Hello Friends,
It's Bandcamp Friday again, there is lots and lots and lots and lots of good stuff being poured out,
and we are taking a look at that and doing some short reviews.
Material from any genre, any style, techno, non-techno, pop, not-pop, electronic, non-electronic, overground, underground... well, more of the underground variety, you know!
So let's go!
Note: No AI was used in writing this text.
2nd Note: Some artists / labels release their albums a few days earlier to get a head-start to Bandcamp Friday, and a few of them have been reviewed here as well (tee-hee!)
Xerxes The Dark - Abandoned Station https://xerxesthedark.bandcamp.com/album/abandoned-station
Did you know? Iran has a great underground scene for strange, experimental, mostly ambient electronic music. In fact, it is one of the best scenes in the world for this type of music, often much better than its "western" counterparts.
I didn't know, but I know now. (Or rather, I know it for a few years now).
Xerxes The Dark is connected to this, and, oh my god, this release is so good, it makes me wanna drool and drift to a relaxing meditative sleep where I face my inner fears, and then conquer them (or, even better, become friends with them).
The press blurb itself states that "Once aboard, you’ll discover an otherworldly sanctuary—abandoned yet alive with echoes of past travelers." and yes, this is a very fitting description of this album.
All thumbs up for this one!
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies - Halloween: The Complete Expanded Collection
https://johncarpentermusic.bandcamp.com/album/halloween-the-complete-expanded-collection
From Xerxes The Dark we slide to John Carpenter, and this makes sense, because both mark two points on a trajectory in music. Xerxes The Dark might represent the new generation, the present day, and John Carpenter might be considered to be a pioneer, right at the beginning of dark ambient music.
Yes, he was / is not only a director of wonderful movies like "they live" and "mouth of madness" (and also acclaimed classics like Halloween and the thing (1982)), he is a great musician, too.
And yes, there was ambient and electronic music before him.
But let's face it. These were all hippies. All of them, no exception.
And this is not a bad thing, I nurture my inner hippie as well.
But because of this, early ambient electronic music was all about being fluffy, good vibrations, (free) love (okay, there were *some* exceptions to this).
But Carpenter was one of the first to fuse real, gritty, visceral horror and panic into "ambient" music - the stuff he did for his film scores.
People like me still live on this legacy.
The press blurb informs us that:
"John Carpenter’s soundtracks for the most recent Halloween trilogy, made alongside his frequent collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, marked the legendary director and composer’s return to film scoring after nearly two decades away."
Night in Athens - Withr https://nightinathens.bandcamp.com/track/withr-feat-skelesys
Night in Athens is one of my favorite new synth pop / wave bands, or rather, one that I newly discovered.
Despite their name, they are not from Greece, but hailing from East London.
there is a lot of synth wave and indie pop these days, but their music is special to me, because it makes me really feel as if I would be walking through the city of Metropolis from the eponymous movie, traversing the stairway in a painting by M.C. Escher, or being pulled into the continuum-come-alive by author and editor Hugo Gernsbeck.
According to the blurb, this single release tells the story of a withred love (sic!). and I believe them.
Nox Arcana - Darkfall https://noxarcana.bandcamp.com/album/darkfall-vol-4
Nox used to be super prolific, releasing one album after the next, within mere months.
They became more "silent", so it's good to get an audible life sign by the band.
Fans of the band know what to expect: dark ambient / dungeon wave, that feels more cinematic than most of their peers, and is built on complicated, semi-detuned melodies.
L0sss - Hour Tree https://deadwitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hour-tree
On Australian label "Dead Witch Recordings".
We get told that these are tracks "from the bones of scattered and ashen sound".
Black Metal that is so distorted, lofi, repetitive and sparse, that it already begins to sound like dark ambient and noise. Meditative and soothing - in an unsettling way (or in a soothing way, if you like to get unsettled).
(i mean all of the above in a positive sense, btw)
Snooper - Worldwide
https://snooper7.bandcamp.com/album/worldwide
Can you not love Snooper? Their music has been described as "egg punk", a genre term I never heard before actually.
In the end it is adorable, lo-fi produced rock/pop with drum machines and guitar sounds. Giving off a vibe as if a bunch of friends just happened to be in a room together, and jamming with their instruments, and then accidentally releasing an album out of this. Which might very much be close to the truth!
Also check Snooper's videos on their Youtube and other channel, which definitely give off 90s early internet vibes,
Josie - A Life On Sweets Alone https://josieband.bandcamp.com/album/a-life-on-sweets-alone
"My boy takes flight, sha la la la, meet me in the sky, sha la la la". I've been humming these lines for weeks now, in anticipation of this release. Because that chorus is so damn catchy! (It's in the song "My Boy and I").
Youtube had thrown the video by the band in my face, and I was insta-hooked. It's apparently on an important label out of the 90s.
I think what is going down is this: three or four people met, in one beautiful Scandinavian evening. They chilled and talked and said: "Hey, do you know what the world dearly needs? A resurrection of the lighter side of that whole 1990s alternative rock, grunge, indie punk thing". And they all agreed. And this is what you see here. And this is what you get.
(MurderCapital M-016) - Challenging Music For Challenged Minds https://viewlexx.bandcamp.com/album/murdercapital-m-016-challenging-music-for-challenged-minds
Attributed to a spurious "The Chloroform Bingo Band", which I guess is either Interr-Ferrence or any of the other The Hague dirty electroheads in disguise.
The Hague's dirty electro scene (a scene which I mentioned in the sentence that preceded this one) somehow managed to survive the self-irony / self-parody hipster hype of the early Millennium that elevated them to world wide (in)fame, and which they helped to fuel with their often very cheesy and and over the top retro 80s aesthetics and sounds, and which crashed shortly afterwards.
I have a feeling that this release should not be taken too serious either, but it's also quite mature. Dance / Club Techno type beats (or maybe there is a more specific micro-genre term involved that evades my knowledge) that still channel some of the psychiatric mania of the early Bunker Acidcore days in The Hague with Unit Moebius and all their friends.
(In small doses)
The Geezer / Dabih303 / DJ Mente / Bubbless & Nesbit - Now's The Time (Acid Techno) https://flatlifeultra.bandcamp.com/album/nows-the-time-amrw001-acid-techno
That the words "acid techno" are literally included in the title of the release should be a big indicator.
This is what you hear, this is what you get.
Well-produced, kickin, drivin, slidin, acid and techno sounds that make you either rave around the dancefloor, or your living room.
Umwelt - Echoes of a Broken Future EP - NF33 - New Flesh / Rave or Die Records
https://newfleshrecords.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-a-broken-future-ep-nf33-preorder
Do you hail the new flesh?
Umwelt has always been one of my favorite Electro-Funk producers, and on his journey, he cooked up other styles, ate them up, and digested them as well, for example Techno, Oldschool Rave, and most recently, Hardcore+Gabber.
So there is really a type of new flesh that had been formed, and I like this release very much!
Tantra Noir - Rupture https://zarathustraxxi.bandcamp.com/album/rupture
A side project by Zarathustra XXI, which is an experimental music collective in Munich, Germany, according to bandcamp info.
Germans always had a taste for the more sleazy side of life, but, surprisingly, these are very mature ambient and industrial / electronic sounds. Makes me think of both Tangerine Dream and Bohren & der Club of Gore - in small slices.
But as the sounds drone on, I indeed began to sense the build-up of a dark Tantra. Nomen est Omen, after all!
Hubrid - Cosmic Gens https://hubrid54.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-gems
It is in my opinion that at least in terms of electro / synth wave, the production skill and values of "smaller" artists are on par with heavyweights like Vitalic or Messier 83.
And I don't think it's Hubris to state that (pun intended).
The blurb says that "COSMIC GEMS est une odyssée sonore interstellaire qui mêle mélodies éthérées, synthétiseurs spatiaux et atmosphères contemplatives" and yes, yes, I readily go d'accord with that one!
.webp)
