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------Unoccupied
- Everyday Life |
| STYLE |
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Downtempo
electro songs and alternative, ambient pop. Unoccupied present
an album of fresh synthetic melodies, clean guitar textures
and heavily effected voices. The sound is distantly reminiscent
of the synth music of the early nineteen eighties, yet these
simple retro roots support a growth of contemporary expression
and a deceptively sophisticated depth of sound. Liquid chimes,
electric guitar and digital tones deliver gentle themes over
clear washes and faint atmospheres. The mostly unobtrusive
beats have a bright programmed sound - sometimes bouncy, uncomplicated
affairs, sometimes subtle structures of spacious blips and
clicks. The vocals are loosely 'songs' in that lyrics are
sung (they are also spoken, narrated, whispered and almost
chanted), but the words are drenched in FX, vocoder distortion
sometimes stretching the human origins of the sound to the
edge of recognition. |
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| MOOD |
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Everyday
life has a pleasant, wistful quality about it - accessible
and inviting, touched with a thread of light lament. The low
pace to the music builds on the somewhat nocturnal mood that
many tracks create - restful and introspective (musing narration
expanding the reflective aspects) and even invitingly soporific,
sending the listener into dreamy drifting. At times there
is a hint of the machine music of a few decades back, but
Unoccupied consistently soften this side of their sound, happy
to be human - organic and |
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| ARTWORK |
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A
warm indoor evening orange bathes the artwork of this album.
Shiny apples softly lit against rich hazy backgrounds. The
red fruit on the front cover is encircled by a tape measure
that bears the title of the disc. My promo copy unfolds to
provide a description of the project on the rear with a bit
of background information on the Unoccupied artists. Inside
three green apples, two red - strong colours on a dark ground.
Track titles are here as well as a more detailed discussion
of the personalities behind the music. |
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| OVERALL |
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Unoccupied
are Israel based musicians Nadav Katz & Eitan Reiter.
Nadav plays guitar, keyboards, bass and drums as well as
working as a sound engineer, programmer and mastering engineer.
Eitan is also "a multitalented genre-crossing artist"
writing techno, electro, downtempo electronic and psychedelic
chillout music under his own name, with his debut album
to be released in Aleph Zero in 2009. Everyday life is released
via Aleph Zero records. Initially this album might appear
to be of a different nature to the label's previous output
- however, the sharp electronics and deeply chilled nature
of the music actually is very much in keeping with Aleph
Zero's house sound. Not only that, Aleph Zero is label that
is committed to widening its musical field of output, delivering
high quality, visionary sounds that both stretch and blur
the traditional boundaries. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Everyday
Life takes the blissful clarity and chilled beauty of downtempo
electronica and presents it with something of a pop approach.
If you enjoy subtle songs and well produced chillout why not
explore the album
e-flier. All the tracks on the album can be sampled here
and there's plenty of background information too. Alternatively
- give the player below a click. |
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------Blind
Divine - Queen of Venom |
| STYLE |
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Evocative
downtempo songs with a haunting, gothic aesthetic and filmic
sensibility. Blind Divine play alternative guitar based
songs, but the music is far more lush and emotive than the
average band. The guitar playing is very varied, plenty
of suitable FX drench the strings in distortion, depth or
sustain, clear acoustic strumming and fingering too, sharp
fret squeaks preserved for effect. In addition to the guitar
work there are keyboards, pianos, orchestral strings, recorded
voices, chimes, subtle crackles and sonic aging. The beats
are excellent: idle trip-hop rhythms that drift along entwined
with blissful baselines that work together to maintain a
consistently dreamy quality with sufficient muscle and sinew
to keep the mix from becoming sugary. Paula's singing retains
the gently brooding emotional impact of previous work, she
sings with a casual restraint that hints at hidden depths,
with a sensual warmth and touching honesty shot through
with a vulnerable fragility. Sometimes low and almost spoken
(even whispering), rising to passionate highs, layered choruses
full of feeling. |
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| MOOD |
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Blind
Divine do a good job of setting a mood throughout this album
- there is an otherworldy quality to many tracks, a feel of
timeless nostalgia. There is a cinematic breadth to the music
that readily stirs up mental imagery and associative recollections.
Plenty of colour, variety and peculiarity here, the lyrics
open and revealing - like exploring a forgotten attic brimming
with personal treasures and abandoned keepsakes. Indeed Blind
Divine are experts at making unusual mood music that is sufficiently
catchy for you sing along to. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Queen
of Venom arrives in a sharp digipack full of combined words
and images. The three outer panels of the package have a similar
theme - shades of brown and buff with black and red features
designed with the bold lines and form of antique woodcuts.
The imagery is strongly gothic, old English fonts for text
in Latin, lush curlicues and graphic borders surrounding everything.
The inside of the package is a contrast - here black dominates,
grey words and pictures. To the left lyrics for each track,
centrally a shadowy portrait photograph of Paula, to the right
the disc on a backdrop of subdued floral tessellations. Below
the lyric section is a paragraph laying out credits that include
additional musicians, some thanks and contact information. |
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| OVERALL |
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Queen
of Venom builds upon the strong foundation of Desire to
Destroy, released once more through the band's Mysticus
Publishing label. The twelve new tracks range from the gorgeously
chilled pop sound of Invisible (a song that has a strong
hook and instant impact), to the reversed beats and dense
guitar textures of Faces Fading, to the delicate pianos,
strings and wistful words of Words That Have No Meaning
(what appears to be a spoken male voice here poetically
behind the lead vocal turns out actually to be Paula's lowered
by an octave). The band has been involved in a lot of work
for film and television in recent months and this shows
in the emotional depth of the soundscaping. The production
quality continues to improve and the clarity of sound is
top notch. There's a player on the band's web
site so you can get a feel for the album there. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Fans
of the previous material will love this new album it retains
all the signature sounds from before whilst deepening the
impact and improving the sound quality. If you like artists
like Falling You or Collide - Blind Divine come somewhere
between these two in terms of their artistic approach. If
you like emotive songs and appreciate the more artistic elements
of gothic subculture - why not have a listen. |
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------ThieNandara
- Angels Weep |
| STYLE |
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Ethereal female vocals with
gentle new age grooves. The voice of Sarah Jones is the
focal point for Nandara's music - light, warm and clear;
Sarah has a good range and touching expression, delivering
wistful yet dynamic melodies and passionate lyrics, buoyed
up in places by additional layers of angelic, wordless soaring.
The soundscaping that surrounds the singing is subtle, directing
attention first to the song, second to the instrumentation
- delicate piano phrasing, soothing synth textures, violins
and acoustic guitars. The beats are generally mid to downtempo
breakbeats with just the right amount of lift to propel
the music without losing the tranquillity. There are also
beat free tracks where piano takes a more prominent role
with supporting strings, plucked, layered in faint washes
or arranged in cinematic breadth. Time With You is an instrumental
piece of easy going synth music - the shortest track of
the album at just over three minutes. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Angels
Weep is fronted by a powerful monochrome picture of a dandelion
seed head touched by its first gust, a trail of tiny parachutes
taking flight before a bright sun, lifting effortlessly away
and off to the right. As I have a promo copy of the album,
I have only the rear of the package in addition to the cover
- here the floral clock is repeated with the addition of a
tracklist to the upper left (times included) and brief credits
to the lower right. |
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| OVERALL |
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Nandara are primarily
Sarah and Stuart Jones, this the first release under the current
name coming through the U.K.s GAP
Music label. The Nandara project may be new, but the talent
behind the title comes with years of experience in the field.
Stuart Jones having released a number of successful albums
under various aliases mostly in the new age genre, here brings
his abilities to bear in highlighting Sarah's vocal work.
The promotional material from GAP explains "this is no
ordinary album where you have the token three and a half minutes
of manufactured sounds ... the music of Angels Weep is well
crafted ... a captivating album of genuine songs straight
from the heart". This disc might appeal to fans of the
softer edge of Blue Stone or Amethyste. |
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------ThieJames
Murray - Where Edges Meet |
| STYLE |
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Downtempo and ambient sounscapes
effectively blending synthetic and organic sound sources.
James Murray has created an engaging album of very individual
electronic music, a wide variety of unusual sounds inhabiting
his crystal clear soundscapes, brimming with subtle detail.
Static hum and light crackle warm the head space wherein attractive
synth melodies and luminous washes dance and turn. The music
is not overtly melodic, yet there are many beautifully understated
themes and harmonious phrases. Strings well up in places,
oriental snatches of sound and barely discernable voices,
peculiar digital twitters, turbulence and metallic chimes
too. There are plenty of drifting downtempo beats; deep muted
kicks pumping lighter hits along littered with all manner
of dreamy effects, softer hits and textural percussives all
adding additional levels of interest. These broken breaks
ebb and flow, minimal in places, just sufficient to suggest
rhythm, absent entirely in other passages, then often welling
up into languid regularity. Various influences hint their
presence from far off jazz and neo-classical to more obvious
chillout and low-key dub; achingly melancholic in some instances,
wistful and hazy, urban sensibilities with natural frailties
and imperfections. |
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| ARTWORK |
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The
Ultimae team maintain their familiar black borders and lush
panoramic imagery. This package bringing together the faded
grey of the city and the gently luminous turquoise greens
of nature. A darkly gleaming black butterfly clings to dangling
stalk strands on the front cover of this three panel digipack.
When fully opened out, the complete image extends across all
sections with a tracklist in the centre. The inner design
looks down on a deserted industrial space, a single shadowy
figure away in the distance, the right side sees snow falling
onto this same space, the middle image criss-crossed with
the trails of passing feet and wheels, the makers of the tracks
long gone. A generous sixteen page booklet accompanies the
package - rich with imagery, there is the usual page per track
of gorgeously atmospheric photographs. Credits and thanks
are toward the back of the booklet, with contact details on
the final page. In all a very high quality, attractive delivery. |
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| OVERALL |
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James Murray is
the latest artist to join French label Ultimae and his sound
fits the label ethos perfectly. He is not entirely new to
Ultimae, having appeared on the album Oxycanta - Winter
Blooms, indeed this album has a similar feel to the ambient
aspects of the Oxycanta releases. Where Edges Meet is Murray's
debut following various compilation contributions on em:t,
psychonavigation and part2 records. London based Murray
is described as an "electroacoustic sound artist, producer
and multi-instrumentalist. His productions weave together
elements of electronica, downtempo, jazz and dub in emotive
explorations of how the organic and electronic interact".
If you enjoy the Ultimae house sound, Where Edges Meet is
a natural for you - why not stream the tracks at Ultimae. |
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------ThieSolar
Fields - [Movements] |
| STYLE |
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Blissful, lush downtempo electronica.
Movements is a lustrous album of exquisitely crafted digital
beauty. Liquid melodies, ambient forms and silken textures
revolve and meander among some of the most dreamy beats
imaginable. Magnus has the ability to deftly tread the knife
edge between gentle melodic music and more acidic or less
harmonious elements, managing to deliver themes of great
warmth without ever straying into playing it over-sweet.
Frequent arpeggios well up and dissipate, rarely repeating
long enough to dominate, looming basses grumbling and pulsing
below the surface, coruscating effects and splashes of distortion
dancing above. Frequently the music falls away into airy
lightness or into low-key, moody shade before sighing back
into tranquil waves of climax and further soft interludes.
The level of repetition is expertly managed, mesmeric phrases
cycling round sufficiently to carry the listener along,
but never so long as to become over familiar; constant variation
and flux absorbing the attentive ear.
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| ARTWORK |
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You
might for a moment think that Ultimae has broken the pattern
with this package - the generous black content of the imagery
disguising the usual broad horizontal borders that letterbox
the cover graphics into the familiar long panoramas. Loose
knots of coloured light arc across each main panel of this
glossy digipack, blue, green, muted orange, gold. A sixteen
page booklet is found within - here inside the blackness parts
and a series of coloured photographs fill each page from edge
to edge. The pictures are visual atmospheres - accompaniments
to the music, simple credits footing the pages. As is normal,
thanks, credits and contact details are to the rear. |
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| OVERALL |
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This is the sixth
album from Swedish artist Magnus Birgersson, Solar Fields
- as previously, delivered via Ultimae Records. Solar Fields
unarguably produces some fine uptempo music - as the recent
Earthshine disc demonstrated, but for me it is his chilled
output that most outstandingly dazzles. It seemed at the time,
that the last Solar Fields downtempo release Leaving Home
would be hard to best, setting the bar so high, yet here is
Movements. The musical structure of this album is second to
none, the peaks and troughs emotively distributed, the melodies
carefully laid out, not too predominant, not too easy on the
ear too often - but with some passages of intense beauty.
Whilst holding true to his chilled-out trance roots Magnus
has built elements into this music that might appeal to a
wider audience, I could imagine fans of Enigma's more electronic
side finding plenty to enjoy here. Movements seems a distillation
of this outstanding artist's craft, delivering all we have
come to hope for from a Solar Fields album and more. Perhaps
the best downtempo album ever released. |
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------Helene
Hørlyck - A Nordic Room |
| STYLE |
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A Nordic Room is an album
of effulgent female vocals and chilled soundscapes. Helene
Hørlyck has a beautifully clear voice that seems
effortlessly to capture the dramatic, heavenly highs and
bold crescendos of operatic soaring, the touching wistfulness
of atmospheric ballads and the confident intimacy of ambient
pop all with equal aplomb. Somehow she manages to sound
faultlessly pitch perfect and masterfully disciplined whilst
at the same time revealing spine-tingling glimpses of fragility
and delicacy. Frequently choral layers support the main
songs - these being performed by Helene herself and incredibly
all recorded on the built-in mic on her laptop computer!
The songs on the album are quite varied - on some every
word is as clear as crystal, on others the vocalising is
wordless, bathed in ethereal effects or even whispered.
There are doleful strings, solo piano accompaniments, smooth
electronic arrangements with blissfully chilled beats and
some pieces with a more traditional drum sound and energetic
basslines, although semi classical touches and flourishes
are never too far away. |
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| ARTWORK |
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A
Nordic Room comes in a glossy digipack of soft muted colours
and gentle ethereal light. The front cover image is of the
singer against a distant hazy landscape, luminous sky aglow
behind the fair tones of Helene's form. The rear cover presents
a tracklist with times, once more set out against a misty,
far off scene, the third outer panel holds two smaller casual
portrait shots - these are continued within on the leftmost
panel. Centrally, behind the CD a photograph of a single house
on the coast set among empty fields. Rightmost is an explanation
of the project with notes on the origins and recording of
the music. Here too are relevant credits, thanks and website
details. |
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| OVERALL |
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This is the first
solo album from the highly acclaimed classical crossover
vocalist Helene Hørlyck. Visitors here might well
have encountered Helene's incredible talents through her
work with Jens Gad and the project Achillea - the album
The Nine Worlds was co-written by Helene and Enigma member
Jens to enormous international success. In addition collaborations
with such artists as Paul Oakenfold, Basement Jaxx, Alessandroni,
Jimmy Cliff, Valgeir Sigurdsson and Apollo 440 along with
work for television and live performance mean that Helene
Hørlyck is becoming a well established artist. This
solo work will go a long way to cementing that foundation
- revealing not just a singer with a stunning range and
immaculate control, but a vocal personality with beguiling
depth and hauntingly emotive sensibilities. There are eleven
tracks here plus four bonus mp3s that were jointly composed
by Helene and John Tonks (who also collaborated on Achillea)
- I suspect that these extra pieces will delight Achillea
fans since they lean much more in the direction of electronic
ambient chill. In fact Water will be immediately recognisable
from Othila - The Rune Masters. |
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