Category: Music reviews

A dancing menagerie of synthesized metallic clanks and burrings, perilously balanced on the liminal edge of consciousness, Eloge de l’usage et de la lenteur becomes a nearly imperceptible soundscape. Though disappointingly brief, this release does well to envelop the listener in a subtle series of electronic sounds that defy melody, yet transcend cacophony, offering an inobtrusive aural experience. Though well produced, the release failed to inspire in me a sense of having truly experienced art. If you’re looking for something that will readily fade into the background, this should work; but if you’re looking for something a little more involved, you may want to skip over this one.

[Rating:3/5]

Somewhere in the dense and balmy southern peninsula of the Commonwealth of Virginia, nestled amongst the vestiges of colonial history, lies an enclave of noise deviance, who counts, among its nefarious members, the twisted genius that is Feralcatscan. Whithersoexotica employs an array of Feralcatscan’s trademark sounds, derived from a treasure trove of homemade electroacoustic accoutrement and reverse-engineered electronic esoterica. The result is a deadly set of deep, long and extravagant atonal drones, adorned with tasteful touches of clanging metal.

While new Feralcatscan releases are few and far between, Whithersoexotica is all the proof one needs that they are well worth the wait.

[Rating:4.5/5]

An unabashedly indolent wash of soft ambience establishes an aura of torpid bliss that lures the listener through Sublamp’s fantastic Cathedrals of Gravity. The soft, opulent atmosphere wafts like an aural embodiment of lethargy, only briefly interrupted by the errant skittering of electronic mischief: crackles and hiss that subtly break through the expansive sonic vista. A perfect complement to the hazy din of a sleep-deprived morning.

If one were so inclined to find fault in this album, it would be in its brevity. I could easily have listened to this if it were twice as long.

[Rating:5/5]

Brought back from the brink of psychosis, C. Reider shares with the world some things i did when i lost my mind. This collection of harsh ambient and glitchy noise tracks represent the musings of a fractured mind; occasionally calm and lilting, but more often brutally harsh and grating. The listener’s experience is minimal, dark and, at times, unpleasant: a tribute to C. Reider’s ability to capture the essence of his own internal tumult. Though the album works best in tracks like “boson solange”, in those rare moments when the chaos of granulated noise is underpinned by a hauntingly soft ambience, the entire journey bears the scars of its Hellish origin.

[Rating:4/5]

It’s been a long time coming, but I felt that the time was finally right for me to give SIGHUP a proper review. Digging through my archives, I found end of. There are newer albums, but I don’t think I’ve given this one the attention it deserves, and that has been my loss.

SIGHUP has long been, in my opinion, the undisputed King of Drone, and this release does absolutely nothing to diminish that reputation. The album opens with a luscious choral drone that wafts almost angelically, stupefying the listener before shocking them back to their senses with an abrupt end. Afterwards the albums shifts gears and moves into the haunting, medium density dark ambient piece “saints brimful”, showcasing a facet of SIGHUP that is decidedly darker and bleaker. Not content to settle down yet, the album shifts gears again, into the Edison Moon inspired “city heart”, whose sampled melody is superbly drenched in layers of atmosphere and accented by subtle hints of noise. The title track has us revisiting the bleakness of “saints brimful”, but with the masterful addition of a very low key drone that hollows out the darkness, clearing room for the burgeoning march of electroacoustic noise that swells in through the track. The album closes with the brief, but beautiful, “coda”, further exemplifying SIGHUP’s mastery over all things drone.

While not my favorite SIGHUP album, it is absolutely a must hear for fans of any of the aforementioned genres.

[Rating:5/5]