The Rock Blogger

Maeror Tri - The Beauty of Sadness. 1996. 5 stars.

This an exquisite and emotional drone/ambient album from this now defunct German trio. Deep bass lines and subdued guitars underlay the brooding moans of synths which lapse over each other in densely layered compositions. Jangling riffs are contrasted against airy ambiance, evoking desolate spaces broken only by soft pillars of light.

While many experiments in the genre have crafted moody atmospheric pieces, they cannot compare to the fluidity of Maeror Tri’s progressions as they slowly build around shimmering motifs. The cascading waves of sound, the resigned melodies against buzzing effects, is musical transcendentalism at its most refined. The Beauty of Sadness avoids the tedium of minimalism and the harshness of hard noise to find the golden mean between experimentation and tragic catharsis. Like a Mark Rothko painting set to music, Maeror Tri chart the landscapes of sleep and find hollowed ground. If you are familiar with Labradford, William Basinski, and Stars of the Lid you will certainly appreciate the fine nuances of this record.

Oren Ambarchi - Intermission 2000-2008 . 4 stars .

Intermission is a meditative compilation of drone and ambient pieces from this prolific Australian artist. Consisting mainly of subtle guitar and bass tones, these plodding tracks are drawn out over long periods of time to the point where they loose their deliberate instrumental quality and become natural background noise. While the gradual processes of the record take their sweet time, the effect is quite stunning once it sets in - evoking calm ocean waves or a placid morning sky. Pieces like "The Strouhal Number" are weightless pieces of ambiance, only punctuated by the low rumble of bass tones and the sleepy crackle of static.

While the album passes through an otherworldly atmosphere, it avoids the symphonic excess of most ambient records - these are meticulously crafted experiments in sound manipulation that sift through your memories, rather than just lulling you to sleep. It is certainly a challenging collection, and it is not as forceful as the psychedelic drone of Birchville Cat Motel or Natural Snow Buildings, but it still carries on a deeply cerebral undertaking with care. Anyone interested in experimental music will be fascinated by its many crevices.

Drawing by Marc Ngui

“In rupture, not only has the matter of the past volatised; the form of what happened, of an imperceptible something that has happened in a volatile matter, no longer even exists. One has become imperceptible and clandestine in a motionless voyage. Nothing can happen, or can have happened, any longer. Nobody can do anything for or against me any longer. My territories are out of grasp, not because they are imaginary, but the opposite, because I am in the process of drawing them. Wars, big and little, are behind me. Voyages, always in tow to something else, are behind me. I no longer have any secrets, having lost my face, form and matter. I am now no more than a line. I have become capable of loving, not with an abstract, universal love, but a love I shall choose, and that shall choose me, blindly, my double, just as selfless as I. One has been saved by and for love, by abandoning love and self. Now one is no more than an abstract line, like an arrow crossing the void. Absolute deterritoralisation.”

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari - A Thousand Plateaus

YOGA. Megafauna . 2009. 4.5 stars.

A fascinating drone album that oscillates between airy dark ambiance and raw experimentation. YOGA’s mystical surrealism opens up a sonic space punctured by bursts of distorted guitar noise, warbling synths and martial percussion. There are no voices echoing across this landscape, only the chirps, grunts and groans of unknown animals (cryptozoology).

The atmosphere is dense and absorbing, lulling the listerner into an eerie dream, or worse, repressed memories. Megafauna is nothing short of vision quest, using organic textures and subtle progressions to trace paths in the forgotten forests of the mind. While some of YOGA’s noisy bursts are odd, if not unsettling, they are used to light up the caverns they plunge into. Megafauna is a unique piece of psychological terror that challenges the listener to go beyond melodic structures and stand in a primordial clearing.

Rahu. Ride of the Eight Black Steeds. 2008. 4 stars.
Obscure, lo-fi black metal inspired by wrathful figures from Hindu mythology. A strong, misanthropic atmosphere emanates from the dense guitar riffs as they cascade against stark percussion and haunting wails. Rahu project the occult mystique of bands like Urfaust while infusing the intense textural dirges of Drudkh. Rahu’s conquest is uncompromising as it stakes its musical vision in some mystical darkness, pushing their sound towards a violent cosmology.

Like it’s predecessor Caput Draconis, this release is too short and unpolished to fully extend it’s colossal vision, though I suppose you can always listen to the two demos back to back. Despite it’s brevity, this effort is intriguing shift of perspective for the black metal underground, looking towards astrological terror, as opposed to Northern landscapes, for demonic inspiration.

Ivan Shishkin.

The First Snow. 1875.

“Ordinarily we speak of letting be whenever, for example, we forgo some enterprise that has been planned. “We let something be” means we do not touch it again, we have nothing more to do with it. To let something be has here the negative sense of letting it alone, of renouncing it, of indifference and even neglect. However, the phrase required now — to let beings be — does not refer to neglect and indifference but rather the opposite. To let be is to engage oneself with beings. On the other hand, to be sure, this is not to be understood only as the mere management, preservation, tending, and planning of the beings in each case encountered or sought out. To let be — that is, to let beings be as the beings which they are — means to engage oneself with the open region and its openness into which every being comes to stand, bringing that openness, as it were, along with itself”.

-Martin Heidegger. On the Essence of Truth

Hateful Abandon - Famine (Or Into The Bellies Of Worms). 2008. 4.5 stars.

This is a rather obscure but rewarding debut from Hateful Abandon. Evoking the bleak fog of the UK, this duo play sparse post-punk melancholy with a blackened metal edge. Mournful bellows, accompanied by sinister, wraith-like snarls, open a space where the cold bass lines of Joy Division meet the raspy gloom of Altar of Plagues.

While the dual vocals initially seem melodramatic and odd, they come to complement the fluid guitar riffs as they twist their menacing way. Slower songs like “Riding the Blade” and “Avalanche” roll on with apocalyptic grandeur, with plodding percussion and eerie post-rock jangles creating dark spaces for the band to explore. Hateful Abandon are at their best towards the album’s conclusion, as they throw off their shadowy art-rock decorum and launch into energetic (but none the less oppressive) bursts of post-punk. “Painters Rope” and “Lungs” are understated masterpieces, with sinewy bass lines reminiscent of “Shadowplay” and other dark classics from Unknown Pleasures.

While Hateful Abandon are clearly disciples of the English post-punk tradition, they inject enough of a cold, black metal atmosphere to create a distinct and moody sound. Through the careful use of space, an exchange of vocal styles and muscular muscianship, Hateful Abandon walk a dark mile to the coast, blurring the horizon line.

Ulaan Khol. I and II. 2008. 5 stars.

Glorious psychedelic drone music from the prolific Steven R. Smith (of Hala Strana). Both of these albums are largely guitar based, sending distorted space-rock riffs through hazy ambient mist. Loose, jangly melodies crackle in the arid and ancient atmosphere, sounding like weathered field recordings from Mars. Light noise hovers above the drawn-out instrumentation, painting a beautiful autumnal skyline for the music to dance against. Chords warble and twist like the pitched lure of the snake-charmer.

Ulaan Khol manages to be epic and absorbing without building up steady cresendos or crushing finales - this music deserves meditative patience much like the venerable Natural Snow Buildings. These albums should not be described as walls of sound but more as bubbling streams of consciousness. The expereince is a deep and mysterious one, full of texture, nuance and cosmic wonder. Smith’s compositions wander and haunt like specters over a vast alien landscape, never reaching their destination, but content in their long, winding journey. Simply masterful.

Njiqahdda. Yrg Alms. 2009. 4.5 stars.

2009 ends on a high note with this dense and highly immersive album from the prolific Njiqahdda. The duo delve further into their mystical aesthetic, merging the oppressive atmosphere of black metal with dark ambient textures and cascading post-rock guitars. Yrg Alms is easily their most refined and creative effort so far, pushing their heavily layered compositions to hallucinatory limits. Lyrical content here is void, leaving the listener to meditate on drawn-out and distorted vocalizations that rush over the music like gusts of wind. At other times, like on the sorrowful “Sombre Fortu”, something vaguely human creeps in, though the voices are unintelligible (but emotionally stirring) mantras.

The guitars are intricate and complex, either pulsating through fluid arpeggios or rumbling under ominous noise. They provide the album with a surprising cathartic energy that provides consistent momentum across its lengthy duration. While portions of these epic tracks do meander (like in the extended droning bridge of “Yrg Alms”), the serpentine guitars always manage to bring the journey back to a cognizable path.

A fitting companion for the harsh winter months, Yrg Alms is an intense effort that compensates for its less cohesive sections with its raw, creative and uncompromising vigor. There are few albums within the already diverse metal subculture that push against convention quite like this, though its sheer density will likely leave casual listeners puzzled. Nonetheless, there is a compelling artistry that Njiqahdda possesses that is consistently evolving into a stronger and deeper creature.

10. Drudkh - Microcosmos

Fierce black metal with folk-tinged melodies from the forests of Ukraine. With stronger, tighter song-writing, Drudkh’s conservative approach strikes a inspired balance between aggressive, textured guitar work and a deep organic atmosphere. Those familiar with the band know that Drudkh’s musicianship can be eclectic in all the right places, as acoustic guitars and traditional instruments weave between sinewy bass lines and rolling percussion.

9. The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead

A solid sophomore effort from this underrated Scottish band. Like its brilliant predecessor Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters , the music on this album evokes cold, rainy and grey spaces, where traumatic childhood memories collide with the fractured relationships of adulthood. This record is packed with strong melodic movements, passionate vocal performances and intense personality.

8. Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade

On their latest opus, WITTR, build on the atmospheric aesthetic that made Diadem of 12 Stars and Two Hunters so compelling. However, their sound is much more raw and immediate this time around, as the band moves away from ornamental post-rock experimentation to record an album more akin to their blistering live performances.

7. maudlin of the Well - Part the Second

Toby Driver and his mini-orchestra bring maudlin of the Well back from the dead with this remarkable and complex art-rock album. The collective that originally awed fans with their blend of avant-jazz and death metal now pursue a lighter approach, with violins, chimes, piano lines and choral vocals. There is still plenty of drive in this album though, with rolling percussion and post-rock guitars rounding out its massive and progressive vision. Despite the great diversity of sounds on each song, everything flows together with stunning fluidity, as hammering keys grace crystalline guitar in an expansive double helix of sound.

6. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers deliver an incredibly stylish sophomore effort with Exploding Head , a slick and dynamic tribute to everything post-punk. Taking fuzzed out cues from The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division, APTBS play heavily distorted jams centered on fluid bass lines and intense washes of guitar noise. The music’s pace is unrelenting and the noise is glorious. The vocals are cool and detached, cruising over surf-inspired riffs and roaring pedal effects with ease.

5. Sólstafir - Köld

A remarkable tour de force of an album. This Icelandic band has pushed black metal beyond its conventions, with progressive song structures, fast, uptempo rhythms, post-rock ambiance and emotional, punk-inspired vocals. The result sounds like a cross between At the Drive In and Sigur Ros, yes a bizarre equation, but an exciting one nonetheless.

4. Mount Eerie - Wind’s Poem

Singer-songwriter Phil Elverum (The Microphones) has delivered a powerful release that usurps the traditional folk/lo-fi indie sound with deep, menacing drones and dark naturalism. Elverum’s soft, intimate voice provides a stark contrast against walls of distorted guitars and drawn-out synth lines,drawing the listener down into the waters of resignation. The union between gentle folk and atmospheric “shoegazing” is inspired, presenting an intense melancholic vision that soars overhead and sinks into the ground.

3. Skagos - Ást

From the rainy forests of British Columbia comes Skagos, one of the most sophisticated black metal acts to come from my home and native land. This debut album is cloaked with misty atmosphere and weaves between thundering blast beats and haunting acoustic passages. The lo-fi production, sludgy textures and climatic progressions fits the dense landscape from which this duo emerges, recalling damp pines, rocky cliff faces and mud-caked riverbeds.

2. Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom

Another masterpiece (if not their finest achievement to date) from this prolific avant/drone duo. Delicate, ethereal folk songs are interwoven with wispy psychedelia, eastern-tinged guitars and mysterious, ambient noises. A soundtrack for levitation. Shadow Kingdom is an incredibly exhausting and expansive album (over 2 hours) that is full of awe-inspiring moments. It may take dozens of dedicated listens to unearth all of its riches.

1. Rome - Flowers From Exile

Grave, resolute and romantic, the sounds of Rome travel down to the battlefields of the heart. The deep, bellowing vocals of Jerome Reuter are the centerpiece of this brooding neofolk album, as they hang over lush acoustic guitars and scattered samples of European poetry and martial speeches. The lyrics are exquisite, evoking the lonesome spirit of the soldier, or the dreaming revolutionary, longing for distant memories of love or some stern vision of the cause.

Sounding like a cross between Tom Waits and Tenhi, Rome blend a stark, war-time atmosphere with beautiful folk instrumentation. Strings, piano, choral lines and flamenco guitars weave their way across the face of this album, painting faded pictures of the Occident.