Worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals [Gizeh Records]

It’s finally here Worriedaboutsatan’s album Arrivals has landed, in your record store on the 25th May. They have been working on it for a year or more now and if you’re a regular reader you’ll maybe remember previous posts on the demos and rough mixes of album tracks that they sent over. But now the finished article is here in its full glory.

Arrivals is a slight departure in sound to previous material the take their beloved ambient post-rock electronica roots and squeeze in their love for minimal techno with truly wonderful results. Electronica and post-rock have long had a relationship but post-rock and minimal, well it’s a new one. The two are joined together effortlessly by Gavin and Tom of Worriedaboutsatan with a subtle pallet of sounds and enchanting song writing.

The album flows effortlessly from one track to the next with the help of small dot named segments of the title track ‘Arrivals’ along with tannoy samples announcing tweaked and freaked coded messages to passengers. Opening track ‘One Down’ really sets the scene, from out of the blue you get bright pads and a gentle build into a big bass drop that loops and draws you in. The only track with a vocal of sorts ‘Evil Dogs’ is a killer track with a dubbed out atmosphere that opens into some beautiful yet sad chords like a minimalist classical piece being tweaked into ambient shape. The beats and bass tones really do propel this one forward as the ghostly vocals swoop in a high and beautifully subtle falsetto taken through a bed of effects.

It’s good to see ‘Pissing About’ didn’t get a name change since the demo stage, plus it’s a monster of a track in a Luciano meets Mono kind of way. The pulsing bass rings out loud and clear over a minimal kick and energetic jacking arpeggios that get tweaked and dubbed out as ambient soundscapes make for a dreamy background. ‘History Is Made At Night’ is in a similar vain but a lot more subtle, glitchy and organic; it’s an undisputed highlight. The way the hook blips and flips into action against the huge kick drum and baseline is sublime.

The delicate guitar ballad ‘You’re In My Thoughts’ is a beautiful melancholic number full of melody. The synth lines and bowed guitar build in layers to create a real sense of hope and subdued joy. Then when it builds it turns into something else all together. The way the beats are slightly industrial and skippy remind me of early SAW era Aphex Twin especially with the subtle and moving chords playing above.

The subtle almost drone like ambient track ‘All Things But You Are Silent’ makes good use of guitars and whooshes with a gentle build up of electronics. It’s a wicked transition to the album closer, ‘Arrivals’ which maybe without noticing you’ve been hearing bits of here and there throughout your journey so when it kicks off you get a feeling like you’ve been here before yet all at once you’re somewhere new. It’s a wonderful track that builds subtly with sampled vocals and violin like sounds and bows on guitars before glitches and bass take you deep, it’s mesmerising. There is a real sense that you’re home from a journey, the vibe is weary yet comfortable and somehow joyous in a slightly melancholy way.

Arrivals is a wicked album and Worriedaboutsatan really do have potential to crossover by joining some post-rock and alternative guitar music fans with the electroinica and minimal crowds. This idea is further enforced by the band dropping a second CD full of remixes, from the likes of P45 and Marco Zenker with the limited addition release of the record.




Previous Worriedaboutsatan Posts

Download: Worriedaboutsatan – You’re In My Thoughts

http://www.myspace.com/worriedaboutsatan

http://www.gizehrecords.com/

Pre-Order: Worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals

Lukid – Forma

Werk Discs come up with the goods again with a sublime little album from label mainstay Lukid. He brings a sublime and dreamy edge to this thing called wonk, If you’ve been playing Los Angeles by Flying Lotus just a little bit to much for about a year now and your in need of some more of the good stuff, then look no further than Forma.

Where FlyLo brought the crackle and breaks, Lukid does things a little more subtle with a similar lilt and big synths but more emphasis on dreamy loops and soundscapes.

The whole album is beautiful and has an effortless flow to it all the way through, but if I had to pick one highlight it would be the track slap bang in the middle, ‘Chord’. It teases you in with the aforementioned chord looped and looped and looped… before dropping some quality off centre beats and a bassline that really tops things off in sublime style. The bass drones and hits all the sweet spots that vibrate you to your core, all while sticking to the beat and making your feet move. I can’t stop rewinding it, most wheeled track of 09 for me so far.

Forma is full of little chilled gems, it’s a real joy to listen to. Its like someone turned up the heat to make the aqua in aquacrunk a nice temperature to sink into and let wash over you. Lukid’s bass is the best kind of bubble bath. It’s a bit like finding yourself in the scene in the matrix where he wakes up in the goo, but in a good way…

Lukid has soul in his beats a warm, deep soul that really shines. When he uses samples they are subtle and woven deep into the beats and bass to make some beautiful inventive hip-hop, ‘Ski Fly’ is a brilliant example of this. There are many more within Forma though from the delicate opener, ‘Ice Nine’ through the dubbed out block party jam of, ‘Veto’.

If you have ever found yourself up late at night listening to Gangstarr or The Pharcyde in a bit of a haze and really got into the groove and forgot the MC’s existed for a moment, or as I said played a bit to much FlyLo then Forma By Lukid is a step in the right direction.

http://www.myspace.com/lukid

Murcof – Death of a Forest

I just remembered I had this little nugget in my in box from the lovely label Leaf I was kind of sleeping on it a little while so that I could put it up with a more substantial review of Murcof’s work, but I haven’t got round to grabbing any yet…

So here it is a sublime slice of orchestral beauty from The Versailles Sessions album, which was recorded a while ago with a baroque orchestra and then shaped into some deeply dark soundscapes by the man Murcof.

I really love his stuff; the deeply spacey album Cosmos is still one of my favourite late night sound tracks. He uses organic orchestral sounds in such a brilliant way by melting them seamlessly to warm electronics to give the whole thing a really beautiful contemporary classical feel.

If you’re a fan of deeply dark and wonderful soundscapes Murcof is the man for you.

Download: Murcof – Death of a Forest

I’m also really digging this video mainly for the sinister roller skate shots in the opening scenes you don’t get that very often.



http://www.murcof.com/

Vessels – Descent (Remix)

Vessels are one of my local bands, I say local they are based in Leeds and I’m a bit out of the way but I just count Leeds as a bit of a musical home town for me as it’s so damn vibrant.

This is a remix of Descent by guitarist and electronics wizard from the band Lee Malcolm. And I think he does an excellent job, I’ve not heard much else from the band but this track is just so sublime. I’m glad it dropped into my inbox for me to share with you guys.

The track has a beautiful mellow kind of electronica meets post-rock feel to it not unlike the wonderful Leeds band Worriedaboutsatan who do a similar mixture with great success and who are also fond of a remix. More about them another time though this is Vessels time.

Descent is an addictive track that makes me feel a little bit warm and fuzzy on the inside. The subtle builds grow into sweeping soundscapes before dropping into a mellow acoustic breakdown with beautiful plucking and mesmerising electronics. This loops and loops to make the second half of the track a true gem. Check it for your self bellow…

Thank you Cuckundoo Records for hooking me up so I could share some Vessels.

Download: Vessels – Descent (Remix)

Check this video out to see what they sound like in none-remixed form it’s a super slow-mo relaxing trip until they get all brutal on our asses and whip out the post-rock guitars, good stuff.



http://www.myspace.com/vesselsband

Dessktop – Kirpi EP

Dessktop has been at it again for Rack & Ruin Records one of my favourite purveyors of sounds on the Internet. This is catalogue number rrr054 and can be downloaded for free over at R&R. What more could you want?

Dessktop has made a very nice five track EP of ambient electronica that is full of loops and field recordings. It makes for a wonderful listen; track one valea lunga river (simisna) is an aquatic little number, with water dripping just like the name would suggest, a riverside ambiance. Then the clatter of what sounds like an implement being sharpened and bashed around, while a voice sings about water every now and again. A looped up string instrument of some kind brings some more rhythm and melody to the proceedings. The thing being sharpened could well be that of the knife on the front cover… A thunderclap draws this track to an end and starts the next.

Adonis vernalis is the second track it’s full of more beautiful field recordings and an amazing almost child like pots and pan percussion section chiming away, like part music box and part campsite found drum kit. This tune is taken into the next by knocking on a door and us being let in at the beginning of the next, I do love the way this works.

Calceolariaceae has a warmer feel I guess that’s because we are inside now, there is a beautiful drone that is used as the backdrop to some more chiming found percussion and strumming. These songs are beautiful ambient electronica with a happy little vibe to them.

Trakhtemyrivskyi monastery has a thumping start and tribalistic drumming, with some wind instrumentation that sounds not unlike some kind of bagpipe, but not quite. This feeds into the final track…

Autonomously replicating sequence, which is a lovely drone induced synth and found sound ambient pad followed by what is almost a funky as hell percussive loop, but then the EP ends and you are left wanting more. Dessktop has done it again and made another fascinating EP full of beauty and originality. I love this dude keep it up man.

Links:

Rack & Ruin Records

Dessktop R&R Page

Dessktop Space

Robby Massey Dot Com

Move D & Benjamin Burnn – Songs From The Beehive

This album is sublime each tune is pure epic minimal grooves that take in many different influences from as far away as ambient music to acid house. I have been holding off from reviewing it for a while as I have just been enjoying it too much. Every song is so hypnotic and builds for so long some times you don’t hear that techno four to the floor beat for a good five minuets into the tune. Loop after loop layers up and twists into a big epic patchwork not unlike some of the music GAS has done. Then the pumping drums come in and take it to new dance floor heights. This music can work just as well at home and in the clubs, with some clever mixing and tune selection. There are only seven tunes on Songs From The Beehive but each one clocks in at quite some length.

The first track Love The One You’re With has a beautiful ambient loop that plays throughout and the beat melts in and out of this while acidic synths make a groove for your feet and brain. There is something a little Aphex Twin about it but not quite it seems warmer and friendlier, there isn’t as much sadness either. Velvet Paws follows on from the opener with a cushion of fuzzy bleeps and sweeping pads. It’s a bit dubby this one the building rhythms echo around in a soup of reverb. When the beat really kicks in its quite electro sounding and the bass motif that accompanies it really gets in your head for that hypnotic feel. A late night or deep sunshine haze is very prominent on Songs From The Beehive, I can’t decide when would be best to play it, either in a sun set mix in Ibiza or really late at night. Honey is maybe the stand out track here it has a wicked deep echoy acid riff and a pumping drum beat. It’s the most balls out everyone to the floor techno acid stomper on the album to, why I haven’t got it on 12” yet is a mystery to me. The synth pads then melt into a beastly acid line in the mid section that will really get things going. Like A Restless Sea is one of the shorter tracks yet it is still damn atmospheric and epic sounding. An underwater vibe adds to the distant electronic growl to make it a very pretty tune indeed. Come In is another low down dubby number with a great bubbling synth section on top of hypnotic beats. Mothercorn is the penultimate track, deep spaced out sounds fill the air around you with this one, it’s pretty irresistible. Radar is the final tune and its an epic one clocking in at over twenty minuets worth of beautiful ambient loops it really has space to develop and breath. When the beat finally comes in some time after five minuets or so the tune really picks up and comes into its own.

Move D & Benjamin Burnn have created a really cracking album that is beautifully deep and hypnotic while banging all the right techno and minimal boxes all at once.

Jasper Leyland – Wake (Carbon Series Volume 5)

Jasper Leyland’s latest album Wake is in my position, well has been for about a week now, thank you Jono for the hand delivery now that’s what I call good service. Wake is ambient bliss from beginning to end. In a week where I have been listening to the Deerhunter leak and Flying Lotus lots Jasper Leyland’s album has probably had the most spins. It’s addictive and just brilliantly relaxing.

The artwork is cool too, it comes in a see through case that that you can eject the CD out of, and the CD is gold and black which is damn cool. An acetate sheet has the artwork on it, which is truly lo-fi and organic just like the music. I showed it to my mum and she said to me, ‘It’s like it’s not even there’ well she was half right the CD was actually in the stereo at the time, but she had a point the artwork is all see through and barley there. This reflects the music in some ways, so I think I have just managed to make her sound cleverer than she came off in the original comment. This leads me nicely to the sounds.

Wake is seven tracks of sublime noise the equivalent to laying in a field surrounded by natures quite still and minute sounds. The music reflects the beautiful countryside around my way where Jasper also lives, I don’t know how much inspiration he takes from this area but it brings images of the little oasis’s of calm that can be found in rural North Yorkshire. Like the aquatic number The Low Falls, which reminds me of little waterways and pools hidden in the valleys of the moors. Scrapes and plucks of stings can be heard over field recordings of air and well allsorts. I love to play this on headphones and play the spot the sound game, as its full of wonderful recordings of found sounds. Squeaky wheels, scraped stuff, white noise of the air and reverberations of random spaces and areas all feature at some point.

Charcoal Weir has a sombre repeated guitar note that resonates around you as little glitches of crackling noise and hits of xylophone sounding instruments play. Bird sounds and general nature sounds along with maybe a distant car sound are wonderful moments. A warm synth pad takes over about half way through and makes you feel like your laying inside the song like its an open field.

Gallanach, Rest has the sound of what I imagine to be a small chickpea rolling round a plastic cup on a bed of forest wind. Another warm sounding synth drone builds up the layers. Some of these tracks remind me of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient works if they were deconstructed and beat-less: A palimpsest of sound, an ambient bliss.

Harrow Fare Jasper has a love of glitchy, rattly sounds from what I can gather as this track has some beauties too. Layers of what almost sounds like organ build with the rattle, as it gets more frantic. Then it all breaks down to a calmer existence again. Beautiful synth sounds breath there way into an adorable guitar riff, I say riff it’s the closes we get and it has echoes of Bon Iver in it to. This tune is going to get placed next to some that in a mix no doubt. This is one of my favourite tracks on Wake.

Avocet Verse has more plucky little guitar and string parts that sound pretty melancholy and relaxing. There are reversed loops and what sounds like someone generally pottering about in the background too. I wonder what their doing?

Taken is up on his web page for free download and its brilliant another standout track. Plinky plonks of synth mix with guitar plucks and gentle breaths. Bird song is in the back ground along with some scraping white noise. All these tunes could be in well-shot cut scenes to films that Gus Van Sant makes.

Durée is the closer to the album with little whistles and atmospheric fuzz subtlety layering into more subtle scrapes and sound. It’s a minimal ambient masterpiece and a lesion on how less can be more.

I’m very proud of Jono for making this album its beautiful and it’s ace that it got some mad props from Boomkat the main go to record store online for all things experimental in the field of electronics and beyond. This could well be the ambient album of the year for me so far, its more addictive than Hammock and the only other one that comes close is S’No Beats the DJ mix by Pualy P but that doesn’t count I suppose. You can find Wake here its on 12x50 Recordings and check out more from his myspace too. His artist website is here.

Balearic Skirmish

Today I’m feeling a little lazy, well you know it’s a Sunday and I’m chillin’. So what better way to relax than some Balearic beats from Pualy P and his cool blog Balearic Skirmish? He is a record collecting wonder freak with an ear for some brilliant tunes and it shines through on his mixing too. A Few of his mixes are up already: an ace chill out ambient one called Crazy Sleep, which is pure bliss, filled with sounds of the sea and all that good stuff. He then steps it up a little bit with a cosmic disco mix full of spaced out sounds and chugging groves this is called Cosmic Skirmish, sublime, sunshine groves. To top it all off he also sticks up tunes from his collection often rare and often brilliant. Pualy P is no stranger to the decks he has played over many years in many clubs the most recent I know of is the bar in the Scala London at KeToLoCo, I haven’t been there yet unfortunately but the mixes he recorded from the nights are sweet, maybe he should stick them up on his blog too.

Pualy P send me this mix I’m about to link you to quite some time ago and it’s so good, I still play it often. I haven’t got a track list right now, but I have asked him for one if he can remember what he played. I know for sure there is some Aphex Twin, Burial, Eno and KLF the rest escapes my mind right now. It’s an ambient DJ mix called S’No Beats and yep you guessed it, there isn’t a single beat, just blissed out melancholy sounds for your ears to get soothed by on dark long nights, it was a winter recording as well, which you can guess from the name. Anyway I’m going to shut up now. Grab it…

Pualy P – S’No Beats

P.S. The photo is his too its of Es Vedra in Ibiza, one magical rock not to far from the mythical Atlantis.

Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow

Hammock are a two man post-rock band from Nashville in the USA. I say post-rock, Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow is more of an ambient work. There is a hint of Sigur Rós and Stars Of The Lid to Hammock’s music, it’s entirly instrumental and has an orcestral sound to it. Live instruments are subtely combined with digital effects and loops to create a beautiful sweeping and sad soundscape. Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow reminds me of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient works II and of some of Eno’s work. Very laid back as the name would suggest, Hammock have made a wonderful album for late nights and dark days. Its raining while I write this and this is a brilliant soundtrack to it.

To my ears Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow isn’t a massive sonic inovation, but it is so well exictuted and arranged that it doesn’t matter that other artists sound kind of like them. In-fact I got a mix tape (well mp3… I still call them tapes) called S’No Beats last year and much of that sounded quite like this, and to my knowledge not a single Hammock song was involvend. S’No Beats is beautiful acctualy I will ask the DJ who made it (That’s you Pauly Pea!) if I can host it on this blog.

Each song is the sound of ambient bliss, the loops and subtle distorted guitar lines fill the room like a ghostly preminition of long lost mountains or something else just as epic. Violins and pads of sound bring a mellow and meloncholy atmosphere to many of the tracks. As a whole Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow is a wonderful album I don’t think I can pick out a single track as a highlight, as they are all so beautiful and it flows so well. One of the ambient albums of the year so far for sure. They don’t get round to singing for us on this record really, but they might do tomorrow I guess.

Jasper Leyland – Fieldstone

Fieldstone is the work of Jasper Leyland A.K.A. Jonathan Brewster from round my way in North Yorkshire. For some reason I hadn’t heard much of his stuff before until I got my hands on Fieldstone, which is his second album that was released in 2007, and very rare indeed. I don’t even have my own copy I’m listening to my sisters. When I get some cash I’m heading straight out to get his latest offering Wake which has had some mad props from places like Boomkat, who gave it their album of the week earlier in the year when it was released. He has always had ace taste in music and its so cool seeing him put it to good use.

The music is a rich yet minimal tapestry of sound drawing from recordings made in the field of allsorts of natural sources. Have a listen and play the guess where that sound came from game. I hear some water in places and maybe a crow. Acoustic guitar often features on Fieldstone too, in spares loops and melodies, lovingly processed through subtle digital equipment. Its all so ambient, minimal and like walking through a forest alone. I hear similarities in places to Leafcutter John in his solo work as appose to him in Polar Bear or even parts of Murcof. Full of dreamy sounds like your wrapped in a blanket snug in a tent, and micro glitches that ricochet from ear to ear, like a bug flashing by sound great. Fieldstone is nature lovingly crafted into beautiful soundscapes.

Jasper Leyland

Jasper Leyland Myspace