Hybrid - Light Of The Fearless

Disctint'ive Records: 2018

(a Patreon Request from Philoi)

It's funny that the bulk of my Hybrid collection is through these Patreon Requests. I figured Wider Angle was about all I needed, and probably would have been content letting it remain at that. Those Patreons though, they're determined to get every ounce of my opinion on the group's output, so here we are, doing Disappear- What, they did another album recently, and that's the request? Guess the fourth record will have to wait another day.

Though given the number of changes in the group's make-up since I Choose Noise, it feels like I'm dealing with an entirely different project here. For one, Chris Healings departed, which makes me wonder how much of Hybrid's classic sound remains. Not that Mike Truman couldn't go at it alone, both very talented studio hands and all, but I highly doubt there wouldn't be some noticeable difference when one-half of a duo known for pristine, precision production makes an exit. Also, we have Charlotte Truman as an official member now, who first lent her vocals on Disappear Here, so is new to me in that regard. Thus... Hybrid's basically become The Truman Show? Yeah, I know, everyone's made that quip, but c'mon, it's an easy layup, that!

Okay. Different make-up, nearly a decade-long gap between albums (longer for yours truly), and re-emerging within a music scene that's more about mega-festivals for mass populace than club nights for kooky punters. Just how much change could there possibly be? Well, there's hardly any of the classic breakbeat science, for one.

In fact, out of the ten tracks on offer here, only a couple sound like what I'd consider 'vintage Hybrid': the opening We Are Fearless, which does the cinematic, opulent intro thing before unleashing some decent progressive house vibes in that 'go big or go home' way Hybrid is wont to do. The other track comes nearly at the very end with Long Time Coming, and does the 'breaks with orchestra' thing everyone associates with the Hybrid brand well enough, but at only four and a half minutes long, is barely a morsel compared to older works. Considering all that comes between it and the opener, however, Long Time Coming tastes like a feast of breakbeats.

Light Of The Fearless aims for nothing less than power-pop, arena rock anthemage on songs like Hold Your Breath, Superpower and Beauty Queen, with Charlotte bellowing as big as she can. Just makes me think of Phantogram with a bigger budget though, not of Hybrid. There's also two tracks of 'dancefloor' drum 'n' bass. Okay.

This is a well-produced album, for sure, but from my angle, suffers from the same thing even Hybrid's earliest work did. I like the group best when they're laying out cutting edge breakbeats with clever vocal samples, acid, strings and orchestras attached; everything else they do is artistic over-indulgence. That now includes an eight-minute long version of Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down, which completely misses the appeal of Tom Petty's music.

Perturbator - B-Sides And Remixes, Vol. II

Blood Music: 2018

James Kent has been rather quiet on the production front these last few years. His last full-length record was The Uncanny Valley, released way back in 2016 (holy cow, does that year ever feel for so long ago now). The following year, it looked like he may have started taking his music in a different direction with the New Model EP, but nothing come from the Perturbator project since. For a chap who was releasing material at a blistering clip for half a decade, that's quite the drop-off in output, though I'm sure there's some reasonable reasons for it.

Like, that whole touring thing. Synthwave artists aren't exactly known as a globe-trotting lot, often dorky studio shut-ins cranking out some jams with softsynths. Heck, even using the word 'studio' is a stretch for many, a laptop about all one needs for some run-of-the-mill '80s nostalgia throwback tracks. Why yes, that under-produced quality is part of my vision, just like it sounded in that decade! Perturbator, however, had become such a star within that scene that he could actually take his music on the road and perform it live, even in my little corner of the planet. No way was I gonna' pass up a chance to see an actual synthwave producer perform, and while I was a tad disappointed the show didn't have a bunch of cool, retro videos playing out all the crazy concepts of his albums, the 1.21 gigawatts of lighting rig more than made up for visual splendour. Also, he brought a live drummer.

Anyhow, touring across the Earth (and beyond!(?)) leaves little time for studio work, so it's fine that there's been a larger than normal gap between albums from Mr. Kent. Still, that void needs filling, lest the fanbase grow testy and distracted by whatever new hotness emerges in the meantime. With the amount of material Perturbator had built up over the years, a 'best of' wouldn't be a bad idea, but James opted for that other stopgap choice, the 'miscellaneous' collection. We're talking b-sides, remixes, compilation-only tracks, and those few items that never saw any official release prior. And apparently, there was so much of this material in the Perturbator archives that it required two volumes! Yeah, that'll tide them folks over.

For some reason though, I only got myself Vol. II of this double release. I can only assume because I could only afford one at the time, and this cover looked the cooler of the two – can never get enough of that Night Riding Avenger motif. Blood Music's having another blowout sale though, so maybe I'll spring for Vol. I too.

Anyhow, this is about what you'd expect from and odds 'n' sods collection of Perturbator tracks. There's more darksynth cuts, a few theme remixes (yep, that's Halloween if I ever heard it), some space synth collaborations with Starforce, and one experimental static track that must have been included just for a larf. 'Bonus' indeed.

Cosmic Replicant - Archive Of Signals

self release: 2018

Uh oh, another Cosmic Replicant album already? Does this mean that Bandcamp bundle I bought is gonna' be stupidly front-loaded in the next round of reviews? Heh, no, 'tis but a coincidence of alphabetical sorting. It shall be a long while before I return to this label, but- whoa, wait, I already did this bit, didn't I? Let's start over.

A pure ambient album with dense, dubby touches? Sure, why not. Pavel's done nearly everything else with his Cosmic Replicant project that the psy scene can offer, so it's only natural he'd stretch out into this field. Plenty of his full-lengths have a dronescape track or three, so it's not unexplored territory either. And if other Altar Records alum can release such records (AstroPilot; Chronos; others, probably), so can this one. Perhaps a bit of a shame he had to do it independently, but then Mr. Shirsin hasn't been part of the Altar family for nearly a half-decade now- oh, wait, he did release an ambient EP with them just this year. Man, it's hard keeping tabs on a discography when-

Ah, dang it, I've done this bit too, haven't I? Seriously though, what are the odds I'd have two Cosmic Replicant ambient albums so close in my queue like this? Remember when Pavel did prog-psy, man?

Still, there's a reason for this bit of meta malarky on my part, in that if I were to do a proper review of Archive Of Signals, I'd only be repeating myself from After A Long Rain. In fact, I'd say there's less to detail here, in that this is a pure-pure ambient album, in the 'music as abstraction' concept. At least After A Long Rain had a theme behind it. This album features seven self-titled Parts, firmly planting it in the domain of 'music for its own sake'. And hey, that's totally fine, a hefty chunk of the ambient churned out yearly having faith in the listener to come to their own thematic conclusions. Or sometimes just in need of that proper wallpaper sound, that you don't really pay attention too.

Though if that was Pavel's intent, he missed the mark on that too. Each Part comes in quite distinct from one another, hardly the sort of pure drone songcraft you'd expect of an album like this. Really, some of these pieces feel like compositions that simply never made the cut on After The Long Rain, what with ample use of rain fall and static drone that sounds like rain fall (why not both?). Others are more on that dubby dronescape stylee, while some and gentle and blissy. Again, all top grade stuff from Cosmic Replicant, and different enough from his last pure ambient album that you don't get a sense of actual deja-vu listening to both. Just, y'know, little else for me to say about it so close together. Man, imagine if all I reviewed was ambient. Would have run out of words years ago!

Alphaxone & Xerxes The Dark - Aftermath

Cryo Chamber: 2018

Been a while since I last indulged in the Cryo Chamber catalogue, what with me exploring other dark ambient labels for a spell. Back to the familiar, trusty ol' print of cinematic drone I must go though (yo'), with another CD bundle splurge I can never resist (can't have enough 'cryo chamber' beer can sleeves!). Still a lot of familiar names making the rounds here, but quite few new faces too. Mount Shrine, Ruptured World, Dahlia's Tear, Ager Sonus, In Quantum. Y'know, cheerful aliases! I've also noticed Cryo Chamber's cover art has grown a bit more... colourful? Okay, maybe that's too strong a word, everything still retaining that distinct, muted saturation. Still, I see whites and reds and blues and various scales of grey too. Why, In Quantum's Memory 417 could almost be synthwave cover! A very dark, depressing collection of synthwave, but that seven-segment display for the album's font screams '80s (thanks, The Police's Ghost In The Machine).

There's nothing like settling on the familiar though, and what better way to get reacquainted than with an old standby of Cryo Chamber, Alphaxone. When last I covered him, Mr. Saleh had been pairing up with the dark ambient power couple of Dronny Darko and ProtoU for a pair of albums that were conceptually quite different from each other. Naturally, I gravitated more towards the spacier of the two offerings, and so it goes again in his latest collaboration, this time with fellow Iranian Xerxes The Dark. That... doesn't strike me as the most creative of aliases Morego Dimmer could have come up with. Like, why not Xerxes The تاریک? In any event, he's floated about various dark ambient labels since the mid-'00s, but the gravitational pull of Cryo Chamber drew him within their fold for a collaborative album or three, first appearing on one of the Tomb Of... compilations.

I've taken in plenty of cosmic drone, but very little cosmic horror. The existential dread of utter nothingness is enough to send cold shivers down my neck, no need of madness-inducing unrealities mixing in. Still, Alphaxone's very good at crafting captivating soundscapes fitting of altered dimensions, so I'm in safe(?) hands with him leading the way into this domain. I'm not so sure about Xerxes though, unfamiliar with his brand of drone as I am. Can I pick out distinct attributes in Aftermath from Alphaxone's aesthetic?

Can't say I did. This still feels like an Alphaxone album, though perhaps more structured in narrative than some of his other works. As with the best of Cryo Chamber, each track serves as another chapter in whatever tale the artists look to tell, in this case, exploration of the interplanetary unknown, and what wonders or horrors may come from there. There are points where an almost benign tone settles in (ooh, shimmery piano to close out!), but yeah, this is a very minimalist excursion into cinematic dronescapes. Not that I'd want to hear inhuman field recordings in something like Aftermath.

Cosmic Replicant - After A Long Rain

self released: 2018

A pure ambient album with modern classical touches? Sure, why not. Pavel's done nearly everything else with his Cosmic Replicant project that the psy scene can offer, so it's only natural he'd stretch out into this field. Plenty of his full-lengths have a dronescape track or three, so it's not unexplored territory either. And if other Altar Records alum can release such records (AstroPilot; Chronos; others, probably), so can this one. Perhaps a bit of a shame he had to do it independently, but then Mr. Shirsin hasn't been part of the Altar family for nearly a half-decade now- oh, wait, he did release an ambient EP with them just this year. Man, it's hard keeping tabs on a discography when the artist's Bandcamp isn't always the primary output. There's only so many email lists I want to be part of.

Surprisingly, especially given his alias, this isn't a cosmic ambient album as so many of his peers typically go. Rather, Pavel's focused his muse in a grounded reality, the sort of feelings one may experience after a brisk downpour of autumn rainfall. Not the cooling sun-showers of summer, nor the icy drip of wintry sleet, but that in-between perspiration that still carries some warmth from oceanic fronts. Rain that nourishes the fungi blooms feasting upon decaying leaf piles. So many fungi blooms about Vancouver right now. Just... so many. Which is weird, considering we've had a remarkable run of cold, sunny weather as of late, right when we should be in perpetual drizzle season. May have to start laying out the road salt earlier than usual.

The opening track is called Silence On The Air, and it's almost dark ambient in how moody and suffocating its drone feels. A gentle melody echoing through the atmosphere does keep it just on this side of the realms of light (or however you want to demarcate ambient from dark ambient). Thoughts That Carried Away carries on in similar vein, a sombre dronescape with delicate crystalline tones piercing the murk. It's not all dour downpour though, the mood of subsequent tracks slowly but surely turning more tranquil and refreshing – a piano as your primary melody helps. Why, Cloudy Friday Day is downright chipper, with a jaunty, echoing electric guitar and actual bassline. I can easily imagine this playing to a scene of kids splashing in post-rain puddles.

I wouldn't call myself a critic if I couldn't find something to be nitpicky about though, and there is a quibble. Music and albums centred around the concept of rainfall are typically quite intimate affairs, as rainfall itself forces us to turn withdrawn and huddled from the elements abroad. For as lovely the pieces Cosmic Replicant has crafted here, however, they're rather grandiose. Gentle and calming, yes, but they make me feel like I'm watching the water cycle in action on an IMAX screen, not trickling through the trees outside my window-pane. Yeah, the quibbliest of quibbles, that.

Si Matthews - Across The Ether

Carpe Sonum Records: 2018

Been an age since I last talked up Si Matthews. Chap seemed like one of those promising new talents the current era of Fax+ influenced artists who were gonna' lead us into a post-Namlook era. He's taken a 'slow and steady' approach to his release rate though, settling on about an album a year rather than the twenty-dozen items some of his peers churn out. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess, but what are we racing for? Can making music be considered a race, against the limited time we have to create all that our muses allow us to express? Can the sonic soul even be sated, when there's infinite possibilities before us, countless that which have yet to be discovered? Just some thoughts as I stare into the Pillars Of Creation for the umpteenth time.

I felt Si's sophomore album, Aurora, was a good enough follow-up to his applauded debut Tales Of Ten Worlds, if a bit slight in content compared to the richness offered in the former. No chance of similar feelings with his next album, Across The Ether, a whopping double-LP outing from Mr. Matthews! Interestingly, this is one of the few times Carpe Sonum Records has ever released a 2CD album, and remained a lone example of the format until just this year's release of Sven Kössler's Bck t· Lvng. Coincidentally, Si and Sven have been working together this past year, though their release on Fantasy Enhancing wasn't a double-LP, so I can only imagine should they also cook up something for Carpe Sonum, it'll be nothing less than a 4CD box-set! Maybe wait until they can nab the impossible catalogue number SEIZE-XXL though. (yes, I find it hilarious that the first Carpe Sonum double-LP release is SEIZE-XL)

CD1 is subtitled Ambient, and that's what you're gonna' get, by g'ar. Nine tracks of spaced-out, cosmic synth pads with occasional splashes of soft rhythms. Real planetarium stuff, in other words, which shouldn't be of any surprise with the head of the Eagle Nebula plastered across the cover art. Admittedly it can get rather samey throughout, though folks diving into this style of ambient music aren't looking for much variation either, so it works out. Except for In Stone, a minimalist bleepy ambient techno track that sounds like it drifted in from the FireScope label.

I initially thought it had drifted in from CD2 though, what with its subtitle being Beats and all. And yeah, th'ar be beats here, though not of the IDM-leaning variety B12's print is known for. I mean, this is still a Fax+ influenced artist releasing music on a Fax+ inspired label, so the rhythms are mostly in service of gentle, spacey pad melodies with light dubby effects. And that's fine, another serving of familiar sounds that release the exact amount of endorphins I hope to get from cover art like this. Across The Ether is ambient techno that goes down like a nice cup of hot chocolate. In SPACE!

Lars Leonhard - Above And Below

self released: 2018

I never expected to get a ton of Lars Leonhard. Yeah, I liked 1549, enough to spring for another CD of his on BineMusic, but so many of his releases were of the digital variety. How could I, a dedicated consumer of the compact disc, debase myself with buying MP3s and WAVs and FLACs and whatever mess Neil Young was trying to push? Naturally, such ass-backwards modes of thinking couldn't last as this decade wore on, and I made sure Mr. Leonhard's digital releases through Ultimae Records were among my 'Must Get' items when I finally relinquished.

In that time, it turned out Lars had started releasing CDr options for his self-released albums, and I nabbed myself a couple that intrigued me, blogging my obligatory nice words for his nice music in the process. Seems Mr. Leonhard liked my nice words regarding his nice music, such that he sent me a whole bundle of his CDrs, some of which I didn't even think were still available. Sweet deal! And now you know why there are quite a few Lars Leonhard album reviews in the pipeline. Anticipation, ooh!

Anyhow, Above And Below. This came out a year ago (to the day! ...almost), so is about as current a look into Lars' songcraft I can give without springing for an actual 2019 release (Pathway, I believe). While it may not be apparent on the CD cover art, the full digital spread features the inner realm of computer city-scapes, leading one to believe this may be some sonic exploration of the micro-digital realm.

Nah, guy, it's mostly more of Lars' brand of dub techno that's occasionally a little on the psy side of things, a thematic through-line not really apparent. That's fine, I guess? Like, I have no problem hearing more of the same from Mr. Leonhard, in that his style hasn't worn out its welcome in the half-dozen releases of his I've thus far taken in. It does give me a little pause, however, on whether I'll still enjoy it so much after I go through the rest of his albums. Future ruminations for future reviews.

So the sounds and the structure of Above And Below remains familiar to many of Lars' prior albums. The more chill stuff hangs out in the first half, while the tempo gets a nice shot in the back end. The middle portion offers a couple items I haven't really heard much out of his discography, Strolling more of a melodic, floating outing than the usual more clinical dub techno exercises, while Drowned Melody is a pure ambient piece, surprisingly lodged mid-album rather than as a bookend. Meanwhile, Immersion provides that technological, neo-urban soundscape the cover art hinted at, with a rumbly low-end that's almost dubsteppy. Or post-dubsteppy, if you must (it was a thing, once). Finally, Above And Below closes out with Pure Piano Passion, wherein Lars performs on a lone instrument I know I've yet to hear from him. No reward for guessing what.

Steve Brand - Upwelling: Emergence

Databloem: 2018

Steve Brand seemed familiar to me, but Discoggian evidence shows that couldn't possibly be the case. Though he's released some forty album's worth of music in the past fifteen years, a high percentage of it has been through his own, independent labels (Relaxed Machinery, Pioneer Light Music). And despite a discography as big as his, he hasn't done much for the compilation market either. Yet I still associate his name with ambient artists of old, which makes sense given his style of ambient is in the ancient, traditional form of the genre. I must have noticed his works on labels like Hypnos and AtmosWorks, where old-schoolers like Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich, and Vir Unis have released material. Oh, Ishq too, whom Steve Brand collaborated with on the double-LP Spiritual Science / The Voice From Home. Huh, sometimes the connections are as simple as that.

Though that pairing happened a decade ago, it helped give him a small in with ...txt, where Brand got to release one of his Near Series CDs on. And as seems to be the case now, when a producer releases something on a Lee Norris print, they get invited over to the Databloem family as well. Or sometimes it's the other way around. Lots of cross-pollination between the two camps, is what I'm saying, more than I ever thought possible. Throw in Aes Dana providing another mixdown for a Databloem joint, and I'm beginning to wonder if I should be on the look-out for some massive, multi-franchise crossover event within the world of ambient and chill music. That isn't a tribute to Pete Namlook.

Upwelling: Emergence is a sequel of sorts, the first Upwelling coming out way back in 2011 as an odd 'n' sods collection of material. So too it goes with this one, various unused items and inspirational flights of fancy of the past decade rounded up into a compilation. A strange method of making a debut on a new label, though not unprecedented. Heck, I think I've reviewed such an item before (Aythar's Dream Of Stars). It's a safe way to test the waters with a broader audience, seeing if one's stylee meshes with their tastes before dropping an LP of new, original content on their ears. As if the ambient collective is some stuffy scene of opinionated gate-keepers.

As I'm not about to dive deeply into Brand's discography right now (so many albums...), all I can tell you regarding this particular release is what I mentioned above. Steve's 'brand' (*slap*) of ambient mostly entails lengthy, overlaying synth drones and gentle field recordings, abstract art music as crafted right from the '80s. It's all very serene and pleasant and calming and-

G'ah! What's with those flutes in The Krater Of Earth? So shrill and piercing following half a CD's worth of soothing tones and timbre. The track settles into a standard pad-drone piece, but geez, hearing those sure was a slap in the face. Knocked me out of my peaceful doze, it did.

Morphology - Traveller

FireScope: 2018

My main nitpick/complaint/petty gripe regarding FireScope has long been their lack of LPs. So many EPs, which is fine and all for the vinyl market, but us CD buyers often crave maor musiks than the standard four-to-five tracks singles provide. Thus imagine my giddiness over seeing an actual ten-track item released on the print! Aw yeah, this Traveller album from Morphology will finally give me the LP experience I've long craved from FireScope. Can't wait for that sucker to arrive in the mail, and slip the CD into my main player where- wait, this has two CDs in it? As in, presented as a double-EP? What in the even...?

No no, let's take this as an opportunity. Yes, I will engage with this 'double-CD' album as though it were a vinyl option, where I must get up from my comfortable sitting/laying position to change the disc/record at the designated point. In this manner, I may help bring closer the divide that has long alienated the vinyl and CD buying populaces. 'Tis not a nobler endeavour I embark upon in this task, my friends?

But first, who are Morphology, and what do they bring to the FireScope family? A duo of Finnish electro lovers, Misters Turunen and Diekmann have been making tunes since the start of this decade (or the end of the last decade; whichever you prefer). They released a couple albums on Syntax Motorcity in that time, plus assorted singles on assorted labels generally skewing to the purist Detroit vision of electro and techno, but with beatcraft a little more complex than your traditional, functional robot rhythms. Not the most obvious link to B12's brand of techno, but enough to hop on over I guess.

CD1 features six tracks, including one ambient doodle. Opener Distant Signal (Distant System!? No...) definitely has that spaced-out electro thing going for it, while Second Light and Farthest Regions are quite airy and charming for electro, for the most part fitting the FireScope vibe. Hidden Variable and Detached go more for the proper electro menace Morphology's earlier works steered under.

That's the end of CD1. Time to get up and change discs. Eh, while I'm up, I may as well check on those taters I have in the oven. Ooh, done! And they smell so delish' right now. Mm, think I'll take a moment to scarf a few, check up on some internet... *one half-hour later* ... Oh, dammit, CD2! Almost forgot about it! *mightily struggles to stand on a sated stomach full of toasty potato*

Man, having that unexpected break sure makes coming into the second half of Traveller in interesting experience. Almost feels like I'm taking in a totally different album, and not just because the electro here is even purer than heard on CD1. Yeah, Bipolar Nebula retains some chipper feels, but that makes sense given the track name. Overall, a neat little listening experiment.

Oh, and Traveller is a boss album of spacey electro too.

Josh Christie - Stuck On A Space Trip

self release: 2018

So this Josh Christie chap approaches me on Twitter, as the platform is want to allow, and asks me if I'd be interested in reviewing one of his albums. Sure, thinks I, I'm always down for taking in extra tuneage for my queue. Send it my way and, oh, it's only available Bandcamp. Well, I'm not so anal on digital-only releases anymore, though this does put me in a slight pickle. Not so much a 'hey, can you review a copy of my album that I send you?' request, as 'hey, can you review my album after you buy it on Bandcamp?' Seems highly irregular for this sort of thing, but eh, I've paid money for lesser works. Besides, if I cannot keep my word, then what word I offer is any good? No, if I say I'm gonna' do something, whether it's reviewing someone's music or seeing a guide to completion, then by g'ar, I'll do it, no matter how long it takes, no matter the cost.

Don't bother looking for this Josh Christie within Lord Discogs' massive tome of data. A search there instead brings up acts like Christie Front Drive ('90s indie rock) and Josh Groban (modern day crooner). Naturally, the album I decided upon reviewing, Stuck On A Space Trip, is also a total blank, though when I typed up “Josh Christie Stuck On A”, the lone result I got was ...Insane Clown Posse's third album Riddle Box? Uh, well, they both have a stark black background with a green icon on the front. I suppose I could just ask the Tampa chap other details, but judging from the music on this album, it's pretty clear where his inspirations lay.

Space is definitely the place, but so are the British raves of the early '90s, with loving homages to the primitive dance beats and cheeky sci-fi sampling ever so prevalent of the era. In fact, Stuck On A Space Trip almost feels too lovingly replicant of that music, and I'm not just talking about opening things up with the sounds of a train taking off. From more obvious nods to The Orb (Dawn Of Emptiness, Sunny Vibrations), The KLF (The Autocratic Machine), and Shut Up And Dance (Chemical Weapons), to a general vibe not too dissimilar to Orbital and Earthbeat (aka: FSOL's early works) permeate much of the album. And I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

Yeah, I like me some vintage UK acid house sounds, but where does homage end and blatant lift begin? These sound so much of that time, you could probably convince clueless folks they were unearthed artifacts. It's like, if bleep-acid-ambient-techno-rave could become a synthwave-styled genre – music not only inspired by an era, but highly romanticized into something it never actually was - then this is probably what it would sound like. Why doesn't that happened more often, I wonder? UK acid raves too narrow a cultural niche compared to the omnipresence of The '80s?

Steven Rutter & John Shima - Step Into The Light

FireScope: 2018

Jason McCreadie has already been responsible for some of the pulpier pieces of cover art in FireScope's catalogue, but he done taken the cake here, my friends. Anime fairy girls, in my retro ambient bleep techno? Why I never, could ever, make clever, said Trevor, in this endeavour, forever.

Sorry, I think my mind went and a'sploded again. It simply cannot comprehend what it is seeing here. Like, what even is going on? Some sort of alien invasion? A battle between heaven and hell? A weird interpretation of what happens when our blood trades carbon dioxide for oxygen within our lungs? I mean, those big red pods could be red blood cells, which would make, the fairies, what? Hormonal chemicals? Bodily defences? What's even crazier is this art is in fact double-sided, carrying over to the flip of the package. Naturally, the anime fairy girl there has white hair and wings, because gotta' have those contrasts.

Step Into The Light marked another step in FireScope's expanding, erm, scope, in that it was the first collaborative outing among its roster of producers. Because even if the classic B12 line-up is no more, that doesn't mean Mr. Rutter couldn't team up with all these cats clearly inspired by the music he and Golding were making so many years past. Thus it's only appropriate that the first of these pairings would include John Shima, the first outside the B12 wheel-house to make his mark on the label. Broken Spell opens things up with that distinct crisp electro rhythm and mellow melody many a FireScope EP features, eventually giving shine to a light plucky lead that reminds me of ancient Alter Ego. Skywards does the deeper business, mostly letting the rhythms do the work with subdued backing synth pads lending an ominous tone to the track. A New Day is more of a straight-forward ambient techno tune with vintage bleep action, while Disjointed Route slows things down to a groovier pace with a bell-tone bassline that has my Biosphere sensors triggered. How all this relates to anime fairy girls tripping the light fantastic has me though.

Sorry, I know I shouldn't keep coming back to it, but this cover art fascinates me. It's just not something you'd ever see in techno, no matter which vein you follow in that scene. The cartooniest it ever got was with its nods to pulp sci-fi, and that was quickly jettisoned when it was declared techno, in all its forms, must remain Serious Business. Heck, even Ken Ishii only flirted with anime once, and had it been anyone other than Koji Morimoto doing the art, probably wouldn't have happened. Meanwhile, the 'loligirl' look was soon adopted by happy hardcore and other infantile music scenes, removing the style completely and utterly from techno's domain forever after.

Not that I wouldn't mind seeing more of this art in techno, that scene's iconography too often staid and monochrome. It needs more primary colours and light, but I guess it's just not good for business.

Yamaoka & Purl - Simple Songs

Databloem: 2018

Far be it for me to get flustered over seeing certain artists flit between labels I figured would have little cross-pollination, but it's still weird to see a chap I discovered on Silent Season appear on Databloem. First it was Segue, and now Purl, both producers that helped cement in my mind the definitive dubby, trancey, techno-chill Silent Season stylee (ASC too). And while it's a sound that could fit with Databloem's rather liberal explorations on downtempo and ambient music, they still have generally different followers. You'll never see a glowing write-up of Databloem on Resident Advisor, nosiree.

Fortunately, such artists aren't so constrained by label loyalty that they don't mind dipping into other's pools on occasion. Ludvig Cimbrelius (Purl) has in fact done the deed many times over the course of his career, including such labels as... wait, didn't I already do the obligatory Label Namedrop when I reviewed Stillpoint? *checks* I didn't! Ah sweet! Ahem... Labels such as Sediment, Dewtone Recordings, Eternell, and Faint. Many of those releases included pairings with other producers such as Sinius, Deflektion, and Hivertribe. So teaming up with this Yamoaka isn't out of the ordinary for Purl. Still, I'll be flubber-flustered if he ends up pairing up with, say, a dark ambient producer, releasing an album on, say, a drone label. Wait a minute, my Bandcamp bell just rung, let me che- Son of a gun!!

Yamaoka is headed by Yoshinori Yamazaki (Kenichi Oka was once a member, so sayeth Lord Discogs). Yet another one of those tireless ambient producers churning out multiple rare albums on multiple obscure labels like October Man Recordings, Secret Station, Doppelganger, Carpe... Sonum... Records? Dear God, everything I know that is ambient is collapsing within itself!

Anyhow, Simple Songs. Two types of compositions make up this album. The first are the long, ambient dronescapes where minimalist looping passages and melodies are stretched out like ethereal embers across a picturesque skyline. Very lovely, very calming, very expected of another release out of Databloem. The other assortment contain more momentum to them, quicker in their loops such that they percolate into pseudo-rhythms. Add a kick drum underneath these, and you could easily have trance, or neo-trance, or whatever folks want to call this stuff. So of course Yam' n' Pur' do so (or close approximates of) in tracks like Spinning Grid, Simple Songs, and River Run. Ah, that's the Silent Season stuff I was looking for.

And I won't lie, though I've come across a fair bit of mint material from this Databloem splurge, Simple Songs has thus far taken the cake for me. Yeah, it's a small cheat in cribbing the same dreamy dubby vibes as has made Silent Season among my favourite prints as of late, combining two enjoyed styles into one awesome whole. This is what great electronic music does though: mix and merge into wonderfully fascinating new combinations. And a staid scene such as ambient could use more of such worlds colliding.

Galati - Silence [As A Din]

Databloem: 2018

I was already curious in checking out more items from Galati after Gletscher, though not in a real hurry to do so either – almost glacial, in my efforts (eh? eh...?). Plus, having the bulk of his music released by that label which has disappeared into the internet ether made digging back into ol' Roberto's discography a trickier endeavour than before. Fortunately, after a bit of downtime, he seems to have found a new home with the label that everyone seems to have found a new home with; or provide some additional content for. Seriously, what is it about Databloem that has everyone in the modern ambient techno/dub/chill scene wandering within their walls? Just because they have a proven, classy track record that's endured for well over a decade now doesn't mean one has to release with them. Sure must feel nice though, being part of a print that won't end up dicking you around.

Making his debut with Databloem is Galati's sixth album, Silence [As A Din], and even without the recollection of his earlier works, you just know I'd have picked this up regardless. I admit, I admit, certain types of cover art are pure catnip to my eyes, and placid ice flows in a blue-scale colour is about as catnippy as these things can get. Maybe add a derelict boat on one of those icebergs. A Saturn in the sky. Yeah, that's the stuff...

For those of us just joining in on the Galati train, Roberto's approach to the art of ambient drone typically involves post-rock elements such as guitar strums and amp feedback. The result on Gletscher was that of a rather epic wall-of-sound, and you'd think for an album titled Silence, he'd scale things back some. Yes, some, in that I can pick out individual elements with greater ease, but it's no less overbearing. The opener Pt. 1 doesn't waste time in bringing the coalescing sounds to the fore, though they do retreat some such that things like rhythm and melody have breathing room. At twenty minutes long, Pt. 1 moves through many passages itself, at times almost pausing to catch its breath before erupting in another wall-of-sound excursion. If I didn't know it was indexed as a singular piece, I'd have thought it was around four or five different tracks.

Pt. 3 goes even longer at twenty-five, and has something of a modern classical feel to it with prominent harp and vocal tones. Not that they weren't apparent in Pt. 1, I can just hear them better in this composition. There's honestly quite a bit going on in Pt. 3, more than I can detail in the remaining word count I have.

So let me wrap up by mentioning Pt. 2 and Pt. 4 are comparatively shorter pure drone pieces, almost inching towards dark ambient's ethereal domain, placing Silence [As A Din] among the moodiest albums I've heard from Databloem yet. Can't fault the label for dipping their fingers into a bit of everything.

Cosmic Replicant - Processes

self-released: 2018

Normally I'd prefer a little space between reviews of the same artist, but Cosmic Replicant has proven so diverse, I'm practically covering someone different with each album. Like, just from an ear-glance, you'd never have guessed the music on Processes came from the same chap who made Future Memories or Soul Of The Universe. You might have made the connection based off of Landscapes Motion, and perhaps, if you squinted in the right direction, Mission Infinity. Surely little that was released through Altar Records though. Honestly, I'm not surprised Pavel's gone the independent route, the music he's releasing of late hardly gelling with traditional psy-chill prints, but likely not finding much footing with labels outside that field either. Or who knows, maybe one of his pure ambient outings might find a re-issue on Carpe Sonum Records. They don't all have to be Fax+ alum to appear on that label, do they?

Where does that leave Processes though? What label might be willing to give this seven track album a little more shine beyond the Cosmic Replicant contingent (we small few but proud). I feel super-cheeky in suggesting this, but perhaps... Kompakt? Or baring that, maybe... Music Man Records? I'm getting a real neo-trance vibe from these tracks, techno that is rather deep, with subtle building layers of melody. Tunes that wouldn't sound out of place in a set shared with the likes of The Field or Petar Dundov, is what I'm saying.

Okay, not so much the first couple tracks, more following on the dub techno explorations Pavel first ventured with in Landscapes Motion. Hypno Snake treads a little into Detroit's pastures, while Ants In My Computer does the droning minimal thing with peculating sounds that would fit snuggly in on one of Luke Slater's Planetary Assault Systems records.

Those are mere warm-ups though, Factory Processes getting in on that lengthy, loopy melodic techno stylee that's made neo-trance a maybe kinda' sorta' thing with the above-mentioned producers; Silent Season too, at their more upbeat moments. Mirror Cube and Morning Robots try to get back to the proper dub techno vibe, but even they're too chipper and melodic (them sparse bell tones!) to fit with the serious Basic Channel disciples.

The final pair of tracks are about as trance as techno could ever sound in this day and age, and in some circles, techno's been sounding quite trance indeed. Lunatic Runner has the peppy pace, the building arps, and the atmosphere to spare, while some chap named Noraus gives Strange Dream a dubby, trancey rub of his own.

For a talented guy who probably got lost in the shuffle of annual psy-chill releases, I'm glad to hear Cosmic Replicant taking on styles well outside the genre's wheel-house. Yeah, another Nature Of Life would have been nice, but it takes something more to stand out in that overstuffed scene. I only fear an album like Processes may leave Cosmic Replicant without a willing home to nurture such musical ventures.

Lingua Lustra - Portal

Carpe Sonum Records: 2018

It's been two years since I took in a Lingua Lustra album, and it's not due to disinterest. In fact, I remain quite intrigued in his works, but he has so much out there, on so many different labels, it'd require some serious sleuthing on my part. Also, I've taken in enough of his works to realize some releases won't be as captivating as others. Noodly ambient is fine and all on occasion, but I remain utterly sated on the stuff based off my usual label explorations, thank you very much. If I'm gonna' start focusing on a specific artist's output, especially one as prolific as Albert Borkent, I'd like the creme of the crop right from the top. The rest can wait for a time when there's a week's worth of hours available for a deep Bandcamp spelunking.

Still, without sampling every item in an artist's catalogue, how does one find their best material? You go to the labels, my friends! Say what you will about streaming reducing the need for labels, but they still serve as useful curators, especially for a genre as impossibly massive as ambient. Even as I continuously poke and prod into this vast domain for new labels, there's something to be said for trusty ol' faithfuls, including Carpe Sonum Records. Given he stylistically meshes with much of this print's output, I'm surprised it took so long for Lingua Lustra to find himself there. I suppose there was no rush, what with his own Spiritech handling much of his music for a while (and, erm, the unmentionable label too).

What's most interesting about Lingua Lustra's first official album on Carpe Sonum is that it's almost a compilation. Despite the 2018 release, the tracks on Portal were made between 2013 and 2015, some of which even saw release elsewhere. Two had appeared on Carpe Sonum compilations, and another two found their way on Plusquam Chillout. That... may not be as impressive, Plusquam responsible for an obscene amount of Ambient [Theme] digital compilations in the year 2014, flooding the streaming market with their options. Gander at a sampling of their 'S' titles: Ambient Scape, Ambient Sessions, Ambient Shores, Ambient Sonics, Ambient Souls, Ambient Sounds, Ambient Stereo, Ambient Statros. Yeesh.

Back to Portal, Carpe Sonum sifted through Mr. Borkent's catalogue in selecting tracks for this release, including unreleased items. Whoa, you mean the lush, soul-melting ambience of The Gate Of Dawn sat in the Lingua Lustra archives sight-unheard for a half-decade? Even in his relentless digital-only release rate, Albert never saw fit to give this lovely composition the light of day? Oh, I'm sure he's got dozens of such releases, material sat on for whatever reason. The seven tracks on here are all quite lovely and spacey and dreamy and droney, though never exceeding the twelve-minute mark as some Lingua Lustra pieces have done in the past. If this album was meant to serve as a 'portal' in to his music (eh? Eh...?), job well done, Carpe Sonum.

Gorillaz - The Now Now (Kayfabe Review)

Parlaphone: 2018

It took long enough, but Stuart Pot finally got to make his own Gorillaz album. Yeah, he sneaked one out under Murdoc's broken-ass nose while they were on the Plastic Beach tour, but that was basically a solo album, with no input from any other members at all, much less a proper studio behind it. Makes me wonder though, how can The Now Now also be considered a Gorillaz album without involvement from the man who founded the band (albeit mostly through kidnappings)? Sure, three of its members are here, but without the demented brain-child of the band acting as its rudder, it's just a clutch of chummy talented musicians working together, feeding off the nostalgia of the brand to their own benefit.

It reminds me of when Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman, and Steve Howe joined forces for an album. Everyone within prog-rock circles felt this was as close to a classic Yes reunion as folks would get (until the actual reunion called Union), but lacking Chris Squire, it wasn't really Yes, not without the bassist who formed the band present. Maybe Murdoc's relinquished some of the Gorillaz licensing rights to the other members, letting them do as they wished so long as it benefited the brand in the long run. Would fit with his recent attempts at rehabilitation. Heck, he wasn't even that sour over his cousin Ace Copular replacing him on the subsequent tour.

Anyhow, The Now Now. As mentioned, this is essentially another 2D album, but with the full, proper backing of the band. It was also mostly written on the road while Gorillaz toured Humanz, so the song writing remains comparatively slight when stacked against previous records, almost no guest features on hand. And that's fine, something like this probably needed after the celebrity-stacked bloat that was Humanz. I don't even think Stuart could make an opulent record if he tried, his simplistic songcraft reflective of his simplistic worldview. That's not a bad thing either, music sometimes best served as a laid-back sweet indulgence, especially in the summertime.

The tunes definitely sound more confident compared to the ones from The Fall, which isn't surprise considering Murdoc's overbearing abusiveness was safely tucked away in a jail cell. If you don't feel a silly grin forming on your mug after the jubilant opener Humility, I dunno' how you can be alive, my friend. Tracks like Sorcererz and Magic City keep the peppy synth-pop vibes going, while tunes like Tranz and Lake Zurich offer some classy club-ready fodder. Heck, even moodier Hollywood doesn't lose a step in dancefloor fun, what with its Jamie Principle guest-croon (Snoop's there too, doing Snoop th'angs). A couple introspective pieces like Fire Flies and Idaho keep things somewhat grounded, but overall The Now Now is a fun little offering from 2D.

One of these days though, I'd love to hear a Gorillaz album where all the band members are operating as a fully-functional unified band. The stuff of dreams, I suppose.

The Orb - No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds

Cooking Vinyl: 2018

Yay, it's a Youth orientated Orb album! Those are always my ...favourite? Wait, am I certain of that? If I had to make a definitive ranking of Orb albums, I'd put records like U.F.Orb, Orbus Terrum, and Orblivion above The Dream. Yet Martin Glover has been involved in some of my all-time ace Orb tunes like Little Fluffy Clouds and Perpetual Dawn (among other, less known works). He's, like, the steady dub rudder of the group, always dragging The Orb back from too much weird experimentation, or monotonous techno expeditions, or over-hyped superstar pairings. I get why some folks think less of the Youth productions, what with them not being as 'serious' as other releases, but when have The Orb ever been regarded as a Very Serious outfit? The cheeky stoner vibe has always been part of the group's charm, and I've long enjoyed them more when they indulge themselves while providing an ear-wormy hook.

Still, even I must have my limits in how far this three decade old (!!) outfit tries appealling to an ever expanding collection of punters. I wouldn't blame old-heads in the slightest in writing off No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds based on the first couple minutes, opening track The End Of the End getting in on wub-wubs and trap hits (also: that hook sure reminds me of Dido's bit from Eminem's Stan). Never mind the fact the track settles into a more traditional dub reggae ditty by the end, it don't take much to turn folks away if they'd rather be hearing something else. And gosh, all those air-horns in Wolfbane? Who do The Orb think the are, Gen-Z YouTubers?

Okay, I think that's cleared out the naysayers for this album. Here's what you get if you're willing to hear all these sounds The Orb deems no longer out of bounds. The first half feels the Youth influences the most, plenty o' peppy reggae dub vibes and soulful world beat. Past Wolfbane though, things take a turn for the deep and downtempo. It kinda' comes off like a continuation of Chill Out, World, and no sounds are certainly out of bounds (Harmonica! Trumpet! Orchestras! Roger Eno piano! Jah Wobble bass! Thomas Fehlmann 'techno'!). It's also rather meandering though, and a stark contrast to the punctual pop overtones in the first half of the album.

Really, it all feels like appetizers before the fifteen-minute closer, Soul Planet. Plenty of calm ambient lead-in, settling into a jaunty soul-house groove with Andy Caine on the croon, and a dubby, trippy, minimalist outro session of all those non-bound sounds. Can I call Ultraworld-era Orb retro now? Because this sounds retro Orb, another shocker considering how blatant a trend-wagon jump the start of this album had. As mentioned though, that's always been the best part of Youth's collaborations with The Orb. He'll hit you with music unabashedly ready for the radio, but still takes you to those blissy downtimes that's kept a dedicated following of this conglomerate for so long.

Stokes - Local Crowd

Databloem: 2018

It's not so bad that I missed out on Saul Stokes, is it? If his Discoggian data's to be believed, he did the bulk of his music production at a time I couldn't have known of him. There might have been the odd chance I'd have run into his work on Portland based ambient label Hypnos Recordings, some of that print's releases drifting a few hundred kilometres north to the Canadian border. Sadly, I wasn't so in the ambient know as I would have liked to think I was at the turn of the century, still sticking with the few acts and names I was most comfortable and familiar with. It wouldn't be until the advent of a little record database website that I realized just how massive this scene actually was. And lord would it take even longer for my finances to reach such a level I could even indulge in this expanded universe in any meaningful way. (never mind the digital-only Kahvi Collective releases, because block-headed stubbornness)

It was around the peak of his productivity that he released an album on the fledgling Databloem, mostly a collection of live recordings with a few original tracks sprinkled in. Fast forward fifteen years later, and Mr. Stokes has returned to the veteran Databloem, which also happened to be his first new album in seven years, and ten since his last on an actual label. To say he's slowed down some in this past decade is an understatement, but this has always been a fickle scene. Some producers can crank out the jams forever without missing a mark, while others have their initial flash of inspiration, then let things slide down as other interests take hold. Seems familiar, somehow...

As for the music we can expect from Saul, he was a bit all over the place way back in the day, drifting from ambient experiments to soft, fuzzy downtempo techno. His Fields album, released the same year as his first Databloem record (Radiate), might have even fit with the early Ultimae Records catalogue, which maybe explains why Vincent Villuis has provided an Ultimae Mixdown™ for Local Crowd. No, wait, he's been doing that for most of Databloem's new releases now. So, hey, if you've been jonesing for more that label's lush sonic headspace, check out this label's recent offerings!

I must say though, Local Crowd is an odd album to be given the Ultimae Mixdown™, in that it's such a simple little collection of tunes. Best I can describe is 'electro dream pop', just without the harsher 'electro' element, and the overt shoegazey elements of dream pop toned down. I still get the same day-glo feels from this, just not so overbearing about it. I sadly don't have much to specifically say either, as the vibe and tunes are all generally the same throughout the album, making highlights difficult to point out. Local Crowd is a pure 'reflective feels' record, which I guess is enough.

Various - Kulør 001

Kulør: 2018

I've argued 'real' trance never went away, just rebranded itself as something else and kept to small secluded corners of techno's domain. Lately, it seems those who wanted to make trance but couldn't admit to making trance because of the Dutch's handling of the tag have slowly re-emerged from the recesses of club culture, prominent critically-approved DJs rinsing out the odd throwback tune here and there. It's gotten to the point where a label can make honest-to-God vintage trance music and have music journalist sorts sing its praises for accomplishing all the things it peaked out on by the year 1995. Ah, the dependable Twenty-Year retro cycle never fails.

I know, I know. Why be cynical when I should be celebrating a release like Kulør 001? Surely I've been waiting for a release such as this since the turn of the century. I guess, kinda'? It's not like I've run out of old school trance music to unearth. Truth be told, aside from a few labels that could do no wrong, a great deal of it was rightly left in the '90s, a sound that had creatively done almost all that it might. Then again, dub techno perseveres to this day, and ain't much variation in that genre's sound over the decades. Ambient too, if we're being honest. Okay, so classic trance could have maintained something for itself if enough willing, inventive producers indulged in it. The clubbing climate just wasn't there for it though, and when eurotrance stole the name for itself, that was about all she wrote for the hypnotic spacey offshoot of EBM and techno.

But as mentioned, retro's undeniable pull can reach back to any ol' sound and make it fresh and hot again, which is what I'm sure this upstart new label out of Denmark is counting on. Hey, I liked the Danes' take on trance, always finding a sweet middle ground between German class and Dutch cheese. And that's what I get out of Kulør's launching compilation, Kulør 001. Ooh, triple-digits compilation numbering. Mighty ambitious aspirations there, just like In Trance In Trust. I wonder what that label's been up to...

Just in case you were wondering (worried?) this would be a complete retro love-in, the beats throughout this compilation are as tough as modern techno can get. Nay, it's all about those melodies, such light uplifting ditties that'll have you reminiscing early '90s Paul van Dyk. And gosh, there's some high BPMs here too, a proper reminder of when trance music was made to fuel your speedy E' benders, rather than hop in one spot under a ketamine daze. Mind, some of these wouldn't be much more than filler on an old Rave Mission collection, but they trigger the nostalgia endorphins just the same. If such tunes remain too cheesy for you though, there's some proper faceless techno bosh on Kulør 001 as well. Guess classic trance still needs a little more time before a full return is embraced.

Samora - Kaleidos

Databloem: 2018

Sometimes it's never the actual album I'm reviewing that sparks the most discussion. Indeed, what more can be said for the eleven-zillionth ambient record that is released annually? I'll buy such music more for my personal interest and enjoyment, but that doesn't provide me with much material to wax the bull with. It's almost a relief when I pop over to the artist's Discoggian data and discover a rich history I've overlooked, wherein I can burn ample word count touching on prior releases and the funny label names said producer has released on. (so many funny label names... just, so many...). I was not offered such a bounty of talking-point riches with Samora, but he did dredge up some unfortunate recollections.

Samora is Enrico Marani, a synth chap who's worked with various experimental, avant-garde outfits out of Italy, Le Forbici di Manitù being the most consistent of the bunch to this day. Being part of a band for over a decade didn't leave his own muse fallow, spending time dabbling in his own original compositions. He eventually made a debut album as Samora called The Unspeakable, a collection of minimalist ambient with recited poetry from cellist Christine Hanson, released on Psychonavigation Records. Yes, that Psychonavigation Records. Hey, at least it was in 2012, before all the shit hit the fan with that label. A follow-up album came out on Psycho-N's Italian sub-label Tranquillo Records (Lontano), and when those went tits-up, a third album The Gift came out on the rebranded label Where Ambient Lives – that one also seems to have gone into limbo, though unlike the others, its Bandcamp remains up. Might be mindful of buying anything from it though. Anyhow, it seems poor Enrico finally had enough of that label's sketchy practices, and took his Samora project to the steadier Databloem for his fourth album Kaleidos. Methinks t'was a wise decision.

If your eyes didn't glaze over much in that block o' words above, you may have noticed the genre namedrop you're in for with Samora. Right, even being on Databloem is a good hint, but even the small sampling of the label's output I've indulged has shown some nice, surprising variety. This is minimalist ambient as you likely imagine it though. Stretched-out droning pads, sprinkles of piano and bell tones, fits of burbling electronics and static fluff, self-titled compositions averaging in the double-digit minute lengths with little care of destination, only the journey. In the opening track alone, I felt I was shifting into differing tonal lanes every few minutes, though Keleidos 1 is possibly one of the 'busiest' among these six pieces.

I say “possibly”, because this honestly isn't an album that sticks with me. It's ambient as pure sonic wallpaper, which is fine since that's Mr. Marani's intent. Can't knock a body of music that succeeds in the artist's vision. Just wish I could give it a stronger recommendation for others beyond the genre's faithful. So it goes in this scene.