That's a good album indeed, I actually like Vomps' stuff a lot more than Kevin Drumm or Merzbow.

Thank you all 

By the way, I took your recommendation (way back) of the new Nocturnes album. I've been listening to it today and it's wonderful. The guitar intro to The Road is so beautiful.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it 

 

All teh albums. And I miss seeing your Prog Electronic reviews on the front page every time I got on.

I felt like all of my reviews were stupid and I got really self-conscious about them, so I decided to open this blog instead. I'll probably write more in the future though. I still have a ton more prog electronic albums that I haven't reviewed.

Thanks though, I'm glad someone read them   

 

I knew you would, Andy :D

http://tangram.bandcamp.com/album/waning-gibbous" rel="nofollow - Tangram - Waning Gibbous download

http://tangram.bandcamp.com/album/waning-gibbous" rel="nofollow - http://tangram.bandcamp.com/album/waning-gibbous

Fraciscus Rebro, under the pseudonym Fennel, is a minimalist composer who works with piano, electronics, and field recordings. This album, Resuming the Trail, is mainly field recordings taken from various places (I'm not sure where, but I'm assuming cities as well as local parks) which are intermittently narrated by a lonely, moody piano. Most of this album reminds me of walking on an abandoned earth, where everything is familiar and homey but unsettlling in its stark emptiness. But, there are human voices present in some portions of Resuming the Trail, even if they have no true context within the sound of the music besides just being recorded organisms caught by chance. All of the elements present on this album make me think of the way legitimately depressed people perceive the world: there is life everywhere and everything is active as always, but everything somehow feels empty or hollow. The lonely, sad, narrative piano acts as the only intermittent glimpse of actual or imagined beauty that compels us to continue, day after day, in what seems to be utter pointlessness.

http://fennel.bandcamp.com/album/resuming-the-trail" rel="nofollow - Fennel - Resuming the Trail download

Also, I'd like to mention that Vompatti has recently released a new recording titled Golden Cliffs Overhang Murmuring Seas, which I along with many others believe is his best work yet. It can be found right http://vompatti.bandcamp.com/album/golden-cliffs-overhanging-murmuring-seas" rel="nofollow - here .

I hope you enjoy the music.

 

Excited to see what this blog shows me next

:D

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog :D

Pineal Origins by Quartz Safari is remarkably complex compared to a lot of other ambient-type electronic recordings that I've heard. Rather than just choosing a few notes to drone over the duration of 10+ minutes and then call it a day, these recordings take serene field recordings (birds, water, etc.), heavily digitized electronic manipulations, and very light post-rock sounding guitar recordings and pack them into very dense ambient soundscapes that are some of the best I've heard since Tim Hecker released Ravedeath, 1972 earlier this year (admittedly, not a very long time, but still...). Definitely a great overseas collaboration (US to Norway) that shouldn't go unheard for fans of dense ambient electronic music.

http://quartz-safari.bandcamp.com/album/pineal-origins" rel="nofollow - Quartz Safari - Pineal Origins download

I'd also like to use this post to recommend some decent upbeat techno music. Tecra's music is generally just okay, but their free EP Pitch Mode includes a song called "Winter of 95's Trance" which I think is quite good, even if it is the only track on the EP that isn't mostly annoying. But just look at that sweet anime rack, dude.

http://tecra.bandcamp.com/album/pitch-mode" rel="nofollow - Tecra - Pitch Mode EP download

Thanks for reading!

Another long distance collaboration from artists in the US and Norway, Granules' Unfolding is glitchy improvisational ambient music built from microsounds and more field recordings, and it is very cold and glorious. I've personally never been to Norway, but I can imagine walking through the streets of a snowy Oslo at dawn and hearing the icicles mingle with each other as they dangle and drop and shatter upon impact on the freshly hardened earth, and the water that slowly drips and drops from their stronger peers also comes into play on the sound of this album. At some points, the weak radiation of the receding sunlight across the snow pulses delicately and almost therapeutically, and birds of the cold quietly croon against the beauty being so naturally displayed and relayed into your ears. And somewhere, a computer exists and it's making noise from probably dialing-up to the internet, but whatever. It's cold ambient electronic music, ya dig?

http://granules.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding" rel="nofollow - Granules - Unfolding download

Enjoy! And thanks for reading/listening!

Here's more of the same glitchy microsound music with a slightly increased amount of abstractness. Enjoy.

http://supertreehouse.bandcamp.com/album/cosmos-2" rel="nofollow - Super Treehouse - Cosmos download

Yea, tough econ - wait, what?

Y U NO GIMME TIME?

This entry is going to be a little bit different than my previous entries. I've been going hard on the ambient glitch sound lately, so I need to feature something different. 

So, here we have Flutwacht's Fields of Emptiness, which is industrial harsh noise. Flutwacht is a German group who have been consistently releasing albums for some time, and this particular album was recorded live in two different sets. Like Lustmord's live album Rising, Flutwacht's live album doesn't feature the audience yelling and moshing (or whatever crowds do at noise concerts) but is instead recorded directly from their musical devices. The sound on this album is not like the dark ambience of Lustmord however, but is much more in the vein of the infamous Merzbow with more emphasis on the lower register rumblings and gurgles than unsettling high-pitched drones. I'd even go as far as to call this Merzbow-lite, sounding more like something from his Frog+ or Marmo albums rather than Venereology or Pulse Demon. Also, in addition to being noisy, the sounds of the well-establish German industrial sound is ever present on this album, sometimes almost sounding like hellish interludes from a KMFDM album, minus the terrible music.

http://flutwacht.bandcamp.com/album/fields-of-emptiness" rel="nofollow - Flutwacht - Fields of Emptiness download

I realize that noise is an acquired taste, so I've decided to be considerate to the whiny folk and feature an album that could be considered much more accessible. Excerpts from "Let the Sun Shine On Me and Make Me Feel Special" is a short EP by a Brooklyn, NY based collective by the name of Arturo en el Barco. This music on this album is only partially electronic, and could be better described as post-RIO chamber post-rock (or maybe a more uplifting version of GY!BE), I guess. It's really very beautiful and moody, and most of this album makes me think of floating through a river canal in Venice. Chamber instruments, bells, piano, accordion, electronics, horns, banjo, and "toys" all come together to create a heavenly audio experience that is perfect for watching clouds roll by. 

http://aeeb.bandcamp.com/album/excerpts-from-let-the-sun-shine-on-me-and-make-me-feel-special" rel="nofollow - Arturo en el Barco -   download

Seemed more appropriate considering that some of this music isn't entirely electronic.

I've stumbled across something beautiful, gloomy, and peaceful: Bleak Russian Soundscape's Musik fur Traume. This short album mixes sombre, haunting acoustic guitar with the softer elements of harsh noise, the live touches of field recordings, and the calming atmosphere of standard ambient music. The album cover matches the music very well; obviously technological, but also very dark and lonely and monochromatic. I can't think of anything else to say, so I'm done here.

http://bleakrussiansoundscape.bandcamp.com/album/musik-f-r-tr-ume" rel="nofollow - Bleak Russian Soundscape - Musik fur Traume download

Nobody cares :\

I didnt know there was a difference?

I haven't but I'll check it out and I love your avatar. 

This album will be fantastic buzz music, I can guarantee you.

Wow, this sounds pretty awesome, thanks for the recommendation.

Marslydhode by Lydhode is an album that I discovered earlier this year, and has remained one of my favorite experimental ambient albums since. For just over 32 minutes, this single track continually dives into pure darkness without sounding like the cinematic "dark ambient" that can sometimes be overdone and cheesy. The darkness on this album is achieved through sparse droning/ waving electronic minimalism intertwined with organic recordings of chimes, percussive knocking, birds, crickets, etc.. A propulsive beat from a beat machine makes a short appearance near the beginning of the album, which admittedly is kind of weird, but it doesn't subtract much from the rest of the track, and the elements of harsh noise near the last few minutes make up for it, in my opinion. In comparison to the other experimental ambient albums I've recommended in the past, Marslydhode has a lot more density to it and definitely plenty to digest even after multiple listens. Also unique to my blog, this entry is actually http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=31191" rel="nofollow - included in the PA database , so you can look at it or read my crap review. I previously had an interview set up with these guys to add to the interview forums, but they've completely ignored me and I'm kind of annoyed, but I still like their music. Here's the download link directly from their record label. Enjoy!

http://www.bek.no/~tibprod/lydhode_marslydhode.mp3" rel="nofollow - Lydhode - Marslydhode download

(Right click + "save target/link as", or simply click to listen)

I'll get around to listening to this eventually.

I'm happy to say that I've found some free Conrad Schnitzler recordings that I can share with all of you. Conrad Schnitzler is, of course, one of the seminal figures in both the krautrock genre and what we call progressive electronic, and he has previously worked with other artists such as Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, and he founded the Zodiac Free Arts Club with Hans Joachim Roedelius. This collection of recordings, titled Tracks from the Ivory Tower (courtesy of TIBProd.), is a great representation of Schnitzler's more experimental side. In addition to being experimental electronic music, these recordings feature quite a bit of acoustic percussion of all sorts and piano, which makes this free set a rather diverse collection compared to some of his studio albums. I have absolutely no idea when these tracks were recorded, but I suppose that isn't really important. Unfortunately, Conrad Schnitzler passed away this year in August, so I've decided to add these recordings to my blog as a tribute. Enjoy!