Kalteldur top 10 of 2021

2019 was a hectic year, and 2020 was an even more hectic year (which explains the absence of a Kalteldur top 10 of 2020, for which I am sorry)... Nevertheless, here we are in 2021! And you know what?! IF you consider all the various teenage-mutant-corona-viruses creating havoc all around... it has actually been a much better year than the former one. People have had a lot more time with their music, and therefore they have created more for me to review. And "luckily" it has been extremely hard to create a top 10 list because there have been SO MANY GOOD RELEASES! Well... Let us not delay the show, I proudly present for you all The Kalteldur top ten of 2021! 

Number 10:

Jugendwerkhof - Leibenfamie

Low Life High Volume

The relentless aural punishment from this harsh-noise beast was hard to forget. A devastating metallic-grinding post-apocalyptic mess that will swallow you whole, leaving you absolutely drained of mental and physical energy when the album ends. I love the way how they have managed to sneak in the industrial sound into a harsh-noise setting, we could use more of that in the future! 

Number 9

Flow Control - Endless March

Elm Records

Ambient music is easy to make, hard to actually make it really good. Flow Control is a good example of that statement, which I actually think that Brian Eno once said in an interview somewhere. Endless March was... an endless album. The feeling of being completely isolated while the corona thing was going on, with a huge fire ravaging the landscape at the same time. It is a quiet and pleasant album, but with a kind of... silence before the storm which made the album kind of... unnerving in a memorable post-apocalyptic way. A brilliant ambient treat with a good conceptual idea.

Number 8:

The Secrete Society - Thee First Secrete

Marbre Negre

Dark and extreme electronic music is always a guarantee when dealing with such labels as Marbre Negre. Thee First Secrete is absolutely no exception. I even had a rather horrific experience listening to this tape with my Sony Walkman. It was all about a nighttime walk in nature, in a place I didn´t know. A place where the moon was high, and a minor storm was blowing through the trees around me. Well, the thing was that I was lost. So I ended up walking like 2 hours to relocate to my place of origin, which in my case was a summer vacation cottage in the outskirts of Denmark. For 2 hours I listened to this album in a state of growing anxiety, the album contained a certain kind of darkness that you could almost drown yourself into. Pretty gruesome and truly frightening industrial ritual music from your absolute worst Lovecraftian nightmare! As raw and dark as MZ.412 and as surreal and intense as Coil. That album was stuck in my mind for several months after that experience. 

Number 7:

Cities In Ruins - Athanor of Souls

MTRec Distribution

Cities In Runs came with a surprise. A rather deep one if you would ask me. We were all just talking about a mini-album with two tracks and an additional track which was just another version of the first track. The thing which came out of the speaker was truly something worth taking notice of. Engulfing melancholic dark-ambient moods with a kind of post-war´ish sort of setting. Imagine huge buildings being completely devoid of human presence, huge buildings/locations that once have been booming with activity and human life. Chernobyl if I should name a place, among other places as well. Ghosts and memories are all that this tiny album will haunt you with... and it leaves you with a strong impression. I actually think that if you have one of those tape-players that automatically flips the side, you could actually listen to this thing for hours without getting tired of it... it is that good people!

Number 6:

Monosymbiosis - 1

Realm of Sleep

´It was just a colour out of space´. The same thing I thought of when 1 by Monosymbiosis ended. It contained all the elements of the human imagination when considering the vastness of space, equally fascinating and equally frightening! A truly adventurous album with its cold, dismal, adventurous, and vast proto ambient/kraut-rock sound. Could be like traveling through the vastness of the great cosmos, or even through the human body. The whole album is like a pulsating living thing with huge space inside (a bit like the Tardis!). Go out and get it, and explore the worlds within!. 

Number 5:

Parthenfelder - Enduring To the End

Sektion1

In the veins of Anazephalia and Grey Wolves, the project Parthenfelder was something new to my ears. Immensely intense without aggression. Power electronics with a mood-before-action-approach so to speak. Works almost like a religious experience, like some radio channel through which God can speak. Quite epic stuff from the muddy and cold trenches of the first world war. When I had my job as a Corona-test-employee for the state, this tape was living permanently on my Walkman. Perfect for when you have a worldwide pandemic party going on! Best power-electronics release of 2021 here kids!.

Number 4:

Starless - Lezo

Despot

The album is as... mind-boggling as the cover itself. Surreal, free-styled, anarchic almost... sort of a space/room where ANYTHING can and will happen! It sounds like a bloody avant-garde mess when I am trying to describe it... but... there is a thin red line running through the entire recording... leading you through the chaotic schizoid landscape of sound! It is incredibly well achieved, and the electro-acoustic sound quality is absolutely gob-smacking! When the early exploits of the arty avant-garde meet the early industrial sort of. A classic to withstand the time for many years! 

Number 3

En Nihil - Time Destroys Everything

Deathbed Tapes

I must admit that I am a HUGE fan of death industrial. I am so huge fan of death industrial that I must admit that I do think that... too many acts are using that label to describe their music. 90% of the cases you end up with something which just doesn't fit the tag, you either end up with some Genocide Organ-wannabee screaming on top of their lungs or some death-metal band just messing around with electronics. En Nihil was no doubt the real fucking deal, absolutely and 100% true death industrial to the core (almost sounding like a metal dude now). En Nihil is also an act that goes way back to the mid-90s, so it was easy to hear (and experience) that we are dealing with someone being quite experienced in the specific field. Although not as known as either Brighter Death Now or Atrax Morgue, which in my case leaves me to say that En Nihil is an underrated act. Go and seek it out from Deathbed Tapes. 

Number 2:

Sokushinbutsu Project - 即身仏

I heard the entire album on a long bus trip on my Discman. While reading the highly detailed booklet, I entered into a mediative state of mind. I still do when I am hearing this übermensch sort of an album! So what is Sokushinbutsu Project about then?!. It´s not Japanese, it´s from Ithattaly by the way. It´s a concept album that revolves around a certain ritualistic practice done by Buddhist monks. Which in this case is self-mummification! Each track on the album is about the 4 stages which the monk has to endure to reach Nirvana.. which is actually death while meditating!. The difference between the real thing and this album is... you do not die while listening to the album, and this album only takes 50 minutes to get through... while the real deal takes about...3000 days!. A different beast to describe. Partly ritual-industrial with elements of experimental noise here and there, the whole album is completely beyond description. As extreme and otherworldly as the real deal!

Number 1:

Lyke Wake - At The End Of The Dream...

Aseptic Noise

I never thought that Lyke Wake could outdo something as good as the former album Crawling Through The Abyss. Crawling Through also managed to get it the best of 10 in 2018 as number 5. This one actually took my breath away (And my feet). Abysmal synthy stuff, imagine if John Carpenter did a soundtrack for a Argento flick in the 70s! And again, it´s Lyke Wake. He has his own personal style and sound. Creating angelic melodies with esoteric industrial noise on top of it. No one does it better. He even managed to add some deep and ceremoniously female vocal parts on the album as well, which sounds really... incredible gob-smacking. I am so glad that I have been fortunate to hear this incredible album, an absolute masterpiece!  

 

 

 

 Starless - Lezo

Another release from a new label called Despot (see former review, Edward Sol). This one was released as an only-digital album back in May 2020 on Kathacomb, and then later on it was released on Despot in 2021 as a limited cassette release. This release features an act called Starless, and behind this act, we have a Yuri Samson which also has another project called Kadaitcha (which Kalteldur reviewed back in 2019). Whereas Kadaitcha was a murky drone and dark ambient kind-of-a-beast. Starless seems more in the free-styled electro-acoustic/avant-garde-sound. Lezo is the second release/album with this project, the project´s cassette debut was released back in 2013 on Quasi Pop Records. Please note that the release isn´t on Despot´s Bandcamp page (for reasons unknown), but can be listened to/purchased via the Bandcamp site for Khatacomb. 

The first track on the A-side called Entro (think it´s the same as... Intro) starts the track off with interesting free-jazzy clarinets, evocative guitar-work, and pulsating electro-noise.  Couldn´t help thinking about some of the most experimental recordings by Cabaret Voltaire and Controlled Bleeding here. Good to hear that someone uses real instruments once in a while. 

The next track Lezo offers pulsating white and pink noise, distorted old-school sounds (Throbbing Gristle kind of sound), and some mind-bending kind of percussion... plastic tubes? Z´ev fans anyone? Again, in the sort of experimental sound approach so far, sounds very unique and personal. Lovely atmospheric and organic sound, very old-school industrial feel to it (notice the ritualistic vocals here people!). 

The third track with the mysterious title Chudovys´ka brightens your mind and ears with a throbbing sound that sounds like... a tiny smurf/gnome clapping very fast inside your ear! Sounds ridiculous I know, but it actually sounds good. Eerie atmospheric sounds creep in from behind, while a strained and mechanized human being makes creepy sounds in the background. Spooky and distorted doom-trumpets are being present as well! A very nightmarish sort of a track, cannot help thinking of William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch here. So far this album is FULL of surprises!

We flip the cassette and continue with the fourth track called Kvitten´. Still in the area of how dreams actually sound like, if you think about it. How the scenes inside your sleeping mind change like some weird cut-up movie/soundtrack. There are moments on this track that seems gentle, but quickly it changes into something rather horrific/terrifying. A very schizoid track indeed, but a good thing that all the individual recordings stick together (in some twisted way). Again, this album keeps surprising me in a very good way. It´s the art of making a bad trip a good trip going on here!. 

The fifth track on the B-side is called Inshiy. Haunting piano notes and intense evocative moods. The perfect soundtrack for a ghost story here. Love the reversed recordings going on... and that slightly angelic feel going on. Not sure if this is heaven or hell here, or both at the same time. Angels to some, devils to others I guess. The sounds, in the end, mechanized rumblings from some weird machine with ghosts inside... brilliant!. 

The last and sixth track is called Saga. Mysterious Ukrainian spoken words, percussions, and clarinets. An evocative piece that again sounds like something from a movie, imagine a Ukraine film-noir with a hard-boiled detective. He doesn't speak in a tone that his desire is to make people happy, but more in the way of just telling how things REALLY are. Like that hard-boiled detective telling you the secrets of the town of a bottle of bourbon. A very good recording, if Laibach would do something similar like this then I might consider listening to them again! Very very very good!

A 100% brilliant album with all the tracks being good. Highly free-styled and experimental, but with a clear conceptual focus. The sound is incredibly good and well-recorded... you can almost taste the sounds in the mouth at times! The whole album sticks together like glue, but at the same time... each track is an independent piece in itself. Tons of reasons for you to check this album! For fans of Throbbing Gristle, Controlled Bleeding, and Laibach.

Bandcamp (Label):

https://khatacomb.bandcamp.com/album/lezo

Discogs (band):

https://www.discogs.com/artist/6022985-Starless-6

 

       

 

 Edward Sol - Almost Sugar

This time we are not dealing with either a new artist or a new side-project! This time we are dealing with someone who has been active for over 10 years. On top of that, he is also one of the leading key figures in the experimental industrial scene of Ukraine. A highly productive fellow he is. This tape is one of the newest which has been released by a new label called Despot. Limited to 30 copies! 2 tracks being 15 minutes long. 

The first track called Almost Sugar enters an almost clinical laboratory, the kind of place where modern alchemists work. The sound of hot bubbling liquid inside tubes, distorted synthy-drones, mechanical but organic sounds, and tiny metal balls rolling inside...something. As you can hear, a kind of track that not only opens your ears but your mind as well. 

Later on (in the background), we also have some haunting psychedelic sound of human voices forming words...highly mutated being beyond recognition. Also being present at this time, the sound of insect wings and pleasant high-pitched tones will completely hypnotize you!  A brilliant track offering a lot of styles in sound. It´s completely packed with different warped microscopic sounds (which you might subconsciously recognize!). 

The second track called Superdry People actually sounds like... something that sucks you dry? Imagine being kidnapped by aliens and having over 100 tubes on your arms and legs, sucking away the very stuff which keeps your mind alive. The whole thing (in the beginning), sounds... well dry! With a very eerie kind of... the sound of suction. I guess this is how it sounds when Lovecraft´s Colour Out of Space sounds like when it sucks dry the farm of Ammi Pierce, creating that blasted heath. A very alien-sounding experimental track, the kind of stuff that sticks into your ears and mind. Again, lots of adventurous stuff happening in just 15 minutes! My favorite moment is when the distorted/warped sound of fireworks goes on... brilliant!

What can I say? A mind-blowing album! A soundscape that keeps the listener more... curious. The sort of soundscape you want to escape into and explore... like some hidden world hidden from sight. Edward Sol has managed to create an album that pushes the boundaries and at the same time has kept a brilliant focus on where he wanted this album/sound to go. Just like space-traveling, Almost Like Sugar is... Brilliant Like Sugar!. 

Bandcamp (band):

https://edwardsol.bandcamp.com/album/almost-sugar

Bandcamp (label):

https://despotism.bandcamp.com/

Monosymbiosis - 1

Another interesting release, and another interesting side-project from one of my favorite experimentalists within the dungeon synth scene. Canadian J. Browne has been active for some time with tons of excellent underground releases, mainly from his own label Realm of Sleep. Monosymbiosis is one of them. His own introduction to this side-project is being described in the cover-artwork as:

6 Pieces of droning analog ambiance that will drag you into the great void between the galaxies.

That description takes me back to one of my other favorite outside dungeon synth acts. Swedish Rymdborg, another project which further explores the analog-driven thing between space-ambient and dungeon synth. 

This one is the debut of this project. A 52+ minutes 6 track cassette/tape album, limited to 20 copies (few left on the label´s Bandcamp site...so be quick!). 

The first track I (all the tracks are called by the numeric numbers). A hiss, a strange alien-noise streams out of your speakers. In contact with some strange alien entity that obviously can reach your speakers. Excellent low-fi analog ambient moods creep in from behind, while ritualistic aesthetics sink into your mind. It is a very cool and very mysterious first track. Very early Cold Meat Industry/Slaughter Productions sound here: Megaptera, Atrax Morgue, Morthhound, etc. I love it 100%

The second track II starts with a spacy slow drilling sound, cosmic bass-moans in the background as well. Do I feel a bit of cosmic horror with this one so far?... Yes, I do. Maybee, you cannot build a spaceship and travel with the speed of light, but you can just... listen to this track on your own couch. Excellent fusion of moody ideas here... really excellent!

The Third track III goes even deeper within the eye of the great cosmos. As Arthur C. Clarke once said:

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

This track should have captured that idea. The great vastness of it all. The heavy ambient electronics work like a charm here kids!.

The fourth track IV is the longest track here (12+ minutes long). Almost metallic-windy drones here, like when the wind blows through several steel pipes at the same time. It is a very haunting, minimal, and ghost-like track so far. Just imagine, derelict and ancient space-ships (of some kind) which have floated in space for millions of years!. So far the album gets... darker and darker, and vaster! Almost sensing a kraut-rockish sound at the end of this track (early Cluster).

I will end this review now, further information about the rest of the entire universe will melt your brain into a slimy pond. The last 2 tracks are good, as a matter of fact... the whole album is good! It´s heavy and incredibly adventurous the whole journey through. I will recommend repetitive listening, which heightens the experience (believe me!). A job well done, brilliant!

Bandcamp (label):

https://realmofsleeprecords.bandcamp.com/album/1

 Michael  Oscillate - Hyperbolic Hypnosis 

of Luminescence

Michael Oscillate is a new and fresh solo act on the dark-ambient/drone scene. He has been active since the late 2020s and has so far been very productive with 3 digital EPs, and 3 albums. The first album was digital, the next one got out on cassette and this one which is the latest has been released on a beautiful digipack via his own label Leafland Audio. An 8 track-full-length with eight tracks on it. 

The first track called Thermodynamic Redox sets the otherworldly ambient sound just right. A mysterious, slightly melancholic mood sets in. Icy and minimal like a quiet snow-covered landscape in the nighttime.   Humming weightless drones, frosty and glittering electronic glitch sounds, haunting AM radio voices, noisy space sounds like from some UFO going right over your head. Kind of an X-files-episode-kind of setting. Excellent intro by all means!  

The second track Serpentine Winds follows it nicely where the former track ended. A bit light and not as murky as the second one. Imagine how the sun sets over a frozen and snowy landscape. When frosty snowflakes evaporate into the thin air... creating a misty vapor for the sun to shine right through. A magical beautiful track that was.

The Third track Immunofluorescence starts with a creepy sort of intro, which then evolves into something... very deep and cosmic. A very surreal experience journey through sound. Acid-drenched analog sounds and lo-fi noise (in the background). A perfect soundtrack for one of those early Dr. Who episodes!. 

The fourth track DORgone begins with subtle and quiet moods. There is a very kind of organic feel going on here, anyone who is (still) having hard times believing that electronic music hasn´t a soul within could be convinced by this piece. A lot of lovely subtle things going on here, lots of quiet things for the trained ear to notice. I love this kind of adventurous ear candy! Something for fans of Biosphere here.

The fifth track Lonely Souls almost reminds me of Lycia. Sort of a melancholic and slightly harsh dark-wave/ambient track. Too bad the track is only a bit over 2 minutes long. Lovely and exquisite two minutes.

The sixth track Murmurs being also a short track further adds more of the X-Files sort of a mystery-soundtrack theme to the album. I love the way how Michael slides melodies into the experimental soundscape here. 

In the seventh track, Dislodge offers spoken words. If you are relaxing/chilling at this moment in a dark room, then you will be surprised by the filtered voice taking through your speakers (The same experience I had with an album with MZ.412). Interesting words to listen to ( if you ask me ). A very ritualistic sort of feel with this track.     

The last track Cloud Condensation With Resonation being the outro for the album and the longest track as well. Sounds of those... humming glass-like drones in some sacred temple of sorts, sounds of rain, and birds in the background. Sounds like you are sitting under a ceiling made out of tinplates (The raindrops have a slightly metallic sound to them). More or those temple-ritual gong-sounds going on later on. A very hypnotic track made for meditation, to further explore hidden areas of your mind. Might just be my favorite track on the album, an incredible ambient track here. 

A very cosmic but down-to-earth ambient treat for anyone who digs real ambient music.  Not wellness ambient music here, but something with an adventurous and surreal edge to it. And it feels like a 100% completed album that has a story to tell, the story starts in the beginning and ends with the end. Like a book, if you ask me. a book almost without words but with sound. Go check it out!

Bandcamp (band):

https://michaeloscillate.bandcamp.com/album/hyperbolic-hypnosis-of-luminescence

Official site :

http://michaeloscillate.com/

 Real Death / Gyakusatsu

We´re back again with another offering from Spanish Marbre Negre. This time we go head-to-head with two projects on a split cassette release. A project called Real Death and another called Gyakusatsu. Real Death is a very new project by Óscar A, which is the same guy behind the Gyakusatsu project...as well as being the mastermind behind the Marbre Negre as well! Each act shares the 2 sides of the cassette, and each project offers about 30 minutes of sound brutality. Not 100% sure if there is a focused concept behind the release, but the release does showcase some interesting graphical pictures on the front and inside. The front makes me think of Japanese folklore kind stuff, and the inside shows an ancient painting of a Japanese couple having sex while the wife reads a book?! Hmmm... Well... Maybe the sounds within could reveal more?

The first track with the project Real Death has a track called Lucifer´s Rebirth. The intro of the track reveals an ambient-noise approach with ritualistic undercurrents. Heavily distorted bass strings are present with a heavy rumbling sound which gives it all a nice death-industrial/Atrax Morgue meets Throbbing Gristle sound-aesthetic. Low-fi sound (the way it should sound) and tons of atmosphere and mood. And it is very varied in the sound as well, lots of different moods come to my mind here. Does an adventurous trip to hell sound interesting?... Yes, it does, apparently, the Rebirth of Lucifer sounds like a good thing!. A REALLY good first track on this split album here kids!

The Second track with Real Death is called The Bone Taker, another name for the grim reaper? With an intense insect-like buzzing and that awesome-sounding and distorted bass strings, the feeling of doom is utterly complete here! Whoever needs vocals when evil-sounding bass-strings can speak?!  Really like the density here, and how all the various atmospheric sounds work in layers. Really good track, even better than the first track!.

We jump further into the b-side with Gyaksuatsu. Harsher than the former, and more power-electronics orientated in the approach. Still not without the mood and the layered sounds! A kind of destructive post-war feeling is present in the soundscape. The first track simply is called Hate you. Dynamic HNW with layered ambient-noise industrial textures. Not too long and not short, it gets to the point. 

The next track is also simply called Love You (Instead of Hate You).  Here the listener will simply feel the sensation of being utterly drowned in sound, or simply being sucked into something. A quite intense piece of spacy harsh noise here!. The kind of noise track which stays in your ear after some time. Very intense and very brutal, do try to notice the layers here!

The third track called Additional Future, adds it all up into a rather...bleak future. Imagine a drilling sort of wire brush cleaning your ears, and then further into your brain. That´s how your additional future sound like! Very aggressive piece!

The fourth track More Time To, adds more time to your additional future!. It continues the brutal spaciness with all pedals running at full speed ahead, with audible vocals as well. The reverbed soundscape takes me (again) back to that classic Texas Chainsaw. A bit bleaker than the former. 

The very last track Death And Rebirth remind you that Gyakusatsu is a very noisy act. The ears are starting to hurt now, and your mind spins a bit as well. Spacy and brutal would be the two words to describe the entire B-side. 

A very sort of yin-yang kind of album (Asian again!). The a-side offers a thought before action concept, and the b-side yells action before thought. So when you have gone through the split, you have this feeling of closure. You have experienced patients and the complete opposite of that. It´s a matter of taste I know, but I am mostly with the A-side (If you ask me). I would gladly go back to Real Death and re-discover the sounds and moods within, but the b-side is more of a scaring-the-customer away. So what do we need, an entire album with Real Death Òskar!.

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/split-13

   

 I Giardini Di Bosch - Lo Straordinario Viaggio Di Rose Canalow

There is a new project out on Industrial Ölocaust Recordings, a collaboration between some of the other solo-acts which is on the label. We have Stefano Bertoli, Luca Ferro (both artists have been reviewed on Kalteldur), and Alberto Macciola playing the saxophone. A 1-track 25 minutes and 38 seconds long! Interesting kind of cover-artwork. Sort of... futuristic art-decor´ish kind of 1920s design. The name of the act (when translated) is The Bosch Gardens and the album title is The Extraordinary Journey Of Rose Camelow. Not sure if the band name is a reference to the proto surrealist painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).. could be. Not sure who Rose Camalow is, tried doing some research but didn't locate any info about her. A fictional character perhaps?. Maybee listening to the album can shine some light upon this mystery, let us have a go then. The last thing before we go on, the thing is out on both CD and cassette via Industrial Ôlocaust Recordings (links below!). 

The album starts in absolute silence. Hints of swirling and atmospheric electronics rising in the background. A lovely sci-fi feeling creeps in with the eerie melody getting into the mix. A kind of a spacey and melancholic sensation being present, think Berlin-school-inspired Runes Order meets Coil in their worship-the-glitch-era sort of wipe. A cool way to open the album without a doubt, sounds like one of those really intro main themes to a tv-series. 

This stops and more psychedelics enter the mold. The saxophone enters the album and gives the soundscape a David Lynch sort of mood while mind-bubbling vintage electronics keep the tension intact. Love the sort of... rhythmic elastic-rubber-band sound going on. And from this, it continues into one of those early and highly mysterious Tangerine Dream (Phaedra) sort of soundscapes. Lovely and modern vintage stuff so far!

Later on, we are met with an organic-sounding humming sound with some really interesting sound texture going on the in background. The whole thing (right now) sounds like the birth of the great cosmos! That saxophone being really acid-drenched here kids, I think it is the saxophone!

Then we are met with a sound straight from the Garden of Eden. Beautiful synth-driven drones, evocative and reverbed sensations, bussing electronic bees, and ritualistic metallic sounds here and there. Beautiful done!. 

The journey of Rose Camalow IS an interesting journey into unknown territories of sound and the mind! As mentioned before, a modern approach to vintage electronics. The only disclaimer I would have for this album is the length, which cannot be criticized as of such since the whole recording has been done in one go! Which in my book is a great achievement! Fans of Nocturnal Emissions, Coil, Psychic TV to Tangerine Dream, and Cluster should have this one a go!. 

Official webpage (label):

https://cardinium.com/

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/iorecs/

   

  

    

 Boreal Dawn - In The Icy Embrace 

Of The Winter Queen

One of my all-time favorite dungeon synth artists is at it again. J. Browne, the same guy who brought you Widersinnen and Shelter Ov Shadows. I like him, simply because that he is the sole owner of a certain sound and style which he himself has created. In other words, a lovely kind of personal uniqueness that differs from each release.. and still... you can identify his sound on the spot. The same thing I can say about other favorite dungeon-synth artists like Fåntratt and offcourse Talog. This release is one among the many side-projects of Canadian-bred J. Browne, released via his own label Realm of Sleep. All the physical releases have been sold out, so you have to manage with a digital copy!

First track Hypothermic Healing being a very icy piece with a lovely kind of warmth to it. Think Finland, naked people rolling in frosty snow and then straight into a warm sauna... that kind of feeling. The melancholic and hypnotizing synth tones feel completely like a cold blanket against warm skin, it chills you down without a doubt. I am inside a huge and epic cathedral of ice... is also in my mind here as well. Incredible beautiful first track/opening!  

The second track Life Lays Beneath A Blanket Of Snow has a certain kind of Berlin-school/kraut-rock meeting Steve Roach sound of feel. Early ambient music if you please. It still has that dungeon vibe over it, Tangerine Dream/Harmonia running in the background to a game of Dungeons and Dragons maybe?. Fans of another dungeon-synth act called Foglord would dig this track for sure!

The third track Her Kingdom, Her Will Be Done continues the adventure further into pure ambient minimalism. Almost on the planet of Dune here, completely devoid of life... but soo incredible calm, and beautiful. The sound of this track makes me think how sound is/travels through the very air when the snow has fallen, that kind of calmness... Time stops. Again, epic and beautiful without the drama fuss.     

We flip the cassette and continues on the B-side, where we will find the longest track on the album. It´s called In The Icy Embrace of the Winter Queen (Like the album). Although a long track, it is (so far) the quickest track to jump on a sort of melody. A beautiful, melancholic monotone beginning with additional synth work a bit later on. Lots of peaceful intensity is being built here, brick by brick!. Although the winter queen being quite icy, I wouldn´t mind being embraced by this. Again, breath-taking stuff here. Otherworldly loveliness. 

An incredible journey from the start and to the end. An essential classic in the modern age of ambient music if you ask me. Not only would it please dungeon synth fans, but also listeners to some of the pioneers of ambient music as well. Let us all hope that this one will be re-issued in one way or the other, it deserves more attention!. 

Bandcamp (label+band):

https://realmofsleeprecords.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-icy-embrace-of-the-winter-queen

Discogs (label):

https://www.discogs.com/label/1612579-Realm-Of-Sleep-Records

 Cyanosis - Stench

Yes I know, there is a type error. It´s offcourse Cyanosis, and not Cyanosys... Or is it? Not sure. Cyanosis/Cyanosys is a highly productive death-industrial/dark-ambient solo act from Costa Rica. The same guy behind another excellent experimental act called Eye Floater (see the former review!). This one (I think) is the debut with this act. Love the base-to-basics-collage industrial feel regarding the cover-artwork! A shiny and beautiful simple digipack with tons of darkness inside. A limited CD version from Cognitive Discordance Records, an album which is also included in the limited (and extremely rare) 4 CD boxset!  9 tracks, about 60 minutes in total. 

The first charming track is called Kill Your Enemy and starts the album with an unpleasant mixture of ethereal drones and death-industrial sound aesthetics. Interesting and recorded spoken-word samples going on in the background, adds nicely to the mysterious and frightening soundscape. Highly evocative, surreal, and distorted vocal parts as well!

The second track Prolonged Unconsciousness almost had a classic Raison D´être sound here, could it be the sampled chanting monk? Or could it be the feeling of being inside a HUGE cathedral, with the whispering sound coming from the lips of the spirits hiding within? It´s that feeling of atmosphere. Epic ambient with a gothic touch, nothing wrong with that... I fxxxxx love it!

The third track Tearful Abhorrence of Displeasure (bad-ass title right?) is a slow and sinking feeling. Dark ambient torture stretched out to the very maximum. Slow martial drumming, torturous sound of moans and screams. clinical atmosphere... I am thinking of Unit 731 here... Kind of scary here kids!.

The fourth track Throw Them In The Fire is a hypnotizing and looped piece. Offering mechanized and repetitive sounds and ritual music sound textures. Sounds like a very deep hole in the background, like some sort of an abyss. A relentless beast of sound torture!

The fifth track Don´t Say No, say yes to... high pitched crystal-drones in surreal hypersonic stereo-effect and the sound of someone screaming... while falling into an endless pit. Nothing wrong with that is there?!. At this point, the listener will experience psychedelic side-effects!. Somewhere along the line between Controlled Bleeding and Illusion of Safety so far. 

Where Pain Dwells is the sixth track, pain hides inside ambient pleasantness and those highly stretched-out ghostly whisperings. I really dig it when that cathedral-like feeling is there. More mesmerizing chanting here. Love this track to the bone people!.

 

The seventh track is called Defleshed, ouch!. Are we talking about Hellraiser, or maybe that torture method that the Vikings used?. High-pitched early power electronics sounds meet up with the sound of early CMI! This stuff makes sense, it really does. Lots of cool stereo effects going on, from one speaker and to the other. The organic and ritualistic soundscape at its best!. Maybee Clive Barker could use this for the next Hellraiser re-boot?...

Lost Fate being the eighth track on the album. A psychedelic Wunder Baum into some lost dream from Twin Peaks. A mind-bending piece with intense sound drones that can levitate anything! Feels like a trip to the dentist, while being high on that painkilling gas stuff that some dentists use!

The very last track on the album called Vestigial ends the album with hypnotizing martial drumming. Not that far away from some of the early recordings with Ordo Equilibrio or Megaptera. The sounds of ghosts being very warped and disturbing here! Interesting way of ending an album, with extra rhythms at the end?... Why Not?!. A lovely apocalyptic ending here!  

A 100% masterpiece from Costa Rica here kids. An essential and modern death-industrial album that you all should own. The sound quality is superb, with lots of edge and guts and new-thinking ideas! Costa-Rica... The future home base for dark-ambient/death-industrial? I hope so! Stretch is a black pearl of sheer beauty, I cannot put one bad finger on this!. 

Bandcamp (label):

https://cognitivediscordancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/stench

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/cognitivediscordancerecords

Bandcamp (band):

https://cyanosis.bandcamp.com/

 

 Bozo´s Night Out

Been too long since the last time I have reviewed one of those... strange computer games from the old times. Been messing around with my Commodore 64-mini, USB-drive and have offcourse added some extra games to the damn thing. 

One of the games which I didn't have as a kid was a game simply called Bozo´s Night Out. Surfing the various sites for old computer games, I stumbled upon it. The title alone makes you wonder, and also the cover-artwork as well. Obviously, a drunkard walking down a lane, with a skinhead looking angry at him behind a wall... while he is getting closer to an opened manhole! This game MUST be fun, no doubt about it! So let us get a closer look at it. 

The game itself was released back in 1984 by Taskset, programmed by Tony Gibson (R.I.P). Commodore 64 was the only platform on which this game was released for. 

The game starts with your first night out as Bozo, having his very first pint of lager. After this one pint, then you have to get home to bed offcourse. But on the way from the bar and to your home, you have to avoid various obstacles offcourse. You don´t want to walk straight into skinheads, beautiful ladies or a copper otherwise you´ll end up straight into the hospital! After the visit to the hospital, you´ll start over offcourse (back in the bar drinking!). 

If you succeed in getting Bozo home to his bed, then you´ll continue with level 2 which means that the next night out Bozo he will drink more pints. This then means that Bozo will be harder and harder to control with your joystick!. How fun can a game be?!. There are offcourse some short-cuts in the game as well, take a walk through the park which offcourse inhabits monsters and other kinds of nasties!.   

So what are you waiting for? Buy some beers and invite your friends over, having a night out with Bozo on the Commodore 64-mini is all worth it!.

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo%27s_Night_Out

Download:

https://www.c64.com/games/566