As a collaboration between two artists who are almost impossible to pin down by genre conventions, A Throne Without A King is at times a difficult album, often not resembling anything from either artist, but a different beast entirely. It may be difficult, but its worth the effort to fully absorb what’s there to be heard.

I reviewed the first four installments of this now-completed 12 volume series a few months back, and now that it has come to its conclusion, the final product is even more impressive, documenting Szczepanik's evolving and developing compositional skills.  With each piece having its own voice, yet feeling somehow connected to one another, it's a perfectly encapsulated suite of recordings.

Der Blutharsch's sudden transition from militaristic industrial project to perverse psychedelic rock band was jarring and abrupt, and always a bit baffling. The albums since Time is Thee Enemy! have moved more and more into that direction, but often laden with a sense of identity confusion: the pieces never seemed to come together quite right for me. In this collaboration with Aluk Todolo, however, both embrace their hallucinogenic tendencies in unison, resulting in a brilliantly cohesive album that is equal parts krautrock, psychedelia, and dark experimentalism.

Matt Waldron has obviously had little to do lately judging by the landslide of irr. app. (ext.) releases that have recently come available. Ranging from very old archival material to more recent compositions (including collaborations with Nurse With Wound and Diana Rogerson), Waldron has unleashed a Pandora’s box of sonic delights on the world. Widely available as downloads from his own site and as limited edition CD-Rs elsewhere, these releases build on an already impressive but far too limited back catalogue.

Roughly ten years ago, BBC's Radio 4 sent Chris Watson to Mexico to record one of the final continuous cross-country trips for Mexico's passenger rail system.  The resultant album is a narrative collage that uses those recordings to aurally recreate that unique and memorable journey.  I'd definitely say he succeeded quite impressively at that specific technical objective, but that doesn't necessarily translate into a great album.

While they have never been especially prolific, Esplendor Geométrico's discography is still a surprisingly daunting and disorienting thing to navigate, due to their many compilations, reissues, disappearing record labels, and stylistic shifts.  Sheikh Aljama, now reissued for the first time since 1994, was originally recorded between 1987 and 1988 and was one of the final albums of the band's crunchy and noisy early era.  It is also unique for incorporating Arabic influences.  I'd be remiss if I didn't say that that particular assimilation was not especially skillful or seamless (especially when compared to Muslimgauze), but the album's hypnotically bludgeoning beats make such flaws seem totally irrelevant.  This is one of Esplendor Geométrico's finest efforts.

This latest slice of heaven from Ian William Craig has quite a curious provenance, as it was assembled from orphaned pieces dating all the way back to 2014's landmark A Turn of Breath. As such, it is not exactly the proper follow-up to Centres, yet it is every bit as great as I would expect such an album to be. Notably, Thresholder is far from a collection of disconnected outtakes and middling material, as the pieces are all roughly tied to a commission work relating to quantum physics and space. As befits such an inspiration, Thresholder very much focuses on Craig's more experimental and abstract side, unfolding as a hallucinatory and dreamlike collage of woozily swooning angelic vocals in a crackling sea of distressed tape loops and hiss. If Centres is the album where Craig's gift for songcraft came into full bloom, this is the companion piece that illustrates the full depth of his textural and production brilliance.

Scott Morgan's latest album is quite a surprise, at least by Loscil’s eternally understated standards.  Partially inspired by hearing Philip Glass’s  Koyaanisqatsi score on a worn VHS tape, Monument Builders finds Loscil being a pulled in a number of different directions at once while still being held together by the unifying thread of Morgan's warmly hissing and elegantly blurred production aesthetic.  The result is quite an atypically epic and chameleonic Loscil album, but the material is strong enough to quell most of my misgivings about Morgan's stylistic tourism.

While the title is in reference to the source material (field recordings in Ancient Olympia, Greece), it also serves as an appropriate name for these two monumental artists coming together. Linked only by the use of the same raw materials, both Lopez and Thanasis Kaproulias create very different, yet powerful worlds of sound.

Paring a recently released new work with a digital-only remastered reissue from the label, there is a decade of time elapsed between these two compositions, in which Roden’s evolution as an artist can be heard, particularly in his use of digital processing and composing.

Zola Jesus (effectively Nika Roza Danilova) made a huge artistic leap in 2010, transitioning from the lo-fi, gothic post-punk of The Spoils to the sweeping, synth-driven drama of her twin EP releases, Stridulum and Valusia. The two EPs were a grand step forward for Danilova, upping the drama quotient with two fistfuls of dark, cinematic songs. Conatus continues her winning streak, functioning as a distillation and subtle refinement of the ideas put forward on last year's EPs.

Sebastian Banaszczyk has been strongly refining his craft in "sound recycling," or essentially utilizing limited, conceptually relevant recordings as the only basis for compositions. These two separate albums, for two distinctly different dramatic performances, have some consistencies between them, but each stand on their own as distinct works, as well as representing the next stage in Bionulor's discography.

On their first album in seven years, the multinational power electronics band fronted by US legend Mark Solotroff manage to live up to the hype created from their less than prolific release schedule. Punishing, malicious, and appropriately deranged, Bloodyminded proves they have lost none of their potency.

This EP pretty much picks up exactly where last year's fine Man With Potential left off, once again combining furiously thumping house beats with stuttering, skittering noise.  It is more of a tease than a substantial effort though, as it is basically just an amusing dalliance with the 12" single format, consisting of two versions of the title piece and a superior B-side.  Neither quite stands with the best songs on Potential and there is no evidence of a significant stylistic evolution, but Pro Style is an enjoyable distraction to tide me over while I await Swanson's next major work.

It has been a full decade since Drumm's last solo album on Mego (2002's massive and career-defining Sheer Hellish Miasma) and quite a bit has changed in the noise world since then.  While more modest in scope this time around (Relief is a 37-minute EP), Kevin's latest effort shows that an impressive evolution has occurred over those ten years, as he hits the perfect balance between his characteristic howling noise and his infrequently surfacing ambient side.  That comes as no surprise to me at all, but I was pleasantly taken aback by the sheer ferocity of Relief's noisy side.  Drumm is clearly not mellowing with age.

Don't let the unpronouncable band name or low-tech cover put you off,this here's one of the best space-rock drone-pop records of the year.The five member group of D&D players includes Adam from Yume Bitsuand three members of Landing. It's patient, emotional, climactic andintense. Don't expect quietness however, as the barrage of guitarsenvelopes you like a cloud of the most potent marijuana smokeimaginable. You can get a contact high from this smoke however withoutdirect contact with the bong. Get comfortable on the livingroom couchin your rattiest flannel with a comfortable old blanket, turn the musicup really loud, stare up at the ceiling and daze for a few minutes.Minutes turn to hours, nightfall comes early and the lights go down allthroughout the house. Staring through glazed eyes the LED on your clockshows a time you can't figure which is AM or PM. Suddenly visions ofwalking through 4-foot drifts of neopolitan shaving cream enter yourhead. A plaid talking yak leads the way under the orange sky of anIndonesian sunset. Bubbles form and fail to burst, you stumble on LauraDern action figures and fall through a stitch in an oriental rug. Youwake with your mouth open, completely clothed, drool on the pillow andtwo fuzzy cats on your belly. The phone rang. Goddamnit.

 

samples:

• The Open Sea
• Deep Grey Night
• Ascension to the Second Tier of the Outer Plane of Dryysen (Eceyon)

Antenne is the new solo project of Copenhagen's Kim G. Hansen, formerlyof Danish group Amstrong, for the long-lived Dutch label Korm Plastics.Hansen mixes up electronic and acoustic sounds - analogue synth wash,gentle guitar strums and notes, minimal bass and beats - for thedesired effect, a sort of slow motion, desolate, ambient pop that makesme think of Locust run through molasses. "Here to Go" sets the moodimmediately with a submerged brushed snare groove. The celestial voiceof Marie-Louise Munch, also of Amstrong, closes the sale. Note to self- seek out the EP for this song featuring remixes by Stephan Mathieau,Zammuto, Accelera Deck, Metamatics and Geiom. For the remaining 7tracks on this disc, Munch lends more lovely, light vocals to 4, andthough they're all good, they're also disappointing after track #1. Thenear ten minutes of "Whispering" would be runner-up, a steam bath dirgeobscuring the gorgeous guitar chords and vocals in time. Program thisdisc in reverse to save the best for last and you're set.

 

samples:

• Here to Go
• Moving Slow
• Whispering

There's something undeniably irresistible about Maximilian Hecker's sugary sweet breathy falsetto and captivating pop melodies. The love for his music is a vice, like cigarette smoking or alcoholism: your first exposure feels rather disgusting but at some point, it becomes quite addictive. Soon, you're not allowed to be around your friends who don't indulge while you feel the need to indulge. It's embarrassing.

The most striking feature of z.e.l.l.e.'s debut CD is not its exceedingly low volume (barely audible music has become its own genre, so we should all have gotten past that shock by now), but its magnificent use of stereo seperation.

One thing nobody will ever accuse Dave Pajo of is recording the samealbum twice. Fans of the polished, sparkling instrumental melodic songswill be a little taken aback with his latest full-lengther. Unlike the'Shark Cage' or 'Aerial M' albums, this one is much less a continuousconcept, with variations in both musical and production stylesthroughout the course of the 18+ minutes. Pajo picks up where he leftoff from the recent 'Papa M Sings' EP, singing on many tracks in astyle not completely foreign to fans of his close friend and oftencollaborator, Will Oldham. A trucking anthem, "Over Jordan" opens thedisc, charming, yet shabbily produced songs like "Tamu" could haveeasily been recorded on a tape recorded in the kitchen. IntoxicatingMiddle Eastern and electronic elements come into play (via tablas andsitar) on the stellar "Sabotage." By the time this song is reached, I'mhonestly thinking Pajo's probably the most fearless man in indierock—unafraid to pick up new instruments and do whatever he wishes withthem. The disc ends with "Northwest Passage," which echoes last album's"Arundel." This variation, however is alternately colored with acousticguitar, harmonica, piano and drums. Guest musicians like Tara JaneO'Neil and Will Oldham add to the complex tapestry, but at the end ofthe day, this is clearly more Pajo than anybody else. To top it off,the deluxe 24-page CD booklet features various appealing originalphotos from the man himself with a thick stock and glossy finish. Thefirst few listens may be uneasy but give it time to settle in.

 

samples:

• Beloved Woman
• Sabotage
• Northwest Passage