Hearing, Harry - "Little Green Martian" [SP]

Vocoder kills electronic stars (1/10) Hey! you though that only musicians from berlin make good minimal electronic sounds? Test newest release in 49 catalogue! Harry Hearing it's our new brilliant purchase straight from poland! Little green martian is his first official released stuff. This short single is essence of all the best traits contained in beautiful minimal stucture. Deep, heterogenic spaces, multilayered, far-outed beats, multithreaded, untypical structures, modulated politicial involved texts ..you need more recomendation? Harry Hearing is a pseudo of Piotr Gajcy born 20.10.1988 in Poland. As a child he was interested in instruments instead of toys. He started his music production from program called Music 2000 (for Playstation). Subsequently he changed it into computer composing. In 2006 he started to play also as a DJ. In performances, he connects his own productions with sophisticated motives. "I have to connect everything which was the best in my work... And show what I can afford to do... Be someone, whose music will not be closed in one template". Generes: all electronic (chillout, downtempo, progressive, minimal, techno, dnb, dub and his own mbc...)

[Artist's Myspace]

Well... It seems I overuse one particular title in my reviews... But what can I do, if it fits so well?

It would be very good minimal electronica, if it wasn't covered and destroyed by a vocoder vocal line. :-/

I know I'm not objective as I particularly hate vocoder and consider it to be an evolutionary dead-end. But then again, it is me who review this track and I don't like it. Every review out there is filtered by the critic's taste. And for me this is a flop. If you like vocoder - go for it. You'll love it. All the others - stay away.

The album has been released by the 49manekinow.net netlabel and is available for downloading at archive.org in mp3 format.

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]

Keiner, Fabio - "Heavy Waters II"

Extremely calm dark ambient (9/10) all tracks are remixes and reworkings of free samples provided by JOVICA (www.freesound.org) with best regards and many thanks to jovica storer! This is extremely calm and quiet ambient. Totally orthodox (that is - completely devoid of rhythms). I usually don't like such music, as it is often boring - I think it is very difficult to make such music interesting. But Mr. Keiner succeeds. His method of keeping the listener's attention focused is to break long quiet drones with very disturbing, dark sounds. It introduces a disturbing atmosphere to the whole recording, 'cause you listen carefully thinking what lurks around the bend. It's like a sonic version of a scary horror movie. Well done!

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Nikila - "Short Tracks"

Another masterpiece from the Queen of Electronica (10/10) This album is a part of the project Vacui Spacii, launched by Martin Eschoyez. I used here material from tracks i already released, recycled material from tracks i didn't upload and new tracks i composed for this project. I also used samples from The Freesound Project Ulterius is a re-mix of a phon's track End [...] The idea is that the concepts attached to music inspire other artists to manipulate and reinterpret, recreate or destroy them to generate new audiovisual works. The idea is to release not only the concepts but the works, the materials they were made with, the typography, the music. The idea is to free them for exploring the potential of shared knowledge and inspiring others to wonder about this freedom. When all is said and done, everything comes from an empty space : the feelings, the sound waves, the pencil movement and its traces, the experimentation on a grid of voxels which, in the end, is just an empty space on a digital canvas. So now, it's up to you, enjoy the journey : BE CREATIVE ! [Artist's Blog]

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It's very diverse electronica of superb quality. Almost everything is perfect on this album - crystal sound, the quality of samples, mixing, the melodies. All sounds so fresh and natural, as if recorded by a real band. In fact some tracks could as well be placed under contemporary instrumental music, not simple electronica. I don't know how many real instruments Nikila used for this album (if any), but I doubt it could be so much as it seems. Some of these totally natural sounds simply have to be artificial. And it only confirms her true mastery.

But that's not all. The diversity of this recording is breathtaking. Each song is completely different, full of different ideas, played on different instruments, representing a different genre. Apart from the said contemporary instrumental, we have here nu jazz, downtempo, breakbeat, even industrial. If she let herself put so many ideas into short, under 30-minute album, how huge must be her creativity. It's scary. People shouldn't be so good. ;-) For some artists it would be enough for their whole career.

And that's still not all! One could think that so many different elements contained in such short tracks just have to generate total senseless chaos. And probably they would. With any regular artist, who is not a musical genius. But for Nikila it's a piece of cake. Everything fits perfectly, as if designed by evolution, by trial and error, over millions of years. There's no room for a coincidence. They just had to sound this way. It's so obvious once you already heard them.

I have only one complaint - they are too short. I read the description and I know it's a deliberate move. But these songs are so packed with highly condensed awesomeness, that one minute is really much too short to properly appreciate them. It's as if somebody forced you to admire talent of Hieronymus Bosch by showing his works for 5 seconds each. Wouldn't it be a torture?

For the time being, the only solution for listening to this album without risking a painful death from a musical hunger, is to play it on loop. But that's only a half measure, unfortunately. I WANT THEM LONGER! ;-) I was really tempted to lower my rating because of that, but I came to a conclusion that it would be very unfair to punish these compositions just because they are short.

By the way, what a pity Phon left Jamendo. He would go mad from happiness seeing Nikila used one of his songs. On second thought, he could fall into catatonia, so maybe it's better he can't see it.

By the way (II), I was so lucky as to hear this album in a lossless format, because Nikila was so generous to share the original WAV files with me. I don't know if she would be willing to share them with others, but I would try to ask her if I were you - the listening pleasure will be doubled, that's for sure. This is the work that should be heard in the best format possible.

By the way (III), I know it's April Fools' Day today, but I'm gravely serious here, people.

Vaka Foam - "Scary Winter" [EP]

Mixing rock with electronica still rulez (8/10) A musician (guitar), a producer (d'n'b/experimental) and a DJ (d'n'b). Listen to my music to find out who I am. Drum & bass heavily influenced by rock and industrial. I guess the style is called "hardcore techno" or "breakcore". But who cares for such detailed labeling? Let's say it's a distorted guitar (or guitar samples) wreaking havoc on some electronic background. Interesting samples, creative compositions, great mix. Cool industrial atmosphere. I'm off headbanging. See ya!

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Skala - "Skalkulator"

Sitting on a fence, looking good (8/10) The debut album of team the Skala "Skalkulator” saw the day light 5 years ago. Given by Underwater Music assembled on portal good reviews, m.in. Alternativepop.pl. Plate was given in traditional form only cd- r, she never was have throwed open in net.This good moment to garages "Skalkulator” in somewhat refreshed version settled in net. All has his beginning and end. We on end propose beginning this time. Roger: all music & productions. Sady: acustic drums. Very good post rock, that is a cross-over between instrumental rock and electronica. Some tracks are more rock-based, some are more influenced by electronica, but each and every is creative, well recorded and has a nice melody. How would you classify it, depends heavily on a point of view, because all these songs are based on real instruments with addition of electronic sounds. Some could be even labeled as downtempo or even breakbeat, still belonging to rock genre, if seen from another perspective. Really quality blend - come taste it now. BTW, nice use of my favorite didgeridoo.

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