Matt Elliott - Failed Songs

Matt Elliott - Failed Songs
Genre : Folk
Listen
Buy It!

01. Mellow
02. Eulogy For Liam
03. Melange
04. South Canadian Sea
05. Song To Child
06. Lament
07. Wedding Song

Download

Richard Skelton - Landings

Richard Skelton - Landings
Genre : Ambient, Experimental, Electronic
Listen
Buy It!

01.Noon Hill Wood [08:27]
02.Scar Tissue [01:56]
03.Threads Across The River [08:20]
04.Greens Within Brook [04:27]
05.Of The Last Generation [07:07]
06.Undertow [06:27]
07.Voice Of The Boooon [07:27]
08.Rapture [02:01]
09.Pariah [04:44]
10.River Song [06:38]
11.Remaindered [05:35]
12.The Shape Leaves [07:02]

Download

Having recorded a significant body of work under various guises including A Broken Consort and Clouwbeck, Richard Skelton returns with a brand new and long anticipated album under his own name. Following on from 'Marking Time' (originally released via Preservation in 2008 only to be reissued on limited vinyl by Type over the summer), 'Landings' is an album steeped in the wild rural landscape of Skelton's surroundings. Over the span of just a few releases he's managed to establish a language all his own, standing apart from the dominant currents within the neo-classical, ambient and post-rock genres and becoming known for a bowed-string variant of modern classical music of his own making. From the first jagged strokes of 'Noon Hill Wood' you're instantly aware that you could only be listening to a Richard Skelton record - the hugely expressive, deeply mournful string arrangements writhe and overlap, squealing with harmonic overtones as if the strings were being sawn into. After only a few early playthroughs, Landings feels like a more ambitious and substantial package than previous Skelton outings thanks to an expanded instrumental palette and a duration that permits the exploration of a more complete and varied narrative. 'Scar Tissue', for instance, features tumbling minor-key guitar fragments, creaking along in some unspecified woodland exterior - you can often hear site-specific soundscapes of the natural world captured in the background during these recordings, and in truth the music is as much about these unusual, deeply atmospheric recording locations Skelton chooses as it is the instrumentation itself. On 'Green Withins Brook' you can hear gentle waves of concertina droning melodiously over the babble of a stream, while 'Voice Of The Book' is leant a reflective ambience by the dimensions of the ruined, ancient farmhouse in which it was recorded. Additionally, this odd and characterful locale is coloured by incidental knocking sounds that seem to emanate from the corners of the mix. Even during the less obviously in-situ productions there's an almost spooky presence hanging in the air between notes. 'Of The Last Generation' and 'Threads Across The River' are imbued with some kind of intense and palpable aura - if not an outright sense of place. Throughout Skelton's catalogue you'll hear pieces masked in naturalistic reverb, as if he's trying to distance his music from the listener - blurring the edges with a soft-focus mist, and that effect is put to especially good use during the closing moments of Landings: the detached and austere guitar of 'Remaindered' is like the ghost of a Nick Drake song while 'The Shape Leaves' serves as hauntingly aloof exit music. Perhaps even more so than on prior works, here Richard Skelton proves himself to be more than just a modern-classical outsider and consolidates his status as an auteur with a singular vision; Landing feels like the album he's been building up to for some time now. Amazing music.

Chihei Hatakeyama - A Long Journey

Chihei Hatakeyama - A Long Journey
Genre : Ambient, Experimental, Electronic
Listen
Buy It!

01. morning arrive on the island
02. waves
03. confession
04. the moon reflecting on the surface of the ocean
05. within new trees
06. a quiet pond
07. the distant sound of a bustle
08. calm
09. white light
10. haze from the river
11. the dance of the sea

Download

Having enjoyed a busy and very fruitful 2009, Chihei Hatakeyama is set to kick off 2010 in much the same manner. Last year the Tokyo microsound composer delivered exceptional albums for Room40 and Under The Spire, now he's on the verge of releasing another pairing of long-players over the next couple of months. The first of these comes via the dependably excellent Home Normal imprint, and bases itself upon field recordings made on a trip to San Francisco in 2006. Appropriately, the record is titled A Long Journey, and takes on the feel of a dreamlike sequence of scenes from different locations. The record begins with 'Morning Arrive On The Island', whose hazed-over tones are incredibly warm and welcoming, focusing more on Hatakayama's processed guitar tones than any environmental or field recorded sounds. 'Waves' changes that to some degree, latching onto a sense of place with its denouement of filtered incidental recordings, while 'Confession' dissolves crowd noise into a misty stupor of drones - somehow making an everyday, street-bound racket sound like a beautiful auditory happening. Similarly, 'Within New Trees' You can hear a variety of montaged recordings evaporating into luscious, lulling tones, while 'The Distant Sound Of Bustle' goes largely unconditioned by any post-production, instead becoming a duet between street-side location noises and Hatakayama's delicate piano musings. There are eleven excellent compositions here - let's hope both Home Normal and Hatakayama himself can maintain this standard over 2010.

Konntinent – Opal Island

Konntinent – Opal Island
Genre : Ambient, Experimental, Electronic
Listen
Buy It!

01. Opal Island
02. Surrender number
03. Dry eyed
04. 44 55 33
05. Frost Fair
06. Sabotka the dreamer
07. Jansson’s Temptation
08. Numeral
09. Lossless
10. Collo & Orro
11. White Horse Falls
12. Uncertain steps to an unknown end

Download

Among many obvious definitions of the ‘heart’ is this: ‘the vital center and source of one’s being, emotions, and sensibilities’.

It’s the first word I think of when I hear the work of Antony Harrison (the man behind the Konntinent moniker). And when you listen to his work, its really obvious why.

The Konntinent sound is very much based on micro-elements I guess, at least this time around. Unlike his earlier drone-based work, ‘Opal Island’ has much more of Antony’s guitar playing to the fore, as it does the gorgeous vocals of Lisa Madisson on ‘Dry eyed’, as well as Antony’s own beautifully subtle singing. It has odd rhythms coming in and out, piano, weird glitchy sounds and tones I can’t quite place. Its all in the craftsmanship you see. Its very rare to come across an artist who actually makes ‘songs’ which can also be defined as ‘pieces’ – and as such his work is so hard to place.

All I am left to do is to go back to the image of the heart. In Japan, there is a faux-English usage of the word, made adjective…the Japanese say ‘heartful’. Its on billboards, products and people use it all the time. Its basically used to describe something which is full of emotion and induces said emotion in others. Whilst the word admittedly does my head in when I am in Japan, in a nice and concise way it covers my feelings for the music Antony Harrison creates. Opal Island is a very ‘heartful’ album, as Antony is himself a very ‘heartful’ artist and songsmith. And whilst linguists will not initially thank me, after hearing this record, you just might get what I mean.

Ian Hawgood

Eluvium – Similes

Eluvium – Similes
Genre : Ambient, Experimental, Electronic
Listen
Buy It!

1. Leaves Eclipse The Light
2. The Motion Makes Me Last
3. In Culmination
4. Weird Creatures
5. Nightmare 5
6. Making Up Minds
7. Bending Dream
8. Cease to Know

Download

The long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed Copia, Eluvium takes a courageous creative leap with Similes, an 8-song album featuring three key musical elements previously uncharted by Eluvium: percussion, a verse-chorus song structure, and singing. For a celebrated experimental musician, it was just about the bravest and scariest direction to go. In this way, Similes is the most truly experimental Eluvium album yet, and also the most accessible. Written, performed and recorded as always by Matthew Cooper in his own Watership Sounds studio, Similes marries Eluvium's trademark dream-like aura with Cooper's unique, laconic vocals, akin to an especially contemplative Ian Curtis with trace reflections of Magnetic Fields and Brian Eno. It is the most daring - and ultimately most rewarding - work of Eluvium's impressive and prolific career.

Amiina - Re Minore EP

Amiina - Re Minore EP
Genre : Electronic, Post Rock, Ambient
Listen
Buy It!

01. ásinn
02. Risturinn
03. Tvisturinn

Download

Amiina is a band based in Reykjavík Iceland. At present the band counts six people - Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir, Hildur Ársælsdóttir, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson (aka Kippi Kaninus). The bands origins go back to the late 1990s when four girls studying string instruments at the Reykjavík College of Music formed a string quartet, playing classical music, but increasingly moving on to playing all sorts of music with various bands in Reykjavík. In 1999 the quartet joined Icelandic band Sigur Rós on stage. The collaboration has continued ever since with amiina contributing strings to Sigur Rós’ music on tours and in the recording studio on the albums ( ) , Takk and Með Suð... In 2004 amiina’s first EP AnimaminA was released, followed by the Seoul single (2006), the album Kurr (2007), a Lee Hazlewood collaboration on a 7” vinyl Hilli (at the Top of...) (2008) and the limited release EP Re Minore (2009). In the autumn of 2007 drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen joined amiina on tours, adding percussion to the band’s textures. A few months later in early 2008 a collaboration between Kippi Kaninus and amiina was established while preparing a show together for the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The merging of Kippi Kaninus' electronics and rhythms with amiina's sounds and Magnús' percussion became the starting point for more established collaboration between the six musicians.

Autechre – Oversteps "FAKE"

Autechre – Oversteps "FAKE"
Genre : Electronic
Listen
Buy It!

01. r ess
02. ilanders
03. known(1)
04. pt2ph8
05. qplay
06. see on see
07. Treale
08. os veix3
09. O=0
10. d-sho qub
11. st epreo
12. redfall
13. krYlon
14. Yuop

Download

Autechre have announced details surrounding their tenth full-length album, Oversteps.

As was the case with their previous nine efforts, Rob Brown and Sean Booth will follow up 2008’s Quaristice by releasing through their long term label home Warp. Although we’re in the dark at this stage as to how the record is sounding, if its predecessor is anything to go by, expect it to surprise and frustrate in equal measures. What we are sure of, though, is that the lads from Rochdale will embark on an extensive tour of the UK and Europe in support of the LP. Starting out at Manchester’s Pure venue on March 11th, the party will swing by—among many others—Minehead (for Bloc), Glasgow, Paris, Ljubljana, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, before ending up at an as yet unannounced London venue on April 10th.

Those who still dabble in the black arts will be pleased to learn that the album will be made available as a deluxe vinyl edition, which means 180 gram discs, housed in a debossed rigid slipcase, with a 900mm x 600mm double-sided poster also thrown in for good measure.

Rochdale’s bleep and squeak merchants Autechre have announced details of their beautifully packaged 10th studio album. Released via Warp, their long term home, there is plenty to say about Oversteps as long as it involves the packaging and the pressing of super high quality 180gm vinyls.

Housed in a special slip case, and with each record having it’s own dedicated cardboard sleeve, Oversteps sounds like an IDM pervert’s wet dream. Also included is a poster of the album art printed on Offenbach paper, an mp3 version of the album and the choice of two WAV versions of the album – 24 or 48 bit resolution.

Absolutely no word on the music however, though I would hazard a guess that it will be challenging, electronic and please as many people as it alienates.

Autechre will be performing at various shows and festivals in support of Oversteps through in March and April, including the Bloc Weekend in Minehead, Copenhagen, Paris and Glasgow, before finishing up with a secret show somewhere in London.