günter schlienz ~ icelandic tapes

günter schlienz ~ icelandic tapes (hangover central station, 2019)

Finally realized after being a pipe dream for a few years, Günter Schlienz presents Icelandic Tapes. With album thirty-something, Schlienz literally explores new places: this is «journey music» in a literal sense. Schlienz and his partner Hanno Braun actually recorded the piece in the loneliness of Iceland’s high plateaus, nearby active volcanos and in the midst of stony deserts – hence the title (no fraud!). Batteries, synthesizers, cameras and good shoes were the main studio equipment trying to capture the unknown emptiness of this dark, warm and bleak breathtaking landscape in this most remote European country. Most of these sounds were recorded in the open, so Icelandic Tapes takes you on a field trip into the vastness of the north. Inside the black box of your mind, there's always something beautiful to explore ~ hangover central station

We can only add to this that being clinically addicted to Günter's music it's virtually impossible not to enjoy such an inspiring journey. The bare minimum of sounds present here gives the maximum result for imagination and perfectly reflects the nature of the North. Not many colors needed to paint a vivid landscape. Not many notes to form a melody. Sometimes silence between them tells even more. Enjoy!

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dravier ~ dreamers cloth

dravier ~ spirit channels (not not fun, 2018)

«Prolific proprietor of the Jungle Gym recording empire Caleb Draves aka Dravier has trafficked all manner of hypnotic vapor, emotive drone, and extraterrestrial atmospheres across several dozen micro-edition documents issued the past few years but Spirit Channels spans an even wider, weirder breadth of sound and mood, and feels as close to a definitive collection as he’s yet attempted. 

Free-flowing through 50 minutes of equatorial new age, narcotic lounge, surrealist exotica, desert island serenade, sunrise sky-surf, and devotional tape hiss, the album sustains a poignant, plasmatic wavelength, sensory and spontaneous, wandering alone along winding coastlines. Field recordings of nocturnal jungles, insects, waves, and distant birds ground the songs with a sense of landscape but this is equally music of inner voyaging, adrift in archipelagos of memory and meditation». ~ not not fun

It is obvious from the label's press-release that what we're about to dive in while listening to this cassette is 100% what is our blog is up to. Tropical hypnagogia, tribal minimalism, and drone psychedelia are now considered being rare beasts by many, as well as it's almost impossible to find untouched pieces of nature in our world. Evoking the sensations of utopian tropicalia Dravier rather builds upon the idea of future exploration rather than (nowadays omnipresent) nostalgia about beauty now spoiled. His tunes are free from melancholia and reflection on what's lost, rather focusing on the things we are still about to discover. "It depends on the point of view" – one may say – "you're too optimistic!". And yes, I am and there's nothing to be ashamed of. Optimism is not naivety or infantilism, as the society often implies. Being a rare beast as well, this is something our world is losing as fast as the clean water resources. 

Optimism can be seen as the ability to see the landscape from a broader perspective. Of course, it's not always practical and one simply must to act and think differently at some points of the journey, but optimism is basically what drives the journey. Dravier's sounds, being blissfully crafted from ephemeral synth patterns and hazy drum machine beats present us a clear vision of the mindset which led people to discoveries and fearless explorations. There's no reason to call such music "experimental" because experiment implies working with known patterns in unknown ways. While there is nothing new either for the "tropical drone" genre or modern music in general, there's way more freedom of expression than many experimental things can provide. Surrendering yourself to the landscape and being optimistic about what it holds. Of course, yes, there are poisonous snakes and mysterious caves all over the place. But don't let the fear guide you. Follow the sun. 

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~ ~ ~

dreamers cloth ~ vitrospection 2008-2009 (not not fun, 2019)

«Danish textile texturalist Jonas Frederiksen’s solo endeavor Dreamers Cloth materialized late last decade in response to “a new-old type of sound” then ascendant among the international innerspace cassette community, characterized by bleached drift, miasmic memory, and inexpensive keyboards. Working from a wire-strewn Copenhagen apartment studio alcove, he quickly amassed a tapestry of tapes exploring parallel pathways of coastal fantasia and interstellar hallucination, issued via his own Relax With Nature imprint as well as various esteemed European esoterica outposts like Ikuisuus and Stenze Quo Musik. Frederiken speaks of seeking a sound evocative of daily suburban life while still cloaked in layers of “cosmic radiation, astral projections, crystal caves, chakra energy, dolphin communication, and extra-terrestrial presence.” Vitrospection 2008-2009 distills his dense but concise discography into a patchwork voyager’s hour of highlights, reflections, and reveries, ripped from the original spools for optimal aughts intra-sensory simulacrum». ~ not not fun

Okay, here we are, 10 years later after that thing which we may (and do) call "tropical drone" was blooming in full power. Dating back to the noisier and careless psychedelia of Ferraro and Spencer Clark and probably being more new age than any of the artists wanted themselves, this idea of nature's virginity revisitation was definitely a response to the growing pace of capitalism and late postmodernist cultural collapse. Being ideologically close to what later was labeled vaporwave, artists like Dreamer Cloth took a different turn from that anti-consumerism battle-cry and instead of recycling popular media has set off to astral travels and spirituality reconsideration. As Jonas Frederiksen put it, speaking about his (now long-defunct) label's mission: "Relax with Nature is my idea of chilling out and going with the flow. I think that what I’m trying to evoke is an atmosphere of a place where civilization and culture are non~existing. [..] What I’m talking about is a place ~ or a state of mind, which becomes real the very second cultural~civilization is canceled, and all that is left is nature ~ but ~ a new nature where, amongst other things, communication between individuals isn’t corrupted by words." 

Surely, there is a certain amount of irony which permeates these neo new age visions, yet Jonas is definitely right about the inability of words to describe the sensations evoked in his music. We may go usual path again, imagining the unspoiled islands full of lush greenery and weird animal sounds and mostly beatless, raga-like nature of Dreamers Cloth output carefully collected on this cassette only encourages that. Yet, after having ten years of vaporwave abundance (which has recently led to climatewave development, which shares a lot of common with tropical drone discourse) and already more than ten years of all kinds of aural tropical explorations, we can look now from a broader scale on the very idea of chilling out being opposed to consumerism and high-paced existence. Being not simply an idea of (non)activity but rather an active thoughtform creativity ~ constructing the place you want to relax in using music, visuals, your imagination and then exploring its capabilities. Switching the mind to a different mode, being active in another reality even if it lasts as long as the music plays or your eyes are closed. Much like a dream, which is a natural way of chilling out, yet different in terms of being present simultaneously in your room, in music and in this virtual, mirage-like realm. That way, the idea of relaxation looks way more like a real activity and actual creativity instead of laziness or isolation from any sensations. An experience, which always gives you more than just fancy visions ~ but the energy and inspiration. So, letting the shimmering tunes of Dreamers Cloth envelop you and take to marble halls of astral gardens is truly a fairytale experience which may result with not simply having a good rest but also finding a precious pearl in the palm of your hand afterwards.

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more dreamers cloth

building a better world

猫 シ Corp. & t e l e p a t h — building a better world 

(hiraeth records, 2019) 

The long-awaited full-length album from two vaporwave legends solemnly opens Hiraeth Records, a new label created to commemorate 猫 シ Corp.'s transition to the brave new world of the original, sample-free composition, following its colleagues in the genre. With its title, album underlines the beginning of a new era, and the optimistic pixel art on the cover only reinforces the anticipation that a new page is about to turn over not only in the history of the genre – the tendency to switch to original compositions has been around for some time already – but in the world in general, IRL. After the crisis of 1999/2000 and the shock of 9/11; after the ironic, but still sometimes disquieting expectations of 2012, when the Mayan calendar promised us, like dinosaurs, if not the extinction then the evolutionary leap in an incomprehensible direction – something good and life-affirming must absolutely happen. Centuries break has always been rich with upheavals, but in fact, the whole XX century was like that. Now it is already in the past, rethought and chewed on by mass culture, sampled and passed through nostalgia filters, collapsed into a kaleidoscope of endless post-modern recursions, vaporwaved... It would seem that here it is, the future, unnoticeably becoming casual but where is it, the notorious Age of Aquarius, while our world is only gaining speed in an incomprehensible direction?

There's no big secret, however, and here you can safely quote one old book, saying that 'he who has ears, let him hear.' If the XXI century taught us anything is the value ​​of attention. Everything happening around, an endless stream of notifications, news, scandals, an endless stream of changing trends and a cacophony of opinions on any subject – all this requires our attention, feeds on it, absorbs it as raw material, in order to spew it later as goods, services, offers... Just to let them fight for our attention again. Like a virus that has practically nothing of its own, except for the gene information and uses others to live and spread, all of this is happening only because we are doing it all ourselves. Where attention is, there's energy, and the management of this flow is the real magic of our time. Black or white is no longer important, what kind of dualities can there be in the post-modern world? But the formula is simple and as old as the world itself. While our attention is occupied by commotions, they occur. Yet it takes not that much to turn our attention away for a while, on to something else, different, usually silent and overlooked – and everything can happen. That very thing so long-awaited. Maybe something that was really dreamed of, before “selling a dream” became a daily routine for all of us.

Music is a special kind of magic. It also works with attention. Directing it into the body, it encourages us to dance. Directing in emotions – to experience them, to remember similar ones. When the magic of music comes to the imagination – we begin to feel free, daydreaming. Seeing an image in which all the fuss of the past disappears somewhere far behind... Where we see the future which is not falling along the curve back into the past but flickers with bright lights of something else, yet unseen. Something even impossible to predict or describe in plain words. Rather, the feeling when intuition quietly hints that everything is going to be better. And even if it is not clear how. After all, you can imagine, direct your attention into this.

Which exactly 猫 シ Corp. and t e l e p a t h are doing on this album, carefully taking our attention by means of gentle ambient and nature sounds, guardedly directing it to the dream-like visions of the future, where serenity is normal not only in social life but on the planet as a whole. Tropical rain and the almost perceptible smell of lush vegetation coexists with shopping areas and airports (perhaps spaceports already?), colors of nature are emphasized by the smoothness of architectural forms, and the air is filled with life-giving oxygen. The music seems to be floating from one skyscraper to another, spreading over parks and streets, invisibly creating an additional dimension filled with pure energy, freely available for everyone. Like air and water, music in this world is just as life-giving, refreshing and necessary. As the mysterious still not discovered aether, it ties this vision into a single whole.

Imagining how our world can be we are bringing it closer, and let skepticism (which is raising his head immediately) rest a bit. It is still useful to us, it's a good tool, but now it is time to let go of everything that can restrain our ability to dream. After all, everyone has it, since earliest childhood. Of course, how many times have we been told that dreaming is naive? Unreal? Ineffective? How often we were afraid to give vent to ourselves, frightened by difficulties and simply saying to ourselves 'this cannot be.' Protective reactions are important too, of course. But if we want changes, if we want to breathe deeply and live our lives, then it’s time to learn how to dream properly. Ok,  what to do then? The catch is that we already have too much of everything to do. All we need is to listen. To be able to stop and look around. Gaze the clouds. To remember our dreams. Hear the trees grow. Watch sunrises and sunsets, to walk under the moon... To feel, as this magical dimension of music spreads through space, filling it with a new, exciting feeling of anticipation.

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hiraeth records

new management ~ 遠くの見知らぬ人

NEW MANAGEMENT ~ 遠くの見知らぬ人 (experimental records, 2019)

Either it's something of a "the beauty is in the eyes of beholder" kind of case, or it is a true fact, but recently more and more excellent ambient works started to happen in the world of vaporwave music. The specifics of the genre – namely, the fact of not knowing if that's an original work or simply some effects applied an old slowed-down track by a long forgotten artist, – gives an additional dimension to the vaporambient subgenre. You can easily tell what's is going on with more regular kind of songs, but with ambient and drone... It is not clear whether to thank the author for the quality of the work done with the sound editing or for the opportunity to hear something that otherwise would have remained forever in the depths of history... Both, most likely. In any case, the specificity of vaporwave is not to steal someone else's music but to create the right atmosphere using anything you can lay your hands on. Whether it will be a short intro from disco-funk hit or some old elevator Muzak composition. We have enough music gathering virtual dust on the music servers... Why not recycle it?

In the course of the listening to such albums like this one, it is easy to put aside reflections on the topic if the goal justifies the means or not. It's an experience happening right here and now after all.  Soft, enveloping music for subtle immersion into relaxed bliss. A dream disturbed by only slightly strange images, which, however, tend to blur and elude from sight. A sound that dissolves the need to think or to do anything. Sleep potion, gently pulling it into one's arms. Sometimes it may even seem like a sleepy paralysis, an intermediate peace between sleep and reality... An yeah, that's what we used to call hypnagogic some years ago. But there is nothing scary in this state of mind – except, perhaps, the desire to remain in it for as long as possible.

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bear bones, lay low ~ atlantean encrypted message

bear bones, lay low ~ atlantean encrypted message 

(self-released, 2019/2015)

UFO-cult is another funny evidence that we all live in a sophisticated virtual reality or better say a reality show. Well, think for yourself, what could be more fun for a galactic viewer than to watch naive people seriously ranting about their extraterrestrial travels, living spaceships from the Pleiades, star seeds and the Mayan calendars, messages of wisdom from Atlantis and Shambhala... Even more fun is the fact that this is all true to a degree, but the essence of the reality show lies in making homosapienses believe in half-truths and to make funny conclusions about cosmic order out of them! Changing their lives according to them and creating new, non-trivial scenarios. Thus, entertaining those who are directly related to this – the Sirians, the Atlanteans, Pleiadians, Zets, and all other 'celestials'.

Another big irony here is the fact, that creators of this show included in it an opportunity for humans to create similar shows and make fun of with each other. Well, just to make it even harder to get to the truth. Someone in another trip discovers the highest truth and all around are like 'have you seen enough of the X-Files?'. It's postmodern, and fun, and instructive! And if you start pushing it too hard, you're immediately off to secondary storylines and, as always, politicians, religious leaders and pop stars will get all prime time. Oh, and they know how to make top-rated shows. And if you have learned the whole essence and truth, it is better to encrypt it into some piece of music, or a movie, or a picture of some kind. Can be fun for others, and easier for you... You have nowhere to go off this spacecraft anyway.

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kyle landstra ~ bloom lake

kyle landstra ~ bloom lake (unifactor tapes, 2019)

Migrating to the Pacific Northwest after years in Chicago brought new light to Kyle Landstra's crystalline sounds. Bloom Lake represents some of the first deeply devised sounds made by Landstra in his new environment, and while it's not a dramatic reaction to some conceptually new life, you can't help but hear some clouds clearing all the same. Recorded in real time, these two side-long pieces slowly braid strands of reflection and acceptance. Drifting but bright, "Love In A Mist" stirs with a kind of restrained excitement that comes at the beginning of promising times. The title track communicates a darker side of the same excitement, but in a way that again suggests understanding more than fear, growth more than foreboding ~ unifactor tapes

It's nice to see that some of the names that have been beloved in the wake of the cassette revival, like 7 or even 10 years ago, are still active. Kyle is a real magician when it comes to making music on vintage analog monsters. There is always a certain balance between his drone, ambient textures, and sequences in his music, and there is always some kind of pacifying frequency or some secret modulation which makes you immediately want to sit back, take a deep breath and close your eyes, just not thinking about anything... Trite maybe? Yes – and isn't that can be said about most of the music on this blog? That's definitely true, but at the same time, it's about many other things! All shades of feelings and impressions can be coded in the simplest vibrations of sine waves, what to speak of a rich synth sounds then! And when there's a very gifted practitioner behind them. Perhaps this album is just another reference point in that endless ocean of sound, plunging into which at some point you can completely forget that it can also be considered music, even recorded, also published, even on cassettes... Yet, even considering its transience this albums manages to create a portal that offers a view of the amazing dimensions of total serenity and bliss. 

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polonius ~ anaxia short movie ost

“Welcome to the world of Oskexis, an ancient land of dark magic, an underworld frontier to the continent of Trocia above. Oskexis’ soil is rich, unidentified metals, gems, ores, and fuel – which brings countless crusades and bloodshed. The few remaining oasis’ are controlled by feudal warlords who engage in unending mining/military campaigns. Demons, bandits, and gangs run unchecked. It is a hostile place.  

Anaxia is an archaic and rare type of magic, originally developed by ancient Trocian mystic-engineers. Anaxian Magic grants the user abilities of psycho-navigation and psycho-puppetry others’ minds – an ability alike cloning one’s mind.” ~ weston razooli

Nope, you're wrong, that's not a trailer of some sophisticated erotic hippie movie from the 70s. It is a 2018 short filmed on tape and imbibed by something tightly embedded into the subcortex of world's cinema – spaghetti-westerns, fantasy, mafia... The simplicity and at the same time bright dynamics of the script creates a dream-like journey as if recorded by someone (without permission, of course) for sale on the magic crystals black market. Unexpected special effects continually break the retromaniac mood of the video sequence, but it immediately draws you back into its warm embrace. If Conan the Barbarian was filmed by feminists group who had the idea of it on the lysergic withdrawal while watching some western movie from a randomly selected nameless VHS tape.

Yet, in reality, costumes, video, plot, the whole thing was the work of the director Weston Razooli hailing from sunny LA. While bizarre soundtrack and awesome sound effects were created by Seif Gaber (aka Polonius) from even sunnier Egypt. And all this sums up to the wonderful experience with just one flaw – it's criminally short! The music here seems to be caught on a cassette with the help of some magic spell or reanimated from some dusty archives of weird field recordings recorded over some old game soundtrack. And its meanderings are so convincing, that there will be no surprise if some impertinent fairy will enter your room next moment, angrily saying something like: "Hey, are you still chilling? Did you learn ten spells for tomorrow's class? Oh, you've finished my marshmallows again!" and will dissolve in the air, leaving the smell of dusty cacti behind...

By the way, the soundtrack in full duration of 24 minutes will be released on cassettes next week on the Artetetra – Italian stronghold of the "occult psychedelia" and other wonderful things, so I probably should take back my words about this thing being criminally short. Yet, that would be super nice to watch a full-length movie like this some day. Meanwhile, you can chill with marshmallows and cocoa listening to amazing tunes Polonius had on Goaty Tapes and his double tape as Rorschac at Corum's Nonlocal Research, and then head to Discogs to find out much much more about Gaber's gorgeously bizarre soundworld. 

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explore

geology records winter batch

black eagle child ~ six lugubrious airs (geology records, 2019)

Sitting in the dead of Winter, I'm really excited about this collection of songs because it is just dripping with Spring. If you are familiar with Black Eagle Child, this collection fits very nicely on the continuum of his work. Gorgeous, sometimes folky, looping guitars, found sound and field recordings. A lathe-cut 12" version is also available from the artist's Bandcamp page. Cassette packaging includes a slipcase and full-color j-card with art by Black Eagle Child.

Yes, we are familiar with Black Eagle Child and when it comes to guitar goodness infused with tape hiss and light-radiating psychedelic repetition, one can hardly find something better than this. Since 2009 and thanks to such imprints as Digitalis, Stunned, Housecraft records signature tunes by Michael Jantz found their place in my subconscious and roll out of it in moments when they are most needed – like now, 1,5 months (and counting) without the sunlight in the middle of Russian winter... When these melodies are here, I can almost feel the breeze of warmth and imagine as snowdrifts outside suddenly started to melt... And the greyness were removed from the sky, and birds started to sing their spring songs. Okay, they will eventually, so no tragedy here. Actually, I love winter pretty much and with music like this, I do even more.

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~~~

adam michael krause ~ as nice as a tree (geology records, 2019)

Adam is a prolific experimental artist in Milwaukee, having played in or guested on piles of the best albums to come out of the scene over the past 15+ years. These are more song-based than his normal terrain, but still with a nod to his drone/minimal work. Adam and I have a similar music coming of age background, I think, and so a lot of this hits my musical lizard brain in a really satisfying way. Wholly original, but sounds like home. Packaging includes a fold-out booklet and Autumn leaves from near my home in Milwaukee (unique to each tape).

Pretty much warming as the Black Eagle Child, yet a bit diverse and with carefully overdriven guitars and rudimentary percussion, this is another example of chord repetition which can be as meditative as pretty dynamic. Sliding from mantra-like folk ballads towards droning sound overlays and humming and back to songs rendered in krauty mood. Changing moods from lazy contemplations to melancholic philosophizing (on the dead bird). At any given moment this tape captures something sincere and emotional despite the seemingly cynical and indolent approach. It all resolves in Trees Listed Alphabetically with exalted awe and marching rhythm which takes you up above treetops... Cozy heartwarming music, what else we need to spend January evenings?

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~ rewind 2018 ~

Our "list of the lists" made by artists turned out pretty coherent, though we're sure, they did their lists albums separately =) But for the excessive listener, a frame of 10 albums is never big enough to put all kinds of sounds into one box. There's always something unique even in seemingly simple drone tapestries, not mentioning more experimental things like weird tape manipulations, tropical exoticism, guitar experiments or weird vaporwave offsprings like broken transmission or mallsoft. Each New Age album has its own approach and some of them are pretty serious in their message even in "2k18" and some straightforward drone albums sound thrilling while others may be a pure earhoney. With this in mind, we proudly present you this list of modern cassette culture representatives for deeper explorations. ~ yours truly, Tim Six ~ aka PiedPaper ~ 

***

Amulets + Bus Gas ~ Mountains / Past Immortal Yeller (Spring Break Tapes)

More like two independent albums in one huge norelco, yet perfectly confronting each other on each stage of listening be it calm seconds before the storm or raging noise of guitar sound walls. Two worlds to explore, like we were exploring oceans some pitiful hundreds of years ago and still knowing not that much about them. This music leaves a mystery, so everytime you finish one tape your hand automatically reaches for another. 

Ant'lrd & Benoit Pioulard ~ Deck Amber (Sounds et al)

Continuing marine analogies by itself, this quickly sold-out tape dwells in the realm of so-called warm ambient and despite some obvious connotations really brings the feeling of warmth and protection, serving as a perfect companion for rainy days. An exquisite blend of elements in a holistic whirl of detailed sound. 

Baldruin ~ Vergessene Träume (Ikuisuus)

Despite procrastinating a review for this marvelous record for almost a year I was shamelessly listening to it all this time and the only thing I can add to the aforementioned thoughts is that this Traume already has its own special place on my shelf together with its predecessor. 

Bedroom ~ Moons (Fluere Tapes)

News about Bedroom's comeback hit me accurately in a process of relistening to Tranquility Tapes back catalog with a bleak hope to hear more from this amazing label and its artists. A pleasant surprise and rewarding listening even without ties to the cassette scene's past - thoughtful and carefully crafted ambience full of fragility and all other kinds of hopes. 

BJ Nilsen ~ Focus Intensity Power (Moving Furniture Records)

This release leaves you speechless after just first track. Maybe not that usual lo-fi kind of stuff but definitely the purest essence of drone minimalism refined so well that you'll want to listen to it in sensory deprivation camera or at full volume in a completely dark room. 

Brian James Griffith ~ From Particles (Aural Canyon)

This tape takes droning ambience to some celestial levels adding certain orchestral effect to it but remaining truly meditative in its nature, without giving out the control over emotions. Yet, it's full of emotions! How? Just listen to it, tune in, float away and feel it with every particle. 

Brianna Kelly / Sympathy Pain ~ ST (Whited Sepulchre)

Being already a signature sound of Whited Sepulchre catalog, especially after the cornerstone Like Author, Like Daughter by Midwife, this sedative drone-rock cassette acts like a dusty old box with all kind of memories both pleasant and not. Like going to your hometown after some years. Like seeing your favorite park being cut down. Like knowing that all good things are ahead but somehow revisiting old and painful ones anyway.

Channelers ~ Entrance to the Next (Inner Islands)

But you really know that any trauma can be healed, right? That we all have the capacity to self-sustain and even when things are dark we aren't really cornered but simply hibernating, unaware, uncertain... Yet, considering that there are Inner Islands, you can always try to soak some light and energy with these helpful and focusing sounds. No big shouts or appeals or promises, just a gentle reminder that there always are some ways.

Cheekbone ~ Tsuka No Ma (Muzan Editions)

Muzan is definitely a label of the year, being a super-active place for all kinds of inventive ambient music from all around the world. Amongst some very well-known names in their catalog, you can find this little gem. A truly soulful collection of fragile melodies and soothing drones, a name to keep an eye on in 2019. 

CMD094 ~ Kagami Tears (No Problema Tapes)

Being well-known ambient label in small vaporwave world, No Problema relies on slow synth excursions into abstract territories of digitalized existence and neuro-modulated virtual experience, gathering an impressive collection of artists. This tape by Ukrainian CMD094 bring a wide palette of dystopian atmospheres, from hopeful to nihilistic but stays neutral in the end, matching machine logic instead of leaning on human fragility.  

Color Television ~ Tona (Orb Tapes)

This weirdly collaged noisy soundscape works as a time travel machine. Not exactly telling to where or when though. But keeping the promise that it will be an interesting experience. Definitely a must-listen for fans of late noise/early drone cassettes circa 2008-09, ten years after. 

Dravier ~ Spirit Channels (Not Not Fun)

Dravier was a name to see many times during this year and always in slightly different contexts but when it appeared in Not Not Fun catalog it was certain that this is going to be a discovery. And it is - a fresh, but perfectly tape-hissed crusade into tropical drone zones, Lunar Miasma-tic planetary systems, searching for surf music rudiments and non-spoiled tribalism. 

Dylan Golden Aycock ~ Guitar Meanderings II (Scissor Tail)

Aptly chosen name for this kind of music actually explains everything you should know about it and to give it a proper listen. There's definitely some magic going there. No tricks, just hands and strings, interwoven to some unimaginable degree at every level possible.

Ecovillage ~ Sacred World (Constellation Tatsu)

Keeping the high standards and always looking for hidden gems, this time always amazing Constellation Tatsu brings us a tape full of delicate melodies, unobstructive and dreamlike new-aginess with neo-folkish approach. Another tag comes to mind - devotional - and hey, it's already there, at bandcamp. Ah, alright, just listen to it while tapes still available!

Electric Sound Bath ~ The Forces (Patient Sounds)

A second entry from Brian Griffith to this list, this time with Angela Wilson, bringing a combined healing force to our web-molten consciousness. Perfect soundtrack for deleting your social accounts or at least muting down all notifications for a whole day and giving yourself a couple of deep breaths and a proper full-body & mind rest. 

Endurance ‎~ Cloud, Castle, Lake (Cosmic Winnetou)

On a scale from one to ten Endurance hits 100 points in productivity during last year (or two) without losing anything from quality parameter. An impressive series of releases on many respectful cassette labels led Joshua to seclusive Cosmic Winnetou, where his talent unfolded in form of super-slowly evolving landscapes, highly reverberated and saturated with awe of something bigger than the human mind can imagine. Thousands of years spent in a castle above lakes, watching clouds and comets.

Emily A. Sprague ~ Mount Vision (Self-released)

Mount Vision received a lot of love from music press since the day it was released and it definitely deserves it. Warm, slowly oscillating drones, gentle piano takes, modular synth left alone to play until gaining self-awareness... All things we love and cherish are here, the only thing left is to enjoy them!

Eva Geist ~ Desfãn (Macadam Mambo)

Seeing Eva Geist live this year was definitely a bonus for diving deeper into her sound which caught our attention since the release at Elestial Sound. This LP is probably the best transition from the days full of ambient laziness to a bit more agile way of life. It's fully danceable yet truly enveloping and soft in its tropical warmness - so it's basically perfect for anything!

Equip ~ Synthetic Core 88 (The Yetee Records)

Since it's dreamlike ambient/faux-soundtrack tape on Dream Catalogue, Equip mastered his sound even further to the degree when you can't really tell if this soundtrack is for real game or what. It's so natural that feeling of the joystick's buttons appears at your fingertips and, in just a few moments, you find yourself looking for your old console and cables for it. Or simply lying on the floor with eyes closed and a childish smile on your face. 

Expo 70 ~ Ephemeral Totem (auasca)

Sludgy psychedelic guitar drones are facing slow extinction in the face of post-everything-music and it forces them to evolve into more complex forms or regress to straightforward psych-jam rock. But nothing of this happens on this tape. Despite any circumstances, Expo 70 continues to pour lava and tar over the universe with his roaring guitar engines.

Foresteppe ~ Mæta (Eilean Records)

Well-know for his tape manipulations with outdated orchestral music and mesmerizing approach to looping - namely, doing it until you can't find the way back from these spirals, this Siberian school teacher weaves a dingy net of fainting moments of beauty throughout the illusion of linear time. Actually, time is the main player here, being an object of close examination - just like drawing lines on the sand with a stick at ease. Remember doing this?

Guenter Schlienz ~ Tristan Magnetique (Otomatik Muziek)

Here comes, probably, the most epic Guenter's work to date. Definitely impressive in its 3-tape box presentation, it unveils such a wide variety of modular gorgeousness, drone blissfulness and overall harmony that only thing you can do is to change tapes just in time one by one. With no name and with barely no info on the release, it works so cohesively well that it may be considered a three-part symphony. Definitely a highlight in Guenter's discography, but guess I already said that about each album he released, right? And you know, it's true, why not.

Hellvete ~ Droomharmonium (Morc Tapes)

If there are any words to describe the totality of this blissed-out drone record, I'll leave you to find them. I've tried. But seriously, there's no need to tell you why this is an essential album. You'll feel it yourself in couple minutes.

IE ~ Pome LP/CS (Moon Glyph)

Actually, it's quite annoying when someone describes music by saying imagine [artist1] playing with [artist2] while riding the desert on a slowly levitating open-top limousine. But if I say that [artist1] is Bitchin Bajas, or, say Date Palms and [artist2] is Fabulous Diamonds... or Pocahaunted? Ah damn it, I said it's annoying. But wait, there's a giant Terry Riley smile hovering in the sky! Guess that explains something, okay?

Infinity Frequencies ~ Between two worlds (Self-released)

Legendary tape manipulator and virtual nostalgia generator Infinity Frequencies returns after a while with a collection of aptly looped piano phrases and ghostly outtakes from the online cemeteries of outdated music crumbling with mp3 artifacts and drowning in tape hiss. As much shabby and suggestive as the word haunting is. 

Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)

Over the course of last few years, Inner Travels became for me synonymous with top-notch ambient music which transcends the initial definition of it being some vague background. It can be it for sure due to its harmonic and fluid nature. Yet at the same time, it can be much more than even just music. A direct sensation, the flow of experience from one being to another, resulting in some higher revelation than human language can give. 

Isness ~ Isness (Crash Symbols)

On this new projects of some pretty well-established Canadians, you may hear ghosts ringing your number in the middle of the night, you may find yourself in the middle of nowhere, standing in the headlights, you can even realize that bad dream you had yesterday is actually real events... But don't be afraid, it all ends in a tropical forest in the middle of deep meditation seance. 

Jon Law & Oli Genn-Bash ~ To Dream of More Light, Faintly (Holy Geometry)

Drone jazz? Jazz ambient? Or maybe just really deep journey into slow and pensive sax solos played over blissfully slow ambiance. And by blissfully I mean exactly that feeling when music tunes you to being a cumbersome rain cloud making its lazy way through the mountain tops. And when guitar notes reminiscent of Deadman arise, rain starts to fall over the sea waves. In slow motion, of course.

JQ ~ Invisible (New Atlantis)

Carefully crafted atmospheres of post new-agey visions and millennial nostalgia about the past which never occurred and future which is actually now. Glowing dimensions of virtual meditating spaces. Chakras being tuned by personal neuro-algorithmic coach. 

Kali Malone ~ Organ Dirges 2016 - 2017 CS (Ascetic House)

If there is such thing as the lineage of female drone academists, Kali Malone, despite her young age, already entered it. In part, because of great homage to Pauline Oliveros she did last year but more importantly because of the certain mindset, which deeply resonates with delicate tunings of Eliane Radigue and Ellen Fullman. Church organ has always been a holy grail fo drone artists and Kali found it's own way to rediscover it. 

Kyle Landstra ~ Within/Without (Muzan Editions)

For his release at already renowned Japanese label, Kyle replaced crisp arpeggios of his recent albums with a slow-motion warm drone, dwelling on the edge of melody and monotonic looping. Exactly the territory where all interesting things are happening!

Les Halles ~ Zephyr/Zonda (Not Not Fun)

Les Halles simply never disappoints. With this gorgeously calm attitude and obvious attentivenes behind these extremely beautiful sounds, Baptiste Martin can nourish and lull baby dolphins and fly with bird flocks as he was a wind himself. You can't be anything different to create such a record! 

Lunaria ~ Ascension Now (Constellation Tatsu)

With each new release, Lunaria ascends to a new plane of quality, deepness, and awareness of its sound. As blooming fractal of thousand of petals, its sound takes the mind out of mundane reality and puts it right into the place. Place, where we all need to be at least sometimes. Just not to forget who we are and where are we heading. 

Lunar Abyss Deus Organum ~ Mammoth's Dream (ПANΘEON)

Celebrating 20 years on stage, this milestone St. Petersburg project opened archives of endless live recordings to intertwine them into the primordial collage of weird sensations barely known to the human ear. It's long and noisy, yet furry and warm somehow, as we are just tiny creatures traveling through time on the back of a kind wooly giant.

Magnetophonique ~ Une Cartographie Ideale (Not Not Fun)

Another travel takes us deep into tropical territories once again, the road so many times taken with guides like Lieven M. Moana, Spencer Clark, Corum, Fluorescent Heights, Wave Temples... Yet, still as dangerous and unknown as challenging and tempting. The only ideal map will be a holographic one and it should contain the whole universe. Until we realize that, let the tropical birds an crickets be our guides to higher dimensional experiences. 

Marifa ~ Ru'yah al-qalb (ПANΘEON)

When it comes to drone music, there's always some kind of hidden competition of sorts - who can hold the drone longer without any change but still keeping listener captured. This tape easily does that. At first glance, there are no changes at all. But the deeper you listen, the less of the changes you need. You just want it to play forever. 

Monopoly Star Child Searchers ~ Make Mine, Macaw (Discrepant)

Signature coconut level psychedelia, trippy tropical fever which results in levitation and seeing the world as a complex mandala made of palm leaves. Everything you love about Spencer Clark is here and even a bit more, so you definitely need to explore it yourself!

M. Geddes Gengras ~ Hawaiki Tapes (Umor Rex)

Drenched in reverb and recorded in one take, this is real calm journey under a clouded sky. Lulling sequences of synth line and relaxing echoes guiding you into the labyrinths of mountains and forests, to the distant ocean shores with weirdly shaped rocks and noisy bird flocks.

MindSpring Memories / valyri ~ Slush Conez (Tiger Blood)

MindSpring Memories was on a roll with a number of tapes highlighting project's past catalog and answering to demand of cassette collectors. This split features freshly recorded tunes and they transcend any jazzy vaporwave release existed before. These melodies are coming right from the heart and soul. And when it comes to valiry side you get 20 minutes of an epic drone to varnish the bliss.

More Eaze ~ a l4ngu4g3 (Tymbal Tapes)

It must be the weirdest tape I listened to this year. Very inventive in ways to tickle your expectations about music, yet unobtrusive enough to keep you mesmerizing until the end. The excellent cover itself tells a lot and you better keep your ears wide open while spinning this album.

Navel ~ The Hamburg Arkansas Starsound Orchestra play Navel (Partycul System)

Album name tells a lot about this record. Or maybe that's just me. But it's really stellar! Some best guitar ambiances and kosmik resonances are here, dwelling in elusive forms, gliding away like comets. Coupled with Navel's tape released on Cosmic Winnteou it really sets a good mood for entire day. 

The Orchardist ~ Mercury Vineyard Surgeries (Nonlocal Research)

The universe of Grant Corum's imaginations expands with a speed of light and some deepest corners of this bizarre world are truly interesting places to be. Some definitely unearthly sounds are happening here along with astral transmissions from parallel planes ~ certainly a kind of activity previously known in human history as "magic".

Pandelindio ~ Meteoro (Rous Records)

If drone music is your passion and if you like when it's alive, acoustic and hints to the genre roots ~ you'll need everything Pandelindio ever recorded. These blissed out improvs of raga-drone are bringing sunlight ~ both figuratively and literally. 

Pine Smoke Lodge ~ Ex Libris (Ikuisuus)

If you ever wondered how sounds the music of unknown mythological forest creatures, this may be the answer. Signature raw incantations and damp, foggy & noisy primal drones from project's archives, call of an echo from the past and perfect addition to once prolific duo's discography.

PJS ~ Sweet La Vie (Leaving Records) / Hermes (Aural Canyon) / Glows (Pyramid Blood)

Jordan Christoff (of Saturn's Daughter and Anarchist Mountains) was quite productive this year and in duo with Patrick Dique as PJS, they released three albums of pure light this year. Some beautifully iridescent drones here, perfect for long hours spent in peace with yourself and your closest ones. Intimate music for the soul and higher self.

Pool of Light ~ Terrace (Pyramid Blood)

This album left me speechless when I listened to it for the first time. It is long and varied but it's all about brilliantly build drone music. Guitar meanderings, Chinese lute and mouth organ ~ acoustic and electronic, deep and wide at the same time. It's just everything and beyond. 

Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)

Pulse Emitter is already classic and one of the gods of this blog's pantheon, so probably you already listened to this album. If not yet, there's actually no need to explain why you need to hear it. Just do! 

Radboud Mens ~ The Ambiguity of an Apparently Static Phenomenon (No Rent)

Super minimalistic drone compositions here are best used not even for listening but for experiencing with your whole body. You don't really need ears to feel the essence of this music. It's basically a construction made of resonance which enters your room and fills it like some fantastic air hyperstructure. Perfectly palpable and unique for every room and sound system. 

Rhucle ~ More Beautiful Than Silence (Constellation Tatsu)

Rhucle keeps his bar of prolificity pretty high, which can lead to bankruptcy for some of his most loyal fans. At the same time, it's indeed next good thing you can listen to after silence simply because it barely confronts it, just adding some touches here and there.

Rod Hamilton & Tiffany Seal ~ Enchanted Forest (Self-released)

Definitely a necessary listen for any fan of anything under "tropical" umbrella, this tape is filled with warm soulful magic and positive weirdness. Swarming with good melodies and perfectly saturated with tape hiss, it sheds its green light over some unexplored ambient genre territories.

The Rubies ~ Sleeping World (Alien Garage)

This collaborative effort of Rhucle and No Death both as a music project and a label brings us even more light and good tunes to spend winter with. Rhucle's attention to details and transparency with signature vividness and signature otherworldly emotionality of No Death.

Saåad ~ Présence Absente (Hands In The Dark)

After being on the edge of project's end it's a miracle to hear a work so solid and epic in its message. Probably truly cathartic but obviously transcendent otherworldly drones made with academic attention to the tiniest detail. Breathtaking as cold mountain air.

Saturn's Daughter ~ Eternal Resonance (Virtual Dream Plaza)

As I already said in the recent review, this is some highest quality healing music in the truest meaning of "healing". It goes directly into your heart and soul and taken with an open mind it brings you to the places we all need to be. at least sometimes. 

Salvaticus Selvatico ~ Activations: Contemplations (Golden Ratio Frequencies)

In correspondence with the label's name, this is a piece of music made with a serious approach. Probably the most solid work with gongs and crystal bowls I've heard in a while, yet not limited to just these instruments ~ there's much much more on this beautifully made double cassette.

Sunmoonstar / Euglossine ~ Split (Moss Archive)

Without the need for long presentation, this is one of the cassettes you need to hear, not just because of names on it but because of the charming abilities of this music both playful and meditative. Go along these waves and you'll find something new every time. 

Symphocat ~ Harpa (SSI Records)

This part of Symphocat's "Icelandic trilogy" has everything you can think about ambient music when world "Icelandic" hits your subconsciousness. Yet it's about many more things, about whole life and admiration of what it can be ~ even when it's just about some small things and fleeting moments.

Tuluum Shimmering ~ Dancing in the Seven Skies (Self-released)

Tuluum Shimmering just never disappoints and always goes beyond himself somehow. Looks like universe becomes a little bit better place with each new loop of his immense jams. It seems like it's not just one person with a bunch of exotic instruments but a strong universal force which enters our life through thousands of years of traveling through space.

uhushuhu & wii ~ Snegi (ПANΘEON)

If you leave anywhere where real winter exists, this might be a perfect companion for the whole season. Drenched in tapes hiss analog drones and reverberated guitars ascending to the cosmos through the glorious aurora borealis.

Uton ~ PA-LUU VAL-OON (Null Zone)

Outer-planetary explorations and some top-notch improv noise are dwelling in the fractal corners of this labyrinth. If you decide to explore it, be prepared for the absence of save points, so every time you fail, you'll need to solve the puzzle again

valiry ~ Surreality/Saturnfall (New Motion)

Truly an epic work and probably a culmination of valiry's ambient side, this 3-cassette box is hard to put in few lines ~ it's huge like the universe and it's not just about outer space, inner side is strong here as well, with all emotionality and softness.

Valotihkuu ~ Paths (Self-released)

Fragility and endlessness of nature, fleeting moments of seasonal magic in pastoral environments and childhood memories ~ this album hold so many bright moments blending them perfectly with sometimes unexplainable nostalgia and serenity at the same time. 

Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

Yililok already received a lot of love in year's-end lists and present in almost every top10 made by artists for us. And no wonder if you remember from the press-release that Yialmel is a place of love and harmony, so no matter how weird were territories along which its rays passed ~ they're faster than the speed of light, they're actually omnipresent. All you need is to resonate.

Zazz ~ Soft Harbinger (Inner Islands)

With its serene textures, emotive melodies and ever-changing loops, Soft Harbinger takes you up and higher, higher, higher over rains and cloud closer to the stars. It's super easy to surrender to it's tranquil waves.

Zhurnal Mod ~ Untitled (Gorgeous Lights)

Zhurnal Mod ("fashion magazine" in Russian) is probably one of a few vaporwave projects which take the sampling part so seriously that you can never guess the original sources. But what you can do is to get mesmerized by the truly academic repetitiveness and minimalist, as well as sacred commitment to phaser effect, the cornerstone of currently unfolding slushwave / phaserwave scene.

仮想夢プラザ & Useless ~ Clarity (Virtual Dream Plaza)

Despite the fact that this split was made by two legendary personas of the vaporwave world, it's a purely blissed-out drone album made on the edge of virtual and real, on the verge of past, future and now.

猫 シ Corp. ~ Palm Mall Mars (Self-released)

Perfect farewell album by mallsoft mastermind, the last one made from jazzy muzak and signature plaza reverberation. Cat System Corp. starts a new label next year and same way as the girl from the cover, he sees a future really promising. And we do as well!

So cheers to more great sounds in 2019!

~~~

Have a great transition to the new of year!

Much love to all
<3