Shock Mountain

The latest from the hyper-prolific Aidan Baker, the man behind drone metal titans Nadja. Fitting with the rest of the solo material I’ve heard from him, this album is far more ambient than his work with Nadja, favoring peaceful guitarwork over the distorted, noisy guitars of his other projects. This album consists of two pieces, the four-part Liminoid and the 30 minute Lifeforms. Liminoid is a brooding drone, reminscent of Grails (minus the post-rock cliches), eventually building up to a free-jazz freakout leading into a Swans-like climax. Lifeforms, like most of his solo work, is reminiscent of being at sea, this time conveying the feeling of sinking and floating to the surface again, all in the middle of a black abyss of sea. And yes, I’m aware that this is horrifically written but it was St. Patrick’s Day when I wrote this so fuck you.

MySpace

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-Max

Richard Skelton is an artist out of the UK making some really interesting drone music. Rather than the synth-y explorations we have come to love from Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never, Richard Skelton takes a more classical approach to his drone, placing him closer to Stars of the Lid and Black To Comm. Quivering, squeeking violins create a desolate and haunting atmosphere without making it too dark. This is definitely some interesting drone music, though my only complaint is that this album is a little bit too long.

MySpace

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-Max

S is the project of Jen Ghetto, following the break-up of Carissa’s Wierd. This album sees her moving away from the more orchestral style of her former band and veering more into an electronic sound. If you liked Carissa’s Wierd, you’ll probably like this, though not quite as much. One of my friends said that this sounded like Imogen Heap, which was an atrocious insult to this music. If Imogen Heap started playing music with a hint of quality, rather than garbage for tweenage girls posting black and white photos on Tumblr with lyrics for captions, then MAYBE I would understand that comparison. Yeah, I really can’t stand Imogen Heap. Anyway, Jen Ghetto uses her electronic structures to compliment her hushed, honest vocals perfectly. It’s snowing today and I just want to listen to this all day long.

MySpace

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-Max

I’m exhausted and sick and I don’t feel like writing anything, so just read what her website says. For the record, this album is incredible and she’s playing St. James Church (which has undergone a bit of controversy as of late) this Saturday, a show I really don’t want to miss. Anyway, the music: “julianna barwick has self released her first album, sanguine. the cd is a collection of short loop based songs. lacking definable lyrics, the songs create their own themes sonically and leave nameless emotional impressions. julianna’s talents as a vocalist push most of the musical strength in the album, her choice of melodic vocal overdubs with vocal percussion is fascinating and dizzying. some sounds become indecipherable as the human voice. comparable to bjork’s medula approach to end instrumentation, most of the tracks are all vocal based.” Get this if you like Bjork, Grouper or Panda Bear or good ambient music.

MySpace

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-Max

Hands down, one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. This Richmond, Virginia trio plays a unique brand of post-rock which rides the line between the haunting ambiance of the genre’s early roots (Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis) and the more modern, cinematic style (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky). One of the pioneers of the modern post-rock sound, Labradford’s sound on this album has been aptly described as “evesdropping on the dream music of the American cowboy” for it’s late night Western-highway atmosphere. Composed of merely guitar, bass and keyboard, the music is dark and haunting while still beautiful and shining; perfectly suited for the soundtrack to David Lynch’s Lost Highway. While questionably disbanded, Mark Nelson currently makes music as Pan American while Robert Donne has joined Spokane and Gregor Samsa.

MySpace

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-Max

More work from Ben Frost, the man who, in my book, has gone from unknown to musical genius in the matter of a month. While his solo work is consists more of electronic thrushes and guitar thrashes, School of Emotional Engineering is more fitting of it’s collective nature. This album features sparse, haunting piano, building into heartbreaking aural atmospherics which break down into folktronica with it’s skittering beats and dissociated vocals. Much like Frost’s solo work, this album will just sink into you, allowing you to absorb it’s gently sinister tones fully.

MySpace

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-Max

A month or two ago, I missed a free, last-minute Prefuse 73 show. Talking to someone who went, they said Prefuse sucked live, but that the opener, Jon Hopkins, absolutely destroyed. For some reason, I waited until now to check it out and I was totally missing out. Interspersed between the twinkling ambient electronics are massive dubstep basslines, IDM freakouts in the same vein as Druqks-era Aphex Twin and massive techno rhythms. Apparently he has worked with Coldplay (wtf, I know) and even Brian Eno has praised him. If you are a fan of Prefuse 73, Brian Eno, Joker, Aphex Twin or Four Tet, I can’t stress how much you need this album. I’m definitely reconsidering my best of 09 list after hearing this, I might have to find a spot for this gem. If you are still unsure, check out this music video, which is one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen in a while:

MySpace

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-Max

The Angelic Process was a dark ambient band from Macon, Georgia, formed by married musicians going under the pseudonyms of K. Angylus and M. Dragonfly. The band was initially formed in 1999, but remained largely unknown until the 2006 repressing of Coma Waering. Kris was the primary songwriter who fervently recorded to create a respectable discography for the band. Unfortunately, he was involved in a car crash in 2007, which severely injured his hand. When it became clear that he could no longer play music professionally in any fashion, he reportedly took his own life. However, the band’s legacy lives on through it’s devoted cult following. Being that there are five releases here, I encourage you to start with Weighing Souls With Sand as a jumping off point. This band plays music incredibly loudly and it’s easy to draw comparisons with bands such as Have a Nice Life and Nadja. Enjoy.

…And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey (2006)

Coma Waering (2006)

Sigh EP (2006)

We All Die Laughing (2006)

Weighing Souls With Sand (2007)

Myspace/Buy

- James

Ben Frost is a 28 year old experimental musician from Australia pushing the boundaries of ambient and drone music. Mixing those two genres with hints of noise, black metal and minimalism, Frost has created a dynamic sound which leaps from glitchy electronic drones to earth-shattering walls of guitar noise. Boomkat has described this album as “the future of electronic music” and Wire Magazine has compared him to Steve Reich, Phillip Glass and Michael Gira (of Swans) all in one sentence. Moments on this album are reminiscent of the aforementioned artists as well as Tim Hecker, Fennesz and Have A Nice Life.

MySpace

Buy

-Max

My friend Josh recommended this to me a few weeks ago. Two bros from Massachusetts playing ambient post-rock with a glitch/trip-hop influence. Fans of This Will Destroy You, Boards of Canada, Portishead and Lymbyc Systym will eat this up. Forming in 2006, these guys have already opened for bands like Asobi Seksu, The Books and two aforementioned artists, This Will Destroy You and Lymbyc Systym. This is shaping up to rank highly on my year-end favorites list.

MySpace

Buy

-Max

I was tipped off to Dragon Turtle by Jessi Hector, of Goldest Egg, who has sent me lots of great Brooklyn based artists that her public relations company promotes. To my personal embarassment and regret, I have sat on some of her submissions for far too long, but Dragon Turtle is a truly captivating act to watch out for. The band describes themselves as “Ambient-Winter-Calypso-Space-Folk” and as contrived as a description as that may be, it’s quite accurate. The band’s sound is quite unique with vocals that are subdued and echoey, acoustics clamoring for your attention at every turn, and a good deal of electronic undertones to keep any listener paying close attention. For your listening pleasure, we have a track off of their new album, Almanac, streaming below. The album is being released by La Société Expéditionnaire in a variety of formats. However, if I had to choose one of the three it would definitely be the black and red vinyl, which is limited to 500 copies.

Dragon Turtle Myspace

Buy from La Société Expéditionnaire

Dragon Turtle – Island Of Broken Glass

- James

This has been out for a while now, and knowing the blogosphere’s obsission (with good cause) with Nadja, you’ve probably seen it around a fair amount of times. If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend you pick it up now. For a while, Nadja have been power hitters in the world of drone and sludge, and A Storm of Light have been up-and-comers in the scene, riding on the support of groups such as Battle of Mice, Red Sparowes, and Neurosis. Creepy cult drone/doom combine to form one of the most beautiful and powerful releases of 2009. Plus, the packing on this release is absolutely gorgeous. I urge you to drop the $20, especially because Robotic Empire is one of the best/my favorite labels out there.

Nadja’s MySpace

A Storm of Light’s MySpace

Buy

-McKenna

Going in a totally different direction than pretty much everything I’ve posted as of yet, Nahvalr is described as “the world’s first open-sourced black metal project” and fronted by members of Have A Nice Life. While no two bands on Nahvalr’s label, Enemies List Home Recordings, sound similar, one trait they all share is lo-fi, independent sensibilities paired with masterful execution. Nahvalr is no exception. The creation of a  drone/black metal album created almost entirely out of samples sent to the band and mixed together sounded like an absolutely absurd idea to me when I first heard it, and to be honest, if I didn’t have my heart set on being an Enemies List completest, I probably wouldn’t have bought it.

In all honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of drone/black metal, but I feel like this album is a must-have for any serious fan. The album itself opens with one of the more terrifying samples in music, and listening to it in the dark with headphones on for the first time scarred me for life. Most of the rest of the album is under a thick layer of fuzz that obscures any clear definitions of song structure and places most of the emphasis on the repetition that highlights the drone aspects of the album. Basically, this album is blackened black metal covered under a thick layer of black icing/fuzz that creates a black cake of everything I’ve ever expected from a black metal album.

MySpace

Buy

-McKenna

On Sunday night, my girlfriend and I made the two hour drive to Columbus to meet up with Max Mckenna for the Atlas Sound Show at The Wexner Center for The Performing Arts. I’ve seen Deerhunter 6 times already, but this was my very first Atlas Sound show. Seeing as how the opportunity to catch Bradford Cox performing Atlas Sound songs is more rare, I decided that it was important for me to get good footage of the show. Man, was I right. Backed by opening band The Selmanaires, Bradford changed the mostly electronic Logos into an acoustic showstopper at every turn with a great deal of improvisation and witty on-stage banter. You can even hear Max ask Bradford to tell the “E.T. joke” in the beginning of video 9 only to be shut down.

The joke is:

Q: Why does E.T. love Reeses Pieces so much?

A: Because it tastes like cum!

P.S. I know it’s really annoying to see these long posts with youtube videos, but WordPress doesn’t allow playlist embedding and this is my blog, so deal with it.

- James

Max asked me to upload this for him the other day because he doesn’t understand “Who the fuck names their band City Center then releases an album of the same name? Way too hard to Google.” Instead of leaving the uploaded album to collect e-dust in my mediafire account, I’ve decided to post it here for all of us to enjoy. Released back in spring of this year on Type Records the solo project of Fred Thomas, better known for Saturday Sounds Good To Me, received quite a bit of blog hype for it’s creative and dense sound. If you haven’t already checked it out, pull a Max Mellman and get on this shit ASAP.

Myspace

- James