Lokai - 7 Million (Mosz, 2005)

Lokai is the Austrian-duo comprised of Florian Kmet and Stefan Németh (Radian/Németh), who have taken their hands-on approach to produce electric guitar decked to the hilt with effects; intertwined with fiendishly processed electronic noise. Though they crafts a delicate balance of human touch and machinated noise, these pieces are not mere cerebral exercises. They hint at the lushness one can find in a bare landscape, the richness in the slightest movement.

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - Forest of Swords (Sonic Oyster Records, 2006)

Paine and Youngs started working together in 1998 as Ilk (their prog-rock tribute band) and then had waited 7 years until they released their second record. But from 2006 they have been recording very often and at this point they output together is something like 15 albums.

Most of them were released on Paine's home-made cd-r label - Sonic Oyster Records. They are very limited and cheap, so i suggest you should buy some before they disappear - here.

If you know Youngs or Paine you'll have some idea what to expect, but at the same time you could be sure only about one thing - it will be interesting.

Of course you could try sticking 'free-folk' label on both guys but there is so much more in their music. Like on this album, which has some dark keyboards passages, a little bit spacey even, there are also some unidentified retro electronics (guitars trough effects?) and few accents of small percussions. I think that "Forest of Swords" is so good because it is both engaging, not "easy" and relaxing, not too "heavy".

And in case you need some introduction: Paine works with people like Alastair Crosbie, Brian Lavelle and also solo. Youngs is perhaps better known than him, starting his "career" collaborating with Simon Wickham-Smith, recording for Forced Exposure, VHF Records, later for Jagjaguwar. He was also working with Matthew Bower, Neil Campbell and Alex Neilson (with whom he formed "rhythm section" for Jandek).

But for me more telling than this name-droping is a quote from pitchfork interview:
Pitchfork: Must be nice to have friends who want to make music with you then.

RY: It is, yes. I have a couple of regular sessions in Glasgow. One with a friend Andrew Paine and another with Alex Nielson. They're duos. It's very nice, and it's a social thing as well. It's not just business. Some people play golf. We play music. It's very much a part of my social life.

Mahmoud Guinia - Mahmoud Guinia (N/A x 2)

This is quite a nice cassette that came from somewhere at some point, when and where I do not know. Maybe the Moroccan black market. Mahmoud Guinia plays gnawa music, which by African/Arabic tradition is religious and celebratory, and his playing here is rather suitably life-affirming. That DIY instrument he's holding on the cover/playing is a sintir (or guembri, take your pick), and as you can see it is a three-stringed lute-type thing that originated from Morocco. These tracks seem almost influenced by early blues, but then it's all a bit too cheerful for that. All me knows is that Guinia certainly has a lot of charm.

I should probably also mention here that he's worked with the likes of Pharaoh Sanders, Peter Brotzmann and Hamid Blake.

Also, I tagged all the tracks with their correct names, but if my computer decides to fuck me again like it loves to do, here:

A1	Sast Demanio	9:23
A2	Makawyah	11:06
B1	Ed Zalba	12:09
B2	Ya Jawadi (My Horse)	8:32

Doug Theriault & Jeph Jerman - Red, Water (Fargone Records, 2004)

Jeph Jerman is an artist interested in natural sounds and possibilities of transforming them. So he often improvise using objects like sticks, leaves, shells, stones (for example in Animist Orchestra which he founded) or record ants walking on the contact mike. But he has also created collage tape-music under Hands To moniker. He was involved in the ensembles like City of Worms, Blowhole. His frequent collaborators include: John Hudak (in Domaine Poetique project), Greg Davis, Albert Casais and Doug Theriault.

This last one we hear here as he is doing "processing, real time" (while Jerman is credited with "field recordings, digital"). Theriault often works with live electronics system and self-made instruments.

"Red, Water" is a one track, 40+ minutes and as the title suggests you will hear water sounds. It's pleasant but not some new-age-max-relax bullshit. Trough various transformations, editing methods which Jerman and Theriault used we are often reminded that what we hear is just recorded sound, not "reality".

Released in 75 copies so, yes - you guessed right! out of print now.

Art Fleury - The Last Album (No-Sense, 1981, ripped from LP)

Art Fleury were an italian band from Brescia composed of young musicians politically active with the extreme left, which brought them somehow closer to Area and to tour with Henry Cow. After Die Schachtel re-printed their first album I luoghi del potere (in a fantastic package with an exhaustive booklet), some attention was brought again upon them, but unluckily their other LPs are still unavailable. If I luoghi del potere, conceived as a sort of soundtrack for a post-industrial social incubus, was as abstract as a thick soundscape (which brought someone to compare them with Faust - but they are much more closer to This Heat according to me), in The last album there are more decisive intrusions of post-punk, as declination of different genres à la mode in sarcastic and decadent/apocalyptic forms. The last track could almost appear in a caraibic compilation, but if it's the Carribean sea we meet here for a while, we realize that in this context it is nothing but the post-nuclear experiments one, as the album title itself reveals. If you liked This Heat's Deceit or you're in love just like me with Bruce Conner's movie-collages, don't miss this at all.

I'm waiting for a CD re-edition of this, but til then let's be content of this rip from vinyl:
the last album


P.S.: take some time, if you like, to consider also about the cover. It seems to me like an assisted readymade, with that b/w photo in which whitened primary colors intrude, randomly associated but purposefully connecting the boys with band name/album title, and the burgeoisie's symbols and walls mining their health and innocence.

Albergo Intergalactico Spaziale - Albergo Intergalactico Spaziale (1978)

I can't find information on this album, at least not with this spelling. If you happen to have insight, please put it in the comments. From what I can gather, this is experimental ambiance mixed with vocals. Not unlike a late-70s Italian counterpart to Sylvia Hallett or Scott Walker, with 'Ode to Joy' flourishes in a couple spots. Very spaced out, very empty at times, but the textures are great, as is the sequencing. Let me know what you think, and especially what you know!

György Ligeti & Steve Reich - African Rhythms: Etudes N° 16, 17 & 18 - Music For Wood - Clapping Music (Teldec Classics, 2003)

I admit, this is a lot to take in. Rather beautiful songs based on African tribal music, and, even more excitingly, compositions of hand claps, all interspersed with Gyorgy's striking piano etudes. I don't know what else to say, but African rhythms and clapping music by Ligeti and Reich should be enough...

Grit - Expanse (Shoreless, 2008)

I'm still in the right mood for checking out all the releases for 2008 so as to accomplish my year end list mission.

This is the record by Grit, one of the finest deep/abstract dub techno collections for 2008. Beautiful soundscapes and very nice layering of dub/ambience atmosphere; a versatile record that you can chill with or as the background music for latenights meditations, late night driving or a good companion while enjoying your black coffee. For fans of Gas, Basic Channel, Pole, Yagya, Bvdub, Quantec, all those-ambient-dubtechno-chains, - a beautiful album to keep an eye on :)

Ram Narayan - Sonorous Strings of Sarangi (Oriental, 1997)

Ram Narayan is noted as the Sarangi connoisseur in Hindustani classical music. Basically, it's a type of Indian lute that you play with a bow and was originally used as a backdrop in vocal music. Narayan, however, brought it to the forefront, and this collection of songs is a great example of the beautiful, swelling drones he managed to create with the instrument. The 40-minute track here, Gujr Todi Vilambit Gat in Teental, is the best illustration of his genius I have heard: deep sounds that resonate and powerfully accumulate more successfully than anything I've heard of doom metal or what have you (an odd comparison to make, though you might get what I mean after listening, maybe). That said, Narayan's talent at the instrument, as he slides over the strings, is truly astounding. From his work alone, the sarangi has become possibly my favourite classical Indian instrument, and though there are conventional characteristics here rhythmically (plus the shorter track almost recalls Shankar's sitar playing, I think), this is true innovation.

Abida Parveen - Chants Soufis du Pakistan (Maison de Cultures du Monde, 1995)

The greatest collection of songs (Qawwal, ghazal and kafi) I have heard from this amazing Pakistani vocalist. The comparisons with Nusrat are fairly adequate; every track on here is spiritually impassioned and delivered perfectly. The first song, the sole Qawwal (traditionally male territory), is as infectiously rhythmic as Aziz Mian and venturesome in both it's (almost narrative) build-up and the resultant journey it propels unto thee listener.

For fans of: Baboo. Wait, nobody does these anymore...

NHK - Unununium (Raster-Noton, 2008)

After listening to NHK, (Japan's Kouhei Matsunaga and Toshio Munehiro) i've immediately edited my top10s of 2008. This is going to be the SICKEST i've heard from Raster-Noton, brain frying rough 2step-techno , very distorted glitches, from the likes of Anstam, Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio, Autechre to Merzbox, this is an ultra heavyweight of NHK-ox. And did i mention that Kohei has so far worked with Merzbow, Asmus Tietchens, and Mika Vainio? Unununium is the game, completes the assault of terrornoise audio.

Zak Riles - Zak Riles (Important Records, 2008)

A gorgeous collection of guitar-based instrumental by Zak Riles, key member of the post-rock outfit Grails. This solo record is a nice compendium to Grails' heavier side and some compositions engage beautiful instrumental prog-rock/Eastern modalities, the successful trademark which made it sound so original and meditative in a good way. (notice the mesmerizing folky guitar patterns reminiscent of John Fahey and James Blackshaw).This debutant release holds a special place in my heart and also making my 2008 charts beams happily :))

8rolek - Ptak mechaniczny ep (Mik.musik.!., 2001)

Your first Polish lesson? So listen carefully: "ptak" means "bird", "mechaniczny" means "mechanical", "ep" means "ep". 8rolek is a guy from Poland called Bartek Kujawski. This is his firs record, it was released in 2001 by great (now, sadly, kinda defunct) Mik.musik.!. label as a limited cd-r (110 copies, so now of course oop). Almost 8 year passed and in my opinion it is still one of the strongest records from this country.

If it isn't enough for you to download it, I can give more: birds' voices maybe aren't birds' voices, maybe they were created, not sampled. That would make sense as for the title, or maybe real birds are caged in the distorted rhythms and fragments of cold noises? Each of the eight tracks has many layers, many events going on, interacting with each other, in some moments interrupting.

Not simillar but like a halfway between less complex Autechre and less melodic Sonig stuff.

Alan Morse Davies - The Last Summer (2008)

Here is a free album that was submitted by the artist to the KiC group page. You can download it here (alternate link below). This fine record has made it on my year-end list, and for good reason. You won't find more gorgeous voices, more purely piercing tones anywhere else this year. As his page explains, these are formerly popular pieces stretched and distorted into a melancholy slow march. Each peak is sharp, and each downward movement is slow and breathtaking.

I suppose I would call this ambient, but it is not because it is short pads, or synth washes, but because it takes so long to develop. In this way, it is ambient in the loose way Phil Niblock or William Basinski is ambient. A fantastic record that needs more exposure.

Pure love.

Yasunao Tone - Solo for Wounded (Tzadik, 1997)

Hey dude that CD is scratched throw it away, may be the attitude this frivolous recycle phobic consumer society we live in. Yasunao Tone however sees things differently, because for him a starched CD is his instrument allowing him to produce music more glitchy and infinitely more randomised than the human mind itself could possibly produce. Solo For Wounded is much less harsh than other work of course much less harsh than his live Melbourne performance which saw 2/3’s of the usually avant-garde savvy crowd walk out, however it still showcases his sounds well and gives you a good idea what sort of this strange music 73 year old 4’11” Japanese man makes.

Pain Jerk & John Wiese - Mental Peace Liberation Front (Meatbox Records, 2007)

One of the three great collaborations these noise cats have done with one another. If their names don't mean anything to you then I guess I should explain their backgrounds but I won’t because I imagine you may not like it if you haven’t heard of either John Wiese or Pain Jerk. Then again you may be thinking you’d like to prove me wrong, so go ahead download this just to spite me, I dare you.

Mike Shiflet & Jessica Rylan - Disguised As Librarians (Troniks, 2006)

I’ve always felt the Jessica Rylan (Can’t) looked a lot like a librarian to begin with so it obviously much effect for her at least to adopt that disguise in order to record this collaborate with Mike Shiflet. An album packaged simply in Troniks standard pin-up girl cardboard slipcase with but a few words on a sticker to distinguish it from the releases in Troniks budget Cd-r series, stands as some of my favourite work from either artist. This album is not so much noise as it is an abstract collection of sounds reminding me in parts of Ryoji Ikeda a Pauline Oliveros collaboration that has never existed.

The 150 Murderous Passions - The 150 Murderous Passions (United Dairies, 1981)

The 150 Murderous Passions is a one time collaboration between Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) and William Bennett (Whitehouse). Likely the best thing Bennett ever did, well at least in the 80s, this record is a mixture of Stapleton’s complex and innovative production style and music creation, and Bennett’s simple but immensely effective power electronics.

C.C.C.C. - Test Tube Fantasy (Ant-Zen, 1994)

A good introduction to the brilliance that is japanoise group C.C.C.C. Test Tube Fantasy captures two snippets of a live performance in 1994. The sound on this release is a dense wall of noise predating the style of acts like The Cherry Point and The Rita, with sonic almost psychedelic undertones which hint at the direction Hiroshi Hasegawa would eventually go musically as Astro.