Benoît Pioulard - 7"

Genre: Ambient Pop, Dream Pop, Folk Gaze
Label: Hall Of Owls / Stormy Records

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Lee features two covers, both described as old favorites by Meluch. The first is an excellent rendition of "Sundown, Sundown," originally written and performed by Lee Hazelwood with Nancy Sinatra. Meluch erases all the punchy orchestration of the original and replaces it with a hazy and sullen performance that retains the core melody and romantic tone. Meluch's spectral voice is in total contrast to Hazelwood's grittier delivery, but the subdued tone generated by Meluch's playing compliments his softer performance perfectly. The B-side is a cover of The Ink Spot's "Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat," a doo-wop song from the early '40s. Meluch maintains the simplicity of the original and puts all the focus on his vocal performance and a plodding bass line. The song's bookended by some static effects that sound like Meluch's signature more than anything else. It's a nice song, but the original doesn't appeal to me as much as Hazelwood does, so I can't get myself as excited about it.

Flocks is an 11-plus minute EP that features a dark, nearly resigned tone and more of the haunting melodies I have come to expect from Benoît Pioulard. The A-side, "Maginot," begins with the dark tolling of a bell and puts some industrial atmospheric effects to good use. These are cut off as Meluch lends his drifting voice to a choppy acoustic guitar accompanied by percussive effects, bells, and a fluid lead guitar. As the song progresses it becomes more layered and acquires an exotic, yearning character before degenerating into a sweet mess of sound effects and sustained notes. The B-side is a noise epic reminscient of the material played during his live show. "Alaskan Lashes" obliterates Meluch's angelic voice and eschews his melodic inclinations in favor of churning wheels, pressurized intensity, and grinding mayhem. It is a deep, bellowing blast of sound that broods and boils before it suddenly disappears. I hope this is a sign that Meluch has similar music on the way because both of these songs are superb.

Noveller - Paint On The Shadows

Genre: Ambient, Drone
Label: No Fun productions

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Noveller is the working name for avant-drone guitarist / filmmaker Sarah Lipstate. Having graduated from the legion sized guitar symphonies of both Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham, Lipstate produced a couple of cd-rs, a cassette, and some tracks for some compilations. She's also been moonlighting as the guitarist for Parts & Labor, but it's this album that caught our attention. Recorded for the increasingly confounding label No Fun (less aggro noise these days and more occluded psychedelic dronemusik), Paint On The Shadows begins with a liltingly pretty, side-long construction of intertwining guitar loops and elliptical fingerpicked patterns that conjures all of the best that Grouper and Colleen had managed through their loopstation laboratories. All of these sounds blossom out of a harmonic bed of bowed guitar drones; and steady low end thrums sublimate into richly plucked chiming notes that could even double for Jozef Van Wissem. The flipside offers up two pieces which seem to reflect her live presentations, with ebows, motors, and hand-held tape decks driving the strings and pick-ups from her double necked guitar. With precise placements of the ebows and some choice tremolo effects, Lipstate generates phasing tones often heard in the cosmic explorations of Eno & Fripp's No Pussyfooting or certainly not that far from Emeralds. Another one of those hyper-limited lp pressings from No Fun. Just 300 were made, and don't expect these to last very long!

Ian Hawgood - Snow Roads

Link is fixed

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Instrumental
Label: Dragon´s Eye Recordings

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From one extreme to the other in the crazy world of Norman Records with the new album by Ian Hawgood called 'Snow Roads'. This is an edition of 250 copies on Dragon Eye Recordings. Theres so much limited stuff about in handmade sleeves that its easy to get lost amongst it all. Its hard to blame the labels though as any release once its out a week or so will be available to download for free all over the internet. What people must remember when getting stuff for free is the link between them doing this and another nail in the coffin for the labels that are still attempting to release stuff and the shops attempting to sell it. I'm probably preaching to the converted here but if it needs saying once it needs saying a million times. Anyway onto the music which is a selection of delightful drones using organ, found sounds, field recordings and the odd guitar pluck. It includes contributions of source material from other artists including The Remote Viewer on harmonium, El Fog on vibraphone, Celer on tingsha bells, Le Mépris and Katherine Morrice on piano, and field recordings by Ben Jones and Wataru Osako. Its a lovely, shifting landscape of soothing sounds - perfect to nod off to sleep to on a chilly autumn evening.

Emeralds - Emeralds LP

Genre: Drone, Ambient
Label: Wagon

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Emeralds is John Elliott (synth), Steve Hauschildt(synth) and Mark McGuire (guitar). They are currently based in Cleveland, Ohio. Their music is of an improvisational nature and is synthesizer and guitar-centric, however vocals, electronics and field recordings are often utilized to create dynamic textures amidst melodious backdrops and minimal structures. Though their sound cannot be pinned down to one specific genre, it recalls the organic/electronic explorations of Tangerine Dream, Ashra, Coil, Terry Riley and Popol Vuh to name but a few.

Brand new full length from Cleveland's Emeralds recorded Aug-Sept 2008. Proper follow up to their debut LP 'Solar Bridge', 'Emeralds' takes the thick drone sound of that LP and transforms it into an even more abstract and strange place. Visual music that lifts the listener up and transports them through tubes of sound occasionally to be swept into the opposite direction by an unexpected entrance into another world entirely. An intense journey that drops you off in a place just beyond death.

Ekca Liena - Orb Night

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Label: Phantom Channel

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Ekca Liena, the work of the prodigious Dan Mackenzie, created quite a stir with his monumental debut ‘Slow Music For Rapid Eye Movement’. Issued via the excellent Dead Pilot Records, this record was a stunning collision of monolithic drones, volcanic guitar and cascading ambient soundscaping, that led those in the know to draw comparisons with Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, Fennesz and even Mogwai. One critic even labeled it as ‘..a piece of music that may alter your perception of the word epic’.

Mackenzie has not rested on his laurels; as well as founding drone outfit Plurals he has been busy recording new material for both Dead Pilot and Under the Spire Records, while remastering ‘Slow Music…’ for a wider release. Phantom Channel has also commissioned a piece from Mackenzie, entitled 'Orb Night', and is delighted to welcome his Ekca Liena project into our blossoming roster.

You can dowload the entire album on the label site (here) and buy it for a little price. It´s a 3" Cd release with 40 copies only, so hurry up!

Infinite Body - CMBCMEINAPTD LP

Not the original cover art

Genre: Drone, Psychedelic, Experimental
Label: Teardrop Records

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Kyle Parker has jacked in his excellently named 'Gator Surprise' noise project to make way for Infinite Body which explores a far more subdued avenue. 'CMBCMEINAPTD' goes deep into heady drone territory with some thick fuzzy textures. I'm reminded a little of Growing's 'Colour Wheel' album. Phil is reminded of early Belong stuff. After hearing their 'October Language' LP earier I can second that notion....He uses some quite different and colourfull sounds over the duration of the album. It's consistently hypnotic throughout with some nice use of repetition and subtle shifts in mood.

Ben Woods - Things Weren't Always This Way

Genre: Ambient, Instrumental
Label: Wise Owl records

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Things Weren't Always This Way is yet another stop on the ceaselessly evolving path of Ben Woods' creativity. Ben takes neo-classical minimalism to an entirely new level by blending, reversing, and layering pianos and other instruments to capture a surreal snapshot of his own psyche.

The album is as serene as it is sublime and the title track captures its essence with heavily layered harmonies and swirling ambiance, leaving the listener to be slightly caught off guard by the uneasy tension of Leaving Them Only, which only serves to strengthen its impact.

As he mentions in the liner notes, the album was created with something of a balance in mind. Each track can be reversed by the listener (using Audacity or something similar) to create a completely new listening experience. I personally encourage everyone to give this a shot because the reversed tracks stand quite strongly on their own and allow the listener to experience the album more thoroughly.