Lucette Bourdin - Nordic Waves Vol. 3: Summer

Dark Duck Records/Fantasy Enhancing: 2012/2021

Isn't it funny how when we think of Nordic clime's, we never think about the summer months? Heck, any Far North region for that matter. Our perpetual image of the world above the 60th Parallel is always one of ice and cold, and fair enough, it's that even when the sun hangs over the sky for over twenty hours a day (note: may no longer be valid in the near future from whence this was written).

But in terms of inspiration, it's the frigid winter months that get the most nods. Whether the melancholic reflection one does when wanting to hibernate, or challenging one's sense of self against inhospitable dark ambient tundra desolation, it's the long dark that gets the most rep'. Heck, even Ms. Bourdin wasn't immune to it, kicking off her Nordic Waves series with Winter. Summer, for all intents, gets the shaft in this regard, despite 'lasting' just as long as winter.

And well it should, as summer that far north actually kinda' sucks. Maybe not as much in Nordic regions, since they do benefit from some good propah' summer weather thanks to the Atlantic Gulf Stream, but that eternal sunshine, man. Just... never going away. It sets, but it's still light out, twilight lingering well past midnight. How can one get a good, recharging sleep when the sun wont set? Yeah, the winter may be bitter cold and dark, but at least you can sleep it off, recoup for another day. Folks have known to go crazy over summer insomnia, yo'!

Let's not dwell on that (for now...). Instead, Lucette opens Nordic Waves Vol. 3: Summer with Reindeer Frolic, a relatively light, airy piece of classical ambient with dancing electronics and glistening synth tones. It honestly feels more... wintery? Sorry, I just have a hard time picturing reindeer under a hot summer sun. Follow-up Midsummer Bonfire does a little dance with its shimmery, pulsing synths, which I suppose captures the essence of flickering flames nicely, but I dunno'. Ms. Bourdin's typical choice of synths have long had something of a cool, icy sheen to them, and that doesn't change much here either. I'm just not feeling Summer out of these tracks. Even Undulating Grasses, another fine pieces of 'dancing ambient', has me thinking springtime awakening over anything hot and humid.

As I said though, the idea of 'summer' in the far north has always been a little skewy, and perhaps that's the vibe Lucette felt as well. Light Waves, Twilight, and especially Heat Stroke mostly do the contemplative ambient drone tone thing, the latter of which stretching for nearly a dozen minutes in length. Even The Engine Of Nature, comparatively light-hearted with some piano, guitar, and percussion action, can't help but contain an ominous synth drone in support. It's almost as if Lucette can't wait for summer to be done. And as if to sell that perspective, final track August Buzz sounding positively uplifting and hopeful in its ambient tones. Yay, the season's almost done!

Lucette Bourdin - Nordic Waves Vol. 2: Spring

Dark Duck Records/Fantasy Enhancing: 2012/2021

Anyone else feel weird about seeing spring sitting at the second position of a seasonal series? I get why it's Vol. 2 of Ms. Bourdin's Nordic Waves run of albums, what with the whole thing kicking off on Winter and all. Spring had to follow, because spring always follows winter. Okay, maybe not on a planet like Venus, where its rotation is in reverse, so I guess winter would follow spring there. That's not a good example though, Venus' whole seasonal deal about as messed up as any planet can get – even the rolling ice giant Uranus has regular seasons, extreme though they may be.

Anyhow, what I'm getting at is we just assume spring would be the kick-off for any conceptual seasonal series, because of astrology or something. I find it rather nifty and, dare I say, daring, for Lucette to buck convention like this and shuffle spring over onto Vol. 2 of Nordic Waves. Take that, attention hog Aries!

Vol. 1: Winter ended on something of an upbeat tick, the subtly percolating synths of The One Hundredth Name Of Snow hinting at a world stirring from hibernation. Well, Vol. 2: Spring doesn't waste time in letting you know life is back to its busy, shining self, opener Return Of The Snow Goose all bright, shining synths harking more to the realms of modern classical synth composers than the usual Lucette ambient fare. Oh, and honking geese fly above on occasion, because that's just what I needed: reminders of the Canadian Cobra Chicken. I thought this was relaxing music!

You know what else spring is known for? Showers! ...or unrelenting rain, if you're in coastal regions like Norway and British Columbia. Nice of Ms. Bourdin to craft a track titled as such, though this one is a bit melancholic with its use of violin. Compared to the general moodiness of follow-up Anvil-Head Cloud, however, Unrelenting Rain is downright chipper. And speaking of geography shared by the Nordic regions and the Pacific Northwest, here's the gentle ambience and mysterious tones of Fjords, followed upon by more tranquility and subtle rhythms of Where The Forest Meets The Shoreline. We certain this hasn't turned into a Silent Season outing now?

That's all well and good if you're down for the fjord-pjorn (*cough*), but how about some propah' spring-time sonics? Lucette does spend some tracks bringing us from the ebb of March into the dawn of April, A Month-Long Sunrise doing that ambient drone thing of tones ever morphing into brighter timbre. Crossing The Equinox, meanwhile, gets more on that classic synth vibe, with rhythmic pulses and even pitch shifts. And what spring season is complete without the flooding of alpine meltwater, as captured by White Water – Calm Water, as peppy a tune as we've yet heard out of these Nordic Waves sessions? Not sure how The March Of The Trolls fits in with everything though. Probably Norwegian folklore, such critters forced into retreat from the increased sunlight, lest they turn to stone?

Lucette Bourdin - Nordic Waves Vol. 1: Winter

Dark Duck Records/Fantasy Enhancing: 2011/2021

Now we're getting deep into Lucette's discography, as there's nothing like a seasonal series to inflate one's catalogue. That's right, folks, you're looking at the start of a full week of Ms. Bourdin's works, so if all this box-set Retrospective coverage hasn't yet grabbed you... um, maybe stick around anyway? Who knows, maybe these will be the ones that finally hook the stragglers in!

Nordic Waves came about late in Lucette's musical timeline, which isn't surprising as most artists get more conceptual as their career caries on. Not that her music wasn't conceptual in the first place, in that most ambient music is all about the artistic concept of wallpaper music to begin with. If anything, focusing on a highly specific theme like the seasons of a particular region of the world substantially narrows the genre's potential abstraction. As for why the French lass would find inspiration with Scandinavian clime's, I honestly don't know. Maybe she had a childhood summer home there?

Winter is as appropriate a jumping-on point for this series as any, since one can't help but think of cold, snowy months when thinking of Nordic regions. Never mind that thanks to temperate waters coming off the Atlantic Gulf Stream, those coastal shores aren't nearly as frigid as most other areas along the same latitudes. You think The North, you think dark vistas with aurora borealis shining in night skies, their ethereal glow glimmering off snow and ice as tiny enclaves of warm lights huddle in remote clusters. At least, that's the imagery that paints in my head as opener Echoes Of The Wind plays. It's a mostly simple bit of ambient drone, but the way the synth pads glide along can't help but conjure images of Northern Lights dancing above.

Ocean Swells offers more of a leading melody within its pad layers, while Moonlight On Ice brings things down to more minimalist drone, melody subtle and gentle, as though the world is locked in content hibernation. Not to be outdone, Hibernation maintains such mood, while including softly ebbing windy synths, the track very much breathing you into a tranquil slumber as the outside world remains locked in ice. Meanwhile, fourteen minute closer The One Hundredth Name Of Snow actually perks things up a little, hinting at the coming warmth stirring everything awake once more.

The track that really caught my attention, though, was the comparatively shorter Shimmering Sky. Is it just me, or are those synth straight out of vintage Pete Namlook's wheelhouse? I've long wondered why Fantasy Enhancing was so hype in giving Lucette Bourdin a boxset restrospective, especially when there are so many (just... so many) other ambient artists out there who could have their own boxsets. And now I can't help but suspect this was one of the tracks that clued the Fax+ fan community into her sound, thus giving her a slight insiders-edge on everyone else. Or maybe it's just a big ol' coincidence. Stupid brain, making connections where there are none.

Epic SAD Sessions During Extreme Weather Conditions

I've never hidden the fact that I get hit with Seasonal Affective Disorder this time of the year, which isn't that big a surprise. Many folks, especially those getting up in their years, feel the slowing of motivation as the days grow shorter and colder. Add in the fact my line of work tends to get most stressful in the month of October, and you can imagine my mental health takes a bit of a beating. This year, however, was something extra, and when I set aside some time off to recouperate, I was down hard. For half a week there, I could not find motivation to do anything, sleeping for 14 - 16 hours a day. If this is what those who suffer from extreme depression go through, you have my sympathies. I could not imagine dealing with such a state of self on the regular.

To be fair, part of this was on me. Work and seasonal change is one thing, but I've also been physically pushing myself pretty hard this past month too. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy with the results of falling down the Fitness Hole, but shedding 35lbs in a two-month timespan is gonna' put stress on your body. Dropping to a weight not had for fifteen years will be felt, no matter how well you take care of yourself. Matters also weren't helped that Vancouver went from warm summer weather to deep, chilly autumn in an instant, with me wearing clothes very unsuitable for outdoor activity in such a massive temperature drop. No wonder my poor body finally said "Enough's enough!"

Ironically (or not), going through such a hibernatic spell seems to have done me a lot of good. It's the start of November, and I honestly can't remember the last time I've mentally felt so fresh and vital on this date. Time well tell if its sustainable, but for once, I'm not quite so dreading dealing with the final months of the year. Will that translate to an uptick in blogging activity? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Speedy J - Ni Go Snix

NovaMute: 1997/2021

The absolute limit ol' Jochem took his experimental side, this one. Of course, in techno circles of the latter end of the '90s, 'experimental' usually meant all manner of noisy rackets and wild distortions. Fair enough, the IDM leagues gaining plenty of critical praise and nifty Chris Cunningham videos for their efforts. Speedy J already had ties to the ranks of Aphex Twin and Autechre from his Artificial Intelligence days, so it'd make sense he'd find his way back there at some point, following similar paths they were already treading. Maybe rope in a couple like-minded chaps for a remix or two. Makes better sense than continuing to work with Banco de Gaia.

As an in-between single following G Spot, I have to imagine Ni Go Snix shocked a lot of folks. So much so that Jochem put a reassuring tag on the record that this was indeed, not, a new single for the up-coming album Public Energy No. 1. Don't worry, then, if it's not to your liking, it's just a one-off dalliance satisfying his need to go abrasive after all the plaudits for going so melodic on his last album. (or is it...!)

Well, just how noisy can one Speedy J track be? Pretty darn noisy, I'd say. Ni Go Snix is basically an electro track, but fed through so much distortion, you're hearing almost nothing but feedback on those bleeps and bloops. It's, like, electrocore, or electore. Ooh, that's one for the genre books! Look, if nonsense words like 'complextro' can get accepted, so can 'electore'. Anyhow, there honestly isn't much to this track beyond just how noisy Speedy J can make it, and with the Snix Mix, he makes it almost unbearably noisy indeed. This is, like hardectro!

Like A Tim doesn't do much with his remix, basically shuffling around the originals sounds for more of a freeform jam. Mike Paradinas, on the other hand give Ni Go Snix the good ol' µ-Ziq treatment, speeding the beats up to his brand of hyper drill 'n' bass action, then throwing in some spastic pad work and twee melodies in support, lending the track a rather Baroque vibe. Y'know, vintage µ-Ziq.

The CD version of this single – and by extension, the Bandcamp upload I snagged - did include a couple remixes for a track that appeared on the forthcoming Speedy J album: Hayfever. The Izm Mix by the hopeless obscure Jeroen van Dorsten turns in a future-shock heavy breaks tune that sounds like what The Future Sound Of London might have done to a Speedy J track if given the chance. The less obscure Sefan Robbers, meanwhile, maintains the future-shockiness, but opts for something a little more drum 'n' bassy, and is quite the sky-high mellow vibe after having gone so through much aural assault prior. How do these remixes stack against the original Hayfever? Heck if I know, I haven't heard Public Energy No. 1 yet. We'll find out soon enough!

Dance With The Dead - Near Dark

self released: 2014

Stepping back in time with this one, but what else is new with these discography dives, eh? Okay, my recent Twitter ones actually are chronological, but that's a totally different gimmick. Not that me buying up someone's entire catalogue off Bandcamp is much of a gimmick either, but at least my alphabetical stipulation throws a little variety in their sequence. Besides, there's a couple discographies I've gone chronological too, such as Pet Shop Boys and... hmm, gosh, is that all? Feel like there's more I could do, should do. What other act out there have I not done a single review of, but really do like, actually? There's got to be some.

Anyhow, I think we're well caught up on what's the deal regarding Dance With The Dead. Near Dark was their second album, third overall following the EP Into The Abyss. And if there was any indication it didn't take long for Justin Pointer and Tony Kim to figure out what their sound could entail, this here LP is proof-positive. For sure synthwave that leans heavy into its rockier attributes was well established by the mid-'10s, but these chaps, they figured out the perfect blend to push it just that little bit extra, a sweetening of melody and mush of mosh. I really can't explain it any better how their style of synths 'n' thrash is set as such perfect levels here, and carried on to this day. Is it for everyone? Probably not, but for what I want out this music, I couldn't ask for more.

I've got a lot of word count left to burn here, so how about some good ol' track-by-track descriptions, then. Opener Invader sets us off with a stomping half-time beat that marches along with backing arps and synths stabs before Tony's guitar gets its wailing solo action on. A fairly straight-forward tune, then unleashes some low-end shredding for a propah' head-bangin' finale. Now that your body is warmed up, let's up the tempo with Dressed To Kill with more of those gnarly bass-synths powering forward as synths do those vintage '80s horror movie riffs. A little muted breakdown gives us pause, then bring it all back for another sweet guitar solo. Go on, raise those devil horns, I know you want to.

Waves goes more the synth-pop route, the guitar action in support rather than the previous two, but Tony gets plenty of shred time in Midnight Never Ends, even as the synths get their trance on. Speaking of 'ravey' music, Andromeda does that thing Frankie Bones loves to do wherein it sounds like the music is coming from some distant area, maybe a warehouse, before emerging through the rain in full concert glory.

Holy cow, I've burned through a lot of words fast, and I still have half an album left. Uh, Eye Of The Storm: synth ballad. Near Dark: heavy rocker. The Pitt: heavy synther with soloing. Graveyard Shift: spooky rocker. Riser: closing credits-er. There, a vintage track-by-track review! Dope album, too.

Rapoon - Navigating By Colour

Soleilmoon Recordings: 1999

Feels like this has been a long time coming, but I finally get to talk about a vintage Rapoon album! Okay, I've only really been covering the chap for half a decade now, just four albums worth in that time. And even with that scant selection, Mr. Storey's muse has proven a wildly divergent one indeed, such that you'd be hard-pressed to point to any singular sound as That Definitive Rapoon Stylee.

Heck, I'm sure many folks would claim I've already done so, what with having reviewed Vernal Crossing and all. I'll grant his fusion of primal loops with industrial ambient gave Rapoon a significant boost in profile, especially in the wake of his Zoviet France days. Still, it wasn't that sound that first lured me in, but rather a more typical techno approach to the craft. There's still the endless loops and layered dub, just done in a more thumping sort of way. And now with Navigating By Colour, I've finally landed upon an album that delivers it in... well, a couple tracks worth, at least.

First, how does Navigating By Colour fall within the greater Rapoon lexicon. Hell if I know, but here's a basic rundown. Released on Soleilmoon Recordings (where other sonic terrorists like Muslimgauze, Merzbow, and Coil have been comfy), packaged with a dozen postcards featuring art similar to that on the CD slipcase. A real collector's item, this, and by extension not an easy album to find via your usual modern outlets. I feel I lucked out on even finding a seller for this at all, postcards included, but so it goes some days on the Discogs Marketplace.

Opener Blue Hemisphere is the sort of Rapoony music I was introduced to, a brisk rhythm with layered operatic drones ebbing and flowing as things play out. So simple, yet so seductive, losing one's psyche into pure tribalism. Midway through the album, Red Hemisphere gets deeper into the drumming, such that the dub effects morph just as much as the backing pad work. There isn't much else on Navigating by Colour with featured rhythms, though From This Point... does loop mechanical chugging and churning into a rhythm onto itself.

Mostly though, we're in industrial drone territory with this album. Some pieces, like Prussian and Imagine, get weirdly abstract with bits of spoken dialog and layered vocal tones, while The Last Gladding Tide and Winter Shields edge closer to the realms of modern classical. Cerulean and Sienna are pure concrete grinders though, and Eden's Plains is even more punishing in its dark isolationism. Alizarin gets all noisy towards the end of its ten-minute run, and by jove, I do believe we've run the gamut of what one might expect out of a Rapoon joint. If you were expecting anything at all, that is.

Which is half the fun with artists like these, isn't it? Sure, you may have an inkling what to expect, but they'll almost always surprise you just the same.

Lucette Bourdin - The Mystery Of The Midnight Sun

Fantasy Enhancing: 2006/2021

Oh, did y'all forget I still have a whole box-set of Lucette Bourdin? It's certainly been a spell since I last covered anything from Retrospective Box Set (2005 – 2017). Glimpses, Vol. 1 was back in May, but that's technically a remix album from Stephen Philips. No, we have to go all the way back to March, the double-feature of Drum-atic Atmospheres and Drum Repercussions, for some actual Lucette originals covered on this here blog. That's literally two seasons ago! (note: ignore the too-warm October I'm currently sitting through – it's supposed to be Autumn, not Fire-Season August)

Considering I started covering this collection almost a year ago, it's been slow going getting through all twenty CDs, to say the least. Don't worry though, I'll be doubling that coverage in short order, starting with this here Mystery Of The Midnight Sun. Ooh, that's something of a foreshadow, isn't it? Like, what region of the world could even have a midnight sun?

This is one of Lucette's earlier albums, before her breakout of... Erm, I'm not sure she really had a breakout, per se. At least, not in a traditional music industry fashion. I just assume Rising Fog is something of the sort, given it got the remix album treatment and all. Regardless, this one came out before, thus making it the earliest album of hers I've covered yet. Not the earliest though, there's still some in her discography from way-er back.

Before we can uncover the enigma of a Sol sighting in the twilight hours, we must take a Voyage Beyond The Five Planets. Wait, only five? Well, yeah, if you're only going by what's typically observable in the night sky. For much of human history, we've only known of five planets, the very concept of Earth being a 'wanderer' completely alien to the masses. Plus, it wasn't until precise astronomic study of orbital mechanics that the notion of more existing beyond our basic sight was even conceived. In a nutshell, Ms. Bourdin is conjuring thoughts and sentiments of venturing beyond that which we can observe, and for a tranquil piece of ambient synth pad and timbre such as this, it's a fitting mood.

By comparison, the titular follow-up is surprisingly short and almost desolate, though not without its own tranquility too – it really can't be helped with ambient drone of this nature. My Life With Bach gets quirkier with a burbly synth rhythm, playing about with higher-pitched synth tones like intertwined rope chords. There is something of a Baroque feel to it, the sort of piece you could easily imagine being performed just as easily on a grand organ.

The Mystery Of The Midnight Sun closes out with a twenty-six minute long drone 'n' reverb piece, Dream Traveler, synths sliding along flowing pads in a lucid fashion. I thought this was the longest Lucette composition I'd yet heard, but no, that still goes to the near thirty-minute long Memories Of Acoma. Ancient Memories indeed.

FSOL - Music From Calendars

fsoldigital.com: 2021

So, you think you're a hardcore Future Sound Of London fan? Got all their classic '90s albums, do ya'? Pft, that's not even scratching the surface. Side project stuff then, like Amorphous Androgynous, Humanoid, and all those early Earthbeat records. Not even close to a completist. Ah, you kept connected with all their 21st Century albums then, the Environments series, more AA prog-rock, even that Blackhill Transmitter thing. No, wait, the entirety of From The Archives too! That's pretty hardcore, no doubt, but still not propah' FSOL 'ardcore. Well shit, son-of-lung, what else is there? The soundtracks for films that no one saw (Four Forests) or don't exist (The Cartel)? Getting warmer...

If you consider yourself a true, bells-and-all hardcore FSOL fan, you've subscribed to their Calendar series. Once a month, the lads send a new tune, usually as their main nomme de plume, but under different aliases as well. It's a series that's been ongoing for half a decade now, and a handy way of keeping up to speed on the goings-on at EBv.

Obviously, I'm not that hardcore of a FSOL fan, since I never subscribed to this series. Nor did I much care to indulge the yearly summation compilations either. Look, when I can't even be bothered to get any of the Archives material, you're damned skippy I haven't the care to hear whatever random sonic studio doodles Brain and Garry squirt out a given month. Now, a gathering of all the choice material from a four year time-span, that's the ticket!

If you have been keeping up with your recent FSOL output, much of Music From Calendars 2017-2020 will be familiar territory. The weird, psychedelic abstraction (Frozen Air, Blacked Out Windows, Memories Of A Yesterday), the future-shock electro (Near Field, Obscured By Dark Intervals), the primordial chill (Artificial Placement Of Emotion, Commensalism, Riverbeds), the... throwback Earthbeat techno? Oh, wow, Alertions certainly is a surprise. Guess they made this just to show if they wanted to make something danceable, they're still more than capable of.

It's not a total FSOL love-in, a couple side-projects getting a side-glance in. Second track Surrounding The Garden Is A Fog comes from Synthi A, a deliberate throw-back to the days of '70s synth wizards. It's one of their more recent projects, conceiving only one album in 2016, plus a couple Calendars tracks. That this piece was considered among their best recent works is, not that surprising, to be honest. For '70s synth wibbly-warbly stuff (think Tomita or Schulze), it's rather nice. The other 'non-FSOL, but is still FSOL' track is Propogate from Humanoid. It definitely shows off Brian's love affair with the more techno-y side of IDM, but seems more fascinated with experimentation for its own sake.

Overall, Music From Calendars runs a tidy fifty minutes, and flows nicely from beginning to end. It still doesn't come off much more than a glorified sampler of FSOL music, but then we've been enjoying those since ISDN, haven't we?

Sykonee's 'Sportsing' Surveys: GENESIS

I like me some prog rock. At least, I think I like me some prog rock. I know I like Yes, but have I really dove into any other of the famed prog rock bands? I've dabbled in some Pink Floyd, but that's like saying you've dabbled in some weed when you're in high school - almost everyone does at some point. I was recommended Rush, but after trying out some songs, just wasn't feeling the immediate connection that I got with Yes. King Crimson and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer are other bands I'm told are Very Important in the world of prog rock, and maybe I'll get to them at some point down the line. I dunno' tho', I kinda' like savouring their mystic for as long as I can.

What about Genesis then? Genesis? Yes, Genesis. Don't they have, like, a 'rep', or something? Their '80s stuff sure does, but despite that, I can't deny enjoying some of their songs, even if I'm not supposed to, or something. Sure, why not. It'll be an interesting contrast hearing how a full-on art rock band can transition into a group generating some of the biggest pop hits of a decade. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Wow, what a prog rocky sentiment, eh?

Well, that was...n't quite as fun? Can't deny there were periods of slog through this discography, but a fascinating journey nonetheless. Can't knock the technical achievements in this production, though they do carry an air of high-falutin self-importance. When these guys were hitting their highs though, it was definitely as good as music of this sort gets. Wait, am I talking about the band Genesis, or the show Rings Of Power?

Anyhow, I think I'll get back to some electronic dance music for my next discography dive. How does a little ATB sound for all of y'all?