She's got talent: ElettroVoce Duo - "Parlando"

I ran into this video by chance, as this form of art is not my main field of interest. This is a recorded live performance of the act ElettroVoce Duo, comprising of Agata Zubel (voice) and Cezary Duchnowski (computer). And Agata Zubel herself is supposedly a young but already renown Polish vocalist and composer of contemporary academic music. And you just have to hear what she can do with her voice. That's not something I would call "music", as it obviously does not qualify for repeated listening. But judged on its own merits, as an artistic performance showing technical prowess, insane command of the voice and infinite imagination and creativity in finding new ways of expression and stretching the boundaries of what is humanely possible to do with the voice - it is absolutely brilliant to watch.

ElettroVoce Duo - "Parlando"

Pan:core - "Memories (2001 - 2005)"

Piano + electronica + beautiful melodies (9/10) auf diesem album habe ich eine auswahl an tracks zusammengestellt, die ich im laufe der letzten jahre gemacht habe. jeder einzelne von ihnen hat für mich eine persönliche bedeutung. die klangqualität ist eher mittelmäszig und das mixing ist wirklich nicht so gut - und dennoch; ich mag es sehr. vielleicht kann euch das eine oder andere stück berühren. More classical album than other Pan:core's recordings. It mostly comprises of simple but beautiful melodies played on piano / keyboard with electronic background. A very melancholic album. And it includes another stunning electronic cover of a classical tune - this time a piece from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (17 - spaetsommer). Pan:core's covers are masterpieces. As to the rest of the album, it is very good, but I prefer his more electronic and experimental side, as on No Way To Win. He's a true master of this genre. It becomes clear after listening this album to the end, because the last track is completely different from the rest - it's not a simple piano tune, but hard electronic experimental madness. ;-) I instantly felt sorry that not all 18 tracks were in this style. And a final remark - I like both sides of Pan:core - simple piano pieces and experimental electronic madness, so I don't mind mixing them on one album. But I'm afraid that for some listeners, who like only straightforward music, the ending of this album would be unbearable and could ruin all the fun they had from listening to this record.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's website]

Gardzienice, Osrodek praktyk teatralnych - "Orkiestra antyczna" (2003)

Maybe not as hypnotic, not as mesmerising as the first album, Metamorfozy, but still exceptional piece of music, both as something simply enjoyable or something to listen to and as a set of highly elaborated compositions. Work of Gardzienice is one of the most convincing reconstructions of ancient mousikē - they do their best to squeeze out as much as possible from incomplete data and to reconstruct irreconstructible. [junusynu @ rateyourmusic.com] The music itself is 4-stars, but the priceless scientific book on the subject that accompanies it is worth additional half star. This is by far the most convincing and probably accurate reconstructions of Ancient music I've ever heard. Recommended for everyone interested in ancient mysteries and theater, not recommended for those imagining Ancient Greeks as some clean-singing noble elves. [hattivat @ rateyourmusic.com] Osrodek praktyk teatralnych "Gardzienice" (Centre for Theatre Practices "Gardzienice") was founded in 1977 by Włodzimierz Staniewski, and formally registered in 1978. The name comes from the village where the theatre is located. The group gained international critical acclaim, and is classified as an experimental anthropological theater. In 1997 the association established the Academy for Theatre Practices. This carries out numerous projects: research, arts, music, and cultural investigation into the humanities. Orkiestra antyczna (The Ancient Orchestra) was a scientific project directed by Tomasz Rodowicz and Maciej Rychły, focused on reconstruction of music of ancient Greece and Rome, conducted in cooperation with musicologists. The reconstructed music was then played and recorded by the theatre's musical ensemble. This CD record accompanied the Polish edition of the book Music in Ancient Greece and Rome by John Landels. The book (and so the CD) is currently out-of-print.

Biography Wikipedia EN Wikipedia PL Review PL Official Website Facebook YouTube Google+ Twitter

Projects like this one are highly controversial among the scholars, as well as "classical" music critics and fans, because the sources from which we can learn about works, practices and instruments of ancient music are not even scarce - they are almost non-existent. And I mean it - just to give you some perspective, we are talking here about building instruments, which nobody have touched for 2 thousand years, on the basis of pictures found on ancient ceramic vessels. Or "reconstructing" songs upon seven and a half words and not many more musical notes found on a broken stone slab (like it is with the track no. 13: "Hode Galatan Ares"). The painful truth is that nobody knows how these notes have been sung and how this music sounded. Therefore, maybe it would be more proper to call such efforts "artistic interpretation" rather than "scientific reconstruction". Some may say I'm a little bit too harsh, not respecting hard work of these researchers. That is not true. I have great esteem for them. But let's be reasonable. Just imagine that in two thousand years some future civilization will play Beethoven's For Elise on a "piano" built from this illustration, after "reconstructing" the piece on the basis of a few random bars coming from the burnt score and a review from a magazine. It may be a great work, but do you think it will sound anything like the composition that I linked above? No way. So is this album a disappointment? Not at all! All I say is - let's not treat it like a definitive recording of ancient music, but rather as a suggestion: it might have sounded like that. So how is it, when judged on its own merits? Brilliant. Astounding. Breathtaking. Mesmerizing. I have to stop right now, because I'm running out of adjectives. You're lucky you're reading me in English, because in Polish I'd go on like this for several more pages. Each of these songs is so powerful, hypnotic, full of emotions that you are immediately carried away by the procession of ancient Greeks. You can only hope you won't end up offered as a sacrifice to Greek gods. So all this long introduction was to prepare you for what I am about to write now: I don't give a fuck if this is true ancient music or just a new-age'y / folky imitation. This is a masterpiece of Music. Who cares for labels. Let's just listen to this awesome record and praise ingenious people that created it. I have to end with a small disclaimer. Due to high originality and uniqueness of this music, this record is of course not for everyone. For the majority of pop/rock oriented public it would be probably just a cacophony. But if only you have open mind (and ears) for sonic experiments and you are not afraid of new musical experiences and unusual sounds, I am sure you will be delighted. Tracklist: 01. Promoleth' Helikona [02:44] 02. All' o chryseokitharin [03:14] 03. Tripoda manteion [04:02] 04. All' o Phoibe [05:12] 05. En, klyta megalopolis Atthis [02:22] 06. Ganytai [02:54] 07. Alla Latous [01:50] 08. Paian, o Paian [02:49] 09. Kronos archon [03:18] 10. Melipnoon [02:56] 11. Chelidon [02:46] 12. En kymasin [04:01] 13. Hode Galatan Ares [03:17] Playing Time.........: 41:30 Support artists, not recording industry Pay the artists directly. They do not profit from CD sales. If you buy brand new mainstream albums in regular record stores (no matter whether online or offline, CDs or downloads), almost all the money goes to the recording industry mafia and is later used for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you really want to support mainstream artists (and you should, if you love their music!), go to concerts or buy merchandise off the official websites. If you can afford buying music, but it is not possible to pay a particular artist without a mafia tribute, consider supporting some independent artists instead. You can find many great acts on such websites as magnatune.com, jamendo.com, cdbaby.com, bandcamp.com, megatotal.pl. Supporting independent artists helps fight the recording industry mafia. Log translation at http://eachelper.uphero.com/ EAC extraction logfile from 16. January 2004, 8:17 for CD Unknown Artist / Unknown Album Used drive : TEAC CD-W524E Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, NO disable cache Combined read/write offset correction : 0 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Used output format : Internal WAV Routines 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No External ASPA drivers installed Track 1 Filename D:\Track01.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 10331797 Copy OK Track 2 Filename D:\Track02.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 428A152B Copy OK Track 3 Filename D:\Track03.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 86843217 Copy OK Track 4 Filename D:\Track04.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 68C0ED12 Copy OK Track 5 Filename D:\Track05.wav Peak level 69.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 885A0836 Copy OK Track 6 Filename D:\Track06.wav Peak level 69.9 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 712FCEA6 Copy OK Track 7 Filename D:\Track07.wav Peak level 84.2 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 7685152A Copy OK Track 8 Filename D:\Track08.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 99.9 % Copy CRC 8BF6F7AA Copy OK Track 9 Filename D:\Track09.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 1126E199 Copy OK Track 10 Filename D:\Track10.wav Peak level 68.6 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 3BFA1331 Copy OK Track 11 Filename D:\Track11.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 3BEBCCA5 Copy OK Track 12 Filename D:\Track12.wav Peak level 57.6 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC A371DF12 Copy OK Track 13 Filename D:\Track13.wav Peak level 98.8 % Track quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 2BF5905B Copy OK No errors occured End of status report [CUETools log; Date: 2013-02-17 03:35:10; Version: 2.1.4] [CTDB TOCID: rEfT3DdSkNX.fCUkHt7wTZe5t68-] disk not present in database. [AccurateRip ID: 001425c0-00c803a9-9709ba0d] disk not present in database. ----------------------- DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE ----------------------- PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5 Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved http://y-soft.org ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2 Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved. FILE: 13 - Hode Galatan Ares.wav Size: 34783772 Hash: DFDC6447392FA8D6338CCEB3A3AB7AF3 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 5C5303371F3C477810BA2791173047AE9E71115D FILE: 12 - En kymasin.wav Size: 42568892 Hash: 54C8A3B652ABBF6A33D20E7D0C30F245 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 4437AA67B490C6E136343B999AD2B3179282B062 FILE: 11 - Chelidon.wav Size: 29437676 Hash: 1A704EF74157270221BC1CA43B21727F Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 4B95F76F76E76961C5F01180B60BC458CCFA02BD FILE: 10 - Melipnoon.wav Size: 31149932 Hash: 6B679538C25085A6E0B0E306FD4245F5 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 052F1E357222E01FCBA604D543CFC4C9C0879280 FILE: 09 - Kronos archon.wav Size: 34950764 Hash: 7457A8D8FB349367F4C0345B826F3E47 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 40D2727B9309779B215DADC23321731E1F1B3981 FILE: 08 - Paian, o Paian.wav Size: 29933948 Hash: 0BF400E0F95FE33C27E682CE54DD9D63 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: AAE1CFFD22BFCB7260957AC54498F21C7CC9D449 FILE: 07 - Alla Latous.wav Size: 19427564 Hash: 3D55B4B1BAE79D84B23C161885830873 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 9AF4072F6A29B518072EFB18D778D0FF8DE5F994 FILE: 06 - Ganytai.wav Size: 30853580 Hash: FE692BAD6DD09C3FC217360C150BE798 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: DD26E6EB5B3B6A017E2629FF98E2E1574EFFB86C FILE: 05 - En, klyta megalopolis Atthis.wav Size: 25095884 Hash: E0E1FA076C8B4437499811DEF286A1D2 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: D95016E28321CB7472AC52DE05835D6343B63B3B FILE: 04 - All' o Phoibe.wav Size: 55105052 Hash: B6B9345C13E74A91743C8BE45F309C40 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 18127B806FAD19A75568D47AFBC5192CE8083516 FILE: 03 - Tripoda manteion.wav Size: 42691196 Hash: A6D99541FC9E772E02F2D5AAB3D34304 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: C4B6C128D704E0E29B00C7CD74C6B9D694C124FC FILE: 02 - All' o chryseokitharin.wav Size: 34365116 Hash: DC3BBC44BC88D5F285736D49B4D8ECA5 Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 7DADF892E94ABDC64950E628433F42EAD19D510D FILE: 01 - Promoleth' Helikona.wav Size: 28971980 Hash: 454CE927365ADEDE9CED8A862BAC9E7F Accuracy: -m0 Conclusion: CDDA 100% Signature: 8375ADCC2D28357F86A718C7388407C8BF0FC196 As you can see in the EAC log, the person that ripped this CD used a wrong offset setting: "Combined read/write offset correction" is set to "0", what probably means there are some missing samples (but note that it does not mean these differences are audible - it just means the copy is not formally "exact"). I carefully listened to this rip and I heard no audible ripping errors. Further, bear in mind that this CD is no longer available. The read mode line should usually say "disable cache", but it may say "NO disable cache" for drives that do not cache data. Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question: rEfT3DdSkNX.fCUkHt7wTZe5t68- avax

Pan:core - "Kithara Kodex"

Brilliant dark experimental electronica (9/10) If you like my music, i would be happy to read some nice words on a postcard. just send it to maik sommer – hechtstr.47 – 01097 – dresden – germany enjoy. Brilliant dark experimental electronica. Thank you, pan:core. At first I didn't like the cover of "Moonlight Sonata", because of the hip-hop beats in the background. But the ending is so powerful and haunting that I had to revise my opinion. The only track I still don't like is "Intro" - it is just tiring, ugly and, in the first place, doesn't fit the rest of the album. It's like a mole on a beautiful face. [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's website]

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Akusto, Ben - "Disturbance"

Great electronica (9/10) Rare "Golden Oldies" saved from c-casettes, dat-tapes and old harddrives. Just counterplay it very loud next time your neighbour downstairs is banging the roof with the broom. However, these are old and rusty songs made late 90's or in other words 10 years ago. About same time as the two previously published: TeddyBear Trilogee and Ambience Session. I just didn't dare to mix&master any track anyhow (except the Camel Boost just a little bit) - so don't expect too high quality and don't ruin your hi-fi stack. I still hope you like what you hear. It's not pure ambient. At least it's not so simple and quiet as typical ambient tunes are. Nevertheless it's a very very good album. It's not rusty at all, but colorful and brilliant. [mirror @ archive.org] | [Artist's Website] | [Myspace] SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

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Troy - "Best Music For Sex"

Strange techno / electronica (5/10) TROY a fine disco-new age-industrial one man band is located in Tel aviv Israel. A rather tiring effort from the Israel-based one-man act. The main problem that I have with this album is bad production / mastering. All the tracks sound like they have been recorded through a concrete wall. Very flat ugly sound. In terms of genre, the album is quite diverse, exploring various styles of electronic music with an experimental approach and a retro feel to it. Therefore, it is difficult to label it otherwise than by using general terms like techno, electronica, disco, sometimes even synthpop. Several tracks are quite entertaining and listenable, despite the terrible sound. Others are simply dull. You can check it out if you like exploring techno wilderness. [mirror @ archive.org] | [Artist's Website] SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

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k.ROCKSHIRE - "Doggystyle, the" [EP]

Surreal sandwich (9/10) the doggyStyle EP est le premier album de k. ROCKSHIRE. Cet album s'adresse aux gens qui souffrent du mauvais temps, de la mondialisation, ou encore des petites déceptions qu'offre chaque jour la vie pour ses vertus médicinales et revigorantes ; mais aussi aux insatiables épicuriens qui cherchent à préserver leur bonheur dans un monde frétillant de délicatesse et de fleurs hawaïennes. Déjà culte depuis de nombreuses heures, the doggyStyle EP est un condensé de fraîcheur et d'amour. En bref, le sage dit : "k.ROCKSHIRE est à la vie ce que le citron est au Mojito." et ce n'est pas faux. k.ROCKSHIRE a grand soin de regrouper un maximum d'instruments différents, sans compter ceux qu'ils développent eux-mêmes, concrets ou vrituels. La double plaques chauffantes musicales et la banane musicale sont des exclusivités k. Rockshire. This bizarre piece of liquid heaven is filled with yummy landscapes with cream on top. Not to forgot bananas roasted on musical double hotplate. Waiter! I want a second helping! SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's Myspace]

TAT - "Quinta Essentia"

Good gothic album (7/10) D-SIDE n°32, Emmanuel Hennequin - Septembre 2006: "Les canevas acoustiques et hors classe du projet français TAT conduisent à une première oeuvre autoproduite d'envergure et de grande personnalité, au fil de laquelle s'expriment les voix et instruments de talents divers et variés (parmi lesquels AlBéRiCk de .cut aux mots, et la basse de Cypher d'Omnicore). Les thèmes musicaux investissent des décors acoustiques rituels et mortuaires, parsemés de cloches ("Quinta Essentia : Part 1") mais sans y voir une limite. Et la sévérité des sujets ("Thalidomide", du nom du médicament ravageur) se confronte en permanence à la douceur poétique des cordes classiques. Dès lors, l'acclimatation nécessaire à une entreprise poly-linguistique, créant un univers fait de subtils reliefs et mû par le paradoxe. Formellement, TAT crée une musique d'un nouveau genre : folk, progressive, post-classique et expérimentale. A la fois limpide et ténébreuse, elle ne veut pas tromper sur la marchandise. L'expérience auditive, captivante, est donc proposée en download libre, et ce préalablement à tout achat. La beauté et la culture de l'objet nous font dire ici que sa survie aux tentations de la musique libre de défraiement doit s'organiser. C'est un appel à l'achat, oui, car de disques comme ceux-ci sont durs, et rares. Ils sont beaux." Lacrimosa meets Dead Can Dance meets Einsturzende Neubauten - these are the first associations that came to my mind after listening to this album. But TAT is still quite original. For example, use of a classical guitar gives a very interesting effect. Dark ghotic tunes - very haunting. The only downside is the terrible French accent in English songs. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's Website]

Nymphomania - "Unashamed"

Dark ambient of the highest quality (10/10) From the artist: Earthy meditation loops of processed voice, bass guitar and wind chime, which resound unceasing throughout my new home by the woods. An album for eating nectarines and grapefruits in the early morning. The sequel to "In Spiral Expression". From the label: This is a real trip into mind. The fractal image of the inner self. A kaleidoscope of visions that have a meaning, but you should be sure, because taking the wrong path leads you nowhere. The labyrinth built by one's mind may look confusing, but it gives the hints - just listen. And never touch that green switch! All instruments programmed and played, vocals, music written and arranged by Josh Landry. Artwork by Mike Winchester. Dark ambient of the highest quality. With long drones flowing slowly through time and space. Only sometimes strange sounds of ethnic instruments or tribal chants remind you that you are taking part in some kind of a primeval ritual. This record is hypnotic and repetitive, but never boring like so many bad ambient works. Highly recommended to both ambient fans and people looking for a good introduction to this genre. The album has been released by the artist himself through his Bandcamp store under the "name your price" scheme. You can download it there in a variety of formats, including a lossless FLAC version. This release is copyrighted. It has been also reissued by the Russian label USC (United Studios Corporation), under the Creative Commons BY-SA license. On their website you will find links for downloading the album for free from several file storage websites, but only in 320 kbit MP3 format. They inform that "By downloading our files from links below you directly support artists and label". By the way - they release music on physical CDs too. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation through Bandcamp.

[Artist's Soundcloud]

Abogix (J.K.), the - "George Bush's great adventure between war and horror"

Great electronic tunes with unnecessary speeches (7/10) Ok...this album i don't like it! But other poeple love it...so i leave it here! I love the melodies on this album. What a pity they are spoiled by mumbling of that moron George of the Jungle. All these speeches are completely unnecessary and spoil all the fun one could have from listening to this album. I understand the reason for that, but it just doesn't appeal to me. If I was keen on GWB or just wanted to listen to talking heads, I would turn the TV on. But I wanted to listen to beautiful music. So my rating is 7, while it could have been 10. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner. [mirror @ archive.org] | [Artist's Myspace]

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Subterrestrial - "Goddess of Atvatabar, the"

Interesting but too repetitive dark ambient (6/10) The debut album from this San Francisco Bay Area artist, The Goddess of Atvatabar is inspired by the 1891 hollow earth adventure novel by William R. Bradshaw and leans heavily on dark ambient, tribal ambient and middle eastern musical themes. The Goddess of Atvatabar is a self-released web album and is available as a free download. This is an interesting dark ambient recording, although too repetitive for my liking. I like experimenting with dark atmosphere and strange sounds. The drawbacks are the said repetitiveness and absurd sound volume differences, forcing a listener to adjust the level throughout the album. For me the best tracks are nos. 01, 02 and 07, because they are not overly repetitive. If you like highly repetitive type of ambient, you can safely add 2 or 3 points to my rating. I guess using a word "repetitive" in every sentence, when reviewing a repetitive album is somehow repetitive, I mean, is somehow OK, isn't it? Apart from Jamendo the album is available at archive.org on Subterrestrial's own "netlabel" channel - possibly in better quality, because Jamendo is notorious for very low quality of their mp3 files. Please note that this edition is governed by a different CC license: . I guess it means you can choose the one that better suits your needs. [Jamendo mirror @ archive.org] | [Artist's Website] | [Myspace]

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Nationale2 - "Painful Experiment"

Intelligent minimalistic electronica (8/10) Painful Experiment is a resolutely electronica album. It was entirely composed with a Roland MC-303, a vocoder MAM VF-11 and a speak and spell. Painful Experiment is probably, to date, the concept of the more intimate Nationale2. Folded back on itself after the loss of two years' compositions, because of the crash of a HDD, he began a return to the source with the machine's most controversial by the purists when it was released. Intelligent minimalistic electronica. When someone is creative, he does not need much equipment. Thank you for sharing your work. [mirror @ archive.org] SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

Xenophobe - "Episode 2"

One of the best bands you have never heard of (8/10)

2nd CD of 4 track recordings mastered to digital compact cassette. Transfered to CD by Brian Lipski in 1997 Very interesting recording supposedly featuring electronic reworking of music by Warfare, a metal band from the 80-ties, completely unknown to general public. Warfare's Myspace profile (yes, they have one!) says they were: "Thrash band from the Jersey shore in the mid 80's. All songs recorded live at band practices through headphones onto cassette..."

If this is true, it is another proof that talent hunters at the record labels are deaf and you need just a massive luck to be accepted. Why? Because these songs are great.

Of course even in these reworked versions you can hear the limitation of the poor equipment and recording conditions. But what counts is that they are catchy and energetic and if these guys were given a chance, they could easily turn them into metal masterpieces.

OK, but what about these updated versions? Well, they are still merely of a demo quality, because they were recorded in the nineties on cheap analog equipment. Yet these tunes are so well crafted that I enjoyed them very much despite their extremely lo-fi sound. The album starts with an earthquake - an industrial metal riff of the first track "Mad". Equally powerful is the third track "Dawn Of Time". No. 4 is a little slower, as to make some room for handful of strange samples. No. 5 "Phat and Funky" seems to contain a vocal line by Les Claypool of Primus, although the album's description does not mention that. Maybe it's someone else perfectly imitating his voice, though it feels unlikely, when you know how distinct Claypool's voice is. So anyone thinking of using this music commercially, should take double care, because it may contain some copyrighted material.

From the track no. 6 the arrangements change from industrial metal into synthpop / new wave, but keeping their main feature - catchiness. Another stylistic change comes in track no. 9, where we meet hip hop, followed by rap metal in the next tune. In track 11 we go back to metal. The album ends with two crazy renditions of "Wild Thing" (probably still copyrighted too!).

The only weak track is no. 2 "Acoustic Song" - with a primitive melody, and low quality plastic-sounding samples (not that electronic sounds in other tracks are of exceptional quality, but in this one they are truly terrible).

To summarize - this album is a true gem and I recommend it to anyone ready to listen to very good music in not so good quality.

The album has been released by the NoiseCollector netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 and ogg format.

apijamm - "Gitarrensolo"

Interesting but unlistenable experiment (5/10) Minimal weil eine Kindergitarre,Aufnahme mit digitaler Kamera,abgemixt mit laptop,Aufgenommen mit Audiograbber,only gitarre.....Viel Spaß ! This is an interesting experiment. The music is extremely repetitive, monotonous and lo-fi. The effect is quite distracting and intriguing. It's of course minimal but because of its repetitive nature it strongly resembles some industrial works, despite using very different technical means. Having said that, I must remind you that it's a musical - not experimental - website. Therefore, I base my ratings on musical qualities of the presented recordings. This album - for me - hardly qualifies as music and definitely is not suitable for repeated listening. Hence the rating. Of course that's just me - if even such artists as Merzbow have their fan base, I'm sure this work may also appeal to a (rather small) number of people. [Artist's website]

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Hoffmann, Michael - "Ruff-Stuff Edition"

A massive dose of experimental ambient (9/10) RUFF-STUFF Edition is a documentation of live-sampling experiments, which I produced in 2009 on a period of 12 months. All tracks are pure improvisations by using live-sampling work and were occasionally grafted by carefully additions (add. Instuments, Efx, mixing). I pondered for a long time how to review and rate this album - over 5 hours (!) of experimental improvised ambient. It is hard to comprehend, it is hard to listen in one take. It requires a lot of attention to catch the subtleties of particular tracks, which all are slow-paced, quiet and drum-based. For people that don't have much experience with such music it would be probably a torture. Of course, its inaccessibility for general public should not influence an opinion on music as such. So what is my opinion? I'm still not sure. I guess you won't be very surprised if I write that it's too long and it'd profit from some selection of the recorded material. However, you'll probably be very surprised when you read that I'd delete only three tracks. In all the rest the artist somehow managed to include enough interesting ideas or to produce fine disturbing atmosphere to keep my attention focused. This fact only deserves the highest praise, because it requires a true genius to improvise such massive dose of ambient music without making it boring or too repetitive. One must also have a lot of courage to publish such unconventional work. On the other hand I won't give the highest rating just because of the qualities of the artist himself. This is a review of music, not of the artist's talent as such (which is - without any doubt - enormous). I also won't rate the originality by itself, just like I refused to lower the score because of inaccessibility. What truly matters is if it is good music, enjoyable (in a broad sense of the word) and worth of repeated listening. The answer is of course "yes", but at the same time it is not perfect recording for me. I truly appreciate the artist's mastery as well as novelty and originality of this work, but I cannot give full 10 points. Anyhow, this is an exceptional album and should be on a "must-listen" list of every true fan of ambient. Apart from Jamendo, the album is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 and ogg formats.

Royalty free music for professional licensing [Artist's Website]

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KraftiM - "Featuring Justbase" [EP]

Emotionless (6/10) A fresh collaboration with Justbase, who provides the rhythms. A lot of energy came in and out. Here on Jamendo comes a sample of the results. Hold is featuring the singer Geechi too, who's wonderful voice gives a great extra to the instrumentalists. The singer of Morens wishes to stay incognito, also after several seductions. Thanks WarMocK for another nice sleeve........ Ambient-like music with an experimental edge. I agree with the earlier reviewers that this is an interesting work. KraftiM is without a doubt a skilled musician, his songs are professionally crafted. Just as an example, the female voice on "Morens 2" is great. This album is not too ambient like a previous one, in fact it's not quite ambient in a strict sense. Therefore, I wondered for a long while why I didn't dig it... And suddenly it came to me: these tunes are devoid of soul; completely emotionless. They lack this elusive quality, through which a song can influence a listener's emotions, mood or even sometimes behaviour. It's almost as if they were created not WITH a computer, but BY a computer. I find similar lack of emotions in music of Nine Inch Nails - a professional band, praised by many, belonging to one of my favourite genres, but whose songs are too cold and artificial to be really enjoyable. And just like NIN's music, this album met with very positive reactions on Jamendo. So despite my rather negative review, I encourage you to check it out. It's a short recording and you may like it just like the others.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Myspace]

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Monsieur Connard - "Du ciel tombent des cierges"

Great experimental electronica (10/10) Careful people remember that few years ago, Switzerland producers from audio - visual collective Audioactivity Sound System (also members of Audioactivity net-label) were visiting Poland with Monsieur Connard on the mothership board. In year 2003 they played with such artists as: Funkstorung (Chris De Luca and Michael Fakesch), RDJ2, Luke Vibert (Wagon Christ), Zion Train or High Tone. Connard being asked about what they want to play answered in a poetic way: Our intention is creating intelligent dancefloor where boom boom is present, unknown melodies and acid sounds comes from nowhere leaving dirt and dark connections still active. We'll vomiting all our musical inspirations… Five years later through the virtual channel vomiting gentleman from France comes back to our country. Du ciel tombent des cierges EP is seven fresh compositions which we present with great pleasure. Cavalcade of nosing beats infiltrates with lissome IDM glitches. Background is full of still changing ambient passages. Admirers of French in touch will enjoy poetical declaims of Connard. Are you wondering how looks Vichy folklore? We have sizable doze for you! Truly great recording. Broken beats and distorted sounds on a noisy ambient background. So much is happening in these tracks that they could easily fall into chaos. But the artist never loses grip and is in full control of his vision and the resulting creation. Well done! Thanks for sharing this outstanding work for free. The album has been released by the 49manekinow.net netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 format. [Artist's Website / Myspace]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation.

terenNowy.live - "Ambientnosc"

Impressive ambient (10/10) Project terenNowy it's an opened collective of creators that spontaneously develop motto: Creation through recreation, or the other way round. Multi-plot and differentiation of artistic statements become an basis for free multiplication of the idea of organics, meaning: each in self direction, but fun is for all. Co-influences and inspirations evolve into unexpected scenography-sound sets, creating the genuine sections such as terennowy.live, terennowy.kids, terennowy.movie and terennowy.art. There is no place for trials, or scenarios - each meeting generates own climate naturally adopted both to space and public, because these two elements are as vital to the project, as the collective itself. We say: interaction is an initiation of the creation. Or the other way round. Ambientnosc (Ambiency) is the ambivalence of the aesthetic tendencies. The oldest instruments of the humankind embraced in the improvisation process with newest technology create the indifferented music.

It is not a secret that ambient is not my favourite genre. Ambient works are often totally boring, because of the false apparent easiness of this genre. Some people think it is enough to break a constant drone with single notes once in two minutes to produce an ambient masterpiece. And in fact, it's quite the opposite. It is very easy to make a bad ambient recording. But it requires plenty of talent to make a good - not boring - ambient work.

The second cause of my somewhat ambivalent feelings for ambient is that these days the majority of ambient recordings are made on a computer, using only electronic sounds. There is nothing wrong with it generally, only that it becomes slightly boring after hearing a hundredth album with similar recycled sounds. One just starts to long for some decent guitar or real drums.

So it feels great to come across such album as this one. Such works convince me that with enough talent, you can make a masterpiece in every musical genre.

This is truly an outstanding recording. It contains improvised ambient music played on real instruments by a live band of very skilled musicians. The songs are full of mysterious strange sounds; very diverse, but never chaotic. All this improvised mess is in fact well thought-out and form a cohesive whole, despite including such different elements as synthetic sounds, reverbed human whispers and folk instruments. So much is happening throughout each track that you are never bored. So if you like ambient and/or experimental music, you cannot miss this one!

The album has been released by MegaTotal.pl, a social financing website similar to Sellaband. You can listen to the full album here or buy a CD for mere 5 euros. Unfortunately, they don't have English version of their website, but there is a Google Translate interface on the bottom of the page. I don't know if it is enough to really use this site without any knowledge of Polish, but I can assure you this album is worth trying. You can always drop me a line in case of any troubles and I will be glad to help you.

[Artist's Website / Myspace]

Ralp - "Vruoxoil"

8-bit - only partially successful (6/10) Crazy and mad music which will make you feel giddy and totally wired. Sounds emanating from everywhere take you unawares and stick you a new dose of absolutely positive energy. Raül Peix (Ralp). Multifaceted artist member of Device, Lowtoy, Distortled Box, Tricoma, NFFCTS, MicroBCN and NGFX, independent collectives dedicated to audiovisual creations. Under the same name, Ralp takes different paths in music, 3D, motion, graphic and installation. He creates 100% electronic music with an IDMcore aesthetic made with computer, some hardware, circuit bending toys, machines built from zero and 8 Bit productions with Nintendo Game Boy and Commodore 64. During his trajectory he has played in some events and festivals around Europe and in a lots of improvised "mini raves" in the streets. So far he has published sonorous material in some netlabels like Brainstormlab (London), Crazy-Language (Berlin), DexandtheCity (Letonia), 49 Manekinow (Polonia), Noise-Joy (USA), Spoomusic (USA) and Chippanze (Brasil). This is typical 8-bit techno. Unfortunately only partially successful. Some tracks are interesting, well crafted, but others are dull and chaotic, sounding like if samples were placed in purely accidental order. Good ones: 01, 03, 04, 06, 09. The album has been released by the 49manekinow.net netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 format.

[Artist's Webpage]

Radiosonde - "Try Again" [EP]

Interesting electronica (8/10)

Try Again from radiosonde on Myspace. Radiosonde is Brian Judkins,born in Nashville,Tennessee in 1972.At age 14 began taking drum lessons. Played drums for several bands around Nashville. In 2003 I gave up playing drums and wanted too try something different in my musical journey.Having been a fan of different types of music for along time,including different styles of electronic music.I decided too try writing my own style of electronic music. Taking influences from other bands/artist that I have listened to through out my life so far,but trying too stay original. I have two music projects at this time. The one you're checking out at the moment (radiosonde) and my other alias,the new slumber. I have also gone by the name "Lyra". Have performed live in the Nashville area under,the new slumber and lyra at Ruby Green Art Gallery,Caffeine CoffeeHouse,and Springwater. Also I have had songs played on Vanderbilt's radio station 91.1 on the show, 91 Mixdown under the name Lyra on October 12th 2003. Have recently been played on the Black Wolfe Radio podcast as Radiosonde on Episode 2 and Episode 3. Three songs combined within one track. Each one equally interesting. The first and the second are rather calm electronica (the first with a more experimental side to it). The third is more energetic electro. They are all well crafted, with good melodies. Really nice work for fans of straightforward electronic music. The album has been released by the 49manekinow.net netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 format.

[Artist's Myspace] [Facebook] [Soundcloud]