Ólafur Arnalds - ...And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness [2010]

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The Flashbulb - Arboreal [2010]

Tracklist:
1. Undiscovered Colors
2. Dragging Afloat
3. The Trees In Russia
4. We, The Dispelled
5. Meadow Crush
6. A Raw Understanding
7. Dread, Etched In Snow
8. A Million Dotted Lines
9. Once Weekly
10. Springtime In Distance
11. Dreaming Renewal
12. The Great Pumpkin Tapes
13. Lines Between Us
14. Burning The Black And White
15. Telescopic Memorial
16. Skeletons
17. Tomorrow Untrodden
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TIM HECKER - APONDALIFA [2010]

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ROSETTA - A DETERMINISM OF MORALITY [2010]

Somewhere around a year ago, Rosetta posted the following on their MySpace blog:

'Tonight at practice we had this collective epiphany where we threw off the shackles of the whole "post-metal" thing and decided that WE'RE DONE WITH 105 BPM. BRING ON 150 BPM! So we wrote our ENTIRE NEXT RECORD in an hour, and it's the fastest, craziest, kick-in-the-nuts thing since 1999.'

Underneath the facetiousness is some real frustration. Rosetta have always been uncomfortable being branded as a 'post-metal' group, to the point where the Genre section on their Facebook page currently reads 'Anything put "post"'. To be fair, their debut The Galilean Satellites bears more than a passing resemblance to the NeurISIS sound. Rosetta, however, have always been a staunchly DIY band and so the similarities to that genre are far more aesthetic than ideological.

This frustration seems to be the driving force behind A Determinism of Morality (ADOM from here on), Rosetta's third full-length and a real stylistic evolution. Far from being written in an hour, ADOM feels like a meticulously crafted piece of work that takes all of Rosetta's best qualities and shifts them towards a faster, more streamlined aesthetic. ADOM takes far more cues from post-hardcore acts such as Gospel and Frodus than it does from post-rock or metal, adopting techniques like gang vocals ("Revolve"), stop-start dynamics ("Ayil") and fast, ballsy riffs ("Renew"). But ADOM isn't just a "kick-in-the-nuts" either. Each song hosts some of the most beautiful and delicate moments of the band's career to date. As Wake/Lift did to a lesser extent, ADOM almost completely eschews traditional post-rock build-ups in favour of a more dynamically consistent approach to structure.

Instead of easing us in to the evolved sound, ADOM begins with its fastest, most jarring track. Much like Wake/Lift's opener "Red in Tooth and Claw", "Ayil" is a demonstration of the group's mastery of dynamics and full of anthemic, fist-in-the-air moments. Vocalist Mike Armine delivers one of his most intense performances to date underneath the song's galloping drumming and noodle-y guitar work. Indeed, all of the band members seem to have improved their playing both in technique and diversity. Drummer B.J. McMurtie's playing on previous releases was fancy and dynamically tasteful, but on ADOM he also proves he can rock the **** out with the best of them. Dave Grossman has always taken a solid, meat-and-potatoes approach to his bass playing (the perfect complement to Matt Weed's noisy, all-over-the-place guitar) and ADOM sees him becoming more adept, taking a more active and melodic role. Matt Weed's guitar is perhaps the thing that most sets Rosetta apart from their peers and his techniques are improved considerably here, like with the noisy stop-start riffing at the end of "Ayil" or the tasteful tapping at the end of "Renew". Weed's playing, however, moves away even further from being solely riff-based and sees him combining brutal, tight metal riffs with heavily delayed ambience that finds its niche equally in soft moments and in heavy ones.

"Ayil" is almost hardcore in its structure, riffing, and speed while still retaining the ambience and atmosphere that is crucial to the Rosetta sound. The rest of the album is equally straight-forward. "Je N'en Connais Pas la Fin", one of the best songs in the band's career so far, starts with a straight beat until vocals burst in and then gradually gets heavier until the song ends. The song avoids cliche by staying loud the entire time with guitar parts shifting from picked riffs to start-stop powerchords to spacey lead lines to tremolo picking and finally to chugging, Meshuggah-esque riffing. "Revolve", another highlight, follows a similar structure and employs gang vocals in conjunction to pretty, shimmery riffing to create one of the album's most emotionally poignant moments. "Blue Day For Croatoa" is the lone exception to the straight-forward approach of the rest of the album, being a short ambient piece in the vein of "(Temet Nosce)". Almost all ADOM's tracks stay below the seven minute mark and it's perhaps fitting that the one that exceeds it is the album closer. "A Determinism of Morality" clocks in at almost eleven minutes, not a second of which is wasted. The album version is improved in every way from the demo version that has been floating around the internet for about six months now. The drumming is more crisp and dynamic, the guitars are more clear and defined and the vocals are even more in-your-face. As a demo, the song was already one of the best Rosetta tracks to date. Now, fully realised, in all its glory with added gang vocals, "A Determinism of Morality" is a defining song that condenses everything great about Rosetta into a single track.

For me, what makes Rosetta a great band is their ability to combine all of their instrumental tricks and techniques, their tightness as a band, and their fondness for major-key prettiness into big, loud, expansive, heavy pieces. Their music in its final form becomes a wholly visceral experience because of the meticulous forethought that goes into it. ADOM adds dimensions to that sound, making it hit even harder on a gut-level but also crafting it into a more dense, thoughtful experience. In its brevity and evolution, ADOM is Rosetta's best work to date.

sputnikmusic.com

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KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - PLAYTHROUGHS [2002]

"The first full album that prolific, multifaceted electronic composer Keith Fullerton Whitman released under his birth name (following 2001's 21:30 for Acoustic Guitar, but also several releases by his breakcore/drill'n'bass alias Hrvåtski, among others) contains five similar-sounding, decidedly minimal extended drone pieces. The entire album consists of nothing but processed guitar tone, though since the guitar is all but imperceptible as a point of origin for this music, the emphasis is squarely on "process" and "tone." The process, which involves running a guitar-generated signal (not the actual guitar sound) through a carefully arranged sequence of programmed Max/MSP modules, effects pedals, and other signal processors, is described in loving detail by Whitman, at heart a true academic, on his website. For the vast majority of potential listeners, of course, the explanation is just that -- academic -- but, unlikely though it may seem, this is an album that richly deserves many listeners, because the tones it contains are nothing short of breathtaking in their beauty and simplicity. There's not a whole lot on the surface to differentiate these five pieces, but each eventually reveals a discernible identity. Opener "track3a (2waynice)," the shortest and simplest, sets the tone with a glacial, gradually mutating collection of warm, lucid, harmonious drones. "Feedback zwei" introduces slightly more movement and progression with a subtle, cyclical pulsation, occasional points of feedback, and a slowly building field of muted, engulfing static. "ACGTR SVP" stands out as perhaps the most distinct, with its dense accumulation of tones and slightly buzzy, organ-like texture, while both "fib01a" and "modena" return to the placid drones of the opener, embellishing their steady hum with gentle, burbling, vaguely aqueous fluctuations. It's difficult to qualitatively distinguish Playthroughs from much of the ambient, drone-based music that's out there, although it does have a conspicuously unpretentious and inviting quality -- a sense of openness that must be ascribed to the unabashed consonance it retains (there are strikingly few instances of true dissonance to be found here) in spite of its constantly shifting harmonic content, which creates the sense of a continual unfolding or blossoming. It's equally hard to comprehend the evocative and emotional effect of this music, and harder still to describe it: it seems to function on a fundamentally different, precognitive level. But simply put: this is some of the most soothing, stimulating, and spellbinding sound that has ever been put to plastic. Without doubt, a masterpiece of modern minimalism. Emphatically recommended." AMG

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WILLIAM BASINSKI - THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS I-IV [2001, 2003]

"William Basinski (Houston, 1958), a New York-based classically-trained clarinetist and saxophonist, specializes in compositions for loops and drones. He began experimenting with compositions for piano and tape that created a melancholy ambience via looped and overdubbed melodies with Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (1980), released on Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (Durtro, 2002 - Die Stadt, 2004), and A Red Score in Tile (1979), released on A Red Score in Tile (3 Poplars, 2003).
Shortwave Music (1982), some of which appear on Shortwave Music (Noton, 1998), processed and assembled snippets of radio broadcasts to produce atmospheres at the border between musique concrete and ambient music. The River (1983), collected on the double-disc The River (Noton, december 2002), was the most mature expression of “shortwave music”.
Melancholia (Durtro, 2003 - 2062, 2005) collects more loop-based vignettes from the 1980s, closer in feeling and scope to Erik Satie and Brian Eno.
During the 1980s, Basinski often played saxophone during multimedia performances, and was a member of the Gretchen Langheld Ensemble, which later evolved into House Afire. In 1989 he opened his own loft for the creative arts, nicknamed “Arcadia”. Throughout the 1990s he refined his song-cycle Hymns of Oblivion. In 1997, Basinski launched his performance-art act Beautifying America. He also formed the electronic ensemble Life on Mars. Basinski has also created videos and films, notably the “ambient film” Fountain (2000)." LAST.FM

THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS I
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS II
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS III
THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS IV

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APSE - CLIMB UP [2009]

"Apse was formed in 1999 in Newtown, Connecticut as a three-piece while the members were still in high school. The group made purely instrumental ambient rock until about 2003, when reverberant lead vocals by Bobby became a regular part of the band’s songs.
The lineup expanded over the years and by 2005, Apse was signed to Spain’s Acuarela Discos to record and release its culminating self-titled EP.
Amidst a shifting lineup, the group moved away from the trappings of “post-rock” territory to write and record its debut full-length album – the tribal, atmospheric Spirit, released in 2006. Extensive touring (exclusively in Europe) and further lineup changes took place over the course of the next two years, during which time the band signed to ATP Recordings, which gave Spirit a wider re-release in 2008.
A limited edition vinyl LP titled Eras, which signaled the start of a shift in sound for the group, also was released in late 2008, very much under the radar.
Apse is now made up of Bobby, Michael Gundlach, John Mordecai, Jed Armour and Brandon Collins. 2009’s Climb Up sheds much of the gloom, tribal rhythms and esoteric lyrics of Spirit for more eclectic moods across its 12 tracks, coupled with more concrete lyrics exploring the many sides of relationships between people."

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FINAL - INFINITE GUITAR 3 / GUITAR AND BASS IMPROVISATIONS 3 [2009]

"FINAL serves as an undefinable and experimental interpretation of Justin Broadricks more recognised music ; encompassing the brutal and the dark to the beautiful and the melodic, the term ‘ambient’ is often used to describe the sound of FINAL, but the music is not at all intended to function purely as background as the term ‘ambient’ generally implies…
Before Justin Broadrick was in Napalm Death and way before his Jesu,Godflesh and Techno Animal projects , he had FINAL, this was the first music that he made and the first concerts he ever performed ; initiated at the tender age of 13, inspired by the true old industrial music of Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, Ramleh and Maurizio Bianchi etc, Justin used his step fathers primitive musical equipment to forge his own sound influenced by the aforementioned artists and attempt with like minded individuals and friends to establish his own sound and vision. Basic recordings were made and this led Justin to form a cassette label in early 1984 (Post Mortem Rekordings) releasing his own cassettes and eventually other artists too, this tape only label lasted from early 1984-86, releasing over 50 cassettes of confrontational hate noise/power electronics and Throbbing Gristle inspired electronic psychedelia." LAST.FM

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THOMAS KÖNER - LA BARCA [2009]

"Glacial soundscaping, glorious arctic ambience, heavy bass. best heard on headphones or a gigantic sound system. or in a cave.
Thomas Köner, born 1965, attended the music college in Dortmund and studied electronic music at the CEM-Studio in Arnhem. Until 1994 he worked with film sound as sound engineer. He extended his concept of sound colour to moving images, resulting in video installations and film works. 2000 the Montreal International Festival New Cinema New Media awarded him the “New Media Prize”. 2004 the Prix Ars Electronica awarded him the “Golden Nica”, and he was awarded the “Produktionspreis WDR / Deutscher Klangkunst-Preis” (german sound art award). His media installation “Suburbs Of The Void” received the Transmediale 2005 award in Berlin and was presented at La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro La Fenice as a live performance in the same year. Köners video “Nuuk” received the Tiger Cub Award (best short film) during the International Filmfestival Rotterdam 2005.
While studying, he dedicated himself to intensive sound research in the recording studio. His first impulse consisted in avoiding rhythm and melody and focusing instead on the phenomenon of sound colour. To intensify the experience of sound, he decided to work with other media, resulting at first in the collaboration with film artist Jürgen Reble and the live performance Alchemie (1992). Following this, he started to compose film soundtracks and electronic live music to accompany old silent films for the Louvre Museum and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris." LAST.FM

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BELONG - OCTOBER LANGUAGE [2006]

"Very much in the vein of Fennesz and others carrying the torch of guitar experimentation from Kevin Shields, Belong's debut record isn't a series of recordings made to be played piece by piece at random intervals. October Language is very much an album designed to be listened to from start to finish; slowly evolving and unraveling one sheet of distorted guitar textures over another until there's simply no room left to cram in much more. But what sets Belong apart from the rest of their classmates in the school of Shields is their attention to detail. Distinct but melodic passages swell up from out of nowhere and then gradually fade into the static and whirls of feedback and sound; small fragments that appear early on in the lineup make returns later on (with close and active listening). And while fans can pine away and wait for that next My Bloody Valentine release (if there ever is one), there are thankfully instances like October Language that make the prolonged wait immensely more enjoyable. " AMG

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TIM HECKER - AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY [2009]

"Tim Hecker's elegantly inventive way around sound art moved into a full decade of released work with An Imaginary Country, one of his most serene and, from its striking start "100 Years Ago" forward, uplifting albums. The power of feedback as exultant swell has had many iterations over the years and it would be understandable to call its use here shoegaze or something similar -- combined with the electronics on the appropriately named "Sea of Pulses" or "Where Shadows Make Shadows," the striking penultimate track, any number of superficial connections could be drawn to artists such as Fennesz and Ulrich Schnauss. But each of those performers has his own approaches, as does Hecker himself, and the breathless extended surge of the album as a whole takes the slow-rising-dawn power of such work down his chosen road, perhaps best summed up by the song title "Currents of Electrostasy," with piano and feedback turned into a blissful but still mournful whole. Hecker's ear for appropriate names for his songs crops up throughout -- the chilled emptiness of "Borderlands," chimes echoing off into an unguessed distance, may be the warmest dark ambient song released in 2009, though "Paragon Point" comes close for both steady looming power and an enveloping sense of atmosphere." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET [2006]

"Canadian Tim Hecker has been a respected force on the electronica scene since his debut Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, came out in 2001 (in addition to his work as Jetone). Since then, he has consistently released experimental ambient music that broadens standard compositional barriers while still remaining accessible, and such is the case with Harmony in Ultraviolet, Hecker's fourth full-length. Though most of the tracks on the album are separate entities -- including each part of "Harmony in Blue" -- they work together to form an idea that's greater than its individual elements: a sense of exploration and sadness and understanding of the infiniteness and uncertainty and expanse of the world. Themes are introduced -- a looped arpeggio, a distorted guitar riff, lone keyboard notes -- but nothing is ever fully developed, nothing ever completely exposes itself. Instead, there's a suggestion that's built-up and expounded upon but never quite resolved, long notes that pull themselves in and out of focus are favored over melodies, leaving a kind of agitation in the listener like the dark restlessness of an industrial city. Three notes make a chord but somehow Hecker's don't, they're so different in texture and scope; in fact, they seem almost peacefully at odds with one another, aware of the others' existences but content to ignore them. It's the music of a gray urban skyline, of the kind of loneliness that comes from being around too many other people, of rusted fences and cold empty windows and distance, music that swells and crescendos, sets itself up for the denouement but never arrives at the climax; it's endlessly patient yet eager to move on. Wet bass notes and emaciated electric guitars, awash with distortion, crush together with programmed noise and drones, sounds erupt and are then dismissed, fifty minutes of questions and intimations, of resignation and acceptance, but not -- definitely not -- of answers. We'll have to find those ourselves." AMG

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TIM HECKER - MIRAGES [2004]

"At the height of their powers, white-noise godheads My Bloody Valentine would be known to leave their guitars alone on-stage at the end of a performance, feeding back for up to 30 minutes while the audience was left awash in the sound of static running on static. Imagining that effect not as an end, but as a beginning, Canadian Tim Hecker offers his third album of dark grey fog (his sixth album if you count his techno background as Jetone). Starting with "Acephale," Hecker takes control of the effluvial hiss and slowly melts it down, making it into clear angelic tones on "Neither More Nor Less," fluttering waves on "Celestina," and even rounded pulses on "Kaito." But like a gentle master, Hecker eventually breaks his smoke bubbles, allowing the gas to float free on the generously long closer, "Incurably Optimistic!" Yet low and behold, the vapors continue to hold the shapes in which they were once held, drifting not up and away, but moving in paths around an undeterminable axis until they finally disappear without the least bit of a whimper. But like matter, sound is a finite yet never depleting thing, transferring from electrical buzz to moving air to cerebral stimulation. Potential energy waiting, just waiting to go kinetic again." AMG

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TIM HECKER - RADIO AMOR [2003]

"Tim Hecker's first album for Mille Plateaux, Radio Amor, follows two excellent efforts for the relatively smaller yet similarly prestigious Substractif label, and accordingly consolidates that pair into his most inclusive and presentable recording yet. It merges the haunting majesty of his debut full-length, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again (2001), with the loose conceptual framework of his follow-up EP, My Love Is Rotten to the Core (2002), and does so without being quite as overbearing as those two releases may have felt to listeners interested in simply engaging music rather than far-fetched conception. There are thus two primary sides to Radio Amor: its sounds and concepts. The sonic palette Hecker draws from here is strikingly reminiscent of his previous work. Heavily manipulated waves of drone again clash and splash against one another, often doing so with near yet subtly off synchronicity in the right and left channels. The effect is slightly disorienting, and that's precisely the point, as Hecker's overall aesthetic seems centered upon an otherworldly style of sound manipulation meant to baffle even the most seasoned digital-music listeners. The conceptual framework he builds upon is likewise hazily vague, and no doubt purposefully so. The track titles don't allude to much on their own, yet when coupled with the album's remarkable packaging, a whispered narrative begins to shape, one involving remote seafaring, faint transmissions, compass guidance, and a third-world locale. It's perhaps fitting then that the album's climax, its most deliciously harrowing seasick moment, "Azure Azure," comes late in the album, following "The Star Compass" and preceding "Trade Winds, White Heat." By that point, Hecker has once again swept you away with a seamless album that demands beginning-to-end listening, and this time he does so with the timeless grandeur and universal appeal of a Hemingway-esque lost-at-sea novel narrated from the omniscient perspective. This is far, far from your ordinary ambient album -- if you're willing to dive into its depth rather than merely skim its surface, that is." AMG

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TIM HECKER - HAUNT ME, HAUNT ME DO IT AGAIN [2001]

"On Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again, Tim Hecker downshifts from his minimal techno alias, Jetone, to create rich, textured ambient music of the highest order. Despite the infusion of glitch elements like static and electronic interference, Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again sounds deep and wide, like it was meant to bounce around a cathedral, or as an accompaniment to a planetarium show. There are nine titled pieces here spread across 20 tracks and one bleeds into the next, lending an unusual sense of continuity for an experimental electronic release of this length. Glistening drones are threaded with deliberate hiss and ghostly voices and the occasional treated piano and percussive elements crop up here and there as accents. While the tracks vary in approach and character, the overall mood is consistently one of contemplation, wonder, and awe, with vague hints of dread and violence appearing in the periphery. Picking out individual highlights is difficult because the album is so consistent, unified, and whole; suffice to say that Haunt Me Haunt Me, Do It Again is a brilliant album of subtle, evocative mood music. " AMG

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DEATHPROD - MORALS AND DOGMA [2004]

"Morals and Dogma is Deathprod's first solo effort in eight years -- his activities as a sound engineer and his participation in the improv quartet Supersilent have kept him very busy in the meantime. But despite a lot of water having run under the bridge, the album doesn't present a rupture or even a significant change in direction from its predecessors (especially Treetop Drive). There's a simple explanation to this: the album's magnum opus, "Dead People's Things," was recorded sometime in 1994, at the time Treetop Drive was going through its final stages of production. "Orgone Donor" is from 1996; the two remaining tracks were recorded in the fall of 2000 for a dance performance by the Kreutzer Kompani. Then again, Deathprod's music creates its own space out of time, so the chronological aspect (or the "newness" of the music presented here) has little relevance. What does matter, though, is the quality, and on that count Morals and Dogma features some of Deathprod's finest, most moving music. Presented as the stark accompanying soundtrack to the rituals of a secret society (hence the black-on-black design), the album consists of four engulfing drones. Hans Magnus Ryan and Ole Henrik Moe, faithful collaborators since Helge Sten's earliest experiments, provide once again the musical body in which Sten works what he calls his "audio virus." "Tron" and "Cloudchamber," the two dance pieces, offer the darkest landscapes. The latter's infrabass frequencies and soft bow scratches create a gripping post-apocalyptic atmosphere. But the 20-minute "Dead People's Things" steals the show. The piece is dominated by Ryan's whiny violin and Sten's test oscillator, which he plays like a theremin, sketching the saddest melody. Highly recommended to fans of atmospheric experimental music." AMG

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GROUPER - DRAGGING A DEAD DEER UP A HILL [2008]

"Liz Harris' first two Grouper albums, Way Their Crept and Wide, consisted mostly of layers of her pristine vocals blanketed in drones, reverb, and distortion until they blurred into a blissful, and sometimes eerie, haze. That haze lifts ever so slightly on Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, letting more melody, more structured songs, and even a few phrases emerge from the ether. Fragile acoustic and electric guitars and the occasional keyboard also bring this album more down to earth than Grouper's earlier work, but the music never feels stifled or limited -- if anything, the added structure lets these songs take flight and reach peaks of beauty that Wide and Way Their Crept only glimpsed. Harris' voice is especially spine-tingling on "Stuck," where her gorgeous harmonies only need gentle strumming to support their ebb and flow. Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill's soft, intricate layers have their roots in late-'80s/early-'90s dream pop (and the work of the Cocteau Twins and early His Name Is Alive in particular -- Home Is in Your Head could be this album's great-great-grandmother), but Grouper's take is looser and more organic; there's a reason many of the song titles feature nature imagery ("Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping," "Traveling Through a Sea"). Dragging a Dead Deer also shows more musical range than Harris' previous work: "Disengaged," which introduces the album with blasts of static that suggest wind and waves, and the wistful "Invisible" fall closest to Wide and Way Their Crept's drifting approach, while "Fishing Bird (Empty Jutted in the Evening Breeze)" and "A Cover Over" boast distinct verses and choruses as well as the rest of the album's otherworldly atmosphere. This is also Grouper's most emotionally wide-ranging work, covering the electric lullaby "When We Fall" to the slightly ominous shimmer of the title track. Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill offers moments that are just as memorable as the entire album, and all of them are subtly, but stunningly, beautiful. " AMG

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BEAR IN HEAVEN - BEAST REST FORTH MOUTH [2009]

"Bear in Heaven is a Brooklyn-based rock band formed by Jon Philpot. The sound of the band incorporates influences from psychedelic music, electronic music, krautrock.
Jon Philpot has previously released music as part of the duo Presocratics, in collaboration with guitarist and composer Need Thomas Windham. Presocratics released two albums on the record label Table of the Elements in 2001; both were produced by Philpot.
The first Bear in Heaven release (Tunes Nextdoor to Songs, Eastern Developments 2003) was an EP of solo recordings by Philpot, recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, with guest musicians performing on various instruments. Shortly after the release of Tunes Nextdoor to Songs, Philpot moved to Brooklyn, New York and joined with guitarist Adam Wills, keyboardist/guitarist Sadek Bazarra (a graphic designer with Brooklyn design collective GH avisualagency), guitarist David Daniell (of San Agustin), and bassist James Elliott (Ateleia, School of Seven Bells). Eventually drummer Joe Stickney (drummer with Paul Duncan, Rhys Chatham’s Essentialist project, and current touring drummer with Panthers) was added to the lineup. Daniell left Bear in Heaven in 2005 to focus on his solo project.
Red Bloom of the Boom, Bear in Heaven’s first full-length album with the full band, was released in 2007 by the Hometapes record label." LAST.FM

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BEN FROST - BY THE THROAT [2009]

"The music Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by Classical Minimalism as by Punk Rock and Metal, Frost’s throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems." LAST.FM

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COIL - MUSICK TO PLAY IN THE DARK VOL.1 [1999]

"From the opening pairing of "Are You Shivering?" and the gorgeously titled "Red Birds Will Fly Out of the East and Destroy Paris in a Night," it's apparent that Coil was making a return during 1999 that would prove to be as influential on the post-industrial scene as its 1984 debut, Scatology. The group never really went away in the ensuing period, of course, but had maintained a cult status underground for the better part of the '90s. The duo consistently produced stunning albums, but the recordings were often in scarce limited editions that usually reached only hardcore fans. The Musick to Play in the Dark CD and LP were available through mail order only, and featured the core duo of Peter Christopherson and John Balance joined by collaborator Thighpaulsandra. The CD is the first full-length album Coil released on its own Chalice label as a subscription only release. Later in 2000, the album was thankfully re-pressed by Word Serpent, assuring wider availability. The album is a masterpiece of the caliber of the classic '80s trilogy Scatology, Horse Rotovator, and Loves Secret Domain, which gave Coil the highest stature in the post-industrial music scene as one of the most inventive, original, and courageous groups of the genre. Musick to Play in the Dark is an utterly mesmerizing work, and is nothing short of brilliant. The album's scope takes in the music of the '90s, the bleak digital processing and glitch music (Oval, Coh, and Nurse With Wound all spring to mind), but here these often sterile sounds are married to a human warmth that is inimitable Coil -- a sound that carries through the group's career as one of the most distinctive in the post-industrial canon. Along with the essential Coil '80s recordings, Musick to Play in the Dark cannot be recommended highly enough. It represents a chapter in British music that goes beyond the term industrial and into untapped realms of experimentation that place Coil, along with Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, among the '90s British groups more deserving of attention than their obscurity may ever permit. " AMG

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