Kevin Greenspon – Maroon Bells CDr
Bridgetown Records
Kevin Greenspon is a traveling solo musician who creates melodies and textures of guitar drone also touching on ambient, noise, and musique concrete. The style lies somewhere in between Fennesz and Grouper.
The disc has an air of melancholy to it featuring mainly peaceful floating atmospheres. The tracks are very well layered and almost delicate in their structure and sparseness. This is listening for a rainy Sunday, or a peaceful snowfall.
The tracks are varied enough to easily keep the interest of the listener while also …
Ophibre/Hunted Creatures – Split C40
Oph Sound Recordings
Drone, experimental, ambient are the styles that both these acts employ. Packaged in an intricately layered affair the tape isn’t too far off from the sounds it contains. For those of you unawares, Ophibre is from Boston and Hunted Creatures from Pittsburgh yet both haunt the same dusty corner of the scene.
Ophibre is up first with a beautiful drone track. Glistening stalactites of varied spectra ensorcel the listener with their haunting harmonics. The track is constant throughout but the textures are so finely interwoven …
Iron Fist of the Sun – I Will Never Have the Right CD
Freak Animal
I lost track of IFOTS releases a few years ago when this artist became too prolific to keep up with. Although they are still using iconography of Princess Diana all over the place I’m not really sure if her visage remains to be anything more than a logo for the project at this point. Predictably the release features simple, understated black and white artwork with minimal text.
The artwork reflects the sounds well because what is to be …
Thisquietarmy – Black Haunters CD
Elevation Records
Black Haunters really threw me for a loop after having only some bare knowledge that Thisquietarmy is a guitar drone act. I guess I have a certain prejudice for these acts that mix ambient with post-rock to be rather bland and generic. It turns out though that Thisquietarmy is anything but that and they show it well on Black Haunters and epic full length that demonstrates a gorgeous mix of ambient, drone, and post-rock.
Easing the listener into the album with the first 2 tracks the …
Theologian – Finding Comfort in Overwhelming Negativity CD
Handmade Birds
Yet another epic release from Lee Bartow the man behind the now retired NTT project and now operating under the moniker of Theologian. Clocking in at 52 minutes this disc is a flowing mind warp of power drone, dark sounds, and even – with a change of pace for the project – some electro beats thrown in for good measure.
The latter of which marks perhaps the largest shift in Bartow’s sound in years. I’ll be honest I’m not a huge fan of …