Bablicon are a Chicago-based trio of curiously monikerd multi-instrumentalists: 'Blue Hawaii', Marta Tennae and 'the diminisher'. This is their 3rd album, apparently conceived as a double album, tracks 1-6 under the "The Cat That Was a Dog" title and tracks 7-15 under "a Flat Inside the Fog". Most songs are rooted in piano composition, which all 3 members play, but vary widely in style and additional tone coloration: voices, various basses and saxes, electronics and all sorts of percussion and other odds and ends like theremin, melodica, 'friendly bird tinkles' and 'electric ghetto duck'.

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

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.

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.

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

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)

With only a single and a few collaborations out this year, Chicago's Locrian have been rather quiet, with this being their first (and so far only) full-length release of the year. The Clearing both recalls their earliest, noise-addled drone work while still looking forward to their current unique take on metal/prog/kraut rock.

Recorded inside a 100-year-old Washington state church, this duo of Japanese residents Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date, utilizes the natural reverberations and ambience of the space in which it was recorded to craft a melancholy, emotional work that uses electronic and acoustic instruments together seamlessly.

Carsten Nicolai's latest album returns to the themes and concepts that he explored on 2008’s Unitxt (which has been reissued in a limited, artist edition to mark the release of the new album). Combining the ideas of a universal language, repetition and the relationship between data and sound, Nicolai has come up with a stunning collection of electronic music that bridges another one of the gaps between audio and visual art.

Industrial Records’ reissue series begins with the album that set the tone for a short but potent career. The group’s first album (mischievously titled in order to make people go looking for a non-existent First Annual Report) is a master class in subversive anti-music that still packs a punch. Remastered and released as an LP and also in an expanded CD edition; all the gory details have been put into sharp focus, reanimating the still warm corpse of Throbbing Gristle’s glory days.

Twenty years into Tom and Christina Carter's rich partnership, it has become next to impossible to identify outside reference points in their work. Charalambides exists in its own universe—insular, curtains drawn. Exile, their first release in four years, begins with "Autumn Leaves," a wordless prelude of Tom's austere guitar playing, setting the tone for the band's most laser-focused album since 2004's Joy Shapes.

Paul Gough's latest album borrows its title from a line in Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, a dystopian novel where humanity regresses to a primitive, semi-literate state in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.  That reference seemed perfectly apt to Gough, as The Oansome Orbit drew much inspiration from meditations on loss, isolation, and disconnection.  Fertile themes for great art, certainly, but it was already pretty much a foregone conclusion that a new Pimmon album would be a noteworthy event: Gough has been making wonderfully complex and distinctive abstract soundscapes for more than a decade now and he only seems to get better with age.

This is the long-awaited reissue of Mehdi Ameziane's incredibly scarce 2007 solo debut, which was previously only available as a self-released CDr edition of just 30.  Naturally, both Twinsistermoon and Natural Snow Buildings have evolved and blurred together quite a bit over the last four years, but at the time of its original release, these raw, fragile, and eerie pieces were a dramatic departure from the less distinctive drone/post-rock that Mehdi and Solange Gularte had been releasing.  While I definitely believe that Mehdi's work has only become stronger over the ensuing years, this remains a unique and mesmerizing highlight in his voluminous discography.

Just as I begin to become burned out on Kawabata Makoto and the rest of his musical family, some flash of genius on their part pulls me back in. Most often, this is in the form of a live performance that sets me up for another year or so of worship. In this case, it is a reissue of a long out of print and glorious live album. Documenting the group during a tour of America and Europe in 1999, the classic line-up tear through time and space with some of the finest psychedelic rock to grace any stage at any point.

When Bermuda Drain came out earlier this year, Dominick Fernow was knowingly releasing a highly polarizing album. Bringing in things like melody and rhythm is a cardinal sin for the noise scene, and the rest of the record was simply too harsh for the beat oriented crowd to digest. In a way, this companion EP is more reined in, keeping the melodies in beats in some tracks, and allowing the harshness to dominate others.

Aaron Turner was pushing the boundaries of what was "metal" during his time in Isis, and his side project work, such as Greymachine and House of Low Culture, has done this in an even more dramatic fashion. After a slew of split and collaborative releases, many with Mamiffer (a project spearheaded by Turner's wife Faith Coloccia, who also plays here), Poisoned Soil is perhaps his first true "album" as HOLC in nearly a decade. That period of collaborating with others has paid off, as the album is a complex one that showcases Turner’s strengths within a tight, focused approach.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to finally grasp exactly what was so special about Nathan Amundson's work, as it is very easy to lump Rivulets in with '90s slowcore bands like Codeine after a casual listen.  That "casual" part was my mistake, as work like this demands complete attention to reveal its true depth. We're Fucked took five years to fully gestate and it sounds like it, as Amundson painstakingly distilled his songs to their very essence, leaving only naked honesty and restrained, but unflinching intensity.  The best moments are quietly devastating in a way that would be impossible if the songs were any less stark and glacial, as Nathan makes damn sure I don't miss a single word.

This companion release to this year's stellar Ravedeath, 1972 draws back the curtain to unveil what Tim Hecker compositions sound like before they are properly ravaged, carved up, and reassembled.  As it turns out, they still sound remarkably good: some depth and power is understandably lost, but the increased clarity and intimacy makes that seem like a perfectly acceptable sacrifice.  Naturally, the target audience for Dropped Pianos is primarily those who already know and love Hecker's work, but these stripped-down piano sketches are strong enough to transcend their skeletal status and stand on their own.

Amid a string of releases from Kompakt this fall—including Total 12 and albums from Gui Boratto and Walls—comes the label's crown jewel of 2011, Axel Willner's third full-length as the Field. Looping State of Mind holds up to Willner's impressive back catalog, and features several of his most fully realized songs to date.

It has been 15 years since Helge Sten's iconic Deathprod project last surfaced with proper new material (aside from a teasing collaboration with Biosphere back in 2015) and he has been missed. Unsurprisingly, that long hiatus did not result in Sten's characteristically grim vision brightening at all. In fact, it has only grown darker, as the bulk of Occulting Disk is bleak void of seismic drones and nerve-jangling insectoid dissonance that Sten describes as an "anti-fascist ritual." I am not particularly optimistic about this album's chances in eradicating fascism any time soon, but the album definitely delivers on the ritualistic part, as this seems like a hell of a great soundtrack for summoning demons. While I am still on the fence about whether I love the stark, crushing blackness of Occulting Disk quite as much as the slightly wider emotional palette of earlier Deathprod, this album is undeniably an impressively visceral and monolithic artistic statement. That is more than enough to reaffirm Sten's status as one of the reigning kings of heavy drone, but the album builds towards an explosive climax that ensures that Occulting Disk feels like an exciting new chapter as well.