A self-produced and -released solo artist out of North Little Rock, Arkansas, Jerry Colburn provides many moments of brilliance with "Smell the Love", a CD of instrumental passages and interludes. Contrary to the title's riff on Spinal Tap, most of what you hear are two- to three-minute instrumental programmed drum loops that have a sort of hip-hop feel, festooned with Rhodes piano and organ sounds, and flavored with acoustic guitar and varied percussion. Although various influences are mentioned in his description sheet, to me this release is a lot more closely related to DJ Shadow than to Esquivel. The tones and textures are too diverse to pin him down, anyhow: mathematically idiotic chord progressions that somehow make perfect sense, passages which draw you into the plot of some intriguing movie even though all you have is its soundtrack. The music almost doesn't want to be taken seriously, but I insist it really is good, if you hear it through a good enough stereo and speakers (or headphones). Indeed, though, with song titles like "Buzzy the Squirrel", "Evening in Newark", "Shellfish Bop", and "Dildo Baggage Car", it's hard to keep a straight face, but that's probably Colburn's intent. And it seems that Mr. Colburn was a longtime drummer for punk, garage and improv bands, gigging all over his home state, until now deciding to move into the wonderful world of Experimental Electronica. Welcome, Jerry. (Although I have to dock half a star for the baby picture.)

Third release from Canadian soundmaker Mathieu Ruhlmann (after a cdr on S'Agita and a 3" ep on Ta'lem), "Broken Vessels" is a sombre, nocturnal soundscape which manages to achieve what many electroacoustic or ambient works lack, i.e. an emotional/psychic grasp on the listener. Based on the manipulation of a flow of natural recordings (possibly only water), the three tracks gurgle, scrape and echo throughout, depicting barren underwater territories and conveying the distressing feel of being stuck in the belly of an adrift submarine. What lacks in terms of variation - as all tracks are quite similar in their strategies - is easily made up for by the genuinely nightmarish listening experience. This is one of those (actually few) ambient records that you have to resist and eventually surrender to to fully appreciate them - and surely one of the darkest interpretations of Mystery Sea's night-drone concept.

hl is UK artist, and founding member of No Ground Processes label itself, Dan Hopkins, here creating an interesting soundscape out of the A449/19, which is "a road between Newport and Monmouth in South Wales. This road lasts for 19 miles, during this road you cannot turn around and go back to the place you have left. There is no access from one side of the road to another". Must be a cool place to visit, eh! Sound sources are not easy to detect at all, but there must be some heavily manipulated field recording of cars passing. The 20'30" piece is quite basic in its form, and maybe a bit more composition and layering could have helped - but it does hit the right spots and keep you interested until the end. Heavy on bass frequencies, the sound samples are looped and filtered (in real time?) throughout, with a good control of minimal variations, quiet parts and aggressive bursts. Quite nice for sure, and if this is a work in progress I'd like to hear its next steps.

Claudio Rocchetti, Luca Bergero aka Fhievel and Luca Sigurtà are three young Italian soundmakers who have released some strong and underrated cds/cdrs over the last few years (check out my reviews of Rocchetti's "The work called Kitano" and Sigurtà's "La vera macchina d'argento" in the archive, for example). All three have also developed engaging live sets, which is relevant since this cd is an edited and processed recording of two private live performances - and altogether very different from what they'd created until now, except maybe for Rocchetti's solo concerts. Turntable, radio, electronic devices, field recordings and percussions are shaken and atomized all over, in a kind of rattling improvisation which is both very "quiet", with it pauses, gaps and silent spaces, and obstinately "noisy", for the many different layers and constant intertwining of ant-like microsounds. It's a demanding work, since no drones or "solo" instrument or main kind of playing prevails on the other - but its ultimate strength lies in this uneven and sullen nature.

Greek soundmakers as11 (field recordings and audio edits) and Thodoris Zioutos (sound generation and live electronics) have chosen a beautiful and suggestive name for their duo, here debuting on Antifrost, which had also released as11's solo disc some time ago. Divided into 3 tracks, but easily enjoyable as a long shifting work, their eponymous cd features a constant rumble of low-ends (treated field recordings?), above which the live electronics crackle, swirl and eventually roar, in the maximalist distortion of the third movement. As in many Antifrost releases, I definitely enjoyed the ride, but at the sime time I feel something is lacking. This one is a nice example of López-ian droning minimalism, but here and there - unlike for example Ilios' recent "Vento Elektra", to stay in the Antifrost roster - electronics are used in a quite crude and unrefined way. As it is, "Nightshift" could be a well-achieved live performance, but as a home listening it turns out a bit unbalanced and with some weak moments.