[Music] SUNN O))) – Life Metal

May 6, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

The only word that came to mind while listening to SUNN O)))’s latest release, Life Metal, is thunderous. Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley produce a slow, plodding, but so absolutely powerful without having to resort to cheesy metal riffs or death metal histrionics. Though they have been around for a long time now, I still feel that there are reference points to the work of the Swans during the 1980s, but even more under control.

A couple of guitars, a bit of drums, a stellar cast supporting them, including T.O.S. Nieuwenhuizen, on Moog, Hildur Guðnadóttir on Haldorophone, electric cello and voice, Tim Midyett supplying the bass guitar, and Anthony Pateras on pipe organ

[Music] bu.re_ – kiyomizudera (清水寺)

April 15, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Kiyomizudera is an impressive single track release by Los Angeles-based composer bu.re_, whose work came into my mailbox a few weeks ago. His is a rather stellar catalog, with music full of references to Brian Eno (when he was doing profoundly good ambient music), the floating parts of Tangerine Dream or Robert Rich, and a great use of acoustics.

This was a pleasure to listen to. My only quibble is that eleven minutes is far too short a time to enjoy a swim in this release.

[Music] JOHN 3:16 – Elyon

April 5, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / 2 Comments

JOHN 3:16 are the braintrust of Philippe Gerber, whose dark, post-Industrial Music soundscapes are among a handful of releases I can comfortably read Holy Writ and Apologetics to. There is something, dare I say, holy, about the quality of his work. The label he runs, Alrealon Musique, are consistently putting out heavy material. My friend here is worth a follow on all projects.

[Music] Donnacha Costello – Together

March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Some sad news. No, no, not a passing! Donnacha Costello, the second-finest composer based in Dublin (sorry, folks – Daniel Figgis is still number one in these parts) is taking time off from recording music.

In an act of magnanimous generosity, however, he is offering the whole of his digital back catalog for the more-than-fair price of €15.

Together is a perfectly drone-laden slice of ambient heaven, relaxing to the ear, and a fine way for Donnacha to say farewell until he is ready to grace experimental music with his return.

[Music] Heathertoes & Hopek Quirin – Travelling And Its Outgrowing Motives

March 14, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / 1 Comment

Heathertoes is my old friend Hubert’s post-industrial/experimental project. He is collaborating on this release with Hopek Quirin, and the sound is reminiscent of 1980s cassette culture at its best.

[Music] Maryam Sirvan – Untamed Terror

March 9, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / 1 Comment

Eerie is not nearly powerful enough to describe the hellish soundscape that Maryam Sirvan produces on this record. It is as if Pierre Henry decided to do an ethnographic recording tracing Dante’s footsteps inside of Hell. Brooding, powerful soundscapes.

[Music] Haav – Nord

March 7, 2019March 7, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

One track is all we have to work with from Norwegian composer Haav (Harald Øgaard out of Bergen, Norway), but if this is a taste of what will be coming in Spring of 2019, I’m looking forward to hearing a full album’s worth. Heavy, claustrophobic ambient. This really envelops you.

[Music] Ben Rath – Black Heart Music

February 28, 2019February 28, 2019 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Ben Rath is an experimental musician based out of Manchester, England, who specializes in dark, foreboding minimalist compositions which leave you feel unnerved while working on blog posts at three in the morning. He makes his recordings with the use of keyboards, piano, guitar and some slight effects. Really good listening.

[Music] Ataşehir – Colorful Places to Live and Play

September 8, 2018 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Ataşehir is the side project of Sumatran Black, an expatriate residing in the Anatolian side of Turkey. The music roaring out of my speakers sounds, in part, like a black-ambient version of a 1950s B-Movie sci-fi soundtrack (trust me, this is a high compliment, considering my brother and I grew up as fans of the film genre and the music it produced) and a touch like the end of the movie Solaris, where film composer Eduard Artemiev goes into a drone which grows louder and louder until it crescendoes.

There is an amusing irony that the song titles, as Ataşehir mentions on his site, “are taken from aspirational advertising slogans of various residential developments from around the world.”

There is a bleak, black beauty to this album. It ends with a progressive-rock length final track clocking in at 48 minutes. Colorful Places to Live and Play Bandcamp Exclusive Compilation Version. . As it turns out, it is the least brutally dark track on the album, making for a pleasantly drony listening experience.

[Music] On “Concrete Desert,” The Bug and Earth’s Dylan Carlson Destroy L.A.

February 1, 2018February 1, 2018 / Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

the-bug-vs-earth-2-by-phil-sharp-600

Bandcamp Daily features The Bug vs. Earth, a powerful pairing of Kevin Martin’s Industrial/dub project, which has been around in one form or another since the late 1980s, and Dylan Carlson’s seminal drone rock project, Earth.

Dark, moody, cinematic post-rock. Perfect music for meditating over the crumbling Los Angeles skyline.

Read more here.