Flowing Seasons is the solo debut from Luca Di Mira of Italy’s Giardini di Miro. At times orchestral, beat-driven, or ambient, the emphasis is on lush beauty, a quality these mellow songs rarely lack.
Hotter than July. This week's episode has plenty of fresh new music by Marie Davidson, Kim Gordon, Mabe Fratti, Guided By Voices, Holy Tongue meets Shackleton, Softcult, Terence Fixmer, Alan Licht, pigbaby, and Eiko Ishibashi, plus some vault goodies from Bombay S Jayashri and Pete Namlook & Richie Hawtin. Solstice moon in West Midlands, UK photo by James. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
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Ielasi’s eponymous second Häpna release doesn’t come as the refining or summarizing work one might expect from the prolific artist and collaborator. Despite being his most technologically demanding work yet, its compositions are more linear and inviting than ever before, and sonically the record is beautifully, meticulously meshed.
This 'album' crams 13 songs into the shortest long player since the early days of Napalm Death. Each track is a blistering blast of heavy metal mayhem for the sampler generation, and a salute to short attention spans.
Mark Tranmer's project is pronounced like the final syllable of "cognac" and given that he has a disposition towards electronic instrumental music, I should've expected this album to sound like new age elevator music. Images of Yanni record covers and million dollar suits sipping wine at an exclusive British hunting club are all I can think of, now.
Made in 1986 by two aspiring documentary filmmakers from Baltimore, Heavy Metal Parking Lot has since become an underground cult phenomenon and probably one of the widest seen documentary short-subjects ever produced. This DVD release is the first for HMPL, pulling the film out of the underground bootleg VHS tape-trading culture in which it has thrived for two decades by word-of-mouth alone, and into the mainstream, adding commentary, outtakes and hours of nifty bonus features.
On the second full-length from Drop The Lime, Luca Venezia throws down heavy beats that probably won’t lure anyone not previously so inclined onto the dance floor, yet the album never gives those already there a reason to leave.
Norway’s Terje Isungset returns to the Ice Hotel for his follow-up to 2002’s Iceman Is. Like that album, all the instruments used are made from ice, including ice percussion, iceofon, icehorn, and iceharp. Joining him is Sidsel Endresen, who co-wrote many of the songs and contributes vocals, for an album of ethereal, crystalline beauty.
Brooklyn’s Dirty on Purpose cannot help but make elegant compositions out of simple ingredients. Layers of multi-tracked vocals, glittering melodies, and a subtlety of drone stack up in each song. This could be called space rock if it weren’t so firmly grounded in the terrestrial. It’s better described as dream-pop because the songs celebrate many of our earthly delights but viewed, perhaps, through the haze of a dream or memory. Hallelujah Sirens is a smart collection of songs which could be campfire serenades, lakeside dirges, or starry-eyed minuets.
If Songs Could Be Held is an incredibly bad album. Granted some of the music is pleasant and the entire disc is well produced but the songs are boring and mediocre at the best of times. Thomas is one of those too serious but not interesting enough singer songwriters that are ten a penny these days. There are dozens like her in every city, anyone can go see another identikit performer for free so there's no point in wasting money on this.
On her second album, Italy's Miss Violetta Beauregarde packs 16 songs into a mere 20 minutes, yet each one brims with more ideas than some bands' entire albums. Created from crappy electronics, glitch beats, screams, with occasional samples and other noises, her frenetic, anarchic nihilism is a much needed kick in the head.
