From Oakland, CA comes this odd outfit called the Antler Family (oh, deer!) consisting of Mia Dean - Guitar, Vocals; Tom Flynn - Guitar, Backing Vocals; Tom Dean - Keyboards, Bass; and Stark Raving Brad - Drums. Mia Dean is a former opera singer and also 1/2 of the US/UK duo Blood Moon Wedding with Steve Lake. Stark Raving Brad has played with The Hellbillys, Undercover, The Planning Commission, CHUB, The Psychokinetics, The Freak Accident and others. Tom Dean played with Code of the West, and Boner Records owner Tom Flynn was in and out of the Melvins, Fang, Duh, and Star Pinmp. (I don't understand why a label as notorious as Boner doesn't have a website, or even an email, at least not one I could find.) So there is some degree of pedigree to this rock animal.

The record is a mere 8 tracks but this is a vinyl album and not a CD, so there's no room for a 70-minute opus. "Roses" opens on the minimal side sounding slightly Native American goth at first but gets better and fuller as it progresses. On their publicity sheet the genre selection is punk rock and no wave, but to me it sounds too elaborate and tight for punk, and not strange and "I don't give a shit" enough for no wave. (I ought to know; I was briefly involved in the New York No Wave scene.) Anyway, if you're looking for a genre tag, maybe goth-no-goth, or alt-dark-alternative. After getting your attention with the opener, the band launches into the more forceful "Setting Eyes," a good but not particularly remarkable number. I thought Mia's vocals could have been a little more prominent in the mix, but maybe that defies Antler Family's punky roots. "Captive" is meandering and almost grungy but features some nice guitar work by Flynn. Mia emotes a-plenty on "Bring Me Back My Love" (the briefest track on the album at 2:48) but she should have been mixed louder for max impact. The best song on the album is "The Widow's Call," sort of a blackgrass murder ballad. Absolutely loved this one!

"I Don't Wanna/Black Hole Love" goes grungy country metal if you could imagine such a thing. Some Concrete Blonde vibe to this one. I liked the change of pace on "King Tide," a dark, plaintive, piano-based ballad that offers a lot more pathos than any other band sporting punk roots I've ever heard. Finally "It Don't Rain Anymore" is another kind of slow number, but quite atmospheric with a lot of emotional outpouring from Mia. It's also the longest track at 7:49. I would have preferred a couple more faster songs, but Antler Family didn't make this album for me. Still, there's enough meat on the bone to make for a tasty musical meal. Certainly a band to keep an eye on. Limited Edition LP on antler-colored vinyl, or digital for the turntable-less.

Tevalik is a dark electro band from Rhineland, Germany and 'SchattenlÄufer' ('Shadow Runner') is their sophomore album. Alternately described as darkwave, synthpop and technoid electro, they are really a kind of hybrid EBM band with a good amount of variation in the 13 tracks, so the 4-on-the-floor typical EBM dance & stomp isn't what they're really all about. The band is a duo consisting of Thorsten Schumacher and Michele Pesch, with Schumacher handling most of the synths, programming, mixing, mastering etc., and Pesch doing the majority of the vocals and lyrics (but not all), a similar format to a band like Die Form, not that Pesch's vocals are anything like Elaine P.'s.

The opening track is a rhythmic instrumental number called "Arsinath," reminiscent in part to the intro of Nine Inch Nail's "Head Like A Hole." Track 2, "Freakstreet" has a cool black & white YouTube video but the song is a bit more low-key than I expected. This is your first taste of Tevalik vocals, done in the "Sprechstimme" style and in Deutsche, not at all unusual for this type of music. Although they both vocalize, Michele leads the way on this one. "Nethazz" moves into dance-beat territory and Michele's vocals become more didactic. On the title track we hear more of Schumacher's vocals this time, and it is done in a mysterious shadow-runner style. Almost all the sings with lyrics are in German but I don't have time for translation, so I defer to the Echozone one-sheet that states "the duo maintains their melancholic side with a socially critical perspective." (I'd expect nothing less.)

"Codes and Crashes" is a pretty cool and varied instrumental you can dance and stomp to. The two songs with English lyrics are up next - "Pure Soul" and "The Way". "Pure Soul" offers a positive message in times of darkness and had a hint of Gary Numan in the synths. "The Way" is a strange jittery number with a healthy does of social criticism, and a long dialogue sample in English. After that I think I prefer the vocals in German as they seem to pack more of a punch. The next few tracks are closer to old school EBM with vocals. Things change on "Fremde neue Welt" getting a bit more experimental, but still within a mostly EBM beat. "Schlussschatten" is a really different instrumental, almost proggy (or art-rocky) showing Tevalik's versatility. I don't know if Tevalik participated in :Wumpscut's: remix contest, but they do have an instrumental remix version of "Du hast kein Herz." I never thought the original was all that, but Tevalik manaages to capture the song's essence and add their own signature touch. This is an album that should remain in my rotation for a while, and that speaks volumes.

Coming on the heels of his 8th Spotted Peccary album, 'A Walk in the Shadow Garden,' New Zealand ambient soundscape composer Rudy Adrian's 9th, 'Reflections On A Moonlit Lake' is both familiar and mysterious. Familiar because most of his work evolves from natural landscapes and this is certainly one. Mysterious because these 'Reflections On A Moonlit Lake' are ones you've never actually experienced before, and have an enigmatic aura about theml. Adrian captures the moments sublimely with the perfect blend of electro-acoustic elements to make you really feel like you're looking at reflections on a moonlit lake. This 11 track album is a spiritual successor to Adrian’s early releases 'The Healing Lake,' 'MoonWater' and 'Twilight,' realized as a return to these common themes and inspirations, but with new perspectives that musical maturity can often manifest.

Laid back is an understatement for this album. There is motion in the music, but it is very slow, like clouds drifting across the sky. Nearly as subtle as any "Eno Ambient," these barely there compositions are perfect for relaxation, meditation, and personal rejuvenation. Probably a great sleep aid too. (Listening late at night I fell asleep before the album ended.) I could go on describing the tracks in detail, but truth be told, none are really much different from the other, portraying a consistent mood throughout. It makes not much difference if there is a bird call here, the sound of water there, or a flute with rainfall elsewhere (Last track, "Summer Night Rain"), it is all part of a whole that needs to be taken in album context. (That's not to say you couldn't take a track from the album and add it to your ambient playlist; I would encourage you to do so.) The album's languorous spirit lends to a high replay factor. This could well be Adrian's best album yet.

This came out of the blue so to speak, with no promo sheet, or if there was one it went missing. 'Nio systrar' is the debut album of Linnea Hjertén, from Stockholm, Sweden, who apparently does everything on this album except for some of the drums and samples. Born from the synthesis of Swedish folk melodies and ritual ambient, Linnea Hjertén's debut album 'Nio systrar' (‘Nine sisters’) is a wordless invocation of primordial energy – a psychoacoustic gateway to altered states of consciousness. It consists of nine tracks in about 35 minutes. To some extent the tracks are different, but really so much in the same vein you will have a hard time telling one from the other, as the wordless vocals do not give a clear thematic identity to any particular one.

The first comparison one is likely to make is with the Lisa Gerrard half of Dead Can Dance. There are uncanny similarities between Lisa and Linnea's vocals. The downtempo style of Linnea's vocals and (minimal) instrumental backing also supports this. The tracks are very low-key and somewhat mournful, perhaps even dirge-like. 'Nio systrar' has also been compared to the spellbinding chants of Kari Rueslåtten, and the minimalist Nordic atmosphere of Forndom. Obviously Hjertén's vocals are multi-tracked but extremely well-recorded and executed. Cold Meat Industry could have released an album like this in the '90s and it would have been a bestseller for them. It should be one now for Nordvis. Flawless and fasntastic!

It's been a while since I've received anything from French experimental/noise/industrial label Cioran Records, and I think that goes back to Camecrude in 2021. I can always tell a Cioran promo when it arrives before I even open it; they use all black packaging with handwritten lettering for my address. According to the promo sheets, Flagorne is the project of experimental black metal artist Maquerelle and industrial hardcore producer Afga061. Now just because I've never heard of these guys before doesn't mean you haven't, but unless you live in Europe, I'm guessing you probably haven't either. No matter, talent doesn't have to have a reputation to be good, and for what they are, these guys are pretty darn good.

'Les Couleurs D'une Fievre' ('The Colors of Fever') is five tracks in a mere 38 minutes, but you don't always need an hour's worth of material on an album to make a point, and Flagorne certainly makes its point emphatically, which happens more often than not in the industrial harsh noise genre. First track, "Salutations" begins on the lighter side of noise with an almost industrial ambient demeanor, but when Maquerelle comes in with anguished ranting in French, it won't matter if you know what he's saying or not. A little more than halfway through the noise, ranting and tumult gives way to a calmer but creepy electronic ambience with distorted speech and other odd sonic effluvia. While that track rolls seamlessly into "Addresses," it takes on thunderous bottom-heavy percussion and totally insane chaotic instrumentality with screaming vocals drowning in the morass. This is quite a lot to bear for five minutes, even for the most seasoned noise enthusiast. (Gotta love the snare hit and vocal "GAAa" at the end though. "Devore" seems almost the inverse of the previous track, but with a very strong sequenced beat and old school percussion that are reminiscent of Neubaten and Throbbing Gristle. Very industrial, and almost rock, with plenty of shock. Gotta love this track! I even like the way it peters out at the end with the eerie whistling. "De rien de bien" begins with loops that sound like a broken vintage videogame, but after only a little over a minute in, the crunchy medium tempo beat begins with more ranting from Maquerelle, and now we've got a real scene going on here. Just when you though it was getting a tad too repetitive, the scene changes to a beatless purgatory before plummeting into the hellscape it was always destined for, and Maquerelle ain't gonna let you forget it.

What I really like about Flagorne is, that as noisy as they can be (and that's a plenty most times), they temper it with non-harsh, sonically interesting passages. That is very evident on final track "Comme plusieurs" where the initial music is ominous but not overwhelming, and Maquerelle's vocals are more sung than ranted or screamed, somewhat in the style of a muezzin, rather than anything in the industrial rock vein. (Hey, he's got a really good voice too.) Strange, but oddly delightful and almost dream-like. For a debut, this is a stellar album.