Norwood, Massachusetts ambient musician/composer Devin Powers is back again with another new SineRider album on the Sound In Silence label (his third for SIS). Since I've covered his multifaceted musical career in a previous review ('A Familiar Light,' 2021) so I won't repeat it here but suffice to say he's had numerous releases in a number of genres over the years. 'Perennial' is a dozen tracks in 48 minutes; multilayered blissful, dreamy ambient pieces you can read by, work to, or just fall asleep on. Opening with the title track, it's a hazy cluster of notes that swarm like fireflies on a summer's night underpinned by yawning bass. Next, the "Roadmap" may not tell you where to go but it's a soothing, sleepy trip getting there so let SineRider handle the driving. Based around echoed piano chords "Wildflowers" sway in the breeze as you pass by. It's an ambient wintery mix in "Whiteout," where you might get lost if you didn't have that roadmap you found previously. "Capstan" is the kind of ambient I really love; it's like Eno treating Laraaji under heavy sedation. "Glowing" is a brief melambient piece with a definite repeating melody. On "Waving Goodbye" Powers employs multilayered textured pads as the main sound component with flutey, noodling synth lines woven through them. "Form" sounds rather formless at first but develops its identity halfway though. Too hard to describe "Overgrown" but maybe the title is indicative of all the elements in it. "Fragile" just sounds heavenly, "Soft Pastel" is misty guitar ambience and "Extol" wraps up the album with a melambient piano piece. I think I liked 'A Familiar Light' a bit more than 'Perennial' but I'm giving it the same rating because there are just so many good tracks on this one. The CD comes in two versions - limited edition of 50 with extra tracks and more elaborate packaging or the standard edition of 200 in the usual Sound In Silence packaging. Either way it's good stuff for ambient enthusiasts.

Fake Youth Cult is the project of Richard van Kruysdijk, an artist who has been integral to the Dutch music scene. Following releases on Delsin, as well as founding his own Music for Speakers label, this latest undertaking explores the darker hues of Van Kruysdijk’s audio creations. Across six tracks, a realm of shadows and steel is constructed. The album is only six tracks over the span of about 25 minutes making it more of an EP than a full-length album.

"Visitor" begins with bass sequencing with percussion coming in slowly and not fully realized until the track is almost over, and even then, more kick than anything else. "Scorched" concentrates on a distorted repeated low-end pattern which morphs into some higher frequencies as it progresses (then repeats the progression), and basic but solid rhythm track. There is a harpsichord-like break just before the end. No vocals so far so I guess this is an instrumental album. "Messing" is more low-end sequencing with an EBM drum machine beat with added bass lines coming in later, and still more sequencing. There are a few other elements in the mix as well, but relatively minor. "Smear" moves a little faster than the others with straight ahead beat (multiples on the kick), sawtooth sus-bass (at first...then later) with bouncy sequenced electronic elements. What would you expect from a track titled "Management" ? How about opening with a spoken female sample, then getting into heavy groove EBM. So far, this is the best track on the album, and club-worthy as well. "Pulsar" is is the final and longest track (8:38) and was featured music in a modern ballet performance. Beginning with distant choo-choo train sequenced noise, the minimal beat creeps in slowly rising in volume. Another sequenced rhythmic sound enters and lasts a while as the beat take center stage. Various electronic elements appear and disappear as this unstoppable juggernaut presses onward. It grows and swells until it sort of stops, but not completely with an under-beat still present until it finally fades away. Really? That's all?

This album, er, EP is very minimal and basic. It sounds like a demo template for something later to be expanded. I think even I could have knocked this off (or something similar) in a few hours as there is nothing really tricky here. I guess it could be called minimal techno, but most techno I've heard has a lot more to offer than 'White Light / Black Noise'. I listened to Fake Youth Cult's previous release, 'Discipline' (EP) from 2003 and the methodology is pretty much the same. In the '80s or even early '90s this may have been sort of avant garde minimal electro, but we've really come so much further musically since then. Best thing about this release is the colored vinyl the record is pressed on.

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.