Ило & Freiband ‎– Bits & Pieces cd

Electronic experimentations and noisy ambiences by Kapotte Muziek's Frans de Waard and Ило. 2013 cd on Korm Plastics and Motok.

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Frans de Waard ‎– Klankschap 1999-2005 cd

The mastermind of Kapotte Muziek offering manipulations of field recordings resulting in various styles from industrial to improvised electronics and then to noise. 2005 cd on zang:

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Caroline McKenzie - (the first snow from soon) & Doctor Birch and his Young Friends - Ophelia Mindre

If anyone remembers my post on Caroline McKenzie's The Drowning Of Ophelia, they will be reminded that it was a great album of bleak but heart-breaking dark ambient. Since then Caroline has continued making great ambient/drone/ethereal soundscapes which I have mostly enjoyed, but kind of forgot to write about. The same thing happened with this one; I've had a tab on my web browser literally for 3 months saying "ok now I need to write about this" but I kept forgetting to do so, but it''s the time for it. This is a 3-track offering of droning ambient ideal for calming and reflecting. It's exquisitely monotonous and repetitive in the way I love it to just sit down and read for my PhD. Actually Caroline says that she created these tracks in order to calm down her insomnia, so it really fits any similar kind of activity. As always, it's a free-to-download recording, but I highly recommend that you support her.



Going back to her breakout release The Drowning Of Ophelia, the Welsh experimental electronic artists Doctor Birch and his Young Friends has created a remix album of Caroline's masterpiece, taking sounds from there and creating short - 3-minute tracks - revolving around specific sounds. It's also a great piece of work that accentuates the lonely and depressive feeling of it - track 3 "Falls Down Blistered" is sublime in particular; again a free download, but there's the choice to spend a little money on this one, since all money gathered from paid downloads will be given to a transgender people support organization called Mermaids. I totally support trans, queer, and generally LGBTQ+ people, but I'm really put off by NGOs because I think that issues of discrimination, homophobia, racism, and fascism are political tasks that need to be solved by the working class movement and not by charities that are deeply involved in the reproduction of the neoliberal scheme of capitalist restructuring that points to NGOs and volunteering as a form of conscience-laundering as David Harvey has very punctually said. However, if any of the dear readers thinks that such causes are worth their money, they can of course donate a little something to it.

Posset ‎– Slippery Caption tape

This isn't a tape, this is musical blasphemy. Posset always manages to release the most cleverly retarded recordings of all times, with this one not being anymore a combination of found objects and Betadine gurgling, but full-blown emetic sound poems exploring the possibilities of the sounds of the vowels of the English alphabet, while still performing throat washes. My brain feels violated every time he brings out something new, and so should you, so there's your parental advisory to avoid this by any means necessary. 2018 tape on Sound Holes.

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St James Infirmary - A Sound Is A Sound cdr

I thought St James Infirmary, the project of G.W. Lang played mostly in looped ambient styles, but this is a real change, and an excellent one at that. On this superb cdr you get lysergic 1970s psychedelic/kosmische rock, with equal parts Can (the voice kind of reminds me of Damo Suzuki at times, and insistent motorik rhythms prevail) and Pink Floyd-Meddle era, with a touch of post-punk and garage. On this one, it seems that St James Infirmary has turned into a quartet and it all seems to have been recorded live. I hope that SJI continue making music in that vein, although I've already expressed my fondness for other recordings of his. Oh, and the cover kind of reminds me of Andy Warhol's "Mao." 2019 cdr on Wormhole World, whose bandcamp is always a place to find new exciting releases to spend money on and support.

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Dälek ‎– Respect To The Authors 12"

One year and a half after hip hop giants Dälek's true return to form with Endangered Philosophies, they return with a new 12" that showcases some of their more relaxed material. There's an increased dub atmosphere in the beats and the sounds here, and a very ambient feel, pretty similar to their greatest masterpiece Abandoned Language, but with a denser, darker and more industrial-urban approach. It's a great new recording by one of my favorite groups of all time, regardless of any genre. 2019 12" on Exile On Mainstream Records.

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Kapotte Muziek ‎– The Malevolent Ear CD

Incredibly deep and hypnotic industrial noise by the legendary Dutch group Kapotte Muziek, with intermittent varying styles of musique concrète, fried electronics, drone, and even dark ambient. I really really like this album. 1995 cd on Red Stream.

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