Antanas Jasenka is a composer coming from Lithuania. He's not only a musician, he also teaches composition in M. K. Ciurlionis Art School since 2002. His work comprehend a wide spectrum of music: contermporary, experimental, avant garde, electronic and chamber music. His latest work is titled AN ARTIST AND A PLANE and it represents his experimental / industrial side. The CD is divided in two long hypnotic suites "Artac" (which is divided into five different movements) and "Electronic Suartines". The first part sees Antanas experimenting with digital sounds where he creates a complicated but intriguing web of sounds and cyclic rhythms / loops. Sometimes it reminds me of some Boyd Rice and Coil compositions (do you remember the MLP as Sickness Of Snakes?) where long sounds hypnotize the audience while hissing sounds come and go creating disturbing moments. The second part of the CD takes its inspiration from the Lithuanian art of polyphonic singing. Some parts of the suite are made by the folk ensemble Trys Keturiose but Antanas mixed and treated them with electronic sounds and digital bleeps. As result you get a twenty minutes long suite which little by little encrease its pathos giving to the audience a growing sense of tension. An interesting work which will fulfill your experimental needs.

Colorado-based violinist and producer Ryan Avery's second release "Set Me Free" (after his "Skyway") re-confirms him as a pioneer of the combination of violin and electronic music, even though in my opinion he should work and exploit that very combination more, to really make it his unique signature style, as opposed to use his classical instrument just on half or less of the songs as an accessory. When I initially read his press-release I was expecting something different, I am not saying that this is not good, on the contrary, it's ok, but considering the hype on the strings vs electronica concept, I was ready to receive a lot more of that and I was ready for some ground-breaking album that takes electronica to a new level, beyond stylistic barriers. "Set Me Free" can't claim to do that, but can still reasonably make a case for a good eclectic electronic music piece. The songwriting is quite ethereogeneous and guest musicians (vocalists) make it an even more dynamic and multifaceted album, that explores corners as wide apart as hip hop and classical music. The female vocals here and there give it that lush vibe of lounge-pop-electronica, but the instrumentals keep it pretty straight-forward. If you're into electronic music and appreciate somebody who experiments with non-electronic instruments and concepts definitely give this a try. Personally I am a lover of strings on electronic music and would love to see that concept taken to the next level by this talented musician sometimes in the future. I'll be on standby, right here.

Whoa! I am starting to think we have all overlooked an extremely valuable and remarkable record label for far too long, an outlet that obviously knows quality when it sees (ehhm... hears) it! Among new findings proving this is the release of Decomposure's "Taking Things Apart", a full lenght CD that probably shines the brightest light with the piece "Speech", that is basically just a cool and dynamic beat with Georgy's post 9/11 speech... While others overdo what's been done a million times already (I haven't taken my best shot at it yet, because of that), Decomposure just exploits the obvious idea to its full extent taking it to the next level. W is extremely well treated and edited and becomes one with the track, so rhythmical and groovy that I "almost" liked him for a minute there... Thankfully I came back to my senses with the rest of the album which never refers back to the ugly Texan voice but still very often refers back to similarly excellent rhythm-noise. Decomposure's theme revolves around repetition, and specifically its antithesis, the relationship of percussion to music and to silence and the deconstruction and re-arrangement of every day sounds into fragments of metropolitan-paced breakcore, outdoors ambient anti-muzak, indoor ambiences and more sonic transitions between space and time, or more like, location and its environmental pace. "Taking Things Apart" is a bold and exceptionally gifted attempt at taking the background and turning it into the foreground, at taking the un-important sounds of you ever day life and process them into music you can focus on. The album has definitely some really outstanding highlights but it doesn't seem to always be able to keep up with that level of quality, nonetheless it is a great friggin' piece of music that you should explore at your earliest convenience.

GHASTLY GOOD CHEER is the first album for Pilot Ballon, creature of Jud and KaeoFLUX, members of the Komadose film & audio post production crew (www.komadose.com). The album brings to the attention of the audience twelve songs deeply infuenced by various genres: hip hop, jazz, electronica and post rock. The structure of the tracks is multi layered and it seems that for each layer they chose a different genre. Most of the rhythmical structures come from hip hop, vocals are from post rock or rap, electronic bleeps and analog effects take their inspiration from I.D.M., guitars comes from post rock or jazz, etc. The resulting effect creates an atmosphere of suspended tension that never reaches its critical point. In this way tracks like "Testimonial Match", "Hug Dusty" or "Throe Stasis" seems fragile because of their structure where sounds play little parts (the multi layered structure I metioned) but, in reality, they are like sharpened knives,shiny and dangerous, for how much they are intense. The first time I listened to this record I thought about Pilot Baloon like a Codeine and Portished conjunction but there's much more to discover into these twelve particular tracks. You know, it's like taking part to a multi ethnic menu where each dish has got a different history and a different taste. You've got to eat them slowly to discover the different flavors and for this GHASTLY GOOD CHEER it's the same. A hint: if you want to fall in love with a track at a first listening, try with "Vampire Tonic".

Ever wondered what could be the effect of merging together sane irony with industrial, electronic, punk and pop music? Well the different bands that act under the name of the Lupinaria project know it very well. LUPINARIA UCCIDE ("Lupinaria Kills") offer 107 minutes of controlled insanity where music meet trash culture just to turn it into something more than rubbish. Each band is peculiar and aims to personalize the various musical genres they are making reference to. Dj Smegma takes Laibach and Icon Of Coil samples to build a martial dance track out of the announcement used by the people that sharpen the scissors going into the Italian streets with their cars. Aggettivo Sette melt rap and folk to play an anthem dedicated to vagina. Bravi Ragazzi plays demented oi music (but sometimes into insanity lies the truth...). Kunst Mork plays an instrumental dance e.b.m. track (I already reviewed them when they sent me their first demo) but this time there's only music and not irony. These are only few examples of what you can find within the 31 different musical projects (plus a crazy video maker) involved into this double CD compilation. If you are interested into something different and you're ready to think like Devo and Residents where biscuits and plants are like modern art, you're ready to enter the world of Lupinaria but if you look for perfection, then mind your own business... P.s. Hey, if you want to try it, it costs only 7 Euros!
P.p.s. If you are interested into "normal" alternative electronic / industrial music, on this compilation you can also find good bands like: Mf9, Der Feuerkreiner, Elipsis, etc.