiving hard trance. Take upeat house, remove unecessary vocals, keep just the beats.
Following up on my plan to review more from Bump Foot’s catalogue, I dig through over a decade of electronic music. This release could stand up in a fight against Juno Reactor and Paul Oakenfold – if music were a competitive combat sport, that is. Continue reading “AKU – [2010] Insomnia”
Ambient acoustic guitar. Very musical 2 track EP.
With only two tracks, this short EP by artist Fellirium makes it easy for me to select my habitual two tracks for you. Airy guitar tones with noticeable reverb calmly meditate over beautiful riffs with minimal synthetic background drones: Continue reading “Fellirium – [2017] Bill A & 24/7”
Hard retro synth. Sounds like early 90s dark underground faux disco.
This week’s entry is brought to you by Russian netlabel MNMN Records. Both their homepage and their music look and sound more DIY than average. This release plays electronic industrial tunes. Despite simple song structures, the atmosphere is excellent. Continue reading “Demetr – [2016] Different View Of The World”
After my two (!) previous posts on the same topic, it’s time to give my final entry for the competition of the definitive full-frame graphics command for use with beamer in LaTeX. To seal the deal, I do not propose 1, but 4 commands, depending on your use case: Continue reading “Finally the definitive full-frame graphic commands for beamer in LaTeX”
Columbian Tech House remixes. Close to 90 minutes of danceable tracks.
Both mainstream and exotic titles got themselves caught in the blender of remix artist Sokio, who took up the task to add special flavours to other artists’ works. The result sounds both refreshing and familiar: Continue reading “Sokio – [2009] Columbia Remixes”
Oldschool future sounds. Slight similarities with the original Blade Runner soundtrack.
To celebrate the 60th birthday of the first satellite in space, this compilation contains 10 tracks from mostly Russian artists with retro sounds, effects, aiming for space-themed instrumental tracks. Overall, I like the result very much: Continue reading “Various Artists – [2017] Music for Sputnik-1 Vol. 1”
Juicy electronica bleeps. Sound like fresh orange juice, familiar yet fresh.
This review is a friendly reminder to myself to go through Bump Foot‘s back catalogue more often to fish for classic netlabel gems. If you are into friendly electronica, you might consider going for a hunt there for yourself. But back to today’s catch: Continue reading “Mikk Rebane – [2017] Deviations”
Cinematic. Folk. Much. Wow. Mostly analogue guitar instrumentals creating melancholic atmospheres.
Ok, I’m quite late to the (review) party on this one. All other netlabel blogs have covered this gem already in September 2012, when originally released. To my ears, this is a half cheesy, half treasure chest full of simple yet thoroughly enjoyable tunes. I can recommend hearing it from front to back, it’s that good. Like usual, here are two picks to get you started: Continue reading “Plusplus – [2012] Game Over”
Minimal bleep sounds. Very experimental science fiction movie backdrop.
Sound samples and single notes from vintage science fiction movies, put together. I would expect to encounter this a) in a over-the-top artsy Scifi movie on ARTE, or b) in a museum for modern art, next to a… interesting piece of metal or unwatchable video montage. Still here? Great, because those tracks are very well put together. Let me give you two samples: Continue reading “Ryukau – [2015] Muryoku”
Multi-genre blend. Charming combination of uncommon sound combinations with rhythmic orthodoxy.
The term “defying genre boundaries” gets thrown around too often, I concur, but here it is on spot. Electronic click sounds, jazz fusion and funk lines are masterfully mixed in this release at German netlabel Broque. But please, don’t believe me and listen for yourself: Continue reading “Counterfly – [2017] The Invisible Journey”
Electronic noise something. Odd saw wave sounds over irregular beats.
“Not fun, but effective.” That’s the note I made to myself when adding this release from Portuguese netlabel Enough Records to my review queue. This 5 track EP is from the “power noise” genre, so do not expect Disco, but industrial sounds. Continue reading “Edgeist – [2016] Septentrion”
Poetic hip hop with acrobatic diction. Traditional sample loops form the base for some creative lyrics.
I don’t do much hip hop, but when I do, I rather like it to be special. This is such a special case. Netlabel blocSonic keep up with their promise to deliver fresh sounding music. I like the classic vibe of the music, while the spoken words roll off nicely. Continue reading “The Impossebulls – [2016] The Devils You Know”
Dark ambient drones. Clearly experimental two-track EP, delivering dark soundscapes direct to your brain.
If you have occasions where “proper music” would be too distracting, but “proper silence” to silent or boring, really ambient music, based mainly on long, drawn out ambient sounds, also called drones, fill a very handy niche. This representative of that genre adds a little rhythm to spice things up, and the end result sounds like you could read The Call of Cthulhu to it. Continue reading “SEA OF ÅLAND – [2017] Extended Play One”
Cinematic instrumental post rock. Like an alternative soundtrack to Magnolia, this slow-paced exercise in wackyness.
The inspiration taken from Air cannot be overheard, and is clearly stated in the album’s release notes. So if you like the alternative sound of the French pop duo, give this album a try on a train ride. Continue reading “Wacky Southern Current – [2011] In a Realm of Uncertain Summer”
Clicky soundtrack for a city. Cinematic and highly enjoyable as headphone fuel.
Here is another gem from netlabel Phonocake, produced by Berlin based artist Hanne Adam. She deals in clicky, futuristic instrumental tacks. The album has a very cinematic feel to it, while the songs are all quite musical (as in: not too experimental). I guess that the work is best consumed while walking the streets of Berlin, but it works quite well elsewhere, too. Continue reading “adamned.age – [2013] transit berlin”
Minimal house. Repetitive beats and only subtle changes in harmonics introduce an element of trance (pun intended).
Japanese netlabel Bump Foot has been in “business” for over a decade now. It separates its releases in to branches: “Bump” for techno and house, “Foot” for ambient and IDM. The release presented here is more on the minimal side of the house: so if you feel like you are in for twenty minutes of carefully crafted monotony, read on. Continue reading “In Vitro – [2017] Deep Hope”
Solid soft hard rock. Very well recorded and produced vocal rock music; hard to place on the spectrum between soft and hard rock.
Still Pluto do very conventional, very solid rock in North West Russia (Petrozavodsk, to be precise). From there, their music reached me through the catalogue indie rock netlabel Southern City Lab. So if you are tired of the umpteenth minimal techno release, give this source a try. But back to this week’s offer: Continue reading “Still Pluto – [2014] Songs To Mend The Heart Once Been Torn Apart”
After a short visit to the Parliament building Vidhana Soudha and the adjacent park, we went to KR Market, an impressive combination of markets for fruits & vegetables, flowers, spices and tools (!), all under one roof. The neighbourhood did not disappoint either with its downtown cows near cramped temples. And – of course – dogs.
Only 15 km from Electronic City, a huge National Park with accompanying zoo sits within a hilly forest. The Northern part of the Park is open to “Safari”, which actually means driving through rather large enclosures for each species. Then there is a large butterfly conservatory, housed within an architecturally pleasing glass dome. Most impressions are from the walk-in Zoo part of the park, including the ever-present (sleeping) dogs.
Just some metres beyond the industrial zones, large residential areas bloom. Old neighbourhoods witness how skyscrapers pop up in their vicinity. And again, (sleeping) dogs everywhere.
