Like drum 'n' bass, ambient is a genre which relies on making a little go a very long way; the resultant glut of weedy minimalist pastiches barely bears a cursory listen for the most part, but this collaboration between Harold Budd and Hector Zazou demonstrates better than any recent offering how the spaces between the sounds can be made pregnant with possibility. On "Pandas in Tandem", the ghost of Erik Satie treads lightly over a shuffle breakbeat; the result is fragile and crystalline, as tentatively pristine as snowflakes. Elsewhere, heavy rhythmic breathing carries "Around the Corner from Everywhere"; slivers of what sounds like hammered dulcimer undulate through "Johnny Cake", and clarinets collude conspiratorially on "As Fast as I Could Look Away She was Still There".

"Bricolage," a French word meaning to assemble something from available materials, is such a perfect term for the art of the remix that it's surprising no one has ever used it before. It's less surprising that Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose work has always had a cool Continental flair despite the artist's Japanese roots, would choose such an elegant term for his swish remix collection. Focusing on reworks of material from 2005's back-to-the-roots electro-pop experiment Chasm, Bricolages features a cross-cultural and cross-generational batch of remixers including Cornelius, whose playful sense of pastiche is to current hipster Japanese pop what Sakamoto's Yellow Magic Orchestra was a quarter-century before; his take on the spoken word cut-up "War & Peace" is considerably lighter and groovier than Aoki Takamasa's tense, austere version. Former Japan drummer Steve Jansen, whose collaboration with Sakamoto goes back to the early '80s, contributes the skittering "Break With," bridging the gap between new wave disco and contemporary IDM.

"You don't like our music cuz it ain't up on the radio," Beak>'s Geoff Barrow sings on >>> with something approaching pride. This contrarian attitude defines the band's third album: Barrow and company could have easily made another album of sinister motorik-driven instrumentals like >>, but this time, they blow up their music. Since Beak> haven't released a full-length in six years and now include Moon Gangs' Will Young among their ranks, some evolution was inevitable. Even so, >>> reveals some drastic changes. The lock grooves that powered Beak>'s first two albums are almost entirely absent, freeing them to double down on their distinctively murky, eerie moods and express them in new ways.

Stick Men is a progressive rock band founded in 2007 by Pat Mastelotto, Tony Levin, and Michael Bernier. Since 2010, the lineup stabilized around Mastelotto, Levin, and Markus Reuter. The band was formed as a vehicle for progressive rock music performed almost exclusively with Chapman Sticks and drums. In April of 2015, Stick Men put on four historic concerts in Japan, with special guest, legendary King Crimson violinist David Cross, a project special arranged by Leonardo Pavkovic. The live recording of the 2 Tokyo shows, titled Midori, was released as a double CD in Japan only, and now is available as well via MoonJune in a limited edition of 2500 copies.

This feast for the ears almost defies classification. Richard Horowitz is probably best known for his award-winning score to the Bernardo Bertolucci movie, The Sheltering Sky. Featured on the album is Tehran singer Sussan Deyhim; her voice is extremely expressive in an "x-tatic" Middle Eastern style, with its distinctive embellishments and phrasing. Horowitz takes recordings of her voice and layers it in subtle yet exotic tapestries and harmonies. This is not the ripoff sampling done so often on ambient dance albums. Deyhim's voice is the center of the compositions, and her artistry is always honored. At times, her combined voices sound like the Manhattan Transfer, but when the title track features 84 recombined samples of her voice, the result is very unique. Although the sound processing is important, the album features many live musicians, including world music expert Jaron Lanier and members of the Moroccan National Radio and Television Orchestra. Majoun offers layers upon veils of mysteries and never stoops to trite Middle Eastern musical clichés. Highly recommended.

This just might be the single greatest side of OTT psych/noise guitar oblivion ever put to wax, a suitably enigmatic nada-information ultra-limited LP w/printed off-set covers featuring a shades-less Mizutani, an enigmatic insert with nothing but a colour ocean-front snap and two ludicrously extended, blown-out takes on primo material from the most legendary Japanese underground group of all time, Les Rallizes Denudes…

Tom Hamilton - Off-Hour Wait State: Some Music About the Subway (1996) {OODiscs OO26}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 283 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 143 Mb
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© 1996 OODiscs | OO26
Avant-Garde / Jazz / Experimental Electronic / Experimental

Employing analog synthesizers that emulate various sounds and their placement design, etc. in the New York City subway system, a sound environment is created for improvising musicians who use that electronic sound as an "aural score…I am…privileged to ride the same train with them" (Hamilton). The excellent musicians for this ride are Thomas Buckner, baritone vocal, Roscoe Mitchell, alto sax, Ralph Samuelson, shakuhachi, Peter Zummo, trombone, and Jonathan Haas, percussion. Often delicate and mysterious, at times gently humorous and just plain odd, the sounds unfold inner, emotional experience among the subterranean. Fascinating and original.

The third Motorpsycho full length marks an important step for the band, both in terms of musical ambition and execution. The previous album Demon Box was a very diverse album but it could still largely be tagged as a metal/stoner album. With Timothy's Monster, the band found a more personal mix of heavy indie rock with psychedelic experimentation that fans probably identify as psychonaut-rock…

Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage - Blues Alif Lam Mim (2021) {Blank Forms Editions}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Digital Download -> 477 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 191 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2021 Important Records / Blank Forms Editions
Experimental / Modern Classical / Raga / Electronic / Avant-Garde

Fathoms deep, kaleidoscopic devotional drone that channels Catherine Christer Hennix's passion for Arabic poetry and her studies alongside Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath. Originally released in 2016, "Blues Alif Lam Mim" is the recording of a 2014 performance of Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble, featuring brass, electronics and voices.