Hey Kidz,

 

Well, just under the wire for Halloween we finished Lost Kisses 3 & it’s a Halloween issue.  You can check it out at www.silbermedia.com/lostkisses/lk3.html

 

Our good friends at KFJC are having a fundraiser compilation that includes tracks by Remora & Rollerball from their radio sessions there.  The purchase is tax deductible as a donation.  Check them out at www.kfjc.org

 

Below are a couple reviews that came in this week.

 

hrt

Brian John Mitchell

 

KOBI: DRONESYNDROME

 

Dronesyndrome, the work by Kobi, is a work not far removed by the more structured aural designs of Steve Roach, whose tribal drum signatures stamp his ambient masterpieces with a war-like feel. Kobi supplies smaller lengths of tracks than Roach, but still allowing for rich development of their soundscapes and intents. And like Vidna Obmana’s works of oppressive darkness, Kobi synthesizes insectile life within the canvas of their music making the location more frightening, more alarmingly populated, and more eerily productive; it’s a world that breathes and rhythmically pulses but its inhabitants hate.

Dronesyndrome is, by and large, a foreboding work employing voice (may have been more effective as an alien language to English, or, at the least, an unintelligible language) in several tracks. It is also individualistic in nature, as if we’re observing singular entities rather than many. But it is the ambient textures that define the recording and reveals shades of dread throughout.

~ Matt Rowe, Music Tap

 

 

IF THOUSANDS: I HAVE NOTHING

 

Wonderfully sparse, yet engaging. One thing some experimental electronic projects do is noodle to the point of aggravation.  If Thousands incorporate enough shifts and shimmers in their music to keep my ears focused on what they're doing, and I appreciate that. I grow quickly weary of experimental music that's so incidental as to become the audio equivalent of a Thomas Kincade painting. Happily, this album is a far cry from that!

"I have nothing" travels blithely through my synapses and takes me to landscapes far from anywhere. Places deep under the ocean, out in the desert, or on another planet. The general feel of this album is that other people are not there. It gives the sense of just the listener, and some vast surrealist landscape. Any other life present seems not to be human, and makes me ponder, "What sort of creature would be making THAT sound?" Excellent!

Each track is solid and extremely listenable; there is no fluff, no filler, nothing to make a person want to reach for the "forward" button. Intertwined with the elegant sonic expanse is a lovely sense of humor, pointing as much to Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" as to Dali or Magritte.

Fans of a small good thing’s "Slim Westerns" series should definitely check this out.

10 of 10

~ Ginnie Moon, Lunar Hypnosis

 

The work from If Thousands, a band that consists of two individuals from Duluth, Minnesota, is called i have nothing and is indicative of the stark, barren world that is created from this recording. The music is bleak, at times swirling into a chaotic blend of steady guitar drone and harsh atmosphere. There is a streak of strange life found in the unlit worlds of i have nothing, most notable in “marianas,” where you’ll hear the noises of such creatures. As you walk through, your senses will be rewired. At times, you’ll feel threatened by a distant malevolence, and at others, you be soothed by a siren-like flow of melody that is no less dangerous.

If thousands’ style of ambient is not as cultured and intense as you’d find from Obmana but then Obmana has been doing this for years and is refined in his development styles. However, their minimalist style is endearing, particularly the wailing guitar over synth found on “caterwaul.” The mournful horn found blended with the short instance of drone in “shaitan,” a grammatical variation of the word Satan, perhaps lifted from Brian Lumley’s excellent vampire world series (the trilogy found after the first 5 books in the original Deadspeak series), is effective although far too short. I would have liked a more threaded ambient work that ties all of the tracks together in a more thematic style. Regardless, If Thousands is on track to create deeper intensities of sound for future recordings.

~ Matt Rowe, Music Tap