The Infant Cycle – plays fender bass guitars and bird cages of unknown origin. Exclusively. : Ambient / Experimental / Instrumental

Reviewed by Gird_09

From the very get go this cd reminds me positively of the most ambient tracks by Loop Guru, a project I really love. It's intoxicatingly calm and soothing, and I might even add meditative. Not in the new age sense, but in a "I want to listen to this while solving intricate logic puzzles, because it would help me concentrate". This is not an album that will have you humming or singing refrains but it will lower your heartbeat and make your life ten minutes longer. In fact, listening to this album over and over for the rest of your life might be the secret the Taoist alchemists were after: the key to eternal life. Pretty neat huh?

The album title is quite descriptive of what you get. There's bass melodies in the bottom, and various other sounds floating around. I severly doubt those distant choirs I hear are bird cages, but who am I? Doesn't really matter. The music works, and I like it.

There are three tracks on the album, and they're all quite short. Well, the second one is anyway, the other two are of decent length. Perhaps I should call it an E.P. Maybe even a single? These categories are basically of theoretical interest only and I'll stick to calling it an album, cos quite simply, that's what it feels like. Despite the modest running time, it feels like something very complete. Couldn't have been longer, without feeling forced. It's right the way it is.

I guess that's pretty much all I need to say about that. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

2010, the Ceiling Undiscs, CD album,

http://theinfantcycle.com/
http://www.theceiling.ca/

1 Shiny Venus (over s.st) [6:04]
2 Shiny Venus (detail 1) [1:15]
3 Shiny Venus (detail 2) [5:38]

Kuldvas - The Lightless Path: Ambient /Experimental/black metal

Reviewed by Gird_09

Kuldvas claims to be a type of black metal. Not sure I can agree with that. It takes a wee bit more than distorted guitar and liberal use of tritones. Granted, the type of distortion used is classic and perfect, but the guitar playing is far from inspiring for the most part of the album, and the best parts are nowhere near black metal in any way shape of form.

The first track is a complete waste. The guitar is unsteady and feels a bit labored. I have to be completely honest and say that the overall impression is amateurish rather than experimental. Skip it. The second track is slightly more exciting and the guitar is somewhat sinister and the melodies have some atmosphere in them. Still I feel the track lacks depth, and sounds more like a demo from a guitarist to his band. It could be a good basis for a really heavy song, but the way it is now it sounds like someone's passing time. Sadly it is the shortest track of the album. I'm not going to write about every single track, but the impression you get from these two unfortunately counts the for the rest of the album as well. The music is flat and I really miss more instruments. Some drums certainly would be welcome. At times the guitar playing is atmospheric and skilled, at other times it sounds like something I could plunk out. And believe me, I can't play guitar to save my life.

Of all the tracks I'd say number six, Last Branch has the greatest potential. It's structured and atmospheric and could work well as an instrumental track on its own, or with some more layers added. Still, like the rest of the album it sounds unfinished. The final track, Beyond the Horizon, could also work well. It sounds like a blend between a ballad by Metallica and Stanely Myers' music for the Deer Hunter. It's a good ballad, and should be further developed.

After having made music for quite some time now I've learned that what sounds good when you're messing around with sounds in your own room doesn't necessarily sound good to other people. It might be fun to play around, but that doesn't mean it's a finished product.

I'd say that the person behind Kuldvas should recruit some more people and start a band, or atleast bide his time and gain some experience before putting out more stuff. I might be very harsh in this review but this album is not a finished product. The tracks are sketches and need alot of work before they should be distributed to the general public. Giving away music for free doesn't mean you can expect people to listen to just anything. As a guitarist he is obviously skilled, but nowhere near as skilled as to let the guitar carry a whole album, with some occasional experimentation to make it interesting. Come back later.


USA, free download, 2010

1 A walk in the day
2 Uncertainty
3 Gone in forests forgotten
4 An incessant fear
5 Shadows in the mist
6 Last Branch
7 Sinking in the decay of sanity
8 Amidst the trees
9 Lost eternally
10 Beyond the horizon

http://www.myspace.com/kuldvas

Schuster - Breaking down into his oblivion : Experimental / Ambient / Drone / Dark Ambient

Reviewed by Gird_09


I imagine myself flying over the antarctic. Low, in a small aircraft. The sunlight is reflected off the cold snow and ice, and it's almost blinding me. Beneath the wings a vast emptiness is unfolding, and stretches on forever. No real features, but an endless white plain beneath an endless blue sky. This is the feeling I get from listening to the opening of Breaking Down into his oblivion. It's cold, it's minmalist and devoid of life (in a good way).

The first track of the album, "BD's lament", evolves so slowly you hardly notice time passing by, and suddenly you find yourself listening to soothing melodies supporting snippets of an obscure female voice telling me "He's breaking down to his own oblivion". The track may not be as dark as it promises to be, but that is certainly soon ammended.

The second track is by far the longest, at over 20 minutes, and gives the listener time to fully explore the universe Schuster provides us with. "I am living in my own corpse" is an ominous and perhaps depressing title for the track, but it fits. I fully enjoy the extreme minimalism of it and find myself breathing slower and easier. There is an unsettling element to this track however. By now we've clearly landed and are in fact spelunking in a vast cold maze. The tiny little squeeks in the background of this track makes me think of birds and other small animals. Ugly birds with blind eyes and no feathers on their stark red heads. Their shrill voices are accompanied by distant sounds of humans subjected to some unknown torture. Perhaps medical experiments. It's getting evident that we're no longer in the arctic, but somewhere underneath the wind blasted plateu of Leng, and this cavernous structure should be left alone. I love it. It's the perfect cross between Lovecraft and Biosphere. There is no doubt that this is my favorite track of the album.

The glitchy and syncopated beats that start "Your house is marked" catches me off guard. The change of style is quite surprising, but the track manages to fit in regardless. The mood and theme is the same as that of the first two tracks. Still if I had to leave out a track it would have to be this one. After this break of pace however "Manasarovar" is ready to calm you down once more with it's mongolian style drones and massive crash cymbals. Considering the fact that I've allready been teleported to Lovecraftian realms by "I am living in my own corpse" the mysticism of this track is highly unsettling. No longer in the arctic, but in a desert, surrounded by broken pillars and ancient ruins. Still the landscape is mostly flat and featureless, and I have a feeling of being completely isolated. The final track "Burdened" is a good ending to the album. Like the other tracks it has it's own personality but fits well into the overall scheme of the album. The desperation of the voice sample in the background adds depth to the track, and serves as a good reminder of the fucked up world we live in. If we ever needed one...

If I have to say something negative about the album as a whole I'd say that it's slightly long. I know people want as much sound as possible for their money, but I think anything that happes after fifty minutes is superfluous. It's hard to maintain full concentration for that long, and there are few albums that prove me wrong in this assumption. Personally I'd consider breaking this album into two different releases, and keep the fans wanting more, rather than giving them too much.


Australia, Adept sound, CD album, 2010

1 BD's lament [10:59]
2 I am living in my own corpse [20:40]
3 Your house is marked [9:05]
4 Manasarovar [9:01]
5 Burdened [8:38]

http://www.myspace.com/ltschuster (Where several of the tracks can be sampled.)
http://www.adeptsound.net/

The Implicit Order – The Implicit Order : Ambient, Experimental,

Gird_09

We recently mentioned the Implicit Order in our review of the Mystified remix album, where they contributed four excelent tracks. It's a tough act to follow, but I have to say that their own release is even better. The first track starts with drones before going into a landscape of nostalgic melodies and slight distortion that makes me think of the summer rain trickling along multicolored stone walls in some iteration of an urban landscape. This fragmentary melancholy persists throughout the recording, showing us bits and pieces of something very familiar that still manages to seem very displaced. Cutlery laced with analogue strings and children playing in the background. Oddments sampled from documentaries and bouts of glitch, and simplistic analogue melodies that are followed by atonal choirs and minute sounds in buckets of reverb. It's a good mix of plunderphonics, found sounds and self composed pieces, all deftly manipulated into a whole.

The album is very short, but it's a good way to land after a day full of stress. There is nothing dark here, and nothing demanding. It's as if the world around you has been reappropriated and recontextualized to form a sonic chair for your relaxation. I say, try it on. I think you'll like it. When it's over I feel calm and strangely happy – contrasting sharply with the track titles and the Columbine connotations they contain. I'm certainly not dissapointed though. I guess murdering your class in homeroom doesn't have to be all dark and negative. All in all it's nothing ground breaking or ground shaking, but it's certainly something you should give a try. It's worth it.

The recording is available for free download here, and readily available. I just wish it was longer, as the entire thing ticks in at just around 17 minutes.

USA, CD Download, suRRism Phonoethics, 2010

1 Blind Youth
2 Dumb Generation
3 School Lunch
4 Dewy Fields
5 Murder in Homeroom

http://phonoethics.com/
http://www.myspace.com/wholenessrecordingstheimplicitorder

Telecult Powers – Return to the Psychic Dancehall : Drone / Noise / Ambient

Reviewed by Gird_09

The recording starts off in a way that sounds accidental and seriously lo-fi. Deeply analogue drones and a pulsing sine wave builds slowly into an increasingly dirty soundscape. The music sounds old, perhaps worn, and in the age of software synths this is a pleasant break. Like something sourced from hidden a tape vault. It makes me think of radioactive reel to reels, accidentally capturing sounds from a vast Soviet nuclear reactor and then slowly deteriorating for years, before finally being rescued and preserved in the early twentyfirst century. Few contemporary recordings manage to convey a feeling of tangible sounds the way this one does.

The second track, a compliment to Michael Bertiaux, is a natural continuation of the first, and while it starts off a bit more directly than the first it also builds for nearly half and hour before ending, perhaps abruptly. You can nearly hear the machines working in the background, and there is nothing remotely human about this music – despite its vitality and tactile surface.

Evidently the music is inspired by William Blake, Khalid Ibn Yazid and August Strindberg. Ufortunately I can't say I know much of Yazid both Blake and Strindberg have impressed me greatly over the years. Recognizing this inspiration provides a passageway into the contents of the music, and reminds me of a quote by the author Knut Hamsun where he described his literary programme. To convey "'the whisper of the blood and the pleading of the bone marrow". This music is surely about the blood and marrow in a very profound and physical way. The music feels alive and dynamic, despite its minimalist nature. Khalid, Blake and Strindberg (as well as Bertiaux) were all mystics with an interest in the occult, and while this music is in no way overtly occult it could perfectly serve as a backdrop to a Strindbergian purgatory, where modern morality and dogmas are burned away by alchemical fire.

Though I personally enjoy the music immensly there is a chance that it could fall on dry ground where casual listeners are concerned. The genre Telecult Powers operates in is certainly not the broadest one, and there is little new here. Still Return to the Psychic Dancehall is absolutely worth a listen or five, and I can easily imagine that hearing something like this live would be very powerful.

The cover matches the music perfectly. Recorded on cassette with a cover that nearly screams "anti comercial" in its demo-execution. The deified pharaonic cobra captures the regal stoicism of the music. The serpent is of course also a symbol of wisdom and secrecy, and coupled with the two egyptian crowns it wears the reference to gnostic mysticism is obvious.

USA, Snake mysteries, Cassette, 2010

http://www.myspace.com/telecultpowers

Tracks:
1 I was a teenage temple prostitute [27:18]
2 A compliment to Michael Bertiaux [27:10]

Infinite Inertia – Springtime Nevermore : Ambient / Dark Ambient

Reviewed by Gird_09

The title of the album, as well as the opening track, is Springtime Nevermore, and that is just the mood the recording evokes, from the very first note: eternal winter. In this respect the music reminds me of Biosphere, but the textures are different. I guess you can say that the music is more tactile and less inviting. The time you've spent treking across the frozen wastes with Biosphere will serve well to prepare you for the frozen remnants of human civilization of Infinite Inertia. To me this is simply perfect as this music makes me happy and fuzzy inside, cos it reminds me that the winter is approaching. This summer is finally over, and I hope I never have to experience one more of those.

The music is subtle, restrained and very relaxing. It's also quite complex in terms of instrumentation and arrangements. While there is nothing "in your face" with regards to complexity you can hear that there is a lot of attention to minutae behind the final product. In many ways Infinite Inertia has more in common with musicians like Brian Eno and Biosphere than your generic dark ambient. For this reason I would be reluctant to call the album dark ambient, though it certainly is somewhere in that whole meditative, desolate and introvert landscape. Still the music is very open and free, as opposed to the sometimes smothering or cavernous underground moods of dark ambient. Listening to this album is like having a cold grey sky as your only ceiling.

The track titles are highly evocative, and I must say that Seal of Kadath particularily tickled my fancy. H.P. Lovecraft's the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath remains one my favorite stories, and certainly one of Lovecraft's best. Thankfully the music fits the title too. It's easily the most unsettling of the tracks, and just the right track for sitting in a corner of the maze under mighty Kadath itself, trying to amass the courage to climb up there to demand audience with the gods. The track is quite simply black as a starless sky, and only Nyarlathotep's beckoning voice pierces the night. I love it.

All in all the music is incredible and the only element of the album I don't really like so much is the cover. Not because the cover is inherently bad, but because it doesn't fit the music very well. A field of warm red color and the chaotic overall design doesn't really connect well with the music. If I browsed the internet for arctic ambience, I certainly wouldn't download this, without knowing the music from before.

I'm definately putting this one on my mp3-player.

Tracks:
(Note that on the tracklisting accompanying the files the tracklisting is different. This tracklisting is given as per the mp3-tags.)
1 Springtime Nevermore
2 Timeless Grief
3 Moon Corridor
4 Seal of Kadath
5 Vampyrium
6 Cultural Downfall
7 Fondling wings of Fire
8 Lycaena Celare

Holland, 2010, Vulture has Landed, file download,

http://vulturehaslanded.blogspot.com/2010/08/infinite-inertia-springtime-nevermore.html

Verfallssymptom – Written in Blood : Industrial ambient / Power noise / Electronic Black Metal

Reviewed by Gird_09 and Batcheeba

We have no idea what kind of equipment he's used to produce his album, but it really takes us to countless hours spent in various basements with fasttracker II and other primitive equipment. Old school. In addition to the minimal electronic beats and phrases Verfallssymptom utilizes vocals very reminiscent of black metal in portions of the music. (And in fact black metal inspiration can be heard on several tracks.) This combination could easily land you in endzeit hell, but not on this release. The most similar music I have heard would be K.I.F.O.T.H.'s two first album, but certainly much more minimalist, less EBM-like, more scrapy and less disco friendly. But the comparison is certainly good.

The production is notably lo-fi, and one might expect Verfallssymptom to sound muffled and grungy, but he has a talent for finding sounds that fit together without turning into porridge. The drums carry the music steadily and with enough punch that the rest of the music can ride on top. The music is very introvert and doesn't ask for anyone's approval. It's not over produced in any way, and the focus is more on emotion than sound construction. While the two don't need to clash there is no doubt that if we have to chose we'll go for emotion any day. Especially when the content is as interesting as this. There is nothing we hate more than over produced trite.

There are two things we miss on this album though. There could have been more vocals, as Verfallssymptom's vocals really fit the music and adds depth. The instrumental tracks are certainly good on their own, but the vocal tracks were the best of the bunch. The other thing is that there are too many tracks on the album. At certain points we find ourselves losing concentration because some of the tracks are a bit similar to each other. Each single track is a killer track, but as an album it tends towards monotony in some portions. This is mostly a problem with the midsection of the album however, as both the first and last thirds of the album is one interesting track after another.

The coolest tracks on the album are definately on the last third. Abstraction, with its intensely noisy beat and drudging arrangements is a hard hitter and heavier than most anything we've heard. It has layers of distored sounds, noise, beats and all the while retaining Verfallsymptom's melodic sense. Inspiring. This one is certainly going to be played over and over. The track is followed by Stacheldraht and Written in Blood, which are ambient black metal tracks with electronic sounds. The vocals are intense and the melodies subtle, as well as the beats. Still it's consistent with the rest of the album. This is what Aphex Twin would sound like if he was into black metal. More of this! We beg you!

Verfallsymptom is kind enough to release his album free of charge through thee Brad Miller's Kill Your Godz (a blog we will certainly return to from time to time here). If you're sceptical to people who release their music for free, perhaps because you expect it's not good enough to meet the "high standards" of a record company, you should download this release and let it dispel any disbelief you might have.

Tracks:
1 Bigotte Hybris
2 Kollaterale Hysterie
3 Agapes Jahwist
4 DHKDF
5 Homogene Kontradikturie
6 Polyaeon
7 Todeskandidat
8 Abstraction
9 Stacheldraht
10 Written in blood
11 Gefilde der Tristesse
12 Misanalog

Germany, self released (file), 2008

http://www.myspace.com/verfallssymptom
http://theebradmiller.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/verfallssymptom-written-in-blood-2008/

Veil of Thorns – Necrofuturist: Electronic industrial / Industrial Ambient

Reviewed by Gird_09

I recently did a review of Veil of Thorns' Salon Apocalypse for Heathen Harvest, and I hope this is not the last time I get to do it. Veil of Thorns is P. Emmerson Williams' project since 1991, but the project also includes a long list of other musicians who are clearly adept at their various instruments. Williams is an experienced musician who's worked on a number of projects in different styles, as well as a very skilled visual artist. This is his first release on the legendary label Inner-X-Musick, recently resurrected after a lengthy absence.

The foundation for Necrofuturist is something in the vein of Skinny Puppy's more ambient tracks, firmly rooted in electronic industrial soundscaping, but without the emphasis on sculpting through samples from various media. The focus lies more on dense layers of instruments and skillfull arrangements. The album contains elements of a flurry of genres, even hip hop, blues, jazz and country and a consistent foundation in experimental rock music. Track six, Wailing Glass (perfect title) even conjures up a hint of funky off beat italian prog ala Goblin, with a touch of pure California surf riding on top. If there is such a thing as progressive industrial it has to be Veil of Thorns.

I have said it before but one element that really makes Veil of Thorns stand out against any background is Williams voice. The disparate landscapes form a backdrop for his strange disharmonious singing. He manages to convey a clear sense of confusion and alienation, and his vocals are more reminiscent of David Bowie than the common post industrial fare. In addition deft instrumentation and production makes every Veil of Thorns release worth listening to – and we certainly hope there are still many of those in store.

All this adds up to just what the title promises: observations of a dead future. Debris of western civilization, both plundered and home grown, floats around in a rusted cityscape of sounds for the listener to observe, almost as a time traveller of sorts. Necrofuturist is something like an archaeological account of the current state of affairs, at times comforting, at other times claustrophobic and harrowing. Pure underground gold, which is exactly where gold is found.

It's impossible to review a Veil of Thorns album without atleast a passing mention of Williams artwork. The cover for this release fits the genereal theme of the recording, with its stylized skull and trademark red and white colors. Hopefully we'll get to do an exclusive review of some of Williams other artwork in a future update here at Kaliglimmer, so stay tuned for that.

1 Thought Pollution Evolution
2 Through the Fire
3 the Vandals Exquisite Corpse
4 the Lifeless Trio Kept Planning
5 Wailing Glass
6 Waltz
7 Pleasure in Nightmare
8 Giving Ascent
9 Dancing Revelation
10 Let Loose Into That Good Mourning
11 The Reflection
12 Deny Fascination
13 The Only One Left
13 Die as One
14 Entertainments Subsume Concern
15 Head Up Get Out
16 the Dead Channel

USA, Inner-X-Musick, 2009

http://innerxmusick.wordpress.com/
http://www.veilofthorns.com/