Parijna The Age Of Scentless Imperilment [Tattrasya LakSaNam Press] Quite excellent blend of synth+drone+noise. Composed of layers that could probably all stand on their own and yet work so well in unison. Nice +/- 18 minute length allows for the pleasure of repeat on loop with total enjoyment.
Rhizome Angle Naked Coda Meteor Bones' Carnival [Lust Vessel] Reminds me greatly of the glory days of Macronympha. Two 20+ minute burners that queue up memories of bourbon haze during the sweaty Pennsy summer. Working nicely together like it was Amplified Humans and Michter's instead of Rhizome... and Bulleit.
Zoviet France Mohnomishe [Red Rhino/Charrm] Believe it was M. Dando that dropped this in SI #9. Seamless transitioning of mood after mood after... Brings to mind a more colorful XX Committee, which in my book is pure bliss. Will be coming back to this often.
Hheva Her Frozen Heart Bore The Weight Of A Thousand Stars [Geräuschmanufaktur] Seeing as I am highly repulsed by "dark" ambient, especially when it comes with a statement of intent like this piece, I'm curious as to why I even listened. I'm very glad I did though. In fact, I would say I enjoyed every single second of this work. Beautiful, lush sounds with a slight hint at ominousness - past or present or future? Made me give
Desolate a listen, which was rather good, but this release stands a few miles above.
Kinit Her The Poet & The Blue Flower [Brave Mysteries/Avant!] A group I dearly love, as they put to shame the dilettante intellectualism of most "neofolk" as well as their "musicianship", not to mention they tackle using other writers' words in tandem with their own sounds much better than, say - Blood Axis for example. But I don't love them because of what others lack. Each album is a jewel untouched by previous works. Each album grants my full attention. This new piece evokes the near East as well an experimentation in dark instrumentation and looser singing that older songs did not have. Like Hheva, but for different reasons, I love every second. Also been enjoying the Beach Boys-esque harmonies on the upcoming
The Needs Of Both 7" inbound from [Bleak Environment] that you can hear on
http://kinither.bandcamp.com/album/the-needs-of-both.
Also, very excited to receive (finally!) the debut CD by
Devotion (aka
Troy and
Dani Schafer) and new works of
Lonsai Maïkov, which seems like it will be tenfold an improvement on all his/their prior output, from [Brave Mysteries]. Also have new 3"s of
Sonny Blood and
Taigherm from [Shifting Sands Congregation] (always worth a shot) via BrMy as well.
They also released
Précurseur Grand Bois' complete works on CD. This ain't my favorite project of
Alexandre Gand, but its still great to see. Now I have my fingers crossed for collections of
A.G.E. and
Zn1-5. I can dream...