Muzyka Voln is the name of the Zhelezobeton sub-label and MUZYKA VOLN is also the title of their first compilation containing twelve bands/tracks coming from Russia which focus their sound on industrial/dark-ambient/drones music. First of all I must say that lately it is a bit difficult to find a dark-ambient project which is capable of creating a track which is able to catch your attention bringing you down through its world made of hypnotic and throbbing sounds. Also this compilation prove what I'm saying and if some projects composed their track using uniquely few humming sounds creating a dark atmosphere which grew little by little its intensity, some others tried to distinguish themselves adding a bit of melody, a treated guitar or some industrial sounds. The bands which convinced me most are: Kshatriy, Exit In Grey, Closing The Eternity, Nectropolis, Anthesteria feat. Kay?, Lunar^Abyss^Deus^Organum, Bardoseneticcube and Remoteband and eight out of twelve isn't that bad. Here you can check some sound excerpts http://zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/mv-i.html and here's the track-list:
1. Kshatriy - Orgamis
2. Exit In Grey - Kosmorders
3. Closing The Eternity - Autumn Dream
4. Hum - Halo Magnetic
5. Necropolis - At the End of the Universe
6. Cisfinitum - Moon Room
7. Anthesteria feat. Kaj? - In Gedanken an Russisches Drone
8. Lunar^Abyss^Deus^Organum - :Crystalline:Earth:
9. Instant Movie Combinations - Boiler Pipe
10. Bardoseneticcube - The Castle in a Fog
11. Polaris - Prickle of the Emerald Moon
12. RemoteBand - Untitled

Hey this month I happen to review a bunch of really bizzare projects/releases, this time it's the turn of this band coming from Danmark. It's basically soft, childish music with something strange, they use a lot of percussive melodic elements as marimbas and glockenspiels but don't be too quick to judge after just a track thinking this' probably near to Pylon or some other freaky band, sure it's freaky but what about the second folk sketch sung with the help o a bunch of little kids?!...they keep alternating these tracks reminding me Animal Collective meets Un caddie renversé dans l'herbe teaming up to write a bunch of unconventional melodic freaky folk tunes. The cocktail of tracks is quite unusual and sometimes I've had an hard time trying to give a sense to all the elements but it's really well done and it's also explicit the fact the result is really close to what they probably had in mind. Freaky jams, melodic childish music mixed with psychedelic pop elements and a good production that puts together really well things that otherwise would be really far one from the other. If I could had the chance I'd put them and Miss Massive Snowflake on the same tour bus and promote them as the most unconventional mix of post-folk, Beck, melodic elements and a disturbed childish psychology.

Another episode of the sequel belonging to live recordings realized by Creative Sources, I'm really glad to review it since among the other I see there's Alessandro Bosetti of which I've a couple of releases here in my personal collection. This cd presents a single suite of which consisted the whole performance of this ensemble: electro-acoustic/contemporary music is still the keyword which means abstraction took place from the very beginning to the end, even if here and there they barely play something the sounds just about quasi-melodic. The ensemble builds up tension and erupts in coral climax that soon after awhile decreases leaving some spectral sounds which repetition keep obsessive high. As you probably imagined this cd features some of the typical repertoire of sounds you've heard on the label and so you've saliva's "white noises" of the brass section, you've some bowed chord from the strings and so on. But right when you don't expect it to happen, they scratch the surface of melody leaving it untouched by managing to caress some interesting unisons. When they leave diminuendos for sudden breaks I like it, above all when they take some silent turn around the twenty minutes and something. I think it's interesting how they started again building a track and later slowly everything moves again facing more and more abstraction and fades leaving a desolated landscape.

Funny, I was unaware of the existence of this label and in one month I happen to listen and review two of their cds, I've been positively surprised by Harold Nono solo work and this label sampler shows they've a good roster. Apart from Harold Nono it's the first time I hear the rest of the musician here featured with a track, what we have is basically melodic if not poppy music thought there's some weird "trait d'union" joining the ninety per cent of the artists on this cd. Electronic pop music? More or less that's the deal in many tracks even if there're some considerable differences but I've to repeat that it looks like the label has a clear distinctive physiognomy: for example take the first four tracks they're different but still have something similar and that means at Bearsuit they've probably assembled the tracklist to make the listening easier and flowing, I'm quite sure about it or well, that's my impression. The first track that put me on guard for some sensitive difference is the fifth, the composer moniker is Oldman and offers a weird mix of soft rhythms plus sexy vocals and some distorted guitar to make the difference, somehow it reminded me of New Wet Kojak. Kaboon Karavan, Harold Nono serve a couple of bizarre fragmented tracks that (above all in the case of Nono) are quite out of ordinary. Then, when you think you've finally identified the general sound of the label here we go with some strange but ethereal tracks like those of Pequena Fiera!, Limbic Somnus, Alfred Brown. With the last musician there's also a sort change of atmosphere of the whole cd, above all when you pass to James Ross' song whichh could have been part of Badalamenti's soundtrack for Twin Peaks... and what about Linda Bjalla?! Is it that far from Julie Cruise or Elizabeth Frase?. The compilation opens with some electronic music but approaching to the end it follows a song-writing route. Sonicbeat reminds me a lot of early Mum without vocals, while Hulk and Cahier are still really melodic like many indie-tronic artists but don't change the very substance of the sampler. It's a weird, melodic-oriented sampler, give it a try for they may have discovered the heirs of Plone, or Mum or the new answer to Hood and Postal Service among their ranks, interesting label and soft enjoyable sampler.

Florian Fleischmann and Axel Hirn, who form the Berlin-based duo Noiseshaper, turn in a deft and playful collection of self-produced dance singles that fold Reggae/Dancehall/Dub vocals and influences into conventional Electronica sensibilities. This CD, which has Adrian Sherwood on dubs and overdubs, and the legion of guest singers and toasters also include Beans & Hawkman, G. Rizo, Juggla, Jackie Deane, Vido Jelashe I, Wayne Martin, MC Shureshock and Jahcoustix. Accordingly the CD has a pleasing balance of numbers, songs of many different tempos, which are hard-hitting or gentle as called for, and uniformly well-produced.

The featured themes of the disc include both those of "conscious" roots Reggae and the much-heralded violence certain parts of Jamaica are known for (referenced in the very first two tracks, notably). The second of these, "Me Done" (featuring Ari Up of the Slits as the featured toastmaster), is armed with Chemical Brothers-style dance flavor -- you can hear the same grinding, groovy bass line that propels the Chems' "Leave Home" from Exit Planet Dust. Curiously, in track 4, pumping bedroom piece "Love to the Rhythm," the refrain is clearly saying "Sla-a-a-ave to the rid-dim..." -- not even the plantation is forsaken on this cruise. "All A Dem A Do," track 10, opens with lovely guitar arpeggios, and evolves into and out of a kicking drum line that would make Groove Armada proud. Track 13, the TVS remix of "Walls of Silence," recalls some of the sample-y weirdness of Sherwood's earlier associations with Tackhead and African Headcharge, but with less of the spontaneity and more of an eye for the dance market itself.

To the orthodox Reggae fan, it may sound as though Fleischmann and Hirn are taking some liberties with Reggae music's various genres and sub-genres, but from here it seems to do more good than harm. Although by now this compilation of Noiseshaper's singles can't hope to sound anything close to groundbreaking, it has the function of exposing one to a surprisingly broad range of Reggae styles -- and simply shoving a much-needed Reggae/Electronica stone into its proper corner of the Dance temple.