Hey Kidz,

 

A lot going on here lately trying to book the Remora tour & getting the Vlor disc ready for manufacturing & well.... 

 

The Goddakk debut Monument to a Ruined Age has been sent for manufacturing, we’ll be taking pre-orders soon.

 

There are a number of live shows upcoming for some Silber artists including Remora & Rivulets who will both be on tour in March.  Updated info is always available at www.silbermedia.com/calendar

 

For those of you thinking of doing covers for the Silber tribute comp, we are hoping to get the comp out this March for our tenth anniversary.

 

Our domestic Valentine's sale is still going for the next week at www.silbermedia.com/sale

 

Below are several recent reviews.

 

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

 

hrt
Brian John Mitchell

 

ROLLERBALL: CATHOLIC PAWS/CATHOLIC PAUSE
Rollerball were last featured by Gothic Beauty in 2004 & are back with a mind-bending release.  While it is, for me, reminiscent of a soundtrack to a David Lynch film, I don't think even Lynch could come up with something this off the wall.  The album defies description beyond, possibly, psychedelic lounge music.  The album is backed by a full band of drummers, cellists, trombone players, electronics, you name it.  This album goes as deeply into your head as it can &, before you know it, it's gone.  Rollerball are truly for those who want to step off the beaten path to something a little... different.  Wonderful.
~ David Poseidon, Gothic Beauty

 

LYCIA: ESTRELLA
Estrella, originally released in 1998 by darkwave pioneers Lycia, has been brilliantly remastered by Mike VanPortfleet & includes the original intended artwork for the album.  Being the owner of the original & the re-issue, the difference in sound quality is nothing short of astonishing.  The wailing keyboards of “Tainted,” to the screaming sirens of “Dome,” to Tara Vanflower's most amazing vocal performance on “Estrella,” the album shimmers with renewed quality & brilliance.  This re-issued album is, in my opinion, Lycia's finest moment, & hopefully not final hour.  This album is an absolute must have for everyone.
~ David Poseidon, Gothic Beauty

 

KOBI: DRONESYNDROME
Dronesyndrome is the second release from Norway’s Kobi; the musical collective also put out Projecto in 2003. Kobi is essentially Kai Mikalsen, and it is he who provides the “sounds and synths” that are then layered with the contributions of several musicians who lend drums, guitar, cello, accordion, turntable, and various other “sounds” that populate these nine bizarre musical landscapes. The clever song titles are great descriptors of the various musical “pieces,” if you will. “Yellow Scales Slip Across Oily Rolls of Flushed Skin” features chirpy reptilian sounds amidst percussion and murky, yet forlorn fog horn echoes—kinda what the song title implies. “Interspersed with Semi-Conscious Moments” has technical musical dashes mixed into more dreamy (or more nightmarish, as in Kobi’s case) moments—although it is up to the listener to discern which represents the conscious and semi-conscious. The cover art by Mikalsen depicts spooky creatures in deep grays and smudged black and creates yet another other worldly stratum to these almost primal, and yes, droning soundscapes that are best experienced rather than explained.
~ Anne Johnson, Altar Magazine

 

An equally intense music is creates by the Norwegian drone collective Kobi on their splendid album “Dronesyndrome” which mixes electronically processed sounds with “real” instruments (cello, double bass, guitar) to create a wonderfully textured and ever-changing soundscape that brings to mind ancient woodlands, ghost ships becalmed on vast oceans, and all manner of surreal images, as it plays. Two years in the making, the album has been lovingly crafted, the sparseness, textures and use of silence as equally as important as the scales or melodic devices utilised, something beautifully realised on “Yellow Scales Slid Across Oily Rolls Of Flushed Skin” a track which adds stuttering snare to the palette. This is an album that bears close scrutiny, each subtle nuance adding a different emphasis to the sounds meaning that it sounds fresh every time it is played, what you hear being determined as much by your mood and activity as by the music itself.
~ Simon Lewis, Ptolemaic Terrascope

 

IF THOUSANDS: I HAVE NOTHING
Remember when Bill Clinton asked the Supreme Court to answer the question of what “is” is? If there were a soundtrack to that bizarre philosophical tap dance, if thousands certainly would be it. If thousands is a pair of collaborators who ask us to define the meaning of another basic human impulse: music. I have nothing presents an ellipsis of unresolved, repetitive meditations on sound and composition. The all-in music approach is just as slick as Clinton’s evasive testimony, masterfully rebuffing intelligent criticism. Please define what you mean by “songs”? There aren’t any here. The guitar riff of “Wisconsin Bombs” returns deeper into the album on “Caterwaul,” and more unifying moments like these would help lift the record out of its boring ambient soup. If thousands of industrial/ambient sounds were captured on tape, this is what you would get. What sounds like the dull side-project of two guys in some rock band least in demand for interviews is out capturing samples and background noises for their proper outfit’s magnum opus. Maybe when the swaggering rockers of the band are back from their photo shoot they’ll complete the ellipsis.
~ Steven Green, Altar Magazine