Hey Kidz,

 

I hope you’re all doing well & that you all have a good Thanksgiving.

 

It’s closing in on the end of the year, & we’re trying to clear some space for the releases that will be coming out early next year.  So we’re offering the biggest sale we’ve ever had to help make room.  Our entire back catalog is buy-one-get-one-free, go to www.silbermedia.com/sale for full info.  All releases from 2004 & prior qualify, including releases by Aarktica, If Thousands, Kobi, Lycia, Clang Quartet, Remora, & Rollerball.  This sale is only good until December 5 & the discs should be able to arrive in time for the holidays.

 

Speaking of the holidays, both of our Christmas compilations are available for free on our download page at www.silbermedia.com/downloads

 

Thanks for your interest & support, it means a lot to us.

 

Below are some recent reviews.

 

hrt

Brian John Mitchell

 

KOBI: DRONESYNDROME

Kobi’s second album corrects most of the shortcomings found on Projecto. This time, Kai Mikalsen’s rich drones and electronics leave more room to the revolving cast of contributors. Except for the Jazzkammer guys, the guests appearing on the first album are all back on Dronesyndrome. From Per Gisle Galåen’s turntables spew strange monologues ("This Inclusion Is Not a Simple Operation"); Bjarne Larsen’s rumbling arco bass carries "Yellow Scales Slid Across Oily Rolls of Flushed Skin" into the nether regions of the auditable spectrum; Fredrik Ness Sevendal’s guitar is crucial to the disquieting bliss of "Anchored to a Central Core of Saturated Intensity" and "The Evening Was Unusually Sultry and Heavy."  Most of the tracks involve three players, two are duets, but who knows if they were performed live with all musicians present in the same room at the same time, or if they are not instead the result of minute studio assemblages -- there are passages pointing to both directions. The music flows seamlessly from one track to the next, players coming in and stepping out like it was all a long continuous improvisation, and there you have another reason why this album is superior to the previous one. It still makes for a rather dry, abstract album. These drones don¹t grip you at a cellular level, as with artists like Aidan Baker or Troum, but they feature enough artistry in their composition and plenty of puzzling sounds to warrant repeated listens.

~ François Couture, All-Music Guide

 

There must be something embedded within the cultures of Northern European countries that brings out the austere and extreme of musical talent.

Perhaps it is the fact that the mid winter seasons are sparse of light, or their climate leaves for bitter temperatures, which in turn nurture bitter musical rhythms.

Either way, haunting, experimental, extreme, droning and visceral are all perfect adjectives of what to expect from the best of Scandinavian music and Kobi are no exception to the rule. In fact they come close to the reason the rule exists!

Norwegian nationals, Kobi is the accumulation of founder Kai Mikalsen, Fredrik Ness Sevendal, Per Gisle Galaen, Kjell Olav Jorgensen, Petter Pogo, Bjarne Larsen, Jon Birger Wormdahl, Tore H. Boe and Michael Duch.

And if you thought that list had some long names then just check out their song titles with such ‘beauties’ as “Anchored To a Central Core of Saturated Intensity” and “The Evening Was Unusually Sultry and Heavy”.

On first glance such song titles might bring preconceptions of affectation as oppose to talent. However, if you think Kobi are overcompensating for lack of substance than think again as you will be whisked to another world with Dronesyndrome, Kobi’s second album to date.

Take your first tentative steps into the realm of Dronesyndrome with “Faint Echoes Ran Round The Unseen Hall (Part One)”, the first track on the album. Its brooding mystical sound will lead you down a discordant corridor filled with anticipation and edge via Kobi’s myriad of instruments, both electric and acoustic.

“Coined And Put Into Circulation” emerges neatly into an ambient sound reminiscent of Esa Ruoho’s groundbreaking work, as wave after wave of electronic serenity increases in volume – all the while hinting at a darkness beneath the surface with faint hisses and clicks in the background.

“Interspersed with Semi-conscious Moments” begins with surreal, Aphex Twin- sounding beats and loops that casually progress with hisses, creaks, hums drones, and echoes that sound like knives being slowly sharpened. Gaseous noises, like steam escaping from pipes, help conspire to create a sound chilling and industrial.

Imagine walking through an abandoned factory only for the machines to suddenly warm up and begin to operate around you, and you’re close to the feeling this track provides. “This Inclusion Is Not A Simple Operation” is yet another powerful track. Centred around an old scratched recording of a folk tale, “This Inclusion…” acts like another menacing prelude to an unseen event.

This stimulation of thoughts forms the precise beauty of Dronesyndrome; that the sounds conjured play on your psyche, providing just enough atmosphere for you to create any malign scenario within the minds eye.

So go ahead, purchase this album, press play and see where Kobi takes you. It will be a creepy, surreal place, that is certain, but it will be one you’ll want to return to again and again.

Truly inspired!

~ Michael Riley, Left Hip

 

 

IF THOUSANDS: I HAVE NOTHING

The third and perhaps purest form of drone worship comes with artists that don’t float any boats on their mountain lakes, plop any Joshua trees in their Dead Valleys and instead let the texture of the sound tell the story. recent things operating in this arena that have grabbed me are Sunn O)))’s consistent distillation of Black Metal into its base ink form, Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band, who enters actual subterranean chambers to explore the psych-physical properties of natural reverb, and projects like If Thousands, who could be one person, could be a whole team, that point their efforts in one common direction,or to put it in Ghostbusters terms, letting the beams cross to see what happens. Their album I Have Nothing takes the still orbital throb of Eno’s earlier work and adds a heavier, more human weight to it. Tracks like “Marianas” sound as if you are projected in the trench of its name, slight echoey throbs popping in to disturb the pitch-black stillness. Oddly enough, this album also has a track named “Providence” but this one takes on a darker tinge, like the sound of the gathering storm of an angry, vengeful god, while the ironically named “Caterwaul” is a more pastoral thing with slow moving guitars and sweeping lights bleeding through the piece. A great thing about this record is that the drones are long enough to get their own little macrocosms going without overstaying their welcomes. Drone artists are usually in it for the looooooong haul, and the listener generally have to be as well. But the phase shifting that makes “Children with Horns” percolate for four minutes is perfect. Any longer and it either takes on its own vision quest or become simply tedious. Most of the tracks on I Have Nothing shake the foundation like whalesongs, but there are a couple like “Crispin Glover” and “Stella and Me” accomplish the same efect with a simple pulsing melody, but the crowing drone achievement here is the cataclysmic “Alpha” that takes slowly bowed strings and ambient screeches ans squeals to create an evergrowing bubble of sound, that eventually fills up every inch of space in the room, absorbing everything in its path. Its less song-like than the previous two albums, but this is an excellent gateway drug to the world of drone music, that once it hooks into you and realigns your DNA, makes all other music seem fussy and superfluous.

~ Alex V. Cook, Outside the Left

 

I love these drifty, accordianlike, twanging opening noises. The album is beautiful so far... and it builds and grows and gains intensity, warbling... the picture on the back looks like a city buried in snow, which is quite what the CD sounds like... just being buried alive in sounds.

I Have Nothing consists of sleepy tunes for sure... perhaps going on a bit long for this sort of thing but if you just want a background sound to fall asleep to or something, this is it. It's choppy, lo-fi, a bit creepy at times. Just an endless sea of sounds. It cascades but the emotional bent of it doesnt change - always slightly on the cusp of something huge, therefore tense and energized. The subtle strings are very nice, relaxing. little country...

~ Andy Scheffler, CordMag

 

As an excursion into drone, sounds capes, and warm sonic blankets, I Have Nothing is the fourth proper full-length by Duluth Minnesota based duo Christian McShane and Aaron Molina — collectively known as If Thousands. Primarily an experiment with ambient sounds capes, I Have Nothing also flirts with the sounds of bluegrass and traditional eastern India. Choosing experimentation over the formal song writing structure, If Thousands invited bands GST, 2i, and Paul Metzer of TVBC into the studio for improvisational recording sessions that lasted two days. This album is the best results of this session. Recommended to fans of Windy & Carls, Stars of the Lid, Flying Saucer Attack, and Aarktica.

~ William Reed, Echo Magazine